We've been developing, and here's what's new.
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... and thus it came to pass that for the sixth time the world was rent in twain, made undone and torn asunder, with a new one brought forth from the ashes of the old as precious blossom springs from the earth after cleansing summer rains of fire, brimstone and love dying to love again. In the echoes of screams of sins and sinners burning, ringing out forever in the vast, dark void of NULL-space that embraces the world fathoms deep, the laughter of one, innocent child turns tears into the ever-brilliant sparkling dew of bright, new mornings under the rushing skies of far, green lands born anew. Ring out the old! Ring in the new! I don't know who you are, but you're a real dead-ringer for love.
We've reset the world. Our reasons for this particular course of action are manifold. The world has grown old, stale -- everywhere one wanders there lie abandoned lots and forests turned to tinder -- and has suffered badly from long winters of divine neglect. With the vanquishing of the wicked lag-beast of a few moons past, the shadow of the decaying world has loomed ever larger at the front of the mind of the diune God-head, and thought has here, tonight, turned into action. Our primary motivation for embarking upon this sulphurious course is, thus, to get a fresh start from the vantage point of which we can at least try to keep our eyes a bit more fixed on the proverbial ball, as it moves. New paradigms for siege and combat arise from the fixes we implement tonight, and what they portend, we do not pretend to know, but we shall try to keep up with them, whatever they are.
Haven's codebase is 2.5 years out of date. Several of the architectural foundations -- AI, object handling, item definitions, map format &c&c in large and small -- underpinning the outward edifice have long since outgrown their usefulness, and returning to again be developing within such spartan confines is -- putting it mildly -- a claustrophobic experience. This sorry state of affairs is not one we aim to preserve.
The short version of the larger story is that Haven & Hearth will have to be essentially rebuilt from the ground and up, and that doing so will require a fair amount of time and effort on our part, as we wish to take this opportunity of relative tabula rasa to also revisit most, if not all of the relevant game systems, and attempt to improve on them, hopefully without disturbing the integrity of the original vision.
As for the new Haven, we have lots of thoughts and plans for it, and I do not think that speaking of them here in anything but the most general terms will really be meaningful. Suffice it to say that:
We wish to increase the level of playfulness in the game.
We wish to decrease the at times mechanistic feel of character development and progression, and attempt to introduce more meaningful differentiaton along qualitative rather than quantitative lines.
We wish to paint more vivid and varied pictures of nature in general.
Privately, we consider step one of the new Haven to lie in the construction of a walking-in-nature simulator, more or less good enough to be enjoyed on such merits alone.
What, then, of World 7?
We will aim to maintain the integrity of the game and its systems, and generally remain present to observe the developments of the New World. We will also aim to fix game-breaking bugs and unintended behaviors, at least to the extent that that ambition can be fulfilled within the existing systems with any sort of ease. We do not wish to rule out completely the introduction of new content, but nor do we really consider it an urgent priority. Despite some more cardinal flaws -- vicious lag, not the least of which -- we have been pleased to see Haven's playerbase and the interest it takes in the Game maintaining at relatively constant levels despite our absence.
I'm sure we'll have more to say on the subject as we move forward, but for now: We don't know what it is, but we are glad that there is...
A World 7.
Enjoy.
Full Patch Notes
Ram repair bug fixed
Authority objects now possible to ram
Mineholes destructible
All resources gathered from the wild now have their quality hardcapped by Survival.
Bears no longer break everything
Gaps in default ridges fixed
Previously opened summoning dialogues can no longer be used if the person to be summoned is logged in.
You now take 1 HHP of damage everytime you leave a scent (Battery & Murder excluded)
Claim stakes now passable
Claim stakes can now be destroyed when the owner hasn't been logged in for one RL month.
Dragon flies no longer mysteriously disappear in driers.
Movement now properly interrupted when queuing attacks that initiate following ("thunderwalking").
Deer should no longer spazz out when engaged from certain angles.
Swords nerf't
Mo0vament Kamembert nerf't
Private claims now have their aspect ratio locked to 1:5.
The "taming" bug should be fixed.
"Flex" now costs -0.5 advantage per use.
Float like a Butterfly now gives +5% offense, +12% defense and +0.5 advantage.
Feign Flight now reduces opponents offense by -5%, has a shorter cooldown and gives +2% defense per use.
Punch has slightly longer cooldown
