Jorb where are you?!

[neored9]

People saying they don't like timers blow my mind. Almost everything is this game is based around a timer. Those hides you're tanning? Every crop you put in the ground? That coal for that timer for smelting? Oh even baking pies.

The new gluttony system is an elegant solution to many of the obvious flaws of the old system that everyone seems to love so much. Instantly bang out a new 200 to all bile character in a day, using only one food time for every humour, mindlessly clicking the food stuffs. The new system requires diversity, planning, strategy, and a bit of luck.

Jorb, hear our pleas, put an end to the Old Testament Gods of smite and wrath, bring forth the New Testament Gods of Fun and Horses.

[Binks]

People saying they don't like timers blow my mind. Almost everything is this game is based around a timer. Those hides you're tanning? Every crop you put in the ground? That coal for that timer for smelting? Oh even baking pies.

When it's items in a game and your character progression those are two very different things. When a game throttles my character progression I just can't enjoy it. It would be like playing a MMO with levels and only allowing you to get 2 levels every 24 hours. Sorry but until the timers are removed from character progression this game is going to continue to be a ****** one.

[Tamasin]

i totally agree with binks.

this gluttony timer is the worst thing ever ever. ever.

it feels so meaningless and boring making the same foods everyday, just to keep the progress slowly crawling along. making my food, tiering my fields etc, i don't feel like i'm accomplishing anything, i just feel like i need to get this task out of the way. there's almost no satisfaction at all, and it didn't used to be that way. even the purity grind feels less satisfying- all this just so that my humour gain will crawl along a little faster... ugh.

The timer has just got to go.

[neored9]

Well the reason it feels so unrewarding is because it is. Raiding isn't possible and there isn't any late game PVE.

[Mereni]

I don't think the gluttony timer or the new inspiration system are bad at all. I just think they need a few tweeks and some extra content.

The inspiration should be twice as fast in the beginning. That small addition wouldn't have much effect on higher level characters, but would help newbies a lot. And it should be an effort to get really high proficiencies so having to be careful what you study is not a bad thing. More inspirationals would help with having a wider selection and more opportunity to change.

Gluttony timers maybe could be reduced by about 20%. Also, a bit of improvement to the variable food buffs we have, more variable ingredients, and just more big foods in general would make high level characters less frustrating to get. Things like more crops and animal husbandry would allow recipes with better gluttony values for high level characters. And a few tweaks to the raiding system so we don't need 500 humor characters would make the humoring of a character less onerous and more fun. I never liked that we could speed level a character from 5 to 200 in a few hours with the old system, but a few weeks if you have the infrastructure isn't unreasonable.

[Blood]

If the timer was removed i can see people then trying to grind humors to be able to raid and destroy their neighbors hence a new arms race, where it would then be possible to have wars again. At the moment if you die your looking at months to get back to your stat level, though I like the inspiration timer tbh makes you have to pick what you want to level skill wise. As we stand we have a few factions in game slowly grinding characters away at a few points a day maybe in 3 or 4 months they might venture out to make war but the loss level is too great for most and they will probably just sit behind the walls till server wipe.

Until the timer is removed on food no one is going to throw a character at another faction to make war if the penalty is so great there is no benefit when you can just hide from each other. I can see straight away the tribe building an army if that happened but also encourages other factions to work harder to prepare and due to current purity levels still gives newer factions a chance. Then we might have more to read about then a few idiots getting stomped every day. I have always felt that Salem was a game about crafting and base building till you are at the point where you can efficiently level characters to the point you can fight for control of the server and those with the best infrastructure and teamwork win dominate the rest which is what hnh looks like atm.

[Tamasin]

I don't think the gluttony timer or the new inspiration system are bad at all. I just think they need a few tweeks and some extra content.

The inspiration should be twice as fast in the beginning. That small addition wouldn't have much effect on higher level characters, but would help newbies a lot. And it should be an effort to get really high proficiencies so having to be careful what you study is not a bad thing. More inspirationals would help with having a wider selection and more opportunity to change.

Gluttony timers maybe could be reduced by about 20%. Also, a bit of improvement to the variable food buffs we have, more variable ingredients, and just more big foods in general would make high level characters less frustrating to get. Things like more crops and animal husbandry would allow recipes with better gluttony values for high level characters. And a few tweaks to the raiding system so we don't need 500 humor characters would make the humoring of a character less onerous and more fun. I never liked that we could speed level a character from 5 to 200 in a few hours with the old system, but a few weeks if you have the infrastructure isn't unreasonable.

i think your suggestions would really improve things, but with gluttony it's not just the ridiculous amount of time to get decent humours that is the problem. it's the timer concept itself that takes the fun and satisfaction away. a different sort of tweaking that made better use of the system's strong points ie reductions/restores and did away with the need for a timer at all would be a lot better imo.

[Binks]

I don't think the gluttony timer or the new inspiration system are bad at all. I just think they need a few tweeks and some extra content.

Gluttony timers are terrible. I will not play this game seriously until they are removed. There is nothing at all that can make me feel differently about this subject. When a game limits my ability to "level up" I want nothing to do with it.

[DemonEyes]

Well the reason it feels so unrewarding is because it is. Raiding isn't possible and there isn't any late game PVE.

A quick glance at t eh forum shows that raiding IS very possible.. and the simple reluctance by, what seems to be, most players to engage in PVP means that there is a huge gaping hole for something PVE orientated. That the people too scared to step outside their bases may want to invest some time and money in actually achieving.

Not only does this mean a requirement for said 'boss' creatures, but also some significantly tough solo encounters.

But then this would take the game in a totally new direction.

As for the timers, gluttony needs some love in the duration stakes, the rest can stay as it is a superior system. It is possible to calculate a Maximum achievable humour value with the current system a Hard Cap as such, the timer introduces a soft cap based on the amount of time you have played.

fiddling about with current mechanics isn't going to change anyones opinion on the game as I see it.. Salem needs more content, be it pve, pvp, farmville or simcity.. anything will do to prolong the interest of the rapidly dwindling playerbase. New mechanics would be good..

But lets face it.. If all the energy is going on Hafen, I hope Jorbtar can take what they have learned from haven, what they have learned in salem, and produce something fantastic that will satisfy new and old players alike. I hope its not a carbon copy of haven with lovely graphics and the like.. but a merge of the ideals of both games, the promotion of community, the small town based communities of friends, and the opportunity and requirement of stepping outside your walls to actually trade with others without having to be their bum buddy.

[paljarro]

As for the timers, gluttony needs some love in the duration stakes, the rest can stay as it is a superior system. It is possible to calculate a Maximum achievable humour value with the current system a Hard Cap as such, the timer introduces a soft cap based on the amount of time you have played.

There is no hard cap not even such time related softcap considering "charred somethings". I have several charred somethings stored with 0:00-0:02 time penalty and 0 penalty to meat or 0% chance for penalty. Also these charred somethings can be used to raise any humor, so with enough of them you can raise a char from 5 humors to 500 (or even unlimited) humors in 1 day. Not to mention you can in theory make very pure turkeys, so also very pure meat shreds.

So whoever is complaining about glutton timers: Make 50 turkey coops filled with turkeys, slice all your meat into meat shreds and burn them all day long and you can glutton without timers. Its the same as previous world where you had 200 farms, but now you have turkey coops.
protip: make few coops with just 1-2 turkeys so not all of your high purity turkeys die if you arent able to log in few days.

My opinion about the timers:
I think the current system is better as old system. Gluttoning became way more interesting and the inspiration makes me use my inspirationals way more effective. The only downside I experience is that for new players the loss of inspiration on death is very awkward, this game was hard enough for new players already.