Lightonfoot

Very clever point about the ridges on ridges where you can rest. However, this really only applies to areas where your stamina is going to hurt. In other areas it'll be harder on chaos since ridges are prevalent. This causes a greater need on Chaos/Independence to landscape the terrain (when you build roads) to smoothen it. I mean, shortest distance between two points is a straight line. So if a line between you and your destination is consistently intersected by sharp ridges then you're having to walk further to get there. You have to add up the time spent climbing up and down on ridgy terrain and the time spent running on a smoother surface. Personally, I like it because it gives me more things to do with the shovel. I like to take damage when running down a slope because it makes me think more about where I'm traveling and whether it's safe or not. I guess for me the realism has an immersion and risk value. The challenge of surviving in Wurm isn't just about knowing the recipes and grinding your skills, it's about knowing the creatures and knowing how to escape them or kill them. It's also about knowing the landscape and knowing what you can and can't do. There're all sorts of things to know in Wurm and that will help you survive better. I like the game to be rich with detail and obstacles. I experienced this the other day while climbing on a steep hill. It was steeper and steeper. Soon my stamina was almost empty. I had to find a foothold so I could rest it and recover. I was worried that if I didn't I would fall down because climbing requires stamina. If I logged out my character would still remain there for 60 seconds so I might not be able to use that trick to restore it. It requires an intangible skill to do this and I like it. It's not just numbers. I almost felt like a climber. I loved the challenge. I wouldn't like it to be made easy. It adds another dimension to Wurm. Just like monsters or animals. Or crafting. Or healing. Climbing gear might help to satiate some of the complaining, though. That way currently impassable slopes can still be passed and give high climbers an optional route than through a mine or around the mountain. We could also hypothetically put a pin into the ground and tie a rope from us to it and prevent falling. Or perhaps we could have climbing spurs in our boots and could lock ourselves into position with them by using a command so we could rest. Ultimately, there needs to be enough players to appreciate this (possible) dimension of Wurm. If not enough do then the number of maps with these topographic features will dwindle or movement penalties will be gone. When that happens, travel becomes so simple that it's -only- a matter of time, not knowledge or skill. When things become a matter of time and little else then it's as good as gone from the game. Another dimension lost. Time eventually shrinks to 0 and whatever gameplay feature it was is long forgotten. That's sad, but happens all the time. We as players need to come to accept that we shouldn't all be equal. We shouldn't all be good at everything. We have to learn to cooperate some way to preserve the dimensions in our game world so they're not lost to time. If you like a particular dimension, you've got to fight for it! You've got to be vocal and share your thoughts. Don't despair.

Dwarf fortress uses a very developed terrain generation algorithm. Check this out: http://www.gamasutra...rf_.php?print=1 The real cool part is the Fluid Dynamics section. However, even Dwarf Fortress "fakes" mining slightly by using a sort of 2D arrangement of minerals. This might not be entirely accurate or it might be outdated, but the developer of DF has said that true 3d mining would require too much time since it's like trying to "find a string in a haystack," as opposed to finding a string on a table! This might have been developer-speak for "I was too lazy to figure it out!" or it might have been an honest to god truth. The way I imagine 3d mining is you would just greatly increase the probability of minerals, as opposed to plain ol' rock. This way, players are more likely to find it. However, if you can fake it by using 2d mineral maps, won't you? I guess it depends if players are content with it. I imagine you can fool a lot of them, but not all of them. I have worked a bit on generating real-time landscapes with perlin noise. I'm not an expert. I've been encouraging myself lately to use codeblock and allegro to work on a project some more, but I'm just too lazy to get myself to do it. However, the idea of doing true 3d landscapes is intriguing. I picture a porous semi-solid liquid. When viewed from the surface, it looks like a conventional landscape. But dig underneath it and you find pockets of minerals of different hardness and/or properties. Making it all reflect some standard set of physics would be very difficult, though. My knowledge of how to mimic nature in a real-time algorithm is very elementary and I need to work on it. And worse, being able to process all that in real-time seems very implausible to me, unless units of space are large. I think that volumetric clouds in games are very much similar to how big the processing demands are for true 3d things. See here: http://software.inte...core-platforms/ At the end of the day, a lot of this is limited by hardware and software limitations. Lastly, here's the wiki on Fractal Landscapes: http://en.wikipedia....actal_landscape I like this section of it: I interpret this as meaning that: 1) the coherence (persistence) between different values depends on the material that they represent (water: flat and wavy, sand: rolling and smooth, dirt: flatter than sand and rolling, rock: jagged and flat and rolling, etc). 2) the map is weighted towards high values more than low values - this means that for each equal and opposite value there'll be more positive values than negative values. 3) the coherence between different values also depends on the physics that have acted on the materials over-time that they represent (physics: wind erosion, water erosion, ice erosion, etc).

Bottom line, I don't like flat smooth terrain. I don't like low resolution terrain. Neither do I like too much water. But I think some maps should have more of it than others. Easy travel matters less to me. It's too simple. Too cutdown. I like travel that makes me think and work hard at it. For example, if all terrain was flat then all you'd have to do is pick a destination and move towards it. The only thing you'd have to think about are the animals you might come across and the tiles you're running on. However, with ridgy terrain, you also have to think about the slope and you should also be aware of the regional topography so you can use shortcuts around the steeper areas. And when you build a home you're more likely to have to dig or flatten the soil. And there's more variation in the land around you. I like to look around me and see differences in the terrain. It adds to the scene. Flat smooth terrain is too bland. I like bumps and valleys and cliffs and so on. It makes the whole experience interesting to me. If you feel similarly, think more about creating a character on the Independence or Chaos servers. I hope someday that Wurm has true 3d terrain, with caves and inward falling cliffs even. With something like that, we could dig into the terrain and have it morph correctly no matter how far we dig. No separate layers. But true 3d terrain may not ever happen in Wurm. It's probably too much to ask for now. For one, something like that requires more processing and memory. It doesn't scale very well. This may be one reason why minecraft uses blocks as opposed to higher resolution units of space. Doing that reduces the processing/memory load. And for another, it's hard to change code that's several years old. Switching to true 3d would be a monumental task for Wurm. I wish there were creeks and springs and rivers and mountain lakes to break up the land a bit. This would help to alleviate some of the complaints people have about too much land. But too much water is unattractive to me. I like having lots of land so that I can find a nice cozy place and build my house. I don't like being too close to other players either. I like virgin land and exploring too. As it's, there's not much to see on the seas. But on the land there're abandoned ruins and treasures to discover. And beautiful scenery. We just have to appreciate what's available now. That's why I'm on Chaos. (Call me a noob that's a minority. But as it's, there're about 10 servers. Only 2 have what I would call ridgy terrain. The rest look like they've been flattened or smoothened (or otherwise normalized). They look like a map that has fewer octaves applied to it. So that results in smoother output with less ridges/cliffs.)

Here're two good examples of different generation schemes: Chaos (formerly the wild server): http://s3.amazonaws....lhost/895c9.png Celebration (newest pve server, launched this year): http://wlhost.net/images/53a03.png Obviously, Chaos is a larger map, about 4 times bigger. However, they're roughly at the same scale in the images, so you can compare their features to each other. The Chaos map is much more ragged and has deeper, more numerous valleys. In fact, the Celebration map looks handmade, as opposed to generated by a fractal algorithm. Almost all of the server maps look like the Celebration map. The only map that somewhat resembles the Chaos map is independence, but not very much. In fact, I'd have to say that Independence is a hybrid of the the more common maps and the chaos map. What does all this mean? Why is the Chaos map so different? I went over there and and was surpsied at how much more varried the landscape was. For example, it has a lot more cliffs. In-game, this has the effect of causing the player to use the climbing skill more often. Another thing it does is make players think more about where they put roads. Rugged terrain encourages you to scout the topography to find the best route. Perhaps most of the maps are flatter and look more artificial because somebody thought it would make travel and building roads easier? In any case, I like that at least one map is more rugged and less touched up. I just wish there was a map like that on one of hte epic servers so both freedom and epic had one. The common map generation scheme - handmade or not - just isn't very attention grabbing to me. It doesn't give me that magical feeling like the chaos map does. The chaos map makes me feel like a frontier man. The other maps... well... umm... like makeup on a pig. Here's a map with the villages/roads for Chaos: http://wurmpedia.com...Village_Roadmap

Been having a sinking feeling since writing my last post here and can't shake it. Bad feeling. Foreboding. Like something imminent and can't be stopped. Wurm is going to change. Everything you like about Wurm today is going to change. You'll hold onto it, desperately, but it'll all slip out of your hands. Just like life. We all die. Wurm will die too or it will change into something alien. Why don't they just add teleporters now. And teddy bears. Get it over with. This is my 9th day and I don't want to be here for a year and love it and then grow to hate it. I've already done that with other games. I don't want to go through that again. Kill me now, don't let it simmer. Don't let me fall in love and then stab me in the heart again. Kill me now:

That's probably a better way to make the shortcut for the executable. Thanks.

The reason those games have fast travel is becaue travle by itself is not interesting. One of the reasons travel in wurm is more interesting (and rewarding) is because things change. And also because it's genuinely dangerous. There're just more factors invovled. In other games I run the same speed no matter where I am. Etc. Those games aren't Wurm. Wurm needs a different answer to the boat problem. I've played plenty of games with teleporting. What I find so profound is that... I accept the slow travel in Wurm. This is my 9th day playing. (and you know Wurm does have teleporting... when we die we respawn at the deed) The constant desire for speed is one reason players are always trying to improve roads (cut through hills rather than go over them can save time for horses/no horses) or to find shortcuts to destination. Mainly... travel in Wurm is detailed and immersive. I want it to stay that way. If there's a way to make teleporting just as detailed and immersive as normal travel is then it's prolly ok. Broadly, I think that if a few deeds on the map had teleportation capability and players had to pay copper/silver to use them then I don't think it's a major concern. But the problem is with how this is all being approached. If you're approaching this from the perspective that speed is what matters hten you're looking at it all wrong. Depth is what matters! If teleportation can add depth to Wurm and not just be an excuse to speed up your travel time then it might work. Just be weary of the whole thing. Thing is... with all of hte bells and whistles of spend $$$$ to get extra convenience features... Wurm increasingly is a have and have not world where those with $$$ are experiencing a completely different game. I'm not against money if you're using it to pay others to do elaborate things for you... but changing the game is different. I don't wnat Wurm to get greedy and abandon depth and detail in favor of gratification. Too many people take depth for granted and just replace it with convenience features. Before long, the whole game is one big smoke and mirrors that gratifies with the simplest possible features. It's ugly. That's when games become casinos. The day Wurm goes down that road is a sad, sad day. No more dreams of dolphins following your boat. No more dreams of feeling immersed. No more dreams of riding the high seas and seeing strange sights. No more. Just a dried up antiquated abandoned boat. That's where greed and gratification take you. I'm a new player and might be ignorant, so maybe it already has. Unfortunately, virtually every single mmo in existence goes down that road. It's human nature.

Are there water currents in Wurm? Boats have used those in the past. Also... there're places on earth that routinely have brisk winds for sailing. Mainly, I think the problem with traveling by boats is just so boring and unimaginative. So: 1) Add ability to (generally) craft on larger boats or to fish/tailor/etc (specific things) on smaller ones 2) Allow us to move around on a boat! (i hate being a statue) 3) Allow famous writers to write books while sailing 4) Add water currents (changes infrequently) (these would act like roads but for boats not running) 5) Have different regions with consistent brisk winds in a certain direction (changes infrequently) (these would act like roads but for boats not running) 6) Add some marine life that's non-aggro for people on boats to kill for meat/fat/etc 7) Improve the physics... my first experience on a boat felt like riding a broken script 8) Add some seagulls and dolphins to follow the boats - add more pretty fluff to the experience. 9) Add some whaling someday... just another non-linear (unplanned) thing captains might do Basically, allow us to do multiple things and decrease the demands of rigging/captaining the boat. There should be some rigging and adjustments made to course during the trip, but not every second! For very large boats... same deal. Multiple people to do rigging... but not every second. Inbetween the rigging there should be lots of other things they can do to fill and diversify their time on the boat. And also.. there're no ruins on the seas like there're ruins on the land. When you travel on land you often bump into abandoned things that you loot. Makes it more itneresting. But there're no ruins on the seas.... So one idea I have: 10) Dead marine life that float on the surface and can be looted/butchered for meat/etc

I agree that you should be able to craft on bigger boats. But smaller boats really don't fit the whole idea well. Although I think that a sail boat shouldn't have to be constantly rigged or controlled. You should be able to do some fishing or small-scale crafting while occasionally adjusting the sail. Or maybe some tailoring. There's got to be things to do that're semi-realistic. A rowboat, on the other hand, may have to be used to move much. On the o ther hand, you're on a current, it can move on its own. Rowboats aren't good travel, though. Ok for fishing, haha. I think the major problem with sailing is it's boring compare to running. When you run you have to avoid animals and watch what tiles you're running on. You have to also keep in mind whether you can save time by swimming across stretches of water. You also have to look at where the roads are to see whether it's faster to use them or to brave the wilderness. There's lots of things to consider when running. But whne using a boat... there's really not much thought going into it. That makes it a lot more boring and is probably why people want to be able to craft on their boat or want them to move faster. Wurm needs to diversify the whole boat system so that people don't get too bored using them. I may be wrong about the examples.. but running is more immersive; more involved. I've only been on one boat in my time so far in Wurm. This is only my 9th day. But I can say that the boat ride was... non-eventful. I couldn't even move on the boat. It was a small sail boat. There was nothing interesting about the boat itself and there was nothing really to do either. But since it was all new it was interesting. I watched the coastline and chatted with the captain. Ultimately, if that became a way of life I would get bored with it. But maybe it's different for a captain. Now running... I've done a lot of that. I've died several times. When I run I will bump into corpses and butcher or bury. I watch for animals. I'll follow the roads and try to learn new tricks to speed it up. I'll sometimes see others. One time I almost drowned. I'll check loot that's on the ground and nearby. I'll check the tiles I'm on and look at my speed and wonder how to keep it up. I like to see trees and be on land. And if I routinely go down a certain path I'll plan ahead by packing dirt to make travle faster. Etc. It's very motion-oriented. It's hard to explain it, but it's much more engaging then riding on a boat. And that's saying a lot since running, by itself, is not the most exciting thing to do. Bottom line, speeding up boats doesn't add depth to the game. It'll still take hour(s) to travel via boat and if boats stay the same (no crafting on them, same mechanics, etc) then you'll still get bored and feel unsatisfied. It's an endless loop to get caught in that. Things just get faster and faster to feed the cycle and it won't end. The solution is to end the boredom... give people things to do so they're not so narrowly focused. Doing that is the next step.

Sandboxes aren't always pretty. That's one reason I like to go out into the true wilderness areas. They're much less cluttered with all of our messes. But I personally would rather have this freedom than not have it. Rolf could change a lot of things about this game to suit different peoples needs, but then it wouldn't really be a shared sandbox anymore. It'd be more like an instanced sandbox where we each create a world we prefer but it's somehow shielded or set apart from the worlds others make. Basically, with shared freedom comes consequences and we share the burden of the choices we each make. It's not easy. It's more like bringing up a family, haha! We have to try to respect each other. And lord help us if the map is too small! The smaller it's, the more we'll have to work together (gulp). Personally, I hate working with others because all too often I let my opinions come to the surface and I am not good at giving ground to others. But I know that if everyone was like me then the map would be too small. I also realize that new players need more sociable players than myself to adjust to the complex workings of this game and to make some quick friends who'll be there to help them. I don't make a good friend to most people. But anyway, Wurm is a different kind of game and I'm very honored to be here, it's a very special place and moment in time. And btw, when I logged into Serenity I ignored all the trees and mines. I just explored. Then I found some people to live with. I saw those signs in the first 24 hours that said "Don't cut here!" and so on. I saw some that said "You may cut here!" Etc. But I don't just cut anywhere, so I ignored em. Me, I usually only settle for unique places. Man, my mind was blown in the first 24 hours. I was so amazed by this game. I remember being somewhere up higher elevation and there was a clearcut and all around me there were was grass and bushes. At the edge of the clearing were dozens of stacks of logs. I wondered who cut them and why. And the trees rose up into the night sky. I could hear them, or I thought I did. It was mostly silent up there. I was keeping an eye out for animals. But it was so magical and so amazing to be in a shared world. I don't think I've ever felt so immersed in a game before. This is my 9th day.

I wish it would pile up and melt realistically. And different on different surfaces, including the slope of the surface. I'd also like to see some ice form on the waterways, but only small chunks. Just enough to show me that there's ice. I mean, I just like to see some meat behind the weather. something to tell me it exists and is meaningful. Overall, I think one of the reasons winter is so forgettable is because the physics and capability to model it are so abysmal. When everyday games get to the point where they can model it on a practical basis, I think we'll start seeing more winter-like effects in-game. But until that point everybody will pretend that it'd be too negative (nevermind that if we had microclimates or regional climates then people wouldn't have to live with snow or its "negative" effects. and if we adapted to snow we might live better with it than without it. it's in a game too, so it'll have some jazz.). And don't forget that in a world with global warming, people will grow fond of snow. What was snow like? Frozen rivers!? We've never seen it!!! The world is too warm! With increasing memory/cpu/software upgrades... Someday.. people will be slipping on slopes and skating on icy lakes and healing frostbite. But because of technical limitations and taking things for granted, we just tell each other "Oh that would not be fun!" Let me just remind you, 95% of gamers in this world think Wurm is a terrible game and would never play it. They say things like "Oh that would not be fun!" Just like some people here say winter isn't fun. In the end, ignorance, constraints and other things muddy the waters and confuse. People will always justify the present conditions with whatever rubbish is convenient. We're creatures of habit with short attention spans. But go ahead.. go on.. tell yourselves that we don't need winter. Winter is too harsh. We don't need snow slowing us down. We don't need ice. We don't need frostbite. We're better off without it. If it makes you feel better about the present conditions then do it. But let me say one last thing. That's that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The fact that some of us like Wurm does not mean Wurm is beautiful. It might be beautiful to us, but it's not beautiful on its own.

For those who don't know how to make a shortcut, for the Wurm Client... (this is for windows xp) What I did is: 1) Go to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs OR go to your desktop. 2) Create a folder named "Wurm Online". 3) Enter the folder created in the previous step by double-clicking it (or clicking, depending on situation). 4) Now right-click somewhere to get the default context menu to popup. 5) Click on New -> Shortcut. (The Create Shortcut window should popup.) 6) Paste this in the location field... javaws.exe http://www.wurmonline.com/client/wurmclient.jnlp 7) Click Next. 8) Name the shortcut "Wurm Startup". You should also create a shortcut for the screenshot folder. On my system, it's located at C:\Documents and Settings\User\wurm\players\Character\screenshots. User is the name of my user account. Character is the name of the character that captured the screenshots. It will startup and when it needs to update it'll take care of that too.

I agree. Wurm needs more dimension, not more fake stuff. But it needs to be moderated. For example, predicting weather shouldn't require an actual weather degree. I think it would have to be relatively simple... When were instruments invented to test for the atmospheric pressure? If there was a way to measure pressure that would help a lot. What about temperature? Knowing the temperature and how it's changing is knowledge. Wurm needs an actual weather physics for it to work otherwise it's not predictable. And any knowledge players could gain would be limited by whatever technology is deemed appropriate for its era. Of course, i could care less what the weather is going to do. That's just me. I'm grateful that we have any weather at all since most games are sunshine and rainbows 24/7.

This post is more about Idea than Suggestion. I was inspired to make this post by this link: http://woogley.net/misc/wurm/ Compare this to the map for Freedom-Independence: http://s3.amazonaws....lhost/51042.png Here is the map for Elevation: http://s3.amazonaws....lhost/7c7e7.png The Elevation map is very similar to the other PvP maps. Notice how in the first link, from 2005, there're many more small lakes and there's quite a bit of ridging. You can compare a small chunk of it to the Freedom-Independence link here: http://img506.images.../newtown1li.jpg There're differences between all the maps. Personally, I don't care much for the way some of the mountains look. And I don't like the flat look of some of the maps - too smooth. I also think some of the islands look artificial (like circles) and, overall, some of the maps, for that matter, look artificial. it's a turn off, sort of. How do you think it could be made better on a new server map? One thing that interests me is characteristics of the terrain and how this impacts the game. Ridgy terrain would require more use of the climbing skill and thus slow down travel. Players would have to spend more time digging through ridges to create more level roads to increase speed. Same thing applies to mountainous terrain being hard to navigate. Instead of digging through the entire mountain, players would have to build roads around them. More flat terrain could be more easily crossed, of course. Landscapes with large areas of water are easier to cross with boats. Lots of lakes create a necessary need for easy access to boats, but depending on how it's done, walking across land might be faster. A large map fills us with possibility, but also separates the key resources that we need to build and maintain our empires, thus putting strain on things. Too many dangerous creatures will kill players if they travel a lot. And boredom from travel can be an issue, especially if players are caught traveling the same routes and never seen new sights. Then there're the more technical aspects of terrain generation... When making fractal landscapes one thing that characteristics flat/smooth landscapes is high persistence. Jagged landscapes are low persistence. This has to do with how random numbers are adjusted to give the appearance of a persisting terrain. Raw random numbers are extremely jagged with sharp thin features that do not appear to be interrelated. By blending them together in different ways (by using formulas) you can create a relationship between them. The more persisting it's, the more smooth it becomes and flatter too. Think of a bullet shot from a gun. The more persisting it's, the less it deviates from its flight path. Heightmaps are popular for 3d game map. One limitation is that they're actually 2d, not 3d. They can represent a 90-degree cliff, but they cannot represent a cliff that falls inward. They can't do caves. To do all of that, you need a true 3d index of values that's really just a bunch of heightmaps stacked on top of each other. How the random values between different points persist together is really what determines how realistic it will be. Different formulas and algorithms can be used to create this persistence. Without the persistence what you have is essentially random noise filling the heightmap(s). And pure noise is kind of boring to look at. I wonder if Wurm will ever improve its maps to be more realistic? And could it find a way to have some parts of the map be more realistic than others? For example, there could be connecting "veins" between large areas of the map that could facilitate quicker travel from one end of the map to the other. This would be smoother and quicker to build roads on. On the outskirts of these "veins" the land would be rougher and more treacherous.

One problem with this is where would the whales be? Traditionally, they were out in the ocean right? But sailling all the way out to the edge of the map would req too much time. So whales would have to spawn in local seas. This is just one of those things that would make it somewhat realistic but not too realistic.

Well I like things hard. That's just how I am. I like that there's a game that's like this. If anything, I think a Goals Tree that a new player can review at any time would be useful. It would list basic goals that they should strive to achieve to progress in the early game. Achieving these goals would not give an extra reward. And it would only list basic things to do in the early game. Beyond that, players will have enough knowledge to know where to look to find information. And long-term goals should be already on their mind. They're on their own after that. Like this: This might be listed under the Housing Tree: 1) Cut down a tree 2) Make a plank 3) Make enough planks for a wall 4) Rummage for some iron rock 5) Mine for some iron 6) Make some kindling 7) Combine kindling and wood scraps to make campfire 8) Create some iron lumps on a campfire 9) Make a mallet 9) Make an anvil 10) Make some nails 11) Flatten some land with a shovel 12) Build a wall 13) Finish a house ....etc. It needs to be reviewable before the player has achieved the goals. And there should be wiki links embedded into the Goals Tree so a player can become familiar with how to use the wiki in-game. For example, "Make a Mallet" would link to the wiki page for Mallet. But the danger of using the wiki too much is it would make creating Goals require more time because the links have to be constructed. It would also make players think they don't have to search the wiki on their own. It would discourage developers from making more elaborate goals because they'd have to create wiki links for each concept. But something like a Goals Tree would give noobs direction and something to aim for that's more definable. But it shouldn't be taken further than this. Don't make it into a quest system. Don't over complicate it. This would do far more for Wurm than making it more merciful. But it could easily be overdone - (Warning!). I had to learn most of this myself by googling and experimenting. Players shouldn't be led to believe that they'll always be led by the hand. They have to learn to do things on their own and make their own goals. So at some point you have to pull your hand back and tell them it's time to go out on their own. You have to be firm about it. The problem with the idea that developers always have to lead players by a leash or by the hand is that we can't do non-linear things as much and it also limits the growth of the game in its details. Details are complex and take time to understand. Players will always have to weed through complexity to find what they want. Players have to do that on their own at some point. And non-linear things are, by their nature, hard to define in an explicit way. Wurm is hard to define. It's whatever you dream. If it becomes too defined so that it's easy on everyone then the dream is no longer boundless. It becomes a box. It becomes linear. It becomes 1.. 2.. 3.. 4. Dreams will always be boundless. They can't be tied down. Don't tie Wurm down. I say all this as a new player. I started one week ago. And I have LOVED this game so far. These suggestions I've given here seem good. But at the same time, maybe I LOVED it because it was less defined. You see, I think Wurm attracts a special type of player. It may seem harmless on the surface to add a Goals Tree, but I think the issue is far more complex. It could very well change everything about hte game.

One solution is to have a merchant in SB give away X amount of compasses in the first 24 hours of gameplay. They would be extremely low quality and there'd be a limit to how many you can get. This basically would mean don't die too much! This would be more realisitc and not use no-drop mechanisms. New players probably shouldn't be exploring in far away lands so early anyway. And if they do choose to do that then they need to play much more carefully. I eventually explored far away from SB, but by that time I was past my 24 hour period. I did fine without my compass even when I died within my 24 hour period (once or twice). In fact, it makes sense that old junk compasses would have uses for new players. But more than this... why can't veteran players put a chest in SB with old compasses? But keep in mind Wurm is hard... that's its niche. IF it starts to become too easy to play then it'll be competing with other games that're much better at being easy and have better graphics and content. Ultimately, the bigger Wurm becomes the more casual it'll be. This would eventually kill its sandbox nature in favor of convenience and more accessibility to a larger audience. Larger audiences do not enjoy wading through lots of details to build. They wnat it simple. They don't wnat to have to cut down trees. They want everything simplified and easy to do. So right there you can throw out 70% of the game because it's no use to a large audience. And teleporters would be everywhere. So you can say goodbye to roads too since nobody would need them. Say goodbye to all the scenic areas that nobody will see since they're too busy teleporting. A lot of things would change. They're not bad, but they're not Wurm. There needs to be games that're hard for diversity reasons. Most players won't like them. But the fact that a few do exist is good. Even hardcores need something to play!! Who knows, maybe we're learning about human nature. A game that's more realistic and doesn't protect you as much might give us the opportunity to learn something? Stop thinking that easier is better. Let Wurm be Wurm. Maybe harder is better? Wurm is better off evolving in a different direction than is normally considered good. In fact, most of evolution in the past was by those who failed. If humans had never failed at being marine creatures then they never would have crawled up onto land. Same for those humans that failed at being Chimpanzees and rised up on two legs. For that matter, does anything really fail? Not really. Everything is different. Some things live in the sea, some live on land. Let Wurm be hard, please. And yes, traveling for hours across land and sea even without a compass, while it's long and trecherous and evne grindy (for those who know exactly what they're doing), is HARD. That's Wurm. There's somethign unique about sitting on the shore recovering from drowning, watching the moon rise. Chatting/browsing/learning about game/observing the world around you as you wait for the water to clear from your lungs so you can continue. Many other games would scoff at this and immediately remove it without a second thought. But Wurm doesn't. At least one game doesn't. One game doesn't. Please don't take that away. I'm an old player. Seen a lot of things. Wurm is unique. Please, please.... let it be merciless. I can't say this enough. Do you know how many games give handouts and make everyhing easy? Almost every single one. Some people are ok with it being high risk... or there wouldn't be close to 700 people at peak. If the game can survive on that population then there's no reason it can't continue. If it needs more money, it needs to say so. Let me put it this way... I have played this game so far without any of yoru suggestions and I'm enjoy the 3$%#@#% out of it. It has impressed me many times and that's RARE. Pretty graphics are too common. I started a week ago. The first time I saw that different tiles slowed you down, I felt something deep inside I haven't felt for a long time since most of hte modern games have removed stuff like that. Most normal games are so stripped and streamlined and simplified. But anyway... when I saw that Wurm had stamina and you fell down hills faster when they're steeper... I just cna't express how madly reverent I was. For years and years and years I wanted something like that. It was like being starved forever and being told that being starved is normal. I finally tasted REAL food, and I LIKED it. So Wuyrm is like REAL food after living forever on fake food. And I LIKE it. I'll FIGHT to keep it.

I think more realism is welcome, just as long as it's not too much. Fantasy <-> Reality. -1.0 <- 1.0. Every game has to choose where it's going to fit between those two extremes. One thing I'd like to see is for us to be able to examine an animal and see its key features. From these key features we could accurately identify it from others of its species. So, for example, if I saw a deer I could distinguish it from other deer. I know this seems weird, but it gives me a way to name them and get to know them. I think it's be slightly more immersive. Alternatively, I could target a deer and tag it. The tag would be added to a Tab on one of the windows. If you clicked on the tab there'd be a list of animals that you've tagged. It wouldn't show specifically where they're, it would just say something like "<name of tag> <species of creature> <region where tagged>". For example, if you're in Burrowing Hills and tag a deer by right-clicking and clicking on Tag and typing the name "Dear".... then you click on the Tag tab, you'll see "<Dear> <Deer> <Burrowing Hills>". I know hte idea is weird, lol. You'd have to put your mouse cursor on it to see that it's the creature with the tag. I just think it would be a cute idea and be a method to feel like I have a wild friend with me. It could also be a method to track them... if you wonder where they go. Maybe you'd bump into a tagged creature and realize he'd wandered a long ways. I think it would be cool if creatures searched for food/water. Do they? Water would make things too predictable since all the animals would be near the lakes/seas. However, if they moved quickly enough and the map kept track of vegetation then some of the things they need might be further inland. Btw, Levy Flight is how many animals IRL search/forage when they can't easily find food: http://en.wikipedia....iki/Lévy_flight Not sure if that could be put into Wurm, but it'd be realistic. This shows that sharks at least use Levy Flight: http://physicsworld....ia-levy-flights It also points out that when prey are abundant, predator movements exhibit Brownian motion (more random): http://en.wikipedia....Brownian_motion However, not all animals use Levy flight. Call them the less mathematical species. The reason many biologists have long suspected Levy Flight would be used was because it was a very efficient searching method. Look here: http://www.ncbi.nlm....les/PMC1193743/ Basically, for animals that don't use Levy Flight, they'll use a simpler random kind of movement. But it needs to take into account the above quote. Some variation is key. Don't make them forage only rich sources of food. But all of this is very complicated and to get it right so that players can figure out a strategy without also having it be exploited in some way or have it blow up in your face, is not an easy task by any measure.

There really should be a south climate and a north climate on maps. The north climate is more likely to have frost and snow on the ground. The south climate is more likely to be greener and wetter. Would solve this issue by giving Nic an option to go south. It would have the bonus of being somewhat realistic. That's in-character with Wurm. I know that it wouldn't make sense for a map that's only about 10-20km across to have a north climate and a south climate. But it doesn't make sense either that we can outrun a bear. However, the fact that bears can chase us and even drain our stamina (and kill us that way) is -somewhat- realistic. North and south climate on a small map is somewhat realistic if we're presuming that the map is a world map. Additionally, it gives players more choice. Basically, what I'm saying is that having no North/South climate is TOO realistic because it's accounting for the fact that the map is only about 10-20km across. This is like not allowing players to outrun a bear or having terrain that's so realistic that moving across it is very slow unless you're on a road (even if you're on a horse). I myself love realism, but I like it in smaller doses without the extremes. For example, I think it's too realistic if we fall off a cliff and permanently die. It's somewhat realistic if we fall off a cliff and die and respawn at a deed. Of course, "somewhat realistic" is a range of values between fantasy and reality. A developer has to pick out where they want to be in that range. Take the recent debacle with forever lamps. They stayed lit forever and never required refueling of any sort. This is pure fantasy. It inspires in me the same response I get when things are too realistic. I'm repulsed by both cases. When it was fixed recently so that lamps consume oil but consume it relatively slowly, it became somewhat realistic and was much more acceptable to me. It was no longer pure fantasy, but neither was it too realistic. Every game is going to be somewhere between pure fantasy and reality. As players, we have to choose from the games that're available whichever ones that suit our needs. I realize that some players are going to pick up wurm and play it and realize it's not suited for them. This is because not all players are the same. Some players will think Wurm is too realistic and others will think it's too much like fantasy. You can't please everyone. You can please a majority, however. And you can please a minority. Ultimately, you have to please enough to pay for things.

Night needs more predators? Well add a couple nocturnal predators. But seriously... it's already fairly dangerous out there. But some nocturnal predators would i think actually add to the game. Diversity is good. But I wouldn't make them too powerful. Just something an experienced player would know. I do however think that in the more populated areas the forest can seem less dangerous because players are killing everything and also because lairs tend to not spawn near populated areas (according to wiki).

If it can damage the boat in some way (doesn't have to be massive) and put up a fight and not go down willingly then dang... i like the idea. It could be an alternative to olive oil for those who prefer it. But I'm sure oil has other uses than just lighting lamps or oiling a compass. Be a good time to research whaling and how the strategy could be put into the game. Seems like an awful amount of work just for oil though. Ther'ed have tobe other reasons... like killing sea monsters or something. Have to add harpoons and who knows what else... But having some sea creatures would be a nice change. As long as it's not too dangerous to swim. Travelling on land is already dangerous enough.. having the water as an option is a strategy.

I like this. I love realism. But refilling lamps every couple days is too much especially if peoiple wnat to keep a road lit. What I like aobut all this is it at least acknowledges realism in the sense that it keeps track of fuel and consumption. It adds detail to the game where other games have none. Wurm, at heart, is a builder type game. It has to have this detail because this game is so heavily focused on building things and maintaining. Maintainting is a whole process in itself. Maintaining efficiently requires a signfiicant amount of thought just like building does. I'm not ignoring exploring or hack/slash or missions or other things. I love to do those things too. But if that's what Wurm focused on, it would get stomped by bigger and better game that do those things better.

Increasing the duration of oil lamps would be a nice thing. But forever lamps are stupid. If a lamp has to be refilled every 2-3 RL days then it should be more like 12 days. Basically somebody needs to sit down and calculate the amount of time needed ot keep these things lit and determine what's an acceptible time requirement. The night keeps thigns more mysterious. We need mystery in the wurm world. We shouldn't know everything. Too much convenience ruins the mystery because it puts light on things that would otherwise have to be sought out manually. Mystery isn't mystery when you can see it. However, too much mystery can be like a suffocating cloud that's so immense and complex and boundless that you lose ambition to chase it in an attempt to know it. So we always need some tool to light our way... we have to see some things. Not everything can be a mystery. But it's important to always have things outside our vision to keep us inspired and active and mindful of the possibilities. Earlier I was thinking about the map. Large detailed maps fill me with wonder and inspiration. Thinking of all the nooks and crannies and the far away things is motivating. I never want to fully understand a map. It needs to impress me to inspire me. But if a map is too complex and too big then the things you need can be too far apart and this can be a problem because you might not have enough time or you might end up dead because a animal killed you while you were traveling between two important places. And complexity can increase the length of time that's required to find what you need. So all of this is a balance. What makes it worse is that groups of players can be different. It's very hard to get it all right. The point in saying all this is that the mystery and complexity of hte world has to be balanced against other things or otherwise it can make the game impossible to play. For example, no light = blind = can't play.

This all sounds complicated... which isn't bad, necessarily. I love details. But I'm a new player and I'll admit straight away that if I saw "-3 reputation.. other players can kill you!" I'd probably just think "Oh, so what." And I mean... he was picklong his own house... come on. There needs be more feedback or something in the game so people know the consequences of their actions. A lot of players would quit if they were twitchman, seriously. Either hte game eases them into it or requires that they understand what they're doing first. More feedback wouold be nice. For example, when it says "-3 reputation..." it should have a link there that brings up the wiki when you click it so you can read about what the consequences are.

Technically, aren't lakes above or below sea-level part of the same flow problem? Because if I find a lake on a mountain and terraform a channel for the lake to flow into, doesn't that require some sort of flow calculation? Otherwise you might have a lake that rises above the (lower) landscape like a wall of water and stays in place. It all can be reduced down to the fact that CHANGING the landscape requires large computation. If the landscape was never changed then everything could be calculated beforehand and later loaded into memory. There's also the issue that if rivers/streams could be created on the fly (or diverted/split) then it could impact the gameplay of other players. Imagine a whole settlement being washed away by a river that's dammed. The more realistic the game becomes the more it can impact other players. Heck, even realistic graphics can do that. Ever seen a realistic murder in a game? The blood and guts splattered around the mutilated corpse? Or how about realistic (high-poly) breasts? Does that arouse or disgust? Or what about realistic motion that causes nausea? Or how about the euphoria engine that was in GTA IV? Or the emotions on the faces that were in L.a. Noire? The realistic motions and actions of the non-players in GTA IV (utilizing euphoria): http://ps3.ign.com/a...7/847536p1.html Take a look at the faces in L.A. Noire: http://www.wired.com...a-noire-review/ Why do people even want realistic things? Realistic sound? Realistic graphics? Etc? Well, part of it is that reality is complex. Its complex nature is part of what makes it so interesting and for some, fun. The problem is reality is like a wife you love that has a darker side. She's so complex it's impossible to completely control her. It's precisely the same complexity that draws you towards her that causes you or somebody else to get hurt. It's a cursed love. I'll admit, me and her are in a deep fatal relationship. I expect to die with her in my arms. Call it what you will. The desire exists and I look for realism in games. Maybe it's a search for myself or a quest to find God.