2012

Fall Arrives #WurmOnline

I love games that have seasons on a pattern that differs from my own. It’s neat to log into game and see bright fall colours while summer is actually approaching. That was the sight I was greeted with today as I logged in, and aside from wanting to continuously rake up all those leaves, it’s beautiful. I really wish more games would have dynamic weather and seasons to give their games more life.

I’ve been working on Darkpaw Bay quite a bit, I’m adding another stone house and I’ve converted the house at the top of the deed to a stable building. I’ll store large barrels inside and once indoor walls are implemented I’ll section off the 1 tile bedroom. Excited? Yes, yes I am. Les Reveurs is completed as far as construction goes. I have 2 3×3 houses and a 2×3 which is more than enough for all of my needs. My fields are tiny but I never expected Stargrace to do all that much farming (that’s Arysh’ job). I may at some point add a mountain top lookout, because the view is amazing, but we’ll see.

The third deed I own is shared between myself and Moumix, and that deed is (for the most part) also completed. My priest-to-be sits in her cave, mining rocks, while the Vynora priest stands at the altar casting opulence and trying not to blow up tools. It’s also on the water, and I find the location incredibly charming.

I’ve been trying to focus on what I want to do, but the game has so many options that it’s hard. Stargrace works away at her WS skill (weapons), Arysh does farming and other nature tasks, Seduisant is busy mining, and Bigbadspell is working on woodcutting. Where I go from there, we’ll just have to see.

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

Completely Out of the Loop – But That’s OK.

For years I wrote about my game-play experiences in EQ2 and while there was never a majority of my readers who played EQ2 at the same time, there were some and I never felt ‘alone’. These last few months in Wurm Online have been a bit different. I have a difficult time explaining why I’m so enthralled with the game, and trying to convince others to give it a try. It’s not a bad thing but it has certainly made for some quiet posts.

There’s one enormous difference between playing Wurm and playing – well, almost any other game I’ve played except EQ1. For the past five years or so I’ve played more than one game at a time, some times even literally at the same time. I’d be exploring or crafting in EQ2 while mining in EVE. Waiting for a dungeon timer in World of Warcraft while going through battles in Wizard 101. This ‘extreme’ multi-tasking was simply how I did things, and sure it got stressful some times (the whole juggling act) but I didn’t mind.

I haven’t touched another game since playing Wurm Online. Not even a bit. I’ve had no inclination to, even before I started working with the staff. I tried a few times and had so little interest that I logged right back out. Even games I’ve loved for years don’t hold my interest right now. Could it still be the honey moon phase? Of course. I’ve only been playing Wurm Online since January and that’s not exactly a long time for a game that’s been around since 2006.

I’ve even got access to a few betas that I haven’t even bothered with. I’ve read articles and watched other bloggers and friends go on about their latest interests, SWTOR, The Secret World, Guild Wars 2, Tera, Ghost Recon, World of Warcraft’s latest expansion, Diablo 3, and other games (not all of them MMOs) with a slight distance. It’s like I’m suddenly excluded from some weird gamers club because I’ve got to dedicate more time to a particular MMO. I suppose this is actually the way it goes for anyone who suddenly finds themselves with a lot less time than they used to have, and who moves from playing video games, to working on them (in any capacity) or working on one in particular.

That doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate the friends I’ve made, or that I suddenly don’t look forward to reading blog posts in my RSS feed. I do. A lot. Some times though, it all starts to feel a bit lonely.

Major Changes Coming to Chaos #WurmOnline

There are some pretty big changes coming to the Chaos server, and I’ve been trying to wrap my head around them. From the client notes:

The Chaos server will be removing some of the PvP restrictions that doesn’t go well with it being a PvP server. Effectively, some time after the 1st of May the changes listed below will be introduced. Up until then those of you who wish to leave will receive free disbands effective only on the Chaos server! (minus the free upkeep added). Any traders on deed will be removed and you will receive 20 silver as a reimbursement.

The major changes will be to remove all penalties for attacking eachother and give battle ranks and affinities for slaying premium accounts, as well as removing the requirement to declare war before raiding.

Right now Chaos is sort of between pvp rules. Which makes some people happy, and others angry. Since I don’t actually play there nor have I ever participated in pvp in Wurm Online, my personal opinions are pretty one sided. On one hand, I think allowing premium players to obtain multiple affinity is a nice idea, but I worry about how it will impact the other Freedom islands, seems like it’s an extra ‘bonus’ for those pvp orientated. Which is also not necessarily a bad thing, after all, there’s risk involved. If you’re fighting a creature on Freedom chances are you can walk back and get your corpse. Not always the case on a pvp enabled server. It may also bring about more players, the Chaos server has been quiet (from what I’ve heard). Of course with more players comes more destruction and grief, which is almost always encouraged in a pvp setting.

I’ll be interested to see how it works out in any case.

I’ve been working up my weapon smithing. It’s slow. Really slow. I mean so incredibly slow that I’m still only at 15 skill so far making level 30 weapons. Pictured above is my proud weapon rack where I’m keeping all of the items in between imping. It gives me time to work on my other characters, my mag priest is slowly coming along as are the Fo priest and Vynora. The Vynora has managed to start landing some pretty nice casts of circle of cunning. The Fo priest has been busy taking care of the fields, I’m almost at 40 farming, which makes me very happy.

I hope everyone had an incredible weekend, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

My Precioussss… #WurmOnline

Aside from exploring, one of my favorite things to do in Wurm Online is pillage. Don’t get me wrong, we’re not talking about stealing here, stealing is wrong. If you’re playing on the Freedom servers and you have to bash down a wall to get at something, you probably shouldn’t. Sure, there are technicalities that you can get around (you can technically bash down a fence if it’s not secured in a proper enclosure with at least a 1×1 house in plain view) but I prefer not to have to find loopholes in order to find treasure. Causing intentional grief to a player is never my idea of ‘fun’.

That doesn’t stop me from exploring and finding broken down ruins that have treasures just rotting away on the floor. Waste not, want not is one of Arkenor’s favorite sayings in alliance chat.

So it was that I found myself wandering, the sun had set and I stumbled into (quite literally) a broken down house. I noticed two forges, a coffin, a bsb, and a fsb. The forges provided me with 9 new frying pans which I eagerly claimed. Then my eyes settled on the coffin and the fsb. I’m always eager to collect more food stuff for myself (and the alts of course) and this one proved to be worth it. A few hundred cooked meat, some onions, and pumpkin enough to last me for a while. Turning my gaze to the coffin is where I found my greatest treasures. A handful of mid quality gems, and some very nice enchanted tools. I filled my large cart, took whatever I could in my inventory, and set out for home.

I repaired everything I took and was pleased that their quality was still excellent. I also found a container with 60 needles inside, they’re very easy to improve due to the small amount of iron they use, so I stored them safely away. It had been a while since I found such a treasure trove, some times I’m working on my own deed so much that I simply don’t have the time to wander off and explore. It’s always an exciting feeling to come back home with goodies. Deliverance is so small (and still relatively new) that finding treasures isn’t always that easy. I’m hoping for another cross server trip to see some new sights, I promised Moxie I’d come by and look at her Exodus deed, and I’d love to travel to Chaos some time. If only there were more hours in the day!

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

Rows of Fields, and a Lot of Dirt #WurmOnline

Yesterday was spent evening out my rows of farm. My farm still slopes and I love that, gives a great view from my house, but one end of the row would be 26 slopes from the other end, and that wasn’t going to do. Because I hit rock with 13 slopes still to go, I decided to raise the entire row. Thankfully I had some dirt stored up in my bsb and the extra I ‘borrowed’ from Moumix. I now have nice rows perfect for planting on. It used a lot more dirt than I had hoped, but I think it was worth it.

My Vynora priest has moved to the East Coast of Deliverance, a little deed called Kiyo. I split half of it with Moumix who has a non-priest there to handle the things my priest can’t do (like everything involving construction). The deed is cute, I’ve already got a little stone house to myself and some gardens to work on which is pretty much all my priest wanted aside from some trees and water. It’s a coastal deed, and the neighbours (so far) have been friendly. It feels a bit odd to be playing a character named ‘bigbadspell’ when my two other characters are Arysh and Stargrace, but because I purchased the character and there’s no rename ability, there’s not a lot I can do. A male character at that. Very little time (if any) is spent actually looking at my character so I don’t really mind. I’ll be posting screen shots of the little deed before too long, and I’ll probably make a video or two of the three places I spend most of my time at.

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