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Haven & Hearth - Sandbox, Open PVP, unique crafting system
stickm
Member Posts: 219
I found out about this game on this forum in teh open beta forum. When i joined there were only 30 people online at a time. The devs work really hard to release new content every week or so and now the population averages 200-300 people online.
This game is a sandbox, all they provide you with is raw materials, you must build the cities, walls roads, etc. There is tons of stuff to craft which is all based on a quality system. example: If you want to get good wood products you need to grow trees and selectively harvest them... tree quality is based on the pot, soil, water, and table quality that you plant it with... the pot q is equal to the kiln quality, the clay quality and the fuel quality. As you can see everything is dependant on something else.
This game is split into skills and stats. to gain stats you eat different foods. to gain skills you do actions in the game like farm your crops or go our hunting animals or craft things.
You can establish villages so that you can pool your resources and work together.
This game has a very neat PVP system. You can attack anyone anywhere. If you commit a cirminal act like trespassing, theft, battery, vandalism or murder you can be tracked using scents. These scents will stick around depending on teh crime for a certain period of time.
The graphics are 2d, and teh game is in java. If you are a fan of old style play you will not care aout graphics anyway.
When you get killed you will need to make a new character, you can inherit some skills/stats from your ancestor. The amount fo stats/skills you get back are based on the personal beleifs you had when you died. If you were full change you will get back 25%, if you were full tradition you will get back 75%. Everyone in the game is basically 100% full change because it gives you learning point bonuses and allows you to gain skills faster.
There are alot of very intricate things in this game which no other games offer but I cannot list them all here.
This is the game for all you people who complain that there has been no new ultima online and crave the open pvp system. So please stop complaining... if you dont support games like this then you have no right to post.
This game is free for now although it would be nice if you donated to the devs.
Here is a thread where you can find screenshots of what it looks like: http://www.havenandhearth.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=6929&sid=eab060608d6ecbde58aa246cdf6f3211
Comments
Looks like a nice and small game, just the way i like it!
I´ll give it a try altough the open pvp system and me have never been good friends.
You shouldn't have to worry too much about getting randomly killed. you can create a wall around your property and stay inside and farm and do crafts if you wish. You can locate yourself anywhere in the world you want. So if you get off of the major river networks you probably wont see many people.
And also if you join an established village you should be ok also.
It is a very nice game but after being ganked several times even though i was hiding out in the middle of nowhere, i got tired of it.
The constant server side lagg and crashed dont really help either, altho that may have been fixed by now.
Either way It's worth a try, one of the better sandbox games out there.
Edit - Tried the game, interesting and reasonably intuitive to begin, not sure if I like it yet though.
Given you can actually see what you're doing in this game without getting massive eye strain...
Most guides recommend you begin the game by gathering wood from trees and then making a campfire with it...
It takes 30min give or take just to gather enough wood to make campfires to get 200 skill points. Those 200 points can be used to open 1 (beginner) ability, like say foraging, but foraging is worthless unless you raise 2 stats which both require 200 points to raise per stat. After I realized all of that I decided this game wasn't for me, and also explained why there was only 200 people playing on the server.
Quick start guide
1. check the forum community which is filled with people willing to help.
2. Have fun and dont listen to moaners, it's a good game but the flaws are that it's addictive it's a timesink and also the server does go down unexpectedly.. what can you expect? it's hosted in some guys bedroom.
3. you can steal shit, kill people and there is perma death. people can hunt you down even if your offline after you've committed a crime.......
4. the world looks empty, but it's not, it's just there's no social features other than a chat and party system that..s erm yeah.
Well, while I don't play this game at the moment, I used to play it and must set to light a few things you mentioned.
-It does not take 30 minutes to get 200 skill points at the game's start, it probably takes about 5. Even when I first started playing and didn't know what I was doing, it still took a short amount of time; I have no idea how you managed to make the process take so long.
- Stating one skill that doesn't cause greater experience (learning point) gains than firemaking such as foraging doesn't mean that none exist for 200 LP. It seems like you are purposely attacking the game by making it seem as though the skill progression you chose is set in stone, and that there is nothing else to be done. I hope on that the misunderstanding is on your part, but I have a feeling this is simply an attack on a game you don't seem to enjoy, thus finding the easiest way to attack it through an illogical argument.
-Explained why there was only 200 people playing on the server? You do realize that this is only a year old game still in the alpha stage, and is not only NOT a AAA MMO, but one run by two college students with no source of funding other than their own pockets and donations? I don't understand why you attack the game and state that A leads to B, and that the low game population MUST be because of your specific (and completely illogical) gripe with the game. Arguments such as yours are not well thought, one sided, and are simply an attempt (as far as I can see) to attack something you don't like.
EDIT: Also, when I began playing there was probably around 40 people online at a time, on average. Now there are 200-400 players consecutively on average; I think that's an improvement, considering the state of the game.
EDIT2: To explain my angry response at your post, realize this: I had found this game intially from this website, specifically from this forum. If a post such as yours had been in the thread I read, I may have been turned off and not played it; the game has been great fun for me, if I had know what I missed because someone attacked the game through illogical arguments, I'd have been very, very angry.
H&H at it's 'hearth'.. is a good game.
while it's not anyhwere near finished and it's not friendly at all in helping noobs ( you start randomly in the wilderness ) once you spend an hour you will quickly find yourself hooked on building your own little empire.
I started thanks to this thread, and I'm glad I ignored the haters. But today I QUIT. The reason why? the game takes alot of time! I was finding that I'd logon in the mornign spend 2 horus tending my crops just to feeed my pigs and my sheep, only to have to log off and do some work - in the end I wasn't getting much out of those 2 hours a day, other than simply maintaining what I already had.
However if you have the time, it's a great game. PVP, Permadeath and countless other 'ideas' have meant that HH has a certain charm about it. If you like ATITD, second life, or any true sandbox experience, then give this game a try.