måndag 6 april 2009

Moving forward with the server setup

Like, a few weeks ago I managed to wreak havoc upon this game I develop. The effects weren't actually dramatically noticable in player count but quite a lot of the game masters and some developers quit in disappointment. Because of the lack of totally pvp-free servers and the hit to morale the community suffered player count is slowly slumping.

Now, I think that it is safe to say that I made a mistake and a rash decision. The discussion we have now in the forums could have been started instead of opening up for kvk (kingdom versus kingdom) fighting. There are probably some benefits as well with the way things happened though. Someone learned something or so. I probably did:)

Now it is pretty clear that Wurm is moving towards or splitting into a pvp game and a non pvp game on different servers. We are discussing on whether it should be possible to move between these games and if so how.

The main issues with letting people move between pvp and non-pvp servers are:
* Spies coming from and returning to the safe servers
* Loot disappearing into the safe servers
* High skills trained in safety
* High quality items created in safety
* People coming to the safe servers with high fighting skills, killing unique creatures then returning

Some people care about these issues and some don't think that it is a problem.

There are suggestions for solutions to limiting the negative effects of them. I think that we will have a solution ready within a few weeks.

Team member of this week is Enki - he's been around helping out for so long it hurts. I remember he made some useful diagrams over trader prices years ago when I was debugging those.

Player of the week is Awesomefusion. He's been such a force in pvp that it's helped balance it:)

All in all I feel that Wurm is moving in a positive direction again.

2 kommentarer:

Anonym sa...

Having been a long time player and not having ever posted on the forums or this blog, I figured this was by far one of the most important topics to break through that barrier.

I am an avid PvPer having played on just about every mainstream PvP MMO from Shadowbane to Age of Conan, Vanguard and currently even now on Darkfall. I also enjoy crafting and construction which is where my love for Wurm comes in. Wurm is by far the most advanced building MMO I have ever encountered.

For me, the freedom of Wurm is only enhanced by making PvP part of the game. I truly understand where you are coming from after reading your post on your decision to open up global PvP. In order to achieve a true conquest and building game, there needs to be that facet of gain and loss. Too many people focus on the potential loss than the ebb and flow of empires. To me it is withstanding the threat of losing your nation that makes the celebration of its existance more worthwhile.

As an independent game developer myself (working on my own sci fi conquest game atm :P) and having run several community mods as the project leader I also feel for your decision making process and can appreciate the difficulty of this process. I envy and respect the position you have built up for yourself, but I do not envy the decisions you have had to make. You are a far stronger person than I, Rolf.

I'm currently tackling the same issues and problems in terms of satisfying the more passive player while creating an open PvP system. One way to do this is to use the crafting and passive players to support the PvP warriors. Some games define roles for the players through class systems. Personally I hate class systems and love the open skill system that Wurm uses. Some players want to be a jack of all trades, but there are those that place themselves into roles. Wurm allows for a greater degree of freedom and with that some of the responsibility for content within the game falls upon the players. With the threats of open warfare, kingdoms will need to be able to coordinate better to provide for a defense of the vulnerable "home" servers.

There is no doubt that this will change the face of Wurm, but with it I hope that it will bring kingdoms together to cooperate on a higher level motivated by the threat of losing property.

At this point you have the issue of those who have clung to the way things are. They are sold that Wurm is the way it is and don't share your vision for the future. On the other hand the Open PvP Conquest niche is growing. It is no longer a cult following in Shadowbane and has even found its way into games like WoW and Age of Conan. Player vs. Player is the future of MMO gaming and the ones that include the passive gamer into that equation will be the ones that enjoy the most success. Someone needs to build the walls ... and someone needs to defend those walls. Those that make the weapons don't necessarily need to be the ones that wield them.

I believe Wurm is headed on the right track to achieve what I have always read from you that you wanted it to be. I'm a PvPer through and through and have been in the thick of it since I started gaming. I have led massive armies on virtual fields and helped build expansive nations in several MMOs and Wurm makes me excited to see what such a stress on construction and logistics can do for a PvP environment.

I've always wanted to contribute more to Wurm and I think its time I start speaking out more in support of a vision in bits and pieces that I have come to respect from you.

If you'd like another PvP Veteran voice or even care to hear more of my blathering on the subject, you can shoot me an e-mail at bnsivret[at]gmail[dot]com.

Anonym sa...

I appreciate the non-pvp server because I am a "casual" player with few hours to dedicate to the game. Back in Ultima Online, Dark Age of Camelot, Anarchy Online, Star Wars Galaxies, etc.etc., when I used to spend the entire day or half of it online playing the games then PvP was actually the fun part of it.

But in Wurm, if I play 8 hours a week instead of 8 hours a day my property can be destroyed and robbed while I am not online, and for this reason I prefer no PvP. If my Homestead logged out with me, or if I received silver back for everything that was robbed/destroyed I wouldn't mind PvP, but the fact is that it takes a long time and a lot of effort to build anything in Wurm and if you're not 24h on patrol it can all be lost in a few days or even hours. This doesn't make any sense for "casual" players, players who can't spend that much time online, we should just go play something else where our efforts don't go to waste, because it takes us a lot longer to build than it takes for a hardcore fanatic player to destroy it, and there's no war and no fun involved in it because it all happens while we're off-line, the raiders have to face NPCs and walls but no enemy players.

So it seems like it's a win-win situation: hardcore fanatic players who only log-off to sleep can carry out the war in the pvp server, and the players who cannot spend that much time in game can still play and enjoy their time without seeing their achievements go to waste while they're off-line in the non-pvp server. Where's the loss? There's no loss.