Wurm Online

Life As a Priest of Fo #WurmOnline

stargrace February 15, 2012 No Comments

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!

My Deed in Pictures #WurmOnline

stargrace February 14, 2012 1 Comment

This is Squid’s house (aka Petter). He hasn’t played in quite some time but I still keep the house there for him especially since Arkenor and I spent a good 8 hours building it when I first started the game. I need to finish the floors for it still, and for now it’s being used as a storage area. Can never have too much storage in game.

This is my dock house, there’s a really nice willow growing on the left hand side in the yard, and I’m thinking of changing that concrete slab path into planked wood. It will take a while, but the effect would be much nicer I think. At night the area is lit up with the imperial lanterns that Arkenor found on his travels one day. It gives a really nice glow.

The dock area, lined with lights. My corbita that I adore (especially if there’s a gale) and the dock house at the end. There’s a line of birch followed by a line of maple on the right hand side, creating a nice boarder between the dock and the rest of my deed.

On the right hand side leading along down the hill is my farm area. It’s a row of field followed by a row of fruit trees, followed by another row of field, for four rows. I have wemp, cotton, veggies, and grains, in their own rows. The fruit trees are lemon, cherry, and apple.

The mostly finished portion to yesterdays screen shot. You can see where I now have two pens, one has horses and the other has cattle and deer. I’ve planted a few maple trees along side the path that leads to my house, and I’m still deciding what I want to plant along the slim boarder on the right hand side of the pen. That’s actually a giant slope that leads down into Squid’s house, so I can’t do too much with it. I’m thinking of planting trees there to buffer the pen some what.

Once the deed is quite to my liking, I can work on other things. Crafting items for my characters to use, fishing, butchering animals and cooking. Exploring and coming home with armloads of sprouts. Filling out the forest both to my north and south. There’s always lots to be done which is the entire point of Wurm. If there was nothing to do, no one would play.

As always happy gaming no matter where you find yourself!

Setting Up A Merchant #WurmOnline

stargrace February 13, 2012 5 Comments

One of my main goals in wurm (at the moment) is to work on my deed. It’s not the only ‘goal’ in game, it’s just one that I have a lot of fun with, so that’s how I spend a lot of my time. Liken it to housing in EQ2, except you’re ‘decorating’ the outside. The picture above is just some of the changes I’ve made. I’ve actually added a lot more that you can’t see. For example the empty area with logs cut down straight in the center is now my second animal pen. Since becoming a priest of Fo includes so many restrictions I’ve decided to attempt to breed horses with specific traits to sell. There is already a person who does this on the East Coast, but I thought I may get some business doing it on the West Coast. You can’t transport horses, so having a location close to Green Dog is a nice bonus. I’ve moved 6 horses into the new pen, while my cattle and deer stay in the pen to the left hand side.

I also built myself a new house along the waterfront, added an iron fence and a willow tree. My deed has a very ‘cottage’ type feel to it, and I’m pretty sure I’m going to add wood floor planks instead of pavement to the front along the shore to heighten that feeling.

I’ve also purchased a merchant. These can be placed in trader stalls and loaded with items to sell to players. They differ from the traders in game because they don’t come with any inventory at all, and I may not get very many sales but I’m still excited about having one. My neighbours are building a harbor along with some market stalls, and have offered me the chance to set up my stall along with theirs. I expect to fill the merchant with some gems I’ve been collecting (used to store favor), and jewelry crafted items that players can use to sacrifice to deity for favor. I’m also hoping to sell the extra odds and ends that I collect along my travels, extra tools and the like.  Getting people aware that the merchant is there along with encouraging them to shop from this particular deed is always an issue, but with the revamp of Green Dog not that far away (march 7th) I’m hoping people may be a bit more open to exploration. Plus (hopefully) the tunnel from GD to the West Coast will be open soon, and the trip should be much easier for people to figure out.

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

Guard Tower Completed – Next Project? #Wurmonline

stargrace February 13, 2012 2 Comments

It took the better part of two days of continuous work between Yetian and I, but we finally managed to finish off the guard tower that sits just on the perimeter of his deed. Guard towers are wonderful. First of all, they have no monthly upkeep cost, so there is an appealing factor right off the bat. Anyone can make use of them, and they won’t attack random mobs that wander into your deed unlike the spirit guards (although you can set spirit guards to passive). If you require help from a guard what you need to do is be sure you have the mob targeted that you’re trying to have killed, be in combat with them, be in range of a guard tower, and say ‘guards’ or ‘help’ in local chat. The quality of the guard tower dictates how many guards you have, there are four at the tower above thanks to the improving that Yetian did to the structure. It should be more than enough for the creatures that we get wandering our way.

I spent some time wandering yesterday (one of my favorite hobbies in Wurm) and found some guards dead, alongside a troll corpse. No one had butchered it yet and it wasn’t on deed, so I took a few parts from the troll and buried it. I also buried the corpses of the guards, which gave me a nice chunk of alignment change. With some heavy consideration I’ve decided to go back to a priest of Fo, I had dropped back down to follower because I wanted to destroy a wall (and my alt doesn’t have the strength at the moment). I tried playing a few other games, but my interest just wasn’t held, it seems like Wurm has spoiled me and themepark MMO’s just don’t hold my attention (although I do have a huge impulse to play EVE, that’s another sandbox). I’ve decided to continue with two Wurm accounts and I’ll keep one as a priest and one as a follower. As you may recall from a previous post, priests are unable to do a lot of things with the added benefit that they can cast spells. Hopefully I manage to stick it out with being a priest for longer than I did last time.

I’ve done a LOT of work on my deed, and even sold my second deed (well, OK I gave it away) – but those are posts for another time (like later on today). As always happy gaming no matter where you find yourself!

Simply Working Deeds #WurmOnline

stargrace February 6, 2012 No Comments

I’ve been doing a lot of sailing in Wurm these days, mostly between my two deeds but also to deeds that have fallen apart (as long as they’re by the coast). I’ve collected a lot of scrap wood and dirt, two very precious items (especially for me, since I really dislike cutting down trees). I have been working on both deeds diligently, for Darkpaw Bay that involves planting a number of birch and maple trees along my coast (a row of birch and then a row of maple) and taking care of the gardens. Perhaps finishing some floor boards in Petterm’s neglected (cough) house. At Les Reveur there’s more work to be done, but I haven’t quite come to a decision about it yet. The land has been heavily worked, but there are changes to it I’d like to make. I also need to finish the water front, put down slabs, and hopefully GM’s can get rid of the boat that’s moored on my deed, I’ve sent in a /dev report but no one responded. I’ll send another in today perhaps.

I neglected the grooming on one of my horses at Les, and now it’s diseased. I had to isolate it and feed / groom it in the hopes that the disease fades. That’ll teach me to neglect grooming! My rooster is still (surprisingly) alive, I’ve been hand feeding it grains. He’s certainly not as plump as the horses, but hey at least it’s alive. For now.

Speaking of horses, I had to put one down yesterday. I had too many males, and with a limited amount of space to keep the animals I decided to kill it and butcher it. A little cruel perhaps but at least I can make use of the parts that resulted from that. Just one more of the difficult decisions you have to make while playing. I suppose I could have just let him run free and another player would have found him – but that doesn’t save him from anything, it just prolongs it. I’d rather make use of the extra bits myself.

Aside from the daily deed chores as I call them, I’ve been working on my mining. Prospecting too, although that is moving quite slowly. I’ve discovered a cavern in behind my mines at Les, and I’m working on uncovering it. So far it’s a slow process, but I’m excited. Eventually I’d like to make lamps to light my deeds up at night, but lamps are tricky things to make and use an entire log, so I’m a bit far from attempting them quite yet.

As always, happy gaming no matter where you find yourself! Sorry for the lack of enthusiasm in my posts lately, but I’m dealing with a bit of RL stress, and so you’ll just have to put up with it for now. I’m sure things will be back to normal in no time at all. <3