My Humble Review, Or Why Wurm Online Just Doesn't Work For Me

[yarnevk 257]

And i feel like it should be brought back, where noobs can start out safely without real dangers 

That is called a noob village, one only needs to yell in chat when they spawn where the closest one is and maybe they will even get a suicide escort if the path out of the market is tooo dangerous for noobs.   You can fight skill the dummy, make your armor, learn to cook, all things you need to do to survive in the wilds.

Edited May 13, 2013 by yarnevk

[Narau 9]

I want to thank everyone for all the great comments to my original post. I must admit that I was pretty downtrodden when I wrote it, so that mental state may have creeped a bit into my words. But based on the awesome feedback in this thread, I decided to give my character another go. This time, I have been traveling much more cautiously (not letting my stamina get too low, staying near guarded settlements at night, etc) and have seen much more success. And as I travel farther from the spawn point, I am see a lot more available land and homestead sites. The coast is obviously crowded, and I am unsure about the safety of traveling too far inland at this point, but I think I now have the confidence to continue traveling with some measure of security.

[Hussars 511]

Welcome to Wurm, or as I like to call it, the game where the spiders love to hug and the trolls have ninja powers

 

My first couple of starts were: "Wurm has been waiting..." "Giant Spider moves in to attack" followed by a short run off a tall cliff lol   So you're already a leg up on the world!

 

Best of luck on your travels and if you ever get over to Indy, send a note, I'll try to have wine in stock and a bed at the Inn to help you on your journey.

[Ayes 3,715]

Narau,

 

It is good to read that you have found useful help in these responses and decided to persevere in spite of your Wurm trials and tribulations. That the game tests one in this way is not the best approach as I see it to encourage newer players to continue on; however, once you get past this aggro infestation problem the game has a lot to offer in the way of enjoyment in other aspects that each person will find different due to their own outlook and desires. This is a game that will slowly enfold before you as time goes on, which initially requires a lot of patience to find your own way within. Truly an odd taste that few find appealing it seems, heh.

 

Safe travels.

 

=Ayes=

[vespasian 12]

I had the same issue, it was only after the 3rd try did I finally crack the game and stop dying. The fight curve at the start is very steep.

 

One recommendation I would make is someone update that "what do I do tutorial" to include building a small 1x1 fence and gate as a priority at the start.

[Devily 623]

Be sure to join a settlement wich learns you alot to get a settlement yourself. 

[Lolabelle 597]

the biggest problem with humanity is.... they think they can survive all alone.  With absolutely no help from anyone or anything.   Welcome to life. There is a reason there is more than one person in the world.

 

Wurm is a community game.  the whole point really is to interact with other players in some way.  No one person can possibly do everything needed to really get the most out of the game.  Even a true hermit still talk and trade with other players. 

[rosedragon 2,282]

the biggest problem with humanity is.... they think they can survive all alone.  With absolutely no help from anyone or anything.   Welcome to life. There is a reason there is more than one person in the world.

 

Wurm is a community game.  the whole point really is to interact with other players in some way.  No one person can possibly do everything needed to really get the most out of the game.  Even a true hermit still talk and trade with other players. 

Problem is most mmos and games nowaday have given players the superior feeling that they can tackle everything that given to them. If they can't tackle something, those something is locked away... Or at least intuitive enough to say what level the creature is or have that color mark to indicate how hard the mob is.

 

I think yeah the tutorial should talk about the survival aspect. I did give a feedback that the tutorial need to be less wall of text and useless stuffs (like building a road, using compass that you will lost on first death, etc etc), but instead focus on four main matters of wurm. I forgot what I wrote but I think it is survival, craft, settling, and how to get help.

Edited May 15, 2013 by rosedragon

[thegrayfox 10]

When I first started playing Wurm I wanted to strike out alone too and I did this.  I got a small house and a fenced off area going after dying dozens of times.  A nearby village took me in and within the safety of their walls I honed my skills to what they are today.  Just like in real life it takes experience to be able to survive in the wild -- to make something out of nothing.  If I were to build another place from scratch I could do it with ease because I have the skills.  I thought about quitting Wurm (and did) several times when I first got started I'm just glad I came back to it.

[Lolabelle 597]

there are many tutorials available on the wiki.  I think that maybe upon the end of the tutorial they should be mentioned.  Also what might be nice is if the tutorial was a spoken text. I believe would sink in better.  It is in english, which may be an issue for alot of players who don't speak English well.

[Marshlander 188]

I did give a feedback that the tutorial need to be less wall of text and useless stuffs (like building a road, using compass that you will lost on first death, etc etc), but instead focus on four main matters of wurm. I forgot what I wrote but I think it is survival, craft, settling, and how to get help.

This. The tutorial needs a section where you go out in a forest, run away from a rat to some tower guards and call "help" or "guards" successfully.

[Ayes 3,715]

I started playing wurm back when new players started off in Golden Valley about 4 years ago.   Wurm was a very different game then, without the tutorial we have today.   Golden Valley has mobs, but most of them are of the no-so-deadly variety.  No trolls, spiders, etc.   

 

Think of most freedom servers, now imagine not being able to find a tree ANYWHERE, not seeing a single hostile mob for days, and when you do its normally a rat or cave bug. Now Imagine all the coastal areas taken, noobs never even considering goin Premium and never wanting to move to more advanced pastures.  Seriously, there were some people who had been living there for about a year as a non-prem.  

Well I don't have to imagine it since I was born on Golden Valley myself, although for me it was not so much as you describe it. I headed off away from New Dawn and eventually found my way to Glitterdale. Didn't have much trouble finding trees there and once I had enclosed my area below the town and planted it out with new tree sprouts I was never again at a loss for trees and their products.

 

Becoming Premium was always the great allure and beckoning into the unknown dangers of Freedom. It took me a month or so becoming familiar with the game before I decided I was ready to risk leaving the familiar environment of my home in Glitterdale and pay for the ability to become Premium, which was at that time required to make the crossing over to Freedom. The 20 skill level restrictions, excessive decay rate and lack of ability to place a deed were all what inevitably drew me to the promised land and from there the game experience greatly improved as promised.

 

As I was always one to make my own way without the assistance of others, I found my initial spot to settle close to Samling and still have that same deed as my main one to this day. I have expanded and reconfigured it a few times but the heart of it remains the same as it was all those years ago. All built by myself to my own liking and design. Sort of my quiet retreat of contemplation and when I want more interaction with others I seek that out at my other deeds more suited to the occasion and environment.

 

=Ayes=

[King 110]

Horses greatly increases your chance of survival in game if you can grind up body control and ask around for a horse.

[Protunia 735]

Glad to see you decided to give it another go.

 

Good Luck!

[joedobo 1,187]

Narau, your problems are rooted in a choice the devs have refused to change. Apparently noobs need to be killed over and over by week pitiful creatures for Wurm to be fun. 

There should be ways we the players can guarantee mobs will not walk or spawn on roads. Guard towers aren't good enough. Fences are annoying and take too much work to maintain. Currently from what I can see roads are a convenience for hunters to attracted targets with piles of meat and dead bodies.

 

A limited time aggro protection for noobs wouldn't be a bad idea either.

 

I actually think a server with no aggro would be a blast.

[Maozorz 127]

Wurm is excellent as it is and it should not change to make it easier for some crybabies that can't use more than 2 brain cells at the same time.

 

It would a massive, massive shame to see Wurm blended and made into baby food like 99% of games out there, because people can't handle any sort of difficulty.

 

The way Wurm is treacherous and unrelenting as a free land should be is what makes it so good.

[robino 79]

Try to build ur place next to a guard tower. If there isnt one then join a village. There is no surviving without backyp.

[Gaeron 551]

Narau, your problems are rooted in a choice the devs have refused to change. Apparently noobs need to be killed over and over by week pitiful creatures for Wurm to be fun. 

There should be ways we the players can guarantee mobs will not walk or spawn on roads. Guard towers aren't good enough. Fences are annoying and take too much work to maintain. Currently from what I can see roads are a convenience for hunters to attracted targets with piles of meat and dead bodies.

 

A limited time aggro protection for noobs wouldn't be a bad idea either.

 

I actually think a server with no aggro would be a blast.

Strength in Wurm has always been through community and that includes for protection.

 

I have no problem with this but it should figure prominently in the tutorial and on the website.

 

In fact I'd play it up as a positive, not a negative. "Few can make it alone, for most a village is the difference between life and death. Are you social or fearless (and probably dead)"

 

So long as new players know to venture out alone is to have rats eat your face and bigger enemies eat the rest of you then it is purely their choice.

[Aeris 3,762]

When moving out of your parents house and into a home of your own you typically don't aim for a multi-storey house, most likely you'd be better off getting a small apartment. Either that or a slightly bigger one along with a friend.

 

This is what Wurm is like. You shouldn't aim too big to begin with, you should start with small steps towards your future goals. At first you should probably settle for small things, or slightly bigger things if deciding to play with others. When you've learnt the ropes and become more self-sufficient you should set out for what you want to do. It isn't the kind of game where you can aim big right away and log in every now and then to maintain it, you have to work for it in order to both achieve it and maintain it. If you want to aim big right away it might not be the game for you, and I don't think it should be tweaked to satisfy your needs since a lot of us enjoy the game as it is.

Edited June 4, 2013 by Aeris

[Shiraek 464]

I love you guys but I heavily disagree with the sentiments expressed in here.

 

I don't want Wurm to be any easier - not for me or other experienced players - but the new player experience is so brutal right now it's probably killing off the game's core market.

 

Read the guy's post. He spent many hours and made several attempts over several days to try the game out. As a developer, you cannot ask for more from a new player. The instant gratification crowd are gone in minutes, trust me, that kind of persistence is very rare. Look at his other games. THAT is a wurm player - a rare bird - and he's gone now because the NPE learning curve is too steep.

 

I read some of the replies from old hands - most of you (myself included) started when Indy was the only freedom server (or before!) and before two critical changes to Agro spawns that vastly increased wurm's difficulty for new players - namely:

1. Agro creatures now spawn at random ages, rather than all "young" as previously. This means a supposedly easy large rat can slaughter a new player. True story.
   
2. The number and frequency of agro spawns has gone up. WAY up. Twice. When I started on Indy, I died twice too. Once to drowning, and once when I got lost and suicided back to the newbie spawn to save time. I saw a total of three agros in my first weeks of play. I am not saying these were the halcyon days of Wurm - in many ways my experience was worse than it is for new players today - but the difficulty from mobs has shot up. Again, this is great for an old player - at 70FS I can still find a challenge often less than a minute's ride from my deed, but for a new player? It's a LOT harder than when we started.
   

I don't really mind (it's not my game ) but in my opinion something should be done to make the NPE a bit more forgiving. Maybe higher level mobs avoid settled areas, or avoid roads, or avoid the area around the newbie spawns. I don't know - but something should be done. This would actually be realistic. Wild animals generally avoid settled areas (especially predators) as they are frequently killed by humans otherwise. Trolls are actually intelligent, and would likely avoid settled areas too, preferring to hunt in the wilderness and prey on lone hermits. Hunting on main roads and around large groups of buildings or watch towers is suicide, and the piles of bodies prove it.

 

You can't argue newbies should join a village or expect to die. That's absolute rubbish dogma of the worst kind - Wurm *used* to be a game where you could start out on your own. It still is, but the difficulty is now such that people who would have become hard core wurm players a year or two ago, now quit after a few days of being savaged by the wild.

[islixana 27]

You can't argue newbies should join a village or expect to die. That's absolute rubbish dogma of the worst kind - Wurm *used* to be a game where you could start out on your own. It still is, but the difficulty is now such that people who would have become hard core wurm players a year or two ago, now quit after a few days of being savaged by the wild.

 

This!!!!!  im so tired of hearing this as everyone response and if you argue it most seem to say well wurm in a community game not a solo game.  You don't need to be part of a deed village to be part of a Community.  look at where you live do you consider people that live out side your town limits as part of your Community you potentially buy from them (farmers market) they shop in town they might have kids that go to your schools. so on