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TRADES AND TUTORIALS, TUTORIALS AND TRADES

Upon loading in the game world I get the briefest glimpse at the map before the Game Course & Task window pops open and immediately begins its lessons. If you look on the right of the screen you can see a checklist of the various tasks we'll have to complete. So our first task is finding water, that should be easy enough. The UnReal World is a land covered in many lakes and rivers. Dismissing the screen we're dumped on the overworld map.




I turn a good 360 (facing matters in the game) and take a look around, sadly I can't see far in this forest, except to the northeast where the forest gives way to a mire. I don't think mires count as a water source, but it really shouldn't be a problem finding water. Especially since I arguably cheated.



During character creation I made sure to zoom in on the generated world and snapped a few screenshots of areas that I might be interested in, including our starting region. Looking at that map I can see that somewhere from our starting area (the red box) to the north and northwest runs a river, while to the west and southwest are several modest lakes. Also to the southeast and to the south you can see the Driik settlements. I'll be heading in their direction as they'll undoubtedly have items I'll want. Speaking of, let's take a look at what I'm carrying.



Whoa. I'm loaded. My last character started out with only a spear, a knife, a handaxe, and a minimum of clothes (pants, under shirt, shoes), and the fishing gear (1 rod, 2 nets). This guy meanwhile has started with two good spears, a fine kaumoan knife, a longbow with 8 rough arrows, two clubs, a waterskin, a decent set of clothes. Not pictured is a few small pieces of dried meat and a necklace (that I can't put on) listed under "Valuables", a category I've not seen before. The supernatural RNG spirits are kind to me today!

Still, despite all those goodies I'm missing one very important tool, an axe. You can't get far in the UnReal World without an axe, or a knife for that matter, they are very important tools and there is actually quite a variety of them. Without an axe I cannot fell large trees for important lumber. At the least I'm going to want a handaxe as its a bit of a jack-of-all-trades tool, workable for any task if not good at many of them. Heading to the Driik settlements is even more important now.

With that in mind, I start heading in a west by southwest direction, figuring I'll hit the lakes eventually, and after walking maybe a kilometer and a half I indeed find a large lake. Remembering my current task, I stop for a second to fill my waterskin and then drink from the lake (as far as I know you can't get anything nasty from drinking water straight from lakes and rivers, guess Iron Age Nomads have a better resistance to that stuff). MISSION ACCOMPLISHED, whats next?




No sooner do I close the course window than it immediately snaps back open again to inform me of my next task, zooming in. See, currently I'm travelling on what I call the "overworld map" which is used for conveniently travelling long distances, other than that you'll be doing most of your activities on the zoomed in map where things are presented in greater detail. I oblige the game by zooming in and completing the task. The next task is almost as simple, picking something up, just about anything will do. Fortunately there is a nice hefty stone nearby so I pick it up (and immediately drop it, cause it weighs 14 lbs). My next task is to make a fire. I guess I can engage in a bit of arson real quick.






I walk over to a nearby tree and use my Survival skill to cut some branches from the tree. I'm not interested in making a big fire (plus I can't cut down trees anyways) so I just move the branches away from the tree and light them or. Or I try to anyways, my first attempt takes a whole 10 minutes and fails. The second takes nearly as long (its a random time) and also fails. I thought I was rated as "Competent" in survival! Fortunately the third attempt succeeds quickly. Thinking back, maybe I would've succeeded faster if I had remembered I have an incantation to assist with building a fire!






With the fire built my next task is to cook something. What to cook? The answer is provided in the form of a fresh pike being dumped in my inventory, thanks supernatural tutorial spirits! I immediately use my cooking skill to roast the pike, a process which will take a few hours. I forgot how long pikes take to cook, having to sit here is a bit inconvenient, but that Pike can feed me for a couple days, so I'm not leaving it.




Fortunately the tutorial tasks accommodate a bit, my next job is to fell a tree. "But Galaga," you no doubt say, "you do not have an axe!" This is true, I cannot chop down large trees, but my knife will suffice (if take a while) for young trees. I walk over to a nearby young spruce and make ready to cut it down. The game informs me that due to the load I'm carrying my expertise will be slightly impacted. As you can see in the menu my inventory weighs almost 70 pounds, inflicting a -7% penalty to all my skills. Not that big a deal for cutting down a tree (especially when I have time to kill), but in general, if you're out to accomplish tasks, you'll want to travel light whenever possible.





Anyways, it takes me 25 minutes to cut down the young spruce with my knife. My next task is a bit of arts and crafts, the game wants me to make something. Fortunately, I know just the thing. I use some of the "Slender trunks" from the fallen spruce to craft a couple staves, a laborious task that takes almost two hours with my knife (a handaxe would've done the job much faster). Unfortunately my two staves turn out "Rough", meaning of lousy quality. The game is nice though and tells me my lack of proper tools is to blame, not my skills. Thankfully by the time I'm done the Pike is finished cooking (and starting to burn actually). And the game gives me my next task, fishing!




To accommodate this, a fishing rod pops into my inventory. I already had one, but thanks supernatural tutorial spirits, I can probably trade this one for something. Before going fishing I grab my cooked pike and eat some of it, as I've gotten a bit hungry over the last couple hours and its now noon. I'm going to try to avoid eating my bread or dried meats as they'll last a significant amount of time before spoiling while the fish will only last a few days. After stuffing my gullet with about 2 pounds of pike, I wade out into the shallow water and try my luck with fishing.




I fish for two hours and fail to catch anything, this is, unfortunately, not unusual. Shore fishing is not the best from what I've experienced in the past. Whatever I've got food for now, so I'm not too worried. Anyways, my next task is to build a simple shelter, but that is going to wait a bit, as it is still many hours till dark and I still want to find some Driik settlements and see about trading my excess stuff for stuff I need. I zoom back out to the overworld and examine the maps I made. I'm able to spot the lake I'm at with reasonable certainty, so I know that the Driik settlements are southwest from my current position, and I set out. Its already afternoon, so there is a good chance I might have to make that shelter anyways, or just sleep under the stars.

I wander southwest for a few kilometers until finally I find one of the settlements. Its late afternoon now so I'm glad I found it when I did. stepping onto the map square with the settlement automatically zooms me in and- did I say settlement? I meant walled town as I'm immediately faced with a big wall of rocks. I wander around the edge a bit until I find the entrance (on the last side I check, of course). And head inside. This is exciting, I've never been to a walled town before, I hope they have lots of goodies for me to trade for... Wandering into town I spot a pigpen (meaning they sell pigs), and check out the various buildings in town. Most of these buildings will have various item sitting on the ground, which I can then pick up and talk to a villager to try to barter for. They have a lot of weapons for trade here, including an impressive amount of round shields, not that those are that useful to me right now. Thankfully they still have most of what I wanted/need.




After checking out all the buildings I make a list of things they have that I want:

1. Handaxe
2. Fine Woodsman's Axe
3. A Punt
4. An extra fishing net

And some other tools I'd like to have:

5. Shovel
6. Splitting Axe
7. Carving Axe

As you can see, half that list is Axes! I told you Axes were useful. They also have a Broadaxe that'd be nice, but its a bit more limited in its uses and a carving axe does decent at those anyways. The only question is, what will it cost me to get these? Let's find out. I grab everything I want, and talk to the closest villager, who just happens to be the Village Sage. I greet him and introduce myself (politeness costs nothing) and begin bartering. I immediately offer my northern spear, which is a decent spear and can also be used as a skii stick. The sage informs me I must at least triple my offer! Next I throw in the valuable necklace I'm carrying, and the sage tells me I'm about halfway there. I guess as nice a necklace as it is, it is not worth as much as a good spear. Next I offer my clubs, which the sage flat out refuses as unworthy of trade. Shit I hope I didn't annoy him, I'm pretty sure that can influence prices (better not try trading my rough staves then).He also refuses my extra fishing rod. Crap.



I have a good few more things I can trade, but at this point, its actually going to cost me something useful and not surplus. I have my fur shirt, my fur shoes (Which I could trade for lighter shoes and still come out ahead on value), my nettle cloak, my water skin (all rough quality, but should still have some value... I hope) which should make decent trade fodder, the fur items at the least. Losing my cloak and fur shirt would hurt, but it is summer and I should be able to get replacements before cold becomes an issue. There is also my Longbow. It would certainly be quite valuable, but would leave me without a great hunting instrument. That said, I can make javelins for hunting or a shortbow (though making your own bow and arrows requires a good amount of cords/ropes). That said, I could also make my own wooden shovel, but it'll take longer to dig with, especially if the quality is bad, and there is at least one useful thing I can create that involves quite a bit of digging. My Fine Kaumon knife is also a possibility, as there are a few assorted knives laying around town I could replace it with.

I have no intention of turning this into a voting LP, but it can't hurt to ask the supernatural goon spirits for advice. What do you guys suggest? Trade away some of those valuables, or trim down my shopping list? That said, if I get everything I want here, I'll have almost everything I really wanted, and could decide to travel away from Driik land, perhaps head back eastward towards the lands of the eastern people (including my fellow Kaumoans), where wild animals are more plentiful (as are the Njerpez).