Game Development: Prelude

[themommawolf]

Also what is the geyser, crystal, and little pond for?

stalagmites in caves, cave halls, water in caves,
in opening post, I would venture to guess

[gad432]

why do you even want to squeeze out as much money as possible out of an eternal alpha-community?

We're not trying to do that, though. We want the game to be monetized in some mild and forgiving way, quite simply. I have stated this repeatedly, and am all ears if you have better suggestions.

it's simple. sub gives + 50%(25%) boost to LP EXP FEP. that's all. you'll buy just your time in game. not pay spend more time to gel lvl.

[LadyGoo]

People do not seem to like the proposed payment system, J&Lo. Some don't even want to start playing again.

[Burzan]

People do not seem to like the proposed payment system, J&Lo. Some don't even want to start playing again.

I think people have an issue with the skill cap of 200, more than anything else.

[Kearn]

People do not seem to like the proposed payment system, J&Lo. Some don't even want to start playing again.

I think people have an issue with the skill cap of 200, more than anything else.

^^^^^^

getting unlimited playtime is pointless when there's nothing tangible to achieve. the problems with antisocial behavior are probably solvable by limiting tedium and by thinking up new mid-to-endgame content to keep people preoccupied with their own development

if anything limited playtime extends the length of the game because it limits what can be accomplished by a non-subscribed solo player over the course of a week. i made a lot of progress on absurdly tedious things like mining long prospecting tunnels and flattening ground over the christmas break

[LadyGoo]

People do not seem to like the proposed payment system, J&Lo. Some don't even want to start playing again.

I think people have an issue with the skill cap of 200, more than anything else.

Yup. Shift it to at least 400. Don't think many people got that high skills atm. So it is more reasonable number.
Or make it cap the stats, not the skills.

[Infernoimpz]

why do you even want to squeeze out as much money as possible out of an eternal alpha-community?

We're not trying to do that, though. We want the game to be monetized in some mild and forgiving way, quite simply. I have stated this repeatedly, and am all ears if you have better suggestions.

This is my small village's consensus on this update as well as a suggestion. So five people who play the game daily, but don't let it take over our lives. Format is...

Line 1: Topic.
Line 2: Our opinion on the topic.
Line 3: Our constructive criticism on the topic.

1. End of the world.
- We embrace the end of this world with open arms! We can now all start a new adventure together.
- While we're sad to see our progress go after so short a time we understand there needs to be a change. At least this world you won't be pressured to release it before you are satisfied with the map generation.

2. Change in payment model.
- In short, we think it is a big step in the right direction.
- The stat cap should be addressed a bit differently. We find the stat cap good in the sense it makes the end game more focused on interacting with other players rather than an infinite grind that normal players will always be behind in. What we find bad about this is at some point progression is finite. With finite progression players will just level another character. A way I believe you can help this was already suggested, make it a softer cap. You can do this by adding skill degradation after the cap of 200. This gives players a way to still progress, less incentives for building an army of capped alts (though some will do it anyways), and all while giving newer players a chance to catch up.

3. Smaller world size.
- We are very much looking forward to this change.
- The world feels a bit more empty than it should, and size has to do with that. One of the best parts about Haven to us is the interaction with people outside of friends. This is my friends and I's first time bringing in outsiders to fully join us, and it is a very fun experience. We have no neighbors near us right now, and we're only a couple hours outside the newbie grid. We want to try to build a better sense of community, and the map size makes that hard to do. Also I think you could add to the sense of community by adding more ways for players who are well along to help newcomers. Food for example. Maybe add canned food? They could be low FEP, filling, come in a variety of types (maybe one for each attribute?) and leave behind an empty can. The new player could then give the can back to the further along player so he can fill it back up. This is a small, but potentially meaningful, interaction players can have with each other.

What we would like to see in the future...
- More meaningful interactions between veterans and spruce caps. This shouldn't have to be something like "You helped a spruce cap, you get a free lp bonus". Rather the experience and social interaction itself should be the benefit. Gaming is a very social thing. It's about the journey, not the destination.
- Other ways to build a community. Such as a kind of trade claim. For now I'll call it a "Merchant's Claim". This claim is founded by 2+ people. The founders have all permissions, as you would expect. Other players, however, would only have trespass permission. These players may walk up to the claim and apply for a permit to trade, and leave a note with it as well. If they are accepted they are given theft permissions. So they can set up a little shop, maybe drop a bear down and have a piece of paper with what they want for payment. This would primarily work on a trust system, and players would find their own justice. This permit process makes it easier for people across timezones to connect with each other without ever needing to physically be there.

I hope this was better than the "Devs sucks" or "Devs don't suck, you suck" trend of posting on every update. I hope people see this and adopt a similar format. Remember guys, this game is in development, Jorbtar wants QUALITY feedback and CONSTRUCTIVE criticism. If a system is working, let them know WHY it works. If a system is clunky, let them know WHY it is clunky. Help make Haven a better game. Always be sure to let them know what CONCEPTS you think should be brought in, fleshed out, or taken out. We give our feedback on the concepts, and they can iron out ways of implementing these concepts. Anyways, thanks for reading this long post, hope you all have a wonderful day.

[springyb]

People do not seem to like the proposed payment system, J&Lo. Some don't even want to start playing again.

I think people have an issue with the skill cap of 200, more than anything else.

Yup. Shift it to at least 400. Don't think many people got that high skills atm. So it is more reasonable number.
Or make it cap the stats, not the skills.

That defeats the point though. Jord said he's setting it low so that the affects of having level caps are shown sooner. Hence the continued use of the word experiment.

[barra]

Will the new world be smaller, larger or the same size as the current world?

[DarkHPG]

I see a lot of whining about infinite progression. But I feel like that really doesn't contribute much to the game besides creating the NECESSITY of a world reset. If you show up a month or two late, you really can't catch up. You die three months in? That's three months of grinding gone. Sevenless explained it very well in his post:

And at this point in the world, the only people left are the titans who have grinded the entire duration of the world and the people who are hopelessly behind.

And creating a cap doesn't make a world reset need to occur more often?

There will come a point when EVERYONE has the same quality everything. Because everything will be capped. Saying a cap is needed because joining late puts you at a disadvantage is a shitty excuse imo. Sure joining late puts you at a disadvantage, but with a cap, once enough people have hit it there will be nothing left to do but go kill each other. Pointless pvp, I say pointless because there is no more real loot to be had, everyone has the same stuff at this point. There has been a lot of talk about social interaction in this game and how it needs to be deeper, pointless pvp because there is NOTHING else to do anymore, doesn't accomplish that to me.

What would I think help further that idea, was the idea of kingdoms that was being talked about. Creating a large entity in game (like our factions, but with actual game mechanics behind it). Giving players the ability to stake a claim and build a "empire". To rule over land, give the players a way to actually SEE how kingdoms are doing, what kind of land they own. A heatmap if you will, something they can fight over, as a directional guidance system to find each other with. Instead of mindlessly exploring the world for 20 hours trying to find a active village to raid, give factions the ability to beeline for each other. Make it so that to push into their lands you must acquire land yourself, so that not anyone can challenge. Because really, who dares to challenge a king, but a king or someone who has the power to back them.

Give the world a shifting quality system, so that nodes slowly change, to force people to expand their territory to find better and better resources, fight to keep them, push into each others sphere of influence. A tug of war of world proportions.

I don't know, just food for thought, much more on this topic but this post is large enough and I rambled. Apologies.