Wurm Online

What do YOU Want To Do? #WurmOnline

stargrace February 26, 2012 4 Comments

One of the big factors in any sandbox game is that you are the one who decides what you want to do in game. The game doesn’t tell you what to do and your imagination really is the limits. In WurmOnline I’ve decided to go a few routs. First of all, I breed cattle, and then slaughter it (messy business) and butcher the hides. I then take these hides over to my neighbour Yetian, who uses them for his leatherworking skill. These cows are not just leather though, they also provide me with creatures to groom for my animal husbandry skill. I also spend a lot of time cultivating the ground in their pens with fields that I can harvest later on (and it provides them with food). All of this gives me helpful skills for my character. Animal husbandry will allow me to check my horses out and see what traits they have. Negative traits can (eventually) be cured with my Fo priest spell Genesis. It’s a big circle.

Since I am a priest of Fo and restricted in a lot of my activities, I spend a lot of my time ‘making parts’. Making planks, making bricks, harvesting sprouts, working fields, cooking meals. Those may seem like boring mundane things but they’re activities that I enjoy doing in game. You could take a completely different rout and become a warrior, traveling the lands defeating creatures and not making any one place your home. You could move from village to village, working for coin, there’s so many possibilities within the realm of your imagination, the game only needs to give you a few tools in order for you to move forward with them.

I’m still working on my keep. I need 500 (or so) more bricks to finish the final wall, and then I can start working on the inside of the keep walls. I’ve got lights set up which give off a nice glow during the night, and two buildings, one is my personal residence, and the other is a craft hall, with bulk storage bins and the food storage bins as well as a few other containers for random storage.

I’ve been looking VERY hard for a hen. My rooster is getting lonely. Hopefully I can find one before too long, I’ve had my rooster quite some time, but I’ve never seen a hen before. I may have to post an advertisement on the forums looking to buy one. The forums are a fantastic way for players to interact with the community, there are boards for selling / buying products from one another as well as server forums to find out if any events are going on in your area. That’s how I found out about the Fo sermons, as well as the Kyklops killing. Don’t be afraid of getting involved with the community!

Building a Keep #WurmOnline

stargrace February 21, 2012 No Comments

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 No Comments

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 1 Comment

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!