Pirates: Tides of Fortune

If you’re looking for a pirate themed browser game to play, why not check out Pirates: Tides of Fortune. This MMORT (massively multiplayer online real time strategy game) was created by Plarium, and in it you build your own pirate bay and your ships fight against other players in sea battles. You can also sail around making discoveries for a bit of scenery change.

Once you create your account and log in you’ll want to complete the tutorial because it rewards you with some pretty valuable items to improve your bay, and you can’t go back and complete them if you skip out. Don’t forget to turn the volume up – this game has some fantastic tutorial voice-overs! While you’re making your way through the tutorial you learn that resources are used to improve your buildings and you’ll want to build things like rum distilleries and mines to ensure you have enough production. At the same time you’ll want to level up as a pirate, and that means battles. Lots and LOTS of battles.  

Although you can play alone, it’s recommended that players band together in Brotherhoods in order to take on more difficult foes. If you’re looking for Brotherhoods you can check out the active game forums, there’s a section just for joining up with others, and you’ll find a ton of information about the game there too. Community really is key to making a game great, and if you can’t find what you’re looking for why not try making one yourself?

When it comes to gameplay there’s a bunch of missions that players can complete for loot, and the loot is better the more people that are involved (more of a reason to jump into a brotherhood when you get the opportunity). Missions are like your typical MMO daily quests, there are solo versions as well as group versions (and even PVP).

There’s a lot to do, which is a refreshing change of pace. The tutorial teaches you how the UI works, how to build structures, gather resources, and participate in battles. Then you learn there’s also a talent tree, and as a new player you’re shielded from high level attacks until level 30 which gives you a bit of breathing room. It takes time to do each of these things, and that’s where the in-game cash shop comes into play. You can buy rubies (the game’s currency) and speed those timers up, making you stronger faster. You’ll also earn rubies for completing objectives, but it’s much slower (and a much lower amount). A great way to catch deals going on in the cash shop is to follow the active twitter account where you’ll also see news and contests posted.

If you happen to be a part of a great Brotherhood (or maybe you run one) why not let me know in comments below, so I can check them out!

More Kindness on Sklotopolis

I’ve been sticking pretty close to my deed lately since 90% of the time I’ve got my little guy squirming in my arms or on my lap or I’m sitting on the floor with him on his play mat or something like that. I can’t really travel to adventure or wander around because I’m not sure when I’ll get pulled away and need to AFK. It was during once such time that I noticed Resa was talking to me in local, they had come by with a gift – something they had hanging around on their alt deed, they said.

So I passed the little guy off to his Dad and told them I’d be right there.

Turns out they had two of my original horses from before my place was disbanded. Stargrace (the character) was caring for them which shows up in examine. They brought them back for me – a simple grey and pure black pair. I was incredibly grateful.

My deed was disbanded when I didn’t log in for a while, just one way of keeping the server fresh for the new players. I hadn’t left word with the staff that I was going to be gone which is why it’s important to make use of the forums. Thankfully my walls and buildings all stood, but the horses and animals I had been breeding were gone. I’m not sure if someone bashed down the single wall to get in, but it hardly matters.

As I mentioned before I re-deeded the place when I returned, but did have to start from scratch when it came to my animals. The fact that Resa still had two of them and returned them means a lot to me. I’m very grateful for the kindness of players – and of course I think it’s equally important to be just as kind.

There’s a Kyklopse event coming up on March 4th (5th? I forget the exact date, but it’s one of those) and I’m donating a rare tool to the raffle at the end. I hope someone can make some good use out of it, and I’m looking forward to seeing the server come together again for such an event.

Yesterday 1.3 also went into open beta. I’m INCREDIBLY excited about this update – and the Wurm Online developers have decided to include the 500 cooking recipes that they were previously leaving out. I think this is a VERY smart decision and one that should have been there from the start. Now they look like the good guys and I wonder if they planned on including the recipes all along. It doesn’t really matter, but it does make me wonder. In any case, it’s an update that I’m really (really) looking forward to. It changes the way Wurm is played, and offers so much new content. Hopefully we get to see it on our live servers within a few weeks. My guess is somewhere around March 20th, but we’ll just have to see.

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

 

Priest Shenanigans

I’ve got a total of four characters on the Sklotopolis server. I typically have two logged in at once, but I have been known to log in all four on occasion (happens very rarely). Why do I have so many characters? I have two vynora priests, and two fo priests. While there’s no detriments to becoming a priest on this server, you do still need to link up to cast the higher level spells (so you need to pool your favour / mana) and priest spells are still restricted by priest type. I have two fo so I can cast LT on my weapons, and that’s what I plan on working on in the next little while. My fo channeling is abysmal, and grinding channeling in general is a pretty dull task (yay for GL-Freedom and Netflix to help combat that).

Yesterday I had an order from Fescue for some tools, six in total. I got them created and improved quickly enough and then they wanted them all enchanted with circle of cunning, so I spent a bit of time doing that. My vynora channeling is pretty good but RNG was not on my side and I kept coming up short. It happens, but I wish it happened less often. RNG is the bane of Wurm (both Online and Unlimited).

Besides that I also spent the majority of yesterday working on improving tools in general. I have a forge I renamed to [Requires Imping] and a second forge renamed [Finished]. I spent the day improving the items from forge A to 80 and shuffling them over to forge B. Now I have a little stock pile of 80ql items, for selling or for my alliance mates to use. Until I get my mining to 90, 80ql is the best I can do. Mining is another one of those “wow this takes forever” skills. I’m at 85 right now, and it’s next on the list of things I want to work on.

That list just keeps on growing.

Kindness on Sklotopolis

When I returned to my deed on Sklotopolis, all of the horses that I had were either dead or dying and so I put out an advertisement to purchase some new 5-speeds. Before too long I had a reply from Sneevax (my apologies if the name is wrong, it’s early, but I think that’s who it was) telling me that they could donate a few horses to me since I was coming back and didn’t have any. I’m used to the kindness of players in Wurm Unlimited, especially on Sklotopolis, after all they have an amazing community – but this player went above and beyond what I was expecting.

I told them I couldn’t come pick up the horses because I was dealing with my little guy (in real life) and I wasn’t sure when I’d have to go AFK randomly (in other words, I’ve been sticking close to the deed for safety reasons) and they offered to deliver them for me. I was expecting two horses (a breeding pair) but when they showed up they delivered four to me.

Not only that, but two of the horses were the ‘pure black’ ones that were added not too long ago along with one ‘pure white’. Beautiful creatures by any standards, all 5-speeds, and typically worth about 5 silver each.

I was blown away. I insisted that I pay a bit for their time but they declined. I told them that I’d pass the good karma along to another player instead, and keep the kindness training rolling so to speak. It really made my day that people were willing to help me out so much. They also told me that if I had any needs I should feel welcome to contact them and they’d help me out. I’m pretty self reliant in Wurm, but it’s nice to know that if there is something out there that I need, that I can call on people who live pretty close by. It just left me with a nice warm fuzzy feeling all day long.

Which brings me to my next point. If you’ve wanted to play Wurm but you’re reluctant because you hear about the griefing and problem players on the original MMO servers – I once again highly recommend picking up the steam Wurm Unlimited version and trying a server there instead. I know there are other great ones besides Sklotopolis, and I won’t lie and say that there’s never any drama out there (in fact some of those servers are so filled with drama it makes my head hurt to read about it on the Wurm Online forums) but chances are you’ll stumble into a winner, with a great community and wonderful players. It’s worth the cost of the game at least, especially if you find it on sale.

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

Sybaris Continues

While I’m disappointed that Wurm Unlimited won’t be getting everything in the next large update that Wurm Online received (500 recipes mainly) that doesn’t stop me from being excited about the changes coming. It will add a lot of content to the game and I know it’s still in alpha testing so I may not see those changes for some time, but I’m already preparing.

Sybaris is coming along nicely. Moumix has done a fantastic job at getting our deed looking amazing. It’s surrounded by a fancy stone wall with arches at the N S E W entrances. I worked on the waterfront portion, and his wife has done an incredible job with the farms and stables. We’re still lacking a few buildings and the walls are not quite complete yet (plus the smithy building needs a roof) but I have loved watching it all take shape. I also have my smaller deed not too far away and I spend some time there each day doing the farming and taking care of a few animals that I own (sheep, pigs, a horse or two). It’s not as enormous as the main deed, but I wasn’t looking for anything very big.

There’s another server event coming up shortly (remember I play on Sklotopolis), a Kyklops slaying. I’m looking forward to that. The previous event (troll king) was a lot of fun. Being able to teleport to the events has made a world of difference to me.

I’m not sure what skill I want to work up next as far as grinding goes but I’m sure I’ll decide on something before too long. Making cheese is pretty high up on my list for whatever reason. Maybe trying some fishing, too.

Moxie started playing on the server a few days ago, she’s a fellow gamer friend of mine. It’s great to see a few familiar faces. If you’ve never tried Wurm Online but have been curious about it, Wurm Unlimited goes on sale sometimes on steam, so you may want to add it to your wishlist and be informed when / if that happens. Of course since Wurm Online is free to play (technically, your skills are pretty capped though) you could always try it there first and see if you think you’d enjoy it before shelling out any money.

I have certainly gotten more than my $30 worth out of playing. I think I have over 1,000 hours logged in the game on steam… sure a lot of that is AFK hours, and pre-baby hours, but either way.

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