News Update: Work And Progress. Week 17

[Calisthra 59]

So hang on, when the prices for premium were raised, did everyone start arguing that they should backpay the price changes?

Just because prices go down doesn't mean you're suddenly owed anything, much like when prices go up, you don't owe them anything

Not the same thing at all. Folks acted on Rolf's personal recommendation to prepare for the changes. I almost did myself but decided against putting up the extra coin (about 56s). Is this price reduction going to lure me into the expenditure now? Not on your life. The whole thing stinks of bait n switch.

[Touchmee 380]

I am still baffled as to why you feel the need to release a mega server when there are so many latency and memory leak issues, it seems like the total opposite of what the dev team should be doing?

 

Why release a mega server with a marketing campaign then just let everyone else ride in a week later? all it will do is annoy the older players for having to wait a week and then annoy all the new players for having high skilled players come in and control another server market......

[Serpentarius 186]

I am still baffled as to why you feel the need to release a mega server when there are so many latency and memory leak issues, it seems like the total opposite of what the dev team should be doing?

It's easier to optimize a new database/server on some new hardware when there aren't tons of players on it already on it ready to complain if their precious 40ql 14 coc shovel disappears when they decide to change a few tables and a few lines are lost in a transfer. Also no one complain because you restart the server every 10 minutes.

Edited April 25, 2014 by Serpentarius

[Alec 728]

It's easier to optimize a new database/server on some new hardware when there aren't tons of players on it already on it ready to complain if their precious 40ql 14 coc shovel disappears when they decide to change a few tables and a few lines are lost in a transfer. Also no one complain because you restart the server every 10 minutes.

 

 

So they will use Xanadu as test server?

[Archaed 2,280]

Not the same thing at all. Folks acted on Rolf's personal recommendation to prepare for the changes. I almost did myself but decided against putting up the extra coin (about 56s). Is this price reduction going to lure me into the expenditure now? Not on your life. The whole thing stinks of bait n switch.

You were told to be prepared for changes coming and you made the choice to expand and pay for more land, no information was given as to what changes and you were never told to expand and pay up. You took a gamble with the outcome and unfortunately didn't win this time, that's all that happened here.

[Kammerz 69]

When you buy a house irl and the following year house prices go up. Do you go back to the buyer and request more money due to inflation and house prices going up? No...

 

 

I like the updates, especially the tent idea. I still feel they need to add more challenging things to do as the game gets a little boring just looking after your own deed every day - it becomes a second day job. 

 

I'm selling my deed soon I think and just joining a village instead so that I can enjoy doing the other things in Wurm without having to worry about my animals and farms and decaying buildings.

[As_I_Decay 1,592]

I'm selling my deed soon I think

Good luck with that. The change that you seem to be okay with just cut the value of your deed in half.

[Amber 337]

I swear sometimes it seems like Rolf is just determined to ruin his own game. sigh

 

Tents? Really? If Rolf had ever actually played Wurm, without any super powers, he'd know that a noob having some way to secure their stuff is only a PART of the issue. They need tiles to grow food on, a forge to make basics in, they need a safe place to hide from spawn, and having a pen for a found critter is a big deal as well. A legal enclosure addressed all those needs nicely. If securing a few items was the only issue then a mechanic for that already exists. It's called a large cart with a lock.  New players want their own little piece of land. Without that you won't be seeing any player retention. 

 

Throwing out a system that worked just because a few abuse it is, IMO, just stupid. There were plenty of viable alternatives suggested in the other thread but they were ignored completely. So much for player opinions. 

 

Now a lot of players who pay for premium & pay for a deed are screwed because they can't expand, even if they wanted to, because of the required 5 tile perimeter. Some people, myself included, own 2 deeds side by side with 10 perimeter tiles in between them that now can't be protected in any way. I never saw the need to block off the perimeter between my deeds so I'm not effected by this directly but I can certainly understand how others are hurt by it. Owning two chunks of land with what is now a worthless "no mans land" in between is rather pointless. In my case, because of the size and layout of the two deeds it would take golds, not silver, to disband both deeds and combine them into one deed. It would also require that I deed over water tiles that are worthless to me. 

 

At the very least, if the enclosure rule is to be dropped, then more, and better, options for expanding deeds should be added first. Again, this was suggested multiple times in the other topic but ignored. 

 

Also, there is still the issue of the ratio on deed which is why a lot of people have enclosures on their perimeters. That should have been addressed before deciding to remove enclosures. In my case my ratio is fine but I have a perimeter pen to house hell horses off deed so that I can have an active ST on deed. With the change I guess I can fire the ST, bash the guard tower, and just move my aggro pets onto the deed but that's hardly a satisfactory solution. Again, I feel I'm being punished for the misdeeds of others and so will the neighbors and travelers who relied on the protection of the tower and ST in that area. There ARE legitimate reasons for wanting a secure off deed enclosure. If the devs can't figure out a way to code a limit on the number or size of the enclosures a player can have then that is their fault not mine. Why must I suffer the consequences?

 

The animal ratio needs to be adjusted upwards to allow more animals on deed tiles now that enclosures are no longer a viable option. 

 

Xanadu....what can I say other than that not allowing immediate access to the new server to ALL players is just a slap in the face to those of us who've supported this game.

I was unsure if I wanted to move there but I did want the option. I have zero desire to go there a week or a month or a year after it opens. To say that I'm insulted by this does not begin to cover it. 

 

Anyone want to buy 5 deeds, 3 merchants, 2 traders, and a highly skilled toon? I'm just tired of this kind of nonsense and constantly worrying about what he'll break next. 

[Kegan 3,926]

Tents, so nice, new players will love it!

until a spider kills them then they can not find their tents 

[Lostone 93]

As for one week hold on old players going to Xanadu , that's easy to fix.

Rolf is worried about extreme lag from players going over with 5 plus years of junk and resources.

 

Just make it so for the first week you can only port there with what's on you, then open it to ships after that first rush.

 

Plus this new server should be central if possible, and for god sake make the world round already.

[NeeNee 855]

I swear sometimes it seems like Rolf is just determined to ruin his own game. sigh

 

Tents? Really? If Rolf had ever actually played Wurm, without any super powers, he'd know that a noob having some way to secure their stuff is only a PART of the issue. They need tiles to grow food on, a forge to make basics in, they need a safe place to hide from spawn, and having a pen for a found critter is a big deal as well. A legal enclosure addressed all those needs nicely. If securing a few items was the only issue then a mechanic for that already exists. It's called a large cart with a lock.  New players want their own little piece of land. Without that you won't be seeing any player retention. 

 

Throwing out a system that worked just because a few abuse it is, IMO, just stupid. There were plenty of viable alternatives suggested in the other thread but they were ignored completely. So much for player opinions. 

 

Now a lot of players who pay for premium & pay for a deed are screwed because they can't expand, even if they wanted to, because of the required 5 tile perimeter. Some people, myself included, own 2 deeds side by side with 10 perimeter tiles in between them that now can't be protected in any way. I never saw the need to block off the perimeter between my deeds so I'm not effected by this directly but I can certainly understand how others are hurt by it. Owning two chunks of land with what is now a worthless "no mans land" in between is rather pointless. In my case, because of the size and layout of the two deeds it would take golds, not silver, to disband both deeds and combine them into one deed. It would also require that I deed over water tiles that are worthless to me. 

 

At the very least, if the enclosure rule is to be dropped, then more, and better, options for expanding deeds should be added first. Again, this was suggested multiple times in the other topic but ignored. 

 

Also, there is still the issue of the ratio on deed which is why a lot of people have enclosures on their perimeters. That should have been addressed before deciding to remove enclosures. In my case my ratio is fine but I have a perimeter pen to house hell horses off deed so that I can have an active ST on deed. With the change I guess I can fire the ST, bash the guard tower, and just move my aggro pets onto the deed but that's hardly a satisfactory solution. Again, I feel I'm being punished for the misdeeds of others and so will the neighbors and travelers who relied on the protection of the tower and ST in that area. There ARE legitimate reasons for wanting a secure off deed enclosure. If the devs can't figure out a way to code a limit on the number or size of the enclosures a player can have then that is their fault not mine. Why must I suffer the consequences?

 

The animal ratio needs to be adjusted upwards to allow more animals on deed tiles now that enclosures are no longer a viable option. 

 

Xanadu....what can I say other than that not allowing immediate access to the new server to ALL players is just a slap in the face to those of us who've supported this game.

I was unsure if I wanted to move there but I did want the option. I have zero desire to go there a week or a month or a year after it opens. To say that I'm insulted by this does not begin to cover it. 

 

Anyone want to buy 5 deeds, 3 merchants, 2 traders, and a highly skilled toon? I'm just tired of this kind of nonsense and constantly worrying about what he'll break next.

I totally agree. I love Wurm, love my deed and love living in the Wurm world but I've only been here 3-4 months and it's nonstop drama and game-hurting changes already. Did I pick a bad time to start or has Wurm never had any direction or stability?

[syncaidius 159]

Xanadu....what can I say other than that not allowing immediate access to the new server to ALL players is just a slap in the face to those of us who've supported this game.

I was unsure if I wanted to move there but I did want the option. I have zero desire to go there a week or a month or a year after it opens. To say that I'm insulted by this does not begin to cover it. 

 

This.

Edited April 25, 2014 by syncaidius

[Madt 1,178]

I think it's a bad idea to prevent existing players from entering Xanadu for the first week. People will make throw away alts and start running around deeding anything they think is valuable land. They'll think there is more of an urgency to do this with the fear that everyone else will get the good spots first.

Also one of the best parts of new maps is rushing to it to explore the completely untouched land and get the same experience as everyone else. This also puts existing players at a disadvantage since any who plan to move there or setup a home there come 2nd while completely new players and those who make alts (people WILL make alts, even I will if it stays this way as I don't want to miss out) come 1st.

I'm not one to complain without offering solutions, so here are mine.

Option A: Make it teleport only for the first week so current players can go there but cannot take everything they own with them. Only premium can teleport so people don't use non premium alts to teleport several inventories worth of stuff over. Add a 6 or 12 hour cooldown on teleporting (teleport there and you're stuck there for 6-12 hours until the cooldown finishes, similar to the 1 hour cooldown on epic teleporting.) This way only people serious about going there will go there, we can go there to explore and set ourselves up with the tools we brought with us and the server won't get flooded with items from other servers by the shipload.

Option B: Allow only rowboats to sail over for the first week. Row boats don't hold much inventory yet enough for a group of people to head over and set up a camp for them to start out on.

[Torgrim 403]

Xanadu starts to feel more like some kind of attempt to get some headlines in media. Some idea that opped up in Rolf's head two months ago and he just has to try becuase it's fun and it can bring in some quick cash. Not really a thought through decision. Can we get some sort of comments from the Wurm team how they see this playing out in the future? How will it be better for the, game, for old player and for new players?

 

I agree that the idea of a mega server is cool, I would have liked starting on such a server. But Wurm is not a new game, you have to consider all the old players when doing something like this. It feels like instead of fixing the game, Rolf and the team tries to start over with fresh servers every year or so thinking that all the troubles will go away, but in fact it only thins out the population and makes it less enjoyable for those who don't want to start over. 

 

Why not merge all the servers into one instead and at the same time add more land to all sides of the original land if you want to have a bigger world? In this way nobody would have to move to be part of the new world unless they really wanted to settle on new land. 

[conmcb25 378]

I totally agree. I love Wurm, love my deed and love living in the Wurm world but I've only been here 3-4 months and it's nonstop drama and game-hurting changes already. Did I pick a bad time to start or has Wurm never had any direction or stability?

 

Sorry but I just had to laugh at this one. 

 

The answer is no it hasn't unfortunately

[NeeNee 855]

Sorry but I just had to laugh at this one. 

 

The answer is no it hasn't unfortunately

I kind of figured that. This could be a great game but the lunacy holds it back.

[Anothernoob 102]

Ok, since you want the enclosure rule gone completely I have a few questions:

 

1. Will you allow us to fine-tune templars? Some people want to have hell horses or any type of aggro pets and still have a templar to kill specific aggros like trolls for example. Are you going to do such a thing or people will always have to choose between having aggro pets and templar protection? 

 

2. Are you sure that the tent-thing is not going to be abused in PVP? The duration of the protection alone won't do much as people can still spam alts to use them for safe storage and if it is way to short then it won't be that helpful for newbies. On PvP servers tents should be raidable(alt bank storage would still work though). 

[syncaidius 159]

I agree that the idea of a mega server is cool, I would have liked starting on such a server. But Wurm is not a new game, you have to consider all the old players when doing something like this. It feels like instead of fixing the game, Rolf and the team tries to start over with fresh servers every year or so thinking that all the troubles will go away, but in fact it only thins out the population and makes it less enjoyable for those who don't want to start over. 

 

I like the idea of it, and would love to be part of the launch event without having to start a new character. But unfortunately that isn't possible (again!)... It feels like the very players who fund such things get shafted every time.

Edited April 25, 2014 by syncaidius

[Blasius 4]

Nice work progress over the years, wurm is truelly getting better and better!

 

Keep on it !

 

Cheers

[Mordraug 2,542]

Nice work progress over the years, wurm is truelly getting better and better!

 

Keep on it !

 

Cheers

 

Yeap, going the path of the bigger players in the MMO industry.... customer contempt, bait n' switch, deceptive advertising... 

[Ayes 3,715]

From the statement by RedBaron quoted below I think it is quite clear why they have decided to restrict current players from traveling to Xanadu for the first week:

 

"The main reason for the mega server Xanadu is to show and push what we can do technologically concerning size and player support.

We are planning to run a marketing campaign in connection with the release to have a crazy frontiersman event where we invite tons of people to the biggest sandbox MMO landrush in history!

We plan on releasing it in about a month but you’ll get a more precise date once we’ve ran some more tests.

With those tests we will also be able to know the final size of the server.

Before the release we are also going to be launching the new tutorial area.

When it comes to connecting the old servers we will wait at least a week after initial release.

This is because we need to know that Xanadu can handle the load over time.

The concern is that if everyone would rush and ship thousands of items there at the same time, we would have to roll back and destroy the landrush event."

 

This seems a reasonable decision made to prevent a lot of excess item lag which would then disrupt this event to publicize what Wurm can accomplish

 

I would suggest this alternative to enable current players to be able to travel there on opening day:

A week or two prior to this opening allow current players to build Xanadu Portals that operate in the same way that Epic Portals do. Also have the Dev's build one at each starter town on each server. Then only on opening day activate them for use. In this way current players can only bring over what they can carry with them, which will resolve the problem of a huge amount of items crossing the server upon ships. Then when the server is open to boat travel from other servers these portals can be deactivated after several days. As this would be preannounced all would have the option to return home via these portals before they were deactivated.

 

Also note that there is a more recent post in this section from Rolf wherein they will be allowing free accounts to place deeds there, which in turn at least can be used by current players to do the same and then later travel there when the server is opened up to them. Whichever direction this takes I will be looking forward to this new server and seeing what it has to offer.

 

=Ayes=

[Crack 408]

I was afraid this would happen.

 

This was said about Pristine and Release way over a year ago, and we're still waiting.

 

I think this is more about money this time.

Prehaps an attempt to force players who are part of the land rush to buy all their silver for deeds and expansions from the shop, as if you want the best land youve gotta be quick and to be quick youve gotta have all the money you need... hence you have to buy it from the shop... phahaha Wurm is becoming a cash sink im beginning to think itll be cheaper to buy a plot of land irl and build on that...

[thrundarr 23]

How about fixing the already known issues with lag and disconnects with large amounts of people in local before adding a new, huge server? Just check out the recent raid of a JK deed by BL on Elevation, or any impalongs over the past couple years.

Indeed. Forced disconnects have made Wurm unplayable for me now. My connection has deteriorated so bad in the past 5 weeks that I can now log in for 2-5 minutes before a forced remote host disconnect. Meanwhile My premium time and deed time is ticking away. Soon my crops will die as well as my livestock. I would like to be part of the crowd just to see the insanity of the land rush for Xanadu.

 

wurmonline.com wurmpedia.com and the game itself are royally inaccessible to me and Several others now. All other sites I visit and other online games we play are working.

Please....Fix it, or lose us and our coin.

This is not a threat. It just makes no sense to continue to pay for something we can not connect to or get access to.

 

Related thread in Technical issues.

http://forum.wurmonline.com/index.php?/forum/26-technical-issues/

Edited April 25, 2014 by thrundarr

[KunAlt 844]

Just to be clear on this one, whats the status on Highways rules?

 

Please note that an official response is needed about this issue, since the original post by Rolf mentioned it but there is nothing about in the official notices yet.

 

If the highway rule is also going away we need an official advice about.

[Branvas 19]

Just to be clear on this one, whats the status on Highways rules?

 

Please note that an official response is needed about this issue, since the original post by Rolf mentioned it but there is nothing about in the official notices yet.

 

If the highway rule is also going away we need an official advice about.

 

"There are no rules", direct quote from 2 different GMs weeks ago

 

About the whole rule changes:

"We have taken time to analyze your situation and we do understand the inconvenience and even the negative side effects that these changes to return to mechanical systems will cause you and many others."