Valheim has Ruined Survival Games for me
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- čas přidán 30. 12. 2023
- Valheim has truly made its mark on the Survival genre and it has done so without a big budget or a Triple AAA Studio behind it. I love Valheim, even all these years later, the more you play, the better it gets! I really hope you guys enjoy the video and thanks for watching!
#valheim #irongatestudio #vikings
@IronGate
Instagram: / masonellistv
Twitter/X: / masonellisshow - Hry
NOTHING will compare to playing Valheim with my best friend for the first time. We're both pushing 40 now and that was an unforgettable experience. The immense feeling of venturing into the unknown, of exploration and adventure. I don't think we'll ever recapture that tbh.
My fondest memories of 20 years of gaming is LAN battles in AOE2 as a wee lad with best friends and playing Valheim with those same friends. The devs hit the perfect game feel, the perfect sense of progression. This is a game meant to be enjoyed, not rushed.
Lolol, the way you're talking about it makes it sound as if this was something that happened decades ago, during your childhood.
I had to double check... game only came out like 3 years ago 😂 (what I mean is that you were pushing 40 when you played it back then too)
I am literally LOL right now @idontwantahandlethough comment. But aside from that, two of my best buds and I played this for the first time when it came out and let me tell ya, you are exactly right. This was a whole experience of total unknown and urge to keep going even after Yagluth. But the journey up to Yagluth was the best ever survival game experience we all had together bar none. Truly a great game and just recently we dove back in for the huge Mistlands update, I know it has been out awhile now, but we just recently started back up hearing Ashlands is coming later this year. Once again, still a total blast to play and loving all the new content. The devs are truly doing a remarkable job on this and I for one am truly grateful they made such a game and wanted to share it with us. Not only that even after Ashlands (if I'm not mistaken) there is more to come! Such a fantastic addition to my library especially my survival/build games genre.
One of my best gaming times was learning conan exiles.
well playing it with my wife so that we were both spending time together and sharing an amazing game experience is tough to beat.
We play on a private server with my two closest friends and their wives. The six of us have an amazing time.
I still remember the first time me and my buddy rode a boat in this game. We were heading off to kill the Elder. The music was already amazing but then we passed through a narrow river with the sun shining through the treetops in front of us and a thin morning mist flowing here and there. Combined with the music it felt like we were on an actual adventure. Everything just came together in that moment in a way that's just hard for words to describe. I'll never forget that experience.
Poetic and accurate
rode* a boat lmao
@@Heroo01 Fixed.
I remember building a raft and recklessly going out to sea, where a storm brewed and we me the serpent the first time.
@@Colinization18dude I did the same thing lmao
My most memorable gaming moment in recent years was getting chased by trolls for the first time and excitedly yelling and running away with friends. Or getting 1 shot in front of my group by a mosquito. You captured why this game is such an experience.
The timing of its release was also very fortunate, being at the start of Covid lockdowns. I'm not sure I'll ever get a group of 10 friends, all over 30, to invest so much time in a video game together again.
If you'd like I can send you an invite to our server. We've got 7 people atm and have been having lots of fun. We plan to reset when ashlands comes out.
@@farkasthewild7885 invite still stand? definitely looking to pick it back up soon with Ashlands
Creeping up on 4k hours played, no mods, Vanilla Valheim and I love it as much now as I did when I first launched it. Love finding Seeds with Supercontinents to start on so I can slowly make a road along the entire coastline using the time spent there scouting and gathering mats the whole while.
Ooof - I thought my 2,700hours was bad enough. LOL.
Though I do like how you can explore vast areas some times yet still have unknown locations on your starting Island due to the way the map spawns items or you didn't get round to exploring that yet. Those 'quick' 20 minute sails to return ore to home by taking a shortcut that leads to an inland sea, or the coast of a vast continent and you are left with trying to decide if it is better to back track, or sail onwards hoping for either river or lands end to be faster to get home.
Though I have started with some mods - but they are more quality of life ones. Life would be sad without the veinmine mod. LOL.
I had a seed with a perfect ring of mountains with meadows and plains in the center I conquered the whole of it and made it an enormous stronghold with farm that was unassailable.@@sociallyferal4237
wow 4000 hours!! Just over 2000 here. Wonderful game 🤩
Fuckin virgin lol
Been playing it virtually every single day since I installed it 7 months ago. Sometimes I can only dip in for 30 minutes but I dip in every single day. Love this game. Same deal, just the vanilla game - no mods, no creative mode.
True words spoken. you can feel the love investied in the game while playing it.
Definitely not for me. It's actually the most unrealized game in the genre by far. Devs had a once in a lifetime moonshot opportunity and dropped the ball so ridiculously hard with this game. Worst update cycle ever.
@@derpderpin1568 hard when devs are still new. at launch it really is a amazing game
@@amarthyashankar5895 They've made hundreds of millions and yet release no updates and never admit they've made a mistake about something (like building for example). Just lazy and greedy such wasted potential. Just hire more dev's if you can't be arsed finishing something.
@@isaacs3413iron gate also has to work on deep rock galacyic dumbass
@@isaacs3413 Yes. The only problem of the game is basically lazyness and greedyness of developers. So much money, so close to zero updates with a small amount of content. I discovered Epicloot Balanced and Creature Loot and Level Control mods that basically revived game for me. It made it more challengable, added some quests with reasonable rewards, forcing you to actually explore the world instead of its 1/4.
3:13 Smoke is probably one of my favorite parts about Valheim, it encourages more creative building like you said, but it also can allow for some more interesting base set-ups defensively, like what if you deliberately set your base up so all the smoke pools in a small room full of valuable items first before slowly being filtered out by a single hole that can barely keep up with the amount of smoke you produce, and it will somewhat obscure the room it fills providing some indirect protection on worlds with PvP if your friends try to shank you.
That’s a really interesting idea, love that!
Back when the game first released, I was on a mega server and we did that for one of our bases,
we called it the gas chamber
The beauty of sandboxes. Experimenting with what's available.
Yep. Actually having to add chimneys and air ducts in the tops of houses and huts was just the perfect amount of Viking for me. Such a great foundation for building too. Having to actually think about structure adds so much cool immersion and rewarding builds once you get it right.
Facts, it's an example of what a survival game should be. You don't mind the difficulty and penalty to mistakes, when it's presented so sensibly and comfortably. There are also options for adjusting ALL of them as well. You can go Immersive Viking Experience with no map, portals or mercy. You can go creative mode where you have free reign of all materials you've found once and build in this excellent build system!
Such a fun game, just played over vacation and built a tribute to Ironforge in the mountains with my friend. Amazing experience, full of triumph, loss, and friendship. All done in vanilla normal so every stone of that place was mined by us or the Stone Golems. Made several rooms embedded in the mountain's rocks, sculpting stone walls. Revisions on numerous rooms due to more resources being available, or the Stone Golem dropping in on our ceiling and trashing the living room... We brought it light, we brought it comfort, and we brought it trophies!
Stay Rested my Vikings.
You are such a dude!
And it only took 2 years for that simple options menu to be added. Maybe in about 14 years the game will actually be complete.
I disagree, because of the fact that valhiem realy isn't a survival game. It has some survival elements but the gameplay loop isn't about survival
@@derpderpin1568 Yea literally, such potential wasted in a game full of pointless time wasting to make it appear more full.
@@gaup3171 Yeah, it baffles me that people call Valheim as Survival game. It has 0 survival mechanics. It's an action-adventure game with building mechanics. It's like trying to call Fallout 4 a survival game. Hella dumb.
I played this game a while ago and wasn’t really into it but watching this video made me try it again and realize I just didn’t understand what it was about. It’s amazing and exactly the type of game I’ve been hoping someone would make. Thank you for making such a good video explaining it.
Im so glad to hear that! It’s an amazing game!
Valheim is the only game where sitting in a boat traveling in a straight line not doing anything is fun
Never seen this game before. Is it any good? Looks like minecraft
Its a survival game where you start of by gathering resources and the more you play you get to fight bosses and enemies I dont want to spoil anything I watched it on youtube before I played that was a mistake also play with friends 10x more fun @@tommyjones1357
@@tommyjones1357better than mc imo, love the game you should def get it if you haven't. so much time to be put in and it is so much fun, especially going in blind its way more fun and its prolly a number 1 or 2 for me in survival games
@@tommyjones1357 Has some similar aspects to minecraft, but is quite different.
The solo player on it is many times more fun than minecraft, especially the combat.
Also has a many times easier base building than MC if you want to make good looking functional builds.
Best action survival game out there, you should try it.
Have you played sea of thieves? Best pirate boat game! But not as fun as valheim over all.
Me and my friends spent 8 hours digging a trench so our boat could cross our main island instead of having to go around it… the most memorable time I have had in a game in a long time!
That stone was useful later on, and a cleaner shot to your base can even save you time in the long run. Especially if a sea serpent breaks your ship.
I'm on Day 1010 in my original world, and have built a massive Seaside Stronghold of black marble, stone, wood, and iron that is unique and functional. I have not seen quite the level
of creative building that is available in Valheim, and have been playing with friends from around the world for over 2 years. The game is unique unto itself. Waiting for Ashlands. Nice Vid.
Just had to leave a comment. This was a great love letter to Valheim, and I absolutely agree! I've got 1000+ hours in vanilla and I still feel like there is so much more to experience. My favorite game genre is survival, and I feel like Valheim is the best of the best. Of course, there could be improvements made, nothing is perfect. With the recent addition of the new settings sliders, I feel the replayability has been sent into the stratosphere. And of course, there is always the huge world of mods. This was a very high quality video, I subscribed, and I look forward to checking out your other content. You should have more subscribers! Happy New Year!
Happy new year to you too! Really grateful for the kind words!!
Great video! We're all a bit starved for content right now while we wait for Ashlands so it's nice to be reminded why we love it so much. 😀
3:29
My solution was using the roof tiles to leave staggered gaps at the top. Even though a block exists in a given space the game can identify gaps and let smoke out. This let me build more period correct viking huts and just hide a couple clever gaps and i never have to worry about smoke buildup.
Good one. Lot of creative ways. I sometimes use 4 posts at the top of a chimney, or even a simple hole on the roof with 4 vertical posts and horizontal to make a 2-d looking box. Then I can put roof tiles directly over it and the smoke still blows out the 4 empty squares on the side.
And in my "Elder mount basement," bases there's so much space I can simply have a fire anywhere and it just spreads out enough it doesn't matter.
A while ago I started a forever world on it. I previewed some seeds to pick one I liked but haven’t looked at the map generator since making the world. I have four characters that each live on that world, north east south and west and they have a hub by the spawn so I can share stuff like food between them. You can really play valheim however you like and I think it’s possibly my favourite game
That's seems like a case of split personality ;D
Over 4k hours (I play with some people who have more than that). and I can agree with everything you've said. I've played solo, I've played on the default 10-and-under seeds with friends, and on much bigger 'public' seeds (anywhere from 25 - 125 players/day); modded, and vanilla. There's so much that can be done in this game either way. It ticks every box; and I'm finding myself comparing all the other survival games to this. I've played a bunch of them; my second favourite is The Long Dark. I don't know what kind of gaming history the people at Iron Gate have, or how they gained and worked through their insights on what a survival game should be. But they nailed it with this one. Well done on the video, too. Great job. Looking forward to more.
Playing with friends, we found out our tombstones eventually despawned, and that happened many many times. It was always after a long period of time though. We literally had to kill Bonemass again to get our silver locator thingies again once.
I've had a tombstone for 400 days on one world, do you know how long it takes?
@@abekane7038 In our case it took waaaay less, like around 1-2 hours of playtime so there's probably some kind of bug involved, probably on ours, not yours I'd say. Maybe it fell through the ground or something. It was vanilla multiplayer and happened quite a few times like a year ago. If it was a bug I really hope it's patched now.
@@mendiganina6001 just spitballing here, but could be a performance/optimization issue too.
You mentioned the couple of hours despawning was in multiplayer. When more of you are active on the same map, it has to have more things loaded especially if you are spread out to several places.
Maybe it's like perfectly safe for an hour. But if you don't pick it up then it just gets demoted in priority order. No actual despawn until the system gets a bigger load when it needs to choose between remembering everything and massive lav or despawning 'unimportant loose items' to maintain performance. With multiple people working around a massive deforestation with wood all over the ground or the loot scattered after a raid event is much more likely to cause a bigger system loads.
Then again if my hypothesis is correct, it's still kinda sad the single player/ lower player count has a stable enough build to essentially lure people into a false sense of security and stuff is not that always protected. But from a programming perspective somethings gotta give before the 20- FPS zone.
@@abekane7038 I had one tombstone glitch in mistlands and disappear after I respawned. I had fallen off my roof, making a balcony, and forgot food. So my tombstone was right behind my house. I went outside and it was gone. I think it's the "punt," glitch where an item sometimes is randomly launched like a mile away.
I even logged out and back in. I clicked on the empty space where it had been in case it was still there but not showing. No dice. Only happened once to me. So I used Devcommands to respawn all the high level gear or mats needed to make them.
After 3 playthroughs up to mistlands, only happened that one time.
Valheim is the only survival game I like. I think two of the biggest parts are that I don't feel like I'm having to interrupt more interesting activities in order to keep my character alive, and I can build interesting structures with relatively few resources. In other survival games, I tend to build the bare minimum because it feels like a hassle, either because I'm constantly having to interrupt my work to stay alive or gathering resources is a tedious grind. Valheim isn't perfect, my Valheim group fell apart once we got to the Mistlands because we all found it too frustrating, but up to that point, I was having a great time.
I said this recently on another video, and I'll say it again here. Valheim is an experience. Not just the first time either. Every time you start a new playthrough, it's a completely new experience in so many ways. This is such a hard game for me to truly explain to people who have never played it. Not the base gameplay mind you, but what you get from it. It is a mood, it is passage, it is struggle, it is elation, it is beauty, it is achievement, it is chill time, it is all these things and so much more. Hardest game experience to explain ever. Everything in that game I want in future survival games (can weather effects and overall ambience ever be this good again?) I am spoiled.
Played Valheim with my brother during COVID and we forgot about time. Last thing we knew it was morning! We've been playing for hours and hours all night, it felt so nostalgic. Amazing game, great game design, beautiful and so much fun with friends!
Valheim and Terraria are the two games I think about when I search for survival type games. Just about nothing else compares to those.
Valheim also just has amazing atmosphere. Sitting in your house with the fire blazing and the storm outside going hard as Thor flies by in the sky is just... I mean its as I said... the atmosphere and ambience in Valheim is unbeatable.
Also worth noting Valheim has a very well made VR mod that just adds wonders to that feeling.
VR mod? please, where?
Grounded and Palworld are easily on the same level of Valheim
@RthereNEusernames like hell they are. Grounded didn't break up the grind causing it to become stale and Palworld's building system is a joke unworthy to hide in Valheim's shadow.
They're both fun games but no where near as fun as Valheim.
@@IamGhede entirely subjective on the fun aspect of it, but Valheim is far more grindy than Palworld and Grounded. I'm not saying Palworld or Grounded are better games necessarily, but they're easily in the same tier.
Mine are Ark Survival Evolved and Ark Survival Ascended lol. Valheim looks fun, but every survival game I have tried playing after touching Ark just gets stale since most are pve only.
I just got the game and have been having a blast! I love the slow grind as it makes every accomplishment feel really rewarding.
Sailing back from the swamps with a literal boatload of iron and seeing all the new crafting recipes was the best feeling!
This was a wonderful video, man. Im surprised this is only your second video. It seemed to me like you've been doing this for at least a few years.
Im interested in hearing what you have to say about RDO. I haven't kept up with it since Rockstar said they were cancelling major updates.
Wish you the best, friend.
RDO video is in the works, it may not be next as I want to do it justice but it’s coming!
@@MasonEllisShow that's good to hear. I'll keep an eye open for it. Take it easy, man.
Valheim ruined it for me too. It's 3 years out and we got almost zero new content. What a dream of early access it is.
Valhiem > Minecraft
Definitely agree with you there, it'll be even better when Valheim gets more content and systems. I just wish the modding community was as active as Minecraft's because it's way more difficult to find stuff to spice up your gameplay that is high quality AND up to date
Nah thats just cap. Minecraft is more than just a survival game. And since survival game are kinda juste the same and meh...
@@GabKaulemMinecraft _is_ just a survival game with building mechanics. The community around Minecraft is what makes the game incredible, but just the game itself is probably less enjoyable than valheim, at least for me.
Valhiem is way better than any survival game
@@biggestofriches I'd personally put Vintage Story as my survival GOAT. But hey, Valheim is the only other I consider in the same league and they do emphasize different things, so personal preference is gonna do do it's thing.
You missed the skill penalty from dying. All your skills take a level hit after death.
I had a server set up a server back when we were in lockdown, and playing with some friends, shooting the shit for a few hours definitely helped me really get into the game, and I spent something like 200 hours in a month just getting lost in the world and enjoying it.
Love this game to bits
Great video brother! I can't get enough of great Valheim content like this. Well done
i played valheim in released i sunk many hours into it, but as i had new things to do, and new problems and ive reached near the end of the game, and update taking years i kind of got over it
amazing video really made one appreciate the simple beauty in valheim though two thing i wish the devs would do is make boat travel more imersive with maybe customizing the boat itself or adding small things like seagulls landing on the mast or dolphins casually playing in the water, since i feel that boat travel is a big essential it needs a few more aspects than serpents and laviathans, the second is like you said a mount would be spectacular maybe even add horses in the meadows that one needs to catch with resources from harder biomes so one cant instantly abuse a travel option like that. tho even without these things valheim is simply one of the best games.
Keep in mind the game is still early access. From what I remember there is supposed to be an ocean update planned. That should change some things with boats. Hopefully they add the ability to row on the largest boat to go faster. I mean they already have the oar holes modeled.
I think the biggest factor you mentioned that sold me is how its inclusive and understands not everyone has hours to grind stuff only to lose it, even minecraft has become guily of that recently with unreasonable amounts of grind for stuff in a laidback game meant to be for kids. wanna do a boss alone cuz your friends are offline or dont play valheim ? sure. wanna have a raid sort of boss fight ? thats fine too the game just makes the boss stronger for your group.
I love Valheim. It has to be my favourite game over the last three years. I have put over 2000 hours into it and love the fact that you can (as you said) either seek to challenge yourself or just bimble around the easier biomes gathering materials or building things. I can't wait for Ashlands to appear and to see what else Iron Gate are going to add to the game.
I played it heavily when it was first released and then put it aside for months before returning to try and improve my builds.
Then I played it for a few more months and set it aside once again, before getting back into it on the lead up to Mistlands being released.
I also like how the random biomes can mean some games you have good resources close by, others - you struggle for ages to even find and get into the bronze age.
check out Vintage Story. you will probably love that game as well. most say its a minecraft clone but it was created from scratch based off it and takes survival VERY seriously.
Tris is so true, the visual effects, lighting and weather makes the world so much more alive than any other game I have ever played, I still after almost a thousand hours stop to just admire a sunrise, sunset or some beautiful vista, and the feeling sailing the long ship is wonderful.
And the building system, with how all the parts just work together, makes building nice looking homes easy while allowing for so much customization.
I have never been able to build anything as good in any other game.
Got into this game a while back on my One S, but it was so leggy. I got used to the leg for a while, but it got too bad as my base got bigger. So I eventually left Valheim behind. I just recently bought a next gen, and I’m getting back into this game HEAVY again.
Absolutely insane game regardless of the release schedule controversies. Great video
Surprised to find this video with so few views. Keep up the good work, I see great potential in your style!
I recently got Valheim and I found myself agreeing with everything you said here, to me it feels like a great mix between sandbox and quest driven gameplay (mixed with a fantastic visual/sound aesthetic). I find myself coming up with my own challenges I want to overcome "just because".
Thank you so much!
It was too combat focused for me, left as soon as I realised i can't do anything without fighting anything. I like survival+factory blend where you can automate and farm things without any combat, while having the danger of _avoiding_ the combat.
Brilliant video, so surprised to find you're not a big channel! I'd love to see some playthoughs if you have an interest in that. Will check out your other videos 😊
I LOVE valheim.
Recently went from series S to Series X, and it gave me a reason to play valheim to see the difference.
And i absolutely love the customization options they added.
I've already done the grind 2 times, and this time i chose to have everything drop triple the resources to speed up the gathering process a bit.
And i also decided to keep my inventory on death.
Going for a little more casual and building focused playthrough this time.
I love everything about the game, but the building is something else.
It really pushed my creativity in building every time i tried to build something nice.
I would constantly end up expanding on my original idea as I'm going.
Can't wait to build more beautiful stuff in this game.
And i also love the community, people are very supportive and positive on the xbox valheim community, you can come in as a newcomer and post your builds, and people will give you their honest opinion and no toxicity, only constructive criticism and good vibes!
Love you all Valheim community
Playing on triple resources really helps cut down on the unnecessary hours and made progression a lil easier and faster. My inventory fills up so fast but that's a good problem to have
Playing with friends is the best
The 2nd time I ever beat Elder I was kiting and using arrows, long range.
Then a troll appeared. I had to avoid the troll's log and try to get shots on Elder without getting "shot gunned," by Elder. And then a 2nd "punchy," troll arrived. I was cursing and kiting, and managed to pull it off. It took over 20 minutes and I almost died several times. I can't portal to that Elder mount base without remembering that time. Great game. And still $20 and I got it like $14 black Friday sale last year.
You can give them a "tip," by buying merch from their website.
Tgis video nails it I just started playing this game a week ago and its become my favorite game.
Currently I'm working in the mountains, preparing to fight Moder and I'm taken by how the biomes are so hard until you're properly geared up and prepared to handle them. Ive played many survival games and this one sets the bar high.
I have spent far too much time in Valheim. One of the things I loved was simply building and listening to podcasts.
What I would love to death is to have an easy way to build structures have move them between worlds. I tried mods, but I never really got the hang of it. I have a difficult time choosing between functional boxes, or killer castles that I leave after I finish them :-(
Maybe try to play on servers, for me it felt pointles to build something for hours if I was the only one to see it. I like to join servers and build something for people there, nice storage, kitchen or ruins out in the world filled with loot for someone to find and then move to another server.
in the video "Building a Full Adventure Map in Valheim - Start to Finish" they import the buildings 4:48
@@sergioippolito Thanks! I know it can be done, but I wish it was a lot easier. I have poked at it a few times, just never gotten it to completion.
Oddly right now, I can't even get Valheim to install/play on my current computer. Not a big issue at this time as I am fine with taking time away.
I don't know what lightning they've captured in this bottle called Valheim, but it has taken days of my life away now.
My session went for 16 hours just a few days ago, all dedicated to building my log cabin in the snowy mountain peaks, and here I am spending more hours on the same cabin.
Easy tip: Once you unlock portals, when setting out to explore a new region, always carry the materials to make a workbench and a portal with you. Then set up a new portal at your base before setting out and remember the name. Once you have discovered a region you want to explore, simply drop a portal there and link it with the name you set up in advance. Boom! Instant way back home. Portals by themselves are rarely bothered by mobs, so they're safe enough. If you really want to, you can build a base fairly easy by transporting mats (except metals, of course, but walls and basic buildings should be no problem,) through the portals. Unfortunately though, the best way to transport metals remains by boat, so setting up a port facility may still be required.
Ive been thinking about making a new world lately as well, but have been hesitant to because I will have to do it solo if I do. Some of your footage seems to be of you olaying alone. How was the overall experience of playing solo?
I have only been playing solo since buying game two months ago and I like that I can do whatever I want at my own pace. Soloing the first boss was easy and only thing where I have thought help from other players would be nice is locating the second boss. Found the right island earlier this week and now I want upgrade my armor before next boss battle that I believe I can also solo. Playing solo is cozy and relaxing most of the time and challenging when I want it to be challenged. I can focus on stuff I want to do when I want to do it instead of just running after others while ignoring my own whims and needs which I'm doing in some other multiplayers games. I recommend trying Valheim solo. Though I also intend to play it in group one day to get that experience too.
Did a bit more research, and learned that they have added world modifiers at some point to make solo play a lot more viable. A couple people on Reddit even said they've played through the game twice solo.
Playing in a group of friends though is such a blast. It also definitely has its inconveniences, however.
Very good video, but one of the key and most important things you overlooked are the mods and the massively extensive mod community, which has completely changed the game. For example, other rideable mounts (wolves, pigs, etc.) have all been introduced and are available through mods. There are also mods that have redefined Valheim. Classes, Leveling, Diablo-style weapons, UI changes, etc.
Really grateful for the feedback! I haven’t personally used mods but I’ll check them out 😊
@@MasonEllisShow Yah the mods are IMO what make the game truly amazing. With the new difficulty settings, the mods are more QOL than anything else. Here's the list I run:
UseEquipmentInWater
SpeedyPaths
PlantEverything
Minimal_UI
SteadyRegeneration
AutoRepair
FuelEternal
Sailing
Ranching
PackHorse
Mining
Lumberjacking
Farming
Evasion
Cooking
Building
Blacksmithing
Slope_Combat_Assistance
MassFarming
TargetPortal
Max_Dungeon_Rooms
AzuMapDetails
AzuExtendedPlayerInventory
AzuAutoStore
AzuAreaRepair
EquipmentAndQuickSlots
CraftFromContainers
InstantMonsterLoopDrop
Seasonality
HD Texture packs also completely change the look and feel of the game. Seasonality is amazing; nothing like experiencing Winter in the Meadows!
@@MoofyCakesgoing to check these out! Thanks Moofy!
My only problems with Valheim are a handful of questionable design choices.
1. Death punishments are incredibly annoying because they take away several hours worth of skills. I really don't think this adds anything to the game. I find it doesn't discourage poor play that leads to death, it's just an excessive punishment. Shouldn't losing all your items and having to sprint to retrieve your things while defenseless be punishment enough?
2. Portal mechanics are arbitrary and tedious. Not being able to teleport metal is a huge problem. People say that "it would make the gameplay loop too easy", but that's stupid logic. If the gameplay loop is too easy, then you should find ways to improve it other than arbitrarily limiting what tools the player can use.
In this case, they have the worst of both worlds, as they'd like you to have the convenience of fast travel, but simultaneously don't want you to have the convenience of fast ore transport. It would be better if they either got rid of portals or allowed portals to transport all/no materials, instead of this blatantly arbitrary system.
3. Building physics are absolute garbage. I'm actually a huge fan of the idea they had of structural integrity and support, but the system is unintuitive and only serves to make you bang your head against a wall if you even dare to build anything bigger than a small town.
3.5. To add on to this, building material requirements are ridiculous, especially when you reach stone onwards. Three stone for a 1x1 block?? Are you serious? If you want to build anything in this game, then be prepared to spend 4 hours grinding for every 1 hour actually building.
4. Fall damage is way too strict. Falling a distance that's any greater than one and a half times your height is enough to do damage to you. Sure, it encourages you to be careful, but I find that terrain is often difficult enough that I'm being punished simply by navigating it. God help you if you're being chased by an enemy that you're too weak to defeat at the moment. You'll be stuck between getting one-shot by the enemy, or one-shot by accidentally doing the equivalent of slipping on a banana peel, and falling a handful of feet.
These issues plague my experience with the game every time I play, and it's what contributes to my consistent burnout with it. Sure, I could argue that these mechanics are not fun, but I think that's a weak argument. My real problem is that not only are these mechanics unintuitive, but they don't serve to teach the player anything about the game or extend the gameplay loop in a meaningful way. They are shallow and arbitrary obstacles and annoyances that can be slapped on by any dev with any game.
I'm actually a huge fan of Valheim. It's a unique and beautiful game. It's had some of the most engaging and fun moments I've had with games in years, and I have no problems with the game's core design. I'm just sad that I have to deal with this crap every time I want to try playing it again.
All of those issues sound like skill issues to me, bro
@@god2049 Game is extremely easy because of the insanely generous parry window and massive riposte damage + the fact that the most challenging enemies attack as predictably as the first hollow soldiers you run into in DS, so calling anything in it a skill issue is kinda funny. Everything this person described is just tedious nonsense that slows down the game for no reason than to make you sink more hours into it.
@Nuvizzle fall damage Isn't a skill issue. Building Patience/skill issue
@@Nuvizzle Motherfucker really is sad Cuz he has to transport his ore
And the first point is literally death. Punishment just don't fucking die
I love the planning and prep work for boss fights with a group of friends. Each set a task (gathering the relevant items to spawn the boss, tending crops, cooking the best balanced foods, smelting metal, crafting new weapons and armour, fermenting meads...) then realising that no single task is any more important than any other. Valheim is such a great game with friends. It's a masterpiece!
I very fondly remember those times when I first played with my brother-in-law on our own server. I'd log out, log back in a few days later in the exact same spot but it would look completely different cos, hey, new building, and that huuuuuuge stone wall wasn't here last time, either. :D
Just started playing for the first time and lobing it so much. Haven't felt the level of joy of exploration in a game in so long.
Before you burn out in the Swamp due to potentially dying 100 times. Pro tip: Build a cauldron and use it well.
"Devs made a game that respects the players time."
Are you sure you played valheim there m8? Valheim wastes more time on crap you shouldn't need to do more than any other game.
Video games in general are "time wasters" but especially resource-gathering survival games lmao...
That being said, I love wasting time in Valheim. It's relaxing to me to chop down trees and run around and hunt + collect berries. The only resource I hate is farming. Screw farming in Valheim. H8
I love the atmosphere and building in the game, but unfortunately I've been put off the game multiple times now. The game really is extremely hard if you're playing solo. I've never progressed beyond bronze working because of this.
Every time I've tried to unlock iron working, ive been killed by swamp or plains creatures, losing all my gear in an extremely dangerous area with no way to get it back... It's so demotivating I've stopped playing for a few months a couple of times now.
Last time i played, i finally went into a crypt in the swamp to try and unlock iron working, and even though i had a level 3 axe and shield, and level 3 troll hide armour, i was killed instantly. Before i even left the raised area of the entrance in the crypt area, i was immediately attacked by 4-5 blobs and one of those swamp zombies. I managed to kill them all only to drop dead from poisoning seconds later. How are you supposed to survive that as a solo player?
I was so frustrated i again haven't played for months. A huge pity, because i absolutely love the atmosphere of the game to bits. But it's so frustrating at times as a solo player...
Valheim is an irreplaceable experience. I absolutely agree with you on everything in this video. Also I am so happy to see that we shared similar experiences and the most notable one being the chimney peeking our interest in how much 'can' we actually do with the building in this game.
The answer, A LOT. I ended up building an entire settlement with a keep for myself by leveling out an enormous part of the Black Forest that was neighboring the Plains in my world. I aggro'd a troll and baited him to swing at me to expedite the clearing of trees in Black Forest.
I LOVE Valheim and I am eagerly awaiting the Ashlands update so that I can continue my journey I have invested a large chunk of time into.
3:56 I still remember the "Ah-hah" moment I had when I chopped a tree and it felled other nearby trees on its way down. Turned me into a tactical lumberjack 🪓
I can get behind no portals for metals but the weight limit is just painful, not fun. Especially when everything is so heavy and costs so much. You can’t build with a full inventory because you can’t walk. It’s just a handicap with no up side.
The upside is that you need to plan your logistics, which is fun.
@@bramvanduijn8086 Nothing wrong with logistics. My problem is with the weight limit as it is, the game leans heavily towards Viking trucker simulation with a max speed of about 4 km/h or you’re forced to do 10 trips. That’s not logistics as no logic will solve the weight problem. You solve the problem with boring grinding. I don’t mind grinding, but there is always a limit where the devs are artificially extending gameplay using the pain and frustration of the player. That’s not good game design.
Being able to progress past some weight limits(more than the belt) would be an application of logistics. Like a potion of strength, a trophy power, being able build a better cart, being able to use an animal to pull carts or even more interesting and an application of logistics if you could use your animals to set a trade route along a designated path so you can haul large amounts of metal. Especially since to build really nice building you need large amounts of various metals.
I’m saying the weight limit is not well balanced, especially when considering the massive amounts of materials needs for even just a medium build.
@@bramvanduijn8086 The logistics planning pretty much ends the moment you have a boat because then you're just hauling all resources by ship and all the weight limit does is make it annoying to haul resources around your base when building or smelting or whatever.
@@ManicPandaz It is logistics mate, use a boat to transport them or make mini bases near the minerals.
Also you can buy a Superhuman Belt from the Merchant. Also you can use a cart if you already want animals.
@@ManicPandaz And what are you even on about? There is no material needs, it's only for stone structures.
Wood is so easy to get due to sapplings.
I love Valheim, I especially love the building system and how creative one can be. We build some really epic bases in super nice locations. The only thing that always annoys me is the performance of the game. it can feel very sluggish and laggy in fights and the movement could be more crisp. but i look forward to ashlands!
Bought it a few weeks ago in steam sale for 10€, just to check it out because you hear so much from it. 50 hours in now, 4 friends have joined, rocking our own dedicated server. And we still just scratched the surface. Amazing game.
Valheim is excellent for all the reasons mentioned. I have two problems with it: the difficulty steps between the biomes is crazy. I don't mind dying because I am was being dumb or inattentive but getting one hit from a wasp is too much. The second thing is that I really like my bases but feel like I have to rebuild for every new biome.
I find Valheim really fun but if you do a cold analysis of it's gameplay systems they are all sub-par. Survival elements are barebones and easy to overcome, combat is clunky as hell and doesn't provide enough variety, itemization is simplistic and boils down to just getting the best gear available, exploration is also quite luck luster since there is not enough interesting things in the world and they do repeat a LOT.
The exploration is amazing *at first*. Once you see everything, though, you're so right. I wish there was more to come across as you travel.
I don't know. Valheim starts out really strong, but it's got some major flaws that start to become obvious about the time you reach the swamp. For one, there isn't enough variety in monsters. There's way too much hauling. Mining iron is tedious. Mosquitos get drawn too far out of their biome, so you can be insta-killed the moment you see the shore line if it's plains. The taming mechanic is pointless. I could go on.
I feel like I got my money's worth, but it's not a _great_ game.
Agreed on the lack of variety in monsters, I want more of them too.
Hauling is only partially required, quite often it is a choice. And if you build roads and use carts you can massively increase how much you can move.
I know of three sources of iron, so if you don't like one of them, do the other two. They are (1) in the dungeons, (2) outside underground deposits, and (3) you can find it in the mistlands. Personally I prefer the dungeons because you also get to fight there and it is most efficient. But finding enough of them can be hard.
Taming means you need to haul a lot less of the animal products because you can have their resources just spawn inside your base as long as you feed them. If you manage to tame the higher level animals they produce even more loot. Oh, and they can help fight when you are being invaded.
the development is slow
had a blast with the initial game, but its also like a full time job... and for me it kinda ended all survival games too but in a bad way. I'm just over that grind approach for resources etc...
I might have to have another playthrough of Valheim. Could anyone clear something up for me, I hear they added magic AWESOME! BUT, I also heard you dont unlock it until you've defeated the last boss? Is that correct? What would even be the point having it after that point?
nope not correct, you get magic in mistlands before the "last" boss and the biomes after that will be ashlands (coming first half of 2024) and deep north later on then
@@rsmlord ok thanks for clarification :) still a shame we don’t get the option sooner I guess
Honestly I agree with a lot of your points, Valheim is a great game with a very fun and rewarding building system but I notice you fail to mention some of its biggest weaknesses.
For starters, the absolutely miserable metal grind. The fact that the teleporters don't work with metal forcing you to lug it yourself is fine(ish) for your first node, but after a while it gets really repetitive. This is ignoring the multiplayer experience, where you are basically "trapped" in this stage of progression while you get everyone in your group outfit with metal gear leading to hours of grind mining the resources, then transporting, then ALSO finding and mining and transporting tin back to your base. Keep in mind im currently talking about the copper tin and bronze grind. and also IGNORING the fact that sometimes world gen fucks you hard, and the nearest dark forest is ridiculously far away from your spawn (where most people decide their first base is).
(as a side note I do actually enjoy the dungeon diving for teleporter + smelter parts, and the dark forest as a whole, just not the metal grind)
(times mentioned may vary from player to player, though keep in mind most of my time metrics come from games with 2-4 players overall, and may not fully explore how quickly a solo player can get past the grind)
and then after you have got full bronze gear and tools + boat the exploration begins, which I have *some* issues with (which will be covered later). So after you find and dive into your first swamp dungeon when you thought the metal grind was finished its EVEN WORSE, you spend 20-30 mins clearing this dungeon only to be rewarded by 20 more minutes lugging iron back and forth to your boat, only to THEN spend the next 40 mins getting your boat back to your base (travel times may vary, but overall if you get fucked by world-gen it can become ridiculous), this ignores how much of a slog this is for the solo player, the multiplayer gameplay isn't even that much better considering most people like to stay in the same tier of progression as their friends, causing you to again be "trapped" in this tier while you are forced to grind metal for your friends.
Now after this point in progression (or just after you get the bronze boat depending on preference), there is usually the DREADED search for the merchant. This NPC spawns RANDOMLY on coasts in a large radius around the spawn island, and sells an actually useful tool to reduce grind that increases player carry-weight by a decent amount. The search for him feels like pulling teeth and has typically taken between 3-6 hours (consider that I have only played 2 games and that this number can be significantly longer), all while not even providing that much of worth. You can go an entire game from start to mistlands without really explicitly needing the extra carry-weight, its just a convenience tool. Thank god he isnt tied to progression, as this whole "diversion" just detracts from my previous experience fighting trolls and diving into skeleton-laden dungeons, just to be sent onto the ocean with the vague promises that the merchant will be just around the corner, and that I can't go back now, what if he was right over there? etc repeat for 6 hours until I either burn out and take a break or find him. Essentially just seeing how patient you can be.
Moving to the metal grind in the mountains, I actually have no experience taking silver back to my base like I did with iron or copper / tin, at this point in the game me and my friends modified some configs (or added a mod to) allow players to be teleported with metal. This made the silver grind way more enjoyable, and way less of a truck simulator than the previous sections, so i dont particularly have some "scathing review" for this part of progression and have nothing to say here.
Moving on to the furthest i've ever gotten, the search for Yagluths altar. Why in all that is survival gameplay is this altar so hard to find, I honestly have nothing really to speak about here other than my utter irritation at my lack of ability to find this thing. And honestly at this point in the game, me and my friends were not up to spending another god knows how long searching the plains for this altar. Keep in mind as well at this point im probably 20-30 hours deep and just not enjoying it.
Now at this point you can see why im completely stumped that you referred to Valheim as a game that "respects your time", its a great survival game and I really enjoy its building system, food mechanics, and combat, but the amount of time you have to spend just not engaging with any of the above and listlessly searching the ocean really tanks any and all enjoyment for the game. And even its replay value for me, knowing exactly how much time im going to have to spend engaging with dull and tedious tasks really saps any motivation to start a new playthrough, even in the face of new content which im excited about.
(I understand they probably do this to pad hours while they add new content as a small team, but that just makes me think they are insecure about their product and its replay value. You shouldn't be forced to mod the game to avoid 10 or more hours of grind)
as a final mention, I say all of the above as someone who actually likes the game and hopes it sees improvement in the future, not as someone who wishes the worst of it.
TLDR; great game but the amount of grind enforced by progression makes it unfun to me after a certain point.
You don't need full bronze gear, personally I prefer the troll gear set anyway.
Why don't you build a forge closer to your mining operation? You can usually find a piece of grassland nearby.
And lay down roads and use a cart.
It sounds to me like you're putting goals down for yourself that are extremely hard, try to reach those goals suboptimally, and then say the game demands you do these things. The game doesn't care if you have a fully upgraded bronze armour set or whatever, that is a playstyle choice you made.
Anyway, yeah the trader and some boss locations can be really annoying to find.
I guess I'm the only one disliking this game and I've played various games which are smiliar like The Forest, Minecraft, Terraria, 7 Days to Die and what not.
It's pretty simple why: 1. It's extremely grindy, 2. It's also boring. You spend hours and hours in the same region just mining ores and fighting the same 3-5 enemies again and again. Aside from that the game is terrible in it's sense of progression and open world. There's barely anything cool to find in the world. There's a jarringly low amount of half assed structures and you will never find actually cool interesting unique items like weapons and tools in the open world. You only get good items from ores and bosses and like I said before it takes way too long to farm these. Adding insult to injury you can't even transport ores by teleporters. Like why? Why would disallow all ores to be brought through portals which a few of are alread too heavy for your character and many times you had to travel far to get them. Why artificially stretch out the game in the most bland and infuriating way ever if the open world is already dead and ugly as it is? And even then there is not enough variety. There's just bows, swords, maces, spears and shields and that's it.
No offense, but you sound like an absolute !mbecile mate, like holy $hit.
First of all it isn't grindy at all, in the least bit. If you want to be like me and have all maxed out items and many mini bases yeah it's grindy, otherwise it ain't.
It's not boring at all, so many people have over 1k play time on Valheim, that's impossible on a boring game son.
The progression and open world is great and one of it's main features.
Why can't you transport minerals through portals? To make geography a thing son, you either transport them with a boat or you make a small base in the area to smelt it and make items.
It's a rare game that draws me in for 1000+ hours. Valheim was able to do that for me! I've played through the game numerous times. Modded some playthroughs. Vanilla others. It's a gem.
Wich boss ability do you all use the most? I personaly prefere the Eikthyr.
"There's something so exciting about a trip on a boat" cap
I like how Valheim balances out the survival elements so they are not tedious and confusing like in many other crafting survival games.
I'm playing Valheim again atm, but even after having played the latest survival games trending like Enshrouded (far from being that good to be honest), I still can't find any game toping the experience I have with Project Zomboid, a game that is still in Early Access. In a completely different style, I quite enjoy Grounded too but it's a bit too hard and grindy for me to play alone. Green Hell would be close behind if they added more content, clutter and stuff.
Valheim can be so immersive. the only problem I have with this game is stamina. I wish stamina regeneration leveled up too. Theres so many debuffs to your stamina and its hard to manage it. Getting wet alone gives limits you a lot. The rested buff is not enough.
What i wish they would add is the beast of burden mod where you can have your tamed animals pull on carts and follow you. it would be so cool.
Hmmm I disagree that stamina is hard to manage, just make sure you're always rested and wherever possibly dry, and eat three different types of high stamina foods. (You can easily multiply your stamina by a factor of nine.) That's plenty to easily run halfway across a continent. The limits to stamina mean you need to plan ahead, because you want to build a fire and a little roof to get the rested buff before getting into a big fight or new environment.
If the stamina gets raised across the board then fights cease to be fun, because you can just endlessly kite and block everything.
Oh, and you can make stamina potions.
Was good for the first 20 hours or so, then the grinding it's just unbearable
Not much grind in it unless you force it.
You only have to grind the armor upgrades and you should upgrade to lvl 2 atleast I forgot that weapons might be more important it just depends if you prefer defense or combat
@@breadstick8502 Nope, the armor is more important, though this guy bull$hits, there is no grind.
Also I upgrade my weapons cause I like competition, but having them at level 1 is an advantage as you got to land more hits to finish opponents.
That levels up your weapon skills more leading to more damage and less stamina usage, leveling up your weapons completely only gets important past the swamps.
@@MartialArtsNk for me weapons are more important because I like to choose offense
@@breadstick8502 You don't need to do that at all, why would you upgrade to lvl 2 instead of lvl 1?
Honestly if you get good enough, you don't even need armor in most cases as the dodge ability is overpowered.
An increase to level 2 does minimum numbers, so might as well max it.
2:07 the transition for alone to friends when the other player popped into view was beautifully done!
I wish valheim had crowd control. So running away wasn't the only option when you have to deal with more the 2 enemies. Also a perk or armor set that recovers stamina instead of draining it when you parry would make combat way more engaging. Also a notepad where you can read what you just discovered would be nice. The tooltips sometimes disappear way to fast.
But you are correct. Valheim got the correct things right. What I listed are "nice to haves". It wouldn't make a playthrough better. Just smoother. But after I played Grounded (3 times 🙈) I saw what a survival with many "nice to haves" can be.
atgeir special attack?
I started with the very first early release and have followed through to looking forward to Ashlands. Wonder if we will earn our way to Valhalla?
omg what are ur visual graphic options???
I like valheim but the longer you play the more tedious the bosses get. Im sure with a crew of friends the bosses aren't a big deal but as a solo player the bosses don't scale and can take longer than 10 minutes to kill. Also at least when i played it the boss music only ran for about 1 minute so most of the boss battle is just dead quite for some reason.
base building is great at least, I honestly think enshrouded has one upped it in some ways at this point but we won't know for sure until both games exit early access
honestly the smoke phisics in this game is my favoret thing i want to see that in more games where if you have an indoor fire you need a chimny or hol somplace for the smoke to go
Its good as long as you stay away from portals and use the ship but at some point that becomes "boring" too and portals becomes a must(usually we use portal mod to transport everything at the end just to have everything at the same spot because no one is willing to spend 1 hour sailing it back to main base). Like the sailing is the most fun part of the game until its the same route you are sailing for the 50th time, sometimes you get a good map and many times you get a clusterfck. So the age of a world is very short before you are at a point "stop all monster spawns and only build" get those "heavy duty terrain modifier mods" until the world is totally destroyed from people making canals.
Yes its always fun to start a new map to explore it and gain that first ship, no the raft gives you nightmares. More controlled generation would maybe be the solution because I really dont want to check the map before playing it, like the most fun part is to find locations.
I would say its all about the map for me because I have seen it all and once we had a perfect map but when you play it once you cant play it again. Still its a once per 2 year game except if you really like to build in that game, I do prefer other building games because valheim is a bit clumsy(at least last time I played when mistlands came out).
Not saying its bad just that it gets boring within a month or two and returning to an old map feels strange if you havent played it for a year. I do return back to the game now and then but usually after major updates.
I have been for similiar games and I havent found it till now lol
please tell me if anyone know that, need this amazing kind of game while waiting for ashland
Valheim early-to-mid game is an incredible first time experience. Even after clocking around 60+ hours of gameplay, I still hadn't met the last boss because I wanted to dwell in the basic game loop. Building, exploring etc. This was couple of years ago, so maybe i'll come back to check new biomes.
Hey, anyone know the name of the song that starts around 5:10 ?
It doesn't seem to be either of the listed songs
Like it Loud - Dyalla 😊
Thanks!@@MasonEllisShow
@@MasonEllisShow sorry to bother, i can't manage to find the one at 1:40
ive played thru and beaten it 2 times with my two best friends, and both times were a blast. we added mods the second go around to tweak some quality of life things because we didnt wanna stray too far from the vanilla experience, and it genuinely made the game so much damn fun. it was the first game in a long time that made me eager to log on the next day. we also experimented with more building, and made an awesome home base around the maypole for max rested bonus, instead of small shacks around the world that we didnt care about. i literally spent like 5 hours terraforming our whole area trying to make it look all nice and pretty, and im not joking ahhaah. ive convinced another 3 people who have never played valheim, to join the 3 of us when the ashlands update finally releases. im super excited for the future of the game, its such an experience! awesome video as well man, i thoroughly enjoyed watching! it was a fantastic representation of how great this game can be
never really looked into it, and tbh i was just about to buy medieval dynasty ( i like the concept of having npc to tell what to do ) but i think this video made me want to try this first!
BUT one thing i wanna ask.. can your friends play your world while your not online?
Now i believe fortnight lego has done something so amazing it sucks that no other survival game ( that i know of ) has done.
10 friend world keys. that is just such an amazing thing. their have been so many times while playing Ark or Minecraft where Me and my mates don't wanna bother buying a server/realm but also wish we could play without the main person being online. so the fact you can give a key to your world to 10 friends only in lego fortnight is such an advancement. more games need to be like this. even if its just 5 people at a time (10s better) but just cause sometimes you don't play enough to buy a personal server but still want that kinda thing, and having to have your mate online first can kill the mood sometimes.
Yes you can create your own dedicated server for you and your friends to hop on anytime you want
I genuinely love YT's new algorithm. Being able to stumble upon creators like this is what CZcams was always supposed to been about.
My biggest nitpick with Valheim is that I'm pretty sure Vikings could swim well. If you end up in the water in the game, more often than not I recall drowning. I haven't played it in over a year, so maybe that has changed?
It hasn't changed and I agree! I love Valheim, but every time I start a new world, I'm reminded that apparently vikings couldn't swim.
@@alchemi8085 No, you can level up swimming like any other skills but you do use a bit of stamina when swimming. Even at 0 swimming skill, you can easily swim across any river if you start with a decent-ish amount of stamina.
The amount of bloom is melting my eyes.
Are you able to turn it down or even off? I'll give it a try if possible.
The game isn't even finished yet, and we can still expect at least two more biomes, with one of them, the Ashlands, coming very soon.
I've already spent about 500 hours in this game, and I've enjoyed every second of it!
Devs really nailed the exploration experience. I initially used the seed generator site to speed up progress, but learned that I'm actually the type that has more fun wandering and hunting. Not knowing what lies beyond the fog pumped up the thrill in ways that I cannot describe. Definitely one of the games of all time.
Did you try enshrouded?
The title sums up exactly what happened to me. After the first 10 hours played, I knew this was the game. This is what we've all been waiting for. This is the result of a myriad of mediocre or bad survival games. Valheim looked at all that and said "you're all doing it wrong! This is how you do it!"
25 years of gaming and I have a lot of games i treasure. Valheim quickly became one of them. Already over 1000 hours, I can easily go 1000 more
Has the issue of feeling empty and becomes a chore. It’d be great if you could recruit villagers to do jobs around your base or town
valheim player learnability is fantastic in the order they learn mechanics and how it informs them in new experiences. For example the player learns quickly that falling tree logs can do enormous damage if not death so they learn to be careful cutters, and then get relaxed again after they know that......then you discover the black forest and often your very first experience is seeing a huge blue troll around holding a tree trunk that they know from experience can crush them. Its utterly perfect cause and effect and such an electrifyingly scary part of early game valheim.
For me the greatest thing about Valheim is that each progression tier is optional and challenging. Going to the Black Forest for the first time is so difficult. Of course by the time you're using Black Metal the dangers of the Black Forest have been left behind. And these steps are beautifully maintained throughout the game keeping attention and making rewards feel relevant.
Good video and I agree to most of what you've said.
However, I do find some downsides to the game that have been tackled in newer survival games (*cough* Enshrouded) that have become a nuisence.
With around 2700 hours played, both local/single and in group on a dedicated server, certain things become arduous and simply *not fun*
First of all, I have purchased from the very first early access release and yes - the devs became victims of their own success with what, over 7 million copies sold?, Which required a lot of time on bugfixing and stabilising releases, but - the progress of new content is PAINSTAKINGLY slow, and what gets released is often tiny, with the exception of Mistlands.
Time spent: Also, due to the nature of the game, there is no "i have an hour free time, let's play some Valheim". Everything takes a long time, and at a certain point menial tasks just get dull and there are solutions for that. Like you said, sailing 2 hours to explore a new part of the map. Spending 4 hours to recover your corpse, including farming to build new boats, armor etc to stand a chance.
Graphics: It had its charm at the beginning, but with the rise and fall of mods like HD texturepack, one wonders why the devs didn't yet incorporate it as a startup selection; Retro or modern.
Mods: OK, not the devs fault but every minuscule update broke all mods. Major updates made previous world saves unplayable or corrupt, even without mods. Progressing through meadows and black forest and chopping down 500 trees for a first base is fun the first 2-3 times, not so much on the 20th playthrough.
Quality of Life:
So some other quality of life mods spring to mind which are now essential for me to enjoy the game and makes me wonder why it hasn't been incorporated yet, like MassFarming mod. Does anyone still enjoy planting 500 carrots or onions one by one, taking 2 full ingame days? Is it so detrimental to plant 25 at a time in a 5x5 grid?
Same goes for terrain flattening with the hoe in large projects.
Some future improvements could be certain automation - like provided in ValheimPlus (input/output with chests)or features from other games - where you could i.e. plant a grove, and wood gets processed by some form of sawmill that becomes available late in the game, or soem form of stone quarry?
Stone and wood gathering just became too tedious because of the gigantic amounts you need eventually. How shall i spend my sunday? Chopping up an entire mountainside so I can start building a castle next weekend?
Also, so you have special items, but it is a design choice to allow you to only have one active, and sacrifice your limited inventory slots on always lugging the others. Meningjord, Wishbone, wisplight. No imbalance if you could explore the mistlands with your belt on imo. Also, get upgraded versions to the merchants. A belt that adds 300 and 450 weight limit, why not? Apart from coin, set progression requirements to it i.e. an item dropped from Moder for the second belt and one dropped from the Queen for the third belt.
Lastly, but mitigated with the custom settings now, portals and metals, and death penalties.
I always hated the slow skill buidup versus the harsh penalty on death, which made it VERY very hard to progress skills beyond 50-60.
Bugs dropping tombstone through the world or death at sea were also a "I've had it for today" experience.
Otherwise I still come back on every significant release, and still love the game apart from the points i've ranted about!
Playing this game with my bestfriend is one of the hardest and memorable moments with him. It's about having each other back, farming materials, resources together, learning the progression through every biome and hoarding metals from mountains through swamps and to boats. We did everything creatively and laughing there, raging here, and being annoyed by each other. The best thing I always enjoy is probably riding the longship with him, and the game make it feels like the real adventure while sailing over the sea while it's storming, raging waves, and bloody fog cover everything up. I would always take the point and tell him where to go while the fog is too thick so we don't get stranded as the longship has a tough maneuver within canals or rivers. But yes, we also enjoy building, forging metals, farming, and getting things ready while heading out fighting bosses just to progress further and discover the hidden depths or enjoyment that Valheim has in store waiting for us. This is one of the greatest game I've ever enjoyed with my friend.
What was the music at 5:25?
Valheim is reallly really really addictive. even when you manage to break away and then decide to play it for a minute, you end up playing hours again.
Alternative Title of this Video: Loveletter to Valheim, a Game that will be lovingly remembered for decades
However Enshrouded already does much better imo. So I think that in "a few decades" well...