Sign in to follow this  
Keenan

Development Update - May 2022

Recommended Posts

 Hello all!

 

We’re still working on the first part of the Exploration Update, which we are happy to announce will be arriving on May 31st June 7th. There are a few important things to mention about this update, however.

 

We had previously set a date of June 28th, 2021, as the day we would sunset the old UI client. We decided to skip this due to issues with the new client. Well, Budda has been hard at work on making inroads into solving some of the more significant problems with the new client, including the performance issues many have reported. As a result, we will be retiring the old UI client on July 1st, 2022. Please make your issues with the new client known in this thread so that we can address them before this date. The thread also includes some of the changes made to the new client, which are available for testing on the Test Server. Since we will be sunsetting the old UI client, the features found in the Exploration Update will not be present in the old UI version.

 

We will also be retiring JNLP support on the same day as the old UI client. If you use the launcher, this will not affect you. If you have issues using the launcher, please make them known in this thread. All of this is to help free us up to push forward into newer versions of Java and reduce the amount of work a client update takes due to supporting multiple versions and aging deployment infrastructure.

 

With that being said, I wanted to talk about the recent video from Josh Strife Hayes. If you haven’t seen it, I recommend giving it a watch here. One thing I’ve struggled with since stepping up into the manager role has been determining what we’re going to be doing after this Exploration Update is complete. This is precisely why I’ve yet to release a more in-depth road map. This is not for lack of ideas; we have enough ideas to keep Wurm going for a long time between you all and the development team. It’s a matter of priority and what would be best for the game as a whole. The clear response from that review is that we need to fix what is broken, polish the rougher edges, and focus on the new player experience.

 

I still intend for us to work on PvP and decor in the months after Exploration is finished, as I mentioned in a previous thread, and I still plan for us to review some of the skills that we have and improve on them. I believe these things can be done alongside a more “back to basics” approach. We touch on the new player experience every few years, but it’s essential to review how new players see and learn the game. I also want to check other game areas and see how a new player would approach them. Some things, like meditation, are arguably essential to the gameplay due to the bonuses but are nigh on impossible to discover without help. That is not to say that everything should be easily found out, this is Wurm, after all, but we should be doing a better job introducing some mechanics earlier on.

 

Finally, I want to thank you all for the patience and support you have given us. The guidance and feedback from the community help shape our decisions every day. I feel we all share the same goal of keeping Wurm going and growing.

 

Happy Wurming!

 

Edit 5/27:

We have decided to push the release by a week to June 7th in order to allow for time to have a public testing session. Please stay tuned to the forums for information on that public test, which will be posted by tomorrow (5/28).

Edited by Keenan
Release date pushed.
  • Like 59

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
4 minutes ago, Keenan said:

We had previously set a date of June 28th, 2021, as the day we would sunset the old UI client. We decided to skip this due to issues with the new client. Well, Budda has been hard at work on making inroads into solving some of the more significant problems with the new client, including the performance issues many have reported.

 

is the crash on mob kill one of the "more significant problems" resolved

 

also hi thread

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Thank you for communicating and explaining the scenario.  This is greatly appreciated, and I look forward to see how wurm takes Josh's criticism and uses it constructively. 

  • Like 4

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
3 minutes ago, Madnath said:

 

is the crash on mob kill one of the "more significant problems" resolved

 

also hi thread

 

It's being investigated, I can dig into the progress of that.

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Will there be a minimalistic UI included in the new UI client? I.E. one with text instead of icons and without all the adornments around the windows.

  • Like 2

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Thanks for the Thread Keenan.

 

One point I want to rise is that in my opinion you need not only point a new player into the direction of a skill or mechanic but also make the basics understandable without a diploma, make different skills behave the same way and at least the lower skill level obtainable without going several miles out of the way of general gameplay.

 

Some skills that need a review in my opinion are meditation (why can I go one or more days, meditate all I can and dont get a single skilltick? not understandable for a new player), animal husbandry (or horse lottery as I call it), Rod fishing (spear fishing is fine, but rod fishing is so overengineered its off putting and way to much work to bother with) and skilling shields (almost impossible to rise during regular gameplay).

 

Thank you for your time and work and I look forward to exploration.

  • Like 4

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Thank you for the comms @keenan, as always much appreciated.

 

Tbh I agree that the new player experience should be the priority number one after the exploration update gets released (and polished, bugs will happen obviously). 

 

One trait of dying MMOs is that dev time is given to retaining players instead of recruiting new players into an MMO.  This simply delays the inevitable. Subconsciously (or perhaps consciously) all players know this.

 

The new player tutorial, first days, first experience, what they can do, how they interact with the world and chat is crucial. To this end I would support things like starter town NPC's that maybe give players quests (and rewards) to : build your first house, found your first deed, learn how combat works, etc. 

 

Players have been adamant in the past when NPC's were first suggested but the reasoning (and flawed as it still is ) that Wurm is a player driven game. Players guide other players. This was perhaps true when Wurm had 10 000 monthly active players and new people were always around starter towns and vets there to guide them. This is simply not true anymore. Timezones issues and the like has lead to very depopulated servers and new players are often lost. They are lost in the tutorial and they are lost in starter towns. They need a guide , a "game story arc" to guide them. 

 

Definition of game story arc : how you want to guide players initially so they learn the ropes or give them a sense of direction when they are unsure what to do. Wurm is a HUGE game. It is easy to get lost especially with having so many outdated mechanics. Combat interface for example doesn't tell you how much damage you are doing, how much you are receiving, it's a very sterile and benign experience. It takes weeks if not months to "get a feel" for combat in Wurm. 

 

Hope something is done to improve new player experience. 

 

 

Edited by elentari
  • Like 6

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I'm really anxious to try exploration out.  Any idea when it will be up on test?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

can we now turn off the filtering things and search bars on the new UI? if you havent done that, for me not having the old ui means i cant play anymore.

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
23 minutes ago, Keenan said:

The clear response from that review is that we need to fix what is broken, polish the rougher edges, and focus on the new player experience.

 

Yes. That was my takeaway too.

 

I struggle to think of a new feature you could add that would improve the game more than a larger player base would.

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
3 minutes ago, Sinnjinn said:

I'm really anxious to try exploration out.  Any idea when it will be up on test?

I forgot to ask this, is it on the test server? 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

1.5 years overdue on a Defiance meditation hotfix though

 

(POK so people can play there on a daily basis pls)

Edited by Joemog

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
21 minutes ago, Aeris said:

Will there be a minimalistic UI included in the new UI client? I.E. one with text instead of icons and without all the adornments around the windows.

 

12 minutes ago, Tpikol said:

can we now turn off the filtering things and search bars on the new UI?

 

These.

 

 

  • Like 5

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Does the 'Exploration Update' include "The Journal Rework" mentioned in April?

 

If so, is there anything we need to do in preparation?  (Like hurry up and complete current tiers?) If some tiers are close to completion, will the rework change how close they are to completion?

  • Like 3

Share this post


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

Does the 'Exploration Update' include "The Journal Rework" mentioned in April?

 

If so, is there anything we need to do in preparation?  (Like hurry up and complete current tiers?) If some tiers are close to completion, will the rework change how close they are to completion?

I have multiple alts at one goal left to fulfill the tier(s) on purpose to use sleep bonus in most effective way. Though, being alts, I'm ok even if I lose some of the gains there, for those that have their main in similar situation it is more important to know.

 

And while I can now run the new client very easily with about as many clients I can fit on my screen, less than year ago my old computer had serious trouble running even two, so I can sympathize the requests for maintaining older client in some form. Even that old computer wasn't that old or underpowered. Of course people with newer computers are more likely and able to spend more money in the game, but playerbase here is largely older and more conservative with buying new machines (generalization, I know, but seems to fit my observation). Is there a way to add more options to downgrade/downsize (not sure which word to use) the client to keep it functional on older machines as well? I guess the term minimalistic UI that was used above would fit.

 

Edit: Having looked at the thread specifically about issues with new UI, it seems the problems are, hopefully, more about settings and overall function of it. So it seems actual performance issues are less than they were before? At least I hope so. My own first encounter with new UI was not positive and before changing computers, it was simply impossible to use it. Last months it's been very good for me. But I would hate to see someone forced away from game just because issues with client. So still hoping lot of scalability there.

Edited by Nestangol
more info

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

@Rudie @Aeris what do you two mean?
unknown.png

 

I am using the new UI, and i see nothing about what you two mentioned.

Why you want to shut off your search/filtering functions is beyond me: i use them all the time. However what adornments? what icons need replacing?

  • Like 4

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I'll just repeat what I posted in the Client thread here in case anyone has the same issues with the new UI looking too large for them. The below settings can be changed to scale the UI, and at the lower end you can essentially make it smaller than the Old UI.
  

40 minutes ago, Budda said:

 

In settings under the Text & UI tab there are two settings that should help with this if you play around a bit. You can change these while the client is running to fine tune exactly how you want things to look.

 

LReA2gk.png

 

I'd recommend starting with dropping your UI Scale down to 90-100 (Maybe lower if you can handle it being smaller), then increasing the Text Scale to make things more readable if needed.

 

  • Like 4

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
4 minutes ago, Tomatoes said:

@Rudie @Aeris what do you two mean?
unknown.png

 

I am using the new UI, and i see nothing about what you two mentioned.

Why you want to shut off your search/filtering functions is beyond me: i use them all the time. However what adornments? what icons need replacing?

 

 

Ya please don't take away the search funtion.  its so needed!!!

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
26 minutes ago, Aelha said:

 

 

Ya please don't take away the search funtion.  its so needed!!!

nobody wants to take it away from people who use it, we dont want to be forced to use it.

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Wurm's anniversary is approaching fast.  Please consider opening up the border between NFI and SFI.  More player interaction and more trading opportunities are good things for this sandbox.

  • Like 10

Share this post


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

nobody wants to take it away from people who use it, we dont want to be forced to use it.

 

How are you being forced? If you don't want to use it, then don't use it.

 

Just out of curiosity, how do you find a specific item in a BSB or a FSB with hundreds of different items in it? 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
1 minute ago, Eyesgood said:

Wurm's anniversary is approaching fast.  Please consider opening up the border between NFI and SFI.  More player interaction and more trading opportunities are good things for this sandbox.

I heard a rumor that isn't possible, but I also wish for this too!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
1 minute ago, Gwiz said:

 

How are you being forced? If you don't want to use it, then don't use it.

 

Just out of curiosity, how do you find a specific item in a BSB or a FSB with hundreds of different items in it? 

its still there occupying space on all my windows, thats how.

 

i dont put hundreds of diferent types of items on the same bsb or fsb, why would you?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Just now, Tpikol said:

i dont put hundreds of diferent types of items on the same bsb or fsb, why would you?

I sort by quality, rather then what item it is, when I toss things in a bsb/fsbunknown.png

 

  • Like 2

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this