Salem

So I just tried out salem and I don't know much but it seems Pay to win.

Troll post?

agentmainexx wrote:So I just tried out salem and I don't know much but it seems Pay to win.

yup basically. i dropped around 3000 and no one can touch me.

Gallient wrote:Troll post?

it is not a troll post... I really want to know. I am very interested in this game but don't want to have to constantly buy silver I'd rather pay a monthly fee

agentmainexx wrote:

Gallient wrote:Troll post?

it is not a troll post... I really want to know. I am very interested in this game but don't want to have to constantly buy silver I'd rather pay a monthly fee

you don't have to buy silver. anything u buy in this game can be stolen from you and your character can be murdered. you can earn money in game and not have to buy silver to get you a great start and never have to touch it again.

Keep in mind that you don't have to buy much. If you're a hermit, then you'll need to buy the writ of homesteading for your claim (and an additional one for any extra claims), some seeds, a sourdough starter if you plan to ever make bread that uses it, a couple of bars of metal for your original smelter, and any glass panes you need for stuff.

Everything else for sale for silver from the NPCs can be avoided or has alternatives. Once you've got a smelter up, fields up of the various seed types (You don't need to buy pumpkin), and a sourdough starter bought, the only thing you'll still ever have to buy is additional writs and glass panes (until we're given a way to make them).

This game was built upon a foundation which had no currency. We did everything by hand or through trade in Haven. At the basic level the only thing you absolutely must buy for silver yourself are your writs of homesteading, because they bind to whoever purchases them initially. Sourdough, seeds, and even metal can be borrowed from friends or neighbors, or traded for with other goods. Not that silver is particularly hard to make in game to begin with.

Add to this that the prices for silver are very high. I assume this is intentional to discourage pay to win explicitly. They give you the option so you can buy it here and there if you're really desperate, but it's simply too expensive to justify doing frequently. The house I'm building requires six panes of glass. Buying those with cash would cost me around $30. It'd get the house built faster, but it's a lot of money for virtual goods that can be destroyed or stolen.

Basically what Zamte said. Silver isn't going to build you walls or really buy you the variety in foods and inspirationals you're going to need for your character's progress(not many people go through the trouble of selling such items and at that high of a quantity). This is one of the best F2P games I've played as far as it not being pay to win. Salem is as far away from pay to win as you can get while still offering incentive to spend a bit of money so the developers can eat.

There is no pay to win. Any of the packages that are available for sale in the shop only give a few hours headstart at most...any fancy clothes not available any other way. Even if somebody were to buy an assload of silver, there are only so many things you can do with it and none of them involve "winning."

Honestly? The only people other than Darwoth who claim to buy silver are people seeking revenge for being raided. Sometimes beginners buy a couple hundred silver to get them going.

But you can earn that silver quite easily even on a beginner character by committing cricket genocide very easily. The rest of the items for sale are all purely cosmetic right now, or earnable with 4-5 hours of play. And the most important thing here is: Buying multiple packs of whatever from the store isn't putting you exponentially ahead.


For proof? The most "notorious" raiders in the game probably haven't bought any silver to speak of. The richest factions (10's of thousands of silver) make their money off selling iron to nublets. In a pay2win game you would expect to see paying players much more prominent in those groups, but what you see right now are "hardcores" who earn or steal it in game.

There isn't really any good definition of winning anyways since it's a sandbox game.

But if you want my experience, I've not spent any money yet and been able to build a decent hermitage. I couldn't fight anyone at this point, but I think in a month or two once I've gotten my main fully rounded out I could start creating some combat chars if I wanted to. I probably won't, but this game can be whatever you want it to be.

Spending money lets you cut some corners, but it doesn't automatically give you a godly character. You still have to build and put in a lot of time to "win".