Expeditions

[Tulgarath]

Haven't heard anything on the next one, and kind of wondering if the fundamentals thread might mean devs leaning away from expeditions.

At the beginning of expeditions, there seemed to be a frenzy, an excitement, the game saw a surge. People running into groups and engaging. First day people were already dead. We found s place to settle, and kept a look out for invaders. We set a claim, and began building walls. Then torches and braziers. The executive went quiet, and the server and excitement dwindled.

So what do we take from this? I took a few things. One, the lack of safety and the even playing field drew people in. You can age my interpretation of course. But new and old, hardcore and care bear all took a Crack at it. New groups appeared, or maybe just alts lol....but people were excited. Once the walls and defenses returned, the excitement died. Ok. .providence is the permanent server...safer server, but why not really make that apparent? Canons are a great idea, but took resources and time that many didn't wait around to see.

Why not LIMIT tech in expeditions? No stone or above Walls, no braziers just torchs. Remove safety, maybe add village leader boards for kills, it's multiplayer, have groups matter. And cut the length of time down. A month max? More of a scenario? I love the witch idea, but the way it played out, it seems the majority of the appeal of expeditions was gone once they appeared.

The older players i was with on Popham would talk about how great it was in expeditions those first couple weeks, then they too drifted back to providence. Animals, didn't hold the appeal.

Expeditions have potential, maybe the devs address pleased with them and the group i was with are in the minority, but the numbers and HOB posts seemed to commodity with what I saw.

I realize it's much more complex than this, just trying to pass along am idea.

[Dallane]

I have no idea what I'm talking about.

Walls are 100% not why the pop went down. Limiting tech does nothing at all since cannons will shred through anything.

[Darwoth]

the biggest issue with the expedition was the way witchcraft was introduced, folks lose the desire to compete when they must wait two months first and then have to decipher quest lines via cryptic riddles that may or may not be completed to do so. the expedition was intended to be a fast paced server, the way the victory conditions were introduced are the precise opposite of that premise.

additionally within the salem community the majority of people the expeditions appeal to anyway are going to be haven and hearth retards with short attention spans that play for a month until they fall behind/get killed then they quit and talk **** on the forums for 6 months until the next server, this has been the pattern for 5 or so years across two games see no reason it would change now.

[Tulgarath]

I have no idea what I'm talking about.

Walls are 100% not why the pop went down. Limiting tech does nothing at all since cannons will shred through anything.

I leave those quotes for you

[Procne]

What does haven & hearth have to do with it?

[Darwoth]

everything?

a full 50% of the grouped "faction" players were returns from haven and existing groups here that are primarily haven players, the haven community while intertwined with that of salem occasionally is also entirely separate.

after three years of these forums anyone that has paid attention and has read a few wipe vs no wipe threads should be able to easily discern that the average haven player is far more prone to instant gratification and temporary "bursts" of playtime before losing and quitting for long periods of time, the typical salem only player is someone who enjoys growth over the long haul.

haven = closer to fps players and droolcups

salem = closer to traditional mmo players and older nerds



expeditions have always been to cater to the haven types that want a reset every few months, thus it should come as NO surprise to anyone that an expedition will be "dead" after 4 - 6 weeks. the only "problem" is that nobody has ended the server yet and started the next fresh rush as intended, this is again imo due to the delay in being able to obtain the victory conditions.

[Tulgarath]

the expedition was intended to be a fast paced server

Well that's what i meant by the walls. The moment they went up. ..130 humors needed minimum, by the time people had that. .braziers were up. Sure canons, but that takes steel right? So a week?

Those are barriers to the previous high paced flow. ..that's what i wad getting at.

The pace got slowed because of structural limitations compared to humors.

[Tulgarath]

everything?

a full 50% of the grouped "faction" players were returns from haven and existing groups here that are primarily haven players, the haven community while intertwined with that of salem occasionally is also entirely separate.

after three years of these forums anyone that has paid attention and has read a few wipe vs no wipe threads should be able to easily discern that the average haven player is far more prone to instant gratification and temporary "bursts" of playtime before losing and quitting for long periods of time, the typical salem only player is someone who enjoys growth over the long haul.

haven = closer to fps players and droolcups

salem = closer to traditional mmo players and older nerds



expeditions have always been to cater to the haven types that want a reset every few months, thus it should come as NO surprise to anyone that an expedition will be "dead" after 4 - 6 weeks. the only "problem" is that nobody has ended the server yet and started the next fresh rush as intended, this is again imo due to the delay in being able to obtain the victory conditions.

Exactly. If the intent is fast paced, then don't have things that put the breaks on the action. The witch delay, building up for canons...etc.

Maybe the idea was to insure the expeditions lasted at least X amount of months, but it goes against the faster paced intent.

[Nikixos]

It would encourage more people to play if character progression was faster, nothing to do with walls.
i remember some friends saying that they wouldn't play because it is too hard and time consuming to raise another main. Something like inspirationals giving x2, Gluttony bonus x2, Inspiration rate x2.
While it sounds casual, that is what an expedition is intended for, we are in for the thrill not so much for the grind and i think it would work better to attract players in exp than not being able to build walls

[KruskDaMangled]

They work fine:

Against run of the mill, casual raiders.

Anyone who's willing to invest a lot of time and resources (and I think silver? I assume they take gunpowder to even load) can do a lot of damage to a defensive wall complex in a way that's just not efficient or economical for a guy bashing a wall.

Some of the relevant facts about how it works are of course, important, but also require some basic thought to use in a sensible, efficient fashion.

Which is fair. This is a game where you damn well track the target yourself, and are by no means guaranteed to have picked the right timing for your attack too. Never mind the other nicities, like how flailing around like a retarded chimp will get you handily beaten from imbalance, and just plain being "open" and not really having gained anything by having actually hit them, or hit them in a way you "won" the exchange.