Wurm Team Blog » oddments

Heading out of the office

rolfjan — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 15:50:38 +0000

I didn’t get to finish the fences or titles before I head off to vacation but I’m going to work a few rainy days anyways so they’ll arrive when that happens. Those submerged creatures I wrote about have been coded. The models aren’t finished yet but they’re coming as well.

Now off to get some tan!

Close to the top

rolfjan — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 14:33:13 +0000

So,

feature creep these last two months. Or depending on how you see it putting important systems in place and removing a lot of bugs.

Today I feel as if I’m resting on a ledge close to the top.

This latest climb lasted for a few months and we have conquered hazards and obstacles such as movement lag, positioning bugs, rectangular deeds and more anti-griefing code, mobile payments, mission code that will be used for both a new tutorial and other ingame events. A number of bugs has also been fixed to the extent that we’re actually running out of notable ones.

Most of these changes are silent preparations for the future and does little to affect current gameplay much.

This is the last week before I go on summer vacation. I will avoid doing anything game-damaging this week. I will rest on this ledge, and try to get some minor lacking features in. I’m going to start by looking at the new fence types, a couple of submerged monsters, and putting unused court titles to use. Hopefully I’ll have time for some more nifties as well.

When the first version of the new tutorial is in place, I’ll get to work on a rainy day and open up freedom for non-premiums.

I’m starting to plan a Wurm meeting here in Motala some time in August. I’ll post dates here and in the forums about the progress of that.

The first week after the vacation I’ll be in Cologne on Game developers conference. If you’re there’ drop me an email and we can say hello!

After that my first priority will be to get the Epic server in place. It will take a few weeks so a careful estimate is that we’ll see it arrive in the end of September. That will be the last climbing phase, and once there I will consider Wurm to be at 1.0!

PS. Check out the mobile payment options in the web shop unless you have already! Note that most countries are available in only one or two of the available products. DS.

Rounding off mission code

rolfjan — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 13:30:48 +0000

The thing I’ve been working on the last weeks is something I call mission code. I guess you could call it quest code instead since it’s pretty much indistinguishable. The main purpose of it is to create missions in the tutorial though, and later epic scale missions performed by hundreds of players at once to create world events and modify certain.. power structures.

Basically the system consists of missions, triggers and effects interacting in pretty advanced ways to be able to create the various scenarios you’d need.

Once it’s tested on the test server the plan is to build a tutorial area on GV where people learn the game in a much more structured way. Since the components (missions, triggers and effects) can be modified by the team members, the tutorial may change and be refined over time. I have asked Enki to lead the new tutorial project.

I’m trying to make the system work so that normal players can use it to build a small quest area as well, with the possibility to reward with an item they own in the end. It’s mostly a matter of making it non-exploitable but I think it’ll work out nicely.

Meanwhile far far away

rolfjan — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 10:51:08 +0000

On the wild server, the Mol Rehan kingdom is under large pressure from the champions of the Horde of the Summoned. Their priests are said to create death zones from which there is meagre chances to escape and few are lucky to emerge alive.

I’m currently debugging the new deed system. It’s a lot of work and it needs to be done asap because of decay rates with new containers that needs fixing. So it’s overtime for me.

We’re experiencing more winter here in Sweden than we’ve done in 20 or 50 years or something. I love every minute of being outside even though -10 degrees celsius is a bit cold.

As I logged on to check something on the wild server, I found myself in a settlement far away from the battle cries in the west and the snow here in Sweden.

A humid drizzle was falling and as I looked up I saw the rainbow. By the doorstep of a cottage someone had left a few gifts. Spring was in the air!

Is Wurm the future for MMOs?

jsanglier — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 11:29:00 +0000

I have recently been chatting to a group of MMO players at a site called MMO Voices. They are a self made group of around 200 gamers lead by a character called Beau Turkey. On a suggestion from yours truly, they have made Wurm Online their “Game of the Site” and have set up a little community on Golden Valley. A couple of them, including Beau have become quite addicted to our game even after only a few days and have been chatting about it madly. Beau has made the point on a blog post about how “Fantasies are not real, but collaboration is”, and how Wurm Online offers a level of collaboration and community that he has not encountered before. Beau has a real point here and this is something that occupies my mind a lot as I contribute to Wurm Online in my own small little corner.

This sort of game is the real future of casual social networking. Currently MMOs are split into two rough areas – those that have predetermined adventure of some sort, like WoW, and those that give you a graphic environment to do nothing but chat, like Twinity. Wurm is neither of those, because it offers both, but with a twist and that is what Beau puts his finger on; collaboration.

The best real life analogy to Wurm is probably the office or other work place. Social interaction within the working environment it far more lively and has more momentum than does sitting around a bar every night. This is because everyone is there for the same reason and has certain tasks that they have to do. In the modern office, these tasks do not take away from social intercourse but actually enhance it by forcing interaction; “pass the pen please.” This commonality allows relationships to grow very easily and firmly without having to know great details about the other people – in fact, too much detail can cause problems!

Wurm, almost uniquely, and possibly accidentally, offers the same environment. When you log in to your community on Golden Valley or Independence or Wild, there are things you need to do – either for yourself, or for the community. But most of what you do does not stop you being able to chat; it is amazing how much you can say while chopping a tree down!

I watch the conversations sometimes as I am digging someone out of a mine or planting a thousand trees at Glitterdale (oh, THAT is where the trees came from!) – there is something about Wurm that makes me more nosey than is natural for me!

“Hey, have you played the new XX game?”
“Yeah, last night – pass me a nail, will you?”
“Isn’t it amazing?”
“Oh wow, yeah, loved the crafting system. Oh, damn, I have left the forge on.”
“Going to play it later? Maybe we can talk on Vent.”
“Probably tonight, if I get these tools imped up – got an order for a pile of shovels from someone.”
“Okay, fair enough. Well if you are free I will see you then. I’ll be back later to farm anyway.”

And no one mentioned that they were actually playing a game already! This sort of conversation happens all the time in Wurm, and I am told by more experienced gamers than me that this is very unusual in games, as is the fact that people tend to automatically collaborate on wurm rather than compete. On Wurm you are happy that someone else is more skilled that you – its useful! I have never seen someone Jealous about someone else’s skills.

I have noticed more and more how players are using Wurm as their default social environment – especially on premium servers in the villages – and some go off and play other games as their gaming experience. The trick for the people working on Wurm is how we can leverage that more, persuade more people that Wurm should be their base camp for the rest of their fun, and of course fun in its own right. I have some very long term (and secret) ideas that hopefully will bind the community aspect of wurm even more while allowing even more adventure and more layers within the Wurmian society. Whether they will come off or work, I don’t know, I am still experimenting, but I think this game is a window into the future of gaming, and maybe, despite some occasionally clunky graphics (which are beginning to look rather wonderful, by the way Art Team!) and code bugs that drive Rolf up the wall, Wurm Online may be proving to be rather ahead of its time!

Happy New Year

enki — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 19:02:55 +0000

Hello everyone, I finally updated and joined the hip 2010 crowd. I figured it was about time I joined the rest of you as 2010 seems to be the in thing to do now, but I am not so “happy” about it.

I know it has that new year smell and new fancy wrapping and all, but is it really worth it? I mean aside from the new model number and improved smell is there really any reason to upgrade from last years model? For that matter who keeps breaking the last year? It was working just fine up until December 31st and then what happened? It seems like nearly every year I am forced to get a new model. I for one was just fine with the 2009 model and I figured if I could survive it why chance a new and untested year. We have to start living more environmentally friendly and I for one detest throwing out perfectly good things, especially years! I hate to think of all the landfills being filled up with all those perfectly good 2009s. Haven’t they heard of recycling!

Since we do not seem to be given a choice in the matter take my advice. Use this year up and don’t squander it, because before you know it they will be taking away our 2010s! Hang onto this year as long as possible! Make the most of it! Don’t let them take it away like they did our 2009s!

Merry Christmas!

rolfjan — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 12:37:35 +0000

I want to wish all the team members and all the players of Wurm a really Merry Christmas with all the snow, jingles and colors that come with it!

Vote Wurm

rolfjan — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 16:34:40 +0000

I received an email by a person involved in the setup of PC Gamer Top 100 site (www.pcgamertop100.com) today.

He said he himself was a big fan of Wurm Online and urged me to direct you guys there to vote for Wurm.

I consider just being eligible for votes there a big honour

I guess if you realize that you’ve actually played this game a lot it could be considered proof that Wurm is a good game worth voting for.

If we make it to the top 100 it would mean a lot for Wurm and maybe we can hire more people for development soon. Wurm would be featured in the March issue of PC Gamer UK as one of the top 100 PC games!

Here’s a cheer:
Vote for your online home! Vote Wurm!

On another note the religion and Christmas update is coming along nicely!

I blame Tich

Wolfram — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 14:21:28 +0000

I’ve not been very active lately, and it’s all Tich’s fault.

She happened to mention to me that she was thinking about buying a new game on the weekend, Dragon Age: Origins.

So I googled it and found this review video:

http://au.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/dragonage/review.html

I thought to myself that it was exactly the kind of game I liked, similar to Baldur’s Gate. Turned out that it should have come as no surprise to me that it was like BG since it’s made by the same people. Anyway, I was intrigued enough that I jumped onto steam and bought the game then and there. Since then I’ve been completely captivated by this game, and have not found much time for Wurm. Therefore, it’s all Tich’s fault. Just kidding.

Anyone who is interested in the game should be warned that I see lots of posts on the forum saying that people are only taking 40 hours to finish it. Sounds like they should be playing wurm if 40 hours is too short. There must be some accounts that are up to 200 days or more in wurm by now.

Anyway, I’m upto 89 hours and the game says I have explored 39% of the world and done 28% of the game, but I’m very thorough in these types of games, so it’s not surprising that I have a much higher time than the speed players. Also, they do say that the game is very re-playable, since it has 6 origin stories, 4 endings and you can literally and figuratively take different paths through the game’s plot. You can do the major plot points in a different order as well since the game’s combat system seems to scale quite well according to your level.

The dialogue makes me cringe sometimes, but this isn’t exactly Shakespeare, and most of the time it’s pretty entertaining. I’ve also recognised a few of the voice actor’s voices from favourite tv shows.

Like Claudia Black from Farscape and SG1, whoever played Tuvok & Captain Janeway from Voyager, and there was another, but I forget whom atm. Of course most of the voice acting is top notch, so that makes up for any bad dialogue. The graphics are pretty good too, both the scenery and the models.

Anyway, I know this isn’t wurm related, but when I tried to log in tonight and found that my premium had expired, I thought I should let ppl know why I’m not around much atm. Plus, it’s xmas and I work in retail.

http://dragonage.bioware.com/

Where I bought it from. Australian players should note that with the current US dollar exchange rate, buying it on steam is a pretty good deal, if you can afford the download, it’s 8.9gb:

http://store.steampowered.com/search/?term=Dragon+Age%3A+Origins

On a side note, Artashes and Annette, you should check your in-game mail, and Pete, I will get that chisel finished soon.

Christmas roadmap

rolfjan — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 09:17:25 +0000

Just thought I’d share my plans for the rest of the year:

Announce the annual Wurmish christmas gift:
The plans are that it will be pretty much handled like last year where you will have all the time from the 24th to the 29th CEST to visit Santa.
As usual we will only hand out gifts to premium players because otherwise it will be abused and have to be a virtually useless gift.
I’ll see if I can come up with a better way to distribute the gifts so that you don’t have to travel far to the capitals to pick it up. More about that later.
Rounding up and launching the updated religion system. Manny has done a tremendous job keeping track of and sorting out the bugs in the code on the test server.
Grabbing a few of the more serious bugs by the throat: Boats getting stuck on mine entrances, mounts still disappearing near cave entrances, and rubberband teleporting in certain situations.
Coding and testing the christmas gift
Keep investigating more payment options, but I doubt we’ll see any before I’m back in the next year. I am discussing with a few companies.