I assume you're restricted by some manner of NDA, hence, I'll not fault you for any vague answers.
* In your opinion, how is the game shaping up in regards to player-enjoyment (read: "fun")? Do you anticipate playing for an extended period of time post-release?
* How rapid is character progression? Obviously, as a beta, this is subject to extreme change, however, I'd appreciate some feedback just the same. For that matter, does it seem possible to survive solo, courtesy of rapid and intelligent progression, or is group-play a requirement for long-term survival?
* How pressing are the food, phlegm and bile mechanics? Do they require near-constant attention or are they relatively forgiving? To whit: are they tangential to the game, a la Minecraft's food system, or a pivotal aspect of such, as in the Sims?
* Any idea on how large the world is? Salem has been promising a sandbox since its unveiling and I'm curious to discover just how "large" that may be.
I assume you're restricted by some manner of NDA, hence, I'll not fault you for any vague answers.
No NDA so here ya go!
* In your opinion, how is the game shaping up in regards to player-enjoyment (read: "fun")? Do you anticipate playing for an extended period of time post-release?
This is definitely a niche game, since its perma-death, and mainly a crafting mmo some people will hate it yet others will love it. So far I havereally enjoyed the game. Right now there have a decent amount of content but once you have built everything and acquired all you can there is very little to do, granted that does take a bit of time but this is still Beta. This game really gets me because you really have a sense of accomplishment when you obtain/build things. You start out with nothing and have to actually work to progress and can pretty much go about it however you want. Starting out with just a lean-to in the forest and developing it into a large production area or farm is very satisfying, or growing into a full town with multiple people.
* How rapid is character progression? Obviously, as a beta, this is subject to extreme change, however, I'd appreciate some feedback just the same. For that matter, does it seem possible to survive solo, courtesy of rapid and intelligent progression, or is group-play a requirement for long-term survival?
You definitely do not need a group to survive solo, but you MUST play smart! Ofcourse it is more fun if you play with a friend or two and eventually you'll be able to form a town with them once you've progressed enough.
* How pressing are the food, phlegm and bile mechanics? Do they require near-constant attention or are they relatively forgiving? To whit: are they tangential to the game, a la Minecraft's food system, or a pivotal aspect of such, as in the Sims?
There are 4 humors which govern everything you do in the game. Phlegm is used when you do manual labor, black bile when you study objects or setting up a contruction object, yellow bile when attacking, and blood ofcourse is you health. You raise them through a 'minigame' called gluttony; when everything is at max you click the humor square and proceed to eat as many of certain foods that will raise an particular humor. Some foods are better at raising one humor than others. You can find basic foods on the ground and eventually once your fields are setup its never really a problem to obtain.
* Any idea on how large the world is? Salem has been promising a sandbox since its unveiling and I'm curious to discover just how "large" that may be.
Huge. Here is a user contributed map of areas that have been mapped by a couple players. And I will tell you this, what is show is only a small portion of what is actually out there, once you go far enough from the coast you enter the 'darkness' which isnt even show on this public map...
seeing as you are in the beta, im guessing you have some experiance with their haven and hearth game (which salem is based) comparing the two, how would you rank salem?? is it a carbon copy of it (seems that way to me and alot of people have called it ver 2.0 of HNH) or is it a whole new ball game??
comparing the world map (your link) with the HnH map would it be safe to assume the maps are going to be roughly similar in size?? (Aka to walk if possible from the top most corner of the map to the bottem most corner of the opposit corner would take roughly around 10-24hrs to do so? )
the main kicker for me as i have recived it a few times in HnH, and seeing as its roughly the same community... how would you gauge the community??
is it all PKers and gankers or are there actually decent people who doing go out of their way to screw you over just because they can?? (argo HnH raider group who kill noobs because they can for no reason other then to kill someone)
~edit forgot an important one~
coming from HnH.. how stable are salem's servers?? are they laggy as hell (like hnh's are) or are they fairly acceptable pings and stable as your bulk game server?
3) Is there general chat? Or is there just local chat channels?
4)Do you have to eat or sleep in the game and if so tell us about the hunger/sleep systems?
5) After developing your skills and character, how do you see the gameplay going after that? Territory contol? What do you do after skilling up your character in other words?
6) Is weather dynamic and does it have an effect on your character?
7) Are there emotes in-game?
8) Can you make macro's in-game?
9) Tell us something that was cool about the game that you personally said "Wow! Thats neat."
seeing as you are in the beta, im guessing you have some experiance with their haven and hearth game (which salem is based) comparing the two, how would you rank salem?? is it a carbon copy of it (seems that way to me and alot of people have called it ver 2.0 of HNH) or is it a whole new ball game??
comparing the world map (your link) with the HnH map would it be safe to assume the maps are going to be roughly similar in size?? (Aka to walk if possible from the top most corner of the map to the bottem most corner of the opposit corner would take roughly around 10-24hrs to do so? )
the main kicker for me as i have recived it a few times in HnH, and seeing as its roughly the same community... how would you gauge the community??
is it all PKers and gankers or are there actually decent people who doing go out of their way to screw you over just because they can?? (argo HnH raider group who kill noobs because they can for no reason other then to kill someone)
~edit forgot an important one~
coming from HnH.. how stable are salem's servers?? are they laggy as hell (like hnh's are) or are they fairly acceptable pings and stable as your bulk game server?
It is not HnH 2.0. Not even close, the game takes some aspects from it as far as curiosities now called inspirations. They cannot be built up like LP in HnH because when you log off they stop gaining. You level skills based on these inspirations, some give more in certain areas. And once X amount of levels in X skills are reached you can buy a skill, like survival.
The worlds seem very simlar in size, although I havn't traveled the whole map of HnH or Salem. Traveling is a bit of pain if you don't have a rope and a stock pile of food. Most traveling will be done to either raid another village or to find a area to claim, besides that you have fast travel to Boston where you can sell items at barter stands or purchase items. Obviously you can travel back home from Boston to your claim as well. If you are in the wilderness you cannot teleport home with items, so the whole picking up a boat with chests full of clay/clams/food and teleporting home is out.
The community is full of raiders the same as HnH, a recent miscalculation on the purity system multipliers allowed a certain village to obtain very out of proportioned stats and basically they abused the system and raided everyone. Currently the purity system is turned off due to this.
The servers are very stable although the most online ive ever seen was 250-300 people. I have seen 0 rubber banding and small amounts of lag , DC every once in awhile. But I think it may be more of Enders Client then anything.
Its not as deep or nearly as deep as HnH, limited things to craft that have use besides inspirations. Lets see, you can craft 2 homes, 2 different kinds of walls, a brazier for defence as well as a torch post, meat smoker, bread table, bread oven, saw horse, anvil, mine, wooden box, basket, chest, cupboard, a sled that is pretty much the wagon from HnH, Windmill, rock crusher for ore, planters pots, a sword, axe, barrel. A few other things, rifle, dowsing rods. Not a ton of depth. Food has about 20 recipies. Cant do anything with bear meat or skin. Armor is useless except the backpack which gives you 8 more slots.
2) Is it fun establishing a house or territory?
It is fun setting up for the first or second time, after that if you have to move it becomes somewhat taxing. Although with lack of content and purity turned off its the only thing people have to do.
3) Is there general chat? Or is there just local chat channels?
Just local chat and if you Kin someone (buddy list) you can start pms with them.
4)Do you have to eat or sleep in the game and if so tell us about the hunger/sleep systems?
No sleeping, eat to fill your phlegm, blood, blackbile or yellowbile. (stamina, health, learning juice/concious, and fighting stamina,strength). Or to glutton, gain points in those stats. Default is 5.
5) After developing your skills and character, how do you see the gameplay going after that? Territory contol? What do you do after skilling up your character in other words?
Not much to do after skilling up at this point, raiding another village is about the only option. You could expand land if you want as well or build tons of walls to protect your village.
6) Is weather dynamic and does it have an effect on your character?
No weather at all, nor music for that matter.
7) Are there emotes in-game?
AT one point there was emotes in Enders client a custom client. But they was removed.
8) Can you make macro's in-game?
No, but im sure some private custom clients can.
9) Tell us something that was cool about the game that you personally said "Wow! Thats neat."
The only thing I felt ever was cool was when we established our first town bell. Then I realized it served 0 purpose..
what is the purity thing you talk about? i dont recall reading about it on the para-forums for salem though i most likely missed it if it was posted about.
i understand palisade walls are not in the game right now?? how exactly do you go about defending a village from raiders aprt from the torch/blazer which i understand act as sort of auto turrets with X/Y ranges..
are villages basiclly open fun times for people with theft skills and fighting abilities??
what is the purity thing you talk about? i dont recall reading about it on the para-forums for salem though i most likely missed it if it was posted about.
i understand palisade walls are not in the game right now?? how exactly do you go about defending a village from raiders aprt from the torch/blazer which i understand act as sort of auto turrets with X/Y ranges..
are villages basiclly open fun times for people with theft skills and fighting abilities??
Purity was a multiplier that made your foragables in the area better. Think of it as Quality. So if the base purity of Witches Hats mushrooms was 0.0,0.0,0.0,10.0 for one event with 1 purity. 5 purity would make that 5x10 so its base would be 50. Along with the mineral content of the foods/foragables being all 25% now. With purity or quality off... the node I used to sit near was 65% Lead based so I could cater my food recipies to gain specific humours based off of lead and have a 65% of that event going off. But that all goes into the glutton aspect and can confuse you if you don't understand it.
Stone walls are the closest thing to an actual palisade wall. But the issue with them is the front gate is extremely weak so putting one up is almost pointless. Multiple gates are a must if you want to protect your land stuff. Also they have a skill in game that allows you to place locks on your gates, chests, cupboards. So anyone trying to steal something has to break it. The good thing they did right with keys was make a keyring equipable to your character that can never be looted.
ya i read about the keyring.. was quite happy about that. in HnH i got pked and my palisade gate key jacked. rather a pissoff as i had no means to clone it at the time (not that it matters)
is purity like survival?? in HnH survival and perseption made you have a higher % to find high Q forage items. like blueberries and toadstools..ect.. but you could improve it with clothing that boosted either or both.
i take it they are using the Q system from HnH where to make a log better quality, you have to forage a sapling and plant it to make it increase Q then it wil make higher Q logs ect... while needing a high Q saw to cut it and high level skills...
well to be fair HnH is their self published game. where salem has a publisher.. so it very well may get more attention.
as long as they keep it updated, and stable that i dont rubber band every 0.03 seconds while trying to walk 1 tile.
and keep the cheating/glitch/hacks out of the game. salem should be a very decent survival pvp crafting game.
isnt there going to be more beta slots this month?? or did they squash that. read a few weeks back that some time around 20th of july there was going to be a full open beta or atleast more beta invites. but havent see any thing on it anymore
isnt there going to be more beta slots this month?? or did they squash that. read a few weeks back that some time around 20th of july there was going to be a full open beta or atleast more beta invites. but havent see any thing on it anymore
i've been wondering the same as well.
they said a couple of weeks ago to check here http://beta.salemthegame.com/ periodically as they were going to let more people in. its been saying no to me every day though
i guess its possible something could be holding the game up or they could have server issues such that they can't let more in for a while.
isnt there going to be more beta slots this month?? or did they squash that. read a few weeks back that some time around 20th of july there was going to be a full open beta or atleast more beta invites. but havent see any thing on it anymore
i've been wondering the same as well.
they said a couple of weeks ago to check here http://beta.salemthegame.com/ periodically as they were going to let more people in. its been saying no to me every day though
i guess its possible something could be holding the game up or they could have server issues such that they can't let more in for a while.
They have let another wave of Beta testers in. If you did not get a Key then you'll have to wait. There have been a lot more applications for Beta than they originaly thought.
just a note that the world is somewhat randomly generated and absolutely huge, and will likely be completely different for different servers, and after resets in beta. so player created maps are a pretty fickle thing, and will never be complete. you will have to map your own surroundings yourself, and you should keep your maps secret
I've been playing since alpha and played tons, got bored and stopped playing (like alot of other testers). The game is only 2/3 done content wise imo, which is bad news for a q3 release date. but bug wise its actually better than big budget mmo betas (aoc etc). afaik its a 2 man development team who outsource graphics work [1 coder = less bugs?]
but once its done this game is going to be incredibly good, niche game. its a better, more accessible than haven & hearth (no lag too), but its not simply dumbed down, if anything its more hard core and complex. I'm really looking forward to it being complete so I can play it with my friends, there is no other good sandbox mmo's currently.
Comments
I assume you're restricted by some manner of NDA, hence, I'll not fault you for any vague answers.
* In your opinion, how is the game shaping up in regards to player-enjoyment (read: "fun")? Do you anticipate playing for an extended period of time post-release?
* How rapid is character progression? Obviously, as a beta, this is subject to extreme change, however, I'd appreciate some feedback just the same. For that matter, does it seem possible to survive solo, courtesy of rapid and intelligent progression, or is group-play a requirement for long-term survival?
* How pressing are the food, phlegm and bile mechanics? Do they require near-constant attention or are they relatively forgiving? To whit: are they tangential to the game, a la Minecraft's food system, or a pivotal aspect of such, as in the Sims?
* Any idea on how large the world is? Salem has been promising a sandbox since its unveiling and I'm curious to discover just how "large" that may be.
Thanks for your time, mate...
I assume you're restricted by some manner of NDA, hence, I'll not fault you for any vague answers.
No NDA so here ya go!
* In your opinion, how is the game shaping up in regards to player-enjoyment (read: "fun")? Do you anticipate playing for an extended period of time post-release?
This is definitely a niche game, since its perma-death, and mainly a crafting mmo some people will hate it yet others will love it. So far I havereally enjoyed the game. Right now there have a decent amount of content but once you have built everything and acquired all you can there is very little to do, granted that does take a bit of time but this is still Beta. This game really gets me because you really have a sense of accomplishment when you obtain/build things. You start out with nothing and have to actually work to progress and can pretty much go about it however you want. Starting out with just a lean-to in the forest and developing it into a large production area or farm is very satisfying, or growing into a full town with multiple people.
* How rapid is character progression? Obviously, as a beta, this is subject to extreme change, however, I'd appreciate some feedback just the same. For that matter, does it seem possible to survive solo, courtesy of rapid and intelligent progression, or is group-play a requirement for long-term survival?
You definitely do not need a group to survive solo, but you MUST play smart! Ofcourse it is more fun if you play with a friend or two and eventually you'll be able to form a town with them once you've progressed enough.
* How pressing are the food, phlegm and bile mechanics? Do they require near-constant attention or are they relatively forgiving? To whit: are they tangential to the game, a la Minecraft's food system, or a pivotal aspect of such, as in the Sims?
There are 4 humors which govern everything you do in the game. Phlegm is used when you do manual labor, black bile when you study objects or setting up a contruction object, yellow bile when attacking, and blood ofcourse is you health. You raise them through a 'minigame' called gluttony; when everything is at max you click the humor square and proceed to eat as many of certain foods that will raise an particular humor. Some foods are better at raising one humor than others. You can find basic foods on the ground and eventually once your fields are setup its never really a problem to obtain.
* Any idea on how large the world is? Salem has been promising a sandbox since its unveiling and I'm curious to discover just how "large" that may be.
Huge. Here is a user contributed map of areas that have been mapped by a couple players. And I will tell you this, what is show is only a small portion of what is actually out there, once you go far enough from the coast you enter the 'darkness' which isnt even show on this public map...
http://salem.biohazardous.co.uk/
Hope this gives you a better idea of the game, feel free to ask anything else!
Brilliant, mate, absolutely brilliant. I was hoping for some answers and you came through in spades.
Thanks ever so much and I look forward to seeing you in Salem...
seeing as you are in the beta, im guessing you have some experiance with their haven and hearth game (which salem is based) comparing the two, how would you rank salem?? is it a carbon copy of it (seems that way to me and alot of people have called it ver 2.0 of HNH) or is it a whole new ball game??
comparing the world map (your link) with the HnH map would it be safe to assume the maps are going to be roughly similar in size?? (Aka to walk if possible from the top most corner of the map to the bottem most corner of the opposit corner would take roughly around 10-24hrs to do so? )
the main kicker for me as i have recived it a few times in HnH, and seeing as its roughly the same community... how would you gauge the community??
is it all PKers and gankers or are there actually decent people who doing go out of their way to screw you over just because they can?? (argo HnH raider group who kill noobs because they can for no reason other then to kill someone)
~edit forgot an important one~
coming from HnH.. how stable are salem's servers?? are they laggy as hell (like hnh's are) or are they fairly acceptable pings and stable as your bulk game server?
1) Is the crafting deep?
2) Is it fun establishing a house or territory?
3) Is there general chat? Or is there just local chat channels?
4)Do you have to eat or sleep in the game and if so tell us about the hunger/sleep systems?
5) After developing your skills and character, how do you see the gameplay going after that? Territory contol? What do you do after skilling up your character in other words?
6) Is weather dynamic and does it have an effect on your character?
7) Are there emotes in-game?
8) Can you make macro's in-game?
9) Tell us something that was cool about the game that you personally said "Wow! Thats neat."
It is not HnH 2.0. Not even close, the game takes some aspects from it as far as curiosities now called inspirations. They cannot be built up like LP in HnH because when you log off they stop gaining. You level skills based on these inspirations, some give more in certain areas. And once X amount of levels in X skills are reached you can buy a skill, like survival.
The worlds seem very simlar in size, although I havn't traveled the whole map of HnH or Salem. Traveling is a bit of pain if you don't have a rope and a stock pile of food. Most traveling will be done to either raid another village or to find a area to claim, besides that you have fast travel to Boston where you can sell items at barter stands or purchase items. Obviously you can travel back home from Boston to your claim as well. If you are in the wilderness you cannot teleport home with items, so the whole picking up a boat with chests full of clay/clams/food and teleporting home is out.
The community is full of raiders the same as HnH, a recent miscalculation on the purity system multipliers allowed a certain village to obtain very out of proportioned stats and basically they abused the system and raided everyone. Currently the purity system is turned off due to this.
The servers are very stable although the most online ive ever seen was 250-300 people. I have seen 0 rubber banding and small amounts of lag , DC every once in awhile. But I think it may be more of Enders Client then anything.
Also
http://salemwiki.info/index.php/Main_Page
And for population...
http://plymouth.seatribe.se/ss
I am trying desperately to acquire a beta key for this game.
Cannot wait!
BigCountry | Head Hunters | www.wefarmpeople.com
1) Is the crafting deep?
Its not as deep or nearly as deep as HnH, limited things to craft that have use besides inspirations. Lets see, you can craft 2 homes, 2 different kinds of walls, a brazier for defence as well as a torch post, meat smoker, bread table, bread oven, saw horse, anvil, mine, wooden box, basket, chest, cupboard, a sled that is pretty much the wagon from HnH, Windmill, rock crusher for ore, planters pots, a sword, axe, barrel. A few other things, rifle, dowsing rods. Not a ton of depth. Food has about 20 recipies. Cant do anything with bear meat or skin. Armor is useless except the backpack which gives you 8 more slots.
2) Is it fun establishing a house or territory?
It is fun setting up for the first or second time, after that if you have to move it becomes somewhat taxing. Although with lack of content and purity turned off its the only thing people have to do.
3) Is there general chat? Or is there just local chat channels?
Just local chat and if you Kin someone (buddy list) you can start pms with them.
4)Do you have to eat or sleep in the game and if so tell us about the hunger/sleep systems?
No sleeping, eat to fill your phlegm, blood, blackbile or yellowbile. (stamina, health, learning juice/concious, and fighting stamina,strength). Or to glutton, gain points in those stats. Default is 5.
5) After developing your skills and character, how do you see the gameplay going after that? Territory contol? What do you do after skilling up your character in other words?
Not much to do after skilling up at this point, raiding another village is about the only option. You could expand land if you want as well or build tons of walls to protect your village.
6) Is weather dynamic and does it have an effect on your character?
No weather at all, nor music for that matter.
7) Are there emotes in-game?
AT one point there was emotes in Enders client a custom client. But they was removed.
8) Can you make macro's in-game?
No, but im sure some private custom clients can.
9) Tell us something that was cool about the game that you personally said "Wow! Thats neat."
The only thing I felt ever was cool was when we established our first town bell. Then I realized it served 0 purpose..
what is the purity thing you talk about? i dont recall reading about it on the para-forums for salem though i most likely missed it if it was posted about.
i understand palisade walls are not in the game right now?? how exactly do you go about defending a village from raiders aprt from the torch/blazer which i understand act as sort of auto turrets with X/Y ranges..
are villages basiclly open fun times for people with theft skills and fighting abilities??
Purity was a multiplier that made your foragables in the area better. Think of it as Quality. So if the base purity of Witches Hats mushrooms was 0.0,0.0,0.0,10.0 for one event with 1 purity. 5 purity would make that 5x10 so its base would be 50. Along with the mineral content of the foods/foragables being all 25% now. With purity or quality off... the node I used to sit near was 65% Lead based so I could cater my food recipies to gain specific humours based off of lead and have a 65% of that event going off. But that all goes into the glutton aspect and can confuse you if you don't understand it.
Stone walls are the closest thing to an actual palisade wall. But the issue with them is the front gate is extremely weak so putting one up is almost pointless. Multiple gates are a must if you want to protect your land stuff. Also they have a skill in game that allows you to place locks on your gates, chests, cupboards. So anyone trying to steal something has to break it. The good thing they did right with keys was make a keyring equipable to your character that can never be looted.
ya i read about the keyring.. was quite happy about that. in HnH i got pked and my palisade gate key jacked. rather a pissoff as i had no means to clone it at the time (not that it matters)
is purity like survival?? in HnH survival and perseption made you have a higher % to find high Q forage items. like blueberries and toadstools..ect.. but you could improve it with clothing that boosted either or both.
i take it they are using the Q system from HnH where to make a log better quality, you have to forage a sapling and plant it to make it increase Q then it wil make higher Q logs ect... while needing a high Q saw to cut it and high level skills...
(lots of math it feels like rofl)
Please keep in mind when reading the reply by allsee that this is a BETA, it MAYBE has 1/4 of the content that the finished product will.
Yes and at the rate of the updates and amount of content per update this game won't have the other 3/4 of the game for another year.
hahhah if you look at HnH they havent even fixed their server stability problems in years. lololol so thats not a suprise.
Well considering it was put on hold for a few weeks and now they are back to regular updates about once a week I think they will do fine...
ALSO HnH hasnt been fixed because they are working on Salem now and HnH in their free-time, which by the looks of it is never.
well to be fair HnH is their self published game. where salem has a publisher.. so it very well may get more attention.
as long as they keep it updated, and stable that i dont rubber band every 0.03 seconds while trying to walk 1 tile.
and keep the cheating/glitch/hacks out of the game. salem should be a very decent survival pvp crafting game.
isnt there going to be more beta slots this month?? or did they squash that. read a few weeks back that some time around 20th of july there was going to be a full open beta or atleast more beta invites. but havent see any thing on it anymore
i've been wondering the same as well.
they said a couple of weeks ago to check here http://beta.salemthegame.com/ periodically as they were going to let more people in. its been saying no to me every day though
i guess its possible something could be holding the game up or they could have server issues such that they can't let more in for a while.
They have let another wave of Beta testers in. If you did not get a Key then you'll have to wait. There have been a lot more applications for Beta than they originaly thought.
just a note that the world is somewhat randomly generated and absolutely huge, and will likely be completely different for different servers, and after resets in beta. so player created maps are a pretty fickle thing, and will never be complete. you will have to map your own surroundings yourself, and you should keep your maps secret
I've been playing since alpha and played tons, got bored and stopped playing (like alot of other testers). The game is only 2/3 done content wise imo, which is bad news for a q3 release date. but bug wise its actually better than big budget mmo betas (aoc etc). afaik its a 2 man development team who outsource graphics work [1 coder = less bugs?]
but once its done this game is going to be incredibly good, niche game. its a better, more accessible than haven & hearth (no lag too), but its not simply dumbed down, if anything its more hard core and complex. I'm really looking forward to it being complete so I can play it with my friends, there is no other good sandbox mmo's currently.
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