Kind of curious if any of the old TL players are going to try this out. There's not really much to say at the moment, since it's still in development... but it's essentially an overhaul of the original game, with the added bonus of being the sole focus of the developers now that Salem is no longer owned by them. This should result in more content and updates.
Link to the original thread, since - as of now - most of the gameplay and mechanics are the same.
If they adjust some of the kinks in town sieges and the ability to make vaults, this would be a dream.
Having watched through the trailer, it looks really amazing. Seems almost exactly like the graphics style of don't starve though, not that I mind at all.
Yeah ill probably play for a bit. Although im pretty bummed that they plan to remove hearth secrets, so you cant start together with your friends and the scale of the map means you would have to run around for hours to find each other.
On January 10 2015 07:25 Warri wrote: Yeah ill probably play for a bit. Although im pretty bummed that they plan to remove hearth secrets, so you cant start together with your friends and the scale of the map means you would have to run around for hours to find each other.
I'll be the first to say that these developers make some very questionable decisions, but I'm not sure this is one of them.
Sure, it sucks not spawning next to someone... but I think this could be a blessing in disguise.
When some of the previous TL groups started we would split up and venture off in all directions to find a good town location. This took hours to do (and even longer for the people who didn't find the location), and it wasn't really... bad. I mean, you were in chat or VoIP with everyone else so you didn't really feel alone or anything. While you were walking you could discuss plans and all that good stuff. Personally, as someone who spent probably 20 hours doing nothing but walking around trying to meet up with people over the course of a few worlds... I honestly didn't mind.
More importantly, this also means the big groups will have a slower start since they can't immediately spawn a bunch of alts together. This should limit any of the major factions in how quickly they are able to set up camp, since they won't really be able to abuse alts as easily anymore.
I don't recall if you were in our World 7 group or not, but basically we picked a spot the same time as one of the largest factions did. Needless to say, despite there being ~10 of us, within 24 hours they were attacking us because they were just THAT far ahead.
On January 10 2015 07:25 Warri wrote: Yeah ill probably play for a bit. Although im pretty bummed that they plan to remove hearth secrets, so you cant start together with your friends and the scale of the map means you would have to run around for hours to find each other.
I'll be the first to say that these developers make some very questionable decisions, but I'm not sure this is one of them.
Sure, it sucks not spawning next to someone... but I think this could be a blessing in disguise.
When some of the previous TL groups started we would split up and venture off in all directions to find a good town location. This took hours to do (and even longer for the people who didn't find the location), and it wasn't really... bad. I mean, you were in chat or VoIP with everyone else so you didn't really feel alone or anything. While you were walking you could discuss plans and all that good stuff. Personally, as someone who spent probably 20 hours doing nothing but walking around trying to meet up with people over the course of a few worlds... I honestly didn't mind.
More importantly, this also means the big groups will have a slower start since they can't immediately spawn a bunch of alts together. This should limit any of the major factions in how quickly they are able to set up camp, since they won't really be able to abuse alts as easily anymore.
I don't recall if you were in our World 7 group or not, but basically we picked a spot the same time as one of the largest factions did. Needless to say, despite there being ~10 of us, within 24 hours they were attacking us because they were just THAT far ahead.
There's definitely a problem with alts, im just not sure this is the best way to go about it. I havent played any of the worlds past 3, but if you spawned together there is at least some way or orienting if you spread out (and had the custom client with automapping). If they make the map huge, which i expect, there is just no way to tell what position you are in, so you will play seperately from your group/friend for days. Maybe its not as big of a problem for dedicated groups who already know they want to play this game, but as i said, i dont see myself convincing a friend to try this game out if he cant play it with me immediately and has to find me first. I might just as well play speedrunners or dota with him and not waste time running around.
Oh sweet! ivebeen waiting for a revival of H&H since Paradox dumped Jorb and Loftar, especially with the teaser shots they had already placed on their site. Will definately throw myself i to it when it becomes available, H&H was always the superior game and ive been feeling the itch to get back to it.
On January 10 2015 08:17 Psyonic_Reaver wrote: Free to play?
Yes. Also mostly permadeath.
Mostly? Only played World 4 of H&H and you retained some points when you died, depending on your choices. Is it like that?
The animations look kinda meh, I guess I prefer the original over this.
I say mostly because it's as you said; when your character dies, he's gone for good. But, you can essentially inherit stats and experience when you make a new character. The wiki sums it up pretty well.
1.Learned skills are refunded as learning points 2.Attributes and Quality skills are reduced based on your Tradition/Change slider. 3.Refunded and unspent learning points are reduced based on your Tradition/Change slider. 4.Personal claims are retained without change, except your Tradition/Change slider. which is reset to the Center 5.Corpses are left behind which can be looted but require the theft skill unless you are the reincarnated character of them. 6.Corpses will eventually turn into skeletons which will cause a drop of all carried items, which does not require the skill theft (Unless on a claim, not mattering if it is not their claim, except if you have the ability to steal on that claim), or you being the ancestor (Unless on a claim without you having the ability to steal, which then will need the skill theft) to take. 7.To inherit anything from dead characters, new characters must read their Rune Stone in the character creation room. ◾Full Tradition: 25% loss of Attributes, Skills, and Learning Points. ◾Even Tradition/Change: 50% loss of Attributes, Skills, and Learning Points. ◾Full Change: 75% loss of Attributes, Skills, and Learning Points.
Not sure they will use the same descendant system, but it's likely.
So it looks like devs aren't changing their plans about the hearth secret thing. The idea they have for the game is that you start as a hermit and play with the people that happen to be around you, not your friends or a group from a forum, which is a shame because i certainly dont care about random people and the most fun of the game were the first few weeks where you get your city up and running, scouting for resources and enemies. Sure alts are a major problem in that regard but as i said, this isnt the way to go about it. Oh well, looks like i wont be playing after all. There are better singeplayer games than haven.
Btw, in case anyone is wondering what Haven lategame looked like, here are two old stitched together screenshots of the city i was playing in in world 3. This is the original layout we had built after a month or so into the new world. We had about 20 people and everyone had his own plot. Each plot is 25x25 tiles big iirc, with a character being 1x1 tile. http://c4.staticflickr.com/8/7535/15625345833_5b8f088709_k.jpg
I don't know how many non-TL friends you generally play with, but I think most of us here on TL would be more than willing to spend the 3-4 hours grouping up at the start if that's what we have to end up doing. I think we could start off strong with a group of 5-10 and then potentially recruit hermits around us.
I know you're a talented/knowledgeable player at this and I would hate for a TL group to lose you just because of developer incompetence. You should stick it out with us. We could probably even let you pick the village location if you simply didn't want to have to walk around, since you're probably the most knowledgeable person here in regards to terrain anyway.
I only played with the TL group in Salem, i quit Haven after w3 before i made the thread. But i think youre underestimating the time necessary to find each other, unless they make changes. The way it is now (to my knowledge), the world will be at least 25kx25k tiles, thats the start size of w3 and i think they made them bigger but im not sure. You spawn in a random location and your friend spawns in a random location. You dont know in which grid you spawned at all and without hearth secrets you cant remote group up with people (if they really want to push their hermit idea this will probably stay) so you wont have the arrow, so you dont even know which direction you have to run to. You could run for hours just to find the border to have a rough clue to what position you are at. If you then run into a corner you can start navigating and actively look for each other.
So the optimal way would be: both run only up till they arrive at a border, then both run only left till they arrive at a corner. Now youve met, but other people probably had the same idea, so the corners will get crowded. Then you will have to run for a few hours together to find a somewhat secluded spot. It's certainly possible, but all this time you have to survive wildlife, hunger, thirst and swim across rivers and i dont even know the current swimming mechanics. I could probably do that, i know how to play the game already, but a new player that you recruited? No way.
Ah, you make a good point; I forgot you can't group up without hearth secrets. I think it's perfectly acceptable if they allow you to remotely group up, but otherwise I agree with you.
Let's hope they make some changes to allow some form of grouping. I think instantly teleporting to your friend was a bit much, but not being able to reach them at all is too far in the other direction.
loftar wrote: It's far from just a mechanic to prevent alting. I look very much forward to seeing how the world will develop when you'll have to make do with the people you meet in-game. Especially at the beginning of the world.
warrri wrote:The problem is for new comers. I don't see myself convincing a friend to try out this game, if he can't play with me and has to either run around possibly for days to find me (because if both of us spawn randomly there are absolutely no clues to what part of the map you are in unless you spawn close to the border, so he doesnt even know the direction he has to run) or play on his own. And how are you going to get new players from community forums to join your group if they simply can't?
loftar wrote: Just approach it the same way you would to make your friends play a single-player game.
Yeah but we both know Jorb of loftar aren't overly intelligent when it comes to decision making. They are, however, pretty good at listening to the major factions/players, and I can't imagine any of the major factions would be ok with a change like this making it through.
I'd say there's still a good six months before the game is updated, so I wouldn't finalize anything at the moment. I can't say I'm not worried, though.
On another not, are you still playing Salem? If so, how do you like the changes since new ownership took over? Got room for one more? I've been tempted to play recently but I don't know anyone anymore.
I'm guessing July/August, but that really depends on how many stupid decisions the developers make... and how long it takes them to revert/backtrack on them once they are ready to release.
Well, we were playing somewhere between casual and hardcore. We only had three people in the group with combat skills, as we were teaching a lot of people who had never played before. Two of them were offline when our first few deaths occurred, but we managed to kill one of the three attackers. We tracked them to a base a few minutes south of us, and me and someone else (sorry, I forget the name... Chosen? Chosu?) killed a few of their farmers. All of a sudden a few dozen of them logged on, all with combat gear on, and killed us and the rest of the town.
We did manage to recover a few days later but by then we were down to 5-6 players because everyone else ragequit. This was in Salem, and the problem at the start of Salem is that the no-lifer groups with bots and mass alts had a major advantage, as there wasn't really a viable form of base defense at the time.
This isn't a problem in Haven, as defenses are easier to get than attack for the most part. The TL group did get slaughtered in Haven, too. Someone decided to invite a Russian that nobody knew into the town and he ended up murdering a bunch of us. The survivors all fled in different directions and we went from one village of 1-2 dozen players to a bunch of smaller 3-5 member villages across the map.
Subsequent villages fared better due to more repeat players that knew what to do.
^ We were building a Windmill when the onslaugh started... I got recked while carrying a big ass boulder to our base :D.
The second base we managed to built went a pretty long way before the wipe. But we were like 5, 6 ppl on a exiled place forgotten by everyone thanks to the low quality of the place/soil.
From the experienced I had, you can't go full casual (hell even half casual) w/o expecting to get murederer along the way. Priorities need to be set the moment a group stablish itself: >the group either goes for a ruthless approach for territory domination. or >goes for a more defensive stance, trying to make the base/city less tempting to attack by overdoing with defense (not that this really works when the group is small and there is never a retalation squad ready to jump into the game for defense or hunting).
Either approach needs to put the casual experience to a certain halt, until the objetive A or B are done. But if the initial idea was to try out the game and see if it's really worth the time investent, then taking such precautions aren't important at all.
Essentially the larger your group is, the more casual players you can support. Like, if it's just 2-3 players... you all pretty much need to rush combat in order to stay alive. If there are ten of you, you could probably go 3 combat, 3 professions, and 4 casuals that may or may not log on.
I think there are a few critical professions at the start of a Haven world, and if you're playing solo you're basically forced to make 2-3 alts because of it. You pretty much have to have someone with combat immediately, as there will be players rushing combat alts in the first 24 hours. You also really need a hunter, as getting a quick bear cape really helps deter other players from attacking you. Meat is also a really good source of food, and hunting expeditions are incredibly fun.
Likewise, you need a forager for said expeditions. Curios are really important, and so are a lot of the plants and stuff. Lastly, you need a farmer pretty quickly, as food is probably the biggest hurdle early-game.
So, in my opinion, that's four players right there that you pretty much have to have. Then you need to weave in other professions, such as butchering, cooking, skinning, leatherworking, etc. I feel that ten active players is a good healthy amount, and after that you can pretty much have as many casuals as you want.
If anyone wants to join in, I think me and plated.rawr are going to run Haven 1.0 for a bit just to gather some information and practice a bit. I'd like to put up a guide when 2.0 comes out for any new players, so this will help with that.
Just toss me a PM and I can get you in our group and whatnot. Prefer experienced players since this is more about data gathering, but new players are welcome too if you want to see what the game is like (and it's probably an easy time to learn since the current world is pretty dead, and you're not very likely to get murdered).
The more i read from the devs the more i think they are completely oblivious to good game design and just stumbled across one addictive element, which made hnh a somewhat enjoyable game (but still not that enjoyable, hence the tiny playerbase).
On January 13 2015 02:19 Warri wrote: The more i read from the devs the more i think they are completely oblivious to good game design and just stumbled across one addictive element, which made hnh a somewhat enjoyable game (but still not that enjoyable, hence the tiny playerbase).
Well, the servers couldn't support more players anyway and they were completely fucked up. The lag often times made it pretty much unplayable (getting killed by bears etc).
Started before there was a TL village and eventually joined with chaokel in world 4. We had some nice claim and each our own territory very far up in the north with ok-ish soil. Unfortunately, he eventually went inactive. From that point I played a more rogue style, stealing stuff from other players or even killing them. After some time, I left my base, looking for other players and then found some Italians and Spanish people. I joined them since they were pretty nice and had a lot of stuff going. Grew bored though and quit some time later.
Once you hit endgame the game kind of dies. Like, the purity grind isn't a substitute for real content tiers. Once you manage to unlock all of the skills and equip yourself with gear, it's much more enjoyable to go out pillaging and murdering than it is to sit in your town for the next six months grinding purity.
Still, it's free to play and you can easily get a month of gameplay out of it so that's not too shabby. I have paid games that don't last more than 5-6 hours.
Hahaha. Funny enough I was online a bit ago and you're still in my friends list from when we played a while ago. Looks like it was me, you, and one other (forgot the name). Was just wondering if you were going to show up or not.
Also I 100% blame KtheZ for that disaster with the gate, as he was both our combat alt and the gatekeeper and he disappeared for like three days right when we started getting walled in.
You're welcome to run a bit with me and plated while we flesh out some things. Trying to come up with a good guide for new players in case shit goes south with 2.0 and we're unable to group up for the first day or so. Want to make sure everyone can hold their own if needed.
Hey, I remember that game, even tho I was still a noob when we played together. I'm still half playing near the spot we found where we started to build a brick wall, dunno if the wall is still up.
I hope Haven 2 is gonna be decent, even still, 1 month of Haven 2 before it becomes boring should still be fun.
On January 13 2015 04:02 Serejai wrote: Hahaha. Funny enough I was online a bit ago and you're still in my friends list from when we played a while ago. Looks like it was me, you, and one other (forgot the name). Was just wondering if you were going to show up or not.
Also I 100% blame KtheZ for that disaster with the gate, as he was both our combat alt and the gatekeeper and he disappeared for like three days right when we started getting walled in.
You're welcome to run a bit with me and plated while we flesh out some things. Trying to come up with a good guide for new players in case shit goes south with 2.0 and we're unable to group up for the first day or so. Want to make sure everyone can hold their own if needed.
I have a selective memory so please forgive me when I say I dont remember this
You should; it was hilarious. Some Russian down river came and walled in our gate with dozens of alts and hearth fires and you were the only one strong enough to break them, but you disappeared. I think you ended up just giving me your login info a few days later and I cleared it out but it was too late by then lol.
Yo yo yo I'll join you guys too. I played with TL before although the only ones I remember now are Serejai and Kthez after I grouped with them when I left the TL group.
Yeah! I think it was only three of us that branched off from the official TL village, then we gathered one or two more a bit later. Durak was also being a hermit to the west of us.
We had some pretty badass soil quality in our base; I think it was around 70? Which honestly, probably isn't very high... except the TL village had 10 quality everything. Shame we didn't live long enough to farm on it.
I also can't count how many characters I lost to boars while traveling between our village and the TL village. There was ALWAYS a boar in the way.
Yeah man you died a lot when we played it was so funny and you didn't care and just kept coming back. I think I died some too because my job I think was to hunt bears(while luring to the boat) for its leather mainly I think and I had high ping.
I really liked the game because I love exploring especially since it's scary you could get killed any time while doing so and it's not focused on just killing stuff. When I was new it was scary and fun to explore someone's cave even though there's really nothing there.
I hope more people play this time so it's easy to meet new people while exploring because usually you only find empty houses/villages.
anyone remember me from haven and hearth? Was always exploring and bringing back charms that people kept misplacing, met russian(?) dudes who boated past our area and we had a neighbor who was in a cave directly below us.
On January 14 2015 15:49 Levistus wrote: Yeah man you died a lot when we played it was so funny and you didn't care and just kept coming back. I think I died some too because my job I think was to hunt bears(while luring to the boat) for its leather mainly I think and I had high ping.
I really liked the game because I love exploring especially since it's scary you could get killed any time while doing so and it's not focused on just killing stuff. When I was new it was scary and fun to explore someone's cave even though there's really nothing there.
I hope more people play this time so it's easy to meet new people while exploring because usually you only find empty houses/villages.
Btw Serejai what games do you play currently?
I don't actually play anything right now. Haven for the last two days but otherwise I don't game much anymore.
On January 14 2015 16:11 HaruRH wrote: anyone remember me from haven and hearth? Was always exploring and bringing back charms that people kept misplacing, met russian(?) dudes who boated past our area and we had a neighbor who was in a cave directly below us.
I'm sure if you played with the tl group then I played with you. I don't remember any other names though aside from Serejai and Kthez. The only other guy I remembered specifically was someone who helped me at everything like fixing my place but I forgot his name because I don't know if he played more than a few days.
Play with us when the game comes. It'll be fun with Serejai and Kthez.
Me and plated were looking for a spot to settle and we came across this meadow area that seemed familiar. Turns out it was the original TL village from world 7.
I've been itching to play this game again, but world 7 has been going on for a LONG time. I used to have a well geared toon that I gave away when I quit. had 10mil Lp in a claim, and 300+ in most useful stats, but even that was trash compared to all the russian botters out there.
I actually convinced a russian to leak me their botted client and I didn't get keylogged. Was able to bot up flotsam, bluebells, pearls, etc afk for weeks and weeks before finally just getting bored and quitting.
I'd definitely be interested in joining up when Haven 2.0 starts. I still understand most of the HnH mechanics and I'm at least vaguely familiar with the combat. Sparring was the only fun thing to do in that game, outside of murdering and pillaging.
Graphics are a huge improvement over the original. Was hoping they would actually improve the gameplay though, but it looks like all they spent the last two years doing was graphics and a few small quality of life changes. The combat system seems to be the same shit one as now, and it's far too late in development to change combat.
If there were three things that need work in HnH, it's combat, purity, and player retention... and it doesn't look like they addressed any of those from what I saw in the trailer and have read on the forums :|
Ill definitely try it out but i wouldnt be surprised if it doesnt turn out that great. Hnh was fun when it was new. World 2 was the shit and the beginning of w3 was fun too, but somewhere in the middle of w3 the game became a bit more famous and swamped with russian and korean players that started botting, exploiting and griefing.
It's not even the popularity that caused it to decline; it's the fact that the developers simply don't care. They put out what they think the game should be and then wash their hands of it. Hackers? Botters? Not our problem. Balance issues? Sorry, we already made a decision and we don't want to change it.
You can tell they simply have no interest in the game beyond a hobby. They don't make any money from it, and the one chance they had to make money (Salem) they abandoned because they have such poor work ethics and couldn't commit themselves to it.
I stand by the fact that I think the concept itself is a great one, and I would love for some proper developers to run with it. Even looking at Salem, the game is a thousand times better since Seatribe sold it - and that's being developed by some 17 year olds with zero game design experience. Imagine how much better these games could be in the hands of a competent developer.
I think the developers really needed to improve the security of their web client; its ridiculous when custom clients can take the data from the server and not only plot on maps where foragables are, but even plot the current position characters are moving towards. I think custom clients need to be banned to reduce any advantage that people get from them. I think bots were tied to custom clients as well?
According to mods on the forums the game wont be on steam. Now that they changed the start date to Aug 28 I'm not sure if I can be there in a timely fashion. I originally planned to take vacation for the opening but that's not possible anymore.
Also guys did you hear? Apparently we all have to spawn into the world randomly; how are we going to find one another?
Sorry if asked before, ive checked this thread and few threads on the official forums but couldn't find an answer. Will everyone be able to play on the 28th or is it a closed alpha/beta kind of thing.
On August 17 2015 21:08 KtheZ wrote: Also guys did you hear? Apparently we all have to spawn into the world randomly; how are we going to find one another?
Yeah, hearth spawning is no longer possible. I think some people are considering the map corners method, which will be a little hilarious if a majority of groups just end up at the corners of the world.
On August 18 2015 02:19 alfyma wrote: also hilarious if the map wraps around :p
and short sighted, i think with the new road mechanics the center could be really important.
What are the new road mechanics? I didn't mention the map corner method because everyone and their mother will be there. Hell of a bloodbath to be had.
I'm in for some haven when this starts. fairly experienced w3/5/6 player. i doubt i'm going to waste my first few hours walking to a corner though. can't handle being that far behind <3
going to see how the world shakes out, and what travel options make themselves available after i've established myself as a hermit
I feel like the most reasonable strat is just to wander around after you spawn until you hit a high q node, then hunker down there. We can patch together our maps to figure out where we are after we wander enough
Fucking trash game. I tried a free account but I can't even get a claim yet. Paid players have already killed bears, have palisades up, and are mining. Pay to win in a permadeath game is just the most retarded thing I've ever seen.
What does paying have to do with that? There are no bonuses to paying other than playtime. The people killing bears are just haven vets and the mechanics are pretty much the same so they knew the optimal route to take and get there asap. Since no one else has stuff to trade for there is no pay to win yet. I actually dont mind the trade thing. It works the same in EVE. I dont really consider it pay to win because the money and items are coming from players. Still pretty bummed that it's subscription based now though :/
It's 7hrs/wk free, or 14hrs/wk verified (once off fee of about $10-15) now, which is more than enough unless you want to nolife it. And if you're nolifing it and aren't prepared to pay that doesn't strike me as reasonable.
Did anyone end up playing after all? Despite my disdain over the subscription i bit the bullet and grinded pretty hard but we're running out of active players since the updates have been a bit lackluster lately so we could use some fresh meat.
On December 06 2015 08:02 Warri wrote: Did anyone end up playing after all? Despite my disdain over the subscription i bit the bullet and grinded pretty hard but we're running out of active players since the updates have been a bit lackluster lately so we could use some fresh meat.
Well, I'm playing (_Gunnar on the forums), and I made this:
tl;dr: if anyone is interested in getting a bit of a headstart, I'll give you a bit of stuff to get you going. Groups starting together are also welcome.
Oh sweet, didnt know that was you. Were on the complete opposite side of the world unfortunately. If you ever need a new home we are welcoming though :p
On December 07 2015 00:44 Warri wrote: Oh sweet, didnt know that was you. Were on the complete opposite side of the world unfortunately. If you ever need a new home we are welcoming though :p
Yeah (a friend and) I tried to visit you guys (assuming I'm right in thinking you are Highgarden?) the other day after escorting a trader to near you but apparently there were 10 armed dudes at your walls killing scouts and you guys (understandably, since for all you knew it could be a trap) didn't accept my offer to come help drive them off... and i didnt feel like going into a 2v10
Actually there are roads leading most of the way between us, the world is getting smaller
On December 07 2015 00:44 Warri wrote: Oh sweet, didnt know that was you. Were on the complete opposite side of the world unfortunately. If you ever need a new home we are welcoming though :p
Yeah (a friend and) I tried to visit you guys (assuming I'm right in thinking you are Highgarden?) the other day after escorting a trader to near you but apparently there were 10 armed dudes at your walls killing scouts and you guys (understandably, since for all you knew it could be a trap) didn't accept my offer to come help drive them off... and i didnt feel like going into a 2v10
Actually there are roads leading most of the way between us, the world is getting smaller
Aah lol didnt know that was you either. Yes im from Highgarden. We dont know who those guys were but most likely Dis. Do you mean the roads from NB -> Bloodscar -> HG? I know about those, we built half of them to prepare for the zox raid, but even then you need party cause some are claimed and its still an hour or so of walking combined between them.
If anyone is actually reading this other than Warri and I the world is getting pretty interesting now that people have built roads all over the place, and some stuff like mining has been made much easier (on the lower levels of mines anyway) so its a good time to give the game a try! There are also now several large trading groups who can give you decent stuff to jumpstart your development. Moreover, the combat system has extremely heavy diminishing returns so you can do stuff after not too long even if you join late too, if thats what you'd be interested in.
It is always sad when there's a webbased game you'd rather play in an offline gui. I remember HnH original was completely unplayable in the webbased java thingy.
I don't know what you're talking about, I'm guessing custom clients? Both the default client and all custom clients are java, the default is packaged as a jnlp I believe... Its a quirk of the devs that they prefer to leave the client up to custom client makers, but there are several that work very well for all systems.
Actually I don't think they are getting desperate, updates have been frequent and the latest one added some stuff to make it easier for new players to get into the game, as well as the free time until jan 4th. There is still a lot of stuff to do but the game is really interesting and unique, its a shame the OP of this thread doesn't say much about it.
Overall though i have to say i dont share your optimism. I more or less quit about a week ago along with pretty much everyone else in my town. We tried recruiting but everyone who joined built his plot and then quit too. The playerbase is so tiny and the distances are so long there's basically no interaction. But most importantly, the last two months of updates were really underwhelming.
EPT
