Weaponcrafting outside of the Guilds

I've talked a lot about crafting, and am still working on adding all the relevant information to the blog but I recently found out that there are two weapons that can be crafted outside of the Guild system. One is a silver basilard, which is a dagger, and one is a spear, though I'm not sure what the name of it is. 

In order to make these items, you'll need a few items to give the blacksmith:

For a dagger:

• a common dirk
• a ring of silver
• a bar of iron ore
• a diamond wedding ring

For a spear:

• a hooked spear
• a light metal javelin
• a dull-gleaming hunk of rock
• a gold-chased goblet

You will also need to pay 75 gold to have these items made. Once you have all the items, travel to Katar on the Almoth Plain. Find the blacksmith, which is 1n, 1w from the well. You will know you're in the right place if you can see the following sign:

* HP:Hurt MV:Winded > lo sign
-----------------------------------------------------------
A superior DAGGER requires a common dirk, a ring of silver,
a bar of iron ore and a diamond wedding ring.

A superior SPEAR requires a hooked spear, a light metal
javelin, a dull-gleaming hunk of rock and a gold-chased goblet.

Please follow these instructions:
1. One at a time please! 

2. Pay the fee of 75 gold crowns by giving EXACTLY that amount
to the expert weaponsmith. 

3. Hand the expert weaponsmith the necessary items for your
choice of weapon. 

4. Declare the weapon you desire, by asking 'Please craft me a
superior dagger' or 'Please craft me a superior spear'. 

5. Wait patiently and dont touch anything!

It's a little more expensive than the crafting guild, but I believe the quality of the weapon is higher. You also have the comfort of consistency. In the guilds, there is a random chance of crafting something good and a high chance of crafting something mediocre. Here, you will always get the same item.

Armor crafting

There have been a few updates to a few of the pages in the right sidebar. There's a new .jpg map, sent in by Chris and created by Dena. That can be found on the "Maps" page.

Alayla created a database listing all the shops and merchants in the world, their hours and their wares. I'll be updating the Shops and Merchants page with that database and removing the "Under Construction" tag. Huge thanks to Alayla for the database!

I've also been slowly updating the Guilds and Side Trades page, which brings me to the topic of today's post. Armor crafting. It's awesome. Seriously. I made a pair of ebony-steel plate greaves. They're, you guessed it: Awesome.

There's two main armor guilds that allow you to craft four different types of armor. You can either join the plate/chainmail armor guild or the leather/cloth armor guild. As with the weapons guilds, you can only choose one. However, unlike the weapons guilds, you can make both plate and chainmail armor, though not in the same day. For example, yesterday I created plate greaves. Today, I could choose to create a piece of chainmail armor if I wanted, or another piece of plate armor. Remember, crafting time restrictions reset at reboot (that's a lot of re's!).

I joined the plate/chainmail armor guild because I anticipate needing to replace my armor frequently. Since I'm abs, I'm all about the plate. If you are all about the plate too, head to Bandar Eban. Seek out the guild master at the Wretched Bee Tavern and pay him 140 crowns to join the guild. Remember, armor is 140 crowns, weapons are 150 crowns and commodities are 160 crowns. Once you've joined the guild, pay him 17 crowns to receive a letter of rights, find yourself an iron bar and a hammer and head to the Black Knight's Armory. Show your iron bar to the armorer there and he'll let you know if it's good enough to start smithing. Once he gives his approval, you'll want to "smelt the iron." Follow along with the steps and eventually you'll be prompted to "hammer the object into shape." Once the steps are completed, drop your letter of rights and claim your armor! It really couldn't be simpler!

I'll be crafting another piece of armor today. I suspect that it randomly selects a piece of plate armor to create, but I'm not certain so I'll update with that information when I find out. As far as weapons go, I've crafted two claymores, so I'm not sure if there's any diversity there or not.

Keep checking the Guilds and Side Trades page for updates.

What about you guys? Have you created anything useful lately? Or are you more of a "kill and loot" type of person? :)

Fist pumping like a champ!

I can't lie. There may have been a fist pump (or two) yesterday. After 6 hours yesterday and 2 hours the day before, I finally, almost reverently, picked up my shiny, new claymore. I made a sword!! It took a reaaaaaaally long time. I think I can do it faster next time though.

Next up, armor guild! :D

In other news, you'll notice in the right sidebar, I've added a guilds and side trades page. It's under construction, so you won't find all the information there yet, but if you'd like to contribute to the knowledge pool, shoot me an email at wotmudnewb@gmail.com. Also, I spent a considerable amount of time yesterday learning a bit of HTML, so some of  those pages should be easier to navigate now that they have a Table of Contents at the top. As always, this whole project is a work in progress so bear with me.

I'd also like to thank everyone for their continued help and support. My viewership reached an all-time high of 164 views yesterday, so there MIGHT have been another fist pump (or two). So thanks everyone! (And a special thanks to Khahliana who spent a great deal of time helping me both with HTML and with crafting yesterday!)

More crafting!

I still have not made my sword. However, I'm determined to make it today, whatever the cost! Yesterday, I walked to Arad Doman to make my soap, then realized I needed to make fishoil in Mayene, then head to Tar Valon to make leather straps, then back to Mayene to make the sword.

It didn't happen. By the time I got to Tear, it was time to rent. But today, I shall wield a weapon, gloriously crafted by my own hands.

It's becoming more and more apparent that the best course of action is to develop some sort of system to stockpile supplies, otherwise the process is extremely time consuming. Certain necessary items, such as a cook pot or knife could be stored in the city they're needed and withdrawn when it's time to craft. I think once a person had a handle on all the different ingredients necessary for their craft and how or where to make them, it would be a much quicker process.

In the meantime, I'll begin cobbling together some sort of guide for each guild that will be accessible in the right sidebar. As with the other pages, it will be under construction and open for advice and contributions.

Weapons Guilds

This post has been a difficult one. Crafting on WoTMUD seems to be difficult and time consuming. Nonetheless, I'm eager to craft my first weapon. I decided on crafting a 2 handed long sword, since that happens to be my weapon of choice.

However, it's not as simple as heading to the Guild house, paying my dues and making a weapon. Oh no. There are materials to be gathered and side trades to be considered.

I used Alayla's Best of the City guide to help me on my way. I headed to Mayene to join the correct weapons guild, but then I discovered I needed a few other items. These items are scattered all over the world. I also need to craft certain items, such as leather straps, fishoil and soap. These, too, are located all over the world. So I set out from Mayene and headed to Arad Doman to make the soap.

Which is basically where I'm at right now. Arad Doman. No weapon in hand, but I've managed to gather a few materials.

So my promised post about weapons guilds has turned out to be more of an update on my (slow) progress, but fear not: Alayla's Best of the City guide has wonderfully detailed instructions for each and every craft, side trade and guild available.

In the meantime, I also wanted to tell you I managed to stat a few more trollocs (a hunter AND a rogue!), a female channeler and I'm currently working on a Light Side rogue. You can see the results of my statting efforts on my List of Characters page or Homelands Database page, both located in the right sidebar.

Stats and Other Random Facts

Yeri talked to us a bit about stats and how they affect our character and I just wanted to share a resource with you that goes into great depth about each stat and how they work together to build your character. You can find that HERE. I'll also link to this in the Helpful Links section in the left sidebar.

One thing that can be troubling at first is the sheer amount of text that goes by on the screen as you play. Wotmud.org has a guide to reduce the volume of spam and make things a little easier to understand. You can find that HERE. Here's a hint: Change spam 1 is your best friend.

And on the topic of spam, if you've listened to any of the global channels for any period of time, you might think you were listening to another language. So HERE's a glossary of PK terms for the uninitiated.

And now, the most important fact of the day: This game has crafting! Who knew!? I surely did not. But now I do and I'm super excited. You can make your own weapons and armor, or you can make little items, like candles, and sell them. So guess what I'll be doing today? That's right, just call me Hudson, Merchant Extraordinaire. THIS is the guide I'll be looking at to figure out all this crafting stuff. I'll let you guys know tomorrow how it goes!

One more brief note: I've had a few requests about adding to the Homelands Database. If you're interested in helping out with that, send me a mail at wotmudnewb.gmail.com with your race, homeland and the stats you got and I'll add them to the database. Thanks!