The Kindness of Strangers

stargrace November 7, 2015 0 Comments

[11/50]

For a few weekends now I’ve been taking my two priests (Oshi, Maivis) over to F26 on the Xanadu map for sermons. I leave them up for the entire weekend, and when it’s my turn, I run a sermon. If we have enough players (7 total, all have to be premium) my prayers get re-set from the 5-a-day limit, and I’m able to earn a bit more faith for the day. Otherwise, I just wait the 3h timer to sermon again. In order for sermons to work “properly” everyone should leave their characters online even when they have to go AFK. The characters don’t need to do anything, they just need to stand around. Unfortunately there are always a few who tend to log out right after their sermons. When you do that, it means the rest of the preachers (you can only preach every 30 minutes due to alignment gains) won’t get the gains from having you around.

When the sermons dipped below the .120 required for prayer re-sets, I sent them back home. On the forums the next day I received a message from the owner of the sermon deed, and she had an interesting proposition for me. She mentioned that her time in Wurm as of late has been strained, and that she was longing for other games. She didn’t want to see her two deeds fall into disuse (and thus become disbanded properties) so she was offering me two deeds completely free of charge, so long as I agreed to keep them running for as long as possible. One deed is the area where sermons have been held and there’s also a market in the same place, and the second deed is a maze that players can adventure through. Each place costs a few silver a month in upkeep, but are lovely locations that have a lot of history for the area.

I already own two of my own deeds, but I really dislike it when people leave (for whatever reason) and then seeing their deeds become disbanded. I get that it’s the nature of the game, but it still makes me sad. So, I agreed.

Maivis (my priest) would take over the sermon / market deed, and the mayor came with the deed to the maze, so there was nothing for me to do in that regard except make sure that there was enough upkeep paid to keep it running. No problem there. While I had three of my characters settled at the sermon location, a few more stopped by – enough for us to run weekend sermons with prayer resets.

Perfect!

It was completely unexpected, and I had no inclination that I’d be taking over these deeds. I’m thankful that the owner trusted me enough with her hard work, both places are beautiful. She also included a few champion pets, such as the wolf pictured above – I know it currently looks like a zombie, but that’s a left over effect from Halloween, and is actually a wolf.

The community is just part of the reason I love Wurm Online, and one of the major reasons I continue to play, even 6 years later.

Market Roads

stargrace November 2, 2015 0 Comments

The Rag and Bone Market (located on Xanadu at P22 for anyone who may want to stop by and place a merchant) is coming along nicely. There are market stalls up, an inn, pens for horses to be sold, a craft hall, a public mine, and other amenities. We’re also working on dredging the canal for larger ships, right now only knarr / sailboat depth boats can pass through. My next task was to join the market by road to a highway that runs North and South along the map. The highway is West of the market, a few hundred tiles away, through a desert and into the woods. It’s right beside a nice guard tower and travelers spot. I spent most of the weekend working on that road, flattening the path and then paving it. Then I went back and lined the cobblestone with gravel on either side, so that it’s three tiles wide and considered a ‘highway’. I can only place 1 sign every 24 hours if it’s off-deed, so I put one at the end of my new road that points towards the market and lets people know what direction it’s located at. I also added a fountain along the side of the highway so people can stop for drinks. I may eventually also plant a barrel in that spot and fill it will meals for travelers. I don’t actually know how many people use the highway, but I think it’s a great start.

In the meantime, my priests, Oshi and Maivis, have traveled to F25 of the Xanadu map. There they are participating in sermons that have been going on since July or so, in an attempt to raise their faith. Maivis (my Vynora priest) is sitting at 82.54 faith at the moment, and Oshi (my Nahjo priest) is at a quaint 61.61. I’m really trying to get Oshi to 70 so that he can cast genesis and strongwall, the two spells that I started a Nahjo priest for to begin with. There are enough others at the sermon that each time we preach the counter for prayers re-sets, so I’m getting quite a good gain. It should only take a week or two of preaching to reach 70, I’m hoping. A lot of that depends on who sticks around and how many are active listeners.

I’m hoping with the addition of the market, the area gets a bit more use. It’s on the East side of the server, so it’s close for those traveling from other servers. It’s not exactly coastal as it’s a mesh of waterways to get to our destination, but it’s accessible by the ocean which also helps a lot. There’s a ton of space in the area (which is the nature of Xanadu, the server size is gigantic) and it’s not too far away from Estron, one of the starter towns. Whether or not this attracts any new players we’ll just have to see.

I’ve seen a few new players coming to explore Wurm Online thanks to Wurm Unlimited. On that same note, I’ve seen a fair amount of older players selling their characters and leaving for Wurm Unlimited. I played Wurm Unlimited for a few days, but after my hard drive crashed (it had the server on it) I was once again reminded of why I prefer to play the MMO version of the game, and not the (much smaller) solo-esc version. There are just too many community aspects that I adore about the base model of the game. I’m hoping that Rolf doesn’t decide to terminate the MMO servers any time soon, and that the steam version of the game only enhances and adds to the support that the MMO version requires. I suppose only time will tell. I’ve seen my share of games shut down over the years and if that has taught me anything it’s that when you enjoy a game, you should play it. No matter what anyone else says about the game. I’ve enjoyed Wurm more than a lot of other games I’ve played, and I’ve come across a lot of naysayers over the years. None of this has ever bothered me, and I’ve always just continued doing my thing. Honestly it has been the best thing for me and as long as I enjoy playing, that’s what matters.

Anyone else have games out there that they enjoy playing, that perhaps the general populace does not enjoy? Did you continue to play it anyway?

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