2016

Live Map and other Mods

stargrace April 27, 2016 2Comments

One of the neat benefits of Wurm Unlimited is that there’s an active mod community. Maybe not as large as some of the other communities out there, but they do a fantastic job. A lot of mods are server side, so unless you’re running a server you may not even notice that you’re using them. Some of the mods are client side, and while there are such mods that actually change how the game is played, those mods are typically not allowed by servers and the only mods that are allowed are visual mods that don’t change gameplay. One such mod is called Live Map. The map in Wurm Unlimited is a default one that shows “Ocrea”. If you’re using a custom map, chances are it will make no sense for you. Live map takes the in-game map and puts it into a mini window for you. It also works in mines, such as pictured above. The coloured marks are ore, the bright red square is me. The map moves around you, and you stay centered on the screen.

As you can tell by the dull red squares, I’ve uncovered a lot of ore. The black tile is slate, and the faint grey tile to the east is silver. I’m working my way towards some zinc, and then I think the only ores remaining are copper, gold, and marble (which isn’t an ore, I know). I finally reached 70 mining which means I can improve tools to that quality. Unfortunately out of all the ore I’ve uncovered, only one (so far) goes above 65 quality.

I also managed to reach 60 in natural substances – down side to that is I haven’t found a single source salt, which I need to make the leather working potions I have. I’m pretty surprised at how rare they are, then again I haven’t seen any hellhorses or hellhounds either, so I guess some things are just rare.

Since I’ve been working up mining I haven’t been working on the deed aside from working on the garlic fields and some animal husbandry. Now that my mining is 70 I imagine I’ll go back to working on the dock, I’m so close to leveling the portions I need and then I can get started on building. Do I have a vision yet on what I want to make? Nope. Not at all. I’m not sure if I want to plan it out in deedplanner or if I want to just wing it. We’ll just have to see.

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

Farming, Knarrs, and the Economy – Oh My

stargrace April 26, 2016 0Comment

Pictured above, me tending the garlic fields. My farming is only 35, but Maya has been busy with school so I’ve been tending the fields and harvesting garlic so I can use it. The upper field is now a combination of cotton and wemp, though I could still use more garlic – it’s important to have other things, too. I’ll get there eventually.

Yesterday I bought a knarr from Mara for 12 silver. I know I could just craft one (eventually) but there are so many other things that I want to do in game I just couldn’t be bothered. People keep saying that Sklotopolis doesn’t have much of an economy, but I find that it’s the complete opposite. You just have to be involved in the community and pay attention. There are always people looking for items in the trade channel as well as the market posts on the forums. If you’ve got something to sell or you want to buy something you really have to advertise it. People are not mind readers after all.

The knarr is great. It can sail at shallow depths which is what I really wanted it for, and it has fantastic storage capacity. I’ll need to get some large creates made for it, but then I can travel around to different hunting places or explore the server a bit more and at least I’ll have some space to put items. I’ve slowly been working on the dock. There’s just one corner left to dig to rock and then surface mine. Each tile is between 50-70 mining actions and I’ve had to dredge quite a bit to expose the rock but I’m getting there.

I haven’t found anything interesting in the mine yet, but then again I haven’t expanded it that much yet. There’s just too many other things that need to get done. Moumix and Maya have been doing amazing things to the top tier of the deed. Moumix has completed a kitchen / inn building, along with the first crafting building, and a natural substances building. Maya dug out two farm fields into the side of the mountain we’re perched on and she did a fantastic job getting the animal pets set up with hedges. It looks great.

As far as the dock goes, I still have absolutely no idea what I’m going to do as far as design goes. I’m thinking buildings and bridges attached to towers, on each end, with a Vynora colossus in the center.  Ship building could be in the buildings attached to the bridges, and boats could park in between the two towers, in front of the colossus. So far that vision is only in my mind, so we’ll see where it ends up going (if anywhere). The one issue I have is that just out from the dock in the water is a whole lot of clay. Clay means that I can’t extend the docks out very far – I think right now it’s a maximum of 4 tiles before I hit clay. We could transform all of that clay into dirt, but wow that’s a lot of potions. I’ll keep thinking about it in the meantime.

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

We’re Slaying Drakes

stargrace April 24, 2016 0Comment

50+ unique individuals gathered together today on the Sklotopolis server to slay a drake. It was awesome. I brought my main character along with my Fo priest to link up with the healer, Gatwick (my apologies if I spelled that wrong). Cennydd wished me luck, and secretly Mizova wished Melketh certain death. Corax wished the same, but knew that if Melketh went, he’d be next.

We lined up for pictures and screenshots, posing for the twitch TV channel that was being streamed by Devily. The dragon was just a hatchling, almost like a large dog, and was lead to the fight spot easily enough. We all swung our swords at it. Nothing happened. Not even a scratch.

So we swung harder, while laughing nervously to ourselves.

Again no damage showed up on the drake.

Melketh cast smite – and finally we saw some damage done to the creature. We cheered inwardly but it was short lived as the dragon healed a portion and then all damage stopped again. We continued to swing, pondering if the dragon difficulty would be too much for our group – and suddenly, the creature just keeled over and died right in front of us.

We were confused, we had no idea what happened. Could it have been lag? The announcements said we’d killed the creature fair and square, but little other details were given. Once the beast was dead, it was time for loot to be rolled on and distributed. As I thought, RNG was not my friend and I didn’t win anything at all. There were 7 full sets of drake, along with a partial set given out though. A rare bone, a skull, and the body of the drake completed the giveaways. Afterward I attempted to find my way back home and only got lost once.. or twice. It was a pretty eventful day and it was fantastic to see so many show up. It was the first time I had ever seen a blue drake before, and I hope everyone enjoyed themselves as much as I did.

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

Lets Get Back to Fun

stargrace April 22, 2016 1Comment

I’m tired of the debate regarding skill timers and what’s too fast or too slow. Last night there was a lot of discussion in GL-Freedom both for and against it, with most of the veteran players disliking the changes and the new players who haven’t experienced wurm online enjoying them. Either way no one is going to change their minds and it’s time to just move on and play the game and enjoy it. The devs have other things to worry about – like the PVP server that is currently in the works! That sounds pretty exciting.

I’m back to working on the dock. Have I mentioned that it’s taking a long time? Well, it is.

Oh! I did manage to reach 50 in butchering yesterday, and I also reached 50 in natural substances, which gives a neat apothecary title. I’ve never gotten that title before even on Wurm Online, so it’s completely new to me (and of course it’s the title I’m using). I also worked channeling up a fair amount and I’m finally able to cast CoC without exploding all the things. My casts are low, around 30 quality, but it’ll get better with time.

I sent my alt back to my other deed for a bit, mostly to make sure the wolves are still well supplied with meat, and check in on the horses. I can cast enchant grass now which I’ll fill my pens with so I can leave them for longer periods of time. I’d like to work on a bit of animal husbandry with the Fo alt over at my other deed, maybe I’ll get lucky and get a painted horse! Ideally I’d like a hell horse or two, but they’re impossible to find in the wild and only a small handful of people breed them or sell them. We’ll see in the future maybe.

Anyway, as always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself! Don’t forget to say hello to me, Stargrace, on the Sklotopolis server of Wurm Unlimited (you can find the game on steam).