Wurm Online: News from Newtown

[Yoru]

I can't come up with anything witty to say in this link this late at night.

And yes, that is a partial solar eclipse in the last screenshot. It didn't happen every game-day either. I just got lucky.

The game is still in open beta until June 6th; thereafter, their restricted free-account mechanic goes into place. There will be a server wipe before live starts.

[stray]

I'm tempted to look into it, but the graphics turn me off. I might as well play any number of text games out there with novel ideas. I'm not an extreme graphics whore or anything, but I can't stand looking at an ugly game for too long. It's why I don't bother with ATitD as well.

And that is why these games don't get a lot of press. Nothing else.

If indy developers don't have the cash for something better, then they should just go with 2D. At least they can put some kind of artistic touch on their games that way.

[schild]

What's funny, is I've only seen screenshots but I want to play it SOLELY for the weather effects. It's not my style of game, but I like pretty things from indie folks.

[ahoythematey]

I want to play this, the potential sounds fucking great, but the complexity terrifies me.  I'm worried I'll never be able to enjoy the meat of the game before giving up in frustration after making my hundredth meal  of questionable healing value.

[schild]

Yes, I've been investigating and toying wiht the idea of just hopping in, but it sounds about 200% too slow for me - as in, they need to half or even quarter the speed at which the game clips along. That's probably not likely though. Or rather, not likely YET. The potential for niche profit status SEEMS to exist if they made a few adjustments instead of remaining completely against the norm.

[Slyfeind]

This sounds like a bunch of artists, coders, and gamers heard about Dawn and actually decided to, ya know, make a game out of it. Without the fetuspults.

Very interesting, and at $6.50 a month, the price is definately right. It sounds like ATITD but with more brute-force treadmill and less puzzle-solving. In ATITD, you could figure out the Magical Mystery of the Firepit, and make that clay bowl in ten seconds. Or not, and just let your fire burn on its own for an hour.

[bhodi]

This is my nightmare game. A game where you have to be pre-occupied about eating, all the time? Games are the one way I could escape... until today.

Though, the idea of "build it and they will come" as applies to a road (unexplained road! I wonder where it leads..?) seems like a neat idea.

[AcidCat]

Even though I'd never have the time or patience for such a game, I'm kind of glad it exists. That was a fairly entertaining read, thanks for the info.

[Strazos]

Yoru, did you ever ask other players where They got their food? Every screenshot makes it look like you were on the verge of starvation.

[stray]

Yoru, did you ever ask other players where They got their food? Every screenshot makes it look like you were on the verge of starvation.

13 players online right now. Thirteen. Everyone's probably starving.

[Lantyssa]

The food mechanic and the length of time some things take worries me, but I'll definitely have to give this a try when I get some free time.  The concept is certainly along the lines of what I am looking for.

[Strazos]

If I can run this alongside Eve this weekend, I'll give it a shot.

BC anyone? 

[Miasma]

Yoru, did you ever ask other players where They got their food? Every screenshot makes it look like you were on the verge of starvation.

I think it would be funny if instead of cutting down dozens of apple/lemon/cherry trees to make one bowl of onion soup they all just pick the apples/lemons/cherries and eat them .

[Yoru]

If indy developers don't have the cash for something better, then they should just go with 2D. At least they can put some kind of artistic touch on their games that way.

Actually, 3D is integral to Wurm due to the fact that the terrain is deformable and you can tunnel through it.

Yoru, did you ever ask other players where They got their food? Every screenshot makes it look like you were on the verge of starvation.

Yes. I was still struggling to bootstrap myself, but once you got past that point, you could till and clear fields and farm wheat, potatoes and other foodstuffs, as well as farm cotton to make fishing line to make a fishing pole. With fish, farmed food, and an iron frying pan, you can make a meal that apparently fills you all the way up.

It took me about eight hours of play to get to the point where self-sustainability was on the horizon, primarily because I (a) jaunted off on my own, which slows you down, (b) walked all over the place looking at novel things to take screenshots of and (c) I primarily used the wiki for information, and it's lacking in certain places, such as how long it takes to bake a bowl. Still, this is really not a low-time-investment casual-friendly game, and that's the main reason I don't think I'll play after launch.

Yoru, did you ever ask other players where They got their food? Every screenshot makes it look like you were on the verge of starvation.

I think it would be funny if instead of cutting down dozens of apple/lemon/cherry trees to make one bowl of onion soup they all just pick the apples/lemons/cherries and eat them .

You can, indeed do this. You just need a tool for it, an iron scythe, which I didn't have at the time. 

[Soln]

I like the looks of this, but it feels over-designed.  It's as if they took every sim idea possible for an MMO but left out the requirement for casual play.  I mean, it seems to be predicated on the wrong idea that all players will conform nicely to the ruleset and bother to build everything needed.  Let alone not bother with ganking the other busy players who are trying to build everything needed.  The griefing opportunity of just digging pits and chopping down trees (let alone a player town's tree) seems high.  In a world of deformable terrain and few curbs, I can see trouble ahead.  But I'll give it a spin.

[JoeTF]

To sum it up:
Two guys made something that looks better, works from browser and eats fraction resources than Roma Victor.
I'm not sayting that some people should be ashamed, they shuld be putting their heads into gas owens RIGHT NOW.

[Samprimary]

Rarely can an article convey the spirit of a game well enough to explain

1. Why this game is not for me
2. But this is what they are trying to do and this is how it works out cool huh?

A great read.

[Rhonstet]

Out of curiousity, I decided to try this game.

This game is 'weird'.  Like most new MMOs, the game feels shockingly incomplete, but not in an 'Anarchy Online' way.  The game isn't incomplete because of bugs: its incomplete in terms of a lack of animations and documentation.  And for some reason, it's somehow more tolerable to see such an element left out, rather then done in a half-assed way.

There are things to like about this game, though.  It's clear that Mojang has some fans of UO, since the game feels like a remake of UO done with a different perspective, more crafting, and a lot less fighting.

I don't think ATITD has anything to worry about, though.

[Righ]

I'll try it, but its certainly far far too slow - it sounds more like a wannabe simulator than a virtual world.

Gas Owens... are you calling Clive a pretentious windbag?

[Evangolis]

I can't help but think that success would ruin this game.  Throughout that excellent writeup, I kept expecting somebody to run up, gank Yoru, steal his apple, and piss on his fire.  I'd guess that it is only the low population that prevents that.

Worth a look when I have a bit more time free.

[Elbows]

Intrigued by this update I decided to check this game out.  I have to say that I've seen a lot of cool stuff in the few hours that I've put toward the game (I basically went through the same steps the author did).  Walking by what I considered to be a small town placed in the terrain by the developers, I realized that I was in fact looking at a small home area created by a player (or players?).  There was a house, stone walls, paths, an oven, a forge and even some small mines dug out of the cliffside.  It litterally looked like some frontiersman was carving out a home in an uninhabited wilderness.  It felt completely believable and I can only imagine the mind blowing amount of time that must have been invested in it..

When night fell my visibility was drastically decreased and I was trying to find a water source that I had passed on my way out to a patch of trees I had seen in the distance.  I had that "don't know where the hell I am in a new game" feeling that I love so much, but was starting to panic because my thirst meter was almost completely empty.  While coming over a ridge I caught sight of a campfire burning brightly in the distance, and by the light of the fire I could just make out some familiar landmarks.  I was relieved to have a bearing on my surroundings and it was also cool to see a sign of the activities of other players around me. 

Contrasted against a game like WoW where you have almost no impact upon your surroundings (you can't even drop stuff on the ground) Wurm is the exact opposite, where impacting your surroundings seems to be the entire point of the game. 

That said, I would find it difficult to actually devote the necessary time to the game.  It seems as though a certain degree of insanity would be required to justify the amount of time spent in the game performing even the most mundane of tasks.  It's very possible that life gets a lot easier once you get your character established, but the road there is brutal.  I had a hard time explaining to people yesterday that I had just spent the last 3 hours making a shitty imaginary clay bowl that I cooked an imaginary stew in that was too disgusting for a starving man to eat.  I have a hard enough time explaining mainstream MMOs to people, imagine trying to justify the time investment involved in this game to some chicks at a bar. 

I put about 8 hours into the game and didn't get into a combat situation, so who knows what that part of the game is like.  Also, being in America I experienced some lag, and the client seems to be a little sluggish at times.  There is also almost no sound, although maybe this is being improved upon.

I also accidentally burned my axe in the fire.

[stray]

I also accidentally burned my axe in the fire.

I'm still trying to resist the urge to try it, but that's just too cool.

[Yoru]

I also accidentally burned my axe in the fire.

I'm still trying to resist the urge to try it, but that's just too cool.

Yeah, learning the interface is a giant pain. The lack of documentation means you'll either need to ask a lot of noob questions in-game, ask a lot of noob questions in IRC, or just try stuff and see what happens.

The latter leads to axe-burning. So, for anyone who's going to try it out, here's how burning works. You make a campfire. If you equip (doubleclick in inventory to make it your 'active' item) anything burnable, then rightclicking on the fire will bring up a Burn option. Choosing that will burn your active item. Don't Burn while you have your axe equipped. :)

[Elbows]

The latter leads to axe-burning. So, for anyone who's going to try it out, here's how burning works. You make a campfire. If you equip (doubleclick in inventory to make it your 'active' item) anything burnable, then rightclicking on the fire will bring up a Burn option. Choosing that will burn your active item. Don't Burn while you have your axe equipped.

Yea I had gotten so log-happy with my fire that I thought I had a log equipped and it turned out to be my axe.  This put me in kind of a bind since I was already so invested in the bowl crafting process that the thought of my fire going out before the bowl was finished hardening was upsetting.  Luckily I had added enough fuel to finish the job.  I"ve made a few stews and a caserole so far without gaining any cooking skill.

[Soln]

I forgot to try this, since I spent the weekend in rain, fog, work and WoW.  But re-reading it looks like this is actually a really great prototype.  From my interpretation of the review, it's not a game yet, but the framework of a game.  If these guys had the resources, it would be great if they could add some narrative(s) and fill the thing up with directed content.  For example, make the fact you need to forage meaningful and not just a penalty. Otherwise, the whole "build roads FTW" isn't appealing because it doesn't hook up with anything but the task itself.  It looks and sounds pretty, but could be too punitive unless there's some content to help steer you along. Dunno.  Will try eventually.

[Xanthippe]

Tunnelling.  That just blows me away.

This sounds like a really neat game with a lot of great concepts.  Will probably give it a try but my plate's a little full right now.

Edited to add:
My favorite part was "Equipping my right hand (!), ..."

Heh.

[Signe]

Edited to add:
My favorite part was "Equipping my right hand (!), ..."

Heh.

That sounds very MUDish, doesn't it?

[Mantees]

Well, from what I read the game obviously seems to share something with ATITD, but I see one main big difference: persistency.

Anyway I think I know the reasons why nobody of you has met any PvP:

"If you are a paying customer you can migrate to the "Wild" server. If not, you are restricted to "Home" server only. There there is no level caps upon resources. The "Wild" server is also not a safe server. PvP is everywhere. I have not confirmed with anyone where you can cross as of yet."

[Signe]

I think it'll be fun watching this game develop, if it does.  It's not the sort of game, much like ATitD, that could be my main MMO, but at least it's different.  These days different is good.  Well, unless it's bad.  I really do get bored with all the fantasy themes and the alternatives just don't interest me.  AO, EVE, etc....  I only keep CoH/V around because I like to play dress up.

[Morfiend]

Do you think it would be possible to play as a Blacklighter, and focus soley on banditry and fould deeds?

[Yoru]

Do you think it would be possible to play as a Blacklighter, and focus soley on banditry and fould deeds?

I think that's kind of the point. Their faq for newbies says that you should probably run away if you see a Blacklighter, since they spend most of their time on combat and thus are likely to be far better at it than most whitelighters. I also overheard chat that Blacklighters can (and do) eat human meat from the corpses of their victims, which apparently is fairly nutritious.

[Der Helm]

I also overheard chat that Blacklighters can (and do) eat human meat from the corpses of their victims, which apparently is fairly nutritious.

I am so there !!!

 

[Yegolev]

I tried this for a few minutes and I have to say that the number of dead bodies was somewhat offputting.  I also didn't really want to spend hours figuring out how to play, nor read the wiki to quickly figure out how to play... at least not when I have several other games I could grind my life away with.  I think I'd be more willing to give it a shot if it wasn't for all of the thieves and murderers.

As for how it looks, I suppose it looks good for a Java game.

[Hoax]

It really is a crying shame they made it so amazingly time intensive, I want to try it but I know it would be a waste as I have nowhere near the patience required to learn to feed myself let alone do anything else from the sounds of things.

[Elbows]

I got a chance to give this game a little more time over the weekend and I really started to enjoy myself.  There have been a couple of client updates in the last few days that have increased performance dramtically, with many people reporting +20fps increase.  I myself noticed a huge improvement in gameplay, which is great because I thought the sluggish interface was one of the biggest problems with the game. 

Yea, it kind of sucks that I spent an hour trying to cook my first batch of stews only to be pulled away by real life responsibilities before they were finished, and I can't believe it but I put my fucking axe in the fire again, but what I really started to enjoy about the game was the pace.  At first you think, "What, I'm just supposed to sit here and watch the grass not grow for an hour while I make a stupid bowl?", but once you get the hang of the interface you find that you're busy the entire time.  Once I got my fire going and put my stews in to cook, I set out to collect some more lumber.  This works your woodcutting skill and over time you begin to notice that cutting down trees is becoming a little easier.  Once I had a decent cache of lumber, I equipped my carving knife and tried my hand at carpentry.  I was able to create some shafts and spindles, and then from the shafts I was able to create a mallet. 

I had seen player built walls and roads all over the place and figured that it might be fun to give it a try.  You can make roads by clearing out the grass with your shovel, and then pack the dirt and pave it using rock shards.  You get rock shards by mining on a rock tile.  This creates gravel roads, which you walk much faster on than grass tiles.  It is possible to make cobblestone roads if you have a chisel, but a chisel requires iron and I'm not quite there yet.  I decided to clear out a space by my fire and build some roads out to the trees and rock tiles that I was frequenting to speed up the process of collecting resources.  Building roads is slow going but you're always busy, either mining more rock shards or clearing away grass.  The whole time you have to keep an eye on your fire. 

After I got a decent road going I started to build some little stone walls around my campsite using my mallet and rock shards.  This works your masonry skill, which is used later in the creation of Stone ovens and forges.  It was really cool to see my little area coming together after a couple of hours, and the place had a very homey feel to it.  As you begin to carve out a little place for yourself your surrounding go from wilderness to a place that definitely has a "lived in" feel to it.  There are some people who really know what they're doing and already have small towns going, and they look really, really, cool.  I guess because everything is made by the players, the settlements have a very personal and quaint feel to them. 

I'm really looking forward to being able to mine some iron.  Iron is used in the creation of most of the useful tools in the game, and all the "cool" stuff you want to do like house contruction requires iron.   

What happened yesterday was that I started to get the hang of the interface.  Once I stopped fumbling I was able to achieve a sort of multi-tasking that really seemed to speed the pace of the game up.  I found myself up way past my bedtime "just doing one more mining run".  The game offers a very different experience from what you would usually expect from a video game, but I'm finding my time in this virtual world to be very rewarding.  Anyone who likes crafting systems in online games should definitely check it out.