2017

Making Affinity Meals for One

Ever since cooking was introduced to Wurm Unlimited I have been obsessed with collecting as many recipes as I can – and figuring out what food granted me what affinity. As time went on I learned that this would be a lot more difficult than I thought because there are a ton of variables and it’s not quite so simple. The first thing I learned is that if you substitute any one ingredient in the list you altered the affinity buff it granted. If you used a chopped carrot instead of a tomato, or added a different type of grain you’d see a different result even though the meal may end up the same.

Then I learned that it varies depending on who cooks the meal, too. So you can’t just copy a recipe from someone else unless you’re going to have them making your meals for the rest of your life. A nice idea in theory, but not very practical.

I spent most of yesterday playing around with different meals trying to create a complicated base meal and then figuring out what my character ID was so that I could match it to the key list of available affinity. The whole basis for this was to create a semi-complicated meal that would grant me any buff that I wanted and have that buff last for at least an hour. In order to really accomplish this I need to get my cooking skills higher. Yesterday I reached 50 (yay new title) and I’m hoping to grind my way to 70-80 this week or next. It depends on how busy real life gets, lately all I have time for is standing around AFK.

I managed to improve all of my cooking tools to 80 (I could get them to 90 but it takes forever) and next I’ll need to improve the stone ones. I haven’t worked up pottery, but I really should. My oven doesn’t stay lit nearly as long as my forges even though it’s the same quality, and that bugs me. It seems like I’m constantly re-fulling it.

My list of recipes continues to grow. I am getting close to 200 learned recipes, a lot of those are drinks. Drinks also grant affinity, but I have no idea how that process works as far as finding out what drink grants what affinity. It’s enough that I’ve managed to figure out meals I suppose. I also spent some time making coal piles yesterday and transmuting some grass to peat, but I’ll get into that more in another post.

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

If I didn’t have Bad Luck, I’d have No Luck at All..

It never fails.

I spend a day or two working on my own tools, improving them to 90, creating ones I’m missing and I don’t get a single rare (or above) roll. I don’t even pretend to look for them any more because it just doesn’t happen. Today was just like that. Moumix then put in a trowel of his in my forge to improve since he’s been working on the walls of Sybaris and BAM – I turned it supreme on the first action.

The only thing I’ve ever made supreme in my entire WO / WU time is a forge (which I absolutely love, don’t get me wrong). Of course after a day of creating tools to sell / improving my own tools I would happen to turn the ONE item I was improving for a friend supreme. THAT is my luck in Wurm Unlimited. I am lucky for everyone – except myself.

It’s not a bad thing I suppose. At least I’m lucky at something.

I re-stocked my merchants at Haven (I sell cooking recipes on one merchant and I sell rares & enchanted tools on another). I think I’m up to 40 silver of items sold now – and I’ve spent all of it on armour and other tools. I don’t sell a lot (it takes weeks for me to run out of stock) but it’s a little bit of pocket change here and there that really helps me out over time. Creating colossus for players is a great way to make some extra cash but it has been a bit of a lull lately.

There are a small tiny handful of people on Sklotopolis who rub me the wrong way but for the most part I get along with everyone and I don’t mind helping out where I can. I helped convert Reko to a Magnaron priest (and before that a follower) with my alt, and I lent another player a few silver so they could purchase a hell horse (fantastic animals for traveling the server). I like to help, and there are certainly people who have helped me out over the last year so it’s only fair that I return the favour. My mailbox was enchanted to 93 for no cost, and some horses were returned to me after my time away. I know if I need help with something I can call on folks to be there. It’s a nice feeling and one of the reasons why community in Wurm is so important. But, like I said above, sometimes a person comes along who just rubs me the wrong way. You can’t get along with everyone after all (even if you try). Usually these types of people are trolls who are purposely causing drama that I just don’t have the patience for. Sometimes it’s just a misunderstanding and all is well after things are cleared up. In both cases talking things out like mature adults is a good way to go about a resolution. Sometimes it just requires you to simply ignore the offender.

I better get back to improving someone else’ tools so that I can turn theirs supreme (or fantastic? I’ve never made anything fantastic before) because I know it won’t be one of my own tools at this rate.

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

Temple of Three and Server Events

I’ve been revamping my deed on Sklotopolis, and yesterday I finished the outside of the Temple of Three building that I had been working on. I used a bridge as an arch over the doorway, and the entire thing is made of stone. There’s a rare rock slab in front of the door on the ground with a meditation rug on top, just to give it a little flare. The inside is filled with enchanted grass at the moment because this area used to be my pens, and I’ve enchanted all the altars so my priests have a place to hang out. A large magic chest with some food, and a barrel with some water, and everyone is set. I haven’t finished my craft hall yet (still needs a second floor and a roof) but I’m out of rock shards so that will have to come first. I’ve also been thinking about mining a tunnel from Quail Ridge to Dwarf Fortress. It would be quite large, but could be a fun project. Something to think about in any case.

There are a few events coming up on the server that I’m pretty excited about. The first one is a PVP Hunger Game type event. It happens next Saturday, and I’ve signed up to participate. I’m a bit worried about people using some mods that will give them a hefty advantage in finding the key to unlock a chest and grant them gear – but the prizes that are given out are random to participants, so at least it’s not a big deal if I come in last place (which I probably will). It should be a good time for everyone.

The next event is still being decided on as far as dates go and includes a double feature of dragon killing. One is a hatchling (drops drake hide) and the second one is a full grown dragon, drops scale. I’ve never actually won anything from the events that go on, but maybe my luck will change and I’ll get a chance at some dragon armor. Then again, knowing my luck, nothing will come of it. I’m expecting a huge turn out from everyone on the server, it’s usually a fantastic way to get people together. The date for that one hasn’t been decided yet, but it looks like it will also happen on Saturday. We’ll just have to see. Next weekend is also Easter, so there’s some family stuff going on as it will be my little guy’s first.

Busy? Yes. Things are busy, but always having something to do in game is not a bad thing by any means. If you’re playing Wurm Unlimited don’t forget to stop by the Sklotopolis server and say hello! I’m typically there as Stargrace, and you really won’t find a better server out there.

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

Lots and LOTS of mining

Boat tunnels are pretty important things in Wurm Online – and the same is true when it comes to Wurm Unlimited. My alliance has been working on a boat tunnel for the past little while and I decided to go and help mine out some of the veins located in the way of the tunnel. I picked iron to start with since I can always use iron, 93 quality. My pickaxe is a glimmersteel rare pickaxe so I get ore 1ql above my mining level (and the level of the ore node). 91 mining is where I was at when I started and by the end of the first day I was at 92. Getting one point a day is pretty impressive for me. I also managed to walk away with:

  • 5900 ore
  • 7 rare ore
  • 1 supreme ore
  • 2 gems
  • 2 moon metals

Not a bad haul! Especially since in my own mine I’m not nearly as lucky, some days I can mine vein after vein and never see a single rare, let alone 7 of them. I put them up on my merchant for now (if they don’t sell I can always try to create something from them like a pickaxe head) and re-stocked my recipe merchant.

I’m sitting at 174 learned recipes (besides the default ones that we all start with) which is still a far cry from the total amount available, but it’s a good start. I’ve been offering to trade recipes with people for ones that I don’t have, or buy ones that I don’t have. I’ve got a merchant set up with a full inventory of ones I’ve created and they’ve been selling slowly (10c each, not a huge amount. It’s mostly to cover the cost of making paper and dye).

I started working on my Temple of Three. Most of the building is completed aside from the front. I built three altars inside and blessed them with each of my priests so now everyone has a place to hang out. I improved the Vynora altar to about 50, but I have plans to take it to at least 80. I’ll need to raise my JC skill a bit for that but it will come with time.

I’ve completely re-worked Quail Ridge over the past few weeks. When I expanded it needed to be flattened, and then I removed all of the stone walls surrounding the old deed to give it a more open feel. I removed half of the indoor horse pens and created my temple there, then created pens outside for the unicorns and hell horses. Since I rarely use regular horses these days there was no need to have so many. I also removed most of the indoor fields and pens that I had. I moved the cows and sheep to maple hedge pens I created along the back of the expansion. I also moved fields out there (garlic and wemp for now). I still have a field next to my farm house for food items that I commonly use, and my herbs are growing well. All in all, it has been pretty productive lately!

RimWorld – Hardcore SK Mod

A lot of the best (in my opinion) RimWorld mods don’t come from the steam workshop (although that is the easiest way of getting mods) but come from players outside of steam. One pack of mods that I’ve been playing with lately is called Hardcore SK. It has got an insane amount of mods built into the pack, and it completely changes gameplay (while leaving the core game intact).

I have heard that there are some issues if you play in the default storymodes that are offered, so I swapped mine over to one of the new ones (and not the one that involved magma leakage.. if you’ve ever played Hardcore SK you know which one I’m talking about).

I started out with one colonist since that was the way I was used to playing – but quickly learned that there was just SO MUCH to do. I ended up restarting the game with a different collection of colonists, three this time. I learned starting out with three was just as difficult as starting out with one, but for a different reason. Food.

Food for one person is pretty easy to come by while you’re working on other things. Food for three people while they’re all trying to establish their base is annoying. Especially if you don’t have a base to speak of and wile animals keep eating your food, or your random_animal_01 (in my case, a cat) eats the hard earned meat you have just accumulated.

Thankfully there was a “house” on my map (I use the term loosely) so I was able to build a quick roof, and get some beds made up along with a storage pile or two.

Then two of my colonists caught the flu. Viruses and sicknesses can travel through mosquito in this version of the game, pretty detailed but very annoying. So now my three colonists are temporarily down to two – and it looks like one isn’t healing very quickly, and probably won’t be able to get over her flu which will drop me down to two before the first month is up.

If you’re used to how things are done in RimWorld and have experimented with a few of the basic mod packs but are looking for a little more depth, I HIGHLY suggest you check this one out. Keep in mind it does completely change how you play the game, so if you’re set on loading up a world and playing it exactly as you would play a basic world you may grow pretty frustrated.

Crops for example. You need to research them before you can plant them and you need seeds, first. Seeds are expensive if you purchase them from traders, and it’s rare to find the ones you actually want as you go harvesting. You need to research a LOT of things before you’ll be useful, all while trying to survive the random events going on.

There are a ton of things to harvest and pillage on the map, make use of them and spend some time deconstructing. You need bricks, planks, and other odds and ends that you can’t make right off the bat. There’s also hygiene in this version of the game. You’ll need an outhouse along with a wash basin. Waste fills up and has to go somewhere, so keep that in mind.

Colonists are given a whole slew of new traits, ranging from things like DIY enthusiast to well endowed. It gives the game a ton of flavour, and the replayability is fantastic. I’ve only been using the mod for a day or two now and while it was a bit difficult to get started and not to be so set in my steam workshop ways, it has been an absolute blast.

What are some of your favourite RimWorld mod packs? Let me know in comments, and as always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Nomadic Gamer