An inquiry into the state of the game

[Ninijutsu]

Hello friends and foes,

It's been a long time since I last played the game (29 months and 1 day). I was unimpressed with the new version of Haven after a couple weeks of trying it out when it first launched, but now that it has been in development for quite some time now, I figure it may be time to give it another chance. I have a few questions about what has transpired in my absence, that I may determine from the gate whether my time would be well invested in this endeavor.


1. I had a lot of complaints about the state of combat (viewtopic.php?f=40&t=43410). I've heard that many of my complaints turned out to be non-issues, the combat system has been reworked since, and the combat system is going to be reworked again in the near future.
1.1. What do you think of the current state of PvP and combat?
1.2. Is it more, or less, stat-based than it was in W7?
1.3. Is there currently an altpocalypse underway or has that been sufficiently mechanically disincentivized?
1.4. Is PvP fair for both the attacker and the defender, or at least equivalently so as in W7?
1.5. How is sieging? I saw the thread about the aurora siege, and it appears the median opinion is that attackers must expend enormous resources relative to defenders. Is it similar to brickwalling a ram next to someone's brickwall and all similar such tactics required to reliably siege a well-patrolled (and/or defensively rammed) village wall in W7?

2. How is the PvE content of the game? For instance, on a scale from Legacy Haven to Salem, how much interesting content (other than spending weeks grinding out another quality point on your commodities) is there to explore and keep one busy outside of PvP?

3. How is the current world? Has it been around for a sufficiently long time such that it would be impossible to catch up as far as infrastructure/resources, and more importantly, character development? Could I jump in the mix and have a character that could reasonably fight characters from top factions within 4 months or less?

4. Do jorb and loftar have any plans to slow down development / make a different game / explore alternative revenue streams / etc in the pipeline?


I look forward to hearing back from the perennially classy gentlemen and ladies of this illustrious community and their generously descriptive responses.

Thank you in advance,
Nini

[DDDsDD999]

1.1. What do you think of the current state of PvP and combat?

New combat soon but: If you ko someone, combat instances are lost, and they can port to their HF after a while. This means someone either has to be wounded entering combat, or take some cleaves that are kinda hard to pull off in fair fights to die. It makes combat pretty common if you look for it and are competitive.

1.2. Is it more, or less, stat-based than it was in W7?

New combat soon but: Way more stat-based. Most of combat knowledge is not fucking up, rather than doing some thing good. Stats matter a lot.

1.3. Is there currently an altpocalypse underway or has that been sufficiently mechanically disincentivized?

There's not really much alt use. There's the obvious crafter alts. But the only real use for alts in combat is scouting people out, and stealing speed-buffs with horses.

1.4. Is PvP fair for both the attacker and the defender, or at least equivalently so as in W7?

Depends what you really define as the attacker or defender. There's not much to fight over, and sieges rarely happen. If a fight happens, both sides usually have a safe palisade to run to or it's just a chase.

1.5. How is sieging? I saw the thread about the aurora siege, and it appears the median opinion is that attackers must expend enormous resources relative to defenders. Is it similar to brickwalling a ram next to someone's brickwall and all similar such tactics required to reliably siege a well-patrolled (and/or defensively rammed) village wall in W7?

Cancer. Not doing that shit again.

2. How is the PvE content of the game? For instance, on a scale from Legacy Haven to Salem, how much interesting content (other than spending weeks grinding out another quality point on your commodities) is there to explore and keep one busy outside of PvP?

There's a beaver dungeon. You can clear it and get some good loot. It actually takes some stats, even at this point in the game to solo them.

There's a lot of industry things to build, so much so that a lot of people never see it all.

3. How is the current world? Has it been around for a sufficiently long time such that it would be impossible to catch up as far as infrastructure/resources, and more importantly, character development? Could I jump in the mix and have a character that could reasonably fight characters from top factions within 4 months or less?

Infrastructure is way more important than a character. You can raise your charisma, complete quests, and get titan UA in a fairly short amount of time with the proper infrastructure. There's not really any time-gates to raising a character, just the infrastructure you have and the effort you put forth.

Do jorb and loftar have any plans to slow down development / make a different game / explore alternative revenue streams / etc in the pipeline?

I can tell just from my perspective that the store items have been selling well, people love having/trading for them. People used to not buy hats, but now they're filling the trade chats, and jorbs been making a new hat every patch in response. They're working on a new combat system atm.

[iamahh]

short answer is no, long answer is nooo

[Massa]

combat is ass

the game is pretty Gucci but it has its moments where it's sketchers (all the time)

you'd put your time to better use running a cheese grater along your shoulders or eating crayons

[synaris]

i preferd world 8 and 9s combat system. but 7's can go right to hell. that was so damn convoluted.

though i do miss moves like rally.

anyways compared to world 8 and 9s combat system jorbtar have done a good job balancing out the use of unarmed and melee combat. its no longer a requirment to raise your unarmed for defense while using your melee for offense. you can defend with melee combat now. although its still IP heavy, quick assault allows you to amass the IP you need.

[Amanda44]

Hey Nini ... ... wb, hopefully!

2. There is heaps more pve content! As Ziggy has already outlined, there are dungeons, quests, builds ... on top of that there are a lot more animals of various strengths, cave life, forageables and credos to enhance attributes and abilities via specific questing relevant to the credo you are pursuing.

It is soo worth coming back, imho, combat aside, it is so much more interesting in game play and content than Legacy.

[sinko]

people have 15k str atm


MFW I take 2k damage from 20-30 openings

[vatas]

I recall some discussion about stats during w7. IIRC someone quite a pro was playing Hermit for a change and ended up in encounter where said under-statted Hermit massively out-played another hostile player, trapping him into a gate or something similar and was stacking Opportunity Knocks on the invader. He kept doing it a while but it took only one missclick or something to allow the invader KO Hermit in one hit.

What I'm trying to say / Why I'm bringing this up is probably the underlying philosophy of how much stats should matter. Of course in direct comb at one with bigger stats should have advantage, but even then there's room for debate on how significant the advantage should be. The story in beginning highlights/demonstrates point where sufficient stat-advantage becomes almost a guaranteed win unless absolutely everything goes wrong for the over-statted player.

I remember another story dating back to Legacy. that may be at least bit relevant. Somebody very rich (supposedly even Prince from Saudi-Arabia) bought absurdly high-statted character and ended up dying because of squatting inside a palisade, that was bashable back then, while having active scents.

[sinko]

I recall some discussion about stats during w7. IIRC someone quite a pro was playing Hermit for a change and ended up in encounter where said under-statted Hermit massively out-played another hostile player, trapping him into a gate or something similar and was stacking Opportunity Knocks on the invader. He kept doing it a while but it took only one missclick or something to allow the invader KO Hermit in one hit.

What I'm trying to say / Why I'm bringing this up is probably the underlying philosophy of how much stats should matter. Of course in direct comb at one with bigger stats should have advantage, but even then there's room for debate on how significant the advantage should be. The story in beginning highlights/demonstrates point where sufficient stat-advantage becomes almost a guaranteed win unless absolutely everything goes wrong for the over-statted player.

I remember another story dating back to Legacy. that may be at least bit relevant. Somebody very rich (supposedly even Prince from Saudi-Arabia) bought absurdly high-statted character and ended up dying because of squatting inside a palisade, that was bashable back then, while having active scents.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wL3rKXw2Zjg


this?

[Ysh]

4. Do jorb and loftar have any plans to slow down development / make a different game / explore alternative revenue streams / etc in the pipeline?

I will like to mention in case you do not know. Business model now is different than how it is at beginning of world 7. Free to play mode is not hours restrict now.