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Budda

Wurm Roadmap May 2017

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Well it has been a few months now since the last roadmap was put out, and with WU once again being brought up to the same version as WO I’m told it’s about time I sit down and give you all another update on what’s going on, what’s going where and when it is or isn’t going where it’s going.

 

In the last roadmap post I talked about the two main focuses at the time being the cooking update and the unstable client. One of those went live as planned, one is still kicking us around with a bit of trouble. In the time since, we’ve managed to track down the disconnect bug for the unstable client that was running amok at the time, and now all that remains is sorting out the last bit of performance issues the client is causing a lot of people. As was said in the weekly news a little while ago, we’ve managed to trick Samool onto the team to help out on the client and so far he is doing a wonderful job plucking away at bugs and issues and working on debugging the current major issues with the unstable client.

 

Looking back on the time since the last roadmap, there have been a fair few updates - including the massive cooking update that has gone down well with everyone, new storage items, faster boats, unicorn equipment and fancy hell horses, new building materials, wide mine entrances and updated siege mechanics to name a few. Not to mention the 20 other things not listed above and over 200 bug fixes.

 

In the near future we have the almanac, highway system, more cave reinforcement options, siege mechanic tweaks, kingdom influence changes, and more bug fixes coming - and possibly a bonus feature that uses the new highway system which should be a bit of fun. Beyond that we currently have many projects ongoing besides the major 4 that were touched on in the last roadmap. Those major 4 - UI, tutorial, account system, and web shop - are still our priority for the next months and work on all four of these is ongoing, but as they are large projects they will still take a bit of time to be completed.

 

Work on the new UI is at the stage of sorting out the backend framework, focusing on getting all of the basic features that we want every part of it to have (like resizing and scaling properly, moving windows anywhere, docking and undocking tabs from windows) and once that is all out of the way work will begin on designing the actual windows that are used for different actions and features. The account system is well underway, with work ongoing for getting the game servers and the account system connected and working together so various things regarding accounts and characters can be managed from the web and update on the servers instantly. The web shop we are working on updating more with plans to look at having items directly available from the shop instead of just silver. The items that will use this new system will be specific cosmetic items that aren’t available in game via any other means, such as the upcoming golden mirror.

 

As for the other ongoing projects, there is the meditation rework based on the discussion on the suggestions board, which was originally planned to launch with the UI changes but given the delays in that we're moving towards an interim UI for it. Also ongoing is a rework of Valrei and missions, with some of the urgent changes already implemented. This project is at the end of the discovery phase, with a proposal prepared for internal review prior to public feedback in the future. As well as the above, we are also looking at all of the gods and their spells with proper balance between the gods, and some interesting creature AI changes. Some public discussion and feedback regarding ideas for the gods balancing will be on the forums sometime in the next month or so, so watch out for that.

 

The creature changes I am particularly excited about, as I have spent some of my spare time in the last few months working on prototype creature changes that I have tested with some players in WU - focusing around changes that make the creature put up an interesting and difficult fight (that scales well to the number of people attempting to kill it), without having to rely on extremely high damage or armour. The first creatures due for upgrades will be some of the Valrei creatures on Epic servers and depending on how they perform once live, their new smarts will slowly spread to other creatures like uniques and rift mobs.

 

Following after the Valrei changes will be continued changes to the Epic cluster which will aim to bring back some unique features to the cluster and make it a more appealing option to some players, as well as some ideas to make it easier for new players to jump into the action. These changes are still in the planning phase at the moment, but you can expect to hear more about it after the Valrei update goes live.

 

As always these are just the major things that stick out at this time, there are also many other things on the to-do list, and some more interesting things that are already underway but yet to be teased - not to mention the never-ending fixing of bugs that is always ongoing.


We hope you’re all enjoying all the new stuff that has come out in the past months, and hope you’re excited for the new things we’re all working on - I know I am.

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More rift type spawns please! Something like humanoid camps random spawns. 

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Nice thanks for the update, looks promising. :)

 

Also, I really hope when you guys do the shop your not planning on selling the challenge items, would devalue them... a lot. Some us have spent a lot 100+ euro to obtain or earn them. Maybe make new items. It would just be upsetting to be frank.

Edited by Niki
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Smarter mobs eh?

 

Thinking of relaunching plans for goblin-built villages as was in the original founders' vision?

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1 hour ago, Budda said:

...

Following after the Valrei changes will be continued changes to the Epic cluster which will aim to bring back some unique features to the cluster and make it a more appealing option to some players, as well as some ideas to make it easier for new players to jump into the action. These changes are still in the planning phase at the moment, but you can expect to hear more about it after the Valrei update goes live.

 

Seriously, why? You had a chance to let Epic die slowly without huge cries.. Merger is off the table, because most of the active players have moved to chaos anyway. And there is not a single reason to split the pvp playerbase once again. Epic project failed already long time ago, yet you bring that dead horse into the spotlight.

 

Talking about roadmap in general tho, even though you are a nice guy, it is sad to say, that while you are the one now, who should lead Wurm, you got not a single fresh idea. Everything is just copy-paste from suggestion forums, which is being implemented to get cheap popularity.

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3 hours ago, MaurizioAM said:

More rift type spawns please! Something like humanoid camps random spawns. 

 

Definitely: - 1

 

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Good stuff ahead and some solid progress being made in recent months. @rixkas a person who has complained for years about the suggestion forums not being listened to enough and simple decent QoL changes slipping by because of it, my personal opinion is if the only change we have so far from Rolf being the main director to Budda is that the suggestions forums are being used properly....then thats a step forward and i'm happy. Now all Budda has to do it go through and implement everything i've ever suggested in there, go on man...you know you wanna. Fresh ideas are great and all but lets face it....the game has a lotta stuff that needs smoothing out, bugfixing and improving upon existing mechanics first. This is somethign many of us complained about in the past "Rolf stop adding stuff to the game and fix bugs/listen to the community suggestions instead!".

Edited by Nadroj
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This game has a huge amount of progress every year that passes! The game has certainly come a long way. And so many interesting goodies seem to be coming too! Exciting!

 

Sounds good that the creature AI is being looked into, anything to make battle with mobs more interesting! Now all we need are for animal sounds to be returned to creatures when they are just hanging about. 

 

Back years ago when I made a video and post about it, Red Baron said it would get some attention. Not sure if he's still on the team or not, or what the status is with this... but just a friendly nudge of reminder ;-). 

 

 

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I would like to see more stuff added like window glass, curtains, different roofing styles, and so on, stuff that has already been mentioned over the past year since I become a wurm fan.

 

when i'm not doing model building or cross stitching or humdrum activities i'm playing wurm, I love what's been added to it so far, but as I've said previously it needs more guts,

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I'm wondering if the developers ever think about remodelling our playeravatars. Because that's one the first things people look at while playing an mmo. The graphicmodels for our playeravatars are so outdated...they look like if they where original from 2000...as they looked in Asheron's Call that i played arround that time.

I know they can be improved if i look for example the model gm's use sometimes. Pictures of it are in the following link.

 

 

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good to hear an update of what exactly is being worked on and i really do hope that we get a lot of news once the UI work is actually progressing into a proper phase. i do come up with thoughts about what id really like to see or not to loose when the ui changes occasionally.

also the new account system sounds like something a lot of people will appreciate.

 

p.s.: yey for mission fixes. let's just take the epic cluster and feed it to the freedom traitors so we can find them! :P

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@BuddaWhat wil happen to current stable client once unstable goes over to be stable? I dualboot Windows and FreeBSD with the aim to phase out of Windows for good eventually. I prefer the current stable client on FreeBSD as I can run it without issues using OpenJDK.

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8 hours ago, Budda said:

there have been a fair few updates - including the massive cooking update that has gone down well with everyone

 

Sorry to be the party pooper, but it have been proved countless times that the affinities are broken for a lot of people meaning that no matter how many meals we cook we will never get some.

 

One simple question : When do you plan to fix it?

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19 minutes ago, Darkshade said:

@BuddaWhat wil happen to current stable client once unstable goes over to be stable? I dualboot Windows and FreeBSD with the aim to phase out of Windows for good eventually. I prefer the current stable client on FreeBSD as I can run it without issues using OpenJDK.

Good point. I may be minority but I still prefer the lighting inside mines on the old client. The cave walls in the new client are too bright and the new slate walls are looking weird ocmpared to how awesome are those on the surface and also in mines with the old lighting. It is quite possible that it is only some gamma difference - if we would be able to change gamma and maybe color warmth ingame that might be an answer to all my above.

 

Otherwise the roadmap is quite exciting although I'm afraid a bit of a new GUI (I'm old yah :P ) plus unlike others I'm eager to see if Epic could be reanimated. Maybe tweaking it back towards the original concept of  Challenge like behaviour?

 

I try to put up for myself which three are the most I wait for... maybe these: I'm very eager to see how will mobs get smarter, really curious how the account system is planned to be altered and gods / meditation rework.

There was a lot done to the game in the past period and it is really good to see you plan to keep the momentum, thanks for all the work you put into this world!

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8 hours ago, Budda said:

The web shop we are working on updating more with plans to look at having items directly available from the shop instead of just silver. The items that will use this new system will be specific cosmetic items that aren’t available in game via any other means, such as the upcoming golden mirror.

 

BOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

Please don't add a bunch of cosmetic cash shop items :s

 

Especially with the 'not available in game via any other means' part...that's totally not what Wurm is about.

Everything was supposed to be player built.

 

These cash shop items are also going to be much nicer than anything we can create in-game...otherwise why would anyone pay for them, right?

Edited by Bonsai
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14 minutes ago, Bonsai said:

 

BOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

Please don't add a bunch of cosmetic cash shop items :s

 

Especially with the 'not available in game via any other means' part...that's totally not what Wurm is about.

Everything was supposed to be player built.

 

These cash shop items are also going to be much nicer than anything we can create in-game...otherwise why would anyone pay for them, right?

Trader items are already a cash shop, it's just they're now used different to how it was intended.

 

I might add that apart from the golden mirror (a long requested item) and some existing trader items nothing else has been set in stone, the ability for players to create almost anything in game is important, so we'll definitely be keeping this in mind as we move forward

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18 minutes ago, Retrograde said:

Trader items are already a cash shop, it's just they're now used different to how it was intended.

 

The difference is that we are paying premium,  we are paying for deed upkeep and now we will have to pay with real money for items.

 

I'm sorry, but if you are going toward a cash shop option, you might want to reconsiderat the two previous points... or keep everything as it is.

 

(OR better allow those items to be bought for real money on your new cash shop and silvers from the traders, with prices more in line on the cash shop with the current economy. ie. 12 sleep powders for 10€).

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34 minutes ago, Bonsai said:

 

BOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

Please don't add a bunch of cosmetic cash shop items :s

 

Especially with the 'not available in game via any other means' part...that's totally not what Wurm is about.

Everything was supposed to be player built.

 

These cash shop items are also going to be much nicer than anything we can create in-game...otherwise why would anyone pay for them, right?

-1

 

My god does this game need a cosmetic fix, who cares if we have to pay for it. 
As far as I'm concerned, the vast majority of players don't buy anything from the Wurm shop, they just get it off other players. 
Which also got me to thinking, how much of the silver that's floating around has been here for years since the game had a much bigger pop?
How much new money actually comes in? 

Definitely won't blame the devs for trying to get a bit more money out of us. Don't want them to go broke and shut Wurm down. :P

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32 minutes ago, Retrograde said:

Trader items are already a cash shop, it's just they're now used different to how it was intended.

 

I might add that apart from the golden mirror (a long requested item) and some existing trader items nothing else has been set in stone, the ability for players to create almost anything in game is important, so we'll definitely be keeping this in mind as we move forward

It specifically says in the post "cosmetic items that aren’t available in game via any other means", so I think that part has been disregarded already.

 

12 minutes ago, Odynn said:

 

The difference is that we are paying premium,  we are paying for deed upkeep and now we will have to pay with real money for items.

 

Exactly, deep upkeep and premium are what we pay to continue to keep the servers online and supplement ongoing development of the game.

Why place the items on the Wurm Store? Just make some cosmetic items and place them in the current trader system so we can choose to either buy silvers to purchase the items or use silver we earn in-game from others to purchase the items. I would compromise to that point.

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1 minute ago, Bonsai said:

Exactly, deep upkeep and premium are what we pay to continue to keep the servers online and supplement ongoing development of the game.

Why place the items on the Wurm Store? Just make some cosmetic items...

I could be wrong, some staff member feel free to correct me and I'll put a sock in it.
But, from what I've gathered, the in-game currency has become inflated, there's too much of it around, so not enough actual $ are coming in anymore. 
An upgraded cash shop will be a good thing.

However, I will agree with you, I think most of the items should be tradable as well, but, I'm not sure they should be directly put into traders. Because then they'll be being bought with the same inflated silver instead of actual $. 

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20 minutes ago, Matholameu said:

Which also got me to thinking, how much of the silver that's floating around has been here for years since the game had a much bigger pop?

5 minutes ago, Matholameu said:

However, I will agree with you, I think most of the items should be tradable as well, but, I'm not sure they should be directly put into traders. Because then they'll be being bought with the same inflated silver instead of actual $

 

That's kinda the beauty of the thing, those new cosmetic items can become a money sink and reduce the floating amount of silvers. Currently a large part of the silvers are being recirculated (think deed upkeeps) some are gone (mail fees)... a dev or wu code digger can probably give better explanations than me on that. Point is, if the goal is to reduce the amount of silvers floating around (would require a fix in the free coins distribution anyway), traders items that remove those coins would be a good solution.

 

(Another solution which is even more fun would be for CCAB to buy silvers back from players at the current 1s per  € rate and sell them back as they currently do for 1s per 1€60. Maintening their control over the silver selling economy)

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3 minutes ago, Odynn said:

 

That's kinda the beauty of the thing, those new cosmetic items can become a money sink and reduce the floating amount of silvers. Currently a large part of the silvers are being recirculated (think deed upkeeps) some are gone (mail fees)... a dev or wu code digger can probably give better explanations than me on that. Point is, if the goal is to reduce the amount of silvers floating around (would require a fix in the free coins distribution anyway), traders items that remove those coins would be a good solution.

 

(Another solution which is even more fun would be for CCAB to buy silvers back from players at the current 1s per  € rate and sell them back as they currently do for 1s per 1€60. Maintening their control over the silver selling economy)

I don't agree with your suggestion at the end, I think that would turn into a money drain and sink Wurm in a hurry, but I could be wrong. 

However, I do see your initial point with having them in traders reducing the inflation. Not sure if I completely agree, but I see your point. 

Edited by Matholameu
Typo

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Wurm is a closed economy, there is no inflation, so this discussion is based on the wrong premise

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6 minutes ago, Odynn said:

 

(Another solution which is even more fun would be for CCAB to buy silvers back from players at the current 1s per  € rate and sell them back as they currently do for 1s per 1€60. Maintening their control over the silver selling economy)

Even more fun this not necessaty to be an obvious thing to players, can be done through a seemingly regular user account being run CC - just the silvers are removed from the game. Something like national banks do with actual cash.

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