Sign in to follow this  
Eollica

Old Ultima Online Player trying Wurm out, with a lot of questions

Recommended Posts

Hello everyone!

Right now, I'm downloading the game.

I hope you guys/gals could help me out with some questions regarding the game.

Back between 2001-2009 I was a heavy Ultima Online player, back in Abyss russian server (tho I'm not russian. Most of my teenage memories are related to the classic "bIbIbIbI>>>> go go 1x1" phrases in bright white on the screen, lol.)

I've played a number of different stuff, but there were only 2 online games I ever truly loved: Ultima Online and Granado Espada.

 

 

I was hearing a lot about how new, great 3d sandbox mmos were rising, specially on kickstarter. I've made myself a list and am trying the ones who are available, and trying to sign up for some open betas.

 

I have a bookmark list that includes ArchAge, Crowfall, Shroud of The Avatar, Landmark, Shadowfall, Wurm and Pathfinder

 

However, upon researching and watching some youtube reviews, I come to believe Wurm just might be the closest one can get to their dream of seeing Ultima go to 3D perfection.

My main expectations are:

- a game with no classes, where you can just pick up a weapon of choice and go stroll the world with it

- hopefully, unlike Ultima, a game where you won't lose everything down to your underpants if you die

- a game with permanent characters (the reason I crossed Chronicles of Elyria from my list was the character aging factor)

- Lots of exploring in a very UO way, where you can do everything, from mining to blacksmithing, lumberjacking to making furniture, the whole ordeal

- a better skill system than UO - when looking back, we used those macro programs to make the game playable, and the amount of shortcuts one would have to memorize was INSANE

- a better skill levellign system than UO - back there, we'd set macros rolling afk with one character practicing healing and the other practicing fencing with a butter knife for days until the skill was maxed, because normal attack vs mobs made levelling impossibly slow

- lots of personalization, maybe even more than what UO used to have, with good character creation, weapon/armor setups, building houses in The Sims style

 

My main questions are:

1. how many of the expecations above does Wurm fill?

2. what's the difference between Wurm Ultimate and Wurm online? Are they the same game?

3. How is the player base? Do you guys have lots of people? I've just pretty much quit Granado Espada Online because the player base is shrinking to death.

4. Is there a market system? How does it work? Are there auctions?

5. Are there big main cities players tend to gather in?

6. Is there any sort of teleporting in the game? How does it work? What are the main transport methods?

7. How hardcore is the pvp in Wurm?

 

Thank you all in advance for reading, I appreciate any answers!

Edited by Eollica

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Hi there

Let me try and answer some of your questions. Up front to note, I have never played UO so I cannot compare.

 

- yes you come with a basic sword, shield and armor and you can go and explore the world.

- when you die you lose any crafted or gathered items, your beginner set stays with you.

- characters don't age and stay as you created them forever.

- you can try everything, the whole ordeal!

- No macros allowed, you learn and gain skill (sometimes multiple) when you do things.

- leveling skills can be a grind (that's probably a big difference between WO and WU), but there are tricks to make the leveling efficient.

- you may customize your character, wear different clothing and armor, but the basic "look" of said armor and clothing remains the same. There are many options for building houses. from different wall types and roofs using different materials, single or multi-storey, a large selecting of furniture and decorative items can be crafted. The building system is block or tile based and combining multiple tiles into one building produces personalized creations. Weapons, armor and tools can be enchanted, imbued, and have their quality improved, which makes them perform different (i am avoiding to use the word "better" here) from their basic version. The possibilities are to many to mention.

 

1. Some I suppose.

2. They are essentially the same game, although the hosts of WU servers can add custom modifications, increase action timers and skill gain, generate their own maps, and many more options I know nothing about.

3. Honestly, both games are in a transition and have to come to terms with each other, player base and content alike. Players have left WO to play WU, some have returned, others left for good. Some WO players have decided to not try WU. The player base is not shrinking to death in either form of the game. The big difference is that WO requires monthly subscription as the F2P character is limited, whereby WU doesn't.

4. There are markets with traders and player owned merchants selling goods near every starter town or at other strategic places. Players trade goods and services with each other. Auctions happen exclusively on the Forum, where you can also find WTS, WTT, WTB posts.

5. It tends to be busy around the starter towns, players have set up academies where new players gather before setting out to found their own settlements. Some of the settlements are "big", but that does not mean there are lots of players around them.

6. There is teleporting between the PvE and PvP servers, meaning between Freedom (mostly PvE with 1 PvP server attached) and Epic (4 servers where PvP is possible). A personal teleport to your home settlement can be achieved when reaching a higher meditation level. Modes of transport are foot, cart or wagon, horse or another rideable animal, and ships to cross the oceans and between servers.

7. I haven't played PvP, and thus have no means of understanding the word "hardcore" in this context, so somebody else has to answer that question.

 

 

The one thing i believe that sets Wurm apart from other games possibly is that players do have input into what developers prioritize on (although this is a topic hotly debated at times), there are wishlists, suggestions, and bug reports on the Forum. The in-game help system in WO is provided by other players, the GM response time in WO for serious problems is acceptable. Have a cruise around the Forum, it should give you a good idea.

 

If you decide to try either form of the game, remember the most important thing: Have fun :wub:

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

there is no other world like Wurm, terraforming/building/deeding land/mining tunnels/seasons/animal breeding/taming/bridges/ect ect +200, heavily influenced by UO

 

WO is totaly free, just register an account, download the client and hop on a server, if you desire to take skills past lvl 20 then you can go premium month by month, possibly to pay with in game silver you can make from the pretty solid economy and good tight nit community.

transportation methods include horse/cart/wagon/boats/crocodiles/unicorns, some may be more viable than others x) there is no fast travel teleporting. except when you die ofc, you get teleported back to your deed/start area :P

pve is great, i do not pvp for reasons. but its pretty hardcore as you loose everything on you most likely.

there is not millions of players on wurm but the community has passion

Do not macro in WO, its bad mkay.  if the skill curve isnt to your liking but you still like the game then i would get WU which it seems youve already purchased.

 

WU is the personal version that just released where players can host thier own dedicated servers, and mod them to their hearts content, usually with different parameters than the official WO servers. no guarantee how long these servers will be up, it is essentially the same game but its a very different experience. you can also set things to creative speeds and do things instantly

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Just expanding on the player death thing above, if you die, your corpse will have all (or most) of your gear on it.  So you can run back and recover your stuff.  On the PvE servers, your corpse can't be looted except by you and your friends, until it decays (which takes some RL days, so you have time to go recover it).  For non-PvP deaths (e.g. those pesky trolls), you will lose a little bit of skill (but you can regain it faster than you usually would).

 

Although you can play WO for free, it's really only a limited trial; to do more than the very basics, or to survive and participate in the economy etc., you really need to be premium (which costs about €8 per month).

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

1. All of them, but you do lose most items when dying. You can pick them up from your corpse, especially if you died in PvE combat.

2. The same game, Wurm Online is its MMO version while Wurm Unlimited is focused on smaller private servers (you never can be sure if servers will stay or not).

3. Hard to say for this moment, we are in transition period due to Wurm Unlimited release - this changed a player base a lot.

4. There is completely free market, most (basically all) items are created and often sold by other players. No auction houses, all trade belongs to forum and in-game transactions.

5. No, maybe there are on PvP, but on PvE the main area of focus is your own deed/alliance.

6. Not really, there is a way to teleport to your deed from any place, but you must have either lots of karma (rare "resource") or months/years of meditation skill training. There are teleports between two server clusters (Freedom/Epic) as well.

7. Mostly Wurm PvE player here, so hard to say.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
5 hours ago, Eollica said:

- a game with no classes, where you can just pick up a weapon of choice and go stroll the world with it

  •  Yes. There is also no skill cap unlike ultima so you can learn everything, given enough time.

- hopefully, unlike Ultima, a game where you won't lose everything down to your underpants if you die 

  • You start the game with some nodrop tools and gear, but they are low quality and can't be improved.
  • You will very soon need to replace them with stuff that will stay on your body when you die, and you will need to recover.
  • On PVE servers your body is protected from other players for a few days, after that it will decay into a pile of items that anyone can loot.

- a game with permanent characters (the reason I crossed Chronicles of Elyria from my list was the character aging factor) 

  • Short answer: Yes.
  • In WO, if you ever have premium even for once month your character will stay forever. If you never had premium it will be deleted after 3 months of inactivity.
  • In WU it's up to server admins, but i don't think any are deleting characters at the moment.

- Lots of exploring in a very UO way, where you can do everything, from mining to blacksmithing, lumberjacking to making furniture, the whole ordeal 

  • Yes, yes, yes, yes!

- a better skill system than UO - when looking back, we used those macro programs to make the game playable, and the amount of shortcuts one would have to memorize was INSANE 

  • It's subjective but i'd say the system in Wurm is better.
  • Macroing can be a thing, but in WO it's illegal and very quickly (i'm serious here, not EA/OSI-levels of "quickly") caught leading to a permanent ban on the spot.
  • In WU again, depends on server admins - some allow it, some don't, most usually don't have means to effectively enforce any policy on it really.

- a better skill levellign system than UO - back there, we'd set macros rolling afk with one character practicing healing and the other practicing fencing with a butter knife for days until the skill was maxed, because normal attack vs mobs made levelling impossibly slow

  • See above about macroing.
  • Usually most skills can be leveled in a reasonable way, doing stuff that's fun and makes sense in game, but it's not necessary the most efficient way
  • Some skills can be grindy and require doing boring stuff if you want to level them as quickly as possible
  • IMHO the system in WU is better than WO due to not being as based on "difficulty" leading to more efficiency in normal gameplay

- lots of personalization, maybe even more than what UO used to have, with good character creation, weapon/armor setups, building houses in The Sims style -

  • Character customization is pretty descent, not sims-level but there's a decent ammount of options.
  • There are lots of different weapons with most setups being viable.
  • For armor there are 5 types available to a "normal" player (cloth, leather, studded, chain, plate), with 2 additional types (drake, scale) being rare and costing tons of money. There are 9 slots for armor and you can mix different types for looks and or efficiency. For looks - chain, drake and scale have different look based on material, all the others have only 1 look. Dyeing armor is not a thing but is supposed to come in the future.  Everything except cloth is combat-viable in some form.
  • Building houses is better than sims, you can pretty much build whatever you want as long as your have the needed skills and can invest the needed time. It's not like in UO where you do it in an editor mode then pay some gold to coomit changes. If you want a wooden wall - you go fell a tree, make planks, mine some iron and smelt it to make nails then go build a wooden wall :P

 

My main questions are:

1. how many of the expecations above does Wurm fill?

  • Most of them i think, except not losing stuff when you die.

2. what's the difference between Wurm Ultimate and Wurm online? Are they the same game? 

  • Wurm Online is the MMO version. Like playing UO on official EA servers. Game is free to play until your skills hit 20, after that you need to pay premium monthly.
  • Wurm Unlimited is the private hosted version, like free shards in UO, except questionable legality. You need to buy the game in steam once and you can play freely after that. Some servers have cash shops but most are 100% free.
  • In general the games are very similar, with some differences on how skills work - WO uses a difficulty based leveling system, while WU will level a skill whatever you do with it.
  • WU also has a growing modding community with both server side and client side mods. WO forbids any modification of the client.

3. How is the player base? Do you guys have lots of people? I've just pretty much quit Granado Espada Online because the player base is shrinking to death.

  • WO currently has 3660 premium players + some unknown ammount of free players. The population has shrunk somewhat after WU launched and many people switched over.
  • Largest WU servers have 50-100 players online at the busy hours.
  • It's a niche, sandbox indy game, don't expect millions of players but it won't die anytime soon.

4. Is there a market system? How does it work? Are there auctions?

  • Players can place merchants in game to sell stuff (pretty much like uo).
  • Stuff can also be traded via (magical) mailboxes and in person.
  • Ingame auctions sometimes happen, but not really often.
  • There's a huge trade forum, including auctions here in market sections.

5. Are there big main cities players tend to gather in?

  • Not really, atleast not to the levels of the bank in britain :P 
  • For some events (usually player-run) you will get 200+ people in the same place and will have to lower settings or watch your computer go up in flames.
  • Most people are usually in their own towns doing their own stuff, there is a global chat so people can talk without seeing each other in person.

6. Is there any sort of teleporting in the game? How does it work? What are the main transport methods?

  • New players can teleport once after joining a village. Otherwise teleportation is extremely limited and not available in normal gameplay (karma powers, high level meditation powers, very costly NPC-sold items).
  • Over land transportation is usually horses, there are carts and wagons that can be used to move stuff around.
  • There are different ships available for sailing, from dinky rowboats to huge Caravels.

7. How hardcore is the pvp in Wurm?

  • Not really into PVP in wurm, but I'd say eve-levels of hardcore, or close to it. Spying, drama and losing all your crap including buildings and town are a real possibility.
  • Vast majority of players are on PVE servers however, so the PVP community is pretty small.

 

Thank you all in advance for reading, I appreciate any answers!

 

That took quite a bit of writing but i hope i answered your questions as well as i could.

I've played UO during it's first years (97-2001) and tried to get back into it later, on both EA servers and free shards but it never really caught me again. I've been playing wurm on and off for ~6 years now and having a great time mostly :P

 

If you have any more questions i'll be happy to answer them.

Edited by bdew
  • Like 3

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

since no one mentioned it yet: there are main cities on each server, which are indeed used for training and meeting up, it's just not very regular anymore since alot of people just shifted their focus to own alliance cities/settlements to do trades and stuff.
There are occasionally community driven events like "Impalong" though, where players create content for other players by creating games within the wurm tools and people improved items for each other and in general have fun etc. :) 

Then about main transport in wurm: Foot, Horses, Carts and Ships! You can also ride on unicorns, crocodiles, hellhorses, bears, cows, bulls and bisons :P but some of them come with a skill requirement.

and I agree with my above posters, this is probably the closest you can get as a "real" sandbox game. I have tried many many many different games over years, always looking for good sandbox games, but so far I always came back to wurm. It just has so much freedom in it and unlike other games it is NOT combat centered, which means there are alot of skills that contribute nothing to combat and you can avoid combat almost completely :P (except for the occasional ambush when travelling, but even then you could just run away)

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
7 hours ago, Eollica said:

7. How hardcore is the pvp in Wurm?


I have never played a game that got my heart racing quite like Wurm PvP. Getting "the shakes" is standard for a lot of people. I'm not sure how intense you're looking for, but this is definitely a lot more cathartic than your typical MMO.

If you end up liking Wurm and want to stick around for a while, I'd recommend making a character on Wurm Online, especially if you plan to PvP. You'll have a larger, more established community, and unlike WU, you don't risk losing everything once the 18-year-old who runs your server decides that that bandwidth would be better spent on porn and Netflix.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Oh by the way guys, the Macros for Ultima on Abyss server were regarded as legal by the admins itself and the program was provided by the server itself, lol :) I know in 'normal'/newest games it's considered botting. It was rather impossible to play without the macro program, because the game in its 'virgin' state did not have any shortcuts. For example, if you wanted to cast a spell, you'd have to open inventory, find your magic book in a chaos of items, open it, find the right page, double click, plray you didn't forget to buy any ingredients in the alchemist, and then target what you wanted to cast on. Basically, impossible without the macro program that created personalized shortcuts for you.

 

ps.: For those of you who don't knwo UO, here's a small cut of a screenshot of the WONDRUOUS, HIGH TECH GRAPHICS! lololol.

ult1.jpg

 

 

 

I'm really amazed by the amount of great replies here. Thank you all so much! It's clear the community is tight and dedicated. 

I'm usually used to see older players just trolling threads where newbies pose questions... Which is kind of sad and represents the game badly.

 

What I'm really tired of getting is the old MMO questing model. All the stories are the freaking same. "Ohh our land is cursed/at war/had a big radioactive hole in the middle and you're the CHOSEN ONE! Here, follow this path to retrieve your memory of a past life/before you were found in a fawaray village/etc to become who you are meant to be!" *yawn*. That's what first hooked me up in Granado Espada - you play with 3 simultaneous characters, and you're exploring the New World. And in Granado you would collect characters, each of them unique, while back in UO there was no difference between characters unless what you chose to make of them. So I'm kind of absolutely unable to just into go "here, you're an archer gnome, good luck!" system. So it's pretty satisfying to get these answers about the game :) raises the expectations a lot. I'm heartbroken about GE to be honest. I played the darn thing since 2008 and the adminsitrators and the players themselves have smothered the game to the point its unplayable, pay to win, and new players feel a hostile environment where it's really hard to reach the top of the game.

 

I love the fact the game isn't too pvp-heavy. Back in UO Abyss it was insane. Like, HATE level, really. Players would torment anyone, anytime, anywhere, and they'd even try to invade into your house's frontyard to hide in invisible mode to kill you. And hevaen forbid your enemies ever figured out your house's location, or you'd have to pretty much go searching for intruders in your own darn garden all the time. 

 

The pve mode being separated form pvp is very clever, and I love the fact Pandalet pointed out, that you have a couple days to retrieve your stuff in your corpse. In UO it was impossible to go to dungeons alone, you'd have to go at elast in a group of 3 people, because if you died and nobody was there to ress you, 99/100 soem scumbag would be nearby to loot you and teleport away *hisses*

 

I also really like the fact there's no auction system, I have a bit of hate for that. Open market is the way to go :3

 

@Fawkes I like pvp, but it's not really something I can't live without. In most MMOs, when you reach high-end game, the ONLY thing left to do is pvping, which makes up to a very blood-boiled, filled with flaming community. The sandbox setup sure counter-attacks the pvp dependance of high-end, but pvp is surely something I'd like to try once I'm settled :)

 

About Wurm Ultimate, it doesn't really seem catchy to me. The idea of losing all your crap because someone was too lazy to keep the server running ont heir pc sends shivers down my spine, lol. I'm a hoarder, and in some games I've played, my accoutn and all its stuff still exist there, and I log once a month to make sure it's still there, even if i haven't truly played the game in years.

 

The only other game from all i've researched that seems as good as this one is Shroud of The Avatar, where actual developers of UO are working on, but it's still developing, as it's been since 2013. Seems the game won't be completely finished any time soon.

 

I find very interesting that Wurm shares roots with minecraft. Tho I tried minecraft, it never really hooked me up, because to me it feels a little too lego-y and too immature. As I've seen on a review on Youtube, "Wurm is the mature version of minecraft"

 

I'm still so happy this thing even exists! Seriously. Every friend I made in Ultima had the same daydream: An open world MMO with the same mechanics, but decent graphics, and a less chaotic, less pvp-obsessed community. 

It also amazes me that I've got the reply of a mod AND of a developer in this thread. I guess I've been in the dark side of mmos for too long, in servers where the admins look the other way, ignore players, and just suck our blood for money, lol.

 

Thank you all so much for the replies! I'll probably be bothering y'all in some next threads asking newbie questions. The game is almost done downloading. See you all inside! :D

 

Edited by Eollica
  • Like 2

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Ahh the teeny tiny world of Ultima Online. Probably the first MMO I played many years ago just after Trammel was introduced. On a number of occasions I see the reflection of UO within Wurm in various subtle ways, as if through a veil darkly. One great thing UO had was the runebook travel system, which makes getting anywhere within Wurm a seemingly endless repeated waste of time.

 

That aside, the building systems within Wurm are much more sophisticated allowing the player to shape the landscape within which they can create their own protected Village deed, for an additional price of course. For many players such as myself this is their main interest in playing this game, with the crafting systems just used for the purpose of enhancing their Village creation.

 

In the main and more populous PvE servers there are many protections available where you can't be bothered by others messing with you or your items, if you take the required precautions. As for the combat systems, they pale in comparison to UO, with not much to do but stand there and watch the combat tab repeatedly state "You miss with the two handed sword" (or whatever weapon of your choice) even at very high skill levels.

 

Wurm Online really shines in the landshaping and building aspects of transforming the environment to your own individual liking. As for the rest it doesn't interest me much, so I will leave that for others to comment upon. Wurm Unlimited is just a recently released version of the main game on Steam, which can either be played privately on ones own computer or on servers hosted by individuals who custom tailor them to their own preference and then open them for anyone to play on at mostly no cost. The fact that the tedious mind-numbing timers and snail paced skill gains of the main game of Wurm are altered into various increases set by the server host make them attractive to many former Wurm Online players who mainly play on them now, so don't sell their worth short just because of the thought that tomorrow might never come.

 

For a lot of facts on how to accomplish various things in-game clicking the  Wurmpedia tab on the top of this forum is your best bet. Since you enjoyed UO for many years no doubt you will enjoy discovering the many roads within Wurm available to travel upon, albeit at a much slower pace than just clicking a rune in your book and there you are!

 

Happy Trails

=Ayes=

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
3 hours ago, Eollica said:

Oh by the way guys, the Macros for Ultima on Abyss server were regarded as legal by the admins itself and the program was provided by the server itself, lol :) I know in 'normal'/newest games it's considered botting. It was rather impossible to play without the macro program, because the game in its 'virgin' state did not have any shortcuts. For example, if you wanted to cast a spell, you'd have to open inventory, find your magic book in a chaos of items, open it, find the right page, double click, plray you didn't forget to buy any ingredients in the alchemist, and then target what you wanted to cast on. Basically, impossible without the macro program that created personalized shortcuts for you.

 

ps.: For those of you who don't knwo UO, here's a small cut of a screenshot of the WONDRUOUS, HIGH TECH GRAPHICS! lololol.

ult1.jpg

 

 

 

I'm really amazed by the amount of great replies here. Thank you all so much! It's clear the community is tight and dedicated. 

I'm usually used to see older players just trolling threads where newbies pose questions... Which is kind of sad and represents the game badly.

 

What I'm really tired of getting is the old MMO questing model. All the stories are the freaking same. "Ohh our land is cursed/at war/had a big radioactive hole in the middle and you're the CHOSEN ONE! Here, follow this path to retrieve your memory of a past life/before you were found in a fawaray village/etc to become who you are meant to be!" *yawn*. That's what first hooked me up in Granado Espada - you play with 3 simultaneous characters, and you're exploring the New World. And in Granado you would collect characters, each of them unique, while back in UO there was no difference between characters unless what you chose to make of them. So I'm kind of absolutely unable to just into go "here, you're an archer gnome, good luck!" system. So it's pretty satisfying to get these answers about the game :) raises the expectations a lot. I'm heartbroken about GE to be honest. I played the darn thing since 2008 and the adminsitrators and the players themselves have smothered the game to the point its unplayable, pay to win, and new players feel a hostile environment where it's really hard to reach the top of the game.

 

I love the fact the game isn't too pvp-heavy. Back in UO Abyss it was insane. Like, HATE level, really. Players would torment anyone, anytime, anywhere, and they'd even try to invade into your house's frontyard to hide in invisible mode to kill you. And hevaen forbid your enemies ever figured out your house's location, or you'd have to pretty much go searching for intruders in your own darn garden all the time. 

 

The pve mode being separated form pvp is very clever, and I love the fact Pandalet pointed out, that you have a couple days to retrieve your stuff in your corpse. In UO it was impossible to go to dungeons alone, you'd have to go at elast in a group of 3 people, because if you died and nobody was there to ress you, 99/100 soem scumbag would be nearby to loot you and teleport away *hisses*

 

I also really like the fact there's no auction system, I have a bit of hate for that. Open market is the way to go :3

 

@Fawkes I like pvp, but it's not really something I can't live without. In most MMOs, when you reach high-end game, the ONLY thing left to do is pvping, which makes up to a very blood-boiled, filled with flaming community. The sandbox setup sure counter-attacks the pvp dependance of high-end, but pvp is surely something I'd like to try once I'm settled :)

 

About Wurm Ultimate, it doesn't really seem catchy to me. The idea of losing all your crap because someone was too lazy to keep the server running ont heir pc sends shivers down my spine, lol. I'm a hoarder, and in some games I've played, my accoutn and all its stuff still exist there, and I log once a month to make sure it's still there, even if i haven't truly played the game in years.

 

The only other game from all i've researched that seems as good as this one is Shroud of The Avatar, where actual developers of UO are working on, but it's still developing, as it's been since 2013. Seems the game won't be completely finished any time soon.

 

I find very interesting that Wurm shares roots with minecraft. Tho I tried minecraft, it never really hooked me up, because to me it feels a little too lego-y and too immature. As I've seen on a review on Youtube, "Wurm is the mature version of minecraft"

 

I'm still so happy this thing even exists! Seriously. Every friend I made in Ultima had the same daydream: An open world MMO with the same mechanics, but decent graphics, and a less chaotic, less pvp-obsessed community. 

It also amazes me that I've got the reply of a mod AND of a developer in this thread. I guess I've been in the dark side of mmos for too long, in servers where the admins look the other way, ignore players, and just suck our blood for money, lol.

 

Thank you all so much for the replies! I'll probably be bothering y'all in some next threads asking newbie questions. The game is almost done downloading. See you all inside! :D

 

 

Great pic.  Brings back fond memories.  :)  Your thread title caught my eye since I'm also an old UO lover.   I almost missed this thread since I don't generally read the WU forums and I'm not clear on whether you got the game  through Steam and will be playing on one of the WU servers or not.  I only play WO and so can't speak about any of the WU stuff.

 

From all you've said, it sounds to me like you'd be happier on a WO server for starters.  At least until you get a handle on what's considered "normal" for Wurm and can then make an informed decision on whether one of the WU servers would suit you better since they are all different and tailored to the tastes of whoever is running them.  I personally have no interest in WU but everyone is different.

 

Like others said, there are lots of things you'll find in Wurm that will remind you of UO.  I've tried most of the games out there that call themselves sandbox or UO-like (with the exception of anything requiring Steam), and for me Wurm is more UO-like than any of the others I've seen.  You mentioned Shroud of the Avatar, the so-called second coming of UO since it's being developed by Garriot.  I tried that one too but I found it to be not very UO-like at all other than in name.  For one thing, I'm not a pvp person and they are so fixated on "enticing" and "incentivizing" (translation: pushing)  pve folks into pvp that it totally turned me off.  Also, the entire game is instanced.  You walk around on the "map" and then enter (or get pulled into if you're unlucky) tiny instances for hunting, gathering, residential areas, towns, dungeons, etc.  At least that's how it was last time I looked.  I like the open world of Wurm.  If I can see a place, I can get to that place. (no backdrops or illusions of distance).  Even the highest mountain peak, even if I might kill myself trying.  lol

 

Others have already answered your questions so the only thing I'd add is that Wurm is a sandbox yes, but also very much survival in the beginning and especially if you'll be starting alone.  So don't get discouraged at first.  Refer to the wurmpedia frequently, read the forums, ask questions, make friends, etc.  A number of people have set up settlements for newbies to join and learn the ropes before deciding if they want to deed their own land. You can check out the recruiting threads in the server forums.  Or you can just strike out on your own and tackle the survival aspects in the beginning.  Either way can be tons of fun.  :)     If you loved UO as much as I did, you'll love Wurm too if you give it a chance. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

The 2 reasons for choosing Wurm over any other sandbox-building style mmorpg:

 

1: Persistence - The oldest running PvE server has been going since 2009. (Can't remember how long Chaos, the pvp server, has been up) Once you buy premium once, your character will be kept forever. Lots of people take breaks here and there, and Wurm, along with your character, will be right there waiting for you when you get back. Spent a few weeks digging a huge trench across part of the map? Well, assuming no one comes and fills it back in, it'll still be there too. (Just an example of how your actions in-game can have long lasting effects)

 

2: The community - In no other game like this will you find such a great community... so many great people play this game, who are willing to help with anything including their time. Whether it's answering newbie questions, giving you a hand building your house or even sailing you across the map, you're bound to find someone willing to help you out. Not only that, but we've got people here who regularly exchange large sums of real world euros via PayPal, purely on trust and reputation. That might not be your biggest concern right now...but I think it says a lot about the integrity of the people who play this game. Never have I trusted others online quite like I do the players of Wurm. (I wouldn't dare send even 10e to someone in other games...I'd never see it back. On here though, I've sent quite a considerable amount without a worry.)

 

There are only 2 real 'cons' to Wurm, although I don't think many players here consider them that.

 

1. The grind - I don't mean just skilling either. Everything in Wurm takes time...a lot of it. But I think that is what helps make it so great. In minecraft for example, building a huge house in 1 day doesn't feel like much of an achievement. In Wurm however, spending 2 weeks gathering the resources, then another 2 weeks putting them together to create the mansion of your dreams, feels like something you can be proud of. (That's after spending a week mining an entrance tunnel, another few days clearing the trees from the land and a couple weeks terra-forming it to perfection) There really is no limit except your imagination...and maybe your carpentry skill :)

This helps 'scare off' a lot of the instant gratification players who plague other games.

 

2. The community - Wurm has quite a small community, at least compared to other similar games. This can put people off, however with it being so small, you can really get to know or at least recognize a lot of the names after playing for a while. Couple this with most people sticking around for many months/years if they make it past their first 2 months...you will notice yourself running into the same people over and over.

 

Assuming you enjoy the game, there are a lot of UO veterans on here, so you'll fit in just fine.

 

Edited by Outlaw

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I played UO a lot before I came to Wurm. My main reason for leaving UO was that I wasn't good enough to take part in the expansion content. I think it was Mondains legacy, it was just too hard for me. 

 

I think Wurm is magnitudes more tedious then UO. In you UO you could get 100+ skill in a couple weeks or month. On the other hand, 90 skill in Wurm will take 3 to 6 months of serious grinding. For harder skills (weapon smithing) that might be  9 months or years.

Unlike UO, Wurm doesn't have a built in simple macro system.  Frankly, Wurm Online's paranoia of macro is extreme. It seems your use to using macro's to overcome tedious activities like in UO. In WO such things are considerably more risky. Now in Wurm unlimited and especially so if it's your server you can do whatever you want.

 

No classes in wurm and your one toon can almost do it all (no magic/enchanting, look up priests on wiki). You can use whatever weapon but in order to kill stuff you'll need fight skill, weapon skill, and better weapons. The big difference here is with Wurm it's very difficult for new players to survive a fight against most things. If you end up getting high skill you'll notice there is little high skill PvE fighting content. Wurm has significantly less PvE fighting content then UO. Mob spawning is completely random so difficult mobs can spawn right next to week mobs and there is no low level area you can go to in order train up. Frankly the whole PvE fighting things sucks in Wurm compared to UO.

 

When you die your stuff says on your corpse and its not that unusual for new players not know where your body is. Wurm doesn't have any kind of a coordinate system .... no mini-map, no sextant to get your coords. Luckily your corpse does stick around for a few real life days and no one on PvE can loot it. Unlike UO, there is no item insurance system so you can resurrect with your stuff.

 

Wurm has a lot of exploring and crafting to do. I'd think Wurm is better in this area manly because you can alter the environment. This is the main reason I stay with Wurm. There is something really cool about permanently changing the world around you.

 

UO's customization makes Wurm look silly. You'll likely be disappointed here.

Edited by joedobo

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Wurm PvP is like a sadist and a masochist getting into a testicle kicking contest. One never truly knows which personality disorder they fall into.

 

Grudges are held for extensive amounts of time. Drama is fueled by biased GMs and game "features". Wurm Unlimited seems to be no different from Wurm Online in any aspect other than the fact you don't have to grind skills in WU. Personally, I prefer Unlimited's one time charge and abundance of server choices over the monthly charge of Wurm Online and the stale server selection that is overrun by an old time ruling class.

 

I agree with Fawkes on the level of excitement one can get from the PvP experience in Wurm. I've been a huge PvP gamer since the mid 90's on everything from space sims to flight sims to MOBAs. And I've been playing Wurm for quite a long time as well, and I have yet to get the shakes like I do when I engage another player in Wurm. With that being said, there is a decent amount of down time between conflicts. Building, and crafting, and working on your character development takes up a good amount of time. However, it's worth the wait for the times when it does happen to liven up with PvP. With Unlimited, there are far more chances to engage the enemy than on the WO servers, simply because of the ease with which you can replace gear and gain skills.

 

My two cents.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Shroud of the Avatar has store bought house plots and no terraforming, it also has skill limits to promote player economy.  While I was a Dev+ post kickstarter supporter I have become offended by the constant 'cosmetic' store promotions, WO way of buying (or earning) shop silver to be spent on other PC creations is more immersive.  SOTA also guarantees wipes before release so I am not playing it until then and will probably sell out at a profit once the server housing slots get full.

 

WO/WU is released so will not have any code based wipes, but only WO has kept promise of no wipes for years (they have done a couple though) In WO skills are only limited by time as it can take real year to master a branch, in WU this depends on the server how long skills take and the economic impact of that.  Some WU charge and slow down skills just like WO, others are more about player freedom and give away silvers.

 

Now if you are not the type to spend money every month even if you are not playing, then WO is not for you.  Without the expense your hand built deeds will fall into decay to refresh the server for new players.  While that maybe the intent the decays process is so long that it instead keeps new players away from all the ruins.  You might better enjoy a modded WU server for no decay using free deeds that you run yourself and whitelist friends on.

 

Edited by yarnevk

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

AlexVII, Pacific.
From times of Felucca to Trammel.
"Fare thee well traveler..."
Hope to see you in Wurm ;)

p.s. There is a likeness of skils in Wurm to UO that no one has mentioned. I'll leave that one to mystery.

Happy hunting! 

Edited by AlexanderCrunsch
punctuation

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Apologies if this seems like a shameless plug, but it might be right up your alley ....

 

 

I'm still working through some ideas and there is going to be at least one server wipe later this week, but 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this