Yesterday I dug out the graph paper and started sketching out my deed, while behind me my husband made snickering noises and whispered ‘nerd’ over my shoulder. I just grinned at him, I was having far too much fun. I quickly grew frustrated with the project, I’m no map maker, and a kind soul on twitter pointed me towards this 2D map making program, specifically for wurmonline. Pictured above, my deed so far, Darkpaw Harbor. The entire lot is situated up a slope, so it’s not quite as easy to simply build something as one would think. The 5 square house in the NE corner is my home, the southern home belongs to Petter. You can see where I’ve extended the dock to the West, and there’s my small field & animal pen to the far East. The program allows you to place objects such as ovens, forges, and food storage bins, along with household items like beds. You can place your fences, walls, and doors, and create every manor of terrain there is. The grey area represents my perimeter, which is a row 5 squares thick on each side of my deed. To the East, lives Katay. To the South is Yetian, West is the ocean, and my Northern boarder used to be a large beach area but I have very slowly been converting it to forest. Yesterday I covered an area that was 11 squares by 23 squares with dirt, and then I randomly planted 20+ sprouts in order to get the forest going. I can’t cover all of the sand because further past that area I have neighbours, but I did cover a fair amount. Have I mentioned how much I enjoy controlling how the land is shaped in wurm? Well, I love it.
Arkenor spoke some pretty wise words yesterday while we were in game. He told me that he disliked grinding skills, and he named off a few of his skills that are quite high – simply from playing the game. I agreed with him, the skills will come as you do things in game. I would rather work on what I think needs to be done than grind skills simply for the sake of grinding them. I’ve been working on clearing a small hill that is in my SE corner, I can’t currently flatten the land any more without working my digging skill. Instead of grinding that skill for the sake of grinding it, I went and collected clay (which works the skill) for future projects. I really do need to make a little list of objectives some time, my floor still needs finishing, I need to hunt for meat, and perhaps attempt to fish. I’d like to finish working the back portion of the deed, and the dock area, and eventually I’d like to make myself a boat and sale between servers. In specific I’d like to sail to independence so I can pick up my alt who has been stranded there since creation (before I knew what server everyone was playing on).
All in all, it’s been a pretty productive time in game! I’m looking forward to planning more of my deed and seeing more of the lands of wurm. It may be time for another tripe to the Steppe so I can try to find myself a male horse.
Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!