Pardox's Salem going into Beta soon.

[Gusington]

I haven't received diddly :/

[Nefaro]

The intertwined character skill & crafting are some great RPG mechanics and it's the strength of the game.  I've enjoyed exploring and finding crafting items to level-up and make stuff at the same time but I've not seen any unusual or hoakey stuff which is a bit disappointing. 

There are plenty of downsides, but it looks to be in a late alpha stage so hopefully they're still adding more to find.  I enjoy exploration type games (with loot!) such as Terraria but there are so few of them with such an RPG/Crafter/Explorer mix.   I'd like to see the Explorer side get lots of attention.  Death in this game is quite rough at the moment.  You die and start back in Boston with no skills or items.  That means grinding through finding crafting stuff out in the wilds again, to level/skill-up from the start.  :-\   And pvp is wide open.. anyone can kill you.

[LongBlade]

I haven't received diddly :/

I can contact Paradox and probably get you in. Can you write a preview at some point?

[Gusington]

I would love to.

[Nefaro]

It probably won't be finished for months, so you'll have plenty of time I'm sure.

The graphics are poo, but it's a Java game so whaddya expect?  :P

For some reason, there's a big pic of Cthulu on the loading screen but I've seen none of that stuff yet.  Perhaps you can find interesting Lovecraftian stuff later but I've not seen anything unusual.  Nor have I found the Necronomicon or other similar works. :'(

[Huw the Poo]

Have any of you chaps played this lately?  I had a quick stab since it's similar in concept to Wurm Online which I can't play at the moment.  It has promise but my god, it's rough on new players!  The five-minute tutorial isn't helpful at all, then you just get plonked in the wilderness and left to it.  In my first five minutes I was almost killed by a snake, and death in this game is permanent.  No weapon, no idea how to use one even if I had one.  I'm not asking for my hand to be held, but jeez, prepare the newbies better than that!

I'll play again this week and see how I get on.  I did at least learn some skills, and just before logging off finally figured out how to craft an axe.

[Gusington]

What kind of skills did you learn? I am interested in Salem but don't need to be virtually tortured.

[Nefaro]

I haven't played the beta in quite awhile but I do recall starting off being a confusing ordeal.   Hopefully they will have more tutorial tips in at some point. 

I recall much of my time being spent wandering around looking for raw materials to harvest.  Rinse/repeat.  I'd say Salem's advantage over other 'survival' type crafting-oriented games is that it's an MMO but I only ever ran into two or three people outside town during the early beta.  Which is probably a good thing.

[Huw the Poo]

Yeah, I didn't meet anyone once I was out in the wilderness.  The area chat remained silent.  I did get talking to someone via PM though, who answered a few questions.  Which reminds me of one of the UI's drawbacks...the chat interface is crap.  And sometimes it would become active for no particular reason, overriding hotkeys I was trying to use and forcing me to constantly delete what I'd typed into it.

What kind of skills did you learn? I am interested in Salem but don't need to be virtually tortured.

Just gathering, foraging and basic crafting skills for now.  How to make an axe and something with which to light fires, for example.  I also learned how to make a false moustache...?  Apparently this helped me learn other skills (increased my Proficiency Points).  Whatever!

Curious little game.  Quite rough around the edges, incredibly hostile to new players, but I'm willing to keep trying for a while.

Nefaro, yeah, all I did was wander around trying to collect stuff to begin with too.

[Gusington]

I would like to learn how to make a false mustache in real life.

[MengJiao]

I would like to learn how to make a false mustache in real life.

Teach a man to fish in an online game and he'll want to make origami in real life.

[bob48]

I would like to learn how to make a false mustache in real life.

I'll send ya one of my spare ones, but you'll have to provide your own glue.

[Staggerwing]

I would like to learn how to make a false mustache in real life.

Have you considered making a real one?

We had a thread awhile back with a few RL mustachios in it, IIRC.

[Gusington]

My facial man-growth grows in sporadically so I would look like a 15 year old imitating Ron Jeremy.

[TheCommandTent]

My facial man-growth grows in sporadically so I would look like a 15 year old imitating Ron Jeremy.

Isn't that your usual MO?  :P