Balance... re-balance = unbalanced
Love the game, but....
I'm not a fan of the new stamina system. Why? Essentially, it has traded places with what was unbalanced about the hitpoint system. In my opinion, the stamina adjustment, as it is now, means that you could be beat down by a senior citizen in a walker. The stamina setting is not at all useful in a world where, depending on the seed, you may be running long distances. Once again, I would like to see some changes:
1) Stamina needs a higher base, and stamina bonuses should not come by specific food types, but rather by variation. In other words... a balanced meal, with higher value items giving a correspondingly stronger result.
2) Stamina usage with all weapons and shields needs further adjustment. Seriously... I can't find my inner warrior this way.
3) This one will require greater thought. Players with new characters joining existing maps are subject to raids by forces vastly beyond their capabilities. Forget "the forest is moving," because The Horde has come. Goodbye, base. There needs to be a way to distinguish new players on a server and in doing so, leave them out of events that can completely ruin their games after just getting going. Possibly tie it to metal level? At bronze, you should be able to handled anything that rushes your base, but before that, you shouldn't be getting hit by the Fuling hordes.
4) Since you are having to spend so much more time farming, it means that exploration has taken a major hit. That's a mistake, IMO, because it wrecks something that was integral to the original game. It means you are going to be spending a much longer time investing in a base on a specific land mass, instead of constantly moving with a small string of support bases.
5) Fix the rafts, please. They are pretty bad in all aspects, and not really useful for even early exploration.
6) All the ships need some attention, because I've actually taken to breaking my them up, travelling overland, and then reassembling them. Using a cart instead of a ship moves the ore around much faster. It's much, much faster than sailing, and unless you have ore, throwing up a portal means your ships will likely stay in your dock for most of the game.
7) The fishing poles need to be available to early game characters. IRL, I can build one with my eyes closed. They shouldn't be at the merchant. Make them build-able!
8) More useful things, like mounts, cart animals, and the ability to use those animals to carry things. How about Great Deer, Bear, and woolly something-or-others?
9) Get rid of things that break immersion and do not contribute in any way to the game. Hot tubs? Tar-paper roofs? Windows? Vikings crave not these things! Gimicks are just that, and do not make it a better game. Not to mention my personal opinion of a bunch of sweaty vikings sharing a tub with each other *shudders*
10) Continue to improve frame-rates and loading times.
The truth of the matter is: there really wasn't much to this update. The way I see it, it stalls for time, while the Myst Lands are being developed. It might have been better to spend the time wasted on this update working on the Lands, saving this one for later.
I'm not a fan of the new stamina system. Why? Essentially, it has traded places with what was unbalanced about the hitpoint system. In my opinion, the stamina adjustment, as it is now, means that you could be beat down by a senior citizen in a walker. The stamina setting is not at all useful in a world where, depending on the seed, you may be running long distances. Once again, I would like to see some changes:
1) Stamina needs a higher base, and stamina bonuses should not come by specific food types, but rather by variation. In other words... a balanced meal, with higher value items giving a correspondingly stronger result.
2) Stamina usage with all weapons and shields needs further adjustment. Seriously... I can't find my inner warrior this way.
3) This one will require greater thought. Players with new characters joining existing maps are subject to raids by forces vastly beyond their capabilities. Forget "the forest is moving," because The Horde has come. Goodbye, base. There needs to be a way to distinguish new players on a server and in doing so, leave them out of events that can completely ruin their games after just getting going. Possibly tie it to metal level? At bronze, you should be able to handled anything that rushes your base, but before that, you shouldn't be getting hit by the Fuling hordes.
4) Since you are having to spend so much more time farming, it means that exploration has taken a major hit. That's a mistake, IMO, because it wrecks something that was integral to the original game. It means you are going to be spending a much longer time investing in a base on a specific land mass, instead of constantly moving with a small string of support bases.
5) Fix the rafts, please. They are pretty bad in all aspects, and not really useful for even early exploration.
6) All the ships need some attention, because I've actually taken to breaking my them up, travelling overland, and then reassembling them. Using a cart instead of a ship moves the ore around much faster. It's much, much faster than sailing, and unless you have ore, throwing up a portal means your ships will likely stay in your dock for most of the game.
7) The fishing poles need to be available to early game characters. IRL, I can build one with my eyes closed. They shouldn't be at the merchant. Make them build-able!
8) More useful things, like mounts, cart animals, and the ability to use those animals to carry things. How about Great Deer, Bear, and woolly something-or-others?
9) Get rid of things that break immersion and do not contribute in any way to the game. Hot tubs? Tar-paper roofs? Windows? Vikings crave not these things! Gimicks are just that, and do not make it a better game. Not to mention my personal opinion of a bunch of sweaty vikings sharing a tub with each other *shudders*
10) Continue to improve frame-rates and loading times.
The truth of the matter is: there really wasn't much to this update. The way I see it, it stalls for time, while the Myst Lands are being developed. It might have been better to spend the time wasted on this update working on the Lands, saving this one for later.
5:13 pm, October 26, 2021