Tag: Wurm Online

Anyone who has been reading my blog posts these past few months knows just how much I love WurmOnline, and how I’ve never had any issues in game – until these last two weeks. These last two weeks have almost completely undone everything I love about the game, and the worst part is there’s nothing that can be done about it because it’s one of those shady grey areas of griefing. Pictured above is the forest (well, it used to be the forest) just below my deed. It is right in front of and around the deed of a friend of mine, and to the side of yet another friend. There are four of us in the area, most of these trees were planted by us. We don’t technically own the woods because it’s not deeded, but we’ve been living here happily for months now. Up on a hill away from this forest lives the griefers. It started out innocently enough.

Logging started 2012-03-10
[14:14:14] <Zeno> is “cabin fever” your house?
[14:18:28] <Stargrace> Yes
[14:20:09] <Stargrace> Why do you ask?
[14:21:55] <Zeno> you should repair your fences
[14:22:07] <Stargrace> No thanks, they’re alright. =)
[14:22:07] <Zeno> wood makes terrible fencing and yours are all damaged

From there it quickly went downhill.

[14:23:42] <Zeno> you do realize its not on a deed and anyone could bash those fences down in about 10 minutes and steal your horse and whatever else is in there though right
[14:24:01] <Stargrace> I own two deeds not far from here, this is just a temporary camp I’ve set up for fun. Thank you for your concern about my fences. You know that breaking into an enclosure is against game rules and GMs will enforce that, right? :)
[14:24:17] <Zeno> I wouldnt need the horse you have
[14:24:24] <Zeno> I have about 30 named horses lol

[14:59:45] <Zeno> ive had more than a few handle legitimate complaints and err on the side of “do nothing” so they could close the case and I wouldnt get proper assistance
[14:59:58] <Stargrace> Very sorry to hear that. I’m glad they help me.
[15:00:16] <Zeno> keep acting cute and they will
[15:00:40] <Stargrace> I think you’re confusing it with ‘nice’. ;)
[15:00:59] <Zeno> nice i.e: manipulative
[15:01:18] <Stargrace> Manipulative? I haven’t even done anything..
[15:01:22] <Zeno> nice so you too can be a GM/CM or to get aforementioned assistance

[15:28:45] <Zeno> though, as I said, you’re providing me some interaction in lieu of trolling kingdom chat
[15:29:38] <Zeno> that would quantify as my part time job I suppose
[15:29:56] <Zeno> much to the chargin of GMs

[15:36:09] <Zeno> also to be perfectly honest, I had considered smashing down your walls but your little area was cute and I’d have felt bad
[15:37:32] <Zeno> but don’t tell your GM friends that ;)

[20:36:26] <Zeno> by the way when I said I was considering smashing into your place, that was before we talked lol.. i’m not THAT heartless

While these conversations were going on, my neighbours at my deed were being broken into by one of the members of their village, and their horses stolen and moved up the side of a gigantic hill. I actually watched them walk home (as I myself was walking home) with a few of the horses, but I had no idea at that time they were stolen. At the time of the conversation I had applied to be a CA, but was not yet accepted and didn’t want to jinx it, so I left it quiet.

[22:08:40] <Zeno> are you a cm/gm
[22:08:45] <Zeno> in any facet
[22:08:51] <Zeno> I ask purely out of curiosity
[22:08:57] <Arysh> Nope, I am not
[22:09:19] <Zeno> k
[22:10:59] <Zeno> this isn’t one of those chris hansen type entrapment things right
[22:11:14] <Arysh> I don’t even know what that is ><
[22:11:14] <Zeno> where you befriend the server jerk and then trap me in a cage somewhere lol
[22:11:17] <Zeno> haha
[22:11:27] <Arysh> No I’m just a nice lady, sorry
[22:11:33] <Zeno> haha
[22:11:44] <Zeno> I remain ever suspicious

The next day, I attempted to help my friends get their horses back. GMs have been trying to work on this with a LOT of logs we’ve supplied and have come to no solid resolution yet. I provided logs of me examining each of the horses when they were on the owners deed, and then also examining them when they were in the stolen deed. I also get accepted as CA and start getting random tells from various members of their villages, I put them all on ignore. Two days later, I get this message:

Logging started 2012-03-15
[17:44:48] <Zeno> fippys farm is yours?
[17:45:03] <Arysh> Nay, that is Yetian and Gotchi’s
[17:45:17] <Zeno> I see
[17:45:58] <Zeno> ahhhh fippys keep is yours

On the eve of that day my perimeter is broken into, and my cows stolen / killed / let loose in the forest around my deed. I find out the day after as I log in and notice all 25 animals missing. I work all day along with a few friends to re-build my pens on-deed so that they can not be broken into any more and hopefully prevent any more damage from happening. I’m also accused of altering logs, even though in my 6 years of writing for this blog and about various MMOs and after being incredibly involved with every single community I’ve joined, I’ve NEVER been accused of this before.

[14:55:27] <Zeno> you have every motivation for faking them

The GMs finally get involved, and the clear cutting stops, but it’s a grey area, and they (the griefers) are within their rights to cut down whatever they want. I receive more tells from random members of their village, either checking to see if I am online, or where I am, or what I am up to. I keep putting them on ignore. They put all of my characters on their KOS list, which I don’t mind because I have absolutely no intention of going to their deed, they’ve also put the neighbours on KOS, which is fine by all of them.

The best part is that I’ve played for months now without any issue until these people came along and I was made CA. I have sent in all my logs and proof that they’re trying to intimidate and causing distress, but because it’s all within the ‘rules of the game’ there’s nothing anyone can do. It’s caused me to want to just stop playing, which is a shame because I really enjoy Wurm. There are even PVP servers set up for this, which is where these players came from. My best bet (at this moment) is to hope they simply go away and get bored again in time. In the mean time, my stuff is all deeded, and secured. They can cut down the entire forest that I’ve planted, but my little tiny area of land is safe for now.

It took me approximately 8 hours on two accounts to fix up the cut down trees, but it got done. Many thanks to those who helped out. I won’t be re-planting any time soon because I know it will just get chopped down again, but it’s a start. Honestly, I just wish more could be done. It’s been a very frustrating two weeks in game.

A fierce unicorn has made her way into my ‘collection’ – the pretty pink creature posted above. Can you spot her hiding in the shrubs? I attempted to charm her on my own but she gave me a really hard time, taking me down to 1% health. No doubt it was some sort of communication error, she probably didn’t know just how lovely my deed is, or how many other unicorns romp around the pen. Thankfully my neighbour Soleca was around to help me out. He ended up tanking the creature for me long enough so that I could cast charm and lead her home.

While a lot of people complain about their neighbours in WurmOnline, I’ve had nothing but good things to say about the majority of mine. In fact I’m in an alliance with most of them and we spend a lot of time talking. It seems that almost all issues can be resolved with some friendly communication, and some times it’s just a matter of the neighbour being too young, or not speaking much english that causes the issues to begin with. A little patience goes a long way.

Last night I was heading over to Darkpaw Bay and Moumix came along for the ride (he owns the deed next to mine). We spotted someone attacking a troll (much stronger than any of my own characters) so we helped. When the mighty troll fell we were both granted titles! It’s my first ‘official’ title on Stargrace, aside from Community Assistant. Arysh already has a title from her faith in Fo, but Stargrace is a bit behind. It will be quite some time before I can ever handle a troll on my own so I was thankful for the opportunity.

Two of the changes from yesterdays patch notes require a bit of a blurb here in today’s post. First of all, the ability to pick up empty bsb and fsb containers is amazing. Of course it did also entice everyone on server to run out and collect all of the off-deed containers that were laying around, but I don’t see that as a bad thing. You can’t put the containers in a boat, nor in a cart, but you can carry them on your person (and your person can ride a cart, for example).

Getting rid of scrap metals (directly into lumps) was a mixed blessing. On one hand it sounds nice not to have to cool down scraps so that you can re-melt them into lumps but they’re also a bit broken at the moment and some metals are not returning low quality lumps at all. On that same note any time a change like this is implemented it causes me a bit of concern because I do not want the game any ‘easier’ than it already is (it’s not an easy game, I’m just saying I don’t want it to change too much). Over all I’m pleased with the changes, and I just hope the glitch with the lumps gets solved soon.

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

Dye is a wonderful thing. You can’t use it on everything in game, but you can add just enough colour to give things a personal feel. Arkenor made some olive dye and passed it to me, and I promptly used it on some furniture. Doesn’t it look great?!

Things in-game have been going well. I applied (and was accepted) as a CA. That’s a Community Assistant for those curious. It means that when people have questions in the CA channel, I’ll do my best to answer them. I’ll try to help out new (and veteran) players as much as possible. It’s a ‘job’ that I’ve been looking forward to doing, and have done off and on as I’ve played these last few months anyhow. Just in a more ‘official’ role. I’m hoping (eventually) to move up to CM, and help out with moderation.

What have I been up to? Well. Since I was having issues with griefers, I decided to deed that mountain top residence that I had created. I took down the old wooden shack (1×1) and built myself a 1×3 stone house. Stone houses are much more sturdy, although since I’m deeded it shouldn’t decay anyhow (as long as you have 2 months of upkeep paid). With my new ‘home away from home’ secured, I decided it was time to work on a few skills. I’ve been trying to get my Fo priest to 21 body control, that’s the base amount you need to ride a horse. Last night, after three months, I FINALLY got there! See, as a priest you’re restricted by what you can do, so while archery is a great method for raising the skill, it’s not something most priests can do (there are exceptions, Mag and Lib priests are able to use bows). Priests also can’t improve items, which is another great way to raise body control! So I was limited to doing tailoring, rope, and the best method I found (thanks to the suggestion of Arkenor) was combat. I traveled around Darkpaw Bay looking for unsuspecting creatures like wolves, mountain lions, and wild cats. I even managed to find a few cave bugs at the neighbours place. I still can’t quite handle a spider.

Of course as soon as I hit 21 body control I climbed up onto the first horse in my pen and ran around cackling like a crazy woman. It was a blast! Much faster than riding around on a cart, perfect for my quick trips to the mountains.

Now I need to get Stargrace to the same level. Hopefully it doesn’t take another three months.

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

While I love going on about how much I adore WurmOnline (and in fact I’ve started a 3rd account) there’s one aspect to this giant sandbox that bothers me to no end, and that is the fact that when something goes wrong, it is incredibly difficult to get any help in the matter. I don’t mean wrong like an account issue or like a glitch in game, I mean wrong like someone comes along, abuses a bug or casts a spell or bashes an undeeded portion of land and breaks down a door, steals horses and a cart, drags them back up to their own deed, and there’s not a lick that anyone else can do about it. The general response to any of this is “deed your valuables” – that’s the problem, these horses were on the perimeter, which does not technically count as on-deed. Even though breaking down enclosures is technically against the rules, and even though many logs with combined evidence were given, it still comes down to ‘the gate decayed, keep your items on-deed.’

This infuriates me. I do not appreciate thieves, especially when there are specific servers where these acts can be performed without breaking any rules (ie: there are pvp servers, go grief there). Taking the time to steal from someone on a pve server is just acting like a troll, picking on people who can not fight back.

“Griefing” also lends itself quite well to wurm, because players are allowed to build enclosures in the wild and technically those enclosures SHOULD be safe. However the server does not reinforce this and so if someone wants to come along and bash open your walls and take all your items they’re more than welcome to. Unless you go and get GMs involved (who will quite often tell you the item in question has decayed and then do nothing) there’s not a lot you can do.

That is just a part of the game and as a player you’re expected to learn this and just deal with it. It’s one of the few parts I do not enjoy in the least bit. It’s also why I now own a third deed, to protect my mountain escape from vandals. Remember, if you care about it, deed it (and lock it).