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Beretel

What made your Wurm start difficult?

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With the discussion of Quality of Life improvements, I've started to think about the things that made my start in Wurm difficult.  I'm thinking specifically of the first few hours or days.

 

So...  What are the things that made Wurm difficult or discouraging for you at first?

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I died several times trying to swim across a channel to an island.  That was painful... especially the corpse runs, and then giving up on ever getting some of stuff back.

 

Getting one-shotted by a troll that I never saw 'til I came back for my corpse... and then it killed me again.

 

I started a farm, planted several tiles, and then dug on a tile nearby and turned around... my crops were all gone.

 

Could not dig anything at the start.... was a bit of work to find a place I could even raise my skill above 1.

 

Trying to build something....  need to make some nails... so I needed an anvil... so I needed iron...  so I needed a forge... etc, etc...  Was a long process to get a couple nails.

 

I had no way to tell if I should try actually fighting something.  Died several times to mountain lions and wolves, and when one got stuck in my mine, it gave me a headache for a while.

 

JS

 

PS. not sure what all has changed in the noob experience since I started...  and I hope this isn't coming across as whining.

[23:21:36] You entered through the portal to Wurm on Luck day, week 3 of the Bear's starfall, 1049. That's 1671 days, 22 hours and 31 minutes ago.

My second character.  The first one I played for about a month, then stopped for a year.

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Decrease in player's count. TBH I enjoy interactions with the community the most. 

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I agree that the sparseness of population, especially on Xanadu, is somewhat discourageing. Even more is the isolatiom and "de facto curfew" young players are living in for weeks if not months with tons of mobs boding destruction once they leave the safety of starter towns. Other than suicide hopping, it is hard to get from one area to the other. A boat is a great relief there at least for coastal regions but no solution for the inland areas. I already suggested to make wagoner service into sort of stagecoach service between highway connected deeds (granted that brings some tricky problems but nothing really unsurmountable imho).

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[10:56:05] You entered through the portal to Wurm on day of Tears, week 1 of the starfall of Fires, 989. That's 4207 days, 22 hours and 44 minutes ago.

 

I guess that my problems back in the days differ from the problems nowadays. I can remember that aggressive creatures on highways have been a challenge and that I never found iron for a large anvil which needed 50kg back in the days.

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Failing constantly on making materials and after that, trying to make that 1x2 house.. Building stuff as a noob takes forever.... stamina running out constantly, harrasment of veteran players. Hell hounds...  Trying to get to my body after slain by hell hounds... Good luck on that. 

 Those at least. 

Edited by Themystrix

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The problems with my start are not, perhaps, relatable today.

 

I spawned in after a terrible tutorial with a bunch of items.  Saw things on the ground, went to do the noob thing of pick them up.  Nope, on a deed.

 

Most of release was deeded when I joined, with only hillsides or deed perimeters available.

 

 

One trip out into the wilds lost me my droppable starter gear.  I had no in-game map, had not touched the metagame so no community map, and thus all those droppable items were just gone.

 

I left shortly after I joined.  My comment was "I can taste the alpha".

 

 

I only came back after a friend poked me to rejoin, and it worked out well.  Built my first house, after that life got better.

 

 

In terms of what would help new players?  Mouse-over tips (toggle on/off). 

 

Seriously, it would have been nice to mouse over my door and see "needs to be locked to protect items inside" or "warning, can be broken by other players off deed" for my fences.  Even mousing over starter tool and seeing "remains on death" would have helped.

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After SWG went poof and searching the internet for free mmo's...  wurm online caught my eye.

Installed and off i went , grand adventure .After being killed 12 times by a croc on day 1 and seeing a massive pile of my own bodies in one spot lol it was then i realised i should read up on wurm.

Which was great because after the intial feeling of doom of being killed this was replaced by the absolute joy of creating your own 1x1 shed to live in.......good times!

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getting knocked off my horse and killed by a Lava Fiend, getting eaten by a Crocodile that was hiding (invisible) on the side of a mountain.
thanks to odynn fur helping me retrieve my corpse for the latter.
The only thing that very nearly made me quit was a veteran player 1 week in but ive mentioned that elsewhere and mystrix has reported a similiar experience.
I've nothing particularily useful to add to this thread. I was told how challenging the game is and how few people it appealed to, course that wasn't a problem for the finance model back then.
Expectation is the thing, if you're prepared for wurm it's hard to get discouraged.

Edited by Steveleeb
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The things that made my life difficult early on was the darkness of the nights which caused me many injuries toppling off what seemed like huge mountains, but in effect I was simply panicking so much to avoid being eaten I was moving too quickly off minor bumps and injuring myself.

 

I had no map on Indy at that time and simply set off in one direction- S. I have no idea where I travelled, I remember moving through a long tunnel with no idea that it was infested with everything nasty. By then my heart-beat was racing as I tried moving onwards in the dark squinting at my then tiny monitor to see where I was going. I eventually escaped the confinement and though a game, I could almost smell the fresh air of Indy above the surface.

 

These things made my start difficult but there was one thing that helped and that was the population. I was rarely out of contact with people and it was one in particular- vonWolf- who shouted on me when I was passing. He allowed me to stay at his deed and then proceeded to introduce me to the 'locals' near Mystery Glade who without exception were great people. This convinced me that I had found 'my game'.

 

I would suggest that those more recently arrived will be able to suggest other difficulties- probably some citing the lack of a decent population who are able to help a person.

 

All in all, those difficulties were well worth it as I consider Wurm the perfect game for me- I just wish I had found it even earlier.

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The only difficulty I remember when starting out was the cave bugs on Golden Valley, they terrorized the server at the time. I started out with 2 other players, and when we moved to Independence when it opened a few months later, we got help from the community. The first player to help us out was Blacklotus. 

Wurm has changed a lot since then, today I guess new players are terrorized by hell hounds instead of cave bugs.

 

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Trolls and hell hounds as a new player, sneaky trolls you wouldn't even know they were till "wham" lights out. Never had issues with veteran players that I can remember. Once I joined a village things went much easier. The worst thing new players get stuck in their heads is having a deed right off. I advocate you join a village with a good Mayor who will help answer questions but not baby sit either. I have learned from early mistakes as a Mayor trying to babysit new villagers. Let them work at their own pace and just be there to answer questions and occasionally kill a mob. The Hermit mentality can really kill a new players experience through frustration I believe.

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I picked greymead for the implied challenge of being in the middle if nowhere on a huge server.  
 

Greymead was a solid starter town even 3 years ago.  Huge wall, clay, and tight layout.  
 

Me and my wife were beset by wildlife constantly.  We were in a constant state of dying or wounded.  Everything takes longer when wounded.   We kept making wounds worse when attempting to heal.  Couldn't kill anything to make healing covers and our forage skills sucked.  
 

Cotton was gold to us and we couldn't find any for what seemed like forever.  We had a fellow newbie hang with us in those weeks, and slowly got our act together.  We also had a few other new players constantly trying to get at whatever wasn't locked down.  Hunger was a constant pest.  
 

Luckily there were two deeds that had popped recently and were able to get some useful things.  
 

The three of us eventually headed to the coast in three carts.   We died several times in route.   Found a place, set up shop next to a mine and a guard tower.  Built my first ship and stopped playing for about 7 months.   Wife's character is now my mule.  

Edited by Arishok
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After going thru the Golden Valley (?) tutorial - and whatever it's faults, Haven's Landing has to be better than that - I chose Summerholt on Xanadu. An hour and a half later a wolf killed me as I was exploring. I was never able to find that corpse, so of course lost all my droppable gear. Luckily i had pitched my tent, so didn't lose that, but hadn't figured out I could put stuff in it yet. Over the next week or so after I couldn't get free food from the bartender, keeping fed and outrunning mobs were my primary concern, and I wasn't good at either :)

But I was hooked. I found the wurmpedia, and some newb tutorials and what-to-do-as-a-new-player posts, and eventually found out i could bury my dozen or so corpses scattered around the area, rather than dragging them into a bush to hide my shame :)

I occasionally found items scattered around, and several veterans in the area, Jackjones, Huser, and Odr, in particular, helped out with tips, advice and the occasional upgraded tool. Once i joined NEXA, everything became easier as they are a wonderful caring alliance, more than willing to share their knowledge and wisdom.

Rather than join Amish Estates, which in those days was a thriving village, I founded my own deed over the remains of an old deed (Mistvaginery's (sp?) place), and set about really learning the game.

I think this game should be hard for new players, it's a semi-realistic real world sandbox after all, you wouldn't expect to be able to strike out into the wilderness IRL and thrive right off the bat without any survival skills. And yeah, being in a village and part of a community is easier than going off on your own. Choose your own path, but accept help when it's offered.

The thing I struggled with the most, other than the aforementioned food and mobs, was moving and talking at the same time, and learning all the controls and how to do basic things. But that has clearly not deterred me, as I've averaged over 8 hrs a day for the last 2 yrs and change :)

Love this Game!!

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In the very very beginning in 2013 I started off in Deliverance, SE corner near a friends deed. The hardest part was trying to balance staying a live long enough to build shelter and find food with decent nutrition. I didn't know how to farm, so no cotton, except from what I could forage/botanize which was really tough and slow going. I spent hours botanizing for healing cover bits and learned to have a million healing covers on hand at all times. Once I learned how to call the guards which was after quite a while, I was able to travel and mostly take care of myself.

 

From there it was pretty much down hill. I eventually settled on Release with a new character and started a homestead in the middle of no where, which later became my deed. Those were the good ole days. I spent hours reading wurmpedia and trying to find public iron mines. I had to walk 45 mins to the one mine I knew on winding disjointed paths through dense forest. It was an exciting and amazing adventure every time I would log on. I miss being a noob. I called the route to my nearest clay deposit troll alley and spent hours clearing the route just to get there, good times.

Edited by Dirt

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Getting killed and butchered by Blacklighters really dampened our spirits for a short while.

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I started back in 2007 so a lot of this doesn't apply any more. Back then I looked at the map and saw a nice, remote, coastal area that I wanted to check out. So I made myself a cart (in hindsight I shouldn't have made one at that point) and set out on a journey to that spot, hoping it would still be free (the population back then was pretty low, so my odds were good). At first I could follow the roads on the map and back then the tower guards actually killed things within their territory, so most of the journey was quite safe. Only near the end did I have to go through a piece of forest without guard towers and then after that I had to mostly swim, but it still went fine. The area was indeed free.

Then came my main difficulty, putting a deed down back then was both quite a bit harder (you had to go to a trader as the deed stake didn't exist) and a lot more expensive, so I didn't put one down. We also didn't have a tent, so dying would result in having to travel back to that spot for a good 90 minutes again. Thankfully I didn't die, and I think it was a few weeks later that I joined a nearby village which I had passed on my travels, just so I could respawn there upon death. After that it all went smoothly, until one day a troll bashed my walls down and called me (yes, they could do that back then and they were thus an actual threat). So suddenly the place where I lived became incredibly dangerous, as trolls were way beyond me. But as I mentioned earlier, tower guards automatically kill hostiles within their area, so I set upon myself to surround my home with 3 different towers, while trying not to get killed by the trolls. After that it was smooth sailing and it really felt like an accomplishment. Other difficulties I had early on were digging related, the spot I had chosen was pretty steep, so it was slow going to turn it into a place that I could live on, but that made the result all the more satisfying as well. Iron was never an issue as a mine entrance was pretty much the first thing I made, I lived in that mine for a while and iron was found pretty quickly.

 

So difficulties were:

  • Deeds were really expensive and you needed to get the writ from a trader.
  • Trolls actually bashed your walls down if the walls were between them and you, just so they could kill you.

The solutions to those problems were:

  • Join a nearby village for the respawn option, added advantage was becoming part of a very nice community for the next decade or so. I doubt I'd still be playing if I hadn't done that.
  • Protect myself by building guard towers, which at the time kept their areas clear of hostiles by actively hunting down and killing them.

 

Comparing that to the current state of the game, you can now put down a deed a lot easier with a deed stake. From one point of view that's great, from another point that might result in new players not interacting much with others and then eventually dropping out due to a lack of the social aspect of the game. I probably wouldn't change much on that end, perhaps make it possible to join alliances more easily/remotely and really point that option out to players when they put down their deed?

As for the guard towers, I feel the way they worked in the past was a lot better than how they work now, as the guards actively kept their area safe. Thus new players wouldn't get ambushed by mobs unless those players actively stepped out of those safe zones. I believe this was removed at some point for performance reasons, but it happened so long ago that I don't quite remember. I think bringing this back would really help new players.

 

 

Edited by Ecrir
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Pheasants..(well old stories of these monsters..)

Dying and losing your backpack and it's content... with the 100x item limit... it's a loss.. for a new player.. only other storage is 100x items in a tent once you stop moving.

Finding iron to work with.. when making a shed is a thing... for a new player, but they ignore 'utmost ql100 iron vein' signs or 'Oak'("good to start camp fire and to keep the fire burn, or perfect material to build a ql1-10 house with");

'safety' is a myth in wurm until you find a guard tower/and make a fencing.. with a lockable gate/door... maybe two exit points actually.... as at first your best chances to verse a troll or hound is to RUN and not fight it... leave that to the tower guards.

Even if you start a deed somehow... in your first minutes in the game and hire guard/s, which is not that simple as it sounds.. you're still good to have the fencing around.

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To be perfectly honest, I had a smooth start about 10+ years ago. I was wandering around after the tutorial in GV, hopped over to indy and was welcomed into Elarial(RIP) with open arms. I got a lot of guidance there and after a while me and my (now) rift-buddies set off to the east to found Treehuggers Eden!(still going strong)

*Everything* was a struggle back in the day, but at least there was a deed and walls to keep a newbie safe.

I now have a few skills above 90 and a a bunch above 70 and stuff is easy.

The moral of my "story" is: Look to join a deed, Keep working. Patience is rewarded. And, if you expect to get to 100 skill in one day, this game isn't for you.

 

 

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In retrospect, relying on armour over fleeing was my biggest failure, and it inhibited me from experiencing more of Wurm early on. 

 

Picking a server felt like a monumental decision that lacked any sort of guidance.

 

Once on the server, finding resources - mostly clay - without trespassing (or fear that I was inadvertently trespassing) was arduous. 

 

Probably the single most frustrating experience was dropping my tent on a paved area near water - and encountering the infamous tent bug. (Thankfully, this has been fixed!) 

 

The second most frustrating experience was a bug death. I mined an iron ore tile, backed up - and died. I had no idea what happened or what I had done wrong. Years later, I read that a bug in the movement code while underground was the cause.

 

The early, post-death experience was confusing. It was not at all clear to me that the respawn location was a drop-down. I just saw where I was going to respawn and assumed it was a mechanic of the game. Once I joined a village, far to the north of the starter area, I assumed the game would automatically change my respawn point. Nope! My wife - bless her heart! - ended up almost literally on the opposite corner of Xanadu before I could get out the words to warn her. Special kudos to the light breeze blowing that day, giving me lots of time to savor the journey across two sides of Xanadu and back. 

 

Honorable mention to having my small cart stolen in the first couple of days. This was before they came with locks or even could be locked. I didn't lose much, but man, that's why it was all the more disheartening. Stuff like a small anvil, a few nails, foraged junk of terrible QL but some cotton, a few logs. Literally, a "petty" crime.

 

And here I am, five years later. The bugs are patched, the lessons are learned, the molehills no longer seem like mountains. I'm glad that I stayed. 

Edited by Kohle
Added post-death experience
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I started my first character Ayes on Golden Valley years ago. After running up some mountain sides and falling back down due to lack of stamina it was off to explore the world. I followed a cobblestone road for a while until it branched off in other directions. There were woods in the distance so that looked like an interesting way to go. The cobblestone road seemed to narrow but there was a little house in the woods down the way that I wanted to check out. Neat little place and the woods beyond looked even more interesting. I wondered how long they would extend as I wandered randomly through them.

 

The cobblestone road was long gone and there were no N/S/E/W directions to follow that I could figure out lead to anywhere. Finally after about an hour of wandering who knew where I logged out of Ayes and left him lost there in the woods. I figured out this time I would start a new character and follow to cobblestone road to Glitterdale to try to settle down and learn the game there since it was a little town with some things to use and mines around it with players there too. Maybe a week or so later I learned enough about environmental reference points to once again log onto Ayes and make his way to Glitterdale to share in the plot that my other guy had been working on.

 

Ayes has been my main character since then and the most I have learned about the game has been from reading about it on the Wurm reference listings such as Wurmpedia. These forums are great too for a lot of shared knowledge and experiences of others, both dire and heartwarming.

 

Happy Trails

=Ayes=

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I came into this world to search for someone, one person in particular - my brother.  My brother had entered into a strange world which he called "Wurm" and had been almost missing for several months.  One day I found myself in Real Life completely alone and wondering where my brother was and how I could find him.  I so wanted to talk to him about this strange land he had visited and the exciting things that had already happened to him there.  He had previously told me he was planning on building an inn, and was going to offer healing for travellers and hunters of strange and dangerous creatures.  Real Life was for me, safe and secure, but I was alone and missing my brother, so armed only with a few scraps of information and the name of the inn, I entered the world of Wurm.

 

All went fairly smoothly in the tutorial until it came to the point of going through a daunting portal.  At this point it seemed I had to make a big decision - where was my brother?  I knew if I made the wrong decision I would never find him.  I did not know how to contact him in the game, I only knew I had to try and find him.  I hunted around Real Life and found something he had left behind - a paper map labelled "Pristine" - bouyed with renewed hope, I selected Pristine and entered the portal..

 

Pristine was a cold, bright, yet empty place on my arrival.  Looking at the map and the few directions my brother had given, I knew I had to aim South.  I tried to keep to the road, but of course I didn't.  Back then there were no cats-eyes, and it was easy to stray from the paved paths.  I lost my bearings and came down the side of a hill, only to come face to face with a giant rat!  It was fenced in - someone's pet.  Unsettled by this I corrected my direction and headed south again.   I eventually found myself at a crossroads, got alarmed by a giant spider in the road, and called for "help" in CA Help.  The person there was kind but I found they could offer me no physical assistance, and they did not know where the inn was, I believe they mentioned something about 'Freedom' tab but I did not know how to open this, and I was probably too embarrassed to ask any more questions. I set off alone again, and of course went east instead of south.  Heading up hill (towards what I now know to be Mount Caldera)  I saw ahead of me a bright orange raging Unicorn - this was back when animal conditions had bright colours.  Something about its bright colour and angry text made me think that maybe this wasn't the right way to go, and I turned and headed south again across the icy tundra.  I saw creatures towards the top of the mountain but they were not near me.  

 

I kept running south, and looking west down towards the bottom of the valley.  I later found out that a road runs down this valley - the road I should have taken, but I could not see it in the ice and snow.  Soon I saw a large building at the bottom of the valley.  It was wooden and several stories high.  Something about it told me it was my brother's building.  I can't say what told me this, but I headed down towards it.  Soon I saw my brother's name in local!  I called out for help, I had fallen.  It was impossible for me to see a drop in the terrain in all the ice and snow back then, there were no shadows, bump maps, or occlusion in those days.  I had damaged my ankle badly.  My brother said there was cotton in the bsb in the inn, and to go upstairs if monsters came.  So I had found my brother, and with him I had found what seemed to be the only safe place in this world. 

 

"How did you find me?"  he asked.

 

 

Edited by Muse
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I found my first day very disappointing and was debating if I really wanted to give this game a go. As a new player on Exodus 7 years ago, I felt there was no way to leave the starter town without being killed by something or getting lost without the benefit of an in-game map to find my stuff after being killed. When you accumulate meager possessions and then lose them within an hour of leaving town,  you start to reevaluate your life, lol! I've played other games that at least give you a fighting chance to get started. If the grind of the game doesn't get you, striking out on your own may ruin your experience.

 

If it wasn't for a chap named Lawrum that found me frustrated in the starter town trying to build a small cart, I am positive I would have passed this game up. I still have the large cart he built for me. (7 years ago!) He got me setup in a nice area near their alliance and several other folks nearby helped with the learning curve and mob clearing. The bottom line of this is, I have never felt that the new player experience is possible without a community in your first days. Unless you get very lucky one day and logged on to an area that had its mobs cleared and found a quiet spot to setup shop, the environment will kill you. New player buff or not. I could not see how I would have continued as a new player without help from other player(s). I'm forever grateful for that.

 

I have since paid it forward with other new players I have encountered in Wurm and WU servers. Some have stayed with the game and were grateful for the help. It doesn't always work but at least it saved a few players from leaving the game.

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