PVP from a PVE Perspective - Play to Grind or Grind to Play?

[Nappy 1,369]

Do you play Wurm to grind skills or do you grind skills to play Wurm? This is the important question to consider throughout this article.

 

In many ways this update is less about PVP and much more about playstyle choices within Wurm. It is being mentioned as part of the PVP experience because currently the only part of the game where you can make one of these play style changes is PVP.

 

Initially I expect that everyone joins Wurm to use skills to play the game. Some become quite captivated by the skill gain process iteself to the point where in many ways watching skiils increment becomes the major positive feedback they receive in game. Others continue to grind skills as a necessity in order to be able to do the things in game that they want to be able to do.

 

During my experience with Wurm there have been three different speeds at which you can gain skill as follows:

 

Freedom - standard skill gain
Epic - twice as fast skill gain as Freedom plus uses the epic curve
Challenge - twenty times as fast skill gain as Freedom and does not use the curve (from memory, might be incorrect - let me know)

 

Freedom requires a lot of time to be spent to increase your skills from 1 to 50 when compared with the time required on Epic to do the same. Challenge made skill gain so quick that I believe it largely made the whole "what skill should I work on" question largely irrelevant. Any skill that you wanted could very, very quickly be increased to a high level.

Other factors also impact the speed at which you reach the point where you have sufficient skill to be able to do certain things in game.

 

The curve:

 

Available only on the Epic cluster at the moment.

 

 

Level   Effective

5           9.75
10       19.00
15       27.75
20       36.00
25       43.75
30       51.00
35       57.75
40       64.00
45       69.75
50       75.00
55       79.75
60       84.00
65       87.75
70       91.00
75       93.75
80       96.00
85       97.75
90       99.00
95       99.75
100    100.00

 

Using Animal Husbandry as an example, in order to see the majority of traits you need to have level 42 Animal Husbandry on Freedom. Using the effective level of the curve the actual skill level required on Epic is less then 25.

 

A second example is mining. In order to mine 99 ql ore purely based on skill level you need 99 mining on Freedom. The same 99 ql ore can be mined with 90 skill on Epic.

 

However the curve can also be a bit confusing. When breeding the Animal Husbandry base skill level is used on Epic just like it is on Freedom. This also applies to Fine Carpentry. If you need 70 Fine Carp to make something on Freedom then you will as well on Epic.

 

The curve impacts the ql of the end result of the skill use.

 

Other options with an effective result similar to the curve also already exist on both Freedom and Epic.

 

Rare, Supreme and Fantastic tools provide a 1, 2 or 3 respectively ql bonus to the maxium ql that you can produce according to your current skill level when using the tool.

 

You also have the new option of potions (Woodcutting, mining, stonecutting, masonry) etc to effectively add more to your effective output ql via the use of a tool that has been imbued with a potion. There has been reference to 80 level miners on freedom producing 99 ql ores using a combination of their mining skill and a 100 imbued pickaxe.

 

If you want to increase your base skill level then there are also options to help you do so more quickly:

 

Enchantments like Circle of cunning and Blessing of the Dark both provide increases to how quickly you gain skill.
 

Sleep powder and sleep bonus also double the speed of skill gain.

 

You could also just outright purchase a character already at the desired skill level and get going right away on the things you want to do ingame.

 

Again, do you play Wurm to grind skills or do you grind skills to play Wurm?

 

As you can see from the examples above there are already many ways to increase the rate at which you gain effective skill that allows you to do the things you want to do in game.

 

Based on the popularity of rare etc tools and potions on the Freedom market it is apparent that many people are seeking to gain sufficient ability to be able to do the things they want to do in game rather then just grinding a skill for the game of grinding the skill.

 

Looking back at Epic once more there is one unfortunate reality about making the decision to switch from Freedom to

Epic. When you move a character across the portal you effectively create a second instance of the same character name and this new character comes with skills reset to starting levels. This means that the months or years of work you put into creating your original character are gone. Unfortunately this creates a jarring disconnect between what you had as a character on Freedom and what you now have on Epic.

 

I believe that this mechanic acts as a real hindrance to people joining Epic to play the game despite many of the different game play options that can be found there.

 

A simple fix for this would be to allow a one time only command (similar to how a vinvite teleport works) where an epic char could have their characters skills reset to whatever higher level skills they had on Freedom. This option would make it much easier for a Freedom character to make the move to Freedom, preserve the history of that character's skill gain and since skill gain is much slower on Freedom then Epic it shouldn't be considered a disadvantage to an Epic player either. This would both make the move to Epic easier for Freedom players and preserve the very important connection players often have to their original avatars.

 

When I carefully consider the three playstyles I have experienced in game I have found the Epic skill gain speed to work the best for me so far. Challenge was so fast that it wasn't a strategic decision to decide on a skill and a large part of the game disappeared as a result. Freedom grinding is too grindy IMHO. I have other things I would prefer to do with my time like treasure hunts, hunting trips, building highways, planning a new village or building etc. Epic allows me to have the need to carefully decide on the skills I want to work on without confining me to weeks of grinding oars or wretstones etc just to watch numbers slowly crawl upwards.

 

To finish this article up with some more PVP content it is important to note that there are some skills that PVP players focus on while PVE players tend to ignore. PVP players put far more emphasis on body characteristics and also on skills like Shields, Shield Bashing and one-handed weapons (longswords, axes, sickles, mauls). PVE players tend to focus on using two handed weapons like Huge Axes, Two Handed swords and Large Mauls.

 

~Nappy

[aamanus 1,488]

This is something that has always bothered me about the game, and driven a number of friends of mine from the game.

 

The specificity between doing actions for skill versus doing actions for productivity is really bad in my opinion.  Having to hit the sweet spot with stamina usage, using poor ql tools with high CoC, etc etc, just aren't conducive to enjoying the game.  Deliberately doing something badly in order to get better at it is wasteful.

 

I think the game would be far more accessible to people if you just did the best you could and would get the best gains. Instead, you get penalised for being productive.

 

You either advance your skills, or you advance your game play (ie, terraforming, building, crafting).

 

Personally, as a PvPer, I've spent the majority of my time in wurm playing for fun - my skillgain has suffered massively, with me doing very little grinding and just using SB when I'm doing a lot of actions consecutively, such as levelling, making bricks, crafting items, etc.  

 

Honestly, I just do not enjoy grinding in most games, especially if all you are doing is increasing your skills - at least in most games you have quests to grant XP, so that you can advance the story and still advance your character, and crafting/fighting XP gains is usually about the difficulty of the item versus the skill you have.

 

But, it is what it is, and I imagine some people play mostly because of that complexity in levelling up.  

[Milosanx 716]

I rarely grind any skill, I just play how I like, I guess that's why I have so many character on so many servers doing different things. 

 

Everyone plays differently, I know of people that hate building and would rather grind all day on crafting. The thing about wurm is that you have the choice and most things you do give you skill anyway.

 

Do the things in game that are fun, playing the game as a job is not good for anyone.

[Jaz 2,665]

A simple fix for this would be to allow a one time only command (similar to how a vinvite teleport works) where an epic char could have their characters skills reset to whatever higher level skills they had on Freedom. This option would make it much easier for a Freedom character to make the move to Freedom, preserve the history of that character's skill gain and since skill gain is much slower on Freedom then Epic it shouldn't be considered a disadvantage to an Epic player either. This would both make the move to Epic easier for Freedom players and preserve the very important connection players often have to their original avatars.

I enjoy a lot your posts on your Epic adventures, now it seems to me that Epic is the good part of what I liked on Challenge.

I've been thinking a lot how could the PVE players be tempted to try out Epic - yes the skill reset is which keeps me from playing there, I've only visited the Epic cluster for a couple hours total. It seems to me you've just posted a solution.

If my feeling is correct and CC would like to see people migrate from Freedom to Epic this one time skill aligment should be one way only (from Freedom skill levels to Epic) to avoid the abuse of faster skillup on Epic transferring that to Freedom skills.

Not sure how the Epic community would feel about this but from my PVE viewpoint you would like to see some of us be around there

Edited May 12, 2015 by Jaz

[Gollum 30]

Something that you really need to consider is that

1) Although the curve levels you faster in the beginning it's slower at the end, so to get a 100 in a skill on epic is significantly harder than on freedom.

2) Body stats don't appear to be on the curve and so are easier to level on freedom than epic

3) Stamina in particular is Significantly more difficult to level on Epic than freedom

 

Allowing a character to level on Freedom would give it quite an advantage over those that start on epic, this would also need to be considered in such a proposal and the skills reduced as appropriate.

[Nappy 1,369]

Something that you really need to consider is that

1) Although the curve levels you faster in the beginning it's slower at the end, so to get a 100 in a skill on epic is significantly harder than on freedom.

2) Body stats don't appear to be on the curve and so are easier to level on freedom than epic

3) Stamina in particular is Significantly more difficult to level on Epic than freedom

 

Allowing a character to level on Freedom would give it quite an advantage over those that start on epic, this would also need to be considered in such a proposal and the skills reduced as appropriate.

 

I must admit that I am struggling a bit with your answers so I am hoping that you can comment further. Here are my thoughts so far:

 

1) If the curve is faster in beginning and slower in the end what does this do to the overall time required to gain a skill to 100? Does this mean that the overall time to get to 100 on Freedom and Epic is the same or is Epic truly slower (not perceived to be slower but actually slower when going from 1 to 100)?

 

How does the double skill gain speed that Epic receives apply in this case as well?

 

2) If Body Stats aren't on the curve on Epic wouldn't they still increase at the same pace as Freedom then? Does double skill gain bonus that Epic receives apply here as well?

 

3) Agreed. As you mentioned Body Stamina has only two options for improvement (Wood cutting and milling I think) on Epic compared to more options on Freedom.

[LorenaMontana 3,008]

Not sure how the Epic community would feel about this but from my PVE viewpoint you would like to see some of us be around there

I keep saying this a lot: freedom ppl are all welcome on epic and its totally possible to not pvp at all and just enjoy epic the carebear way. People should play the way they want to play and never be forced into a playstyle.

I think that this is not really clear under our freedom ppl and that their view on epic is biased. This is just a feeling tho.

Edit: to stay on topic, I play to grind coz I'm autistic and numbers fascinate me.

Edited May 12, 2015 by LorenaMontana

[Ayes 3,715]

"do you play Wurm to grind skills or do you grind skills to play Wurm?"

 

Neither. There is no need to grind skills to play Wurm, this is merely a choice that some make for various reasons. For some years after I started playing the game I really can't remember making any attempt to focus on raising (grinding) skills. This just came along naturally from using various skills to do the things I enjoyed within the game, mainly building my deed and improving the local area around it.

 

It seems to me those who choose to raise their skills by the "grind" method are those who seek to make a profit from doing so. Mainly these would be crafters and priests. Those who just play the game for enjoyment have little need to focus on grinding skills. I can see a few instances where grinding skills can be useful apart from profit making, such as raising traited horses, blacksmithing to improve ones own tools and maybe a few other things.

 

Other than this I would speculate that most play the game just for the their own personal enjoyment. I think the skill grinder types make much more out of its popularity than there is to it; thus, this concept of most playing the game to "grind skills" is merely a myth they have created out of their own focus for playing the game. Combine this with forum posters who are intent on perpetuating their chosen profitable trade and there you have it elevated into a status that it does not in fact have.

 

Then new players come into the game with the mindset of other games where the object is to raise up your character by levels in order for advancement. They are told about "grinding" up skills to be able to do certain things and it seems to fit right in with their experiences within these other games; so they might misguidedly focus on this grinding rather than just enjoying the process of discovery of the various aspects that the game has to offer them.

 

Yes, if a person wants to play the game to make a profit then the best approach for them would be to grind up their skills to do so. If a person wants to just enjoy playing the game with no intent to impress others, their skills will raise up sufficiently just from doing what they like to do within the game, as there would be no end goal other than this. This is all just from a PvE perspective, as pvp may necessitate other objectives due to its inherent competitive nature of superiority over others through dominance.

 

=Ayes=

[Nappy 1,369]

Several of you make a very good and reasonable point that not all people grind skills. I can agree with that myself.

 

Where I see people make the transition from being non-grinders to grinders is usually when they reach a point in game when they want to be able to do something NOW that they can't do yet.

 

Common examples are being able to build that first stone house (requires specific masonry) or wanting to make certain furniture types (fine carp). Some shipbuilding too.

 

~Nappy

[Jaz 2,665]

I enjoy both - grinding and merely living in the world adventuring and travelling. I enjoy to make my own stuff that drives the grind economy won't support profit oriented crafting anyway.

I'm not afraid of pvp at all and i see my future self on Elevation or Chaos. Time is the big constraint as I like my current places on the pve world as well...

Edited May 12, 2015 by Jaz

[Pingpong 1,070]

I'm still trying to understand why it's "harder" to grind skills from 1-100 on epic then on freedom, please enlighten me

[Lightonfoot 58]

"do you play Wurm to grind skills or do you grind skills to play Wurm?"

 

Neither. There is no need to grind skills to play Wurm, this is merely a choice that some make for various reasons. For some years after I started playing the game I really can't remember making any attempt to focus on raising (grinding) skills. This just came along naturally from using various skills to do the things I enjoyed within the game, mainly building my deed and improving the local area around it.

 

It seems to me those who choose to raise their skills by the "grind" method are those who seek to make a profit from doing so. Mainly these would be crafters and priests. Those who just play the game for enjoyment have little need to focus on grinding skills. I can see a few instances where grinding skills can be useful apart from profit making, such as raising traited horses, blacksmithing to improve ones own tools and maybe a few other things.

 

Other than this I would speculate that most play the game just for the their own personal enjoyment. I think the skill grinder types make much more out of its popularity than there is to it; thus, this concept of most playing the game to "grind skills" is merely a myth they have created out of their own focus for playing the game. Combine this with forum posters who are intent on perpetuating their chosen profitable trade and there you have it elevated into a status that it does not in fact have.

 

Then new players come into the game with the mindset of other games where the object is to raise up your character by levels in order for advancement. They are told about "grinding" up skills to be able to do certain things and it seems to fit right in with their experiences within these other games; so they might misguidedly focus on this grinding rather than just enjoying the process of discovery of the various aspects that the game has to offer them.

 

Yes, if a person wants to play the game to make a profit then the best approach for them would be to grind up their skills to do so. If a person wants to just enjoy playing the game with no intent to impress others, their skills will raise up sufficiently just from doing what they like to do within the game, as there would be no end goal other than this. This is all just from a PvE perspective, as pvp may necessitate other objectives due to its inherent competitive nature of superiority over others through dominance.

 

=Ayes=

 

I made a thread about this issue ( How to not focus on skilling, but on playing ):

http://forum.wurmonline.com/index.php?/topic/107597-how-to-not-focus-on-skilling-but-on-playing/

 

I started in 2012 and one thing I've noticed is I never play to skill up. I've always played to play. I also think people who play to skill up tend to complain more about the grind. I've thought about this at different stages, trying to grasp what it all means. I've made several posts about the grind topic over the past few years, but I don't want to dig through them right them. Suffice to say I've had 2-month premium two or three times. I'll try to recap. 

 

(The OP is a long post, so the above quote is just the first paragraph.)

 

You even made a post in that thread, here:

http://forum.wurmonline.com/index.php?/topic/107597-how-to-not-focus-on-skilling-but-on-playing/#entry1094143

 

Not sure whether you were agreeing or disagreeing. But anyway, I never really grinded in Wurm Online, except with ropemaking, but not very much. I mean, it's still only like 17, so the most I grinded was a few hours. The rest of the game was just something I DID. Now, that doesn't mean the game didn't get repetitive sometimes. Mining and fishing and skills like them are prime examples. But since I've always ever had lots of thigns to do, I didn't sit on one place for every long. And since I was alone, I used everything. I think that's why things didn't feel grindy to me.

 

Naturally, not many agree with me just because I don't fit in anywhere, wherever I go. This is why I play on Chaos, alone most of the time. Whenever I get into villages, I find reasons to be bored and hate the politics. And since I htink the game is better alone, so far, that's the way it remains. Although I have toyed with the idea joining JK because I hate Mol Rehan. Mol Rehan are like the gang which passes by shooting up houses.

Edited May 12, 2015 by Lightonfoot

[Lightonfoot 58]

Several of you make a very good and reasonable point that not all people grind skills. I can agree with that myself.

 

Where I see people make the transition from being non-grinders to grinders is usually when they reach a point in game when they want to be able to do something NOW that they can't do yet.

 

Common examples are being able to build that first stone house (requires specific masonry) or wanting to make certain furniture types (fine carp). Some shipbuilding too.

 

~Nappy

 

Aye, I've wrestled with the WHY/HOW. Up until I tried to make a sailing boat and couldn't make cordage, the game didn't feel grindy. I know this is unbelievable, since fishing and mining and putting up a house wall are so repetitive. But I'm honest when I say I never grinded until I wnated to make cordage. And that constitutes a massive amount of time. My /played is something like 50 days. Given my ropemaking is still 17, the whole grind thing never got off the ground much. I did make a rowing boat. My dreams of making a sailing boat were killed. Whenever I can summon the efforts to grind ropemaking for 10-40 minutes at a stretch several different times I'll come closer to it.

 

Somewhere in that is the answer. During my exploration of this, I felt it was because it didn't progress naturally. For example, I've made probably close to a dozen wooden houses. I only have ever made 1 stone house. Stone houses never were something I HAD to make. Why? Well, it's hard to explain it, I think. Somehow the ropemaking needed to make cordage needed to make a sailing boat was what triggered my grind alarms, but it wasn't triggered by building wooden houses or the myriad of other skills I used, like fighting. For example, my fighting is still only 13. Why? And I've always been on Chaos. I can be pvp'd. Why didn't I feel like I had to grind fighting to be more capable?

 

Frankly, the sailing boat thing isn't a huge issue for me. AS I said, I did make a rowing boat. And my ropemaking is only ~17, so any grinding I did was limited to that. In teh grand scheme of things, it's not important to me.

 

BUT I would like to see these things:

1) Repetitive skills like fishing/mining developed so are less repetitive

2) More interconnected skills so using one will build up another

3) Cap the skill which you need to produce a high quality item so new players are more effective

4) Lots of useful items to create as a skill develops (do not have skills which only have a few recipes)

5) No throwaway recipes (everything we make should have a practical use)

 

Regarding (3), this means a new player wouldn't need a high skill to produce some items at their best quality. Villages might assign new players to make rope, since it caps at 20. Higher level players can't make the rope any better (or faster) and won't gain skill from it, so it makes sense for the new players to make it. This means new players have a built-in reason to make certain things and their value is guranteed.

 

This is versus a system in which high skill plaeyrs always make an item better/faster, no matter how trivial it's. In a system such as this, it makes sense for a high skill player to make the rope instead of relying more on new players to do that. This will make it less social because a high skill crafter is better just making it themselves. The more and faster they make the item, the more impetus there's for them to do it themselves.

 

New players shouldn't be the peasant of Wurm Online, whom're used like slaves or as fodder. They should be more like the apprentice to the master. The apprentice is needed to help the master run the business and to supply the profession its future. The master needs the apprentice, the apprentice needs the master.

Edited May 13, 2015 by Lightonfoot

[Nappy 1,369]

Lightonfood:

 

One by-product of having priests that use cordage for favor is that I often have extra cordage ropes. If you would like, free of charge, the required cordage ropes needed to allow you to complete a sailboat I am happy to send you the required number. Please let me know.

 

You also raise a number of very good points in the remainder of your replies.

 

~Nappy

[Propheteer 7,139]

I used to grind to play, until I got to the point where i had done everything at one point or another that i actually needed to grind for, nowadays i play to grind.

 

Odd isnt it?

[Nappy 1,369]

I used to grind to play, until I got to the point where i had done everything at one point or another that i actually needed to grind for, nowadays i play to grind.

 

Odd isnt it?

 

Interesting point, in certain skill areas that has now happened for me on Freedom too.

 

BTW - Dropped by Rome today. Very nice looking place but no one wanted to come out to play!

[Egard 3,361]

Interesting point, in certain skill areas that has now happened for me on Freedom too.

BTW - Dropped by Rome today. Very nice looking place but no one wanted to come out to play!

thanks, come back sometime. No one was home we had other issues to deal with or we could have tango'd a bit.

[Nappy 1,369]

Looking forward to it. Had the adrenaline burst from my first potential PVP, now I am looking forward to having the actual PVP! (grin)

[sulfurblade 111]

In regards to the point of this thread....  I have many times over advised to new players to not grind at all, but to play to play naturally....

 

This is the way I play 90% of the time and all of my skills for the most part have been raised naturally, however there are in-fact some skills that you just don't do naturally!

 

But there are solutions to this, smithing for example you could possibly get away with blacksmithing naturally IE make a pick and go use your crappy pick or you could ask a smith to make you one, they may say that will cost you 1 silver if thats the case elaborate and tell them your not looking for a 90QL 80+Botd pick you just want something better then the 7 QL pick that you can make.....  and they may so oh why didnt you say so I have a 4 dozen 70 QL picks laying around in my trash bin in the west end of the third building go grab one.....

 

So yes there are skills like smithing, and rope making etc that require a certain amount of grinding, but if you limit the grind to small windows every other day or every day depending on how grind tolerant you are and maintain the majority of your playtime as grind free wurm can be very pleasant.....

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

On a different note I see a freedom player asking how getting a skill to 100 is harder on epic....  Well my answer is I don't think it is harder however I do think its about the same, what you must realize is that skill gain thru 70 on epic is far and away faster then Freedom no doubt about that, but after 70 - 90 skill gain becomes relatively comparable but after 90 skill gain is far far far slower on epic then freedom, so the trade off is you get to 70 faster but after 90 forget gaining skill....  And its a great trade off if you ask me....  

 

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Now on yet a different point, I see one problem with freedomers moving there accounts to epic and that would be strangely enough, freedom being used as a safe location to train skills free of the dangers of epic.  So I think that a fee to transfer the character over could limit freedom being used as a new character training ground and keep the transfers over to epic as people who are in fact wanting to move there primary account and not trying to game an alt for some other purposes....

[Nappy 1,369]

Coming back to the Epic versus Freedom skill gain questions for a moment.

 

According to Wurmpedia the Base skill gain speed on Epic is twice as fast as it is on Freedom. It doesn't mention there being a range when this is true so I am assuming that it means from Level 1 to 100.

 

If we then look at time to gain 100 level I would expect Epic to take roughly half as long to hit 100 as Freedom assuming all other variables are kept the same.

 

If we were talking about perception of difficulty I can understand that since 90 on Epic translates into an effective level of 99.75 and it would certainly feel like a long time to complete the actual 10 additional level required to put effective to 100.

 

If this isn't the case then what am I missing?

 

~Nappy

[Nappy 1,369]

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Now on yet a different point, I see one problem with freedomers moving there accounts to epic and that would be strangely enough, freedom being used as a safe location to train skills free of the dangers of epic.  So I think that a fee to transfer the character over could limit freedom being used as a new character training ground and keep the transfers over to epic as people who are in fact wanting to move there primary account and not trying to game an alt for some other purposes....

 

I wonder if we are over valuing the skills part and undervaluing the experience. PVP is a different mindset, uses different weapons and there are tactics and strategies involved. By removing a real barrier to Freedom players coming to Epic you improve the numbers playing on Epic and even then it will take those players some time to become PVP effective.

 

~Nappy

[Bix 453]

You're going to have to source that double skill gain claim. Skill gains are most certainly not double, but increased at lower skill levels and tapers off as your skill gets closer to 100.

 

Judging by your post, you don't seem to have many (or any) skills nearing or above 90 yet but once you do then you'll realise that it's not as easy as you think it is to get to 100(not easy as it it takes a very long time to get to the next "whole number").

 

 

 

 

[Nappy 1,369]

Here's the source reference:

 

http://www.wurmpedia.com/index.php/Server_types

 

Refer to the line "Double skill gain".

 

On Freedom I have several chars with skills in the 90s including a weaponsmith at 93 currently. On Epic I just recently picked up a char with several 90 skills although I haven't yet compared skill gain speed on Epic to that of Freedom.

[Wurmhole 3,650]

This is something that has always bothered me about the game, and driven a number of friends of mine from the game.

 

The specificity between doing actions for skill versus doing actions for productivity is really bad in my opinion.  Having to hit the sweet spot with stamina usage, using poor ql tools with high CoC, etc etc, just aren't conducive to enjoying the game.  Deliberately doing something badly in order to get better at it is wasteful.

 

I think the game would be far more accessible to people if you just did the best you could and would get the best gains. Instead, you get penalised for being productive.

 

You either advance your skills, or you advance your game play (ie, terraforming, building, crafting).

 

Personally, as a PvPer, I've spent the majority of my time in wurm playing for fun - my skillgain has suffered massively, with me doing very little grinding and just using SB when I'm doing a lot of actions consecutively, such as levelling, making bricks, crafting items, etc.  

 

Honestly, I just do not enjoy grinding in most games, especially if all you are doing is increasing your skills - at least in most games you have quests to grant XP, so that you can advance the story and still advance your character, and crafting/fighting XP gains is usually about the difficulty of the item versus the skill you have.

 

But, it is what it is, and I imagine some people play mostly because of that complexity in levelling up.  

This is so dead on.  I think it is quite stupid that having 94 mining requires I use a crappy pick, to force the QL results to between 1 and 40, just so I can get skill ticks, when I really need 90+ gold.  So in order to improve, I have to waste ores to skill.  One of the reasons why I acquire so many accounts with higher skills.  grinding to grind is completely against my play style.  I want to create.

[sulfurblade 111]

Well the double skill gain is not correct but not much ever is on wurmpedia....  

 

Earlier in the post you stated for the most part correctly that 90 skill gain =  much higher and thus if you were on freedom you would get a skill tick once a blue moon well that is indeed the case on epic at 90 you get skill ticks once a blue moon just like you were 99 on freedom....  So the curve is a double edged sword but its a good one.