Where did everybody go? Server count down

[Robben_DuMarsch]

People got murdered, but it was a very different tone. Even LARPy.
Excesses of belligerence? That's not equivoval.
If it was anything like today, it certainly escaped my notice.

[Massa]

People got murdered, but it was a very different tone. Even LARPy.
Excesses of belligerence? That's not equivoval.
If it was anything like today, it certainly escaped my notice.

some characters like birgingham were larpy, some were like crfernald with that sealteam pro deadlift god shit. there was a bit of doxxing but it was mostly ye olde classic slur spam and grief. i don't think it's any different, just that the hats and birds have changed and we're in 3d instead of 2d now.

this will continue until we've collectively moved onto the 4th dimension, and the starcaps still won't fight back in hyperspace picking their fractalberries.

[jordancoles]

I am once again reminding you: the game is good, it's the playerbase that sucks.

We need more players. Better, more creative players.

A decade ago, the community was great.
I don't know what the fuck happened, lol.

Probably it started to go downhill after the ability to meaningfully kill bad actors was removed?
But I'm not confident if it was added back, it would fix things. The community has been poisoned.

It's no joke to say that the biggest PVPers in the community used to primarily KO people and take their pants off and make funny forum posts.
The biggest drama was about vanilla purists vs the extent of botting.

These days? It's doxxing, pedo accusations, IRL harassment, extorting grandmas for tokens.

As Snail said, you can't change human nature. But you can change who the game appeals to.
Haven in its current incarnation is a playground for abusing, griefing, and it empowers only the worst actors.
If the mechanics didn't favor this, it wouldn't attract as many players. They'd bitch, moan, and quit.
But, over time, it's gotten worse, not better - Jorb is basically the old king Theoden there with Grima Wormtongue whispering in his ear.

Lack of updates, no depth to the combat system, movement changes and 3D landscapes that make the combat we currently have feel clunky and like circling around through mud.

Years of non engagement by the devs with deteriorated follow-through and a total lack of a willingness to work with community members to bring interest to the game, or to at least assist with working out a direction or identity for the game moving forwards

The forums are dead partially because it's a dying medium but also because nothing really matters anymore. Legacy felt consequential and writing posts of world events felt like documenting a slice of the game's history to be archived (which is mostly still there now, which is nice) but now nothing matters and nobody cares.

For years Hafen has felt like 'what we have to work with' rather than an upgrade from Legacy. I play it because this is where the players are, not because it's better. QoL here is nice, but the 3d art style isn't as pleasing to me as legacy was, combat system and early to end game progression is a slog that just keeps having barriers put up in front of it (because fuck you) and repeating the same credos and getting fucked by variance and RNG at every turn isn't engaging it's just the same if not more annoying hoops to jump over to get to the same point you were at previously -- and by that time everyone around you has already left.

16.1 with lolfastertimers is half baked to the point where Loftar didn't even spawn trees properly in the new biome (the badlands, ironically) and after noticing early on, didn't have enough fucks left inside of himself to regenerate the map before people started progressing.

Not to mention a lot of the recent changes feel like Loftar just adding/removing/changing whatever specific faction members ask for without even understanding why or what it might mean.

I used to gold sub every world and for a while the value of that made some sense with a bit extra to support the devs and development. The patches were never exactly weekly, and you never really got 'bang for your buck' but I was happy with the hats rolling in. In recent years we have gone 11 weeks, 19 weeks, 5 weeks, 15 weeks (I keep track) between patches, and the lack of communication in between has made a fool out of me enough times now that I've stopped.

The faster timers have been fun in some ways. Faster leather/hides drying/earlier crops and banners with earlier skill unlocks.. but also worse in that siege timers are no doubt faster meaning you could get over-nighted and animal taming does not align with a working schedule. I beat up an animal last night to 85%, went to bed and when I got back on to beat it up again the animal was at 95%. Faster timers seem to make you miss taming windows often unless you're glued to your screen.

Increased speeds are an interesting experiment, but increasing them across the board makes it very hard to say what works and what doesn't just because of how broad it has been and how much is affected. Another disappointing reality is that the feedback isn't worth typing anymore because it seems to go unread or into the bin regardless of effort

I'm still here, obviously, but I am very disappointed with the way things have been going

[Schwarzvald]

Eight days after release (assuming peak player count was 1k players on release) the amount of players on at peak times during a Saturday was 850.

Non peak hours see the population at 500 players.

A peak of 850 is a 15% player drop off not even eight days after launch.

Were those 150 “players” just terrain leveling bots the large groups used to prep their bases?

W16.1 averages 500-850 players on LAUNCH assuming this logic.

This is why people are reporting being able to walk awhile without running into anyone.

lol

lol


There’s nobody to run into.

Dead game. PvE world next thanks

[Rebs]

PvE world next thanks

This is why people are reporting being able to walk awhile without running into anyone.

There’s nobody to run into.

Dead game. PvE world next thanks

??

[sMartins]

I am once again reminding you: the game is good, it's the playerbase that sucks.

We need more players. Better, more creative players.

A decade ago, the community was great.
I don't know what the fuck happened, lol.

Probably it started to go downhill after the ability to meaningfully kill bad actors was removed?
But I'm not confident if it was added back, it would fix things. The community has been poisoned.

It's no joke to say that the biggest PVPers in the community used to primarily KO people and take their pants off and make funny forum posts.
The biggest drama was about vanilla purists vs the extent of botting.

These days? It's doxxing, pedo accusations, IRL harassment, extorting grandmas for tokens.

As Snail said, you can't change human nature. But you can change who the game appeals to.
Haven in its current incarnation is a playground for abusing, griefing, and it empowers only the worst actors.
If the mechanics didn't favor this, it wouldn't attract as many players. They'd bitch, moan, and quit.
But, over time, it's gotten worse, not better - Jorb is basically the old king Theoden there with Grima Wormtongue whispering in his ear.

Lack of updates, no depth to the combat system, movement changes and 3D landscapes that make the combat we currently have feel clunky and like circling around through mud.

Years of non engagement by the devs with deteriorated follow-through and a total lack of a willingness to work with community members to bring interest to the game, or to at least assist with working out a direction or identity for the game moving forwards

The forums are dead partially because it's a dying medium but also because nothing really matters anymore. Legacy felt consequential and writing posts of world events felt like documenting a slice of the game's history to be archived (which is mostly still there now, which is nice) but now nothing matters and nobody cares.

For years Hafen has felt like 'what we have to work with' rather than an upgrade from Legacy. I play it because this is where the players are, not because it's better. QoL here is nice, but the 3d art style isn't as pleasing to me as legacy was, combat system and early to end game progression is a slog that just keeps having barriers put up in front of it (because fuck you) and repeating the same credos and getting fucked by variance and RNG at every turn isn't engaging it's just the same if not more annoying hoops to jump over to get to the same point you were at previously -- and by that time everyone around you has already left.

16.1 with lolfastertimers is half baked to the point where Loftar didn't even spawn trees properly in the new biome (the badlands, ironically) and after noticing early on, didn't have enough fucks left inside of himself to regenerate the map before people started progressing.

Not to mention a lot of the recent changes feel like Loftar just adding/removing/changing whatever specific faction members ask for without even understanding why or what it might mean.

I used to gold sub every world and for a while the value of that made some sense with a bit extra to support the devs and development. The patches were never exactly weekly, and you never really got 'bang for your buck' but I was happy with the hats rolling in. In recent years we have gone 11 weeks, 19 weeks, 5 weeks, 15 weeks (I keep track) between patches, and the lack of communication in between has made a fool out of me enough times now that I've stopped.

The faster timers have been fun in some ways. Faster leather/hides drying/earlier crops and banners with earlier skill unlocks.. but also worse in that siege timers are no doubt faster meaning you could get over-nighted and animal taming does not align with a working schedule. I beat up an animal last night to 85%, went to bed and when I got back on to beat it up again the animal was at 95%. Faster timers seem to make you miss taming windows often unless you're glued to your screen.

Increased speeds are an interesting experiment, but increasing them across the board makes it very hard to say what works and what doesn't just because of how broad it has been and how much is affected. Another disappointing reality is that the feedback isn't worth typing anymore because it seems to go unread or into the bin regardless of effort

I'm still here, obviously, but I am very disappointed with the way things have been going

What happened to the good old days?
And what about the golden age?

It looks like, very surprisingly, the ‘Make Hafen Great Again’ hat didn't work at all ....

[MightySheep]

Legacy combat was absolute trash and legacy gameplay was like handbashing pali, perma killing ppl over walls with bow from off screen etc. It would make 99% of this current forum cry. Don't get me wrong I loved it because there was a million ways to raid and kill people. All you had to do was gank them and get key and their whole village become yours.

Not gonna sit here with Rose tinted nostalgia and pretend that would ever work today. The combat was if you get hit while moving u insta perma die in the most anti climactic dull way imaginable.

[sMartins]

You loved it because YOU were different.... Wake up, the other one is a psychologist too.

[Massa]

Eight days after release (assuming peak player count was 1k players on release) the amount of players on at peak times during a Saturday was 850.

Non peak hours see the population at 500 players.

A peak of 850 is a 15% player drop off not even eight days after launch.

Were those 150 “players” just terrain leveling bots the large groups used to prep their bases?

W16.1 averages 500-850 players on LAUNCH assuming this logic.

This is why people are reporting being able to walk awhile without running into anyone.

lol

lol


There’s nobody to run into.

Dead game. PvE world next thanks

Last world had double the concurrent players, was half the size, will probably have 6-8x the logevity. It was more dangerous and active, and more alive.

This world has functionally full PvE on, but you aren't actually interested in that, and instead are interested in complaining. Giving you what you want won't yield a booming game. As of 16.1, without rage, you can run into your walls. You cannot die anymore. You can't be seiged. You HAVE the PvE server experience. Permadeath, siege, etc. are gone. You MIGHT get punched out on a river, you lose some shitty gear, all good. You HAVE your PvE cake, and no one is eating it. THIS is explicitly why we advise Lorb to not listen to sprucecaps. They don't mean it, don't care, and don't really know what they're asking for.

Can you please explain to me why the more vibrant and alive worlds seem to be the ones that keep mechanics out of the the way of player interaction, instead of pre-load it with 500 if/and/or caveats? Again, without the other players, one might as well build a hut in the woods irl or kill moose for 9000 hours.

Also, yes, coles dropped a truthnuke. 5+ years of consistent radio silence without walking it back or meaningful changes, and a deflated, uninterested energy makes an experience a very hard sell. I disagree vis a vis legacy, I do think this game is a stark, overt, and dramatic upgrade on all fronts and a much better experience, but that's beside the point.

Most of my friends aren't playing because world too big, no changes lol, disposable fodder world with a fodder name that hopefully dies as fast as world 4. If 17 launches like this I don't know if my people will even bother starting.

[sMartins]

Just to make sure I understand correctly, Is Grima Wormtongue Snail?