Wurm Online

Mapping Out Darkpaw Bay #WurmOnline

stargrace January 21, 2012 0Comment

Yesterday I dug out the graph paper and started sketching out my deed, while behind me my husband made snickering noises and whispered ‘nerd’ over my shoulder. I just grinned at him, I was having far too much fun. I quickly grew frustrated with the project, I’m no map maker, and a kind soul on twitter pointed me towards this 2D map making program, specifically for wurmonline. Pictured above, my deed so far, Darkpaw Harbor. The entire lot is situated up a slope, so it’s not quite as easy to simply build something as one would think. The 5 square house in the NE corner is my home, the southern home belongs to Petter. You can see where I’ve extended the dock to the West, and there’s my small field & animal pen to the far East. The program allows you to place objects such as ovens, forges, and food storage bins, along with household items like beds. You can place your fences, walls, and doors, and create every manor of terrain there is. The grey area represents my perimeter, which is a row 5 squares thick on each side of my deed. To the East, lives Katay. To the South is Yetian, West is the ocean, and my Northern boarder used to be a large beach area but I have very slowly been converting it to forest. Yesterday I covered an area that was 11 squares by 23 squares with dirt, and then I randomly planted 20+ sprouts in order to get the forest going. I can’t cover all of the sand because further past that area I have neighbours, but I did cover a fair amount. Have I mentioned how much I enjoy controlling how the land is shaped in wurm? Well, I love it.

Arkenor spoke some pretty wise words yesterday while we were in game. He told me that he disliked grinding skills, and he named off a few of his skills that are quite high – simply from playing the game. I agreed with him, the skills will come as you do things in game. I would rather work on what I think needs to be done than grind skills simply for the sake of grinding them. I’ve been working on clearing a small hill that is in my SE corner, I can’t currently flatten the land any more without working my digging skill. Instead of grinding that skill for the sake of grinding it, I went and collected clay (which works the skill) for future projects. I really do need to make a little list of objectives some time, my floor still needs finishing, I need to hunt for meat, and perhaps attempt to fish. I’d like to finish working the back portion of the deed, and the dock area, and eventually I’d like to make myself a boat and sale between servers. In specific I’d like to sail to independence so I can pick up my alt who has been stranded there since creation (before I knew what server everyone was playing on).

All in all, it’s been a pretty productive time in game! I’m looking forward to planning more of my deed and seeing more of the lands of wurm. It may be time for another tripe to the Steppe so I can try to find myself a male horse.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Another Trip to The Steppe #WURMOnline

stargrace January 19, 2012 0Comment

Darkpaw Harbor is coming along. I took a two hour walk yesterday to the area on Deliverance that has steppe, a tile that is known for spawning animals. I came back with 20 mixed grass (the item required for planting it) and set 5 aside for Arkenor. The rest I planted, and I now have a pretty nice area of Steppe growing. I’ll have to dig the dirt around the tiles (it’s currently grass) so that it has a little room to spread. I have insane hopes of getting steppe planted on the beach area to the North of Darkpaw, but it would require a lot of work. First I’d need to cover all those sand tiles over with dirt, and then plant. Because those tiles are simply a ‘part of the land of wurm’ it means someone else could easily come along and ruin the hard work I’ve done in converting the tiles. Still, it’s a dream I have.

I didn’t find any horses when I went to Steppe, someone else was there rounding them up while riding on his own, so I didn’t really have a chance. However, on my travels home I did come across an abandoned adult horse, standing in the middle of no where with no one on local. I lead it home, and now it grazes happily in my animal pen. Arkenor also found a calf wandering by my place, so that has joined the collection of animals I have. I’m just hoping to get enough wemp to be able to craft a grooming brush, I have a small piece of wemp but it’s not enough to do anything with. I’ve planted some, and I’m just waiting for it to actually finish growing.

I’ve spent a lot of time away from my deed exploring the lands around – and now it’s time to settle down and get some actual work done. I’d like to finish the dock, I’d like to create a few other flat areas for planting on the lands, I’d like to plant more trees, and eventually turn wooden buildings and fences to stone. That will all take a LOT of work, but it’s time that I have. I just need to decide which one of those things I want to work on first.

On a random note, my rose bushes that I planted are finally growing! Plants each take different amounts of time to grow, trees seem to be the fastest. My roses have just started showing little sprouts and I’m so excited. There are a few planted by my field, and another planted by my house. I love the way they look and can’t wait until they reach full maturity.

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

A Horse, A Calf, and a Deer Walk Into a Pen #WURMOnline

stargrace January 18, 2012 0Comment

Yesterday on my wanderings I found a fat adolescent bull standing close to what is now known as ‘cow mountain’ by myself and Arkenor, due to the large numbers of cows that we see roaming around the area. My apologies for the screen shot – every time I remember to take one it seems to be dusk or dawn and incredibly dark. In any case, my small pen was a bit too small for all four animals, so I extended it and moved the cows into their own section, leaving the horse and deer to graze among themselves. Thanks to some help from Yetian my forge is finally tucked away inside the mine, he took down two gates that had been causing some issues. Did you know you can’t move a forge through a gate? It considers it a wall, even when open. Lesson learned. I also moved the food storage bin (commonly referred to as the fsb) and got rid of some of the cobblestone. I turned that into field and planted wemp. I’m eager to make a brush so I can groom my animals. Eventually I’d like to get the cows to mate, but they need to grow up a bit first. No under aged pregnancies on my deed!

There is still a lot to be done, I’ve continued planting sprouts and flowers, and have been contemplating starting up a second account. I still haven’t found a priest of Fo to convert me yet, but hopefully I’ll find someone on local before too long who won’t be charging an arm and a leg. We’ll see.

My deed has also been getting a lot of visitors lately which is quite nice. Scopique has been wandering through the lands of Wurm looking for his own deed, Moxie came by from another server on her boat, Ogur came by to help me with some mining, and then there’s the nexus crew who are always around to lend a hand or offer up answers to my questions. I’m not interested in building the land up with concrete and buildings so much as I prefer a country cottage feel to the area. I’d still like to develop portions of the land of course, especially the dock area, but my main focus has been on getting the trees growing once again to offer a buffer.

I hope everyone has had a pleasant week so far, thank goodness it’s Wednesday. Tomorrow is Friday (for me at least) and while this week is certainly better then last week, I’m still looking forward to my other half being home. Safe travels, no matter where you find yourself!

It’s a Bear! #WurmOnline

stargrace January 16, 2012 3Comments

Peering out my window yesterday, I avoided almost certain death – now that I’ve been replanting trees along my deed, nature has decided to once again wander its path. I think this is fantastic, I love that you can affect the actual lands of WurmOnline, you can change the ground into anything from sand, dirt, grass, trees, steppe, and even flowers. Changing the tiles changes what happens around that area, so it’s not something to be taken lightly. Scopique eventually lead this bear over to a guard to have it taken care of (there are no guards on my property, but the neighbours have some) so he was safe. For now.

Yesterday I decided it was time I wandered over to Arkenor’s deed, to see how he has been progressing. His deed is out in the wilds, and it took a little wandering before I could find it properly. I almost died, numerous times, but thankfully there were a few abandoned deeds along the way I could hide out in. I even managed to find myself a fat young calf to take home. Now I’ve got a calf and a horse penned up by my house. I also managed to get my digging high enough that I can manage steep slopes, and I flattened an area of land to plant on. I extended the path that leads from my home down to what will eventually be a dock area, although it needs quiet a bit of work. That’s what WurmOnline is all about.

I have a schedule for myself in game. If it’s night time I putter around my deed doing mundane things that need to be done like working on the dock, the farmland, cooking casseroles. If it’s day time I can wander from home and it’s far more safe since I can actually see where I’m going. I use this time to adventure – typically looking for sprouts and flowers that I can clip and bring home and re-plant. I also hunt for abandoned villages to plunder, after all, why let things go to waste. I’m waiting for my horse and calf to grow up, and I’d like a male horse and a bull so that I can eventually breed the animals. I need to extend the pen slightly, it was put up temporarily when I first brought the horse home so it’s quite tiny.

All in all, I’m enjoying myself in WurmOnline (as you can tell by the frequency of posts). I realize people may not be all that excited by my daily ‘working on a farm’ posts, but it’s so incredibly refreshing to me. Plus once I have the skills to perform the more mundane tasks, no doubt my posts will get a little more interesting. I’d like to build a ship to explore other servers, and I may even start up a second account so that once I dedicate myself to Fo I can still cut down trees and mine.

I hope everyone else had an amazing weekend, no matter where you found yourself. As always, happy gaming!