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BDCKoolaid

What makes a veteran?

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A friend and I were joking around about me finally being able to apply to the "wurm elite" / "veterans" club since I've finally gotten my first 90 skill in leatherworking, but the discussion got me thinking and I thought it might be fun to hear back from the community, so this is my question to anyone wanting to offer their two cents:

 

What are the must-have qualities a player should have before you would consider them a "veteran"?

 

It's all a subjective opinion, but I thought it might be fun to try to quantify it. :)

 

 

 

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8 minutes ago, HenryofSkalitz said:

10000 hours 😑

 

So if I had a sermon alt with 10k hours, he would be a veteran too?

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10+ years, regardless of skill

 

(I may only be saying this because I've been playing over a decade, but my skills still suck.)

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getting the ###### scared out of you by that perverted tower guard that likes to stand at the window and watch u while u imp something:P

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55 minutes ago, BDCKoolaid said:

 

So if I had a sermon alt with 10k hours, he would be a veteran too?

 

Im referring to the 10000 hours rule.

 

The "10,000 Hour Rule" states that it takes approximately 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to achieve mastery in a particular field or skill. It was popularized by Malcolm Gladwell's book "Outliers". However, it's not an exact science and mastery also depends on factors such as innate talent, dedication, and training quality.

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In many walks of life, a veteran would be someone who has a lot of experience in a skill.

 

In Wurm, I would suggest the term could apply to someone who not only has played regularly for many years (I think many folk would accept 10 years) but is also knowledgeable and can demonstrate this in-game.

 

An example of this could be a person who has played for a long time but also explains things and helps others through chat or in-game. There are obvious examples of this seen every day in the help channels when the same names can be seen aiding less expert players. These to me are the real veterans and not someone like me who has played for the 10 years but is not expert enough to be seen regularly helping people- one day perhaps!

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I think in real life, veteran is often used to denote someone who has been through a certain experience. A veteran of Vietnam war, for instance. In Wurm, I think time is perhaps the best measurement. 10 years seems about right. 

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veteran
noun
  1. A person who has served in the armed forces.
  2. An old soldier who has seen long service.
  3. A person who is long experienced or practiced in an activity or capacity.

 

Generally, we are the only people who know our true history, especially in a game like this. Any previous Jenn-Kellon king or Champion on Epic could login today and no one in our kingdom would recognize his military or general history, mostly because we have almost all new players. Having a certain set of hours is bogus I think, since I personally know players with 1000 hours who don't know the first thing about uniques, weapons, what monsters you can fight with what equipment/FS, anything about Animal Husbandry traits, Meditation path bonuses, rare functionality, Valrei scenarios + missions, the value of moon metal, etc. There are tons of old players who are total noobs in a lot of areas. Being a "veteran" isn't as simple as copy+pasting your time played. It's all objective, like you said.

 

As far as PvP is concerned, I think that veterans are able to survive on their own, build their own deed from scratch, or otherwise master a skill (70+ on Epic with the curve, 80+ curve-less). Surviving in the wilderness is tough, especially alone, since you never know what could be out there. Even with a no-trait horse with 50ql gear, you could run into a dragon, drake spirit, or champ crocodile and be unable to defend yourself/get away/retrieve your corpse.

 

 

I'd say that anyone who has been playing for more than a year and has achieved the knowledge or experience of most of the following could bring someone to claim themselves as a vet or rather I would trust and believe them if they showed evidence of these:

 

Knowledge

  • Knowing to keep the horse fed, knowing how to quickly train Body Control to ride the horse in the first place
  • the main differences between plate/chain/studded/leather
  • what potential sacrificing rare items has + CCFP benefits
  • acknowledging that huge axes are the official unique-slaying weapon and that arrows are pointless even at 90+ Archery
  • knowing the benefit of butchered unique drops and how to use them with source salt, etc
  • having created or lived in a deed for more than a year
  • knows how to win Valrei scenarios and what the potential rewards are
  • knows how fast wood buildings decay off deed

Skill

  • having personally dug 5000+ dirt/clay or made 5000+ bricks/mortar
  • multiple non-gathering 50s, 70s, or an 80-90, Fight skill is especially convincing since it takes so long and is valuable
  • made special tiles using their own transmutation liquid
  • made priest alts and gotten their channeling to a useable level
  • made their own full set of tools, armor, or weapons and can reliably make more
  • had the determination to create a 2+ wide road that spans 250+ tiles and has level width (bonus points for guard towers, lamp posts, slabs)
  • having made 2+ guard towers or 4+ archery towers
  • made 2+ sailboats or at least one of any more advanced boat
  • have created a collection of boats, regardless of whether or not they made/lockpicked them
  • has a merchant somewhere fully loaded with reasonably priced and decent QL equipment/goods
  • created a 5+ story stone building
  • built stone bridges that the community will use for decades to come
  • personally completed an almanac
  • knows how to prospect to find veins

History

  • can name the heads of the local server, their connections, valuable skill assets or PvP knowledge
  • knows the place of the deed they belonged to 5+ years ago, the name and old mayor
  • has memory of the old player gods, their notoriety, and religion

These are all examples of things a player can claim to know or have experienced and I will consider them a veteran Wurmian. You don't have to be familiar with every Wurm Online mechanic or have slain one of each unique to magically become a vet. Just become a personal encyclopedia for your specialized skill(s) and help those who need it.

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The ability to differentiate the concept of noob and veteran. And the guy able to communciate to make others to consider that the guy is a veteran.
Cause, personally, i consider all people are noobs unless they express themself and make me aware they are a veteran.

 

A GM once told me "I have been crystal clear with what I have said. As you have been a player since Sept of 2020, you have 2 yrs experience as to how this works."
I was like can't u see my cute noobie face😳? Then i went to other GM who can see that.😁👶

 

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Purely subjective - take Shydow for example - I would consider him a veteran yet he is still one of the 'newer' players when I think about current Wurm players I know. With the amount of game knowledge Madnath has, I would call him a veteran - but hes also a player thats only been around for half a decade or so. 

Catch me aiding new players on the daily, yet asking how to reinforce a cave floor. I've played actively since 2009. Would I consider myself a veteran? Yeah. 

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knowing when to take a short break when in RL you realize you are calculating how many slopes your neighbors yard is and how much dirt you can dig from it

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Veteran is someone who lived through plenty of mistakes and learned from those.

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13 hours ago, Mith said:

The "Ageless" Title is one way I guess.

That is truly a veteran!
You have it Mith?


(Also, always good to see you around, my favourite teller of old lore.)

 

Personally I'd say someone who played a few years longer than me, I only played like ten years, still a newbie when it comes to so many aspects of Wurm!

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Being able to remember 50kg large anvils, iron scrap, rags and having to use a barrel to check the height of crops to see if they're ripe.

Knowing what Wurmageddon was and yeah having the Ageless title.

💀

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Veteran for me have nothing to do with how long it played but whoever know his way around almost every aspect of the game and it's still playing after the game hit the rock bottom

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surviving tutorial

 

you can easily call a 'vet' somebody enduring through whole journal goals

 

the game have no goals, no milestones or checkpoints to reach to feel accomplished, no set goals for all, besides the journal goals, you make your own goals and follow them or slack on your goals, again at your own convenience as time goes 

Edited by Finnn
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There is unwritten list of "rite of passages" in Wurm to complete the nonexisting title of "A Veteran."

In case you might not know what these rite of passages are, here is some examples:
- Get afk slain by your own donkey.
- Forget you're afk running and spend next hours trying to locate your body in open sea.
- Get punctured by one too many arrows and subsequently lose your boat, in a linked pvp server.
- Discover the certainly unexpected context menu action of at least one of the food items.

In all technicality because this kind of list is unwritten and the title is nonexisting, one does never truly know when they actually gotten it. Perhaps yours or mine, is behind that next "very improbable, adventurous or utterly frustrating" experience?

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@rangerklypfprobably wins the award for best comment. Very well thought out and explored. Really loved seeing everyone's responses though. It seems the most common opinion was that it was based exclusively on time spent playing/being around, but there were some interesting and unique takes.

 

Thank you everyone for offering your thoughts.

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2 hours ago, BDCKoolaid said:

 

Thank you everyone for offering your thoughts.

 

 

It was a great topic for discussion! :)

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