New Player Economy

[Adelhein 13]

There are a couple of paths recommended to new players:

1. If you want to go it alone, find a place near important resources like water, iron, and clay
2. Ideally, join an existing village for camaraderie, resources, help, etc.

 

Another idea that came to mind is that there are, in my experience so far at least, certain resources that are a massive pain to get as a new player but once you have them you're drowning in them. I'm thinking mainly here of iron (and iron products like nails) and clay. Stuff that's absolutely essential to establish a foothold anywhere. It also seems, at least from what I've observed so far, that this stuff is so cheap it isn't even really sold because anyone who really needs it has more than they need already.

 

But what if someone did sell it? Specifically to new players. Since low-QL resources are plentiful and cheap, they should be able to afford it by selling stuff to a merchant or token and accruing the money they need to buy the resources they need to build their own homestead without actually needing to open their own iron mine (maybe they want to spend their Wurm time doing something else, like building a brewery or something).

But given the creativity and imagination of the Wurm community and the fact I haven't seen this, maybe it's because it doesn't actually make sense? Not enough new player traffic to make it worthwhile to do, maybe? Or maybe someone is already doing this and I just missed it? I do remember seeing merchants around one of the new player villages on Cadence, but they were selling all kinds of stuff that had nothing to do with what I felt I needed as a new player. Maybe there was one that did that I just missed. I dunno, do people have thoughts on this?

[Tpikol 1,057]

 my guess would be that people dont do it because it would have to be so cheap it wouldnt be worth doing for the sellers and because by the time new players know how buy from other players they already have acces to iron.

[Muse 2,228]

It *should* be possible for everyone to get iron from foraging iron rocks on grass tiles - because many deed spots just don't have any iron veins, and sometimes they don't have an accessible rock layer at all.  I say *should* because the system appears to be weighted in favour of players with low foraging skill, so you will find your supply of iron dwindles as your foraging skill increases, which is a shame.

[Tristanc 570]

To add to the original post, new players wishing to build their first home should do it where there's good access to *full-sized trees*. 

At starting stats, you'll be unable to even attempt a stone building (except for having a stone floor).  Building a wooden house takes lots of planks, which means logs from cut-down trees to saw into planks.

 

Pine's the fastest growing tall tree, but others like birch will work too for your source of lumber.  Don't count on fruit trees being able to provide for your needs, though.

 

[Nirav 571]

Any new player on SFI in pve or pvp (except Epic) can pm me on Nirav here or ingame for free tools and weapons and armor.

 

[TheTrickster 2,284]

I found clay to be a bit paradoxical.  For essentials*  you can get away with less than 100 clays, so setting up right next to clay might seem like a good idea early on, but it might later be inconveniently in the way.  I would recommend setting up moderately close to clay so it is handy to get when you need it without hampering laying out your patch.

 

If you plan to get into a lot of pottery, or build with bricks then you will want a reasonable supply (for bricks themselves and for mortar etc).

 

I would recommend finding an established village to join for resources, assistance etc.  Otherwise, if you want to go it alone, maybe find somewhere that isn't a million miles from another village or at least a guard tower.

 

The nomad life can be great, but a new player with starter gear is probably not well set up for it.  Take some time to put together some equipment.

 

*essential according to general consensus.  If you don't mind a challenge and a constant hit to QL when smelting ore and rocks, you can get by quite well without clay.