Game Development: Ancestral Ropewalk

[SnuggleSnail]

> login
> notice it's winter
> logout

The only thing I do in winter is try to raid people I expect to be offline for >24 hours. It must blows chunks for new players/casuals lol

[Nightdawg]

Just the other day my friend logged in on a fresh character just to walk around and we noticed it's winter

Then we realised how low the chances are for a new person to keep playing when they start this game during summer, cause of how the game is

THEN WE REALISED how winter pretty much disables 75% of the game and makes it also super cancer for newbies, so I wonder how much lower the chances of them continuing to play actually are

[DDDsDD999]

O hey winter is here and it's still bad. Skis arguably made winter pvp worse and that's it. No changes to spring. Seasons still bad.

[Reyajh]

> login
> notice it's winter
> logout... The only thing I do in winter is try to raid people I expect to be offline for >24 hours. It must blows chunks for new players/casuals lol

Actually snail, it doesn't bother me at all. Build a boat, explore, go find something abandoned. Maybe take that over. Never was meant to last anyway.

[SnuggleSnail]

lol have fun sailing the frozen water with your boat that you won't be able to make because you can't get a bough for your saw. Good thing you have that vehicle based movement because there's no way you're getting enough energy food to even support walking around.

I'm autistic as fuck and after thinking about it for like two hours there's genuinely no meaningful progression even a very experienced player could work towards during winter. There's /literally/ nothing to do.
Can't start metal, no leather for a furnace.
Can't make a pali, no leather.
Can't fish for early stats, no boughs.
Can't dry hide, no boughs for drying frames.
Can't stockpile candleberries for minehole progression.
Can't collect WWWs to get a head start on farming.
Can't really hunt/farm moves, the winter animals are all too strong.
Can't start drying hides for the end of winter, there's nothing to make drying frames.
Can't do labor/collect resources, no energy food.
Can't hunt without mass alt spam, animals are too strong for weak chars without metal.
Can't explore, no energy food(sleds/skis aren't obtainable from scratch during winter).
Can't any of the three starting credos without insane luck or intense autism.

I didn't really realize before that starting in winter isn't just bad for new players. There's nothing for very experienced players to do, either. Even getting a cup to drink from will involve like 20 minutes of just sitting there waiting for your stamina to naturally regenerate as you're cutting a tree for your cups, and chipping ice to get to water. That's if you're experienced and know what a cup is, the tutorial(that can't be completed during winter) suggests a kuska which is unobtainable.

I can't wait for Jorbtar's solution to all of these problems to be spending 6 months of dev time adding obscure workarounds that new players won't even find just to keep their precious 5 days of white-vomit-world with nigh unplayable PVP instead of just removing it and working on more QoL.

[Massa]

why would boughs stop generating

if things stopped generating that would be very nice, especially evergreen trees. that's kind of the point of them. the entire season would at least be manageable. at least it's not the shit 20 days of spring lol.

[vatas]

Winter hasn't arrived yet so I can't verify, but I'm pretty sure that Boughs don't get deleted by the Winter.

[SnuggleSnail]

Winter was very recent and all the trees in my village have boughs so I am for sure wrong on that. I don't think this significantly diminishes my point, tho

[Joshk80k]

Winter was very recent and all the trees in my village have boughs so I am for sure wrong on that. I don't think this significantly diminishes my point, tho

Yeah you're being a little harsh on the state of winter, but I do agree that your overall point is accurate and should receive attention from the devs. I really think the key to making Winter and Spring more palatable is to slow progression rather than halt it. It would be a bummer for crops and trees to grow slower, but what really sucks is totally losing these avenues for progress. It's extremely difficult for a newbie to get into the game when they can't farm, can't plant trees, have a significantly more difficult time fishing and collecting clay. I really loved the idea that someone posed of growth speeds changing per season (pumpkins being much faster in the Fall, etc).

There are definitely ways to work around the problems Winter poses if you're experienced, even on a fresh character, but it isn't intuitive. If you require veteran knowledge of the game just to play in the Winter, you're actively attacking the growth of your player base. I was talking with a brand new guy in game who was lamenting about how he didn't have any idea how to get his PER up to help complete his foraging credo, and I helped renew his interest in the game by telling him about cave fish and how good they can be when spitroasted, but the problem here is he was new and I was not, a newbie who doesn't seek out help may end up just quitting out of frustration. I am not saying that devs should be expected to give people all little tips and tricks in the game to keep them interested, but the fact that this newbie was in this situation speaks to the frustration they shouldn't be experiencing.

[jorb]

I played a new char over this winter, and made some similar observations. Will be making changes.

I can't wait for Jorbtar's solution to all of these problems to be spending 6 months of dev time adding obscure workarounds that new players won't even find just to keep their precious 5 days of white-vomit-world with nigh unplayable PVP instead of just removing it and working on more QoL.

Glad to hear it, my dude! Watch this space! :yes: