A Tremendous Dissapointment, or why I quit playing Salem

[MagicManICT]

I have to agree, one thing i'd really like to see implemented is more specialized roles. Why build a community when you can just do everything yourself?

So you don't lose everything when you eventually lose your character. It WILL happen. Some people just solo play with a bunch of alts due to this. Others use it as the reason to organize into towns. Plus, you have safety in numbers.

[JinxDevona]

1) They need to eat. H&H was a baby of love, but Salem is intended to provide both Paradox and the developers an income. Donations were nice, but we all know that wasn't enough to live off of in the slightest.

2) Agreed. This is something that I believe is going to be addressed in the future. Despite calling it beta, we're really in late stage alpha right now. Small dev team, the game is much younger than Haven is. Give it time and I hope we'll see that change because it was a very powerful element of Haven gameplay that needs to live on in its spiritual successor.

Give it 4-6 months and come back. I'm certain you'll be pleasantly surprised.

I really hope #2 is not the case. I being a lonely hermit, enjoy being able to do anything I need to do without having to juggle multiple characters like I did in H&H. Towns can still have different people with different trades while allowing others to do it all alone.

[ramuller]

1) They need to eat. H&H was a baby of love, but Salem is intended to provide both Paradox and the developers an income. Donations were nice, but we all know that wasn't enough to live off of in the slightest.

2) Agreed. This is something that I believe is going to be addressed in the future. Despite calling it beta, we're really in late stage alpha right now. Small dev team, the game is much younger than Haven is. Give it time and I hope we'll see that change because it was a very powerful element of Haven gameplay that needs to live on in its spiritual successor.

Give it 4-6 months and come back. I'm certain you'll be pleasantly surprised.

I really hope #2 is not the case. I being a lonely hermit, enjoy being able to do anything I need to do without having to juggle multiple characters like I did in H&H. Towns can still have different people with different trades while allowing others to do it all alone.

Unless they do something obscene like stone quarrying in ATitD (needs four active characters to get stone out of the quarry -- think stone blocks to build pyramids), I expect a hermit to be able to do everything. It should always be more efficient to level one character to do everything rather than a number of specialist alts since so many of the proficiencies would be needed by each of the specialists. Of course, you probably want a combat alt if you are interested in PvP and, perhaps, a hunter/gather character since you will never want that jack-of-all-trades character to risk death by ever leaving your camp.

[Potjeh]

Enforcing specialization with game mechanics only serves to promote alts. It should be players that specialize rather than their characters, and the benefits should be increased efficiency due to higher player skill in a specific industry and removal of task-switching overhead.

[JinxDevona]

I think a solution could be having characters being able to get every skill still, but allow characters to pick one profession that will give them bonuses in said profession. That way if you are a hermit you won't need different alts and if you are in a town, and you are assigned/choose a certain profession you can have bonuses for it. It could be sold as a certificate at the Boston stall. You could change it later by buying a different certificate.

[ramuller]

I think a solution could be having characters being able to get every skill still, but allow characters to pick one profession that will give them bonuses in said profession. That way if you are a hermit you won't need different alts and if you are in a town, and you are assigned/choose a certain profession you can have bonuses for it. It could be sold as a certificate at the Boston stall. You could change it later by buying a different certificate.

When proficiency levels finally all have effects, you will get that bonus for a specialist player over a generalist since the specialist will tend to advance the proficiencies that help him/her and the generalist will tend to advance them all, albeit, more slowly. For instance, a specialist farmer will work on Stocks & Cultivars for the plenty bonus.

[JinxDevona]

When proficiency levels finally all have effects, you will get that bonus for a specialist player over a generalist since the specialist will tend to advance the proficiencies that help him/her and the generalist will tend to advance them all, albeit, more slowly. For instance, a specialist farmer will work on Stocks & Cultivars for the plenty bonus.

True, but eventually everyone will be high in all proficiencies, then what? That's when specialization can be fun and differ people just a bit.

[MagicManICT]

True, but eventually everyone will be high in all proficiencies, then what? That's when specialization can be fun and differ people just a bit.

And then that character gets killed by some random raider before being able to log out and RAEGQUIT.

[ramuller]

When proficiency levels finally all have effects, you will get that bonus for a specialist player over a generalist since the specialist will tend to advance the proficiencies that help him/her and the generalist will tend to advance them all, albeit, more slowly. For instance, a specialist farmer will work on Stocks & Cultivars for the plenty bonus.

True, but eventually everyone will be high in all proficiencies, then what? That's when specialization can be fun and differ people just a bit.

When you come right down to it, you don't need a game mechanic to make a specialized character. If the player likes one activity more than another, the player will tend to specialize in that activity by learning more about it than a generalized player would, placing more resourced into the activity (number of structures, playtime, proficiencies, etc.).

[scypheroth]

this game is just here to hold me through till Darkfall Unholy Wars...the support is just awful and the games pathetic attempt at pathfinding makes the pathfinding in Age of Empire 1 seem cutting edge. Game needs alot of features fixed/added to make it applicable to the general gaming public. Right now its only attracted the hardcore assholes of the gaming world. I see this game as surviving in the future but not with a huge/large player base.

tried to get my 3 friends into it a few days ago and they all quit after walking out of Boston and i asked why: there reason for all 3 who dont live together and had no contact with each other: Pathfinding is horribe

Its a Ok game, not a game i see myself playing for long but was fun while it lasted. I lernt my lesson not to support this company any more. guess i shud have known that from War of the Roses though....