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Salem updates inheritance and witchcraft in October
Your characters are going to die if you play Salem. That's the nature of the game. It's an open PvP sandbox with permanent death mechanics; your end is forever waiting just around the corner. So doesn't it make sense to prepare for your demise by setting up your inheritance ahead of time? The game's October patch allows you to do just that, improving the inheritance mechanics and allowing heirs to pick up more resources from a player who plans in advance for the inevitable. The October patch also adds the start of the game's witchcraft mechanics and sees a number of under-the-hood polish changes, like a reworking of player character skeletons, which will be invisible to most players but significant to the team moving forward. That's in addition to a variety of other fixes and improvements; check out the full list of updates to see what your character can do while on the road to the grave. [Thanks to Chrysillis for the tip!]
Salem releases first major content patch under new management
The colonial perma-death MMO Salem has faced some publisher problems over the last year or so, but indie dev Mortal Moments has swooped in to take over the ambitious project recently. Project Lead John Carver made a formal introduction when the transfer was finalized, but what's even more interesting is the 51-page forum thread that answers many of our burning questions about the game's future. Carver touches on some important points that could get Salem back on MMO gamers' radars: "Some could argue that it has had its day. Some could say that the people have spoken and that the game itself is over, finished, destroyed. But is it? Salem offers the promise of witches and paranoia but currently delivers neither. Salem tantalizes us with the prospects of creatures in the darkness and all that is the unknown in Colonial America, yet we have only argopelters. Salem entices us with the wealth of possibilities afforded by Animal Husbandry, Alchemy, Wagons and Ships, none of which are in the game yet." If these staple features were finally added to the game by this new developer, would potential players give it another shot? Would you? Salem has just released its first major content update under Mortal Moments, and the studio aims to stay true to the game's original plan (no pay-to-win, no PvE servers, etc). [Thanks for the tip, Chrysillis!]
Some Assembly Required: I saw the wilds of Salem (and lived to tell about it)
I spent an hour romping through the woods of Salem last Friday with Seatribe head honcho Bjorn Johannessen. The tiny indie company (current dev population: two) is hard at work on its followup to Haven and Hearth, an acquired taste of a sandbox game notable for its no-holds barred approach that includes permadeath and the ability to summon (and kill) criminal characters -- even while their lulz-loving puppet-masters are offline. Publisher Paradox bills Salem as "the crafting MMO," and boy it's not kidding. Over the course of this particular dev tour, I saw crazy amounts of tradeskill functionality, all kinds of cool world-building stuff, and ultimately, more than enough reasons to spend time with the game when it launches later this year.
Some Assembly Required: Salem dev talks permadeath, griefing, and skill-based gameplay
Hello, sandbox faithful, and welcome to a special interview edition of Some Assembly Required. We recently had a chance to pitch some questions to the team behind Seatribe's upcoming Salem title, and creative director Björn Johannessen was kind enough to answer them. Salem is being advertised by publisher Paradox as "the crafting MMO," but it's also rife with throw-back mechanics including a huge amount of player freedom and a permadeath/punishment system similar to the one in Johannessen's Haven & Hearth.
