Benie's Games Blog

Hello, and welcome to the first brief summary thingy that’s going to be replacing all of those ‘Freedom Isle Server Mega-Exploration Trip’ posts I’ve been doing.
Today, I’ve returned from Pristine after spending approximately 4 days there. And from my overall thoughts (usually ‘overall thoughts’ are brought up at the end of content, but I digress), there were only a few parts of the server I liked compared to all the other servers I’ve explored so far, even with the several dragon-named structures, ships, deeds, bridges.. and even bodies of water, on the server. I’m quite curious what started the theme, and how it’s stayed alive after all these years.

Only three POIs really interested me. One of them has been creeping me out ever since I spoke to the ‘CA on the mountain’. And I guess I should talk about this. It’s the mountain that overlooks the hilariously, ironically-named ‘Dragon Head Sea’. I approached and went up the mountain from its North side, seeing a highly accessible deed-like area on the East flank of the mountain.
Going up it, I’m hearing the sound of someone digging. Check local and see a familiar name (from CA HELP); Nocturnes (who I believe is one of the CA’s). I wave, and the person freaks out saying “:D” then “is that you”. Huh, I didn’t know I was famous.
Asked me where I lived, I said Cele, asked what I’m doing around here, and I said how I’m trying to get up this mountain.
So now I’m trying to get up to them, but it seems the only way to get to them is to go East up the road I was going to go. I get to a higher point, and they disappear from my local. Get a PM from them, wondering if I died. Said no that I’m still trying to find a way.
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Now reached a point where any roads going up, aren’t going anywhere. There’s thankfully a guard tower that I take full advantage of (a few trolls were around). This is sadly the highest point I can go. So apparently someone wanted to make sure no one snoops around up here.
Then the person tells me quite the story, of what happened on this mountain a year ago. Apparently this used to be the final stand of the Blacklighters (the BLers), before getting their asses kicked on the Epic server. It tells me the desert below used to be their training grounds, and how this island had multiple interconnected tunnels.
Then the person says how they could try to get me up to the top of the mountain, but they added.. ‘you have to stay with BL forever”. Plus, it was trying to get me to work for them and shit like that. On top of that, Sol has set. I’m trying to find the right time to say “I’m just going to log out for the night” but the person keeps talking to me. Last thing I remember is being offered to do some terraforming work the next day if I choose to stay here.
Finally I state I needed to log out, and do. Yet I can’t help but feel a dark, evil aura filling the air while I tried to ‘sleep’ in Wurm (placing my tent next to the guard tower and logging out). I felt like I was going to log in tomorrow (now today) and see a spiritual figure of a BLer standing there infront of me while I’m in my tent, saying “joooiiiiiinnnnnn uuuuuuussss”. I’m not making this shit up, I was getting extremely creeped out… to the point that I had to get back on, and get the hell off this island mountain. And that’s basically what I did, and I just kept running, and running further and further away from it. I wanted to drop a nuke on the mountain, only then would I feel it’s safe to go up (after the fallout clears from the server in 150 years from now).
Relocated my camp to that once-deed on the lake (with the two bridges). There I felt a little more safe. So now I have a nearly irrational fear of being on a mountain.. thank you, Nocturnes. 😛

So yeah.. the big brave Dragon Warrior, scared of something that’s never been implemented into the game (for good reason). But hell, even an elephant can be scared of a mouse. Infact I tried to get up on another mountain when I was still in Pristine, but clearly the owner won’t allow me. There was a way around the fences and the structure here on the other side, but I worry about getting stuck and having a troll chasing me. Not really worth it.

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Another highlight, is trying to get to the Eastern islands. This happened during Day 2. I could see the only way to get there is near the SW coast. I could see a road that points directly to a bridge going to the Eastern islands. And from what I see, it’s the only bridge that goes there.
Made my way there (passing two champ lava spiders), and when I finally make it there… the road leading to the bridge was clearly out (with a mine entrance above me). Below and to the side are three people in a large cart, all AFK. Felt awkward as hell. Cindy was on, and I asked her (since she knew these people are in her alliance), to ask said alliance of what’s going on with the bridge. Was told it was closed with it to be redesigned with two bridges.
Serraphine’s alt pops up. I was hoping she would tell me if there’s an alternate route, but she logs out without saying a thing. So the bridge (the only way to get to the Eastern islands) is closed.. that really sucks. Oh well. Went back to go in another direction.
About a half an hour later, I get PM’d from one of the bridge workers who is confused about a problem with the bridge. They mention a tunnel. I’m thinking “wait, there’s an alternate route afterall?” I make my way to this alternate route, and it turns out this was the actual route to get on the bridge. I also discovered (though not marked on the map dump), there is indeed another bridge that connects to the islands. It’s right off of Dragon Collar Bridge.

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And a final thing to pass on. This isn’t a POI, but is indeed important (to myself). I didn’t know the combat system of Wurm had special moves (only available for higher skill levels).
When aiming for the head, and managing to focus once (and then waiting about 10 seconds), two small options pop up; ‘Tattoo Twice’ and ‘Cold Clouds’. The first one seems to work well on trolls (some of the time), which causes the troll to lose all control and go from Wounded (or Hurt) to Dying. The second one seems to be the same way.
I managed to kill two trolls with these special moves. They do require about 20 Stamina every attempt, but they’re awesome when they work.

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So that’s about it for this ‘brief’ thingy about exploring Pristine. My final server to explore, comes on the next Wurm Spring(which’ll be here in approximately three weeks and three days from now). I just feel drained from the exploration (and the fact I’ve been playing Wurm for what feels like forever), and I need some time to rest. Maybe finally start playing other games.
I see this Gamefly game sitting on my desk, that I haven’t played in four months. Need to get that done.

I have an important (yet very brief) announcement to make, related to the ‘Freedom Isles Mega-Exploration Trip’ blog posts I’ve been making.
Due to having to take time off from exploring to write these little tidbits of what I did and where I went (and also a lack of interest from the ‘community’), I’ve decided to no longer be doing these posts for the rest of the Pristine trip (including future trips to other servers).
Already from not having to do it anymore, I feel like I can freely explore for as long as I want (though I still need to be done with all exploration before Wurm Fall starts).

Instead, I’m considering of uploading the pictures I take and posting the links in a post. If there’s interest in this (or in other forms of this), please let me know.
I’m also going to post a brief summary of what I thought of whatever server I was at, after I’m done exploring it.

It’s Saturday. A perfect day to go out exploring. Yet I almost didn’t, feeling burned out over how slightly uninteresting Release was (and remembering the hell I went through). But I can’t postpone it (and really.. I got nothing better to do).
Most of this Saturday went to exploring the server on boat (again), but this time knowing that I had foot transport, I wasn’t annoyed of the wild horse hoarding that I’ve been feeling with this server’s community.
I think I lost count with how many dragon-named things I saw. Though I find a castle named “Dragon Beard” being the best, second place goes to a Cog named ‘Dragon Wing’.
The coolest structure I saw looks like a castle (that isn’t a square) carved out of the ground, perfectly placed in a small cove.
While I was exploring the SE coast, I enter an area where I see three tortoises in the bay, named ‘Gingerbread’. Instead of looking like a newbie and stating what I found in Global Kchat, I ask the people in local if they know about this. I didn’t know a certain person I also met during the Glasshollow Impalong, lives here (Goldfinch). He was very shocked to hear my findings, thinking they could be left over from Christmas and then asked where I was. Moored the boat and tried to use my compass to pinpoint my location.
He then asks where I live, and “your name is so familiar”. I reminded him where I met him, and that he showed up with Cindy, and he was shocked of my great memory. And with that I said bye and went on exploring. Not really much to say. lol

Now done with exploring by boat (excluding areas I remember exploring when I first arrived here to do so).. this also is the fastest I’ve explored a server by boat. Usually it takes two or more days, but I think it’s because I hardly made any pitstops (except waiting for Sol to rise again). And I believe most of that comes from no longer looking for a new place to live (or looking for inspiration for my deed).
Went past Blossom again, and I parked the boat down at a ramp I remember seeing that would get me to Cindy’s place. Grabbed my horse gear and hopped out. Immediately saw a troll near the ramp. I was about to tell Cindy, but I didn’t want to look like I couldn’t handle myself(all in the Dragon Warrior code) and waited for the troll to move away.
It did, but not as far as I wanted. Decided to risk it and walk as close to the grass as I could, and it worked.
Was nearly at the ‘back door’ Cindy claimed she unlocked to let me in. There’s a bear now chasing me. My Stamina is getting critically low, but I keep going thinking the gate would save me. A hellhound is also following me. Soon my stam runs out and I can no longer move, forced to fight. I yell for tower guards to hopefully lure one of them off me, and none of them came. Cindy’s hearing me and asking where I am, and I said outside the gate and saying “I got this” (especially when I see Dragonkeeper in local and I’m trying to show them that I’m no newbie(respect is earned that way)). She acts like she was waiting for me in another location and runs back home, while I’m forced to fight these two. Hellhound’s taking good chunks out of my flesh before I have time to armor up and fight back harder than they are.
Both of them are now dead, and I survive with only light wounds. FEAR and RESPECT the Dragon Warrior! 😀 ..Just don’t send a troll after me, or I will cry (as they’re OP).
Cindy runs toward me from the other side of the deed a minute later, and lets me in. Now I get to see the full deed. The house is quite nice, a lot bigger than mine (yet I’m not really seeing her use much of the space).
I mentioned about the animal pens before, didn’t notice her farm was as basic as can be (yet she has a sign for every crop in the game, to know what it is). I attempted to talk her into possibly selling her crops to priests (once she gets her Gardening skill to 70), and she seemed interested.
While checking her orchard, Serraphine logs in. Trying to focus only on Cindy, I try not to notice her. She eventually notices me and says hey. I try to be formal (her being a CA and all) by saying “We meet again, Serra. Except this time it’s not through PM.” She responds in a way that left me speechless(and not in a good way) for about 10 seconds, saying “you’re visiting our Cindy”.. ‘our Cindy‘. Uhh.. you can’t own someone. Rather than completely embarrass myself by saying what was on my mind, I go along with it with “And what an honor it is.”
Cindy too acted like she felt unsure and didn’t know what to say, and also changed the subject by escorting me to the horses and showing me the horse that has been rented to me. It’s a black mare, very fast 5-speed. She was going to give me the other, but its four days until giving birth (and having that on my hands, no thanks).
It’s cute that Cindy cares for animals a lot, but the roleplaying of trying to pretend they’re living breathing animals that need love and caring.. I did my best to play along with it, but I knew if I didn’t get going soon, I was going to lose precious time that I could be exploring.
Got my horse gear on the mare and hopped on. Gave her a test drive. She’s pretty fast, but not as fast as Briskabbas. Maybe she’s not a true 5-speed, but I’m not complaining. She wanted to go with me, but had weekend chores to do. I was -this- close from going with the ‘frail and weak’ way of saying “you’ll only slow me down” and “I explore alone”. But hell, I’ve thought of this before (and it would be a cool thing of having someone come with me on these exploration trips), but I could see her(or whoever) saying she needed to AFK and/or needs to go, and I’m forced to wait for her as Sol’s going down, losing time I could be out exploring. And every minute counts when I have a week and four days ’till Wurm Fall.
My patience wouldn’t be able to take it. It’ll be like dealing with Angry’s past AFK episodes, but through the entire thing.

Now finally on the road with a horse, I head back to my boat to plot my first go. The troll is still there, and inching ever closer to me. I realize I need to remove this problem, before it decides to punch a hole in my boat’s sail with its club. Didn’t have to kite it far ’till several spirit templars from Blossom fucking RAPED it with their quick hits. There was also a greenish scorp that was harassing me on the road before. I introduced it to the same people.
With both dead, I could finally pull up the saved top-down map of the roads on the server. Decided to just follow the coast (just for the hell of it). Five minutes after leaving my boat, curiosity kicks in when I see a catseye highway sign pointing to an ‘Amnesia Creek’ going through a mountain. There was a troll and a goblin inside, which was useful to heal up this medium I got from fighting an anaconda before. Found out the reason is I didn’t have my armor on again (took it off when I was at Cindy’s place and forgot to put it back on).
The tunnel went up, which was highly confusing (as a body of water in Wurm definitely doesn’t happen far above sea level). Continuing following the road, it was like a repeat of the hell I went through in North Release. Mobs everywhere, and I just kept going. It’s like this road hasn’t been traveled in months.
When I finally got to the other side of this highway, what I saw didn’t resemble a ‘creek’ at all. It looked like a big castle. So why call it a ‘creek’?? On top of it, I couldn’t find this place on the map. Felt I needed to get back and continue to follow the coast. Back past the mobs I go, going as fast as I can to outrun them. Didn’t have an issue.
Continued to follow the coast going West. Eventually reached one of those assaholic shoreline deeds that have no way around them. Had to go far into the forest, and then go offroad when there were no roads going West.

Sol’s going down and it’s starting to become hard to see the cobblestone road. Plus I feel I’m getting lost again. Pristine has way too many shorelines (why 2/3rds of the server is underwater compared to the others, ergo why it took less than a day to explore it by boat).
Found a guard tower in the middle of a river, the only tower I could find outside of a deed (and its perimeter) in order to put my tent down. Unfortunately a troll is also here and I shouted for the guards to help me. Someone in my local named ‘Degrath’ noticed me and asked the curious questions, and I answered them with truth. It thought I was heading to the Rift.. as much as I could handle myself there, I don’t like how it’s the same thing over and over again. Said I was exploring the server, and I’m looking for a place to slap my tent down.
Tried to place it on the road, and it said I was not allowed. Could’ve sworn it allowed me before on Release. Placed it on the grass and that was allowed. Hitched the horse and logged out.
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The next day comes. Degrath is AFK, and I said “I shall be going now” and “happy wurming”. Not rude at all. Didn’t take long to run into more mobs down the road, including two trolls. Really makes me wonder if anyone on this server hunts regularly to keep the roads relatively safe.
Continued on my trek, coming up on ‘The Serpent’ bridge. According to the map, the roads I am would eventually loop around and connect to the islands this bridge is going. But I cross it anyway (just to say I did). Not bad at all. Got a few pics while being on it.
The roads turn East for a bit, entering a pretty big bay. Eventually I end up at the same deed that I thought I got lost at (the ‘creek’). Decide to get a better look at the area, and it’s like the people that live here don’t mind the public coming in and looking at their stuff. All the doors are open. The courtyard of this big structure almost felt like it could support an Impalong. Then again, any big deed like this with lots of villagers, it can feel like an impalong year-round (minus the public wanting their stuff imped). Also do love how symmetrical their main entrance of the deed looks; a perfect mirrored image. Well done.
Their back yard was one of the biggest areas of Dirt I’ve ever seen, sloping up. It almost looked like a target range. But looking at it closer, I believe it’s the deed’s bulk farm (the multi-FSB’s should had told me this).

Contained to follow the coast, now going South. To my SE is a place up high that I saw when I was on my boat, called ‘Vulcan Reborn’. Went all the way up its ramp and was able to walk into the deed. I felt the view would be spectacular from up there. And it was.. ehh. Minus the oak tree blocking the view, it was OK. The deed itself almost felt like OR in the past (with three single floor structures with no roofs). The doors wouldn’t let me in, sadly. There’s also a random road going right into a fence and stopping. Went over to it and it showed the road continued. So it’s to be assumed the deed may not had been as high, and they kept the road like this for a memory.
Just down the road from the deed, is a few wooden shacks that are falling apart (one missing a wall). Clearly the looters have already made up with all of the good shit.
The coast is now going West again, doing the loop to connect the islands. I eventually reached some bridges, and I’m suddenly feeling lost remembering these same bridges from before, and being unsure how in the hell I got way over here to that point.
Retrace my steps and try my best to pinpoint where I am, and it’s like the map isn’t showing me. Finally things start to align and I figure out my location and cross the bridge. This is the same area I stopped when I was exploring by boat to check out this (dead) market. Further in, every tree on the deed has been chopped. It’s like they too are planning to redesign their deed (that or just randomly deforesting their entire deed.. even the oaks lining the sides of the road were nothing but stumps). Last time I saw this mass-deforesting was back on Exo.
Took this mountain road, and I thought it was going to go up to the top. Sadly it didn’t. But it was the only way to get to the other island. And the other island wasn’t much, just a locked to public deed. There’s another mountain road which connects to the other end of that Serpent bridge I mentioned earlier. After that, I pretty much went back to the mainland. Further exploration down the West coast isn’t possible (a lack of roads), and I even saw this from my boat. I would have to go inland quite a bit, and wouldn’t see the coast again ’till I reached the South side of the server.
Had to backtrack to reach some roads I saw on the map that would help me out, yet only to be stopped by a door that wouldn’t let me pass. Had to go offroad to get there to get on these backroads, to get on the main road. Ending up getting quite lost and the map isn’t telling me shit. I have to literally flip the map around and zoom in as far as Windows 10’s photo viewer would allow me. Managed to pinpoint my location (really, really small road). Got to the main road. Saw I could go West and check out this mountain deed (and this road I see on the map), or East and check out these two interesting lakes. Went West first, saw the upper end of this deed and went up the road (according to the map, rock is on the sides). There’s a wolf behind me, and the fucker manages to get a bite on me and scares the shit out of me, thinking it was a troll. Killed the troublemaker.
Turns out this mountain road links up with the deeds I was at earlier, to where I didn’t have to go through the forest and get myself lost. But what fun is that? Backtracked to the main road and went to the smaller pond. With no red outline showing up from every direction, I hopped off and took this time to repair the horse gear (I have to constantly do this, less the damage gets too high).
Pretty nice little pond. Even had a small island in the middle. I like to call these ‘mini-servers’.
Headed East to this other, larger lake as Sol is setting, and made it there. Now this is very nice, and I notice there were hardly any deeds here. Saw a guard tower with a nice flat area to put my tent down on the other side of the lake. To cross it is a small stone bridge named ‘El Dragon’. Wow, nice. Got to the guard tower and put my tent down as the crickets started chirping.

And this wraps up the continuation of Day 1. Good thing too, as Day 2 is already going.

So this is something that’s been biting in my brain ever since I got back from the Glasshollow Impalong. The feeling that I got to finally contribute, made me very happy. But even more so, that it helped to greatly raise my Blacksmithing skill.
Yet, Blacksmithing alone, unfortunately isn’t going to help me to achieve freedom from ever needing the Impalong again. It’s something I had overlooked until I was trying to imp something that seemed like a tool, yet it was a weapon instead.
There is Weaponsmithing(imping my tools that have a blade), Chainsmithing(reimping my armor), and Platesmithing(reimping my Plate armor) that I have to pay attention to. But none of that really matters, if you have low quality lumps (which is the most critical part of working with metal in Wurm). This is where the Mining skill plays in.

And to improve my Mining skill, isn’t as simple as making a low QL pick (from what I read, lower QL gives more skill ticks) and mine rock shards. From what Shydow told me (minus the overly-complex math), cave walls have the lowest set skill tick chance that you can get, with certain veins having a higher chance. I don’t remember what I was told in CA HELP, but I’m pretty sure the veins I need to grind on that have the highest chance of getting a skill tick, don’t exist in the mine to the WNW of my deed (which of course.. isn’t good for me).
On top of it, the QL of the pick has to match a certain level half of your current Mining level.. I think. Fucking hell the complexity. At least throwing a high cast of CoC on the pick is a no-brainer. This is why I jumped when I saw that low QL with 86CoC pick on that merchant back in Release.

But, I’ve decided against it (even though I’m home and I could get the money). Because the mining skill is only the icing on the cake of misery that you have to pay attention to. It’s one big juggle.
For there’s Hunger/Nutrition(which adjusts how much skill you get), Sleep Bonus(self-explanatory), and then.. finally, Fatigue. Fatigue isn’t well known to me, yet I hear it also controls how much skill you get and it only resets every 18 hours, with the message “You are rested.”
And… this is what I was talking about, when I mentioned how I’ve been almost strongly thinking about buying an account that has high skills. With someone like that ‘living’ in my deed (that I could get on at anytime that I wouldn’t have to depend on), I could mail my gear to them when out exploring, have them imp it back up, and mail it back to me without having to pay a high price to have everything re-re-re-re-re(etc)-imped. During the Impalong, I had my copper chain armor re-re-imped to 80QL.. and already my chestplate is nearly 69QL. The damage mobs do to my armor is crazy.
But if I had the hundreds of dollars (maybe thousands) needed that could literally pay my way out of this problem with something that has higher stats than myself… I’m almost desperate enough to do it.
I want to be FREE from ever having to use the Impalong again (and look like a newbie, asking for my stuff to be imped). I’ve been playing this game, on and off (since 2010-2015, for FOUR. YEARS. I should NOT need to have to go back to another Impalong by now (except for bringing my OWN resources to volunteer my time)!!

Yet if you tell Global Kchat of why this game is so complex, they’ll tell you “maybe Wurm isn’t for you” and “people that don’t like the grind have moved on”.
This begs the old question of why and how is this game still alive. Again, I get the purpose that the game is supposed to teach you the value of hard work and the feeling of accomplishment for completing a long task, but it seems to over-do this teaching in basic things like survival. Yes, keeping your gear in high condition is part of the survival aspect. I’ve heard the pros like to fight naked as a challenge, and can wreck any mob out there.
And that’s why this game is a MULTIplayer game, and not meant to be played solo. It’s supposed to encourage you to join a friendly deed to be able to do these things. …But, with myself, I would end up abusing their skills for my personal game (instead of grinding, because I don’t like the feeling of being tied down). This is why I live on my own, for I can do my own things and not have to answer to anyone (or feeling like I’m being depended on).

So what does this mean for me? If you haven’t figured it out yet, all of those hopes and dreams I would finally feel free from having to go to the Impalong, have been crushed. All because I forgot my Mining skill plays into the quality of the lumps I can use. Right now I can imp up to 50QL, and I doubt the lump quality would allow me to push it to 60QL.
I dunno what to do. It’s very frustrating, even though I get the reason behind it (which doesn’t make it any less frustrating).

This is probably the final day I’ll be exploring this server. I’m getting a theme of “Release has something for everyone”. But it’s quite impossible to explore the coast on horseback (due to cliffs). This is probably the actual theme, that is slightly unfriendly to explorers (not as unfriendly as Exo though). Still, it’s fantastic to finally explore it, after months of having the roads masked to explorers, and no good map dumps of the roads.
I just got finished with the last post. Wasted two hours that I could had been exploring due to not knowing what to write and how to do it, but it’s done.
With a week and two days ’till Wurm Fall, I’ll likely be heading to Pristine next and hope this time I find a wild horse. Would love to check all of these dragon-named deeds I’m seeing on the map.

Waited for nearly an hour, watching as the needle in WurmClock hit 0400. Logged in, no fog to worry about (though it’s raining a bit). Pulled up my saved map dump and got back on the road, heading South to check out the secondary ‘land of the lakes’ area. This really paid off. Lots of scenic views from all directions, and not that many trees. Explored the dead deeds on this island here. The mobs also wanted to explore how far their teeth can go into my skin. But even despite the mobs existence, I got some really good views.
I then went down to that old landbridge I remembered caught me off-guard while exploring from my boat. There’s no actual road, as the ramp has been completely taken over by grass. The road was still in a sense there (the slope for it was anyway). Got to a point where I had to briefly swim over the gap. A bridge would had been nice here. Got to the other side, more mobs awaited me. Gave them a taste of cold iron.
Started to go up a hill, which took me to this hidden pond behind the actual lakes. There’s piles of dirt leading up to a deed on a hill, with a single person in local happily imping their life away. In the middle of this small pond is a bit of landmass. No mobs anywhere around, shockingly.
Directly ahead of me is a marble bridge going up. Took it in curiosity, and noticed it hooks up to a road on top of this mountain. The road ended up in a big loop from the road I took to get here, with another road heading into the forest. With how quiet it is (minus the sounds of someone constantly imping in a forge), I took this time to slap my tent down and log off to do a much-needed bio break.
With that crap gone, I continued going back on myself to the bottom of that bridge, and to the landbridge. There are two stalls here, with one having a merchant. This one merchant has a 4.93QL pick(with 86 CoC) for 1.2s. Clearly this was a skiller pick, and I knew I needed it. But with no deeds around, there’s really no way I can pull a silver out of my bank (and use the 20c I got from killing a random wolf).
Was forced to abandon this and head back on the landbridge. I really want that pick. I could imp it up and actually.. grind for once. Again, more on this in a separate blog post (it’ll be coming as soon as I’m done with exploring Release).
Cross over the bridge I keep going under in my boat, and now on the NE side of the server, I head North to check out things. Passing by a catseye road called ‘Slippery Slopes Ski Resort’ (more on this later on) and leading a troll to a guard tower ahead of me, I make it to the bridge I remember as B2 saw when he was trying to pick me up after Saint had left me. Now I’m crossing this very long bridge that spans two grids.
On the other end is the NE Island (again), and a deed named ‘Wild Coast’.. and boy did it show how wild it was, with multiple mobs attempting to ambush me. If it wasn’t for the guard tower here, I would had gone back on the bridge.
Sol’s starting to go down as dinnertime looms, and I’m still luring mobs to the tower. I lost count of how many mob corpses are lining the road. And when I thought it was finally over, a troll shows up. With a few minutes past dinnertime, it’s now dead and I was able to secure this part of the island. Slapped my tent down and logged off.

It was about 7:15pm when the needle in WurmClock hit 0400 again. Popped Refresh (as I always do at this time). Crickets are still chirping as I clean up camp and get back on the road. Running out of places to explore. I’m seeing 2 maybe 4 areas of interest, and then it’s time to hop on my boat and go home.
Went back across the bridge, as it was mob city in the center of this island. Several spiders on the roads. Nuts. Followed the highway ’till I reached that catseye highway again, leading up. After what I went through in the Northeast and North side of the server, I’m a bit.. nervous of going up. But I went up anyway. Very few mobs stopped me as I made it to the top. I then noticed the catseye road was going further up, and I could see several structures on a mountain ahead of me. Followed the road, again I got very few resistance. Made it to a tunnel that continued going up. Mob-free.
Got up to the very top… ‘dat view. This makes up for the horde of death in the north. There’s even a path going higher!! Dude, this is SO COOL! Unfortunately, the horse refused to go up (as it was an angle). Hopped off the horse and lead the bastard up.
Reached the top. Fucking mind-blowing. Beautiful views 360*, and you can (nearly) see the entire server from up here(if it wasn’t for the mountains to the west).. no guard rails too, so my fear of looking down from heights really kicked in, heh. They say to conquer a fear, is to be exposed by it. It’s not like “OH GOD, I’M GOING TO FALL!!” from just looking ahead. The fear comes from looking -at- the edge and looking down from it, knowing if I stupidly held down both of my mouse buttons, my character would autowalk off the edge.
Yeeah. It’s that fear. And this isn’t even VR.

I also was presented with a unique astronomic event above me, with a moon alignment of Seris, Valrei and Jackal passing by Sol. Never seen anything like it before, and just a few days ago, I saw Valrei and Jackal taking turns eclipsing Sol.
Eventually got bored and started going back down, feeling like I was glad I risked it (and it paid off). Two wolves suddenly appearing, didn’t want me to leave. But they (and even myself) didn’t know, that the deed up here has a templar. So while they were busy getting their tails kicked by it, I ran back down the tunnel. This area proved to be really cool, because you can go from sea level to one of the highest points on the server.
Continued South. Was heading for a long wooden bridge, when I spotted something interesting on my left. There’s a road going down and under the bridge, with another going up to the bridge on the other side. I entered ‘Hidden Lake’. Well, not so hidden now, is it? Your cover’s been blown, lake!
There’s two deeds on this small lake, one having several interconnected bridges. As original as this thing is, it’s not really something I would do for my deed back home. Way too small compared to my place. And no real access for boats. Plus I was getting lost. I finally found a way out of the maze of bridges and continued following the coast of it clockwise. Got to the other deed, named ‘Lakeside Retreat’. In a sense, this would be OR’s ‘sister deed’ if it still existed. It also uses something quite rare to see nowadays; plain stone walls. Most of the walls I’ve seen are the other kinds of stone.
Found the other road that connects back to the bridge. Continued south. The next interesting thing I wanted to see was this strange deed just down this sandstone brick-laid highway. Finally made it to the junction, and I see a very cool diagonal mixture of slate brick and marble brick path, leading directly to the deed. It only got more crazy, with the marble bricks in a zig zag pattern. This lead to the deed named ‘The Gypsy Horse’. Sadly, further progress into the deed was impeded with gates blocking all access routes. Damn road was nothing but bait to lure explorers, and annoy them when they can’t enter the deed.
Checking the map as Sol’s going down, I realize I was very close to Saint’s old deed (and my boat). Debated if I should just go home, but decided against it and to go further South to check out the SE side of the server. Dropped my tent and logged out earlier than normal.

Sol’s up again. Instead of passing by Saint’s old place, I did a detour mixed with some off-roading. Got to another dead deed. This one had a moat-like area around it, that even went uphill. How very strange. But with very little walls to stop me, I had free reign to explore. It wasn’t that much. Just structures and walls falling apart from decay.
Went all the way to the SE coast. There’s a few guard towers along this highway, that I took full advantage of to get rid of some trolls on the highway. Now I’m passing by a modest-sized pond on my left. Really felt like something I would see in real life. Directly ahead of me is a unique marble bridge (called the ‘SE Valley Bridge’) that’s floating in the air, and looks like it dips down and then rises. Quite cool. As I’m getting close to the other side, the troll that lives under the bridge showed itself and started chasing me, bringing two of its hounds. Another guard tower helped to kill them all. I also got a 1s coin from killing one of the hellhounds.
Got to the SE coast, and swung around the coast to reach ‘Snake Island’. Last time I was here, it started showing signs of decay. It even more shows it now, especially the house on the hill with missing walls floating in the air, allowing entry. Nothing much to take.
Discovered a way further West to the large, rectangle-like island via a foot path. Never have been able to get there before. Just more dead deeds (coupled with missing roads). Not that many mobs here. Made it all the way to that square deed I keep passing by when I’m heading south back home to OR (when I was going that way). Two scorps chilling here, and now they’re chilling in mob hell.
I knew where I wanted to go next (to see the island on the other side of the bay), which would take me back up to near the central part of the server. The journey was long, but fun. Nearly there, I saw a potential alternate route that would take me up to the top of the crater; a large publicly-accessible tunnel going straight up. And I finally reached the top of the crater! Just intime to watch Sol set in the SW. The view I got felt like a postcard.
Greetings from Release

Sol’s up again and I’m watching Valrei and Seris rising in the SW. What an awesome place to relax. Checked the map, packed up camp and got back on the road, following the road going around the rim of the crater. Didn’t have that much opposition until I ran into a forest. Lots of mobs patrolling around.
Found the switchback that I was going to use to get up here. Had to kill a few mobs on the way down and reached the part where the road ends. Clearly the road was dug down to stop people like myself from going this way, but I don’t think it was deliberate (as the catseye highway got me up here). Really not much to say here, except the views (though not great due to lots of trees) were ok, and I managed to see what I could of the crater’s south and central side.
Was a bit confused on where to go on the central side, seeing one road going this way and another road going that way. I ended up going the longer way to get further East by mistake.
Eventually the road stopped at a four way junction. Far below me on the other side of the crater is a large square deed. The highway allowed me to head down to check it out. Entered ‘Harvestmoon’, a deed that’s in five sections. Two of them are horse pens, four of them are tree farms, and the last one is a large workshop. Going by what I saw, clearly the person (or people) living here mass-produce goods for others. That’s cool.
Ahead of me is the bridge that Saint claimed was a bad idea to build, due to the fact it still looks unfinished. This deed, is where I had assumed I would have to swim to get to the island on the other side. Left the deed and went back up the ramp, and back up the side of the crater, through the tunnel and now back down. I could clearly see a broken path leading to the bridge, that’s just outside the tunnel. After a few turns, I reached a point where I see a submerged landbridge. It takes me all the way to the bridge and the island. To my left I also see another bridge Saint mentioned, going nowhere except to connect to a sailboat. What a waste of resources.
Now on the large island, I expected a lot of resistance and it didn’t let me down. Several wolves, a crock, spiders, and a scorp I lead to a guard tower (called the ‘Ugly bridge sentry’) on the clay beach.
Now this side of the forest is clear, until I saw a wolf which is now dead. Ahead of me is a large fenced area which clearly doesn’t like strangers exploring it(with gates locked in all directions). ‘Mont Teretraut’ as the signs show, seems to be the name of the area. I wanted to go further East, and had to go around it. Not too many roads allowed easy access, but I used what I could to reach a large rectangular-shaped area of packed dirt. This area granted me access further east to another island. This one had a slightly interesting water feature on its SE side, with canals running through it. There’s also a guard tower perched on a manmade hill.

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And with that, I felt I was ready to go home. With Sol starting to go down, I felt confident that I would make it back before the crickets started chirping. ..I was off in my assumption, getting lost near Saint’s old old deed, on the road that Saint and I went on to get to the starter deed, feeling like I went too far and wasn’t seeing the second bridge I needed to cross.
The crickets started chirping as I finally made my way to the bridge, crossed it, and then went down and next to it to get to my boat. Starting to get dark, and I end up passing my boat of suddenly not remembering where I parked.
There’s a bear up the road that’s quite close, but not close enough to aggro. Hopped off the horse and tried to tame it. It kept ignoring my commands and then suddenly going hostile on me. I backed away as you’re supposed to, to let the horse calm down. But it kept a red outline. Suddenly the bear started closing in on the horse, and I had to kill it.
The horse remained hostile, no matter how far away I was from it. I knew the only way to get my horse gear back, was to kill it. And so I was forced to. After everything we did together, this is the way it wants to thank me. But in my defense, the horse was venerable and probably wanted to die. To prevent mobs from getting an easy snack, I butchered and buried it and took all the high QL items.

Now back in my boat and going home (going North to get on Cele’s South side), just wanted to say that I managed to see a lot more of Release than I ever had on my boat, and I really enjoyed the journey. And at the end, I made a total of 1s and 46c from random mob kills. So who says exploration doesn’t pay? 🙂
As for exploring Pristine (when I feel I’m ready), I have this covered with Cindylou promising to loan me a good horse.
–
Returned home with no issues, and gave back my horse gear to my good horse. Yet I didn’t know I would also have to use him to check out what Wargasm has been doing with the road, as it seems more mobs have moved in. A couple of black bears hanging around angry’s place. And as for the slate highway, it seems to now be parallel to the E/W connector highway, and will pass by Xandice’s old house on its way to the highway that connects to my deed.
And with that, I’m going to wrap up the series (for now). I don’t know when I’ll go back out there, but for some reason I seem almost compelled to stay home. Think I might restart on Saturday to go back to Pristine on boat and explore the coast again (this time fully).

It’s BACK, people! 😀 Back on Release, this time on horseback.
But before I explain the chaos (and there were lots), two things I wanted to say. The first thing is I went to Cindylou’s deed in Pristine. I managed to get all the way there without feeling I’m getting lost.
Her deed looks really good, simple yet functional. Unfortunately, she never expected that I would ever show up (and all the gates were locked). The center of the large deed is her house. Going by the materials and the design(of what I could make out from standing outside of the fence), I’m having my doubts she did it all by herself (probably had Serraphine helping her).
I saw her animal pens, and they look really nice. Since she’s from Texas, it looks like something that one might see there. She has the classic 1×1 stall, but has fences that extend it to 3×1 (with some of these stalls being 3×2 in a sense). She also has a lot more room for more horses than I do (even compared to my old pen design).

I then did what I said last night, of trying to drop off the unused larder back to Saint. Finding horses was a bit of a challenge, especially this one horse which was on a hill. I had to drop everything on my person to get up there and lead it.
However, something wasn’t right when I reached where he had his boats (as in.. they’re gone). Did find another horse, so I was able to properly hitch my cart and haul it up to his place.
Made it there. I expected to drop the larder infront of the gate and then go back home. Instead I went through the gate, and saw the deed was completely empty. All of his wagons and everything, were gone. So clearly he moved out from the last time I spoke to him.
Sol’s starting to go down, and I started wondering if I should even worry about if I sell it or whatever. Decided to ask server chat of where Saint ran off to, saying I’m his friend. Someone asked “rl friend or ingame friend?” I said ingame, and he said he would leave a message for me. Wow. Seems the server doesn’t trust strangers. But I left a message to him in a PM.
He got back to me five minutes later, saying Saint didn’t care to have it back, and that I can do whatever I want with it. So, k. That’s fine. I also wanted to ask where Saint was living, but I didn’t want to step on anyone’s toes and thanked him for relaying the message.

Whatever. If that’s the way he wants to act, that’s fine. Maybe he was just too busy to talk to me personally. Decided to take one of the horses and slap my tent down and hitch it for later, then head back home to drop off the cart and larder.
I also spoke to Wargasm about the highway. He said it won’t directly connect to my deed, but it would be close (by 15-20 tiles). He also adds that it’s going to continue East and get to the Steppe on the other side of the lake. So likely this highway is going to go right between my deed and angry’s deed. And as for tearing up the roads, he states he ‘doesn’t like twisty highways’, especially the Hillbilly Highway to the West. Finally he states that the highway will have catseyes, and I would be able to add my deed to the highway.
Honestly, I don’t know what to think about it. I don’t like it recklessly cutting through the forest. Those roads are what made me really like the area.. and I was here first. Pilot’s Point didn’t exist back then, and I really wish I had a say in this.
It’s almost making me consider moving to another server… but I won’t really know the total damage this highway is going to do. Maybe I’m just overreacting as normal. Well, whatever…

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…Because it’s time to celebrate getting the redesign project done, by doing what keeps me playing this game; exploration! With just over a week ’till Wurm Fall (and having the new map dumps), I now FINALLY have access to reliable road maps of Release!
And I wasted no time in getting started when Sol rose again, and got back to the server post haste. Was able to tame the horse and threw on my horse speed gear.
Picked a random interesting place to go on the map and went there. Went to this interesting diamond-shaped thing on the map, and it didn’t disappoint when I arrived. It’s a mixture of pottery, cobblestone and marble tiles, neatly spun into interesting patterns. This chain-like pattern continued North into a deed named ‘Scarborough’. Every structure was made out of pottery brick. Ahead of me is a assumed cave canal. Instead, it seems to be the owner’s storage area (there’s a lot of random things here). There’s also these four wings all pointing at a cardinal direction.
Since I wanted to head to the starter town (to also continue West) I went for the West tunnel. It sloped and went down quite a bit, but stopped with one of the cave floors were too high for the horse to traverse. Hopped off and tried to mine the floor down, was still too high. Got fed up and went back up the tunnel after a second (failed) attempt.
There’s this very long North/South highway that would take me to the highways I needed to go. It was quite nice, and I’m glad I decided to take it instead of hug the coast of the lake. Gave a Bearback Highway-like feeling, with the long (yet not too steep) up and down slopes.
Made it to Sloping Sands with no problem. Enjoyed the view as Sol is setting. The merchant stall that was selling skiller tools still exists, unfortunately she doesn’t sell them anymore (except for a few here and there). Most were high QL, un-enchanted tools. Set up camp outside of the deed as nightfall loomed (not to mention it was also close to dinnertime for me).

With the sky and ground not getting as dark since the new art update, I tried to come on earlier than before (0300 game time). Yet I didn’t really see any difference. Went back to waiting for 0400, and it got brighter but the crickets were still chirping. Decided to pull up camp anyway as it felt good enough to go. This time I headed to Wryven Lake. I was also trying to keep my eyes open for any Walnut trees. Didn’t take me long until I was literally surrounded by them! Now I have enough sprouts that I (hopefully) shouldn’t fail planting them when I get back home. I also popped my Refresh for the first time on another server (outside of the Impalong).
Mobs started to become a problem as I continued my way to the lake, but nothing I couldn’t handle. Finally reached the lake. Debated which direction I should go around it, and decided Clockwise (as it would take me into the NW side of the server).
Discovered the locals here have two ways in and out of the lake, similar to how I have it in Cele (a canal South and one North). Now that South canal when I was exploring the server by boat, wasn’t accessible before (and the North canal wasn’t on the map).
Made it to the NW side of the server, and I really… REALLY wish I didn’t. Infact, they should had posted bright red warning signs.
“WARNING: PLAYER DEATH AHEAD, TURN BACK IF YOU VALUE YOUR SANITY!!”
And that ‘death’ is in the form of multiple mobs, so many I swear Enki was spawning them in. Multiple trolls, spiders.. at times I felt I couldn’t take two steps without seeing another mob forming a fucking conga line of death behind me!
If I may borrow a line from the Freeman’s Mind series…
“I remember now.. everyone is trying to KILL me!!” .. Now if only I could pull out ‘Ambassador Pineapple’ and try to reason with their disembodied corpses. There was also a major lack of guard towers to help me out with these fuckers. There was even this one time where I went on this N/S road thinking it would get me away from the hordes of mobs chasing after me. Turned out to be a dead end. Thankfully there was a tower near me, and I was able to clear some of the horde away. Yet wolves started coming from the East and West forests. Tower guards are dying due to the repeated actions of combat (and this is before luring two trolls down).
And when you think that you can just kill this one mob, more decide to show up in order to complicate things for me. Extremely frustrating, and now Sol’s starting to go down. But I finally managed to kill the last hellhound and get out of there.
Back on this twisty road, mobs coming out of the ground and the trees (what it felt like). Look behind me and I swear I had eight spiders chasing me. A whole lotta NOPE!
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Now at another tower, with it taking on three trolls, and I’m running around like a chicken with its head cut off at FOUR hell hounds chasing me. At first I thought this would be a good spot to camp, but with the influx of mobs.. NOPE! Time to get the fuck out of here. And then it hit me after I was going down this ramp, that I was up on a mountain. No wonder there was so much death there. Safely back down to the center of Release, and managed to set up camp near a guard tower. That was NUTS! North Release? Very, very bad area to explore! Yet you can’t say the hunting is bad (which it isn’t).

Next time I logged in, I wanted to head South and check out the array of small lakes on the coast (also a few other interesting areas on the way, a unique deed and a large area on the map with a strange texture). A few trolls here and there, but nothing like I had up at that mountain.
The ‘unique deed’ I mentioned is called ‘Fort Huntsman’, a square deed with high walls, but allows public access. There’s bridges on the walls which are assumed to be for decor, as they really go nowhere. In the center, everything’s glowing so red from several Hota statues, I swear there’s a mob here. On the sides of two of these Hota statues, are several neatly-lined tombstones belonging to champ and unique mobs (including every color of dragon). Not much else to say, except it’s a really nice deed.
The large area on the map with a strange texture, was a pretty big area of Tundra (with a deed on its West side). Quite good for hunting. A few mobs here and there, but thankfully the roads around here were pretty smooth. Getting to the area with the area of lakes would prove to be difficult, setting up camp near the SW coast. From what I was seeing on the map, there are very few access roads, and I would have to be doing some off-roading (and swimming) here and there.
I also had a quite ‘friendly’ discussion about grinding in Global Kchat. Started off as a joke from myself about wanting to force-feed my horses for all the times they packed a grass tile on my deed, then it went to how it would take two weeks (that’s in real time) to enchant every tile. I also discussed this with Cindy, who pretty much opened my eyes to something I never really thought of for the entire time I’ve been playing Wurm. And that is how everyone wants to grind those numbers as fast as they can.
It still bugs me at times, how this game over-pushes that teaching of appreciating hard work and effort (by doing questionable shit like this). No wonder why it’s gotten on my nerves. Sometimes I wish I had a new main that is higher-skilled than myself, that I could get on and mail my armor or whatever to them and they would imp it for me, and send it back. You may think I’m hinting at buying an account… it’s a thought, nothing more. I may grow desperate enough to do it, but not at this time. I’ll get back to this in a separate blog post.

Moving on, Sol’s up again. Saw my only way to the ‘land of the lakes’ is to go South and West until I reach a point where I can offroad through a forest to get to a strange lake. And that’s what I did, while also letting some spiders try to kill some tower guards instead of me, to keep them busy.
Was a road going directly into a mountain. Tried to get in there, thinking it was a secret cave entrance, but I couldn’t make anything out. Kept checking the map while going, and found a road that leads up via a cave canal to the top of these hills overlooking the lakes, where there’s more roads. Up here, I expected to once again be constantly pestered by mobs, yet I hardly ran into one. Quite a refresher from before.
From here, I planned a route to get me to the crater to the West. I could clearly see a winding road leading up to the top of the crater, but when I eventually reached the point, it was like the map had altered itself to a point where there were no roads.
My only option was to take another road, and swim across this channel to a deed to the other side, and pray its gates are publicly accessible. Got down to the shore line, waited for my stamina to go up, and swam for the other side. Luckily there were no sharks or other mobs to complicate things.
Safely got to the other side and mounted up, and was able to pass through every gate I needed to. Awesome. Now I have a clear shot to the crater! …Sadly I didn’t look at the road close enough, to see something had happened to it. Where the road was supposed to switchback up the mountain, the mountain itself took the road out (and it’s sitting on the side of the mountain). If this was deliberate to keep the public out, or something else, I dunno. I did see an alternate route that looked like would get me up there, yet it stopped short of getting all the way to the top. Debated if I should get B2 over here in his boat, to get me back to dry land. But instead I simply went back the way I came to get there.

This time I wanted to head to the NE side of the server and check it out. Plotted a course that would eventually take me back to that cool Bearback Highway-like highway that I used to get to Sloping Sands. Ran into Demonnightshade, who waved at me and said how the people in here are alts. Jukimo was also there, and I said “Pretty sure Jukimo’s not an alt.” But then said “Hmm cool.” Just more small talk in hopes of getting me out of there.
I was also passing by areas I remembered Saint was showing me. He PMs me later saying that when ‘Juki’ is on, 75% of the time he logs on as her as she “doesn’t play as much anymore”. Interesting. I wonder if it had anything to do with the embarrassment of the Exo Impalong last year.
While going up the road, I saw an area on my left with lots of clearing (lots of bushes and very few trees). There was a building near me, indicating this was a Rift site. The sloping grassy hill felt like something I would see in real life. Pretty badass. Would be awesome in Wurm Winter, if we could get one of those inflatable rubber innertubes you could lay on and slide down it. Would be fun, and watching the mobs trying to chase me while I’m going 30km/s.
Made it to the point where the road is about to end which goes to Sloping Sands. Instead I kept going North and then Northeast as the road ended, to get on another road going due East. This road became a highway, called the ‘Aura of Vynora Highway’. Sol’s going down at this time, and the lamps are coming on. It’s alternating between regular white and red as I pass by them. Quite cool. Made it to a flat wood bridge, and was able to see the deed to my North with that really, really cool bridge that leads up the mountain. Sadly I saw no way of getting there on foot, as the deed is an island (and there’s no bridges going to the mainland).
Decided to turn North and go to the NE island, which has that deed that Tulsi went to (when I still had OR). It’s getting really dark when I arrive at the deed. There’s no one here, which is good. What wasn’t, is how the roads are so narrow (and so many), I didn’t see a clear way to get to the center of the island (in order to find a guard tower to set up camp). Did eventually find a way out, and found a tower. But it was sandwiched between two deeds’ perimeters, and I couldn’t slap my tent down. So I’m doing one of my most unliked things, running around in the dark. Mobs wanted a piece of that frustrated booty, and I chopped a wolf’s dick off for it. If only they would feel actual pain and run off when something like that happens, like a real animal would (that or pull you off your horse and rip your throat out).
Ran back to the super studdery deed of Harvestmoon Lagoon. Entered one house that was unlocked, and stayed there ’till Sol eventually rose. Not like I can log off and expect to lead my horse again.
Fell asleep while waiting the stupid star to rise. Finally it did and I got out. But Wurm managed to find another way to piss me off, with thick fog forming. First it was OK, and went on with my plan of getting back to the mainland and going South, but the fog kept thickening, and the mobs kept coming. I was threatening to chop their dicks off if they didn’t stop perusing me. Made it to a tower. With it close to bedtime, I slapped my tent down and logged for the night, very not happy with the fog.

So that’s about it for ‘Day 3’ to restart the entire thing. I expect to stay maybe another day until it’s time to go back home, as I would be out of cool places to explore on the server.

DTH Redesign Project COMPLETED!
I lost count of how long it has taken, but I think it’s been around two weeks (give or take the times I’ve been focused more on watching a Youtube video than the game).
But everything is done now. All structures have been fully built, all canals have been trenched, and all bridges are now crossable.
I made a slight (yet needed) change to the north end of the deed. Instead of having the diner and the grinding floor as separate structures, I made it as a 1×4. I also relocated it from where I showed the structures would be. It no longer looks like a pair of human kidneys (the design bugged me).
The needed part, is a made a modest sized pen that’s directly connected to the new farm, for the animals I collected (the two cows and sheep). The drawback, is I made the decision to say no of rebuilding the old diner to be like that 1×2 structure I saw on that deed in Exo. To rebuild it would be a direct copy-paste (with no modifications), and I can’t do that.
As for the horses, they’re still in their temp pen. Most of the grass has grown to a ‘stable’ level (‘tall’/’growing wild’), but due to the fact even in the temp pens.. the horses are still happily packing every tile they stand on. I almost feel that a recent update made animals hungrier than they should, but I have no solid proof (as others say they haven’t seen an increase in packed tiles).
So maybe it’s just me. But I’m going to wait ’till all the grass grows to ‘growing wild’ before I allow them in.

Angry made a surprise appearance a few days ago. Guy’s still alive, just super busy with life. He checked out the redesign and all he really said was how the redesign was “progressing nicely”.
Though there’s something he doesn’t realize (but nature calls, you know). I have one of his good horses, and my good horse decided to ‘get to know her better’. I don’t have to tell you what happened next. It was completely out of my control, I swear. A complete accident.
All I hope for, is the foal to have really good traits once she gives birth in a few days from now.

With the completion of the redesign project, I made one more adjustment. Well, two, that were both related to the new dock. I lowered the height to allow me to Disembark in the dock, and I also did something I’ve never done before. It was something that one of my neighbors, Xandice, has been doing; working with rope as a fence and making Low Rope Fences.
This really had my interest, and started to eat at my brain. “This guy who was a new player is doing things that you have never bothered to touch in your life. Don’t you feel a bit pathetic now, given how long you’ve played this game?” And for once, I actually listened to my common sense and saw that it really isn’t that difficult to do it. Thought “you know? Fuck it. I’m going to have a rope fence to add some realism!”
The bad part is I had a very limited supply of wemp plants to start making rope. I planted what I had in the new farm, and knew I would just need to get a decent supply of it.
Decided to finally go exploring, as there was nothing else to do. Saw Warlander in local as I was nearly halfway up the E/W highway that connects the road that connects to my deed, to everything else. Asked him if it was possible to ‘speed up the process’. But instead of giving me the ropes I needed, he gave me the wemp I needed. Lol, alright cool man. I can work with this (having a rope tool back home). 🙂
He gave me two large crates full of wemp plants (plus ten extra ropes). As much as I greatly appreciate the hospitality, I really have no need for THIS much wemp! lol

Was a bitch to make the ropes, but it made sense (with 1.32 in the skill). But I finally got them done. Now I can pretend this is where you tie your boat up to the dock (instead of using an anchor).

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Follow the Slate Brick Road
With that done, all there’s really left to do is wait for Wurm’s tree gen to take over (to beautify the deed). This will likely take several RL months. I wish there was a way to know the logistics of the system, and knew what tree would generate and where (to greatly speed up the process).
But, ehh. No big. As long as I keep the deed funded every month, it can take as long as it needs. Now to go exploring for reals. This time I would head back to that cool slate brick road I saw, when I needed those marble slabs. And I didn’t have to go far until I had reached it. Infact, it’s getting close to reach my deed.
After going the distance of the E/W connecting road, and having the V interchange to the south of me, I noticed the slate road cutting directly through it. On one hand, I’m nearly freaking out that I have a major highway very close to my deed.. yet on the other hand, I really don’t like how it destroyed the beauty of the area.
Nevertheless, I took this new extension of what I like to call ‘The Southern Cele Freeway’. It directly links up to what my contact showed me, and continues all the way to Port Alora.
Decided to check out the tunnel that according to the forum, will eventually go on a straight shot to Tap Dance. Inside the tunnel blew my mind, marble cave wall reinforcements lining the walls. Damn nice job, Angelklaine!
Made it all the way to Port Alora and walked in. Saw the man of the hour and tried to talk to him, but he was too busy for an ‘interview’ (of if he lost his mind making this highway). He didn’t speak me ’till much later (as I was exploring areas around the new highway that I’ve never seen before). He was confused of what I’m talking about (with the east extension), then remembered that Wargasm did it.
This is so cool. Two players, with legendary histories (mainly PvP) living on the same side of Cele as me. We’re practically neighbors, and I don’t mind it.

I went up the side of ‘Dragon Mountain’ (the name given to me by Andderson.. shock, yes. I didn’t name it) and got to the very top.. and WOW what a view. I also saw what I dubbed ‘Wolf Tooth Mountain’, and even Shallow Lake (where my deed is) from up there. Also saw the server’s southern edge. Quite awesome.
Back home to write this. It was a lot of fun, and it actually felt an accomplishment for all the effort I put into the deed. One thing to note, that highway looks like it’s only going to get closer; possibly merge with the N/S road that connects to my deed.
I doubt it’ll turn and connect to my DTH Bypass Highway. But if it did.. HOLY FUCK would I be freaking out. I would feel famous, watching that catseye highway showing ‘Dragontail Hideaway’ on the signs.
2018 is going to be a fun year for Wurm.

To complete this post, tomorrow I’ll be heading to Pristine and surprising Cindylou by showing up at her deed. I’m curious on her progress. Debating if I should also drop off that unused larder back at Saint’s place in Release, but it might take me too long. I’ll probably do it on the way back home, though.
Just take my large cart with me, find a few wild horses (upon getting to Release) and haul it there.

After I got finished making that blog post, I played the game. Most of the time was waiting ’till I got enough research to unlock the large shuttle, and then being unsure if I should build it (as I don’t want the damn thing to blow away when I’m putting stuff on it, when one of those annoying storms rolls through the base).
While I was in a cave, hunting for Aluminum, my taskbar caught my eye, by showing Steam was trying to do something. Checked it and Astroneer was showing ‘update queued’.
Got back in my rover and saved, then quit. Got the update.
Now before I discuss my opinions with the update, I just want to apologize in advance for my upcoming immature words. I have to talk about their Trello page. There has been a few updates to it a day ago (which I appreciate), but compared to Subnautica’s, where they offer pictures and video, it feels there’s quite a lack of communication with the community.
Asteroneer’s Trello page just makes me wonder “why am I bothering to care for this game?” And yes I understand that Astroneer has less people working on it. But with how pricey the game was (even when it was on sale), I just expect more communication. I want to know my money was well spent.

So with that out of the way, let’s get to the new 0.5.1.0 update. There’s three parts to it;
-A change to how ‘passive research’ is acquired.
-Lighting overhaul.
-Bug fixes.

Let’s talk about the first. The way research was done before, was as simple as “find research, place in, feed me power and I give you constant research.” The last part has been changed. Instead of a constant stream of research points that you can rely on, there’s now ‘high’ and ‘low’ points. ‘High’ points give the most research per minute, while ‘Low’ does the opposite. This new system gives the player a risk-taking approach; do you scan the high points and destroy the research (to get the most efficient way of getting points), or do you do nothing?
The plus side is it makes research more interactive (of choosing if you want to wait ’till it finishes scanning the highest point). It gives the player that feeling of a choice instead of feeling like it’s something you just plop in, hit the button and then do another thing.
The only downside, is the smaller font style they used for very important info (how much the sample is worth, how much is left to scan).. and finally, it seems they did something with power. Before, the more power you had running, the faster it’ll go. This bar showing the power has been changed to something I’m …not really sure.
Currently I have like, 6 solar panels and an equal amount of medium wind turbines. With them all going, I’m supplying a lot of power. Yet this bar shows it’s only 60% faster (even when one Research Chamber is going).
So it’s possibly a bug that might get fixed next month.

The next change is the lighting overhaul. Typically, an overhaul like this drops off my radar as not being that important (just something they changed behind the scenes). …Not this time. Not when I can’t see shit in these underground caverns (even with a Work Light on my person).
Speaking of that thing, it seems that light is now a requirement. Without it, it’s nearly pitch black. That really sucks.

Finally are bug fixes, half of them were for multiplayer. Though one is quite the milestone, fixing a number of issues causing save files to be corrupted/deleted if the game crashed. That is really awesome.
Another fix is Compound will no longer try to connect to the two ‘ghost slots’ infront of the machine interface of base platforms (which slightly bugged me when I was starting out). Fantastic fix.

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So that’s my thoughts. I personally hope they’ll revert these changes (or enhance them). I just feel they weren’t needed, yet I still do appreciate that they’re doing their promise for monthly updates.
One other thing I need to nitpick (and this unfortunately is going back to their Trello page), after the list of bug/crash fixes, they claim they “completed a ‘comprehensive overhaul’ to their Trello page”…which is pretty much what I’ve seen before (showing ‘Q1 2018’ of projected release dates).
I dunno what’s going on with the devs. In their videos, they seem really focused on their work (and show they want to make the game as good as humanly possible). Yet outside of it, there’s hardly any communication with the community.
At least, have a dev branch (like Subnautica) that people can play around with (and test) these future updates. This would be one of the best ways to communicate.

Then again, I remember for years that Space Engineers didn’t have a dev branch (or even a Trello page). Yet they were posting updates every Thursday, which made them quite active.

Lots to talk about. Most of it is Wurm-related, so I’ll be starting with that, and the tail end is a new update of Astroneer coming tomorrow.

First order of business, is an update of the Redesign Project. As it stands, the entire project is about 45% completed. Phase 1 is 100% completed. Phase 2 is 60% completed. Phase 3 is 60% completed.
And finally, Phase 4 is 20% completed.
I have fully built the new horse pens. With both pens, I can hold up to 10 horses, down from 17 with the old design (or hold up to 20 if I have two horses per stall). Also it turns out that Steppe wasn’t a good idea to use for the horses to graze on, even though CA HELP told me it’s just as good as grass. I was forced to finally make a Leggat and make some Thatch to regrow packed tiles.
But with the grass taking forever to grow, I got a friend to build a temp stable for my horses (outside of the deed). I just hope it starts growing before decay destroys the fences.

Moving on, I went through hell (but actually enjoyed it at the end) of trying to get more Marble for Stage 3. Had to go on cart (my large cart) to Port Alora to pick up 17 marble slabs (which should be enough). Got lost a lot trying to find my contact. Ended meeting up at Isolation, and followed him (also in a cart) back to his place. Saw a road made entirely out of slate that I’ve never seen before, it’s damn nice. Plus there’s a new tunnel connecting the south side to Tap Dance.
Seeing Cele’s south side was pretty awesome. The mountains. The rolling hills. Something I would never see when in my boat. I need to find a way to include myself in this, to expand this awesomeness further East (and really revitalize the area). Because right now, are dead ends that are full of trolls.
When heading back home, instead of going the way I came, I hugged the south coast. Ran into another fog spider here, but nothing I couldn’t handle.

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And that’s basically it.. other than literally chopping a ram’s dick off for failing to breed (and it bleeding to death), that’s all that’s really important to talk about in Wurm.
Now to talk about this news that I’m seeing about Astroneer. First, I’ve been watching Frumple stream the game ever since he started it. And today was his last stream, as he ran out of things to do, and he’s also getting bored with base building. But it seems that he might not have to wait long for new content, as the game is going to be getting an update very soon. Was told in the stream that it’s went to the XBox first.

Yet here’s a question. How did they get this info, when the dev’s Trello page is pretty much ‘dead’? It hasn’t been updated since December 14th of last year. There’s not even a mention of this supposed XBox release.
Where in the hell are the devs posting this info? Twitter? Facebook? They have to be using some other form of social media to get the word out (because I know it’s not Youtube). Someone please tell me.
Whatever’s the case, this update is supposed to bring bug fixes and changes to the lightning engine. Maybe it’ll make the game less of a studdery mess on my potato CPU. Yet I have my doubts. Though, bug fixing is greatly welcomed.

So it’s time for an update to the DTH Redesign Project, and I’m please to announce that… only 0.02% progress has been made. And this is going from “wow, I can’t wait to get started” to “I wish I never got this started”. And that’s due to now having to put my money where my mouth is and MAKE all that crap I listed here.
I’ve made the bricks (including replacing the ones I needed to pave the new bypass route). Had to mine some more shards (even with the 600 I brought home). The biggest headache is the planks(as it’s the most I need). Why in the FUCK do I need over 2,000?! And I even counted how many tiles that would take(with putting 100 planks on each tile). And it would take from the SE gate all the way to my house (without crossing a bridge). That is fucking insane.

I’ve also been playing Astroneer a lot. Unfortunately I can’t say its my ‘favorite game’, as it’s in early Alpha. But at least it has a “let the player fuck around” approach (as the only survival aspect is the occasional towering wind storm (and its debris being thrown at you at high speed)). Infact you can go anywhere on the planet (even the poles, and watch as the system’s star moves around having eternal morning).
The North Pole is more interesting than the South Pole (in this save), as it’s near a huge mesa-like canyon range that can go on for miles. Plus I saw very strange alien flora (they don’t attack me).
I’ve also reached that point where I’m getting bored with it. There’s currently no endgame (or goals). I could make a shuttle and explore the other planets, yet I’m pretty sure my CPU will pop out of the motherboard and want to kill me in my sleep (as it tried to when I launched my spaceman towards the planet the first time I created a save).
According to their Trello page, there is an update possibly by March (or maybe earlier) of this year. I -think- March is ‘Q1’. Though I’ve heard from a Youtube video that the devs are planning to release monthly updates.

Anyway, I’ll be getting to work on the planks soon enough. I also decided to bring B2 back home. Angry has been offline for nearly a week (6 days). So clearly his ‘Wurm Jaunt’ is over. Maybe he’ll come back, but I really don’t care if he does or doesn’t. Just if he wants Benie back, he’s going to have to be the one that fetches him (as I lost my patience waiting for him to get on).
And my final ‘I also’, I spoke to Cindy to ask her Alliance about this unknown glitch with bridges (not visually connecting on its northern end when it’s 4 tiles long).
Spoke to the head of the Alliance, ‘Serraphine’. It’s convinced that this is just a glitch with DeedPlanner and should not happen ingame. Of course I wasn’t 100% convinced. Said it would make a support ticket. Half of me feels embarrassed we have to drag a GM into this, and the other half feels “this is good, to have confirmed proof of this.”
Said it went to the test server and got a few pics to show both ends do attach, and I saw them. And the bridge definitely works (it represents a triangle, without the bottom line). So this proves it was definitely a glitch. Said “guess I’ll risk it. If it happens, then I’ll call a GM”. And it surprised me.. saying it was a GM (and also giving me her forum profile to prove it). Was quite surprised. Said it was trying to tell me that it received no tickets about this odd-shaped bridge (proving even more it’s just a graphical bug in DP).
I now feel 100% convinced. This is great, that I won’t be forced to completely redesign my redesign in order to not see this glitch.