Introduction & Question on Playstyle

[Karmatose]

There isn't an introduction board so I figured I'd introduce myself here, I hope that's okay. At the end I'll also have a question about the game, too.

Sooo...Hi there! My name is Karmatose, feel free to call me Karma. I'm an 18-year-old female living in the U.S. (EST). I get the feeling I'm probably among the younger players of the game, but I've been playing very off-on since I was 12-ish. I haven't joined the forums until recently, but I thought I'd try modding and downloaded the BAC mod and a few complimentary ones, and had to sign up to do that, and figured I might as well get involved in the community, too. I also signed up for the IRC chat, but it seems rather dead at the time of writing. Still hanging about though if anyone is on.

I did mention that I've played the game since I was 12 or so, but I should probably clarify that I am still very much a noob. I usually only play the game frequently for a couple weeks to a month before taking a break and not playing it at all for a couple months to a year. Unfortunately I have a tendency to restart the game a lot. I'm in the process of learning to let go of my desire for absolute control in the game - i.e. learning to roll with the punches. It's a bit difficult, but I recently got on a voice chat with a friend and was streaming the game, and he's the definition of chaos. He had be take the "Unfortunate Hunting Trip" scenario and egged me into attacking the bear. I survived the first attack but I guess I hung around my father's corpse too long because the bear came back and killed me. ^^;

Anyway, as far as my interests, I'm addicted to writing and play-by-post roleplaying, although I struggle to roleplay in video games. I recently started keeping a journal for my URW characters with drawings and such in an effort to remedy this, but found that it took away from the gameplay experience as I'd feel my gameplay was interrupted by writing in the journal. I'd be willing to send the first page (the only completed page) of the journal if anyone is interested, but I'll have to resize it to do so, so please express interest if you'd like that. I also love to read, crochet, and (you guessed it) play video games. I'm an amateur digital artist and graphic designer and I have a bad habit of making all my hobbies into big, ambitious projects I never finish. I'm one of those people where it's all or nothing - I can't half-ass anything even if I try, I'm either all in or not in at all.

I think that's enough about me, or at least all I can think of at the time. If anyone has any questions or just wants to chat, feel free to reply here or PM me.



As for my aforementioned question, I recently decided to try something new in-game - I never enter the zoomed-out map. I think this provides a more fun and dynamic experience as exploring is more difficult due to not being able to see what is really far ahead of you, and also if you stumble upon tracks you'll always know it, as opposed to in the zoomed out map you might miss them if you aren't using your tracking skill. If there is an animal nearby, it won't just poof you to the animal's exact location, you'll have to search for it a bit based on sound cues and tracks. Overall it seems like it'd be a lot of fun, but I have to wonder - are there any limitations to doing this, either performance-wise or gameplay-wise? I imagine that loading so many zoomed-in tiles might be taxing for the game after a while if it doesn't have a way to unload them. If anyone knows anything, please let me know in the topic (as opposed to PMing me) so others can find out, too.

Anyway, I think that's all. It's nice meeting all of you.

[JP_Finn]

Welcome!

Some of us are older, some are younger. We don’t really mind either way.
Playing more limited starting scenarios are good challenge, especially after playing umpteen starts of Fisherman/Hunting Trip/Lone Settler/et al ‘extra item’ starting scenarios. There are couple challenges on the forums that start by Taking off all items, then Discarding *everything*
Often using the Hurt, Helpless& Alone for added injuries. They even limit zooming out until finding a mountain to climb up to observe surroundings from

As for limitations on playing Zoomed In only, the save file can get bit bigger reasonably quick. And if you notice a slowdown playing, you can always hit keypad number 7 key for the built-in map maintenance.

[Karmatose]

Thanks for the timely reply!

Yes, I admit to having consistently played with the trapper start over and over and over again. It has gotten boring, but I'm not sure I'm ready for anything more challenging than the Unfortunate Hunting Trip start. But for reference, where can I find these challenges? Are they typically in one particular sub-board or are they scattered everywhere? Is there a compilation thread of sorts anywhere?

You mentioned the save file can get large quickly. Beyond taking up more storage space on your computer, are there any downsides to this?

Also, I assume the captchas go away after you post a certain amount of times. How many posts is that?

[JP_Finn]

Thanks for the timely reply!

Yes, I admit to having consistently played with the trapper start over and over and over again. It has gotten boring, but I'm not sure I'm ready for anything more challenging than the Unfortunate Hunting Trip start. But for reference, where can I find these challenges? Are they typically in one particular sub-board or are they scattered everywhere? Is there a compilation thread of sorts anywhere?

Right here in General Discussion. None stickied. If you search for challenge, you should find at least couple.

You mentioned the save file can get large quickly. Beyond taking up more storage space on your computer, are there any downsides to this?

Load times might increase a bit on older setups. Other than that, nothing really.

Also, I assume the captchas go away after you post a certain amount of times. How many posts is that?

3, last I recall hearing from admins/Devs

[Karmatose]

Right, thanks! I appreciate the help. I think that's all for my questions really. ^^

[PALU]

Personally I wouldn't want to play without ever zooming out because I'd probably not find my way back to the homestead (to be)...
Another disadvantage with not zooming out is that it takes forever to get anywhere (the village 10 tiles away isn't 10 moves away but 640, checking the trap fence/farm plots 3 tiles away isn't 3 moves away but 192, etc.).

Otherwise, I find sandbox games should be approached with goals in mind, possibly with house rules as to what exploits and actions are permitted and not (like restrictions on when to zoom out, hunting using water edges as borders to exhaust prey, farming, etc.).
I'd start by trying to find out how things work, then find a place I'd like to use as a homestead, and then construct that homestead to my liking (you may want to try a nomadic life style instead, of course).

The challenge starts generally revolve around one of the harder starting conditions and then adding house rules on top of that. This makes the start harder (a lot to extreme in some cases), and are probably something that you shouldn't try until you've got the hang of things and get a bit bored with how easy it becomes once you know the little tricks (it actually is reasonably easy, but there is always the danger of ending up in a fight that you won't get out from, something that will happen sooner or later).

[Karmatose]

I understand what you're saying, but I find the distance to get to stuff to be more fun tbh. Traveling long distances should feel like a big deal in that time period. You should have to prepare for it, imo. I usually settle near water, so it's not too hard to find my way back home as long as I allow myself to use the map [F6] and once I'm close I just follow the waterline. Traps will likely be a bit harder, but I'm not playing a trapping character atm. If I do use traps I may prefer to put them near distinguishable landmarks or something, not sure yet.

As for the challenges, I don't plan to do any of the forum challenges for a while. I'd consider myself an intermediate player in that I've played through the first 10-30 days at least 200 times but I've never survived more than a month or so without restarting, and I almost always start the same way. I'm only recently trying to switch things up by using new starts and exposing myself to new circumstances. The only reason I was asking about the challenges was for future reference.

That said I think I have enough experience to add the one level of difficulty I have added, that being the no zooming out rule. I've been playing like this for 10~ in-game days so far and I think it's made the playthrough a lot more interesting than any of my others thus far. I just found a place to start building a permanent settlement. It's a land bridge between two lakes in a spruce mire with a village pretty close by. I also started in spring this time - I usually start in summer so this was unique. Managing temperature is a lot more interesting now that I actually have to do it. Weird how heatstroke isn't a problem in the game. :/

[Ezezaguna]

Hi and welcome! 

It is always good to see new roleplayers.  In my experience I don't restrict myself the use of the zoomed-out map since I think it is, at some extent, a nice representation of reality. When I go to the hills of mi city I can see the big metropolis under me and make some crude assumptions of how to get to places, maybe that's the reason why you can 'figure out' places in UrW when you are in the zoomed-out map  . Moreover, when you are in thick forest you really can't see much ahead of you -in real life and in UrW life.

Anyways, I tend to enjoy roleplay trying to emulate traditional life-style in-game: respect nature and live off what the land provides while reading historical stuff about it. Also, learning to mod is a nice way to 'play' the game while testing ideas for more immersive stuff.

[Karmatose]

Ahh, I see. That does make some sense to me, but I find my reasons for not using the zoomed-out map are not so much based on realism as it is experience. It just feels very different playing the game in the zoomed-in map, to me at least.

As for roleplay, I do consider myself a role-player but not in-game. I've tried a few times to get in-character in various games, but I struggle to do so because I'm so used to writing out what my character does and having tons of time to think about it that I can't get in-character on the spot, if that makes sense? The closest I've gotten to being in-character is sometimes writing a journal of my character's experiences as I play, but I've always found I can't keep that up for long because I can't find a balance between writing too much and not spending enough time playing, or writing too little and forgetting what I did before the last entry and not having anything to write. ^^;

I can share some of my previous unfinished journals though. I've just shared them in the stories board, you can find them at the link below:


https://www.unrealworld.fi/forums/index.php?topic=6151.0


I'd like to try again, we'll see. Maybe someday. ^^

[Dungeon Smash]

Welcome!  I think you will find the membership here is a good-natured bunch.  Feel free to post stories, drawings and so forth in the "Stories" sub-forum, I'm sure many people here would enjoy them.

[Brygun]

Welcome,

I loved your drawing in the stories. I'm Brygun who does the long text character blogs and keeper of the BAC mega mod.

Solo games, like this one, really can be played your way.

I find Unreal World is one I come back to over many years as it has a good grasp of survival skills and seems to inspire my writing side. As a single player game I can pause the action... or in this case just not hit the next button... to take time to write. In your case it could be to draw.

As for the no zoom, there are some difficulties for that as in real life you can see far away in certain conditions. Smoke rising out of  a village, the cuts of hills implying rivers and so on.

One challenge was to not use the zoom unless you were on a hill. Then you can have full map modes once you get to your first village.

[Karmatose]

Welcome!  I think you will find the membership here is a good-natured bunch.  Feel free to post stories, drawings and so forth in the "Stories" sub-forum, I'm sure many people here would enjoy them.

Thank you! I have already posted a story there, I linked it a few posts up. ^^

Welcome,

I loved your drawing in the stories. I'm Brygun who does the long text character blogs and keeper of the BAC mega mod.

Solo games, like this one, really can be played your way.

I find Unreal World is one I come back to over many years as it has a good grasp of survival skills and seems to inspire my writing side. As a single player game I can pause the action... or in this case just not hit the next button... to take time to write. In your case it could be to draw.

As for the no zoom, there are some difficulties for that as in real life you can see far away in certain conditions. Smoke rising out of  a village, the cuts of hills implying rivers and so on.

One challenge was to not use the zoom unless you were on a hill. Then you can have full map modes once you get to your first village.

Aha, I've seen you around just browsing. Thank you for your kind words ^^ I'm the same about coming back to Unreal World a lot. I have thought about allowing myself to zoom out on a mountain, but I haven't encountered any mountains yet so I'll decide then.

I did have a momentary issue that seemed to resolve itself where for a couple in-game days whenever I stepped onto a tile with at least two different items on it, or attempted to load the ingredient lists for crafting, it would slow down and the text would be staggered, showing up very slowly. I refreshed the map a couple times and got no change. I also saved and restarted the game, no change. But then after a couple days it went away. Not sure what that was about, or if it was related to the no zooming out or not. If it happens again I'll report it, I suppose.