My Experience with Haven&Hearth

[apoc254]

Well,

I was wandering around uncovering the map of this game and pondering how I should play this new world the lord Jorbtar has blessed us with and it got me wondering how I began playing this game in the first place. When I started thinking about it... my experience with this game actually seemed pretty funny, so I thought I should share it with the developers and my fellow players.

Let me tell you of a tale... a tale of a Noob that did not know 2D H&H that takes place way back in the times of W8. It was a boring evening and steam could not satisfy my lust for sandbox adventure games. I scoured the internet and tested many games, but they all felt the same or how terrible user interfaces and eventually the testing had stopped on a game with the name of Haven & Hearth. I looked at the videos and what little footage I could find on youtube and decided that I would give this cartoonish game a fair shot since it appeared to be so feature rich.
I initially signed up my user account and was forced to update java... but after all those annoyances I had finally logged in to the pretty login screen and pressed the create new character button.

I initially expected there to be a character editor where I would set up my character... but instead I was greeted by a small purple glowing dot. I waited for the dot to speak, but it seemed to sit there saying nothing. "Is the game broken?" I thought to myself. I clicked on the screen and found out that I was the dot! I made my little floating dot move around on the water and was enjoying the experience. I ventured out into the woods attempting to find others and it felt empty and broken. I think the area may have actually just looped to another of the same area or thown me back into that same area. This was very confusing and eventually I decided that I should probably just follow the path.

I went forward on the path and quickly closed the pop up box that had appeared on my window. "This is too early for story!" I thought to myself while ignoring the pop up boxes and their text. I continued forward and crossed a river then suddenly I was a small naked man! This was amazing!... and very confusing. I walked around with my little naked man and clicked on the trees and eventually found that they were actionable. I found little crafts and items that found be made from the various ingredients I collected around me by following the flashing boxes on my UI. I was having a very exciting couple of first minutes as I discovered items and crafts. Then I thought to myself "I wonder if anyone else plays this game, I haven't seen a soul since I logged in and this feels like a newbie area." . I spoke to the wizard a few times hoping he would eventually do something other than ask me to name myself, but had no luck.

I remembered on video shown on the front page of the website that there was mining... perhaps they were all underground? I wandered around attempting to find a way to get underground but had found nothing. There was only this npc wizard with a single line and a campfire keeping him warm. A couple of minutes went by and I had discovered all the crafts available to me and looked everywhere that was available to search, but the world was so small. I was completely lost and could not progress forward. Eventually out of frustration with the game I decided that I would try to set my little naked man on fire with the campfire and let him die in the terribly small lonely world with the assumption that this game was a bust and not really developed as far as advertised.

As he stepped into the flames the screen went black and I heard screams of terror. "I am such a monster" I began to think. Suddenly the screen had shown again and I was in a new area... I was so confused... then just afterwards infuriated with the design of this game. My mind was flooding with angered thoughts "How the hell would I know to kill my little naked man with flames to begin this game?", "The developers are monsters!". After venting to myself for a minute or two I shook off the terrible 30 minute experience and began playing the game. There were wo many more trees and there were even rocks and different terrains to interact with. I began unlocking so many different recipes! The experience was delightful once again.

I was collecting my resources and building many baskets to store them in so that perhaps I could eventually build a home n this game. After a short while I came across something that I could not determine exactly what exactly I was looking at. I approached it cautiously since it was moving around and saw that the word
"raid!" was actionable above it. I had no idea what this was, but I knew that sounded dangerous. I pondered the dangerous and realized that I had never experienced combat in this game and surely this was a small mound of insects or some sort of dust bunny. I decided to go for it and clicked the raid action. I immediately realized that this was a terrible mistake when multiple small clouds of unknown began to swarm around me. "I guess I am going to learn to fight the hard way!" I thought to myself. I was hit by one of the unknown swarms and suddenly lost an enormous chunk of my health bar. "OH MY GOD!" I shouted. I was in a panic. I clicked to run away, but was too slow and before I knew it all 3 of the swarms had hit me and I didn't even get a chance to fight back before I was unconscious on the ground.

I saw the circling birds and realized that I was only knocked out and clicked as swiftly as I could over and over in hopes that I could run away before being assaulted again. Suddenly my small naked person had stood up and began to move. I was so panicked that I would be relentlessly assaulted if I stayed near that I didn't even bother to check and see what had happened to my hit points. As I got to a safe distance I searched through the menus in an attempt to see what status I was in and what was going on with the black space on my health bar. I eventually found the wounds menu and began thinking that it was interesting that there were specific wounds inflicted upon me. I added up the numbers found near these wounds and realized that they added up to the missing black space on my health bar. "I will never ever fight that enemy again" I thought to myself. "that raid button is a trap!", "I must have found some sort of boss to be killed so quickly!" ,"I need to find something easier to fight.","What were all those strange buttons that filled my screen when the fight began?" I had so many thoughts flooding my head that were unanswered.

After the 'Raid!' fiasco, I decided to steer clear of the enemies I found and keep focusing on resource collecting. "Maybe I will run into another player and figure out what I am supposed to do with that fearsome 'Raid!' button" I thought. I walked around and found quite a few areas that people had built some houses and fences. I was certain that these people must have quit playing and must have taken so long to build a home. I found myself wondering if they might log on later after some time had passed. Eventually I found a small boulder that allowed me to click it and choose an action on it. I chipped off a piece of stone and a new recipe was added to my bar. It was an axe! I quickly equipped my stone axe and felt that I rad really progressed! Sure, I was still running around naked.. but I had a primitive tool! I had eventually worked out that the lores would also unlock new recipes... but that took quite some time after I had obtained many baskets and forgeable items, most of which were only good for growing trees and I had no idea at the time.

To be continued... (to come: my first home, my first encounter with another player, my realization that you can dig the ground and affect the server world's land height,archery pains, the terrifying fox, a winged demon of hell, trapping the random running woods troll, realization of the initial spawn area, combat UI hell, yeomanry realized, playing with friends, W9, My first village, mining ore, the Russians, farming, village claim woes, our pretty village, hunting mastered, mammoth failures, new clothes, looting a sacked claim, playing with more friends, bows users punished for their existence, abandoning the village, returning with W10) assuming I don't get bored of typing it anyway.

[sMartins]

[avros008]

Great story im waiting for more.

[Thaydi]

Now you've made me interested. Great story, keep it up!

[shubla]

Your experience is too long.
Could you shorten it.

[abt79]

Your experience is too long.
Could you shorten it.

I think there's some way we can shorten his experiences going forward

[apoc254]

my first home

Fresh on an adventure with my new stone axe, I found a new action suddenly became available on the trees. I was so excited that I could chop down an entire tree. The world would be my own personal lumber yard. I clicked the "chop" action and watched as the little sandglass timer went down. I started noticing the blue bar at the top of the screen was going down quite a bit faster than the hourglass seemed to. I thought to myself "God. I hope this is nothing like minecraft where if I don't complete the action that I have to start over.". Suddenly it had happened, my fears became a reality. This blue bar could not be enough to fell an entire tree.

I sat around and waited for my blue bar to return so that I could complete chopping down this large tree. While I waited I thought to myself "Maybe those berries that I foraged will bring this bar back faster". I went to my many baskets and began consuming the food items in the hopes that my blue bar would return to me. I consumed every items that the game allowed my to et and only noticed my green bar filling up. "Damn this game is cruel to newbies" I thought to myself waiting further for my bar to return.

Eventually the blue bar had come back and I continued chopping the same tree. I saw the timer picked up where it left off and let out a sigh of relief."At least this game has better mechanics than minecraft" I convinced myself. I nearly had completed the hour glass and had to wait an additional time for my bar to return to me before I was able to take down this tree. "maybe this world wont be my personal lumberyard" I began to think. I attempted to put this felled tree into my backpack and continue on exploring for more new items. It was then that I realized... I cannot even click this enormous log. I right clicked the log and found myself able to "chop" the tree again. "I guess I will be splitting the wood then." I said out loud as if somebody was listening.

The logs from the tree began to go into my backpack and I found many new crafts available to me. I was intensely excited to see just how many crafts that I could make out of this chopped tree log. I still could not find a house that I was able to build, but I found a curious thing. There was a cup now craft able. "I wonder if I need to get my little naked man something to drink" I thought. Since he had eaten all those berries and nuts he surely needed a drink to choke them down. I crafted the cup and headed of to the only water source I had known about at the time. I found it earlier when looking for new discoveries in the trees.

I stood in the shallow water and removed the cup from my backpack. I clicked the water with my cup hoping it would fill... then suddenly I found myself with no more cup. "Damn I hate this game" I thought to myself. "I bet they wanted me to right click like they do with the trees". I crafted another cup with one of the logs from my inventory and tried again. I right clicked the water and SUCCESS! the cup was full. I left clicked on the land to return with my cup away from the water when I suddenly found myself with no cup again. "What The F---?!?!" I shouted. When I clicked to leave the water the little asshole dropped the f--king cup again! I was beyond pissed now as I had lost my second cup to this water.

I went for a final try and placed the cup in my inventory before I exited the water. This time, I got to keep my cup with water in it. I drank a bit of the water and saw that my blue bar had returned. "What kind of sadistic asshole makes you fell an entire tree in order to get the cup to replenish your blue bar?" I began thinking to myself. Clearly things had not been going well for me at this point in the game.

On my way back to my baskets and downed tree. I saw a fox hopping crossed my screen. "Well that was pretty gay" I thought to myself. Why was the fox prancing? Then it occurred to me... if those insects/dust bunnies did so much damage... this thing must be pretty dangerous. I immediately began walking in the opposite direction the fox was heading. This is when I suddenly saw a dead rabbit just sitting around in the woods. "Did somebody hunt this thing and just leave it behind?" I began to think. I began typing in the chat window, but nobody had responded. I better take this with me, it would be better to not waste it.

I picked up the bunny and stuffed it in my bag. I saw that the bunny was actionable and skinned it down to the meat and bones. When this occurred I found myself with a new craft available to me "A SAW!!". I have heard of a bone saw, but this is ridiculous... I began to make horribly bad jokes. "Surely this is an item that will enable me to build a home!" ,"What more could I need?", "Perhaps I need some nails?" my mind began racing with happy thoughts. I equipped the saw and realized... I am dual wielding a saw and axe! This game isn't so bad after all.

I found myself with a new action available to me on the downed tree. I could now cut boards! and after I cut my first board I found that I had unlocked two new potential houses! At this point I was jumping for joy as I would be able to finally claim a space for myself. It was only the first day of play, so I was certain these must be the newbie houses and that if I unlocked it I would eventually be able to make mansions. I looked at my menus and searched for something that might enable me to make more variety of houses, but I found nothing available. I immediately began to put all my stats I had saved up from exploring into carpentry so that I might be able to unlock some new homes. found myself unable to build a new home so decided to just go ahead with building the home.

Perhaps since I have points in carpentry I wont be so winded from chopping a tree or building. This turned out to be completely untrue. It seems that I got just as winded as before when chopping a tree or making boards/logs. I figured that if I was going to have to keep drawing water from that lake, I might as well build my house over there. When I got back to the lake I attempted to place the initial building and got the message "uneven ground" or something to that affect. I found the most flat ground that I could find and got a new message "Invalid terrain". I found myself furious that there would be so many restrictions on where you place the home. I began testing on all different kinds of forest tile and began to realize that this seemed to be the only tile in the game that would not let me build on it by this lake.

"These developers truly are monsters" a said aloud. I chopped down many trees and brought the materials to a nearby grassy area. This area was to be my new home. I figured that I should probably throw up some fence and make a small work station area where I could work unbothered by foxes that might wander by. I placed a table and chair in the center along with my various stock piles of materials. I went down to the water to get more water and begin construction. Upon returning the worst possible thing had occurred... Those damned dust bunny/insects have stolen my work area! They set up exactly in the middle of it as if to gloat that they had claimed my hours of hard work! I knew from my previous encounter that there would be no way to get this land back from them and that it was just better to move on and not get too close to them.

I abandoned my concept of a work area and fence and just began constructing a house beside the lake. It took me hours to gather all of the materials, but eventually I had completed and the house was made. I placed a few baskets in the home along with a table an chair to make it cozy. The moment of rejoices had finally occurred as I felt like part of the game since I owned a small piece of land.

[Thuzzy]

This is awesome. Keep it up!

[Juukin]

TLDR, pls add more pictures, lost attention at the first line of text already

[Potjeh]

I enjoyed it. So many facepalmy moments, but that's what makes it so good