Stargrace

Spoon, Joseph, and Toast Walk into a Farm

I had a hen in Wurm Online. Named her Cluck. Fed her grass. She lay eggs, 44 of them. Served me well and then I decided I would sacrifice her to Fo for a server mission. I waited for those eggs to hatch to see if I would have anything to show for those 44 eggs, it’s rare that anything actually hatches.

I was lucky.

I named my eggs, so that when they hatched they would get to keep those names. It’s just a cute way to personalize the animals a bit. Since I had 44 eggs to name, the last bunch were names like ‘Cat’ and ‘Dog’ – and I peered down into the pen on my way from grooming the horses and noticed three little chick heads poking up out of the snow.

Spoon. Toast. Joseph.

I actually thought Toast had died of starvation, Landmark came out just as the chicks hatched and they didn’t have any food. I decided to pack down the tile of snow so I could see the ground better, and there she was, waiting for breakfast.

I’ve stuffed the pen with a lot of grass to keep them fed, and am trying to be a better chick parent. Eventually they’ll lay their own eggs, though I don’t really have a use for them at this point in time. Maybe other players would like some.

It was a great surprise. I’ve tried to hatch eggs before but I didn’t have any luck and I’m glad I have a few named chicks wandering the pens. As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

What Landmark Is – and Is Not

I wasn’t expecting the NDA to drop so fast, and the game is currently down for patches at the moment so you’ll just have to use your imagination since I have no screenshots. As someone who has played countless alphas, I have to say that this one has absolutely swept me away. My steam account is full of them, so many that I decided just after Christmas that I wasn’t going to purchase games any more unless they were the completed versions. If they were all in the state that Landmark is in, I would probably purchase every single one that interested me.

You’ll have to take this blog post with a grain of salt. First of all keep in mind that my favorite MMO is and has been for some time – Wurm Online. This is a creation game in a survival setting and it takes hours upon hours to play it and to level skills. It is a game that has many bugs, a tiny dev team, and captured my heart so hard that I pretty much never have anything but good to say about it. Expect the same with my opinions on landmark.

Right now Landmark is:

crafting
creation
harvesting
exploration

Landmark is not:

completed
bug-free
particularly exciting – UNLESS – you happen to be a die-hard harvester/crafter/creationist which I am
Does not currently have combat

Landmark is a sandbox. YOU will create the game. YOU will decide what parts appeal to you and how to make them exciting. If you don’t like exploring, creating things, harvesting, or crafting, chances are you may not like Landmark – at least not in the current state. Keep in mind that as the alpha progresses more aspects will be added and thus what you can make of the game will expand.

I can not stress this part enough. It is alpha. There are LOTS OF BUGS. You need LOTS OF PATIENCE. Post on the forums, let the devs know what the issues are. Can’t log in? Just sit back and go do something else. Lose all your stuff? Stuck? Attacked by giant robots? It’s alpha. You have to relax.

I can say with absolute certainty that the game is perfect for me. I am already incredibly in love with it and so very excited. It is what I have wanted in a AAA title for so long now that I feel absolutely giddy now that it is here. It is beautiful. It runs well. The mining process is mind-boggling, I have no better words. When you tunnel you create an actual tunnel that looks different and adjusts every time your pickaxe hits the ground. You must explore to find the different resources you need. Become familiar with how the terrain looks, how ore looks, if you want to create that castle or that house in the woods you need to go out and harvest those supplies. The possibilities of what you can craft are as vast as your imagination.

I think people who will enjoy this game play are people who are fans of games like Wurm Online, Starbound, Minecraft, and Terraria. You’re not going to love everything but expect a lot of Landmark posts in the upcoming months.

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

My Wurm Online To-Do List

The work in Wurm Online is never done, and it can be hard to keep the list of chores straight. I was pleased when I logged in this morning, there were two baby chicks waiting for me in my pen. That means out of my collection of 44 eggs, two hatched. I’m now the proud owner of Toast, and Joseph. Wonderful names if I do say so myself.

Things go much easier if I break them up into separate days and work through a schedule. For example, my main character Blesse is focusing on working the deed, along with fine carpentry, and shipbuilding. I try to dedicate each play session to a different thing, that way I’m not getting bored, my skills are leveling up, and stuff is getting done. Yesterday I spent the day working on my deed, today I will work shipbuilding, and then tomorrow I’ll focus on fine carpentry. The same can be said for my priest, I generally spend time on the alt praying and working up meditation. Today I burned sleep bonus and worked on natural substance which is the ability that lets me create dye. I created healing covers that I sacrificed for a bit of deed bonus, and I created candles for my snow lanterns which were a christmas gift.

Reinforce Les Reveurs mine
Reinforce Starcrossed Outpost mine
Wooden houses at Starcrossed Outpost
~~Finish horse pens at Les Reveurs~~
Build 10 bsb at Les Reveurs
Build 10 small barrels at Les Reveurs
~~Find Blesse’s affinity~~
~~Make Kurwer a lantern~~
~~Make 2 beds at Les Reveurs~~
Finish iron balcony at Les Reveurs

I also had a bit of a scare as one of the avatars made his way to my deed to hang out for a while. These things are gigantic, and can easily catch a player off guard. Thankfully they’re not aggressive.

I love how relaxing Wurm is, and the pride I take in creating the deed and then running it. Working skills is rewarding, and makes the characters worth something. It will be interesting to see how Landmark stacks up as far as a creation game goes.

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

The Wombats Prepare For Dragon’s Prophet

To the surprise of a few people I’m sure, there are a handful of SOE games that I’ve never played before. Dragon’s Prophet is one of those games though people should keep in mind that the game is only published by SOE, another company works on the development. A group of my online friends called the Combat Wombats have decided that a Friday night game session is in order. A vote was put forth, and the game that pulled ahead ended up being (much to my surprise) DP.

I installed it throughout the day and logged in tonight to make my way through the tutorial and learn the keyboard controls. Of course the first thing I really wanted to do was learn how to hide the UI (it’s F7) and take screenshots (uncomplicated, it’s PrtScr). Things so far are easy. Left and right mouse button are my current two attacks, and they can also set off combos. I do own two dragons from previous claims, but I have no idea how to use them or what they’re even for, so for now I am just keeping them in my bags. I also got a title, and a cloak. I discovered the game has achievements, something else that I had no idea about.

It’s pretty, though the controls are not the most comfortable for me. I prefer using only keyboard commands where possible. In this game, much like Neverwinter, you use WASD to move about, and the mouse controls your view range. You ‘unlock’ the mouse from view by hitting escape which will pop up menus.

Why have I never played before? I’m honestly not sure. The best reason I can come up with is that the game released at a time where I was completely content with whatever my game of choice happened to be, and I had no reason to branch out. Don’t let that confuse you, I’m not unhappy with my games of choice now, either, I just want to try to be a bit more social this year, and that involves playing with some friends (although I will admit that in Wurm Online I am part of a large active alliance, I still spend most of the time playing by myself). How long will this fascination last? Knowing the group of people I’m playing with, I guess a week. Alright, I’ll give us a bit more credit than that, perhaps a month. If we continue past that I will be delighted. We’ll just have to see.

Yes, I’ll be playing EQN Landmark

As an early Valentines present I received a Trailblazer pack to EverQuest Next Landmark, which I am pretty happy about. At first I was reluctant about the idea of paying for alpha – but then I thought back to my steam games and how many of those are also in alpha. I gave more consideration to the idea that paying for alpha helps to fund these games and enables them to kick off the ground and pay their employees. I looked at the items that the Trailblazer pack comes with and I felt that I was getting pretty good value, name in the credits and all the rest. Plus when it comes right down to it some of my favorite games involve building and creating locations, especially games like Wurm Online, Terraria, Minecraft, and others of that genre. Chances are pretty good that once EQN Landmark releases I would have wandered my way over no matter what, based on that alone.

There is still a lot of confusion out there about what EQN Landmark IS. Developers have been teasing and there are only a few days left before alpha is set to begin. How things will go still has yet to be seen, but yes, I’m excited.

Is it foolish to get excited? It feels like over the years many of my friends have decided that hype is a silly idea, one that we are better off without. However, I am glad that I still get excited about video games. I’m happy that I can still find that sort of passion in a hobby that I really enjoy. Do I think Landmark is the next big thing? Eh, not really. I think we’re past the days where there is ‘one game to rule them all’. Gamers are too diverse and every game eventually becomes niche to some extent. Still, I am looking forward to playing, and creating.