February 2012

The Alchemist In Me #WurmOnline

stargrace February 17, 2012 1Comment

There’s one more incredibly handy skill that Fo priests are allowed to do that other priests are not able to perform. This is the alchemy skill. I’m not quite sure why it’s removed from other priests, but I’m very thankful that Fo priests can still make healing covers and dye.  Lately I’ve been working on this skill in the hopes that I can make my dye stronger colours. Not that there’s anything wrong with the colours I’ve been making, but brighter is always nice.

To make healing covers you combine 2 bits of animal parts together along with some grass, leaves, and moss. The only bits you need to physically have are the two animal parts (handy chart on the wiki on what you can use). So while I write this blog post, my character in game is busy combining deer glands with black wolf paws. Delicious n’est pas? In the screen shot above, the list on the far left hand side is a barrel I have currently holding all of my alchemy supplies. The tab beside that contains kindling, then water, then the contents of my oven (I had a meal and some meat cooking) and then finally my inventory. I’m trying to use up supplies that are decaying first. I’ve made 35 healing covers so far, which is not a large amount. I still have a huge amount of supplies to work through.

I find these tasks incredibly relaxing. I can queue 3 actions at once, work on the 2nd monitor and easily go back to the game when it’s time to queue three more actions. I’m in the safety of my house so I’m not worried about being ambushed by creatures, and I’ve got food and drink with me in case they run low while I’m crafting. The only thing that stops me at this point in time, is when I run out of supplies (which is bound to happen sooner or later).

I’ve managed to reach 25 in my animal husbandry skill, this allows me to see one more trait on the list of traits. None of my horses (or cattle, or deer) have the trait that is related to this skill level, but it’s nice to know that if they did have it, I’d be able to see it. Did you know you can use 0.01 of a horse eye combined with a black wolf paw to make a healing cover? Turns out that’s what I just made.

Gross.

As Arkenor and I are always saying in game, waste not, want not. There’s nothing that goes to waste in this game, it can all be used for something, even if it’s just a sacrifice to my deity for favor. I enjoy that aspect of Wurm, and I’m pleased that I’m now into my second month of playing with no sign of me wanting to stop any time soon – although I will admit, EVE has been calling my name pretty hard lately. I got an email about a 3 month deal for $30, and I may just take advantage of it. Maybe.

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Life As a Priest of Fo #WurmOnline

stargrace February 15, 2012 0Comment

Life as a priest is not quite as bad as I had imagined it. I pictured long hours staring out windows, doing nothing but raising my channeling skills. Unable to perform ‘useful’ tasks, much too delicate for manual labor. There are downsides to the direction I’ve chosen, but I’m managing. I think were it not for the fact that I have an alt who is also premium, things would be much harder than they are.

See, priests can’t continue crafting structures, and that includes things like guard towers, houses, fences, and smaller items like bulk storage bins, beds, or anything else that has a ‘continue’ portion to the crafting process. Just because I can’t continue an item, doesn’t mean the character is useless. I can begin an item just fine and I can continue to craft bits and pieces for items. My process now is to have Arysh (my ‘main’ and the Fo priest) begin an item, and continue to craft the required pieces. Stargrace (my ‘alt’) then picks up those pieces and continues on the project until it’s a completed piece. This is actually working out quite well, because Arysh has better skills than Stargrace, so her creation process has less failures. An example would be these bulk storage bins I’m crafting tonight. I need at least two of them, Arysh crafts the ribbon, nails, and planks, while Stargrace is busy hammering it all together.

Why do I need more storage bins when they can each hold an absurd amount? Well, it’s all to do with quality level. When you put items into a storage bin it takes the average of the items and combines them all. It also takes any partial bits and pieces and expands / subtracts them into the ‘universal’ size for that item. When you’re working in higher quality items, you don’t want them combined with 1QL items, thus lowering your supplies.

I’ve got four bins so far. One is for QL 1-9, then 10-19, 20-29, and 30-39. My skills are not quite near the point where I’m working on anything higher at the moment, so that should do for a while. As I work on my mining I’ll want to make sure my ore is kept ‘pure’ especially if I want to improve items with lumps.

When Arysh isn’t busy making bits and pieces she’s taking care of the ‘general’ deed chores. These are things she can easily do, even as a priest. She grooms the animals by hand, even though I do have a spell that can take care of that particular chore. I do it by hand in order to work up my Animal Husbandry skill, I’m eager to discover new traits among my horses. I do the gardening in the pens, animals pack down the grass, and you need to fix it up for them.

I work on gardening, picking sprouts, cooking meals, I can’t repair houses or fences, but I can repair my own tools. I make sure everything is ‘ready to go’. I’ve also been working on my jewelry crafting skill. I can’t mine with Arysh, but I can mine with Stargrace and then Arysh can process the ore into lumps and create things from there. She can’t improve the items (also known in game as imp) but so far I haven’t really had a need to, either. You can imp items up to 10 points past your current skill level.

Over all, things are going well. I AM working on the spell casting portion of becoming a priest, and I’m looking forward to raising my favor / faith high enough to cast charm. That will be fun. In two months I’ll be able to cast enchanted grass, and my animals will require a lot less care.

As always, happy gaming no matter where you find yourself!

My Deed in Pictures #WurmOnline

stargrace February 14, 2012 1Comment

This is Squid’s house (aka Petter). He hasn’t played in quite some time but I still keep the house there for him especially since Arkenor and I spent a good 8 hours building it when I first started the game. I need to finish the floors for it still, and for now it’s being used as a storage area. Can never have too much storage in game.

This is my dock house, there’s a really nice willow growing on the left hand side in the yard, and I’m thinking of changing that concrete slab path into planked wood. It will take a while, but the effect would be much nicer I think. At night the area is lit up with the imperial lanterns that Arkenor found on his travels one day. It gives a really nice glow.

The dock area, lined with lights. My corbita that I adore (especially if there’s a gale) and the dock house at the end. There’s a line of birch followed by a line of maple on the right hand side, creating a nice boarder between the dock and the rest of my deed.

On the right hand side leading along down the hill is my farm area. It’s a row of field followed by a row of fruit trees, followed by another row of field, for four rows. I have wemp, cotton, veggies, and grains, in their own rows. The fruit trees are lemon, cherry, and apple.

The mostly finished portion to yesterdays screen shot. You can see where I now have two pens, one has horses and the other has cattle and deer. I’ve planted a few maple trees along side the path that leads to my house, and I’m still deciding what I want to plant along the slim boarder on the right hand side of the pen. That’s actually a giant slope that leads down into Squid’s house, so I can’t do too much with it. I’m thinking of planting trees there to buffer the pen some what.

Once the deed is quite to my liking, I can work on other things. Crafting items for my characters to use, fishing, butchering animals and cooking. Exploring and coming home with armloads of sprouts. Filling out the forest both to my north and south. There’s always lots to be done which is the entire point of Wurm. If there was nothing to do, no one would play.

As always happy gaming no matter where you find yourself!