Wurm vs Istaria: and the winner is... (part 1)

Well, if you want to know, you'll have to wait - I don't have time to write it all up in one go! I've broken the games down into pretty typical key areas (combat, crafting, community etc) and looked at my experience of the games. In fairness, I've only being playing Wurm for about a month, and Istaria for years, so I'll happily admit that there will be many depths of the former that I'm not yet aware of. However, a game either grabs you or it doesn't, so I feel justified in making my decisions based on my time played to date. Just take any comments on Wurm as what they are - a beginner's perspective.

Combat

This is quite a way from perfect in both games (although my guild mates in Istaria would question what I know about it, seeing as I craft all the time!).

Battles in Istaria can be fantastic. Fighting single creatures near to your level is usually challenging and certain creatures will heal each other and generally join in the fun if you're not careful. Groups are easy to set up, team combat is fun and despite some lag issues its a rewarding and fun experience. There is a strong array of combat classes; any MMO player should find a style they like to play. There is also a strong multi-classing element to the game, so it's also possible to mix things up if you want to. Creatures too have a strong range of abilities, similar to those players can use, so you'll often find the spells you're casting being used back on you! It's certainly better than many MMOs in this respect.

On the down side, the weakness of Istaria's creaking engine means creatures don't appear in an area until you arrive there and hang around for a few seconds. This can certainly make life interesting, but doesn't do anything for immersion. Also, due to the trouble the game has had with funding and staffing over the years, there aren't a whole heap of interesting quests to do. However, the nature of the game's economy and crafting system means that you'll often have a reason to go hutnig that doesn't need some poor quality fantasy novel idea to string it along: need some cool new armour? You'll have to go hunt for the tech items which drop from creatures. Need to build your new crafting station? Well you'd better take your sword, because those woods are full of treants and spiders.

At lower levels at least, Wurm's combat is quite simply awful. There are no creature animations (at all - not even movement. Things just kind of float towards you), no interesting moves, no nothing. It is painfully slow and in no way enjoyable - you simply choose which combat 'style' you are going to use (defensive, normal or aggressive) and stand there, hoping for the best. Yes, it really is that bad. Magic, ranged combat etc do come into the game later, but why anyone would still be bothering with combat in Wurm by then is beyond me.

In fairness, Wurm's combat does stay true to the game. It's hard from the off, meaning you will struggle to kill anything, even a cow. If you die your skills take a pretty big hit and you'll also find your weapon will degenerate quickly (not that it's much good to start with). You can run away pretty easily though, which was a surprise. It also fits well into the realism element of the game, with animals being used for skins and meat (and not dropping +1 swords).

Overall, an easy win for Istaria when it comes to combat (although I'd be interested to hear if Wurm's combat gets better at higher levels). I'll look at crafting tomorrow.

Istaria - www.istaria.com

Wurm - http://www.wurmonline.com/getting-started

Blight Delta 176: Tier 2 Revamp - I'm confused...

Below is the latest news on what's happening on 'Blight' - the Istaria test server that is open to all Istaria players to check out.

The game is often talked about in 'tiers': roughly speaking this describes the heightening levels characters go through and the corresponding creatures and resources they will come across and use. The last big changes affected 'tier 6' content - the highest in the game. This was understandable, as people have been hanging on with little to no new content for pretty much years. But somewhat surprisingly, the developers have decided to turn their attention to 'tier 2'.

Istaria could certainly do with keeping more players, but I presume the thinking was that Tier 1 was in good enough shape to leave 'as is' for now. Admittedly there are plenty of quests etc for the Tier 1 players, so it's not completely surprising, but for me there are more important things that could do with a bit of polish.

Personally, I would've liked to see a bit of work done on the general difficulty/annoyingness of the different crafting professions and tiers - this can't be more difficult, and would have a much bigger impact on the entire playing community.

For example, why are several tiers of metalwork reliant on making bars out of two components (very frustrating) when other crafting is much more straightforward. Also, there are some big differences on the difficulty of gathering areas. At Tier 4, for example, it is very easy to gather metal and stone, although the forests are crawling with creatures you need to fight/avoid if you're after wood.

I would like to see a balance in all tiers: have areas for each type of resource that are more spread out but safe, with other areas that have creatures but a higher density of resources, making gathering easier when more dangerous (which would encourage groups to work tough areas).

However, its just great to see the game moving forward again with real purpose. Check it out at www.istaria.com

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Tier 2 Revamp

The Revamp of the Dalimond Peninsula continues with this patch, but it is by no means complete. Areas still incomplete include the Shadowed Coast, The Warrens, the Dark Forest, as well as both mini-dungeons (Helian's Tomb and Ashlander's Tomb).

• The eastern part of the Dark Forest is now populated
• Chiconis Battlefield has been repopulated and both Iron and Silver Quarries have been touched up
• Gnomish Observatory has been spruced up
• Elm and Iron can be found north of Bristugo
• The Cleric's Tower is now populated
• The top of the Dalimond Ridge has had a major change from grass to snow and ice (along with a requisite change in monster types)
• Slate Crest has acquired spawns of wolves as well as various resources
• Spirit Corruption storyline is now in and available in Chiconis (for Dragons) and Cleric's Tower (for bipeds)
• Both Spire's Gate and Spire's Trail attunements are now available.
• Additional quests in the Withered Aegis storyline are available in Heart
• Sand Beetles on the beaches north of Dalimond and east of Chiconis are now known as Tremendous Sand Beetles
• Shrines for binding are available at the Observatory Outpost and Central Valley
• Onye Kutima is now in the Temple of Istara in Dalimond
• The Observatory Peninsula has been invaded by ogres and pygmies. The stench of these foul creatures has also drawn flies to the area. Overall Observatory Peninsula, and inside the blighted area called The Observatory itself is now a much more dangerous place to be.
• Source of Power storline is now available from Dreveon.

Additions

• Conjurers now get Multicast IV at level 95.
• Quest "Naithis' Lost Knowledge" to Naithis the Watcher
• Quest "Gerix's Quest: Visit the Cities of Dragonkind" to Gerix in Kion

Changes

• Lowered the evasion of Sand Crabs on the Island of Talinis
• Updated Kazrok the Guardian's dialog to be more Sslik-ified and modified it so that OOC data about level and skill requirements for the Guardian school are displayed in a blue tutorial box.
• Updated Revanus the Batltemage's dialog and modified it so that OOC data about level and skill requirements for the Battlemage school are displayed in a blue tutorial box.
• Updated Rea Telsun the Berserker's dialog and modified it so that OOC data about level and skill requirements for the Berserker school are displayed in a blue tutorial box.
• Updated Kaliphar's dialog to be more Helian
• Squirrel Stew is now stackable
• Cerulean Azulyte can no longer be found on the Chiconis Battlefield
• Silver can no longer be found on the Chiconis Battlefield, but has appeared to the south along the coast.
• Brighter Tarantulas are now known as Aviculara Scavengers
• Brighter Spiders are now known as Dark Crawlers
• Updated the treasure for Winter Wolves
• Nipper the Winter Wolf will no longer spawn on Scorpion Island, instead a Winter Wolf Alpha will spawn
• Drastically reduced the spawn density and rate of Winter Wolves on Scorpion Island
• Vladtmordt now gives the quest "Vladtmordt's Replica Tempered Scale" and "Vladtmordt's Replica Scale of the Prime" out using the quest bucket system and requires Dragons to be at least level 30.
• Quest "Dragon Quest: Replica Tempered Scale" is now known as "Vladtmordt's Replica Tempered Scale" and contains better directions to Winter Wolves and Dark Crawlers.
• Quest items used in the Replica Tempered Scale quest are now stackable but no longer tradeable.
• Quest "Dragon Quest: Scale of the Prime" is now known as "Vladtmordt's Replica Scale of the Prime" and contains better directions to Ulmus Beetles and Ruxus.
• Updated the treasure of Snow Ogres and assigned them an AI template
• Updated the treasure of Frost Beetles and assigned them an AI template
• Updated quest "Mage's Quest: Speak with Maester Larson in Dalimond" and added it to the quest bucket of Rennis
• Updated quest "Scout: Seek out Jyrris Wind in Dalimond" and added it to the quest bucket of Geela
• Updated quest "Warrior's Quest: Deliver a Report to Sergeant Addlier in Dalimond" and added it to the quest bucket of Mattias
• Quest "Dragon Instant Heal III: Dark Crawler Breeders" now uses kill_keyword and has updated dialog and directions.
• Small Frost Beetles will now spawn along with Large Frost Beetles
• Frost Beetles are now known as Large Frost Beetles
• Adjusted the spawn rates of Iron Golems on the Chiconis Battlefield
• Adjusted the spawn rates of Lapis Lazuli Golems
• Tweaked the treasure tables of Lapis Lazuli Golems
• Cleaned up the Iron Golem spawns around the Chiconis Battlefield, Iron Boulder Golems and Iron Golems now spawn separately from one another.
• Cleaned up the Silver Golem spawns near the Chiconis Battlefield
• Tweaked the treasure tables of Silver Golems
• Human Magical Aptitude now gives a boost to spell damage.
• Racial abilities, Enhanced Armor Use, Bow, Evasion, Ice Magic, Life Magic, and Magic Defense, and Increased Health all now grant a passive 10% bonus to the base skill/attribute value instead of a 5 or 10 point increase.
• Racial ability, Innate Armor, now grants a passive 5% bonus to Armor instead of a 5 point increase.
• Fireflies ability now reduces enemy movement speed on an increasing scale and has greater damage potential starting with Fireflies III and up. It also has a longer recycle.
• Blight's Favor now has a longer recycle, a much shorter duration, but greatly impacts your Blight and Nature skills.
• Pillage Spirit now has a shorter recycle, a slight post-delay, shares a recycle with Critical abilities, and does greater damage.
• Nerve Strike now shares a recycle with Power strike abilities and will overwrite some debuffs now. Fixed a bug where the Stun would conflict with the statistic debuff.
• Cleaned up the Elm Treant spawns west of Chiconis
• Dark Crawlers (formerly Brighter Spiders) can now inflict poison on their prey

Fixes

• Volcano spells will no longer consumed when cast after being scribed.
• Zhaguxal's Vanguard is now removable
• Quest "Island of Alged: Defeat the Taskmaster" now properly directs you to kill the Task-Master of Terror instead of the Machine of Inhibition.
• Quests no longer give Imperial Lore Tokens as rewards.
• Guran the Blacksmith on New Trismus will only give out the training quests for players who have not completed the Blacksmith quest series on Spirit Isle.
• Tier 2 Techniques now list the proper components that they require.
• Corrected the name of the Cenotaph Guardians
• Trophy Hunter quest "Go Bag 5 Snow Ogre Bludgeoners" is now given at a level appropriate for Snow Ogres
• Fixed Gerix's quest so that he is the one you should speak to after completing the task in order to tain your reward.
• Reinforced Hide Satchels made using the Expert Hide Satchel formula will now properly require Hide Strips
• All resources required by the Expert Hide Satchel now have consistent skill min/max values by tier
• Quest "Imbue the Orb With Your Spirit" now reminds you (both in dialog from Semeneth and in the journal entry) to have the Small Glass Vial in your possession when fighting Kaa the Shade.
• Small Glass Vial used in the Rite of Passage is now attuned

Known Issues

• Forest Skulk Hunters have bows, but no bow animation. This is in progress.
• Some of the items (tech-kits, crystals, quest items) are missing icons. This is a known issue and is in progress.

Wurm and Istaria: play them for free, forever (to a point)!

Keen readers (haha) of my blog will probably have spotted that of late I've been dabbling in two MMOs - Istaria and Wurm Online. However, seeing as I don't have enough free time to dedicate to one, let alone two, games, one had to go. So which was it and why? Well, before I tell you (in my next blog), did you know both games can be played for free, indefinitely, as long as you can take some pretty hefty restrictions? Scroll to the bottom for links to the official sites.

Istaria has a great policy which allows you to 'play for free, forever'. Yup, that's downloading the client and having access to the entire game world for free, as well as being able to level up all the way - as long as you're happy to be a human, with no plot of land to call your own, and have no other characters.

This means you get to really try out all aspects of the game except plot building and being a dragon. However, this isn't much of a loss as far as making your decision about the game - dragon play is very similar to biped play right up until the higher levels (where dragons get to fly). Plot building is great, but essentially uses crafting skills that you can do without actually building your own place.

Wurm is free in the initial 'n00b' area, but costs once you move out into the big wild world. This is a really nice idea, as the initial area is both massive and challenging, giving you a really good chance to get to know the game before deciding if you want to pay for the privilege.

Also, a lot of experienced players have a paid Wurm account as well as a free one, so they spend time in the free area to help and welcome new players to the game, with advice and opportunities to work for hard-to-get items and resources. It's another great example of how small game communities go the whole nine to help build the game's subscriber numbers.

It's pretty annoying that other games tend to give you a free time period to try out the game - this either assumes you have a week/month off to really get into the game, or that you're confident you will be able to make a good impression by then. In my experience it's not often the case - I often think I'm going to be able to play a good 10+ hours in a week (even a day!) but then real life comes along and scuppers you, meaning you get an hour at best (probably drunken and in the middle of the night).

Surely it would be better to give a set amount of free in-game hours, to level the playing field, or copy the great systems employed in both Wurm and Istaria. To get going in both games, check out the free play info here:

Istaria - www.istaria.com or http://community.istaria.com/pg.php/download

Wurm - http://www.wurmonline.com/getting-started