Wurm online is dying and it has to be revived

[Elktazahjr 131]

Wurm online is dying and it has to be revived

 

I've been playing Wurm Online since approximately 2012. I've always loved the concept of a game in which the world is shaped by players. I loved the idea of what Wurm Online was advertising, a world in which you can choose your professions, in which your accomplishments last and community working is encouraged. Trades are serious business and alliances between deeds can make a big difference

 

That is the idea with which I and many people arrived to wurm online for the first time in our lives. Back when I joined when celeb was still new the game still had that feeling to it and left me decently satisfied, although it was a little less than what the game seemed like it would be. Nevertheless, I'm still here after 4 years and I've especially been having fun in Wurm Unlimited since its release. Though, as time started passing, the price hikes happened in Wurm Online and servers started getting emptier I feel like wurm online has lost a lot of its original feeling. All memory that I have left of Wurm Online is

 

- Mostly consists of watching action timers pass

- Everything happens super slowly. Good luck accomplishing anything besides a simple deed as a single person without throwing your real life away

- Pay a premium price exceeding the costs of your triple A MMO to watch said action timers pass

- GM's are incredibly inconsistent and I feel like they have done the player base more harm than good in the past. No professionalism detectable, although I feel like codeclub did make a (poor) attempt.

 

And seeing the current state of wurm online honestly makes me kind of sad. I still wish it could be the great game that it could be. A lot of developers have tried to cater to the sandbox people, most obvious example is Life is Feudal, yet all of them have failed so far. Wurm Online is still the closest game to an actual medieval sandbox game and I feel like it is wasting all of its potential. Especially after they have stabbed themselves by releasing wurm unlimited, rather than fixing the original game, with each day that passes the chances of wurm online reaching that potential starts becoming less and less.

 

Considering the devs themselves had expected a lot, lot of more subscribers after the release of wurm unlimited it shows that it has failed at what it was supposed to do.

 

Most of us that are still here have been playing wurm online for a long while, and we have all been used to its quirks, although many still end up quitting, or “taking a break” for half a year or more out of the ridiculousness of some updates. Which, proven when the permissions system got released, apparently don't even get tested before being released on the live servers.

 

Now I didn't make this thread with the intentions of complaining about my disappointment, rather to come up my own ideas and suggestions to what in my opinion would help wurm online reach its true potential.

 

I am aware that whatever I list here, the “hardcore” wurm online players will immediately say no to it without giving it any shred of thought, as they are not at all interested in the well being of this game, rather their own little attachments and accomplishments in their little worlds. Take that away, and they'd leave this game and Rolf in a heartbeat, despite claims of them caring about the game and being loyal to Rolf. Therefore, I ask you not to read the suggestions out of greed or personal gains, rather purely out of a perspective of what is best to allow wurm online to thrive. I simply want to state my suggestions and start a discussion as to how to improve this game, I'm not ordering this game to immediately switch to adjust to my opinions and ideas.

[Elktazahjr 131]

SERVER ISSUES

Wurm online is a game best played with many other people. A big medieval world in which the players shape the world and real life is simulated will never be as fun as with a big, online community to do so with

 

-”But more players means more trollers and griefers!”

People used this as an argument against releasing wurm online on steam. Now wurm unlimited has been released on steam. I play on a server which at its peak has about 140 players online, and I have seen less griefers than I have in wurm online, while according to the wo community it should be filled with griefers and kids wreaking havoc. Why have I never encountered any griefers? Because the server has proper admins that solve griefer conflicts and are not afraid to compensate the player who has been griefed, while in wo they'd get a “sorry” at best. It is in the end the administrators responsibility to keep the griefers at a minimum. Keeping the player count low to have potentially less griefers is like cutting of an arm because you fear it might get hurt in the future.

 

With that aside, the current freedom server populations as I am writing this post are:

 

Independence: 90

Deliverance: 42

Exodus: 22!

Celebration: 15!

Pristine: 45

Release: 22!

Xanadu: 136

 

This is a total of 372 players, divided over 7 servers. The first question that pops up in my mind is: Why does wurm online have 7 servers to be divided over approximately 400 (500-550 during peak times) players? There are currently 3 servers of which I rarely see the population go above 30. Is it really a good idea to keep a tiny, tiny playerbase divided over 7 whole servers? And of course, this is only counting the freedom servers, Epic visibly being more of a disaster. All players on freedom could be merged into a server the size of Xanadu and there still wouldn't be any space issues at first and I believe this would honestly be better for the game.

 

-”But I don't like living with other people and interacting in a medieval sandbox MMO!”

Wurm online is an MMO and it is meant to be played on a community level. If you want to play a single player game, there's Wurm Unlimited for that.

 

 

 

 

 

[Elktazahjr 131]

Space Issues

Now note how I specifically said “at first”. While I believe that wurm online would be much more enjoyable with the player base being more concentrated, with the current nature of the game it would create issues regarding space. The main problems that I have noticed are:

 

- Land does not regenerate quickly enough. It can take real life months before a field of dirt has grass and trees over it again, with paved and otherwise altered land staying there forever. This creates an incredibly ugly sight particularly scaring away new players.

 

- There are no mechanics of taking over a piece of land. Once the owners of a deed have left, you first have to wait for several real life months for the deed to lose upkeep, then wait for the buildings to decay after that, which can take up to half a real life year depending on the quality of the buildings. Big chunks of land all over the world are left untouchable for up to a real life year, which is essentially “dead land”. Wurm online servers are huge, particularly Xanadu, but these huge amounts of “dead land” make players say “there is no more space on this server!”. Now Rolf has “fixed” this in the past by simply making a new server, thinking on a short term base as always, which in return diluted the player base over and over again until we got here, a tiny player base divided over 7 servers.

 

While on a short term base the issue is not as big, for a server that is destined to last for several years as a main server, it will cause the main server to look like a hideous mutant wasteland creature that shouldn't exist in the first place.

 

How to fix these space issues? First of all, let nature regenerate a lot quicker on non-deeded pieces of land in order to prevent creating hideous and unsightly landscapes. Then, add penalties to deeds whose citizens or major have not logged in for a certain period of time, which includes the start of decay on buildings/objects. Let undeeded !buildings! (not walls and other objects) decay a lot quicker on undeeded land so that a person willing to take care of the place can deed over it. Another possibility would be to add a mechanic to destroy undeeded houses (I honestly don't know why this is still not a possibility with the purging of closures and creation of tents).

 

[Elktazahjr 131]

Payment Issues

 

One of the most stated reasons for enjoying Wurm Unlimited over Wurm Online is the fact that Wurm Unlimited is a single-payment only game. Not saying that WO should be a single payment game, but the current payment model has to go. As I've stated earlier, currently you pay more than for your average triple A MMO with a huge and active development team. A month of premium costing 8 euros is reasonable, but the additional silver cost can easily make playing wurm online get up to 15+ euros a month, and this is for a single character and a single deed average sized deed.

 

The most damaging issue is the age old not working system of paying for currency. What I love about the wurm unlimited server I play on is the fact that there are a lot of ways to make money as an average player, such as hunting giving money and trader getting a decent amount of money for people to drain (although I still don't really like the trader, it could be improved to work though). Wurm online needs to get rid of this silver payment method, up the premium price slightly (10 dollars for a month sounds about fair; converted 1:1 to euros) and add ways for people to earn money in game. There's a lot of room for creativity on this subject.

 

-”But code club would make less money that way”

 

While the slight premium price increase wouldn't compensate for all of the money that isn't being spend on euros, in the long run with the player base that is being aimed for it would make a lot more money for codeclub.

 

Not to mention a lot of silver is being “recycled” by players who sell to other players with a reduced price on the silver.

 

And if you care a lot for code club, donating is always an option.

 

 

[Elktazahjr 131]

Gameplay issues

 

GUI

Oh, where do I start with this one? The most mentioned issue at the negative reviews section of wurm unlimited is the lack of a proper GUI, and I most agree with this. Although we have gotten used to it, for a new players it is nothing short of a nightmare. The fact that you have to open inventory, look for tools (or use the tool belt which can be equally annoying and difficult to get for a new player at a high quality anyway) in your inventory, find it, double click it and then you can finally get to what you were trying to do. I feel like the crafting interface was a huge step forward in improving this as without it, it was even more of a nightmare. But it is not enough.

 

My suggestion? Make tools work runescape-toolbelt style. Tools are automatically used when they're on your tool belt depending on what you're trying to do. Got a hatched on your tool belt? Right click a tree and the option to cut down is there.

 

Now the obvious issue would be overlap, as a carving knife and hatched for example both have different functions when used on a log. Even though this would require a bit of thinking, a possibility would be to simply merge the options, where the carving knife is used for the ones that required one and a hatchet for the options that required a hatchet.

 

Skill and action timers

Just going to go ahead and pierce the player base's perhaps most sensitive part, the skillgain and action timers. I remember that people kept saying that increased action timers and skill gain would make wurm online too fast thus making it boring and killing it. But the problem is that wurm online is currently not at a normal pace, it is at an extremely, extremely slow pace. Making it faster wont make it too fast, it will simply bring it closer to a normal playing pace.

 

The server I play on (mythmoor) has 3x action timers and 7x skill gain and I've had more fun in the 400 hours of playtime than I ever had playing wurm online and I am still going very strong with no signs of boredom so far. It actually allows me to accomplish things I could never due without throwing my life away in WO and a big player team means you'll be able to make cities bigger than it would've ever been possible in WO.

 

Now ofcourse, 3x timers and 7x skill gains would be a bit too much for a server designed for long term play. But the fact that both of them need to be higher is for sure and it would be up to code club to adjust that.

 

Remember that for hardcore players it is perfectly fine, but for new players and even regular players the game is simply too slow.

 

-”But Wurm Online is only meant for a small amount of players, it is a niche!”

According to who, you? I've heard this many times in wurm and I really wonder according to who it is “supposed” to be a niche game. As I've said before, people are dying for a game like this, but the super poor execution of wurm online throws them away. There is nothing inherently niche about it at all.

 

Whew, I'm going to take a short break.

[Elktazahjr 131]

reserverd

[Klaa 4,872]

Hrm perhaps a matter of perspective.

 

For example from my viewpoint, Wurm's playerbase has grown by quite a bit overall.

[Elktazahjr 131]

Just now, Klaa said:

Hrm perhaps a matter of perspective.

 

For example from my viewpoint, Wurm's playerbase has grown by quite a bit overall.

really impressive if you managed to read of all that in under 4 minutes though

[Sin 220]

go back and play on ur mythmore and let us who like current sistem enjoy it, byeee

[Klaa 4,872]

Just now, Elktazahjr said:

really impressive if you managed to read of all that in under 4 minutes though

 

Im a fast reader, and typer.

[Elktazahjr 131]

1 minute ago, Sin said:

go back and play on ur mythmore and let us who like current sistem enjoy it, byeee

I made this thread in order to discuss how to let wurm online grow, not how to let it shrink, thank you for your input and selflessness

Edited February 9, 2016 by Elktazahjr

[ClericGunem 275]

some of it is already in progress, some is mistaken, some is contentious, and forcing everyone to one server, destroying years of work so you can see more people in local, well you may want to rethink that one a remove it unless of course your real goal is to finish WO off as i cannot think of a more decisive killing blow than to start deleting servers

 

Adding, you should read the suggestion forum a lot more as a lot of what you have is and has been suggested and some of it a lot better than what you came up with.  Seriously try reading and posting links rather than a novella or wall of text x10

Edited February 9, 2016 by ClericGunem

[Elktazahjr 131]

1 minute ago, ClericGunem said:

some of it is already in progress, some is mistaken, some is contentious, and forcing everyone to one server, destroying years of work so you can see more people in local, well you may want to rethink that one a remove it unless of course your real goal is to finish WO off as i cannot think of a more decisive killing blow than to start deleting servers

In what way will killing those who don't give a rats ass about wurm online to make room for a ton who do kill off WO?

Those who are truly loyal and enjoy this game will not quit it either way.

[ClericGunem 275]

11 minutes ago, Elktazahjr said:

In what way will killing those who don't give a rats ass about wurm online to make room for a ton who do kill off WO?

Those who are truly loyal and enjoy this game will not quit it either way.

 

ton of whom?  You think people on release do not care?  I just built a castle on release and i have many deeds Xanadu, you assume without any clue whatsoever that deleting servers will only affect a few.  You have no clue clearly; if they delete a single server i would be willing to bet my best deed that half the pop remaining would leave that day, which includes me.  You are the one in your own little world and have not spoken to people as i do speak to a lot of people and have specifically heard "if they start removing servers..."

 

And you are the one who does not care and selfishly thinks making everyone be on your server will make things better without any care at all for years and years of work people put into things.  So take a step back, go read the suggestions (eliminate the removing servers suggestion) and maybe post and support a more succinct list and avoid calling the devs, gms, and players names.  And avoid implying you are the only one on WO that cares about Wurm.

Edited February 9, 2016 by ClericGunem

[Elktazahjr 131]

7 minutes ago, ClericGunem said:

 

ton of whom?  You think people on release do not care?  I just built a castle on release and i have many deeds Xanadu, you assume without any clue whatsoever that deleting servers will only affect a few.  You have no clue clearly; if they delete a single server i would be willing to bet my best deed that half the pop remaining would leave that day, which includes me.  You are the one in your own little world and have not spoken to people as i do speak to a lot of people and have specifically heard "if they start removing servers..."

 

And you are the one who does not care and selfishly thinks making everyone be on your server will make things better without any care at all for years and years of work people put into things.  So take a step back, go read the suggestions (eliminate the removing servers suggestion) and maybe post and support a more succinct list and avoid calling the devs, gms, and players names.  And avoid implying you are the only one on WO that cares about Wurm.

In what way do you suggest that the game can be improved with the current servers standing as they are? A big server opening while leaving the rest as it is has already been tried (xanadu) and it didn't work, and wurm's playerbase still barely hits 800 at peak times. 

[Slickshot 1,195]

22 minutes ago, Klaa said:

TL;DR

Personally, I don't see how premium in this game costs more than AAA mmo's with a premium base.  Premium in this game is (in USD) under $18 for two months, or under $9 a month.  AAA titles all tend to sit at $15 a month.  Just a nitpick there.

[FranktheTank 1,901]

Hi to all those interested in pvp CAPSALOT will be allowing skill transfers from WO or WU.

 

Enjoy the death of WO

[Elktazahjr 131]

3 minutes ago, Slickshot said:

Personally, I don't see how premium in this game costs more than AAA mmo's with a premium base.  Premium in this game is (in USD) under $18 for two months, or under $9 a month.  AAA titles all tend to sit at $15 a month.  Just a nitpick there.

AAA games don't give you 1 character per payment

AAA games aren't a lot less enjoyable without throwing bucks at it for ingame currency after subscribing

 

[Slickshot 1,195]

1 minute ago, FranktheTank said:

Hi to all those interested in pvp CAPSALOT will be allowing skill transfers from WO or WU.

 

Enjoy the death of WO

Enjoy your boring server.

[KaiH 1,126]

locked.

Please use the suggestions board.