Wurm Online

Building a Keep #WurmOnline

stargrace February 21, 2012 0Comment

With a little creativity in WurmOnline, players can create some interesting structures. My primary deed is a country cottage. There’s cobblestone paths, a little beach, a waterfront that’s got some trees and very little “build up” on the area. I have rows of gardens and fruit trees, and I’ve planted a lot of maple on the deed because they look fantastic. A little stone pen at the back for some horses and dogs that I’m currently breeding. In other words, the area isn’t that fancy and that’s quite intentional.

My neighbour to the East has decided to move on from Wurm, and they’ve left me their deed. I picked up the papers with Stargrace (my alt) and now own a property called “Fippy’s Keep” – which fits in well with the EQ1 motif that our little group has going on. The property doesn’t have much to it at the moment, two buildings, and three large fields. Half of a stone wall was built when I acquired it and I’ve decided to carry on with the idea that it will eventually become a keep. Yesterday I managed to complete one of the walls entirely, which took a lot of bricks. Trees, too. There are six gates to the deed, four of them face west (two of those lead to animal pens) one to the south, and one east.

Eventually I’d like to surround the entire deed with these walls, and from there continue to build inside. I haven’t quite decided how I want to go about this yet, the deed is an odd size, 13 by 41. The number of stone bricks that would take to cover the entire deed would be a huge amount. Each wall takes 20 bricks and there’s always a lot of failures. So I haven’t quite decided what I want to actually DO with the deed yet but at least I have some rough ideas.

I’ll be sure to keep posting my progress here, I’m anxious to see how it turns out!

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

How To Make Money in WurmOnline #WurmOnline

stargrace February 20, 2012 0Comment

The number one question I hear throughout any given day (besides how do I make a mallet)  is ‘how do I make money’. There’s only one get rich quick answer and that’s to buy your coins from the shop. Every other method of making money in WurmOnline requires skills, patience, or a lot of time. Still, there are ways so I thought I’d write about them.

1. Purchase in-game currency from the shop. The prices are reasonable and honestly if you’re going to go with a premium subscription (which I suggest) you could pay $10 EU a month, and have 5 silver every month to spend. Personally speaking, this is what I do for each of my accounts. I’ll be blunt, aside from my deed upkeep (1s 40c a month) I don’t have much need to purchase anything else. I spend the extra money to help support the economy in-game, I think it’s an important thing to do.

2. Advertise that you’re looking for work. This is (imo) the second easiest way to make money in Wurm. You need to advertise though. You can post on the forums that you’re currently looking for work, talk in kchat (also known as Freedom, if the tab is closed just /shout). There are typically people looking to hire. The tasks will be incredibly boring, it will be things like making bricks, and loading frying pans. If you’re lucky they’ll offer you a comfortable place on their deed for you to stay, maybe even some meals and or tools depending on what you’re going to be doing.

3. Sell high QL items to other players. This method of making money takes a LOT of work. You need to have high skills, maybe even a priest so you can enchant items. You’ll need to have an established deed or at least access to one. You’ll need to have a premium account so you can imp (improve) items. However, once you’ve reached this point it can be VERY rewarding. Players are always looking for things like tools, rope, boats, meditation rugs, armor, weapons, and other fancy items. Again advertising on the forums and in channels would give you a better audience, loading a merchant up within easy access is also important.

4. Sell in bulk. This one is a bit tricky. Players are almost always looking to buy dirt. Most want it transported to their deed and pay a handsome amount for it. You’ll need a boat to transport (in most cases) or at least a cart, and a lot of dirt. People who are making islands or doing a lot of terraforming are always interested in this. Again it’s about advertising and PATIENCE. Just because someone doesn’t snap up your offer the second you make it, doesn’t mean there’s no interest.

5. Purchase a trader (50 silver) and work the market. This method is the most complicated and one I wouldn’t attempt unless you’re ready to really get invested in the game. You’ll need a trader (note, this is different from a merchant) and you’ll need to keep them stocked with items that you sell as well as purchase from them in order to give them a good selling ratio. When the king gives out his funds your trader will acquire some, you sell items back to him for coin and ta da, money. Except it’s really not as simple as that. Number one if the trader is public others can use him and obtain any coin he has. Number two it’s really a math game, keeping his sell ratio up so he receives a generous cut. It’s time consuming, and you really ought to know what you’re doing. Plus there’s the fact that it costs 50 silver to purchase, and that’s not exactly chump change.

There are of course other ways to make money in-game, creative ways that you can think of to take advantage of. Why not offer your services as a home decorator, or a deed constructor. Why not purchase old deeds and fix them up then re-sell them for a bit of profit. In WurmOnline time = money, and the more time you invest, the greater the profit.

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

The Alchemist In Me #WurmOnline

stargrace February 17, 2012 1Comment

There’s one more incredibly handy skill that Fo priests are allowed to do that other priests are not able to perform. This is the alchemy skill. I’m not quite sure why it’s removed from other priests, but I’m very thankful that Fo priests can still make healing covers and dye.  Lately I’ve been working on this skill in the hopes that I can make my dye stronger colours. Not that there’s anything wrong with the colours I’ve been making, but brighter is always nice.

To make healing covers you combine 2 bits of animal parts together along with some grass, leaves, and moss. The only bits you need to physically have are the two animal parts (handy chart on the wiki on what you can use). So while I write this blog post, my character in game is busy combining deer glands with black wolf paws. Delicious n’est pas? In the screen shot above, the list on the far left hand side is a barrel I have currently holding all of my alchemy supplies. The tab beside that contains kindling, then water, then the contents of my oven (I had a meal and some meat cooking) and then finally my inventory. I’m trying to use up supplies that are decaying first. I’ve made 35 healing covers so far, which is not a large amount. I still have a huge amount of supplies to work through.

I find these tasks incredibly relaxing. I can queue 3 actions at once, work on the 2nd monitor and easily go back to the game when it’s time to queue three more actions. I’m in the safety of my house so I’m not worried about being ambushed by creatures, and I’ve got food and drink with me in case they run low while I’m crafting. The only thing that stops me at this point in time, is when I run out of supplies (which is bound to happen sooner or later).

I’ve managed to reach 25 in my animal husbandry skill, this allows me to see one more trait on the list of traits. None of my horses (or cattle, or deer) have the trait that is related to this skill level, but it’s nice to know that if they did have it, I’d be able to see it. Did you know you can use 0.01 of a horse eye combined with a black wolf paw to make a healing cover? Turns out that’s what I just made.

Gross.

As Arkenor and I are always saying in game, waste not, want not. There’s nothing that goes to waste in this game, it can all be used for something, even if it’s just a sacrifice to my deity for favor. I enjoy that aspect of Wurm, and I’m pleased that I’m now into my second month of playing with no sign of me wanting to stop any time soon – although I will admit, EVE has been calling my name pretty hard lately. I got an email about a 3 month deal for $30, and I may just take advantage of it. Maybe.

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

Life As a Priest of Fo #WurmOnline

stargrace February 15, 2012 0Comment

Life as a priest is not quite as bad as I had imagined it. I pictured long hours staring out windows, doing nothing but raising my channeling skills. Unable to perform ‘useful’ tasks, much too delicate for manual labor. There are downsides to the direction I’ve chosen, but I’m managing. I think were it not for the fact that I have an alt who is also premium, things would be much harder than they are.

See, priests can’t continue crafting structures, and that includes things like guard towers, houses, fences, and smaller items like bulk storage bins, beds, or anything else that has a ‘continue’ portion to the crafting process. Just because I can’t continue an item, doesn’t mean the character is useless. I can begin an item just fine and I can continue to craft bits and pieces for items. My process now is to have Arysh (my ‘main’ and the Fo priest) begin an item, and continue to craft the required pieces. Stargrace (my ‘alt’) then picks up those pieces and continues on the project until it’s a completed piece. This is actually working out quite well, because Arysh has better skills than Stargrace, so her creation process has less failures. An example would be these bulk storage bins I’m crafting tonight. I need at least two of them, Arysh crafts the ribbon, nails, and planks, while Stargrace is busy hammering it all together.

Why do I need more storage bins when they can each hold an absurd amount? Well, it’s all to do with quality level. When you put items into a storage bin it takes the average of the items and combines them all. It also takes any partial bits and pieces and expands / subtracts them into the ‘universal’ size for that item. When you’re working in higher quality items, you don’t want them combined with 1QL items, thus lowering your supplies.

I’ve got four bins so far. One is for QL 1-9, then 10-19, 20-29, and 30-39. My skills are not quite near the point where I’m working on anything higher at the moment, so that should do for a while. As I work on my mining I’ll want to make sure my ore is kept ‘pure’ especially if I want to improve items with lumps.

When Arysh isn’t busy making bits and pieces she’s taking care of the ‘general’ deed chores. These are things she can easily do, even as a priest. She grooms the animals by hand, even though I do have a spell that can take care of that particular chore. I do it by hand in order to work up my Animal Husbandry skill, I’m eager to discover new traits among my horses. I do the gardening in the pens, animals pack down the grass, and you need to fix it up for them.

I work on gardening, picking sprouts, cooking meals, I can’t repair houses or fences, but I can repair my own tools. I make sure everything is ‘ready to go’. I’ve also been working on my jewelry crafting skill. I can’t mine with Arysh, but I can mine with Stargrace and then Arysh can process the ore into lumps and create things from there. She can’t improve the items (also known in game as imp) but so far I haven’t really had a need to, either. You can imp items up to 10 points past your current skill level.

Over all, things are going well. I AM working on the spell casting portion of becoming a priest, and I’m looking forward to raising my favor / faith high enough to cast charm. That will be fun. In two months I’ll be able to cast enchanted grass, and my animals will require a lot less care.

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