Valheim - Dev Blog October

The Iron Gate team has a new developer update.

Development Blog October: Moving Forwards After Hearth & Home

[…] Releasing Hearth & Home was a big milestone for us as it was our first big update, and it feels really nice to have finally gotten to share that with you. There are always more bug fixes and balance adjustments that can (and will) be made, but we have also begun looking at things for future updates, this time focusing more on adventure and exploration than on building.

Those of you who follow Richard on Twitter might have noticed that he's experimenting with the terrain and textures for the Mistlands, which will be our next big biome update! However, please keep in mind that this is not a final version, and that the landscape will likely change quite a bit before we figure out just exactly what the Mistlands will look like. It's also still too early to say what the implementation of the Mistlands will mean for your existing worlds, but we will keep you updated once we know more. […]

More information.

I'm starting to lose steam over Valheim - some of the changes made with home & hearth update didn't help.

There are just too many fiddly mechanics which reduced the fun factor for us - things like metal ore and bars can't be transported via portal, monster invasion if you spend "too much" time at home base and tiny crafting table ranges (you can only build or repair things within crafting table range). The worst is crafting table range, we had like 10+ crafting tables within our home base to cover all areas. Had to install mods to remove these restrictions or its just too tedious/annoying.

Sounds like they're trying to tune the game to funnel players into expected patterns. IMO a survival game should allow as much freedom as possible, and be smart enough to gently push players by balancing the economy rather than by artificial limitations. Maybe more easily said than done, though.