The Life of a Freeloader -- An Etherdrifter Sabbatical

[Etherdrifter 2,518]

So today I returned home from my holiday to expired premium, and I thought to myself "Ether, it's time to regain some empathy towards new players".

 

I had a lovely surprise when I got downstairs, my new housemate (returned from a long absence) had bought a magical chest, so we now had indefinite storage for certain items which is amazing.

 

I proceeded to go outside with my 70-ε quality sickle to tend my garden; and then I took 8 attempts to prune a hedge (I dread to think what it would have been like with a 20QL sickle).  Suffice to say, I also noticed my "tree blindness" when I began to check the bushes, needing to double click on each one to get its age.  Life with forestry capped at 20 really has some unpleasant features!

 

Luckily, though, picking sprouts and failing only gives a low QL sprout, and my sickle drags up QL a fair bit.  So soon, my garden was in good order.  

 

Well, sort of.  One of my housemates has been breeding unicorns up, and we're getting a little dense in the garden itself, but the odds of me being able to move them are mathematically insignificant, so poor JingerJAS has herself another chore.

 

The herb pots that line my path are now much easier to pick with the new hotkey system, this was previously a horrible chore I avoided, now it is one I think I shall look forward to.

Visiting the "cave of death" yielded 4 fresh animal corpses, all of which gave low QL butchered items (not that I mind, save for the fat of course!)

 

A quick repair job on my sickle cost me 0.14QL; a pretty large drop!  We often forget just how much a good repair skill actually does for us.

 

It's around about this point I noticed something; I've been playing the game for just under 30 mins, and I've experienced no character growth (my forestry hit 20 years ago after all), and my sense of pride at having weeded my garden faded a bit.  This is much less fun than I remember, no wonder new players ne-

 

Ah, but my housemate has logged in, and I shall now proceed to be distracted and tell him all about my adventures as a free player.  Because, of course, the real thing that keeps new players around is the community.

Time to re-preme!