April 2017

Learning More about Runes

stargrace April 25, 2017 No Comments

A lot of things in Wurm are learned through trial and error. Sure you could go digging through the code to learn all the ins and outs of a particular system, but it’s much more fun and interesting to figure it all out in-game.

One of the things I know pretty much nothing about (hey, after 10 years those moments are further and further between) is runes. Runes are a newer addition. There’s a wurmpedia entry on them but they’re not very specific.

So yesterday I made a handful of runes with the rift materials I had obtained and those that were given to me. I learned a few things. First of all, the ones that grant capacity do not actually work on bulk storage bins or crates. I’m not sure if this is specific to my server or if it doesn’t work on any of these items in the real world, there’s no notes.

Second, the ‘glow’ you obtain from some runes doesn’t work on some items. Like kingdom specific wagons. Wish I had of known that one before I applied it.

Anyone can create and apply any rune – but if it’s a rune outside of your deity the chances of creation are typically lower, as are the chances of apply that rune (or so I have found with my personal experiments). So as a priest of Vynora I stuck to those ones. I did create one Magnaron rune but my chance at creation was pretty low and the application of the rune itself was not even worth it.

Not all the runes failed. I didn’t get the glow or expanded volume, but I did get two rarity bonus chances on some tools, and I reduced the damage and fuel cost of my supreme forge. Nothing game breaking or earth shattering there but it’s just a little convenience. I was trying to purchase a few extra rift items, but after an hour or two of advertising someone started to buy them for a full silver more than I was (I offered 2s per piece) and I just can’t compete with that.

So I swapped over to work on weapon smithing. I’m inching my way to 90, right now I just past the 84 mark. I figure I’ll create a bunch of weapons, get them to 90, and then enchant them with animal demise, nimbleness, life transfer, and mind stealer. Whatever else I can fit on them at that point (I think maybe circle of cunning stacks too? I’d have to consult my chart) and try to get those casts as high as I can. Maybe that’ll help bring in a bit more cash. My casts have been doing pretty good as of late, but my Fo priests have been sorely neglected. Since I stream Wurm from my PC to my MacBook I can’t play multiple accounts, I haven’t figured out a way to share the screen from my PC to my MacBook – I know it’s possible, but I haven’t looked into it at all. So for now I just stream (via steam) from one account at a time.

Anyway, enough rambling. I hope everyone is enjoying their week so far and that life is good. Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Double Blue Slaying

stargrace April 24, 2017 No Comments

Ah. The majestic blue dragon. We were lucky enough to have both a blue dragon, and a blue dragon hatchling spawn just before Easter Weekend. We already had an event that weekend so most people opted to hold this one on the next weekend so there was a bit of a break between events.

Because it would be a double dragon slaying I knew right away tons of people would show up – and they did. We had 74 unique people (not including alts) log in for the occasion, combine that with alts, and it was a huge amount. It was awesome.

The first dragon went down really quick. So quick you might have blinked and missed it.

The hatchling, however, was another matter. It was tough, took time, we had to focus.

Some people were a bit more (annoyingly) enthusiastic than others. Times like those I’m happy for the ignore function. Other times I can just tune them out. Even though I love the server (and trust me, I do) there are still those select few who rub me the wrong way for whatever reason. In my years of playing Wurm I’ve found it’s just easier to not associate with those who rub you the wrong way, and just move on and play the game how you enjoy it. If you spend time nitpicking over every single little person / action you’ll never have time to enjoy yourself.

As always, my luck held true and I didn’t win anything. I’ve been on Sklotopolis since April of last year and my luck has remained in this stagnant pool. I still had an amazing time though and that’s what matters. Plus I know some very kind people. Tomservo gave me his rift items, and in return I decided to send him my scale. Ogur (my husband) gave me rift items, scale, hide, and the blood for fletching potions. Moumix also gave me his bit of scale, and I sent that to Tomservo because he’s trying to make a set. I’m really happy with my adamantine, so even if I never get a leather or plate dragon set I don’t feel too bad.

A lot of newer players showed up and walked away with rewards. It’s always nice to see them have such a great time, but also makes me feel a bit sad for veterans who dedicate themselves to the server. Still, the population of Sklotopolis is thriving and I like seeing people excited for events. It encourages them to log in, and gives them something to look forward to.

So these rift items that were given out allow us to create runes (and Rift beer, yum) that can be applied to various items. I’m still learning about them, there’s not a lot of detailed information on the forums. Sure, there’s information on how to craft them but how the runes actually work is another matter. The combines are quite difficult, you have a chance at failure and it will use up a small portion of the rift item. They can be combined together, but .18 isn’t going to get you a rune made, so you’re left with bits of odds and ends.

I created one that I attached to my wagon hoping for a light glow (as advertised) but it turns out they don’t work on the Kingdom specific wagons. Lesson learned. I also couldn’t put a volume increased rune on a bulk storage bin. Ah well. It will take some trial and error to figure out what the best runes are for my personal game play style. I also attached a 10% increase chance at rarity rune on my small anvil. I use it a ton, and maybe one of these days when I’m improving it, it will go rare.

Of course with my luck it will shatter, and the anvil I’m improving for someone else will go rare.

C’est la vie!

Magical Moonshine

stargrace April 22, 2017 No Comments

I recently made a batch of moonshine and then combined that with a supreme recipe (that gives a bonus to the affinity buff you get, greater than regular affinity buffs) and was incredibly pleased when my 30ql drink lasted 15 hours. I lucked out further when the meal I added it to gave me channeling as my affinity. I ate a tiny portion of the meal and had 16 hours of buffs.

How did I make the miracle moonshine?

• Grab your trusty cauldron and place 1 of each grain type in it.
• Get 3 of each vegetable (there’s 10 veggies, leave off rice)
• Mash and chop each veggie so you have 1 mashed 1 chopped 1 plain of each type
• Fry (in a frying pan), roast (in a roasting dish), fire roast (cook in a campfire, no container) the veggies so you have 1 of each veggie at each stage. It doesn’t matter where you put the mashed / chopped / plain, so long as you have (as an example) 1 frying pan 1 roasted 1 fire roasted corn etc, you’re good.
• Put all of those veggies into your cauldron
• add sugar
• add water
• cook in an oven

You’ll need to ferment and distill your moonshine (this should make a huge batch)  and then you can add it to recipes that use moonshine. I picked Billy Sheep Gruff Stew because it’s a Supreme recipe – and according to the cooking document that’ll have better CCFP values and longer temporary buffs. Regular moonshine gives me an affinity in toys (meh) but add it to a combination of ingredients from Billy Sheep Gruff Stew and I get channeling.

Perfect.

While I was working away on my moonshine I realized that my kitchen building was really too small to house all of the items from the latest patch (wine racks, plant racks, barrel racks, stills, and the four ovens I created to level up my hot food cooking) so I decided to create a winery building in my mine, and I moved all of the alcoholic drinks out to the cellar along with the stills and other odds and ends (a bsb for wood scraps, pegs, and other necessities). This left me with more room in my kitchen, and it just looks better over all.

Speaking of looking better I finally finished my new crafting hall. I built a second floor over the arched forge portion and then removed that floor so that I have nice tall ceilings that don’t cut the forges off. I have grapes planted around the outside along the walls in a trellis, and the effect is quite nice if I do say so myself. Quail Ridge is basically done as far as construction goes. I’ve got a few more trees to plant in the orchard, but won’t be adding any more buildings. I also started mining a tunnel from Quail Ridge to Dwarf Fortress (which I will be renaming to Quail Keep). The tunnel goes straight North then turns East, and while I have run into a few ore blocking my way it hasn’t been too bad to get around them. The tunnel is about 400 tiles long, and I’m about 1/3rd of the way done mining it. Then will come the fun (not so fun) part of reinforcing the walls and floor. We’ll see how long that takes me.

It’s nice to have a straight clear path between my deeds. Normally I’d have to take roads or try to move my way through some mountains in the steppe. Doable, but a nice flat road works much better, and this way I’m not destroying any of the topography or ruining hunting grounds with a road.

I haven’t decided what else I’ll do with Quail Keep yet, I’d like an underground city but we’ll see. Then there’s also Quail Cove to work on. Three deeds in total. Quail Cove is my newest acquisition and is a coastal deed.  Sybaris is also costal but owned by Moumix, so I thought I’d deed one of my own. It’s located a bit away from the other two places but still in the Southern part of the map.

It should give me plenty to do, if nothing else.

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

Easter on Sklotopolis

stargrace April 20, 2017 No Comments

I know not everyone is a fan of real life holidays making an appearance in their MMORPGs but I happen to enjoy them quite a bit, whether they follow the footsteps of real life holidays, or they’re completely made up new ones. Last weekend was Easter, and that meant the GMs of Sklotopolis got together and offered the players some fantastic events – and I had an absolute blast.

First, there is the foraged Easter Egg that you can find. If you’ve ever played regular Wurm Online you may remember this item. You forage around in the ground, find your egg, and then place it somewhere to decay (on deed unless you hide it really well..) eventually out pops something useless like cheese, or flint. If you’re lucky you may get a gem.

The Easter Bunny also made an appearance. This is a mob players can hunt and (gulp) kill, then butcher. You can make a gravestone out of their corpse, and sure it’s a bit morbid, but listening to the eerie laughter of this creature as you’re out hunting is a bit spooky. I’m pretty sure he had it coming.

Finally, we had an amazing Easter egg hunt set up in Haven, one of the starter towns. 10 eggs were hidden around the area for players to find. You right click and select ‘grab’ and inside were all sorts of treasures ranging from silver, to supreme fireworks. It was fantastic. Some of those eggs were pretty tricky to find, too! The egg hunt lasts until tomorrow (Friday, April 21st) so if you haven’t logged in yet to take part I highly suggest finding the time.

These events (as well as the many others I’ve written about) are just some of what make Sklotopolis so special. It’s more than just a server, it’s an active community with a great range of people.

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