Why Salem will fail without intervention

[Machinator]

So, hai guys.

So you have this really interesting concept totally ruined by poor gameplay mechanics (and over-complexity). No-one, outside of a dedicated bunch of no-lifers is going to play this game in any serious way so long as all the following conditions remain true:

1) Ridiculous power imbalance of new vs. established characters. I am not talking about resources, Im talking about statistics. I love permadeath because I love risk, but having a bunch of quasi-gods running around is only going to drive off anyone interested in the game.

2) I play EvE online fairly seriously, and was attracted to a game that has a real physical space; however, with no efficient way to defend a claim, and few game rules controlling PVP scenarios, it is a waste of time, given #1. EvE mitigates this with high-sec space, but Boston is not an analogue of secure space.

In essence, you have a game that will rely on a cash shop, that noone will use because of the aforementioned points. You will have a niche audience, but it will not be a commercial success, because the rules will only appeal to spergs who have all day to waste online playing only Salem.

This is of course completely overlooking the complexity of the game. But this is core to the problem; complexity / obscurity of game mechanics, coupled with hardcore PvP ruleset and fairly hostile, griefer community and a cash shop? These are not the ingredients success is made of.

If the ruleset is not tuned to make it less desirable to kill noobs, and so that an advanced player has less of an advantage over a new one, the game is destined to failure; this is too bad, because I like hardcore PvP mechanics and the crafting focus. I hope the devs consider what they actually intend here, because without a larger audience, there is no way this is financially viable. You may need to alienate the spergs, but it is necessary if the game is to attract new players.

Defense needs to be made stronger. Why no traps? Why no defensive strutures of any use except garbage walls and useless braziers? You cannot expect the average player to want to spend money to play a game where that money can be taken from them, with literally nothing the new player can do except never leave useless Boston.

Why are custom clients being promoted on the official site? It smells shady, and if this much is exposed in the client, radars, avatar locators, item locators and other things that can at least be percevied as 'cheats' are easily implemented. You need to get serious about fixing the client, buying the custom code from someone if neeeded, and then ensure that only that official client can be used. This is a major thing - as long as there is the perception that the clients can be hacked to provide advantages, your average player, who doesnt want to ***** around with config files, is going to see this as both confusing and unfair.

It may have been a poor idea to open the beta at this point; interested parties - myself included - will only be turned off.

Anyway, this is a public service announcement and a reality check. If you enjoy playing this game - understandable - you might want to lay off harassing people that have only just started. All you will do is ensure that these people never play the game again, and that PDox pulls the plug sooner rather than later. And devs - get your priorites in order, because every day the beta is in the shape it is, you lose potential customers. I dont have the answer for fixes, but they are needed. Soon.

Who knows, once all these issues are ironed out, I may circle back and see how Salem is doing. At the present rate, though, there won't be a Salem to check in on, just a mouldering corpse.

[staxjax]

Defenses are/were made stronger. Get yourself a few stone hedge walls and a bunch of braziers, nobody with under 300 humours would bother you unless it was for some personal vendetta. Example of the newly buffed defenses in an actual raid:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=3934

[clouddog]

Salem is like all other games, to be "good" at it u need to do research on whatever ur purpose is for playing it,
defenses is like stax said decent now but same there u need to know what ur doing.
Now i don't know if u played eve solo/in an alliance or whatever but u should know something about that game and its the same here when u talk about semi gods.
In eve you had those Major wars in 0.0 when "red alliance,PL + allies hotdropped everything,then power switched to Goons + PL dropping everything with motherships/titans etc etc, even earlier there was BOB.
How can solo players,smaller groups roam,kill players when in 85% of the cases it escalates so ur outnumbered 10:1?
knowledge.
Same at salem, power switches every now and then and there for sure is no "gods" in salem.
You ever roamed eve online solo or in smaller groups deep 0.0 enemy space?
it can get frustrating when u get trapped time after time, killed over and over again but then u adapt, come up with new tactics etc.
This cannot compare to eve as eve is very special in the way u can customize almost anything in my opinion and here you are very limited but you can still affect the outcome of a fight/raid in salem pretty big with an average char if you know what ur doing.
Then again its much about luck too if the wrong guy walks passed you early on you will ofc not be able to do much.
(like in most other games) but then you will not have lost much either.

[Dallane]

I have no idea about game mechanics so this game will fail

Cya op don't let the door hit your ass on the way out

[JeffGV]

Actually, he nailed almost all the problems (beside the matter of the clients).
Obviously many raiders don't care about the success of the game, they just want to continue griefing others, so they are hostile to everything that could harm or add any element of risk to their game experience.
In the meantime, we can see easily how many people are playing the game. Less than 300 (This is madness!This-IS-BOSTON!) and that's while there are many unused beta keys on the net.

[Dallane]

Actually, he nailed almost all the problems (beside the matter of the clients).
Obviously many raiders don't care about the success of the game, they just want to continue griefing others, so they are hostile to everything that could harm or add any element of risk to their game experience.
In the meantime, we can see easily how many people are playing the game. Less than 300 (This is madness!This-IS-BOSTON!) and that's while there are many unused beta keys on the net.

pvp isn't the problem with the game.

[JeffGV]

Sure, say that to all the people that stopped playing after being raided.
Content is king, but the mechanics are the pillars of the kingdom. And here they are pretty broken.

[Dallane]

Sure, say that to all the people that stopped playing after being raided.
Content is king, but the mechanics are the pillars of the kingdom. And here they are pretty broken.

[M_So]

Actually, he nailed almost all the problems (beside the matter of the clients).
Obviously many raiders don't care about the success of the game, they just want to continue griefing others, so they are hostile to everything that could harm or add any element of risk to their game experience.
In the meantime, we can see easily how many people are playing the game. Less than 300 (This is madness!This-IS-BOSTON!) and that's while there are many unused beta keys on the net.

I agree 100% but what can you suggests that will not 'brake the game'? It is not like they can take out the mechanic of raiding, it is stitched right into the vary backbone of the game, the only way I can see this improving is changing the community and we both know that is never going to happen.

[TeckXKnight]

Sure, say that to all the people that stopped playing after being raided.

Can and do. This is a high risk, violent permadeath world. I'm sorry that you didn't know what you were signing up for when you started the game but if losing everything is going to kill Salem for you, then it's the wrong game for you. Starting, losing everything, and coming back stronger and wiser should be part of your experience.

There is a difference between raids ruining the game for you and mechanics standing in the way of new players ever getting stronger. As it stands you can survive, thrive, and take risks to success so it is impossible to support your points.