Quick and Dirty Character Creation Guide for new players

[jonottawa]

Here it is. I found that most of the ones on YouTube are overly long/complicated, so I kept it simple and focused on what I think are the most important recommendations.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feF-4b6aLCQ

[JP_Finn]

Good work!

The beginning skills can always be debated. So don’t worry on those too much.
Sometimes I put points in fishing&spear and other times I put them on bow, carpentry.
But I don’t recall making character and not putting points in hide working.

[jonottawa]

I think 'don't worry on those too much' is not correct. Putting points into the physical skills or tracking is an utter waste, for instance. And the initial boost to actually USEFUL skills is not insignificant.

Spear is imo probably the MOST mandatory of the 3 'mandatory' skills, since it gives you a melee weapon AND a ranged weapon. The more experienced you are, I think the more you're going to choose to level combat skills at first because they're more difficult/dangerous to level later on.

I WAS thinking that maybe cooking doesn't belong in the mandatory group. It's fairly easy to level and if leveling trapping or fishing or bow instead gives you MORE meat to cook, then maybe those skills should take precedence.

[JP_Finn]

My point on don’t worry on exact starting skills point too much. I.e. putting a point in fishing is ok to drag along your character couple more days unless you pump it past 50%. It’s ok skill to pass time/rest with when building cabin by water or winter’s nights. Cooking like you noted yourself is useless to put a point in if you don’t have anything to cook.
So worrying about exact starting skills is useless, and like said: debatable.
Spear is useful for hunting while skiing.
One could also debate, Club, as that preserves hides and is the skill for rocks and stones, thrown.

For a first run, I’d likely suggest going Kaumo custom very easy and tanking Flail, Sword and Shield, drop skiing and swimming to teens/20s, then pump up hideworking&carpentry (to 60s), trapping&axe point each and bow(all the way to max). Not much of a challenge, but to get newbies “going”

[Night]

@jonottawa
Good work with the content jon, I looked over your channel and you seem to be quite dedicated to pushing out videos for URW. I have some suggestions in regards to how you could possibly improve the quality of your videos;

1. I'd suggest maybe highlighting specific parts of your play through videos that seem particularly interesting in terms of gameplay as seperate, shorter videos (like you've done with this one, albeit specifically as such and not from random gameplay), and then doing a voice dub over the video to evaluate and discuss it, I believe you'll have an easier time perfecting what you're trying to discuss in relation to the video as you can always replay your cuts and think about what points you want to underline easier than on the fly commentating, should also open up more options when you're editing your videos (if you use some editing software) in terms of sound and overlaying stuff you want to discuss.

2. The sound quality isn't particularly pleasant, at least for me I find it harder to listen to. I don't know if it's just your mic or what, but I can hear your voice all over the room as sort of a background tone, might just be the location you're streaming from. Wouldn't hurt to experiment and see if you can reduce the background noise.

3. I haven't looked at too many of the game play videos, but one thing I notice that keeps the attention of viewers are long term goals with planning, and the explanation of why you're doing particular things to achieve particular goals or milestones.

4. To cut down on video length and increase the quality of your videos, I would remove boring parts of gameplay that aren't too exciting such as traveling from point A to point B, grinding/processing a lot of the same material, I believe cropping redundant tasks and highlighting the most rewarding parts of the experience will give you higher quality videos. Nothing wrong with full gameplay videos though, but I think people will find your content easier to pick and choose from with more organized cuts, and reduced video length, as most people like to watch videos between 5-40 minutes in length depending on the videos content.

Overall, I think you should focus more on polishing the content after/during recording, and make particular highlights so each video stands out as its own, currently you have a lot of gameplay videos, which can be fun to watch, but you have so many of them at such high lengths that the average person looks at the them and isn't sure which is going to be worth their time sifting through, where as shorter videos with a particular focus will give someone the most bang for their buck on a particular mechanic or subject in the game. Another thing you could consider, is combining clips from multiple videos in the case of explaining a particular mechanic or concept as obviously you wont be doing the same thing everytime you're playing the game, but you can accumulate a lot of clips where the situation occurs and combine these clips to create a video where you can explain each part of the subject in greater detail, and with far less subject change.

Anywho, I hope this can be of some help for you, obviously you have the passion to produce the videos, so if this helps improve that process for you in any sort of way I'm glad I could be of help in your future creative endeavors.

[jonottawa]

My point on don’t worry on exact starting skills point too much. I.e. putting a point in fishing is ok to drag along your character couple more days unless you pump it past 50%. It’s ok skill to pass time/rest with when building cabin by water or winter’s nights. Cooking like you noted yourself is useless to put a point in if you don’t have anything to cook.
So worrying about exact starting skills is useless, and like said: debatable.
Spear is useful for hunting while skiing.
One could also debate, Club, as that preserves hides and is the skill for rocks and stones, thrown.

For a first run, I’d likely suggest going Kaumo custom very easy and tanking Flail, Sword and Shield, drop skiing and swimming to teens/20s, then pump up hideworking&carpentry (to 60s), trapping&axe point each and bow(all the way to max). Not much of a challenge, but to get newbies “going”

What I hear you saying is: "Not everyone agrees on what EXACTLY the best skills to choose are (particularly since different players adopt different playstyles,) so worrying about starting skills is useless."  I agree with the first part. I completely disagree with the 2nd part. Left to their own devices, new players are going to choose many useless skills like stealth or tracking or skiing. I give them guidance to avoid doing that. Not everyone will agree with the exact guidance I gave them. I'm okay with that.

I use a broadsword to preserve hides and to level sword. I would never consider recommending club. Choosing club is one of the mistakes I help new players avoid.

If there was an option to give max stats and max skills to a character, I wouldn't recommend that for a new player. Players who want that probably wouldn't enjoy the game. UrW is SUPPOSED to be a challenge. And new players are SUPPOSED to die a few times (or at least once if they're very cautious and fast learners.)

[jonottawa]

@jonottawa
Good work with the content jon, I looked over your channel and you seem to be quite dedicated to pushing out videos for URW. I have some suggestions in regards to how you could possibly improve the quality of your videos;

1. I'd suggest maybe highlighting specific parts of your play through videos that seem particularly interesting in terms of gameplay as seperate, shorter videos (like you've done with this one, albeit specifically as such and not from random gameplay), and then doing a voice dub over the video to evaluate and discuss it, I believe you'll have an easier time perfecting what you're trying to discuss in relation to the video as you can always replay your cuts and think about what points you want to underline easier than on the fly commentating, should also open up more options when you're editing your videos (if you use some editing software) in terms of sound and overlaying stuff you want to discuss.

2. The sound quality isn't particularly pleasant, at least for me I find it harder to listen to. I don't know if it's just your mic or what, but I can hear your voice all over the room as sort of a background tone, might just be the location you're streaming from. Wouldn't hurt to experiment and see if you can reduce the background noise.

3. I haven't looked at too many of the game play videos, but one thing I notice that keeps the attention of viewers are long term goals with planning, and the explanation of why you're doing particular things to achieve particular goals or milestones.

4. To cut down on video length and increase the quality of your videos, I would remove boring parts of gameplay that aren't too exciting such as traveling from point A to point B, grinding/processing a lot of the same material, I believe cropping redundant tasks and highlighting the most rewarding parts of the experience will give you higher quality videos. Nothing wrong with full gameplay videos though, but I think people will find your content easier to pick and choose from with more organized cuts, and reduced video length, as most people like to watch videos between 5-40 minutes in length depending on the videos content.

Overall, I think you should focus more on polishing the content after/during recording, and make particular highlights so each video stands out as its own, currently you have a lot of gameplay videos, which can be fun to watch, but you have so many of them at such high lengths that the average person looks at the them and isn't sure which is going to be worth their time sifting through, where as shorter videos with a particular focus will give someone the most bang for their buck on a particular mechanic or subject in the game. Another thing you could consider, is combining clips from multiple videos in the case of explaining a particular mechanic or concept as obviously you wont be doing the same thing everytime you're playing the game, but you can accumulate a lot of clips where the situation occurs and combine these clips to create a video where you can explain each part of the subject in greater detail, and with far less subject change.

Anywho, I hope this can be of some help for you, obviously you have the passion to produce the videos, so if this helps improve that process for you in any sort of way I'm glad I could be of help in your future creative endeavors.

Hi, thanks for the advice.

I'm happy with my channel remaining tiny. I don't want to spend more time editing videos than I spend playing. It's just a casual hobby, and a form of self-expression, it's not intended to become popular. I'm sorry the audio sucks, maybe I should invest in a mic.

When my character completes the Advanced Adventures tutorial (or dies trying) I'll probably move on to something completely different.

[princebunnyboy]

Thanks for making it simple but well explained! Some videos I've seen either go on too long for no reason, or don't explain it enough. Even as a seasoned player I didn't know what the stats like agility rolled for, and I could relate to having to keep randomizing that start location  I've subscribed

[jonottawa]

Thanks for the sub!

The "Sami" series is going to wrap up soon and is probably too long and boring for anyone to enjoy, but you don't have to click notifications and I try to 'feature' the most exciting episodes. It's highly recommended that if you watch that, you do so at 2x speed.

Maybe when it's over I'll go back and try to add timestamps to each episode, but that sounds like a lot of work.

[JP_Finn]

I’ve not done spear as main character in years. I just tried it: threw javelin at forest reindeer, hit shoulder, dogs chase to fatigued, Northern spear blunt to head, then skull. Resulted in harsh winter forest reindeer hide.
With fine broad knife and 71% Hideworking.
Other deer, or fox, lynx, hare with arrow hits and blunt on head—skull I get fine, rarely superior, and occasionally decent skins.
Now I remember why I stopped playing spear main characters.

[jonottawa]

I haven't thrown a javelin at a reindeer or an elk in years ... well okay, it just seems like years.

Javelins and spears are for Njerpez. Why would I ruin a perfectly good reindeer skin with one?

Anyway, you do your playstyle and I'll do mine.

[Kouvostoliitto]

HOW TO GET START?

"custom - too easy"
owl tribe
only endur, dex, agi, speed, eyesight are important

herblore, fishing, hidew., timberc. textilec., carp., swim., knife, axe, spear, bow, unarmed are important.
take minus from others, especially bulding, cookery, weatherlore, stealth, tracking...

take "unfortunate huntingtrip" (you get the goods from the dead)

Start in the north (kuikka tribe), get a fishing rod (or do it yourself), n. spear and (masterwork) n. bow.
Go south, and get a (masterw.) axe, and a (masterw.) hunting knife, and if possible, net.

I always live in the east in the Reemi area. I build a shelter next to the river rapids - fishing waters always open. I have helped the villagers with clothes and weapons by destroying the light green (Kiesse) area in winter.
I don't destroy the villages, but i move the goods to my own residential area villages.

I also destroyed the fortified villages in the Driik area. When you come from the west, to that village, the character jumps on a rock from which the villagers can easily shoot.

I was also thinking of destroying the Koivula and sartola, as well as the seal tribe areas. Then I can arm and clothe the children as well.

I hope to get rid of the constant pressing of the arrow keys, and you can use the mouse to control where the character moves.

[JP_Finn]

Alternate option for very easy start (excess wealth) is to choose “lonely settler” the location should have 4 axes; woodman’s, broad, carving and splitting. Trade all or keep carving axe (making crafts is easy way to make more wealth)
Splitting and broad axe are only really useful when building homestead(s)