Exciting Changes & Announcements for Wurm Online

[DannyUK 212]

49 minutes ago, Pandalet said:

I'd like to note a few things that have not changed, since they've come up a fair bit here:

 - there is no plan at this time to merge SFI and NFI

 - there are no plans at this time to shut down or consolidate any servers

 

While people have strong feelings and are passionate, please remember that you're dealing with other real people.  Let's try to keep the discussion and feedback constructive.

Yes totally agree, I mean everyone is entitled to their opinion but I think it is the wrong way to go removing peoples hard work on a server that took many years to build. I'm glad to hear it is not in the plans at least, clears that up at least.

[_hyena 17]

32 minutes ago, Stinboi said:

so new cluster every couple of years incase someone want to do something els? wow, i hope you understyand how far off this suggestion is.

 

You think people wouldn't flock with open wallets each time? Lol 

 

Your alternative is just keep making content for the dwindling player base we have now that produces very little money? 

Would love to hear other ideas to entice more people to start playing, start spending.

 

I've got several alts with premium until 2025+ and would no doubt prem up a few more on a new cluster.

[Akuzic 136]

16 minutes ago, _hyena said:

 

You think people wouldn't flock with open wallets each time? Lol 

 

Your alternative is just keep making content for the dwindling player base we have now that produces very little money? 

Would love to hear other ideas to entice more people to start playing, start spending.

 

I've got several alts with premium until 2025+ and would no doubt prem up a few more on a new cluster.

I don't think it would be as big of a landrush as you think. NFI did so well at the start because it was paired with a steam release; that was a one time thing, they can't re-release steam. Opening up another cluster may draw in some short term cash from people premming new alts for it, but I don't think it would offset the loss of having to support a new server and hurting the remaining long term playerbase

Edited July 7, 2023 by Akuzic

[Tukodama 316]

38 minutes ago, Yaga said:

Let me check... where exactly is that happening?

 

At the end of the tutorial when a new player chooses a server to go travel to, Cadance has a "New Server" sign above it.  After this many years, that is misleading.  

[Yaga 2,892]

1 hour ago, Tukodama said:

 

At the end of the tutorial when a new player chooses a server to go travel to, Cadance has a "New Server" sign above it.  After this many years, that is misleading.  

 

Yes, I saw that. However, the claim was: "new players are being adviced, in game when selecting a server to go to, to go to NFI". I cannot find anything like that in the tutorial area.

 

 

[Etherdrifter 2,518]

39 minutes ago, Yaga said:

 

Yes, I saw that. However, the claim was: "new players are being adviced, in game when selecting a server to go to, to go to NFI". I cannot find anything like that in the tutorial area.

 

 

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1179680/discussions/0/3880365909903427772/

 

You'll notice that's pinned in the steam community (the area most folks look when they consider wurm).

[Stinboi 367]

1 hour ago, Etherdrifter said:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1179680/discussions/0/3880365909903427772/

 

You'll notice that's pinned in the steam community (the area most folks look when they consider wurm).

OMG that to, SFI players are really worth close to nothing anymore

[_hyena 17]

6 hours ago, Pandalet said:

I'd like to note a few things that have not changed, since they've come up a fair bit here:

 - there is no plan at this time to merge SFI and NFI

 - there are no plans at this time to shut down or consolidate any servers

 

While people have strong feelings and are passionate, please remember that you're dealing with other real people.  Let's try to keep the discussion and feedback constructive.

 

Also ^

 

Ruling out server deletions and mergers but not new cluster

 

western freedom isles confirmed December 2023 or June 2024 

 

😉

 

[Yaga 2,892]

12 hours ago, Etherdrifter said:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1179680/discussions/0/3880365909903427772/

 

You'll notice that's pinned in the steam community (the area most folks look when they consider wurm).

 

Thanks for the heads-up. Guess that one can be easily changed. However, Ecrir claimed there is an "in game advice" to select NFI - and I still cannot find any. 

[Stinboi 367]

1 hour ago, Yaga said:

 

Thanks for the heads-up. Guess that one can be easily changed. However, Ecrir claimed there is an "in game advice" to select NFI - and I still cannot find any. 

when new players is at the point to choose server, it lead them to go to Cadance

[Finnn 3,321]

Maybe a time to show a new screen?

Summarized information with picture/s, "yo we have 3 clusters... epic/sfi/nfi, 2 sentences what to expect and online player count per cluster?"

Let players do their own educated choice, mock them by throwing them into a cluster promising some nonsense like nfi's great.. sfi is dumb, etc.. and you'll likely lose their trust early on, they have not invested any time or money, they have no reason to stay after such interaction.

 

Treat players better, provide them adequate tools to pick right server/cluster.

[Archaed 2,282]

3 hours ago, Yaga said:

 

Thanks for the heads-up. Guess that one can be easily changed. However, Ecrir claimed there is an "in game advice" to select NFI - and I still cannot find any. 

I believe it's this

 

 

 

[Vorticella 958]

It is a lot to ask brand new players to choose a cluster, let alone a server, before knowing anything about the game. They don't even understand what a cluster is at that point. It's unfortunate when someone gets into the game a bit and then regrets their choice between northern or southern and their only option is to start over again. I do think some kind of limited portal/transfer system is a good idea for that.

 

Maybe we should have an optional starter island. A separate map with slightly different rules so newbies can take their time getting into the game a little and perhaps meet other new players to start with before having to make the big decision of where to go.

 

The first mmo I played was Ryzom and it had a starter island like this, it was a great way for new players to get established with the basics and feel ready before venturing out into the "real world" of the game.

 

 

[Archaed 2,282]

10 minutes ago, Vorticella said:

It is a lot to ask brand new players to choose a cluster, let alone a server, before knowing anything about the game. They don't even understand what a cluster is at that point. It's unfortunate when someone gets into the game a bit and then regrets their choice between northern or southern and their only option is to start over again. I do think some kind of limited portal/transfer system is a good idea for that.

 

Maybe we should have an optional starter island. A separate map with slightly different rules so newbies can take their time getting into the game a little and perhaps meet other new players to start with before having to make the big decision of where to go.

 

The first mmo I played was Ryzom and it had a starter island like this, it was a great way for new players to get established with the basics and feel ready before venturing out into the "real world" of the game.

 

 

Golden valley was originally created as this, but the problem with wurm is that once you start building something, you don't want to leave it. Golden Valley was significantly limited in what you could do, but many players did not want to have to move and start up again. 

 

Coupled with it being non-premium only, and purchasing premium would boot you off to the main servers, it actually became a drawback of purchasing premium. 

 

there's certainly a benefit to something that allows players to find their footing (and indeed haven's landing on indy had a gigantic perimeter with build permissions for this reason) without impacting their ability to choose a server later

[DannyUK 212]

1 hour ago, Vorticella said:

It is a lot to ask brand new players to choose a cluster, let alone a server, before knowing anything about the game. They don't even understand what a cluster is at that point. It's unfortunate when someone gets into the game a bit and then regrets their choice between northern or southern and their only option is to start over again. I do think some kind of limited portal/transfer system is a good idea for that.

 

Maybe we should have an optional starter island. A separate map with slightly different rules so newbies can take their time getting into the game a little and perhaps meet other new players to start with before having to make the big decision of where to go.

 

The first mmo I played was Ryzom and it had a starter island like this, it was a great way for new players to get established with the basics and feel ready before venturing out into the "real world" of the game.

 

 

That is very true, I remember when I first started I didn't even know how to use the portal then when I managed to do it I was presented with all these maps. I didn't know which was the best or what so just went for one of them and hope for the best. 

 

It's a bit disheartening if you choose the wrong server not being able to get back, the portal/transfer limit is a good one, it will let people get back even if they just made it so you can port back to the start area and choose again.

The starter island is another good idea they could implement, they had this in Life Is Feudal, You could build things, chop down trees etc and then when you were ready you went to an NPC at a fixed point and teleport to the island you want to join.

 

These are changes that could help new players in the game which is what they are trying to work towards. Hopefully they take these suggestions into consideration.

[Vorticella 958]

24 minutes ago, Archaed said:

Golden valley was originally created as this, but the problem with wurm is that once you start building something, you don't want to leave it. Golden Valley was significantly limited in what you could do, but many players did not want to have to move and start up again. 

 

Coupled with it being non-premium only, and purchasing premium would boot you off to the main servers, it actually became a drawback of purchasing premium. 

 

there's certainly a benefit to something that allows players to find their footing (and indeed haven's landing on indy had a gigantic perimeter with build permissions for this reason) without impacting their ability to choose a server later

 

I think it could still work with adjustments based on lessons learned.

 

Understandable that people would be hesitant to leave their newbie homes behind, and it should be abundantly clear that this is intended as a temporary learning ground. But is it necessary to push them off to the main world at all? It's so good for new players to meet others when they're getting started, so why not just let people live on the starter island as long as they want? Eventually most would get bored of having capped levels, constantly repairing their structures (assuming no deeds here), having nothing harder to fight than wolves, no access to global trade etc. Let them choose to leave via a portal or talking to an npc only when they're good and ready. If some want to stay in low level land forever I say just let them.

 

I actually love the idea of having a character that lives permanently on the newbie server, and regularly spending time there helping people get started. In Ryzom a lot of experienced players had alts on the starter island and many would hang out there helping people and recruiting for guilds. A lot of us did it because we were nostalgic for those early days as a newbie. That was fun and beneficial for us since it made it easier to find new guildies, and it naturally also created a very welcoming starter experience for new players

[Miretta 1,415]

30 minutes ago, Vorticella said:

 

I think it could still work with adjustments based on lessons learned.

 

Understandable that people would be hesitant to leave their newbie homes behind, and it should be abundantly clear that this is intended as a temporary learning ground. But is it necessary to push them off to the main world at all? It's so good for new players to meet others when they're getting started, so why not just let people live on the starter island as long as they want? Eventually most would get bored of having capped levels, constantly repairing their structures (assuming no deeds here), having nothing harder to fight than wolves, no access to global trade etc. Let them choose to leave via a portal or talking to an npc only when they're good and ready. If some want to stay in low level land forever I say just let them.

 

I actually love the idea of having a character that lives permanently on the newbie server, and regularly spending time there helping people get started. In Ryzom a lot of experienced players had alts on the starter island and many would hang out there helping people and recruiting for guilds. A lot of us did it because we were nostalgic for those early days as a newbie. That was fun and beneficial for us since it made it easier to find new guildies, and it naturally also created a very welcoming starter experience for new players

I agree whole heartedly, I think that having a starter island like golden valley used to be, would still be the best choice for wurm to introduce players steadily, with some adjustments.

We know that golden valley became an issue because too many players sticked around longtime, but I think this could be helped, by as example limiting the amount of space people can own. 
Like give everyone a deed and that they can't build anything outside of it, with a big bold message on the top if they try, that these lands are for temporary use only.
Those deeds could be much smaller than the usual minimum size of deed and would have smaller perimeters too.

Just enough to build a hut and to have about 2 tiles gap between them all.

And in regards to premium vs non premium...that depends how difficult it would be to implement restrictions that are not based on character stats.
But maybe instead of giving infinite time to experiment on this trainee island, people would get kicked off/loose all permissions to continue doing stuff after reaching 20 in a skill or 3 days of playtime? (3 days is arbitrary, would need to be tested what works best)

Though no idea how to resolve the issue with being overwhelmed with choices, where we can't know as a newbie which one suits us best (aka which map to go to after).
then again, maybe don't time limit it, base it on premium but every time a certain player cap is reached a new newbie island is made ^^" (could be small cap, pretty much (wurm)city sized servers) with the cap being dependent either on player count or deed count within a starting zone.
Now that I think about it, it actually sounds cool to imagine that there would be 20 max skill/non premium servers to live on XD 

[Yaga 2,892]

3 hours ago, Archaed said:

I believe it's this

 

Yes, Archaed - that's what I found as well. (I said so earlier, please scroll up one or two pages .) Thanks.

 

While I do agree that the line "New Server: Cadence" is old news and should be removed, I am still looking for an "in game advice for new players to go to NFI", as claimed by Ecrir:

 

23 hours ago, Ecrir said:

new players are being adviced, in game when selecting a server to go to, to go to NFI

 

The simple information (however outdated it may be) that there is a new server on NFI is not an explicit advice. I can see where you all are coming from, and the info may have a certain influence on some players' decision, so it would be wise to remove it. However, we should be careful when repeating old rumours and myths without checking the facts.

 

Anyway, let's go forward and be positive. Let's wait for the new tutorial announced in the road map!

 

Edit: Oh, and I am sure all the feedback and valuable input in this thread is welcome and will be considered by the dev team!

[Muse 2,232]

@Kristerhas asked for more content for the website - but we need to make better use of the awesome content that's already available - otherwise it's going to waste. 

 

@Malena/ Katspurr made some excellent overview videos describing each of the 16 servers in detail - perhaps these could be added to the wiki and have a link at the portal stage so that new players can make an informed decision before they choose?

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnsJ4WFja8LQv_6jTOhUJ782vi9AzoLju

 

 

Edited July 8, 2023 by Muse

[Zexos 468]

3 hours ago, Vorticella said:

 

I think it could still work with adjustments based on lessons learned.

 

Understandable that people would be hesitant to leave their newbie homes behind, and it should be abundantly clear that this is intended as a temporary learning ground. But is it necessary to push them off to the main world at all? It's so good for new players to meet others when they're getting started, so why not just let people live on the starter island as long as they want? Eventually most would get bored of having capped levels, constantly repairing their structures (assuming no deeds here), having nothing harder to fight than wolves, no access to global trade etc. Let them choose to leave via a portal or talking to an npc only when they're good and ready. If some want to stay in low level land forever I say just let them.

 

I actually love the idea of having a character that lives permanently on the newbie server, and regularly spending time there helping people get started. In Ryzom a lot of experienced players had alts on the starter island and many would hang out there helping people and recruiting for guilds. A lot of us did it because we were nostalgic for those early days as a newbie. That was fun and beneficial for us since it made it easier to find new guildies, and it naturally also created a very welcoming starter experience for new players

When I first came to Wurm, I spawned in a enclosed town which I could not leave.  Cause of walls around the whole area. There was buildings with signs and I was also reading the help guide to see what to do.

 

I saw a big portal and I was thinking of going solo but then there was a user there called Ultrarecruiter saying "howdy Zexos" - "welcome to Wurm" - "what brings ya to Wurm?" - "are ya interested in joining my village Harvestmoon on Release server?" - "plenty or room to build a house and learn the basics of Wurm" - "I been here fer 7 years and Wurm is great"

 

I accepted the invite and teleported to Release and then got to the Harvestmoon Village where I got a personal tour of the Harvestmoon Village and also got a warm greeting from the other users in the village along with my own place to build a house along with some mats to build things and instructions/help from the users.

I think if I had said no and just gone solo, I might of picked a server that I just liked the sound of and I might of got killed by a monster quite quickly and maybe got bored or had a reaction and quit. 

I would say that the help, set up, tour and warm welcome from other human beings really helped introduce the community aspect of wurm and helped me get started in the game. That is quite a paramount detail I would say and why I still value and see how important villages like Harvestmoon are that help newbies get started in wurm.  

 

Anything that helps bring that experience to new users is a big plus in my view.

 

(It was also challenging to say yes for me since I normally stick to solo exploring and play even on MMO games....So saying yes and getting introduced to such a warm welcome was fab)

Edited July 8, 2023 by Zexos

[Tristanc 571]

12 minutes ago, Zexos said:

When I first came to Wurm, I spawned in a enclosed town which I could not leave.  Cause of walls around the whole area. There was buildings with signs and I was also reading the help guide to see what to do.

 

I saw a big portal and I was thinking of going solo but then there was a user there called Ultrarecruiter saying "howdy Zexos" - "welcome to Wurm" - "what brings ya to Wurm?" - "are ya interested in joining my village Harvestmoon on Release server?" - "plenty or room to build a house and learn the basics of Wurm" - "I been here fer 7 years and Wurm is great"

 

I accepted the invite and teleported to Release and then got to the Harvestmoon Village where I got a personal tour of the Harvestmoon Village and also got a warm greeting from the other users in the village along with my own place to build a house along with some mats to build things and instructions/help from the users.

I think if I had said no and just gone solo, I might of picked a server that I just liked the sound of and I might of got killed by a monster quite quickly and maybe got bored or had a reaction and quit. 

I would say that the help, set up, tour and warm welcome from other human beings really helped introduce the community aspect of wurm and helped me get started in the game. That is quite a paramount detail I would say and why I still value and see how important villages like Harvestmoon are that help newbies get started in wurm.  

 

Anything that helps bring that experience to new users is a big plus in my view.

 

The enclosed-by-walls tutorial was a later change that came to Golden Valley.

Originally there was no enclosed walled area, and you had free range to wander where you wished and were able to use the public woodcutting tutorial zone (trees in it regrew fast) and starter iron mine/forge as much as you wished. 

That's the Golden Valley reference I believe the posts were referring to, and actually I agree that some variant on that older concept would be really great in attracting/keeping new players.

 

It's what kept my interest in exploring Wurm Online when I first started, before it had the walled-in tutorials filled with signs to read (the location of the walled-in tutorial changed at least a couple times over those years).

Now that there's a webshop that Krister's developed to add revenue, perhaps having a new Golden Valley-like starter server would allow brand-new players starting there the ability to contribute revenue by using the web-shop as well? (other than for Premium, at least if that aspect of Golden Valley is retained).

 

[Stinboi 367]

 

6 hours ago, Yaga said:

While I do agree that the line "New Server: Cadence" is old news and should be removed, I am still looking for an "in game advice for new players to go to NFI", as claimed by Ecrir:

 

The simple information (however outdated it may be) that there is a new server on NFI is not an explicit advice. I can see where you all are coming from, and the info may have a certain influence on some players' decision, so it would be wise to remove it. However, we should be careful when repeating old rumours and myths without checking the facts.

Some player? i think it influence a big part of the new players, and yes its the same as if they wrote "we advice you to choose Cadance"

 

Will be exciting to see Wurm next step now after the rebrand, and how they devolep the game further, the plan about increasing revenu by bringing in new players must mean they have big plans ahead

[atazs 965]

11 hours ago, Archaed said:

Golden valley was originally created as this, but the problem with wurm is that once you start building something, you don't want to leave it. Golden Valley was significantly limited in what you could do, but many players did not want to have to move and start up again. 

 

Coupled with it being non-premium only, and purchasing premium would boot you off to the main servers, it actually became a drawback of purchasing premium. 

 

there's certainly a benefit to something that allows players to find their footing (and indeed haven's landing on indy had a gigantic perimeter with build permissions for this reason) without impacting their ability to choose a server later

Not sure where you got this misinformation from...

 

Buying premium on Golden Valley DID NOT "boot you off" to the main servers. It did nothing, except allowed you to leave by portal, if you WISHED to leave. 

Hell, after deed stakes were introduced, you could even make your own deed on Golden Valley. Unfortunately buying premium did not and does not allow you to raise skills above 20, but at least you can talk in GL Freedom... 

 

Source: I still have a character on GV and even created my own deed years ago. 

 

Anyway it was great because:

 

1. It was small so you couldn't get lost too much and could get around very easily due to an expansive road system. Being small meant also densely populated so there were always people in your local who'd help you. On the other hand, this led to overpopulation, however with no deeds present you could build anywhere and it was very much a free for all experience. You needed to put in a lot of effort and work to claim big plots of land and you had to maintain it constantly. 

2. No aggressive mobs to hunt and kill you. Strongest mob was a wild cat.

 

There was also increased decay for everything which was in place to show that it was meant to be a temporarily place for you to experience the game. I'd say people were plenty encouraged to buy premium to seek out the "full experience". Yes, people did not want to move and start up again, so what? That was their choice, if they did not mind missing out on a bunch of features. They at least continued to contribute to the community and economy on GV and massively help out brand new players, many of whom would end up leaving to Freedom and have a great experience of the game. It was a good system and had an awesome tight knit community. 

 

 

Look at what we have now:

 

Brand new player goes through a railroaded, text based tutorial and at the end must choose a server out of like almost two dozen. If they weren't already overwhelmed by all the information from the tutorial, they would surely be by now. So they pick a server they know nothing about (maybe Cadence since it says it's "New" (which is a technically true but also not))

They spawn in a random town with nobody around. They then try to cut down some trees and build on a land that looks like wilderness and have nothing around it, but can't because it's on a random deed that most likely had everything decay by now, or had the owner quit after plopping a token down so it was retaken by wilderness.

So they go further out into the unknown, no clue where anything is, or where they are going, and then end up dying to a mob they couldn't possibly have ANY chance of landing a hit on let alone fight. 

 

This is a terrible experience for a new player.

 

I remember Golden Valley having signs all over the place that described the surroundings around you, pointed to different settlements, warned you of the dangers of the world, houses of other players, campfires burning in the distance in the night, local being full, everyone doing stuff in the public mine... it was awesome. PAs (CA now) were most likely in local and lived at the spawn and would help you with a meal or items if you asked. Chat was server wide only so there was no confusion like now about GL freedom and your local freedom chat (everyone talks in GL). There was no competition in trade, you didn't have to worry about someone having 99 in a skill. You didn't see any merchants selling high quality items that you couldn't possibly create or even know what they are. You just enjoyed the game with a bunch of like minded new players on the same skill level as you and learned it at your own pace.  

 

 

 

 

Re-releasing Golden Valley with all the restrictions but with the added choice to come and go freely via boats regardless of your premium status (meaning, anyone could visit GV but their skills would revert and be restricted at 20, and deeding would be completely disabled, with no mailboxes allowed either) would do the job perfectly. 

Edited July 8, 2023 by atazs

[Revnik 87]

Why can't we have the original idea of Epic, but modified? Start a new server (not a cluster though, but has PVE safe zones and a PVP control zone. Everyone plays and does their thing, working to achieve a common goal for their faction. When that faction wins maybe their account gets a trinket they can place in game, like a trophy. Then a wipe is initiated and the server resets.

 

Leave all of the existing servers alone, but release one that everyone knows is going in is going to wipe in 6-12 months.  This way every 6-12 months we get a land rush, we get end-game type of activities, we get spiced up pvp, we get trophies that follows your account, and we have an agreed upon plan for how the server will reset to a new map.

 

If people don't want to play, they can stay on the existing servers. 

[sweatygopher 88]

On 6/15/2023 at 10:11 AM, Votip said:

Good luck. It is sad to see steam release wasted potential.

 

I liked you Enki, and you should consider that a success

What a disaster that was.   Any other place would have just let everyone go after that.

Listen, I love wurm... but they completely blew this opportunity. 

 

Imagine you knew over 10k wish listed this game, so conceivably more could try it on day 1.  I think it took a whole week for those launch server issues to be resolved, and as you can see majority of people left that first week or two.

 

Not to mention so many quality of life things should have been put in place for a mass steam release.  If there was anytime to "change" things for the masses, it was for the steam release.  Old players at that time were very understanding that steam would bring in more money.

 

That opportunity is completely gone, and will never return.

 

So many new players absolutely loved the game, my city had an average of 50-100 players at any time.  I heard all the feedback. 

 

I posted about it in the suggestion forums, and nothing was ever done to address some of the quality of life issues.

Edited August 2, 2023 by sweatygopher