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Beretel

What made your Wurm start difficult?

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I remember when I first started playing Wurm, it was around the time that New Town was being constructed. There wasn't anything there, it was all relatively flat and only a few sparse buildings were being put up. I had to cross some water to get to the other side where there was some clay, and I was trying to make a clay jar to carry water with me. (Someone told me that I should do that because you never know if you'll be without water.) 

I was attacked by some mob that killed me, and that was the repetitive nature of the game for awhile until I eventually joined a deed. Community was as helpful as it is now compared to back then.


That was almost 11 years ago, and we had roughly around the same population then as we do now, maybe a bit less. I don't believe the problem would be with the population, as we've had ups and downs over the decade of Wurm being around... With us being about 100+ players than back then. It is mostly just a trial and error with the game rewarding those that have patience and persistence. 

I'd definitely recommend any new players to join a deed since that would provide protection and even people with knowledge to answer questions (though CA Chat is around for that too now), but its definitely going to be a tough start to the game if you are going in expecting that you can do everything solo without knowing all the quirks/Wogic that Wurm Online has compared to most other games that people come from. 


Would be nice for new players to have a village to be put into at first perhaps? Since they might not realize how to go about finding one. Most aren't entirely familiar with the PM system right off the bat, as I've tried to provide help for a few new players via PM but they almost always make the comment: "Oh I didn't even see this!" etc.

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Bears. Bears made my start difficult.  And a snake.

 

I wanted a bit of a "cabin in the woods" experience, but from what I could see it would be helpful to be part of a village as well.  I spotted an ad for a village in the NW corner of Indy and started the long walk from Haven's Landing (with at this stage only the ingame map for navigational aid).  I got caught by a bear down near Crystal Canal, and on respawning back at HL I headed straight back to get my gear from the corpse, little realizing that the bear wasn't done with me.   Gear recovered, somehow I managed to run enough to get away.  Somewhere near the south end of what I now know is the Great South Mountain Road, another bear spotted me before I spotted him.  Inspired, I ran into the sea..... AACCHH!  IT FOLLOWED ME!  Cue Benny Hill music as I ran around trying to find a way to shake this bear.  Bears 2, me zero.  Respawn at Freedom Markets, head off finding my way to find the wrapped bear-toy.  I pitched my tent a little way off, so that when the inevitable happened I would have a nearby spawn point.  The bear seemed to be wandering off, so I grabbed my gear, only to be chased again by the bear.  I headed for the tent thinking I would be safe.  Bears 3, Me 0.  My latest corpse was inside the tent.  So was the bear.  So was the new me.  Benny Hill sequence again until I was again inspired.  I got a reasonable distance before Bears 4 and then respawned in the tent, with my gear-holding corpse.  Hooray!  I left the bear harrying deadme#4 and headed back up the highway.  

 

I came across an anaconda in the middle of the road.  I climbed the steep verge, and came back down on a side road.  As I was trying to edge back onto the highway beyond the snake without attracting its attention, I miss-stepped and slid down a very steep ravine to wind up trapped in between terrain an an estate wall.  I managed to get out of that and was wandering about trying to work out where I was and how to get back to somewhere useful when a "Venerable Champion Brown Bear" hit me from behind.  I tried to run, but really had no chance.  Bears 5; me nothing.  

 

I was starting to think that if all this game consisted of was trying to recover gear from the last death then it wasn't my idea of fun.  Fortunately someone came to my rescue, dealt with the bear (that was indulging in extreme overkill) and gave me a lift back to the markets.  If it wasn't for that help, I would likely have simply logged out and never logged back in. 

Edited by TheTrickster
minor typo correction
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the near daily wipes because major change after major change >.> early alpha/beta map days(game is still beta no matter what anyone says) where fun "hey guys we made something look its a house" log in next day "hey guys we are back on an empty map again

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Well, I started a new character tonight...  he's currently going through the tutorial, and I'll post stuff here as I notice it...

First, I'm standing in Haven's Landing clicking next and reading, and suddenly I'm supposed to go dig some dirt.  Where?  I can't dig where I'm at... so I have to wander around and find a place to dig.

Then I have to cut down a tree?  Same thing... where do I find a tree?  Ok, got one... all good now, and hopefully no angry neighbors.

There's a mine readily accessible from the town center, so I went back, mined a few iron and the started making mallets and anvils and such.. so far, I've encountered no hostiles.

 

Edited by Beretel

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35 minutes ago, Beretel said:

Well, I started a new character tonight...  he's currently going through the tutorial, and I'll post stuff here as I notice it...

First, I'm standing in Haven's Landing clicking next and reading, and suddenly I'm supposed to go dig some dirt.  Where?  I can't dig where I'm at... so I have to wander around and find a place to dig.

Then I have to cut down a tree?  Same thing... where do I find a tree?  Ok, got one... all good now, and hopefully no angry neighbors.

You're intended to use the 3 zones found within the main "courtyard" of Havens for the tutorial, however the digging tutorial does specifically state Dirt despite the digging zone containing Sand. That should likely be changed lol

Edited by Jore
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Stealing large anvils on golden valley and running away from angry peasants who noticed that... 

 

But really, my beginnings of Wurm were my best times I remember. The most difficult for me, was living for a long time without a home, always on road. I won't mention such things like mobs or low skills. Its obvious. I started on Golden Valley and I played there for sometime learning most basic stuff like creating basic tools or simple constructions.

 

But then gates to freedom islands have opened and I decided to live as an explorer. Without joining anyone, without building own house or deed. Always logging off in different place, always discovering new stuff and meeting many different people every day. Sometimes they helped me, sometimes I was staying to help them for some time. But in the end I never knew if I will survive another day. And I always knew that if I die, then I have nothing left and I always have to start from the beginning. Sometimes I was taking longer breaks, so logging off in a cave was often ending in logging back inside collapsed mine, when I had completely blind mining my way out.

 

Or sometimes when I was building temporary not deeded bases to explore better local area i liked, it was only a matter of time till someone enter it and claim. 

 

I lived like that for 2 years about, maybe longer. That was a real harsh way of playing and learning ingame survival, yet these were my best years I never forgot. It was so pure, to not being connected to anything, not being afraid of loosing something. You have nothing to lose, yet everything to gain. And also, back in days folks knew how to handle themselves if they decided to stay in game. Never asked for making game easier and never demanding anything they cant make or get by their own. Beautiful times.

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On 1/12/2020 at 11:07 PM, Jore said:

You're intended to use the 3 zones found within the main "courtyard" of Havens for the tutorial, however the digging tutorial does specifically state Dirt despite the digging zone containing Sand. That should likely be changed lol

Yes, I noticed that when I headed back in to the mine... oops.  Might be helpful for the tutorial to mention the learning areas.  I think I'll have to do a suggestion thread about some small changes to the tutorial.  Overall, I must say, it is much, much better than the old one.

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What made my Wurm start difficult.. Well, first off... Was watching my husband play this insane game with so many menus, so many right clicks for EVERYTHING. It took him 3 months to convince me to even TRY to play. Even at that, everyone was in green... You stood on a cart... There were no quests to complete. He finally got me to sit down and complete a couple walls on his first house for him while he went to take a shower. Then he told me about the beautifully colored unicorns.

 

I caved. Made an account.. Then struggled through right clicking every action, making a halfway presentable deed for us, 20ql chain armor... 20 ql iron long swords. Then our neighbor to the south, she was sweet, would give us advise and such, but then her friend, Miss Goth legend herself, Pomona, would show up and dazzle me with her different clothing and edgy ways.

 

Lost my gear hunting with some of our first alliance.. No maps, just a general direction and apparently an angry troll. No worries though.. I got my stuff back and we put that troll in it's place. Even if it took 6 of us.

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i have to say navigation.  i love wurm unlimited for the mini map that helps a little.  but once a highway markers start going up the use of out of game maps help a lot

 

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Navigation was pretty hard, especially for those of us who are "directionally challenged". Also being chased by any and every animal (I died to a pheasant) and not knowing where I should respawn. 

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Newtown.

 

Running past the steppe area then the treacherous road towards silent hill. Navigating past all of that towards Drago's place and then spend the next 30minutes dying cause me and mates killed a croc and I got a bad wound that we couldnt get a decent healing cover on. 

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I started on Exo and it was so dense around the starter deed that there was no trees to chop it seemed. Also incredible ammounts of fenced off land which didn't help when running from the cave bugs or what not. I haven't been back in that area in forever, i bet it's all free roaming land now hehe

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With my first character I drowned twice right on the shoreline before learning about Last Gasp :)    

Starting at The Howl and the seriously steep terrain I died a few more times falling down the slopes when running away from monsters. 

 

The biggest difficulty for me was finding a place where I could build a shelter. At that time, pretty much all of the flat space was deeded till you got past Nyssa. I remember my daughter and I putting a campfire on ChampagneDragon's front lawn to cook up some foraged vegetables. She was really nice to us but encouraged us to find a bigger spot to build our newbie shack.

 

Luckily I ran into Teeebomb during one of my corpse retrievals. He's always taking in strays and was kind enough to get us going. 

 

It probably should be advised somewhere that while you "can" build anywhere off-deed and off-perimeter, many people wouldn't be happy seeing someone building right at their perimeter (or in their off deed fruit tree orchard) since they may want to expand some day.   After having a couple deeds, that seems like common sense. But when first starting out and dealing with just trying to survive, having some clear recommended guidelines on where they can build without upsetting someone would probably be a good thing. 

 

As far as the new tutorial village in Havens Landing, there are a number of buildings in the village. They are really beautiful buildings, but it's unclear if those other buildings are for new player use or if they are just for decoration.  Are they meant for new players to stay in?

 

Also, the question of finding the digging, mining, and woodcutting sections come up frequently. In the village it's easy to get around and see everything on horseback, but walking takes a lot more time and new players are always just walking.

 

As I was typing this, my alt is in Haven's Landing. Looking back through the local tab I see this conversation:

[14:42:00] <Handmadescimitar> what kind of tutorial is this if i cant dig anywere and proceed?

[14:42:15] <Goule> There's a digging area marked near where you spawn

[14:42:22] <Goule> As well as mining

[14:42:26] <Goule> As well as woodcutting

[14:43:00] <Handmadescimitar> are you on about the forest bit in the village?

[14:45:05] Handmadescimitar lost link.

 

Ironic timing. If I'd been paying attention to chat I could have helped. Maybe some additional details could be added to the tutorial to point them in the right direction? Looking through the CA Help logs this is really a recurring question.

 

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I died A LOT when I was new. Over and over again. Sometimes due to mobs, mostly due to starvation I think (it was a long time ago).

It took me a while to learn how to get food going reliably and to set up near a tower :P
I had
no problem with it tho, I love the fact there's no map etc - one of the biggest pulls of Wurm for me is the sense of exploring and discovery. Basic navigation to find your way (landmarks, sunrise/set etc) isnt that hard to get around.

 

 

These days when I start I just stay right next to the starter town, use the bartender for food and just build a rowboat. This gets my basic skills up a good amount until the boats finished and then ill have a safe way to explore, will be able to scrounge up some food and basic tools before i head out. Also a set of fences ready to go so I can set up a perimeter as soon as I hit the beach!

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I don't think you can actually die to starvation in wurm. I recall i once kept my character at 0 nutrition for a week, just drank water. No death from that. Just lower stamina recovery.  

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They've changed the starvation mechanics to make them more forgiving over the years. The game as a whole is significantly easier and less harsh now. I don't think I can recall ever having been able to die from it directly but running out of fat layers and being unable to regen stam or conduct most actions made it awfully easy to die to other things.

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I remember trying to fight a wolf. I died. 
Then I tried a Seal. I died. 
Then I tried a hen, I won!

 

However, the first few days was so brutal I gave up for five days. Then I came back, and joined up with a village and it was good from there.

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Mine was the utter confusion and lack of a proper tutorial. The whole tutorial back then was a village with a bunch of signs telling you to do things you couldnt do because you had no permissions to do it. "Attack this mannequin!" which you couldnt target or attack because of permissions. Or loot weapons... Or dig or anything. So after like an hour of trying to understand the game, I walked out through the portal to "The Howl." I walked a few steps and went "eff this game! Over an hour in and I still dont understand what to do!"

 

Next day my friend Arakiel logged in and teached me the ropes. I fell in love and here I am.

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I made a large cart, took me 3 hours, was proud, they didn't have owner back then  i think, then i made a huge fence all around the place i picked with a single lock, , a little house 5 tiles away from the fence
Started to fill some bsb, to sell dirt to pay for a deed and my first premium, some crops and a bit of everything, at some point, like after a week or 2, somebody deeded over part of my place and the only side of the fence that had a gate and a lock, i was left outside of my house, couldn't bash fences cause no premium, so i lost everything i had, cart included, asked for help in some chat, gor a bunch of "deed it or lose it" as an answer, so i stopped playing for almost a year. Fun part is i even asked around in local if i was ok for me to settle there and i was answered something like "yeah sure, no problem"

The 2nd time i made no fences, put all my stuff inside a couple houses and placed locked bsb in all the space between the houses, i managed to sell like 15k dirt i leveled out and actually slowly got a deed and my first premium.
It was frustrating, i really hated the 20 skillcap cause i knew all my efforts were being wasted until i got it, was paranoid about not knowing something that would screw me out of everything again for the 2nd time, luckily it didn't happen and gaining more skills i never had that problem anymore : D

I also abandoned a place cause of massive frustration originated from water/clay/rock/dirt combinations that made my deed a mess and unfixable at the time

Edited by Davih

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The "deed it or lose it " mentality is a very shitty one imho. It's basically saying like saying , "well I have some silvers I can use to act like an ######".

At least on Epic in such circumstances you can go "illegal" and get your cart back or lockpick a fence to retrive your stuff.

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I am recently new myself, having only started less than a week ago. Im really liking it so far, but here are the issues I am facing as a newbie. In no particular order.

 

The skilling system seems very harsh and more than once I have considered quitting and looking for a new game because of it. 

- When wounded it is seemingly impossible to heal yourself. It is easier just to die and be more careful where you step next time. I had a wound that would not heal itself and was told I could forage for cotton to heal it, i died of my wounds before any of the first aid worked, which took over an hour. I have now started a cotton farm.

- I like mining in other games, so I gave it a try on Wurm. Getting through the first rock was hard and it gave no indication of how long I had to hit it for. My assumption was maybe 5 times, turned out to be closer to 500.

- the lack of population makes it difficult. I understand it is an old game and I accept that, but i havent found anything or anyone to trade with yet.

- The in-game map is impossible to use without an initial reference point, which I eventually found through looking at the community maps and finding a nearby deed.

- I got a message to say I have mail and should check a mailbox... i still have that message, having not yet found a functioning mailbox. I have no idea why I would have mail.

- The area around my deed is littered with my corpses because I have zero hope of defending myself. Figuring out how to use the guards helped a lot

- The tutorial was terrible. So many gaps. 

-- During the tree cutting it told me to cut down the tree then cut up the felled tree, I cut down 4 trees before i got a felled tree, I now know its because they were too young but that wasnt explained.

-- when learning how to dig i didnt see any change in the tile so i kept digging... then wondered why I was moving so slow afterwards.

 

Im sure I have many more things to come :)

 

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50 second mining timers, 45 minute smelting timers, then someone ran off with my just heated 2kg of glowing iron that was to be my first small anvil... This was back on Golden Valley when the tutorial was an NPC who gave out about 4 'missions'.

 

Oh, and the fact that if you failed when trying to create a tool you didn't just damage the two bits, one piece would be destroyed and the other would turn in to scrap material. Couple that with 'unfinished' items meaning you often needed a whetstone to sharpen a stone chisel, or a mallet to make a mallet... This particular piece of fun changed when Rolf tried playing the game and fully understood the horror ;)

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20 hours ago, Xendaan said:

i died of my wounds before any of the first aid worked, which took over an hour. I have now started a cotton farm.

 

This is such a good newbie quote, I feel like it should be on the start up screen. 

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Let's see

11 hours ago, Hordern said:

50 second mining timers, 45 minute smelting timers, then someone ran off with my just heated 2kg of glowing iron that was to be my first small anvil... This was back on Golden Valley when the tutorial was an NPC who gave out about 4 'missions'.

 

Oh, and the fact that if you failed when trying to create a tool you didn't just damage the two bits, one piece would be destroyed and the other would turn in to scrap material. Couple that with 'unfinished' items meaning you often needed a whetstone to sharpen a stone chisel, or a mallet to make a mallet... This particular piece of fun changed when Rolf tried playing the game and fully understood the horror ;)

This

 

Also: 

 

Farming was only one crop until you reached 15, at which point you got 2 until 30 i believe? Basically a guaranteed +1 harvest every 15 points i think. Oh and back then you didn't get whole crops, you got their seeds (wemp seeds, cotton seeds, etc... that you had to plant, wait for it to grow, harvest and decide if you wanted to resow it or use it, and if you used it and failed in something, the whole thing would go poof.)

No newbie buffs of course

No pottery bowl, compass or backpack or leather armor as starting gear, only a 10ql shortsword and a 10ql wooden shield and even a dog would kill you.

No crafting window or recipe listing

Animals on Golden Valley were a luxury, and so was cotton, rope, compasses, etc... 

Butchering was only possible with a butchering knife, and they were a pain to make for reasons Hordern described, thus pelts were also highly valuable. 

Creation timers in general were much higher 

 

 

I remember i spent my very first day mining at New Dawn and fencing in an area, only to find it deleted by the gms the next day as they were expanding New Dawn and i was building right at the perimiter. 

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My wurm start was some what like others, not so bad because after the tutorial island I was welcomed by Elwood, MamaD, and PingPong to Ultimarus on Indy. Though every time I did start a new character and tried to just play the game I couldn't do it. This game was so unforgiving with the wildlife, the failure rates, etc. that Im always impressed by the people who managed to stick it out on their own. Village life is definitely the life if a person is going to start out.

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