Majority of Players Non-English Speakers

[Kaios]

Also I find that in large villages based on the plot system you end up only having a few individuals who do the core village work such as industry, banners, skilled crafting, etc. especially if you first build the village and plots before bringing in more recruits. This creates a disproportionate feeling amongst some villagers in that some feel others aren't contributing enough or at all leading to tension between them. And really some people don't contribute at all and just do their own thing.

Plot system is great but you essentially end up becoming a hermit surrounded by other hermits. In order to actually have meaningful interaction with your villagers you have to involve them in a project where effort on their part is required too so they can feel like they've helped out. Whether that means recruiting to build the village or building the village and recruiting for other on-going projects I guess is a decision up to the recruiter.

[APXEOLOG]

Is that guy cosplaying that colonel who got paranoid and jumped out of his window yelling "Russians are coming!" or what?

He is just burgi's pet, don't take him serious

[Kaios]

speaking of useless contributions

[Hasta]

In order to actually have meaningful interaction with your villagers you have to involve them in a project where effort on their part is required too so they can feel like they've helped out. Whether that means recruiting to build the village or building the village and recruiting for other on-going projects I guess is a decision up to the recruiter.

That's the problem. There is finite number of non-pvp projects in-game that make sense to engage in, so that involvement is not sustainable.

Not sure how is that different national mentality-wise, though.

[Kaios]

Yes exactly I agree, but the game needs more pvp though guys plz more combat or ded gaem.

Oh, and another issue larger villages face when attempting recruitment is that recruiting newer players who have yet to experience more of the early game content leaves much to be desired for said recruits. When you as a new players get recruited in to larger village that already has brick walls and a decent industry and crops are coming along, animals are breeding, etc. what else is really left for that new person to do? You supply them with all of the updated qualities of your stuff so they can play the quality grind game but they miss out on so much more. This ends up leaving those newly recruited players feeling bored and eventually they end up quitting faster than your original members did.

[Jalpha]

We had a similar situation in our town, where we ended up with a collection of hermits sharing a common wall instead of a community. Not that I'm the most useful villager ever, I spend way too much time doing random not even I know what. Anyway I have considered restricting plot sizes to force players to share public spaces but it seems a bit... Manufactured.

I've wanted to start a project similar to EVE University for quite some time, and actually wanted to begin something along those lines in Salem originally but... Toxic playerbase combined with my idealistic principles prevented the possibility from ever taking shape. Running such a project is clearly first and foremost a diplomatic challenge and even within the EVE universe with high sec and all that there were still dramas. I don't believe I have the political connections, and anyone who does is generally a victim of a reputation sullied in previous worlds or just doesn't want the hassle of dealing with noobs.

Maybe one day.

[Kaios]

I don't believe I have the political connections, and anyone who does is generally a victim of a reputation sullied in previous worlds or just doesn't want the hassle of dealing with noobs.

Not only that but when a well known player attempts to start a village of their own or at least known enough for someone else to hate them chances are those who dislike that person will give a try at infiltrating their village just for the sole purpose of ruining it because they don't like them.

example: Niflheim

[Patchouli_Knowledge]

The main issue really extends beyond the factor of language. It is not so much that the free-form environment of the Haven world that is causing this decline but more of the fact that:

1. It takes a disproportion amount of effort to build things than it takes for someone else to destroy things. This is the actual reason why a single alt spy fresh from the oven can cause a lot of damage for minimal amount of time required to make it. It is not because the game itself makes it easy to spy on someone but because anyone with a IQ above 10 can make one and break stuff.
2. With some exception, most of the community itself tends to end up as a closed circle. They expect newbies to know things that they know that seems basic but is not instructed in the game at all. They are expected to bee line up the skill tree and get a claim, then make walls immediately. If they do not do it, then the general response is "Then this game is not for you" "Haven is survival game" "Quit whining". It doesn't help that some people throw as much dank memes and picture spams.
3. The game itself is pretty intuitive (and sometimes misleading) right from the very beginning of the game. It may not be uncommon to think that the game creation room is the sandbox initially.
4. LadyGoo has highlighted this several times before but there isn't really much incentive to interact behind your safe little town. The economy system is a bit stagnant, the threat of permadeath makes it more appealing to just bunker up and farm in your little town/hermitage, and the travel system still needs more tweaking.

TLDR:
1. It takes 10 days to build, 10 seconds to destroy.
2. People are telling newbies to know what they know or GTFO.
3. The lost newbie: WTF am I suppose to do?!?!?!? What does this button do?!?!?
4. I don't want to think outside the box, it is safer in here.

[Jalpha]

Infiltration is inevitable, even without enemies. For some it is a fun element of the game mechanics. For a learning center dedicated to noobs the potential damage seems fairly minor and simple screening would, over time make the effort required exceed the potential gains. I see the main threat coming from larger groups of bored players looking for an easy target to troll, and defending against such a nuisance should come from an external source through aforementioned political connections. It should be a place people move on from and even a soft form of pre-screening potential recruits for larger factions, not a faction in it's own right or even a permanent home.

[Patchouli_Knowledge]

But the fact that a single 1 day alt can destroy a lot of things gives more incentive to do so; the destruction:effort ratio for one is very high.