Wurm Online and A Tale in the Desert - anyone played them?

[Huw the Poo]

I'm in the mood for a truly open sandbox MMORPG, and there aren't many available.  Currently I'm looking at Wurm Online and A Tale in the Desert.  The former looks like a more detailed Minecraft which must be good, surely?  And the latter has a setting I absolutely love...ancient Egypt.  I should add that I'm not particularly looking for combat...just a game in which I can spend some pleasant time building and chatting and...doing stuff!

Any thoughts gratefully received.

[Bardolph]

I've played both, but it was a good while back in both cases. Wurm Online was painfully ... slow. Everything you wanted to do took a long time, sometimes in the tens of minutes range. On the other hand, all your tools degraded incredibly fast, as if they were made of plaster. It might take a couple hours to get the stuff to make a hammer, and five minutes use to destroy it, or so it felt when I was playing. My friends that tried it ended up calling it "Amish Online". However, some of my old UO clan played there for quite some time, and built up some decent structures. The fact that you could terraform was terribly appealing but the rest of the game killed it for me.

ATITD was a lot of fun for a time. The map is huge, and there was so much to go see and learn and do, the player made scupltures alone were worth playing just to see. I even made a mine cart soccer stadium at one point, where you pushed a mine cart back and forth as the ball. The crafting was often brilliant, the blacksmithy process was the best I've seen in a game and I've done a fair bit of actual hammer work. It wasn't a 1:1 correlation of the actual process but it was close enough, and quite challenging. You were presented with a block of "metal" and a pattern of whatever item you were trying to make. You then used a "hammer" to push bits of the metal block around rather like hammering an actual piece of hot metal. The closer you could make your block to the pattern, the better quality the item was. It ruined me forever for the standard MMORPG "put some items in this box and click the create button" style of crafting.
The player run politics was also interesting, get enough people to sign your petition and you could get laws made that would be enforced by the game, or even get other players banned from the game (only happened once that I am aware of and he deserved it lol!)

But then the difficulty curve started skyward. We spent DAYS mining for ore, trying to get enough of the right ore to make some thing or other. Often we would find the ore and then ruin it in the smelting process, heartbreaking when you have spent literally hours digging.
At some point, I realized I was only logging in to feed my camels, and it seemed silly to continue paying a monthly fee for that ;)

Both are worth trying if there are trial periods available. Wurm may have come far since I last played it but I haven't bothered to go check.
I still have wistful thoughts of farming along the Nile and ATITD.
Hope that helps.

[Huw the Poo]

Thanks for posting, Bardolph!  I understand that Wurm Online is still being heavily developed so perhaps things have improved; plus I've since realised that you can play for free as long as you like which is obviously risk-free, so I think I'll start there.  I will definitely do some more reading on ATITD though, it does sound very good.

WO also has the advantage of being playable on Linux. :)

[Huw the Poo]

Wow.  Wurm Online is also considerably cheaper than ATITD, which is definitely a factor.

[Yskonyn]

Let us know how you like Wurm. I have been eyeing this one too. :)

[Huw the Poo]

On my phone so I can't say much right now, but after a couple of hours I'm very impressed.  It's definitely reminiscent of Minecraft.  Knowing that every structure you pass is player-built and owned (and maintained) by someone (including farmland) is inspiring.

I've done the tutorials and right now I'm trying to find a village to accept me so that I have a base and some basic provisions sorted out.

I will definitely post more impressions tonight.  Ysk, it's free to play (with a premium account model); why not join me?

[Yskonyn]

I will definitely post more impressions tonight.  Ysk, it's free to play (with a premium account model); why not join me?

Oh I would love to, but my gaming time is just so scarce right now.
Our Dominions games is about all I can manage.
But, would there be some option to ally with eachother or even build together on the same project? It would be nice to build on something nice with someone.

[Huw the Poo]

Sure!  All you need is a deed which I believe can only be bought by premium players; however if this game bites me like I suspect it will, and especially since it's only half the price of most MMOs, I reckon it won't be long before I'm founding a settlement of my own!

In the meantime I will post impressions to give you a feel for the game.

[Yskonyn]

I have dabbled in it before, at the time there were basically no animations in the game.
Has this changed yet?

I quickly found out that this game is much more enjoyable with a few people than just soloing your way through the lands.
Are you planning on going on a PvE or PvP world?
I hate ganking and the general attitude that comes with PvP worlds, so I won't bite in that case.
If you're planning on going PvE then I am still interested. Not ready to bite yet, but interested...

[Huw the Poo]

Oh yes, no PvP for me either.  I don't understand how people can think open-world PvP is fun!

There are some animations in but they could be a lot better.  However I understand there have been some improvements in the graphics department; apparently it was only recently that characters were properly mounted on horses, instead of just standing on them! :D

I'll post some impressions later but I haven't played enough of the game to really form an opinion yet.  I have just been accepted into a village though! \o/

[TheCommandTent]

Huw you are making this sound very interesting.  I really enjoy Minecraft but never did multiplayer with it so this sounds interesting.  I look forward to hearing more of your impressions about this.

[Huw the Poo]

I'm storing my impressions up for now, because after being accepted into the village I've spent all of my time making my way there.  The village mayor offered to pick me up (it's the other side of a sea) but I preferred to take the scenic route.  It's quite a trek and I've had to avoid some wildlife.  I hope to arrive next time I get a chance to play (which will hopefully be tomorrow night).

The UI reminds me of Eve Online; lots of context-sensitive right-click nested menus.  The game could certainly do with some polish.  However my new mayor has promised all sorts of projects when I arrive to keep me busy, so we'll see what the game is like then. :)

[Yskonyn]

How did you get into contact with those other players?
When I was playing I was surrounded with what seemed like mindless bots just chopping away at trees and rocks without ever engaging in any form of communication!

[Huw the Poo]

Oh, I've had plenty of conversations with people I've passed on my travels.  I stopped to talk to a chap who was fishing.  He gave me some of his catch!

As for the village, I saw a recruitment thread on the forum and sent him a PM, then just added him to my friends list in-game.

[Yskonyn]

Well you're much more outspoken in Wurm than as Ermor, so much is clear! ;)