Salem

Disclaimer : This post is made up of my thoughts and ideas after playing for about a dozen hours. It is not a reflection on the Devs, players, or anyone else (especially if they are bigger then me). No small animals were killed during the making of this post (mainly because I was unable to find a way of even hitting them).

My biggest problem concerned the skills and levelling system. I would slowly and painfully raise my points up to the point where I could enable a new skill, only to find that it refused to let me buy it. I tried using more inspirationals, eating things until I was on full health and swearing loudly at it. No joy, no new skill. Eventually it would let me buy it, although at first I had no idea why. It was very frustrating and not a good introduction to the game. When I finally worked out that the blue bar on the skill also had to be full before you could buy it, I could accept the fact but still don't understand what the blue bar is, or why it needs to be full.

Inventory is also a pain to someone used to ample storage space. Apart from the fact that when logging on it does not remember where you like to park your inventory window, it is horribly small. Sixteen items? Really?? I assume you get more inventory at a later stage, but for a noob its a major hassle. And no stacking of items? If I want to build a fireplace I need fifteen stones - doesn't leave a lot if they all take up a space does it?

To my mind the biggest drawback for new players is the complete absence of any form of combat at low levels. It hasn't stopped me getting 'killed' by snakes and a bear but it was only when I finally managed to get 'Backalley Pugilism' that I could even hit anything. Sort of. Occasionally. My score so far is Crickets 2 Me 1. I looked at the requirements for 'Fencing' but it looks like a real grind. I shall persevere

Other points that come to mind :
1) Is there any way to 'Select All' or 'Shift Select' a group of items in your inventory? Already I can see a need for it.
2) There seems to be a bit of a problem chopping blocks from a log - it only seems to work properly if you are a reasonable distance from the log, issuing the command from close up does nothing.
3) The town limits are a bit confusing - I get a message saying that I am entering Boston, but the buildings don't even show up on the minimap. let alone the main screen. I managed to successfully lose Boston a number of times.
4) The italic script used to describe the skills in the skills window is horrible and hard to read - I had to remove my son from his Mechwarrior Online game at one point just to get him to translate. Yes I do wear glasses. And yes I had them on!
5) Not sure about anyone else, but I found the minimap pretty useless. All it seems to show is different types of terrain. I had absolutely no idea where I was in relation to Boston for 99% of my playing time. (The 1% was when I had been killed and was back in Boston again).

On the whole I enjoyed playing Salem and will continue for a while. Maybe one day I can kill something bigger than a cricket

Your problems with buying skills come from the fact that haven't read help nessage that explained how skills work. This game have many mechanics that work not like in other games, so read help and some player guides.

Inventory is too small - yes, it is small. But this game is about acquiring and managing resources and storage space is one of the things that is important to this. Some items, like seeds, do stack. But I agree, that more items should stack - like nail or wood choppings. You can increase your inventory by equipping backpack, by the way. To store items you need to build some sort of a container. And to build object you don't need to have all resources at same time - just put them into building sign as you gather them, so no need to store them for long time in your inventory.

As for the lack of combat - it is not combat orientated game. There's no combat just for sake of combat, well except PvP but that is for high level characters. You don't go to grind up mobs like in most mmo, you go to hunt them for their resources. And that is a part of resource acqusition - you are not supposed to gather some resources fresh from the boat. And to be able to hunt effectively - read guides, there are a lot of helpful tips.

Other points:
3) it says you are entering Boston when you enter territory of Boston claim. It is larger than the city itself. You can toggle town claim highlight near minimap to see territory of Boston and other town claims.
2) do you mean hollow logs? Those can only be chopped from one point, and if charactyer is from the other side of it he won't be able to pass through log to get to it. Normal logs have no collision, so it is easier to chop those.
4) yes, that font sucks
1) and 5) Try to use custom client.

5) Try to use custom client.

This would solve a good majority of the gripes you have with the game. When you first use one, you will feel like you are cheating, but then it grows on you and you won't be able to play without it.

I find it very strange to be advised to use a player-modified client. Especially regarding the official statement on modded clients here viewtopic.php?f=11&t=264

As to reading player guides, I did read Sevenless's guide, which is helpful but does not explain some of the basics. I am still at a loss to know what the blue bar is under each skill, and why I have to wait for it to be full before levelling the skill.

Another puzzle to me is a way of returning to Boston to sell any items I might have, as I only seem to be able to use the 'Travel' option if I have nothing in my inventory.

After getting player-killed I am back to wandering around with a new character, attempting to raise skills again. I am beginning to think one needs to be seriously OCD to play this game!

You can travel with items in inventory from your leanto. The blue bars gradually increase over time and drains black bile. You should therefore eat food to keep that over at least 50%.

The official line is legal coverage. They can't say "go use custom clients" in case someone puts in keyloggers (this happened in their non-commercial game Haven and Hearth, the perps were punished severely though) or a virus.

However, the game is completely "unplayable" without a custom client. The devs know this, but mostly prefer to work on content rather than address the situation because such good custom clients are already available.

If two Forum mods are saying it's ok, and if there's a forum section devoted essentially to custom clients, I think it's ok.