comparison to Wurm and a few questions

[dreadlordnaf]

Recently started playing this game. Found out about it from some people who played Wurm Online which is similar with its sandbox theme. I had a few high level and then one specific questions. Hopefully I didnt duplicate too many other newbie questions and appreciate any responses.

1) For those of you that have played Wurm in what way is Xsyon better or worse? For example I tried asking in Xsyon general chat and someone just told me that "Xsyon is harder than Wurm". Does that just mean its "grindier" or more difficult to find good stuff, etc? Any other thoughts on comparing the two?

2) What is end-game like? I do like the pvp in Wurm which is kind of fun when you get bored of crafting and building. What do you do in Xyson later on after you are safe and secure in your own place?

3) Does the "survival" aspect of the game stay or drop off? For example I loved Wurm in the beginning, having to forage and hunt just to get by, finding wild herbs to heal yourself and eat, all while avoiding wild animals and maybe holing up in the night in an abandoned cave for safety. But I noticed this whole aspect of the game disappears once you are safe in your own walled off complex with unlimited food from farming and livestock. How does this "survival" aspect of the game work later on with Xyson?

4) One specific game-play question that is kind of noobish: What do junk piles look like? I imagined piles of metal and old scrap and tires or something. I have never seen one running around but I scavenged on some random rock and noticed I got gear that the wiki says only comes form a junk pile. So I guess I was on one? They just look like random rocks?

Thanks in advance for any responses. Im going to keep messing around with the free-trial and see how it goes and look forward to hearing from some of you.

[Arkonick]

There pretty much the same imo just different graphics. Each game has there good points and bad points. Example 1 wurms water level is 1 level period but Xsyons water level is what others wish was in wurm. You have streams running down mountains and such.

As far as being safe you are safe from pvp combat on your tribal land. once you walk off you are every ones game. If you don't have walls up yet and a door to lock out the animals well you going to get killed a lot cause mobs are stronger than you. I had a rabbit take me down with 2 swings.

Both have a learning curve but I think Xsyon is not as bad as wurms difficulty in fact I think Xsyon is more friendly and easier to get use to.

You will have to eat in xsyon and it's basically like wurm forage and fish right now till farming gets added. The more you do the faster you lose water and food bar so the more you do the sooner you will need to eat and drink. Wurm is harder to level in skills than Xsyon is example I went from 25 in leather crafting to 60 in less than 2 hrs and you can't do that in wurm no way. Take least weeks in wurm to do that.

Junk piles look like piles of large trash mounds you will see metal ans stuff in the graphics.

[GuideXaphan]

1. Xsyon is better in the fact that everything doesn't take months to do. You can be competitive in a far shorter time here than Wurm, which usually takes someone 6+ months to get their skills to a point that they can crank out anything worth selling. Lets not even go in to enchantments ruining the market too as people want CoC and WoA on their tools; weapons and armor are a completely different animal with it's own challenges regarding time and enchantments when it comes to Wurm.

2. Safe and secure in Xsyon is by way of placing a tribe which is a non-pvp zone and putting up walls to keep the critters out. You are not going to log in one day and find out that someone has completely decimated you while you slept. The end game has various outlets in Xsyon and it's what you make it to be, whether it is crafting, trade, pvp, pve, and architecture design. That is completely up to you.

3. The survival aspect is always there and will continue as farming and cooking get added. Hunger, thirst, and lets not forget the ever constant threat of creatures killing you. Are you going to be able to go around like in Wurm and kill everything and never have a challenge once you get your skills high? No, plain and simple. Xsyon has various levels when it comes to their creatures because they grow with age and become stronger over time until they reach max age. When they do reach this level you almost always require a group to even attempt to take them down. You get that group aspect but you also can go solo things as you progress and become stronger.

4. Arkonik described them well enough.

[MrDDT]

1. Xsyon is better in the fact that everything doesn't take months to do. You can be competitive in a far shorter time here than Wurm, which usually takes someone 6+ months to get their skills to a point that they can crank out anything worth selling. Lets not even go in to enchantments ruining the market too as people want CoC and WoA on their tools; weapons and armor are a completely different animal with it's own challenges regarding time and enchantments when it comes to Wurm.

2. Safe and secure in Xsyon is by way of placing a tribe which is a non-pvp zone and putting up walls to keep the critters out. You are not going to log in one day and find out that someone has completely decimated you while you slept. The end game has various outlets in Xsyon and it's what you make it to be, whether it is crafting, trade, pvp, pve, and architecture design. That is completely up to you.

3. The survival aspect is always there and will continue as farming and cooking get added. Hunger, thirst, and lets not forget the ever constant threat of creatures killing you. Are you going to be able to go around like in Wurm and kill everything and never have a challenge once you get your skills high? No, plain and simple. Xsyon has various levels when it comes to their creatures because they grow with age and become stronger over time until they reach max age. When they do reach this level you almost always require a group to even attempt to take them down. You get that group aspect but you also can go solo things as you progress and become stronger.

4. Arkonik described them well enough.

I'm not going to go into a full debate about Wurm vs Xsyon, but I did want to comment on the point of #3.
Xsyon has the issue that solo players can kill anything in the game and as you said relatively quickly in skill, the challenge is not really there, nor is there a real "grind" to get there. Whereas in Wurm Online, some monsters/animals requires a group, and in some cases a group of extremely advanced toons (like killing a dragon).

I would also say there is almost no "survival" aspect to Xsyon. Food? Don't need it to survive in fact, it has almost no effect (extremely minor effect on energy). Water? Nope, don't need it same as food only less effect, so much not even sure there is an effect. Housing? Nope, don't need it, no need to rest, does nothing. Clothing? Nope don't need it, sure it helps for combat but people run around naked in Xsyon without any issue (I normally travel naked to reduce the weight so I can run/travel faster).
Most animals/mutants in Xsyon are non aggressive and easy to out run, extremely easy. Also death has no punishment over than sending you no, so if you did happen to die, you lose nothing. (You even keep all your items!)

All in all, I fully disagree with your 3rd point.

[GuideXaphan]

I'm not going to go into a full debate about Wurm vs Xsyon, but I did want to comment on the point of #3.
Xsyon has the issue that solo players can kill anything in the game and as you said relatively quickly in skill, the challenge is not really there, nor is there a real "grind" to get there. Whereas in Wurm Online, some monsters/animals requires a group, and in some cases a group of extremely advanced toons (like killing a dragon).

I would also say there is almost no "survival" aspect to Xsyon. Food? Don't need it to survive in fact, it has almost no effect (extremely minor effect on energy). Water? Nope, don't need it same as food only less effect, so much not even sure there is an effect. Housing? Nope, don't need it, no need to rest, does nothing. Clothing? Nope don't need it, sure it helps for combat but people run around naked in Xsyon without any issue (I normally travel naked to reduce the weight so I can run/travel faster).
Most animals/mutants in Xsyon are non aggressive and easy to out run, extremely easy. Also death has no punishment over than sending you no, so if you did happen to die, you lose nothing. (You even keep all your items!)

All in all, I fully disagree with your 3rd point.

I didn't mention those because Wurm is the same. Clothing has no purpose other than armor and cloth in wurm is useless except a cheap light weight armor for quick travel but why bother when you could just use a horse and chain. Food and water only help with stamina in wurm and nothing else, well fed was added as a after thought and it has very little affect. Wurm death is a slight skill loss which amounts to nothing really and doesn't do anything but force you to spend 4+ hours getting a skill that is 90+ back up, it only serves as a PITA. Also your gear drops where you died and more than likely will be taken or never found unless you know the exact spot, this can be done another way by degrading the gear at each death to the point that you can not repair it anymore and it has been suggested before.

Dragons? Where are you finding a dragon to even kill? The dragons are spawned at the start of the map and most are either killed or captured for harvesting eggs. So most new players don't get to ever see one or have a chance to acquire drake or scale from them except the select few that are harvesting them for in game currency, I know this is something you would probably find alright but it has bred a lot of problems and changes to prevent capturing for long periods of time. Essentially Rolf made it to where eventually you will have to group kill them before any eggs are laid or lose the dragon materials to some other group willing to kill it.

Champ animals are no challenge to a person at 50+ fight skill and in 90+ql chain and on a horse. They are not a group kill and most can be solo'd. A example would be a champion troll that are a easy solo kill if you do it with top ql gear and from on top of a horse, you can easily take off and heal and attack it again almost fully healed before its regeneration ability ticks for its wounds. Most people don't want to group because the kill shot gets the skill.

These are things that have been pointed out a lot to Rolf but have never been addressed.

You talk about survival in Xsyon, so I think I'll begin there. Food and water as you know is something that is in the works and farming currently is on the test server with multiple crops that will each have their purpose. Comfort is planned as you know and will play in to weather conditions. Housing will provide shelter from these elements while as in wurms case it doesn't help with anything to have a house there either except for decay purpose and a bed for sleep bonus. Decay in wurm is defeated on deed while you have at least 30 days or upkeep or more. The pvp servers have some pvp but most of it takes place while you sleep and I pointed that out in my last post, and that is one reason why the pvp servers do not keep a higher population as the game is mostly built for PvE.

I'll end this with a quote from Notch's blog, "I’ve worked on two games like this. The first one I made with Rolf, and it was called Wurm Online, and it’s slow and grindy, but amazing." Once you get past the amazing part, all you are left with is grindy. Something to keep in mind as I think Jordi has really kept Xsyon away from that aspect as it isn't fun in the long run.