Sign in to follow this  
Samool

Update on development

Recommended Posts

10 minutes ago, Jore said:

Yeahhhhh, I'm gonna assume Wurm VR is something the team is being pushed to do by Game Chest. Surely you're not so out of touch that you can't realize how poor of an idea it is.

 

The obvious issue being that Wurms gameplay in NO way supports VR interaction. Ever play a VR game that has the main gameplay focus be interacting with menus and watching timers? No, you haven't. If it was implemented as an option in the launcher for people to walk around and admire deeds, castles, mountains, it'd be fine. But it's being done with the intention of marketing the game as an actual VR MMO? You're kidding, right?

You're really expecting a VR user to browse Steams VR section, find Wurm and play it because it's in VR? All this is going to do is result in even more negative reviews from people expecting an interactive VR MMO, but instead they get a menu driven idle game that hardly engages players that're sitting on their ass at a computer screen.

 

Please tell your parent company, there's a reason it's been a joke.

I'm inclined to think the same, and I think that it's an incredibly missed opportunity too. 

 

It's fine for the parent company to want big news to share, it happens in every business. What would be smarter would be to look at wurm how it is, what works with it, and what could be done. 

 

Adding it to mobile would be a far better course of action, and could even create more of a market in terms of being able to grind when not at the PC. 

 

Hell, even purchasing Deedplanner, or WurmAssistant and marketing it as a first party tool to help Wurmians do their best would add so many layers of first party functionality. 

  • Like 10

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

When a for-profit corporation that holds the intellectual property announces to their investors that something will be done, that's going to be a demand issued to those they determine are responsible for doing it.

 

Edited by Tristanc

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Wow instead of staring at timers on a screen I will now be able to stare into a VR headset and watch timers!

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
15 hours ago, Samool said:

Hi everyone,

 

... lots of not-controversial stuff ...

 

Lastly, while this might be a bit of unexpected news, it’s something we’ve teased in the past, long long ago, in one of the news posts - we’ll be starting development on adding VR functionality to Wurm, and while we can’t release any further details on it yet, we don’t expect it to derail development on the content features we’ve announced. Other than this feature, the last roadmap we posted is still relevant, and so there’s more exciting stuff to look forward to.

 

13 hours ago, Sindusk said:

Even I thought I was joking...

 

All that anyone is talking about from the OP is the 'VR', apparently in total culture shock.

 

5 hours ago, Drayka said:

If it makes the development team happy and enthusiastic to be working on the code, then I'm pro VR. One of the things that always appealed to me about this game, was the backstory of Rolf trying to create an MMO all by himself, and to hell with what anyone said couldn't or shouldn't be attempted. I'd take that kind of attitude over an industry approved business meta any day. Whatever's in store for us all, sounds like it's going to be one hell of a ride getting there together. :)

 

5 hours ago, gnomegates said:

 

Rolf has not been involved in many years, the game has been sold to the "Industry business" folks that you mention. Your statement reads, at least to me, that you are supporting the very thing that you don't want.

 

Wurm being sold and bought buy a business that is in the business to make money will do what they think is best for their asset. Some of us don't agree with the direction while others like it, that is up to each of us to have our opinions and voice them if we so desire. The next step is to start talking with their wallets if things are not going the direction that is desired. Its not good or bad, it is just simple facts of life. I don't think that we are near that point yet, though I know some have already made that decision to take their money somewhere else. I love Wurm and hope to see it around for many more years to come.

 

When Wurm was young and Rolf was still in charge, he could have that "to hell" attitude. That is no longer an option for a business that wishes to keep the doors open. There is always a point where ownership/management cannot have that kind of attitude anymore. It is my thought that Wurm is no longer in the position to say "to hell" with what anyone else wants or says, at least not if they wish to have any kind of growth.

 

With that said, I think it would be nice to know how much imput to decision making the current dev team has when it comes to the short term and long term goals of Wurm. How much influence do the "suits" have and what direction they wish to see Wurm go.

 

I don't like the VR addition, I don't think it will bring in many new players or retain players. But I'm not against VR if what was shared is the case. That the work on it will not hinder the work on Wurm that needs to happen. Though if that is the case one could assume that they are hiring / have hired new people to do this VR work. If so, it is my opinion that the time and money spent on VR could be put into other aspects of the game that have been needing to be fixed or added for years now. That is just my two cents.

 

"You do realise Rolf is gone, right? You know who Game Chest is, right?"

"Yeah, I heard about that soon after I spawned on NFI. It's the biggest contributing factor to me now playing Wurm-PvP instead: The defiance of peace means war!"

"Don't you comprehend any of this financial stuff?"

"Yes and no. I care about what makes artists want to continue furthering a project when it gets so same-old-same-old that dutiful motivation gives way to clinical depression, not whatever complicated PvE hoops have to be jumped through to allow that to continue, amongst those who enjoy debating the micromanagement of fiscal complexity. It's simply not my area of good grasp of the principles, which is why I prefer a war-economy context for relaxation and self-development."

 

48 minutes ago, Rocklobster said:

"Do you guys not have phones VR headsets?"

Probably not. But given the historic pace of Wurm development, it's probably a good decision to start building in support for it now, so that Wurm is still around when ALL games on the market have VR support as-standard.
Virtual Reality Glasses: What Are They And How Do They Work? (opticsgamer.com)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Thanks for the update.

What gets me worried about adding VR to a game like Wurm is currently there is already NO technical support for Wurm. There are plenty of game breaking issues that people are constantly incurring with nobody other than other players trying to assist with no dev support. (is there even a staff person assigned to technical support?)

I have experience a game breaking bug since the animal husbandry patch, which between speaking with other players on and trying out things amongst ourselves (because again our posts in the tech support thread are unanswered) we discovered there is an Intel chipset issue which forces you to live with your client crashing randomly every 5 to 20 minutes all day long or run the game with FBO disabled which makes Wurm look like crap and cannot see further than 1/3 of the normal distance. I personally tried to live with this issue of crashing since the Animal patch and was about to quit Wurm until we figured out that FBO disable seems to be a work around for now.

 

I got a top of the line PC which makes Wurm look beautiful but I cannot experience it because I have to play with FBO disabled until the dev's figure it out and fix the issue.

 

Just my 2 cents but I would love to see some technical support on current issues / problems and/or more of the roadmap completed in-between major patches than any type of VR support. 

  • Like 5

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
2 hours ago, Archaed said:

I'm inclined to think the same, and I think that it's an incredibly missed opportunity too. 

 

It's fine for the parent company to want big news to share, it happens in every business. What would be smarter would be to look at wurm how it is, what works with it, and what could be done. 

 

Adding it to mobile would be a far better course of action, and could even create more of a market in terms of being able to grind when not at the PC. 

 

Hell, even purchasing Deedplanner, or WurmAssistant and marketing it as a first party tool to help Wurmians do their best would add so many layers of first party functionality. 

 

This!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
3 hours ago, Rocklobster said:

"Do you guys not have phones VR headsets?"

I see what you did there lol😆

I am really looking forward to the adventure update as I spend 90% of my play time out and about exploring. Can't wait for the fix to AH. Like others I am not in favor of the VR integration for all the same reasons as everybody else.

 

Edited by Kementari
  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
6 hours ago, Zexos said:

Wurm on Mobile would of been a better idea in my view. There are loads of AFK or semi AFK grinding games on Mobile Phones.  People can play them anywhere as well.  It is a wonder that they did not pick mobiles. Then again they would need to do a redesign for mobile phones, such as the UI.  Then again they would have to do that for the VR anyway so.....

 

This would have been a wiser choice. Wurm is actually a game you can actually port it to a mobile since a lot of actions are grindy (which mobile games are in the end) and would make sense from a business perspective. Login to your wurm account from Android / Ios , till your fields, milk your cows and done. You have a happy customer. 

 

On 7/16/2021 at 1:05 PM, elentari said:

I think the most poignant example is the fiasco at Blizzcon when they announced "Diablo Immortal" on mobile in a room mostly filled with PC gamers that awaited the next diablo sequel on PC for years. If anything, that should be a lesson to understand the needs and wants of your community and realise that "your vision" for the game will mean nothing if there's no one to enjoy it. 

I'm just gonna put in a quote (yeah quoting myself is wrong, bla bla ) from last month since it seems more relevant now 

 

I feel like this now to be honest. It's something that's not needed considering people are still asking about the imbue "balancing", priest "balancing and updates" , and a whole slew of things like fixing the breeding system. Or give us a combat update that actually displays damage numbers, etc. I want to read "You do 23 damage to Aged Scorpion" and not " You hit Aged scorpion deadly hard in the left claw and harm it". Too much text when you have so many mobs.

 

I could have understood wurm on mobile, but Wurm VR...I gotta ask man...what's your market for this? Really, how many wurmians own a VR set or want to buy one ?

 

And if yes, as others have pointed, how many hours of grind can you endure in a VR set before you get sick? 

3 hours ago, Rocklobster said:

"Do you guys not have phones VR headsets?"

Yeah...You beat me to it by 3 hours ... or did I beat you to it by a month? :)) 

Devs, make a poll to see how many people actually support VR and maybe present it to GCG. If anything, at least you'll know you tried. 

Edited by elentari
  • Like 3

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

VR came as a supreise, can be fun to test but not sure how often i will use it, can be a fun addition to the exploration update,

 

Really excited about the exploration update and account, ooking forward to more information.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Having not played for more than maybe 60 hours total for over the last 12 months, bit of a disappointment to see this. I played Wurm religiously between 2006 and 2012 for sometimes up to 16 hours a day, took a break and came back when Epic was released and again played 6+ hours a day until those servers grew stagnant as all servers eventually do because it is the same product it has been ever since certain people have moved on.

 

Surely there's better things to work on than VR which caters to an extremely small amount of people. Exploration update was teased months ago, and yes I understand life happened to people and it's extremely sad to hear. The player base grows less and less each week and your great idea is VR.

 

It took Defiance all of 2 months to stagnate, the NFI servers are no better than SFI was this time last year.

Edited by Rudie
  • Like 6

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

If an ancient name like Rudie pops up on this forum....you know something is up. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
8 hours ago, Archaed said:

I have to ask. 

 

Are there plans to address the hands-off nature of the game in regards to VR? Given VR games are more than just "see with goggles", and benefit from actual gameplay requiring motion, how does this tie in with anything within Wurm? Will this lead to Wurm being active timer-less play? 

 

Or will this be wearing goggles while you watch timers? 

 

Additionally, has there been much looking into the portion of Wurm players who have, or are open to utilising VR, or is this a hope to attract a new playerbase of VR players? Given the former often play on older machines, and the latter enjoy VR due to the physical interactivity within the game, what is the plan to connect those two? 

 

I guess the bottom line question is: Is this something that will change HOW the game is played, or is it slapping a VR tag on the game hoping for a quick buck? 

 

I am asuming another stand alone, minecraft style

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Wurm VR?  Seriously?  I bet the person or persons (in corporate) who made that decision have not played one single day of Wurm Online....  maybe not any MMO in their entire life.

 

It was just announced on MassivelyOP that Richard Bartle's book on MMO design from the pioneers of the genre has just been released for free in digital form.  It is 947 pages and  I think these people need to read it.

 

Duh, I guess if they don't play MMO's, they scarcely will read about them.  Nevermind... 

 

 

 

Edited by Eyesgood
  • Like 2

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I think more info about Wurm VR needs to be dropped sooner, rather than later. No doubt the community will be skeptical or concerned about the time for it to be made and work well, because VR, like code for many of the suggestions, seems more complicated and time consuming than realised.

This is not a slight towards anyone on the team, I just think it's a bit of a feature dead end. It's either going to be a small slice of Wurm, doing something in forge, a field, ect. switching between them all. OR it'll be your normal character in the game world, but in VR doing things.

  • Like 3

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Why isn't 100% of development time being funneled into fixing animal husbandry? After reading the original post it seems that other ambitious changes are in the works. And in my opinion they should all be paused.

 

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
4 hours ago, elentari said:

Devs, make a poll to see how many people actually support VR and maybe present it to GCG. If anything, at least you'll know you tried.

Wurm has access to some user machine statistics. we can agree to send these. I'm not sure how many decided to send nothing. The stats should give an estimate of how many machines can support VR.

 

I personally don't own VR and even if I did I sure as heck wouldn't play Wurm in it.  This is not an example of a good VR game, "move arms for a second or two indicate some improve action. Now wait 10, 15, 20 seconds for the timer"... repeat for hours on end. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Others have touched on it, but VR requires stable high frame-rates. Any iteration that maintains current wurm FPS is going to lead to a literal puke festival of negative reviews.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
1 hour ago, Ogare said:

I personally don't own VR and even if I did I sure as heck wouldn't play Wurm in it.  This is not an example of a good VR game, "move arms for a second or two indicate some improve action. Now wait 10, 15, 20 seconds for the timer"... repeat for hours on end. 

 

I just realised I could put a VR set on my cat and have it grind animal husbandry for me. 

 

Jokes aside, I don't own a VR set nor do I ever plan to play wurm in one. Being a glasses wearer with astigmatism and a bit of blurry vision it's not something that's suited for me. I couldn't handle any VR more than 15 mins before my eyes get tired. But that's just me. 

 

I really do hope that before anything happens the AH gets a proper fix before we move on to other updates. If it doesn't get fixed and we move on to other things, it'll just solidify my perception that systems get added in wurm with little to no balancing or post fixes and that will make my decision easier to stop paying prem. 

 

Right now my only hopes are : fix the AH update, please let us know if anything is to be done about the Epic cluster (we have 4 empty servers visited mostly by people from freedom to do journal goals). hopefully expand the combat update, waiting to see if the exploration update will give me some content I like for a change.

 

100% subjective opinion but None of the content these past 2-3 years I feel has been aimed at my tastes : a) steam release didn't affect me since I didn't want to start over there b) I rarely used imbues or rift mats so the update didn't matter much to me c) AH update is that it is d) Combat update was more of a facelift than an upgrade d) end of RMT is something I support e) Jackal was a good move but it's a shame it wasn't expanded on f) terrain distance update and rendering updates . g) UI was a big update but the UI to me was never a huge issue. 

With this paragraph I admit that I have my own tastes and they might differ from the rest of the Wurm population but for me it just feels that the content has been stale for a while and would like to experience new things in wurm to keep me going. 


VR won't be one of them. Hope the exploration update brings something new. 

  • Like 2

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

VR is not something that would make me come back to the game...  Might want to ask those who left why they left and what would make them come back.  Exploration is good something in the right direction.  I think you should look into more content for people who like to live in towns or groups.  I always logged into play with town members.  When they completed everything there was to do, they got bored and moved on to another game.  Give us something to work toward other than town building, market building or highway building.  Give us a reason to have large towns other than prayer circles...  

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
7 hours ago, elentari said:

 

Devs, make a poll to see how many people actually support VR and maybe present it to GCG. If anything, at least you'll know you tried. 

 

They try to make it into new market on steam, new way to reach new payers ohh sry players I guess,

from there page:

 

Quote

Offering a VR functionality will mean that Wurm Online will be exposed in additional categories and lists on the Steam platform in connection with additional VR platforms.

 

https://gamechestgroup.com/investor-relations/press-release/21251

 

  • Like 2

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

VR... Just what we needed 🙄. I'm totally behind you all taking as much time as you need for updates and what not, and I know real life happens and your health and well being is most important. That being said, VR? Come on. There's 100 other bugs to fix, features to add, etc that would be FAR more fulfilling to the game than VR. What a waste of time.

Why do ya'll hate us so much? lol

Edited by HerbalMentat
  • Like 3

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Been playing this game for soon 1000 hours and with all the lack of fixes, poor UI, sometimes even broken mechanics and tons of stuff that is a thing in Wurm while it technically shouldn't, I get a little bit sad signing on the the forums to read the devs talking about adding VR...

I don't mean to be rude but I do wonder, does the people who make this game also play it? If so I'm confused.

This game is such an unpolished pearl but whats the point of adding new cracks to it? Please for the love of the game, polish what's already there. I can always take every amazing feature of this game and find flaws, something that could be improved to make the game more enjoyable.

  • Like 8

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
Sign in to follow this