Wurm Unlimited

A PVP Area Appears

stargrace May 7, 2016 0Comment

I’ve never been a huge fan of PVP in Wurm Online, but I did give it a bit of a try on Chaos for a while. I enjoyed the thrill of it, and being able to join different kingdoms. My main reason (at the time) was to create a priest of Libila, a black lighter instead of the usual white light priests. I had grand hopes of hiding out and working on my skills in the dark, then transferring goods over to the other freedom servers.

On Sklotopolis there’s a vocal minority of people who also want some sort of PVP (I say minority because I truly believe that a majority of wurm players are not looking for pvp to be their main focus). So it was that the GMs of the server created an area where this can happen. It’s between a bunch of mountains, has a tunnel leading up to it, a camp outside, and functions like a regular PVP place except for a few restrictions that they’ve implemented. These restrictions include banning the ability to dig or otherwise terraform the land, creation of all forms, and a few other things added to try to keep the area pristine. I think most people were hoping for an entire server, with kingdoms that they could join, but this does scratch a potential itch.

Or at least it would, if anyone were interested. Yesterday’s PVP event had to be cancelled due to lack of interest. I walked over with my alt and have been hanging out in the PVP zone for a day and a half now, but I haven’t seen another person come by or enter local. The other “issue” with PVP areas is that people like to stay close to their deeds, and travel (at least from the southern portions of the map) is awkward and filled with mountains.

Still, I congratulate the GMs on trying to please all the players on their server, both the PVPers and the “carebears”. I don’t know if it will ever really take off, I think that they’re making the same mistakes that Rolf constantly makes with Wurm Online and that’s dedicating resources to something only a very small vocal group of people want. The population of the PVP servers on Wurm Online is about 10% of the average total population. Perhaps they’ll find a way to make it more appealing, without making it incredibly over powered for only a handful of well geared / skilled players. I suppose we’ll just have to see what happens in the future.

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

GM Downfalls and Colossus Building

stargrace May 4, 2016 1Comment

I finished the first of two colossus yesterday – wow, they are so much faster than I expected. Once I had the materials construction took less than 2 hours. The statue uses 2k bricks, 2k clay, and 10 gold sheets (for this particular one). The most ‘difficult’ part (I use that term loosely, nothing is difficult it’s just time consuming) was getting the gold. I also got lots of extra.

I need to fix the windows pointing towards the ocean and then I can begin work on the opposite side, mirroring this side. Moumix has 85+ carpentry now which means he can plan the shipyard building that will be in the center. He needs 92+ carpentry to plan one of the castle grounds longest walls but it seems to be coming along at a decent pace.

The biggest challenge is keeping my mining above my other skills. See, if I want to improve things to 70 or 80 I need 70 or 80 quality supplies. Right now my mining is at 76. I’m trying to get at least a point or two a day, which makes for a lot of mining. My goal is to reach 80 by this weekend, and if I stick to the 1-2 points a day plan I’ll get there without too much issue.

I held an auction and sold off a rare longsword I had created as well as a rare needle. The auctions went well, I sold the needle for 5s and the longsword for 10. I bought a merchant form with the money I earned (10s) from a trader, so there was a 3s return, actually costing me 7s. Now that my skills are pretty well off, and my channeling / vynora spell casting isn’t shattering things or failing quite so much, I can afford to put some cheap items up for players – especially since I have so many from working up my skills. I’ve been giving away 60-70 ql tools to new players for the past week just to move some inventory.

I’m still not OK with a lot of things that happen on the server, like GMs removing houses that are supposed to be left to decay (but only for certain people, everyone else has to wait) especially since my deed and my alliance mate’s deed is right there and we were the ones waiting for them to decay (as per rules) but that’s one of the downfalls of playing on a privately owned server as opposed to a professionally hosted one. You have to look the other way and accept the fact that these things happen. If they bother you to the point where you’re not enjoying yourself any more (especially since this is a video game, where people should be enjoying themselves) then move on. It does make me wish I had researched into the available servers a bit more first, asked around and found out how they ‘really’ run, but hey it’s a learning experience.

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

Finally, Progress!

stargrace April 29, 2016 0Comment

After moving to the new deed, I have FINALLY finished leveling and surface mining the dock so that it’s flat, and real construction has started. This is the very first part, the three towers and two arches. To the left of the first tower a vynora statue will stand, and then these towers, arches, and the vynora statue will be duplicated at the other end of the dock. In the center will be the shipyard, with bridges spanning from the towers to the building.

I’m VERY excited to finally be at this stage! It feels like it took forever. It’s also using a lot of bricks, not just for my portion of the docks but for the town that Moumix has been working on up above. Maya is also going to start on another field along the slope, which involves a whole lot of surface mining. I think I’ll take a little exploration trip before too long, I’m going a bit stir crazy on the deed and I haven’t been exploring in a little while.

Pregnancy woes have meant that I’ve been cranky and short lately. I don’t really mean to be, but I decided it would probably be best if I just (mostly) kept to myself and didn’t interact that much. Not that I don’t want to, I love interacting with people, but I don’t like snapping at folks for no reason at all just because my hormones are wonky and dancing all over the place. It’s a sure way to find yourself on the outside looking in.

Leatherworking reached 40, not a great feat, but it’s nice. I’ll have to improve my gear again before too long, it’s still 35 or so.

Natural substance, on the way to 70! Excited about that one. Potions and dye are much easier now.

I worked jewelry smithing up a bit so that I could make a neat marble brazier to stand on top of the center tower – and I love how it turned out. That skill is 30 at the moment. Masonry (which is my affnity) is almost 85! No surprise there, I think I spend 90% of my wurm time making bricks, mortar, or building.

So what’s next? I haven’t the faintest idea. Exploring a bit maybe. Relaxing before starting on the rest of the dock area. Making more bricks. More mortar. Saving up so I can place a merchant… somewhere. I haven’t figured out where yet. My enchants are not the best, but I’m not looking for too much.

Anyway, that was my Friday! I hope everyone else had a better one than I did. Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.

Live Map and other Mods

stargrace April 27, 2016 2Comments

One of the neat benefits of Wurm Unlimited is that there’s an active mod community. Maybe not as large as some of the other communities out there, but they do a fantastic job. A lot of mods are server side, so unless you’re running a server you may not even notice that you’re using them. Some of the mods are client side, and while there are such mods that actually change how the game is played, those mods are typically not allowed by servers and the only mods that are allowed are visual mods that don’t change gameplay. One such mod is called Live Map. The map in Wurm Unlimited is a default one that shows “Ocrea”. If you’re using a custom map, chances are it will make no sense for you. Live map takes the in-game map and puts it into a mini window for you. It also works in mines, such as pictured above. The coloured marks are ore, the bright red square is me. The map moves around you, and you stay centered on the screen.

As you can tell by the dull red squares, I’ve uncovered a lot of ore. The black tile is slate, and the faint grey tile to the east is silver. I’m working my way towards some zinc, and then I think the only ores remaining are copper, gold, and marble (which isn’t an ore, I know). I finally reached 70 mining which means I can improve tools to that quality. Unfortunately out of all the ore I’ve uncovered, only one (so far) goes above 65 quality.

I also managed to reach 60 in natural substances – down side to that is I haven’t found a single source salt, which I need to make the leather working potions I have. I’m pretty surprised at how rare they are, then again I haven’t seen any hellhorses or hellhounds either, so I guess some things are just rare.

Since I’ve been working up mining I haven’t been working on the deed aside from working on the garlic fields and some animal husbandry. Now that my mining is 70 I imagine I’ll go back to working on the dock, I’m so close to leveling the portions I need and then I can get started on building. Do I have a vision yet on what I want to make? Nope. Not at all. I’m not sure if I want to plan it out in deedplanner or if I want to just wing it. We’ll just have to see.

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