Etherdrifter

[22:35:47] From most to least likely, the following resource nodes could appear here under current conditions: Swampy puddle, rotting wood, mints, mineral debris, umbellifers, nightshades, vines, and critter nest. Doesn't look like it

1 week without premium it is (or a year if the price isn't right!)

Time to bump this, since the new update is going to have me travelling more and I really don't want to be casting "summon soul" to call a luggage alt every time I want to do some reports or take in-game notes.

At present, being a travelling scholar in wurm means keeping a lot of books/fragments/maps in your inventory (or in an alt's inventory) to avoid decay. Paper, reports, and the like can't be repaired, and those decay ticks are just annoying. So, a new set of items is laid out below to help solve this - with the idea that each weighs 2.5kg and blocks decay to the contents (i.e. decay only hits the container with the usual limitation on ticks to stop instant decay). Scribe's Chest [Purchased using rift points] A set of 20 0.5 L containers for ink/dye ONLY A pen clip (holds 10 pens) A built in bulk container for paper (holds 500 sheets) A built in set of 5 small chests for books (only) Cartographer's Chest [Fragments found through treasure hunts] A set of 20 0.5 L containers for ink/dye ONLY A pen clip (holds 10 pens) A built in bulk container for paper (holds 500 sheets) A built in atlas box (holds atlases only) A built in map table that can be used on the go Archaologist's Chest [Fragments found through Archaology] A set of 20 0.5 L containers for ink/dye ONLY A pen clip (holds 10 pens) A built in bulk container for paper (holds 500 sheets) A built in set of 25 small pouches that ONLY hold fragments A built in journal case (holds archaeology journals only) A tool box (holds 1 wire brush, 1 stone chisel, 1 trowl) Botanist's Chest [Fragments found at special forage/botanise spots using the new system] A set of 20 0.5 L containers for ink/dye ONLY A pen clip (holds 10 pens) A built in bulk container for paper (holds 500 sheets) A built in folio with 25 sections, for holding reports (100 reports per section) A built in alamanac box (holds alamancs only) Scholar's Chest [Created by combining all 4, possibly requiring an additional special item] A set of 20 2L containers for ink/dye ONLY A pen clip (holds 20 pens) A built in bulk container for paper (holds 2000 sheets) A built in set of 25 small pouches that ONLY hold fragments A tool box (holds 1 wire brush, 1 stone chisel, 1 trowl) A built in journal case (holds archaeology journals only) A built in bulk container for paper (holds 500 sheets) A built in folio with 25 sections, for holding reports (100 reports per section) A built in alamanac box (holds alamancs only) A built in atlas box (holds atlases only) A built in map table that can be used on the go A built in set of 5 small chests for books (only)

"Player retention" is always an interesting term. Does this mean "paying premium player retention" or "free player retention"? While the former has had a lot of exploration, the latter has largely languished. If you want to expand the latter, you're going to need to develop a more rewarding experience for achievers (your primary player base) - socials do well once they find a good community (though they are excluded from all official "social" content such as slayings and rifts) and free play is interesting for explorers (trying to work around the draconian restrictions is itself a form of gameplay). For achievers, once you hit those 20s, it's time to move on.

This would make travel easier +1

That doesn't inspire confidence, since priests are still brokenly crippled in PvE....

Having a high QL report giving CR and butcher bonuses would be nice. Maybe have the option to improve reports (i.e studying and then selecting an existing report). It would help reduce RNG impact a bit.

Looking forward to seeing how high alt places look on the test server - I get the feeling my mountain home is going to end up looking a lot snowier...

Those forage/botanise changes are going to make things very interesting! If the items findable are useful enough, might even be a good reason to explore!

I've tried that suggestion way too many times - it just gets shot down. This is an attempt at a middle ground that the devs might consider

At the moment, if I want to cut down a tree my steps are... 1. Log in free alt 2. Cast summon soul 3. Chop down tree 4. Log out free alt till next time At 100 faith, lets cut out the middle man, add a new spell that removes a priest's mine/dig/pave/chop restrictions costing 100 favour and lasting about 1 min per power of the cast (minimum cast power = prayer/2). Cap the QL of materials gathered if you object to the sudden creation of QL30 logs/stone/dirt.

Personally speaking, RL this year is going to be tough so I'll be letting my premium drop, and just paying my deed upkeep. If I can do this without spending cash, so much the better, but we all know how the magic market is at the moment Who knows, I might work more on my free folk guide as I once again experience the game breaking restrictions.

While my cart and its contents are resting on a deed, decay is very very slow. The moment you start traveling, you're punished for long trips by decay ticks if you need to take a break (i.e. you travel somewhere and then log off for a few days). It seems like a small QoL change, but it might remove the "urge" to always be back home or on a deed when logging.

Tag it to premium players only - problem solved.

A couple of buffs to help travellers: 1. Any cart/boat on a tile adjacent to a tent no longer takes decay ticks until the tent decays. 2. If a tent will decay away on a tick it waits 7 days to apply or applies when the owner next logs in (whichever is soonest). It no longer protects carts in this state. 3. Logging out while on a cart/ship protects it from decay for 3 days (no tent needed), and all led animals are rooted in place for 24 hours or until the person leading them relogs.

It's not really non-wurm since wurm is one, but it isn't wurm either since wurm is not the only one! MMOs in general are tricky creatures and I thought it might be interesting to create a thread to post links to videos and materials. The one below is my most recent watch, and I think it nails a core problem in the current generation of MMOs (wurm definitely included). And, some classic papers on the genre: https://mud.co.uk/richard/papers.htm These papers form the backbone for a lot of modern game design, though these days player classifications are somewhat wider!

Wait till you hear about the old cluster and how we're faring!

I like this idea - it's a bit of harmless fun that gives a buff to everyone involved. Pretty much the definition of what collaboration in a game should be.

Benefit of the doubt, it might just. The evidence suggests that it might not, however as with all kinds of predictions your milage may vary

I suspect they never really left. Forgiveness is important, but so is consistency. You reverse permabans, you send out the message that permabans are temporary bans and lower the risk. Middle ground, unban the player but keep the account banned. If they love wurm so much, starting over shouldn't phase them. You'd just be condoning what is already in place without changing anything.

I mean, that rather depends on your point of view. We have Twitter (oops, I mean symbol reserved for mathematical sets) going though a similar phase of "management" intervention, which is destroying the platform quite successfully. Jokes aside, the role of a manager is to manage, not always to dictate the course. One suspects that the owner of a nuclear power plant is not going to push ahead with things their engineers advise against. Likewise, if your development team is salty because you left them in the cack to deal with a change you implemented without their approval, you're not really leading them. Rather, you are leading trouble to them, which is certainly not the same thing at all! I've been around for a while, but I've not seen the old guard this riled up before, normally they're too busy bickering among themselves.

Suggested it years ago - +1 from me

Trying to predict the future when you don't know the full facts is impossible. Personally, I'll just be dumping what little silver I have into my deed, letting my premium expire, and watching from the sidelines. I get the feeling change is coming - however will this be changes in terms of content (could go either way), underlying mechanics (usually nerfs, so generally unpopular outside of PvP), or monetisation (the thing we're all actually worried about)? Given the exodus of staff, and the current trend in the tech industry, one fears it might be option 3. Especially when the CEO is silencing any real information using shady legal strikes.

New conspiracy theory - Darnak is Krister's main account. Wait, no, that might actually be plausible...