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Keenan

Development Update - 2022-02-21

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Hello all!

 

I’d like to give an update on the development of Wurm Online and a small look into future plans for the game. I apologize for how late this post is as well as how high-level it is. The changes in the development team that was announced in the previous Valrei International has made it hard to accurately estimate everything we’d like to accomplish. With that said, let’s dive in!

 

For Q1, we’re still hard at work on the exploration update, which has a tentative release date of the end of March or early April. There are also bug fixes to be had and ongoing QoL changes that we’re looking to make as smaller updates. Finally, we’d like to wrap up some concerns Defiance players have had regarding meditation paths and player-made kingdoms.

 

I feel I should address the caffeine changes and the feedback surrounding them. I’ve had a lot of people tell me that the community feels we ignored them with this, and I understand where that is coming from. We had a lot of internal discussions regarding this feature and the feedback provided, but ultimately, we decided to go with a plan very similar to what we originally posted at the start of that thread. We should have communicated better, and for that, I am truly sorry. I would like to continue soliciting feedback from the community, and I hope to do better in the future with regard to communicating on those feedback threads. As for the feature, we will continue to monitor and make adjustments where necessary.

 

I’d like to address the release date for the exploration update as well. While the ideas were mostly fleshed out regarding the update, there wasn’t much development work put into it until somewhat recently. This was due to a number of things, but rather than rushing out a disappointing update, I made the call to push it back and do better.

 

As for what will be in the exploration update, I’d like to leave that for Demona to introduce in future Valrei International editions. We’ll have plenty of teasers and information to share in the near future!

 

For Q2 and beyond, we would like to focus on several things: we would like to add more building and decoration options, put attention on PvP and the needs of that community, as well as take a look over the skills we have and see where we can improve the experience of some such as meditation.

 

There’s also work that needs to be done with regards to internal tools and external services, such as the shop. This will obviously distract us slightly from development on the core Wurm experience, but it is required for the continued support of the game.

 

Finally, a word on VR. This was announced last year, but since then there’s been a number of things identified that must come before we can delve into the world of virtual reality. Namely, we need support for controllers, better performance from the client, and to rethink how you would interact with the world of Wurm while in virtual reality. This is not a trivial amount of work, but it brings benefits beyond enabling virtual reality support.

 

That's all I have for now.

 

Happy Wurming!

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32 minutes ago, Keenan said:

but rather than rushing out a disappointing update, I made the call to push it back and do better.

thank you. It may disappoint a handful of player when delays are made, but the game and player-base as a whole (as well as those impatient players) will much better enjoy the work you all put into the game as long as you provide yourselves appropriate time to flesh out and polish your work.

 

32 minutes ago, Keenan said:

For Q2 and beyond, we would like to focus on several things: we would like to add more building and decoration options, put attention on PvP and the needs of that community, as well as take a look over the skills we have and see where we can improve the experience of some such as meditation.

Great news all around, hopeful to see what comes. Will the pvp community be allowed to voice thoughts regarding any potential plans as you all share them? 

Is there any plans regarding the whole Epic situation?

 

35 minutes ago, Keenan said:

Finally, a word on VR. This was announced last year, but since then there’s been a number of things identified that must come before we can delve into the world of virtual reality. Namely, we need support for controllers, better performance from the client, and to rethink how you would interact with the world of Wurm while in virtual reality. This is not a trivial amount of work, but it brings benefits beyond enabling virtual reality support.

And quite honestly, the best news here. I've non-stop joked about Wurm VR being, well.. a joke. But, provided the work needed to optimize and actually prepare the game to perform in VR is done, it really could be a nice feature. We all understand GCC wants to push new markets, but taking the time to actually make the game fit those markets is so incredibly important in order for it to actually do well in those markets. Excited to see what comes of this, with potential for optimization, polish, and overall gameplay enhancements.

 

Thank you for the news!

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6 hours ago, Keenan said:

Finally, a word on VR. This was announced last year, but since then there’s been a number of things identified that must come before we can delve into the world of virtual reality. Namely, we need support for controllers, better performance from the client, and to rethink how you would interact with the world of Wurm while in virtual reality. This is not a trivial amount of work, but it brings benefits beyond enabling virtual reality support.

 

Again more info on this please. Does this mean the current client will still be available for play or is it going full throttle VR client only? Really confused on this because if it does go to VR only for game play, hate to say it, but 9 years will be the anniversary of when I won't be able to play any more.

 

While I like the idea of VR, it is not something I would be able to play as I'm sure there are many others out there as well that wouldn't be able to play VR. 

 

So Will this be optional? or mandatory?

 

If optional will everything ( updates, tweeks, ect ) be done for both VR and Non-VR or will Non-VR 'client' get brushed aside and forgotten for the new shiney of the month?

 

Edited by Stormblade

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I hearted it already but I haven't read it yet.  I am just very happy to have news.

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Okay, have read it now.

 

Here is my take away:

 

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore EXPLORATION UPDATE et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris EXPLORATION UPDATE nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit EXPLORATION UPDATE  in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint DECORATIONS occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

 

I think I got the gist of it  😁

 

Yay!

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I love it! 

 

I only have one simple request, Please don't go and make wurm too easy? It feels like ever since the NFI release the game has just gotten easier and easier.

 

Wurm is awesome for me because it's a hard grind with very little instant gratification and when something amazing happens like making a rare item or finally getting to that next level on the meditation path, or completing a rift it feels very rewarding because a lot of work and effort went into it.

 

Please don't give in to the cries of snowflakes out there who are not up to the grind. If we wanted easy there are lots of other sandbox games out there to play and for me Wurm is unique in this way that from the moment you spawn in everything is out to make your life harder, be it environment, mobs, other players, wogic or simply your own bad ideas. 

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8 hours ago, Keenan said:

Finally, a word on VR. This was announced last year, but since then there’s been a number of things identified that must come before we can delve into the world of virtual reality. Namely, we need support for controllers, better performance from the client, and to rethink how you would interact with the world of Wurm while in virtual reality. This is not a trivial amount of work, but it brings benefits beyond enabling virtual reality support.

 

I feel that VR is a bit of a weird goal. You need to completely redo the entire UI and the number of potential players is absolutely tiny. You know what the install base of Wurm looks like.

 

However, if it brings us closer to having Wurm officially run on Java 11+ I'll take it. I know of several show stopper bugs in JFX and a bunch of crashes in Wurm's old bundled Java that are fixed in Java 17, including two that make Wurm impossible to run on current versions of Ubuntu, plus a bunch of spurious crashes inside the JVM on current versions of Windows. Plus, moving on from G1GC makes Wurm run so much smoother…

 

Seriously, please spend a cycle on getting the Client off Java 8.

 

 

17 minutes ago, Farmboy102 said:

I love it! 

 

I only have one simple request, Please don't go and make wurm too easy? It feels like ever since the NFI release the game has just gotten easier and easier.

 

Wurm has never been a hard game. hth.

 

I can't imagine living in a world where the interesting bits Wurm has to offer are constantly locked behind extremely tedious grind that some people think is somehow good to have. More people should be able to experience the good bits.

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35 minutes ago, Batolemaeus said:

the interesting bits Wurm has to offer are constantly locked behind extremely tedious grind

 

(Edit: I think I may have misunderstood your post., and that we agree on this matter.  Sorry in that case, but I'll just leave my own opinion here.)

 

I am curious to know what those interesting bits are especially. Surely what makes Wurm stand out from any other game is the exceptional world build, the abilities for building houses and terraforming anything and anywhere you want, as well as complete freedom to choose your profession and skills among many hundreds. None of this takes any grind whatsoever.

 

Where Wurm does not score well compared to other games in my opinion is the very things that you grind to be able to do, the combat "end game" or the bling that you create with your 99 skill. Who here thinks that a dragon slaying in Wurm is what drags people away from the raids of ESO or Black Desert? 

 

Edited by CistaCista

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7 hours ago, Stormblade said:

 

Again more info on this please. Does this mean the current client will still be available for play or is it going full throttle VR client only? Really confused on this because if it does go to VR only for game play, hate to say it, but 9 years will be the anniversary of when I won't be able to play any more.

 

While I like the idea of VR, it is not something I would be able to play as I'm sure there are many others out there as well that wouldn't be able to play VR. 

 

So Will this be optional? or mandatory?

 

If optional will everything ( updates, tweeks, ect ) be done for both VR and Non-VR or will Non-VR 'client' get brushed aside and forgotten for the new shiney of the month?

 

Dude just chill out and wait

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10 hours ago, Keenan said:

Namely, we need support for controllers, better performance from the client, and to rethink how you would interact with the world of Wurm while in virtual reality. This is not a trivial amount of work, but it brings benefits beyond enabling virtual reality support.

 

Could this be a way to justify an upgrade in the game engine or the time saved with optimising VR on a modern engine instead of developing it in Java would be lost in trying to adapt the other existing parts and systems of wurm from Java to it?

 

 

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10 minutes ago, CistaCista said:

 

I am curious to know what those interesting bits are especially. Surely what makes Wurm stand out from any other game is the exceptional world build, the abilities for building houses and terraforming anything and anywhere you want, as well as complete freedom to choose your profession and skills among many hundreds. None of this takes any grind whatsoever.

 

The poster I was responding to thinks Wurm has gotten "easier" (meaning less grindy), and they want it "harder", i.e. more grindy.

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1 hour ago, CistaCista said:

(Edit: I think I may have misunderstood your post., and that we agree on this matter.  Sorry in that case, but I'll just leave my own opinion here.)

 

I also think we are mostly in agreement.

 

There's certainly an argument worth having about how much labour should go into things. The investment of real labour is what gives things relevance and meaning, and the things players build and the things they do are a result of them always questioning whether the investment of time and work is worth the result.

 

I think there are several areas in the game where the balance is severely out of whack – fishing immediately comes to mind. And there were several additions that are so close to being interesting, yet so boring. Like the entire cooking system, caffeine included.

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13 hours ago, Keenan said:

Finally, a word on VR. This was announced last year, but since then there’s been a number of things identified that must come before we can delve into the world of virtual reality. Namely, we need support for controllers, better performance from the client, and to rethink how you would interact with the world of Wurm while in virtual reality. This is not a trivial amount of work, but it brings benefits beyond enabling virtual reality support.

 

"we don’t expect it to derail development on the content features we’ve announced." from when this was first announced.

Sounds like there was a misunderstanding of how much work or effort this would be and take. I think clarifying this is likely no longer the case might be a good idea before there's a massive amount of posts pointing back to and going nuts.

 

As much as I think VR is pointless, I'll trust the long term vision for it will lead to some much better new features and improvements.

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I can't say I'm too interested in VR so I'll probably stick with the traditional keyboard, mouse and monitor. But I guess changes required to make it work could result in improvements also coming in for traditional play experience.

 

I really wish you'd give us more on the exploration update, really looking forward to seeing this.

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I try to stay cautions optimistic for the exploration update. With so less details I can´t say I am excited for it or not since it’s hard for more to imagine a good way to reward exploration

 

The Caffeine changes I understand what you wanted to archive there but I am unsure if it have worked out in this way. And on some points I can see the influence from the community discussion. I understand that players are horrible Devs most of the time so I am not really mad about it.

 

More decoration options are allways welcome even if I am not one of the users I can appreciate when other people use it and I have a nice world to look at thanks to the effort of this type of player.

 

So PVP is one of the big semi problem child in the room. PVP is, well, in a bad state since forever I guess since countless games and Wurm have shown hardcore Loot PVP don’t work to maintain large populations. Raid Windows were a step in the right direction for defiance since it counters for smaller player bases or even single players the overnight raid problem. You will still need to be online every day but yeah some were you have to draw a line without to not kill the spirit of what PVP is.

I really wonder how you will tackle this since it’s a complicated question so fare I never have see a game get done in a way that lives up to the “realistic” loot experience and still keep healthy gameplay.

 

The VR is still not my favorit. If we get client improvements thanks to it, it’s a win but I still stand to my point its not well used dev time in my opinion since VR is something you build the game around from the start or it will not work well enough to be considered a good addition.

Edited by Radircs

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Thanks for update! I think that community can handle  delays and bugs (situation quite common in any software development) to reasonable level, if all is openly and regularly communicated. Even bad news are better than radio silence. I see that issue with communication was recognized and mentioned, so big plus from me.

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Based on my experience as a coffee seller. The caffeine changes killed coffee use. We basically stopped using it as well. The bad ratio of sleep bonus used up to skill gains seems to be what scares people off.

 

Was a worse change than I expected because of that one thing.

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I consider caffeine is in a faster and easier categories, reach higher skill faster so that do things easier. People seem to not liking it.

9 hours ago, Farmboy102 said:

I only have one simple request, Please don't go and make wurm too easy? It feels like ever since the NFI release the game has just gotten easier and easier.

 

The exploration update seems like a very different mechanic in the game,  will put it into the more category. 

More building and decoration options and VR are of course in the more category. 

VR requires so much time and resources to prepare in order to benefit the people who own and enjoy a VR.

 

So, More > Faster, Easier, User-friendlier > VR. The more category should always be priority first. 

Edited by Coach

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I was wondering if theres a way to scale the effect of cofee as in.. if a skill is under 50 have full effect from 50 to 70 only half.. from 70 - 80 only 25% then from 80+ no effect of caffeine on skill gains on that skill. That way the newbs and casuals benefit most as intended.. the vets can get new skills up faster still so they would use it too

 

Maybe use the oakshell code where if is under a certain power is just the armor buff then if is above it it gets a thorn effect aswell? And use that to create stages of caffeine effect?

 

Also a nice pvp change would be for pmk's only to have some sort of religious peace declared so both WL and BL can be in one PMK and have 1 champ of each deity? So you wont have ppl arguing about this lacks this and that lacks that they would all have access to all. I would apreciate a removal of mycellium and rework the lib passives but i know you guys dont have the manpower to implement probably 10% of the suggestions you actually like so would be all for now. :)

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3 hours ago, Eleraan said:

Based on my experience as a coffee seller. The caffeine changes killed coffee use. We basically stopped using it as well. The bad ratio of sleep bonus used up to skill gains seems to be what scares people off.

 

Was a worse change than I expected because of that one thing.

 

I didn't really see a change in the volume I was selling, but the users buying most often changed. I'm on NFI though, so maybe that makes a difference. I dropped my price a bit as well since they added combining raw/cooked coffee beans which really speeds up production and cut down actions. 🤷‍♀️

 

I agree that the SB usage to skill gain ratio is unbalanced now so many will not use it, but I think they may have accomplished their goal of making it more focused on players that don't have the time for grinding and never use their SB weekly. I don't mind the change myself as someone who always has SB to spare.

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I think focusing on VR would be such a waste of time and money. Could focus on many other things to improve the game, like removing those annoying micro-freezes because of Java garbage collection.

Edited by Kian
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3 hours ago, Odinstardew said:

 

I didn't really see a change in the volume I was selling, but the users buying most often changed. I'm on NFI though, so maybe that makes a difference. I dropped my price a bit as well since they added combining raw/cooked coffee beans which really speeds up production and cut down actions. 🤷‍♀️

 

I agree that the SB usage to skill gain ratio is unbalanced now so many will not use it, but I think they may have accomplished their goal of making it more focused on players that don't have the time for grinding and never use their SB weekly. I don't mind the change myself as someone who always has SB to spare.

Might be the NFI vs SFI.

 

I was selling pretty regularly between 2-10 barrels most days.  Since the patch, I've made one sell.  Might be others selling that are just beating me to it? I've seen only one other selling tho and for the same price.

 

I had a pretty wide gambit of buyers, I chatted with many about what they were skilling.  It was surprising how many were working on sub 50 skills in primary skills like blacksmithing or carpentry.   One of my heavy repeat buyers was super excited because they got to 50 carpentry really fast and their partner was pushing for 50 blacksmithing.  Considering they were buying over the span of a week that's not what I consider fast for a 50 skill.  But they were super excited so that was fun.

 

The increased power and duration might be affecting it as well but the amount of sales definitely fell way off. 

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Please don't spend any time or effort on VR. It feels like such a gimmicky medium. 

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