New Player Experience

[Reckless0ne]

I recently had YouTube suggest a video of this game by the creator Nut Pale, and thought that it looked interesting. I wanted to try to play the game casually with my brother, because it gave me a feeling of being a more three dimensional version (and, obviously, multiplayer) of UnrealWorld. I was curious though on what I could expect from the game, starting as a totally raw, new player. I understand there might be some low level tutorialization, but my main concern is the community and general player attitude. I've browsed the forums a little, and it has me slightly concerned that the environment and type of person playing this game is the equivalent of the kinds of people that play Rust and games like it. That is to say - bored power tripper types that enjoy being the strongest, and delight in destroying anything and everything they can get their hands on, with an attitude of "If you didn't want me to kick your teeth in, why did you open your mouth? Check mate."

I understand that forums are where people go to complain and discuss the worst things or items they'd liked changed, but I still thought I'd take the chance to ask - What is it like to be a new player in this game?

Will I be able to have fun? If I am killed by a player, will I be subjugated to endless cycles of Death and Rebirth where every step of progress is destroyed by those who have played longer or have a greater commitment to the game than myself? If I play with my family, and small group of friends, can I expect violence for existing, or a friendly hand and support? I understand that support may be riddled with insults and things like "Now, you can do that, but if you don't like being mistaken as someone who opted to have a monkey shit where there brains should be, I'd XYZ." But I am just curious if that amount of interaction is anything I could expect.

I see, when sitting on the landing page that the player count is <50 most of the time. I don't know how large the world is, but should I expect to meet other players in the world, or will it be as if I am wandering an expansive wasteland, never to meet another person in the wilds?

I hope that I can learn a lot about the game, and it's culture. I tend to not partake in a lot of modern game spaces because of the level of aggression and needless mockery / harshness by people. (Of course, I expect a certain minimum level of mean words, it is the internet after all.) If you think that this won't be a very good environment for someone who has the philosophy of "It's much easier to be nice than mean." Please do let me know! Either way, I'm excited to try the game, (or not) and have the thoughts of people who've already dipped their toes into the game, and then some.

[Glorthan]

Only the drama makes its way to the forums.

In my personal experience, only the first few hectic weeks, or around large bases/thingwalls/ocean entrances are you particularly likely to be attacked. Most of the people playing are casual and nice.

[Archiplex]

not enough players play to make it miserable; learn and follow basic safety precautions and stay out of the forums/public discords to avoid attracting the attention of autists and you'll be fine.

you'll only get raided if you are an easy target- most people aren't going to bother otherwise, unless you attract attention to yourself

[pawnchito]

The forums are a scary place full of the spooky bois and their misadventures. Dont take it too seriously though the game is amazing. As a new player starting right now is probably for the best because the odds of meeting a spooky boi is low (YUGE world) and you can immerse yourself. This game allows you the freedom to really enjoy the experience the way you want to. Just protect yourself and learn about the mechanics and youll have a blast. Also if you do get shit on dont be discouraged just know that it gets better and easier.

[Reckless0ne]

That's promising! I had a feeling it was the case, and I'm at ease a little more reading that. I really just want to be able to play a relatively slow paced game with my family that we can all pick up and put down, since we don't get to meet a lot IRL anymore. The village building in this looks fun, and so long as there isn't a gigantic need to rush towards max levels and become God Kings or anything I feel like finding a quiet, out of the way location will really let us enjoy ourselves.

[pawnchito]

That's promising! I had a feeling it was the case, and I'm at ease a little more reading that. I really just want to be able to play a relatively slow paced game with my family that we can all pick up and put down, since we don't get to meet a lot IRL anymore. The village building in this looks fun, and so long as there isn't a gigantic need to rush towards max levels and become God Kings or anything I feel like finding a quiet, out of the way location will really let us enjoy ourselves.

I'm a life long PC gamer, played sweaty af and the filthy casual life since the early 90's. This game is the only one that can really be played by both mindsets. You can play Ferdinand and smell the roses or grind endlessly for numbahs.

Only thing you need to really bee-line for is a claim and pallisades. After that you are relatively safe (with enough layers of walls) to tell all them scary bois to fuck off.

[SnuggleSnail]

https://ringofbrodgar.com/wiki/Ancestral_Worship
https://ringofbrodgar.com/wiki/Grave_Cairn
viewtopic.php?f=42&t=72166
viewtopic.php?f=42&t=72160 (client setup, how hitpoints work, getting set up for PVP, running/chasing, wounds and dying being the more important sections for you)

You prolly want to read and understand these, along with put some thought into where your base is (visibility from thingwalls/rivers, if you're uplolading your location to a public map via custom client, if roads/claim emanating will be visible from rivers/thingwalls, minimap visibility).



Here's a rough, probably incomplete/outdated map of where spooky people live. You can 100% pay2win live forever by just giving people hats whenever they run into you in exchange for them not killing you, though the occurrence rate for somebody spooky finding you should be very low unless you do something to draw attention to yourself.

I wouldn't necessarily suggest relying on the discord too much, since half the people there would be down to login just to kill you, but if you plan to merge groups/invite people from in game I'd recommend popping into https://discord.gg/3trzbXea and asking about the people you met. Nobody knowing they exist is probably the ideal. If you are going to use any of the haven discord regularly probably don't let your discord get associated with your IG character.

[Phaen]

The world is gigantic so you wont meet people very often. I have to place messages outside my neighbors front gates to get in contact because the chances of catching them outside are low.

95% of the people you meet ingame are gonna be helpful, but it only takes one to ruin your day, so don't plan on living forever.

Most people just play the game and don't bother hanging out on the forums because it's a relatively unmoderated shitshow.

To answer your Death/Rebirth cycle question:

When you get killed and reincarnate, you will spawn at your hearthfire. Assuming you build your hearthfire at your camp and surround the whole camp with a palisade or brickwall, your (eventual) death will be while hunting/foraging/fishing outside your camp. The people who killed you might not know where your hearthfire is, but even if they do, it takes a minimum of 24hrs for enemies to break down your wall so I wouldn't expect you to get spawncamped. Unless they have some personal beef with you, they would not go through the effort of breaking in. I suppose if your camp has signs of inactivity (starving animals, crops that are still withered from winter long after spring has sprung, decayed wall sections) you may be broken into even by peace-seeking folks because what's the harm in exploring ruins?

[Jalpha]

If you avoid popular areas, this late in a world, most likely you will not meet anyone who will interact with you until you start leaving crime scents. The easiest way to get ahead this late in a world is by leaving crime scents.

Have fun.

[MadNomad]

you don't need to buy hats for anyone, don't listen to these obvious scammers, just pick some cozy spot far away from aggresive people and then you will usually avoid any encounters, you can still end up meeting someone aggresive every half of year if you spend your time travelling to various locations, but what is the worst that would happen? losing some weapon and getting a few wounds is not nice, but it is something you can accept if it doesn't happen too often, and if you spend some time raising your stats usually you will meet someone who is weaker than you anyway