Etherdrifter

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Everything posted by Etherdrifter

  1. Somewhere, out there in the aether, is a document outlining the vision for wurm online. Based on years observing changes, that document seems to be "make changes that change nothing". Challenge and Jackal were ideal testing grounds for new content and ideas - bring them back and start plugging some things in. If it messes up, it isn't permanent and won't impact your current playerbase. Why not try that risky sounding spell and get both live feedback and test data all at once? Hey, someone suggested we make charged wands, let's see how it pans out on Jackal!
  2. https://steamcommunity.com/app/1179680/discussions/0/3880365909903427772/ You'll notice that's pinned in the steam community (the area most folks look when they consider wurm).
  3. My counter-argument when anyone suggests new clusters - What we saw, over the period of a year, is that the old cluster had a lower population than it did before the new cluster announcement (migrants), the new cluster boomed, and then busted *very very* hard. It left both clusters in an "unhealthy" state (numbers stagnant or declining), and just stank of "quick cash grab". It definitely generated short term profit, but given how heavily players were funneled into the new cluster (to the point of overpopulation), it likely harmed longer term income (laughably low retention rate when you take migrants into account). Jackal, with tweaks, is the better option, and always will be.
  4. You'd end up with the default grass for lightly forested/bushed areas with this model. Forest cannot actually spawn without player planting due to tree spread mechanics, and meadow requires player clearing. Thicket could spread naturally, but is the easiest to remove. At the moment, players unlock higher grass forage/botanise finds early on - forests/hedgerows never catches up which is odd since forests have a lot more edible plants! Hence you get an extra forage/botanist roll for those tiles.
  5. Welcome to the wurm community @Krister - you've now lived through feedback from announced changes. Just keep in mind, the forums are not always a concrete representation of the playerbase (we're among the older, generally grouchier side). I can't say I like the website changes, mostly because they look like they're going to be a pain to parse with beautifulsoup if I want to start collecting population data again, but that's going to be a minority issue (a minority of 1 I suspect!). However, they are more in line with what web 3.0 expects (a mobile-centric approach), and this may well prove unpopular but successful.
  6. Going to bump this one - I think we need a bit of a rewrite of the current tree/bush spread system, and some new tiles would really help customise homes and add variety.
  7. I think there was a thread related to that somewhere... Hire this person, that way we can finally get a completed priest overhaul.
  8. You lost me a bit here - Forest management things. Larger trees choke out smaller trees 1 space around, opening forests up (unless planted in centre of tile). More dominant species extend range +1 starting with Oak, Willow, Walnut, Maple, etc... My home is a very very dense maple grove, and I rather like the broken line of sight dense trees with different plant spots give. I think a better alternative would be tile types for different forest variants, and then applying such rules (ferns for the current default and grass for the modified rules you suggest - ferns spreading to densely planted areas and grass overtaking ferns not adjacent to a tree)
  9. That's one hell of a shuffle - and one that wasn't expected. Wurm has a lot of "unfinished" content (rifts, holy sites, and the priest overhaul), a lot of buggy content (wurm is a pile of bugs that somehow comes together into a game), and a lot of content nobody wanted (looking at you catch-up decay and meditation RNG). Pay-2-Win we already have too much of, and I rather hope you'll rule that out. Indeed, if you want a huge influx of players, consider a better free player model as the current one is only really fit for hardcore survival challenges.
  10. So, wurm already has a beyond broken amount of RNG in place - adding in mechanics like this isn't something that is going to draw players in. The marks shop's "random" options are already something I find mildly distasteful as they encourage gambling, however, and it is a big however, this is a small part of the game. Lets be honest, unless you're willing to be slave labour (bulk crafting), the only ways to "play for free" are amazing luck (finding a unique or a cache) or rolling on forage/botanise - these mechanics definitely turn free players off to the game, and adding similar things isn't going to help (which is why a lot of new content hasn't bumped player numbers - it's all tied to rare rng). I can see the motiviation behind the suggestion (up player engagement), but adding more skinner box mechanics isn't the path forward. Especially since the ones we already have are driving away more players than they bring in.
  11. So, lets take a moment here and look at the main players in this run. At the moment: Deed Size Cost (Silver) Upkeep (Silver) Initial Trader Cost Monthly Discount (20%) Months Till Paid Off Profit After 10 Years (S) 25x25 6.25 1.25 35 0.25 140 -5 51x51 26.01 5.202 35 1.0404 33.64090734 89.848 101x101 102.01 20.402 35 4.0804 8.577590432 454.648 Premium Only: Deed Size Cost (Silver) Upkeep (Silver) Initial Trader Cost Monthly Discount (20%) Months Till Paid Off Profit After 10 Years (S) 25x25 6.25 1.25 0 0.25 0 30 51x51 26.01 5.202 0 1.0404 0 124.848 101x101 102.01 20.402 0 4.0804 0 489.648 Deed Size Cost (Silver) Upkeep (Silver) Initial Trader Cost Monthly Discount (10%) Months Till Paid Off Profit After 10 Years (S) 25x25 6.25 1.25 0 0.125 0 15 51x51 26.01 5.202 0 0.5202 0 62.424 101x101 102.01 20.402 0 2.0402 0 244.824 So, as things stand, the current system rewards large deeds at a much greater rate. With a 10% discount you'd halve the savings for a large deed (your whales) but for smaller and medium size deeds (the newer players whose field you want to level), you'd be hitting them much harder. As it is' I'd have to play wurm for longer thab 10 years to make a profit on the investment - for a small deedholder, it's not just being priced out, it isn't really worth it (I don't have a trader because of this little bit of mathematics). The premium path is not a bad discount after 10 years for just playing though with 20% or even 10% (better off). Medium deeds are the "normal" case to consider, and those are going to lose out the most since, at the moment, it makes good sense to buy a trader (2.8ish years in, and you're in profit), but afterwards the profit margin is somewhat smaller. 10% hits them pretty hard/ Larger deeds are likely to remain unchanged (whales are whales, and if £200 from a whale over 10 years is worth the loss of goodwill, you're probably doing your mathematics wrong). Keeping it at 20% and making it something you have to pay a one-off for might be a better option since then the folks who currently use it will keep on dong so, and those who don't won't be any worse off.
  12. Looks like I have something new to add to my free player guide! My only query is why gate the cover creation chance behind ns? Surely the people who will benefit most are newer players (random healing cover mats are easier to find and carry than cotton).
  13. I'll put this one down here, since it's probably relevant. When the new cluster (NFI) opened, there was a huge rush there as it was where all the new players from steam were (and still are "You will want to join HARMONY(PVE) and DEFIANCE (if you want PVP) where all the new players will be.") being funneled by the official posts. The old (SFI) cluster saw a huge dip, but then stabilised around 200 people active on average per day. While this was happening, the new cluster crashed, and then crashed some more, and then crashed a bit more till it stabilised at a similar population level. What this suggests is that all the diehards are still on the old cluster, and the new cluster has most of the newer blood. That's going to give a different feel - the older cluster might be a little more aware of established manners (i.e. don't deed over a clearly used camping pen because it's frowned upon), but the new cluster has the vibrancy of new ideas and new people. I've stuck with the old cluster (I'm fond of my home, and don't really want to start over), some good folks I know emmigrated to the new cluster (the old one *feels* emptier).
  14. +1 RNG is supposed to make a player feel good, it's supposed to drive player engagement with the game. However, in the case of meditation, it generally just drives frustration. Help us all achieve inner peace by removing this and just halving skillgain.
  15. Currently, those who live on large servers (indie and Xanadu) have a huge disadvantage compared to those who live on smaller servers: any content linked to travel is improperly balanced. The following changes are suggested: 1. Source Springs/Source Fountains - Treat 0.03 as the base rate found and multiply it by server size (x4 for indie, x16 for Xanadu) 2. Rifts - Travel to rifts on larger servers takes a proportionally larger amount of time, increase the amount of points gained by a multiplier (1.25x for indie, 1.5x for xanadu) and make these rifts count more towards the journal goal (2 for Indie, 4 for Xanadu). Also, give a proportionally larger warning for when they are opening since trying to find a window to travel to a rift takes a lot longer (have the rift marker appear 1 day earlier on indie and 2 days earlier on Xanadu). 3. Holy Sites - Dear gods these are unbalanced on larger servers. They're MUCH harder to find, MUCH harder to reach, and are just not viable for the reward. Either up the spawn rate for larger servers, or give a larger initial reward for their first use (so the first use of a sanpo would grant a much larger source salt reward on larger servers, but uses after would be as normal).
  16. Amended and you're welcome - it helps me when I travel!
  17. Immersion breaking is being able to plant hedges on one side of a path but not the other - or watching a spider emerge from a tree. It's the nightmare experience of realising your cat snagged on a corner at the last deed you passed 20 mins ago. It's everyday experiences, not the weird and wonderful things people wear; indeed, seeing another player is a rare enough event to call it immersion breaking! While I would rather not see wurm turn into an anime dress up simulator, I don't think a pair of bunny ears has taken us there yet. Nor do I think it is on the path to doing so.
  18. It's a seasonal cosmetic... We have magical snowmen that give away snowballs - are those against wurm lore or are we assuming that maybe a little seasonal fun is worth it? I've seen PMK graphics that look more out of place than a pair of bunny ears.
  19. GPD win max 2 isn't too thin, but works well for wurm on the go. Lands around 40--60 FPS in heavy forests.
  20. So, I spent over a week at a Fo site... For me, it just felt like an interactable object on a tile that added a fog effect. What I'd like to see is more to see - animals interacting with the site, better effects (I mean, even an ultra-dense fog isolating the area of effect); a particle effect for tiles in the area (to show it is sacred). In terms of rewards - source salt and 2 source seeds, not too bad on the salt front (beats mining gains), but it wasn't too engaged. Pray or exorcise are the only real options - might be nice to cast spells linked to the god on the site to generate special effects (e.g. a group of 6 fo priests casting wild growth on a Fo site spawning a treeguard that uses guard AI with the holy site as the guard tower that lasts 24 hours, awarding all linked priests a large channeling tick).
  21. In theory yes, I suspect I could get the images to show up by using a direct link or a quote
  22. The Sampo is a little broken - it has pulsed (power restored) but... [21:03:54] You can't bring yourself to eat more right now. Seems like you can't get the item drops if you're full!
  23. *Packs his bags and sets out on another Xanadian death march*