Stargrace

DAW: Developer Appreciation Week #DAW

This is the third year that Scarybooster from Scary Worlds has run the event (“the” event being the Developer Appreciation Week currently in progress), and if you’ve never heard of it before then you’re missing out.

OK folks, Developer Appreciation Week is upon us. In a rare fit of seriousness, I am going to be posting my own shit about how wonderful these folks are who make our games and fill our dreary days with rainbows and hails of bullets. I invite all my fellow gaming bloggers to do the same. during the 5 days from 9-13 April, write at least one post about how you appreciate the developers of your favorite timekiller. Drop me a line somehow, here or on Twitter, and I will maintain a link post where people can go to find your shit.

Thanks to you and thanks to the Devs.

(Disclaimer: Devs won’t tell you they appreciate your appreciation, but I will. What they do is that important to me.)

I’ve been thinking all week about who I wanted to give my special shout out to – and honestly, I couldn’t narrow it down. I have played so many amazing games over the past few years that it’s impossible to say thank you to just one person, or even one company. I’ve even learned a few things, like the fact that developers are human. Who would have thought! They can make mistakes. Players tend to rake anyone with any amount of ‘power’ be it real or even just visualized, over the coals for any little thing that they don’t personally find satisfying, and developers are one group of people in a long line who put up with it (there are others, but this is DAW week after all). It takes a thick skin.

For every single developer out there, in every single game, thank you. You have brought countless hours of joy (or frustration) to someones life, and for that you deserve this week. You have affected people in ways that you will probably rarely ever hear about and you certainly deserve to hear about it.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

It’s Maple Season, Bring Out the Buckets #WurmOnline

There’s almost nothing more exciting than going hunting for maple sap late at night, and being jumped on by a goblin. OK, almost nothing. The green diseased bears pull in at a close second.

I’m really bad at figuring out what harvests are ready in game. I’d love for someone to develop an app that imports all of the Wurm dates into my calendar, giving me updates when a particular harvest is ready. For now I attempt to figure out the seasons via wiki, and then work out the harvesting chart. I think roses are next but I’m probably wrong. In any case, I took out my bucket and started moving from tree to tree collecting sap. I noticed on low quality buckets you’ll spend a LOT of time repairing after each harvest. After I improved it to 15 QL the damage was much less noticeable. It’s worth it to improve things as high as you can.

Why collect maple sap? Well, I can use it in other concoctions. Turn that sap into syrup and then use it in wine, or lemonade. I haven’t tried my hand at making wine yet but it’s one of the few things in Wurm that betters with age, instead of decaying. I’m eager to give this a try and see how it turns out.

I hope everyone had a lovely Easter weekend, no matter where you found yourself. Happy gaming!

Goblins, and Lions, and Bears – OH MY! #WurmOnline

My normally quiet Darkpaw Bay has been seeing a lot of action lately, and I have to admit, it’s awesome. There’s a bear den not too far away, and two mountain lion dens, and just recently, a goblin den spawned. I took a little trip around to see how many were wandering. They’re not too difficult, about the same level as black wolves. I killed what I could find – and along the way I also spotted some greenish brown bears off in the distance. It was hard to miss them, they are gigantic! Greenish animals as I’ve mentioned before, are a lot harder than the regular versions. I managed to drag one off to the guard and landed charm, then ran with it (by leading) away from the guards. A female! I hurriedly put my new prized possession into a pen, and went out in search of a male.

Find one I did, but the guards killed it before I could land a charm. Or rather, the bear killed me first, and on my way back the guards killed the bear. Luck was with me, I spotted a THIRD just off in the distance. Brought it to a guard, landed charm, and brought him home to the female I had captured earlier.

I was going to take a break from breeding bears because it’s quite a difficult task, but with bears like these just wandering outside my door, it’s hard to do that. Exciting times, that’s for sure. I’ve more to say on the subject, but right now I’m busy foraging for Easter eggs! Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Am I Ready To Try Epic? #WurmOnline

I’m not a big fan of PvP but some times, some times you just get that itch. Your house feels too safe. The walls feel too close to you, and you’re looking for a little excitement. That champion old troll doesn’t frighten you the way he used to, so you think about what life might be like on the other side of the portal. You know the one I’m talking about. That stone portal, the one pictured above, actually.

One of the features I love about WurmOnline is the ability to move from server to server without many restrictions. Interested in trying out the Epic servers? Use a portal (there’s one at Green Dog, or you can find the player built ones strewn across the lands). You’ll have to stay there for at least an hour, but then you can epic portal yourself back home (at least, that’s how I understand things to work). Your character starts off completely new on the epic servers, a new affinity, new tools, and you start from scratch. Skills raise faster than Freedom servers, and yes, things are going to get messy because guess what, it’s PvP.

So am I ready? Probably not, and I doubt I’ll ever really BE ready. But I’m excited to try it out. I’m thinking if I do wander onto the epic servers I’ll start out in a village instead of trying to do everything myself. I’d rather be a part of something, at least for this component of the game. Strength in numbers and what have you.

Meanwhile, on Freedom, my deeds are doing well. I completely re-did Les Reveurs on a random whim, and it’s turned out quite lovely (that’s the deed you see above). I have three buildings, one is my sleeping area, another the craft building, and the third is a supply shed with one wall open so that my cart drives through it easily. I’ve got 5 bulk storage bins filled with random bits and pieces, a nice alter set up so my Vynora priest can work on skills, some barrels of food and drink, my two bulls, and a horse. Of course having such a lovely home makes the decision to visit epic even harder. We’ll just have to see!

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

Making a House a Home #WurmOnline

Pictured above is my new crafting building at Les Reveurs (on Deliverance). I named the building ‘Last Nickel Knoll” for no other reason than it appealed to me on a silly level, having to do with money (crafting is a nice way to make money in WurmOnline, if you’re willing to sell to other players). As I mentioned in my previous post I’m trying to figure out what I want to do with my mountain deed. I want a little country village, loads of trees and some cobble roads leading to the buildings. A boundary of trees making it a quaint little glade.

People spend weeks and months working the land for their deeds. Terraforming is one of the major appeals of WurmOnline, you can build some incredible looking areas, and while there are some limitations it still has a lot of options. It does take work, a lot of work, especially if you’ve settled on an area that isn’t flat. Flattening and surface mining are two of the most common jobs I see people advertising work for, turning hills and valleys into their humble abodes.

Random note, my ‘house’ (with a bed) is called Seldom Inn. I had too much time on my hands and went on a google search for names, what can I say. The house now has a bed, two barrels of water, and an oven.

More random notes: foals and younger animals have a lesser chance to drop hides when butchering them than matures. If you’re breeding for hides, let them age a bit for a better chance.

Animals that have an illness need to be cured before they hit mature, once they’re mature even if they have it cured they will be unable to carry carts / be ridden. They will be OK for future breeding though so it’s still worth while to cure them with a genesis cast.

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