Mine

If you’ve followed my adventures in Wurm Online (or even Wurm Unlimited) at all, you’ll know that I am not the biggest fan of terraforming. In fact, I down right hate it. I usually purchase deeds where the terraforming is already done, or the land is already flat. Digging, surface mining, and planning out aesthetic looks for the ground is just not my forte.

Thankfully Moumix (my deed mate) is MUCH better at these things, so I came to him and asked him if he could help me out with a little problem.

One of my goals at Quail Cove has always been to get the best bang for my silver, as the case would be. I currently pay 1s45c a month in upkeep, and I have no interest in paying anything more than that. Fitting everything you want in a smaller space can sometimes be an ordeal. I’ve worked really hard to give Quail Cove a small village feeling, without sacrificing utility. The issue was that a good chunk of land was mountain, and thus I couldn’t use it. I was hoping Moumix would want to help me out by building a proper road up to where I have placed the guard tower in an effort of claiming back some of that upper level so I could put another building there.

He was enthusiastic and set to work right away – and now not even a day later I have a brand new mine entrance that isn’t on the side of the hill, and he has been working away to flatten a larger plateau on the mountain so I’ll have even more space. It’s wonderful. I’m thinking a guest house and a house for archaeology / cartography since my smithy has been getting a bit crowded lately. Maybe in the shape of a lighthouse so it can overlook the ocean, something like this:

It’s looking amazing so far, but I’ll wait for him to say it’s completed being getting too carried away. In the meantime, I also managed to reach 70 blacksmith, granting me a new title and the ability to imp things a little easier. Next up? Weaponsmithing. That one is going to take *forever*.

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

March 21, 2023 March 21, 2023 By stargrace In No Comment

Cartography & Treasure Maps

I’ve been out of Wurm Online more than in for the past two years (OK, more like three) and a lot has been changed / added to the game. One of those things is a new skill called cartography! I haven’t looked into this yet, and I have no idea what it’s for or what the purpose is.

Another thing that has been added is treasure maps. Treasure maps are really neat, you can find them while doing random wurm things like digging, mining, and farming. They have a quality, and the treasure you find is based on that. So far I’ve found two novice treasure maps, and they have rewarded some random items at the end like a crab statue (only found through maps), some chess pieces, sleep powder, gems, etc. Not fantastic treasure, but since they were novice maps I still felt like they were worth my time. Novice maps have 2-3 clues associated with them, and – I am horrible at figuring them out. So horrible that both times I attempted to find my treasure, I got insanely lost, and for the final treasure map I passed it to my friend Moumix so he can have fun with those instead. He is MUCH better at treasure than I am, and has infinite patience. Hopefully he finds some awesome treasures with the maps I dig up – I’m glad that I tried it out, but especially being on the Independence server (a massive one) things just got too difficult.

Speaking of independence! I did finally create a second on-land deed, named Quail Landing. So now I have Quail Cove over on Hermit Island (I’ve lived there for over three years, the deed is basically completed) and now I have a mainland place to enjoy where I can use a wagoner and a place to safely park and explore. The deed doesn’t have much to it yet, but there’s a mine and a lot of bits and bobs. Also a large pen for animals, since they don’t swim and I’ve got no creature containers to bring them to Quail Cove.

That’s what I’m up to in Wurm Online these days – and I have to admit, I have missed it, a lot. The community is still robust and friendly, and the game every bit as enjoyable as I always find it. As far as video games go, this is my comfortable sweater that I keep putting back on year after year.

As always, happy gaming no matter where you find yourself!

March 20, 2023 March 20, 2023 By stargrace In No Comment

All Things Wurm Online

I haven’t been very good at updating my blog lately – it is what it is.

I’ve been playing some world of warcraft and my other game of choice right now is none other than Wurm Online. Moumix recently returned (YAY) and he is one of the very few people I can share a deed with and not want to kill.

What have I been up to? Well, my deed ‘Quail Cove’ on Independence is still standing (three years strong) and I finally completed the main floor of the temple so that any priests who are standing around praying won’t get eaten by trolls. It even has a floor. The shipyard is completed (still needs a floor), and I actually deeded a second smaller deed called ‘Quail Landing’ which is on the mainland just across from the island I live on. For this deed I plan on getting a wagoneer, and I’ve joined up with the highway. There isn’t much to the place, but it’s meant as a landing spot and a place where I can explore the server on foot with a wagon.

There have been a LOT of changes to Wurm since I played last. Almost too many to mention. A new skill (cartography) was added, and I haven’t even looked into that yet. There’s a fairly steady player base of 600-700 players, and it’s just a comfort to be back in game. Hopefully this motivates me to keep up with the blog posts, and Moumix if you’re reading this, you were working on wagons.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

March 16, 2023 March 16, 2023 By stargrace In No Comment

A Lack of Creativity

I finished my cardigan just before the new year, and I absolutely love how it turned out. I wish I had filled 2022 with all sorts of knitting projects, but between our big move, the kids, buying our first house, etc. I just couldn’t fit that much in.

I’d like to make 2023 a more creative year, but finding the spoons to get everything/anything done has been difficult. I had grand goals of completing one knitting project a month, but I haven’t even really started on anything. I also wanted to do 52 digital drawings, but I’ve met up with some sort of artistic block where that is concerned.

For now, I’m at least keeping up with my bulletjournal. It’s a bit of creativity, and an attempt to organize my life. I can only hope that I find my muse before too long and I’m able to continue.

January 13, 2023 January 13, 2023 By stargrace In , 1 Comment

A Dingo ate my (Dwarf) Baby

My Dwarf Fortress game has been going pretty well. I think I’m approaching my 3rd year at this location, and I have 58 Dwarves – well, now I have 57. Some dingo creatures moved in and they ended up slaughtering my Dwarf children. Whewps.

Before that though everything was going pretty well. I’ve had a few dwarves taken over by a Fae mode, and one even created a really fancy wooden mug worth $18,000! Of course shortly after a baron moved in and he demanded that he have the best of the best, so I made him a very fancy bedroom, office, dining area, and tomb.

He then promptly put a ban on exporting leggings. What have the leggings ever done to you! The mayor also has a ban on exports, in his case it’s short swords. So for now at least, we won’t be selling those items. I have no idea what the point of an export ban is except to create frustration for you. I don’t know what happens if we don’t abide by it, either.

I was disappointed by the dwarf who required SEVEN items for his mysterious creation, only to fabricate a spear that was worth a measly $5400. With such a high item requirement I was certain it was going to be something very impressive.

Still, it looks good on display at least.

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

January 11, 2023 January 11, 2023 By stargrace In No Comment

Resolutions (Goals) for 2023

Another year is almost done, and I’ve come up with a new list of things I want to work on for the next year. I don’t really consider these resolutions per say, everyone wants to be healthier and work on certain aspects of themselves, but my resolutions tend to be more like goals I schedule so that I actually make time for them. Last year I wanted to do more art, and I think I succeeded with that goal quite nicely. I didn’t hit the 52 pieces that I had in mind, but I came pretty close. Here’s my list for 2023.

  1. Learn Piano. For now I’ve got a small keyboard, I think it has 62 keys or something like that. It’s not great, but I plan on starting with it, and if I improve and get better and still enjoy it, at the end of the year I’d like to see about getting a full sized keyboard. Pricing them out the ‘good’ ones cost about $500-700 (and they go up from there) so it’s something I’d have to save / work towards and know for sure it’s an interest I want to pursue. In the meantime, the kids keyboard will do. I’m starting with a book called Adult Piano Adventures which is Faber, and highly recommended. I’m going to be aiming towards piano twice a week, two hours each time.
  2. Continue with my art. I did really great this year with my digital art, and I want to keep the momentum going. I’m so pleased with my progress. I plan on aiming on once a week for this one, which is the same amount of time I dedicated towards it this year. Some weeks I couldn’t (ipad broke, we moved across the country, I had an MS relapse, etc) but that’s the goal.
  3. Learn ASL. I’m not sure I can actually physically do this one due to my MS, but it has been a long time goal that I want to finally get around to. I plan on working on this goal once a week but it will really depend on how I’m feeling. A lot of the time my fingers and hands simply don’t want to work properly, or they’re in too much pain to work properly.

That’s it, my list of goals for 2023. There’s so much more I could add to that list, but I wanted this to be obtainable and realistic. That doesn’t mean I won’t do other things, I have plans on continuing with my ‘daily creative’ (except making it weekly, instead of daily), knitting, spinning, and of course my book goals. I want to be better about my blog (all of my blogs, actually) and update my book review site. These are little goals though that don’t really require a long term commitment so to speak.

I hope 2023 is a wonderful year, for everyone. We’ve had such a rough go of things for so long that I just want people to be able to relax a little bit, and not be in constant fight & flight mode. We’ll see how that works out.

Happy Holidays, everyone. See you in 2023.

December 26, 2022 December 26, 2022 By stargrace In No Comment

An Early Year in Review

It sure has been a very full year – though my blog doesn’t exactly demonstrate that. I’m hoping for 2023 I’ll get back into the swing of posting more frequently, but that’s never something I promise or count on. This year it didn’t feel like I accomplished very much but then I remembered we drove across Canada and moved from the far North to the Atlantic Coast as a family of four, and we bought our first house, and none of that was small potatoes.

What am I up to these days besides simply trying to get by?

When it comes to video games you will usually find me in World of Warcraft enjoying the Dragonflight expansion (I write about my gold making adventures over on my web site dedicated to that), or in Dwarf Fortress which FINALLY released for steam. It is absolutely everything I hoped it would be, and more. I have dedicated an absurd amount of hours to this game already, and I don’t see that changing any time soon. I would ideally also like to try to fit some Wurm Online in there, but there are only so many hours in the day.

Art! I had set a goal of completing 52 pieces of art this year, and right now I stand at 39 – considering the year we had, I’m OK with that. Next year I hope to challenge myself in the same way, and I hope to blow that challenge out of the water. Unfortunately with AI art and moral issues concerning both DeviantART and ArtStation I have no idea where to post my works any more. I’m contemplating setting up a Patreon, where people could subscribe to see my art process and my works without giant obnoxious watermarks on them. I’d like to get some prints of my pieces made, so I could give them away or maybe even sell them. I haven’t decided on anything yet.

Knitting – I did manage to finally complete my cardigan, but that was all I completed besides some wash cloths I knit before we moved. I also did a lot of spinning on my new Daedalus Starling e-spinner, which I adore. Knitting went into the “I wish I had time” pile, but I still managed to get that big cardigan project done (I am now living in it for the remainder of winter) so I’m pleased. I have to keep reminding myself I cannot do all of the things.

Speaking of all of the things! I made my way through 23 books this year – raising my original goal of 15, twice. I’m two books short, and I think I might still be able to make it.

I had more MS relapses than I care to admit, and homeschooling my 6 year old was both rewarding and exhausting, but overall 2022 has been alright. I’m hoping to settle in for a rewarding 2023. I plan on doing another reading goal, along with my art challenge, and maybe I’ll set something up for knitting so it doesn’t get forgotten about.

I hope everyone had a great year – thank you for reading my posts and keeping me company all this time.

December 18, 2022 December 18, 2022 By stargrace In , No Comment

A Little Wurm Online (Halloween)

If you’ve been following this blog at all for the past 15+ years, you realize that I absolutely LOVE Wurm Online (and the steam version, Unlimited) – but I do tend to take long breaks and wander away every now and again. In the fall I tend to wander back, this is when there are so many events going on, every day feels like a holiday. I love it. This year was no different.

I logged in for Halloween events. There’s a few – you can kill aggressive mobs and have a chance at a helmet (I haven’t seen one yet) and if you’re into archaeology at all, you can dig up spooky fragments which can be put together for some unique Halloween items. I did get a skeleton and some skull candles, I was working on a mask but the fragments seem pretty rare. The event does run until November 5th, which is plenty of time to get some serious archaeology under your belt.

Right now I’m playing on both the Northern and Southern islands. I keep hoping one day they’ll merge them, but it has been years now with no change. I have a priest with 100 faith stuck on the Northern islands, and I’d love to be able to move her to my main deed. In the meantime, I’ve actually started up a brand new deed on the Cadence server, very small, costal, along the highway. If the servers ever do merge, I should be able to sail to my old server fairly easily. We’ll just have to see!

As always, happy gaming no matter where you find yourself!

November 1, 2022 November 1, 2022 By stargrace In No Comment

How is it October..

It seems like I just blinked and September passed us by. On the 24th we got hit hard by hurricane Fiona, and it took until October 7th to be restored with power and internet. We had some damage to the house, and lost a bunch of trees – but we’re OK, and that’s what’s important.

In other news, I finally picked up a Steam Deck, and it should be here next week! I’m excited about this, I wanted to be able to use it for my xbox gaming pass along with my steam library. I imagine it will get a good amount of use, but we’ll see. I’m sure I’ll write about it when it shows up (late, since everyone else has already written about it).

I’m still spending the majority of my time playing Black Desert, and World of Warcraft (retail). I’m excited about Dragonflight, and I see that BDO also has an update coming out on October 12th – YAY! I can’t wait to see what they add.

I’ve also gotten a lot of knitting done, and even some reading (I’ll be doing updates on my book blog a bit later). Trying to organize my thoughts has been more of a trial than I thought it would be.

Remember if you’re looking for World of Warcraft posts (specifically centered around making gold) you can check out my other blog: Girlgoblin.ca – and as always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.

October 9, 2022 October 9, 2022 By stargrace In , No Comment

Calendars? How about Character Selection, too

Syp recently posted about the awesome in-game calendar that World of Warcraft has, and he wondered why more games didn’t have that exact thing – I agree. It would make planning and looking at events SO MUCH EASIER especially in games like BDO where there are always a billion events at any one time.

Then I thought for a bit and came up with my own “why doesn’t every game have this feature” feature.

The BDO character selection screen. ESPECIALLY if your game has multiple servers. Why can I not see my characters in World of Warcraft until I log in to that server. My memory is horrible, I have no idea which of my characters is where (as noted by the screenshot below).

In BDO you can see a list of your characters, their level, even their inventory, and you can swap servers or swap to those characters. I would love to see this implemented in other games (EQ, looking at you). Even the EQ2 method where everyone is listed at the main UI along with the server under would be a better method, then I could at least visually see where my characters are and potentially what they were up to last. As it is now, I have to keep a spreadsheet on who I have where.

There are some great QoL ideas floating around out there and especially for games that may not have aged well, it would be great to see these old interfaces uplifted and renewed for gamers today.

September 19, 2022 September 19, 2022 By stargrace In No Comment
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