Terraforming with storms

[Sheffie 1,120]

The idea is to provide a mechanism for "re-wilding" areas that were formerly built upon.

 

The proposal is a ritual type spell involving multiple casters, that will create a violent thunderstorm with torrential rain that does damage and performs radically accelerated erosion in a limited area, perhaps 100x100 tiles.

There's a danger of griefing here, and it's important that this spell is cast with the consensus of the community, so it would not be castable on intact buildings or deeds. Casters would need to wait for a building to be decayed (at least one ground floor perimeter wall gone, meaning the building is no longer complete and may be looted or bashed.)

 

Suggested effects:

1. Damage every structure in the area, with random amounts sufficient to destroy many or most buildings and fences.
2. For each Packed tile, Cultivate it.
3. For each paved tile, randomly remove paving. The chance should be higher for steeper tiles.
4. Clear and reshape the land. If the devs can model water flow and half-way realistic erosion, then that would be great. Failing that, the cheap and cheerful approach would be to perform the Flatten action a number of times in each tile, destroying any buildings, fences, trees or bushes that stand in the way. (If the Flatten action can be performed without destroying the plant life, that would be better.)
5. For each bare dirt tile, plant random flowers.

Edited June 6, 2022 by Sheffie

[Muunkey 39]

the "shelter in place" spell... sign of the times...

and archeology meh

Edited June 2, 2022 by Muunkey

[Morbidae 409]

I totally like the idea of renaturing areas. But not a spell that can be aimed cast and destroy buildings.
If someone unlucky and cant put silvers in the upkeep cuz of rl emergencies, and that person comes back all his stuff is gone. Cuz ppl will abuse this.
 

If a spell like this would be a thing, than there needs to be restrictions on when your able to cast. Like area has to be disbanded for 2 month nonstop. Cuz I already see ppl lurking for deeds to fall just to cast the spell.
I have seen ppls deed disband cuz real life took a hold of them and they kinda logged in 3 days late.

Edited June 2, 2022 by Morbidae

[Sheffie 1,120]

Edited to clarify that this spell was not meant to be cast on any intact building, but could be cast after every building in the area has decayed to the point where it could be looted or bashed anyway.

[Tairon 65]

love the idea, changes of terrain could be towards initial untouched map. so over time unsettled terrain would look like the initial island, not like ruined minecraft projects. I dont mind if the full process would take 2 years

[Ekcin 2,407]

-1 to any kind of algorithmic terraforming, sorry.

[DannyUK 212]

Don't think it will work, you can still get grief even in groups because that's how it is sometimes in Wurm.

 

What about new players? Some build off deed, not all but some do before they want a deed, will these be open to destruction also? I prefer to help new players where I can so I'm not sure on the idea.

[Sheffie 1,120]

edited again to emphasize slightly more that the spell will not be castable on buildings.

What's the worry here? That a large group of high level characters will get together to grief a newbie's farm plot?

 

If that actually happens... griefing is expressly forbidden by the rules, and there are mechanisms to deal with it. The penalties are severe enough that I would not expect any established players to want to take the risk.

[DannyUK 212]

Sorry I'm not trying to be nasty about it, I just fear new players will have a hard time with it. The worry is through my own experience I would hate others to feel being treated badly also.

 

If the rules cover this as griefing and dealt with then fine I am ok with that. As I say maybe through my own experience of it I worry for others. We will see if it is implemented in some form or other.

[DaletheGood 1,073]

18 hours ago, Ekcin said:

-1 to any kind of algorithmic terraforming, sorry.

Yeah, no automatic terraforming. Ever.

[weeebiee 52]

-1  for this.. 1 the charms of wurm is ppls hard work stay in some form for long time.. if ppl like natrualy looking stuff. then put in the work to transform it back.

 

[Khaleesi 83]

On 6/7/2022 at 3:43 AM, DaletheGood said:

Yeah, no automatic terraforming. Ever.

 

47 minutes ago, weeebiee said:

-1  for this.. 1 the charms of wurm is ppls hard work stay in some form for long time.. if ppl like natrualy looking stuff. then put in the work to transform it back.

 

 

tottaly agree 

 

-1

[Madnath 3,113]

Weather afaik and others know, is client side. No idea if this would be an issue.

 

As for the idea, suggestions like this are pretty common and the community is generally against it because the whole draw of terraforming in Wurm is once it's done, it's done until another human player comes along and modifies it. There's already a good building/fence decay mechanic in place, and I really don't see a need to make some sort of spell for a small scale weather effect. It also seems like it'd be a nightmare to make it work.

 

The spell is cast, what happens if someone wants to or just straight up deeds the area during this storm? What if someone is working that area before deeding it and hasn't got the skill or made a building for it yet? You either end up with their work gone, or a piece of landlocked land. And that old motto of "deed it or lose it" comes into effect because the area isn't deeded, and the griefing rules don't really say anything about modifying undeeded land.

What happens below ground too? What if the area can't be renaturalised because of open mines? Will this affect rock layer?

Edited June 10, 2022 by Madnath

[Lisimba 779]

1 hour ago, Madnath said:

Weather afaik and others know, is client side. No idea if this would be an issue.

 

The visuals are, but the server knows what the weather is.