Wurm Online

Playing Knee-Deep In The Sandbox #WurmOnline

stargrace June 13, 2012 1Comment

Pictured above, is Falkenstein Castle. I’ve managed to place a few flags (which I’m eventually going to dye, but at the moment I don’t have any access to dye components) and the outer walls are completed. Inside, things are moving along nicely. I’ve got a house started – it’s in an H formation, and is 13 tiles in total. This gives me a very nice 2×3 area for a ‘bedroom’ as well as another 2×3 area for crafting. I don’t need a lot of room as it’s just my Fo priest residing at the castle, so not a lot of crafting is going on.

My animal pens only need a few more tiles of enchanted grass and then those will also be taken care of. I’ve had two foals born, neither came with impressive traits, but it’s a start.

My main goal will be finishing the house, this prevents decay and I’m eager to at least add two beds to the building so that my characters can once more gain sleep bonus. Something I haven’t even seen since I took Arysh to Celebration. Along with the finer details of the deed I’m continuing with construction of a road up – Moumix was kind enough to lend a hand today with some surface mining, and the first three tiles can now be traveled by cart, which is a huge deal. I still have a ways to go, but cutting a road out into the stone is pretty neat.

It’s one of the aspects that appeals to me most about Wurm Online. Sure, it’s great to decorate a house in a video game and I’ve seen some amazing ones done over the years – but to decorate an entire plot of land (within the boundaries of the game of course) and to be able to physically adjust the terrain into a shape that you personally find pleasing, is amazing. To be able to take a mountain and level it (if you so choose) or to create an island in the middle of the ocean and then build a house upon it (or an entire city, if you want) these are things that players crave and are rarely given the opportunity to do.

It come with its own set backs, of course. Not even speaking of hardware limitations, but such sandbox play just leaves griefing right open. For example, there’s a player named ‘Oneangrykid’ who has taken to terrorizing the server of Celebration. He stole two large carts from my neighbours who had them hitched but not locked – if a large cart is on-deed and not locked, players can still ride them away. Keep it in mind and LOCK those carts. My neighbours were online when he took the carts, and they were in fact right close by, but because this player had the ability to take the carts, he did. Players tend to learn very quickly that it is not enough to simply purchase a deed to keep your things secure (even on Freedom servers, which are PvE not PvP) but you must lock every door, and make sure every setting on your deed management page is kept up to date. You have to practically interview your allies since there are deed settings for them, as well. Thankfully, I play with a wonderful group of people, and I’ve only had the barest brushes with griefing in game. I intend on keeping it that way.

Meanwhile, construction on Falkenstein Castle continues. My gold door was delivered, and I installed it. It looks amazing. I have another ‘Mad Lady Arysh’ story to post about that particular event, it should be coming later this week.

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

Mad Lady Arysh (Part II) #WurmOnline

stargrace June 7, 2012 0Comment

Across the mountain, construction still continues. The sounds of hammering and building last well into the night, and those passing by have drawn their eyes upwards towards the newly formed castle walls, wondering what could lay beyond them. There are rumors circulating, rumors of expensive lavish belongings being purchased. Flags, and banners of the finest silk, created by Master Tailor Yetian, renown for his work on Deliverance. An order has been placed for a mine door – but not any mine door would suit Lady Arysh, she demanded that this door be made from gold and shipped to the far shores of Deliverance.

It seems that only one type of creature dares venture near the castle walls these days, angry unicorns, who glare from beneath their wild manes, unused to having their land disturbed. All mountain lions, spiders, and wolves have vanished from the hill tops.

As you venture closer, you can make out a ‘pick pick pick’ sound, it echoes constantly, overlapping. You see no one, but a faint glimmer in the rock leads you to believe that someone still toils away. The base of the mountain seems to be changing shape. Flattening. Perhaps a road is in its future? One can only speculate…

Mad Lady Arysh (And Falkenstein Castle)

stargrace June 4, 2012 2Comments

Luck day, in week 3 of the Raven’s Starfall, in the year of 1023.

Perhaps you’ve heard the story of Mad Lady Arysh, and her ‘castle in the clouds’. But are you sure you’ve heard ALL of it? I write these words out to those who travel the lands of Wurm unaware, as a warning. Do not become seduced by the tales of heroes who walk the mountains to fight trolls and best goblins. Those who venture into Falkenstein Castle rarely come out – and this is why.

Not long ago, Lady Arysh resided on Deliverance. The Fo priestess seemed content there. She spent her days on a small deed called Darkpaw Harbor, and tended to her horses. She frequented the rest of Deliverance as well, casting courier when required, engaging in combat other times. Eventually she rose in power so much that she no longer required to combat everything that crossed her way.

She became bored. Unsatisfied. She paced the floors of her docks, looking out to sea with longing. At night it was rumored that any who traveled past her deed could hear her keening wails, echoing over the water. She began to talk to herself, whispered conversations with beings that no one else saw.

Eventually rumor traveled to her that there were new lands to explore known by the name of Celebration. In the dark of the night she packed all of her belongings into a corbita moored by the shore and left. She said nothing to any of her neighbours, and simply vanished into the night. When they wandered by her deed in the early morning all they could do was gape in astonishment. Horses she had spent months caring for dotted the lands, free from their pens. They shook their heads in wonder, but not surprise.

And while the story ends there for most, I know what happened next. What still goes on to this day. On the top of a mountain in Celebration, the voices are heard. Whispering frantically over the tree tops. Conversations while no one is around. Insistent ramblings and plans of buildings, roads.

Mad Lady Arysh (as she is known these days) waits for her Prince. Little of him is known. He captured her heart with his words years ago, though no one has ever claimed to see him. She demands an enormous castle be built in his honor, for when he returns. She fingers a closed locked clasped around her slim throat, her eyes wide and blood shot.

The building continues. There will be no rest. Whoever toils for her, toils from sun up until sun down, and then onward through the night. Working on this castle in the clouds.

Falkenstein Castle #WurmOnline

stargrace June 4, 2012 0Comment

I love castles, and I’ve always had a huge fascination with Ludwig II. My castle deed isn’t named very creatively, but it suits me and I’m excited about it. Pictured above was the beginning work on it. Flattening the mountain top so that I can build. Well. Moumix did a lot of the work. He flattened the portion that will be used for the castle, the portion that is green (and not flat in that picture) I changed so that I can use it for a pen for animals and field. Then there is another area that includes a maple tree lined cobble road, and it leads up to my mine. Eventually, I’d love a gold or silver mine door covering it, with bright flags along the hill. I have a perfect spot for a guard tower although getting the clay required up the hill will be a challenge. Eventually I’d like to build a 3 wide road leading right up to the castle. That will take a LOT of dirt though, and I’m not sure I have the patience for such a grand vision.

I love building new deeds in Wurm, almost as much as I love already-created ones (like Thorin’s Bay). It takes a lot of work and patience, but it’s very rewarding. I’ve done a lot of thinking to try to decide exactly what I want, and I’m hoping when multi story buildings come out my castle will be visible from the ground below.

I’ll be sure to post the progress pictures as things come along. As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Lost, Dead, and Deeded #WurmOnline

stargrace June 1, 2012 4Comments

It took the better part of a day, but I now have my 4th deed on the new Celebration server. That’s four deeds in total, not my fourth on that specific server. The deed faces a beautiful river, that eventually winds its way to the starter village of ‘Tap Dance’ – the mountains pictured above are actually deeded by Moumix, I’m on a circular island just across the water.

Starting from scratch has been interesting, a lot of things I forgot. Here’s how my day went. I arrived in Celebration, and turned East because I spotted a big island that way. Turns out I was not the only one, so I kept going. I found a really nice area that I was contemplating deeding, but I had taken over my weakest character, and Celebration is completely covered with very mean angry creatures. I tried to lure some away and failed. Died, spent an hour trying to walk back. There’s no map of this server yet so walking anywhere is a lot of guessing and me frantically sending screen shots to Moumix to figure out where I was. I managed to find my body (it helps that I stuck close to water) and to lessen my weight I dumped all of my tools into my boat. Then I continued exploring. I received a bad wound, and decided to bring my Fo priest over because she’s immune to most types of aggressive animals. I logged the alt with the bad wound out until the priest could arrive because the wound was getting worse.

Priest arrived, healed the alt, decided to poke around on the priest. Then I started to realize just how busy the East coast was, and it was deterring me from settling in that area. After some talking with Moumix and me drooling over screen shots of his massive mountain (which has copper!) I decided to sail over to the island across from him.

Of course, nothing is that simple. I loaded both characters into my sail boat, leaving the corbita behind. I got lost every step of the way, and a few hours later FINALLY had Moumix come out and rescue me, and show me where this island was. I wandered around, and fell in love with the quaint little area. It makes for a nice little country home that’s relatively flat and doesn’t require much terraforming. I haven’t decided what all I want to do with it yet.

I started to get to work – and then realized that all of my tools were way back on the corbita that I had abandoned earlier. So I sailed back to get them after placing my deed. Then I decided to take the Fo priest back home to Deliverance to care for her animals, and leave the alt at the new deed. It was a really quick sail back, the wind was on my side (for once). Once I made it all the way back to Deliverance, I realized that my Fo priest was the mayor of the deed and I had not set permissions for my alt to do anything.

GAH.

So. I spent three hours sailing BACK to Celebration, against the wind, to give those permissions to the alt (and to make her mayor in 24 hours). I had just enough time to make a pen for some animals I found (a pregnant horse and 1 bull / 1 cow so far) and start a large cart.

Welcome to Celebration!