Winter Thorne

This was said in discord to the people upset about NA pve - From Dollie "Think of it as a merged PvE network (because it has to be hosted somewhere) with a potential bonus merged one coming in the future shrug" So apparently it's now a "potential" server, and pve is "merged servers", and we were all supposed to go start over there or something. If we all went there now, we could really test how it feels to start the game 8 months down the road when all the land is gone. Doesn't that sound like fun? And if there's an NA pve it's going to be some sort of bonus and merged. shrug (written and deleted 4 different comments about communication skills and remedies for tone-deafness here)

This thread needs a title change. Notice that the announcement language has changed from a "couple" weeks to a "few" weeks.

Let's just hope they plan the next ones better. Ok, we're going to put up test servers for a week. Oh, we have to wipe your server for someone else's test server. Ok, now you have a test server....for 2 days. Ok, now we're gonna wipe your test server for someone else's live server. Yours will be back in 2 weeks...if we can hit the date. There are squirrels in my yard with better planning skills. Seriously.

Is there any online game that doesn't run servers?

Aw, cut the guy some slack. Lots of us were just as peeved when we first heard about the wipe. You know what makes it easier for players to get through a wipe? Having the new servers up within a day or a couple days after you wipe them. Who woulda thunk it, that some clever planning could have avoided all this sturm und drang?

People keep talking about playing like this game is session based and you can just go play over here or over there if your server disappears for a week or for 2 weeks. In a game that's supposed to take a lot of time and grind and progression, that doesn't make any sense. You can see what happened when the wipe was announced when so many people dropped off. No progress=no reason to play. Anyone could have popped into the ptr servers just to see what the new features were like, but few did, because it's all about progress. I don't think a ton of NA players are going to play there for two weeks, planning to just go back to NA after. At most, I might go there for one day or so just to sail around and look at islands, but that's not "playing" the game.

Not comparable, really. Look at it this way - first both EU and NA pve players get the short end of the stick. EU pve gets wiped early, NA pve gets stuck playing on servers where nobody feels like doing anything because it's all going away within a week, and neither group gets a pve ptr to look at. NA pve was a ghost town then, btw...nobody playing there either. Next, there's finally a ptr for pve to look at but only for a couple days but at least at the end of that, the patch goes live and we're all back in business, right? Except we're not. There are only 2 things people have been waiting for - a sneak peek at the new stuff on ptr (not a ton of interest there though), and getting past the wipe to live code on the live servers. EU got their sneak peek at the same time as US, if they wanted one, but the US has to wait at least a couple more weeks to really play the game again, which is all anyone wanted. Unless they move permanently to EU, which some will do, or choose to go mess around for 2 weeks on EU, which makes me feel bad for you all.

I think it would have been better to get held back on the ptr than on the live launch. I wouldn't have minded being late on the ptr so much. Oh wait...ALL of pve was late on the ptr. Do you think they're trying to tell us something?

One wacky decision after another from this bunch. Finding out that NA pve was going to be down for a couple or a few weeks just to spin up hardware was the last thing I thought I'd see this morning. It's gotten to the point where you can expect almost anything. Ahoy, Pathfinders! We are taking all the servers down for a month to add our new feature - rocket ships which can launch you to a whole new planet where you can claim land based on your height! Short people get a grid, tall people get a rock! And check out these new skins! Dress like Pee Wee Herman, or a tiny pterodactyl!

It makes more sense if you go back to January or early Feb. and think about what the players were really saying. Nobody wanted a whole island for themselves, all everybody wanted was a claim. So if they make a claim be an entire island, and people still want a claim....this is what you get. And that's why so many people didn't like this idea. The whole thing seems like a huge exercise in miscommunication now, although some of that misunderstanding may have been on purpose. Players - We can't get a claim and we want to have land. (Meaning they want a claim) Devs - oh, they want to "have land". ---come up with a landlord tenant system and says this is to help solos and small companies. Says now everybody can "have land". Players - Think they can now "have land", meaning "have a claim", and then find out once again, there aren't enough claims for solos and small companies. Looking back over what's happened and what's been said it seems fairly goofy to have played out like this.

I can't count how many times people have explained that solo play doesn't mean people aren't interacting with other people in the game. Or how many times the devs have said this is a valid playstyle for this game. Redesign: Claim System - Colonies: Freeform building, with more progress-protecting and time-enforced PvP rules creating a cooperative atmosphere, and limits to ensure the game is more oriented towards single players or smaller groups. Previous mode now known as Empires and PvE will be a modified version of colonies.

You've missed the point. If you only have enough hardware to run 4 of the 6 server types you want to have in EA, and it takes X weeks to get hardware, wouldn't you have ordered the hardware to be ready in time for your 4/11 mega-patch launch? I can see maybe only putting up one Empire server because everyone was saying they weren't going to play on it. But still, what kind of project planning is it to not have your hardware ready? Has nothing to do with ptr.

So what do you think? Did they run out of money already, or did someone just fail to anticipate how many servers they'd need until last night?

So what happens to the NA pve PTR during this time? Is it staying or going?

None of these systems is as good as just letting people have claims and limiting the number. There are multiple ways each of the other systems can be abused against people with no claims as well as the people holding the claims. Deeds and exclusion lists can be used to let nobody at all build on the island. 24 hours destruction isn't nearly enough from the landowner's point of view. All some jerk has to do is behave themselves and act normal for 24 hours, then there's nothing someone could do about them. Vacations? Sick days? Power outages? Business trips? Forget claiming if any of that ever happens to you. I sell you a deed, I take your money, then I destroy everything you build. Or if destruction is removed with deeds, I sell you a deed, you start building, and put up a whole bunch of nasty junk, over run your space, build on critical nodes and annoy the other settlers. None of these work.

The two sides in the claim argument have been whether everyone should get a claim vs. everyone getting "a place to build". As long as this claim system is in place they have to have the "build anywhere" rules because if not, then neither of those things happen. I wish they had gone the other way and did something to provide everyone a claim instead. I don't agree with Jack, though - Lots of reasons to want actual settlers doing good builds on your land and not people building temporary junk and leaving it there, or other ugly junk that they can just return to when they want a tame. Here's some tips for building on someone else's land: Don't pick a small island unless you want to talk to the owner first. Many of these only have 1 or 2 decent buildable spots on the waterfront, and if you take one without asking, it's got a good chance of disappearing. Check where the resources are before you build something. They're spawning right in the middle of builds now anyway, but that will probably get fixed. If you're building something temporary to get a foothold and move on, say so in general chat if there's anyone else on, and destroy your stuff when you go.

It's different on claimed vs lawless. Last time I checked lawless it was 4. That was a while ago though.

Can no longer build rafts in tiny shipyards.

No, I'm not concerned about any of it really. I hope that whenever they wipe and bring up a new server, it's at a time I can be in the game to restart and do the land rush, but that's about it. I hate the land rush, btw, and the idea that if you're not right there when it opens up, you don't get to own land. I don't mind the wipes. I've always liked the beginnings of games the best anyway. I would just like a little more communication about it, so that I can plan my time better. There's always a huge to-do list for me, and I'd rather they say in the morning "It's not going to be today, or it's at least 6 hours out" than just say nothing.

Does it matter, though? The whole EA is a test. Yeah, that was my worry with it, although, you know they also hadn't planned to wipe NA pve for testing either, so who knows? On the other hand, none of this is fair. It's not fair to the people who can't play for the first 4 hours the servers go live, and even more unfair to people who will be starting the game 3 months from now. It does have a bit to do with whether it's the same hardware. If it wasn't, it would definitely need a fresh start on the right hardware. If it was, then aside from anyone crying unfair, it's a useless exercise to move code from one set of hardware to an identical set of hardware. If it's the real mega code, and it's sitting right where it needs to be, I'd just let it run, if it were me. (But I would have told everyone plainly in advance so they could start up on there if they wished...something these guys don't usually do.)

What's the deal with player shops in pve? I saw them in the Captain's log, then I didn't see them, and *think* I saw them in the patch notes, which keep getting changed. I don't suppose the devs have actually said anything about it? Really terrible communications....

That clock is the timer on someone's war flag. Has nothing to do with anything the devs have said about the pve ptr.

I think by saying that, they meant that the actual upkeep cost goes down the more settlers you have. I think the settlers number might be borked anyway, or counted oddly. I had 2 people building on my claimed island and the count kept moving between 1 and 2.

They need to post a captain's log or something and say what's going on. Still too early to assume anything about it. Crying ass noobs = "Anyone who wants some game design I don't like" ("But when I complain about that, I am not a crying ass noob") Thanks for reminding me why I don't play pvp. At least this won't go away in pve, unless the change the entire claims system around again. I still think it's just a bug.

I think that's a bad guess. There's a bunch of buggy stuff on the ptr. I wouldn't bet they removed it until they say so. If they do, there's still a way to get rid of them in pvp. They'd have to keep the pinwheels on pve, which is all I care about really. *edit - how anybody can get "crying assed posts that made them remove the pinwheel" out of what I said is a mystery"