DrSquick wrote on Nov 7, 2012, 13:09:
Has anyone been able to get into this game? I have tried a couple times, and I just don't get it... I absolutely love crafting, it is my favorite part of MMOs. I also kinda love farming games, so this seemed like the perfect game; but I just don't get it.
If anyone has been able to get into it, do you have any good resources or tips?
Yes I've gotten into it, and basically "maxed out" everything one can possibly do (so far) as far as learning every skill, and crafted every possible item, and built every structure and have several villages under my control. It takes a while, a couple months at least to get there but the depth and complexity is much more than first impressions may give. It's a true open sandbox, no quests no levels and almost no guidance or set goals beyond the first few steps so you pretty much create your own game within the framework laid out. There are several game mechanics that are very original and difficult to grasp (such as the Gluttony system) even for the experienced well-educated old school Gamer, and a different game pace than almost everything else out there that takes some getting used to. The learning curve is odd also - very very slow at first and simply finding a good place to build a small settlement in the huge unexplored New World can take days of real-world time. At first you can find and "see" almost nothing, but as you progress the items which can be found increases exponentially until eventually your screen and minimap is literally filled with forage-able treasure just waiting to be gathered while exploring.
Here is an excellent up-to-date guide from the Forum:
http://forum.salemgame.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=181And the Wiki is very helpful, although a few things out of date since there was just a new UI released with new graphics:
http://salemwiki.info/index.php/Main_PageThere are also a few custom clients (the vanilla client is VERY rough and very beta) with a popular one here:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/18779594/salem/salem2.jnlpThere are also quite a lot of YouTube videos that are helpful, just search "Salem mmo".