Improvements to Keep Salem Going For the Long Haul

[Kdense]

I have been playing for about 2 weeks now and am creating quite a list of what I think are 'minor' improvements that would really improve this game. I will just post the list:

UI Improvements
[*] Better camera angle management/hotkey. I have seen < and > used in other games.
[*] UI scale management from options menu.
[*] Smaller Icons, larger text.
[*] Resizable and moveable chat box.
[*] Chat "flashing" upon receiving a whisper or msg. For players that don't play with sound on and the chat box minimized due to its screen real estate usage it's very easy to miss a whisper or message.
[*] A way to 'tab' back and forth between chat and play without clicking so you don't end up typing strings of aaaaa ssssss dddddd wwwwww. Perhaps hitting [Enter] to open chat input box and after sending it defaults back to play.
[*] Easier access to commonly used 'recipes/skills'. Perhaps a 'last five things made' menu or something.

Game Play Improvements
[*] "Safer trading". Having a system that makes trading safe not only from swipers but financially would be good. Both parties put stuff in their 'trade' screen and click OK. If a change is made then both players have to re-OK the new items/money. I'm not sure if swiping and stealing was game design or not when trying to trade but this this is certainly a frustration.

[*] Improved combat control. I am not sure if it's just buggy or what but about 30-40% of the time my player is not attacking in the direction that I am facing and it's very annoying since it uses your yellow bile regardless.

[*] The world in this game is MASSIVE. A friend of mine and I tried to find each other, we traveled for about 3-4 hours on foot and essentially made no progress. Even after heading towards each other for a long time we were unable to meet. I love that there is a huge world but being able to navigate it better would be helpful. Not only is there no world map, but without using a mapping tool u start over the next time you log on. Having a skeleton world map that you can 'defog' would be amazing. I love exploring in this game and can walk for hours just to see what's out there but not having any idea where in the world you are and where your friends are is frustrating at best. Especially when you get carried away with hours of travel.

[*] Being able to chose a map quadrant for your first leanto so that you can at least be on the same side of the world as friends of yours without having to move in right next to them by using a homestead secret would be nice. Even if you are still an hour walk away, it would be nice to know you are in the same corner rather that completely other sides of the map as my friend and I found out.

[*] A way to move. As a noob to the game I hastily started to develop my land and now that I'm becoming more experienced there is a lot of stuff I would like to change, including my home location. Having some sort of covered wagon or way to move a lot of your stuff would be nice if you choose to up and leave. I understand you will lose structures but I have a lot of movable stuff I would like to take with me. Even using a sled you can not cross water and that limits you. Whether it be actually being able to build a covered wagon or pay some amount of silver to hire 'movers' it would be nice to be able to resettle on the other end of the map if you so should chose and be able to move your stuff.

[*] A 'town' system that allows people developing towns to advertise that they are looking to increase their town's population and even list what attributes they are looking for in their new citizens. I also think it would be fun to have some sort of 'town belonging' recognition. If you join up with a town outside of Boston/Jamestown it would be cool to be able to identify a fellow member of your town. Similar to a guild or clan system in other MMO games.

[*] Cross continental trade routes. Having cross continental trade routes that would provide possibly a speed buff to traveling or something would be nice. Would be cool to not be so 'stuck' in your little corner of the giant world.

[*] The ability to 'travel' to your friends place. Even if it took a lot of time it would be nice to have a more automated travel. Like if I want to visit someone far away, I could say "travel to Jim's" and perhaps just like with crafting, depending on the distance it would take me x amount of real life time for my toon to be traveling.

[*] Last but not least, this is a suggestion to improve player and game longevity. While I understand perma death will not change, I thought perhaps that part of inheriting your dead character's will and other stuff you also have a slight boost to relearning skills. This is still a painful death for your main and requires time to recover, but makes the grind to get back in the game slightly less painful so that a player is not turned off from the game completely by dying.



I know that some of these are laughable or will be hated but I figured I'd throw them all out there. I really like this game and the ideas it's based on. With a little polish and some small game play changes I can really see this game take off. It's a relatively unique MMO that I would love see become the standard for games of its kind.

[Nixman]

I like most of them, while some of the things you mentioned can be 'short cut' such as moving items using alts via boston, I would much prefer a wagon and possibly horses (with the ability to build bridges and terra-form water)

Other things such as directions to your friends can be used in custom clients (Enders has such a thing) but over all being able to travel to a friends place would be nice.

In regards to your last suggestion, I'm all for this, I know if my main ever gets killed I will be at the point where I'll be asking myself if i can really be bothered to grind it all again. All games have a life span, being killed I feel would be prematurely bringing that closer, having the ability to avoid some of the grind may decide if a players makes a new character or goes and plays something else.

[Basmal]

Really hoping we'll be able to cover up shallow water at some point or at least build a bridge. My home is near water and since claims only go n,e,s,w, a good chuck of my silver will be spent buying land that is shallow water thus wasting it. Also having to build 2 sets of walls since my claim will be split between the water will be really frustrating.

Any dev know for sure if this will be implemented?

[Potjeh]

It won't be.