Plan for a Plan

[Sarcaticous 338]

To be honest the last people you want to ask about ideas to retain new players are old players. You need to ask new players, not new alts, what they would like to see to make them want to stay playing the game.

Edited December 9, 2015 by Sarcaticous

[Roh 7]

Besides the comments of a new/3D Wurm 2.0; all of the (good) recommendations would quickly be adapted to WU and therefore moot...

[Lancelot 765]

5 hours ago, Sarcaticous said:

To be honest the last people you want to ask about ideas to retain new players are old players. You need to ask new players, not new alts, what they would like to see to make them want to stay playing the game.

Sarcacaticous, it is the 'old ' players that have kept this game going since 2002..

Without their feedback we would most likely not be having this abjucated discussion here now.

 

THE new player's thread in the forums needs to be better highlighted.....oh wait, there isn't one.

Get one going. It needs to show the history of Wurm Online, the people the have made it possible, some of the long - term players' input and advice, and where Wurm Online's developers see the game in 5 years..

 

Think of it as a marketing meeting. You are selling your product to the world, they have never seen anything like it before, so sell it to them.

Tell them that whatever their dreams may be, whether they want to lead a kingdom, found one, or just find a spot for themselves, in Wurm Online, they can do it.

 

I, in the 6 or more years that I've been playing, have seen many changes to game play, graphics and player base. It is high time that you, the developers saw the fruits of the long labour.

[Fairyshine 3,183]

I did not read all the suggestions but if the concept is to make WO more attractive than WU, or appealing in different ways, perhaps consider

1. Certain free updates and items just available in WO and not released to WU, unless perhaps later on as a pack update/bundle which can be purchased.  These items could be things that are not essential to the game itself, i.e. mostly cosmetic or crafting items.  Think things like clothes, horse blankets, horse pajamas, hats, crowns, masks, necklaces that can take a jewel you set in it, fancy weapon sheaths, ribbons, make up, mirrors for new types of beards, mirrors for new hair styles, new types of flowers, flags, pillows, etc.  Perhaps mosaic tiles.

2.Selling some cosmetic and fun stuff via a shop (NOT TRADERS) only in WO, not released to WU. This ensures Code Club gets the cash instead of people being able to forage for money in game.   

3. Don't tamper with skill gain in WO, at all.  Ever.

4. Ability to buy seed or bottles with tiny creatures like whales and dolphins which you can release in enclosed bodies of water, or coral you can plant in those, so you don't have to go miles and miles in the hopes of finding these creatures to kite back to your deeds.  Since people can spawn these in WU, and they like the ability to do so, it would be great if some way can be found to allow people to do so in WO as well.

5. Buy-able novelty animals and plants, like Clydesdales, Arabians, donkeys,  colourful parrots for our shoulders, owls, goldfish for our ponds, koi fish, lilies to float on ponds, interesting tree types, ferns, vines, Venus flytraps,...

6.  PLEASE fix the fact carts and wagons still don't follow terrain.

7. Fix glow on rare carts.

8. Stop messing with lore items like fountain pans.  It only peeves off long time WO customers who can go make their own bags of keeping inside containers in WU, and perhaps never come back to WO after that.

9. Bring back different wood/grain on ships and furniture.  

10. 3D mines.  Doors or gates inside mines.

11. Round/curved walls, diagonal walls and hedges, very tall doors.

12. Rivers, streams, and lakes on the terrain not at sea level.  You would start them on a spring tile with a fountain-like item that fills the depression/river bed with water.

 

[Giganthor 25]

I would love getting this Arched Wall Bug fixed. (you can't reach x through the Wall)

[Trepper 78]

1st off you few epic players its not happening because use freedom players Have zero desire for PvP and dont want to play in any PvP enviroment keep you PvP off Freedom we live there to aviod PvP.  If there are not enough players on epic then you need to work on getting people to play it.  Keep in mind there is also the issue of uneven stat and skill gain as well.  I commend Rolf for standing his ground and supporting is larges and longest running supporter group in WURM.

 

Love the idea to add perm time to those that Buy WU but I would make it so they only getting it after completeing a set number of accomplishments in WU steam.  That would assure they are not brand new and know what to do when they get to WO and not wiast their free prem.

 

A couple Ideas I have been throwing around one is add a med. Wagon.   Hauls more then a Lrg Cart and less then a covered wagon.  Make the Med wagon a buck board basicly no cover open and can haul players at the expense of cargo space.

Add a Gypsy wagon like the real ones from europe that date back as far as roman times.  Basicly a home on wheels right down to a small oven.

Make the Mines true 3D so we can add things like doors in mines and buildings at the same time add a couple crops like mushrooms that can be grown in caves and 1 or 2 cave animals so players that want to live mostly under ground can.

Make alot more clothing items and the ability to dye them many Females deemand this kinda stuff in games like WURM

Add a bulk item storage container for liquids like the BSB and FSB and Crates so we can store olive oil syrup lemon aid extera.

To increase WURM cash income to support more programing and improvements ....try adding some items that can be purchased (for Euro's ectera) in the WURM Shop, make them items that you can show off be it worn or displayed no bonous to stats or skills ectera pure cosmetcic and spectaculare.

 

One more set it up so players that are also programers cancreat the grafics for the game even hold competition for the best new fence grafics or what ever save payed programers time and get some great adds for free. (pirates of the Burning Sea did it and got some great flags and sails).

 

 

Edited December 11, 2015 by Trepper

[Arkonick 557]

I was going to make a video explaining more into the idea of a micro transaction shop for you Rolf but then response you gave sounded like you was just going to add some more crap like you already have on the traders which I'm afraid it want suffice.

 

You need to go play EverQuest then go play Ever Quest II then jump on DCUO then head over to Planet side 2 then jump into Landmark then run over to LOTRO and there are others but these are some of the more successful micro transaction shops in the industry. Don't go to play them just go there to look at there micro shops so you can get a real idea where money is made and you are missing out on. 

 

The micro transactions I was speaking of would require you to make a new form of currency you could call WurmCash. This Wurm cash could be bought on the online shop. This cash can only be used to buy specific items that can not be made by players, traded, or sold by players these items would be player locked and cosmetic only. There would be no skill increase or timers or enhancements just a nice cosmetic look that can be skinned on a item. You could sell individual and full set's of custom furniture that is real fancy for the decoration of players houses. All these items could be placed in the Traders invoice to be purchased in game with the Wurm cash. This system would make WO very separated from WU. It would encourage players to play on WO cause this stuff wouldn't be available on WU.

 

If players complain they can't resell it well just remind them you gave them every thing else in the game to micro for them selves and this is your personal shop. This is what you need to look into not what I think you was talking about. If I'm wrong correct me Rolf but way you worded that it sounds like to me you just going to add some more crap that is way over priced that only a few people will buy. Micro transaction shops are successful when the item is not game enhancing and cheap. I urge you to just go look how Soe runs there shop and the type of stuff they sell.

 

your current micro transactions items are game enhancements and cost way to much for the average player. There just the wrong type and cost way to much. Oh I forgot they can be traded as well which is another mistake. A lot of micro transaction shops are seasonal as well and they do very good business. Christmas items hats, clothes, cosmetics, Valentine's day stuff, Halloween stuff, WO anniversary, etc....You could look into soe's player studio thing they do it is on every game now they have.

It is a system where players can go in modeling programs make item's and throw them up on the cash shop. Soe gets 60% cut fore every item sold and the player gets 40%. 1 player made around 7000.00 1 month in planet side 2 of sales and that was at a 40% cut soe got 60%.

 

This is just some idea's and more of what I was asking in IRC that day. Honest I never bought anything in WO but a personal merchant once for 10s and a deed writ in past 5 years cause you charge way to much for a fictional item. But I've spent 100's a year in SOE games in the cash shop of there micro transactions. I mean in this day and age you can't just rely on a sub cause most games are FTP now days working the cash shops of cosmetics. Specially now you released WU pay once model.

[Keenan 5,539]

16 minutes ago, Arkonick said:

I was going to make a video explaining more into the idea of a micro transaction shop for you Rolf but then response you gave sounded like you was just going to add some more crap like you already have on the traders which I'm afraid it want suffice.

 

You need to go play EverQuest then go play Ever Quest II then jump on DCUO then head over to Planet side 2 then jump into Landmark then run over to LOTRO and there are others but these are some of the more successful micro transaction shops in the industry. Don't go to play them just go there to look at there micro shops so you can get a real idea where money is made and you are missing out on. 

 

The micro transactions I was speaking of would require you to make a new form of currency you could call WurmCash. This Wurm cash could be bought on the online shop. This cash can only be used to buy specific items that can not be made by players, traded, or sold by players these items would be player locked and cosmetic only. There would be no skill increase or timers or enhancements just a nice cosmetic look that can be skinned on a item. You could sell individual and full set's of custom furniture that is real fancy for the decoration of players houses. All these items could be placed in the Traders invoice to be purchased in game with the Wurm cash. This system would make WO very separated from WU. It would encourage players to play on WO cause this stuff wouldn't be available on WU.

 

If players complain they can't resell it well just remind them you gave them every thing else in the game to micro for them selves and this is your personal shop. This is what you need to look into not what I think you was talking about. If I'm wrong correct me Rolf but way you worded that it sounds like to me you just going to add some more crap that is way over priced that only a few people will buy. Micro transaction shops are successful when the item is not game enhancing and cheap. I urge you to just go look how Soe runs there shop and the type of stuff they sell.

 

your current micro transactions items are game enhancements and cost way to much for the average player. There just the wrong type and cost way to much. Oh I forgot they can be traded as well which is another mistake. A lot of micro transaction shops are seasonal as well and they do very good business. Christmas items hats, clothes, cosmetics, Valentine's day stuff, Halloween stuff, WO anniversary, etc....You could look into soe's player studio thing they do it is on every game now they have.

It is a system where players can go in modeling programs make item's and throw them up on the cash shop. Soe gets 60% cut fore every item sold and the player gets 40%. 1 player made around 7000.00 1 month in planet side 2 of sales and that was at a 40% cut soe got 60%.

 

This is just some idea's and more of what I was asking in IRC that day. Honest I never bought anything in WO but a personal merchant once for 10s and a deed writ in past 5 years cause you charge way to much for a fictional item. But I've spent 100's a year in SOE games in the cash shop of there micro transactions. I mean in this day and age you can't just rely on a sub cause most games are FTP now days working the cash shops of cosmetics. Specially now you released WU pay once model.

 

I'm curious how many people are like me, and actually left SOE's games over their microshops? It was also part of the reason I finally left after 6 years of volunteering for both EQ and EQ2.

 

There's no doubt it's successful in the sense that even I've used it. The big problem is that EQ/EQ2/etc doesn't literally back their in-game currency with real world currency. To accomplish any of this would mean to finally discard that fact, and likely cause people to feel that any investment they've made over the years is null and void. Now I hold no illusions of what an "investment" means when it comes to an online game, especially when I don't hold or own any rights to my character or the items contained therein, but it has been one of the major selling points of Wurm over the years.

 

That said, I don't think a micro shop is out of the question entirely. It just has to be a better solution than what you've offered as NONE of those would fit in here. Yes, I've played them all (well, except for Planetside). LOTRO was one of my favorite games until their micros went in. The only time I popped back was when a friend who worked for Turbine gave me a bunch of in-game cash codes. I think I used a few and gave the rest away, the game just felt tainted and the cash shop did nothing to fix the actual problems with the game.

 

[Arkonick 557]

6 hours ago, Keenan said:

 

I'm curious how many people are like me, and actually left SOE's games over their microshops? It was also part of the reason I finally left after 6 years of volunteering for both EQ and EQ2.

 

There's no doubt it's successful in the sense that even I've used it. The big problem is that EQ/EQ2/etc doesn't literally back their in-game currency with real world currency. To accomplish any of this would mean to finally discard that fact, and likely cause people to feel that any investment they've made over the years is null and void. Now I hold no illusions of what an "investment" means when it comes to an online game, especially when I don't hold or own any rights to my character or the items contained therein, but it has been one of the major selling points of Wurm over the years.

 

That said, I don't think a micro shop is out of the question entirely. It just has to be a better solution than what you've offered as NONE of those would fit in here. Yes, I've played them all (well, except for Planetside). LOTRO was one of my favorite games until their micros went in. The only time I popped back was when a friend who worked for Turbine gave me a bunch of in-game cash codes. I think I used a few and gave the rest away, the game just felt tainted and the cash shop did nothing to fix the actual problems with the game.

 

The thing about this type of system it wouldn't interfere with the already silver economy system in place. The only thing it does is give Rolf a way to earn a better cash flow over his original money sink thing that really does nothing for him. Rolf has for ever allowed the players to have full control over the micro transaction system to make money for them self and every time he put in a special item LMC,SMC,TR, etc... he has allowed players to be able to resell even under cut him in silver sales. So his income has been low on this side.

 

My true intentions has always been to help Rolf make money to keep WO developed and going and has never been about making the players or my self money. We already have a way to make money in the game so I think it is time for Rolf to have his own system that is separate from the system and allows him ways to earn money that no one can under cut him on and allows him to pay those on his payroll. Some might be afraid that if Rolf does a system like this he would eventually have no need to keep his silver at 1 euro per silver. At this point he has to compete with his WU which someone can pay once and never have these fee's so I'm afraid this silver sale price drop will happen sooner than you can imagine to keep WO afloat.

 

The reason it wont fit to most who use the game as a RWMT is it could cause people to buy less of certain items cause they would more than likely spend there money buying the micro cosmetic's from Rolf. It comes down to what does the player fancy more. Buying that sword from you for 5 RW dollars or giving that money to Rolf for a very nice model skin for the sword they have and maybe finding someone to imp it for them or enduring the QL until they have the skill to imp it them selves. There are so many scenarios that could happen but it don't look bad from Rolf's income end it just looks like it would effect the players mostly which is why some would be against a system like this.

 

I never left Soe because of the micro shops not to mention I need to spend my 10k of station cash, it was the never ending billion of quest shoved down my throat and the same expansion every time that was the same old game just new mob models few new spells with old reused spell effects and re skined armors to some new armor models with every stat in game increased. The system they use gets old after so many years. It leaves a Deja vu didn't I just go threw this the last expansion. There is just really nothing left Rolf can do to make money. You can't and this would take a really good crap talker to convince some one to pay to play the same game they can get for a one time fee.

 

I looked at this from my perspective. How could Rolf get me to come play a game I really never had any social activity with other players other than my RL friends and family who played with me. No real events that can be done in a timely fashion. A wallet drain from my wallet every month to enjoy the only thing I liked to do in his game that gave me enjoyment.

What would get a player like me to return from my own personal server I host that gives me the same social I had on his server. The fact I can create event's now to entertain me and family. And I don't have a wallet sink any more or a game style RWMT I have never been fond of.

 

For this to happen these things would have to apply or it will be a no go.

1. Lower sub per month.

2. A 25x25 deed would have to be attached to the sub and I would never have to pay for this deed cause it is part of my sub and all deed rules would apply to it and no restriction's.

3. Silver would have to be cut in half min in half.

4. He would have to have a ton of new mobs like I spoke of in this plan for plan for me to engage in.

5. He would have to make a new set of hd textures for the entire game for people like me who have huge gaming rigs who want the higher detail and can handle it. This could be a simple option in the game settings.

6. He would have to give me new fancy armor's and a ton of new construction walls min 80 new walls 20 fences all new etc....Wurm is my sim city.

7. New server cut off from all WO servers that has a in game money system earned from killing humanoid mobs that can be used to pay for land trading and all that does not require me to use a RWMT system.

 

This is what I was looking at and there are thousands of players like me who have came tried WO and walked away an there are those of us who stayed regardless of the low texture qualities and the lack of pve hunting fun an regardless of the RWMT system which we don't like just to play this unique sandbox. Other wise I will continue to play on my WU hosted server the size of indy with just me my son  brother and RL friends I allow to come play. WU was my Achilles Heel.

[Carmichael 684]

If the dev team decides to remove tower capping, remove all the towers on the server as well. It's a simple way to balance it out because of how easy it is to capture towers currently.

[enoofu 206]

Microshops don't usually work well with small Dev teams since you always need to create new items with comsumes Dev time

[Corsan 199]

Really? Someone deleted my post in here?

 

Censorship is part of the reason you're losing paid members.

 

I'd been considering coming back, but that just clinched the decision for me.

 

Over zealous power hungry forum warriors who can just wipe things they disagree with out with a few simple clicks...and nobody doing any 'checks' to make sure it's not being abused/nobody to report it to when it happens.

 

It's usually a good idea to actually listen to the people who were paying(I was premium for 2+ years and had bought some silver along the way also.)/took their money elsewhere, and I'd posted my reasoning/some suggestions on things I thought could use some fixing.

 

My comments were on page 14, and Mordraug commented on it...and it's magically just 'gone'. I didn't even post anything inappropriate. /sigh

 

Farewell Wurm, you were fun for awhile, but then control freaks took over.

[Retrograde 12,013]

This thread is the opportunity to share what changes you wish to see in the game from the developers, not the opportunity to cast aspersions, accuse others of griefing, and then complaining of staff not taking your side.

 

We do read through all of this very carefully, but we do also expect a certain level of thought to responses, so please keep it on topic

[Milosanx 716]

On 07/12/2015 at 5:52 AM, Baloo said:

Please do something about RNG - anything better than it is now would be much appreciated.

 

As it is atm, it wastes time and resources and is the worst and most irritating aspect of Wurm imo.

 

and please un-nerf priests, so their skill gains are the same as non-priests - on the few things they can do...

 

RNG on priest cast needs a look at. We shouldnt see fails on trying to cast over low casts, or even get low casts when we have put hundreds of days into our priests. Averages should be a lot closer to channeling skill, even though it is related to it already. But If i'm 80 channeling, i'd like to see a better range of casts eg 60-90. Not You cast a circle of cunning (1)

[Omgderp 185]

Not sure where to put this...

 

 

I am extremely happy that you listened to the feedback about nublet starter gear, that's been bugging me for years.

 

[Arvid 64]

1. Make mobs sense the fighting strength of players and ignore/try to avoid players far out of their league. So a weak fighter would generally be ignored by mobs far stronger than him, while a very strong fighter would generally sort of repel weak mobs.
2. Make mining timers dependant on the QL of the resource mined, so that i.e. very low QL rock would be mined much faster than very high QL rock.

[Fairyshine 3,183]

Bashing and deed ownership...

1. Allow any deed owner to bash with mayor bonus, regardless of whether he/she has the required body strength or premium.  The fact that Wurm requires each mayor to have only one deed and then on top of this requires the mayor to be premium to be able to use his/her 21 body strength (if they even have it), is extremely annoying.

2. Allow anyone with bashing bonus, to bash as fast as the mayor.  If needed do this only for PvE.  It is silly that one person can own two deeds and because the one deed is mayored by a non prem alt, the person who pays for the deed cannot bash quickly on that deed.

3.  Allow people to trade deeds with no time constraints on PvE, and no premium required.  If there is a restriction on the receiving char having to have premium one time prior, that is fine, but really makes no sense that you cannot trade deeds to no premium chars.

[Corsan 199]

17 hours ago, Retrograde said:

This thread is the opportunity to share what changes you wish to see in the game from the developers, not the opportunity to cast aspersions, accuse others of griefing, and then complaining of staff not taking your side.

 

We do read through all of this very carefully, but we do also expect a certain level of thought to responses, so please keep it on topic

 

My comments WERE on topic. That's why I as a paying person STOPPED PAYING. Rolf asked us how to stop hemorrhaging premium subs.

 

The simple fact that these situations continues to be hidden from him is one of the reasons. There's a pretty specific group of Nazi/Stalin-esque type people on staff who are pulling a whole 'stick our heads in the sand and it'll go away' thing on here, and because of that : you keep losing paid members. I used to sit and chat with hundreds of people on general chat and that was a very common theme among many of their gripes about the game, and one of the reasons many of them gave for not continuing to pay.

 

You're welcome to keep losing premium folks if you'd like to and acting like there isn't a problem. No skin off my back. It's only your beloved game that's hurting.

 

Many of the game mechanics themselves are a draw, and keep people around/coming back for more. I had actually left for a few months and came back already once...and had been considering a second foray because I had enjoyed the game itself. But these behaviors are obviously still around/on-going, and I cannot support said behavior with my money. If the creator/developer wants to fix the problem and bring back paying members, I was giving my opinion on the matter. Hence, on topic. Hiding my on topic post so people can't see it? That's just another nail in the coffin of the game.

Edited December 14, 2015 by Corsan

[Audrel 2,223]

2 hours ago, Fairyshine said:

Bashing and deed ownership...

1. Allow any deed owner to bash with mayor bonus, regardless of whether he/she has the required body strength or premium.  The fact that Wurm requires each mayor to have only one deed and then on top of this requires the mayor to be premium to be able to use his/her 21 body strength (if they even have it), is extremely annoying.

2. Allow anyone with bashing bonus, to bash as fast as the mayor.  If needed do this only for PvE.  It is silly that one person can own two deeds and because the one deed is mayored by a non prem alt, the person who pays for the deed cannot bash quickly on that deed.

3.  Allow people to trade deeds with no time constraints on PvE, and no premium required.  If there is a restriction on the receiving char having to have premium one time prior, that is fine, but really makes no sense that you cannot trade deeds to no premium chars.

 

Or people who have a deed but prefer to live with their friends on a main village instead of in the middle of nowhere where your neighbors have not logged in for 3 months. 

It's way too much of a pain to hop back and forth between citizenship on deeds when you want to work on something.

 

Of course, it's only 3 euro a month. It's not like disbanding out of frustration and getting my 6 months back would really affect anything (unless 500 alts did it for 1500 euro a month game-wide).

[Eltaran 79]

As a new player I can tell you what irks me personally from my very limited PoV (Freedom, Xanadu). Please don't yell at me in case it all sounds stupid to long time players - I am a genuine noob

 

First off I'd like to say that I enjoy WO a lot. I have also tried Life is Feudal: Your Own but find WO much more enjoyable. As such don't take the points below as whining - it's just the things that make me sigh and moan the most

Skill gain – many things just seem to require an endless grind before you can do still rather basic tasks. All in all I really do like a slower pace but the skill curve is (in parts) madness as the gain even for basic skills gets too slow too fast IMHO, having the potential of turning your experience into a chore early on (for example: Prospecting from 20 to 35 to be able to see as far inside a mine as on the surface seems excessive to me for example. 30 would be more than enough for this step. Not being able to tear down an erroneously placed wall of your own house until you have Strength 21, which took about three weeks for me (and I think I am already playing quite a lot). 20.5 or even 20.1 would have been OK to prevent free players from going on a rampage.Or just give an option to tear down walls in your own building from the menu.). It may not sound like big changes but if you can retain new players past the first month they are much more likely to stay. If a new player feels like the whole skill requirements to do anything are like a brickwall he's much more likely to give up without really getting the hang of the game.

Market – I still have no idea where I could go to sell stuff. The traders I have seen only sell. The advice given how to earn money as a noob usually seems to involve slave labor or grinding useless junk to sell to a settlement for 1 iron each. What I haven’t found so far are niches for new players (in EVE Online for example (to use another sandbox as an example) new players can still feel useful selling basic stuff like ammo without having to sell their bodies). That is a big turn off loosing you a lot of new players I bet. Maybe I don’t get the market at all though, which in itself might be a point to look into then.

 

Server specific problems:

Mob density – in the South of Xanadu there seems to be a problem with mob spawns. I planned to do a lot of hunting and leatherworking plus some breeding. So far I have seen one hide bearing animal, which is a Seal that is mostly sitting up on a mountainside where I can’t reach it. Deer I have seen zero. A few spiders, two trolls, two bears, two hell hounds, four chicken, one bull and one pig in three weeks around my spot (all killed with the help of guards). For the breeding I managed to capture that one pig and one bull, which will both very likely die of old age before I get to see the counterparts.

Ore distribution – looking at what I managed to prospect it seems like most ore is near the water, where it is difficult to get a plot of land still without terraforming heavily (which isn’t something a new player can realistically do). Thus you are left with inland plots that have a lot of rocks, rocks and more rocks (at least where I am sitting, could be bad luck but a Google search yields quite some complaints about the ore distribution).

 

As it stands getting Wurm Unlimited and running our own little server with friendlier settings looks like a good way forward as being able to get a good plot and to participate in the market in a meaningful way doesn't look like an option.

 

 

[Amadee 1,543]

So, was talking with a friend yesterday and thought I'd post some of the thoughts we had on this subject.

 

I think most agree that community and economy is something that helps hold people in any game. And no matter what, even where there are multiple separated *official* servers in a game, each one has it's own unique community and economy.   It's one of many things that will always differentiate official WO servers from WU, even if everything added to WO also gets added to WU.

 

With that said, the jist of our conversation was along the lines of the need for central "hubs" where people are likely to gather for socializing and selling/buying as well as providing a newbie friendly area.  Easing the server crossings was a great start but needs to go further.

 

So, what about if the starter towns were real towns owned by CC and not players?  Towns where plots (big enough for one small-footprint house and maybe room for one horse), could be bought cheaply and with low monthly maintenance.  Theirs to build what they want on, cheaply, in safety and around others, with a nearby marketplace.  (I fondly remember in UO, people hanging out in towns hawking their wares and services. Anyone remember Brit Bank?).  More money for CC too.

 

For that matter, CC could even rent out Inn rooms to newbies for the night for a couple irons.  The whole idea being it is game-run.  New people I think would be more likely to trust something like that rather than having to trust strangers they know nothing about yet.

 

Some people like joining villages owned by players but many do not. Especially when they've had the experience of feeling like slaves building someone else's deed and doing their work for them. (I knew of one who used to send emails to her villagers with their daily chores listed. lol).  And some people just like living independent or living in and around  towns.  And currently, the newest players have to be the furthest from the starters towns if they want independence.

 

Combine something like this with a sensible portal system between starter towns and I think the economy would pick up and become more vibrant as well as building community as people new to the game would have a place to hang out, get to know people, maybe make/sell some resources, get the hang of the game, etc.

 

Obviously it would require a lot of thought, things beyond the scope of the conversation I had with my friend. Things like avoiding a situation where plots are monopolized by a few, etc., etc.  *shrugs* 

 

But anyway, I think something like this could be the start of a really good idea.

Edited December 15, 2015 by Amadee

[eyerobot 202]

If not said before:

 

I'd like to see a keybinding possibility for "use" command on vesseled gems. 

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I'm sure someone else has said this by now, and I know it was mentioned a while back by the staff as something worth looking into, but I'm going to say it again here for posterity.  Rivers.  Oh and another thing that we had waaaay back in the day (the older players will be familiar with the fun and frustrations of this), mic integration.  Being able to speak to others in your local area with a mic through in-game mechanics was very very cool, albeit a pain in the ass for the development team.  Anyway to bring this back would be fantastic!

[LorenaMontana 3,008]

Mic integration would be extremly fun and good for this game, great idea.

 

 

 

 

[Slickshot 1,195]

6 minutes ago, LorenaMontana said:

Mic integration would be extremly fun and good for this game, great idea.

 

 

 

 

We used to have mic capabilities in Wurm, about 5-6 years ago if I remember correctly. It was really cool, but as I understand it was also a pain for the developers and had a lot of issues.  I've been hoping for years that they'd go back to the drawing board on that and implement it again.  Here's hoping!!!

 

PS: if anyone else shares this enthusiasm, please spread the word!