Potjeh wrote:Well if we agree, you should put that character development overhaul on the backburner until you've fixed siege. Personally I think that all the issues are to blame on vaults, but I guess I could be wrong and the LP system needs yet another overhaul. Thing is, you can't make any meaningful observations with vaults around, as they break just about everything in the game. I mean, even if we were back to old LP grinding character death still wouldn't mean much when you can't locate and destroy the enemy's base.
Well, in terms of development priorities I think I've stated elsewhere that the problem presently is that loftar, right before we got to work on Salem, had redesigned the object system to a much more flexible model, which Salem now uses. The problem unfortunately being that this requires a reimplementation of all the stuff we've put into Haven. Since we have to do that anyway, we would like to take the opportunity to basically rebuild the game and try to flush out a lot of the cruft that we have accrued. Mind you, the main goal point that we'll be building towards is and will remain the siege system. It is obviously the single biggest problem right now.
Some other things that I'd like to get rid of:
Change the hunger model to eliminate meaningless plowing for more hunger and (thus) make feasting more important.
Rework/remove/change the personal beliefs, especially change/tradition.
Rework/remove/change the fast travel system to remove the janky gameplay that crossroads & hearthing presently imply, foraging bots by means of infinite wilderness spawns, for example.
Better system for gate access. Remove keys in their present implementation.
There is also not a single industry that I wouldn't want to do at least something about, but farming might deserve a special mention. Generally speaking I'd like it if there was a bigger element of choice and player skill involved in the actual crafting.
Rework the quality fields and the finding of them to disincentivize the present retarded pclaims that I see everywhere, and the spawning of alts to look for resources.
Regarding the siege system the holy grail right now is to introduce defense in depth and reduce the reliance on and importance of shell defense.
In that mix we have also begun formulating an idea for a new take on character development. It does not involve going back to meaningless LP grind, nor does it involve removing the curiosities or in any way changing the fundamentals of how those work (we're generally speaking very happy about them), but rather it is -- or may very well become, at least -- a synthesis of a lot of the half-baked ideas we've been playing around with but never done anything with. The aim of that system is to make the world a magical place that cannot be easily reduced to its component mechanics. This, or so is the thought, without removing the ability of players to act teleologically in it. A concept that we've been talking a lot about in that context is
the doors of perception.
... a pet peeve of mine is that I would also like to introduce seasons while we're at it, but loftar keeps arguing against it.

So... yeah...

Idk. I can assure you that the game is in no way, shape or form abandoned. We have even done some cursory work on it, but fruition is obviously a long ways away.