Holy fuck, have I got blog posts out of the wazoo to write! Where in the hell do I start?
Well, I guess I can start by giving a (quite late) Merry Christmas to all of you. So late that I just got done taking down my tree (and as usual, the emotions while doing it were quite high(while listening to the semi-depressing ‘Jingle Bells’ from Mannheim Steamroller’s ‘In The Aire’ CD)). I call it the ‘Christmas Is Over song’.
And now I start explaining what’s been going on (which is a lot). For starters (if you can’t tell), I’ve been quite busy. So busy that I’ve never had time to write down what’s been happening that day. I literally had to ‘temp ban’ myself from Wurm in order to even fucking watch Youtube to see all the Christmas specials I missed. I haven’t even watched any Christmas DVDs this year, due to Wurm. It’s that bad. And the reason is between imping and the Enkounters in the Bulk Market ‘Arena’.
And now finally, I have a chance to explain. So let’s begin, as I heard you guys love mega-sized blog posts…
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Glasshollow Impalong – Day 2 – Christmas Eve Eve(the 23rd)
(So I wanted to write this as an actual story, but I decided to write it as I saw it)
The Eve of Christmas Eve, and most of the day was.. quite boring. Just myself imping people’s stuff, using most of that 10-hour stored sleep bonus to my advantage. Though the fact it was so boring, I was literally dozing off infront of the forge.
Things didn’t pick up until the evening. For starters, there’s now an issue where the game window will do a complete freeze without warning. Tried restarting my computer, only for it to happen again. But after that first time, it stopped doing it.
Idunn showed up later. I was still tired, wondering “why am I doing this again?” when suddenly I see the head of a dragon above me. I thought it was just Enki messing with me (which felt strange). Tried moving, and noticing the head moving the same speed I am. Looking at my character screen, and noticing something…odd about me. I said “Well, this is interesting” to Idunn (as I didn’t want to show him that I was actually losing my shit), “DUDE!! I’m a Dragon!” going through my mind. Noticed another player was a red dragon (I got turned into a green one). Got on B2 in order to capture some once in a lifetime screenshots of myself stomping around the impalong site as a dragon. But sadly, all good things must come to an end and I returned to normal. It definitely lifted my spirits, that’s for sure.
Two more things also happened this day. First, this year’s gifts are now available either from going up to Santa, or from a pinewood christmas tree. And the gift is.. well, it feels like a slap in the face to non-prem players. It’s Saddle Bags (just one though). Saddles now have an inventory, and you can put a bag in it to carry stuff around while on horseback. This is going to be quite useful to myself for any future explorations I might do.
But because of an exploit (of being able to nest bags and get more than 100 items in a bag), all servers were forced to be taken down for up to 45 minutes (it felt like to me). Though someone said that Xanadu is usually the last server to be restarted.
Another Enkcounter happens later on in the evening, with him telling us “The Simpsons have escaped Springfield”. At the Bulk Market ‘Arena’, there were champ mountain lions(‘Marge’), boars(‘Homer’), goblins(‘Bart’), and lava fiends(‘Lisa’). Never saw any mobs named ‘Maggie’, surprisingly (anacondas would had worked IMO).
Near the end, Enki suddenly opened up a trade window with me and gave me three rare muffins. I thanked him and tried one out.. and they are SO GOOD! They raise your Nutrition fully! Threw them in the cart, hoping they would stay fresh for awhile.
.
The hours went on, and at one point I said “I need a break” and headed up to the Glasshollow starter town with B2. I just wanted some time away from all the noise, to finally relax and be myself.
As much as I want to help, I felt I would run out of sleep bonus before I even get to 50 (and they won’t give a fuck that I’m trying to be more efficient in helping, and would tell me to use a bed like everybody else). If there was only a way I could trigger a macro to hit a key in order to turn on or off /fsleep (if I’m not touching my keyboard in a minute) in order to keep as much unused sleep bonus as I can.
But noooooo.. the devs are against macros. Enjoy the grind (and find some way to not fully distract yourself from the game and focus more on said thing), or quit. Your choice. 😛
B2 believed that if they really care to see me succeed, they’ll be ‘pumping me up’ with sleep powders in order to keep the skill gains coming in. Another thing, is I felt “I’m doing all of this work, I should get my stuff imped in return”. Screw that whole ‘Christmas is the time for giving’ crap; never believed in it. If I give, I want something in return. Fairs fair. There are some exceptions to that rule, and it usually depends on how I feel.. but I digress. And let’s be real here.. they got a LOT of other things that need to be imped. Yet the fact I had a few things in forges (and they haven’t been touched for two days), it felt like Favoritism (of imping things for people they like and respect before they imp the others).
All the more reason to say FUCK YOU to this bullshit.
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Glasshollow Impalong – Day 3 – Christmas Eve
One of the busiest days was today.
Starting back where we logged out, I was ready to tell either Paulofdune(one of the staff) or Rocky that I just can’t help anymore. But that was before I noticed my sleep bonus had been fully charged, and I might as well take care of it. Though B2 wanted to do it a different way of giving me signals, saying he would check if my stuff got imped before. So he went down there, while I stayed up. A troll stuck on one of the bridges here, got itself freed and was trying to kill the templars. It’s now dead, and I went down to get to work. Meanwhile, B2 discovered none of my things have been imped yet (proving it’s favoritism). He however didn’t feel it, and that they just don’t have enough people imping (and they need people like myself to help).
Nevertheless, when I got back to the BS area of the impalong, I saw Paul and PM’d him if I could have some sleep powders, saying I lost mine after I had died that one time (I didn’t see them in my inventory, else I would be using them). And his response was exactly what I told B2 (to use a bed). In addition, he told me that sleep powders cannot be lost on death(like the hand mirror), and to contact the GMs to report it. Thankfully I won’t have to, as I found them in my main backpack (I didn’t tell him to hide the embarrassment).
B2 also gave me a backup plan, to sail home and get my large cart and three empty crates, and make the bricks I need for the redesign project back home. I figure of the few days left before New Years Eve(starting on the 29th), to do that. If I didn’t have full sleep bonus, I would had done that. Yet I still feel like I owe it to them to help (for all the years they imped my stuff).
Tulsi pops on for the first time since we had gotten off the boat on the 22nd (finally). Had B2 lead him to the impalong site…and then he logs out without saying another word. For someone that really wanted to come, why is he doing this to me? He won’t answer me in Skype (always on DND).
Obviously he’s too busy (or something happened to him that his parents don’t want him to disclose to me). But how am I supposed to know that, when he isn’t telling me anything? Plus he’s been doing this DND thing a week prior to leaving for the Impalong.
Whatever. He better be ready to go back home when I am. And next year (if there is one for me), I’m not going to bother inviting him (as I don’t want to go through this mess again).
A bit after that, an Enkounter starts up with him saying “Alert! Free pelts avialable at the market arena”. Obviously there’s a catch (aka, the pelts are alive). Made it to the arena and I see more champ mountain lions, and regular rats. Before they could be all killed, more mobs were spawned in (including Rift mobs, which made me freak out).
This fight lasted quite a bit, occasionally having to retreat to heal (and Enki sometimes swooping down to fully heal us). Overall, fun as always (and we all greatly thanked Enki for the fight). Don’t remember what they were named (I’ll have to check the event log later and cross-reference the times, and even that might not give accurate results).
As much as I wanted to butcher, I didn’t have perms to do so. But, I still helped myself to several 70 to 80QL pelts that others forgot to grab. I feel I’ll need them for the future. Had B2 hold onto them for me.
Speaking of the future, B2 was looking in the markets for a better whetstone for me as I went back to imping after the Enkounter. He found one in the Dragon Market for 1.25s, with CoC 91 (and 100QL), and it’s never been used. Not bad at all, for something that cannot be re-imped. He hadn’t found anything that tops it, and I should grab it before I go back home. I can definitely use that CoC for skill gains.
There were also these cake tins in the forge calling out to me, saying “Imp us!”.. yet I needed Tin, which wasn’t in the two large crates.
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Back on after ordering my traditional double cheese pizza from Papa Johns for my Christmas Dinner, Enki’s doing another “guess what I’m thinking of” game with everyone. I had just got back on to get the question: “When I used ot hunt artifacts as a player, what creature was my arch nemesis?” I answered ‘Wogic'(just for a laugh). The correct answer was ‘Spiders'(the original ones, which I think Angry might have his own stories of them). Then Enki talks about his Wurm life story for a bit. One such story is he claims he had to cross the Chaos server four times due to being killed by spiders. And it came to a point where the terrain became so familiar, he didn’t need a map anymore. Wow. That’s both funny and sad at the same time. I feel sorry for him.
Not much happened, except asking Paul if I could have some Tin. They were going to give me some, but forgot about it.
Back from dinner, I had 3 hours and 18 minutes left of my sleep bonus. ‘Asked’ everyone a question of if I could hit 50, and “we’ll see”. Got a PM from a ‘Freddykruger’ suggesting that I imp up to 10QL higher than my skill, for the most efficient way of grinding it. Rocky was there, saying he’s “got me” if I run out of Sleep Bonus. Ohh yeah, give me them drugs, boi!
Meanwhile, my former contact (Tyrtix) is next to me, imping up a storm. He asks if anyone wants a free 10% less damage rune, and would give it to the first one that trades with him. No one seemed interested, which was a surprise. I said “I’d love to have it, but I would still have to pay someone to attach it.” Yet I’m not sure what I would need it for. However (and I don’t think it’s possible), if I could add it to my axe, that would be freakin’ awesome.
He said he has an alt that would attach it for free. Decided to take him up on his offer and opened up a trade window with him. He said to contact Rauros(the person who I didn’t know it was him when I was on that business trip to get the bricks and mortar I needed).
It wasn’t long after that, that I was able to imp my first item to 50 (from 46.56 Blacksmithing)! GO ME! 😀 I got the ‘Exceptional Craftsman’ achievement, and 10 Karma points.
An hour later, another Enkounter rose up: “The Nightmare Upon Christmas is here! Come one come all, bring spare body parts and play in the arena of near certain calamity”… including “BE warned all ye merry fighters… the horror that awaits will certainly consume much cotton!” And he was not kidding!! There were a crapton of mobs in the arena(most were named after Santa’s 8 reindeer). This fight was the longest. Yet, it also felt the most disorganized. I tried to get people to focus on the demon ‘Rudolph’ mobs, yet no one seemed to listen. We were also dealing with server lag. Never a good thing to have during combat. There was even one time where Rocky had lost one of his good horses, and Enki resurrected it (and even restored the traits). He was very thankful.
After the fight was finally done(nearly two hours later), I felt we had nearly consumed all the cotton on the deed. It was crazy! And with Rocky here, I asked if he could adjust the perms of the deed to allow visitors to butcher. And it’s all good now. There was so much meat here. I felt B2 would be able to make breakfasts for months.
Angry decided to pop up. Told him if he wanted eyes, to come to the arena. He brought Benie there, and then logged out suddenly. I asked “did you not need eyes?” And it was like angry realized he may’ve been wasting his time of needing so many for catseyes. He said all he really wanted to do was connect our two deeds “for shits”.
I also saw someone..that I hoped to never see again. Champagnedragon. She says she was doing a business trip, making a delivery near Glasshollow and decided to come over to say hi to Rocky. Mentioned that she got a key to unlock a Bingo chest and it was empty. No one else seemed to want to say hi to her (don’t really blame them). Was glad when she disappeared from local (yet so did Rocky). Now I’m not able to tell him that I couldn’t dig peat (as I needed more for the forge).
Back to Angry. He said his Wurm jaunt might be coming to a close, reason is simply time constraints. Yet, for the first time ever, he said “I can’t stand how slow everything is”.. did you just..of all the people I’ve met.. admit you HATE the grind?! :O HOLY FUCK!! Someone pinch me, I must be dreaming!
I also told him this year’s gift. He says “they’re not even trying anymore”, and “now it’s items you could otherwise craft yourself”. You got to admit, he’s right (especially how it shows how you can make one in the patch notes..what the hell). These items hold no weight. They don’t feel unique and rare.
Back at the arena, someone named ‘Ternesjach’ (I call him ‘Terne’ as it’s easier to spell) is asking if anyone wants meat. I said I would take all the good meat if it didn’t decay before I got back home. He said he has a Food Storage Bin in his boat, which surprised me that one would actually work like that. I told him how I have a larder in mine, and how it’s a pain in the ass that it has to be on the ground in order to put stuff in or take stuff out. He thinks that’s normal, as a larder is supposed to stay in one’s kitchen and not move. I feel burned by Saint now. Debating if I should just sell it, give it back to him, or give it away to someone. The 3rd option feels way too stupid (you don’t just give away something that useful without any effort). Another thing I could do is to just throw it in storage back home and forget about it (and let decay work its magic).
I then ask a bit later if it’s possible I could make (or have one made) an FSB for my boat. And Terne helps with this. I have B2 go to install it in my boat(taking the small cart with him), yet get forced to go over there and Load it (as ‘You can only drop the food storage bin’).
Made it back to tell Terne that I got it in, and if I could have the meat. He said he had already loaded it, and there would be another time for it. Felt like a shot to the heart, but whatever. Don’t really need meat anyway, now that I have Refresh.
The final thing to say of this night, is someone managed to fully imp B2’s pickaxe and my anvils, but he’s unable to grab them (they have a Steal option). Have to wait ’till Paul is on to help.
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Glasshollow Impalong – Day 4 – Wurmxmas Day
It’s now (traditionally) Christmas Day as 12am rolls in. Go to open my gift and see the single ‘saddle bags‘(because fuck proper pronunciation). Meanwhile, one of the templars was spamming “I’ll take care of aged huge spider!” over and over. I found this odd that a spirit templar is dying to a spider. I would be checking it out if I wasn’t busy dealing with a person who is experiencing their first Impalong and didn’t know where to put what for imping. Yet for an apparent newbie, this guy could drive a wagon (something B2 can’t do yet). Another oddity.
A bit later, the templar is still spamming of taking care of an aged huge spider. This is starting to get on my nerves. Someone’s offering a free high QL pelt, and I go right for it. But the guy goes AFK as I wait for him to open a trade window. The spamming got more severe and I said “I’ll be right back” and ran to deal with this spider. Found what’s causing the spamming, stuck on the bridge to the Dragon Hotel and killed it. No more spamming templars since then.
Went back to the guy that’s offering. He responded with “what’s up?” (completely forgetting about the offer). I kindly reminded him and he gave me the pelt, who I gave to B2 (he’s my pelt holder), and went back to work imping. But there came that time where I needed to take another break, and went to the starter town again.
I’m realizing now, that even if I manage to get my Blacksmithing skill to 70, it would be of no use (as I’ll need 70 in Mining as well to get the high QL ore I’ll need). God, this game is a pain in the ass sometimes!
There was someone in local, so I didn’t want to get B2 on. I went into the public mine and checked it out. Only saw one Marble vein, which’ll be useful for the canal bed back home. It was ‘good’ quality, though. Finally the person left local. Got B2 on, and before I could talk to him, kchat caught my eye as I saw Paul was advertising. Told him to get down and get the stuff, and he did. Nearly there, he saw another person in a gold name (named ‘Astarte’). There were pigs walking around, named ‘Eggnog’ and ‘Artificial Christmas Tree’.
Suddenly the arena goes active, with a large snake-like creature that can be seen for quite afar (named ‘Candy Cane’). DH ran down to deal with the new Christmas-themed mobs. Had B2 wait outside the arena with the cart. Finally they’re all dead, and this time I grabbed all the meat I could and had B2 take it to the new FSB in the boat. He had to make two trips with so much meat. Terne’s saying I should bring a large cart with me (with satchels). B2 barely made it back alive.
He had an angry troll chasing him. I ran as fast as I could to assist (and managed to, with Terne’s help). It was a literal Christmas miracle I managed to heal B2’s medium wounds to the point they would heal on their own.
We went to bed after that.
.
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It’s now Christmas Afternoon. 1/4 of the day had me on the MRT Server. I only got one present this year (and it was very nice). I also was checking out this new adventure map. It’s quite the challenge, and the water maze made me ragequit(as I kept drowning). 😛 Back to Wurm.
So this day began with myself getting on my boat and sailing home again, while B2 had my armor and axe. Since it’s Christmas Day, I was hoping someone would be nice and give said armor a re-imp to 80. B2 also was able to get his pick and my anvils from Tyrtix. Had him put the anvils in the CoC coffin (all part of the plan). And B2 found someone willing to get my armor back up (just not my axe).
Thankfully, no Enkounters happened for B2 as I got back to the Impalong with my cart. Unloading 900 dirt back home was a pita, but at least I’m ready to make the rest of the bricks I need for the redesign project.
Unloaded my large cart near the impalong site, hoping I can use this as my new parking spot. Headed up the road in hopes to find some wild horses. Had B2 do it for me. Now the cart has horses (had to care for them as they’re both venerable). Back to the impalong, threw in everything that was in the small cart to the large cart, and tried to load up the small cart.. no perms. 😛
Had to have B2 take the cart to the public parking spots while I swung my boat over to meet him. Thankfully no trolls this time to mess with him. Then both of us had to walk back (and quickly, as it was close to dinnertime).
.
Back from Christmas Dinner (and with only 2 hours left of sleep bonus), I felt I should take it easy (it is Christmas afterall). Back to the starter town. Most of everything I brought has been fully imped. All there’s left are the 12 lamps. Decided to check out the public mine and see if it too has marble. Sadly, no. But it does have ‘upmost’ quality Sandstone (I’ll need bricks of it as well). It also had a few mobs, such as a lava spider.
B2 reminded me about getting back to work (and seeing if I can get more sleep powder from Rocky). He also managed to retrieve my chain armor set (now fully re-imped) and thanked the imper tenfold for the effort. Now if only I could get my axe re-imped.
Several hours later…
‘
Yay, more pelts (like I don’t have enough already). Still, I got there as quick as I could. Regular and Champ rats(named ‘squirrel’ and ‘chipmunk’) were in the arena. Even though they’re no problem..when in numbers (and wearing my casual clothes), they can overwhelm. Had to run out and armor up, with this time, lots of people around to kill them.
They’re now all dead. I had B2 come in with the large cart (discovered he can drive it, surprise surprise). Enki also gave us three supreme cake (not as good as the muffins for filling up Nutrition, but it’s still a nice gift). But as I’m butchering, suddenly pineapples fill the arena (in the form of wild cats(‘kitty’). Immediately got B2 out of there and went back to killing. Should had known Enki wasn’t done yet.
They’re dead, and now Nogumps(‘Crazy Cat Lady’) are attacking. It was a real mess, and I loved it. Merry Christmas to you as well, Enki! Heh. He even gave us a ‘White Christmas'(in Wurm Summer) by leaving everyone 1000 snowballs lying around…unfortunately deed perms are still a thing. Fun as always, Enki.
He wasn’t done, though. Suddenly, drakespirits! Except, the ones we’re turned into. The most hilarious part, was the fact myself and B2 also got turned into them (and all you see are two dragons driving a cart).
It’s official..this is now the second best Impalong I’ve ever attended (with 2015 still in first place with its interactive games and free statues to take home). 3rd place goes to 2010 (for the zombie invasion in FM). 4th place goes to 2016’s Shrimpalong(not being able to help), and 5th place goes to the Exo Impalong(that drama, and how short it was).
Coming back to the impalong site, all of the priests were drakespirits. Quite hilarious.
Enki left one more Wurmxmas gift for anyone to take; two buffalo that are 3x the size of the regular model(named ‘Beefalope’). One of them was accessible, and the other doesn’t have a Lead option(even for the impers). Problem with it, is it goes back to its normal size when hitched (yet back to its big size when unhitched).
Meanwhile, I’m trying to figure out why in the fuck Tyrtix has a whopping 28 steel picks in the first BS forge. If he wasn’t an imper, he would be getting hell for that stunt. He says not to worry about them, that he’s imping them himself. Then asks “would you like one?” I’m thinking “uhh.. if steel wasn’t hard to make, sure.” Plus, why do I need another pick when I already have a pretty good one on me? But I decide to accept, just for the hell of it. Then give it to B2, who places it in the CoC coffin. Maybe if it’s enchanted good, I’ll give it to Tulsi as a skiller tool.
Rocky’s now on, and I ask him if he could please look into allowing visitors to mine the public dig areas in the Bulk Market fort (as I could also use more tar for my lantern), while I continue imping. Saw an unnamed branding iron and decide to imp it up a bit. Soon the name appears..Tyrtix. For an imper, you’re sure doing a lot of things wrong. Always name your tools (even as an imper).
Sometime later(near the end of the day), Rocky tells me that things should be working. I head back to check and I still can’t dig. I’m feeling quite embarrassed I’m having all of these issues happening and not knowing how to deal with them. I get told to try digging on the Northwest corner of the tile. For some odd reason, that works. Was able to get the peat and tar I needed, and had B2 get them in the boat. He logs off…and I still forgot to tell him I needed more sleep powder (even after consuming the two I had).
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Glasshollow Impalong – Day 5 – The Day after Christmas
And that, brings me to today. I haven’t been playing Wurm at all, just trying to get caught up with all of these blog posts. Plus I have two movies I got for Christmas I need to watch, but I never had a chance to because of Wurm. Don’t have a 3rd monitor to do it (as I need my second for anytime I need to get B2 on).
And now that I finally got caught up (there is another one I need to post later, but it’s not Wurm-related. Something potentially ‘serious’ to me in Elite Dangerous. Anyway, I’m going to watch these two movies. For those curious, I got ‘The LEGO Ninjago Movie’, and a rather odd one; ‘Crazy Frog Presents Crazy Video Hits’.
..Yeah. Even though that fad died, I’ll still watch this thing.
Sorry for the SUPER long blog post, but this is what has been happening these past three days. For those that read the whole thing without skipping a word, I wish I could give you all something.