The Revenant: Wulf's Retreat - EPILOGUE

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The Revenant: Wulf's Retreat - EPILOGUE

Postby DaniAngione » Sat Feb 27, 2016 7:27 am

I had plans of keeping a journal of sorts - but why not a public one? This is my blog It's about the game, after all... and I think that it might be worth a shot, considering the... strangeness of my endeavour. It might also contribute scientifically to knowledge about the game, at some point :P
Alas, without further ado, let's begin.

CHAPTER 1:
WULF'S RETREAT


I had this idea a little before the end of world 8 was announced. The premise is simple: Is it possible to settle - and live - on the snow biome? On top of a mountain? Far away from wood and water sources, with no fertile ground for farming and tree planting, with basically no forageables or almost anything useful? The prospect seemed dire enough for anyone willing to go for a competitive, end-game run of this world, but I wanted to try it out. I've never been one for competitive/hardcore gameplay/end-game pvp so this felt like a nice survival challenge for a change after a safe and stable run that World 8 was for me.

Things started out a bit... complicated. World too small, OP resources, etc, etc...
The results are that I took too long to finally find a suitable mountain and - when I did - my "future neighbors" assumed I was after their Ice Spire (why else would anyone make a claim up there, after all?)

That first contact didn't end well for Wulfkin.

Image

I've managed to estabilish some dialogue with them after that, however. They've brought me Wulfkin's body so Wulfkin II could bury his father, and they also understood that I had no interest on any natural resources. I only wanted to survive.
They did move not long afterwards, though - so I guess that's ok.

I've started my basic camp and begun collecting materials for a palisade and village claim.

Image

Life up there is cold and harsh. But also beautiful...
The scenery is priceless - if you endure the frostbites.

Of course my happiness didn't last long. The next day when I logged, someone had dropped a little troll claim, preventing me to expand further. There was no choice - I had to move. There was this place a couple screens to the West that actually seemed better - the only problem about it is that it was EVEN MORE DISTANT from any water or wood sources. Well, whatever. It's meant to be a challenge anyway, so... There we go.

Needed a couple days to estabilish a new camp and prepare the pavement for my desired wall.

Image

Now I only needed to finish tanning some leather for the initial cornerpost.

The first lesson I've learned is that nothing is useless anymore. One thing we get used to doing when living on more fertile lands is to treat some things as granted. Sometimes you split a block and 1 branch remains, you throw it away. Food? You stockpile it. Stuff can be easily thrown away because there are tons everywhere. Not here.
Every branch counts, every block counts. I try to save everything, I don't throw anything away. A bit of wasted water or a wasted campfire means a long (and dangerous) hike to get a single log or barrel of water. Can't really build a road because of the uneven terrain, so I must count on my knowledge of the surrounding area. It seems to be improving, by the way - every time I need to go down the mountain I manage to optimize my way and cut the time a bit. So there is actually a feeling of becoming one with the land around you, you start to feel like a mountain man or something like that.

Other issue I've been facing is the terrain. You can't alter the snow ground, so you have to plan carefully to not be surprised by the evil "Terrain is not flat enough". I had to spend precious time, resources and tons of water destroying a bit of my own palisade because of careless planning. Won't happen again.

By the way, building the palisade was a crazy thing. I made a relatively big plot because of future plans (I'll explain more later). So I needed a lot of wood. At first, I was going down the mountain and teleporting back with one log at a time - but that was incredibly inefficient. I decided to spend some of the LP I was saving to get a cart, then. Things were much easier once I discovered the cliff-free route between the top and the bottom of the mountain, though it is slow as hell with the cart, I managed to get the wood I needed in a few hours.

(if you look closely, I'm there hauling wood :D )
Image

After starting the first sector of the palisade, I've realized that there was a way I could optimize my efficiency even further. Regardless of quality, a metal axe and saw would increase my block and board output for menial things like the palisade, the upcoming houses and cupboards. Felt like a good plan, so I rushed a bit of iron that I could scavenge from the Heavy Earth boulders everyone neglected :P and made myself a basic set of metal works.

Image

With those in hand, I could finally finish my wall. Also, with the LP I have been saving with both my character and an alt I brought to help with some tasks, I was finally able to ensure the whole land to be mine by founding a village.
And so Wulf's Retreat was born.

Image

It is mostly empty for now, yes.
But I have the land, the claim and the walls. So the journey has begun. Greater hardships will come from now on - it has been hard to do it all by myself or having to decide if I should eat or get water or work. All my LP so far has pretty much been spent on claim or things I needed to ensure the land, so my skills are quite bad as of now... I've been living from berries, squirrels and pretty much whatever I can find that's edible :P
So, yeah... it's a different, more harsh experience than the usual. But it's also quite rewarding, too :)

So this is the start of the way.

I have plans for Wulf's Retreat to be an open/public area - with room for trading, an arena, an Inn for mountain travelers and wanderers, etc...
It might take some while - especially because I'd like to use Straw for the houses' tatching materials and I can't farm, so... Yeah, might be a while.

But that's it.
I hope I live through the end of this project :D

And, if anyone feels kind today, know that I'm gladly accepting donations of pretty much anything, from curios and straw to, I dunno... branches. Everything matters and makes a difference up here :)
Also, feel free to say hi if you pass about :D
Last edited by DaniAngione on Sat Jan 07, 2017 6:51 pm, edited 20 times in total.
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Re: The Revenant: Wulf's Retreat

Postby Bowshot125 » Sat Feb 27, 2016 7:42 am

Can we like, be friends forever? I love the backgrounds and the snow. Its really harsh up there, and Ive always loved the thought of building a village on a mountain.
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Re: The Revenant: Wulf's Retreat

Postby Dominick » Sat Feb 27, 2016 7:44 am

It looks awesome!

I hope it goes well for you. :D I look forward to seeing how the community plans you mention turn out, too.

I'm sure that, when we're able, we'll be happy to pass on some excess things to you.
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Re: The Revenant: Wulf's Retreat

Postby wolf1000wolf » Sat Feb 27, 2016 7:50 am

Good read.

Though... your poor hearthling doesn't even have a house! Careful about the exposure up there.
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Re: The Revenant: Wulf's Retreat

Postby Onep » Sat Feb 27, 2016 7:50 am

Coolest neighbor!
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This dreadful ailment's heavy toll;
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We call it simply, Russian soul.”

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Re: The Revenant: Wulf's Retreat

Postby CloudJhi » Sat Feb 27, 2016 9:23 am

Oh man, Dani, when I first saw you up on a mountain trying to make a living for yourself I thought you were insane til you said it was gonna be a personal challenge.

Glad to see you've come far, would love to visit sometime.
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Re: The Revenant: Wulf's Retreat

Postby Amanda44 » Sat Feb 27, 2016 12:18 pm

It looks beautiful Dani and peaceful, I'm envious ... and a lovely idea to open it up to all of us, I so hope you are on a mountain near us. :D
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Re: The Revenant: Wulf's Retreat

Postby linkfanpc » Sat Feb 27, 2016 3:35 pm

Dude, that is epic! Good job my friend!
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Re: The Revenant: Wulf's Retreat

Postby iamclothier » Sat Feb 27, 2016 5:52 pm

I will visit there one day. Maybe with warm clothing.
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Re: The Revenant: Wulf's Retreat

Postby DaniAngione » Sat Feb 27, 2016 6:01 pm

Thanks everyone for the supportive and kind words :D

The work on the Retreat continues!
For everyone wanting to visit, it's still not open (until I stabilize the village's authority, &tc) and there's really nothing useful there yet, so... not really losing anything :P
But as soon as more noteworthy progress is achieved, I shall post it here :)

Some replies:

Amanda44 wrote:It looks beautiful Dani and peaceful, I'm envious ... and a lovely idea to open it up to all of us, I so hope you are on a mountain near us. :D

Well, yeah... It's kind of peaceful sometimes. I've noticed that it's really easy to play without nightvision (I don't like to use it) - the whiteness of the snow provides a good contrast even during the night - which is good and looks pretty at night with dancing flames. There are some scary encounters, though - people checking you out, etc... There's a lot of movement around (it's a mountain, after all, and foragers love mountains) but apart from the initial death of Wulfkin, nothing worse happened.

Onep wrote:Coolest neighbor!

:D I considered calling it Hogsmeade just for fun :P I might call one of the pubs Hog's Head or Three Broomsticks, though :D

wolf1000wolf wrote:your poor hearthling doesn't even have a house! Careful about the exposure up there.

Haha, true. I've been stubborn about waiting for straw to only build permanent houses (since it is a pain to get wood for a house I'll destroy later) but I might reconsider... It has been tough to manage without cupboards and such. Not to mention the cold ;)

Dominick wrote:I look forward to seeing how the community plans you mention turn out, too.
I'm sure that, when we're able, we'll be happy to pass on some excess things to you.

Me too :) I'll be really happy if things work out nicely! I hope wine and beer drinking gets implemented soon :)
And thank you all very much :)
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W12 Occasional member of Lake Town
W11 Inactive member of Yggdrasill
W10 King of The Northern Kingdom
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