Game Development: Beavertopia

[Fostik]

Oh and im forgot a thing.
Make an events on holidays, i.e. quests givers presents. People bored to play, you losing online

[Jalpha]

I think there should be an increased risk in PvP for people with active scents and rage rather than a decreased risk. This kind of runs parallel to real life mechanics (man I hate that game). I don't know if it's necessary to say again but full loot should remain. I don't know that dropping all items on the ground is a great option, even a KO should still have serious consequences so having your character prone and lootable for some time period but protected from further damage and additionally sustaining serious wounds which would largely incapacitate a player for some days would be nice to see. Losing a few days of game time is much more forgiving than losing months of work. I'm going to assume also that permadeath is not going to be removed entirely and that upon raiding the location of a players hearthfire it will be possible to eventually end their life. I also share the concerns people have regarding noobs getting one shot by titan trolls because it seems that the point should be to teach newer characters that combat is serious while retaining much of the risk for hardened PvPers. IMO.

Trial by fire is a much more tedious method by which to raid. I know I suggested the following in the past but I can't remember the objections. Could scents be used to lower the timer or the shield values by some amount? Limited to some value, accumulative per character. So for each character a certain number of their scents could be used to reduce the timer/shield by a certain value. I would also prefer to see some method by which neighboring village claims would share their HP values and damage taken by siege equipment (is this exploitable? I can't think of how). I'm of the opinion that siege would be better off with some tweaks even if it's more work on the programming side than having trial by fire in Hafen.

I should make some threads in suggestions but can we get additional biomes (like desert and jungle) and a map where the north is more cold and mountainous progressing gradually to tundras, forests then to jungle and eventually desert? I know that's a big project but please consider. The Hafen biome portfolio would be greatly enhanced if it wasn't restricted to central Europe alone. It would be nice to see some of Arabia or Africa in there as well. IMO. I actually ask this for another reason. Can we have adobe as a building material? Wattle and daub, mudbricks (baked and unbaked) whitewash even? If you ever get around to implementing weather these constructions could take decay ticks from localized rain rendering them much more viable in the biomes they belong in.

Don't make death too forgiving but I think it's wise to consider alternatives.

[Potjeh]

I don't think permadeath is the number one reason people quit, it's burnout. If you want to improve player retention you're better off focusing on how to make Haven an actual game rather than a full time job. If anything removing death will make the rat race a bit worse.

[Jalpha]

I disagree. A large amount of the tedious labour in Hafen stems from character development. In the past I have experienced burnout myself from trying to build up multiple characters (something I find incredibly tedious and annoying) including a fighter (which is always my last concern). A change to the permadeath mechanics would allow me to focus on a single character without the fear that I could lose all my work in an instant. If someone is determined enough they should still be able to end that characters life.

There are advantages to softening the functionality of permadeath. Regardless I think you have a strong point, I'm just interested to hear any suggestion you have which would reduce the tedium of late-game choredom without automation of game mechanics. I think softening permadeath will do so to some extent, though admittedly it's just a single step in what would be a long journey.

From my perspective I found the farming system in Salem much less tedious. For me it was actually fun, whereas in Hafen I avoid the fields as much as possible. A lot of the problems can be solved by doing things differently, like stocking up a large number of coops which store only one or two chickens each. I honestly think mining is fine, because miners are always the ones to keep playing long after the players who filled other roles have burnt out.

[Potjeh]

Livestock hibernation, for starters. But that would ruin their quality growth, and quality grind in general is not something you can slack on, so yeah it's a job. My last login I saw that I have to feed chickens and livestock, slaughter and process like a dozen of them, do a round of trees and harvest and replant all my crops before I could even think about setting foot outside of my base, so I just said fuck it and closed the client. And you have to do pretty much all of this daily regardless of number of characters you have.

[NOOBY93]

I LOOOOOOVE the idea of being teleported to HF upon knockout. Gonna use one character for everything :^) A dream come true

[Pavelly]

Why think about combat system

If it can be removed

[romovs]

[*] We have considered making it so that you are returned to your Hearth fire on knockout.

Completely in favour of this. Permadeath in a grindy MMO is not sustainable. It's only fun while playing the game for the first time when the excitement of fresh experiences manages to overshadow the drawbacks.

Would be great if this also worked for PvE (trolls specifically since it's pretty much a RNG death currently) to allow the possibility of using single character for everything.

We have been a bit unsure on where to take development. Feel free to opine on what you'd like to see change/improve.

Localized resources. Everything being walled-off and botted is not fun. What's worse is that it forces you to login into the game on a predefined schedule instead of when you feel like it.
Resources that change location after being depleted might be a good solution imo. Would't help much with the last mentioned issue though I suppose. Perhaps just make it work like foragables - make it contain only one item and re-spawn it at different location after X days.

[LadyGoo]

Honestly, not sure whether permadeath should be removed that way completely. Perhaps, the reward part for the winner who has koed their opponent should be considered. Maybe instead insa tp to HF upon knock out, you should be able to choose whether to kill or not (tp your enemy to hf). As in, if you spare your opponent, you gain his share of stats as long as he is alive. Calculated via the difference in stats. Likewise, if you die, your opponent will get back his stats.

Hafen punishes a lot, while being merciful and etc. doesn't really benefit you.

Also, unsure of the new system. We've been discussing something similar in voice chats and came to the conclusion that it's as exploitable as the shield system. If you are to implement the new siege system, you are better to post more details on the forum, so we could tell the possible flaws. There are tons of what ifs:
- What if the enemy will build multiple walls at a large distance? Many sections and etc.?
- You know that any time-based attacks that let your opponents to prepare will end up in alts clusterfuck. As in alts being used to lower enemy's fps, while mains will be getting targeted and body-blocked. How the new system, that will be time-based that much would adress that? And etc. etc.

[Iva]

Maybe instead of this KO'd teleportation something like this:

Pick peaceful or martial personal belief in the character creation room and go to the world. Peaceful personage can't start pvp (but can fight back to attacker or besieger) and he will inherit 100% (or slightly less) when he will die in pvp (not during hunting or drowning). Martial character can start pvp and he will inherit according to the currently existing mechanics. Nidbane can revenge only for theft and vandalism. To change your personal belief you can die and choose another. 8 hours limitation for re-inheritance still exist. All heirs comes to the world with disabled ability to fight, hunt, build or destroy for 24 hours.

Gankers and raiders have their fun and loot, carebears and noobs don't lose interest to the game.