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

[TheCommandTent]

This sounds so very interesting.  Could you start you own village from scratch or would that just be to much work?

[Huw the Poo]

This sounds so very interesting.  Could you start you own village from scratch or would that just be to much work?

Define too much! :D  It would take a long time to build what we have in Bonsai village.  For example, here's what's required just to build one house.  Also, to start an actual village you would need a deed, which one way or another is going to cost you money.  For one thing only premium accounts can "plant" deeds (although you don't lose the mayoralty if your premium time lapses).  Also deeds cost 10 silver, which is either bought for real money or traded in game, but a newbie isn't going to be able to produce much of any value.  Although having said that, apparently players pay good money for dirt - presumably for use in terraforming and to save them the bother of digging it themselves.  Producing dirt is one thing a newbie can do very easily, although transporting it somewhere will require some kind of vehicle which may be prohibitive.  I'm too new to the game to say either way.

It is for these reasons I decided to just join an existing village.  I really like Bonsai.  We don't have many members right now so I only see the same couple of guys online, but the mayor is quite a powerful character and he's excellent at providing for us.  I'm more than happy to help out in return.  I tend the farm, for example, and sometimes I go mining for ore and rock.  Perhaps I'll notice an unfinished item of furniture and I'll go get whatever is needed to finish the job.

I should add that the game isn't without problems.  The interface is very idiosyncratic, just as Eve Online's is.  Example: Say you just felled a tree.  To clear the logs away you need to drag a cart over.  You can't just put the logs into the cart; you have to pick them up first then drag them into the cart's inventory.  Then when you arrive at whatever storage container you want to use, you can't just drag the logs from the cart to the container; you have to drag them to your own inventory first, then into the container.  And don't get me started on ladders!  Oh god, the bane of my existence in Wurm Online!

It isn't a game for everyone, but the positives far outweigh the negatives as far as I'm concerned.  Once you get used to the game's foibles you start to not notice them.  I find it to be an extremely cathartic experience after a hard day at work, even though many people would scoff at the game and say it's like having a second job. 8)

Above all else, it's free to play, so nobody has anything to lose if they want to have a look. :)

[TheCommandTent]

I really like the idea of being part of a village, something I miss in Minecraft, although I guess you could join a server for that.  Not sure I have the patients for this one though.... but I'll keep checking this thread for your impressions as you get deeper into the game.

[Yskonyn]

I have joined Independence now, Huw.
I'll add you to my friendslist next time I log in .

The community is VERY helpful and friendly towards new players. I struggled with getting my bearings at first, but hints and tips soon started to flow in the Kingdom chat (server wide).
Then a guy named Sjach told me to wait a minute and came with a horse and cart, let me jump on and brought me to a clay pit.
He guided me in creating something of priority: a container for water (your body needs water and food over time. and while this does not affect your health, it does affect your stamina iirc. So a hungry and thristy player wont be able to run much or do work that needs stamina)

He filled the clay pit (he needed to do that anyway, so it was nice taking someone along, he said!) and dropped a log of wood I could use to carve up.
Then I needed to create some crude tools to be able to start improving the flask I was going to make.
Every item is made and then (depending on your skill) is able to be improved upon in various different ways.
For example, the clay flask I could first improve with some more clay. (Note that you can damage the object while trying to improve as well. You'll need to repair the damage done before you can improve it again. Damaging and improving uses a small amount of the material your need to improve the object with.) Then after that was done I could improve it further with scrubbing the clay with a spatula. After this I could continue with improving it with clay again.
As you can see it's very much a crafter's game. The systems are quite extensive.
Most items wear over time too, so you're always working on new items.

Once I proudly finished my clay flask I was desperately trying to get water into it. It did not work. Turns out you actually need to bake the clay flask until it becomes a pottery flask!! Cool eh!
You can either use an oven or you can bake the clay over a campfire.
I had no skills for the former, and none was nearby, so I managed to create a nice cozy campfire at the edge of the pier in the docks in the starter city.
You need to keep the fire going with some form of fuel, of which I had juuuuust enough. :)
The clay takes a while to get through various stages of being hot and then it needs to bake a few minutes at the highest temperature.
Once their label changes to pottery, they are finished.

In the meantime another user called Tineen was answering a lot of my questions in the chat and generously offered to help me get setup with some starter gear and a base to work out of, if I wanted.
It was quite a trek from the starter zone, so I wanted to make sure I was prepared. Having water being the most important feat.

Now that I had water I just needed to get some food and proper directions to begin my journey.
Before I left, though, Sjach told me to come to his humble abode where he would give me some healing herbs and cotton for bandages.

Last stop was the market where I would find a well to drink some water out of so I didnt have to use my flask and an NPC which, for the first 24 hours of playtime, gives you free food.
Tineen sent me a map in the mean time and it took me a while to figure out where I needed to go, but soon I was on my way, right as night was falling. Light in Wurm is dependant on the phases of the moon, but as a new player you get a magical light at first. It has only a faint glow, however and this night was dark.. pitch black more like!

I have to say two things;
The ambient sounds are fantastic! Crickets creak during the night, you hear the wind blow gently, raindrops fall, pretty convincingly all this.
And the lighting (if you can run it on high settings, cause the game isnt very optimized) is just gorgeous! Especially the lights from lanterns and fires light up the surroundings very realistically.

Tineen was making her way towards me, to pick me up and guide me to her 'deed' called Free Barony (see this map. Free Barony is at 46x 29y, while you start at The Howl at 32x 39y)

It was amazing to see the world as I made my way North East. Every town, harbor, Inn, even an orphanage I found, is made by players! The roads are built by players (and they need maintenance if they are not travelled over for quite some time!), everything is built or shaped by players. Pretty awesome!

Oh Huw, I just looked at where Bonsai is in relation to Free Barony, but those are miles apart! Should be exciting to go on journey to visit eachother!

Anyway, Tineen soon met with me on the road and led me to Free Barony.
I, too, have been introduced to the wounds system of Wurm; while following Tineen on her horse I thought I had missed a pathway to the side of the main road, because she seemed like she was going down the slope.
Aparently this is a syncing 'bug' where other players sometimes don't exactly show walking on the same spot they see on their computers.
In my attempt to go after her I slid down the slope and missed a second slope which was pretty much hidden in the grass and fell down that one too. It resulted in a bleeding wound on my right leg and a light fracture of my left arm.
Tineen immediately tried to heal me, but couldn't stop my bleeding. This was a concern, because you can bleed to death.
Because of the wounds my stamina was very low and aparently I didn't have the strenght anymore to carry all my stuff either.
She advised me to drop all heavier stuff like wood and clay resources to be able to move more quickly. She had enough resources over at Free Barony anyway and priority was to get my bleeding stopped.
We hurried over to a friend of hers who would be able to stop my bleeding, but I had to logout due to time constraints.

After I logged in again later, she quickly made her way to me again, now bringing the much needed healing items to get my bleeding to stop. We then continued to Free Barony where she gave me a temporary home, complete with a farm plot and a horse!
I now have access to the workshop as well and I am free to use whatever I need. Very generous!

So my first endeavor in Wurm has been a thrilling one and it has totally grabbed me by the guts! Every time I need to do other stuff I am thinking about what I am going to do next in Wurm when I login again! :)

Thanks Huw! :D

[Huw the Poo]

That's excellent Ysk, sounds like you had a great time!  Thanks for the splendid writeup!

Yeah I can't wait to play all day.  I had to work late yesterday and take some Dominions turns so didn't get a chance to play; hopefully I'll be on this evening.

[Yskonyn]

by the way; you can only befriend people if you either see them in chat or physically in the world, so I haven't been able to add you yet.

[Huw the Poo]

Oh yeah, I forgot about that little chestnut.  Just try sending me a tell whenever you're in game.  What's your handle?

[Yskonyn]

Yassy (cause nobody ever knows how to pronounce Yskonyn) :)

[Yskonyn]

My last two days have been pretty enjoyable!
The plot of land behind my (temporary) home has now been cultivated along two edges and I have crafted a nice set of crude wooden fences to keep the lend-horse from eating the seeds/crops.
Top that off with two gates and it is a nicely accessible, but protected spot of farmland.

To prevent my horse from starving, I have created two tiles of farmland for it to graze on. I think it might only need one to stay alive, but I am rather safe than sorry. Other than that it just roams the empty plot and seems to be aware of the two accessible farmland tiles for food. I wonder, though, how large the radius is for animals to find food?

Anyway, I am quickly getting fed up with the lack of efficiently transporting resources all by yourself, so I have created a small cart which I can drag. It takes 40 units of raw resource and that won't impair my movement speed while dragging the cart.
Much better than the 5 units I can hold in my hands and walk at a snails pace because of overencumbrance! :)

A further goal would be a large cart with horses in front of it. But for now, this small cart suits me fine. I assumed you can hitch one horse to a small cart, as a large one takes two, but alas. The small cart can only be dragged by a human.

Also, I have found out about a very interesting item; Epic portals.
Epic is the server cluster with a different ruleset; for one your skills improve more quickly, but the meat of the deal is that on Epic there is an open world PvP ruleset.
These Epic portals, however, can be made by players.
So you can have two characters for the price of one, while still getting the best of both worlds! Let me explain:

On the Freedom cluster (PvE) you have your charcter with his skills.
When you go through an Epic Portal you then warp to one of the Epic servers (which you can choose) and you will control your character on that side. This, however, is a different character as far as the game is concerned. With his own skills.
Money and banked items, however, are available to both characters!
The system remebers which portal was last used, so if you also build a second portal in your home on Epic, you can freely switch between your PvE and your PvP character! Awesome feature!
And this also means that you can use your PvE life to provide for your PvP character.

[Huw the Poo]

That is a cool feature, I had no idea.  You've been busy, Ysk!  You've already accomplished a lot more than I have.  There are pressures in my personal life at the moment so I'm only logging in for about half an hour every couple of days; long enough to tend the farm and do a spot of mining but not much else.

Do you have any long term goals at the moment?  Besides skilling up of course!

[Huw the Poo]

Well, Bonsai's mayor is away until Sunday and has locked all the gates.  I can't tend the farms or anything!

[Sparhawk]

I created a character in Wurm but my time is restricted as well. I need a day where I can spend a few hours getting a handle on how to play, but am looking forward to that.

[Yskonyn]

Great Sparhawk, the more the merrier! I have to warn you though, just as a buddy Groghead; Wurm is not really friendly towards players with only a Tiny bit of time, but it has found a way to alleviate the problem; once it grabs you, you will start forcing yourself to make time to play, thinking about what you need to build in Wurm while at work and dream about standing in front of your forge making nails, at night...
Beware of the Wurm! :D

Huw, my first goal is to get settled and build up my skills. My Ultimate goal is to own a plot at sea and either build my own island or at least build my own harbor. :)
Oh and race horse breeding. Oh an running a self sufficient Ranch. And and and... *sigh*

[Yskonyn]

For those who might have missed it;

Wurm Online just launched on Steam with a new server cluster. It's free to play up until skill level 20. That gives one enough time to check out the game and get a feel for its gameplay,
The game is 15+ years old by now, but as I've seen many people looking for that Ultima Online early days feeling, I think now would be a good time to (re)check the game out.
Lots of interest at the moment with many players running about.

The new cluster is not connected to the older maps at the moment, but might be in future (meaning you can sail across different servers with the same toon).

[Rayfer]

Don't often see 7+ years between posts on a thread.  Interesting.