Game Development: Haven & Hearth on Steam

[SnuggleSnail]

https://oldschool.runescape.wiki/w/Leagues
OSRS implemented expeditions in a way that worked really well for both casual and hardcore players, that isn't hyper PVP focused. I'd recommend actually reading their homework and copying it, but essentially first time you: kill a troll, gain X many stats, complete a dungeon, join a village, join a realm, get red handed, etc you get a couple points. When the season ends you can trade those points for cosmetics on the main server.

They also let you connect to any of their servers via steam or non-steam accounts.

[BigCountry]

https://oldschool.runescape.wiki/w/Leagues
OSRS implemented expeditions in a way that worked really well for both casual and hardcore players, that isn't hyper PVP focused. I'd recommend actually reading their homework and copying it, but essentially first time you: kill a troll, gain X many stats, complete a dungeon, join a village, join a realm, get red handed, etc you get a couple points. When the season ends you can trade those points for cosmetics on the main server.

They also let you connect to any of their servers via steam or non-steam accounts.

+1

[magnet]

When the season ends you can trade those points for cosmetics on the main server.

They also let you connect to any of their servers via steam or non-steam accounts.

yeah this is the way to do it. I doubt they could whip up a leagues point system in time but connecting to S1 from anywhere needs to happen.

jorb said he doesnt want to have major control of your file system to prevent botting - so why force everyone into the steam ghetto just to connect to S1?

new players who cant wrangle a .jar file will still use the steam launcher, and surely theres a way to track whether players joining S1 are launching from steam or independent client - so jorbtar can still gather data on this "experiment"

[Pills]

Lot of hate in this thread, definitely some questionable choices, but I for one think this is a step in the right direction.

I do think account linking would solve the issue of most of the backlash that's in here. Servers open up a lot of opportunities for creating events for player engagement and retention. Plus wild one-off fun events. I think it should have been an "all in or not at all" decision but I understand wanting to dip the toes in to try it out incase its a failure.

most of the 'loud' community are just self-entitled brats who are clinging on to one of their last bastions for hate speech and nazi-ism, the ones who not only shit in the sandbox, but drink laxatives before getting in it. At the end of the day, y'all forget this is still just 2 dudes doing this for over 15 years. 2 dudes that are aging and have lives outside of this project and isn't their primary income/day job. Most studios give up after 2 or 3. Get over yourself and just be happy that the project is still going at all.

I hope the steam experiment goes well and that you decide to go all in, I hope you resolve the account linkage concerns so people can have access to their cosmetics all in one place and I'm interested to see what direction this takes the game in.

For what its worth, get a good night sleep before you release on steam. If you do get a big influx of players suddenly, especially if you start marketting the release before hand, you'll want to take turns making sure you're around to spin up servers if the demand needs it.

[overtyped]

Lot of hate in this thread, definitely some questionable choices, but I for one think this is a step in the right direction.

I do think account linking would solve the issue of most of the backlash that's in here. Servers open up a lot of opportunities for creating events for player engagement and retention. Plus wild one-off fun events. I think it should have been an "all in or not at all" decision but I understand wanting to dip the toes in to try it out incase its a failure.

most of the 'loud' community are just self-entitled brats who are clinging on to one of their last bastions for hate speech and nazi-ism, the ones who not only shit in the sandbox, but drink laxatives before getting in it. At the end of the day, y'all forget this is still just 2 dudes doing this for over 15 years. 2 dudes that are aging and have lives outside of this project and isn't their primary income/day job. Most studios give up after 2 or 3. Get over yourself and just be happy that the project is still going at all.

I hope the steam experiment goes well and that you decide to go all in, I hope you resolve the account linkage concerns so people can have access to their cosmetics all in one place and I'm interested to see what direction this takes the game in.

For what its worth, get a good night sleep before you release on steam. If you do get a big influx of players suddenly, especially if you start marketting the release before hand, you'll want to take turns making sure you're around to spin up servers if the demand needs it.

If that was your takeaway then there is something wrong with you. People do have legitimate grievances.
1: They don't want to double pay for verification
2: they want the hats they paid for
While I dont necessarily share those views, or care, in my economic position, calling it "entitlement" is foolish.

Jorb and Loftar want a chance to bring their game up with the steam release. If they don't address these problems before then, then the game we all love is headed for disaster. How many games that were review bombed by their own community have turned out better than the ones that had their communitys full backing? Maybe ask yourself that.

[SnuggleSnail]

Eh, feels kindof reductive to argue about, and I'm a retard for engaging... But there's people who've paid 1k+ euro for the game. Being angry about your purchase being planned obsolescenced doesn't make you entitled or unreasonable.

If anything, them being a small team should leave them more able to avoid mistakes like this. Typically when this stuff happens it's because a manager somewhere who isn't really involved is doing a funi.

I fully expect it to be resolved eventually, but I rly hope it happens before a world 8 style monetization / PR disaster pushes people away.

[Robben_DuMarsch]

I hope the steam experiment goes well and that you decide to go all in, I hope you resolve the account linkage concerns so people can have access to their cosmetics all in one place and I'm interested to see what direction this takes the game in.

For what its worth, get a good night sleep before you release on steam. If you do get a big influx of players suddenly, especially if you start marketting the release before hand, you'll want to take turns making sure you're around to spin up servers if the demand needs it.

This, plus giving the old players verification (just to get their support for positive reviews), is more or less how I feel when I'm feeling optimistic.

In my head sometimes I'm probably closer to Nightdawg's take but I'm trying to stay constructive.

[Nocturnal-Rainbows]

I mean... it's not like you couldn't have a point here. Maybe steam should be long-term stable instead, and we should run quick and fast worlds here?

Ultimately, the decision is up to you and to tell you the truth I don't particularly care which route you choose to go, either way is fine with me.
My personal opinion on this though is that people are being downright retarded saying that the Steam fans would prefer the longer worlds. Absolutely 0 evidence of that being true, especially when the lion's share of veteran players don't even like longer worlds. Yes, even those that say they do, they're chatting shit, they quit just as early as I do into the world for all the same reasons that I and most others do.

I am firmly of the opinion that Haven has a very very poor endgame which loses its spark of excitement and crosses the territory into being a chore to play. Very boring and very demanding. The early and mid-game are demanding too but they're in no way boring. The journey to end game is where the fun lies even though the destination sucks ass.

Steam players will run into the above too only you run the risk of them dropping the game after a single world once the monotony kicks in and it starts feeling like a second job and a waste of time. This feeling cannot be avoided with how the game currently is. I believe they'll appreciate the shorter wipes for the same reasons we do.

But hey, if you wanna go the other route, so be it, like I said I don't actually give a shit which way you decide to go so long as one way or another I have a fresh world to play next month.

[jorb]

Having distilled the insights of the revolutionary, proletarian masses to new advances in the science of loftari-jorbism, the central committee of the Communist Party of the Hearthlands' Peoples' Republic has decided to issue a new fatwa, ex cathedra, to clarify its permanent, unchanging, and eternal position on the question of integration with the Steam pact.

Thus: Locking this to prevent the further spread of fake news, lies, slander, counter-revolutionary and reactionary sentiment, and present an updated hot take. Brb.