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SirRick

Wurm Player Retention

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Not everyone plays this game for combative pleasure. That whole cenerio assumes that all players should have fight stuff all the time. I don't want to bring PvP into this but it very much looks like you want PvE folks to partake in PvP-like activities accept against NPC AI. I certanly hope you can at the very least be open minded enough to recrognize that peace loving crafting/building types wouldn't like what you proposing. If you think that that target group is insignificant and not important to Wurm future, then by all means let the raiding mob commence.

I can appreciate that and I certainly don't think those who love the game to craft and create and farm and everything else are insignificant and not worthy of attention, but what about the people who do want these things? You say we can't have these things because you don't want them, how is it fair that you get to dictate to those other people (you know, those of us who want more than just farming, crafting etc in their day to day game play) can't have what we want?

We want more to do but we want interesting things to do. Not what you tell us is interesting. Arenas aren't interesting. We want our ideas to be considered, not blocked because it may impact on your day.

Anyway, the scenario was a quick off the cuff example. Here's another. You discover your deed is threatened but you don't want to deal with it yourself. So you call up some friends or hire folks roleplaying mercenaries to deal with the problem for you. You hear the clash of swords, the squeal of spider death blows and then a knock on your door.

"Jobs done."

Alternatively, you goto the forums and have Rolf nerf it.

Just for the record, Im not suggesting these things happen on a daily basis or anything. This would be one of those possible things that could potentially happen in certain circumstances. These have only ever been examples of options. Having your home deed threatened tends to resonate with players in my experience so I figured it was a good place to launch from. It can quite easily be something else like a random event (locusts descend on a 150x150 tile area and strip any planted crops bare), rockslide blocks a canal crossing and needs digging out, champion troll wanders down from the mountain and smashes fences etc etc.

There's lots of options I believe. I just don't think there should be any opt outs.

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I've been watching htis thread and staying out of it so far, but can't stay quiet anymore. The servers are fine with the setup they have now. You get bored on a PvE server? GO TO EPIC. The PvE servers are more market driven than combat driven. Many just don't want to take the time necessary to get enough skill to play in the markets. Players just need to be willing to move and set up again if they go PvP, which is what the real problem is. Players not willing to start over to do something else, they want it where they first set up.

Epic doesn't interest me or a lot of others because it's not the real Wurm experience. Wurm is hardcore, time investment wise, and that's one of the main draws for me. Epic is too quick for my tastes so no. Besides that, this discussion is about attracting new players and Epic doesn't seem to do that any better than Freedom.

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Epic doesn't interest me or a lot of others because it's not the real Wurm experience. Wurm is hardcore, time investment wise, and that's one of the main draws for me. Epic is too quick for my tastes so no. Besides that, this discussion is about attracting new players and Epic doesn't seem to do that any better than Freedom.

And trying to make the PvE servers more dangerous is not going to help either. In the beginning you are easily killed and trying to get set up is hard enough. Yes, the PVP servers need a lot of work, but trying to make PvE more hazardous is not the solution. They need to stay as it is so new players can get a handle on the mechanics of the game. Suggest ideas to make Chaos PvP or Epic PvP better instead.

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I can appreciate that and I certainly don't think those who love the game to craft and create and farm and everything else are insignificant and not worthy of attention, but what about the people who do want these things? You say we can't have these things because you don't want them, how is it fair that you get to dictate to those other people (you know, those of us who want more than just farming, crafting etc in their day to day game play) can't have what we want?

I'm by any account still a relatively new player. I happen to like the game, thanks. How is it fair that you want to dictate to those who, yes, actually like the game, that they can't have what they actually do have and enjoy?

This thread started by the OP saying, "I like Wurm, but my friends don't want to play it with me, can you help me learn how to convince my friends to play this game with me."

People made attempts at responding.

It slowly started heading to a broader question as to general player retention. Cool.

We then hear from one of these friends, Herguy, who pretty much trashes the game and makes it clear he not only dislikes the game, but has not taken a single shortened minute to keep himself informed about the upcoming changes that actually address some of his very issues.

Now we want to make substantial changes to a game that paying customers actually do enjoy so we can cater to folks like that?

No.

I'm not afraid of change, bring it on. Change is the only constant we can depend on. I'm willing to make changes to my deed to fortify defenses IF those defenses will in turn buy me the peace of mind I want... but I am as aware as you are that trouncing upon one of the core aspects of the freedom servers is completely, and ridiculously unnecessary when there is already Epic and Chaos.

Epic isn't your pace? Alrighty, head on over and request epic be changed to a pace more conducive to you?

What's wrong with Chaos? Is that not a server on the Freedom cluster that might be more conducive to wanting more so-called "excitement." Want to go make changes there so it suits you better?

No, apparently the answer is to trounce upon Freedom instead. We may love peace, crafting, and singing cumbaya... but that does not mean we don't have a boiling point. It does not mean we don't have the capacity to summon up the Pale Rider, grow some teeth and stand for what we have. Multiple server models out there and you want to change one of the core foundations that define Freedom. Oh yeah, brilliant business move.

"Wurm is a PVP game." I love anouncements like that which completely ignore the giant elephant peacefully standing right in front of you. Wurm is a PVP game, oh, well except for those little Freedom servers but we can make changes to that so it better fits the anouncement! Is it necessary for the elephant to get angry and renounce peaceful discourse to get through? One would have hoped not.

As far as Busted "speaking for many us," in this instance many is a relative and unquantified term. Make no mistake about it, "many" of the people playing on Freedom servers like the Freedom servers. That's why they're still here playing them. Perhaps the answer is to accept that sometimes friends will not like the same games we like and either:

  1. Sigh, shake your head, and join your friends in the games they enjoy because their company is just that worthwhile, or
  2. Make more (notice I didn't say new, just more) friends to include those who actually like the game. None of the Freedom servers are a ghost town, if you like the game, you will have no trouble making friends of like mind.

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None of the Freedom servers are a ghost town
Edited by SirRick

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There's lots of options I believe. I just don't think there should be any opt outs.

I do.

Your ideas sound like they would be suited more for a new experimental server added by Rolf, so people have a choice.

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The biggest draw for new (and returning) players has always been a new server and the exploration and building there.

Adding new servers every few months is not an option because they'd get deserted once the nomads travel to the new server. But having two servers that get a new terrain every year (with 6 months between them) could give the explorers and builders a lot of options to continually explore and develop fresh servers.

I would not suggest using one of the current freedom servers because many players settled there with the idea of building a permanent home. But once new servers are added in the future a reset every year strategy could be chosen for those servers.

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Yesterday I visited of my neighbor's place to help him keep his fields in good shape. Last weeks he is less active, because the crocs infection in our area. I met there ven champ goblin and terminated him ... that was excitement, but unwanted. Lucky, it was me with good horse, drake armor, 80 ql med axe and 70+ FS. For my friend it could be certain and fast death and 1 hour dangerous run from Howl. That is none excitement at all, just pure frustration.

While I was away from my deed, my reserve aged troll thought it is good to beat his way out from his house. No problem I had in plan to rebuild this house. But I have to redominate him and settle him in other house. I hope he will not think about bashing his new house. :)

About half year ago, one my neighbor, horse breeder, had his fences attacked by troll gang 3 nights at line. At night people sleeping in RL, so he had none chance to protect his place. His best horses fled to forests, rest of them stolen by players/scavengers. He quit wurm for good, because his more than year of work goes to ...toilet. Where there is any exitement? I see unhappiness and hopeless despair.

Busted, if you think, beasts attacking deeds are funny thing, which will attract players and keep them playing, you are badly wrong. From my long experience I know for sure, it scares people away from Wurm. ... you are, perhaps, on wrong server cluster, Freedom is not for you. But I think, your probem is not wrong server. You playing wrong game.

And for argument "Wurm was intended as PvP game" ... yes it was and it failed in this respect. History shows Wurm is nice and creative PvE game. Perhaps with some chance for PvP servers, for more aggresive Wurmians to discharge their ferocity. And it is good. MMO market has games with some kind of sandbox, but only to serve PvP. Wurm filled gap, where players want sandbox enviroment to stay in peace, just to "boring" creativity. Our spice is building, producing, trade and adventure. We do not need blood and death on every corner to keep us focused. Wurm is not, for sure, game for common masses and if it will be such once, it will scare us, creative peaceful ones, away.

It is clear, Wurm needs improvements. It needs more diversity in all we can do and we can see around us. But most Wurm needs repair of old critical bugs. Yesterday I saw corbita stucked in tunel entrance again, GM called there for help. This happens there 3+ times per week again and again and again ...

Edited by Zakerak
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My experience of Wurm.

  1. My first experience in Wurm was to explore Freedom Mines. It was vast, complex, very crude, and ugly. It was pretty awesome!
  2. The first item I created was a sickle. I loved that sickle, and it stayed with me for at least a year.
  3. The first creature spawn I saw was a croc lair.
  4. The first mob to chase me down and kill me was a spider.
  5. The first person to be my friend and take me in was Tritus. He was a bit of my mentor. He polished my yolk when I couldn't figure out how the heck to finish that yolk. I was very scared everyone was trying to steal from me, cause it happened so often.
  6. The first time I used tracking was to find who made off with my locked large cart.
  7. The first person to steal my large cart was ***.
  8. The first person to steal my horses was ****.
  9. The first person to give me a farming start with vegetables was Leaf. I was astounded by his generosity. It was a very generous amount, of ten each of 4 different types.
  10. I made my first boat.

Things I have done unwittingly that caused many new players to quit:

  1. I gave a new player tools.
  2. I gave a new player a safe place to live before they knew what safe meant.
  3. Given them a ride on my cart to my deed. (Instead, now I make them find it using the map and walking on their own.)
  4. Entertain a player who is demanding.

Things I have done that caused players to stay:

  1. Built a guard tower, which had my name on it in a new player zone. This alone has gotten many players to stay.
  2. Caught someone destroying a house I had to save me a spot I was preparing to deed on Inde. Instead of getting mad, I gave them full access to the house, let them finish building the 2x1, and told them they could live there and do as they pleased. I answered questions, they spent two months building a sailboat, and sailed away.
  3. Told a person how to make something for themselves.
  4. Gave established poor new players a spot to live without fear of theft, on my deed.
  5. Ride around on my horse saying "Hi" to anyone I meet.
  6. Offering light help while I ride around. I will not make something for a player, but I will help them if they are stuck in a situation, just so they can continue.
  7. Wear a fancy title while standing at spawn.
  8. Chat with just about anyone who wants to chat. Although, I am notorious for not responding in village chat for ages.
  9. Purchased materials from players who are selling such. It makes them feel happy that they were capable of making a sale and becoming useful to the society.
  10. Let them help me make something of a grand project, such as a boat or guard tower.
  11. Used translate.google.com to chat with people I couldn't otherwise chat with.

Things I have done that both caused players to stay and players to quit:

  1. Created a Christmas present hunt for each of my villagers. Gave riddles and clues to the next clue, until they found their present. One villager loved his hunt! Another villager became captivated with his riddle, which upon solving his riddle he felt completed and a sense of winning. A week later he never logged in again.
  2. Inform a new inhabitant of my deed that they can do what ever they want, that I will not choose a job for them. This allows a player to develop what they like about Wurm and will help them feel like Wurm is 'their' sandbox game. On the other hand, some people want to be told what to do. And those players beg to make me stuff, but then quit since I am not demanding at all. Its hard for me to want to tell someone to start making me hundreds of sails, bed sheets, rugs, cloth squares, etc.

In conclusion, it is my opinion that if I ever 'give' a brand new player something that they did not earn, I have killed the entire aspect of the game for them. Players who learn the game by making most of their stuff or earning by way of trade or barter 'stay'.

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Hi,

Wurm's meant to be pvp, you know?

Nope, my Wurm isn't.

I decided to go PvE, I never ever visited a Wurm PvP server, I do not accept what is offered as Wurm PvP now, because it doesn't fulfill even the basic requirements of real PvP for me. It's just a comparison of time and money spent, in my view, and if I want to play competitively there's a lot of other games out there that offer this. Where player skill is that counts, not time & money spent ...

I get that a lot of people don't like PVP. I really do.

That's nice, and as you know we have a lot of servers that should cater your needs. PvP servers. Reading the numbers of inhabitants should give you a clear view about how the other people see Wurm, and you will realize that your opinion here is that of a minority.

If you'd like to change these PvP servers, you'd have my support immediately - IMHO they need a lot of work, they obviously don't generate the costs they cause and have to be subsidized by the PvE people. And, at least for me and many, many others, they aren't attractive at all. So a change would be welcome, a better PvP system only could benefit Wurm. Opening it for new competitive players, attracting more paying players - who'd not like this?

But instead you try to cut down the tree you're sitting on. Not the best of ideas, IMHO.

I can think of endless scenarios where an upgrade to the hostility and capabilities of NPC mobs could generate some really impressive and memorable dynamic gamepay. Imagine logging in and discovering a new player deed not far from you is about to be attacked by a swarm of angry spiders for encroaching on it's lair.

It could be one of my deeds, too, while I'm on weekend holiday. And since I have no active neighbors the spiders would trash my walls, release my animals, and open up my deed for free griefing to any passer-by. I'd come back on Sunday evening and find my animals stolen or slaughtered.

Can tell you, implementing your proposal would mean that the vast majority of my alliance friends would immediately disband their many deeds and not renewing the prem of our many chars. Changing our game in such a ground-breaking way would never be accepted. We can suffer a lot of silly nerfs, but this would be the last remaining brick in the wall.

You might love to live in a densely populated village, we do not. Instead nearly every one of our alliance members has at least one own deed, many quite some more, and we don't live next to each other. Today our alliance will hit the 21 deeds count. And close to all are "hermit deeds", as you name it.

There's different ways to play this game, accept this please. And think twice of your wishes, please, they might get fulfilled - and this one would probably the most dangerous for the future of the game we love. IMHO.

In my personal opinion, I don't think creating events where deeds are raided would be beneficial to wurm. I do however feel that having more GM-run events within Wurm Online would be extremely beneficial in keeping players interested in Wurm.

^^ This. Where can I sign, Sir?

Have a good time!

PS: Possible that this branch of the thread is a bit off topic?

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I do.

Your ideas sound like they would be suited more for a new experimental server added by Rolf, so people have a choice.

Yup, a new server specifically for this sort of hardcore gameplay was suggested. It would need to be full pvp tho to make sure we don't get the usual freedom hoard migration going on and turning it into just another freedom server. Keeping it separated would be the only way to ensure the world isn't flooded by freedoms manufactured goods.

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We could name it ... hmm .. I know .. Savage! Untamed? Feral?

Edited by Brash_Endeavors

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We could name it ... hmm .. I know .. Savage! Untamed? Feral?

I think the Terror Isles would suit, like the anti-freedom Isles.

Supremely hostile environment - especially at night. Open PVP so you can stab your neighbour in the face when he posts something stupid on the forums. Completely separate economy from Freedom or at least, no direct two way traffic. Maybe enhanced crafting potential for those risking all surrounded by hostiles? Bonuses and penalties to your deed depending on local npc population numbers, etc etc.

Basically a lot more extreme than adding a little colour and life to to NPC's on freedom.

HOWEVER, back to freedom for a minute and looking once more at increased NPC hostility towards deeds, you could have NPC reactions to your presence based in levels of activity. Small deed with a single player? Not likely to attract too much attention (their quiet, you know?) as opposed to a bustling village with many pairs of stomping feet drawing the ire from local hostile wildlife. There's your opt in.

This whole thread has been about what attracts new people and is likely to keep them and has descended into the same old US vs THEM argument that's been beaten to death. I figured adding a little more spice to the environment would fill a little gap for the PVP crowd who don't want to goto Epic and can't live on a depopulated and neutered Wild while giving the Brady Bunch more of a middle ground to draw them and new players in and keep them around longer.

Except (if the opinions of the vocal nay sayers are an accurate indication to what the majority want) then it will most likely never, ever happen. So maybe a new server with a completely new ruleset is just what Wurm needs, afterall.

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There's your opt in.

Thank you. Whatever form an opt in may take, it allows the option, and that would certainly send me back to the happy old "go for it" attitude I much prefer having. I just basically appreciate the consideration to allow people to have a choice.

I suppose that particular opt in might be rough on villages devoted to welcoming new players... but then again if the idea helps retain those new players, job well done. Don't know the effect on people with a lot of alts running around, but not having an active alt, I'll let them approach that if they feel it's necessary to do so.

Didn't mean to be flailing my arms in the air crying foul, and no intention to stab anyone in the face :). Just that after Rolf's post about the Pale Rider thing, I got the impression that sitting on the sidelines would basically render me (and others like me) voiceless and apparently thinking "Rolf would never do that" isn't a very good option. Whatever his own vision may be, he made it sound as if he'll do just about anything if faced with a prolonged one-sided argument. Winds up forcing people to reluctantly sound unsympathetic but if that's what it takes.

Not so sure about Terror Island. I know, stab me in the face for being over-sensitive or too politically correct but my gut feeling on it is a negative one. It sounds sort of like trying to sell a Chevy Nova in Mexico and then wondering why Spanish speaking people don't want to buy a car name "No Go."

What about Shutter Island? Haven't seen the movie, and maybe too culturally bound, but from what I understand it's one scary island full of crazy people, or are they ghosts, dunno. Of course, that is only if a dedicated island does prove to be the best option to retain as many as possible. If a compromise that allows us to bridge our differences is found, happy to have you as a neighbor. If not, careful what you wish for ;)

Anyway, gonna go work on my bike... or whatever it is them Bradys do.

Edit: Thought of another name for a nightmarish server, Dystopia?

Edited by Reylaark

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the starter towns needs an offical "sheriff". we have a griefer who heavily concentrates of griefing noobs.maybe if you had more folks to play with......................but ive seen atleast 20 in the last couple months get burned and just give up.

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the starter towns needs an offical "sheriff". we have a griefer who heavily concentrates of griefing noobs.maybe if you had more folks to play with......................but ive seen atleast 20 in the last couple months get burned and just give up.

I recall you calling me a griefer and placing me on KOS because the hell horse I was riding got attacked by your tower guard and it killed the guard.

A few days later in a seperate incident, you placed my other account on KOS and called me a griefer again despite me actually doing anything other than make comments directed towards a player who lost her stuff and was suggesting that she will start duel/killing new players in the area.

[21:05:26] <Tiffany> Topherr, do you wander through properties obviously under development, pick up everything not nailed down, and ask people for everything without trying to do anything yourself?

[21:05:45] <Topherr> yes

[21:05:58] <Waarokku> sounds like our local griefing dickbag is back

[21:06:08] <Waarokku> lemme kos you

You probably scared a lot of the newer players off with your moronic reasons for KOS'ing and greedy landgrabbing.

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The problem i see with the "PVE" servers, is that there is basically no PVE after the you settled down, unless you go out of your way and purposely visit dark woods and uninhabited corners...for no real reason. Or atleast i didn't see any reason at all to go "hunting". With a spirit templar (or guard towers nearby) wurm on freedom isles is pretty much like minecraft or second life in terms of "survival" elements (atleast from my understanding - haven't played those).

Also wurm pretty much lacks a defining element, it's part survival, part live map-editor and i heard there is also part "RTS" like kingdom wars. None of it seems to be fleshed out in a way to make a tagline for this game though. And so you have a highly diverse playerbase, up to a point where it's pretty much impossible to please everyone.

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you have a highly diverse playerbase, up to a point where it's pretty much impossible to please everyone.

This is where Rolf has three options.

Option #1: Appeal to the majority of Wurmians.

Option #2: Try to make both sides happy with some sort of optional content.

Option #3: Ignore everything discussed and do what he wants.

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If you want to retain players without adding more danger (you don't need to, really), how about add in the ability for players who have craft skills of 50 or more to submit art for new items to be added?

Person A: "Hey, I hit 50 carp."

Person B: "Cool."

Person A: "I made a new chair in Blender, I am going to submit it as a chair option."

Person B: "Can't wait to see it."

Once added, the new chair pattern could be learned by another player by purchasing the pattern from a Trader. A small portion of this transaction could go to the designer for helping the game stay alive.

With visible armor and clothes coming, players making custom armor and clothing would be a huge boon to the game. Look at Second Life, it has no skill levels, but players can make and sell their custom designs. Pretty powerful.

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Victor this isnt second life..lol rite now second lifes pop has crashed, so that idea doesnt last long at all. Id love to explore dungeons, with mobs,treasure chests, things like that to give adventure n fun, these pleases would very hard but doable solo, and they dont sit in 1 spot every 24 hours the dungeons move to somewhere else nt heir will be hundreds ofem, No need to add a npc or w/e create zombies or somthing to guard it with a boss to finish off, Have money hidden in these place to attract the masses, Allow the dungeons when randomly spawning to spawn entrances inside already made caves. Heck hide some and leave it to us to findem. THis is content id go nuts for.

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The two replies above this are also good ideas and also point out the main flaw: Lack of stuff to do after you built your home, aside from "farmville"-esque (not ment offensively) tasks. And the "live building" part (where creativity is also limited by the engine) only gets you so far, infact at some point i might be wondering myself why i don't just fire up the UnrealEd (Unreal Tournament map editor) instead.

And while this may be a "hot topic" for sandbox-fans, i think "themepark" areas would be good. Like a small zone (to throw a number out, 2-3 times the smallest deedsize), purposely designed for pve experience (dungeons, pretty much, just not limited to being underground). Add a distance in which there can't be deeds, and make the areas themselves "fixed". Add a boss and some neat loot that you can show off on your deed and you'd have a more visible PVE part than the animals/monsters that are currently standing around the landscape and occassionally moving a few tiles.

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I don't feel it needs to be to the degree of second life. But I will say that there really aren't that many constructions, be it building components or furniture for a game that tries to market itself as a sandbox.

All it takes is either getting the art made in house or buying it in bulk via contracting freelancers. It wouldn't be that expensive and most of the artwork is low poly anyways.

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This game just isnt for most people. Even those of us who really enjoy it end up taking extended breaks from time to time.

I find what keeps me coming back is always having another large project lined up. Have a crew that builds cities extremely fast? Start contracting out those services.

My original goal was to build my city, that's done. I moved on to building a large farm land, got griefed out of that so I set my new goal to making 10 gold and have been picking up work like crazy since then. You just need to always be making new goals to keep the game fun and interesting. Once you're out of stuff to do, then it gets boring.

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I'd personally like to see Freedom stay as the "conservative" bread and butter server, the stable income cow as it were for the rest of the game. Let those who like the game pretty much "as is" continue there without any major changes to gameplay other than the additional new content that goes to the game as a whole. It has probably the most solid and stable population of all the servers and I don;t think it should be tinkered with too much.

Then Epic I think should be the "dynamic, lively, innovative" server that tries out new ideas, takes risks and gambles in the game play, tries more to appeal to broader appeal, with some milder PvP but also some options for opting out of the more hardcore PvP aspects. Continue the missions and anything else that people think would be "fun" and appeal to more action paced people. Maybe even more dragon respawns, like a new dragon every 90 days or something, but for Epic players only, so that dragon armor is more accessible to the population there as a whole. Epic dungeons with truly epic bosses. New players should be highly encouraged to at least give Epic a 30 day run, so maybe even have the tutorial highlight it somewhat (but still an option for Freedom plus the next one below ...) Maybe to jumpstart it more population wise, give some kind of one-time "trinket" to Freedom or Wild players who put in X many hours there. "I did my part to help Epic succeed.". Or even a unique Epic-only trinket that all epic players get as soon as they are "born" on that server (with all current players there getting one too, of course.) Something nice, on par with a spyglass, but different. Once the population gets up, market it as the "flagship" cluster for the game.

Then a third separate cluster for the hardcore PvP players, a wild west place but with only VERY limited access to get in or out, maybe only once every 30 days can you transfer a character in or out to allow people a chance to get back into it or get the heck out of it, but not something you can do lightly. Living there should be a commitment to the full PvP lifestyle.

Now you basically have a place for everyone, and everyone has their place.

Edited by Brash_Endeavors
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Frankly I think alot of the suggestions given here might be fine for Epic or Chaos but would be awful for the Freedom servers since they stray to far away from the sandbox. With high FS, good gear, and lots of play time it's all well and good for me to say that I'd like mobs to present more of a challenge but that would be a totally selfish view. It totally ignores what a hardship that would be for newer players & also for those players who simply have no interest in fighting anything, ever.

As much as Rolf might cringe at the idea servers like Indy attract & keep players because of the sandbox aspects of the game. Suggesting that mobs should be allowed to destroy what players have worked to build is so contrary to the whole sandbox concept that IMO it isn't even worth discussing.

A few thoughts:

More player or GM run events. The impalong is great & the treasure hunt Darkmalice put on a few months back on Indy was a stroke of genius. I've been toying with the idea of putting on a point to point race or perhaps a Wurm triathalon, run, sail, & ride, but the task seems rather daunting to me.

The ability to customize more things in game. Every village DOES pretty much look like every other village and it gets boring both to look at and to build. The dye system could use a good kick in the pants IMO. A container that actually holds enough to dye a ship would be a practical addition & for goodness sake can I dye my boat without also dying the sails? Dye a wall without also dying the door?The range of colors we can make is also pretty limited.

Make titles mean something. Reaching a milestone in a skill like 50, 70, 90 should offer you something besides bragging rights. Perhaps having the title, when worn, convey more skill gains, or shorter timers. Also, add new items into the game that ONLY show up as an option after you've reached a certain skill lvl. Say a new type of stone wall that can only be built by someone with lvl 50 in masonry & perhaps something like a fancier house wall that can only be done with lvl 70, & maybe a whole new type of building that can only be done by a lvl 90 mason.

Make some now pretty useless skills more worthwhile. Taming & cloth tailoring spring to mind here. Taming has been nerfed to the point where once you have enough skill to tame your deer for breeding there is no point in leveling the skill any farther. (I tamed a deer my first day in game.) Cloth armour? What the heck is it good for? Gardening? With skill in that shouldn't I be able to grow more things than someone without any skill? Shouldn't my roses, for example, be larger & fancier than a noobs?

More challenge, yes. Rather than coming from mobs though I think it should come from the map & the weather. Should I really be able to grow a willow on top of a mountain or farm bumper crops right next to the sea? Should I be able to farm or log or mine at all during the winter? What if I had to gather my resources, whatever that might be, during the appropriate season & did my crafting during the winter months? What if travel was slower during the winter & game harder to find? Should I really be able to find iron and zinc in the same region, right next to each other in the same mine?

Since I just recently got the ocean front deed of my dreams it pains me to say this but I don't think I should be able to get 6 crops off each farm tile or have every ore type in my mine when I live right next to the sea. When you have the ability to get each and every resource easily from a single location it not only eliminates the need for travel but also for any trade in resources. Wurm is crazy hard in some respects but overly easy in this one I think. Some degree of realism injected into the maps would shake up the game and force players to plan ahead for survival. It would also open up a whole new market for raw resources rather than just the market for finished products that we have now.

This one is sure to get me flamed but....stop the sale of accounts. As it stands now there is player turn over in the game but few high skilled accounts leaving the game. This just makes the economy stagnant since newer players feel that there is no competing with toons who have uber skills & an established name in the marketplace. Why grind skills or stay in the game at all if you have no hope of ever being able to sell anything? We also have players who are making and selling accounts for the sole purpose of making real life money. How can that be right or good for the game?

In short toss some more toys in the sandbox for us to play with but do it in such a way that we have to earn the right to get to play with the new shineys. The degree of player customization tied to in game achiements perhaps? hmmm....

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