It’s BACK, people! \ud83d\ude00 Back on Release, this time on horseback.
\nBut 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.
\nHer 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).
\nI 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).<\/p>\n
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.
\nHowever, 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.
\nMade 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.
\nSol’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.
\nHe 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.<\/p>\n
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.
\nI 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.
\nHonestly, 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.
\nIt’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…<\/p>\n
.
\n…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!
\nAnd 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.
\nPicked 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.
\nSince 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.
\nThere’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.
\nMade 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).<\/p>\n
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). 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. 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. 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. 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It’s BACK, people! \ud83d\ude00 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 … Continue reading
\nMobs 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).
\nDiscovered 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).
\nMade 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.
\n“WARNING: PLAYER DEATH AHEAD, TURN BACK IF YOU VALUE YOUR SANITY!!”
\nAnd 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!
\nIf I may borrow a line from the Freeman’s Mind<\/em> series…
\n“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).
\nAnd 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.
\nBack 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!
\n–
\nNow 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).<\/p>\n
\nThe ‘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.
\nThe 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.
\nI 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.
\nIt 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<\/u>, 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.<\/p>\n
\nWas 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.
\nFrom 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.
\nMy 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.
\nSafely 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.<\/p>\n
\nI 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.
\nWhile 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.
\nMade 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).
\nDecided 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).
\nRan 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.
\nFell 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.<\/p>\n