The trailers continue to surface for Wakfu as potential players in the U.S. anxiously await word on an official beta date. For those players in other regions already participating in the beta, that wait is a bit less pressing. But whether you've been enjoying the game for some time in its testing phase or you're just looking forward to finally getting your hands on it, the latest trailer should provide you with plenty of eye-candy and features to look forward to. This time around, the highlight is on the game's ecological systems.
One of the major selling points has always been players having a substantive impact on the game, with the landscape changing and reacting based upon player actions. This ecosystem trailer gives a look at the ways in which players can either help or harm the surrounding environment, providing new life in barren areas or destroying ambient plant life. The latest Wakfu video can be found just past the cut, a worthy diversion for anyone interested in this anticipated strategy MMO.
It's lots of fun, and ever so slightly old-school in that there's very little in the way of 'Well done, now go here and talk to him, well done, now go here and talk to him, well done, now go here and talk to him... etc' You have to figure out a lot of what you're doing from your achievements log.
I've always been one that likes a hard game. I don't see experience curves as an unmentionable thing. I enjoy lasting losses from death(assuming the game is balanced in a way that death is truly an avoidable circumstance). I have even spoken up in defense of perma-death on a few occasions. How ever, ecosystems are one thing that virtual worlds should not attempt. Not only is it impossible for most people to really fathom the lasting results of their actions, but they become easy targets for griefers.
Say a tree takes 3 days to grow to full maturity. After 6 hours, its worth one lumber, in 12 it can provide 3, and a full day 5. By the end of the 3rd day, it could be worth 25. Now, on paper, waiting for 3 days seems easy. You run through '3 days' in your head in fewer than that many seconds. In a persons head, it goes 'plant seeds, wait, 25 lumber!' In reality though, that 'wait' is filled with paranoia of someone ninjaing your tree from you, settling for 10 lumber after 36 hours because, hey, there are plenty of trees right here, and someone else will just plant more later.
Case in point, whens the last time any of us actually waited two minutes before taking our bowls of soup out of the microwave, as instructed? Now when was the last time any of us burnt our tongues?
Good point. In a game like WURM or Darkfall it's not too too bad because there's enough of your eco resources everywhere anyway. But in something like Wakfu, which operates on a whole different principle (the eco system is more of a zone-specific mini puzzle game) it's less of a problem.
What worries me most when I'm doing these things is being attacked from behind whilst I've got a face full of tree or boulder. Which, excepting for House Ninjas, is less of a problem when microwaving lunch. :D
@Kaoy The resources regenerate quite quickly. The zones will have the upper and lower threshold on the pants/creatures numbers. AFAIK zones themselves will flag you up as a criminal if you keep breaking the rules.
That sounds like a fairly reasonable way to do it. Do you have any idea what the penalties are for criminals? And will it be a global flagging or just for that particular zone?
I've been playing the closed beta of this a bit, and there is a lot to like. Unfortunately, it is either a LONG way off at this point, or it is going to be prematurely rushed out, and I'm very worried that the latter is true.
It's really not even close to a good play experience right now.
I started playing this game in the european closed beta. It is one of those games where I think: nice idea, promising concept, a brave attempt to do something radical in game design, but... it misses the point.
I mean, Ankama claims this game to already be in the state of open beta. There is not much game in there. It doesn't feel complete in any sense. Tons of people in the current open beta are fighting the same mobs over and over again, chopping the same trees over and over again, mining the same ore-spots over and over again, because there is nothing else to do. Even if I consider this game to be sandboxy, there should at least be some sort of content.
And personally I hated the "economy" of this game from the first second. The only source of new money in this game is mining and then minting. No money from quest rewards, as there are no quests. No money from turning in drops with NPC merchants, as there are no NPC merchants. Every single kama in this game has been minted by a miner. Now that means, everybody in the early levels becomes a miner and 5000 players are competing to mine the 20 spots in the beginner area. That's rewarding, I can tell you... Of course you could try to sell things that you have created or dropped to other players. But - they need money too, so this only shifts the problem.
As a Dofus veteran i was interested in Wakfu to see, how many seasoned Dofus-players would be tempted to shift to Wakfu and whether this could influence the population on the existing Dofus servers. Now that I know this game a little bit, I am no longer woried this might happen. I'm sure it will attract a population of dedicated players, but if it does not change significantly, this is going to be a niche game.
