News Update: Work And Progress. Week 19

[syncaidius 159]

And while I'm ranting, I have two words for you. TEST SERVER. Learn what it is, and how to use it.

You never use your player base, And live server, To test out some half written code, or new graphics.  You make a duplicate of your largest live server, And database, Then test your new code over there, And ask players to log into it via an announcement on the live server.  This way they already have stuff to work with, Your server already has a full load of creatures and game objects. And players can go straight to the things that need testing.  And nobody on the live server has to waste hours of their "Paid" playtime, Watching you restart the server repeatedly.

 

My current status is:  ON HOLD.

No more premium payments for alts, No templar, No extra deeds. No purchases of any kind.

 

There was once a time rolf actually did this the first time he got a hardware upgrade for independence and chaos, around the time he was testing a new mission system.

 

He cloned Inde and used that as a test server for the new hardware, while MrBloodworth (the art developer at the time) spawned fudge-loads of zombies to stress test it.

 

Lately though, Rolf doesn't seem to directly communicate with players as much which could be a bad or good thing in the long run, considering some of the changes he's made in the past based off suggestions from small minorities (or even single players).

 

And now theres talk of an ingame voting system?  What for?  You guys already ignore the forum voting system, The suggestion forum, And even the constant player rages posted daily.

 

That's mostly because a quite a lot of players don't read/browse or even use the forums at all. Where-as an in-game voting system they can at least force people to vote on some kind of answer, even if its a "don't know". Compared to a forum poll in a random thread in a random sub-forum, an in-game vote it's guaranteed to cover a lot more players.

[Ayes 3,715]

 

That's mostly because a quite a lot of players don't read/browse or even use the forums at all. Where-as an in-game voting system they can at least force people to vote on some kind of answer, even if its a "don't know". Compared to a forum poll in a random thread in a random sub-forum, an in-game vote it's guaranteed to cover a lot more players.

 

I think you have hit upon the value of some sort of voting system available in game, that being it will be exposed to many more players for their input. Still, I would not agree with any expectation expressed elsewhere that the results of the votes should be tied to having those things implemented within the game. These types of polls should just be used to consider what stands out as being important to the player base and then the decision to implement any changes would be up to the Devs.

 

It would be a very bad decision to code Wurm by popular demand or even have the expectation that this would be the result of votes/polls on various issues. Are then in game voting systems of any worth. Yes, if you have confidence in the judgments made by the game Developers in response. If not, there is little point in participating within them, or perhaps even within the game itself.

 

As I see a number of disillusioned people at odds with numerous recent decisions being made, I doubt an in game voting system would ease their pains. The more likely response would be just more finger pointing to voting results being ignored. Still, I see the value of an in game voting system, if only to give the Devs further input as to player concerns and the priority they should arrange them within, from the top to the trash bin.

 

=Ayes=

[atazs 965]

I saw nothing about the size of Xanadu written there. Where are you guys coming up with this 16x size for it? 

I also didn't see a single answer to all the questions about Xanadu. Will we be able to sail there there on June 3rd?

I can see having survival tents for new players. But I think it should vanish within 24 hours after the player has built their first structure.  That's more than enough time to put a lock on a door and move your stuff.

Sitting on boats is long overdue, And if it's done properly will be a nice addition to the game. It will be nice to be thrown off my boat in a sitting position when I enter a canal now.  And I'm sure the sharks will have no problem attacking me while i try to drag my boat thru a canal entrance.

 

It's amusing that you took the time to poke fun at the players ranting on the forums, But couldn't be bothered to answer any of our questions! 

This is just as funny as ignoring the suggestion forum.  Or never responding when people ask what happened to bridges? Or working canals?

Or the huge list of other things that are broken or incomplete. Or simple changes like making dredging not totally suck!

And now theres talk of an ingame voting system?  What for?  You guys already ignore the forum voting system, The suggestion forum, And even the constant player rages posted daily.

 

And while I'm ranting, I have two words for you. TEST SERVER. Learn what it is, and how to use it.

You never use your player base, And live server, To test out some half written code, or new graphics.  You make a duplicate of your largest live server, And database, Then test your new code over there, And ask players to log into it via an announcement on the live server.  This way they already have stuff to work with, Your server already has a full load of creatures and game objects. And players can go straight to the things that need testing.  And nobody on the live server has to waste hours of their "Paid" playtime, Watching you restart the server repeatedly.

 

My current status is:  ON HOLD.

No more premium payments for alts, No templar, No extra deeds. No purchases of any kind.

You must be new here if all this comes as a surprise for you. I've been here 4+ years and the things you have listed have been already the major problem with the game when i started. Also for xanadu they did say last week it will be 4x the size of independence which means 16x the size of the smaller servers, and no you won't be able to sail there on the 3rd since it will be closed for a week at first. 

As for the test server it's a joke that's what it is. You have to stumble onto new features being tested there by accident, as they are not reported anywhere and they are still "testing" animations and collada according to the launcher. I also remember reporting several bugs to the devs and they even acknowledged it, but they were not fixed for a long time. You also have to make things on test yourself and ask for the GMs to spawn things for you if you want to do anything. It's like they dont want you to test there

Edited May 13, 2014 by atazs

[neofit 78]

I would like to see travel tents added for folks who have a homestead, but are out traveling and need a way of safely logging out.  Permit travel tents to hitch a cart w/2 animals to it.  Upon logging out, your tent and anything hitched to it disappears, until you log back in.

 

Tents would be crafted with leatherworking.

This. Or with Cloth Tailoring.

 

I am bored to death with on-deed grinding, I want to be able to travel and hunt, but can't do that safely because of idiotic game mechanics. A tent that I could take with me, hitch a couple of animals to, and that would log off with me (or at least log off the animals or make them 100% safe) would be a great addition that would revitalize my interest. But:

 

* I'm not waiting 6 months for them to appear, not even 3. Actually, "Your premium expires this week" and I'm wondering whether to go on for another one or not. OK, my interest is piqued for one month, but I better have a serious release date for me to go on for a second one. The "we're gonna have bridges, soon, I promise" trick of last August won't work this time. It doesn't matter if it takes a year or ten to properly balance War Tents on PvP servers, it doesn't take that much on the normal ones and they should receive their tents first.

 

* Don't make insane crafting requirements on traveler tents. I'm sure one can be inclined to make them high to help one's buddies make a buck but that would be wrong here. I don't mind paying for HQ weapons or enchantments, but tents are a common necessity item, and I'm not paying a dime for this like I'm not paying for a shack. Its requirements should be around 20 in Cloth or Leatherworking or both, something the average player can learn to do in an afternoon/evening or two with SB (for the record my skills are higher in these ). Even if a temporary one is given to a newbie, it shouldn't be much more difficult to craft than "your first shack!". Make it use a lot of cloth or leather if you want to make it difficult, make it take as long to create at skill 20 as the wagon is at 50, but definitely don't make the tent only craftable at 50+.

 

* They should probably be rather light too, as travel tents, 10 kg for instance seems way too high, even 5 is on the heavy side. Because I'm sure you won't let us pack up our tent with items in it, and we may want to pick a thing or two while traveling and hunting too, so a travel tent shouldn't prevent us from actually, you know, traveling. Unless you manage to add saddle bags at the same time.

[Arson 19]

Some things never change. I love the Wurm community. I love sandbox MMOs, and Wurm still, after all these years, provides an experience I can't really find anywhere else. 

 

When I heard about this new server the news of it caught my attention much like Pristine, and Independence a few years before that. Sadly, the formula is so transparent and predictable that it just makes me want to throw my hands up in disgust. Build a giant server, force a cash-grab by putting the pinch on land-settling for veterans, repeat 2 years later. If it were within my power to separate Rolf from Wurm I think it would become the fantastic game we all see the potential for it to be. Unfortunately, I don't have that power, and can only vote with my dollar. Perhaps it's time to just build my own sandbox MMO for myself and friends. 

Edited May 14, 2014 by Arson