by GamingRAM » Fri Nov 26, 2021 5:33 am
I quit day 1 of this world, I realized I've done the bulk of the content and the grind doesn't offer anything new to me.
Lots of people say the game is to grindy and it's hard to be competitive, and that's true, but I also see that a lot of people drop out after a few months. After a certain point, the numbers don't mean anything anymore outside of PvP.
I'm going to compare the grind to Runescape, an argueably even more grindy game and why people keep playing that game.
It's because there are milestones. The milestones in Haven stop fairly early on. Think about it, in Runescape in all skills unlock you some kind of new content with most levels. You start off fishing shrimp, then you eventually upgrade to trout, salmon, at some point lobsters and swordfish, and then to sharks and even some foods only found in dangerous places. Combat skills in Runescape don't only give you better numbers, they also let you equip new weaponry that couldn't before, same thing for armor. Quests in Runescape are often locked behind skill requirements, and completing these quests can reward you with access to new equipment, areas, spells, methods of transportation, etc. If you max out a skill in Runescape, you can get a Skill Cape to show off, and they aren't all just for show either, some provide you with buffs such an extra pocket space for a Pestle and Mortar or a new area. And even then if you manage to max out every skill in the game there's still more, you can pray to the RNG gods for cosmetic pets from boss fights, complete treasure hunts, participate in mini-games, and more.
In contrast, Haven's milestones come to a crawl after a few weeks.
When you spawn in your first "big" accomplishment is going to be getting a bone saw. (I'm cutting out stone axe because rocks and sticks are EVERYWHERE, it's not a sigh of relief or an achievement worth mentioning). The bone saw unlocks you so much, quality of life and furniture. This gets you the bucket(10L of water compared to the crappy .4L a wooden cup provides), a table you can eat at, the ability to spawn in others, and even a house if you're crazy enough.
Your second big achievement will likely be the Canoe, this gives you faster and safer transporation, also a big quality of life to increase your foraging, it also gives you access to new areas.
Afterwards it comes down to these:
- Animal Hides and Leather. (Leather Backpack, Waterskin, Bow, Fishing Rod and Walls, providing QoL (inventory), hunting, fishing, and safety).
- Farming (Unlocks reliable food and string sources).
- Tar Kilns (Coal for smithing for later, but namely gives you a better boat).
A week or two later the milestones become these:
- Getting a bat cape (makes going into caves easier and safer)
- Killing your first bear (optional but really helpful for mining)
- Getting your first metals and hard metals. (HUGE upgrades: QoL (Metal Axe, Spectacles, better table stuffs, a village if you want, and the Knarr which gives you access to the rest of the world).
- Animal Taming (optional, actually not needed but helpful, especially horses).
And then after that, there's not much that really opens the rest of the game for you....
You can:
- Get silk, a merchant's robe is a nice QoL.
- Gold and Silver, which are nice but not really needed.
- A trollbelt, which is a nice upgrade, but also not needed.
- Kill some Orcas and Whales, but not really "needed".
- Maybe kill a Mammoth?
But getting metal is really the final milestone of unlocking meaningful content, which even for a newbie's first time playing, and solo, can be done within a month or two (aside from learning from the wikis, newbies take longer because of being punished by FEP and not knowing what to put LP into, they need INT, PER, STR, and Exploration and Survival).
You can get better gear for your gilding sets so you can do bigger numbers for things, but that's really all they are, just bigger numbers, they don't contribute much. With the Knarr you don't get access to new unique biomes that are normally out of reach, the otherside of the world is the same. You can find some new things via foraging, but most of the later things you find aren't that useful or can be potted(farmed).
I think the game's current progression could be stretched out more and then filled in a bit.
The jump from caveman to the iron age is a bit to short if you ask me. (seriously, add my suggestion for the Antler Pickaxe or something similar).
People don't use bronze long enough, I think iron should be considered put down to level 2 underground. In addition to this, add a bronze axe as an inbetween from stone and hard metal axe.
Add some kind of overworld needed item or barrier preventing access to the next level of mines. Like..... beating an Ant Hill dungeon will give you the meta-physical strength (or an item needed for the recipe) to dig to level 3. Level 4 could be unlocked via the Bat Dungeon. Yes this is very a gamey thing to do, but I think it's a better idea than treating it as a grindy job. (And other games do this all the time anyways, like Valheim or Terraria, it works).
Add snowy biomes to the far north and south, this way we can keep "winter" in the game without completely gutting it (also gives the Knarr another use). Also have mountains and snowy biomes have some requirements to enter them. You could have temperature timers that when reaching 0, the player starts taking damage. The timer's cap can be increased by the type of clothing you wear, it can stopped or restored by getting shelter, staying near a fire, or drinking special drinks.
Different Hearth Magics could be unlocked by completing certain tasks, such as Dungeons, Credoes, normal quest givers.
The point I'm trying to make is there aren't enough meaningful milestones in this game, and the ones that do exist are very quick to achieve (2 weeks to a month). Players should feel incentivized to unlock new CONTENT and not just to get bigger numbers.
World 12: Quit at some point.
World 11: Community Fair Worker
World 10: Co-Founder of the Northern Kingdom, Resident of Emerald City, Founder and Mayor of the Hole of Glory, RamZ's Art Emporium at CF, Member of the CFL Rams.
World 9: Founder of SnoopVille, Resident of Emerald City
World 7: Hermit and Neighbor to a dead Korean
