Start all over for new friends?

[Skalifrey]

Hi everyone!
Me and a few friends played Valheim last year. Other friends wanted to try the game but we already spent a lot of time in our world and they didn't really want to join us because of that. I've spent 100+ hours with my character and stopped playing for a while. Now we want to start palying again with our friends that never played the game.

Here comes a dilemma: I'm willing to start a new world with them but they don't want to play with us unless we make a fresh new character. I've spent a lot of time leveling up my character and I'm having a really hard time agreeing to start ALL over. I'm willing to let go of my inventory while keeping my skill levels.

Do any of you guys have any opinion or advice?

[Skalifrey]

Originally posted by M'Hael:

We played through with a friend that was starting fresh, just had them make their own world and came in naked on our existing characters. Once they reached a certain tier of armor and weapons we would just grab that same tier from the stash in our existing world or just crafted it in our existing world since we had abundant resources already farmed there. Put us pretty much on the same page as the new player, but saved from wasting resources on crafting 3 sets of gear and allowed them to upgrade their gear faster and kept us from polluting his play through by bringing in resources. Our existing characters were obviously stronger than their new character because of skill levels, but I don't think it is really that noticeable. Whats more noticeable is just the difference in skill from having played the game several hundred more hours than them, but there really isn't anything you can do about that besides handicapping yourself with lower quality gear. You can't really ever recreate the magic that was the first time playing through, so when someone new starts, all you can really do is try your best to not spoil it or carry them.

That's exactly what I'd like! I'd even let go of my gear forever and craft a new one. I just can't convince my dudes that there will be very little noticeable difference between our skill levels x)

[Bexx]

Originally posted by M'Hael:

We played through with a friend that was starting fresh, just had them make their own world and came in naked on our existing characters. Once they reached a certain tier of armor and weapons we would just grab that same tier from the stash in our existing world or just crafted it in our existing world since we had abundant resources already farmed there. Put us pretty much on the same page as the new player, but saved from wasting resources on crafting 3 sets of gear and allowed them to upgrade their gear faster and kept us from polluting his play through by bringing in resources. Our existing characters were obviously stronger than their new character because of skill levels, but I don't think it is really that noticeable. Whats more noticeable is just the difference in skill from having played the game several hundred more hours than them, but there really isn't anything you can do about that besides handicapping yourself with lower quality gear. You can't really ever recreate the magic that was the first time playing through, so when someone new starts, all you can really do is try your best to not spoil it or carry them.

That's how I've done it. Even though I haven't used my endgame Character. I used my Singleplayer Character (in wolf gear already) that I've started some weeks ago to discover all new changes in a solo playthrough after not playing since Summer 21. So skill diference is not THAT big.
Playing now with a family member, he's having a blast. I help with my experience but beeing careful with spoilers. When he started his world I joined with leather armor. When he crafted his bronze gear, I grabbed my bronze gear from my world and so on. In-between we have a server and are in late iron age.
Good thing is all the resources we farm together he can use for his gear, besides of needed mats for upgrade workbenches, forge etc. of course.
Sure you can't get the magic of a first playthrough, but always when he gets a new receipt, I am happy that I can use it too, like cooking new food or using new parts for building or comfort. That's my rule, using only things that he discovered already.
I love building and decorating in this game, so I can easily forget my own progress and just improve our base unless my mate has time to play.

I think that's the way to make both, new player and experienced player happy playing together.

[Jitatha]

I think what Bexx said above is probably a great compromise.

As an experienced player you are already going to know things like, troll run, deathsquito run very fast, and the issues with hit boxes and so on, so you will die less. Therefore in short time your skills from a fresh toon will be higher than a newbie.

But as mentioned the skill difference is not as big as a traditional RPG, you HP pool and stamina does not increase in levels like say Conan Exiles it all depends on food. And exploring is the only way to increase these pools by getting the food and farming it etc.

Your run speed would give you an advantage in running away, but it means that corpse runs become easier. Its like that saying, if chased by a tiger you do not have to be the fastest runner, only faster than the person next to you. Also your knowledge of run throttling in Valheim would give you an innate advantage over a newb.


Anyway, I would say you can justify using your main, without any gear, and it will not affect your friends in any noticeable way. Your experience though can not be masked.

[Michael]

Originally posted by Skalifrey:

Originally posted by M'Hael:

We played through with a friend that was starting fresh, just had them make their own world and came in naked on our existing characters. Once they reached a certain tier of armor and weapons we would just grab that same tier from the stash in our existing world or just crafted it in our existing world since we had abundant resources already farmed there. Put us pretty much on the same page as the new player, but saved from wasting resources on crafting 3 sets of gear and allowed them to upgrade their gear faster and kept us from polluting his play through by bringing in resources. Our existing characters were obviously stronger than their new character because of skill levels, but I don't think it is really that noticeable. Whats more noticeable is just the difference in skill from having played the game several hundred more hours than them, but there really isn't anything you can do about that besides handicapping yourself with lower quality gear. You can't really ever recreate the magic that was the first time playing through, so when someone new starts, all you can really do is try your best to not spoil it or carry them.

That's exactly what I'd like! I'd even let go of my gear forever and craft a new one. I just can't convince my dudes that there will be very little noticeable difference between our skill levels x)

You're trying to convince them of something that isn't true, skills make a pretty huge difference. If you don't think skills make a significant difference, and are willing to give up your gear, then why not just start over fresh? If they don't make much difference, why worry about grinding them in the first place? You obviously realize how much of a difference they make.

[GunsForBucks]

Originally posted by Michael:

Originally posted by Skalifrey:

That's exactly what I'd like! I'd even let go of my gear forever and craft a new one. I just can't convince my dudes that there will be very little noticeable difference between our skill levels x)

You're trying to convince them of something that isn't true, skills make a pretty huge difference. If you don't think skills make a significant difference, and are willing to give up your gear, then why not just start over fresh? If they don't make much difference, why worry about grinding them in the first place? You obviously realize how much of a difference they make.

This is exactly correct.

[M'Hael]

Originally posted by Michael:

Originally posted by Skalifrey:

That's exactly what I'd like! I'd even let go of my gear forever and craft a new one. I just can't convince my dudes that there will be very little noticeable difference between our skill levels x)

You're trying to convince them of something that isn't true, skills make a pretty huge difference. If you don't think skills make a significant difference, and are willing to give up your gear, then why not just start over fresh? If they don't make much difference, why worry about grinding them in the first place? You obviously realize how much of a difference they make.

For me personally? It's because I am trying to still level my skills up on my main and I am not going to waste time on an alt. Plus once the new player got into the game they were playing plenty when we weren't around. Like it was mentioned earlier, the most noticeable thing is going to be your run and jump skills. The weapon skill levels are not that big of a deal, I think my highest was swords at level 75 and I honestly refrained from using swords and opted for weapon types I hadn't really used much. The new player still died plenty and the 2 experienced players still had plenty of close calls that would have ended in death if it was wasn't for the greater level of experience in the game. We wore the same level gear and were eating the same food, but being able to parry consistently and out maneuver enemies is going to be greatly more noticeable than anything relating to skill levels.

[Cooperal]

Just make a new character and world. Having two decked out characters and two lived-in worlds is cooler than having just one. Early game progression is fun and fast paced, unless we are talking about copper of course but many hands make light work.

Getting too attached to your current world is a fools errand while the game is in this state anyway. Their will inevitably come a point where you will get tired of playing in a world where much of the landscape was generated in a far obsolete patch. It's not just Mistlands and whatever later biomes that will be missing things. All biomes are potentially subject to new additions, with the mountain caves being one of the more recent notable examples.

Edit: Oh yeah. Respect the sanctity of a new player experience too. It would be discouraging to get carried or hugely outpaced all the time due to gear alone. And seeing what late-game outfits, weaponry, crafting stations early on can be seen as spoilery.
Simply taking a relatively new character and wandering near to some late game crafting stations can permanently unlock recipes that the player had not yet worked their way up to. Like if a new character wanders near a stone cutter before picking up stone for the first time, they will get spammed with stone building piece recipes when they pick up that stone. I'm sure there are tons of other examples where something like that can happen too.

[MagikarpMagi]

Originally posted by Reqhart:

I think all your friends are asking is that you make a new character so that you don't ruin their "new player experience" and for that reason I would respect their request and roll a new character. I honestly don't think they're asking for much and is a reasonable request.

[Myunihausen]

+1 here for starting new with friends. You others servers are still there... Perhaps the new world with them will be better + I've found every restart I bring my experience from the others and that alone makes it easier and faster.

[messy]

i keep making new character whenever i introduce this game to new player.
its not as tedious as you imagine once you know what to do. you could bypass some of the grind, like iron & silver gear, is not that important.

i think the "new player experience" is very precious and sharing that wonderful experience and i wouldn't want to spoil the experience to new player.

["Fascinating!"]

Play as equals. Live a new viking life.

[Red Cloud]

I think I have 3 characters needing to kill Moder, and one that just did.
Starting again from start is actually quite nice, because you know what you are doing, and it tends to go better.
My first game I took 70 days to kill the first boss because I had no idea what to expect, and wasn't racing, and died heaps due to not realising my proximity to a section of Dark Forest was giving me Grey Dwarves and Trolls far more than I was ready for! :)

[Failure]

Just put all your stuff in a chest in another world and go in as the old character into the new world.
All you have over the others would be your stats, nothing else.

[electricdawn]

Skills only make a difference if you don't die a lot. I do, so to me, skills don't matter. I have no qualms on starting fresh. In fact, now that I'm more experienced, my later characters actually have way higher skill levels then my main. :)

[jonnin]

Skills are important but the game is absolutely playable and still more or less easy if you only have the skills you got by playing and never did some sort of cheese grind activity to raise them artificially high. I have never done that, and I have managed just fine.
On the flipside, yes, 0 skill is weak. You don't want to be there, but you won't be. Just defending yourself will raise your weapons, blocking (if you shield) plenty, just running home with full bags will level your sprint, just swimming a bit to construct a dock or get to a close by island will raise that... everything goes up and up by simply playing.