Thoughts on a new cluster/game mode

[yemini 2]

Curious about how everyone feels regarding a new cluster. New lands to discover, fresh characters and a fresh economy. 

Could have a system for cyclical PVP, provide PVE time for people to prep before the fighting begins and after it ends. Could have the timing revolve around Wurm's moons. One Xanadu sized PVE only server with the rest of the cluster being the cyclical PVP/PVE

A new cluster would be a great time to make efforts to lead new players to the game, seeing as they wouldn't be years of gameplay behind everyone else. Get the word out, show off the many changes and improvements Wurm has undergone recently. 

A new mode could also provide veteran players and newcomers interesting ways to play; consider an Iron Man Mode similar to Old School Runescape. Self sufficiency, achieve everything on your own. 

Just some thoughts from someone who loved this game in the past, but is turned off by the overbearing skill and gear gaps. 

[SmeJack 5,798]

No more servers, already too many neglected and empty ones

[Maiev 62]

survival cluster please 

[Sklo:D 2,210]

NO

[Sn00 1,005]

I'm gonna do -1 on this. Not nearly enough people.

[Wilczan 2,048]

Population is so thin for a MMORPG game, that if Wurm could handle better servers size of Xanadu, I would rather propose merging servers.

[Zenity 728]

Part of the problem is that players are now spread among two clusters already, OK, it's not that bad that some of the servers have a small population, certainly gets rid of the 'overcrowded' trope that was prevalent 5 years ago.

But opening yet another cluster of servers would only serve as a temporary rise in overall numbers, and draw players from the existing clusters, further reducing their population, frankly, at this point half a dozen people leaving the Epic cluster would be half it's average population.

 

Rather than add a new server, we need to consider consolidation of the playerbase, not further fragmentation of it.

 

Yes, there will be an initial jump in player numbers overall, but that will not last, just the same way that changes to Epic boosted the numbers, temporarily, and was followed by a decline over the following months. Adding new servers, no matter how attractive the idea is to me personally, will not do anything other than spread an already reduced population over a larger area.

By all means, rethink your idea so that it is applicable to the existing conditions, new servers is not the way to go at present.

[Maiev 62]

I think the fact that there are already so many servers is not a reason not to but a reason to start a server. They are already paying for a lot of servers. One server that is either in freedom isles or the first server of a new cluster could create hype and potentially bring a lot of players both new and old, if it is different and attractive. 

[Jore 338]

I think for a new cluster to be truly beneficial to the game in the long run a proper amount of advertisement would have to be done to attract a large amount of new players as only a fraction of them would end up staying for more than one session. Not that it can't be done, but it'd be a lot for the team to handle. Perhaps far in the future?

(Don't forget there could always be vast changes to Epic to try and revive it again, too)

 

Some kind of alternate play mode could be interesting, but if it takes Dev time away from other more important things, then it may not be the best idea for now. 

[Wonka 438]

No new servers, thank you!

[Amadee 1,543]

5 hours ago, yemini said:

Curious about how everyone feels regarding a new cluster. New lands to discover, fresh characters and a fresh economy. 

Could have a system for cyclical PVP, provide PVE time for people to prep before the fighting begins and after it ends. Could have the timing revolve around Wurm's moons. One Xanadu sized PVE only server with the rest of the cluster being the cyclical PVP/PVE

A new cluster would be a great time to make efforts to lead new players to the game, seeing as they wouldn't be years of gameplay behind everyone else. Get the word out, show off the many changes and improvements Wurm has undergone recently. 

A new mode could also provide veteran players and newcomers interesting ways to play; consider an Iron Man Mode similar to Old School Runescape. Self sufficiency, achieve everything on your own. 

Just some thoughts from someone who loved this game in the past, but is turned off by the overbearing skill and gear gaps. 

 

I don't know about this specifically, but I think something along these lines is not such a bad idea.  A new cluster that would never, ever be connected to the old but would have a completely different way of playing might be the shot in the arm that WO needs. 

 

People complain about WU taking people away from WO but rarely stop to consider why that is.  Maybe some of those folks would come back to play on 'official' servers if it offered a little more of what WU offers them in terms of chosen playstyles and enjoyability. 

Edited February 20, 2019 by Amadee

[Hailene 362]

Too few people on too many servers already.

 

Unless we consolidated servers I'd never be behind it. But there is no way to consolidate the servers without creating a poopstorm.

 

In other words no more servers, please. Not until we get to like 10k subs...which is probably a hopeless dream.

[Ayes 3,715]

Pretty much a S&I section post but I will say that Wurm Unlimited offers a lot of this diversity. Wurm Online is just not capable of offering so many different type of server options. As for making new servers and "isolating" them from the rest this has been done already and now they have just been added onto the rest. Even for the year or so that they were isolated (Pristine & Release) a core of the current playerbase made alts on them and dominated the playstyle and markets on them anyway due to their knowledge. Any purely "new" players were still left in the dust competitive wise.

 

=Ayes=

[Maiev 62]

A new pvp server in new cluster where the deities cursed the wretched men making them unable to craft tools of war. What they had rusted or broke away through the abrasive sands of time. Yet the time also had hidden treasures within sand and dirt. Tools of death awaited in deep slumber those who would seek them and death awaited those who obtained them as others would seek to take these away from their lifeless hands. Swords rendered flesh and mauls broke bones, the thirst of the soil would not be denied. Those who brought iron would have iron or  have it taken away along with everything else. 

 

[Roccandil 959]

I think there's potentially room to provide the following experience:

 

- Virgin wilderness

- Everyone on equal footing

 

As it stands now, new players will never really experience either in WO.

[yemini 2]

Main thing i was thinking about was attracting new players; if we ever hope to see a mass number of players come to the game it would have to be through something along these lines. Something new, unique and interesting, could possibly be branded as a re-launch following huge changes? Freedom and epic could act as legacy servers, with the new cluster coming along with fresh everything for a sort of revival of the game. 

 

You could argue that with the implementation of a new server may spread the current player base thinner, you have to recognize that even without, the player base is slowly dropping. It will eventually come time where something vastly new is needed. Just some thoughts overall, I just really wish more people would discuss without throwing out the "not enough players" one liner and moving on. It's important to the longevity of the game, yet few discuss it.

[Mclavin 3,704]

^

The servers are the issue, wipe them all and load in new ones. boom.

[Finnn 3,303]

23 minutes ago, Mclavin said:

^

The servers are the issue, wipe them all and load in new ones. boom.

"kill your income - and pray there's a new one"

think..

--edit

I just wonder @yeminiHave you thought about trying to play on epic? It's practically a ghost cluster.. 20 people online at the time I write this.. it's a whole cluster.. you have a pretty good chance to start there and not see another player from days to months...

Edited February 20, 2019 by Finnn
edit

[yemini 2]

20 minutes ago, Mclavin said:

^

The servers are the issue, wipe them all and load in new ones. boom.

Better yet, change them all to PVP during their final days

You'd have a hell of a time ; ) 

[John 254]

If you need a fresh start to enjoy Wurm, you don't enjoy Wurm and should find another game to play.

That being said, come check out the newest cluster. It's called Epic and it's actually quite alright despite it being dead.

 

edit: we have catch up mechanics!!

Edited February 20, 2019 by John

[Roccandil 959]

1 hour ago, yemini said:

the new cluster coming along with fresh everything for a sort of revival of the game. 

 

This works for a while, and then it gets old again and we've got the same problem, with only more servers to spread the population across.

 

If WO were my game, I'd try to come up with something like Path of Exile (at least back when I played it): where they regularly release a new temporary world with new features for set period of time, and at the end all toons/gear (and sometimes features) fall through to the long-term world.

 

I don't know if that makes sense for PvE in Wurm, but at least as a player, if I could build a portal from my Epic deed to a shiny new temporary server with wildly new features, take my toon there with blank skills, while knowing that I could bring back exp/loot at the server's end, I'd be all for it.

 

That would be fun (I've never experienced a new server before, or PvP on a completely level playing field), while allowing the developers to test stuff that may or may not make it to the persistent worlds, and it wouldn't be a waste of time from the player's perspective (it answers the problem of why skill up and invest in a temporary server).

 

Everyone would pay attention to when a new server started, and it would be a continual source of excitement (how are -these- crazy features going to play out?).

[Wargasm 1,927]

Denied.

[Niki 2,278]

New servers bring a lot of people into the game

[Wargasm 1,927]

1 minute ago, Niki said:

New servers bring a lot of people into the game

 

How's that?  The thousands of new players waiting to join are waiting for an advertisement?  I hope they don't hold their breath...

[Schiann 994]

3 hours ago, Niki said:

New servers bring a lot of people into the game

 

Unfortunately, they don't stay. Servers become "used", player counts drop off, and we end up right back where we started. I love the exploration and "fresh start" (and land rush, let's be honest) of new servers as much as the next person, but like others have said, the player base is already spread so thin, it hardly seems logical to spread them out more. Nowadays, if you want to explore virgin land, you can fire up WU, so I just don't think the thrill of fresh servers is enough to generate the influx we've had in the past.

 

That said, I wouldn't be opposed to a temporary/cyclical server, e.g. challenge, which has an expiration date... if it were well executed.

 

IMO, what we could really use is some sort of natural erosion of terraformed land, to make it seem more wild to newcomers. But of course, that's insanely complex.