Game Development: Haven & Hearth on Steam

[Schro]

The game isn't ready for Steam F2P non early access.

Please do feel free to enlighten me (a Steam noob) about what Early Access actually means, and why it would be good for Haven. Basically, to qualify for Early Access, Steam wants us to answer a couple of questions, and the nature of those questions made me think that Early Access was not for Haven, but, again, please do enlighten me.

For the sake of discussion, these are the questions that Steam asks of Early Access games:

• Why Early Access?
• Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?
• How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version? (It is best to talk about additions, features, and overall scope you would like to achieve, but do not make specific promises about future events (e.g. when the game will be finished, that the game will be finished, or that planned future additions will definitely happen).)
• What is the current state of the Early Access version?
• How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process?
  Bascially, they make it seem to me that Early Access is a public beta-test with a particular, well-defined scope, and given that Haven is in Eternal Alpha, I'm not sure what that well-defined scope would be.

Honestly, the only way I see Early Access to make sense for H&H is for the 'Full Version Goal' to archieve a clear definition of if and how the Steam Version should differ from before, not necessarily feature-based.
So to answer the question about the full release, you could say "The Full Release will have an answer to the following set of questions", i.e.:

• Should there be workshop support, especially for custom clients and such?
• Whats the best server lifetime/could there be varying lifetimes?
• Could there different Server types? i.e. other Gamemodes, which could be anything like 'Dark-Forest' with a more aggressive world, where players need to work closer together to survive, but toned down PvP or something
• Should there be ingame-purchases be revised for those new servers?
• Would a full steam release benefit from ingame Service-Administrators and extended customer support?
• Should there a different approach to botting and meta-gaming for those servers?
• Are there certain feature-milestones a 'full version' should incorporate (i.e. I remember something about modular houses?)

[Selles]

You are great that you call it an Experiment, and not something grand.

As an old player, I am excited, because I know what awaits me and will be very happy to play on the steam server. But the game page on steam, as well as the lack of a full tutorial (which, for example, can be on the tutorial island with the Wizard who gives us the name) can scare off newbies.
You should develop a tutorial, like in other MMOs, answering the main mistakes of newbies. And also work a little on the page on steam itself, make it less crumpled. Maybe read how it looks in other similar projects.

As for the fact that old accounts won't be able to be linked to steam, I wasn't surprised, as I saw the same thing in the MMO Black Desert. You can't log into your account if you play the steam version, but you can choose a server that has NON-steam players. In any case,
I'll be happy to play and try it out, no matter how it's implemented

[dafels]

You gotta find a way to link accounts and figure out what to do with multiple accounts issue and just turn off w15 instead of leaving it to rot in the cuckshed or having another legacy world. Your playerbase that you have accumulated over the years will not be very happy If you don't fix these issues. If not Steam release will be bad... Very bad and might aswell cancel the idea

[Hammerss]

The idea of a new world every 3, 4, 6 months is generally extremely bad. You don't need to name a time frame for when the new world will open. This will lead to the fact that a person who loses a character/village will simply drop for 2-3 months, since it will simply be easier for him to wait for a new world, which will later make the online world a mess. (I don't say anything about the fact that at this rate people will just get tired of repeating the same starting actions several times a year — building a village, improving quality, etc.)

In order for all this to look adequate, you need to monitor your online traffic, and if it starts to decrease, start acting. Just cutting off servers and running a wipe sucks. Here you need to come up with events, events. Finally, add an achievement system to the world with unique rewards (for example, as it is done in Path of Exile with their leagues). Put monuments to people and events in the world, as it was before (hello Arksu). Keep an eye on the fucking game and what's going on."

I want the hours I spend playing the game to give me something to fuck around with in the future. I want more unique, weird hats, and not just a hat+flower (in the first worlds of such was full). Skins for your personal hearth fire? And why not. New models/skins for personal claim. The ability to paint all things with dye, so that people can come up with a fractional dress code. This will not affect the gameplay at all, but it will make the game much more enjoyable.

Don't waste your only opportunity to launch in to Steam and get a bunch of negative reviews. Do it slowly and competently. Now finally run W16.

[ulbu]

I think it's pretty clear that Jorbtar do not really expect much from Steam release. If against all (BAD) odds, Haven gets overwhelmingly successful, they will adjust. If Steam release fails (which it is likely to do), as Loftar said, his little developer hearth will live through that. In this case, we will get to business as usual in a matter of months. I see barely any place for drama here, even considering your beloved HATS.

[hero202]

You gotta find a way to link accounts and figure out what to do with multiple accounts issue and just turn off w15 instead of leaving it to rot in the cuckshed or having another legacy world. Your playerbase that you have accumulated over the years will not be very happy If you don't fix these issues. If not Steam release will be bad... Very bad and might aswell cancel the idea

What the hell are you talking about - Black Desert Online is a prime example how players with steam accounts and non steam ones play together, every region that BDO is launched on is open to both players and i kid you not the steam community is like 10-20% of the playerbase xd. I would personally never play BDO if they did not have a separate launcher for it

[dafels]

I think it's pretty clear that Jorbtar do not really expect much from Steam release. If against all (BAD) odds, Haven gets overwhelmingly successful, they will adjust. If Steam release fails (which it is likely to do), as Loftar said, his little developer hearth will live through that. In this case, we will get to business as usual in a matter of months. I see barely any place for drama here, even considering your beloved HATS.

True, but we all want the Steam release to succeed, don't we? That is what all of this fuss is about

You gotta find a way to link accounts and figure out what to do with multiple accounts issue and just turn off w15 instead of leaving it to rot in the cuckshed or having another legacy world. Your playerbase that you have accumulated over the years will not be very happy If you don't fix these issues. If not Steam release will be bad... Very bad and might aswell cancel the idea

What the hell are you talking about - Black Desert Online is a prime example how players with steam accounts and non steam ones play together, every region that BDO is launched on is open to both players and i kid you not the steam community is like 10-20% of the playerbase xd. I would personally never play BDO if they did not have a separate launcher for it

Yeah or a seperate non-steam launcher that you don't have to link to play on the same world while keeping all your shit would be even better

[Katodiy]

Maybe you should just run w16 on w15 server in parallel with test server s1? And allow Steam players to play both Season 1 and Season 16, but not allow Season 16 non-steam players to play Season 1? Then the old community will be satisfied, and newcomers will be able to try the product on Steam.

[Granny]

This will lead to the fact that a person who loses a character/village will simply drop for 2-3 months, since it will simply be easier for him to wait for a new world, which will later make the online world a mess.

This is what happens now to some extent. Which is why we have had many updates trying to lessen the impact of losing a character. You can also choose to play a certain way that counters possible lethal encounters, and we have received choices for that too.

You might be right though. Loss of character/village in the shorter competitive world might make players quit faster, since they might not have the time to work up the character again until reset. Or?

[Den4X]

Very excited about the new experiment and I think the idea of a separate steam server looks great! I expect that it will attract new people, and will also make life more difficult for multiboxers who own bots. It will allow all players to play in equal conditions and reduce the chances of meeting serial killers overfed by bots for whom the goal of the game has always been to destroy the world as quickly as possible and whine about the fact that the server is empty after a month. I hope that among other things will be included VAC to reduce the number of cheaters who will try to interfere with the code of the game to gain an advantage by automations. So far the only downside is the loss of hats, otherwise expectations are positive.