About Hopi - I have been there (its really close) - and that is really a space I want to explore - however at that time a HUGE blackplate bear and some other mutated creatures where also lurking around there - so after death I left...
And about "keeping your stuff forever" ... I had(have) a level 80 char in Wow - yes I could resub and all the stuff will be there (even in my 3 twink guild banks) - but (important but!!) - its worthless now, as the game has evolved (or devolved). I dont play (or pay) anymore because I dont mind... *and* my inactive chars and the guild banks do not influence the game experience of the other players!
In Xsyon its different! The claims to some of the spaces are really annoying - dead structures /half setup tribe areas and lots (and lots and lots) of homesteads that "claim" the best places in the known world. I believe that the totem decay will increase the immersion of the game!
Think about it - at the start of the game the world was virtually empty - people that survived the apocalypse started to build up again - some of them got lost/ were eaten by raccons or rats, some of them could not bear (no pun intended) the bare land and the hard work they were facing and they have gone into the green mist to disappear.
So all this started places are now open to the remaining survivors, they can build upon what "they who have gone" have started - plus the world is now truly apocalyptic
And Xsyon (the game developer) gave everyone a chance to claim what they want to keep (strangly the stuff you carry is gone when you logoff - and reapears when you login) now its time to decay the magic that protected the land and to make sure that the magic protection of the totem needs an upkeep (currently its an subscription, but that can change...).
Magic seems to have a connection to the payments - but who can really say? (its magic ... so dont try to argue about it!!!)
The totem decay is a long awaited feature, it has been properly adressed and communicated and now its going to start. Games change and thats part of the fun - if you dont like changing games - play "Tetris"
You answer your own question.
Xsyon is a sandbox game, but how come it has limits to do what I want?
Limiting skills is not a part of a sand box it is more like a monopoly.
Learning running you suddenly forget how to walk or swim and so on.
When fishing what is the difference between low quality carp and high quality carp? "for example".
And from my own experience what ever I've learned in my life I don't forget, it's more like how you spent your time, you can master it all if you dedicate your life in to it and live forever.
Now about totem decay, instead of looting other tribes, would it be better for abandoned tribes turn to new scavenged areas with higher chance of rares? isn't what happened to lost civilization? and now you have lots of rubble piles to scavenge.
Totem decay is the lost of resources, and the control over area of resources thats that it does. It would also if you read my post allow for the option of paying resources to upkeep a totem. Both of those things have a major effect on resources.
They should also have decay on baskets, removing a lot of old resources out of the game.
Exactly? I have no idea, because its not in the game yet. Can you tell me exactly how many are doing anything in Xsyon? On top of that I believe it was poorly done on how it was done.
I dont see how people loose freedom here unless you believe them logging off for a month+ and not having their totems means everyone quits.
You act like people are quitting the game because they are losing the their totem, that doesnt even make sense.
Personally, I doubt I will even care about the resources other old tribes have, as resources have changed.
Now they have bonuses based on skill.
Older tribes to me have nothing really I want. I might go looking for nails or screws but really after having 100s of thousands of them I dont see the point.
The game to me has got stale because they dont have content for people after they get past the "I build up a tribe for what reason?" stage.
I solo everything in game with ease. (Max level shadowbears give me a slight problem only because of the desync in the game in combat)
I see nothing to work forward for, where are the group challenges or goals? We built a huge tribe and my tribe members are asking why?
The problem is not that you can solo shadow bears the problem is you can't trade with other people because there aren't any left to trade with.
In-fact people would be more happy if they could solo hunt several shadow bears, it is the way you get resources from them and how many you need to use for one or another item or tool.
If one person could solo five shadow bears at one time "need to be very skillful" and get like one or two VHQ random resource that person would be very happy to slay those bears just for an adrenaline not for resources.
And then re-spawn rate for animals are much higher needed.
The developers are working on limiting people with how many skills they can use and totem decay with public baskets free for all, instead of giving people more freedom and replay-able content.
The construction is just the way to display a name and power, but there aren't any other ways to interact with one another, only more ways to grief.
People are quitting and even closing their websites because they see these changes coming, and they know that this game is unstable and they will loose all their time invested, so their hard work, money and time gone in the flash of an eye, not the way to encourage people to play.
You can even have three tiers of subscriptions, and each one could have better advantage, and most expansive one ensure your spent time to be saved in form of tent wrap and all skills are accessible to master, plus more.
And you will need no PVP world unless any tribe or a person turn it on for less griefs.
You dont make much sense here. Let me talk about the few things I do understand of what you said.
The lack of players is a problem, however, lack of players is a secondly factor. Meaning its root problem is from something else.
The lack of trading has little to do with the lack of players and more the goals of why a player would want the shadowbears, on top of that is they could likely get it themselves.
If everyone could kill shadowbears with ease. What would be the point in higher levels of armor and weapons from crafters? Using skilled crafted items and teamwork should be the main focus of players after learning the basics. These high crafted items and working as a team should yield resources that allow players to use less people to gather the hard rare resources (like from shadowbears). This gives players things to work forward to and objectives.
People are quitting because they get bored and broken systems. I dont see much griefing going on in the game at all. What you call griefing isnt even close to what the word really means.
Once players have content that isnt doable in the first few hours of the game they might stay more than a few days. When a new player joins the game and goes hunting and kills the hardest animals in the game first day or 2. They quickly see there isnt much to do for goals. You also have builders, but again they start to understand the basic problem of "Why am I building this?" when buildings literately do NOTHING.
I dont know why you think its OK for someone to solo 5 of the hardest monsters/animals in the game at once, but clearly the system isnt working when this can be done.
I would like to add also, you have one of the worst understanding of this game and gaming that I've ever seen.
Can you link a few? I would like to watch them.
About the "griefing" the real griefing is coming from the protective systems that are poorly done. Like baskets that you cant loot, like the totem areas you cant remove, able to terraform safely in a free totem area.
Very little griefing has been done outside of the safety systems.
If they do my ideas this game would do great. I wish they would take my ideas and run with them.
Most of the systems need a complete revamp to be working, and they tie into many systems. Sadly unlike you I dont believe in a carebear world where everyone has everything given to them and is easy mode, without fear.
I believe that there should be the starting area where new players start to learn the game with poor resources, moving away from this area you have better resources and it gets a little harder and more unsafe. Then you have the most dangerous areas but they yield the most rare and highest quality resources. Allowing people to fight for them, with little safety if any at all. Forcing people to use building system, skilling up, higher crafted armor and weapons, players made for combat, and fighting over these areas of high value.
Everything I just listed is NOT in the game.
This asking about "why" do this "why" do that - what is the meaning of a game ?!?
People have always quitting games - even games like "WoW" - where the - "what should I do next" can always be answered... There are tons and tons of encounters, achievments and "content" available in WoW still people (like I did) quit the game.
So more content, encounters or what ever does not ensure that people wont quit - and games (per se) dont make any sense, have meaning or the like you (meaning more persons here) always ask for in Xsyon.
It`s a GAME - so the main purpose is too entertain - if the game (or any) dont provide entertainment for a particular player - the player will stop playing that game ... MrDDT, znaiika, prokop - *you* write about what is entertaining for *you* and implicitly claim that these things would make Xsyon also more entertaining for other players. Some might agree, some might object - but the question remains - are those that agree/object more players? And are those players (that would agree to your suggestions) pay 40$ to start and 15$ a month to continue? Maybe (I mean maybe) "builder, crafter, carebears" are more willing to pay for a game then "PvPs, Griefers and Fighters"?
This may also have to do with the fact that there are several quite interesting "free to play" or "pay once play always" games around that allow you to do "open free-for-all PvP" and fights ... and a very limited number of good "free to build" MMORPGs ?
Gamers are very complicated customers to satisfy - if the game stays the same they get bored, if it changes too often - they complain that it is not stable/sustainable and they dont want it to change .. so I would suggest not sum up all players of a game, but divide them into "player type" groups. Each game aspect supports specific elements that a player type wants in a game. It will never (for me thats a fact) be possible to create a game that "all players" like ... So I like Jordy`s way - and the way of Xsyon - to create a game that he/the developers like ... so they can be atleast sure that someone likes the game
Have fun (and be happy that you have the time and resources to be able to play a computer game at all) !!
I think where you fail to note is that the features list that was promised to us at the release of the game isnt even filled yet. Most of the things that are in the game are not working, or only partly working at best.
Maybe its not that "builder, crafters, carebears" are more willing to pay, maybe its the fact that side of the game is really the only part that is even remotely working. If combat was working as well as building was, and the content was there (that was promised) you would have a lot more people playing.
IMO there were many more combat players than their were carebears playing this game at release, until about 3 days into it they saw how broke the game was. You cant do combat with 1 min desync in combat. Yet you can terraform and build with little problem in it, with that type of desync and lag.
You say you like "Jordi's way" so I guess you like the state of the game and the fact there is less than 100 players playing it at peak times. Me, I look at the promises that were made to all the people that build the game based on them. 1000s of them have stopped playing, because the features and content are NOT in the game.
Sounds to me like you would be happy no matter what happens.
Xsyon doesnt need to change to fit me, it needs to live up to the features list they said would be in the game. Once we get to fill that list maybe we can start talking about how *I* want it.
Having said that, I think there are things that should take a higher priority than what was listed on the features list. I say this after playing the game for over a year likely more than anyone else.