Wurm Online

Lots has Changed #WurmOnline

stargrace July 15, 2013 0Comment

Even though I typically spend my summer months bouncing from game to game, that hasn’t really happened this year. Well, I suppose in a manner of speaking it has. I tried Rift again and just couldn’t get as involved in the game as I wanted. I tried GW2, same thing. Eventually I found myself back with the games I’ve been playing steadily for the past few months. A bit odd, for this nomadic gamer. As long as I’m having fun it doesn’t matter much.

The MMOs that I find myself in more often than not are Wurm Online and EverQuest (that’s right, the first one). Nothing else seems to appeal to me. For single player games I’m sticking with Animal Crossing: New Leaf, and Sims 3.

So lets talk about Wurm Online. A LOT has changed in-game. In fact so much has changed that it would be impossible for me to name it all, so your best bet to get caught up to date would be to browse a few pages of their Tumblr account. There’s even mention of a kickstarter that will be starting up in a bit. Update 1.1 came out not that long ago, and since then there have been a lot of little bug fixes and some content updates (much needed ones, might I add). Some of my favorite updates include new tree types, new visible barding, the overhaul of the UI, and new items added like flower pots and flower boxes. So what have I been up to?

I still own two deeds, one on Deliverance (Caribou Trails) and one on Exodus (Les Reveurs). Each one has a trader, and I use this trader to pay for both deeds & my alt account. I paid for a year of premium for my main character just before the price went up (which I still dislike, but of course who is ever going to say they enjoy a price increase). The Deliverance deed is “completed” so my Vynora priest resides there, planting trees and breeding 5-speed horses. Things are usually quiet unless some adventurer has come by and starts trying to take things that belong to me or building weird fences against my perimeter. Thankfully there are still rules in place against that sort of thing.

The deed on Exodus on the other hand still has a lot of work to be done. It’s a huge deed and I wish I could expand it another 2 tiles forward and backward. Sadly I’m boxed in at the moment so unless the deed behind me falls I won’t be able to expand. I have a building that’s partially on my perimeter that holds my trader, there was no other location where I could have put it because they need to be a specific distance apart from one another. I’d like to build another house in the center area, as well as a farm. There’s a large tree farm I’ve started on the opposite side, and a never ending amount of mining that needs to be done. Especially since I could use more bricks. Always more bricks. Mortar too, but that will have to wait. I do also have horses at the Exodus deed, but no other animals aside from that.

One day I logged in to find a portion of my wall had mysteriously vanished. I’m not sure if a troll knocked it down or what happened, but I wasn’t too pleased. I patched it back up and hopefully the rest of the walls stay put. There’s more than enough upkeep to go around so things shouldn’t be falling down.

I wish I could explain why the game appeals to me so much. I suppose it’s simply the idea that players create absolutely everything by hand, and it takes a LOT of time – but not too much time as there are still things you can do from the start. Ah well, in any case, I’m looking forward to continuing the work on each deed and I find it a very relaxing way to spend a few hours.

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

Postponed Patches, and Market Visits #WurmOnline

stargrace June 18, 2013 0Comment

I was looking forward to the big summer patch coming out today, but alas it has been postponed due to some ATI graphic rendering issues that the dev team is trying to figure out. Of course I would always much rather a patch be postponed instead of inflicting massive bugs upon a player base, so I’m not too heartbroken over this.

Yesterday I made my way to the south coast of Exodus to set up a merchant at one of the markets down there. I had heard from players that this was one of the more popular Exodus markets, but the server has a handful of them, so I’m not really sure. So far I haven’t sold anything yet, but it hasn’t been that long and I honestly have no idea how many people actually shop there.

My merchant on Deliverance on the other hand does quite well. I’ve made 16s this month from selling my items, and the market really doesn’t have that much (if any) competition, so everyone uses it. I believe another market may be opening to the East, but I’m not certain on that.

I’m pretty excited about the patch tomorrow. I’ve started remodeling some of my homes from wood to stone (I prefer the look) and I’m eager to test out the new fence models. I have a feeling that mortar and brick will be as popular as ever in regards to sales. I’ve neer purchased bulk goods like that before, but I always see people looking for them.

I moved Arysh back to Deliverance where she now holds the writ papers to Caribou Trails, and can watch over the animals. That does mean that Stargrace over on Exodus no longer has someone to provide her with meals nor can she examin the animals herself, but I figure I should get those skills on my main character before too long. I may let the Vynora lapse for a bit in subscription, while I work on other things.

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

Summer Update Incoming #WurmOnline

stargrace June 14, 2013 0Comment

There are some really amazing updates coming out soon, Tuesday June 18th to be exact. This is posted from the Wurm Online Tumblr.

Wurm V1.1 Summer Update Release Next Week

We’re very happy to tell you that our Summer Update which brings Wurm to version 1.1 will be released on Tuesday 18th June.

What’s coming in the Summer Update?

One of our main projects for this update has been to make a number of performance enhancements, mainly to the game client. This should mean that graphics cards will be used more effectively to improve frame rates and overall performance. We’ve also tried to fix as many bugs as possible.

We’re adding a number of new features to the game, including the ability to build house extensions, new fence types, learn mystical powers to become a powerful sorcerer, and several others including an overhaul of the foraging and botanising system.

We have also made some changes to graphics and user interface. These include an update to a number of creature models and animations, a paper-doll window for equipping armour, icons for climbing, lawful etc. and inventory grouping among other improvements.

We’re also very glad to announce that our new in-game music will be released. We’ll let you know more about that soon.

Overall, this summer update has been the result of work from across all areas of the team since we hit 1.0 last December. Some of the changes are quite small, but there are many of them. Others are very exciting and add new depth and accessibility to the game and we’re really excited to see how you use them.

We really hope you enjoy this next release of Wurm Online as much as we have enjoyed developing it for you. Happy Wurming!

Yours Sincerely,
Rolf and the team behind Wurm Online

Don’t forget to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for regular updates! There’s also our Team Blog.

P.S. In case you haven’t seen it yet, here’s a condensed featurelist for v1.1:

• Client Performance Upgrades
• An All-New Mystic Powers and Karma System
• More New Creature Models
• Re-Work of the Epic Endgames
• Kingdom Tabards (worn on the body)
• Cross-Server Chat
• New Fence Types
• Flower Beds and Flower Pots
• Gravestones
• New “Analyse” on Rock Ores
• Foraging and Botanizing Overhaul
• Modify Existing Structures
• New In-Game Music
• GUI: Addition of a Drag and Drop “Paperdoll”
• GUI: New icons for climbing, faithful etc
• Inventory Grouping
• In-game Skill Tracker
• Diagonal Roads
• Falling Tree Animations

P.P.S. There will also be a slight change to the farming mechanic. There will now be more factors affecting crop yield, including seed ql, rake ql and the rarity of everything involved. In theory, someone with only 1 farming skill could potentially achieve a yield of 4 crops. Also, you will continue to always harvest more than 0 crops.

Moving to Exodus #WurmOnline

stargrace June 6, 2013 0Comment

After two years on Deliverance I decided it was time for a bit of a change. I love the server but it’s quite small and after so much time there I’ve gotten to know the layout of the land quite well. I spotted a deed for sale on Exodus, a server that is about a 5 minute sail from my current Deliverance deed. The price was quite low, and it came with a few bits and bobs on deed although it doesn’t have a trader like I wish it had, it’s a nice place. Of course there was some drama before I could actually take over the deed but I was aware that the two players I was purchasing from are known for this sort of thing. It was sorted without too much pain, and now I am a proud owner of a second deed once more. I’ll be keeping the Deliverance deed simply because it has a trader that I want to take advantage of, but for the most part I expect that I’ll be living on Exodus full time.

One of the main reasons I wanted to move as I mentioned above is that I love to explore, and I feel that I know Deliverance quite well now. Exodus is the same size map, but it’s also close to celebration where I lived for a few months back when the server opened and I’m right on the North West coast which means getting to Chaos is very simple. In fact the only server that is an enormous pain to get to is Independence, which I’m alright with.

I may try to sell one of my priest characters in order to afford a trader on Exodus, then both deeds are covered quite nicely. It’s not an uncommon thing to do, and honestly I was just using the character to collapse mine tunnels (which I no longer really have a reason for, as those mines are off-deed).

My first days on Exodus were spent making my new deed a ‘home’. I don’t like the look of birch trees so I cut them all down and replanted maple. There is a fence around the deed but part of it was a low iron fence and the other half a tall stone wall. So I took down a portion of the iron fence and replaced it with the tall wall. I placed some flags around the outside of the deed (horde of the summoned, which are a deep purple) and did some terraforming. There is a large empty section in the middle of the deed that I’m contemplating turning into a farm, and there’s a section with cattle that I think I’d like to remove because I have no real use for them. I’d rather breed horses since they’re useful and they provide leather like cows do.

Two of the guest houses were made from wood and I prefer stone, so I tore them down and turned it into one large cottage. I’m just finishing off the roof and then I can move on to the next project which is making use of a large open space in the center of the deed. I’m not sure what I want to do with it yet, but I’m sure I’ll come up with something.

I’m enjoying the new server so far. I think a change was exactly what I needed. As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Price Changes, and Progress on Mystic Cove #WurmOnline

stargrace May 8, 2013 1Comment

Despite a significant lack of posts, I am still playing Wurm Online. A few changes have happened that have left me less-than pleased with the game, but it happens. One of the first major things that has happened is that the price has risen. Wurm used to be $5 EU a month, which is about $6.57 a month. A fantastic price for an indie game. Because of that price I was able to subscribe more than one account, letting me have a main character and a handful of priests at any one time.

Since May 1st, the price has risen 60%, to $8 EU a month. This is $10.51 which is still an O.K. price for a single character – but I’m not going to pay for two or three accounts any longer. I don’t think the game is good enough to warrant such a huge increase in price. Yes, things have changed, there are animations now (that most people have to keep turned off due to incredible lag, that’s what comes with Wurm being a java based game), there’s many more newer graphics, there’s multi-story housing (which is still broken and not completed) and there’s been progress over the years. Personally, here’s my feelings on the matter.

Rolf added ‘traders’ to the game, way back when. These NPC can be farmed monthly for coin. The coin comes from what other players have paid into deeds and gets divided between all of the NPC and there’s other mathematical reasons on how a split is done but the end result is that for 50 silver you can purchase this NPC and “earn” 10-15 silver a month by stocking it with various goods. It takes work, it’s not necessarily “free” money  – but with a trader or two or three you can make back what you paid and then some within a few months. Then you never have to purchase a subscription or silver from the shop again. So Rolf gets his upfront cost of 50s but long term it’s just not enough. If everyone who milked traders was forced to come by their cash through the shop directly, Rolf would see a lot more income long term. Why he has sabotaged himself by allowing people to drain traders, I’ve no idea. I don’t blame people for using them, I have one of my own, but I still feel that it is this one major ‘flaw’ that is causing people to avoid the shop and paying for their subscription.

There have been many posts and arguments for and against traders, mine is just one. None of them are “right” per say, because we don’t know exact numbers, but I’m willing to bet far more people drain traders to pay for their character accounts and deeds than Rolf is making in purchases from them in the store. Aside from that initial cost which again is a short term solution.

Anyhow. Due to the price changes I decided to give up one of my deeds, and only keep Mystic Cove. I sold it for 55 silver, which is more than enough to keep Arysh (my second account) in business for a few months. That’s my Vynora priest. I paid for a year subscription just before the price raised on my main character, whether or not I’ll keep that subscription after it passes, I’m not sure. The sale was smooth and I’ve been having fun working on my main deed. Of course I do still have an incredible urge to go out and explore, so I expect before too long I’ll be making my way off-deed to see what trouble I can find.

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