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Postponed Patches, and Market Visits #WurmOnline

stargrace — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 18:41:34 +0000

I was looking forward to the big summer patch coming out today, but alas it has been postponed due to some ATI graphic rendering issues that the dev team is trying to figure out. Of course I would always much rather a patch be postponed instead of inflicting massive bugs upon a player base, so I’m not too heartbroken over this.

Yesterday I made my way to the south coast of Exodus to set up a merchant at one of the markets down there. I had heard from players that this was one of the more popular Exodus markets, but the server has a handful of them, so I’m not really sure. So far I haven’t sold anything yet, but it hasn’t been that long and I honestly have no idea how many people actually shop there.

My merchant on Deliverance on the other hand does quite well. I’ve made 16s this month from selling my items, and the market really doesn’t have that much (if any) competition, so everyone uses it. I believe another market may be opening to the East, but I’m not certain on that.

I’m pretty excited about the patch tomorrow. I’ve started remodeling some of my homes from wood to stone (I prefer the look) and I’m eager to test out the new fence models. I have a feeling that mortar and brick will be as popular as ever in regards to sales. I’ve neer purchased bulk goods like that before, but I always see people looking for them.

I moved Arysh back to Deliverance where she now holds the writ papers to Caribou Trails, and can watch over the animals. That does mean that Stargrace over on Exodus no longer has someone to provide her with meals nor can she examin the animals herself, but I figure I should get those skills on my main character before too long. I may let the Vynora lapse for a bit in subscription, while I work on other things.

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

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Back Into Rift #Rift #Riftgame

stargrace — Sat, 15 Jun 2013 12:39:18 +0000

Like many others this week, I decided to poke back into Rift when it went free to play. There were a few issues on starting day like loyalty not being there for everyone and some very long queues, but most gamers are used to these sort of issues and they were not too bad. I picked up with my level 50 cleric not knowing what the heck I was doing, or where I should go. I was reluctant to start over with another character because I really wanted to attempt 60 on the cleric, and I’ve worked really hard on her crafting and other skills. Plus I have one of everything, so I just wasn’t keen on starting another of everything.

Thanks to the cookie cutter soul builds it didn’t take that long to understand what I was doing. You hit buttons, stuff happens. I’m in a dps / solo spec right now that gives me enough heals to stay alive and enough dps that I don’t feel like an hour has passed before anything dies. I decided to queue for some instant adventures after picking up a daily (weekly?) quest for it, which were a lot of fun. It just drops you into a random group in a random zone, and off you go. I think for mine we were in Stonefield. It also mentors you down, so I think I was level 25. It wasn’t a whole lot of experience, but it was a fantastic refresher on “what to do” in game.

Afterward I decided to start the Storm Legion content. I know there’s Ember Island, but I had heard that the experience there didn’t quite measure up, and since Storm Legion came out after, a lot of the gear is also just not worth it. I may adventure there at another time, or when I’m looking for some place new.

I was looking forward to getting my skills above 300 as they’ve been raised with the level increase – however, I won’t be able to afford that for quite some time. Looks like they cost 11 plat each to train, plus the cost of recipes, and I have a grand total of 10 plat to my name. It looks like money has gone through a bit of an overhaul though and it’s far easier to get coin these days than ever before. Perhaps with a few more quests under my belt I’ll be able to afford to train up.

I also have a lot of crafting lures on me, but I’m not sure where people go any more to complete those. I’ll have to ask in channel.

All in all, I’m really happy to be back – enough so that I signed up for Patron (a subscription) just to enjoy the perks and earn more loyalty as I play. You can find me on the Faeblight server as Seduisant. As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

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Summer Update Incoming #WurmOnline

stargrace — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 12:41:09 +0000

There are some really amazing updates coming out soon, Tuesday June 18th to be exact. This is posted from the Wurm Online Tumblr.

Wurm V1.1 Summer Update Release Next Week

We’re very happy to tell you that our Summer Update which brings Wurm to version 1.1 will be released on Tuesday 18th June.

What’s coming in the Summer Update?

One of our main projects for this update has been to make a number of performance enhancements, mainly to the game client. This should mean that graphics cards will be used more effectively to improve frame rates and overall performance. We’ve also tried to fix as many bugs as possible.

We’re adding a number of new features to the game, including the ability to build house extensions, new fence types, learn mystical powers to become a powerful sorcerer, and several others including an overhaul of the foraging and botanising system.

We have also made some changes to graphics and user interface. These include an update to a number of creature models and animations, a paper-doll window for equipping armour, icons for climbing, lawful etc. and inventory grouping among other improvements.

We’re also very glad to announce that our new in-game music will be released. We’ll let you know more about that soon.

Overall, this summer update has been the result of work from across all areas of the team since we hit 1.0 last December. Some of the changes are quite small, but there are many of them. Others are very exciting and add new depth and accessibility to the game and we’re really excited to see how you use them.

We really hope you enjoy this next release of Wurm Online as much as we have enjoyed developing it for you. Happy Wurming!

Yours Sincerely,
Rolf and the team behind Wurm Online

Don’t forget to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for regular updates! There’s also our Team Blog.

P.S. In case you haven’t seen it yet, here’s a condensed featurelist for v1.1:

Client Performance Upgrades

An All-New Mystic Powers and Karma System

More New Creature Models

Re-Work of the Epic Endgames

Kingdom Tabards (worn on the body)

Cross-Server Chat

New Fence Types

Flower Beds and Flower Pots

Gravestones

New “Analyse” on Rock Ores

Foraging and Botanizing Overhaul

Modify Existing Structures

New In-Game Music

GUI: Addition of a Drag and Drop “Paperdoll”

GUI: New icons for climbing, faithful etc

Inventory Grouping

In-game Skill Tracker

Diagonal Roads

Falling Tree Animations

P.P.S. There will also be a slight change to the farming mechanic. There will now be more factors affecting crop yield, including seed ql, rake ql and the rarity of everything involved. In theory, someone with only 1 farming skill could potentially achieve a yield of 4 crops. Also, you will continue to always harvest more than 0 crops.

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Charm of Lore, and Mercenary of East Wastes #EverQuest

stargrace — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 12:47:45 +0000

Oger and myself have been working on a few older achievements as of late. You can find these under the Hero’s Journey category in your achievement window. The one I picked for us to work on next was the Charm of Lore, which involves collecting 37 different trinkets and turning them in to Librarian Hemfar in Crescent Reach. So far the collection has not been too difficult to obtain, but we’re now at the point where 100% of them are drops from mobs and raids. The hard part being simply finding the mobs up (or in the case of regular named, spawning them). Still we’ve worked our way through a lot of zones and I’m really happy that there are only 8 more pieces for me to collect and then I’ll have completed the charm. The ones I’m missing are in Ashengate, Ashengate, Reliquary of the Scale: North, Ashengate, Reliquary of the scale: West, Frostcrypt: Raid Instance #2 and Valdeholm: Udengar the Traitor. It’s not an upgrade any more but there’s still an achievement for getting it done, and a sense of completion for my main character.

I’ve been thinking a bit on what I want to work on next, and I’m pretty sure it will be my druid. I haven’t actually started working on her yet, but before too long I hope to.

Another bit of character advancement came from working on the Mercenary of East Wastes: Zeixshi-Kar’s Awakening. It’s part of the current expansion so any rewards were quite relevant, and a death or two happened here and there. Mostly because of my charmed pet breaking and me not being able to land a charm in time before I was smushed. Especially if mercenary are on passive and not healing me. I’m still getting used to having my rune spells up (and active). This zone was frustrating. Especially if you’re not a tracker. It’s not that the quests themselves were difficult per say but the zone is GIANT (it mimics the regular East Wastes) and it’s constant running around to find what you need. If you don’t have a tracker you’re forced to wander around aimlessly looking for what you need. It did take us a week or two to finally complete these quests but I’m glad we got it done. Now we just need one more East Waste group mission and then we will have completed the hero achievements and obtained the trophy house item that grants buffs. After that, it’s time to move on to someplace new, which I am really looking forward to. The constant snow storms are not my idea of fun.

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

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Alts? I Have a Few.. #EverQuest

stargrace — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 22:59:08 +0000

I wish I were the type of person to just settle down with one character – but that never works. I have alts in pretty much every single game I play which lately, it a lot of EverQuest.

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Cazic-Thule Has Been Working Out #EverQuest

stargrace — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 21:36:15 +0000

I logged into the guild hall today, and the statue above is what I saw. Cazic-Thule, with his bits covered by a shield. I laughed for a good 10 minutes.

Ah yes, it’s the simple things.

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Moving to Exodus #WurmOnline

stargrace — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 14:01:04 +0000

After two years on Deliverance I decided it was time for a bit of a change. I love the server but it’s quite small and after so much time there I’ve gotten to know the layout of the land quite well. I spotted a deed for sale on Exodus, a server that is about a 5 minute sail from my current Deliverance deed. The price was quite low, and it came with a few bits and bobs on deed although it doesn’t have a trader like I wish it had, it’s a nice place. Of course there was some drama before I could actually take over the deed but I was aware that the two players I was purchasing from are known for this sort of thing. It was sorted without too much pain, and now I am a proud owner of a second deed once more. I’ll be keeping the Deliverance deed simply because it has a trader that I want to take advantage of, but for the most part I expect that I’ll be living on Exodus full time.

One of the main reasons I wanted to move as I mentioned above is that I love to explore, and I feel that I know Deliverance quite well now. Exodus is the same size map, but it’s also close to celebration where I lived for a few months back when the server opened and I’m right on the North West coast which means getting to Chaos is very simple. In fact the only server that is an enormous pain to get to is Independence, which I’m alright with.

I may try to sell one of my priest characters in order to afford a trader on Exodus, then both deeds are covered quite nicely. It’s not an uncommon thing to do, and honestly I was just using the character to collapse mine tunnels (which I no longer really have a reason for, as those mines are off-deed).

My first days on Exodus were spent making my new deed a ‘home’. I don’t like the look of birch trees so I cut them all down and replanted maple. There is a fence around the deed but part of it was a low iron fence and the other half a tall stone wall. So I took down a portion of the iron fence and replaced it with the tall wall. I placed some flags around the outside of the deed (horde of the summoned, which are a deep purple) and did some terraforming. There is a large empty section in the middle of the deed that I’m contemplating turning into a farm, and there’s a section with cattle that I think I’d like to remove because I have no real use for them. I’d rather breed horses since they’re useful and they provide leather like cows do.

Two of the guest houses were made from wood and I prefer stone, so I tore them down and turned it into one large cottage. I’m just finishing off the roof and then I can move on to the next project which is making use of a large open space in the center of the deed. I’m not sure what I want to do with it yet, but I’m sure I’ll come up with something.

I’m enjoying the new server so far. I think a change was exactly what I needed. As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

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1 to 300 Tinkering #EverQuest

stargrace — Sat, 01 Jun 2013 13:19:15 +0000

Despite what it looks like in the above screenshot, my enchanter is a gnome. I’m usually running around in one illusion or another, for this one it’s a dark elf because the shield I’m wearing tends to clip through my arm otherwise (it’s a player studio item that just recently released and I think it’s really nice). One of my goals was to reach 300 in tinkering, not an overly difficult task, but I didn’t want to spend a lot of money. I ended up spending some, and I’m sure there are easier paths, but this is the method I went.

From 1-52 visit Matrum Geerlok in Crescent Reach. This is the freebie crafting quest and it will get you started.
From 1-102 I made stalking probes.
From 103-148 I made aqualung (keep these, you’ll need them)
From 149-175 I made rebreather
From 176-208 I made innovative bow cam
From 209-232 I made geerlok automated quill

Then things got difficult. I started farming loams to created sacred symbols, but this requires doing a quest to get patterns and I didn’t really want to do that. So I bought a craft potion from the marketplace for 1,000 station cash which gives you a buff for two hours that allows you to salvage 100% of all failed combines.

From 233 to 300 I made a combination of Tick Tock Sticky Bombs, repeating crossbow bolts, and repeating crossbow. The lumber for the crossbow was incredibly cheap and I gained most of my skill ups from this item. It took over 500 combines to get from 250 to 300 but I didn’t mind since I was using the potion and salvaging. There’s a wonderful guide that gives different skill up routs, but I didn’t really like the amount of farming it has you do. Make sure you do the tinkering trophy when you reach 52 so that your tool will level up with you and you won’t be forced to make the artisan’s seal and old trophy before moving on to the new one like I did. In fact it’s pretty important if you want to start crafting to make ALL your beginner trophies before moving up through the tiers, unless you really want to create 7-8 artisan seals and complete the old trophies and then do the master trophies of the new type.

The only craft I have left to get to 300 is research, and this one is a costly endeavor. I’m currently at 260 but each combine costs almost 1,000 plat in vendor sold items and there’s no way around this. The ‘best’ way I’ve seen to get to 300 is to create the Glowing Energeiac Rod, which is by no means cheap and requires a lot of sunshard ore. However if you’ve got the money and the ore it’s not that big of a deal. When I’ve saved up some more supplies I’ll attempt research again but for now I’m taking a slight break from it.

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

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Plane of Shadow #EverQuest

stargrace — Tue, 28 May 2013 14:13:14 +0000

Now that I’m level 100 I get to play with the big kids, in big kid zones. Last night that involved the Plane of Shadow. I’ve been working on earning alternate advancement points now because I’m well below the current cap. My enchanter has barely 1300 aa to her name – but you get a bonus to earning them up to 4,000 so it shouldn’t take too long to at least reach that many.

We camped a room filled with non aggro dervish and some shadowblade’s with the prospect of two named. We also spotted a named beetle outside so we left the camp briefly for that. It was a pretty relaxing evening, I managed to obtain T3 sleeves, pants, and wrist as well as a new cloak and some spell motes. I don’t have all of my rank 2 spells yet, the motes have simply been too expensive. It was neat to see named still con red to me at level 100 although we didn’t really seem to have any trouble.

When I’m not actually killing mobs I enjoy roaming around looking for shinies. EverQuest added them in this latest expansion and while I was disappointed at first with their rewards, it’s hard not to run out and try to find them all. Addictive by nature I suppose, especially since my EverQuest 2 days. I really wish they rewarded house items or something of the sort, but it’s not a big deal.

I’m looking forward to spending some time in other Rain of Fear zones and hopefully before too long I feel a bit more useful to a group. Enchanters are nice, but they’re a rarely played class, these days.

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

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Ding, Level 100 #EverQuest

stargrace — Mon, 27 May 2013 12:41:03 +0000

Ah yes, Sunday of double exp weekend, where everyone and their dog is grinding experience in little camps all over Norrath. It wasn’t exciting, but it was.. well. It was EverQuest. It’s exactly how I remember the game being. This is a good thing, although I know it’s certainly not everyone’s cup of tea any more to spend hours upon hours grinding in a single spot. We got a lot of talking done which is something I also don’t see in very many other games any more. I value that more than the actual levels gained.

My enchanter reached level 100. For the first time ever in my 10 years of playing EverQuest (off and on, mind you) I’m actually at the current cap. I’ve come close before but usually the cap goes up JUST as I’m about to reach it. This year I’ve reached more of my EverQuest goals than ever before, and I couldn’t be more pleased. One was to reach 300 in each of my crafts (technically I still have tinkering and research to go, but I’ve made a good start) and the other was to reach 100 on at least one character. Possibly more but we’ll see how that goes.

Being at the current level cap certainly doesn’t mean that I’m “done” now either. There are over 11,000 aa to obtain next (I have 1.3k which is a tiny amount), crafting trophies, achievements, and much more. I’m also trying to decide which character to level up next during off peak hours when friends are not around. I tend to waver back and forth between a handful of my alts, which I’ll probably continue to do.

Wulfrik, Elte, Oger, and myself settled in for a long camp at Cobalt, a named wyvern in Shard’s Landing. Later on we were joined by Faliin, a necromancer. I wasn’t the only one who saw the benefits of the double xp weekend, Oger inched his way from 92 to 99, and Wulfrik reached 100 with his shaman and gained quite a few levels with his ranger. Still, a break after that much of a grind is a good thing. I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend and had a great time! As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.

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