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After one thousand hours of this absolutely amazing game I can honestly say I've never come across anything like it, many games have also perfected the survival crafting formula in their own way, but the unique feel of Valheim just speaks to me in way nothing else has, I've had other games in the same genre that I enjoyed equally as much such as Conan exiles, Subnautica and the improved No Mans Sky, but in terms of holding my ADD riddled brains' attention, my motivation teetered off after a few hundred hours with them, where as with Valheim I just hit 1000 hours (actually 1010 as of writing), and I'm as motivated as ever, knowing how much more content there is too come and how much more I personally have planned in terms of builds. (And I haven't even touched mods or console commands beyond "freefly" yet!).
I adore every aspect of the game, from combat to crafting and gearing, to exploring and losing myself in the world, the aesthetics are amazing and I still find myself just stopping and taking in the environment, still nothing quite like sailing in a storm. But the thing that captured me the most was the building, it was enjoyable from square one, but before I knew it it had actually become therapeutic, any sh*tty day at work (or life in general) can be completely fixed by coming come and immersing myself in whatever build I have going on. I dunno, its hard to put into words why, I love the artistic merit (I've always loved architecture) and grinding every stone and plank of wood, slowly building something from the ground up creates such a sense of satisfaction (that dopamine lol). But despite only getting a few hours a day due to work, I'm always thinking about that next build (or planning a body recovery mission xD).
I wanted to extend my gratitude to a handful of parties, first, everyone here in the awesome Valheim reddit communities ( r/Valheim, r/ValheimBuilds and r/Valheim_Seeds, plus any others) for all the help, inspiration and kind support for all my builds that I've been posting over the last 6 months, It was because of Valheim that I joined reddit to begin with.
I also wanted to say thank you to Coffee Stain studios for just being awesome in general (and bringing goat simulator into my life!), but also for giving such a talented team the opportunity to show what they can do, ever since their first epic metal-themed announcement trailer I followed and was anticipating from that day to release, buying it launch day.
And finally an epic thank you to Iron gate, you guys have given me so much for my $30aud that.. I don't even deserve it honestly, I feel I owe *you* lmao, I have spent so much more on games that have given so much less, you guys... all I can say I wish there were more like you, I appreciate your approach, you were very open with intentions and procedures, and despite the scheduling readjustments resulting from such an unexpectedly successful launch, you remained dedicated to the best path rather than rushing content and folding to the loud minority, like so many companies do, you've proven you're dedicated to that best path and I wholeheartedly trust you'll do so moving forward. I'm in no rush, part of the prolonged motivation comes from knowing we've got a solid game that clear passion has been, and continues to be, poured into.
My 2 completed runs (Top: no cheats w/ map generator, Bottom: no cheats w/o map generator
Anyway, enough of my rambling, but just know I appreciate everyone involved, both in the development and the community, and a special thank you if you've made it this far down this rambling wall of text lmao. I wanted to share where most my time has gone as a showcase of my first thousand hours (of many more to come).
In order from my very first build to my latest wip:
My very first games' humble base. (I cringe at all that weathered wood but lesson were learned lol)
Spawn base/Hunting tower from my second game
My first big build and still the biggest in sheer size and resources I think
In infamous portal hub tower (and the rest of the base)
My latest large build on my current server... I'm suddenly obsessed with curved walls!
My artificial island portal hub I finished just yesterday. Dubbed (thanks to u/Graega): PieHub
Links to detailed looks at builds:
- Portal hub tower. Full base build
- Portal hub tower. Tower walkthrough
- First longhouse, Plains/Swamp build, Mini spawn house (First complete run)
- Curvy longhouse (Progression)
- PieHub (Progression and mini tour)
External link →