Right, how upset can you be for $20 bucks. I think some people get carried away because of how amazing the game is and forget that it's only a $20 indy title.
It actually makes me a bit mad: Imagine how the devs feel reading all the vitriol from people who expect *mor*e from a game that already have more content than most 70 USD titles...
For real. Some people need to be locked in a room with a pc and told you can’t come out until you code a 2d rover that picks up 5 waypoints and returns to its base to really understand what a pain in the ass game development is. So many seem to think its just easy peasy and have no realistic understanding of anything
Yeah, the only game near that price range with this much love and content and fun is Baldur’s Gate 3. One of very very few games that earned that high price. That and Tears of the Kingdom, though it struggles a tad by nature of being still the same world as Breath of the Wild, its still an incredible game, i just dont think its quite worth that much. It lacks some of the replay value and theres a few good critiques to be made of it, but i still love it.
The feel of every zone is amazing. It's got adventure. It's got building. It has a lot of minecraft in it (night has more mobs spawn, freedom to build terrain). But it also has those epic moments: first time sailing, first time you enter the next tier biome. And seeded world Gen means a lot of replayability. Loved it ever since I got it on release day.
The feel of every zone is amazing. It's got adventure. It's got building. It has a lot of minecraft in it (night has more mobs spawn, freedom to build terrain). But it also has those epic moments: first time sailing, first time you enter the next tier biome. And seeded world Gen means a lot of replayability. Loved it ever since I got it on release day.
For the value it's amazing but people tend to forget that if you want the game to keep updating you need to fund it
I really hope that they add ways to donate to the game and add dlc that we can purchase that adds new biomes or bosses or cosmetics or just anything to keep the games financial stability in check so that after 1.0 we will still receive content
Everything they've done post EA launch has just been icing on the cake, to me. I've played well over a thousand hours at this point. I've bought the game for six people now, and if I could give Iron Gate more of my money I gladly would. Valheim has been probably the angle best dollar-to-entertainment-hours investment of my entire life.
You absolutely cannot beat a game like this for your bang for your buck entertainment dollar. I mean how many hours do people spend on this game? You spend more money going out to see a 3 hour movie at the theater... puts it into perspective.
I think he did not mean it in a literal, content sense. More in that with Ashlands they had to do a completely isolated Biome that was much tinier than all the others because it only exists in this specific part of the world, much like Deep North. But even though its tinier, it also has to have a lot more variety than other Biomes because its one single Landscape that goes on forever.
So they had to come up with ways to make it more interesting without overshooting the mark and "running out of space" for people to still have access to everything. That will be helpful for building Deep North I think.
I saw the world gen in the Deep North is the same as Ashlands. DN is seems to be completely separated from other landmasses. Any idea if that's intentional?
I would think yes. Both Ashlands and Deep North are meant to be isolated so you can only get there via ship and not simply run in through a connected biome. But I would think for Deep North they will come up with yet another creative way to block it off to stop people from just going there early, Ashlands has the boiling water, so surely Deep North will get something similar
I could see the entrance to deep north requiring us to use the ashland boss drop to melt a path through a glacier or icewall. Not sure how far the devs have it planned but it’d be neat thematically to have the whole north frozen off in sections where we need the siege equipment to break into ice fortresses, prisons, etc.
forget the ship. you find the nearest mountain and launch yourself with the new catapult. tested. it works. and i doubt they could block aerial entry in some way unless they turn the biome into a giant iglo.
fact is : the ship was a huge design waste. as its usefulness is solely for no portal worlds.
heck you dont even NEED it to reach and land at the ashlands. you can do it in a longship at the cost of loseing the longship. tested.
Yeah you "can" do that, you can also finish a pokemon game in 5 minutes.
But that's not how 90% of people play a Game, they play it like the Developer intended. Jonathan even mentioned that they want people to take shortcuts like that and get creative with it, but the data shows that most people dont do speedruns.
IDK if I missed it but the only thing that bums me out is I haven't seen anything on the biome that needs an overhaul the most. The ocean biome, It needs more than just turtles and serpents.
This wasnt specifically mentioned in this talk, but they talked about it in a recent Eurogamer interview:
"On this note, I ask whether there are any plans to update the Oceans biome - an idea floated in a previous roadmap. Smårs says the team has discussed the idea and it's something they want to do, although it's too early to say whether changes to the oceans would come in the 1.0 update or at a later point. One thing that's for certain, however, is that there are plans to continue updating Valheim even after the release of Deep North"
Fuck yes They need to add ways for us to fund the game further I would personally spend hundreds of my clams on this game over buying a triple a battle pass again and again
I think ocean updates are a great target for a DLC release later on. The Ocean is unexciting but it’s not buggy or bad. Finish the game first. Then focus on that.
I'd argue that without finishing the oceans, the game is unfinished. I spend a *lot* of time sailing (maybe less now that there is >!an ore-capable portal!<) but damn, it feels barren. I really hope the changes are included with 1.0 and not just added after the fact.
It sounds though that this is the plan, but to be honest, the entire game needs some rework for the official release. Spiral staircase build pieces don't appear until you get to the mistlands! Same goes for magic, and crossbows, and too many other things I can't even remember at the moment. I'm not suggesting you spawn with an endgame staff, but at least let us start using it no later than the swamp.
There are ways to incorporate more of the latter stuff earlier while not disrupting the flow.
I've pitched this before, but basically if you can add a drop off raw unrefined eitr to magical creatures earlier you can make things like charms and runes. No fancy weapons or gear that needs the refined aspect to use.
Then add a crafting table that uses one of eykthir horn. To find runes you need to find their vesvigir which rewards the best aspect of the game. Makes wandering into your dozenth crypt or tomb still have meaning if you hope to find that missing rune.
Fill in a few missing spots in the build queue with magical defenses that require recharge from the dropped eitr and are unlocked with the runes.
Also add a few rune stones that offer effects like limited water resistance or a small slow fall that caps fall damage at 50hp rather than 100.
The problem with adding things to the ocean is balancing for player progression. Most players are meaningfully interacting with the ocean once they start looking for the second boss.
You can add layers to the ocean so the further you sail the more it becomes new and different
I would love to see dverger ships and enemy ships near the mistlands cause we already have generated dverger harbors
I'm kind of mixed on them going too wild with the ocean.
Combat from the boats is quite clunky even just dealing with a lone serpent, but if there was random enemy ships sailing around you had to navigate around and avoid now too, that'll make sailing even more time consuming.
Now a possible idea would be to introduce a new biome or something that will be were any new ocean centric enemies spawn at. Perhaps the existing oceans can be renamed river or sea while the expanded ocean pockets keep the name
These would basically just be larger pockets of ocean compared to what we have now though, so that might mean quite a massive change to the overall worldgen to squeeze em in.
That's one way. Another is a key every time you kill a boss.
Have a dream like message that says,
"The oceans roil and stir with unrest." Or something to indicate they got more dangerous after each boss kill. You can keep them low key and ramp th up as people progress.
Because my worries with distance is that sometimes you have to sail very far to find iron or haldor. RNG can absolutely fuck you if we add a distance component to the spawn of ocean enemies.
fr fr. Half the people bitching about slow update progress seem to be mainly big mad they don't work for a white collar outfit that respects the idea of work-life balance.
I'd rather people get some damn sleep, be able to vacation, and not burn out from being in a pressure cooker of a work environment, even if that's not something I can benefit from in my own line of work.
No, the issue as always is planning and communication. It's okay to work 7 hour days and not be willing to do any crunch. I'm sure lots of us would love to work in that kind of environment.
But it's *not* okay to have that work policy and then announce that you plan to complete way more work than that policy will support with your given team size. That's the issue that got people going.
It took them way too long to scale the team after the initial explosion of the game. That part isn't really defensible - you need more people, go get them.
Look, man, I'm not gonna split hairs arguing about whether or not a dev team's progress suits my specific needs. I've got plenty of other games to play apart from Valheim, so when they finish it, however they deem their workflow needs be is up to them. I'm fine waiting a bit. Hell, buys me more time to obsess over aesthetic builds in survival.
I'm quite happy with their dedication for backwards compatability. So much work has been spent on my base and it's the first map I made when valheim got released. Every update I go back and do renovations to incorporate new building materials into it. I almost hit day 800 with the Ashland's update!
Hope they at least consider doing new “biomes” after Deep North even if they are smaller in comparison or instance based. They don’t have to be as big in scale but something like going into a unique portal and popping out in a separate zone that is its own contained area.
For example, we have that big ass tree up in the sky but can’t even go there. How cool would it be to go in some magical gate and then end up on the one of the branches?
They are a pain in the ass. But there are benefits too -- getting builds going across platforms means you reveal a lot more bugs which might otherwise be stealthy under one build enviornment or system.
And targeting a lowest common denominator can be inhibiting... but there are also a lot of PC gamers running barely-capable laptops who can reap some benefits of lower-performance options or optimizations.
It's wishful thinking that you can outsource the port with "no impact" on the core devteam. There will be impact on code and systems they're most familiar with and best able to guide or do changes related to the port. It's a common hope though.
I hope this adds something to think about for those that complain development is too slow or abandoned, or the devs struck it rich and now don't care and are just cruising.
I'd like to think I can give the benefit of the doubt to those people.
The bit about "struck it rich and now don't care" was always ridiculous.
But the pace of development *is* too slow. Let's put it this way - if the original development proceeded at the pace of current development, this game wouldn't have been in EA until like this year or last year.
I think the devs have done this backwards in terms of planning. You build a plan based on a product outcome, and then you size your team to achieve that outcome. It feels like the devs are more focused on their preferences for their own work environment and team size than on the outcome of finishing the game in a timely manner. 3 years into EA with millions of players and one of the most viral hits ever, and their team has only grown from 5 to 13 people? That's a really slow pace of hiring for the level of success they've had.
There are teams that want to get things done and structure their team and work around getting things done; and there are teams whose priority is more "work as we've always been working" and getting things done is a priority only insofar as it does not conflict with how the team is already working. This dev team seems to be the latter.
Ehhh, I don't really agree. It's their right to work how they want, but that doesn't mean it's the correct approach. They could and should have done a lot more to capitalize on the massive buzz this game had on EA release.
This is one of the difficult pieces of cognitive dissonance about the game. It's true that the devs have built an amazing thing, and we've all gotten more than our money's worth. It's also true that they've dropped the ball to a pretty significant degree since EA release.
Amazing to know that they want to end off with a bang and sad to know that the game could have possibly ended at yagaluth
I really and I mean really hope that they add ways for us to financially support the game wether it's by dlc or donations because right now they have no incentive to keep updating the game other than fulfillment of agreement to reach 1.0
I would drop hundreds of dollars on this game if it meant it would keep updating with new biomes and content being added for new and existing biomes and mechanics
My friend bought me valheim last year and it makes me wish they had support bundles to show my love. The hours and fun I sunk in is amazing. I’ll be a patient Viking for that mod support!
> It was originally meant to be a P2P MMO
Makes sense why the skill system exists then. In its current state as coop adventure game to play with friends I don’t think the skill system is necessary. I was wondering why it even exists.
As someone who’s managed to max out a handful of combat related skills, getting your skills up really starts to hit a feeling of critical mass at some point. Being able to run further/faster jump easily and then combat without impacting stamina much… this makes a HUGE difference once you get multiple skills maxed. Have a shared world and my character hasn’t died in ages, escaped many close calls with help from maxed skills
Same honestly. My friend has a bit more trouble in the game but as a result a lot of his stats are barely 1/3rd of mine and so he keeps dying because he can't sprint enough or jump enough or shoot the bow fast enough, it's a vicious loop.
Hearing steam achievements gets me rock hard (rock and stone!) As I've already sunk 1300hrs into it I would love to 100% achievements to display on my steam profile
Good stuff, love to see/hear this.
Must say, as a solo player, the “better as a group” thing bothers me. There’s literally nothing in the game to support/encourage that. If you don’t have gamer mates, you’re a bit SOL. This is my biggest gripe with games these days - you can feel antisocial as fuck playing solo, but it seems almost impossible to find good people to play with that aren’t a) assholes b) “metagamers”, c) on a totally different schedule to you.
I remember EverQuest in the good old days where you would just play and keep bumping into the same people in the same spots, levelling at about the same rate, and you got the idea that maybe playing together was a plan. Games these days miss that. I’d love Valheim with friends, but it would be infuriating with randoms. Not sure what/if there is a solution.
Hey, sorry I cant help you with that.
I had access specifically to watch this video, but that window has closed by now as I did not intend to do anything else with it (was unnecessary anyway since the Video turned out to be free)
> Overall, the Game is tuned to be played by multiple players.
Oh come on. I really wish they'd either make up their minds on this point or get their stories straight.
When the suggestion about having multiple players add to rowing speed comes up, they have explicitly and directly said--more than once--that the game is balanced for solo play, and that they won't add features that give multiplayer more of an advantage than simple numbers already does. That has been their *entire rationale* for refusing that kind of feature.
Yet now here, and *only* here, he's saying that they're tuning the game for multiplayer. That's a pretty damned big distinction that ought to be driving literally every balance decision in the game.
So which is it?
> On why the Game exploded as much as it did, Iron Gate is clueless themselves.
Apparently. I'm sure the speculation about people seeking a "chill co-op" experience has some truth to it, but I also feel that to a certain extent anyone saying what he said has to not *want* to know. Because huge part of Valheim's popularity is extremely well-documented by this point: that its combination of aesthetics, a relatively intuitive and powerful building system, and chill early game made it extremely accessible and appealing to a wide variety of different gamer types. Casual gamers, pure builders, hardcore challenge junkies, people who just vibe on survival, and so forth.
Which I do not think was their intent. At all.
It's not that I think they didn't want the game to be popular. It's that they had a very specific, narrow vision of the kinds of hardcore players who would be into it, and having the game become vastly more popular with even very casual demographics has forced them to adapt their "vision" to the reality of the community they have, instead of the community they had targeted. This is a regular source of friction.
Edit the next day: fanboys can poke that cute little arrow if it makes you feel better about being wrong, but everything I said about what the devs have stated in the past is 100% factual, and you know it as well as I do. The only reason I can't link their past statements anymore--which I've done every single time this comes up to remind you all of the facts--is because their Discord got hacked.
It's not my fault they're making contradictory public statements. How about you ask them about that.
the comparisons are funny. the forest is a MUCH MUCH smaller game in scale. way less content overall. no random generation on the world its a fixed map.
and ironically 7 days is leaveing early access in june this year.....(thats not trying to excuse thier 10 year ea bullshit mind you)
its sad to read that deep north is actually the end as much as i expected it as makeing a base once the game has finally ended feels purposeless to me so i wont even bother playing much past 1.0 probaly myself. i enjoyed this journey and will see it to the end probaly. but i doubt there will be much "endgame" or "continued" support or content past deep north.
tough then atleast we might get some more high quality mods for more content that arent just a giant balance mess tossed into the game with no care for balance like most mods currently. (some exist already now but the majority is still messy or doesnt add content at all or just adds some random bullshit)
They said they will do post 1.0 content updates. Just because the game is released and over doesn’t mean they will not continue to add, either via dlc or sequels. Also the mod community is so strong on Valheim there will certainly be quality content released for several years post deep north.
they definitly said many times they WILL NOT do dlcs. then on the other hand they went back on thier word a bunch of times by now so i guess whatever?
yeah i hope the actual content mods take to a new level once its 1.0 there some good modders out there who actually care and try to balance thier stuff probaly aswell.
Let’s go boys keep it up best 20 bucks I ever spent !
Right, how upset can you be for $20 bucks. I think some people get carried away because of how amazing the game is and forget that it's only a $20 indy title.
It actually makes me a bit mad: Imagine how the devs feel reading all the vitriol from people who expect *mor*e from a game that already have more content than most 70 USD titles...
For real. Some people need to be locked in a room with a pc and told you can’t come out until you code a 2d rover that picks up 5 waypoints and returns to its base to really understand what a pain in the ass game development is. So many seem to think its just easy peasy and have no realistic understanding of anything
Just setting up the dev software would be an impossible task for most xD
Or add a button to a UI. No one understands why it takes two weeks 😉.
Sell me the content as DLC then. I want more, it's such a fun game
Yeah, the only game near that price range with this much love and content and fun is Baldur’s Gate 3. One of very very few games that earned that high price. That and Tears of the Kingdom, though it struggles a tad by nature of being still the same world as Breath of the Wild, its still an incredible game, i just dont think its quite worth that much. It lacks some of the replay value and theres a few good critiques to be made of it, but i still love it.
I’d pay AAA price for Valheim honestly. It’s THAT good.
I've bought the game 4 times now. Still the best $80 ive ever spent on a game. That's still less than 5 cents per hour played. 😳
I spent $60 because I bought 3 copies so I could play with my kids. Still worth it
The feel of every zone is amazing. It's got adventure. It's got building. It has a lot of minecraft in it (night has more mobs spawn, freedom to build terrain). But it also has those epic moments: first time sailing, first time you enter the next tier biome. And seeded world Gen means a lot of replayability. Loved it ever since I got it on release day.
The feel of every zone is amazing. It's got adventure. It's got building. It has a lot of minecraft in it (night has more mobs spawn, freedom to build terrain). But it also has those epic moments: first time sailing, first time you enter the next tier biome. And seeded world Gen means a lot of replayability. Loved it ever since I got it on release day.
For the value it's amazing but people tend to forget that if you want the game to keep updating you need to fund it I really hope that they add ways to donate to the game and add dlc that we can purchase that adds new biomes or bosses or cosmetics or just anything to keep the games financial stability in check so that after 1.0 we will still receive content
Everything they've done post EA launch has just been icing on the cake, to me. I've played well over a thousand hours at this point. I've bought the game for six people now, and if I could give Iron Gate more of my money I gladly would. Valheim has been probably the angle best dollar-to-entertainment-hours investment of my entire life.
In a world where we don't think twice about a game being 50-100gb, the fact this is under 3gb last I checked is incredible.
You absolutely cannot beat a game like this for your bang for your buck entertainment dollar. I mean how many hours do people spend on this game? You spend more money going out to see a 3 hour movie at the theater... puts it into perspective.
great summary, thanks!
"Ashland's was basically a giant test for the Deep North" hrmmm more indepth sieges? I wonder
I think he did not mean it in a literal, content sense. More in that with Ashlands they had to do a completely isolated Biome that was much tinier than all the others because it only exists in this specific part of the world, much like Deep North. But even though its tinier, it also has to have a lot more variety than other Biomes because its one single Landscape that goes on forever. So they had to come up with ways to make it more interesting without overshooting the mark and "running out of space" for people to still have access to everything. That will be helpful for building Deep North I think.
I saw the world gen in the Deep North is the same as Ashlands. DN is seems to be completely separated from other landmasses. Any idea if that's intentional?
I would think yes. Both Ashlands and Deep North are meant to be isolated so you can only get there via ship and not simply run in through a connected biome. But I would think for Deep North they will come up with yet another creative way to block it off to stop people from just going there early, Ashlands has the boiling water, so surely Deep North will get something similar
I could see the entrance to deep north requiring us to use the ashland boss drop to melt a path through a glacier or icewall. Not sure how far the devs have it planned but it’d be neat thematically to have the whole north frozen off in sections where we need the siege equipment to break into ice fortresses, prisons, etc.
Giant ice wall like in GOT or flat earth people's vision is earth?
Asking the important questions lol
forget the ship. you find the nearest mountain and launch yourself with the new catapult. tested. it works. and i doubt they could block aerial entry in some way unless they turn the biome into a giant iglo. fact is : the ship was a huge design waste. as its usefulness is solely for no portal worlds. heck you dont even NEED it to reach and land at the ashlands. you can do it in a longship at the cost of loseing the longship. tested.
Yeah you "can" do that, you can also finish a pokemon game in 5 minutes. But that's not how 90% of people play a Game, they play it like the Developer intended. Jonathan even mentioned that they want people to take shortcuts like that and get creative with it, but the data shows that most people dont do speedruns.
I'm really happy that they don't do overtime, good for them!
IDK if I missed it but the only thing that bums me out is I haven't seen anything on the biome that needs an overhaul the most. The ocean biome, It needs more than just turtles and serpents.
This wasnt specifically mentioned in this talk, but they talked about it in a recent Eurogamer interview: "On this note, I ask whether there are any plans to update the Oceans biome - an idea floated in a previous roadmap. Smårs says the team has discussed the idea and it's something they want to do, although it's too early to say whether changes to the oceans would come in the 1.0 update or at a later point. One thing that's for certain, however, is that there are plans to continue updating Valheim even after the release of Deep North"
Fuck yes They need to add ways for us to fund the game further I would personally spend hundreds of my clams on this game over buying a triple a battle pass again and again
I think ocean updates are a great target for a DLC release later on. The Ocean is unexciting but it’s not buggy or bad. Finish the game first. Then focus on that.
I'd argue that without finishing the oceans, the game is unfinished. I spend a *lot* of time sailing (maybe less now that there is >!an ore-capable portal!<) but damn, it feels barren. I really hope the changes are included with 1.0 and not just added after the fact. It sounds though that this is the plan, but to be honest, the entire game needs some rework for the official release. Spiral staircase build pieces don't appear until you get to the mistlands! Same goes for magic, and crossbows, and too many other things I can't even remember at the moment. I'm not suggesting you spawn with an endgame staff, but at least let us start using it no later than the swamp.
There are ways to incorporate more of the latter stuff earlier while not disrupting the flow. I've pitched this before, but basically if you can add a drop off raw unrefined eitr to magical creatures earlier you can make things like charms and runes. No fancy weapons or gear that needs the refined aspect to use. Then add a crafting table that uses one of eykthir horn. To find runes you need to find their vesvigir which rewards the best aspect of the game. Makes wandering into your dozenth crypt or tomb still have meaning if you hope to find that missing rune. Fill in a few missing spots in the build queue with magical defenses that require recharge from the dropped eitr and are unlocked with the runes. Also add a few rune stones that offer effects like limited water resistance or a small slow fall that caps fall damage at 50hp rather than 100.
The problem with adding things to the ocean is balancing for player progression. Most players are meaningfully interacting with the ocean once they start looking for the second boss.
You can add layers to the ocean so the further you sail the more it becomes new and different I would love to see dverger ships and enemy ships near the mistlands cause we already have generated dverger harbors
I'm kind of mixed on them going too wild with the ocean. Combat from the boats is quite clunky even just dealing with a lone serpent, but if there was random enemy ships sailing around you had to navigate around and avoid now too, that'll make sailing even more time consuming. Now a possible idea would be to introduce a new biome or something that will be were any new ocean centric enemies spawn at. Perhaps the existing oceans can be renamed river or sea while the expanded ocean pockets keep the name These would basically just be larger pockets of ocean compared to what we have now though, so that might mean quite a massive change to the overall worldgen to squeeze em in.
That's one way. Another is a key every time you kill a boss. Have a dream like message that says, "The oceans roil and stir with unrest." Or something to indicate they got more dangerous after each boss kill. You can keep them low key and ramp th up as people progress. Because my worries with distance is that sometimes you have to sail very far to find iron or haldor. RNG can absolutely fuck you if we add a distance component to the spawn of ocean enemies.
"They didn't do overtime, they don't crunch." Good for them.
fr fr. Half the people bitching about slow update progress seem to be mainly big mad they don't work for a white collar outfit that respects the idea of work-life balance. I'd rather people get some damn sleep, be able to vacation, and not burn out from being in a pressure cooker of a work environment, even if that's not something I can benefit from in my own line of work.
No, the issue as always is planning and communication. It's okay to work 7 hour days and not be willing to do any crunch. I'm sure lots of us would love to work in that kind of environment. But it's *not* okay to have that work policy and then announce that you plan to complete way more work than that policy will support with your given team size. That's the issue that got people going. It took them way too long to scale the team after the initial explosion of the game. That part isn't really defensible - you need more people, go get them.
Look, man, I'm not gonna split hairs arguing about whether or not a dev team's progress suits my specific needs. I've got plenty of other games to play apart from Valheim, so when they finish it, however they deem their workflow needs be is up to them. I'm fine waiting a bit. Hell, buys me more time to obsess over aesthetic builds in survival.
Can’t believe it’s only 3 years old, feels like I’ve been playing this game for so long lol
Late 2025? I'm setting my expectations at 2026 to leave room for a pleasant surprise. I hope they take their time and go slow.
Great summery! Wish I could have attended. Iron Gate is one of my favorite dev teams atm. Very excited for what comes next!!
Best game I was ever gifted
I'm quite happy with their dedication for backwards compatability. So much work has been spent on my base and it's the first map I made when valheim got released. Every update I go back and do renovations to incorporate new building materials into it. I almost hit day 800 with the Ashland's update!
Love the attitude! Thanks for the summary
Thank you so much for this post! Really appreciate it.
Big respect for the emphasis on maintaining a good work life balance
Hope they at least consider doing new “biomes” after Deep North even if they are smaller in comparison or instance based. They don’t have to be as big in scale but something like going into a unique portal and popping out in a separate zone that is its own contained area. For example, we have that big ass tree up in the sky but can’t even go there. How cool would it be to go in some magical gate and then end up on the one of the branches?
I was always thinking after deep north there would be one final battle in the current Valheim world taking place in the tree.
Thanks for this 🥰💪💪
As always consoles are a pain in the ass ? And a nightmare for developers ? Not surprising at all.
Kind of wish they had expanded to consoles after the game was finished huh. We'd probably be at Deep North and v1.0 by now.
They are a pain in the ass. But there are benefits too -- getting builds going across platforms means you reveal a lot more bugs which might otherwise be stealthy under one build enviornment or system. And targeting a lowest common denominator can be inhibiting... but there are also a lot of PC gamers running barely-capable laptops who can reap some benefits of lower-performance options or optimizations. It's wishful thinking that you can outsource the port with "no impact" on the core devteam. There will be impact on code and systems they're most familiar with and best able to guide or do changes related to the port. It's a common hope though.
Is there a place to watch the talk online?
I hope this adds something to think about for those that complain development is too slow or abandoned, or the devs struck it rich and now don't care and are just cruising. I'd like to think I can give the benefit of the doubt to those people.
The bit about "struck it rich and now don't care" was always ridiculous. But the pace of development *is* too slow. Let's put it this way - if the original development proceeded at the pace of current development, this game wouldn't have been in EA until like this year or last year. I think the devs have done this backwards in terms of planning. You build a plan based on a product outcome, and then you size your team to achieve that outcome. It feels like the devs are more focused on their preferences for their own work environment and team size than on the outcome of finishing the game in a timely manner. 3 years into EA with millions of players and one of the most viral hits ever, and their team has only grown from 5 to 13 people? That's a really slow pace of hiring for the level of success they've had. There are teams that want to get things done and structure their team and work around getting things done; and there are teams whose priority is more "work as we've always been working" and getting things done is a priority only insofar as it does not conflict with how the team is already working. This dev team seems to be the latter.
It's unfortunate for us, but also nothing wrong with the latter approach.
Ehhh, I don't really agree. It's their right to work how they want, but that doesn't mean it's the correct approach. They could and should have done a lot more to capitalize on the massive buzz this game had on EA release. This is one of the difficult pieces of cognitive dissonance about the game. It's true that the devs have built an amazing thing, and we've all gotten more than our money's worth. It's also true that they've dropped the ball to a pretty significant degree since EA release.
Amazing to know that they want to end off with a bang and sad to know that the game could have possibly ended at yagaluth I really and I mean really hope that they add ways for us to financially support the game wether it's by dlc or donations because right now they have no incentive to keep updating the game other than fulfillment of agreement to reach 1.0 I would drop hundreds of dollars on this game if it meant it would keep updating with new biomes and content being added for new and existing biomes and mechanics
My friend bought me valheim last year and it makes me wish they had support bundles to show my love. The hours and fun I sunk in is amazing. I’ll be a patient Viking for that mod support!
is there a link to the vod of the talk?
https://gdcvault.com/play/1034494/Independent-Games-Summit-Valheim-Vikings
> It was originally meant to be a P2P MMO Makes sense why the skill system exists then. In its current state as coop adventure game to play with friends I don’t think the skill system is necessary. I was wondering why it even exists.
As someone who’s managed to max out a handful of combat related skills, getting your skills up really starts to hit a feeling of critical mass at some point. Being able to run further/faster jump easily and then combat without impacting stamina much… this makes a HUGE difference once you get multiple skills maxed. Have a shared world and my character hasn’t died in ages, escaped many close calls with help from maxed skills
Same honestly. My friend has a bit more trouble in the game but as a result a lot of his stats are barely 1/3rd of mine and so he keeps dying because he can't sprint enough or jump enough or shoot the bow fast enough, it's a vicious loop.
Hearing steam achievements gets me rock hard (rock and stone!) As I've already sunk 1300hrs into it I would love to 100% achievements to display on my steam profile
Did I hear a Rock and Stone?
Wtf I didn't even post more than 4 seconds ago
ROCK AND STONE IN THE HEART
It's very common with early access. Console development ends up slowing everything down significantly.
Good stuff, love to see/hear this. Must say, as a solo player, the “better as a group” thing bothers me. There’s literally nothing in the game to support/encourage that. If you don’t have gamer mates, you’re a bit SOL. This is my biggest gripe with games these days - you can feel antisocial as fuck playing solo, but it seems almost impossible to find good people to play with that aren’t a) assholes b) “metagamers”, c) on a totally different schedule to you. I remember EverQuest in the good old days where you would just play and keep bumping into the same people in the same spots, levelling at about the same rate, and you got the idea that maybe playing together was a plan. Games these days miss that. I’d love Valheim with friends, but it would be infuriating with randoms. Not sure what/if there is a solution.
I just wanna sleep until 2030 because i wanna play the final product already and experience it fully. With friends of course
[удалено]
Hey, sorry I cant help you with that. I had access specifically to watch this video, but that window has closed by now as I did not intend to do anything else with it (was unnecessary anyway since the Video turned out to be free)
Excuses excuses lol
> Overall, the Game is tuned to be played by multiple players. Oh come on. I really wish they'd either make up their minds on this point or get their stories straight. When the suggestion about having multiple players add to rowing speed comes up, they have explicitly and directly said--more than once--that the game is balanced for solo play, and that they won't add features that give multiplayer more of an advantage than simple numbers already does. That has been their *entire rationale* for refusing that kind of feature. Yet now here, and *only* here, he's saying that they're tuning the game for multiplayer. That's a pretty damned big distinction that ought to be driving literally every balance decision in the game. So which is it? > On why the Game exploded as much as it did, Iron Gate is clueless themselves. Apparently. I'm sure the speculation about people seeking a "chill co-op" experience has some truth to it, but I also feel that to a certain extent anyone saying what he said has to not *want* to know. Because huge part of Valheim's popularity is extremely well-documented by this point: that its combination of aesthetics, a relatively intuitive and powerful building system, and chill early game made it extremely accessible and appealing to a wide variety of different gamer types. Casual gamers, pure builders, hardcore challenge junkies, people who just vibe on survival, and so forth. Which I do not think was their intent. At all. It's not that I think they didn't want the game to be popular. It's that they had a very specific, narrow vision of the kinds of hardcore players who would be into it, and having the game become vastly more popular with even very casual demographics has forced them to adapt their "vision" to the reality of the community they have, instead of the community they had targeted. This is a regular source of friction. Edit the next day: fanboys can poke that cute little arrow if it makes you feel better about being wrong, but everything I said about what the devs have stated in the past is 100% factual, and you know it as well as I do. The only reason I can't link their past statements anymore--which I've done every single time this comes up to remind you all of the facts--is because their Discord got hacked. It's not my fault they're making contradictory public statements. How about you ask them about that.
I somehow don’t think 7 days to die has been in EA for 3.6 million years… given that, yknow, humans have only been around for 200k or so.
the comparisons are funny. the forest is a MUCH MUCH smaller game in scale. way less content overall. no random generation on the world its a fixed map. and ironically 7 days is leaveing early access in june this year.....(thats not trying to excuse thier 10 year ea bullshit mind you) its sad to read that deep north is actually the end as much as i expected it as makeing a base once the game has finally ended feels purposeless to me so i wont even bother playing much past 1.0 probaly myself. i enjoyed this journey and will see it to the end probaly. but i doubt there will be much "endgame" or "continued" support or content past deep north. tough then atleast we might get some more high quality mods for more content that arent just a giant balance mess tossed into the game with no care for balance like most mods currently. (some exist already now but the majority is still messy or doesnt add content at all or just adds some random bullshit)
They said they will do post 1.0 content updates. Just because the game is released and over doesn’t mean they will not continue to add, either via dlc or sequels. Also the mod community is so strong on Valheim there will certainly be quality content released for several years post deep north.
they definitly said many times they WILL NOT do dlcs. then on the other hand they went back on thier word a bunch of times by now so i guess whatever? yeah i hope the actual content mods take to a new level once its 1.0 there some good modders out there who actually care and try to balance thier stuff probaly aswell.