Game Development: Fun Allowed

[Granny]

I have played as a hermit in 3 worlds now, I can compare my progress now to the previous times. In Hafen the progress feels like molasses. I recently finished my brick wall, and I have spent every time in game working towards that goal. I started at the start of this world.

The reason is: Lack of easy trading. (No bear cape, no forge rings, no high quality pickaxe, no cows and then no cheese for example means sloooooow progress)

When that seems to now be possible I will be introduced to another hurdle: The current fate system that limits my ability to find tradeable curios. This world I cannot produce or forage anything that is even remotely interesting to those I want to trade with. I am getting ready to build a village idol and this charterstone to at least have the possibility, but I am not sure how I can use the option without trading with sub-tokens. I am quite happy to support the game through the store like that atm,but I don't want to that to be my only option in the future.

While competition is of no interest to me, I still like to see some progress - albeit slow - over time. The great challenge for the devs is to balance it so the frustration vs accomplishment works - even for players like me.

I am still here though.

[jorb]

This world I cannot produce or forage anything that is even remotely interesting to those I want to trade with.

Out of curiosity: What were the things you used to be able to trade? Pearls? Bricks?

[Strandmullen]

This world I cannot produce or forage anything that is even remotely interesting to those I want to trade with.

Out of curiosity: What were the things you used to be able to trade? Pearls? Bricks?

When I was a hermit in previous worlds I mainly had pearls to offer when trading. I also used to sell other foraged curiosoties such as edelweiss, chiming bluebells, glimmermoss and bloated boletes as well as fresh bears and sometimes wall grade steel.

[Granny]

This world I cannot produce or forage anything that is even remotely interesting to those I want to trade with.

Out of curiosity: What were the things you used to be able to trade? Pearls? Bricks?

Pearls, Bluebells, Flotsams, Edelweiss, Bolete - those were the main items. I used to save up for some large purchases that could get me to a new level progression wise - like high q soil, clay, tree pots, herb tables, metal etc. I saved up for months. Once I had a small window where the cheese I was making was not too bad in q compared to others, and I sold that. Bricks? Oooof - never...

I am a casual player mostly, 7-14 hours +/- but can invest more time in bursts. 2 accounts, sometimes multiclienting

[barra]

The current fate system that limits my ability to find tradeable curios. This world I cannot produce or forage anything that is even remotely interesting to those I want to trade with. I am getting ready to build a village idol and this charterstone to at least have the possibility, but I am not sure how I can use the option without trading with sub-tokens. I am quite happy to support the game through the store like that atm,but I don't want to that to be my only option in the future.

Farm and trade pepper. Even Q10 pepper seems to be a 50% FEP boost to whatever you use it on, which is a big deal for cheese. Everyone likes pepper. I'd happily trade wrought & steel for pepper.

[Eemerald]

im more referring to the time it takes to progress as a hermit, not the fact that you can be left alone. I worked on small hermitages in previous worlds which were untouched, but yes it's much easier in this world to disappear and be left alone, but things just take a long time to develop on your own

That's true, but if you want to progress fast enough to be competitive, hermitage isn't the right path. Community will always progress faster and get further. That's why humans gather in societies.

well I agree. I don't last long as a hermit, because I like the social element of Haven, but its nice sometimes to go off and do projects alone, but the amount of time commitment to get something decent going, not even really competitive is annoying if you can't be online great lengths of time, so I can see why people who just want to do the casual thing will get frustrated eventually, because progression of any kind is just slow, even when you're not trying to compete.

Also Lady V makes a good point, some don't care, I know I went into this world just to explore it. Each world I set a specific task I want to try out, and this one is really just to enjoy the game without worrying about quality and stats, but that's not generally how many want to play:P

[Redlaw]

Early game last world I traded 2 pearls for a mating pare of cows (ti be killed soon after). Later in the world i save pearls and blue bells to trade. Only way I ever saw a silver item (sowing thimbles), was to trade for it with good but hard to get curos.

Foraging good but rare items that everyone wanted, was what ran trade.

[MagicManICT]

Patch is nice but I think its too late now... All my friends left and there is literally noone living nearby me .

Wait till next world. 90% of everyone drops out after the first two-three months and then they're all back at the start of the next world....

In any community you still have your casual players and you have your hardcore grinders. Even just one or two hardcore grinders can get the same amount, if not more work done than a group of several casual players. Especially when they know what they are doing. This leads me to believe that most hermits are also simply casual players or maybe that's why they choose to hermit in the first place but either way I've known of several hermits/hermitages in the past that have had quality on par or beyond larger villages.

Quite true. I'm not going to claim I ever kept up with the fastest producing villages, but I never had an issue with keeping quality going up. Mostly my hold-up was the willingness to do a lot of trading or hunting down to forage and/or steal the natural resources I needed for that extra boost. I certainly kept myself and alts fed up well, along with my brother, his alts, and his kid's character.

Which brings me to a thought. Those that just flat ignore the graphics and interface and play the game have loved it that I've introduced to it*, but anyone beyond the kids have gotten bored way too fast. The kids seem to just be fascinated with having a farm of their own and such to play with.

*those that don't read or ignore the fine print of "permadeath" and "open pvp". Only a few have been actually OK with it, and they all are RL players.

[bmjclark]

This world I cannot produce or forage anything that is even remotely interesting to those I want to trade with.

Out of curiosity: What were the things you used to be able to trade? Pearls? Bricks?

Pearls, flotsams, bluebells, edels were all big ones. Easy enough to acquire for hermits but enough of a pain that bigger villages were willing to trade things for them. Fate kind of broke that. Steel used to be a valid thing to go after too since statues used soldier swords and actually extended claims (though there's not much point to spread claims far like there was before).

[Asgaroth22]

Wait till next world. 90% of everyone drops out after the first two-three months and then they're all back at the start of the next world....

That is so true. That proves that we've got virtually no endgame, or it is too boring for 90% of the population. Devs should ask themselves what is so good in early game, and apply it to endgame.

I have played as a hermit in 3 worlds now, I can compare my progress now to the previous times. In Hafen the progress feels like molasses. I recently finished my brick wall, and I have spent every time in game working towards that goal. I started at the start of this world.

I almost always play as a hermit. And I feel like initial stage of the game is much faster than in the previous version, but all the quality grind is much slower. I had a brickwall after a month of playing, and didn't need to trade for anything until recently (hit a wall on l4, couldn't progress without enormous time invested, so i bought a pick).

No bear cape, no forge rings, no high quality pickaxe, no cows and then no cheese

You don't need to buy these things to progress. You can make them yourself if you put enough effort in it. How else would these traders get this far?