Fundamentals?

[matan002]

I agree that the game should have some kind of system that rewards proficiencies for the work you do. Only studying objects irl wont help you much on physical work that requires skill through practice. Salem is a game that is not aiming for 100% realism(which most game dont) however it aims for some kind of realism. If my character grew and gained proficiencies through for example hunting animals or chopping down trees then the game would be a bit more realistic and it would enhance the "roleplay" feel of this game.

I do not see how this could unbalance the game because i do not expect it to be the "main" way of gaining proficiencies and because of that it should not be as fast as studying inspirationals. However what i do see is that a new system like this would motivate newer players and give them more things to do when they're out of inspiration

[Heffernan]

aslong as i get new furniture and clothes im happy

[Dammit]

I have always loved the old gluttony system of 10x multipliers and huge never ending sessions of stacking as much food as you wanted anytime you wanted... Alas pre April patch I guess I share the same nostalgia as you do JC. But it was funner then and way less complex. Now gluttony is so complex and an overburden that sometimes I just skip making food some days..Its a pain in my ass, and I am sure many others.

EDIT: I also liked throwing pure items in compost bins to make humus.

[RobertoKarlos]

Why dont you remove permadeath? or just leave it when certain events are met? like bloodmoon. I think that you are trying to dev the game from the wrong playerbase, which seems to be more carebear than criminal. Leaving permadeath to certain times/events will promote the friendly pvp, more political fights,an increase of playerbase,etc. You will just need to rethink the crime punishment system. I have never seen someone complaining about gluttony(except from the fact that most of group foods seems to be incomplete) or char development(Whats the point in raising proficiencies repeating actions when the proficiencies in most cases doesnt have a worth diminish return). Is time to dev for your community Popham just show that no one is interested in hardcore pvp/murder.

[Nikixos]

I have always loved the old gluttony system of 10x multipliers and huge never ending sessions of stacking as much food as you wanted anytime you wanted... Alas pre April patch I guess I share the same nostalgia as you do JC. But it was funner then and way less complex. Now gluttony is so complex and an overburden that sometimes I just skip making food some days..Its a pain in my ass, and I am sure many others.

EDIT: I also liked throwing pure items in compost bins to make humus.

The problem i see with the proposed design is that it forces the player to be online for a craving to appear, how would you raise an alt with this? And i guess it forces the player to store all types of food... feels more grindy

[Dammit]

Why dont you remove permadeath? or just leave it when certain events are met? like bloodmoon. I think that you are trying to dev the game from the wrong playerbase, which seems to be more carebear than criminal. Leaving permadeath to certain times/events will promote the friendly pvp, more political fights,an increase of playerbase,etc. You will just need to rethink the crime punishment system. I have never seen someone complaining about gluttony(except from the fact that most of group foods seems to be incomplete) or char development(Whats the point in raising proficiencies repeating actions when the proficiencies in most cases doesnt have a worth diminish return). Is time to dev for your community Popham just show that no one is interested in hardcore pvp/murder.

Crap did you for once just speak the truth and somehow make sense? I actually kinda feel the playerbase is like this myself.

[ToorimaKun]

I have always loved the old gluttony system of 10x multipliers and huge never ending sessions of stacking as much food as you wanted anytime you wanted... Alas pre April patch I guess I share the same nostalgia as you do JC. But it was funner then and way less complex. Now gluttony is so complex and an overburden that sometimes I just skip making food some days..Its a pain in my ass, and I am sure many others.

this is one of the few things i agree with JC about... the old purity system was unbalanced for older players vs newer players.

tho... i think the direction that jorb and lofter were going with the purity system (other then purity nods) was a good idea.
i think that making is so the purity is harder to grind up... but once you do you get a MAJOR boost is the way to go.... tho unlike the fall of the old server it needs to be FULLY implemented before trying to force it in to the game.

so for example:
how JC has turkey coops set so that breeding turkeys in them slowly raises the purity is good.
so some one who has spend a lot of time playing the game had has gotten his turkey coop to 100% will have the x10 effect of turkey gluttony foods.

[Tulgarath]

Why dont you remove permadeath? or just leave it when certain events are met? like bloodmoon. I think that you are trying to dev the game from the wrong playerbase, which seems to be more carebear than criminal. Leaving permadeath to certain times/events will promote the friendly pvp, more political fights,an increase of playerbase,etc. You will just need to rethink the crime punishment system. I have never seen someone complaining about gluttony(except from the fact that most of group foods seems to be incomplete) or char development(Whats the point in raising proficiencies repeating actions when the proficiencies in most cases doesnt have a worth diminish return). Is time to dev for your community Popham just show that no one is interested in hardcore pvp/murder.

Crap did you for once just speak the truth and somehow make sense? I actually kinda feel the player base is like this myself.

I see this also. What I saw on Popham was a great excitement, and a frenzy as people who were unprotected engaged each other. Expeditions were fun for those that have grown to big to venture out with their 'titans'. As much as it may seem mainstream, expeditions would be a great battle ground type system, longer lasting than most games, but temporary. Perhaps, even limit some skill trees (instead of increasing technology like cannons, remove some like nothing more than a makeshift fence). It allows people to build up and engage each other with relative safety (mains on providence are untouched), and no infrastructure or titans to counterattack or prevent an attack by hiding behind. Once walls went up, which was very quickly for some groups, the pvp all but about died. The executioner went quiet and the numbers appeared to dwindle. Once this happened, the players were forced back into the humor grind, and thus back to how they were on Providence.

The animals were not the draw for some, but that beginner nostalgia, that excitement, that the permanent server just does not have anymore. That new player feel. The permanent server serves a greater purpose, and should remain intact, but the expeditions should be revisited as to what the purpose is, because they seemed to reveal a few things about the player base, and what it wants, at least as far as I observed.

As far as your VOTING, I think both of the systems mentioned would be great additions. Somethings to me, perhaps bias from 20 years of gaming, seem intuitive, such as gaining skills for chopping trees. It takes places more value in the chores, not just the finished goods. Also, a beginner, who is incapable of yet creating the higher end items, can still be useful and reap rewards simply by performing labor to invest time in a town when their skill tree has yet to be useful.

The gluttony system would be a welcome change from stockpiling days or weeks worth of food, in lieu of a variety of all foods at the ready. Or that's how I interpreted it. Instead of a few power foods, you would need a large variety of all foods.

[Dallane]

But what is more concerning is that even veterans like yourself like to pretend that 'spies' are a real problem if you know what you are doing when they clearly are not. The problem lies with members of towns more often than not do not pull their weight and/or contribute enough when given the opportunity to bask in communism. A direct reward based on the highest contributors is needed, the question is how to get there, and if it is priority.

I have infiltrated quite a few towns in this game to a point where I totally burned myself out doing slave labor to gain their trust. This is currently the best way to raid and kill players on provi. Making a alt account and writing up a decent introduction in PP is a guaranteed way to get 3+ messages from all levels of the community.

#1
Of all the towns I have been in there really isn't much of a problem with people not contributing enough. Most people have a job assigned to them or their own task that they will get into that will also help the town in some meaningful way. Town members usually provide their own means of food except when there is farm goods available. These luckily can be mass produced to a point where 10ish people will not have a issue with running out of food to make.

The problem with making a system where you progress as you work is that people WILL make bots to gain their skills instead of doing this themselves. A clear example of this and why the system changed to what we have today is during worlds 1-3 of Haven. The best way to get skills during this time was to clear cut as much forest as possible while making buckets. People got so good at bucket farming they didn't even have to manually do it.

Now if you make it along the lines of how praying currently works then I think people really won't notice a difference at all. The gain wouldn't really be worth it unless you are new and even then inspiration is so easy to get.

Having a discovery type system would be cool depending on how often you unlock things. New players would find this interesting to be doing their own thing and see that they have discovered a new recipe. This could open you up with some very creative things to add to the game and not tell players about. Veteran players would be thrilled to discover new items and be that epic crafter who is the only person in the world to make this. The value of that character and town would go up depending on what that item could do.

I think that a achievement/quest system is a bad way of doing this.

#2

Food is a tough area to balance. I honestly hate the fact that you can eat any of the food in game for regen but get nothing out of it at all. I would love to see some sort of bonus or humor gain by eating food to regen. This unfortunately is a area that can be exploited due to how the food system in haven works. You again run into bots that will drain stamina to the point of starvation and then you eat till full and repeat.

I think the old system was fairly boring. Food still needs to be tweeked. There are food choices that are extremely easy to make and are far superior to any other food group. Getting a 80+ gobble score is a very easy task. Either way both systems were very easy to gain biles at a insane pace. I really don't think you should go back or start new unless you are REALLY unhappy with the system.

The craving system could be really fun. We might actually see people trading food again. I have come to learn that cooks are the highest demand in a village.

[Flink]

for the number 1, instead of directly gain prof points, why not give a little boost while studying objects, lets say you have a huge farming/replanting/putting fert in field for about 2 hours non stop, you could gain a bonus on the stock and cultivar points you study. you could make also make it so, the higher your proficiencies are the longer you will have to work to get said bonus.

someone who have a lvl 5 stock and cult, works for about 5 mins on farming or 30 interactions with fields get a doubled point on stock points

someone with a lvl 100 stock, would need 1000 interactions to get the doubled points on stock

basically, the numbers are just there to give a rough example, but with this kind of system, doing work would help proficiencies without directly giving prof points.