Lightonfoot

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Everything posted by Lightonfoot

  1. Just happened to me now. I was logged in for 13 min, but on inspection i realized I never moved and was outside the client browsing. It only happens handful of times.
  2. I'm using Geforce 1660 gtx. My PC was made in late 2018. Looks like it's software maybe? I didn't notice until now but I only recently started playing maybe I missed.
  3. Just noticed this today near my forge underground.
  4. Here's the wiki for book: https://www.wurmpedia.com/index.php/Book Interesting, but not mch iunformation. I looked att the wiki for paper sheet: https://www.wurmpedia.com/index.php/Paper_sheet So does that mean a maximum of 400 words, if everyting is quality 100? That's a solid amount of words per page, but only 10 pages in a book? And no question marks? Anyone who has used this can tell me how it compares to books in Ultima Online or, say, Asherons Call? i want o know how it compars to other MMORPGs. It baffles me it took this long for Wurm Online to finally have books. Writing books in Ultima ONline was easy. Sadly, not so easy here it looks like.
  5. Just want to add another note. It gave me a warning about using 32-bit java. The automatic installer doesn't give me an option to install 64-bit. I had to manually click on the 64-bit offline installer. Just another example how installation is thorny. It was much worse when I was using Ubuntu 14.10 (was that the version?). I had a hell of time getting that to work again when Wurm Online switched to Java 8.
  6. (This is a suggestion to change the homepage for Wurm Online) Ok, so the deal is I first played in 2012, so I'm NOT new. However, I haven't played since early 2017. Since then, I've got a new computer and Wurm Online has drifted away from my conscious mind. Lately, it has been drifting closer, and I was wondering how it would run on my current PC. I knew it used Java. My first attempt to install was to look for "Wurm Onilne" on steam. Wurm Unlimited was there, but not Wurm Online. Then I googled "Wurm Online", since my current browser doesn't have a Wurm Online favorites folder--although I do have that on a backup dvd. Long story short, I clicked on PLAY! to run it. It shows a dialog about opening a *.JNLP file, but it didn't show anything associated with it. I couldn't figure out what to do. I knew it needed Java, but doesn't Windows 10 already have that? Not out of the box. It's not installed. Moments later, I I saw the "The client runs on Windows, Linux and Mac! Wurm Online needs Java - get it now." at the top of the homepage for Wurm Onilne. It didn't happen immediately. I only glanced up at a later interval. I'm trying to give the impressions of someone who is NEW. That's why I"m here. My suggestion? Place the note about needing Java nearer to the PLAY! button. Somehow make the eye see both instead of seeing them separately. Or find a way to automatically inform the user they need to install Java. I say this because not everybody is going to know about it like I do, given I've played Wurm Online for years. Some of them will see the dialog about opening the *.JNLP and because nothing happens afterward, they'll lose interest and go on to something else. More than anything, it might leave a bad taste in their mouth, when accompanied by other loose ends. And I think that's a realistic way many players leave a MMO before giving it a chance.
  7. I wanted to create this thread before too much time passes. This bug or problem happened yesterday. The wurm client says "Wurm Startup 3.99zh". The latest news is "Hotfix: 24/DEC/16". Description of the bug: I run the client and log in. Then I go to sleep at my bed and the client shuts down. Almost immediately after repeated instances of the client are created and my computer struggles to keep up under the load. Eventually it's essentially unresponsive, but the mouse will still move after a long delay. This only happens with one of the two desktop configuration files I use to run Wurm Online from my desktop. I'm confident the buggy configuration file DID work before yesterday. I know I've clicked on both, but this is first time a bug like this happened. (These files are *.desktop for anybody interested.) This one I created after I installed hte oracle 8 java (on Nov 8). This is the one results in the above bug. Its contents follow: In the application tab->command in file properties for the same configuration file above: /usr/lib/jvm/java-8-oracle/jre/bin/javaws -localfile -J-Djnlp.application.href=http://www.wurmonline.com/client/wurmclient.jnlp /home/jon/.java/deployment/cache/6.0/41/5fef8269-4c5577a8 The other desktop configuration file works. It has existed since 2014. The contents and properties information are below: The application tab->command file properties: javaws "/home/jon/.cache/icedtea-web/cache/0/http/www.wurmonline.com/client/wurmclient.jnlp" Can anyone spot anything? Note I uninstalled all java before I installed java 8 oracle, including icedtea. So if icetea is not installed then how is the above configuration file still working?
  8. Sold thanks. I'm currently located on Inde. Asking 6.4s for referral and 95 copper per sleeping powder (6 total). PM if interested. For the sleeping powder I will deliver if desired since it can be traded. In both cases, I will expect payment upfront if using mail. Someone told me asking more than 6s for referral is greedy, but: 1) Paying 10 silver in-game for 30 days premium does NOT grant sleeping bonus; referrals grant 1 hour SB 2) Paying RL money in the shop for 30 days premium grants 1x sleeping powder (worth 1 hour sleeping bonus) 3) 20 days / 30 days = 0.666~ and 0.666~ * 10 silver = 6.666~ silver. 4) Using the in-game mailing system with COD will cost the buyer 1 copper (6.41 silver total) So you're paying 6.41 silver for what's worth 6.666 silver plus the FREE 1 hour sleeping bonus. If I sold these regularly, and assuming the points above are correct, which I believe they're, I would sell these at least for 6.666 silver because of the SB. EDIT: Ensure you have less than 4 hours sleeping bonus if buying referral. If it goes over 5 hours then you won't gain any SB if you sleep until it's below 5 again. Note you'll still get the 1 hour SB from the referral regardless.
  9. How do I receive mail and how do I send it? The wiki says I need to make a spirit container: But it also says it needs to be blessed by a priests of Fo, Nahjo or Libila. How exactly do I do that? And is sending/receiving instant?
  10. I want to sell a referral and 6 sleeping powder. Some questions: 1. I know that a player can purchase 30 days premium for 10 silver. But does this also grant them 1 hour sleep bonus? 2. Assuming spending 10 silver grants 30 days, and a referral is otherwise equal, is it fair to price a referral by 20/30 = 0.6666 and 0.6666 * 10 = 6.6666 silver--whilst deducting a small amount to make it worth the buyers effort and also to pay for any extra mailing costs? 3a. Do I need a mailbox to receive the payment? How do I do that? 3b. How much does it cost to use the in-game mailing system? What does COD mean? 4. Is there a anti-scamming policy if a buyer or seller cheats the other? See, I figure nobody is going to bother purchasing a referral for the same proportional cost they'd spend for 30 days, since it requires a few extra minutes and haggling with the seller, so it makes sense to ask something between 6 and 6.5 silver. However, if paying 10 silver for 30 days doesn't grant 1 hour sleep bonus then that means asking 6.6 silver price for referral is more than fair, since referrals have 1 hour sleep bonus. And what should the price of a sleeping powder be? I read it's 1 silver, but is that a good price? Thanks in advance! My in-game name is Prudis.
  11. I like hte suggestions but I like the current map. It's why I chose Chaos in the first place! It's the best map in my opinion. Maybe a few rivers could be added, but I like all the land and hte natural look. A reset might be good for the server though. It'd be hard to convince anybody who's built a deed on it though.... Maybe a better idea is to just do some of the things you mention but don't reset. If inactive things decayed faster on Chaos and if the landscape reverted to its natural height more quickly, it'd be similar. But I like hte fact things remain the same for long periods. Makes the map more mysterious. I can go out and explore and who knows what I'll find, since things stick around. I might find an old city. As usual the things we like can be problematic. Inertia can also be an enemy, as much as a friend.
  12. This is what I liked about the game when I started in 2012. Survival meant something. I went in the forums and supported it. But as usual the herd of carebears don't like it and they scream loudly. The farmers can't ignore the herd, evne if the very things they do to appease the herd hurt some of animals--like me. Because that's how it's. Removing these things is not and never was fun to me. I didn't come screaming to the forums for mercy. I was alone. I was on the PvP server. I lived it. I speak from experience. I'm not nostalgic or wearing rose-colored glasses. I'm too old to fall for that trick. Like I said, I came into these forums and supported those features when I was a new player, not years later, so that argument fails. Trouble is hte direction of this game is determined by hte herd, not just a few animals. It's trouble on the one hand and appropriate on the other. The herd SHOULD determine what happens. Evenso, I can still speak my mind.
  13. When I joined this game in 2012 it was all about survival. That was what was fun and why it appealed to me. It was incredible. Absorbing. Yet as I've grown in skill I've learned htis game is not about survival, it's essentially hardcore farmville. Everybody nested safely in their deeds grinding s*** all day.
  14. The problem with the economy seems to be the same one I see in almost every MMO. The overabundance of high skill or high level accounts is the problem. (Jack-of-all-trades issues aside.) Typically this means some kind of mudflation, taking different forms dependent on different factors. But it boils down to something simple: You can reduce hte power of the highest skill/level players or you can increase the power of the low skill/level players. The trouble is people who invest a lot of time in the game are unwilling to lose anything. So the typical result is making low skill/level players more powerful by speeding up skill gain or removing past obstacles, thus countering the overabundance of high skill/level players. While this might make high skill/level players feel somewhat dissatisfied because their past accomplishments are diminished, this is somehow more acceptable to them, especially if content is actively added and keeping them occupied. Ultimately mudlfation kills all MMO's unless htey receive major (expensive) funding. Mudflation can be done good or bad, but since it gets harder and harder to keep old games healthy, companies inevitably turn to making new games instead. Maybe it has somethign to do with complexity theory. Or bloat. Complexity theory might play a role because mudflation is like a band-aid. It's added on top of a design. Unless everything is fitted perfectly, it'll degrade. As more and more things are added, it tends to bloat. Quality falls. it gets increasingly expensive. EDIT: I will add my character has maybe 1 or 2 skils over 50 and maybe a couple dozen over 20. He's never bought anything through trades. He's never done a trade b4. I've done everything myself, although I've joined a few deeds and/or villages now and then. I think to some extent the game does have a jack-of-all-trades problem, but I think that's a side effect of players preferring to solo almost universally in MMO's. Wurm's economic problem is more complicated than that, since there're so many high skill/level players. It probably doesn't help though, since interdependence necessarily contributes to trade and interrelations.
  15. The biggest single reason people might quit right now is the enclosure rule change which allows more things to be bashed. Players who play on PvE want safety, more than anything else. That's why they play there. To remove that safety and not replace it with something is going to make players ragequit. Mostly it's just random changes causing some plaeyrs to leave. Some players come back and some players are new to it. It's like the give and go of a tide, except the game is getting older and less water is coming in. Mostly we're all here because it's a sandbox, but that's not the only reason, just the major one. But with the greater array of sandbox MMO's, the competition is stiffer. Wurm either has to become a clone of the best sandbox MMO out there or it has to fill a niche in the sandbox MMO genre. It can't dominate just by being a sandbox. And it's getting older. All aging MMO's tend to lose people. Most do not have a resurgence for very long. It's just a fact. The vast majority of aging games will never relive their glory days or make a large gain in popularity. The vast majority of succesful companies do not stay with one game either. They make new ones or sequels. Or break up or merge. I remember a conversation I had with soemoen on Epic when I first started. It went something like this: Person A: "Hey Wurm Online should be more like WoW." Person B "But it can't compete with WoW's resources and would fail miserably. It'd just be a sloppy cheap version of WoW and brushed aside. It should fill a niche instead. By filling a niche, it ensures its survival. WoW cannot serve every playstyle or fill every niche. That's where WoW is weak."
  16. Totally agree. What people on the PvE servers don't understand is people like myself aren't this way because we've never been griefed or never experienced major loss in the game. I've expeirenced plenty of that here and in past games. I've had my houses bashed down and my corpses looted. I've lost 95%+ of the houses I build due to moving to new areas too. I'm this way because this element of risk (or griefing, if you call it that) makes it all meaningful to me. It's about overcoming. Unlike you, i didn't start on PvE, I started on Epic (or PvP servers).I moved to Chaos. HOWEVER, if they want a server where there're enclosure rules and you can't just bash down an undeeded house, shouldn't they be allowed to? Remember, there're many ways to grief someone, not just through PvP. You can use words. You can do a bad trade. You can cut all the trees down around their deed. You can bash undeeded fences or bash undeeded thigns owned by their friends. There're many ways to grief and anytime you got a bunch of people in a sandbox together there's going to be trouble without rules or at least the ability given to players to set ground rules. I support people being able to have a server with more rules, even if -I- don't want that or even if I think they're a carebear or they hate my playstyle. I'm glad we're not all forced to live on the same server. Ugh, that'd suck. I realize other people think what I like is masochist. They just cannot fathom why I would want to live in an envrionment where griefing can happen. All I got to say is I can't fathom why they enjoy everything being so controlled and boring. Never know. They might force us all on one server someday. Maybe have instanced property too. Carebear pvp. Of course, I won't be playing it, but that's a possibility if Rolf leaves or changes his opinions substantially. I just came back after being away for a month. It's true I play on the PvP server Chaos, but this enclusure rule change must be recent because I dont' remember it. I'm surprised Rolf would decided to allow players to destroy more stuff on the PvE servers. I'd think he'd want to do the opposite: Make it even more safe for them. All I can think is the GM's were overwhelmed and Rolf is working behind the scenes with the team to add built-in safeguards to the game. The problem is this will require large changes which may not sit well with some paleyrs, so Rolf is doing it methodically. He wants the game to stay a sandbox yet he wants to add more safeguards, so playes cannot interrupt other players enjoyment. How to do that? I'm obviously not in a position to guess, since the game is somewhat a mystery still. But it does bother me. The changes will be built-in, meaning it's possible they'll also take effect on the PvP servers. I do not like that.
  17. Sorry for being aggressive. I know many people don't like Wurm Online as it's. I don't want to start a fight with you. I"m just trying to tell you that just because you don't enjoy XYZ, doesn't mean others don't. And just because only 500 people might like it doesn't mean it has to be removed - if the game can do fine with 500 people and it fits within the plan. And you know the things I like, especially slow travel and first person and lack of information about things (unless you actively look), is really just about consequences. Like if you take a wrong turn and you die and lose 30 minutes. How much does that really add to the game? For me it's everything, but for others it can easily be seen as a negative. So I understand many or most players want a quicker less risky game and ther'es nothing really wrong with that. Hey maybe the reason I like these things is a mental disorder. So be it. But I definitely don't want to take the games away from you that you enjoy. If you're playing on a minecraft server; great! Have fun. I honestly wish you the best. If you just came from WoW and love that game; great! I could like that game if I tried. I don't want to change WoW. There're loads of sandbox games coming up. There're loads even as I write this. They all offer something a little different from the others. Maybe instead of just focusing all your hate on Wurm Online you should look at them. I didn't know about Wurm Online until maybe 2009 or 2010. I didn't actually play it until 2012. I had to look and I had to take the jump. Here're some but not an exhaustive list (and no this is not meant to be offensive or mean; i'm trying to help): http://store.steampowered.com/app/324080/ https://goblinworks.com/pathfinder-online/ http://www.xsyon.com/content.php http://7daystodie.com/ http://albiononline.com/ http://playrust.com/about/ http://planetexplorers.pathea.net/about/ http://minecraft.dk/mcserverlist/server/?id=1819 http://www.mortalonline.com/ http://www.perpetuum-online.com/ http://shoresofhazeron.com/ http://www.therepopulation.com/ https://www.h1z1.com/home http://lifeisfeudal.com/ http://www.deepworldgame.com/ https://www.linkrealms.com/ https://www.elitedangerous.com/ http://gamersfirst.com/apb/ http://www.trionworlds.com/archeage/en/game/ http://www.faceofmankind.com/ http://play-earthrise.com/ http://www.gamersfirst.com/fallenearth/ http://immunegame.com/ ....a few of those are in alpha or beta stages. An old player-run UO server (Richard Garriot, one of the creators of UO, visited last year): http://www.uosecondage.com/news.aspx This one is dead but damn it look(ed) interesting: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/StarQuest_Online
  18. I tend to agree. Teh more popular this game becomes, the less I'm going to like it. Why? Because there's a pattern with popular games. That pattern tends to be something I don't want in a game. Popular games have less consequences for bad choices. They're made to be playable by the most inept (or dumbest/laziest) players. They're generic. They're linear. They're more cartoony. Lots of voicovers. So I avoid it. That's why I started playing here and kept playing. I think this game is paradoxically more enjoyable early on and gets less enjoyable with time. Early on it's more about survival. It's more tense. You're actively learning loads of things. Later you have a strong settled area and everything is just too safe. New things trickle in. The bulk of your time is spent repairing/imping/smithing in the same place. Here're some things I liked about the game which aren't popular but nonetheless i like: 1) There was no in-game map when I started and even now it doesn't have GPS 2) No in-game radar which tells you where the creatures are 3) Slow travel times and different terrain movement, making being aware of the area you're in crucial to be optimal 4) First-person only; yes i think it's more immersive even though it's extremely unpopular 5) Thrown into the world with just some tools and you're not told exactly what to do and where/when 6) Ability to get trapped or lost and actually lose the stuff on your corpse; yes it's called consequences 7) An FFA PvP server where you can ultimately lose almost everything; again it's consequences 8) Early on, the wiki and tutorial made hte game feel homegrown; the opposite of big business clones 9) The graphics weren't cartoony The biggest difference is this game didn't lead you by the collar with quests or one-way roads. I'm also resigned in the knowledge this game will eventually be so mudflated and safe-ified I won't like it anymore. So whether I like it or not, it's going to do things I don't like. I've seen this with every MMO. So ultimately I lose this tug of war. I'm not saying Wurm Online is a great perfect game. I have many complaints and have made many posts about it. But because I have compaints doesn't mean I want this game to be a clone of WoW or Minecraft. We're all different and there's a small portion of players who don't wnat WoW or Minecraft or whatever is currently popular. When it's all said and done, I enjoyed Wurm Online so much I cannot even choose the right words to translate it. So no matter what happens in the future with me and Wurm Online, I know I had a blast the past 3 years. If the next year or two is hostile and I never come back again, at least those first 3 years will be preserved in memory. Those first 3 years killed everyting I knew before. My first and favorite MMO's were EQ and UO. They pale in comparison.
  19. Instanced combat or at least spoon fed combat will come soon. It won't be the amazing goblin fortresses we imagine. That's too much. Goblins running amock causing chaos and frustration? Won't ever work. Instanced goblins that wait to die? Might work. If it's spoon fed and instant and served on a silver plate. The moment the goblins actually pose a threat is the moment the idea is killed. Goblin-lite. The sad thing is I think I know what the OP is saying. Unfortunately, that's not how it'll happen. It's not how it ever happens in any game. The only chance to get what you want is either in a different game or a future game. The current game, like any game, cannot see beyond the narrow focus of its singular vision. So the inevitable result is not more amazing emergent harrowing speculator fights, but easy installments of instant dumb s*** Instant and easy is (almost or surely) always hte answer when time is short and can't do nothing. It's amazing but there're untold of numbers of plaerys who desire instant/easy. If it sits and waits to die and it's easy, they like it. But this is not to say just adding syrup to everything makes it good. No. There still needs to be a game underneath the syrup. Continued negligence means no amount of syrup piled on top of the game will keep the players paying.
  20. Nice link. I think Wurm Online is just unpopular mostly because it's not quest-centered and very detail-oriented. Like Shiraek or others here have said, a quest interface to introduce players to the most important craftables would be very nice. I first started this game in 2012. I made the following post a week after I had started: http://forum.wurmonline.com/index.php?/topic/64712-improvements-to-starter-tools-and-servers/#entry638994 I agree the game is very grindy at certain points, but activities requiring lots of time do not have to be boring. Making a hammer can require 1 minute or 100, doesn't matter. What matters is how repetitive it's. And oftentimes the activities are very repetitive and this is where it fails. And it also fails on other points. I've stated this before in other posts, but I never felt I grinded in this game until I wnated to make cordage rope. The main problem seems to be ropemaking is an underdeveloped skill. Its recipes are not used enough in other skills. When the main thing I am making to be able to make cordage is bow string and I'm making 100's of them, SOMETHING IS WRONG. Even making bow strings burnable or usable in making roping or fabric would be better than keeping them in a bulk bin unused. Either make it so I can produce cordage at lower skill or give ropemaking more depth so what we produce early on feels like it makes an impact on our everyday experience. Bow strings do not do that and, in my opinion, fail spectacularly. I also think imping is a lot better regarding grind than some other processes, like, for example, fishing or mining or installing planks in walls. In my case, I don't use a toolbelt. This means organizing my items in the inventory when I'm imping. To limited extent, imping is more bearable in terms of its repetitiveness. What I'd like to see is more circumstance in imping, so when we're alert we can catch things and make something much better than we otherwise would. I guess this would make it a mini-game, but is better than at present. Will also add I rarely spend more than 30-60 minutes on activities. I change things a lot. The only thing I can do for a longer length of time is to generally explore and/or kill monsters I see. I enjoy that and can do for hours.
  21. Nice ideas. I agreee and I think the vast majority of players are happy with this reversion.
  22. Could you please explain that better? My feeling about all of this is how it ties in to the power gap? The "power gap" being the absolute difference in power between a new player and the most capable veteran. Basically any kind of progression or cost is a "power gap". A player has to invest money/time to cross the gap. So if something doesn't decay anymore then it's a cost which is removed, meaning progress is made faster. If it's true enchantments have not decayed for years then Rolf's attempt to reintroduce decay might have been based on the thought process the "power gap" needed to be increased. However, it was probably just a "vision" thing. And the players naturally do not like the power gap to increase, especially suddenly. Power gap is usually kept consistent as MMO's age because new players do not like impossible-seeming goals. If old players are given too much leeway then they attain impossible heights which new players cannot reach without untold hours of expense. Unmoderated growth in power easily fractures the community in various ways.To keep the power gap consistent, the game has to increase the pace of growth with time. Things like decay are typically reduced as the MMO ages. Experience gain is faster and faster. Access is broadened. Travel is faster. The tricky part is how to keep the player enjoying hte game even as they're moving rapidly up the ladder. In my expeirence, almost every MMO reaches a limit. And this probably happens for a lot of reasons. Older games usually are facing bigger and bigger odds against them. Keeping old engines updated and all of the other things in motion while exuding the impression of superior and innovative performance is extremely difficult. Precisely because it's so difficult is why companies ditch old games and start new ones. Or more typically the company disapppears or gets eatened up by a larger one. The origional people go their separate ways.
  23. Anyone wondering why I made this thread, just thoroughly read these links. http://crowfall.com/#/news/hunger-week-its-about-time http://community.crowfall.com/index.php?/topic/102-gordon-walton-are-you-the-one-who-brought-us-trammel/ The first link outlines a lead Crowfall designer's vision for how the game will reset and still be permanent. The second link covers the reasoning behind the separation of PvP and PvE in UO some 15 years ago. That's impetus I made this thread. I was reading about Crowfall and these issues a month ago. And I've considered these issues years and years, since I've played so many FFA PvP MMO's. My overpowering instinct is to support FFA. I don't like wiping. I don't like "fairness". And yet I have the instinct to research this animal fully. It goes back, way back. MUD's with FFA PvP were dealing with this. It all boils down to maximizing freedom while minimizing abuse of freedom - in the hope it'll keep the game fun. BUT I think there's a vast gulf between what players are seeking. When I first played Wurm Online, I didn't just want fun. I had played many FFA PvP and I knew exactly what to expect. I came for the risk. I EXPECTED some loss and pain. And yet many players will not and cannot accept any sort of negative experience in an MMO. Indeed I've lost many things in my time on Chaos. My time on Epic was too short-lived. On Chaos I've been through so much. So much. Some things carried so much weight I will NEVER forget them. Yet the spirit and drive to survive and explore everything on Chaos someday keeps me playing. There's so much beauty. While risk is acceptable, even desired, I'm not sure I want loss after loss after loss. And that's the heart of this. If one side is so strong they almost never lose then what chance does the other side have to experience victory? And if griefing becomes too common then repeated loss can kill a player's ability to tolerate it. Keep in mind while this is all very real it's quite hypothetical in terms of its effect on Wurm Online. For example, I'm perfectly happy with the situation on Chaos right now, despite MR's superior ranks and following. In fact, it motivates me. It gives me someone to put a bullseye on. I'm not a killer, but I like to have enemies. However, there's no doubt in my mind some players quit because they were ganked or griefed by someone. Maybe they quit because someone had superior equipment or skills and they felt they couldn't defeat them and keep doing what they were enjoying at the time. There're lots of reasons a quitter will give for their displeasure. Best I can recommend anyone is just read the links at the top of this post. Thanks to everybody's input. I'm sorry if I fall short replying or reading your posts fully. I'm a bit of a one-trick pony. Err, I'm a one-track mind. No offense is intended whatever remarks I make. Peace out.
  24. Sulfurblade, I like your stance. I share it in many respects. In fact, I hope Wurm Online and other FFA PvP MMO's don't immediately jump on the bandwagon if Crowfall sees success. Even now, people are "crowing" about how wonderful wipes are and Crowfall is a couple years from launch! Already there's a lot of headwork invested in the idea wipes are good. Along with this idea is power disparity, if left alone and not addressed, leads to attrition. But I worry they will. Companies want to make $$$. They do what's cost effective. It's a business. One way Wurm Online could go about things - without wiping - is to encourage players to join weaker kingdoms. Or maybe a sort of bonus could be given to weaker kingdoms, compensating for the greater power in stronger ones. This might not account for the raw skills of each member of each kingdom, but it would go some distance. But ya.... Trying to ensure fairness too much in an FFA PvP envrionment is counter to Free For All. That's why it's unpopular in the first place! Most players want something like professional sports which is completely at odds with all of this. Players are grouped into teams and ranked by their league. There're highschool teams and college teams and professional teams. Fairness is enforced in this hierarchy. High ranked teams cannot play against lower ranked teams. Yet FFA means there's no enforced fairness. If you try to make FFA fair then it's not really FFA anymore. What's really going on is instead of all-out-FFA they're making it softer and calling it by the same name. Much head butting could be avoided if they created a tier system, like FFA-lite or FFA-1 + FFA-2 + FFA-3. But maybe there's some wisdom to trying to make it fairer? I can believe that. I think most players which do FFA just want a freer environment without so many rules in the way. But they didn't envision level 1's being mowed down by level 900's. Their idea was more mellow, like st0pid players being mowed down by smarter players. Being mowed down without all the rules which try to make everybody feel like a winner. I think many of us don't like that s***.
  25. To balance cost effectively, the game needs to remove things which tax the budget. Spending X hours on balancing everything and making sure it's fair is expensive. By removing the unnecessary stuff it'll greatly increase the pace of development. Basically it needs to cut down on the number of things which need to be controlled. Someone (preferably outside of the company) needs to come in and essentially streamline it to keep costs down. Probably another thing the game can do is shutdown Chaos and Epic. The challenge server is more than enough PvP for the players and it's refreshed (wiped), resulting in fairer PvP. The current FFA PvP persistent servers are obsolete in modern FFA PVP design. They have huge power disparity and griefing resulting from not ever being wiped. And the long progression times are unpopular. Most PvP players, unlike PvE players, do not like long progression times because to be competitive in the PvP envrionment a player must reach high amounts of skill (or level in other games). I believe that removing Chaos/Epic will also unify the population, at least partialy. The reason? The PvP players will have to play on the PvE servers if they want a permanent home. The PvP server would be wiped, so it can't be permanent. If a player has a stake in the PvE community, they're less likely to create division or infighting. Currently, PvP players can exist solely on the PvP servers. AS a result, they don't have a stake in the PvE community.