An idea for recycling servers: the Ice Age

[Sheffie 1,120]

Disclaimer

If the idea of old servers being recycled upsets you so much that you don't want to discuss the best way of doing that... don't.

This post is an attempt to explore how it might work. It's just one possible way to try to resolve the split between NFI and SFI servers. It is quite obviously up to the devs whether they take drastic steps to merge the two clusters, and how. All that we can do is try to suggest ways that might be less terrible for existing players.

 

 

The idea here is to provide a mechanism by which existing servers that are old and largely abandoned can be converted into new servers that players will want to explore and colonize.

 

Phase 1: The long winter

• Seasons stop passing.
• Snow falls continuously and visibility is reduced to the level of the thickest fog..
• Wild and domestic animals start dying.
• Crops stop growing, then die in the fields.
• Trees and bushes die off.
• Players start taking frost damage whenever they're away from a fire. This is increased when wearing metal armour, when out of doors, when hungry, when nutrition is low, etc.

Phase 2: Leave-taking

• The king orders the land to be evacuated.
• Players are unable to plot a course or otherwise travel to this island.
• Each deed owner is offered a sum of silver, as compensation for the land that they must abandon.
• Each player is given a choice of island to be relocated to. They may bring only what they are carrying*.

Phase 3: The Ice Sheet

• All buildings, structures, roads, mines, support beams, and other signs of human habitation are ground away by the action of kilometre-deep ice sheets.
• Terrain is eroded away. Flattened ground becomes rutted. Sharp edges become rounded. Steep slopes become flattened.

Phase 4: The Spring

• Sun, rain, life and green growth return to the land.
• Grasses, young trees and bushes appear, sparsely at first, but quickly taking root in the rich soil left behind by the glaciers.
• Finally sure that the Ice Age has passed, the king decrees that settlers can return to the land.
  
  *obvious variation: each player can carry whatever they can fit on a ship

Edited May 29, 2021 by Sheffie

[Makarus 458]

YEAH BUT I WANNA LIVE ON THE ICE AGE SERVER SO PRISTINE FIRST K THANKS

[Madnath 3,113]

[DaletheGood 1,073]

OH HELL NO!!

[Maiya 490]

5 minutes ago, Sheffie said:

• Finally sure that the Ice Age has passed, the king decrees that settlers can return to the land.

whats the use of all above this..... if the land after ppl got payed and moved....... now can move back????? 

[Tek 99]

Big no to this one for me.

 

If the day ever comes where servers are to be closed I would rather see if happen without all the ice age stuff. Putting time into coding an ice age would just be a waste of the already limited staff power.

 

I am pretty against closing servers though. A large part of Wurm has always been the history of the land. That I can sail around a server and see years of history. Sure people like fresh new land, but that shouldn't come at the cost of peoples hard work.

 

Perhaps instead, some form of system that takes unpopulated regions of the map and does a regrowth or even that changes the terrain - without taking away peoples active deeds. There are too many games out there that do approaches like seasons or map resets/wipes.

[Spolmit 621]

Your idea is laid out in a logical and genuine way, however, I would be against the changes that you are proposing.

 

I  have invested almost 10 years of my life in some deeds in Wurm. It would make me genuinely sad if just because I was one of a small group of settlers left on a particular server all my hard work was to be destroyed. It is honestly not the money but the emotional and social investment that would be lost that I would be against. The memories that well-known places and events offer to a player in Wurm are often as a result of the longevity of the game and in my opinion are far too important to be erased even if players are long-since gone and events are simply a fond misty haze.

 

Think what it would be like if the Coliseum or the Roman Wall was to be destroyed in order to provide new building space in Rome or Northumberland! 

[armyskin 930]

-1

[eldarian 166]

-1...no way in hell would anyone currently active on those servers agree to this, there isn't enough silver to compensate the work and items most of us have, just to be forced onto a new server with the land all taken up no thank you.

[Xor 684]

You lost me when you made this include taking away everyone’s hard work. 
 

you could have just said delete all the old servers and start a new one, compensate.. yada yada. 
 

-1 

 

I would probably stop playing this game even if I was unaffected by this change knowing I could be next. Part of this games charm is that what you create can stand forever. There are tributes and memorials to loved ones and friends on these servers. There are literally over a decade’s work on some of these servers. 
 

They’re more than their low population suggests. They’re memories. 

[Zexos 468]

As soon as the first phase hits, just as well quit the game.   

 

A question: when is something "old and largely abandoned? "  how do you determine when it is time to wipe an island clean by dumping ice cubes onto it? Also, why even bother? Just delete the server or wipe it clean without any special effects if you are going that route.  

 

Though do that and I would wonder why anyone would even want to rebuild on the server that they once lived on.  When it got taken all away from them. Trust would be gone. 

 

In other words: 

[TheTrickster 2,284]

A hard NO from me. 

 

This is almost the complete opposite of what Wurm is to me.  Start evicting people from their pixelated homes just so you can demolish not only their homes but all trace of their presence and you may as well give up keeping anyone around after the reset.

 

Did I say "no" yet?

 

NO.

 

 

[TheTrickster 2,284]

Please, no.

[Etherdrifter 2,518]

I dunno...

 

For existing servers this would be a hard pass, but for a specific server designed for it?  Might be interesting as a more cyclic style of game.

 

It would essentially capture what Jackal intended, but on a much more stable cycle.

[Retrograde 12,013]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but is this an idea of a way to turn an existing server into a new land for people to explore thematically? Rather than just resetting a server? 

[Finnn 3,303]

it is practically destroying all deeds, terraforming, guessing tunnels.. etc.. aka server reset

 

it's a great dramatic ending if wurm decides to close business, we could record the cries and yells from numerous people who have spent months & years on projects, just to get tourists new land to stake a flag on.

 

such amusing idea

 

-1  

[Jaz 2,665]

Oh no Retro seems interested in the idea.

NO. Please.

I'm all in though for a NEW server hosting this idea of cycles. Looking up the sky at Jackal, could be the one maybe... (previous different iterations on cyclic servers did not really work out so far but why not to try again?).

[Retrograde 12,013]

8 minutes ago, Jaz said:

Oh no Retro seems interested in the idea.

NO. Please.

I'm all in though for a NEW server hosting this idea of cycles. Looking up the sky at Jackal, could be the one maybe... (previous different iterations on cyclic servers did not really work out so far but why not to try again?).

I am NOT interested in the idea, commenting on something bears no indication of anything, please don't think that! 

[Jaz 2,665]

32 minutes ago, Retrograde said:

I am NOT interested in the idea, commenting on something bears no indication of anything, please don't think that! 

I was trying to add a funny line there - intention failed definitiely

[RainRain 591]

it's always strange to me that people are only interested in the idea of a permanent server when it comes to wurm, as if most players will stay for several years and never move from their deed- or worse, the assumption that the game will even manage to sustain itself indefinitely and thus the servers will be up indefinitely; i don't think people understand how much of a miracle it has been that this game is still alive today as a result of the way its been moved across hands for so long- WU was more than likely supposed to be the game's final hurrah and i suspect rolf was intending to release the current maps to be able to be used on WU as well in the case of a WO shutdown


i think some sort of loop and cycle of death and rebirth is absolutely necessary for the pvp servers; the pve, i don't see it being necessary in their current state though. the issue really is the absurd amount of servers on SFI that were each released as a gambit to infuse the playerbase with more people for a few moments- almost never were they released because they were actually needed. it's probably better to just abandon SFI until it eventually peters out on its own or stops sustain itself financially and focus on NFI- which seems to be the current dev rhythm anyways, primarily developing for NFI and addressing longstanding systems to make sure they don't turn NFI into SFI 2.0

unless a real gameplay reason is introduced, i don't think PvE servers will ever need resets though, if anything what needs to be introduced is a different payment module for deeds (So that people can't chuck a year's worth of money at a deed and quit a month in, leaving that space occupied for 10x the duration its even being used) like increasing the cost of maintaining a deed with no villager activity for an extended period of time, and proper decay mechanics to get rid of the ruins that still are standing to this day- like damn, the Hive got disbanded like 3 months ago and didn't have a single wall above 40q and that ######'s still standing apparently.

more decay and anti-inactive mechanics? yea sure perfect for pve. loops and resets seem better fitting of pvp than pve. and yknow rolf's original idea of having scenarios lead up to potential wipe-inducing moments wasn't a bad idea, he just couldn't make scenarios interesting.

Edited February 9, 2021 by RainRain

[Mclavin 3,704]

Needs to be an event like phase 1 sounds fun then the rest needs to not happen

[Ekib 183]

a large winter event might be fun. having more ingame variety of events can be nice.

crops fail, wild animals are fewer and the ones in your fields better be placed in a barn, ok. no instadeath tho. they are more likely to catch desease, and if untreated cold event + desease can lead to wounds behaving like drowing, so you have to get out of the cold to get better, if not... death.

poor visibility and having to wear warm clothes (bear fur coat anyone?) could sound intresting. but then a torch would need to give some warmth, so can jump from place to place. and hotspots would have to be inplemented in the game.... could be a coding nightmare...

no to tree/bush death. they go in 'winter mode' where they just dont grow anymore (just pines?) same as regular winters.

some mild extra damage on undeeded lands perhaps to fasten decay of buildings (would suck for newbies tho, so will have to be balanced) but that's about it... too much history in those 'old lands' to be fully deleted.

and of course...depending of what ritual is cast on that map... the cold season might shorten or lenghten. having the gods have a big influence on those large events might be fun

[kochinac 1,395]

On 2/9/2021 at 2:32 PM, RainRain said:

it's always strange to me that people are only interested in the idea of a permanent server when it comes to wurm, as if most players will stay for several years and never move from their deed- or worse, the assumption that the game will even manage to sustain itself indefinitely and thus the servers will be up indefinitely; i don't think people understand how much of a miracle it has been that this game is still alive today as a result of the way its been moved across hands for so long- WU was more than likely supposed to be the game's final hurrah and i suspect rolf was intending to release the current maps to be able to be used on WU as well in the case of a WO shutdown

Well to be honest it's the only selling point of Wurm for me, I certainly don't play Wurm for it's mechanics, interfaces, smooth interactive and fun fight. Ok second big plus is depth of content although imbalance there where 90% of it is useless beside funzies and decoration is big minus there. Take the latest gem Valheim for example, if that game is set in Wurm like environment with permanent official servers and had some deeper crafting and proffesion system it would be good by forever Wurm from me. Heck I even enjoy sandbox building in Valheim more than in Wurm..

A shutdown is another thing, game is dead I don't play it anymore end of story, but life death cycles and starting all over from start  in any game similar to this sucks, having it permanent is much better experience for me.

[Davih 1,340]

This is a fun idea, yet it's wrong and can't be done for an incredible amount of reasons.

It's just a forced server-merge with extra steps.

We can't have the server merge, this would utterly destroy the new servers economy (i could bring 30+ supreme tools and god know how many rares by using all the alts i have laying around on old server EVEN if you limit to inventory only, i would have to ditch all my new characters (and premiums) because the old ones are better.

I don't care much anymore about anything that i have on the old servers, yet i think something like that would be doomsday.
Let alone the players that really care about their deeds and obiovusly don't want to lose them.

Also winter and fog are horrible, please just remove both from wurm, forever, thanks.... Ok we can't do that, but wouldn't mind a checkbox to remove them, like arachnophobia, i have serous issues telling apart anything in winter.

Edit: I just remembered that i also have a fantastic carving knife, actually +1 this idea.

Edited February 16, 2021 by Davih

[Blazecraze 441]

-1 for too many reasons to state.
Do you even play this game?