Insanity!

Announcements of major changes to Salem.

Insanity!

Postby JohnCarver » Sun May 31, 2015 2:04 am

Time for one last patch before the Expedition! We've added an awesome new mechanic: Insanity!

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I imagine this patch to be quite controversial so I do believe I owe y'all an explanation with this patch, why it is here, what we intend for it to do and not do and all the pitfalls and positives that we imagine to come with it. For those who don't care about the "Why" we did it feel free to breeze over this section. Basically, ever since taking over we have been doing our best to minimize the 'chores' of Salem. Since MM's acquisition Pilgrims now chop trees faster, get more coal from piles, get more boards from logs, get more lime from lime pits, stamp mills are faster, tree chopping is faster, inventories are larger etc. etc. etc. We have done this because we largely considered Salem to be a game of "Chores" and we did not consider the 'chore' of watching a progress meter above your heads for 2 minutes to be 'fun' or 'engaging'. Instead we decided it would be more fun if the players were simply given more time to maneuver and actually control their characters and less time watching actions take place. We feel this has dramatically changed Salem for the better.

However, we were very large fans of the game "Don't Starve" and always felt that Salem was and should always have been a game about survival. Adding some permakilling darkness mobs was one step towards achieving said survival but we still did not feel it was enough. Players of Providence, and especially "veterans" largely had little to fear or little to worry about aside from simply other players. The act of "Surviving" was quite frankly too easy and not engaging outside of other players. We also felt that since we had finally and largely eliminated a large part of the 'chores' in Salem that it was time we added a new CORE feature to the game we always longed for. A core feature which places your character in a perpetual state of Dying thus all your actions can centralize around the very real act of 'surviving'.

This is the premise of insanity. Your character, while being played, is simply always becoming more and more insane as he braves the harsh realities of the new world. Various things you do throughout the game will accelerate this process. Other things you do will cause your character to calm down, regardless though, with the passage of play-time your character will slowly lose his sanity and once he has lost ALL shreds of humanity he will PERMADIE. Now this does come with a few nice little bonus. Players who leave themselves online simply to avoid being stocked, will of course return to their computer to most likely find themselves dead, along with players who try to run bots for days on end etc. etc. AS A WHOLE we consider this change to be a very nice thing that essentially adds a tax and a cost for simply being logged on to Salem. Something in almost any other MMO would be a death sentence, but here, something we feel fits right in. With this mechanic now implemented we will be much more open to adjusting various tasks in Salem that feel grindy or unfun because the cost of playing Salem now has an additional counterweight, one of managing your sanity and keeping your character from all the horrible things that happen when you begin losing your mind.


Since this mechanic CAN and probably WILL permakill many of you. Let me be very clear on a few basics.

Staying online for 30-50 hours without dealing with your sanity in some way shape or form has a 100% chance to kill you.

It is possible that if you continue to do things that lower your insanity at regular intervals (Whittling, Fishing, Butterfly Catching etc.) that you could stay online for 200 hours straight. Remember, you only lose your sanity when you stay online doing NOTHING or stay online doing insane things. Doing things that naturally calm you down will prohibit you from ever gaining a madness level.

So without further ado:


New Mechanic: Insanity!

All Pilgrims will now gain Insanity over time.

Various actions will now increase or decrease your Insanity level:

Wearing a Cthulhu Masque will slowly raise your cloak and dagger as well as increase the rate in which you gather insanity by 400%.

Pulling the stinger on a drone bee adds a tiny bit of insanity.
Pulling the stinger on a queen bee adds a tiny bit of insanity
Pulling the stinger on a delphi bee adds a tiny bit of insanity.
Checking Mr. Puggles Leaderboard now adds a tiny bit of insanity.
Seeing a Wishpoosh adds a tiny bit of insanity.
Seeing a Quetzalcoatl adds a tiny bit of Insanity.
Seeing a Hydrukey adds a tiny bit of Insanity.
Wringing the Neck of a squirrel now adds a small amount of insanity.
Becoming whipped in the stocks now adds a small amount of insanity.
Sniffing Smelling Salts now adds a small amount of insanity.
Feeding Royal Jelly to dead creatures now adds a small amount of insanity.
Seeing a furfur adds a small amount of insanity.
Wringing the neck of a turkey adds a small amount of insanity.
When a flower terminates on 'she loves me not' a small amount of insanity is added.
Pulling the tail off a Salamander now adds a good bit of insanity.
Finding a trace of the lost colony now adds a good bit of insanity.
Drinking Snake Oil now adds a good bit of insanity.
Eating Rotten fruit now adds a good bit of insanity.
Cutting a Caterpillar from his cocoon early adds a good bit of insanity.
Witnessing a mischievious gnome now adds a good bit of insanity.
Sniffing Satan Salts now adds a great deal of Insanity.
KOing will add a great deal of insanity.
Finding a Thumbnail in your pie now adds a great deal of insanity.
Robbing a grave adds a huge amount of insanity.
Scalping a player adds a huge amount of insanity.
Players may lick moldy boards clean to fresh boards again. Doing so will add a huge amount of insanity. Don't lick mold.
Spawning a Lumberlord now adds a huge amount of insanity.
Being online when a Blood Moon occurs now adds a TREMENDOUS amount of insanity.

When a flower terminates on 'she loves me' a small amount of insanity is removed.
Whittling now removes a small amount of insanity.
Casting your fishing pole now removes a small amount of insanity.
Catching a butterfly now removes a small amount of insanity.
Rolling Dough now removes a small amount of insanity.
Playing a single note on a musical instrument now removes a good bit of insanity.
Taking a draw from a hookah now removes a great deal of insanity.


Pilgrims who reach a certain level of Insanity will begin to gain Madness levels. Reaching Madness level 10 will cause you to Permadie.

Madness levels may be reduced by smoking Tobacco.

Pilgrims will hear voices in their heads while Mad, higher madness means more voices.

New Mechanic: Psychotic Episodes. Your player will experience a Psychotic Episode more frequently depending on what Madness level they are currently dealing with.

Players may now experience a Psychotic Episode where they are entirely positive that they are a turkey.
Players may now experience a Psychotic Episode known as Meow Meow.
Players may now experience a psychotic Episode where they decide to adopt a pet Termite in their inventory. His name is Steve.
Players may now experience a Psychotic Episode where they feel the need to get naked, put on some poison ivy underwear, and party.
Players may now experience a Psychotic Episode where they invent the world greatest digging tool and cannot understand how it was never invented sooner.
Players may now experience a Psychotic Episode where they find the world's largest Salami.
Players may now experience a Psychotic Episode where their own blood is found all over the cloth produced from a loom.
Players may now experience a Psychotic Episode where they meet The Precious.
Players may now experience a Psychotic Episode where they create a TimberTerror.
Players may now experience a Psychotic Episode while planing boards.
Players may now experience a Psychotic Episode where an all-consuming flame washes over their inventory.
Bats now spawn while mining tiles in a mine as a result of a Psychotic Episode. This means bat spawning on the whole should be less.
Players may now experience a Psychotic Episode where their goods become covered in slime.


New Crop: Tobacco

Players may now grow Tobacco.
Tobacco comes in 4 different types, Broad, Bright, Shade, & Gold Leaf variants.
The higher tier the Tobacco, the higher chance it will soothe a Madness level from the character.
The higher madness a character is, the greater chance Tobacco has to shave off a madness level.
New Item: Pipes. Players may now smoke pipes after loading them with Tobacco.
New Item: Briarroot now drop from thornbushes when destroyed.
Players may now whittle a briar root into a Tobacco Pipe.
Players may now whittle a roast corn into a Cob Pipe.
The Purity of Tobacco can give up to double the chance that a Madness level will be dropped.
The number of seeds obtained form harvesting a Tobacco field is dependent upon the affluence of the Tobacco Farmer harvesting it.

Fertilizer Rework
To go along with the opening statement we have reworked the Fertilizer system to make it far less of a 'chore'. The diminishing returns for each subsequent fertilizer added will fall off much faster meaning in most cases most players will only be fertilizing 5-10 pieces per harvest.

*New Fertilizers have been added: Little Limestones, Blooms, Mysterious Lillypads, Eggshells, Rotten Fruit.
*The remaining fertilzers have been rebalanced to the new fertilizer system and many fertilizers now provide significantly more % than the old items/values. Fields on the WHOLE though will most likely be yielding less as there is less of an incentive to 'lime bomb' them to insane plenty amounts.



Other New Stuff

Witches may now perform the Ritual of Transfusion.

New paving: Bone Pavement
New paving: Darkenbone Paving

New Graphics:
Hay paving has been adjusted so it no longer looks so boxy.
Cabochoncut Dravite has a new 3D ground model.
Cabochoncut Phosphophyllite has a new 3D ground model.
Cabochoncut Rubellite has a new 3D ground model.
Cabochoncut Uvarovite has a new 3D ground model.
Squarecut Dravite has a new 3D ground model.
Squarecut Phosphophyllite has a new 3D ground model.
Squarecut Rubellite has a new 3D ground model.
Squarecut Uvarovite has a new 3D ground model.
Pearcut Dravite has a new 3D ground model.
Pearcut Phosphophyllite has a new 3D ground model.
Pearcut Rubellite has a new 3D ground model.
Pearcut Uvarovite has a new 3D ground model.
Starburstcut Dravite has a new 3D ground model.
Starburstcut Phosphophyllite has a new 3D ground model.
Starburstcut Rubellite has a new 3D ground model.
Starburstcut Uvarovite has a new 3D ground model.


Beauty and the Balance

The Hitboxes on stock bins have been adjusted and there should no longer be so much free space "behind" them.
It is now a crime to rummage a birds nest in an inventory that does not belong to you.
It is now a crime to rummage a squirrel stash in an inventory that does not belong to you.
It is now a crime to rummage a mermaids purse in an inventory that does not belong to you.
Hit points on Thornbushes have now been lowered.
Players may now throw Rotten Fruit at people in the stocks for more Full & Fed up than tomatos.


Tears

Weight of Beetle has been increased to match the weight of Beetle Juice extracted from it.
Players may no longer run and drink.
Fixed a bug that allowed players to continue to consume potions even when at max hydration.


Mini Update #1
*Picking Flowers from the wild now lowers insanity.
*Planting things in your pots now lowers your insanity.
*Players who are listneing to music played by other players that would change a biome will find that it soothes them and lowers their insanity as well.
*Woodchoppings now give more upkeep.
*Crown Manure has been significantly buffed.
*Fertile Turkey poop should now give the appropriate fertilizer values when used.

Mini Update #2
*Fix'd a bug that was causing additional Limed Hides to be accumulated.
*Studying Items now reduces a fair bit of insanity. (As a metric, a player who studies an item once every 4-8 minutes of playtime would never gain a madness level).
*Finding a gem while sifting reduces a bit of insanity.
*Cooking things over the gentle crackling of a fire now lowers a bit of insanity.
*Dissecting a frog now adds a small bit of insanity.
*Players no longer gain insanity from KOing. I liked this mechanic but it was too harsh coupled with the ways players can catch themselves in a KO loop. For the record it was 36 KO's that would permakill you from 0 Madness and 0 Insanity.
*The Masks should now update your madness level between logouts. The gluttony forks are still busted but will be fixed hopefully later today.

Mini Update #3
Tobacco Pipes now remember what is inside them between logouts
Default client should now be working with gluttony again.
Masks should now be updating correctly and custom clients should have the ability to replicate the default use of them.
Bats once again have a base level chance to spawn when mining, which is then increased the more insane a player becomes.
There is now a 40 second timer to port to providence and port to your homestead
Existing 10 minute and 20 minute timers to port have been removed.

TEARS
There is now a 20 second logout timer to leave salem. (Force closing your client won't save you and will cause you to take far longer to log out than had you logged out legitimately).



New Mechanic: Beds

Players May now build Leafy Bed
Players may now build a Simple Bed
Players may instantly log off when right clicking a bed.
Players will find that their inspiration comes back faster if they are logged off while sleeping in a bed. The better the bed the more extra inspiration you get while logged off.
Players will find that their insanity will be lower after sleeping in a bed (this will not lower madness levels, only bring insanity back to the lowest point of your current madness level).

Mini Update #4
*Fix'd a bug that caused abnormal hydration gain if you opened a flower menu on a potion but did not consume it.
*Leafy Beds now take Branches
*Simple Beds now take Dry Boards.
*Players may now lift beds that do not have pilgrims in it.
*Successfully smoking the HOokah in the Den will now roll back one madness level instead of insanity.
*New NPC: The Timekeeper. The Timekeeper is methodical in nature and keeps track of all the time that all Pilgrims have survived in the lands of Salem. Each time you go to bed he calculates the total hours that you have spent in Salem. To 'register' with him, one simple needs to climb into bed. The top 10 Players known by the Timekeeper will be the "Elders" of Salem and will have White Hair to show their dominance over the common-folk.


Mini Update #5
*Players may now make a new cape.
*Darkenbear may no longer be stunned.
*Players may now make Padded Wallpaper. Padding all the walls in your house and then running your character into them over and over will still cause insanity to rise.
*Players may now lift leafy beds.
*Bug fix'd that allowed movement during logout.
*finding a cross-shaped wood splinter now lowers a large amount of insanity.


Mini Update #6
*Players now receive less tobacco leaves from a field.
*Shredded Tobacco recipe now yield 3 shredded tobacco stacks
*The amount of leaves required to make shredded tobacco has been reduced.
*New Custom Item has been added for those who have over 10,000 Post Count.
*Rare Drop has been added to the Mystery Cape Hanger (Store Change).
*Cob Pipes now have a unique graphic when equipped.
*Egg shells now have their own unique graphic when dropped.
*Players may no longer mine with a shovel.
*Two New Psychotic Episodes have been added.
*Players may now craft a teddy bear.
*Players who sleep a full 8 hours holding their teddy bear will find that the next time they wake up they will have 1 less madness level.
*Witches may curse a teddy bear.
*A cursed teddy bear will cause a player to wake up with more madness than when they went to bed.

Mini Update #7
*fix'd a bug that could crash server when traveling
*Berry Jam no longer ignores the Berry Food group.
*All Gems found during a Blood moon are now Blood Shards.

Mini Update #8
Darkenbear will now add insanity when you see him.

Mini Update #9
*Antler Buttons now require any antlers.
ceedat wrote:the overwhelming frustration of these forums and the unnecessarily over complicated game mechanics is what i enjoy about this game most.

Nsuidara wrote:it is a strange and difficult game in no positive way
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Re: Insanity!

Postby baboking » Sun May 31, 2015 2:05 am

u rock!
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Re: Insanity!

Postby Necrobane » Sun May 31, 2015 2:06 am

But... i very like to stay afk... :cry:
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Re: Insanity!

Postby Rele » Sun May 31, 2015 2:06 am

Yayyy
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Re: Insanity!

Postby Heffernan » Sun May 31, 2015 2:08 am

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Re: Insanity!

Postby Nikixos » Sun May 31, 2015 2:11 am

Hilarious update Have to try 10/10
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Re: Insanity!

Postby tben22 » Sun May 31, 2015 2:15 am

I'm glad you softened the blow by opening about how much you hate 'chores' then you add something that fundamentally adds a whole new layer of chore to everything one does in this game. I feel much better about it. Kind of like when my drunk uncle opens a sentence with "I'm not racist, but..." at thanksgiving.
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Re: Insanity!

Postby Heffernan » Sun May 31, 2015 2:16 am

btw what happens when theres a bug that gains you extemely to much insanity and u permadie? :shock:
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Re: Insanity!

Postby gandalfthyblue » Sun May 31, 2015 2:19 am

John Carver has already reached level 10 of madness with this new patch. ¦]
Ƭℌę ȿęċręȶȿ ȱƒ ℳȃℊįƈ aɍℯ mîŋę ⱥlỏņℯ.
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Re: Insanity!

Postby Heffernan » Sun May 31, 2015 2:20 am

gandalfthyblue wrote:John Carver has already reached level 10 of madness with this new patch ¦]


it was slowly building up with the previous patches :P
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