PLEASE CLOSE The diary of a new player

[Bloodreina 301]

ORIGINAL POST

 

Hey everybody! I hesitated quite a lot before starting this post because I'm well aware that there's hardly any reason why anyone else would be interested about my play style, about my adventures or about my progress. Yet, in the end I decided to do it anyway, just because I wanted to show other (new) players that there are a lot of different ways you can play this amazing game and to encourage them to have the courage to choose the path that suits them best (whatever that would be), even if it a less walked one. There are tons of approaches you can choose from when it comes about Wurm, but there's not a single one that you absolutely must follow.

 

 

Some background info and early decisions

 

1. Being such a complex and awesome game, Wurm can easily become addictive and since I always try to maintain a healthy balance between the different aspects of my life and stay in control of my time, I decided early on that it's very important for me to set a hard limit for my game time. And, in the end, I decided to settle for 60 hours of game time per month, so an average of two hours per day (sure, some days it can be more, some days it can be less, what's important though is to not go over the limit by the end of the month), which, I think, puts me right in the "casual, yet somehow dedicated player" category.

 

2. I did purchased the new player bundle with two months of premium time and five silver coins for €11.99 and I have to say that it is a really well thought deal which I would recommend any one, since the five silvers are more than enough to allow you to set your initial deed (presuming you stay within a decent size). For the future, I will only pay for my premium subscription and not buy any silver coins, since because of my low upkeep, I should be able to easily pay it with the money I'd get from selling my sleeping powder. Jury is still on if, when my initial two months of premium time will expire, I should continue to pay month by month and not commit too much on a new game or go full in, make a large, one year purchase, and enjoy quite a hefty discount (€5.99 instead of €7.99 per month).

 

3. I decided to stick with a 21x23 (483 tiles) size for my deed, without a guard, for a couple of reasons. One was that the setup cost was lower than five silvers which were included in the initial package (exact price was 4s 83c, which include three months of upkeep) and the second one was that it kept monthly upkeep cost to one silver, which is the minimum cost anyway (any deed smaller than this would still cost one silver, so there wouldn't be any savings and basically no reason for going smaller). Also, while there was definitely a temptation to go bigger, I couldn't really justify the extra costs, since 483 tiles is plenty of space for as a single person, and as a casual player I actually doubt I'd even have time to take care of a bigger deed anyway.

 

4. I made sure that I understood (and accepted) that there are a lot of people willing to invest much more in Wurm than me, both in terms of time and money and there's no way I could even dream to compete with them. That's why I decided to not even try to compare myself with anyone else, but just focus on my little place and on my personal progress, both done at a pace I'm comfortable with and that's what I recommend you all. It may look like snail speed to some people, but, guess what... it's not important what they think, but what suits us and what brings us enjoyment.

 

 

My deed (where things start to get weird)

 

I decided that, despite the many inherent disadvantages, I'd really to have a little private island all for myself... ideally I wanted an island to match as close as possible my desired deed size (about 500 tiles) - not too big (because I wanted to keep in control both my costs and my required time to maintain it), not too small, with at least some rock layer (essential) and, ideally, also with some clay (optional)... found a few amazing ones, but I was beaten to them on the land race grab race, so I could only congratulate their owners and keep searching.

And just when I was about to give up, I managed to find my little paradise... it's not perfect, it's not what I wished for... it's (much) smaller than i hoped, it doesn't have any clay, but hey, it's mine and despite all its flaws I really love it! It has some rock layer, although not very much, but I'll try to see if I can raise at least a few extra tiles out of water with concrete (crazy much, isn't it? hahaha). It is located on the border between K10 and K11 on the Melody server (not the bigger island there which belongs to my neighbor, but the really tiny one - basically just a dot on the map - south west of it) and here's the first deed planner export of it (I wish that I would have taken one on day one, but I didn't knew about this feature until later on, when some heavy digging/rock revealing already took place): https://warlander.github.io/DeedPlanner-3-web/?map=https%3A%2F%2Fpastebin.com%2FzxG79GU3

 

 

My play style (where things get really weird)

 

While I definitely don't recommend this play style to other people, I decided to set some extra challenges for myself: first of all I dropped all the starting tools and started from scratch, then (and that's the really crazy part) I also decided to never use any enchants, runes or items that I haven't gathered, crafted and improved myself.

 

Talking about the distribution of my play time, I realized (only after it became a burden that almost made me quit the game) that they key to manage to make any progress as a casual player with limited play time is to try to minimize the time spent on daily chores as much as possible (I wrote a bit more about this here) and not spread your resources too thin, but instead try to focus them on one mini-project at a time (I wrote a bit more about this here).

 

 

What I have achieved so far (updated)

 

This list will always be updated with all (or at least my most noticeable) achievements:

- took my time and found a place that I really love for my first deed

- made a set of basic tools, including flint and steel (which was the last one) to replace the starting ones that I dropped on day one

- made 1x1 shed, with a bed inside, so I can start getting sleep bonus

- joined a religion (so I can enjoy follower bonuses), made an altar, and leveled my faith to 30

- made a meditation rug, meditated to level 20 (so I can start the CDs), joined Path of Love (so I can start the CDs) and already reached level five (which means I can refresh myself now)

- got to 21 body control (so I can ride horses) and to 23 body strength (so I can load items)

- made a large cart and a row boat so I can move freely across the map (still in the plan to add some rafts to them for extra storage, but I just started with that)

- made a FSB and about ten BSBs to store my mats (started to sort them based on ql already)

- made a forge (although not having a mine yet, and still rummaging for my iron)

- made a larder and filled it with some snowballs (not many though, because of time constraints) to help a bit with food conservation

- got myself a couple of horses, started to breed them and I now have some foals and waiting to start the second generation

- started a really small farming plot for cotton and wemp (not vegetables because I plan to relay on the Refresh ability from the meditation path)

- improved my items as much as I was able to based on my mats ql (that was about 18ql for wood items, about 9 ql for stone items and, please don't laugh, about 3 ql for iron items) and I plan to improve them all to 20+

- and most of all worked on terraforming my deed - I exposed all the rock above the ground and now I'm working with dredging dirt from below water on the additional tiles, to see if I find tiles where I'll can potentially rise the rock level above water with concrete

 

 

Characteristics and relevant skills (updated)

 

Characteristics:

- Mind: 20.18
--- Mind logic: 24.26
--- Mind speed: 19.94
- Soul: 14.60
--- Soul depth: 21.95
--- Soul strength: 20.05
- Body: 22.58
--- Body strength: 23.39
--- Body stamina: 22.56
--- Body control: 21.92

 

Skills:

- Prospecting: 14.14

- Climbing: 29.03
- Mining: 13.39
- Digging: 69.51

- Smithing

--- Blacksmithing: 19.03

- Tailoring

--- Leatherworking: 16.23
Nature: 30.57
--- Gardening: 22.84
--- Foraging: 36.91
--- Botanizing: 22.74
--- Forestry: 16.91

--- Farming: 14.64
--- Meditating: 36.94
--- Animal husbandry: 35.00
- Miscellaneous items: 37.70
--- Shovel: 44.28
--- Pickaxe: 15.14
--- Repairing: 26.24
--- Sickle: 14.49

--- Hammer: 13.47
- Axes: 12.45
--- Hatchet: 12.78
- Woodcutting: 20.11
- Carpentry: 40.82
--- Fine carpentry: 22.36
--- Ship building: 13.94

Deed plan (updated)

 

Deed plan: https://warlander.github.io/DeedPlanner-3-web/?map=https%3A%2F%2Fpastebin.com%2FbGdecawN

 

 

Current projects (updated)

 

1. build enough BSBs so I can have one for every 10 ql range (0 to 9.99 ql, 10.00 to 19.99, and so on 'till 90.00 to 99.99), then some more for my dirt and sand

2. build a second large cart and fill it with seven rafts to work as a mobile "large chest"

3. level my woodcutting to at least 25 (which will be kinda slow since with only a rowboat I can only cut and haul home three trees at a time) and gather a reasonable supply of 25+ ql logs, so I'll can start improving my wood items up to 25 ql (and then have to worry about reimping 'till they drop to 20ql)

4. level my mining to 25 (which again will be kinda slow since with only a rowboat I can only haul 40 shards home at a time) and gather a reasonable supply of 25+ ql rock shards and iron lumps, so I'll can start improving my metal and masonry items up to 25 ql (and then have to worry about reimping 'till they drop to 20ql)

5. improve all my items up to 25 ql (which, again, will probably take quite a lot of time since my skills are really low)

6. finish dredging the edges of my island, so I can see exactly what tiles I'll can raise out of water with concrete later on

7. raise the NW corner of my deed above water level

 

 

Final thoughts

 

Although I know there won't be many (if any) interested in my diary, I'll keep updating this at least once per month for as long as I'll keep playing.

 

Comments, constructive criticism and advises are more than welcome!

Edited September 13, 2020 by Bloodreina

[kochinac 1,395]

Excellent decisions Looking forward to read about your progress in future

Although i would advise in commissioning priest when time comes and prices normalize if you happen to have extra coins, might be too much without it.

[kochinac 1,395]

Also i just realized answering another thread. You probably might not have much use for sleep powder you get from your premium purchase so you can sell it to cover your deed costs and thus go to premium package without coins which is cheaper. Also hunting and botanizing will most likely provide you with some money montly even casualy doing it.

[Tristanc 570]

Please continue your journal. I'm enjoying reading about your brand new start and future adventures!

 

Don't worry about a priest early on, except perhaps contracting for adding a spirit mansion or similar so you can recieve ingame mail easily. 

CoC and other enchantments are nice, but not absolutely necessary for enjoying life on your own in Wurm at a non-competitive pace early on.

 

Edited August 15, 2020 by Tristanc

[Bloodreina 301]

31 minutes ago, kochinac said:

Also i just realized answering another thread. You probably might not have much use for sleep powder you get from your premium purchase so you can sell it to cover your deed costs and thus go to premium package without coins which is cheaper. Also hunting and botanizing will most likely provide you with some money montly even casualy doing it.

 

That is actually a brilliant advice which I will sure follow; I was not aware that you get a sleep bonus with every month of premium. Also edited the original post to reflect that.

Edited August 15, 2020 by Bloodreina

[Ecrir 887]

For your rotating between 4 activities (1 a day), after a while you might also figure out which activities work better depending on your mood, and adjust what you do based on that. For example after a long an exhausting day at work I'm more likely to chill with some terraforming than to go out hunting (getting killed and having to find your body is a massive pita when you're tired) or crafting. While during weekends I'm much more likely to go hunting, crafting or just exploring in general

 

One tip for the daily chores, taking a break from them every now and then can be a good idea. For example with farming sometimes I just don't bother tending to the fields during an entire harvest. I'll of course end up with way less produce at the end, but a lot less work went into it as well. And some months I ignore farming altogether (that's of course easier to do at higher farming, as stocking up on enough stuff for a few months can be done in a pretty short time then). I also don't tend to my animals daily any more.

Be careful that you don't end up spending way too much time on those chores, after all before you know it you're tending to a chicken coop as well, harvesting herbs every day, tending your fields, grooming your horses, milking other animals, harvest whatever is in season, etc. So you probably want to put a time limit of sorts on the chores just as how you've put one on your Wurm playtime in general, and make sure that you don't turn it into a monotonous job with said chores as that's a good way to burn out on the game

[Bloodreina 301]

38 minutes ago, Ecrir said:

Be careful that you don't end up spending way too much time on those chores, after all before you know it you're tending to a chicken coop as well, harvesting herbs every day, tending your fields, grooming your horses, milking other animals, harvest whatever is in season, etc. So you probably want to put a time limit of sorts on the chores just as how you've put one on your Wurm playtime in general, and make sure that you don't turn it into a monotonous job with said chores as that's a good way to burn out on the game

 

To be honest, that was (and to a degree still is) my biggest fear too, and my aim is to not spend more than a quarter of my playtime (so about 30 minutes per day) on chores.

Now, I definitely hope that this problem will solve by itself on the premises that by having a small deed (and it's a tiny island, so not like I can expand further :P) I will be limited on the number of farm tiles and animals that I can have.

 

But, definitely, if I'll see that I end up constantly spending more than 30 minutes per day with them, I'll try to find solution to cut down the time and you have some great ideas there for which I thank you deeply.

Edited August 15, 2020 by Bloodreina

[Davih 1,340]

9 hours ago, Bloodreina said:

Climbing: 25.31

What the acual f?

i have 18 climbing after playing 4 years with my main, and i climbed a reasonable amount of times, lol

Edited August 15, 2020 by Davih

[Korhaka 32]

You are enjoying the game and that's what counts. Maybe consider socialising with the locals and joining an alliance if there is one in the area. It's a good way to hear about projects going on in the area if there is something that interests you and you may be able to trade with alliance members at more favourable terms than trade chat. Possibly working on local projects and someone may make you a few better tools to use.

[Chiqa 742]

What a great write up!

One of the many wonderful things about Wurm is we can all enjoy it our own way, you have showcased that brilliantly. 

[Spolmit 621]

Wurm is a superb game as it gives people the freedom to play in whatever style they wish.

 

I love it when 'diarists' write up their life in Wurm as it is something that I have done on a WU server that I also play on.

 

One thing that I wish I had done but always left it too late and that is to keep a pictorial record of the progression of one of my deeds. It may be something that you would think about doing so that you would have the development / story of your life in Wurm in both words and pictures, if not for public viewing then for yourself?

 

Whether you do this or not, I wish you great fun and like others posting here, I look forward to hearing about your achievements, hopes, successes and the occasional problem that you come across.

[KharnovKrow 105]

On 8/15/2020 at 2:54 AM, Ecrir said:

For your rotating between 4 activities (1 a day), after a while you might also figure out which activities work better depending on your mood, and adjust what you do based on that. For example after a long an exhausting day at work I'm more likely to chill with some terraforming than to go out hunting (getting killed and having to find your body is a massive pita when you're tired) or crafting. While during weekends I'm much more likely to go hunting, crafting or just exploring in general

 

One tip for the daily chores, taking a break from them every now and then can be a good idea. For example with farming sometimes I just don't bother tending to the fields during an entire harvest. I'll of course end up with way less produce at the end, but a lot less work went into it as well. And some months I ignore farming altogether (that's of course easier to do at higher farming, as stocking up on enough stuff for a few months can be done in a pretty short time then). I also don't tend to my animals daily any more.

Be careful that you don't end up spending way too much time on those chores, after all before you know it you're tending to a chicken coop as well, harvesting herbs every day, tending your fields, grooming your horses, milking other animals, harvest whatever is in season, etc. So you probably want to put a time limit of sorts on the chores just as how you've put one on your Wurm playtime in general, and make sure that you don't turn it into a monotonous job with said chores as that's a good way to burn out on the game

 

Just speaking as someone who plays Wurm in a relatively "casual" fashion, I have been playing (off-and-on) for about two years now, and I think there is plenty to enjoy without feeling a need to compete with other players; as long as you're enjoying yourself, whether or not other players are ahead of you in skills or silver doesn't really matter. Sounds like you're having a great time, and I hope you keep enjoying Wurm and that more people like you join our community

 

I don't think that the schedule you have described merits any criticism if it works for you, but I would suggest that being arbitrarily restrictive about which days you perform particular activities might be more of a hindrance than a help. If you are worried about overdoing one particular activity, another way to go about it might be focusing more on the ends than the means; pick out two or three (or however many you like) projects that you can rotate between, preferably a selection with a wide variety of activities involved that you can engage in depending on how you are feeling at a given time; Ecrir's point above about matching your Wurm schedule with your RL schedule was absolutely on-point IMO  

 

The interconnected nature of skills and materials in Wurm means that trying to be mostly independent in one particular "field" almost inevitably involves developing several other skillsets. To be a Shipwright, you need Farming and Woodcutting (and Forestry perhaps?) for raw materials, plus Cloth Tailoring and Ropemaking on top of the actual Shipbuilding. To be a fully self-sufficient Smith, you need Mining (+Prospecting?) to gather raw materials, Masonry to build a decent Forge (plus Pottery if you want a Smelter). Beyond basic survival, just the project of becoming competent in a single "trade" can involve a wide array of activities, and it's one of the things I love about Wurm  

[Bloodreina 301]

Updated the original post with a few extra thoughts and with the status update after 100 hours of /playtime, so feel free to check it out if you're interested.

 

Instead of making a regular update, I decided to rewrite the OP, because there were some relatively big changes to the approach as a whole.

Edited August 24, 2020 by Bloodreina

[Bloodreina 301]

UPDATE POST

 

At the moment that I'm writing this post, I have exactly 120 hours of /playtime, which should have been my game time for two full months, but, being in vacation at the moment (so having more spare time) and also being really excited about this new adventure, I decided to let myself splurge a bit and play for four hours per day instead of tow, in order to give myself a bit of a head start. It was fun, I don't regret it, but, to be honest, it was also quite tiresome and I would definitely not be able to sustain such a play style on the long run, so starting today (August 19th), I'm back on my original plan of sticking to an average of two hours per day.

 

So what I managed to achieve in this time:

- took my time and found a place that I really love for my first deed

- took part in Cadence's land rush and found another place that I really love for my second deed

- made a set of basic tools, including flint and steel (which was the last one), since, as previously said, I dropped my starting tools on day one

- made a bed inside a 1x1 shed so I can start getting sleep bonus

- joined a religion (so I can enjoy follower bonuses), made an altar, leveled my faith to 30 and even attended the Rite of Spring casts from Harmony

- made a meditation rug, meditated to level 20 (so I can start the CDs), joined Path of Love (so I can start the CDs) and already reached level four (which means I can refresh myself now)

- got to 21 body control, so I can ride horses and working my way to 23 body strength so I can load items (although not there yet)

- made a FSB and a few BSBs to store my mats (started to sort them based on ql already)

- made a large cart and a row boat so I can move freely across the map (still in the plan to add some rafts to them for extra storage, but didn't get to that yet)

- made a forge (although not having a mine yet, and still rummaging for my iron)

- got myself a couple of horses, breed them and I now have my first few foals

- gathered some sprouts, planted them and now waiting to have trees on my deed

- started a really small farming plot for cotton and wemp (not vegetables because I plan to relay on the Refresh ability from the meditation path)

- improved my items as much as I was able to based on my mats ql (that was about 18ql for wood items, about 9 ql for stone items and, please don't laugh, about 3 ql for iron items)

- started to terraform my deed - I exposed all the rock above the ground and now I'm working with dredging dirt from below water on the additional tiles, to see if I find tiles where I'll can potentially rise the rock level above water with concrete

 

 

Characteristics:

- Mind: 17.91
--- Mind logic: 23.23
--- Mind speed: 19.71
- Soul: 12.48
--- Soul depth: 21.39
--- Soul strength: 20.05
- Body: 21.43
--- Body strength: 22.69
--- Body stamina: 22.10
--- Body control: 21.22

 

Skills:

- Climbing: 26.96
- Mining: 13.39
- Digging: 64.75

- Smithing

--- Blacksmithing: 10.20
- Nature: 26.20
--- Gardening: 21.18
--- Foraging: 31.54
--- Botanizing: 20.64
--- Forestry: 16.56

--- Farming: 10.79
--- Meditating: 30.67
--- Animal husbandry: 27.85
- Miscellaneous items: 33.99
--- Shovel: 42.99
--- Pickaxe: 15.14
--- Repairing: 21.94
--- Sickle: 14.04

--- Hammer: 12.26
- Axes: 11.45
--- Hatchet: 12.38
- Woodcutting: 18.59
- Carpentry: 34.46
--- Fine carpentry: 16.46
--- Ship building: 12.69

 

Deed plan: https://warlander.github.io/DeedPlanner-3-web/?map=https%3A%2F%2Fpastebin.com%2FkTVhjHyH

Edited September 3, 2020 by Bloodreina

[Bloodreina 301]

UPDATE POST

 

I'll be out camping during the weekend and then school will start, so I clocked in a few extra hours to make the "quota" for September, at the moment that I'm writing this I have 150 hours (6 days and 6 hours) of /playtime, which means an average of about four hours since the server launch and 'till the end of September. I know that's about double what I said I'll spend on the game, but, since I was in vacation all this time (so having more spare time) and also being really excited about this new adventure, I considered that i can allow myself to splurge a bit and play for that much in order to have a bit of a head start. It was fun, I don't regret it, but, to be honest (at least about the end), it was also quite tiresome and I'm well aware that I would definitely not be able to sustain such a play style on the long run, so starting with September, I'll be back on my original plan of sticking to an average of two hours per day.
 

In these last few days, I continued to dredge the dirt around my island and I have to say that it started to take shape and I revealed much of the needed slopes (as you'll can see from the deed map). Other than that, I made myself a basic set of leather armor and I continued to improve the rest of my tools a bit (to about 19-20 ql for wood items, about 9-10 ql for stone items and, please don't laugh, about 4-5 ql for the iron items), got a few new foals (although it still eludes me why despite having 30+ AH I still see maximum one, but at most foals none, traits) and started to level up a bit my prospecting. As a notable characteristic gain, I managed to reach 23 body strength, so I can now load things in a cart/wagon/boat.

 

Characteristics:

- Mind: 20.08
--- Mind logic: 24.13
--- Mind speed: 19.90
- Soul: 13.96
--- Soul depth: 21.77
--- Soul strength: 20.05
- Body: 22.41
--- Body strength: 23.27
--- Body stamina: 22.48
--- Body control: 21.86

 

Skills:

- Prospecting: 14.14

- Climbing: 28.72
- Mining: 13.39
- Digging: 68.82

- Smithing

--- Blacksmithing: 17.79

- Tailoring

--- Leatherworking: 16.23
Nature: 29.43
--- Gardening: 22.34
--- Foraging: 36.15
--- Botanizing: 22.22
--- Forestry: 16.91

--- Farming: 13.11
--- Meditating: 33.61
--- Animal husbandry: 33.10
- Miscellaneous items: 37.07
--- Shovel: 44.20
--- Pickaxe: 15.14
--- Repairing: 25.04
--- Sickle: 14.37

--- Hammer: 13.47
- Axes: 11.91
--- Hatchet: 12.48
- Woodcutting: 19.47
- Carpentry: 39.98
--- Fine carpentry: 21.55
--- Ship building: 13.91

Deed plan: https://warlander.github.io/DeedPlanner-3-web/?map=https%3A%2F%2Fpastebin.com%2FHEbG4MSj

 

As always, comments, constructive criticism and advises are more than welcome!

Edited August 31, 2020 by Bloodreina

[Madnath 3,113]

It's a very interesting thread, I enjoy reading through this kind of thing.

 

I agree trying the journal is absolutely vital, the things it gives you for mostly natural progression are INCREDIBLE.

I'd also say to semi-ignore people who tell you not to grind. Wurm is a game where if you don't do some degree of grind when it feels right, you'll eventually hit a wall where your skills don't match up to where you want them to be, and in most players, utterly stagnates them where they still insist on outdated information because they don't take time to learn the systems anymore.

[Bloodreina 301]

UPDATE POST

 

It was a complicated weekend and, more than once, I was on the edge of quitting the game. And that was not because I didn't liked it any more, but the opposite - I got to like it so much, that it started to turn in some sort of addiction and it ended up taking more and more of my time (up to an average of four hours per day as I previously said) and masking me miss out on real life activities.

 

However, after discussing with a few people and thinking it thoroughly I believe I managed to pinpoint the problem which was that I was spending too much of my time doing chores and not having enough time left to work on my projects, which made me feel frustrated and want to spend extra time so I can also see some progress.

 

And now, with the problem identified, I can start to think at solutions to reduce / minimize the time spent on chores and increase the share of my playtime available for projects; and here's the point where I'd need your advice helping me identify possible chores and suggest me which ones I could/should drop.

 

So, here's the list I have far now:

 

1) Repairs - checking if things need repairing every day so they don't go *poof* can be very time consuming, even on a small deed like mine, but I figured out that if they're high enough quality (think about 20-30ql) they should be safe for at least one week, so I could turn this chore from a daily one to a weekly one. So the plan is to improve any item that I craft to about 20-30 ql then maintain them at that level, and only do maintenance work once per week.

 

2) Meditation - the level 11 reward from Path of Knowledge (25% passive gain on all skills) sounds awesome, but trying to stick in as many meditation ticks as possible (especially after the first five) can easily become a huge burden, so I really think that for a casual player like me not aiming for that, but just be happy with the Path of Love rewards and never try to meditate above the first five ticks, might be wiser. So the plan is to stick with the Path of Love and only do the first five meditation of a day. That is still under debate.

 

3) Cooking (which includes gathering cooking ingredients - meat via fishing/hunting and veggies via farming/foraging) - everyone says that cooking (especially at high level) can be very rewarding and I'm sure that's very true for people with a lot of playtime, but in my case, especially since I'd have the Refresh ability from the Path of Love meditation path, I really think it might be wiser to ignore the whole food part of the game (at least for the time being). So the plan is to ignore (at least for the time being) the whole food part of the game (cooking, hunting, fishing, foraging, farming - for food items at least) and just count on the Refresh ability. That is still under debate.

 

4) Animal husbandry - that's actually one of the things I really like in WURM, but it is also rather time consuming and since I live on a tiny island, I honestly can hardly justify the time investment for some horses I would probably never use much, so I really think that for my particular case, it might be way wiser to stop doing it and just keep a couple of horses, brand them, care for them and don't worry about getting traited ones (at lest for the time being). So the plan is to ignore (at least for the time being) the whole animal husbandry part of the game and just keep a couple of random horses eventually with a nice name and color combination. That is still under debate.

 

5) Resources hoarding (mainly via rummaging / foraging / botanizing) - spending some time every day rummaging / foraging / botanizing sounded like an awesome plan early on in order to gather resources, since it gave me access to a variety of them (iron, rock - which I would both miss otherwise since I don't have a mine yet, cotton, wemp, vegetables, sprouts, healing cover ingredients, etc), not to mention the change to start getting those elusive coins once the king's coffers would be replenished. However, I now feel that it is too time consuming and I should better spend that time focusing on gathering the exact resources I need instead of going on this hoarding approach - like if I need some wood, cut a couple of trees, if I need some iron, mine some ores, if I need some wemp and cotton, keep some fields planted. So the plan is to replace my daily rummaging / foraging / botanizing with targeted resource gathering (at least for the time being). That is still under debate.

So... what do you guys think about my ideas? Good? Bad? Comments? Criticism? Observations? Looking forward for your answers... please help...

Edited September 1, 2020 by Bloodreina

[Jberg 3,070]

Really nice post!

 

The plan of improving things will absolutely aid in the sense of decay. If it's a major issue/distraction to what you want to achieve, you may want to look in to underground housing as things in houses in caves decay even slower. You probably already know that no structure on deed with over 30 days of upkeep will take decay damage, but I'll mention it anyway.

 

The meditation confusion between Knowledge and Love is a moot point in my personal opinion. Sure, 25% extra skill gain may seem like a great boon. And it is, do not get me wrong! But getting to 70 meditation will take you a long, long time. For a casual(-ish) player, Love is perfect. With the refresh at level 4, you practically negate the need for cooked food (beyond affinity meals, when those start to become cheaper) since you can starve once and still stay over 70 nutrition (which means no skill gain penalty). And you won't need more than that if you play two hours per day.

 

Adding on to that, level 7 of the path of Love is optimal for your pens to keep your trusty steeds fed without having to worry too much about starvation. Don't get me wrong, the animals can still pack it and force you to re-do it, but it should be a relatively rare occurrence.

 

Continuing to build on the point of Refresh vs Cooking, as I mentioned earlier, I wouldn't bother too much about it unless you really like to do that kind of a thing. If you decide to not pursue it, though, it may be worth looking in to purchasing a Small/Large Magic Chest (paid items, caution) at a point in the future to keep heavy and affinity-specific meals for a long time without decay - otherwise, it's not very worth to purchase specific affinity foods.

 

Building on a small mention in your first post about clay not being on your initial island - this is something you can remedy as a player with the player transmutation system. It's going to be quite pricey starting out, but should settle down to a few silvers over the span of a year or two, hopefully. https://www.wurmpedia.com/index.php/Transmutation_liquid_(Feature)

 

---

 

Adding on my personal notes, I would sincerely encourage you to keep up with the foraging / botanizing / killing creatures for fight skill / burying corpses. Even if you don't get the rare window of opportunity often that provides the coins, it's a free amount of extra coppers and silvers that will make a difference over time for little extra effort if you're doing it in passing. Something else you can do, if coins is something you look to accumulate without paying real life currency for them, which is selling items to your token. 

 

Be very careful with this though, once sold, even we GM cannot get the item back, and we will not intervene except in exceptional circumstances. You sell the item you have activated by right-clicking the token and selecting "Sell". It's a paltry amount of coin you get, and it is 1 iron coin + 1 iron per 10 QL of the item you are selling. You will be capped to a low amount of money that you can sell per time frame (sorry, it's late and I don't recall specifics), and it's quite click intensive. It's up to each and every one to decide if it's worth it.

 

I personally admire the discipline to stick to a fixed number of hours per day and budgeting it towards things you enjoy, and I hope you manage to maintain it. I wish I had your fortitude in setting limits the decade ago I personally joined, but here we are today with a recent relatively large landmark of my own; [00:16:38] You have played 701 days, 13 hours and 19 minutes.  Yeah. Not getting that time back.

 

Wurm is an expansive and extremely open-world game. I sincerely admire people that can find their little niche and stick to it, just doing what they enjoy. Thank you for providing this perspective on the game, it's truly a valuable thing to get insight into how someone fresh to the game views the world we aim to provide. Even though it has its ups and downs, I hope you will enjoy your stay.

 

Best of luck, and happy travels.

J

[Bloodreina 301]

7 minutes ago, Jberg said:

Tons of good advises...

 

Thank you a lot! Both for the nice words of encouragement and for the very good advises.

I'm on already on PoL level 5 (three days away of level 6), so looks like I'm well set with this and I should prolly stick with that and forget that PoK even exists - it is awesome, but probably not for a casual player like me.

 

I am willing to buy my premium with RL$ every month and my deeds upkeep is only 2s per month (together), so by selling the sleep powder I won't need much more to cover it, so I will prolly not waste my limited time on the selling to token thing, but maybe I should follow your advice and keep doing my foraging/botanizing, especially they're some of my highest skills already.

 

And yeah, that was my intention when I started this thread... not to brag about anything (because, to be honest, there's nothing to brag with in the first place) or draw attention (although I do enjoy it if it happens - hahaha), but mainly to present a different perspective and show other new players like me that there is more than one way the game can be played, or, as I like to say about sandboxes, there are tons of things you can do, but (almost) nothing you have to do.
 

[Zenity 728]

I’ve been a ‘casual’ player for about 10 years now, it’s a great play style if you’re trying to avoid burning out, a very real problem over time if you do decide to push for a particular skill, or get over involved in a particular project, I tend to do the daily chores, then go hunting these days, having reached a point where I have a nice settled deed with all the buildings, tools and animals I’ll ever need. 
 

Now that I’m playing from scratch on a new character on Harmony I am trying to limit my playtime somewhat, so getting the chores done, working on a sailboat and doing some imposing and skilling at the forge is most Ethan enough, with an occasional hunting trip to top up the FSB a little, not that many animals are around right now, but it’s good to get out and see the steppes and wave at the unicorns, (yes, I know Uni’s are a decent source of meat etc, I just hate killing them), I have a guard tower now, so sacked the Templar, not that the tower guards do much, apart from the occasional troll we can drag across the steppe. 

Anyway, keep up the good work, stick to your strategy, in the long run it’ll lead to much more enjoyment of the game, and less like having to work as if it were a job, after all, it’s a game, it’s supposed to be fun, and as they say in gambling ads, when the fun stops, stop playing.

[KharnovKrow 105]

Hello Bloodreina, let me add my name to the list of players who are glad you didn't decide to leave us! I've enjoyed your diaries as a casual player, and I hope that you find the proper balance between Wurm and RL. I really would strongly recommend being comfortable with walking away from Wurm for short periods of time if things are starting to feel too monotonous or scheduled; as long as you've paid your upkeep decently, Wurm will be waiting if you need some time away

 

Looking at the list of ideas you posted recently, I would generally say that it looks good! Cooking and Animal Husbandry are indeed both cool skills, but ones that can be indulged as a hobby or ignored if you use the Path of Love to maintain your nutrition; making friends with a cook who can give you nice CCFP food is helpful, but not necessary. I'd also agree that acquiring resources as needed makes much more sense, rather than making it into a chore, is a good idea unless you're committed enough to a particular trade that acquiring the appropriate resources constantly makes sense. Foraging is arguably an exception due to coins, but you've expressed a willingness to fund yourself with RL$ so that's a luxury really

[Tristanc 570]

I'd recommend focusing on having only a single deed on a single server.  Bouncing between two different places increases your time commitment by a large amount.

 

[Bloodreina 301]

6 hours ago, Tristanc said:

I'd recommend focusing on having only a single deed on a single server.  Bouncing between two different places increases your time commitment by a large amount.

 

 

This is a very sensible advice, but the second deed was not and will not be developed any time soon; I actually only set foot on it (and on Cadence server all together) just once - when I've set it and paid its upkeep for a while. It is just there just because I liked the location and i want it to have it reserved for an eventual future project, nothing more.

Edited September 2, 2020 by Bloodreina

[Bloodreina 301]

UPDATE POST

 

Just a short update because, as I hinted in my previous message, I decided to change my approach. Starting now, I'll try to reduce "chores" (maintenance work) at a minimum and try to focus as much as possible on "projects" (progress) and, in order to be able to see some results even with my time constraints, I will no longer split my time doing something else every day, but instead focus on finishing a small project, then move to the next one.

 

And here's the list with my first "projects":

1. build enough BSBs so I can have one for every 10 ql range (0 to 9.99 ql, 10.00 to 19.99, and so on 'till 90.00 to 99.99), then some more for my dirt and sand

2. build a second large cart and fill it with seven rafts to work as a mobile "large chest"

3. level my woodcutting to at least 25 (which will be kinda slow since with only a rowboat I can only cut and haul home three trees at a time) and gather a reasonable supply of 25+ ql logs, so I'll can start improving my wood items up to 25 ql (and then have to worry about reimping 'till they drop to 20ql)

4. level my mining to 25 (which again will be kinda slow since with only a rowboat I can only haul 40 shards home at a time) and gather a reasonable supply of 25+ ql rock shards and iron lumps, so I'll can start improving my metal and masonry items up to 25 ql (and then have to worry about reimping 'till they drop to 20ql)

5. improve all my items up to 25 ql (which, again, will probably take quite a lot of time since my skills are really low)

6. finish dredging the edges of my island, so I can see exactly what tiles I'll can raise out of water with concrete later on

7. raise the NW corner of my deed above water level

 

I'll post a new update once a project is completed and another one joins the queue (I aim to always have a list of at least five projects in the working).

 

Anyway, enough about the future, let's see how the things look in the present.

 

Characteristics:

- Mind: 20.16
--- Mind logic: 24.23
--- Mind speed: 19.94
- Soul: 14.50
--- Soul depth: 21.92
--- Soul strength: 20.05
- Body: 22.54
--- Body strength: 23.37
--- Body stamina: 22.56
--- Body control: 21.87

 

Skills:

- Prospecting: 14.14

- Climbing: 29.01
- Mining: 13.39
- Digging: 69.51

- Smithing

--- Blacksmithing: 17.79

- Tailoring

--- Leatherworking: 16.23
Nature: 30.43
--- Gardening: 22.84
--- Foraging: 36.91
--- Botanizing: 22.72
--- Forestry: 16.91

--- Farming: 14.47
--- Meditating: 36.31
--- Animal husbandry: 34.57
- Miscellaneous items: 37.65
--- Shovel: 44.28
--- Pickaxe: 15.14
--- Repairing: 26.05
--- Sickle: 14.49

--- Hammer: 13.47
- Axes: 12.45
--- Hatchet: 12.78
- Woodcutting: 20.11
- Carpentry: 40.06
--- Fine carpentry: 21.55
--- Ship building: 13.94

Deed plan: https://warlander.github.io/DeedPlanner-3-web/?map=https%3A%2F%2Fpastebin.com%2FbGdecawN

 

As always, comments, constructive criticism and advises are more than welcome!

Edited September 3, 2020 by Bloodreina

[Nekojin 197]

Glad to see you're sticking around, Bloodreina! 😺