If it didn't have skill drain it would be amazing. I HATE the skill drain mechanic.

Originally posted by evilwillhunting:

Like spending a long, long, looooong time in the pitch dark, in the rain, humping it across the map, with an empty stamina meter, and whacking annoying greydwarves every 15 seconds.

That's actually what I'm enjoying, after having done almost everything. I'm just exploring the nearby islands which I have not yet fully uncovered, at mostly walking speed, introducing the greydwarves and other local populations to my skelett entourage, and taking in the sights and some resources.

But if you mean doing all that when you still have actually important things to do, I can relate.

Still, making a camp and staying rested every ten minutes shouldn't take too much time or effort.

It's in alpha. The developers are open to suggestions and there are going to be changes if they listen to the community :)

I guess what makes it so addicting is... while there IS a main quest, there's also a million different things to do at any given moment.

Which makes it a vampire of my free time

Originally posted by Quanto:

It's in alpha. The developers are open to suggestions and there are going to be changes if they listen to the community :)

Despite all my gripes, this game is easily as good if not better and just as stable as triple A releases. Initially the pixelly graphics turned me off, but when I really gave it a chance it sucked me in.

Now if you'll excuse me I'm off to hunt golems. Gotta get those windows built!

Originally posted by Stone:

If it didn't have skill drain it would be amazing. I HATE the skill drain mechanic.

I agree, The skill drain mechanic is way to harsh. It wouldnt be a problem if it was only 1 level a death not up to 5. I have to train like crazy after I die cause I lost FIVE levels which training could take hrs to get back to where I was. Dying is harsh as is and adding something that looses character progression is dumb. Death is unavoidable in this game and punishing the player hard for it just isnt fun.

Death is extremely avoidable.

Originally posted by SushiJaguar:

Death is extremely avoidable.

Dying is a part of the game, there are mechanics around dying. You will die in this game at somepoint. You dont improve without failing a few times. You have died

Most games apply more severe penalties, often the loss of the character up until last save point, or completely in case of many archetypal survival games. You will lose experience when dying in Minecraft, and possibly your items. You will lose your current character in DayZ (and many similar games), and your stuff can be stolen by other players. Many survival roguelikes which share many similar features with Valheim simply delete your character, sometimes offering a chance to recoup the loss in some way, but not in full. Many older games will result in a total or soft game over after all lives are lost. And so on and so forth.

Loss of 5% of your current skill value is a meaningless penalty unless you die over and over or you die when you're highly experienced in one skill or more. There are some skills which are hurt by dying much more than others – magic skills for example, which are late game abilities for good reasons.

The biggest loss from dying occurs between ears, followed by general loss of progress and the backtracking efforts, followed by circumstantial losses like missing on an important enemy kill or perhaps a failed animal taming process. Skill progress loss comes very last in the chain.