Priests : The Final Fix

[Biervampyr 97]

Jeixi that post from me was meant to be ironic ;-)

Oh and back to topic. I like how the priests are used in wurm becouse you really never forced to be a priest. You can do nearly everthing without a priest so i dont know why everybody complaints about the priest system. For me its just a nice to have but not necessary at all.

Edited June 27, 2014 by Biervampyr

[Gaeron 551]

Ironically your suggested change actually gives more freedom than mine!  Essentially a priest is a regular character who gains skills slower and has a skillcap of 66.333.  In my suggestion they are a regular character with a skillcap of 20.  The only other difference of note is that yours very much favors established players and mine is more favorable to newer players.

I already have skills in the 80's and 90's on my priest main  why would I accept them being capped at 20?

 

 

That's a bastardization of my suggestion, do give credit where its due, ok?

You got one thing right, Rolf did this blanket "rule" as it is because it was easier to implement, doesn't make it the best one. Hardly ever the easiest way is the best way.

Oh yeah, I remember that now, in a different thread. I don't think you should be able to pick an exception and have it as a "normal" skill. Instead I think you need to work very hard to gain the ability to improve. Don't forget creation/continuing sucks for skill gain in most things. Its improving where you get skill at any sort of reasonable rate and that wouldn't be available until you hit 70 in a skill, it isn't going to be quick.

Edited June 27, 2014 by Gaeron

[Etherdrifter 2,518]

I already have skills in the 80's and 90's on my priest main  why would I accept them being capped at 20?

 

Since you argued that the mechanic was designed to make priests rely on other players.

I suppose I really should have made it clear that skill use is capped at 20 for skills priests cannot currently use (existing skills work fine).  Ergo fishing works fine but carpentry is capped at 20 UNLESS faithful is turned off and you take the faith hit.

[Klaa 4,872]

Well, we can't always get what we want. Rolf was tired of playing Ultima or whatnot, and decided to do the "perfect game" for himself. Obviously he failed, since he quit playing Wurm a long time ago. So maybe he should stop trying to make a game that he doesn't want to play, and make the game that his players (aka meal ticket) want to play. So excuse me for not giving two shakes for Rolf's desires.

 

 

That's a bastardization of my suggestion, do give credit where its due, ok?

You got one thing right, Rolf did this blanket "rule" as it is because it was easier to implement, doesn't make it the best one. Hardly ever the easiest way is the best way.

 

A few months ago i might agree that Wurm is way more complex than minecraft, then i saw a guy do a Working Stargate in Minecraft, and now i'm starting to doubt how awesome Wurm is. Even if we don't go about Minecraft, there's a lot more MMO (or not) Sandbox games arriving in the doorstep, and i don't see wurm getting any better.

Good luck with that. I've heard of Wurm killers for years... unfortunately every one of them has choked and died completely on their own. A decent competitor would be nice for many reasons; however, I'm not holding my breath any time soon.

Over all couldn't agree more... we cannot always get what we want.

Edited June 28, 2014 by Klaa

[Jeixi 146]

Good luck with that. I've heard of Wurm killers for years... unfortunately every one of them has choked and died completely on their own. A decent competitor would be nice for many reasons; however, I'm not holding my breath any time soon.

Over all couldn't agree more... we cannot always get what we want.

 

Name a sandbox game that's choked and died lately. Seriously. Only ones I know of are EVE and Minecraft, and they are both doing a Hell of a lot better than Wurm. 

[xzea 20]

Name a sandbox game that's choked and died lately. Seriously. Only ones I know of are EVE and Minecraft, and they are both doing a Hell of a lot better than Wurm. 

Better is subjective. I enjoy Wurm far more than them. Wurm is doing fine financially and been around for around a decade now. It may not be as big in terms of players as those games but just having more players does not make a game better for me.

[KanePT 699]

Kane i think wurm will get better by time. They are experimenting a lot in the last months and the development will go on. I dont play that game for so long like many others but i notice that in the first 3 months there was nearly 0 changes and updates but now its getting more and more.

You said there are new games and maybe better games come out but think about that its much more complicated to advance a game with working game mechaniks than to start a new game from scratch. I dont think wurm is perfect at it is but its enjoyable and thats all i want.

So relax, see what will happen in the future and enjoy the game :-)

I've been here long enough to know that isn't true. Devs avoid deep changes because its too much work. Its as simple as that. Rolf did a thread asking how to change PvP since it sucks, but it had to be small stuff he could do quickly, without much work, ended up breaking the functionality of tower guards for PvE almost entirely because of it. Started working on changing armor, but that got sidelined. Why? Probably because he decided to go commando and personally interfere with PVP by benefiting one of the sides, and now the team is stuck on damage control releasing eye-candy to wash out the stain. Problem is he's doing something by himself in secret again, so brace yourselves for game breaking.

 

Just take a good look at anything done in the game, its always half-done.

Multi-storage still lacks ways to carry big stuff to higher floors (no stairs, only ladders), Unique spawns were handled with blanket changes that just broke creatures, and still make it crap, for a second i was excited about xanadu with the prospect of getting the titles for unique slaying, and the prospect of maybe finally getting to create a drake set (being a leatherworker its kind of THE dream), now i wouldn't get near a unique with a spear (btw anyone checked if spears do extra damage to dragons, they're mounts...), just look at anything in the game and you'll start noticing the trend of unfinished, cop-out, no QA changes.

 

Good luck with that. I've heard of Wurm killers for years... unfortunately every one of them has choked and died completely on their own. A decent competitor would be nice for many reasons; however, I'm not holding my breath any time soon.

Over all couldn't agree more... we cannot always get what we want.

LoL, just about any sandbox game as as many or more players than Wurm. Thing is Rolf is content with milking the few of us that like the game, he clearly gave up doing the "perfect game" of his on the same day he gave up on playing Wurm.

 

Name a sandbox game that's choked and died lately. Seriously. Only ones I know of are EVE and Minecraft, and they are both doing a Hell of a lot better than Wurm. 

There's lots more Sandboxes, and most of them, or at least the ones that made it past year one and weren't just rubbish, are still going strong, and many, like those you pointed out are, like you pointed out, doing a whole lot better than Wurm.

Its never too much to compare where Notch is right now, and where Rolf is stuck at since Notch left Wurm. Basically one is financing awesome games (I'll be eternally grateful for Age of Wonders 3) and duking out more games, while the other is still stuck with pretty much the same game he had a few years back, and what little got improved is, in a big measure, no thanks to him or his actions.

[Klaa 4,872]

Really? Xsyon? Darkfall? Ring any bells?

Everything else is either still in early beta or vaporware.

Hell even Rust's Devs have completely scrapped their codebase. Apparently they were trying to use the same codebase for two different games at once... seriously bad move. As they discovered it became an overwhelming mess.

And Im talking true sandboxes superior to Wurm; although, Eve Online despite being based on a scifi genre, comes pretty close. Unfortunately they still haven't shaken off pre-generated recursive fetch-this-kill-that questing. Only thing Im aware of that even comes close (besides Minecraft) is possibly Sony's Everquest project, and the Landmark component is looking more along the lines an intricate modelling game (if it can be called a game persay).

EDIT: Unfortunately getting offtrack from the OP... again given Rolf's previous statements and tendencies, its extremely unlikely anything making priests "easier" is going to make it in. Maybe something along the lines Gaeron has mentioned, since there has been limited changes to what each priest type can do. While still keeping everyone and his dog from being a priest. If a priest can do everything a normal char can do plus the additional abilities... why should everyone not be a priest?

Edited June 28, 2014 by Klaa

[As_I_Decay 1,592]

I suppose I really should have made it clear that skill use is capped at 20 for skills priests cannot currently use (existing skills work fine).  Ergo fishing works fine but carpentry is capped at 20 UNLESS faithful is turned off and you take the faith hit.

I, personally, will still object to this.

This suggestion really only caters to people who don't bother reading or learning the known mechanics of a portion of the game before diving head first into that area. :Long, long ago, the wiki informed me of what I could and could not do with a priest once he/she went priest. So, with that knowledge, I spent a few months gaining skill in those areas before priesting.

You want the skill? De-priest. Can always re-priest.

As for your free to play alt being better skilled than your priest, that's your own fault. You shouldn't be skilling with an f2p... you use them to hold land and items. All your skill gain should be going to your main or your priest (both premium characters).

 

[KanePT 699]

Really? Xsyon? Darkfall? Ring any bells?

Everything else is either still in early beta or vaporware.

Hell even Rust's Devs have completely scrapped their codebase. Apparently they were trying to use the same codebase for two different games at once... seriously bad move. As they discovered it became an overwhelming mess.

And Im talking true sandboxes superior to Wurm; although, Eve Online despite being based on a scifi genre, comes pretty close. Unfortunately they still haven't shaken off pre-generated recursive fetch-this-kill-that questing. Only thing Im aware of that even comes close (besides Minecraft) is possibly Sony's Everquest project, and the Landmark component is looking more along the lines an intricate modelling game (if it can be called a game persay).

EDIT: Unfortunately getting offtrack from the OP... again given Rolf's previous statements and tendencies, its extremely unlikely anything making priests "easier" is going to make it in. Maybe something along the lines Gaeron has mentioned, since there has been limited changes to what each priest type can do. While still keeping everyone and his dog from being a priest. If a priest can do everything a normal char can do plus the additional abilities... why should everyone not be a priest?

Xyson and darkfall are still around afaik. So can't say they're better than Wurm, its true that they are considered flops, but also would Wurm with less than 10k players if it had any mainstream advertising. I mean, ffs, 500 players (the average for most servers) is how many people guildwars 2 allows per side on the World vs World map (thats a PvP mode with 3 servers duking out, capturing castles and whatnot, so 1500 people total per map, and 4 maps per match-up). That's how negligible the size of the Wurm community is, and that's a major concern, to me at least, because with the semi-F2P model that goes on here (which is one of Wurm's biggest assets, don't fool yourself) every player counts, because probably 1/5 (or more) are free players.

 

On Rolf's attitude, i've voiced my thoughts once, but i'll repeat. It would be high time for Rolf (and some other people) to dig their heads out of the sand, remove their fingers form their ears and stop singing "lalalalala", because Wurm isn't getting any better, you can do new server launches to mask the numbers all year round, but the truth is, Wurm pop isn't improving that much.

 

Maybe its time to stop artificially increasing the figures, and start improving quality.

[Etherdrifter 2,518]

I, personally, will still object to this.

This suggestion really only caters to people who don't bother reading or learning the known mechanics of a portion of the game before diving head first into that area. :Long, long ago, the wiki informed me of what I could and could not do with a priest once he/she went priest. So, with that knowledge, I spent a few months gaining skill in those areas before priesting.

You want the skill? De-priest. Can always re-priest.

As for your free to play alt being better skilled than your priest, that's your own fault. You shouldn't be skilling with an f2p... you use them to hold land and items. All your skill gain should be going to your main or your priest (both premium characters).

 

Wow...  Where do I start?

I did type a long 3 paragraph answer but in reality I am just going to suggest your read up, I've already addressed your points in earlier posts.

I also heartily recommend you read the OP, especially on those who favour the status quo

[Gaeron 551]

Wow...  Where do I start?

I did type a long 3 paragraph answer but in reality I am just going to suggest your read up, I've already addressed your points in earlier posts.

I also heartily recommend you read the OP, especially on those who favour the status quo disagree with me or dont like my suggestino

FTFY

[Jeixi 146]

I just want to say that although I can't stand being moderated, I'm glad that the moderation that happened was at least not entirely one-sided. Thanks, mod. Whoever you are. It's rare to see a mod do their job in such a fair and unbiased way.

 

On topic: It seems recent changes have improved the quality of life for Fo priests quite a bit from what I observed. I might consider returning one day if I get bored enough and uniques keep spawning. 

[Shrimpiie 3,665]

*Raises Eyebrows*

[Druidnature 1,118]

It was a no brainer for me. My main activities on wurm are

1. Healing

2. Forest Tending

3. Alchemy

Fo fits those perfectly, though it does mean I need to wander around with a free alt to cut down withered trees so I can replant them.

That Is what I aim for, and I agree Fo not being able to cut trees can really, really suck

[nelkaya 2]

 I like the way it's setup for priests as it is. Now hear me out: if we could level the skills like anyone else we would be major OP and then everyone would want to be a priest. and then there would be no reason for anyone to not be a priest. a major imbalance in the game dynamics.

    Now there is a change i would like to see implemented for the Mag priests: the spell called "Magnaron's Wrath". I would like to be able to use it in pve to help tear down some walls that were built and i deeded over. Since we cant bash walls - it would help immensely.

[loenabelle 31]

Tiny idea: If you reach soul strength or soul depth (according to what priest you are) to level 70 (or higher i dunno) you lose your limitations. This way you have to work extremely hard but it will give you a huge reward.

[Druidnature 1,118]

Tiny idea: If you reach soul strength or soul depth (according to what priest you are) to level 70 (or higher i dunno) you lose your limitations. This way you have to work extremely hard but it will give you a huge reward.

Even though I would absolutely love that.... And 70 isn't a easy goal for "most" people. Buying a few hundred thousand crops, and your there. I don't think that would make much sense.

Then again, it's wurm... Where a priest isn't a priest.

[KanePT 699]

 I like the way it's setup for priests as it is. Now hear me out: if we could level the skills like anyone else we would be major OP and then everyone would want to be a priest. and then there would be no reason for anyone to not be a priest. a major imbalance in the game dynamics.

    Now there is a change i would like to see implemented for the Mag priests: the spell called "Magnaron's Wrath". I would like to be able to use it in pve to help tear down some walls that were built and i deeded over. Since we cant bash walls - it would help immensely.

In theory, but since everyone HAS a priest and a normal char, there goes your "imbalance" That balance came and went when they allowed multi-boxing and using alts.

[Klaa 4,872]

Actually not everyone has a priest. Heck not everyone even has access to a premium priest char, let alone a priest from each god.

 

Now the more active and established groups have such priest access, no big surprise there. However, in those examples, the power of the priests (faith and channeling) can vary. Sure there's legacy priests having been around for years; though, no guarantee they are particularly powerful as a priest.

 

Playing multiple chars at once has been allowed well before I even began playing. Why would Rolf not want people paying him more money for more prem accounts?

 

EDIT: Funny coincidence, just updated the prem for my main Fo priest 

Edited July 1, 2014 by Klaa