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Hussars

What Would You Change To Make Wurm More Attractive To Players?

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Hi all,

There are a lot of.. discussions.. based on PVP vs PVE changes/suggestions whatever.. Instead of looking at it from one aspect or the other, what general system changes would you make if you could to make the game, or specific areas of it, more attractive to players?

While I understand this can devolve into a flame thread quickly (I hope it doesn't, but I seem to be batting a 1000 lately), lets try setting some guidelines.

If you want to comment on PVP, lets try to keep it limited in the following ways:

  • You do not actively play on the PVP servers:
    • Please limit it to what you would like to see to added/changed to make PVP more attractive to you.

  • If you do actively play on the PVP servers:
    • Ideas on how the PVP servers attract more players with the current system.
    • What would you be willing to compromise on allowing to be changed in the current system if it meant larger, and sustained numbers of active players?

  • For both groups, please include reasoning for your choice, and what parts you would be willing to consider a compromise on and still be willing to support the feature/rule/etc...

In all cases, please TRY to keep it friendly and polite (and away from personal attacks), and if you disagree or agree with a point, provide reasoning for or against it (no just +1/-1 please).

If you see something that was tried, not just suggested (or suggested and invalidated/rejected outright by a GM or Rolf), providing a link or reference would be appreciated and likely save you a bit of frustration in the process.

::EDITED::

While discussion on suggestions is encourage, if you need to continue the discussion on a suggestion for more than 3 posts, please start a new thread (or join an existing one) specific to that topic, and provide a link here. I'll add it to the roll-up so everyone can find it to join in. (And yes I will do this as well in the future lol)

---

My thoughts [section Replaced by Summary Roll-Up]

---

Related Summary Threads:

FarmerBob for additional items/previous conversations

Propheteer - (Theater Thread) Changes suggested from the Epic server - Currently inactive but a great list from another perspective

Lockehalfblood - General suggestion thread looking for (a lot of contested) ideas to address Chaos/Wild "end-game" gameplay

Roll-up List:

Paraphrasing the feedback into smaller chunks for convenience of others (and I will add the rest of the posts as I get time.. the intent is to provide a roll-up of items in short form for easy identification with post links for further details):

Gameplay Design:

General:

1. [Heavily Contested] Reevaluate pace of gameplay (crafting requirements and progression speed)

  • Suggested - Possible bonus for New Players (system to determine this status undefined) which gives a slight increase to production speed {and/or Stat progression} (less than 10%?)
  • Suggested - Reevaluate Requirements for Horse Riding

2. [Heavily Contested] [Reverted by Rolf] Lamp Behavoir - Please do not post here about support or requests to revert, instead use one of the many threads like: Here, Here, Here, or Here

3. Monster Raids - Dragon attacks, Troll/Goblin King invasion, etc...

4. Priests - Add non-enchanting based crating content for priests

5. Character Interaction - Improved/More Creative Insults - Klaa

6. Game Engine - Evaluate new engine options (which could address several gameplay/graphic requests)

7. Game Setting/Tone - Establish a "clear" tone/setting for content - Comments in-thread Here

8. Traders - Allow a user to "opt-in" on unbalanced transactions in the Trader's Favor.

9. Traders/Merchants - Changes to UI and storage options/fees - Discussion Here

10. Small Carts - Allow hitching of cow/bison to small carts - Discussion Here

UI Related

1. UI enhancements -

  • Combat "bubbles"/balloons which reflect damage type and value
  • Graphic Value for items in inventory view and "Roll-up" values for containers - To also be applied for large "item stacking" storage items (BSB, FSB, etc...)
  • Examine Results - Option to reduce non-"stat" based information
  • Reevaluate UI Click economy
  • Character Model/Animation updates (Announced as In-Progress Here) - Character Appearance Discussion(s): Here [Closed as Addressed by launch of Wurm 1.0]
  • 3rd Person View [Contested]
  • Better "sanity" check requirements for item crafting (I.e. Need a hammer to finish a hammer) or alternate items assigned for requirement (allow for a mallet to finish a "newbie" hammer which can in turn be used to finish an improvable item) [Partially Addressed by changes in the crafting process]
  • Configurable Chat Tabs and allow for a more dynamic tab grouping based on user preference.
  • Terminology Consistency - Normalize the use of Numeric (i.e There is 1) vs Alphabetic (i.e.There is one)
  • Key Mapping
    • Replace console command with graphic Key Mapping UI
    • Potential to allow multiple related actions (ex. Continue and Finish) to a single key bind

    [*]Inventory

    • Search Feature with display filtering
    • Allow item combines in "out of inventory" storage units (bsb's, fsb's, etc...)

    [*]Visible "Actions" Queue with ability to remove queued actions.

    [*]A New "Actions" or "Event" specific tab with a different highlight color to stand out. Tab would only include updates from event specific system notices (prefer for this list to be further user defined) - [suggested via PM]

    [*]Server Update notice upon login - Either pop-up or event notice upon login of pending server reboots or scheduled outages. System message to auto repeat/re0broadcast at set time periods.

    [*]"Chat" Tabs to be relabled - GL Chat -> Global (PVP/PVE as appropriate), Freedom -> {Server Name}

Functionality (Global):

1. Friends List change - Support Global Friends List (like GL-Chat allows communication across servers) and in-game presence monitor (online/offline/DnD/etc...)

2. Better player location tracking/sync - Ex. Player/ship desync while dredging for extended periods.

3. Environmental - World Height Tracking - Ex. Items should remain on a surface and not "fall through it" when mining/digging (Possibly except when the height changes enough to cause the item to slide same as players, where the item would move to tile edge)

4. Boats - Add rooms/ability to walk around/interact with in a more "meaningful" way.

5. Environmental - Dominate Moon(s) impacts world night color

6. Environmental - Mine Layer made "true" 3d (Partially Addressed in "1.0" release layered "surface" map)

7. Item Movement/Transfer - Allow direct transfer to/from any container to another container "in range" without need to place in character inventory first.

8. Character Movement - Gradual Reduction in movement speed based on current Stamina or Weight value.

Functionality (Combat - Global)

1. Combat Updates (again there is a thread specific for this, going into more detail discussion, but included here for tracking)

  • Explore more interactive system
  • Reevaluate combat skills, like Taunt, to ensure they fit designed intent
  • Paper Doll Health monitor
  • Selected Target Based HUD with stat display
  • Remove Charm/Control of unique/"boss" mobs
  • Reevaluate Artifact items use in combat

Functionality (PVP-centric)

Enticements - I
deas suggested by PVE players to bring in players from PVE

1.
[Contested]
Enhanced "New Player" protection (such as X number of days before a deed token is open for draining)

2.
[Contested]
Introduce resource limits (limited max QL or specific resource types on Home servers) to promote PVP.

3a.
[Contested]
Reset of Epic server at set times (once a year, 2years, etc...)
[Likely to be contested]
OR

3b.
[Contested]
Reset Epic as part of scenario play/outcome

Adjustments -
PVP player sponsored suggestions

1.
[Provided via PM]
PVP Academy which introduces players to combat in a more controlled manner - Either as an extension of the New Player Tutorial or as an "extension" course when choosing to play on PVP enable servers for the first time.
[in the Works]

Skills

1. Skill additions

  • Cartography [Contested]- Player created maps using existing in-game items and potential to include Sextant as new skill based item.

    [*]Research - Skill to discover new items

    [*]Alchemy - Expanded skill use/new items

2. Skill Changes

  • Allow Sparring to increase skill (0-X viable by sparring, X-100 hunting/PVP)
  • Adjust Skill Gains on shield skills [Partially Addressed] [Contested]
  • Adjust Skill Gains on initial to low-level Fight Skill (0-20)
  • Cooking - Increase number of "useful" recipes/rebalance separation between current recipes (such as more complex should fail more/provide larger benefits, more "balanced" [i.e. meat, vegi, bread ratio] a meal is the better it fills hunger/nutrition, etc...) Other idea here
  • Taming - Linked between PVP and PVE, separate skill between these gameplay types. Adjust/balance as needed for both variations.
  • Farming - Use of fertilizer or other items to increase crop yield/reduce grow times.

3. Items

  • Notice Board/Billboard - Craftable Item (Fine Carp) which allows for posting of messages on-deed by deed citizens. And/Or rentable notice "slots" for use by permission setting (Manage options by Mayor or using settlement permission settings)

Customer Support

Role Definition and Responsibilities

1. Clear and easy to find (possibly a link or pinned forum header topic) description of Roles and Responsibilities, with a Code of Conduct/Expectations for Paid vs Volunteer Staff (Most likely a new post/series of posts like the current CA/CM/GM list) [Partially Addressed]

2. 24hour/7day Customer Support system

Rules & Code of Conduct (Coc/FCC)

1. Scheduled (annual/semi-annual/etc...) evaluation of current rules and CoC/FCC to adjust based on current play base wants/needs. [On-Going as needed by changes in playerbase and general gameplay]

Regular Changes/Patch Notes updates -

1. Establish locked Update and Patch forum threads with update content policy/format (Or include the patch note details on the updater as implied by the related "Tabs"). [Addressed - Update Posts are now provided by system]

2. Establish a public facing Server Update Notes/Patch/Change log. [Launcher/Patcher has been addressed and should now update correctly]

3. Auto-subscribe the user base to the email notices for the update and patch notes threads. (Allow the option to unsubscribe if the user wants and include directions on how to do this) - [Addressed - Posts are public and subscriptions are voluntary]

4. Include at least high level view of what was changed, such as "Modified X skill to gain advancements faster/slower" "Add new creature to the world, go find it", or more detailed such as "X skill should now gain 0.01% of current total skill per advancement - Here's why..." [Partially Addressed by PR Manager/Patcher Tab Updates] [Continues to be improved by PR team, closing as Addressed]

5. Server Status indicators - Quick way to ensure servers are online (Such as a global server status widgest on main page, or sub-page with complete server list/status) [Partially Addressed]

Bug Reports:

1. Increased Team visibility/presence in Bug Report area. Could be as simple as a quick "Looking into it" post. [Partially Addressed]

Bug Fixes:

1. Provide "hit list" of public reported/known bugs being worked on and/or planned to be corrected in the next patch/update.

2. Possibly highlight these issues specifically in the patch notes when they are corrected/changed. [Partially Adressed by PR Team]

3. Provide Road-map/priority to address list of known issues.

Forum Access/Support

1. Limit view access to specific forums for new players/non-premium (Showcase positive forums/threads) [Likely to be Contested]

Connectivity/Downtime

1. Provide more lead time on "non-scheduled" service outages when possible. [Partially Addressed by Improved Communication from Rolf and PR Team] [Continues to improve by increased communication by Dev Team - Closed as Addressed]

2. Provide more visibility into connection status (in-game via data report tool/UI) and/or out of game by way of public view network traffic monitor/stats. (Could be as simple as cron-job pinging specific servers in various global markets and reporting ping/ms results.) [Partially Addressed by Server Status widget on Forum Home Page]

Marketing

1. Increased Advertising Initiatives/programs [Expected with the launch of Wurm 1.0]

  • Actual "referral" program - When new account signs up, allow for existing account to be listed as "referred by." Potentially rewarding for set volume of referrals that convert to paid subscribers.
  • Larger "official" advertising presence
  • Better setting of player expectations as they relate to gameplay style/theme (Link)

Edited by Hussars
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First, we all know I play PVE.

I will go with something Postes said recently in another thread. The biggest problem with PVP in Wurm is the text-based fight system. I have no control of my char, cannot aim, cannot take a swing, or have any other control of my body or my weapons. I run in, watch the fight window, run if I am getting too hurt. Aside from a few options on the fight console, it is a very primitive fight system and needs completely replaced before it will attract a lot of players.

As to the rest, I don't play and cannot offer much, except for what keeps me out. The drain the token system. A player with enough disposable income has an advantage over the player with limited income. Find a way to set up so you have to earn the silver ingame for a village rather than buy all you want with RL money and it may help even the playing field. I suggested earlier a system where villages were established by an active population of players, rather than just buying a settlement form and setting up, then recruiting. Deed size and number of guards could be varied by the number of active villagers. Note I say active players, so you don't have someone fill a village with alts to increase it's size. This would also require villages to be established further apart, to allow villages to grow or shrink with the population. Yes, it would be an area of influence around the deed, based on population, but it would at least have a reason behind it, and some protections would be needed in that area, but not all the protections of being inside the walls of the vilage center. Much more like a real medieval village.

The other problem I have with a PVP server is the idea of being raided, or even wiped out, while offline. I've seen suggestions about having players from around the world in your village, but that is usually not practical. I have no good idea how to make that work. So, PVP players, how would you make it so no one is raided unless they are online to defend themselves? And I mean defend themselves, not use spirit templars. Maybe if there were no spirit templars, how would you want things to work then? Please don't shoot the ideas down so fast, give some input on what these ideas need to work.

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As to the rest, I don't play and cannot offer much, except for what keeps me out. The drain the token system. A player with enough disposable income has an advantage over the player with limited income. Find a way to set up so you have to earn the silver ingame for a village rather than buy all you want with RL money and it may help even the playing field. I suggested earlier a system where villages were established by an active population of players, rather than just buying a settlement form and setting up, then recruiting. Deed size and number of guards could be varied by the number of active villagers. Note I say active players, so you don't have someone fill a village with alts to increase it's size. This would also require villages to be established further apart, to allow villages to grow or shrink with the population. Yes, it would be an area of influence around the deed, based on population, but it would at least have a reason behind it, and some protections would be needed in that area, but not all the protections of being inside the walls of the vilage center. Much more like a real medieval village.

I like the idea/concept, would be interesting to see, but barring this or a full adoption of the removal of deed draining, what would you be willing to compromise on?

Anything you could see being put into place which leaves the core mechanics as they are, but would make it more likely you would play on the PVP servers?

My suggestion for an out of game message provided via the deed twitter account/or deed owner/citizen's email notice (or both) is to try and address the "not logged in" fears, but still allow those who wanted to, the ability to "raid". This way you can at least know it is going on, so it's not a complete surprise, and if you have friends who do play in other time zones, can use it as a means to call for help, even when you're not online.

Anything else that might work to do this?

Edited by Hussars

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let's try this.

PvP and PvE fighting:

  • I don't do PvP on Wurm, even though I'm usually very active PvP player in other games, like WoW or Ryzom, and I still play Savage occasionally. What I like to see here:
  • Fightin in Wurm is rather dull, often enough it's like you start a fight and lean back to sip your coffe and watch the log, it doesn't have to be like savage, where you can actually watch the enemy's swing and block in time, but some more interaction would be nice.
  • The ratio of text UIs is another problem, it's kinda boring to read and difficult to catch all the important info and when there is a lot of action the log becomes too fast to read. There needs to be more graphical feedback, for example: instead of using a colored list of body parts, use a paperdoll (already comming btw) with colored auras around injured body parts.

Player information:

  • There need to be better use of changelogs. There is already a client feature changelog and an art changelog, however both have gaping holes and there is no changelog for the server itself, which is actually the most important one, because it contains all the game rules.
  • And there is the next point, we need an official documentation of the game rules. Rolf often only hints at new/changed features and leaves the players to find out, but like that there is often no way to tell between bugs and intention.

Quality:

  • Sure, it is an indie game still in development, but at one point, probably v1.0, they need to take a break from adding features and go bug hunting. I have a feeling that there is not a single skill on the tree that doesn't have at least some bugs.

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I have played both the PVP side and the PVE side. I have abandoned any possibility of ever playing on the PVP servers again for several reasons.

In order of importance (to me)

1) Fight/shield/weapon skill training is completely and utterly broken. If I can't do periodic fight skill training by sparring with fellow villagers, I'm not interested in Wurm PVP. Same goes with shield training and bow training. There is magic healing in Wurm. If anything, training between villagers would be MORE effective in Wurm than it ever was in the "real" world, because if you die, well, the gods fix you up. If your leg is chopped up you slap a healing cover on it and make arrows for a while. For those who believe that villagers actually working together to train skills is "cheating" I have something for you to consider. http://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/false-cause People can only cheat by training with each other if you define training with one another as cheating. If you want to say that fight skill over 70 needs pvp, fine. If you want to limit fight skill gain with villagers like faith gain, fine.

2) Artifacts. Broken. Make them go away.

3) Uniques being tameable. Make it stop. See #2

4) Weird high fantasy junk being added to the game. Why? If we want to fight a new creature every week, we'll play WoW or Rift or something.

What would I suggest? It's probably pretty obvious.

Concentrate on improving what you have already, not adding more. Create more things to do with raw materials you already have. Clean up the weird rules that make no sense. There's plenty to do to improve Wurm without changing what Wurm actually means.

Part of the fun (for me) in Wurm is that it's a low fantasy, gritty, reality-like sandbox game. The more high fantasy elements you add, and the less sandboxy you make it, the less interesting it is.

If you add things to Wurm, add them to flesh out a low fantasy setting, not change into a high fantasy setting. There are MORE than enough high fantasy choices out there. Trying to compete with them is foolish, IMHO.

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Combat, to anything more exiting than we have currently.

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I have played both the PVP side and the PVE side. I have abandoned any possibility of ever playing on the PVP servers again for several reasons.

In order of importance (to me)

1) Fight/shield/weapon skill training is completely and utterly broken. If I can't do periodic fight skill training by sparring with fellow villagers, I'm not interested in Wurm PVP. Same goes with shield training and bow training. There is magic healing in Wurm. If anything, training between villagers would be MORE effective in Wurm than it ever was in the "real" world, because if you die, well, the gods fix you up. If your leg is chopped up you slap a healing cover on it and make arrows for a while. [Redacted to not promote anti-player communication] People can only cheat by training with each other if you define training with one another as cheating. If you want to say that fight skill over 70 needs pvp, fine. If you want to limit fight skill gain with villagers like faith gain, fine.

2) Artifacts. Broken. Make them go away.

3) Uniques being tameable. Make it stop. See #2

4) Weird high fantasy junk being added to the game. Why? If we want to fight a new creature every week, we'll play WoW or Rift or something.

What would I suggest? It's probably pretty obvious.

Concentrate on improving what you have already, not adding more. Create more things to do with raw materials you already have. Clean up the weird rules that make no sense. There's plenty to do to improve Wurm without changing what Wurm actually means.

Part of the fun (for me) in Wurm is that it's a low fantasy, gritty, reality-like sandbox game. The more high fantasy elements you add, and the less sandboxy you make it, the less interesting it is.

If you add things to Wurm, add them to flesh out a low fantasy setting, not change into a high fantasy setting. There are MORE than enough high fantasy choices out there. Trying to compete with them is foolish, IMHO.

So to paraphrase:

1. Allow combat based skill training with friends/villagers. Allowable compromise is a limit on gains at a set skill level which requires PVP combat (non-allied/non-citizen, opposing Kingdom) to continue to advance

2. Remove artifacts from gameplay impact. (Would you consider leaving them in but having a "hold" limit on the number and/or time they stay in play?)

3. Disallow "boss" mob taming (Anything that you feel would make this allowable?)

4. New Content additions in-line with current theme/setting. - (Yeah.. i got nothing on this one.. this is one might just be too much personal preference, but anything you could see that would reduce your frustraition with it?)

Edited by Hussars

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Combat, to anything more exiting than we have currently.

Hehe yeah.. would be nice. There is also a new thread specifically for combat revamping: http://forum.wurmonline.com/index.php?/topic/65378-combat-system-overhaul/

But for the sake of your's here, general ideas? Keep wall of text, but player animations, twitch based, key-combo, etc...?

Edited by Hussars

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Hehe yeah.. would be nice. There is also a new thread specifically for combat revamping: http://forum.wurmonline.com/index.php?/topic/65378-combat-system-overhaul/

But for the sake of yours, general ideas? Keep wall of text, but player animations, twitch based, key-combo, etc...?

If cannot make more fluid combat, maybe kingdom specific moves with counters, anything requiring player imput, maybe not as simple as Wow style hotkeyed abilities but more than " hit attack, aim, focus, shieldbash, zzzzzzz."

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So to paraphrase:

1. Allow combat based skill training with friends/villagers. Allowable compromise is a limit on gains at a set skill level which requires PVP combat (non-allied/non-citizen, opposing Kingdom) to continue to advance

2. Remove artifacts from gameplay impact. (Would you consider leaving them in but having a "hold" limit on the number and/or time they stay in play?)

3. Disallow "boss" mob taming (Anything that you feel would make this allowable?)

4. New Content additions in-line with current theme/setting. - (Yeah.. i got nothing on this one.. this is one might just be too much personal preference, but anything you could see that would reduce your frustraition with it?)

2) I really don't like artifacts at all for any reason.

3) Uniques should never be player controlled.

4) Fix what already exists. We've been begging for a way to raise rock for years now. It's got to be a relatively simple fix, but it keeps getting ignored. Instead we get "fixes" to olive oil and lamps. *sigh*

From a coolness factor I really like the fishthings and the drake spirits and avatars and whatnot, but those belong in some other game where cool monsters are supposed to be. I don't mind there being a few uniques or super-beings, avatars, whatever, but they should be exceedingly rare and never player-controllable.

Edited by Farmerbob

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I have no control of my char, cannot aim, cannot take a swing, or have any other control of my body or my weapons. I run in, watch the fight window, run if I am getting too hurt. Aside from a few options on the fight console, it is a very primitive fight system and needs completely replaced before it will attract a lot of players.

You can aim, choose your weapon for the swing timer, and equip armor/shields. This game is too laggy for a system that requires you to smash your keyboard to attack. You really have no clue about PvP man.

As to the rest, I don't play and cannot offer much, except for what keeps me out. The drain the token system. A player with enough disposable income has an advantage over the player with limited income. Find a way to set up so you have to earn the silver ingame for a village rather than buy all you want with RL money and it may help even the playing field.

Its called grind a skill and use that skill to gain silvers - sell bows, arrows, or even bulk materials, people buy everything.

In every MMO people are out-monied, thats how the world works - not just wurm.

I suggested earlier a system where villages were established by an active population of players, rather than just buying a settlement form and setting up, then recruiting. Deed size and number of guards could be varied by the number of active villagers. Note I say active players, so you don't have someone fill a village with alts to increase it's size. This would also require villages to be established further apart, to allow villages to grow or shrink with the population. Yes, it would be an area of influence around the deed, based on population, but it would at least have a reason behind it, and some protections would be needed in that area, but not all the protections of being inside the walls of the vilage center. Much more like a real medieval village.

Maybe for Freedom since you don't need guards, but I plan my deed to be as effective as possible at deterring enemy raiders. Guards should be however many the mayor feels he needs - not by citizen size, some people don't like villagers.

The other problem I have with a PVP server is the idea of being raided, or even wiped out, while offline. I've seen suggestions about having players from around the world in your village, but that is usually not practical. I have no good idea how to make that work. So, PVP players, how would you make it so no one is raided unless they are online to defend themselves? And I mean defend themselves, not use spirit templars. Maybe if there were no spirit templars, how would you want things to work then? Please don't shoot the ideas down so fast, give some input on what these ideas need to work.

There is no way, Wurm is real time..

I go out for a coffee at the deli down the street and can come back to my deed destroyed, there is no way around it - nor should there be any protection from raiders (besides guards).

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Posted · Hidden by KaiH, August 9, 2012 - inappropriate
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More chain bikinis.

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Posted · Hidden by KaiH, August 9, 2012 - inappropriate
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More chain bikinis.

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Easy choice...improve functional aspects of the GUI.

1. Change the chat / event windows. Each tab can be customized to display whatever. Tabs can be separated into its own new grouping if desired. Better filters for event so we choose between: our actions, other people's action, random other messages ([21:45:03] A aged fat rockhappy grazes).

2. Change the create mechanics by reorganizing the categories and replace random with alphabetized listings. Implement a last action, or a way to make multiples of items. For example, use this 20 kg lump on s.anvil and make 50 small nails.

3. Some kind of an ingame map. Not one that gives your position on the map, just a picture of the world. Preferably one that is created and updated by players using ingame mapping tool (tho the player maintained part isn't needed, just cool idea).

4. Each GUI window should have display toggles for all columns. I could turn off dmg and weight when improving. Be able to chose what to display under name column. Name has three things: icon, text name, custom rename text. Personally, I'd remove text name.

5. This is in the works I think, but change the body part from its current tree view structure to something more like a paper doll. I'd like to see it as is own tab next to inventory.

6. Move items from and to any container within reach by dragging things. We currently have to put stuff in inventory first.

7. There are many useful bits of information we could make optional for GUI: favor tally in altar, volume data for a container's current and available L amount, available weight for inventory, burn time left for forges and fire-like containers, put an improvement indicator on the target window so we can improve without reading event.

8. The ability to combine windows into a tab like structure and move good between tabs similar to how you can drag internet links between browser tabs.

9 Make the ingame wiki look nicer. We've done well getting rid of web wiki formatting. The next step is to apply some artistic touch.

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Mainly active on pve but had some pvp experience.

Make Darongs randomly attack the whole land of wurm. They fly around kill guards, kill traveler, slauther and burn villages. Attacks will not untill the dragon is dead.

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I'd propose making mines really 3d, so tunnels would be able to go over each other, etc. That way the complexity that's possible under ground would greatly increase, add in some underground construction possibilities, like buildings in mines, and you could easily have a city mostly underground. Right now the mine system is very limited while there is so much potential there. The terraforming possiblities in Wurm are quite special for an MMO from what I've seen, so build on that some more.

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The combat system (regardless of pve/pvp) is an abomination and should be killed with fire. Probably the worst think i've ever seen in any mmo, hell even haven&hearth combat is better.

What i would like to see in wurm:

Less grind.

less clicks clicks clicks clicks clicks clicks clicks clicks.

A repeat last action keybind (and anyone claiming that it will help bots is clueless).

Properly 3D world

Remove RMT. Increase subscription to compensate if needed.

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Increased fightskill and weapon/shield subskill gain up to 50 would be beneficial, I think, and could be achieved as follows:

FS training with a doll should give quicker gains. I know its a completely risk free task as it is, but it takes so long. And really, getting to 20 FS fast isn't that unbalanced, it just helps newer players out.

After 20 (well, from 0-50) Sparring gives fight skill gain. For optimal gain, both players must be within 5 skill levels of each other. Would also give good subskill gains.

Add ways for all weapon skills to be trained to 20: bashing walls, etc. for all mauls, and allow short swords to cut down bushes. I think you can gain up to 20 with a short sword by butchering at the moment, but I'm not sure.

Failing all that, let all new plays start with at least 10 Fight skill, so they can hunt a little bit better from the get-go.

To make Wurm in general more attractive to new players? Graphics overhaul. I know it's coming in dribs and drabs, but once multi story houses are done, this should be a priority. And make sure it plays on the stable client relatively soon after it is complete - not everyone knows or trusts the unstable client, and new players certainly wouldn't use it the first time they play, and we need to make a good impression.

Also, +1 to repeat last action keybind, to make the grind less harsh, and +1 to being able to drag things between different containers without putting it into our own first. To stop it being ridiculously fast, it could be limited to the amount you can carry, or amount you can carry x2, but anything that reduces these pointless grinds gets my vote.

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Hi,

IMHO the most important thing would be to finally iron out all of these nasty bugs, many of them hurting us since ages:

  • Animals hitched to a large cart that get invisible suddenly. Until you embark as Commander, and move the cart a bit.
  • Mine walls that eat ships, mounts and carts, and cause GM calls over and over.
  • Items that get lost in slopes when dropped/ thrown, because there's no proper hight handling in the client. Yes, we can drop 5 wood scrap to find it again, but not all items are creating a pile ...
  • Boats that lose connection to the dredging player after a while, and are not synchronous anymore.
  • (and all that I've not quickly remembered, there's a lot, still)

After this, there's some game mechanics that are plain silly:

  • "You need a mallet to hammer the unfinished mallet."
  • The FS gains killing animals are made in a drunken night, using dices, yes? A young fierce Spider gives more FS then a venerable Troll? Orly?
  • Cave bugs and Lava fiends have devastated lot's of mines, but there's still no way to repair the damage done?
  • Firing up loads of clients with free alts will make your ship fast. If your computer doesn't pull this many clients, you'll have a slow ship - swallow!
  • Only "meals" make sense when cooking. Any other recipes are useless, they will only drag down your nutrition.
  • Taming is completely useless now, as soon as you tame your venerable Champ Crocodile it becomes an aged black Bear, and as soon as you lead it, it becomes a mature Deer. And will get eaten by the next young Wolf you stumble upon, in the few tiny minutes it will stay tame at all.
  • (and all that I've not quickly remembered, there's a lot, still)

OK, I'll save me the time to go on, and on, and on. It would become a looong list.

Wurm is a great game, it's still unique, and it features an experience you cannot find anywhere else. But it suffers from amateurish development (mostly from the main coder), and of a lack of direction. IMHO.

One thing that could help to get a lot more people into this game is mentioned in my .sig (scroll down). It just doesn't do any good if the main developer is favoring an idea of game play that the by far overwhelming number of his paying customers wouldn't touch with pliers (Ah, we have pliers - what are they good for?)

Wurm doesn't, IMHO, atm need no multi story houses (yet), no karma, and no "hell animals". Not even char customization, or better animations.

Wurm would need, IMHO, a clear and precise fork between the PvP environment and the PvE, a major attack to all of those left bugs and strange game mechanics, and then a V1.0.

You may enrage now - but you're aware of one of the oldest games in human history - Chess? Without any fanciness this game has lived for thousands of years. It's not the representation that make a game good, it's the game itself. The absence of Loopholes, the equality of the players, clear, stringent mechanics, that's what makes a good game.

And Wurm has ways better animations already, compared to Chess.

Have a good time!

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I would add some of the great suggestions that become liked and supported by the majority of Wurm, and refrain from doing silly nerfs on things that don't require one, which makes everyone rage. I think that would be a good start to keep the players at bay.

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Changes I would like to see and changes that would likely have better results for attracting new players or converting PvE to PvP are two pretty different lists.

The former would include more in the ways of bug fixes and functionality that is currently severely missing or lacking (e.g. the much mentioned ability to raise rock, or fixing lighting - especially underground). However, the OP was about the latter.

I would definitely agree with the 'update notes' and providing better information about changes - and these should be integrated into the launcher. (again though, this is more geared to existing players)

Much has already changed over the last couple of years to ease new players into the game. Some of which has removed a lot of the fun (more hard-core) challenge from exisiting players - for instance crafting failure system, better tutorial, and even the increased skill gain elements of Epic.

Graphic models have also radically improved over the last year making it a much more appealing and beautiful environment. Visible armour will be another such boost for attracting newer players. Multi-storey buildings is something more aimed at existing players not at the new players and while it would add more diversity to the landscape, I can't see a whole lot of functional benefit from it.

The combat system however is one thing that really needs improvement. But the best solution? Hell if I know what that is. Full real-time interaction reduces the impact of the skills system which is fundamental to wurm and has huge implementation problems when it comes to issues like lag and player latency. But some middle ground can surely be reached. Something that limits the "wall of text" and increases the player input. Sure, higher skill gives more 'special moves' that increase interaction, but that does nothing to encourage the lower skilled newer players. They see none of this and may well give up on combat a long time before getting anywhere near that. Pretty much any change to the existing combat system would give it more appeal to me.

Hussars' idea of giving players some 'limited and diminishing' protection when first joining/deeding would certainly be another thing that would make me more willing to try that out. But I feel it would be difficult to strike a good balance. A new deed with several active villagers could build up some defences pretty quickly compared to a single player without so much available game time. But the idea itself does provide a better feeling of security. Security is a fairly fixed concept presently. Either you choose freedom for full security, Homeservers for limited security or you jump into the centre with none.

If it was designed more to do with 'villagers play time' (or some other mechanic) rather than simply location, I think this would end up helping to increase the amount of PvP between players and would also help with retention of newer players.

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Disclamer: I barely read the previous posts, so if stuff gets repeated, it just means its that much necessary.

Wurm will never be a crowd pleaser, but seriously, i run a Multi gamming guild, and we have plenty of hardcore players, and people with all kinds of tastes, and i still only play with my brother, after having several people play with during these last years. To be frank, my first impression was so that i didn't even want to play anymore, but my brother wanted to, and asked me to hel him at least make a house for him, so we prepared stuff, moved to the wilds, and built the house, and i was hooked.

Problem is, wurm is SLOW so most players don't even get to the point where they start a settlement which is what gives that nice feeling of accomplishment that you want to repeat and gets you hooked.

So my first suggestion would be: Make Wurm faster, give faster skill gains on all servers, review item requirements (a 1x1 house takes up 80 planks, for a new player that is a daunting task, if i was playing alone i wouldn't have made it that far), review timers on bulk items, stuff like bricks, shafts, mortar and planks to name a few need to be made in like 1-2 seconds, i mean a decent house (4x4) takes either 160 planks, or 160 bricks AND 160 mortar. The first requires cutting down at least 3-4 trees, then splitting those into 20+ logs, then cutting those into 160 planks. For a low skilled player with only starter tools, it will take probably his whole playing session to make materials. All grind without any result, then the next day he'll probably spend half or even the whole time building the house. So yeah, new players going solo will be frustrated, and will quit. Thats why if you had a graph for that, i bet you'd see that most new players will quit on his first 24h.

Then there's the UI:

Wurm's UI is neat and clean, but its ANCIENT! When wurm was released it was already OLD, but nowadays its simply outdated and obsolete, and needs a major overhaul. It relies to much on the event window and on examine, so my suggestions:

- Keep the event window and its tabs like they are, its nice having a whole log to sort through when you need a detail found, but:

- Parse the combat window damage (with some modifications) into combat animations, sound and floating damage text! Would be nice that instead of having to ACTIVATE spam mode, then read "you dodged", "you miss", "attack glanced" we'd either SEE that in the combat animations, OR we'd get a text saying "Dodge" floating above the target. Same for damage, you don't even need to put up damage numbers, just add a sfx like the following image:

40px-Explosion.svg.png

And give variated intensities, sizes and colors depending on how hard the hit was, or the type (ie: cyan for ice damage, orange/red gradient for fire damage, etc)

- Also instead of having to read the event window (and in some case scroll around to get the whole message) when examining a item why not get something like on this old UI concept:

ii2v7.png

But instead of having the description of the container, have that top part change, when noting on the container is selected it could show the container stats like on the pic (could be handy, since i never check damage for my bulks, forges and such and always get surprised when they show up with the "decayed" texture. When a item is selected it would show the main parts of what we get on the examine thing, ql damage, items needed to complete, improvement, etc. Also when examining a item inside or outside your inv, instead of showing up on the event (only) a tool-tip box could pop up with the info depicted in a easier to read fashion.

- Do This and then add a global friends and blocked list that you can open from the ESC menu or a keybind. That list could/should include info like online/offline, and last server/deed that person was/is on. for the friends, not the blocked, blocked shows only a list of /ignored chars.

- Add cartography skill to the skill roster, then add the ability for players to draw maps using papyrus, ink pens, the compass and a sextant (new item).

Make combat more immerse, change how it works atm make the aim and block skills available from lvl1, just add special attacks and more damage /faster attacks/ more accuracy for FS lvls. Make defensive, agressive and normal actually matter, and give different specials, and more effectiveness on combat, also make dual wield matter (again new special skills, and faster attack).

- Increase the efficiency of taunt when defensive, make it faster to lvl, and when used on players should force them to target you for 5 seconds minimum, increasing duration with skill levels.

- Give skill from sparring/dueling.

- Increase skill gains on Shield skills and shield bashing.

- Add a damage paper-doll to the combat window, showing damaged areas.

- Target window with HP of the opponent would be a great addition!

- Make pvp more interesting, and less taxing on players wanting to settle on PvP servers with low numbers. (I.e. This).

Also another thing that keeps coming up with my new playing friends is "how do i change the view?" Hardly ever a RPG game will come out with a First person viewpoint. Even the ones who are primarily made to do so give you a Third person choice (ie Skyrim). I understand its almost impossible to get this done on Wurm, ad hopefully the customization and paper dolls will help.

Also, streamline the costumer interaction, make sure CA, Mods, GM and PR have precise roles, and clear instructions on what to do, and that they know they can't leave their personal opinions get the best of them while on their "official" roles. They volunteered for that, weren't drafted, if they can't differentiate, and understand they aren't a random player anymore, they should step down. I've seen attitudes from "officers" on this forum that seriously damage the image of the company (i reported a GM today).

Also, Rolf, you're the guy, but seriously, think 10 times, and TEST your changes before adding them. It scares off players when you simply go about changing stuff that needs not changing, and making playing the game a bit less fun.

Edited by ReaverKane

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