Grindity grind, burnity burn!

In my last post about wurm I wrote about my big grind and how I planed to grind one of my f2p (free to play) stuff holders to permanent ones (had premium time at east once - never gets deleted).

I must say it was better than expected to start "anew". After about 18 skills to 90+ and a few more not far below that it was I would say refreshing to see those fast skill gains. After first weekend of grind I was at around 50 mining. Wow. Its great when you have all stuff sorted out (deed to live on, high casted tools to use, scale set to wear, high casted huge axe to wield, great food to eat, materials for long grind, know how).

So I started offering my big main character for sale. I had time to sell so I was looking for some serious offer. And before my 1st prem month ended on my now new main toon Lilianth, I got it. After some haggling we agreed on price over 1k EUR for toon with nearly rare scale set and inventory full of casted stuff (I had nowhere to keep it and prices went down, so no point to keep so many).

I went on grinding hard. With my new toon I was able to get to 86.7 mining after just 1 month of near constant mining (took me another 10 days of 2nd prem month to get to 90). That was nearly enough to get to my goal of 30 body strength. But with this being my new main toon goals had to change.

My toon now officially being noob again I needed some usable skills fast. Good I started meditating from day 1 so I was already 20 before I 1st premmed it, at 35 after 1st month and 50 after 2nd (59 after 3rd month). Need 70 fast to get +25% skill gain. Should be like 2 months more.

Now what skill to choose at start? First I want to be able to participate in missions. Because that means more sleep bonus! So I needed a few skills to get to 30 item quality fast to be able to sacrifice them to various gods. That was usually just a few hour quick grind to 20ish. Only FC I needed higher because quite a lot of gods was in need of fine furniture (or strange devices)!

Next goal was to make at least some boat because I sold my last knarr with my toon able to make one (and as Shaylie was out of prem at that time I was unable to quick build one). So I needed at least 30 ship building to make me nice small sail boat. Ok, check - around halfway of my 2nd prem month.

Around that time a good friend of mine invited me to dragon slaying! So I had a day to get some FS going. Few hours to get my huge axe to 20 by killing every tree in sight with it then onto steppe to kill all that moves! FS 14-40 in just a few hours (even a few trolls in the end!) and onto that dragon. Was fun!

Then I wanted some basic gathering skills. I started to plant cotton around my house also from day 1 so I was already at 35 farming at the end of month 1 (nearly 50 after 2nd month). Enough to start CT grind. High quality exquisite meditation rugs are also good to sell so I went hard on that during 3rd month and ended up at 72. One more month and 80ql could be sell-able article again (maybe even 90 if I dedicate enough time to that).

Another good skill to have and one that gives you nice body stats gain is WC. I already have nice small tree farm next to my deed (only a few hundred pines). So cutting all very old and overaged trees twice a month gave me 40 skill after 1st month, 53 after 2nd and 61 after 3rd.

But what skill gave me most income last time? Yeah, good old WS. Its easier to grind it 3rd time around ;) It took me only 3 weeks of hard grind to get to 50 and I ended up with 70 at the end of my 3rd prem month! Close to be able to improve weapons to 80 quality and start selling some again.

So as you can see I keep on grinding and burning (= use effectively) sleep bonus (SB) at that. Every day I try to at least burn bonus I got from last day. But that prove as not enough so I even bought and consumed 7 sleep powders in my 3rd month of prem during long weekend grinds. Time is money :)

Especially burning SB on WS proved quite time consuming. I had only like 100 weapons in forge so I always improved them as high as skill let me, so quite a lot of failures (even with 90ish quality tools with 90ish coc casts). So I always imped all of them with iron and water before turning SB on, then continued imping till all wanted iron/water again. Then SB off, repeat. Good for saving SB where real skill gains occur. Slight problem was that after like 30 min of SB you get more than hour of preparing for next round. With full CCFP from excellent food (thanks, neighbor!) and its bonus to SB timer length I ended up with around 5 hours of "work" to burn 1 hour of SB. Hardcore!

I used even some legal automation (wurm even supports macros). I have keyboard with macro keys. If you use that only to fill your action queue and do not add any pauses between key presses its all good and legal. So I have keys for digging (select shovel on tool belt then dig, dig, dig), tree cutting (select hatchet, cut, cut, cut), same for mining and picking sprouts from trees. Only macro for other skills is imp+repair on bottom left key so it can be pressed easily. Nothing else is needed.

That burning in title have one more meaning. With all this hard grind (not a hour of lazying around when prem is on) pauses between prem months are even more important (at least for me) to not burn out. Its nice to look at those graphs at niarja, but even better is when you get home from work and you DONT have to grind today :)

Maybe I will start using that new prem option for half a month soon :)

Keep on wurming folks!

Week of healing my mind and body

As I wrote in my last post, I did quit my job. And I still think it was one of the best decisions I did. Now I went for a week to a spa & wellness hotel to heal my aching body and clear my troubled mind. You need clear mind to heal your body as I wrote here.

I already was in this very hotel once 2 years ago. And it was also when I was in the process of changing my work. Interesting coincidence. Last time it was still during winter - and I did enjoyed looking out of hot whirlpool through big window on snowy landscape out there. Now there are flowers everywhere where once only snow was (sign perhaps? everything is connected).

Its very helpful for your being to stop once in a while, invest time to your body & mind and think about the course of your life. Clear your mind, let your body heal, enjoy being healed and cared for. Do not let stress and troubles to ruin it (easy to say, harder to do, but I do try).

So now I'm enjoying my massages, relaxation and other treatment procedures doctor ordered me and trying to not bother my mind much with future :)

And I did changed my life :)

Sorry for not posting for some time. This blog was already running on autopilot for a few weeks before posts stopped (I write a lot then set release date for my posts).

I did quit my job (which I hated so much) and now I have no time (and urge) to write. I still have a few topics I want to cover, but no pressing matters that need get out quick. So I might write another posts if I see some of your interest - so comment if you want more and what you liked best so I know which posts did matter.

Until then - see you all in better life!

Is there any inteligent life out there?

Short answer: yes. But as Douglas Adams knew, problem is not in the answer, but in the question.

First we don't have exact definition of life itself. Yeah, we have several ones, but all are based on life found on this planet. We have no idea about how life can function elsewhere in wast distances of space.

Life does't have to be carbon based at all. For example silicon molecules are more stable at high temperatures. So there could be whole civilization of silicoids deep under our feet and no one would know.

Many sci-fi authors spent significant amount of time thinking about life and how it can look and work. One of my favorites (pity I forgot who wrote it) was life based on electric signals in crystals on a lonely planet far from any star.

It would be hard to find out if the thing we would look at in some hypothetical future space lab is actually alive or not - until it starts to interact with humans one way or another. Good material for catastrophic movies.

Next problem is with inteligence. Short definition would be something around "perceive, learn and use knowledge to its advantage". In this interesting (but somewhat unrelated) article is written that inteligence grows at exponential rate (until there is some catastrophe that interrupts it).

But is all inteligent life evolving this fast? If so, there can be quite limited number of civilizations out there that are on similar level to us. Meeting someone that is far more advanced could be quite devastating (like when Incas meet Francisco Pizarro or cargo cults).

Life definitely won't be the same after we finally meet some other civilization. I often hear that "they" are already here but don't want to show themselves to us because "we are not ready". But will we ever be? Are we some kind of zoo for them? Or maybe more like penal colony for souls (variation of reincarnation, but true life is "between" lives down here)? Who knows for sure.

Last problem would be with definition of "there". Even space itself is big enough that it can contain nearly anything. But all this must follow some basic rules or laws of physic. Is there only one universe where inteligent life can live? Not at all. There is definitely more than one.

I'm quite sure that dreamscape is not in our physical space and that inteligent beings can live there. I met one.

Story of his life - 5

Go to chapter 4 (if you missed it)

Today I woke up with my back aching from uneven ground on my resting place. I hope I will sleep on better and warmer place next time. I need to cross the mountain pass to Uda today. So lets go, no time to waste.

I picked up all my belongings, put small piece of dragon meat to my mouth to chew on and went outside. Sun was already up. Good that after those long 2 days in cave I still woke up in the morning.

There was less snow than I expected and when I hugged mountain side I could go quite fast. This canyon was quite windy so I couldn't see the end of it for most of my trek. Sun was already past its highest point on the sky when I finally saw the end of my journey up.

This won't be easy. Last stretch was quite steep and icy. Luckily those dragon gloves have quite good grip so I managed to get to the top without any major accidents. Once I slipped badly, but fortunately only fell a few meters before I grabbed protruding stone.

Finally I was there. From the top I went on for a bit and found nice stone outcropping with great view of my destination. I sit down for a small break and refreshment before venturing on.

Uda looked like a paradise compared to our valley. Lush green forests line river meandering through the valley. I saw smoke going up from cave entrance far to the left and from a few settlements near the river. Maybe there was a bit too much smoke.

Then I saw it. Dragon mating season was in full swing. Small shadows were flying high in the sky and you can even saw occasional flash of fire. There was even forest burning on one spot. Luckily no dragon was near and even the roar was very faint.

Only a few dragons were still up in the sky so it meant that it should end soon. I guess that before I reach the bottom of the valley it will be safe again.

This was nice place to rest. Protected from wind and still the evening sun can warm up my body aching from today's climb. I will rest here before venturing down the hill. Much better place than last night.

Again I dreamed about riding a dragon. Strangely this woman was somehow there too. Even when we were up in the sky. I was not able to see her but I felt her. This will be interesting. I never had so many vivid dreams before. My life was never so exciting!

Go to chapter 6