Stargrace

It’s a Wurm Online Sort of Life

I took Blesse back to Release to work on her latest deed, Bitgum, for a bit. The deed has four mines, one of them being large but there’s still a lot of room for progress. One of the mines is located in the animal pen area, and has copper. Only four tiles had been mined, so I completed a door and then proceeded to expand the cavern. I’m hoping to find more copper there. Ores tend to be regional, so there’s a good chance I’ll find another one or two.

The deed is pretty much ‘done’ but I do want to add a few more buildings to round it out, and complete the dock area. I want to revamp the stables with new gates, and add an area for farming. There is some basic clean up that needs to be done (involves me cutting a lot of trees) and some general tidying up, but the place is looking pretty good. Now that I’ve removed everything that was on the perimeter I’m slowly letting it decay. I could spend time removing it all by hand, but I’d rather just let nature take its course, and keep my tools in good condition (bashing tends to take a lot out of them).

Sadly some neighbours to my West decided to tear up the highway that I used to get to the sea, which is a shame. I’ll have to find a new rout if I want to load up a wagon with ore to bring over to Pristine. It’s just one of those things that happens, and they have GM permission so there is nothing that can be done about it. Bitgum is on the edge of a lake that doesn’t end up at the sea, so traveling over land is my only way of transferring goods.

On the home front, my Vynora priest is back at work on Pristine. I’ve been working up her hot food cooking, praying, working on channeling, and doing other priest related things. I’ll be putting in a small tree farm with that character later on today. The Fo is living with a friend, taking care of animals and doing other “Fo” things. We managed to link up and get a few casts of Lifetransfer done, nothing especially high but since the spell requires linking (120 faith) it is better than nothing at all.

There were some great changes in a patch today that reduce the cast time between spells:

Spell cooldowns were removed from Rotten Touch, Bloodthirst, Aura of shared pain, Web armour, Blessings of the Dark, Circle of cunning, Lurker in the deep, Lurker in the dark, Lurker in the woods, Fungus.
Casting timer was reduced to 30 seconds for the spells Libila’s demise, Animal’s demise, Selfhealer’s demise, Dragon’s demise, Fo’s demise, Magranon’s demise, Human’s demise, Fo’s touch, Vynora’s hand, Magranon’s shield, Libila’s shielding, Dark Messenger, Courier

These are important changes. The timer between the first group used to be 5 minutes. The timer for casting Courier used to be 2 minutes. I never saw the use for having such long timers, and I think the changes are welcomed.

Hopefully I find more copper today. We’ll just have to see! As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.

A Little of This, a Little of That

I’ve been diligently working away at my deeds in Wurm Online, though the majority of my characters are currently at a friends deed while we participate in sermons. Sermons are every 3 hours (each priest), and depending on how many premium players are hanging out, you earn more faith each sermon. The point is to try to earn as much faith in the shortest amount of time possible, so that we can cast better enchants. My vynora priest is at almost 60 faith, which I’m very excited about. At 51 faith I was able to start casting circle of cunning and wind of ages, two incredibly popular spells. I also managed to reach 30 channeling, at 40 I’ll start working on vessel instead of opulence, and hopefully as my skills rise I’ll explode less items. I’ve already blown up a few whetstones so far.

In the mean time I’ve been trying to decide what big project I want to work on next. I want to complete the corbita I have sitting on my docks, and I want to begin a knarr after that. Corbita are large boats, and I’d prefer something that has a bit more fluid movement to it. Boat graphics are in the works at the moment, so it’s even more incentive to get going on those.

I’ve spent a few days here and there working on my latest deed, Bitgum. I purchased it not too long ago but the place has required a LOT of work. There were open mines randomly throughout, along with random paths and uneven ground, all of which are my pet peeves in game. I’ve slowly (very slowly) been working on fixing all of that, and have decided to replant a smaller tree farm at my steady home on Pristine. All of that will take place once sermons are done, as we’re only running those a month or so.

All in all, I’m still having a great time in Wurm Online. It has been my steady go-to game for some time now, and I don’t see that changing any time soon. As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Third Time is the Charm?

My second village in Banished did just as poorly as the first due to some poor decisions I made in getting started. So far, the third village is doing MUCH better. I’m on year 7, which is the furthest I have taken the game so far – and I know that isn’t very far, but I’m still pleased that the entire town hasn’t died yet.

My only annoyance is that the chickens, especially on high speed, are loud and get bothersome to listen to. I have 66 of them. Anything more gets turned into KFC for the villagers. The trader has stopped by twice, but never with any alcohol which is what I was looking to trade for. I have most of the basics in place, a mine, quarry, school, hospital, added some extra buildings so families could expand past the default homes, and have been working on restoring some of the forest area so that hunters and gatherers have more space to get their work done.

I haven’t personally encountered any natural disasters yet, but I know that’s just the way of the game and it will probably hit when I least suspect it. In the mean time I enjoy the fact that my town is fed, warm, and clothed. Now the key is to expand – but not too quickly, and not so slowly that everyone just dies out.

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

Blizzard Gets Me

This week has been pretty exciting for a number of reasons, but also pretty expensive. Blizzard seems to know exactly what to put out as a pre-order and deluxe edition bonus, and lets face it, I’m a sucker for those items. That means that I picked up the new Diablo 3 deluxe edition for the treasure goblin pet and other goodies, along with the new World of Warcraft deluxe edition for the pet, and the mount, AND I played (and won) three games of Hearthstone in order to get the mount from that event, too.

These are not complaints by any means, I am excited about each of these pets, and I had fun doing the Hearthstone event. I’ve been having a good time playing Diablo 3, it’s perfect for those days I have limited time and just want to make something explode. My Witchdoctor is level 40, the highest I’ve ever gotten. Tying games together with rewards isn’t anything new, but the rewards from Blizzard’s events lately are ones that really appeal to me. Especially since my collection of WoW pets is still growing.

Have you picked up any of the deluxe editions of a game because of the rewards they gave you (Landmark also comes to mind) in other games? Let me know in comments!

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

Beating Diablo III

Unlike a lot of my gamer friends, I’ve never really been interested in the Diablo universe before. Diablo III was my first experience at all with the game, and since the latest big changes, I’ve enjoyed it quite a bit.

Last night my witchdoctor reached level 37, and I defeated Diablo for the first time. Of course once that was done I ramped up the difficulty, and started playing through again. It’s one of those games I can play that doesn’t require me to exert a lot of effort, which I know sounds badly but I honestly mean it in the best way possible.

Since starting my new job with Carbine Studios I don’t have nearly as much free time as I used to have. In my old jobs, back when I did work that involved videogame news, it was a lot of frantic active traffic filled in with luls. There was a lot of time to game, and I could flip between games easily. Now I’m wondering if I don’t want some sort of schedule so I can still play the games I love and enjoy without feeling as though I have neglected some other game. Anyway, back on topic. Diablo III is one of those games I can play for an hour a day and feel as though I have accomplished something wonderful. That’s very important to me with my limited time.

I haven’t tried another class yet because I’m determined to get at least one character to 60. I did pre-order the expansion but I’ll also admit that the biggest reason was because it comes with a pet for World of Warcraft. If there’s one way to get me to buy expansions and digital collector’s editions, that would be the way. I now proudly own a goblin treasure hunter.

Leveling has been incredibly fast with the 50% bonus to experience turned on in preparation for the expansion, as well as bonuses based on how many are in your party, the difficulty of the game (which you set), and any buffs you may encounter along the way. I went from 32 to 37 in the hour I played yesterday. Now, you may think that is far too quick, but since they’re trying to get people in and playing before the expansion, I think it’s understandable. They want you to realistically gear up for the next part. A reason to buy that next expansion.

Are you playing Diablo III? Going to pick up the expansion? Let me know in comments! As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.