2023

Swords ‘n Magic and Stuff

A good friend of mine told me about this adorable little game they had been playing (early access) called Swords ‘n Magic and Stuff (you can find it on steam). I checked out the steam page and wasn’t immediately drawn to it because my plate is already quite full with games, but I decided that the price point was pretty good, and why shouldn’t I check it out for a bit.

Adorable, is the first word that comes to mind. There’s a few races to select, and then a tutorial of sorts to work your way through. You can play with friends, create your own server, or use one of the ‘official’ game ones (a lot like ARK). There’s combat, housing, farming, and a number of other systems in place – it is created by a very small team (I believe it’s basically a two person team), but the bits I’ve played so far have been very relaxing and fleshed out. There’s quests and exploration and it was just a really nice break from the other games I’ve been playing.

Big Plans

I know it’s really difficult to actually SEE anything in this picture, and honestly it feels like it’s always night time – but I swear, there’s a deed there. This is a picture of Quail Landing, my mainland deed that I created for access to highways and a place to drop off any pillage loot I happened to stumble across. I decided to take the village plan from deedplanner and create an enormous castle like city based loosely on another deed I had seen a screenshot of on the forums. I started out by using sandstone bricks and mortar that I had in stock already, and now I’m resupplying so I can continue. I’m excited about this project, I’ve never really designed deeds in Wurm Online before, and I think this one has the potential to be pretty interesting.

Last night there was a rift on the Independence server at around 7pm my time. Only 9 others showed up, but we managed to close the rift, and earned a nice handful of rift materials too. Rifts are every 9 days (approx) per server, and spawn around the same time that the previous one was closed. I probably won’t be able to attend the next rift as it happens fairly late my time, but it was nice to participate. I’m hoping to save up for a piece of rift jewelry, or maybe some shoulder pads.

My priest, Faralithe, is still over on the Deliverance server doing sermons. She has hit 70 faith, and I’m trying to stick around for as long as I can tolerate it so I can raise her faith as much as possible. Unfortunately my patience is pretty thin and I find it stressful to make sure I’m paying attention every 3h to complete my sermon. I think if she can reach around 80 faith that might be enough for me for now. I still keep hoping that some day my NFI character will be able to join my SFI character. I don’t even care about any of my tools or items. I just want to be able to make use of my Libila priest.

Next? I’ve been working on completing a light house over at Quail Cove! It’s magnificent, and I can’t wait to show off some screenshots of it. I’m currently working on the 4th floor, there will be a total of 8 floors. I’m going to add a marble brazier to the top, and once that’s completed I’ll take some screenshots. Fingers are crossed that it comes out looking as I’ve imagined.

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

Quail Cove – Lighthouse construction begins

It may not look like much yet, but the construction has started on my lighthouse! Moumix finished terraforming the top tier of my deed, hacking away at the mountainside until it was flat so I could build up there. I love having a bit more useable deed space, and I have to say I’m pretty excited about this structure. Sadly, it requires a LOT of bricks and mortar (20 bricks and 20 mortar per wall) but it will only be 8 floors high + roof, so it shouldn’t be too bad. I will post some screenshots once it’s fully completed.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

The What Ever Happened to – Wurm Online Edition

Moumix pointed out to me that I have a lot of Wurm Online posts that say I’m going to talk about abc123 in the future, and then I never do, or that I’m going to mention more about something (and then that falls through) so I decided to do an update post that basically talks about where I’m at with gaming in Wurm Online today.

First – there are two branches of islands, NFI (northern freedom islands) and SFI (southern freedom islands). The NFI were created with the steam release of the game, but you can play anywhere you want. They are not joined together at this point in time, so if you play on NFI, you cannot play with SFI and vice versa. I have characters on both clusters. Currently, on NFI, I have 100 faith Libila priest, Stargrazer, and a deed holder, Velours. They own a tiny island deed in the NW corner called Quail Landing, on the Cadence server. These characters are not currently active (they are, but I don’t play them) since I prefer the SFI islands.

On the SFI islands, my main is Stargrace. She owns Quail Landing, a deed on the mainland of Independence. Blesse, my 100 faith Vynora priest owns Quail Cove. A small comfortable deed that is mostly ‘completed’ as much as one ever completes anything in Wurm. Moumix, my deed mate, does all of the terraforming work, and most of the driving if we go anywhere (rifts, dragon slaying) since I can barely find my way off of the island. I also have a Fo priest, named Faralithe.

I’ve had all of these characters for many years but I tend to neglect them and I play Wurm in stages and phases. I’ve owned many other characters over the years but that was back when RMT was allowed, and I sold everyone / traded.

These days I focus on more end-game stuff. I love doing rifts, I’ve attended three public slayings (something I never thought I’d have an opportunity to do in Wurm Online) and I am trying to get better skills / tools / complete Quail Landing. I also want to pop over to Chaos to see what happened to my character who used to belong to MR. I have no idea how that works, does she migrate to the new PMK or does she have to re-join? I do know my tools and armor are staying home. All of them. Won’t make that mistake twice. Hopefully.

I know I talk about a lot of things and then forget about them, and I’ve done some really silly things over the past 12+ years I’ve been playing Wurm (yes, I sold a set of drake gear that belonged to Moumix when he took a break, that was probably the worst thing I’ve ever done, even if I was struggling IRL and I’m reminded of it all the time and I still feel horrible for it even after trying to make up for 10 years) but Wurm is one of those games that I absolutely adore and continue to play no matter what happens – the people I know and the friends I’ve made have been lovely. Except that Moumix guy. That guy is difficult.

Treasure Hunts

Treasure hunts are a relatively new (to me) activity. When your character is doing activities like farming, mining, and praying, there’s a small chance on a rare roll that you’ll stumble across a sealed container that contains a treasure map. It seems completely random, as does the quality of map that you’ll find. So far I’ve discovered close to 10 of these treasure maps, from the very simple easy ones to the more complicated insane ones.

On the more complicated end of things, there were five stages to the map and each one spawned a handful of ‘hidden’ creatures that ambushed me. NOT FUN. I do not have the best gear in Wurm Online, and these maps were HARD. The end result was some semi precious items, three sleep powder, and me licking my wounds a bit.

I have a lot of fun doing the easier maps, but they don’t always reward the best things. I’d consider them average – for me and the length of time it takes to complete them, I’m OK with that. They usually always include one sleep powder, a gem, and something like a 50ql pelt. One time I got a crab statue and that was pretty neat. We’ve had low quality chests reward rare bone fragments, so at least the low chests are not completely useless. In fact it could probably stand to use a bit less RNG.

I tend to sell my higher quality maps, since the combat really frustrates me. They’re currently going for around 3s each, since they come with 3 sleep powder and that’s the going rate. My deed mate Moumix is fantastic at completing these adventures, but I am still personally getting used to them and learning how to read the maps properly and learning what hints mean. I’m sure it’ll just take me a bit of time and I’ll be a professional treasure hunter in no time.

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

Nomadic Gamer