Arishok

Global message: A Black Dragon was witnessed descending upon village of Port Wurmville. CraftingMain: "Omg!! Some dragon just tore through my land... killed 2 sheep and destroyed half my tavern... think he was heading north" IamVeryBadAss: "Ok...lets round up some folks and try to head him off..." Noob32: "... is there no way to pen him?" IamVeryBadAss: "No, they break through any structures, but we have a few ways the devs introduced to ground him, and perhaps slow him down. Refer to the wiki." Sometime later... HopefulAdventurer: "ok, we all wiped trying to kill him, he flew off the the southwest... probably to lick his wounds. Almost killed him. Give it a few weeks, and he'll be back looking for food." RanOutOfNames: "Terrifying beast really." LootWhore: "Hate that I missed it, was trying to load all my alts up on meh cart. We should go back to the old way... was way better."

So, there were once uniques, but not everyone got a piece, now they are rare hard to find spawns instead. An intrepid player or group of players leave the sanctity of thier well protected homes to ring bells and cast spells to find them. Then they take on the risk and investment of penning said creature, followed by gearing up, marshalling thier favorite forces, and prepping the battleground. The reward is a chance at very rare scraps, that ONE day might can be made into a fancy overcoat. That sounds incredibly wurmian to me. I like it. Humans are funny creatures... youre taking them all! that was mine, etc. Almost every single resource is everywhere. No diversity. No danger zones, no risk vs reward. Cant change that... people like thier spots and wont tolerate having to go way across the map in troll infested forests to pick camelia. Rifts satisfy a rarity itch for many. Chance for goup pve. Chance for neat drops not found elsewhere. Fair distribution of loot. Happen regularly, all over the place, different timezones. Well done, devs. But... uniques. Something is wrong there if it is causing this much drama. I am all for a change for that. But with so much of wurm EXACTLY equal and fair and distributed... we all have ready access to all main resources, with little risk or travel - with little need for others stuff cause its all right here in front of us - in large quantities. Priests are just a few more changes away from being the only choice. How mundane and accessible are you willing to make the last vestige of hard to find, hard to fight, risk vs reward element? +1 support for change, but will add a caution to tread carefully on what we want.

On the resurgence of sailing skills suggestions... - I think the point may be the feeling of uselessness during hours of sailing/driving in a game you spend every other minute skilling an action. is the point of draining stamina a PvP mechanic, or something more esoteric? At least on a ship, I can float on the wind and continue earning in several skills, albeit at a slower clip. Presuming I have strong enough wind. What about... -loading rowboats on to the 3 C-class ships. -leading rowboats, sailboats from C ships, and knaar. I would miss dragging 4 horses through the shark infested ocean. -new ship larger than sailboat, (carrying capacity comparable to wagon). -adjust stamina drain (slow recovery) or remove completely --- presuming there already isn't a valid reason for having it. got nothing for the shoes, and sealing wax.

I'm in. +1

Examples of special currencies are present in almost all mmorpgs. They are used primarily to keep the main economy balanced by funneling specific types of players out of the main economy. By creating PvP currency, you can delink PvPers away from crafting economy by creating a currency earned and spent on PvP items only. money in, money out. Faucet and drain. Despite known opposition, tying in game currency to real world currency is a known and viable way of controlling inflation. Deflation in wurm is a result of over production, and near limitless storage and preservation of goods, while it is further exacerbated by less demand for said goods (which produces calls for new players, but would not solve overarching issue). What works for games like EVE, which ties currency to real world currency, is destruction. Easy come, easy go: e.g. The drain, or sink. Quantity is easy in WURM. Very easy. Quantity is necessary due to amount needed to earn another currency: skill. There is no sink in WURM for skill. There is NO destruction of goods and products. At least not on a scale that makes an impact. Who is sitting on 10k carrots and has a plan to get rid of it that does not involve selling it? Who wants 10k carrots? Someone with 100 backpacks with 1k frying pans to make thousands of meals no one will eat. And when thats done? Plenty more carrots. Then we talk about lumber, iron, swords, ships, carts, etc. WOW is an example of runaway inflation and horrible mistakes with economy. As well as MANY now defunct MMOs. WOW is a good example of how different methods work and dont work. +1 for effort and ideas. -1 for new type of currency (not with out a change in culture, improved destruction, and a lively, robust PVP arena). Keep the suggestions coming!

+1 Fully support this idea. There are strong arguments against foisting certain gameplay on to others, and I believe this reaches a solid middle ground in expanding options. Hunting and tracking were disappointments when I started playing, and continue to be so. Archaeology seems to have ironed out to be a useful, and for many, enjoyable aspect. These same mechanics could be implemented in these areas as well. I would be hyped for some changes such as this.

I felt like it was a random idea, posted on a random day. Really doesn't phase me if it was a troll post or not. For a particular view point, initial reaction might be ... oh yeah, I'd like that. It was reasoned well enough to my satisfaction why this particular idea is no bueno. I am good with that. What I got out of the responses... was SOMETHING is desired in the realm of Survival PVE. Brainstorm some alternatives... and there ya go... 2 page post off a random idea. Reality is, this will be off the front page by the weekend, and we move on to something else. If any of my ideas I post on this forum never gain traction, I am good with that; I share this game with lots of other people who have some pretty damn cool ideas.

Would there be any use, or desire, to screening for veteran players to live at Haven's Landing? Sort of like, the GV Help Chat moderators... But able to live and work there... maybe help a newb or two

So would it be considered paved? For the function of grazing, foraging, etc? Any speed modification? If it was flat like a road would be easy to do with just basic maps. But wouldnt look as natural as it should regarding depth. Would need stones, grass along the sides etc. I wonder if there is already tile types like this... where grass, rocks, decor is instanced through a mask or similar method. +1 for simple asthetic enhancement. Bonus points for a cart version.

I really like that idea. Not too common maybe. Spiders would be a good fit. It would be a riot if it were cows lol.

Consolidated ideas: - Cave bug vein. Acts like normal vein in all respects until you start mining it. In game cues could be: noises, event text, specific text on examine, or random singular bug might pop out. Risk of ripping open if you keep mining. Over time spawns will continue to populate mine. Can expire like other spawns. Purposefully splitting it open creates large number of spawns to pop out. Risk/reward: pile of ore equal to max ql of vein, chance for gem. - Goblin revisited. Replace goblin spawn hut with a large chest. Mostly form at abandoned deeds. Range is short and they stay closer to one another. Chest fills over time with random ql loot. Older it is, more loot, etc. Can expire and all contents disappear. Key is on one of the goblins. Make them meaner. - Chain hunting. Based on tracking skill and similiar to Archaeology. Tracking area around recently killed creatures may lead hints to other creatures nearby and eventually lead to champion creatures. Could spawn an even superior version once enough clues are collected (based on tracking or FS). Chain event expires within 18-24 hours. - Behavior modification. Tougher mobs avoid highways and deeds during day, but are attracted to them at night. Not overrun, just pull in closer, more chance encounters. Opposite during day. Winter makes wolves and bears have larger aggro range. - Purge by disease. Audit mob distribution. Disease could afflict overpopulated and underused areas to kill off some numbers to force redistribution on new spawns. - increase spawn chance for lava fiends.

Ok, so based on that here is an idea... The spawn point for cave bugs could be a pillar. Type could be random (rock, iron, zinc, etc). In game cues there is an infestation: cave bug sounds, text on examine, a single cave bug pops out as you continue to mine... Ignoring it will create spawns that multiply after a few days. So going back to cave the next day may have several bugs there and increases to max amt. you’d have to clear the cave as normal, but still have the spawn spitting mobs out over time. If you keep mining it, Ignoring the in game warnings/cues, you risk ripping it open and spilling tham all at once. So you make a choice to persist, ignore, or marshall help and clear it out if needed. Once you destroy the spawn point, it drops a stack of ore that is equal to max ql of vein, and a chance to drop a gem.

Lol I might actually start cooking if something like that would happen. I concede to your point. My takeaways: - SOMETHING should change with PVE and mobs. - As OblivionReaver and others pointed out, it is quite easy to survive. I highlight that the threshold is low, but many players dont cross it because first part seems so difficult. Halloween taught me that lesson. - General view that spawn rates are low. I posit that its the locations of mobs, and our methods of finding them that needs attention. 10s of thousands of untouched aggressive mobs persist on each server - always. To add to a possible suggestion, along with the goblin idea earlier in this post... The famous european spider No guide taught us to check a mine for nasties before working. We learned from hard knocks to check corners before steaming full speed in to them. Mouseing over everything looking for the telltale red outlines. Cave spiders. Darker, and smaller than wilderness cousins, and aggro at very close range, or while player is busy in actions. Otherwise they seldom move. You get caught by one, you didnt clear cave well enough. Could even web armour you or trap you. Again, this might just be arbitrary punishment for miners. Perhaps they have no real appetite for weak wurmians. Like OP, just spitballing here.

In addition: I love this is a sandbox, only games that really keep my attention. I love the history of this game I like a great deal of what the devs have done and are trying to do. When I heard about the party at Vrock, I thought how f’ing cool is that?! When I heard about the unique being dropped for just the sheer coolness of it by a GAME MASTER, I couldnt help but being excited, and impressed about the whole thing. When I found out and got involved with the Knights “quest”, I was equally enjoyed by just the whole concept of it. I was not present for any of those things, nor did I find treasure. But it affected me positively just the same. Then the complaints. I get many of the arguments, but the way it came out... was disheartening. Here is absolutely some of the coolest things I have seen in a community like this, but... bleh. So much talk about the newb experience, but the complaints are endless - about everything. The constant NOs to any idea with out any vetting, or hashing out ideas. I get why DEVs might seem to move slow on some things. This is a tinderbox. Derailed post for some venting I suppose.

@Brash_EndeavorsI can appreciate your perspective, and you explained your position better than your first response. some +1's from me: ++1: as @Deathangelsaid... just a fun suggestion. ... So about a year ago, me and my wife started playing together. We stayed close to Greymead, and I remember spending a lot of sessions injured, or dying. How much slower trying to get anything done while being injured makes things! Enjoyed figuring things out, etc. At some point I got antsy, and packed our carts up and headed west through the mountains. The trip was epic to say the least. We died by the time we got a little past the desert. Died trying to save each other, died again getting our corpses, died some more for the sheer luck of it. Eventful trip. Eventually, after what seemed like a cross country journey filled with danger, we found a secluded spot on the lake, with an open mine, guard tower, and no big nasties to get us. We set up a farm, and a little house (no deed), and I started working on a Cog. We quit within the month. Not a ragequit, just a quiet, "stopped logging back in" quit. 8 Months later, I logged back in on a whim. Looked through what remained of our stuff, and used our sailboat to cross the lake. Stumbled upon an abandoned deed, with what I thought was a gold mine of left over loot. Hundreds of hides, cotton, and wemp. Thousands of hearts, hoofs, glands, etc. Stuff we so desperately struggled to find the first go round. I premiumed up, and started working on some skills while squatting there. I was also surrounded by trolls, and died a lot. Pretty much dropped a tent on first sight of a troll, and usually ran to the guard house up the hill. Sometimes I'd make it. During our first play through, I met Thorinoakshield who gave me the advice of getting a good weapon with LT on it. So I did. Halberd with 88LT. Improved my life a good bit, but still dying, mostly trolls, the rest just bad decisions. Then on trade channel, a full set of 80ql chain for 80c. I took it. Then came Halloween. I wanted in on the drops. Got a troll mask, witches hat, and a skull mask. Good haul I thought. But what I REALLY got out of it, was 20+ points in FS, and a lesson that I could now kill ALOT more than I realized. Found another spot and built a Corbita. I have now been all over NW XAN, most of INDY, and now back to SW Xanadu. I have switched to Studded Leather, and haven't had a need for the chain since, and am at 62 FS. Quickest skill I earned. Point is, I am not sure at what stage I stopped being a newbie. I still am, of course, relatively speaking. I just earned my "Rider" title last month. My sandbox is sailing every few days to a completely new spot, and dragging my cart around until I get lost. Killing whatever I find, looting old deeds, and just exploring. I can appreciate players who just want to hole up behind walls and grind whatever they want to. Their sandbox. I am already getting itchy for something else as I roam... still have rifts, uniques, and Chaos to explore, but I am seeing my future in wurm, and trying to figure what my next sand castle will be, so I jump in on these convos. My wife laughed about the epic trip across Xanadu last night, and when I told her about this idea that was posted, she said, "See?! Now that would be cool!". She refuses to come back and play. My daughter on the other hand, is making an account - she liked my regaling tales of farming, and animal husbandry.

I get the not wanting a flock of fiends avalanching down when all you is some damn copper, but the gist is an idea for something unexpected, possibly challenging, and PVE. I see a pattern of "but what about the children?!". Are we really that afraid of dying in this game? Do we survive PVE or simply avoid it? On indy about a month ago, I was up in the Samling area. I died 3 times in 2 days. Someone got on chat and used me as an example as how newbies are getting destroyed. Never asked about defeated foe #1 and #2, or what I was doing that was getting me killed. Reality was I found a Troll Convention and lucked up on a large number of Champion critters, and was actively picking fights. Few got the better of me. Enjoyed it. Whether its limited to players who check "I'm willing to be kilt at unexpected times" in settings, or some other method of opening a way to actively seek danger or unpredictability while keeping monotoneers on a path to enjoying their sandbox, I am sure something could work. For spawn rates... I think it is more about movement, and AI in general. Server stats show a HUGE number of mobs. Even the Slaughter of Halloween 2018, during the mad, complaint-laden culling of all things red outlined for the chance of pumpkin pads, and witch's hats... we didn't even make a dent. Where they at? Some nights I get lucky, and get 15-20 kills, some nights all I see are seals, cows, and guard towers. Am I missing something about the tracking skill? Is there a better way? I dunno.

@FlubbI can see your opinion on that. The sandbox bit gets used alot, and for good reason. There are diminished returns on hunting beyond a certain point. A wolf in the beginning can be deadly. A major hunting overhaul, I truly hope, is in the works. I think the fantastical creatures should be hunted or found in out of way places. Trolls, goblins and the like should be a myth to most early players. But I cannot figure a good way to suggest how this would work. But it would have to include wider variety of “findable” challenges. Something players have to put effort to find and enjoy the challenge on, but not thrust upon players unless they put themselves in that position. Like highways and deeds being avoided by these creatures, but if you trapsing through the woods.... off deed mines would work for something like this, but if it wasn’t implemented all over, then competing in this sandbox would be unbalanced.

I think sudden spawns of critters would go further than the stated purpose of fatigue as an anti-bot mechanism for mining. Eve does something similiar for miners. But the core idea is to break up monotony. In which case, how much would this really set a newbie back? I think you really could just define newbies by either overall skill count or time in game. But if newbie focused on FS first, or had good gear, this would be irrelevant. Several versions of implementation I could think of, Ive already circumvented in my head for either avoidance or farming kills. The random part should be a few cave bugs up to a swarm of lava fiends. Never know what you might get. Death swarm or a sapphire? Think it might better just to teach newbs how tents work in havens landing. Then implement something like this. New log in qoute: “Pop a tent before you cut a new mine. You’ll thank me later. “ Edit (cause I always ramble)... Change goblins “preferred tiles” to be disbanded deeds where buildings still remain. Make them meaner and tethered closer. Change the spawn hut to a chest and add random bits and pieces they collect accumulate in that chest. Last one dead drops the key.

Necrobump with hijack. I can put supplies to build 3 complete 1 room houses in a large crate. I travel alot, and see no reason to stop for a long time. At 65 Carp and a good mallet, it takes me 15 minutes or less to put up a house where I stop for a while. Just for the purposes of SB and slight reduction of my repair habit. To add to @Etherdrifter original post... Craftable campsite (no pickup/build on ground only): Flag + Tent = Campsite lots of mixed Grass some logs/kindling poles for good measure Sheets or wool etc. deer urine (realism addition) - Tents decay slower in campsite, relative to campsite ql. - Does not lock on create. - must be disassembled by owner - disassembly recovers tent (with dmg), and flag. Disassembled with crowbar. - hitch 2 creatures. - Campsite ql based on added components and miscellaneous skill. 80+ dmg drops drops tent only. The rest destroyed. - persistent campfire (must still be fueled and ignited for use) - only campsites provide sleeping bonus. Imagine wagoner camp sans chair and with kingdom flag. + 1 on first post, tents remain non impable, but repairable with cloth, leather, discarded tomes, or magic mushrooms. Tents being improvable is neutral for me, but I could support unless reasonable objections exist. Takes 84 actions to build house enough to drop a bed. No matter how creative I tried to be, I could not figure 84 components to build this lol. What are the objections to implememting this? edit: on reflection, I fully support improving tents. Dmg reduces ql? Anything less than 10ql unusable, etc. FC to imp, misc to build campsite.

Shifting through old data, it looks like the premium accounts halved around 2016. Easy to speculate the cause. But has remained fairly consistent since. If you concerned about 3 accounts, then you might be nickle and diming the data. The premiums accounts and log ins spike every year in nov-jan from 600-1000 normally. Summer spikes are a few hundred. The winter spikes are usually attributed to alts getting sweet xmas loot. If thats the case, then that is also a bit of operation capital, or money sink depending on how it’s purchased. This last spike appears quite larger than normal. If they are new accounts, then retention is the area of concern more than advertising. Getting people in who leave and say they dont like it is counter to any ad campaign. Havens landing hasnt been fully implemented, and results arent in on true effectiveness. Getting involved in that and providing constructive feedback seems like a worthwhile endeavor if your goal is retention. With all the the stuff that happened moving into the end of of 2018, I am impressed at what was released, implemented, even with the hiccups and belly aching. Also, for consideration, if an ad campaign is a success, and pulls in significant number of previous players, what would happen if there is a sudden influx of in game coin that has been out of circulation and dormant? Data shows an ENORMOUS amount of in game coin. You could speculate alot of that is in dormant players banks, not to even include inventory. Not against a player run campaign on basic principle, just think there may be a better way for player involvement.

Had the horse thing on both indy and xan. Leading after disembark has the horses leading me! stam on cart after combat not refilling until I disembark or wait, like you said, 10 or more seconds.

+1, the land of sheep and seals, and 3 mythical wild horses.

Ive noticed that Havens Landing also prohibits this. Not sure if that was an over sight with permissions or not.

I wondered why there were wagoneers instead of players getting paid to haul. Figured that was tried... but not for new players. I focused on grinding to 23, got affinity meal, skiller hatchet, and set off to what was a minding numbing experience to get to 23. JUST so I could relocate. I have not discovered the value of loading not being just out of reach of free players.

-1 yank the band-aid. This is set and needs to be done. I started my account a little over a year ago. Didnt know the prize until a few months back. Slowly started to work on goals. Plug was pulled. No sane chance of winning. I am fine with that.