Wurm Online: Logistics
One of the most interesting aspects of world sandbox games is that of logistics. For example, I'm currently building myself a rowing boat in Wurm Online, because Stonehaven is most easily accessible by sea. To get started on this, I needed two keel sections, and I'll need another one to finish it.
Keel sections are made directly from felled trees. I can carry two felled trees in my large cart - no more. But I've only a 15% chance, or thereabouts, of succeeding in making one, and if I don't succeed, the wood scraps that remain are not useful for anything other than burning. So, I reckoned I'd head up to the woods, cut down trees, make my keel sections there, and bring them down in the cart. Except they won't fit in the cart.
You can carry them, sure, but they weigh 60kg each, and it's a long way from the woodland area, over road and marsh, and you move more slowly when you're carrying a lot. Especially over the marshy bits. I can only carry one at a time.
So there's a lot of thinking to do about whether it's better to make them in the woodlands and bring them down slowly, or bring down the trees relatively quickly, and possibly have to go back a few times, accounting for failures. And that's not a calculation to which there's a single clear answer across the game; the distance and local terrain are large factors. There's also the possibility of increasing my ship-building skills so that the chance of success becomes higher. Indeed, I've increased it since the first keel sections I made, so I may already have a higher chance.
Once the rowboat is made, of course, I'll be able to transport things more easily, at least by sea. There isn't anything I know of that can move more than the large cart overland, so it's another reason to live by the sea, and another explanation for why Freedom's coastlines are so thoroughly jammed with inhabitants.
Posted by Drew Shiel at May 8, 2011 12:55 PM
