Hey everyone.
I used to play HnH around w4-w6 or something like that. To this day, I still think HnH is one of the best games ever made and I could never wrap my head around why is this game not that popular, but that's besides the point =)
When I fist started playing, it's been quite tough to play alone so forum was full of new players looking for a group of like-minded people to establish a small settlement or join a bigger village. There was real drama and politics involved. I remember building 2 layers of a huge wall in one go because everyone was too scared to log out until it's done. I remember digging my first gold on 3rd underground level and then later that same day finding a 30 minimap tunnel to our gold spot leading to a huge Korean village. I remember accidentally recruiting a spy to my village who spent 3 weeks gaining everyone's trust and working hard on village extension until one day we woke up to opened gates and dead livestock. And that was just me, oldfags had way more epic stories to share.
Man, I had so much fun and I must say, I've been missing that in my life ever since i've stopped playing. I've never been very good at combat, but I enjoyed the other aspects of the game. So I have decided to check what's new and registered an account last week. Nice to see some gameplay changes, combat system rework etc. Most importantly, I still enjoy playing this awesome game. However, something doesn't feel right. Sailing around my little defenceless settlement, I see the same picture whichever way I go: decaying abandoned villages, random claims every now and then and no signs of life whatsoever. And yes, you read it right, decaying and abandoned rather than destroyed and looted. Looking for some good old drama and butthurt, I turned to forums, but I found nothing.
As far as I can remember, this game always felt like everyone was on the edge of quitting for good, but I don't remember it being so quiet and peaceful. Is it still alive? It does have 120+ players online at all times, am I just lucky enough to spawn in a remote area or is it really a different game these days?