Leaderboard

Welcome to the Market Island I recently resolved to make a day-long tour of all of the markets on the Celebration server, in order not only to familiarize myself with their locations and the routes between them, but also to get a sense of the extent and variety of the merchandise on the server. First, it should be noted that every market I visited is located on or very near the shoreline, and I almost never found myself more than 20 tiles from my ship. This fact along with the abundance of interior and exterior shoreline, and the existence of good canals makes Celebration an exemplary server with respect to the abundance and ease of travel between its markets. Rather than traveling over large and dangerous land passages to one central marketplace, the markets on Celebration are situated relatively close to population centers, and with the possible exception of the southern and southwestern shores, no matter where you are on the server you are pretty close to a market. Due largely to the layout of the channels and interior waters of Celebration, a Southwestern Gale is close to optimal for touring the server. Few if any of the water routes on my tour require sailing southwest: My trip began at location 0, my home port of Wealdin Anchorage, which is not a market, but which is situated near the center of no fewer than 7 market destinations. It is a good place for a merchant to call home. 1. Golden Market I sailed west and then southeast to my first stop, Golden Market. The lore surrounding Golden Market is mixed and mysterious. It is fairly well agreed upon that the founder of this market has passed away, and that loss hangs heavily upon the place. Someone clearly has maintained the deed, and there were half-rotten bulk storage bins by the piers. I repaired everything while I was here, and made a note to bring tools for improving all of the stands when I come here next. When I sailed in, it was in the dead of the night, and I was immediately aware of how dark and gloomy the place was. On the deed beside the market stood imprisoned the venerable starving Kyklops. A site to behold. Lamps sat cold and lifeless amid the market stalls, likely gathering cobwebs. I was attacked by several waves of spiders upon first entering the market square. After dispatching them, bandaging, and burying the corpses, I set about inspecting the merchandise. Without doubt, the Golden Market currently has the best and most comprehensive stock of weaponry and armor on the Celebration server. In terms of quality, variety, and practicality, I was very impressed by the merchandise. The Golden Market is a dangerous place where dangerous people go to buy dangerous things. The idea of an all-in-one market is appealing on many levels, but not nearly as appealing as a grim, haunted place where you go to find some of the best armor and weapons on the server. It would be a fitting tribute to the founder of this market, should the master weaponsmiths and armorers of Celebration, present and future, choose to make that its legacy. 2. Tapdance Market I sailed east and then southeast to my second stop, the Tapdance marketplace, which spontaneously emerged this summer in the perimeter north of Celebration's default spawn location. Since it is owned by nobody and not on a deed, I found the market stalls in advanced stages of disintegration. Several were missing, leading to gaps in the market where new merchants cannot presently be placed. The Tapdance market is the only one of the locations I visited not within sight of the water. Still, it's a short walk north from the shore, up a very gentle hill, and another dozen tiles or so to reach the merchants, so it is no great hardship for visiting sailors to transport their wares here. In addition, the area around Tapdance is at the confluence of several very well designed highway systems that lead out into the wider world, so it is a natural center of overland trade and transit. There are also several traders in the vicinity, and an abundance of trading post buildings with vendors inside of them. Some carry quite rare and impressive items, making this patchwork market worth the visit for deal-seekers. Most of the merchants dealt in the ubiquitous ropes, sails and anchors which, likely owing to our geography, are probably the single most common class of items sold on merchants on our island. There was also a small assortment of weapons and armor suitable to new players and advanced players. The most noteworthy and helpful vendor I found there was one that sold almost one of every single thing a new player needs in Wurm. Seeds, cotton for bandages, healing covers, a lantern, very basic armor, and modest upgrades to all of the starter equipment, as well as some things that should be starter equipment like a sickle. None of this was mind-blowing gear, but all of it was useful to new players. Overall, a very considerate and helpful merchant. 3. Amish Paradise Market The first thing I noticed sailing into AP Market, which has built a reputation as a sort of mercantile Mecca on Celebration, was the enormous flotilla of ships moored in its harbor. Which and how many were for sale was impossible to gauge at a glance, but I imagine quite a few. Amish Paradise Market has a very convenient and well organized bulk vendor merchant pier, with more capacity than I've seen at any of the other markets thus far. All of the bulk goods piers were designed such that deep hulled cargo vessels could easily pull up and load or unload cargo without requiring additional transport. The well stocked merchants at these stands sell keys for the various bulk item bins, making it possible to conveniently exchange massive quantities of bulk goods here. Amish Paradise Market is easily the most vital market on the Celebration Isle. You can buy nearly anything here, from high quality livestock to ships. With dozens of vendors, and nearly every market stall occupied, you can find almost everything you want at this market, and perhaps even some incredible deals. The most noteworthy exception to this was (at the time of this writing) high end weaponry and armor. AP Market seems to be underserved in this respect. There is a lack of sufficient quality and variety of weapons to satisfy demanding customers. However, there was at least one stand filled with an impressive selection of working tools. These are not tools for people who are interested in grinding skills, but for people who want to get real work done quickly. High quality, high speed tools for busy craftsmen and dedicated landshapers. The size of the market and sheer number of vendors means there is a lot of overlap in inventories. Thus, a newcomer to the market might spend a considerable amount of time digging through row after row of vendors, only to conclude that nobody is selling what they're looking for. This can be frustrating, and might possibly be eased if more of the vendors were more precisely and descriptively named. However, none of this can detract from the main strength of this crucial and powerful economic center, which is its active, lively, and helpful community and its strong leadership. Amish Paradise Market seems positioned to remain the center of commercial gravity on Celebration for a long time to come. 4. Kami Market This merchant has had a mixed and trying experience with the Straits of Kami. As the natural crossroads of maritime traffic between the eastern coasts and the interior waterways, and foot traffic from the northern to the southern parts of the island, Kami sits atop a seemingly perfect piece of real estate for a market. However, its vastly overbuilt market strip evokes the feeling of desolation and desertion. There are, by some estimates, more market stalls at Kami than there are deeds on the Celebration isle, so it should come as no surprise that the place feels empty. And in commerce, perception is reality. There were a handful of brave or vigilant merchants along this corridor, doubtless there to serve the local foot traffic that crosses over the landbridge connecting the northern and southern landmasses. This landbridge hinders traffic for any deep-hulled ships that cross it, requiring passing sailors of corbitas, cogs, and caravels to push over one tile per unit of length of their ship. Knarrs and smaller vessels are unimpeded by this landbridge, but it is a hindrance for bulk merchants sailing through the location. This almost certainly contributes to the large number of empty merchant stalls. Overall, I found the merchandise at this market lacking in volume, diversity, and in some cases overpriced. It might still be worth a stop if you're seeking something rare and difficult to find, and have exhausted your other options. Perhaps in the future, as the population of Celebration grows, the abundance of market stalls here will prove to be of use, and it will blossom into a vibrant market in its own right. It already has the perfect location, but it might take a radical conceptual redesign to make the most of that asset. 5. Da Boneyard This avante-garde boutique market is conveniently located halfway between Kami Market and Northern Sanctuary, making it a good place to stop and quench your thirst before continuing on. Owned, designed, and stocked by a single craftsman, Da Boneyard can offer a unique shopping experience you are like to find nowhere else on Celebration. There are four vendors (with room for more). They each are clearly labeled, and they each sell very specific types of merchandise. Weapons and Shields, Armor, Gems, and Tools. All of the merchandise is of reasonably good quality, and is reasonably priced. Do to Da Boneyard's unitary crafting base, there isn't a tremendous variety or quantity of merchandise, but the most important and attractive thing about this market is that you will know within 30 seconds whether the item you're looking for is available. Get in, get your stuff (or not), get out. Easy. Reliable. Right on the coast, no messing around. Items of Iron and Stone. For type-A personalities who set out to buy something specific, know what they're looking for, and don't want to sift through stand after stand of random stuff, this is a breath of fresh air in market design, which other markets would (in this writer's opinion) be well served to emulate. 6. Northern Sanctuary While Amish Paradise is the most vital and active market on the server, Northern Sanctuary is easily the most visually arresting, beautiful and supernatural feeling of all the markets I've toured. The harbor is home to a prismatic array of brightly colored merchant vessels. Flags and banners of every kind and color stand sentinel along the shore. The buildings, the lights, even the barrels and storage bins are all awash in rainbow hues. The modestly sized market is up a short stroll up from the seaside boardwalk, situated among the vineyards and near a beautiful multifaith chapel courtyard. These merchants were stocked with a modest variety of high end, enchanted tools, armor, and weapons. There was a vendor selling extremely well bred horses, and, very noteably, another one exclusively selling high quality hides. There is an outdoor museum of "Hunt of the Ancients" statues here, relics of older times that may not know their equal anywhere in the Freedom Isles. For these and all of the reasons above, sailors and merchants from everywhere on Celebration should make at least one voyage to this market, which is without a doubt our northern jewel and certainly the loveliest deed I've ever seen. 7. Ridgepoint Market From Northern Sanctuary, I turned my bowsprit south and made a fast run through the depths of the Ridgepoint Canal, which connects the northern seas to the wide and shallow waters of the Northmere. Here I made my final stop, at the Ridgepoint Market. Ridgepoint Market is the main commercial hub of the Ridgepoint Alliance, which includes a host of northern villages. It is modest in size, about equal to Golden Market, and it is home to a modest variety of tools, weapons, armor, and carpentry items. Some of these tools and weapons were of excellent quality, equal to the demands of the wild and mountainous North. Some were lower quality and priced for bargain hunters. Ridgepoint, due to its location between the northern seas and the interior lakes of Celebration, may have stolen some of the wind from the Kami Market in the southeast. The people who built this most impressive canal are crafters and miners of skill and determination, and are obviously capable of fine metalwork equal to the mountains they have tamed. 0. And Back Again This concludes my account of the markets of Celebration. These landmarks will almost certainly shift. New markets will rise and others will fall. Deeds will trade hands. But each of these markets contributes something vital and important to the commercial tapestry of our island, and taken together they make Celebration an economic powerhouse in the Freedom Isles. After seeing what I have seen today, I am convinced that anything I want can be had on this server, and that each market could greatly benefit from additional merchants and increased specialization.

Hey all, I was going to make this a blog post but then I thought that might be a bit over the top so I will just add it as an addition to the next proper blog post. Basically as of right now our facebook group has 389 'likes' which is cool but it means that only 388 of you (besides myself) have a regular feed of the stuff I put up on there, and on Twitter 738. This is not enough! I'd love to blog everything on the dev blog (as that goes to the forum, twitter, facebook and the launcher) however that would get a bit spammy. What we do instead is we start discussions, ask little questions, put up teasers and some other cool stuff on twitter and facebook. It's a great way for you to be able to engage with us, ask us questions, and see some of what we are up to. Many of the individual team members are on Twitter too and they would love to hear from you! What I would love to see is more players following us on Twitter and Facebook! So, as a special reward... I will see to it that once we hit 1,000 facebook likes, a random player who has liked this forum post will recieve a mega-rare set of tools (in-game of course) made from silver. These are not craft-able by players, although they act just like normal tools. NOTE: The old competition was one of our facebook followers but it was pointed out that we can not do this, so instead the winner will be selected from someone who has liked this forum post, once we hit 1,000 facebook 'likes'. Remember: You will only win if the Facebook page is liked or our twitter account followed, so no sneaky business!

"seems" is the key word there. The surface has some trixy pre-lighting on the terrain to make you think its all working fine - its actually doing the exact same thing as caves. As for the rest, we do it by cell afaik, cell being 16x16 area - and it doesn't work properly. We're looking into why that is, and going to be ripping out most of the lighting code in there currently to have it more manageable - and hopefully fix a few more bugs with it - before we try for a shader approach in addition to the fixed pipeline thats currently in there. Note: The above shader + fixed pipeline is one of the few times I will actually endorse having something as optional - though most likely the client will choose for you depending on your hardware. P.S. If none of the above made sense to you: TL;DR: MAGIC!

Totally legitimate request. However, the arbitrary speed penalties for horse armour need to die before anyone will use it. Right now I can make good chain barding but will never use it because it _decreases_ my horse's survivability rather than the opposite. Have it add to weight and therefore, to a lesser extent, to speed, but well designed barding does NOT slow a horse down to a human's jogging pace.

Since you missed it the first time, I know it was a lot of text, hence the Wall of Textâ„¢ warning, again: Actually, using the previously provided link http://www.godaddy.c...ed-hosting.aspx If you go with the largest dataplan with 20tb/mo included, for every 10tb of data transfer per month, is another $400 (which is the best price from this vendor). Also, look at things like backup/recovery options and other support items Now at these data rates for JUST the Celebration server (ratings are in Bytes per SECOND). So that "out the ### number" is actually a lot closer than you may want to admit. The difference between the FPS servers (even with voip service) are dedicated streamlined services running code optimized for a stand alone server. A service that does not need to worry about things like large scale stability or dedicated hardware (most of those FPS servers are running on a VM solution or are distributed over a VERY large system array), and are hosting at best 64 players per game. So you'd need 4-5x the number of servers just host the equivalent to a HotA event. Rolf has already said there is a dedicated server just for the item database (mentioned when the "item creator tag" corruption occurred.) So "to put it bluntly", you have proven you have no idea what the infrastructure or support needs are or the scope/scale of the details of running a "real" server array.

they couldn't possibly ruin it anymore than lucas already did

does it come with the tundra

The way perimeter works is sort of : A: buffer between deeds, and B: A way to claim land for future expansion. As much problem as it causes, this is exactly how the mechanism is designed to work. Finally, let's look at it from a counter perspective: Deed owner is looking to expand his landholdings. Newbie settles in the area and puts up an unevenly flattened shack, right on the border of the perimeter. (this happens all too often) Suddenly deed cannot be expanded until the shack is gone. Even without the repairs, a 10 ql shack can last for well over a month. Imagine the frustration that causes for an actually paying customer, to be withheld by a squatter? I hope this mechanism isn't changed.

I've come to a decision. As long as there are merchants in the stands at Golden Market, and as long as any current or future mayor does not wish for it to be otherwise, I will donate to maintain its monthly upkeep. It's the only major market reachable by foot in the Northwest, and it just feels like the right thing to do to keep it alive, in memoriam.

Character strafing, here are an test! http://dl.dropbox.co...im/footwork.mp4 Not final walk animation!!!!! And its slow just for the test!!!!!

I have received a sample of the first Wurm jewelry in the form of a bronze pendant of the deity Fo. You may be surprised by the looks of the deity of Creation and Love, but this of course is how he looks when he is upset. The foe Fo if you wish: The pendant is a few centimeters high in solid bronze and delivered in a very nice box. It gives me a mix of that perfect figurine feeling from places like Games Workshop and solid jewelry work. It is modelled from the real Wurm 3D model of Fo designed by our Art Director Emil Norrman. The person who decided to start this project is Kryn Maartens, a dutch jeweller who plays Wurm by the name of Atazoth. This is what he said when he suggested this: “I love the game and I’m sure others do as well. It would be nice to have something from inside the game in your hand” Kryn makes high class jewelry items which he has delivered to for instance players in the Dutch national soccer team. The quality of work is noticable and I’m really proud and happy that we can offer something like this to our players! The Fo items are for sale on his website at http://www.kryn.nl/WurmOnline.html - remember to put it on your wish list for Christmas or make sure to get your numbered item already today! Rolf View the full article

Hi All! A quick teaser of the improved lighting for caves Budda and myself are working away at. There is still plenty of room for improvement, but I think these images really highlight the important changes being done. Lots of thanks to Budda for putting up with me bugging him while he was at work to toss around ideas, and for getting all the code in while I slept Current cave is on top, new cave lights are on the bottom. All lamps in view are lit. Current: New! Current: New!

Please Rolf lift the limitations on the ingame mail. Its really hurting the economy for some professions like weaponsmiths. Or at least do something that makes sense, like if you cant mail a longsword you cant mail a large anvil either. I'm sorry I dont believe that an easier mail system favors X or Y crafter. I believe that the best and not only on skill mastery are succesful because of many reasons like trust, efficiency, punctuality, etc etc. I still buy my weapons from the one of the most recognized and loved Weaponsmiths and he lives 15 min in a boat or horse ride from my house. Do i buy from him because he lives closer? or because he is cheap? No, but because i can give him my 10s longsword and I know he will be in game tomorrow or the day after tomorrow and if he takes a break he will announce that. So I'm just asking for mail system that really makes sense. Can't mail a longsword? Perfect. Let's not mail a maul or large maul either.

I've recently been asked to prove that I did not do something. Does anyone have any suggestions for how one can prove a negative? Logic says that's the wrong order to place the burden of evidence, but clearly that's what's necessary in order to play this game, so can anyone explain how you refute evidence which you are not allowed to see?

I think inside walls need some sort of management. Both to name them and restrict access to specific people. For example I have a barracks in my village, and I'd like to be able to name doors to read "<Person's> Room" and be able to only let in that person and lock everyone else out. Maybe a sort of system like for Boat and Mine Door Management. Have to be there to manage it, right click "Manage Door/Wall" if it's a door you can both name that door tile and manage the rights to the room by typing in a player's name that can go in it so it only lets in the writ holder and the people in the list. If it's just a wall "Manage Wall" only brings up a menu to change the name.

...as if millions of fans, suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced

Well, what you could do is setup the supreme and fantastic on auction for a week, explain that the items are open to coin, cash, or barter. Let people make offers through PMs and select the best option at the end of the term. This also allows you the opportunity to haggle one on one with each interested party to get your best results. Respectfully, Auvry

Princess leia is now a disney princess!

Based on experience from working in companies that have run MMOs (and later, F2P match making services), looking at Code Club AB's last financial disclosure (via google translate) ::source::, if they rolled external server upkeep/hosting/bandwidth costs under Other external expenses, lets call it 45% of the value listed, so for the year shown they likely spent around 145-150k ($148k if it was 45% of the value) on network based expenses alone. This does not include the staff salary, office/house rent/mortgage, utilities, etc... (which are mostly tracked in other areas of the audit) To keep it simple, we'll remove Celebration server from the figure since this statement was from a period before the server opened, so there were 4 major clusters (epic and the home servers are 1 cluster of servers for their stats reporting system, each of the freedom servers are tracked individually I believe) So your average cost for a year per server cluster is roughly $37,000, or $49,333 if it is only 3 clusters. ::Edit Insert:: Even at 10% of the "Other" costs, this would be $7500 to $10k a year per cluster [/edit] We have no way of verifying how close these numbers are, but again, from professional experience in not only working for companies that have run these types of projects, but being actively part of the service agreement negotiations, these numbers shouldn't be too far off. And honestly, for some services, these are pretty damned inexpensive. To put this in perspective, storage solutions for several major gaming companies, on the low side of the price scale, can run up to 4-5k per TB of storage. The difference in the scale of the service and support for companies is VASTLY different than that of a consumer. FPS servers are consumer products. Requirements and agreements are very basic [commonly known as boiler plate agreements] (i.e I doubt you ran or would run your FPS agreements past a legal team for review and comment before executing [signing] anything as a FPS server customer.) If your FPS server goes down or loses data, the impact is far less than if a MMO server has the same issue. Your out a couple dollars, the MMO is out the PR cost, the server support costs, possible loss of subscribers if it happens too much/often or a large enough section of data is lost, etc... And their agreements with the hosts reflect this risk. These are all things that contribute to server cost/upkeep. It's not all about who's got the "cheapest" server host. All that said, again, you get Rolf to agree to it, I'd be one of the first in line to to kick some cash towards new servers (either hardware upgrades for the current batch, or new racks added to the array) So best of luck in your efforts. ::Additional Edit Insert:: I'm not proposing player ownership/server control, just that I would be willing to contribute to some form of payment model to help further offset costs for current cluster upgrades or hardware replacements beyond purchase of silver/premium time. This fund would not be expected to provide any other benefit than better server operation/support and/or network connectivity for all users. ::/edit::

Im not sure a livestream of a guy running around not finding pvp is good advertisement.

Aye it's Mr Jake Elite 3rd bench on the left Peel Park Livingston West Lothian Scotland, UK

Someone buy this please and bring all your freedom friends over The tundra next to it is teeming with animals even if you've never been on Epic before you could be PvP ready in like a week

In order to continuously improve our services and provide best quality hosting package to our customers, we will be performing a maintenance on the host node hosting your VPS server starting from Thursday, October 1st until Saturday October 3rd, 2012. Start Date: November 1st End Date: November 3rd Duration: 48 hours Expected downtime: 1 hour Account(s): wurmpedia.com So basically we don't know when during this timeframe the downtime will be but at least we know it's happening. /Rolf

Your labrador will stop following you if he sees a rabbit worth a chase. And don't try to switch into "this is a game, no realismn needed" mode. You brought the labrador into the equation. The current leading requires a rope. I think it's fine as it is. If a ropeless leading is to be added it should be less useful to balance it with the current leading. No matter how, if you want firm control you should use a leach. If you don't use a leach you should have to live with the pet randomly doing other stuff.

If the party(ies) involved have so much "proof" in the wrong doing, maybe they need to /support it rather than blackmail you into convincing them otherwise. Who gives a crap what someone "thinks" you may have done, unless they have the proof.. Tell them to kiss your rear. If they keep harassing you about it, /support them for it.

*looks up from chopping up the code* Yeah.. what Budda said.. *goes back to work*

Get a fountain pack.. and place other fountain packs inside the first.. hence one of the reasons you can't make them anymore lol. Edit to clarify - the additional packs go inside the fountain -> inside the pack -> inside the forge.. think of it as a TARDIS or Turducken...

I was going to quote your original post, but honestly, too much effort. What it comes down to is, either the rules support it or they don't. Currently they don't. From the posts in this thread, it would appear the vast majority of players either don't care what happens in these areas you want to "...protect so that the most people possible can enjoy them..." Which is really "...so that people can always hunt there no matter how populated a server gets." So this is an effort to impose a standard on non-hunters to benefit the hunters? I can't help but think that if the owners of the deeds you are complaining about offered to allow just you to hunt on their deeds, this thread and the others like it, would not exist. There are real and viable options for recreating all of the environments you want to protect, but you don't want to expend the effort to do so. Are they easy or quick? Nope, but what in Wurm is? ::Edit Insert:: And if we're going to start a protected area campaign, I want Dragons added to the list of resources needed to be protected "...so that the most people possible can enjoy them..." [/edit]

Wonderful write-up, I enjoyed it a lot. I think you gave good feedback to merchants of all kinds trying to find a niche in the market - there are obviously plenty to be had!

Sadly I have to sell BP but you can get all these same amenities at Tanalorn by messaging Lucard or myself. So I will leave this page up for now.To see "For Sale" info please visit: http://forum.wurmonl...on-celebration/There is an accurate account of what is still on the deed on that page.Burning Plains is a place for new players to come and live in a safe environment while they learn the game and develop their skills. The goals is not for you to live here for eternity but for you to either go out on and build your own deed or join a permanent village elsewhere. This is a safe habitat to learn the game basics like how to feed yourself, how to build your shelter, where to live, how to grow food, how to find your own ores and how to survive when you venture out on your own.What do we offer? Secure house. A bed in each house for sleep time (1 min bonus for every 24 min of sleep). Gardens to grow crops. Storage bins for your belongings. A forge in each house. Carts to borrow for moving stuff around. Cows to borrow to drive carts (will not work for free accts). Fishing pole, scythe, sickle. Knowledge. Food until you learn to make your own. Close location to Tap Dance, Kami and Amish Paradise. A row boat to borrow. A well. 5 exposed iron veins of varying quality (with guidance on how to properly mine without stripping). An on deed mailbox. A trash bin. 5 tower guards for your protection. A completely fenced in property, though creatures spawn inside periodically, which is why we have the tower guards. 4 secure stables for any animals you may want to purchase/capture to take with you later. Feel free to message me here or in game (to Harvest) or you can message my husband Lucard in game if you can't reach me.There is no rent for this service, it is completely free of charge. I may ask you, on occasion to help out around the deed but that is about it.Blessings.

This needs a map, of how to walk from Tap Dance to your deed. But it looks great!

Even when Rolf had his servers hosted in the U.S. he was the only one to have access to them, albeit remote access, and it is the same now. That's what I mean when I say he will never let anyone have access to the code. And as Hussars has pointed out quite well, there is still a lot of support needed that you seem to want to ignore. Then there is the matter of scheduled maintenance and backing up the server, which Rolf is not going to let you do with his code either. What we are trying to point out is there is a lot more to running a server than just setting it up and letting it run. The cost of the server alone would most likely be far more than a subscription to the game, and then there is all the cost of support/maintenance/updating of the software. And remember also, the game has Rolf's name on it. If he lets someone run a private server and they handle things poorly, it would be a reflection on him, not them. How would you feel if someone took a product you made, misused it, and gave your company a bad name with the public that ruined your sales? He can't take that chance, and he won't.

Wall of text Warningâ„¢ Yeah... It means that most people don't like to play by other's rules, unless it is a rule they like. I agree, there is a potential benefit for a service option like this. Again though, the current community of players is too small for it to not impact the "core" servers in a negative manner. Using your FPS example, there is a base set of rules expected to be in place even on "private" servers. Guns, tools, abilities, etc... available are expected to behave in a logic scale of progression. When you "shoot" another character, they should take damage in a logical fashion. In an mmo style setting, especially one not "twitch" based and in a truly persistent world, modifying some of the "core" rules such as time to skill from 1.00 to 100.00, or materials needed to make an item or total resource to go through a full skill line, are constantly being evaluated. Not just because keeping you playing longer means more long term money, but because you have to balance reward to investment. Even in the MMO-shooters, such as Neocron, this balance is very important. Which makes "private" servers much more upkeep on the staff resource side In a FPS, you have rounds where the world "resets" in some manner (yes, some games let you turn on infinite lives/no round end, but these get boring quickly and players move on to other servers for different gameplay). The core rules allow for variation and are built around this type of service model. You don't have this in a persistent world. As someone else said, the expectation for the "core" rules on any server is that the core software would be updated and bugs (eventually at least) would be addressed. If you open this to custom rule sets, the dev team would need the ability to process bug fixes for your custom rules as well. So lets look at some flat values (just to illustrate the point). Lets assume it costs $200k a year for the core rules coding, network and CS support staff for the first server. Each additional server adds $20k (10-15% should be a safe rough average) a year for increased staff and support needs, since primary services are in-place and running. Your privately funded server, which covers hardware cost/ basic network support, offsets, we'll be nice and say $10K(50% of the additional support cost)/server per year. If you don't ever want your core code updated, and bug associated to your custom rules fixed, there is no code support costs, so the $10K offset is a break even. The additional server costs are just random numbers.. the server could be $1 or $100k, as long as the customers cover the server fees, and don't want any code support, it has no gain/loss for the parent company. Now, your server rule set will eventually be out of date, no new content, and no bug fixes. And a PR nightmare. So the Dev team has to establish support services. Would the server costs increase to cover these needs? What percentage of the dev time is spent addressing custom server rule related bugs? How often is this done? How much of this is billed through to the customer? When new content, graphics assets, etc.. are introduced, is this included or an extra service? Then we get into where your private server DOES touch the core servers... login/account status/billing. So the "no additional support" becomes "oops.. there is additional support needed".

Great idea, a possible fix might be to have them follow each other closer so it prevents that problem. Also going to back to the herding skill idea maybe have it every 5 or 10 skill you can herd one more animal and at other milestones have it that you can herd different animals

Yes, the tentacles/roots are animated.

It's not just money. What I was trying to impress on you is the TIME involved in maintaining servers and the time maintaining the software. There is additional cost to that and you don't seem to think that is very much. At this point in time trying to maintain private servers AND public servers would be too much for this company to handle. Yes, you have to spend money to make money, but you need to have a realistic expectation of return before you invest. So, you think about it for a while. You keep going on about how cheap it is to rent the hardware. A server may not cost much to rent, but you are talking about many, many private servers before the cost of the staff needed to maintain them would have Rolf just breaking even. He would not be able to push the cost on each private server all at once, he would need enough demand to pay for that staff and to break the cost across all the private servers. And then there is all the time involved in maintaining and updating the software, and dealing with exponentially more complaints. And don't try to tell me there would not be complaints, you would be paying for a private server, you would expect the server to run all the time and any issues that came up you would expect immediate response for what you would be paying, even to the point of getting service BEFORE the public servers are fixed. Rolf would also need to get long term commitments to pay for such private servers, no sense at all in renting servers for players who may get bored in 6 months and quit paying for the server. This is a very small company, and I doubt many huge corporations try the business model you are suggesting, because the returns are so small. Rolf simply cannot afford to try it, not at this point. He needs to devote his time and money to the current business model, and get that properly profitable before even trying an idea like yours.

"What? What's that you say?" Ishimitsukai walks closer and leans in, and to my astonishment, the vine begins to whisper. "Feed me, Seymour. Feed me blooood."

Underlined one point of interest. How on earth do you KNOW there are hundreds who quit, no longer watch the forums, but think YOUR idea is a good one? That is a huge assumption on your part. And the ONLY way private servers would work would be if they were totally isolated from the public servers, both in skills and in goods produced. No way I'm going to deal with someone skilling and crafting on his own private server, and the PVP servers would just gang up on you if you ever showed up, they hate skilling up in safety more than I do. That makes your idea quite costly, as the cost of setting up a private server would be too high, monthly fees would be much higher than 5E per player, and you would only have your private players for a market or as competition. Overall it would be a short lived server and would take players from the public game, giving them the wrong idea of the game. I see no positive effect from private servers. You see the possible positives, but human nature makes those ideals at best, and not really achieveable.

Regarding Paradise Oasis blocking off access to the Southern half of the steppe on Celebration... I don't think he wanted to charge a road toll, it seems as though he wanted to have the power to inconvenience people by denying them reasonable access to half the steppe which to me is wrong and shouldn't be allowed in this context. When it comes to players like this, I personally am not interested in bargaining or coming to a compromise with them because I don't want to fake a smile every time I come online nor do I want see myself or any other player being put at a constant and permanent disadvantage because someone wanted to be a power monger. We built the highway tunnel to open up access between the two halves of the steppe not just for us but for everyone who travels to the south steppe on Celebration. Nobody should ever be bullied into submission or made to feel that they insignificant or have to acknowledge the pseudo-power or e-peen of someone else in order to be happy. Some people may not agree with me on this and I respect that but this is what I choose to believe. I think that every player on the freedom cluster should be given a chance to enjoy the game peacefully and not be inhibited by someone else who clearly takes pleasure in elevating themselves above others and deluding themselves with visions of grandeur and self-entitlement. That's my 2 cents.

Can't believe this is all over steppe. Steppe is EASY to replace, just start gathering mixed grass and start planting. I've created an entire steppe area that did not exist before, so if you don't like someone's deed on the steppe, create a new steppe! And although it is much harder, you can replace tundra too. Instead of all this whining about the loss, get your nature skills up and work on fixing things. As to the loss of animals from the templars killing, they get replaced very fast, so that loss is imaginary, get out and hunt.

There are too many weird and insecure people in Wurm. Even if you are following all the rules and FCC, there are idiots out there who will still find some stupid way to get hurt and take offence because of their own insecurity. Here are some of the most insecure bizarre events I've ever been involved in: - Many months ago on Independence, I found a pair of wild horses on the Eastern Plains. Nearby was a cart and a dead corpse of a player. I PMed the player asking if those were her horses and she gave me an earful, swearing at me and telling me not to steal it and then her mum (apparently) and her friend logged on a few minutes later and gave me another earful and called a GM on me who froze me in place temporarily and then released me. What did I do wrong? All I wanted to do was ask if those horses belonged to her. - On Exodus a few months ago, I was grinding on a silver vein near the starter deed. While my main was grinding, I decided to run around on my alt and randomly saw planks for a group of new players. I gave them 60 planks for free and then one of them asked Local if I was a thief, concluded that I was based on the people in local not knowing who I am, threatened to kill me in real life and then called a GM on me (Oracle responded). I gave him planks for free, then he threatens to kill me in real life and calls the GM on me. What did I do wrong??!?! - Recently on Celebration, I went afk next to the coast while waiting for my boat ride to arrive. A player then came by, questioned me as to why I was staring at his boat and then called me a useless player. What did I do wrong? All I was doing was afking next to a boat. I don't need this crap! If anything, people need to stop with the whinging and whining and actually assess the situation they are in before they start crying, pulling out the griefing card, logging multiple /support and wasting everyone's time. What the FCC/Rules need to include and outline very clearly to players is a grievance procedure for resolving disputes. It should be something like this. 1. Do you have a problem with another player? If yes, please continue. 2. Have you discussed it with the player? If yes, please continue. 3. Are you not satisfied with their response? If yes, please continue. 4. Are they breaking any rules according to Wurm Online Rules? If yes, please continue. 5. Log a /support and wait patiently for the GM to respond. If they can't respond to you in a timely manner, they will contact you another day or on the Forum. EDIT: By the way, I voted No because I believe the GM's have to review each case individually.

Just because we have an area which suits each of our villagers needs and they have their deeds does not give a right for someone to constantly harass us and clear cut around us. I can see cutting trees because you need lumber but to just come through and cut trees down leaving felled trees everywhere not once or twice but a third time i consider it harassment. We are a friendly bunch of people who just want to play the game and help others as best as we can.

This is so needed! Really cool that it's being fixed after all these years.

Swim: https://dl.dropbox.c...Wurm/jaws.jpg

Rules that prevent deeding is contradictory to the fact that Wurm is a sandbox game. If it is someone's goal to destroy a steppe, cut down all the trees in an area, hollow out a mountain, etc. it's perfectly acceptable in my opinion as it falls within the parameters of a sandbox game. No rules were broken and there are still plenty of animals to hunt. Sad for some but it's the simple truth.

Primary reason of why Im not particularly fond of carebear servers. If I dont like someone for any particular reason, theres an outlet for dealing with it personally

Wurm is an indie game , so doesn't have the big budgets that fund rapid development . Now , before you say " well neither did Notch in minecraft " , your right , except that Minecraft is a much simpler game , not just in terms of design , but in terms of depth of play nor does it have anywhere near the mechanics that Wurm itself does , Also , don't forget , that Minecraft was sold in its beta stage at a reduced price to fund development , whereas Rolf has chosen to go the route of free to play ( with capped skills ) , pay if you want to route . Anyway it isn't whether i think it is ready to be advertised that matters , it is Rolf ( who owns it ) , that decides if it is ready yet , and in his own words he isn't yet ready to advertise it properly . Not every game is for every player , and while you may want a minecraft / wurm hybrid , at the moment i really doubt it would happen , and i personally ( speaking for myself here , not staff ) would prefer if it didn't as i feel it would detract funds and development from the game that those of us playing currently enjoy .

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LUFNqe6cqQ

I have found grinding longbow up to level to be able to consistently make face shots as very helpful. Horses with barding have no protection on their face. So 3 good shots kills a normal horse and 5-8 kills a hell horse. One face shot really puts the brakes on a horse or hell horse.