World
This page records the details of each world and the changes made between them.
Current World
World 10
- (Initial) World Size:
- Began: January 7, 2017
- Ended: not yet
- Total: 4 Months and still going on
Previous Worlds
World 1
Was the first world open to the public, it featured simpler graphics, no deep water and no manual mine placement.
Players exiting the spawn room would always find themselves by the Ring of Brodgar, a ring of Stonehenge-like rocks.
Tree replanting, true Villages, civilization weakening wild animals, Decay and Scents were introduced later in World 1.
- Began: April 4, 2009 (Original Hearthling (Swedish) Poetry)
- Ended: September 7, 2009 (End of the World Thread)
- Total: 5 Months 3 Days
World 2
Introduced Foraging, the Quality system, new skill values and attributes for crafting, more types of Trees, deep water and new terrain types. Boats, Scent decay, Charter Stones, status effects, and Travel Weariness were introduced later in World 2.
- Began: September 7, 2009 (Greetings New World Post. It took 2hrs to get back online.)
- Ended: February 7, 2010 (End of the World Pics)
- Total: 5 Months 0 Days
World 3
Removed the existance of Ring of Brodgar as an optional starting place, although the Stonehenge-like structure still exists in every world.
- Began: March 1, 2010
- Ended: January 11, 2011
- Total: 10 Months 1 Day
World 4
On Sunday, January 9th, Jorb announced on the forum (link?) that a recent change had introduced data corruption to the current database for World 3. It was determined that the only satisfactory fix was a reset of the world. It was announced that within 36-48 hours a complete wipe and reset would occur, starting what will be known as World 4. At that time, all characters will be reset, and all players will need to make new characters. Due to the short notice and bug, no major gameplay, mechanics, or ruleset changes are expected.
- Began: January 11, 2011
- Ended: March 13, 2011 (This world was shut down due to rampant skill gains from botting)
- Total: 2 Months 2 Days
World 5
Introduced the Curiosity and Discovery system for gaining LP, and the spawn room no longer gave Bread and a Fishing Pole.
- Began: March 13, 2011
- Ended: October 24, 2011 (Guesswork)
- Total: 7 Months 11 Days
World 6
Was introduced after an unexpected crash ended World 5. The only major difference is that Charter Stones have been removed.
- Began: October 24, 2011
- Ended: June 3, 2013 (Guesswork)
- Total: 1 Year 7 Months 10 Days
World 7 - Legacy
Some notable changes include the quality of natural resources such as water and clay are now hardcapped by the collecting hearthling's Survival, Skulls of players have been made collectable, and buildings such as log cabins have a waiting time before they can be built.
World 7, though mostly uninhabited, remains playable for verified accounts for as long as the original server lives.
- Began: June 3, 2013
- Ended: not yet ("Legacy" since August 2015)
- Total: 3 Years, 5 Months and still going on
World 8
Introduces Haven 2.0 (referred to as Hafen), a completely rebuilt Haven and Hearth with a 3D engine and a professional, third party server. This world has seen many changes and regular updates, improving upon almost all of the previous worlds' features such as a Lock & Key system that negates the need for key alts, terrain that allows for natural height differences (and actual Mountains) and Landscaping by Hearthlings, with countless new variations of biomes, establishing new animals such as Badgers, Bats, rideable Horses, Lynx, Moose and Squirrels, many new trees each with a distinct wood color and two completely new types of plants, Bushes and Vines, variations of stones and ores similarly with distinct colors, and several new buildings, tools, curiosities, foods and clothing. Objects can now be placed and built in any rotation.
"Drying" mechanic that restricted building house signs and extending wall cornerposts has been replaced with all buildings and walls starting with 0 soak and and gradually increasing their soak up to certain value their in day or two. The automation of menial tasks means less clicking now (building walls, terraforming, farming).
This iteration has been mostly about getting the new engine on par with the old Legacy Haven feature-wise, though some new features were added, including the failed Fate system, Tri-Qualities, Food Satiations, variety of Wounds, Valhalla as the Hearthling afterlife, the Visitor buff preventing crimes when walking through a claimed gate, the foundations of a Quest system, and sending Nidbanes to avenge crimes. Some outdated features such as Personal Beliefs have been removed altogether, and long-standing core bugs have been fixed. This world had the biggest surface area to date, spanning an impressive 24.1 billion tiles. However due to an apparent problem at generation, this world also was significantly shorter on rivers than any world before or since, making this large world unusually difficult to traverse.
The developers were able to put so much time and effort into this world through the introduction of an unprecedented (and heavily contested) cash shop payment system, which sells subscriptions for unlimited playtime. Free users could still play, but only for a measly 7 hours per week. Various cosmetic in-game objects were also purchasable, such as Patch Support Hats and custom images for some in-game items.
- World Size: Circular, with bounds of 175,000 x 175,000 tiles
- Began: August 28, 2015
- Ended: February 18, 2016
- Total: 5 Months 22 Days
World 9
Big update to sieging mechanics, including a Claim Shield and Catapult, complete rework of the Fate system, localized resources, expanded on the Quest system from w8 with randomly generated quests.
The payment system is overhauled to be less inhibiting on free players. There is no more playtime, but a level cap instead. Paying users can level up a bit faster, and have a slightly higher level cap. A new skill, Painting, is added to allow free users to make Sketches.
- (Initial) World Size: 250x250 minimaps
- Began: February 18, 2016
- Ended: January 7, 2017
- Total: 10 months, 20 days