>>> RAGNARÖK PROTOCOL <<< When Worlds Must End

[0_0]

~~~ RAGNAROK PROTOCOL: When Worlds Must End ~~~
"In the twilight of worlds, when the old gods grow weary and the new players flee screaming from the goon squads..." - Ancient Hearthling Prophecy

<<>> THE PROBLEM OF ETERNAL WORLDS <<>>
Fellow Hearthlings! As we languish in the eternal purgatory of World 16, I present a solution worthy of the All-Father himself!
No longer must we endure the developer's endless headache of "when to reset?" or "what is the end goal?" No more shall new players spawn into a world where every tile has been claimed by someone who's been playing since the Bronze Age! (and most of it is already in decay and abandonment).

*** THE RAGNAROK SCENARIO ***

The Concept: Let the world's fate rest in the hands of its inhabitants! Each world shall last as long as people are willing to fight for its survival—literally!

>>> TRIGGERING THE APOCALYPSE <<<
The end times shall commence when the omens manifest! Perhaps:
The Death Toll: At least one death recorded on 50%+ of premium accounts (because apparently 1,000+ dead alts from fake accounts will be the first thing to see within 24 hours)
The Ubermensch: Someone reaches 500+ STR (congrats on only touching H&H grass, and only for some XP)
The Temporal Limit: 3 months have passed (a reasonable timeframe that won't make devs want to hide in a cave)

+++ THE RISEN DEAD +++
Proposition 1: When Ragnarok begins, ALL UNBURIED CORPSES SHALL RISE!
These skeletal warriors will:
Bash everything with the fury of a thousand frustrated new players,
Assault villages like they're goons with infinite alts,
Claim 50% of claimed land (finally, some competition for the mega-villages!)

=== FIGHTING THE APOCALYPSE ===
Two paths to salvation, as befits our diverse community of murderers and hermitscombat enthusiasts and peaceful flower-pickers:

Path of the Warrior:
Face the undead in glorious combat! (For those who can actually PvP without crying)

Path of the Ritualist:
Sacrifice 1 million LP collectively to banish one random skeleton (because apparently everything in this game costs millions of something)

^^^ THE HALL OF HEROES ^^^
Victory Conditions: Survive one month with 50%+ of claimed land intact

Rewards for Top 10 Contributors:
Legendary Artifacts (1000Q swords, golden chamber pots, whatever)
Eternal Glory (and bragging rights until the next reset)
The Sacred Title of "Defender of World [X]"

!!! FAILURE STATE !!!
If the world falls to the skeletal horde, then LET IT BURN!
The world resets, and we begin anew—hopefully with fewer goon squads this time.

### TLDR FOR THE IMPATIENT VIKINGS ###
- Worlds end when triggered by player actions/time
- Undead or any apocalypse gives everyone something to unite against
- Fight or craft your way to salvation
- Heroes get shiny things
- Failed worlds reset naturally
- Devs can stop playing "reset roulette"
- New players get regular fresh starts
- Exact scenarios, triggers, and conditions can be anything—we'll all have a million opinions, but we can just voice them and the devs will decide anyway. Just MAKE. IT. FUN.

Bonus: No more forum threads asking "when reset?"—just ask the nearest skeleton instead!

"And thus shall the cycle continue, world without end, until the servers themselves join the eternal hunt..." - The Hearthling Edda

What say you, fellow survivors of endless World 16? Shall we embrace the apocalypse, or set it upon a new world? What should the RAGNAROK PROTOCOL look like?

P.S. - This beats sitting around for another 6 months wondering if the devs remember we exist.

[Robben_DuMarsch]

I like the idea of shorter worlds (in a parallel world system) and I'm in agreement that lengths of about 3 months should be tested (in a parallel world environment,) I'm curious if that could be player driven.

Everything else your AI suggested is not particularly well considered, unfortunately.

[0_0]

Thank you.
The Ragnarök idea is genuine. World should exist as long as players are willing to fight for it. The skeleton scenario is purely for demonstration purposes. The exact conditions and scenarios could vary, as I mentioned in the post:

Exact scenarios, triggers, and conditions can be anything

[Halbertz]

crazy stuff

[CunningGodOfDeath]

this must be what eating liberty caps feels like

[magnet]

BEST SCHIZO POST OF THE MONTH

[_Scipio]

IDEAS

I like your enthusiasm. The world usually ends with a whimper instead of a bang. I doubt those who want the world to continue would fight for it.

[Rebs]

One Hour One Life gave players the ability to end worlds, and it ended poorly. Basically turned into a speed run and ending the world was the goal. Was horrible honestly.

There is likely an interesting player-run world end feature that could be made, but no one here, including the devs, has the intelligence to do it right, and you are never going to make everyone happy. There will always be a poor soul who joined a week before the players trigger the reset, and they complain that they wasted their week or weekend.

And if you think everyone would be happy with a "3/6 month reset" think again.

I think they lost sight of their dreams of having this game be a persistent world without world resets. This is what I would prefer: just one world that lives forever and still somehow feels like that week/month 1 hype. But this is of course a pipe dream. World 7 was kinda great in this regard.

I would love them to turn around and say they are returning to this idea and make gameplay loops and mechanics that prolong the player base, to encourage self-resets. The hard-capped attributes before trying to reach this idea—you can't have a forever world if characters can just grow forever without people not wanting to just wait for a reset.

I think death is too rare now. Maybe because I simply got better at the game for sure, but the majority of my deaths in Legacy were PvP or waking up with your base raided. Death was a pretty good little resetting mechanic back in Legacy. As a teenager making multiple bases in a single world, trying to get further and further each death, it was truly a hardcore survival game.
Now it’s rather easy to just play through all the content the game has to offer and get bored. I understand the majority of new players barely get to palisades, but that doesn't mean we need to make it easier.

Now that I think about it, since siege became so fucking annoying to do and really is only left to factions for the most part, the game stopped having an in-game resetting functionality.
Maybe I’m giving everyone too much credit, but I doubt everyone would quit after they got sieged, especially if they still had content to achieve. Think about the first week: the majority of people get raided, get killed before palisades, and the majority of those people make a new character, a new base, more locations, and get back on the horse. Yes, there are people who would cry and scream and not play, but I don't think that is the majority. I also have a feeling that if someone is at that stage of completion and grinding and then gets raided, they might get reinvigorated. Also, 99% of the player base doesn’t even get to enjoy raiding each other these days, which of course is a lot of fun.

I know I went on a bit of a tangent there at the end, but my point is: being raided and left with nothing is the reset that you are after. Imagine if everyone everywhere is constantly being raided by each other—no one would be able to progress quickly, even the big dogs would be brought down a peg. You might think this just leaves 1 group with all the spoils, but I beg to differ.

[0_0]

One Hour One Life gave players the ability to end worlds. and it ended poorly. basically turned into a speed run and ending the world was the goal. was horrible honestly.

Yeah, it's unclear how to overcome that. Should that be embraced for a couple of worlds - let them rise and burn fast until the opposite player faction that wants a long world is established, and then give them enough tools to save the world?

Think about the first week, the majority of people get raided, get killed before palisades, and the majority of those people make a new character, a new base, more locations and get back on the horse. Yes there are people who would cry and scream and not play, but I don't think that is the majority though. I also have a feeling that if someone is on that stage of completion and grinding and then gets raided they might get reinvigorated. Also 99% of the player base don't even get to enjoy raiding each other these days which of course is a lot of fun.. I know I went on a bit of a tangent there at the end here but my point is, being raided and left with nothing is the reset that you are after and imagine if everyone everywhere is constantly being raided but each other no one would be able to progress quickly, even the big dogs will be brought down a peg. - you might think this just leaves 1 group with all the spoils but I beg to differ.

Thank you for bearing with me on this topic and sharing yout rhoughts. The point about raiding as a form of reset feels very insightful - you’re probably right. Once a palisade is established, everything becomes routine, and after all that grind you don’t want to lose your progress. How would you say sieges should work, then? And how strong should palisades be? Should it get to the point where it’s impossible for a hermit to establish any kind of safe base?

[dafels]

Sheeesh, yaas less go