Theo's Thoughts

[Theonis 160]

Having a really slow day today so figured I would put up a post mainly on what I have seen and how I play.  No reason to read past this point unless you too are having a slow day.

 

I have been around for a while now.  Well not true in a way.  I come and go.  I was first brought to the game by a friend who was looking for some one to play with.  He actually brought about 10 of us into the game.  With in three months every one had left.  This would includ my self.  At the time I was leading a faction of players on another game and that was were my attention was.  This game was more of a distraction as the ability to create appealed to me.  I didn't have a sub but during my first few months I figured I would create a highway.  I wasn't subbed so I know, a lot of missed skill gain.  I learned many things from creating that highway, for example.  That people will run to the very end of the road and then put a deed up, which requires you to reroute the plan you had.  Also, what used to be an area that had no population, becomes quickly populated as people don't wounder to far from the roads.  Once public right of ways are put into place.  You are screaming "come come, move here, move here".  I have ever since been slowly upgrading this highway, leveling, three lanes wide.  Making it look professionally done.  I can't remove it, but I sure as can make it look nice.  Also only being able to work on a section after people leave the area.  Now into the main reason of this thread.

 

Deli population.  You see I started playing years ago but I leave for about 6 months then come back for about two months.  That seems to be my set pattern.  I can only do the same action so many times before it feels like I am not actuly getting any where and move onto another game.  As to my point, last time I was here, was during the may months.  Xanadu was just around the corner and many of my friends were talking about checking it out.  At the time, I had set up a second deed, close to the shore but not on it.  I couldn't find any suitable area to actually invest the time in or that would be convenient for access from both sea and land.  Just about the entire shore line had a token up.  And the areas that didn't was difficult terrain and sandwiched between tokens already.  The place was about 50 tiles from the ocean and had already had some one work on it before.  Something easy to maintain (turned into big project <.<).  I left the game and just came back in December.  I found that where I was parking my boat, at a dock at the end of the highway was actually recently deeded and I had to get a GM to get my boat back because the guy bought the place, filled in the area and then fenced it off.  I am so glad that people can't destroy a boat if it is on their deed. Now sea access is now much harder to do with my second deed but I will be keeping it any ways.

 

So when I was traveling between xanadu and Deli, a friend asked me to check out his new digs on the east coast of Deli.  I didn't really have the time as I was ready to go to sleep, but did it any ways.  What I noticed is that many deeds along the coasts have now dried up.  I claimed a spot that some one had put many months into terraforming.  Even in-land, many of the deeds along the highway from my lake deed to my southern sea deed have dried up.  A lot of the protection along that highway has also vanished.  The area I have most difficulty with is right there by Shark Lake.  You get stuck in this bowl and can't escape the hell hounds, trolls, and wolves that accumulate in that area.  A new deed has gone up there but for now there isn't any protection along that highway.  I may end up putting another guard tower up along the road but that is time I am not yet ready to sink into that project.

 

Many of the people who were in my alliance have moved to Xanadu.  I even plan on leaving that alliance to join one that is much closer to the home deed.  What I have noticed though is that Deli used to have 150+ people on regularly to just about 30 now.  I like having my pick of nice real-estate.  But I kinda miss having people to talk with or get something that I am not skilled in.  I have no plans, nor intentions of leaving Deli.  Only way I'm going is when Rolf gives the news that because the server is such a low pop server he is pulling the plug on it and I need to move.

[Purplemonochromicorn 13]

tl;dr:

Played ~1.8 years of Epic. Played a month and a few weeks of PvE Freedom on Deli. Here to stay.

 

I am new to Freedom, coming from the Epic servers. I knew lots of people lived on Xanadu, but I didn't mind. It seems like the kingdom chat would just get spammed with 5 times the usual amount of players anyway. I had lived on Independence for a month or so with Dairuka, learning to be patient, and not to worry about raiders or other kingdoms popping local tabs. I quickly got bored and moved back to Epic, only to find that my village had been abandoned on Mol-Rehan so I packed up, sailed to Serenity once again, and found a fantastic group of players (Paradoxxx, Bradley, Heinrichtheboss, Kyrrui). We got bored with Jenn-Kellon's inaction and enmity for us every time we killed a fellow kingdom player. So we all realized we missed the mycelium and Blacklight land of Affliction. We worked on a deed but heard that Affliction was going to reset within a month or two so we decided that Wurm just wasn't for us anymore. I stayed on Affliction but joined another group. After a while, we got bored and decided to start anew on Chaos. Lived with Jenn-Kellon (Stayed with Gog, if you're reading this, I'm super sorry I took a 2 month break without warning, then stole your boat), but got bored, again, of the lack of PvP and meaning... Took a 2 month break and thought I was done with Wurm for good...

 

Heard about Storm and the Challenge server... Honestly thought it was a terrible idea that would split Wurm's PvP player-base even more... So I made a character anyway. Couldn't hurt. Played for a day and a half as BL. Got to 60 blacksmithing in a few hours, felt cheated and never logged on again...

 

I had an epiphany: If I am to keep playing this ever growing, ever expanding game, I had to do what I wanted most, my last chance to find a decent living where I'll do everything I've wanted to do... So I created a character on Deliverance (Vetem: Albanian for Alone lol not that I'm Albanian, just like making characters' names in a foreign language). I scouted out some places to live, found a TON of abandoned settlements. Found Shark Lake, with a guard tower nearby, a few caves with iron pre-discovered, and set up a home. I have since deeded and found a loyal companion, Valion, to form an alliance with. We don't have many villagers yet and are constantly told or asked 'Why come to Deli? It's one of the "dead" servers.' but I won't give up hope. I love this island so far. Filled with nice and ambitious people

 

Didn't plan on typing this much, just sorta venting and sharing my thoughts too.

[Outlaw 697]

I'm sure many can relate to your stories. I read them both fully and some of it struck home with me.

 

I think the key is to find a group of players you like and stick with them. Many go it alone in Wurm and quickly get bored. (I'm guilty of this...many times) That way, it doesn't matter if your server is populated or if you move deeds every month. As long as you're with people you can chat with and help each other out, you'll enjoy your time in Wurm.

 

While it may seem like everyone is on Xanadu and everything is better there, you cannot forget that it is so much bigger too. Right now, there are 143 on Indy and 297 on Xan. Xanadu is 4x the size of Indy, so really, the population density on Indy is higher than that of Xanadu. (If Indy was scaled up to Xanadus size, it would have 572 online...almost double that of Xan. The others are all 16x smaller than Xanadu..so Release with 83 players only right now, would be like Xanadu with a whopping 1328 players)

 

The old servers aren't dead yet by any means.

[Samool 2,004]

Few days ago I was traveling from Independence to Celebration, next to the coast all the time. Guess how many people have I noticed on Local? Zero.

Done few trips like that not long before the opening of Xanadu, and there were always people around to either chat with or just greet.

It's really sad how quiet the older servers are getting. Year ago, whenever I was nearby, I was often crossing the border to Indy just to chat. Now even Independence's kchat isn't as alive as it used to be. Other servers' chats can go for a few hours without even a single message.

[Theonis 160]

Xanadu can not be the only reason as to why Deli has a low population.  I was only stating what I have seen since I came back.  As for having a group of people to talk to.  I have to agree with you on that as well.  Reason why I was saying leaving my current alliance to join another one that is more local to my main deed.  I have three deeds going now so I have no plans of leaving Deli.

 

Main Deed: A back country cabin on a lake side with the woods around it.  (deeds around deed have gone the strip mall route)

2nd Deed: Grand project that has way to much dirt that is still needed before I can get to building any thing.  About 40k more dirt I estimate.

3rd Deed: No clue yet, just in a awesome location where the previous owner put a lot of work into.  Sure the buildings are gone but who cares about that.

[Ayes 3,715]

Theonis, A nice little tale you have woven there in your OP.

 

I made a deed on Deliverance close to Green Dog on the day the server opened. It has been a very enjoyable experience there, seeing the lands being shaped and developed over these past years. Many have come and gone within the local area where my deed is situated. Only I remain there since the beginning. I get a sort of satisfaction from this endurance, puttering around the local area, tending it with care.

 

People will come and go, nothing can be done about that. Those that remain for years have a special attachment to their place and the game, which sustains them more than another individual ever will. I enjoy the now more quiet Deliverance. New arrivals are welcome but they are welcome to leave just as well. Matters little in the scheme of things, I suppose.

 

Happy Trails

=Ayes=

[Chiclet 70]

Chiclet's Thoughts On Deliverance: Nice place. Great neighbors so far; one of them wants to shower me in bulk storage bins (my hero!).  My deed is currently a big, fat mud pit and I wouldn't want it any other way. Tonight's project is cheap assed fence for pretty horse to live in and be cosseted while actual stable is nowhere to be seen. Still feeling bad about Starfoxx's herd culling last night. Poor babies. 

[ShadowRonin 407]

A bit of a long winded biography, followed by a little bit of relevance...

 

I started playing Wurm in March 2013, and have more hours played than I'd care to admit.  Deliverance was my first, and probably only home server.  The game was quite frustrating to learn, as anyone who's played long enough knows.  I was determined to do it alone, and nearly quit because of it.  I settled north of Rainbow Bridge back when it was all The Weald land, solely because it was easy to remember how to get back to when I died.  Luckily I had neighbors who were helpful, and even more surprisingly having played the game for awhile now, they didn't try to get me out of an area so close to them.  Praxius and Spyte, my neighbors, kept a free food barrel for the public, which made building up my simple hillside shack much less painful.  I premmed after about a week of playing, I went from nearly quitting to being very hooked on the game.  Looking back I think I made the right choice going off on my own, it was challenging but very rewarding.

 

My first few months were spent terraforming and building, I wish I had screenshots in retrospect, I didn't expect to change the landscape so much.  I joined a small alliance and became familiar with more of the neighbors, slowly expanding my knowledge of the land around me.  Most of us in our alliance were fairly new and unskilled, it provided great motivation to do skill grinding.  We'd compete, but we'd also be able to help eachother where we fell short.  There were many minor projects along the way, which seemed monolithic at the time.  Things like expanding mines or building a corbita seemed to take ages, but it was fun, a grand goal to reach.  My alliance was changing, growing then dying, but I started to be more vocal in the community, daring to use kchat and expanding my group of friends.  As my skills grew, I met more "powerful" players, at least as these things can be measured on a PvE server.  I left my old alliance for a new one, acting mostly as a minion for the higher ups.

 

I grew to be more of an equal, the need to grind my skills drove me on.  At this point my skills were respectable, as well as my deeds.  Becoming a more involved player also brought some unexpected drama along with it.  I've been involved in, or have seen more feuds than I thought could ever exist in a PvE environment, but I learned it kind of comes with the territory with sandbox games.  The grudges players held since before I was playing were a bit fascinating if I'm honest, I know things are supposed to be live and let live, but there was an element of excitement to it.  When the uniques respawned, Odynn and I decided to run hunting parties together, determined to outdo the few competing groups there were at the time.  As Xanadu opened and players left in droves, most of our competition was gone, defeated by us or their own drama, mostly involving dragons and Zalifear.  I was given control of my alliance at this time, probably due to its small size.

 

With the server population diminished, the uniques rarely respawning, and my skills or the skills of friends were high enough to have anything I needed, I became a bit bored.  I went to Chaos for a couple of weeks to see how I'd like it.  I didn't actually get to partake in any PvP and became bored, although there was a bit more drama and excitement there that I'd been missing back on Deli.  I was a bit directionless with what I wanted in the game, I had no goals, so I decided to return home.

 

Finally, my point...  When I got back from Chaos I had a realization that what I love about the game more than anything, is the people.  But friends alone aren't a strong enough reason to play the game for me, so I decided I needed more goals, more projects.  All of those things I've done up until this point, my fellow players were the catalyst for it.  Building a deed was as much to impress others as to meet my needs, skill grinding to compete with, or help others, helping a friend build a corbita, even the drama that I hate to love.  These days I don't spend much time skill grinding, I focus myself on community projects.  From roadworks, to canals, to clearing that damned birch forest near Green Dog, I find myself much more motivated to play when I'm focused on doing things that will hopefully help reconnect and repopulate Deli.  This game has a lot of potential for fun, but there needs to be players there to really enjoy it.

[Huntar 1,692]

I personally feel like Rolf's decision to add the many unpopulated servers we have today (Cele, etc) took a massive jab at Deli's population. I get that people want new experiences, new land, etc, but I  feel like it has only served to split the community up even more so than it has been.

 

Wurm isn't a terribly populated game compared to most, there's very little advertising for it besides frequent threads on unrelated sites like /vg/, Facepunch, and even word of mouth, and it isn't really a game that most people find appealing (With the patience and attention required being what most people find as something that puts them off from the game.) The community here is small enough as it is, the addition of more servers, as I mentioned, only served to split up that close knit community we once had, and it's sad in my case because I've been on Deli since the birth of the server, and to see it slowly die off like this is just, bleh.

[Halebel 80]

Chiclet's Thoughts On Deliverance: Nice place. Great neighbors so far; one of them wants to shower me in bulk storage bins (my hero!).  My deed is currently a big, fat mud pit and I wouldn't want it any other way. Tonight's project is cheap assed fence for pretty horse to live in and be cosseted while actual stable is nowhere to be seen. Still feeling bad about Starfoxx's herd culling last night. Poor babies. 

Sugarfoxx's horses are in a better place now. The farm is safe and the horses get sugar cubes every day.

[Chiclet 70]

Sugarfoxx's horses are in a better place now. The farm is safe and the horses get sugar cubes every day.

 

Well, that just makes me feel better about the whole thing, you have no idea. 

[Halebel 80]

on an unrelated note anyone need any horse meat?

[Ayes 3,715]

I play on 3 different servers, Xanadu, Deliverance and Pristine, with 3 capable mayors on each of them, so I can basically be effective skill wise and enjoy the same types of activities on each server. I mention this because I find that each of these servers have a different sort of atmosphere to them, based upon the number of players in the area/server and what they make out of the local area with their creations and presence. Each of them I value then for the experience they provide because of this.

 

So when I see comments that others make about a lack of numbers on their servers being some sort of problem because of new servers having been opened, I really don't see it as one at all. The effect is to just make each one more distinct than another and offer a different experience by living upon it. Wurm is continually changing and evolving due to the players that make each individual server what it is and in that respect there is no stability to it, since whenever one departs or is added the atmosphere, feeling, environment will change once again.

 

Things will never remain the same on the server that anyone chooses to make as their home, nor are any players bound to the game that they can not leave at any time. This is just part of Wurm life and is a reflection of the other one outside of it. The variety that all these servers provide because of this is their value and why I would never want to see any of them eliminated just for the sake of increasing the population of a select few. And lets not forget that each of them are special places to those who have build their own Villages on them, carved out of the blank landscapes that they found below their feet once they arrived.

 

Safe Travels

=Ayes=