How Google celebrates April Fools Day…

Posted on 03-31-2017 by Benie

April Fools Day (April 1st) is tomorrow (though in Australia it already is). The day of pranks, laughter, and lots of salty tears. But Google is celebrating it a different way this year, a way to celebrate the early era of video games (the retro era).
And that is Playing Ms. Pac Man in Google Maps..anywhere on the planet. Turn your typical streets into an actual playable level to eat pellets, and run from the ghosts until you get a power pellet.
This is hilarious. It plays just like the original Ms. Pac Man! Anyone can play this, RIGHT NOW! Go now, get into the Google Maps app on your phone or your computer browser, and click on the Ms. Pac Man icon. Anything within the bounding box, becomes the game!

I was able to turn my neighborhood into a Ms. Pac Man level. This..this is so amazing that it’s scary to see how well this works! I even managed to turn a huge interchange into a level, and it was SO. MUCH. FUN!! Try this out for yourself! It’s FREE, and it’s AWESOME!! 😀
Thank you, Google. Bravo!

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Why politics and gaming should never be together

Posted on 03-30-2017 by Benie

OK, I’m not going to lie; I don’t pay attention to trends (as they’re usually too messy to deal with) but there’s one that I feel, every gamer needs to know. And this is the whole ‘Johntron VS Yuka-Lalee’ thing. There’s been a lot of videos on Youtube, and I didn’t know what was going on with this. However, this video actually helped to put all the pieces together enough for me to understand what’s going on.
Basically, the video game company in question (Playtonic) was going to have Johntron, a Youtuber, to be a voice of one of the characters in the game. And then later, decide to reverse this decision. Their reason is because Johntron…had a different belief than they did. And then they try to sugarcoat it by saying they did this for the fans and Kickstarter backers.
What. the. heck. Yeah! I TOO would be teed off! I mean, they have a right to remove people if they see fit. Where they messed up was publicly announcing their reason. And there’s something else I found out prior to this. The way they “support” their fans and backers is to ban anyone who asks for a refund on the Steam forum! Fantastic support here, Playtonic!

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And then there’s something that is even worse than this (but in ways proves that politics in gaming have NO business being together. Because this is about all of these accusations that some of the dev team of Mass Effect Andromeda ‘pandered’ to the SJWs(Social Justice Workers) instead of all gamers. I wanted to give Bioware the benefit of a doubt, but the fact they aren’t coming out and either apologizing or defending their game, it doesn’t bode well for them.
The ‘pandering’ was mainly focused on female characters– especially ones of color. This is to believed, to be the reason why white female characters (especially the female player character) have huge cartoonish eyes and big mouths to make them hideously ugly, to “encourage” players to play characters of color.

Honestly, I really don’t know what to say..except I’m getting sick of this propaganda I’m seeing on Youtube. These videos who are being anti-SJW (even going as far as telling people to boycott the game because of pandering) are only making things worse for everyone. And all I want to do is hide in a hole, screaming out “MAKE IT STOP!!!”
I’m used to the simple life of being a game reviewer. Company makes the game, I review the game. I don’t base it off of my political/religious beliefs..I base it off of the content that’s there. The only blame of a game, where characters are glitching through the floor or the story makes absolutely no sense.. is the company.
Guys, I stand on neutral ground of these “left wing” or whatever the feck they’re called..social groups. I don’t hate them, but I don’t like them either. All I care about, is the game. Simple.

Come people, join the neutral bandwagon. Let’s not hate on SJWs. Instead, let’s put that hate into a movement. A movement, of closing the purchase page of this game (and encouraging others to do so). Yes, let’s boycott it. Let’s boycott this game, as a whole. Let’s boycott the company that made it.
All the insults you anti or pro SJW people are doing, isn’t helping the situation; it only divides the gaming community even more. We must unite under one banner. And that banner is to speak with our wallets instead of our words. Let’s do a similar thing we did with WoD and Blizzard! Remember that? We won that fight, by not speaking a word.
Just stop helping to raise up the number of copies sold. Maybe then, EA or Bioware or whoever will see the game is indeed a failure and look into it.
If you must have it, then… no, I refuse to even give that suggestion because it’ll only make matters worse (Bioware could possibly slip in DRM as a “content patch”, to mess up everyone in order to stop piraters in their tracks). Yet if they do that, that’ll unfortunately prove even more they did indeed pander to the SJW’s.
Some say the lead animator hates white people (or something. Maybe it’s someone else).

The point is (and I’ll say it again), blame the SJWs or whoever you want. But if you continue to buy this game, you would have accomplished nothing.
Heck, let’s just say no to any future Bioware games. They pull this stunt, let’s just say no. If this was because of hating white people or pure ‘money > customers’, both can be fought by just not buying their games.

I personally am kind of tempted to pirate it, but my morals are against me.
I dunno. I just hope my speech helped.

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“Where are your trip Wurm blog thingies?”

Posted on 03-25-2017 by Benie

Right. Time to re-open this can of worms….
*opens can*
Wooooo!! Look at all the drama that flew out of it!
*closes can*
And there’s more where that came from. So if you’re tired of seeing me bitch about Wurm and wonder why I still play..leave now. That is your only warning. Another thing, is this blog post will have no cusswords. I’ve been going ‘family-friendly’ with my words for awhile now, and to be honest..cussing really gets me nowhere, and I should really stop using it so much in real life as well.
At least, I’ll do my best to promise it’s family-friendly, as it’s currently 84*F in my room, and its late March (when we shouldn’t be seeing these temps ’till May).

For ones that (for some reason enjoy seeing me crying myself to sleep), click on the spoiler below (and of course bring lots of popcorn).

Spoiler

So where to begin with this? Two days ago I was supposed to be heading to the Pristine server.. yet I’m not. What happened? What caused me to suddenly lose my desire to explore?
Three reasons why, and I’ll discuss all three in order of listing;
1. Mobs, and how there’s so many of them. I think the last server trip, gave me nightmares with how many I saw in a small area.
2. Durability(QL) of armor/weapons, and no way to field-repair them.
(the big one)3. The price of silver coins, and burning through it on repairs (and having none for prem/deed upkeep).

Discussing the first one (mobs, or hostile creatures for short). I’m sure most of you know how much I hate being challenged (both in real life and a video game). I also hate PvE (and PvP as well). Especially when PvE feels very unbalanced..and holy heck does it get unbalanced if you’re on your own exploring.
I find having to wait for your wounds to heal… well, my 10 year old side feels this is unfair (as I’ve been used to just hiding in a corner to regen my health, or pick up a health pack)..in Wurm, it’s ‘RNG, RNG everywhere!’.
My common sense though, feels it is realistic as our own human bodies can’t insta-heal (it can take a few days for a standard cut to heal). In the game, it typically takes about an hour in real time for a ‘Light’ wound to completely heal (depending on how damaged it is at the start, and I think the type of damage also matters).
The other thing I hate about mobs, is.. well, the combat system itself. How you got to sit there until either you or the mob dies. Yet in ways I actually like this system (as people can’t say “don’t stand there and swing your sword until it’s dead! Git gud!”).

Now we move onto durability. The first thing has a lot to do with this, as you lose QL when you use the tool (like a sword). I get its reason of existence, and glad it does. Yet I don’t like how there’s no way to make a ‘field repair kit’ that would consume itself on use, but repair one item of that QL. I guess it would make the game feel too much like a single player game instead of feeling forced of interacting with other people.
Now, I had considered grinding up BS/WS and all of those other sub-blacksmithing skills using B2. But the problem is, that requires Prem time..and that requires money out of my pocket.

Let’s move on to the most important reason why I’m not going exploring anymore (at least… until I get more money in the bank). See, I thought spending $70 for 50s was a very smart move. B2 and I talked it over for a good half an hour, calculating how much my deed costs and how many times I would personally need Prem time in order to be able to level my weapon skills more, and he convinced me that paying it would work (plus it got me that huge axe (that I had to wait a week for someone to sell me one)).
If you’re unaware of why I did what I did, check this post I made in early last month, as it will explain everything.
The problem is I never factored in of having to hand over 4.5s every time I need my armor/weapons re-imped to 70QL (as everything is 50c an item). Adds up, doesn’t it? Here I thought I would actually save more money yearly, but really..I need more silver more frequently. I need a stable flow of silver to make sure I’m still able to do what I want to do.
I’m down to like, 15s. Prem time is coming up, and that costs 10s per month (with no option of going any higher than that except the Wurm Shop). So, that’s 5s left. 4.5 of that is taken away to re-imp my gear.. that’s 1.5s left. And this is barely enough to afford one more month of upkeep of my deed!!
This 50s was supposed to last me five months…I have barely made it past one month, and already my bank balance is going to take months to get back up to a more comfortable level.

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I can’t do this anymore. Yes, mobs are frequent (and equally annoying), but with good gear.. I can take them on. And I don’t mind giving someone 4.5s to re-imp everything. But the main issue is funding (also I will not start crying over “why am I paying for this game when I don’t use it the way most do(aka mass-crafting of gear and tools and sell them?”). And, I don’t feel getting the axe was a mistake. I feel that was a really good move on my part (feel it’ll come in handy in the future).
And before you all recommend that I just let my deed disband and buy Wurm Unlimited to ‘solve all of my problems’, it won’t. It won’t allow me to explore the other servers. Sure, it’ll keep my deed intact..but it won’t be on the server I started on. It won’t be part of the history I had for this game (and the people that helped shape it).

There is another reason to this, of why I’m not going to use Wurm Unlimited. In 2011, I told angry “I just don’t care anymore” of what happens to my deed or anything that belonged to me. I regretted that decision in 2015. Keeping that deed alive, is my promise I won’t let it die..not again. Will I eventually let it die if I can’t afford it anymore? *sighs*…That’s an answer for the RNGods of real life (or of something that would be next to impossible that it would ever happen (of Rolf shutting down the servers and stopping support of the game)).
But anyway, THIS is why I can’t just quit! It has nothing to do with the community(which shouldn’t come to a surprise since I’m anti-social).

So for now on, I’m just going to use my remaining silver to keep the deed funded until I get more money (and eventually upgrade my CPU/Motherboard/RAM to make Java run better on my computer). I cannot save up AND go on these server trips (by having to get Prem) at the same time. It just cannot work out. I need more consistant silver(as it flows like water out of my token and into the ones of sellers and people with years of dedication to get their skills up), and $70 is just too much for my needs.
I’m not doing that mistake again. I don’t care if I’ll be spending $200 yearly..at least I’ll have more silver at hand (because it beats working my ass off infront of a forge, making weapons for other people(and praying I actually get a good chunk of the market that buyers can see me)). No to that noise! Leave it to the professionals.

[collapse]

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What ‘I’ think of The Witcher 3 and Projekt Red (so far)…

Posted on 03-25-2017 by Benie

For those asking “Wait, where’s your blogs of Wurm?”, I will be answering that question in a separate blog post. Please stop asking me. Thanks. 🙂

So I’ve been being asked in several emails by you guys; “Hey, Benie! What do you think so far of The Witcher 3? Did you get the expansions?” Not to mention I have heard the devs actually didn’t have any programming experience, that they were just gamers.
To ask for my opinion, well, don’t get me wrong, the game is good. Graphics are excellent. Voice acting is great. Models are great.
The only thing I have against the game (that I haven’t played it for months), is the gear/trait system. There’s just so many, and the UI looks messy and not understandable. I feel if I pick a wrong trait, I’ll mess myself over.
I get the whole character build experimentation, but it’s just not for me. And really, that’s all I can say of this matter. Witcher 3 isn’t my kind of game.

However, I will say in praise of CD Projekt Red, I feel the companies’ way of working with gamers, should be considered a wakeup call to AAA games. I still remember when I got a copy of it from Gamefly(for my PS4), I was expecting a CD and a few pieces of paper. Instead, I got a map of the game world, stickers, the soundtrack to the game, and.. a whole lot of stuff that I didn’t even ask for(for FREE)! It felt like I had bought their Deluxe version when I got the Standard, and I am forever grateful of that (as they probably were of me buying a copy of their game).

In closing, I really do hope this is a wakeup call to the video game industry. No microtransactions, no ‘Day 1 DLC’ crap. No ‘season pass’ crap. Buy the full game, and play the full game! That’s the way it was in the past, and that’s the way it needs to be in the future.

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Mass Effect Andromeda drops tomorrow, what I think

Posted on 03-20-2017 by Benie

If you’ve been following gaming news, the long-awaited latest game to the Mass Effect IP will soon be released tomorrow in the US and Canada (23rd for everyone else).

There was a free demo to check out the game’s first five hours. I’ve never grabbed it as I was busy with other things. But it seems I didn’t really need to, as the rumors are flying that the game sucks, and excels at the same time (like most games).
The main downfalls I’ve heard are bad voice acting, facial animations, and movement animations. I actually have to agree, as we expect to see quality graphics at this day and age with how much money the AAA companies have.
The last complaint mentioned are fetch quests; mentioning that there are a lot and hardly any of them are really moving the story forward. All I can say about that is…I TOLD you so!! I KNEW this was going to be this way when it was mentioned about having to make the planet interesting to build a base and stuff.

Now the praising is mainly the combat and how it’s been changed. From the videos that were released, I definitely agree with this (especially being able to throw an enemy at a group.. so satisfying).

So for “what I think”, I feel this game should be waited on until it goes down in price. Bad (laughable) voice acting isn’t really worth $60. I obviously feel EA rushed the development. If they had at least a few more months, they would had possibly fixed most of the animation issues.

Actually surprised it’s going to release on time, but this proves that waiting for something to be made better, is really worth the wait.

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EDIT: So it’s been a week since the launch, and I just want to say that I’ve never bought the game (or even have it in my Gamefly queue list). Also, my words will likely be.. fragmented for you guys, as I haven’t been following the tends (especially this whole ‘SJW'(Social Justice Worker) thing). I’m still a gamer, and all I wanna do is play a good game instead of having to do research on a company or a certain subject.

It pains me to see a company with such a high reputation alone of the Mass Effect series, make..such a mockery of their forth installment, especially when it took 5 years and 40 million dollars to make it. Though I have been laughing my head off over Youtube videos showing the hilariously-bad animation glitches (and rooms that the player falls into the void when they shouldn’t be).
Yet it also surprises me that some people are actually defending the game, blaming reviewers for being overly critical (and not playing the entire thing). In my opinion, first impressions are everything; not just video games, but real life as well. If the gamer finds your game’s characters glitching through walls (or going into the ceiling) within the first four hours of gameplay…they aren’t going to like it and post a really bad review, that’s not a good first impression.

So who’s to blame for this really bad game? The developers? The publisher? ..Or something else? Some say this is the fault of the SJW’s for feeling that women shouldn’t be forced to look pretty (please correct me if I’m wrong on this). Others blame EA for rushing the game out before it could be polished.
Personally…
“We’re only human, after all! Don’t put the blame on us!” -Bioware
Heh…and I do fully put it on them. They’re a AAA company, and we expect high standards from them. Though with games like Dragon Age: Inquisition that I didn’t like as it reminded me of WoD so much (with its table and how the player used their followers to do things for them), I think that was a warning signal that Bioware as a company was going south. Not to mention, I re-remembered how I couldn’t customize my character..at all.
There hasn’t even been a single patch for this game since the release. They don’t have the balls to even admit they messed up and didn’t fully test it.
Then again it could had been just EA rushing them, and they wanted to polish it. But I have my doubts. If they really cared, there would had been a patch by now. That’s all I can say.

Do I feel they will eventually patch it? I pray they do, but I doubt we’ll see a complete redo of the game’s character animations and writing. I do hope they’ll fix issues with players falling through the void in areas and dying, NPCs stuck in their alpha character state (with their arms to the sides in a ‘^’ pattern), players dying during cutscenes..those sorts of things need fixing. If they fix those, I think I might be able to stomach the creepy large eyes of some female characters in the game.

There’s something else that bugs me that doesn’t have to do with all the outrageous glitches of this game, and that’s the promise that the player would be able to see everything in real time. Perhaps it was just myself assuming the ship would actually be moving..in real time (like Elite: Dangerous). Because in one video, I keep seeing scenes of the camera zooming towards a planet and stopping (instead of in real time).
I believe this intended in the game, which is sad because I wanted this game to give the devs of E:D a good kick in the behind to get to work on ship interiors. 😛

Some are resorting to boycotting the game. Honestly I think it’s too late for those measures as most people already own a copy. I’m not buying this thing.
If Bioware actually does fix most of the issues (yet doesn’t lower the price), I still won’t buy it. I may be a fan of Mass Effect, but I’m also a fan of fair trade (aka, you make good game and I trade you money for it). I will only buy it if it’s $30 or lower. I feel that price justifies the quality of the game (especially as I said if they fix most of the issues).

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Mass Effect: Andromeda (Gameplay video breakdown #3)

Posted on 03-04-2017 by Benie

A bit late, I know. But this is where things get interesting, as it goes over the “HOLY FUCK I want this game!!” hype. I shall leave my comments of this game at the bottom of this post.
(View the video here)
From what I’m getting at the end, this will be the end of the gameplay videos. Hopefully soon they’ll get more into the actual story behind the game. And if you last through the end, you’ll hear something of a ship dropping out of warp speed.

So what we know (as said before), the game takes place in the “Helios Cluster” of the Andromeda galaxy, and to get us from the Milky Way to this unexplored galaxy is called the “Tempest”; a ship capable of doing what no other ship in any other space game can do, which is leave the Milky Way.
I’ve gotten a real Elite: Dangerous vibe, as the player can command the ship and go to planets, moons and other places in the Helios Cluster (aka, they don’t need a pilot like Joker). The player can also stop the ship at any time and see the planet near them through windows on the bridge. *jaw drops to floor at those screens*
FUCKING HELL, FDev! You need to pick up the pace with ship interiors, or this game is going to beat you!!
It’s mentioned that “there are over 100 worlds to discover, and ‘a handful’ of worlds can be landed on”. How big a handful remains to be seen, though I imagine it’ll be similar to the number of landable planets in the entire Mass Effect series.

I do have a bit of a “I dunno…” feeling that shows when (I assume) you land on one of these planets. The player is given options on where they can go, with the onboard ship AI giving you Intel on that location. However, the narrator says “but the choice on where you want to go is ultimately yours”. So maybe these could be seen as Fast Travel points(and the player can choose to fast travel or just regularly travel there? There is more evidence to back this a bit later on.
It’s also strange that you don’t just send a shuttle down or something while your ship stays in orbit(like in the previous three games). Maybe the player’s ship isn’t as big as the Normandy, therefore can land on planets.
And how the player can traverse a planet, is the game’s version of the M-35 Mako; codenamed the “Nomad”. This all-terrain 6-wheeled rover, unlike Mass Effect 1, can be fully upgraded.

Now here’s the assumption that the “here’s where you can go” list could be Fast Travel points, as one of the purposes of exploring in the game is to “discover objectives to call down forward stations”. Once you discover a specific point, the player can call down a ‘Forward Station’. This device is said to serve as not only a Fast Travel point, but a place to change the player’s layout and to ‘call down the Nomad'(according to the ingame description) “if the Nomad is missing or destroyed”.
Since the info is pretty vague on just how the Nomad arrives on the planet surface(and if it’s possible to get infinite replacements of the rover without a resource cost), I’m neutral to this.
The Forward Station can also be used as a place to run to if low on health/ammo, and serves as a planetary hazard protection bubble.
*Cool scene of the player entering the Nomad, of the rover’s doors sliding open*
As what I saw in the first episode, all planets have hazards (levels of heat and cold). The Nomad serves as a place to avoid these hazards, but its resources of keeping the player protected aren’t infinite, requiring the player to locate either a resupply station or a Forward Station to fully recharge the Nomad.

Another reason to explore planets is to increase the planet’s “Viability”. Increasing the Viability allows for “the creation of an outpost”(player outposts, maybe?!), and “upgrade the ‘Nexus'”(the Andromeda Initiative’s Space Station).
The Viability of a planet needs to be (at the minimum) of 40% to support an outpost. To increase Viability, the player can eliminate hostiles, increase relationships with the local outposts, solving environmental problems(like Climate Change), and “accomplishing specific tasks related to that planet’s story”. So…it’s kind of like WoW’s rep grinding, but on other planets.

The rest of the video seems to completely lose its structure, but I believe it’s simply to show, what the player can do is pretty much endless in this game. It’s mentioned upgrading The Nexus can be used to “open up more cryopods”, which the person inside the player can use to boost one of their three skill trees.

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Right. Complaint/praise time!
And to start off, it’s still not explained just HOW in the fuck is this ship able to go faster than the speed of light to escape the Milky Way. For years, we’ve been wanting to escape Earth (and have in several of these space games)…and now we have the means of saying “ehh, screw you, Milky Way, we’re going to claim a new galaxy”??
How in the fuck did we get the technology, when if it wasn’t for the discovery of a frozen mass array around Pluto, we would still be stuck on Earth doing it the hard way (using gravity and inertia to get probes to other planets)!
Though I wonder, is it actually possible to hop back over to the Milky Way..or is the game ‘stuck’ in the Andromeda galaxy?

Next thing, the planet viability system feels…cheap to me. Is this their version of rep grinding? Then again it’s quite early, and these quests could be shockingly enjoyable. But I have my doubts.

And now I go to the praising. And oh my..GOD those images of the planets (and comets) of the ship’s windows! I think I would crap myself if I actually saw moons orbiting their host planets in real time. FUCK Elite Dangerous, then(until ship interiors become a thing)! I’m going to Andromeda and having “First discovered by Benie” ALL OVER THE PLACE!! 😀
Lastly, I pray we can land anywhere on a landable planet (instead of a specific linear spot on the planet). Hearing “the choice on where you want to go is ultimately yours” feels very promising.

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That’s all for now. Can’t wait to see the next video Bioware shows of this game.

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The latest Oceanside Retreat redesign

Posted on 03-02-2017 by Benie

As said, I voluntarily paused the exploration thing to get to work on my deed. And now I feel I’m ready to show off what I’ve done in DeedPlanner.
What I’ve done, I don’t take full credit (mainly the re-locating of the cart garage, the expansion of the animal pens, and the relocating of the farm.. for these are all suggestions from ‘Saintdouglas’).
So feast your eyes on these screenshots. This is basically an attempt to add more detail to the deed;
https://puu.sh/urCxS/b50f5ca579.jpg
https://puu.sh/urCzM/d0fe4f16ec.jpg
https://puu.sh/urCAO/647d07344a.jpg
https://puu.sh/urCDu/e921ceaf50.jpg
https://puu.sh/urCFM/ad012ba975.jpg
https://puu.sh/urCHi/a72349e997.jpg
https://puu.sh/urCIt/fc56a0e827.jpg
https://puu.sh/urCJB/42b8a73897.jpg
https://puu.sh/urCJB/42b8a73897.jpg
https://puu.sh/urCLK/ecff00eac7.jpg

As you can see, I also have a few additional things I didn’t mention I would do(such as a new harbor building for the boat dock). Also, the bushes replacing trees thing cannot really be shown at this time (as in DeedPlanner it’s hard to tell exactly where the tree’s trunk is as you cannot edit in 3D mode).
There is one other thing I want to do, and that’s to add a memorial park (in honor of dragons lost by greedy bastards). I kind of want to base it off of the design I saw in Deli (infront of Yaga’s house). Unfortunately DeedPlanner hasn’t added stone benches yet, so I wasn’t able to do it. But I have a general idea how it’ll look and where I’ll put it. So it’s going to be just a quiet, tranquil place to relax and unwind from all the mobs in my face.

On a scale of 0 to 10 of the ‘Doable’ range (mainly of the terrain slope limits with digging, and my ‘skill’ in Flatraising), I give it a 6. Terrain slope limits should be absolutely no issue(from what DeedPlanner is showing me), and I don’t think “You hit rock” should be an issue..yet that’s always a possibility. Hell, I may not even need to relocate the road coming off of the side ramp for the farm. The main thing is going to be flatraising the new farm area. It’s definitely possible (and there’s even video tutorials out there to teach you how to flatraise).
More redesigning is to come after this ‘phase’. As I said I plan to redo the entry of the deed.
Anyway, I shall get started immediately.

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Freedom Isle exploration halfway wrap-up/combat VS re-imping

Posted on 03-02-2017 by Benie

Just under a week left of Wurm Summer(6 days). And since I’ve reached the halfway point (of exploring half of the servers in the Freedom Isles), I think it’s time to go over exactly what I’ve felt so far of this event I’ve been doing, what I’ve learned from this event, and what I think about the future (of picking one of these servers to move in).
NOTE: To refresh, Exodus and Xanadu have been scratched as ‘potential’ deed moving servers.

First off, the “what I’ve felt so far of this event I’ve been doing” part:
It took a lot of courage just to get to the first server. What would I do when I got there? How would they react? Would I be able to outrun any mob on foot? Was I making a mistake?
Honestly, I’m glad I took the plunge. The whole reason I wanted to do this was to get away from the deed (and also to find something I enjoy doing in Wurm that not very many people do). I knew I wasn’t going to be greeted with open arms, and I’m very thankful I wasn’t. I didn’t even want it. I wanted to explore, on my own. Going with another person, sure it would’ve had its benefits (like being shown the massive underground tunnel network under Deli by the one who single-handedly built it), but the person would likely have to go or want to do their own thing (instead of shuffle me around like a tour guide).
—
With that said, expecting the locals to point out cool areas on their server has been…well, it’s made me feel unsure if it’s worth staying on that particular server. Recently, Cele, the server I actually had reasonable hopes with it’s semi-active, semi-friendly community, told me to “go find the tallest mountain and try to go up!” This isn’t exactly useful to a tourist.

And then there’s Exo, which left a bad taste in my mouth since I got there. Asking for an updated map (which Deli had absolutely no problem with providing), they did (in a very rude way).

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And this leads me to the second part of this discussion.. “what I’ve learned from this event”:
First off, I learned that it’s important to be prepared (have my gear (armor and weapons) at all times), and also have access to a horse. Luckily with the 2.5s I paid for better horse gear (and the testing I did), any wild horse can go 25km/h.
Speaking of horses, this is another biggy (as Exo taught me well). Learned to -always- hitch the horse to my tent when I’ll be away from my keyboard for an extended period of time (anything beyond 2-3 minutes, as Wurm has no pause button (and mobs are extremely unpredictable in their movements)), or run the risk of it being stolen. But even this has the risk of a mob sneaking up behind me after I log back in, giving me an extremely limited window to unhitch/lead/ride to get out of there. It’s only happened once, thankfully..but it doesn’t mean it can’t happen again.

Another thing I’ve learned (from Exo), is..to not even bother saying “hi” to anyone anymore (unless they say it first); always assume they’re AFK unless they speak. …Though really, this would be on the lines of ‘common sense learning’. 😛
And I think that about wraps up this section.

Time to the next to final section of the discussion…“what I think about the future (of picking one of these servers to move in):
And really, at this time it’s a tough choice. Celebration nearly won me over with that nook on the SW side of that lake. And Deliverance, with how absolutely beautiful that place is, is more of a tourist trap than a place to live. Plus, the community feels a bit too nice for my tastes.
Cele has a questionable community(but nothing all that bad)…and a shitload of mobs. And I thought Indy was bad.
And Exodus… well, fuck Exo. Most of their community is PvP-based (which explains their attitude), and tons of mobs. It did have some beauty but it wasn’t enough to make me reconsider (especially after being told off by the same guy that helped to find my lost horse..instead of just talking it over with this ONE person I offended). Clearly, Exo doesn’t want me to ever come back. Gladly. But they aren’t going to stop me by using their server as a dimensional slingshot if I have to.

So at this time, Cele is in the lead(I’ll discuss the mobs at the end of the discussion). I do hope Pristine and Release surprise me.

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Finally, we get to the last, but not least discussion. This discussion is rather important (yet it also isn’t at the same time and just a “just quit the game, don’t do this to yourself!” thing).
This is about the mobs, and my insane issue with them. I’ve been seeing myself as the “Dragon Warrior”: a fierce warrior of legend able to battle everything, and come out victorious. Able to take on waves of attackers, and defeat them without a scratch.
So maybe my idea of a Dragon Warrior is a bit too much, but that’s the attitude I want to feel in the face of these computer-controlled bastards that don’t stop lining themselves up to attack me in waves.
But let’s face reality here. I’m no ‘Dragon Warrior’..I just get lucky. Hellhounds continue to show they can hit me a lot faster than I can of them..even without focusing, and you don’t know HOW annoying that is. Plus, they fight in numbers.

And then there’s trolls. Woo boy…trolls. That whole can of worms, re-opened. I have no idea how even an Adol troll can rip right through me as if I’m not wearing armor. I keep asking why, and tell them I’m wearing Plate; the supposed 2nd strongest armor set in the game. But noooo “plate is bad, you should wear chain!”. Ok, I get a chain set..STILL getting my ass handed to me!! WTF?! WHY do they fucking hit like a bus?! Even a hell hound, a crocodile, and even a lava fiend..none of these three “mid-level mobs” have the power to smack you like a troll.

I get taught how to make trolls drop to my feet(by aiming for the ‘uppercenter’), and it’s actually great. It’s working! I’m feeling powerful! Feeling that ‘Dragon Warrior’ feel!
I get suggested to use a huge axe to replace my longsword/shield, and I do that with 15s (and missing a week of exploration waiting for anyone to make or sell me one). I also get recommended to go with Plate to practice my new axe. I do all of that…an adol troll is STILL ABLE TO GET ME DOWN TO 14% HEALTH!! WHAT THE FUCK!!!!
Clearly, Chain is better. I took less damage from trolls (after I learned what to do and made sure I continued to know). So if Chain is better… then why was I told that Plate is better? These mixed messages are why I never bothered with combat for years!!

And then there’s these people, who say “dude, hunting in Cele is AWESOME!! There’s SO MUCH to KILL!! :D” I get the purpose of hunting (grinding combat skills and also collecting mob drops for certain things), but how can one enjoy seeing their armor and weapon(s) get damaged (and watch the QL go down to where it’s unusable)? How can anyone enjoy having to re-imp? And most importantly, how do I get some of these drugs that make grinding “fun” (seriously, I need them)?
And speaking of imping armor (love the way I’m trying to intertwine all of these segments), the very thought of having to fork over 5s everytime a troll fight goes wrong(what it feels like) makes me angered. It’s not because I’m angry at myself for refusing to re-imp myself, but needing 50c per armor piece(plus my axe) for 80QL?!

The thread I made (here if you haven’t read it) asking when I should I get my gear re-imped and how often, ultimately ended with “don’t fight trolls as they wreck your armor”. Fantastic advice… if only I could choose to not see trolls in my game (or have one show up at in-opportune times (like in my fucking face when I’m trying to take a picture of something cool).
To say “don’t fight trolls”. You can’t just not fight them, when they WON’T FUCKING GIVE UP trying to get to you!! I HAVE, to fight them when there’s no towers around (and it’s blocking my escape). And that’s where the damage happens, and the silver flies out of my hands on re-imping (only to do it again, and again and again….).
Need I remind you, I only have 25s left (of the 50s I got earlier last month), and payday isn’t here yet. What THE FUCK AM I GOING TO DO if I run into a situation of giving my final 10s to prem and I have no silver for repairs (and cannot afford to pay another $70)?!?! I’ll be screwed, that’s for sure.

*sighs*
I honestly don’t know what to do. I have to defend myself out there, but I also need to have my gear highly imped enough where I can take out a troll if I absolutely have to and it won’t be a problem. If this was WoW, all I would have to do was solo a dungeon and I would have more than enough to repair my gear(hell, I wouldn’t be giving my money away to players with fat wallets that are only getting fatter off of people like me).
With Wurm, the shop and selling are the ONLY two options I have. Well, there is killing mobs, and there is playing in the grass (Foraging). Both, have a 0.01% chance of getting a random coin (such as getting a single silver coin from killing a troll) and is not a good, reliable (and fast) source of income. Even that thread suggested this “helpful” advice of Foraging. Only newbies play in the grass!
The problem is Wurm is such a slow-paced game. It’s made, to take months if not years of grinding to get anywhere. This, is how it’s still alive and kicking, because people respect this (and weren’t (and still am being) spoiled into thinking Work = UGH NO!! FUCK THAT!..like myself). Yet, more people are leaving for WU(though I believe the reason being it’s faster to grind there..once you’ve already done it and you don’t want to go through it again, which is perfectly understandable).
I could ‘hire’ someone to re-imp my gear whenever I need, yet to expect the hiree to do it for free? ..Not going to happen. What else could I possibly offer them in exchange for their services(besides silver)? I dunno. All I do know is I have to think of something.

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And, that’s it. Those are my thoughts so far about this exploration thing, what I’ve learned, where I might move, and the bonus thing about mobs. All I can hope by handing over the silver, the armor will stay together for several months(until it drops below 70QL again). If it does, then that would definitely change my opinion.

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IMPORTANT EDIT: I’ve decided to wait until next Wurm Spring (which (going by WurmClock) should be March 23rd-24th) until I head to Pristine, as I want to get to work on several deed-redesign projects. Basically, I want to see if moving is even needed (if I can just make my current deed look better).
I’ll be showing my ideas to you guys as early as either this afternoon or evening (via pics from DeedPlanner).
To get a sense of I want to do;
–DEED INTERIOR
-Tear down the Cart Shed and put it next to the gravel road leading into my house and make it an open air building.
-Tear down the animal pens and rebuild them where the farm used to be, and greatly expand it to have more stalls(7 more than originally).

–DEED EXTERIOR
-Move the one tile road (that wasn’t built by me) that leads to the main roads to the East, over one.
-Use this area (start digging down the old road to decrease the slope) to start leveling and flatraising an area next to the side ramp, to serve as the new farm area.
-(Hopefully) re-locate the main entrance to the deed interior by digging away at the hill to the South of the deed.
-Expand the main ramp to three wide, and have trees in the middle.
-Chop down trees around the main and side ramps and start planting bushes in their place.

All of these changes, I feel will make Oceanside Retreat REALLY pop out and give it a homely feel (as in I took the time to not live like a slob and actually worked).

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Freedom Isle server mega-exploration trip – Celebration (FINAL)(Day 5)

Posted on 03-01-2017 by Benie

Day 5. Final day, and MUCH much quieter weather-wise. There are two last places I want to visit before it’s time to leave for Pristine. Though the first place (a road that claims that goes through the mountains toward the East coast) is a bust because it doesn’t exist. That, and I’m getting that “WILL YOU ALL FUCK OFF?!?!” attitude with mobs again. And that was just getting to that first place.
From where I left off, I had to swim through a bay because of how steep the terrain is to a deed. This deed was secured and I had to walk around it. Finally got on the main roads.
I go the wrong way and head to the Northmere Bridge. When I finally realize it, I cross the bridge and start going though this landmass on the south side of the lake. Mobs start to flank me before I can make sure I’m going the right way. I cannot stop, running around like a chicken with its head cut off. Trolls everywhere. To make matters even worse, my parents come home and want in the house while I’m being chased BY EVERY FUCKING MOB IN THE GAME(besides Champs/Rift mobs/Uniques)..somehow I find myself on the East side of the lake. Gggggoooodddddd that was insane!! Was able to let my parents in the house as their hands were full of stuff and couldn’t use their keys.
This is all because of the whole re-imping armor thing (posted this thing on the Wurm forum about the entire ordeal..which is currently down ATM).

So it was off to see the second area of interest. This one looks like a possible road leading up to the mountain range on the Northwest coast. Had to set up camp in the Steppe area before crossing back over the Northmere Bridge(to go eat). Next Solrise I’m on the East-West highway on the North side of ‘The Gulf of Funk’ and ‘The Salsa Straits’..who the heck came up with the names of these? They’re awesome!
I’m now approaching the mountain range. Someone named ‘Turnips’ is in my Local. As I’m trying to see where the entrance of this thing, the person calls for guards and has an ven troll to deal with. Being the nice guy I am, I run to assist. I soon meet the person driving a large cart (while I too have mobs after me).
This lady (playing a female character at least) seems to feel my pain about the number of mobs on this server, and even feels this questionable thing of people enjoying hunting mobs. How… can you enjoy damaging your gear and re-imping? Maybe their brain is wired differently. That, or mine wasn’t wired right. It definitely wasn’t taught the value of hard work and effort.
Finally found the entrance to the mountain range. It’s infront of a scene of beautiful rolling hills of Moss tiles. There’s an abandoned deed here, but all of its walls are still up. The way to the peak is behind this thing, forcing me to walk around it while on my horse. Thank goodness no mobs were anywhere around me as I was doing this. Got up on the ‘peak’, but not the actual peak. It was limited, but still pretty good. I know not every mountain is going to have a mind-blowing 360* view due to trees and terrain.
And with that, I felt that was it. I was ready to leave. But then I decided to head up this other hill that’s south and west of the Moss biome. Had a lot of resistance of hell hounds, spiders, bears, and trolls that I had to dodge (or kill). This lead me up to a rather unique, small deed named “Restless”. It looked like it was carved into the mountain here. Must’ve taken a long time to do. I was able to enter the deed and take a look around. Nearly all the doors are opened to the public, and I’ve also been seeing a recurring theme with bridges leading to the second floor of a structure. I’ve always found these odd since Deli, but now I know what they’re used for. You can’t drag or ride anything up stairs, yet you can use a bridge to get to the upper floors. Quite ingenious.

Saw a sign pointing to the East to ‘Death Valley’. Ohh GOODY!! 😀 Yet I have news for you, sign. This entire server has been ‘Death Valley’ for me (mobs = KILL PLAYER)! Still followed the sign, then I got horribly lost (with more mobs chasing me).
Alright, mobs… I’ve had enough of seeing your ugly faces. You want me off this server? You win, because I’m outa here (and to YOU, hell hounds? FUCK you, you flaming multi-attacking assholes)! And then I made my way back to my boat. To make sure I would leave, they still persisted in chasing me.
Finally made it back with a wolf chasing me. Try to tame the horse, and it actually gets angry at me and starts attacking. Tried to run away, yet I’m still leading it. End up walking into the aggro radius of the wolf. Final wolf death by me. Eventually I got the horse tamed, got my stuff off, and then lead it over to the 1×1’s and allowed a spider to feast on it. Now that spider is going to be fat, because that horse was. But who cares? I don’t need it anymore. It’s outlived its purpose. I’m not a monster. 😛

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Now because Day 5 ended so early, I’ll be going back home and washing my armor and axe to get all the dried blood off and wait ’till tomorrow. Not to mention I’ll have to pay someone upwards to 5s to re-imp everything. Though I think when I go to Pristine, I’m going to use my Chain set this time (as from my testing, Chain works better than Plate against trolls…and I’m NOT going to be told otherwise).
Though the question is, when, if ever, will I get myself a set of Dragon Scale(which I hear is the best armor set in the game)? Honestly, I doubt that’s even possible (since you can only get the material from..well, slaying dragons(and hope the RNG is in your favor)).

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Thoughts before Day 5 of Cele (severe weather and March 2nd)

Posted on 03-01-2017 by Benie

Nothing like being woken up at 6 in the morning by the sound of a tornado siren blaring in the night. I originally thought it was part of a dream I had, or just one of those tests the EMS does every so often. It took awhile until reality hit me and I turned on the TV. Had a tornado warning for Charlestown, Indiana..which is just north of me.
Apparently the secondary line that was supposed to just bring another dose of rain for the area, the strong winds helped give the storms a ‘pit stop’ of fuel and they grew in intensity. This proves that you don’t need daylight for severe weather. The warning was caused by a ‘notch’ in this squall line (which is actually common). Infact there were several of these notches. Thankfully there were none that went through us.
I feel bad waking up to a siren. I feel I wasn’t weather-ready, because they clearly say to not use a siren to alert you if severe weather is coming(especially if the tornado is already on top of you before you even realize it). Lucked out that time. Next time I might not get so lucky.
But if it wasn’t for the siren, I would’ve never woken up.

As the old phrase goes, how storms tend to “roar in like a Lion” on March 1st, this was no exception. Because I definitely heard the sound of a lion’s roar(aka the wind) as the storms got closer to me. This lasted for nearly five minutes until the rain started coming down in buckets. Somehow, we kept our power. Yet not everyone was lucky as there were reports of power outages in areas to the north and in Louisville.
Definitely dodged the bullet with this long night and morning. I imagine anyone in the path of these dangerous storms that hopefully didn’t lose their house, are going to be sleeping like a baby tonight.
Also, tomorrow at exactly 3:30pm EST, on my General blog, I’ll have a new post going up about the five year anniversary of the March 2nd, 2012 tornado outbreak (and my..fearful thoughts on it).
Today, the National Weather Service will be doing their standard preliminary damage checks of all the areas that were reported to be damaged by last night’s storms. Already they’ve discovered signs of 80-90MPH wind damage in some places in Kentucky. Wow.

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As for Wurm, last night I said Day 5 would be the final day of being on Celebration, and moving on to Pristine (with Release and Xanadu being the final two). I don’t expect anything (like meeting up with one of the locals to show me something) to happen as it did in Exo and Deli. But, you never know. I didn’t expect it on Exo, and look what happened; I learned how to kill trolls (and that hell horses can be ridden on(…somehow)).
As for my opinion so far on the server, I really like it. It’s not like Deli, but it’s better than Exo. Plus it made me close enough to want to move in. That’s a really, really good sign.
The good news is (for right now) there’s nothing major (weather-wise) coming anytime soon. So the only interruptions that might happen is other means.
One last thing of news to pass on. If you’re not aware yet, the Wurm forum is currently down as they’re switching to a new host. It seems this is taking longer than expected, but it’s pretty obvious it’ll be back up soon(TM).

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