Wurm Online: The Ultimate Sandbox MMO

[Morkar Left]

Is the gameworld an empty place or do you have different factions, npc quests and dialogue options?

 

[Havoc]

If you find such server, sure, the game is moddable. This game is like Haven & Hearth, Rust or Ark. The economy, kingdoms, cities and the like are player created.

 

[belowmecoldhands]

Is the gameworld an empty place or do you have different factions, npc quests and dialogue options?

It's NOT a traditional RPG. It does have skills and stats and even some lore, but the resemblance is distant. It's a player-driven sandbox. Quests are tasks/missions but they're few and far between. I've never done one.

Some see it as a detraction, but I played Everquest and other MORPGs and I can like quests and factions and all that, don't get me wrong. But I've never cared about it while playing Wurm Online. The fun comes from surviving and building s***. Since I'm on the pvp server, surviving has special meaning. On PvE servers, you only have monsters to deal with. Generally, the monsters are powerful, but can easily be killed with guard towers or deed guards. Guard towers are not always available and require lot of resources to make. Deed guards you have to pay for, but it's not too expensive. $10 will get you going for a month or more. But you really only need premium to get by (about $20 for 2 months). I've never actually made a deed. You can avoid monsters by going in the water or around them or sometimes outrunning them. However, you have to be careful because you can get lost sometimes and if you get hurt you'll slow down. When you die your corpse has all items on it and you'll have to find it...

One of the fun things to do is explore and loot old stuff from years ago. Players who quit don't always come back and their stuff gets left behind and sometimes unsecured. On PvP servers it's especially lucrative. Items DO decay, though. Everything does. But decay depends on the items and where the item is and even how long it has decayed or whether a player is active.

On the PvE servers it seems most people get their kicks from building stuff and forming carebear communities. I've never really understood it myself. There's just not enough threat without players. But that's me. I need danger I guess.

It's very grindy and not always friendly. That doesn't write well or read well but a lot of players in Wurm Online will swear by it one way or another. If you can get past that and the rest of the things I say here then try it.

Also if you decide to try it and you get premium then immediately make a rope and catch a horse. You can ride them. It'll speed things up and allow you to wear heavier armor and carry more weight. Of course, I played for years just running. Lol I went to school both ways uphill in 12 feet of snow in a blizzard and liked it--most of the time anyway.

EDIT: Ok want to rephrase... the game world is mostly trees and terrain and water and animal/monster spawns/lairs. For every tile there's also a mining spot with a large depth. There're lots of "3d" mines, but realistically speaking they're 2d in almost everyway except visual. Everything regenerates and some things grow/expand. Even the landscape alters over time. But there's enoguh inertia in the system so that if you leave the game for several months and come back, it'll still look almost the same. A lot of the changes are due to players changing things like digging the terrain or cutting/planting trees or building s***.

The largest map is over 8000x8000 tiles. The map I play on is 4096x4096 tiles. Each tile is about 3 meters across. Many of the highest mountains are so steep/high/big nobody goes on them except the oldest players.

 

[Havoc]

All this premium shit is on Wurm Online, not Wurm Unlimited. Huge difference. Just so you know.

 

[belowmecoldhands]

All this premium shit is on Wurm Online, not Wurm Unlimited. Huge difference. Just so you know.

Fair enough.

I think this Wurm Unlimited thing is good for the game though. Games that don't allow their players to change them are ultimately limited by how popular their gameplay is. IF however they allow players to change/mod them then their gameplay isn't as important since players can alter it. But in the past most modding/changing happened in single player games. Neverwinter Nights was an MMO-ish game which had modding, but most of the MMO's I know about don't have anything like that unless they're emulators. But emulators don't make the company money if people aren't paying for server time. And emulators require years to develop. Given Wurm online has been a very niche game with very stiff old fashioned gameplay, it really needed either something like this or a huge change in gameplay--which would not go over well on many of its player, including myself. That said, its gameplay has been changing over time, as one would expect from any aging game. It used to be, for example, that new players had to build a house to gain any sort of security. They had to make/join a deed to teleport. But now they can just make a tent and it'll supply some security and also allow teleporting. These sorts of changes will make hte game more accessible, but wouldn't be enough on their own.

So that's how I feel about it. I don't think I'll try it though. I haven't played Wurm ONline for a while. I premium aobut 2 times (4 months total) per year since 2012. I haven't even finished playing the Baldur's Gate and ToEE I got.

 

[belowmecoldhands]

In another thread I started making a list to try to define what Wurm ONline is like. I decided I'll take that list and put it here instead and start adding to it. It's a mess but it's one way to try to get across what Wurm Onine is.

First, a video:


I agree with the video, it's like a dreamy 3d version of UO. We dreamed of this back then.

Website: http://www.wurmonline.com/

The following list is just a TASTE. I can't possibly list everyting!

It's a sandbox, what can I say?

• this sums it up... players make the wolrd and make the content

It's cross-platform; will run on linux and windows

• Has a small footprint on my harddrive (may be hard to believe but my folder says 1.4 gb)
  
• I run it good on dual core 2.3 ghz and 9800 gt and 3gb ram

Cost is ~$17.41 for 2 months of premium play (this doesn't include any deeds you create)

• you can use paypal or credit card to pay for everything
• cost is approximate and will change according to euro-to-US dollar conversion rates

The game is mostly about crafting things and building; the rest being exploration/hunting/tasks/spells/praying/etc

• Farming is a big portion of the game for many; for food and for feeding animals
• Taming and breeding are also a big consumer of time
• Hunting can take place on land or sea and is mainly to get skill; loot is less important
• Constructing houses/fences and digging areas is major activity shared by all one time or another
• You need to mine for metals for armor and other things

Skill-based progression

• you can train all skills, but it takes unfathomable periods of time to master just a single skill
• nobody has mastered all the skils... it takes YEARS to get skills up high

Very grindy!

• I think it depends how you play it. I usually play alone and I think this varies the gameplay
• Players who play together tend to prioritize and limit what they do more

Property (for housing/farming/etc) are found in-game by exploring and finding them or word of mouth

• there's no automap to show you where you can build
• you can't build on an area if somebody else has already deeded it and hasn't given you permission
• you usually have to flatten an area if it's virgin, so you can build on it

Deeds are the means to cement owernship of a given piece of land (or property)

• without deeding your property everything decays much faster, dependnet on quality of construction or item
• without a deed wooden low quality houses will be destroyed after a few months
• without deeding you won't have access to spirit guards/templars for auto-defense against monsters (or players on pvp servers)
• some things don't decay as much or don't at all, but most things do
• cost of deed increases w/ size: minimally about 3.21s ($5.58861) to create, 1.242s ($2.162322) per month
• the cost will change with the euro-to-US dollar conversion rates

Corpse-runs; items will stay on your corpse when you die

• there're some spells to remedy this but only high skill players (generally) have it

No fast travel except limited amounts like tents or deeds or spells or mounts; with various restrictions unstated

• there're roads of different types to make moving faster, the fastest being paved roads and the slowest probably gravel
• instant teleport occurs via official or deeded settlements IF you die or have a special high level spell
• when you're a new player you can make a tent and instantly teleport to it IF you die AND it's in friendly territory
  
• you can ride horses and other creatures to move faster; they're tameable and you can breed them or trade them
• you have to feed your mounts ocassionally
• mounts can die and it might be they WILL eventually--unsure
• you get a small attack bonus by attacking on a horse but the horse can get hurt I think
• mounts allow you to wear heavy armor and still move fast

Quests are known as Tasks and there're very few of them--it's not a quest-driven game

There're several PVP servers with no restrictions on level and EVERYTHING is attackable

• there're some restrictions on, but generally it's free-for-all and epic has hte most pvp
• there's a challenge server but i don't know if it has pvp
• chaos has hte slowest skill progression... epic is about twice as fast
• if you die players can take anything on your corpse which isn't no-drop--meaning almost everything
• players can destroy (or eventually destroy) everything else--including your house and deed
• everyting is lockpickable

Monsters/creatures are generally dumb with no lore or fancy loot or complex faction or anyting

• monsters are generally just like animals... they drop skin and other crafting things and meat

Plants and animals grow and migrate and die

• creatures/monsters have lairs which can be destroyed if you don't want them respawning
• trees/plants will spread, but you can destroy them and they'll be gone
• if there're NO plants or monsters or creatures in an area--like an island--there's a small chance they'll eventually spawn
  
• monster lairs will eventually move on their own

There're boats for traveling on the water and moving large quantities of goods

• small boats and big boats, mostly for trading and traveling to other servers
  
• on pvp servers players can attack each other from boats
• boats can hold a couple dozen players at most

All terrain is terraformable and also will change over time on its own

• if terrain is on a deed it can't be terraformed without permission by hte deed owner

You can mine and create large underground areas

• you can't build homes underground yet
• rock can be terraformed with a pick but you can't raise it like you can raise normal ground
• old mines are like ruins and you can find old items in them made years ago
• monsters spawn in them so they can be dangerous
• you can potentially get stuck in them and you'll lose everytying on your corpse

Combat is like EQ, with autoattack, training and so on

• when your skill is low you just hit autoattack while making sure nothing else attacks you
• when you have higher skill you have a few more options DURING combat
  
• many players think it's old fashioned but I've liked it since I started in 2012
• you can outrun most monsters/creatures or avoid generally

There's no minimap or radar, although if you move your mouse on a monster it'll highlight

Maps tend to be enormous, so that players have lots of room to build

• the newest server is four times bigger than anyting before it
• I play on Chaos and it's 1/4 teh size of the newest server

There're mountains most players never cross simply because they're so steep and expansive

• climbing is a skill in the game, but takes a long time to raise
• you generally need a horse for real exploration, otherwise it's much slower and more dangerous
• on pvp servers players will go to mountains to make it harder for others to reach them

There's day and night and each lasts about 1.5 hours

• you can create sources of light for when it gets dark
• you can increase the gamma on your monitor, but it won't remove the dark color of everyting

There's spring/summer/fall/winter which some small effects on harvesting

• it's primarily an aesthetic thin
• makes hunting easier because it's easier to see creatures; other season have more bushes/grass
• i want the seasons to be something we all share, but some players wnat seasons to be an option

There's weather, but it's mostly asesthetic, except fog can make things hard to see

 

[udm]

It's on Humble Bundle now for $1: https://www.humblebundle.com/down-under-bundle

Wurm's always piqued my interest, but it was the MMO requirement that killed it for me. Now that I finally got the chance to play this for a buck... boy, it's really a game for autists, but I like it a lot (so maybe I'm one myself). The interface feels very 90s and I'm sure I've played a few of such MMOGs during that era and early 2000s, though their names escape me right now (maybe Meridian 59 too?). Anyway, I love the attention to detail. Its pacing is really slow and takes some getting used to, but that's what Autorun is for.

I'm finding it a breath of fresh air. Very relaxing game to play. May host and play with friends someday.

 

[Rahdulan]

Keep in mind that's Wurm Unlimited in the bundle, though.

Wurm Unlimited has a one time cost, pay once and play forever. You can host a private server and only run the server when you want to play (or are able to play). When the private server isn't running a lot of the over time things stop - animal and crop growth for example.

Wurm Online is more like free to try. A free player has a skill cap (for most skills) of 20, and the max is 100. To get over the 20 limit of the free-to-play you have 2 options:

1 - pay a subscription every month to Wurm Online
2 - earn 10 silver to pay for 30 days of subscription