A Game Trending "Easier"

[Vexus]

The fact that I rarely if ever play any more means my comments don't really matter and aren't based in much fact.

Reading the patch notes however I am seeing a trend of the new developers to make things easier. Although this is the progress of every multiplayer game I have seen - for good reason as it usually means a larger player base and thus larger sales - it is something that takes away from this specific game. Part of the fun is lost when your efforts mean less over time. When your decision to run 20 hours to set up your claim is thwarted by fast travel mechanics later on. That effort that you knew was special has now been mitigated. Others will not have to put forth the same effort to yield the same results.

I apologize that I really will never read any replies. This is just a UDP broadcast to whomever sees it. I do hope that the new developers - who seem to be doing great work polishing the game - make sure to keep the game hard and untouched by 'easy' mechanics. I understand some things must get easier to make newer players stay around, but in this game where a large part of the fun is overcoming the difficulty, please pay attention to the long term results of every action; something I believe the previous devs thought about too much, thus becoming stagnant.

All the best,
Vexus

[JohnCarver]

I agree we will be walking this very fine line.

Quite simply we think that the harder points of Salem should be experienced later in a Salemites life. We hope that there will be plenty of tear-harvesting mechanics if not more tear-harvesting mechanics than ever before. We just don't intend for these things to be experienced in the first few hours of Salem. We think that for a noob, Salem is diverse, different, and challenging enough just in the understanding of its different systems and general unique gameplay.

[Rifmaster]

for a noob

Rarely do you hear a developer of a game say "for a noob"
As far as im concerned i agree with JC let tear harvesting mechanics only get you when you put more effort in your game.
It wouldn't be very fun if you started an hour ago and got murdered by a rabbit forever... Right?