In light of the New Year, fast approaching, and in light of the state of development general, a kind providence has decreed it time for Haven & Hearth to enter a new world, and that said New World will be launched soon after the new year. This means that the present world, World 9, will be consigned to the bit-bucket, and to the history books.
The new world -- World 10 -- will launch on Saturday 7th of January, 2017.
For those of you who have never experienced a world reset before, the implication of this is that all variable data -- maps, characters, &c -- will be purged, and a new, clean, world generated in their steads. This post aims to inform you of the fact that we are going to make a world reset, and to provoke some discussion and feedback on some central topics relevant for the new world.
Payment Model
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The perhaps most important changes will be to the payment model.
- Cumulative bonuses from Subscriptions and Verified accounts. As it is now, bonuses from having a Verified Account are overwritten by bonuses from active Subscriptions, i.e., if you have an active subscription you will receive no bonuses for also having a verified account. We, rather, intend to make these bonuses cumulative. Presently a Verified Account implies a 10% bonus to Character Development rate, and a 25% Convenience bonus, whereas a Subscription gives 30% Character Development Bonus, and 100% Convenience bonus. We want to change the Values for Verified accounts to 20% Character Development bonus and 50% Convenience bonus, and also make the bonuses cumulative. An account, thus, with both a subscription and a verified account, would have a total, cumulative, bonus of 50% additional Character Development, and 150% additional Convenience.
- Inventory size. With the introduction of World 9 we increased the base inventory from 4x4 to 5x5. We want to tie this change to the payment system, in that the base inventory size is again set to 4x4, with a Verified Account adding an extra column, and a subscription adding an extra row. With both subscription and verification active you will thus have the present 5x5 inventory.
When we introduced World 9, roughly eleven months ago, we significantly reduced the incentives to use the payment system at all. We have in many ways been happy with the fundamentals of these changes, as we have always intended for the game to have a non-intrusive payment model, but it has also been the case, over the course of this past year, that the game's income has not, by a significant margin, been sufficient to sustain our present development efforts.
Haven is, and has been, a labour of love, and we will -- barring the unforseeable -- keep it going in one capacity or another for as long as we are at all able to, and money is not much of a factor in that. If, however, our attention has to be diverted elsewhere -- which, presently, is going to become the case -- that will, naturally, affect the rate of development.
We are continously grateful for your time, concern, and effort in and around the game, and hope that you can find these changes reasonable, and presented in good faith.
Stat Caps
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We will aim to cap combat relevant stats -- Unarmed, Melee, Marksmanship, Strength, Agility, Perception & Constitution -- at base level 999, which can then be increased, with gear, to twice that, i.e. 1998. The stats will be capped for the purposes of combat, and comparisons against other players in other contexts, only, and you will still be able to level the actual numerical values up as far as you wish, for the purposes of quality and such-like.
Tri-Quality
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We're on the fence about tri-quality in general, but are strongly considering removing it entirely, in favor of a one-dimensional quality -- As in Legacy -- quite simply, with an eye toward potentially introducing other quality mechanics down the road. Feel free to opine on the subject.
Siege & Kingdoms
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We have no immediate changes planned, except in that we would like to make some changes to Kingdoms, to soften the initial rush toward claiming as much land, and as many opponents, as possible. Feel free to make suggestions.
Future Developments
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This reset is motivated only in part by development needs. We have some changes that we want to make to the map generation, but the bigger thing is, partly, that we have accumulated a fair amount of significant changes -- kingdoms, combat, quests, &c -- that we would like to see playing out in a new world, and partly that we want a fresh start for the game, quite simply. We have not yet decided where to take future development, but seasons and object-controlled objects have both figured in our discussions. We have a general sense that a lot of the low-hanging development fruit has been picked, and that we would have to undertake some bigger project to significantly improve the game. Another thing we are considering is making the game available on Steam.
Consider this an invitation to further discussions. If there are any changes you feel are essential to a new world, do not hesitate to point them out.
The new world -- World 10 -- will launch on Saturday 7th of January, 2017.