Wurm Online Progression - unlock your potential

[Muse 2,227]

I watched with interest a recent Twitch video from the Factional Fight Brothers.  @McGarnicle @Faeran Gryph and Faeran were discussing their belief that some (otherwise keen) players might be losing interest after a few months of play.  Faeran believed this was because although players had lots of in game rewards and achievements in the first few months, subsequently these milestones became too spread out and far apart to hold the interest of some.

 

I too think this might be happening because in game milestones tend to be linked to each skill level reached, rather than the amount of time played, and skill-gain slows down considerably as skills rise, thus these milestones move further apart.  Rewards come thick and fast in the beginning from 1-30, and are slowing down yet still keeping folk interested perhaps into the 30s and 40s skills, but after that, milestones and rewards tend to slow down to the point where paying premium for another month or year might seem like less value to some, because there can seem to be fewer visible goals on the player's horizon during that time.

 

I want to use this space to draw up a list of the existing milestones for each skill (and I will need your help here!).  I am hoping for a list of potentially game-changing features you can currently unlock, especially those for which it's worth staying or going premium, rather than just a list of all spells or items.  I am also not recording the gradual improvement to the chance of successful actions with increased skill.  Goals are a personal thing, but I've put in a few of my own favourites to start.  I can't determine how long it will take a player to reach these milestones, because it varies between players, but the aim is to spot any gaps or desert zones where no big goal is imminently available in any given skill - so that the Devs could come along and maybe provide content to fill those gaps.    If we can particularly look at giving people some juicy goals to reach in the 40-60 skill range zone, maybe this may help some players who may be dropping out due to inadequate milestones.

 

Skill	1-10	10-20	20-30	30-40	40-50	50-60	60-70	70-80	80-90	90-99	99-100
Body	Join faith
Body Strength	Rope Bridge Sag 11-12	Rope Bridge Sag 10	Load, Destroy Pavement, Bash, Dig Roads, Rope Bridge Sag 9	Rope Bridge Sag 8	Rope Bridge Sag 7	Rope Bridge Sag 6	Rope Bridge Sag 5	Rope Bridge Sag 4	Rope Bridge Sag 3
Body Stamina
Body Control	Ride Donkey		Ride Horse	Ride Hell Horse
Mind
Mind Logic			Drive cart, Drive wagon, Sail Knarr	Action Queue++	Action Queue++	Action Queue++	Action Queue++	Action Queue++	Action Queue++	Action Queue++
Mind Speed
Soul
Soul Depth
Soul Strength
Skill	1-10	10-20	20-30	30-40	40-50	50-60	60-70	70-80	80-90	90-99	99-100
Religion
Favor
Faith		Sacrifice, Desecrate	Deity-specific bonuses	Priest	Identify bless auras	Can be champion		Cast at Impalongs			Summon Soul Solo
Alignment
Swords
Longsword
Shortsword
Two Handed Sword
Knives
Carving Knife
Skill	1-10	10-20	20-30	30-40	40-50	50-60	60-70	70-80	80-90	90-99	99-100
Butchering K
Shields
Medium M
Small W
Medium W
Large W
Small M
Large M
Axes
Small Axe
Hatchet
Skill	1-10	10-20	20-30	30-40	40-50	50-60	60-70	70-80	80-90	90-99	99-100
Large Axe
Huge Axe
Mauls
Large Maul
Medium Maul
Small Maul
Carpentry	Build House, Minimum Size Wooden Bridge	Small Crate					Large Crate, Creature Cage	Large Planter
Bowyery
Fletching
F Carp		Ship Transporter	Creature Transporter, Low Bookshelf	High Bookshelf	Wagon, Strange Device	Bulk Container Unit, Archery Tower, Chicken Coop, Wardrobe		Royal Lounge Chaise, Royal Throne, Trebuchet
Toymaking
Skill	1-10	10-20	20-30	30-40	40-50	50-60	60-70	70-80	80-90	90-99	99-100
Shipbuilding
Woodcutting
Mining
Digging		Dig roads (20 Body Strength)
Firemaking
Pottery
Tailoring
Cloth Tailoring
Leatherworking
Masonry			Minimum Size Brick Bridge or Brick Arched Bridge	Stone House, Minimum Size Marble Bridge or Marble Arched Bridge
Stone cutting
Skill	1-10	10-20	20-30	30-40	40-50	50-60	60-70	70-80	80-90	90-99	99-100
Ropemaking	Minimum Size Rope Bridge
Smithing
Weapon Smithing
Blades Smith
Weapon Heads Smith
Armour Smith
Chain Armour S
Plate Armour S
Shield S
Blacksmithing
Locksmithing
Skill	1-10	10-20	20-30	30-40	40-50	50-60	60-70	70-80	80-90	90-99	99-100
Metallurgy
Jewelry Smithing
Cooking
Dairy Food
Hot Food
Baking
Butchering
Beverages
Nature
Fishing
Gardening
Skill	1-10	10-20	20-30	30-40	40-50	50-60	60-70	70-80	80-90	90-99	99-100
Forestry		See age of trees	2 items yield	See age 1 tile away	See age 2 tiles away	3 items	See age 3 tiles away	See age 4 tiles away	4 items	See age 5 tiles away
Farming		See tend state and type of crops	See growth stage	See tend state 2 tiles away, ripe stage 1 tile away		See approx. no. items to harvest
Milking			2x yield			3x			4x
Foraging	NOTE: New Nodes system in place		OLD: 2 items yield (medium+ grass)			OLD: 3 items (tall+ grass)			OLD: 4 items (wild grass)
Botanizing	NOTE: New Nodes system in place		OLD: 2 items yield (medium+ grass)			OLD: 3 items (tall+ grass)			OLD: 4 items (wild grass)
Animal Taming	Can Tame: Pigs, Dogs, Rats, Deer, Mountain Lion, Wildcats, Wolves, Cows, Bulls, Horses	Brown Bears, Young Champ Wolves	Black Bears	Cave Bugs, Unicorns	Crocodiles, Champ Black Bears	Hell Hounds		Hell Horses		Champion Unicorns
Animal Husbandry		Care For (CF) Slot	CF Slot	CF Slot	CF Slot, All negative traits visible	CF Slot	CF Slot	CF Slot	CF Slot	CF Slot
Meditating	Nothing(!)	Join Path	Refresh PoL	Enchant grass PoL, Refill PoI, SoTG PoI		No skill loss PoK		Skillgain PoK
Papyrusmaking			Create wax sealing kits at 21
Miscellaneous Items
Shovel
Skill	1-10	10-20	20-30	30-40	40-50	50-60	60-70	70-80	80-90	90-99	99-100
Rake
Saw
Pickaxe
Hammer
Stone Chisel
Repairing
Sickle
Scythe
Alchemy
Nat Substances
Toys
Skill	1-10	10-20	20-30	30-40	40-50	50-60	60-70	70-80	80-90	90-99	99-100
Yo-Yo
Puppeteering
Fighting		Special moves (SMs) at 19	SMs at 25	SMs at 30	SMs at 40	SMs at 50	SMs at 60	Fight at unique fight
Weaponless
Aggressive
Defensive
Normal
Taunting
Shieldbashing
Healing
First Aid
Skill	1-10	10-20	20-30	30-40	40-50	50-60	60-70	70-80	80-90	90-99	99-100
Clubs
Huge Club
Religion
Preaching
Prayer
Channelling
Exorcism
Hammers
Warhammer
Thievery
Stealing
Skill	1-10	10-20	20-30	30-40	40-50	50-60	60-70	70-80	80-90	90-99	99-100
Lockpicking
Traps
Warmachines
Catapults
Ballistae
Trebuchets
Archery
Short Bow
Medium Bow
Long Bow
Polearms
Skill	1-10	10-20	20-30	30-40	40-50	50-60	60-70	70-80	80-90	90-99	99-100
Long Spear
Halberd
Staff
Tracking
Paving			Stone brick floor, stone, sandstone pottery slab floors	Slate slab floor	Marble slab floor	Can create cats eyes at 10ql+
Prospecting			Estimate QL		Detect Salt		Estimate ore left		Exact QL	Exact ore left
Coal-Making
Milling		Grind Salt
Archaeology			Can use shovel	See settlement name	See mayor	See deed founder		See deeds further afield	See length of occupation
Restoration
Climbing
Thatching
Skill	1-10	10-20	20-30	30-40	40-50	50-60	60-70	70-80	80-90	90-99	99-100
Notes:
Major milestones / goals not just skillgain/titles											Skill locked

 

It appears that there is plenty of incentive to 'go premium' at the 20+ skills range, but there needs to be a similar 'stay premium' drive with a good number of equally worthwhile goals at the 30 40 50 and 60 skill stages, to aid player retention and keep the momentum going.  It could be argued that because skill gain slows down as we go up in skill and goals move further apart - there really need to be *more* (rather than less) goals the higher the skill.

 

Goals can be social / community driven as well as in game mechanics - the ability to join in the fight at unique dragon slayings or cast spells on items at Impalongs are community-set skill levels, rather than hard-coded, but which I feel are important.

Edited December 20, 2023 by Muse

[Nordlys 1,425]

I also think there should be more incentive to go that medium stretch to 40-50-60. I know that the care for slots is a huge reason for me grinding animal husbandry, for example.

 

Heres a few other things that came to mind that already has somethings that unlock:

Forestry - yield and range

Farming - range and estimate

Taming (although not hard caps)

Masonry - house at 30 and bridges at different length require different skill

Paving - Unlocks different floors at different levels, and requires 20 strength and 10 digging for destroying pavement

Animal husbandry - traits and care for

 

Knarr needs the highest mind logic out of the ships, at 24

Hell horse is ridable at 31 body control

Bash at 21 strength

Mind logic gives extra queue slot for every 10 (4x at 30 and so on)

 

There are probably even more than this, like soul depth or soul strength for champions and other stuff also. These were the ones on the top of my head this early morning.  

[Cipacadrinho 390]

Summon soul unlocks at 80faith but would need a link to cast.

[Tor 523]

This should be pinned, among with oblivionreave one for grind stuff

[Burdok 163]

A few points you might want to add which affected my gameplay

 

Meditation - Skill 30 Path of Insanity - Refill (works like refresh without water) + Shield of the Gone

 

And then there is the importance of paving. 

 

 

[McGarnicle 1,463]

Nice work Muse, thanks for doing this.

I'd like to point to prospecting as a good example of a skill that provides meaningful progression. Having just completed the grind to 90 myself, I have to say that I was continually motivated to keep that going due to the abilities I would get once there. Its one thing to get that incremental boost as you skill up (ie. imping that much higher or action times getting that much shorter incrementally), but its another thing entirely to reach a specific level and BAM! now you can do something that you could not do before. Wurm needs more of these kinds of progression, the kind where reaching a specific milestone unlocks an ability that you did not have before. What I love about these kinds of progression items is that they give a strong feeling of character progression. By achieving valuable abilities that are hard to obtain makes your character stand out. For example, now that I have 90 prospecting, others might call on me to help them assess their mine, opening more opportunities for social game play which, for many, results in a deeper connection with the game and adds more incentive to keep playing. If most skills had these kinds of things all the way up to 90, then there would be a lot more incentive for players to set that goal for themselves.

 

A couple of additions off the top of my head:
Animal Husbandry unlocks an additional "care for" slot every 10 levels.

Mind logic unlocks an additional action queue every 10 levels after 20.

Carpentry has a bunch of skill locked items but I'm not sure of them all, ex larder

Weapon skills unlock special moves (not sure of the levels that this happens, but the first one might be at 30)

Faith (I think) unlocks the ability to pray for gems at 50

Forestry/Farming unlocks the ability to see tool tip info for the tiles at further distances every X levels (not sure the frequency on this, might be every 10 levels gives another tile distance)

Forestry unlocks additional tool tip info about the age of trees and if they are sprouting/harvestable, but not sure what levels these happen

Digging unlocks the ability to see slope info on tooltip every 10? levels

 

[Lisimba 779]

Archaeology unlocks abilities at certain skill levels: https://www.wurmpedia.com/index.php/Archaeology#Investigation

 

You also get access to better loot tables with higher skill, but I don't know the exact details.

[Borstaskor 503]

Nice list!

 

As far as I'm concerned, there's no hard caps on taming. There are recommended skill levels where your success rate isn't trash, but that goes with many things in this game.

[user 582]

missing treb at 80 FC. cool list

[wipeout 1,355]

On 6/15/2022 at 4:31 PM, Nordlys said:

Masonry - house at 30 and bridges at different length require different skill

Too add to this

[Muse 2,227]

On 7/31/2022 at 7:20 AM, wipeout said:

Too add to this

 

Thank you @wipeout that's wonderful info - I've added the minimum skills requirements to the table - but your table is amazing!  

[Muse 2,227]

Wanted:

More progression data for the new Nodes for the skills:

• Foraging, and
• Botanizing

If you unlock something new in *any* skill, please post your skill and the item or resource you have unlocked below!  

 

Thanks very much  

[Kulthar 76]

I lost interest after 3 months due to lockpicking being impossible to effectively level up unless you carry a box around and pick it like a robot every 10 minutes lol.