There is a fairly good chance that your experience with this game could be very close to mine.
I got this game in a bundle, so it wasn't something I had looked into and had built up any idea to compare it to upon playing. If anything, it just sat in my library for a while. Initially, I had figured it to be just another MMO, something I'm not normally too keen on at all. It was actually finding out about the settlement building and all the crafting aspects that got my attention.

So I tried to dive in and see what I could start. I started my little server to play solo.

It took some amount of time to get a grip of the controls and UI in their full extent. Almost methodically, I just clicked and right clicked through all of the bits of the UI, figuring out what was what. All told, this took some time. I don't think it ends up being a totally useless setup, but you get in your own way a lot doing this, then that, then that. At the very least, it's worth noting, as have nearly all of this game's negative reviews, that default setup requires you to hold the left mouse button just to look around with mouse aim.

How fiddly.

From this point, I'll just do a play-by-play, hopefully providing a sense of the fiddliness and tedium, as it amounted to in the end for me.

So gathering what's in my starting inventory and what the tools do seems obvious enough, so I set off to cut down a tree. Start with wood.
It took... too much time and too many clicks, frankly. Right click the tree, choose cut down. Not enough work? Do those motions again. Again. Ah, I have a log!

Okay, so the material has to be in one's inventory to work with it. Okay, even though logs are rather heavy and carrying more than one tends to encumber you like a gut full of whiskey.
Trying out the various tools on the log, I make some kindling - that'll be useful, I'll need a fire surely. Now I make a... oh, no, I failed to make a plank. Try again. Okay, made a plank. This log doesn't contain enough material to make these other options... so I have a remaining hunk of log, a spare piece of wood, kindling, and a plank in my inventory now.

What can I do with the plank? Let's... mmkay.

*Half hour of spiralling Google searches*

OKAY..... so I need a LOT more trees cut down to logs cut down to planks for the house AND a few shafts to make a MALLET, with which I can then start to work on some flat land to make plans for a house...

Mallet first. Select knife, click create, construction materials, and then shaft. Okay, logs whittled down to shafts, one shaft gets cut into a mallet head. Now I select the mallet head, click on the shaft to create ma... okay, that other shaft doesn't work, fine. Make another shaft. Mallet head, click shaft, create, and mallet... okay, I failed to make it. Failed again. Ah, fiinally, I have a mallet.

Christ, now I need to deal with a mountain lion...

I now have a littering of wooden bits and pieces and a dead mountain lion in my inventory. Let's... to hell with it, let's cut up the mountain lion. KNIFE. MOUNTAIN LION. BUTCHER.

I failed to make a paw, head, something else - Christ, how many items can come from a mountain lion in this game? I made meat. Fine, meat.

I'm waaaaaay encumbered, so... drop stuff? Jesus, I have about 40 different things and material byproducts littering my inventory. Drop half of everything. Thieves can steal stuff until I have a house? Fine, whatever... Let's finish the house, and I'll stack up my lincoln logs, and tool parts, and sawdust, and mountain lion meat in it.

So, house... I have my mallet. Mallet, let's plan a building on some ground. Not flat enough. Okay...

Select shovel. Click ground. Flatten. Dig, flatten, level. Oh, I can't level, I have to be on flat ground to level.

Mallet, go plan on my now flattened ground. Not flat enough.

*A shorter episode of Googling "wurm flatten ground" and the like*

Okay, so... I have to make sure that the slopes to and away from the square's corners and tile borders are all evened out to say flat, doing so by digging and dropping dirt where need be.

*Minutes of buggery with digging dirt and hitting the "flatten" and "level" commands*

Encumbered by the dirt piles I'm carrying from digging... okay, and now I have piles of dirt, and meat, and sticks, and logs basically just scattered like a bomb went off.

Hey, the mallet finally planned a house on that square! Let's see if I can plan it into a slightly larger house with the square next to it. It did! I have a two tile house frame now! Something is happening!

Now, let's get greedy and try a third tile house. Oh... my carpentry skill is too low. Fine, I'll take this step by step. Progress is rewarding.

Okay, mallet, let's right click that frame and... 'finalize house plans'......

... My carpentry level is too low to finalize the plans that I started?

*Google*

Okay, I deleted one tile of the plan. FINALIZE. Okay, it finalized, no change visible. Let's try building a wall.

I don't have large nails to do that.

Nails. Hm. Nails, that means... metal, which... blacksmithing...

*Google*



This was the point at which I just called it quits. The graphics have no character or wow, the sound is actually nice at times, mostly considering some of the music. But, those are footnotes. Everything just takes too much in this game.

I'm sure I played it wrong and all that jazz. Fine admitting it. But the fact is, I've actually leveled ground and built and installed such things in real life. It was immeasurably more fun, more rewarding. And I'm not going to suggest that comparable aspects of building in game and in reality actually took longer in the game, but the tedium and overcomplication of doing them through the layers of UI certainly tested my patience more than it could have ever been worth if I'd kept going.
After all, it's not like the UI is just part of the early game doldrums of a survival game. Rome wasn't built in a day, but when it was done, Romans happily killed damn near everything they saw.
Killing that mountain lion wasn't exactly fun. It was... tedious. This is just the game through and through.


I can't totally reconcile that the depth and detail of these operations sounds good on paper to me, but in practice just makes the game an utter chore. I think it just requires that I commit way too much to... you know, a video game.


TL;DR - go back and read it.

There is a fairly good chance that your experience with this game could be very close to mine. I got this game in a bundle, so it wasn't something I had looked into and had built up any idea to compare it to upon playing. If anything, it just sat in my library for a while. Initially, I had figured it to be just another MMO, something I'm not normally too keen on at all. It was actually finding out about the settlement building and all the crafting aspects that got my attention. So I tried to dive in and see what I could start. I started my little server to play solo. It took some amount of time to get a grip of the controls and UI in their full extent. Almost methodically, I just clicked and right clicked through all of the bits of the UI, figuring out what was what. All told, this took some time. I don't think it ends up being a totally useless setup, but you get in your own way a lot doing this, then that, then that. At the very least, it's worth noting, as have nearly all of this game's negative reviews, that default setup requires you to hold the left mouse button just to look around with mouse aim. How fiddly. From this point, I'll just do a play-by-play, hopefully providing a sense of the fiddliness and tedium, as it amounted to in the end for me. So gathering what's in my starting inventory and what the tools do seems obvious enough, so I set off to cut down a tree. Start with wood. It took... too much time and too many clicks, frankly. Right click the tree, choose cut down. Not enough work? Do those motions again. Again. Ah, I have a log! Okay, so the material has to be in one's inventory to work with it. Okay, even though logs are rather heavy and carrying more than one tends to encumber you like a gut full of whiskey. Trying out the various tools on the log, I make some kindling - that'll be useful, I'll need a fire surely. Now I make a... oh, no, I [i]failed[/i] to make a plank. Try again. Okay, made a plank. This log doesn't contain enough material to make these other options... so I have a remaining hunk of log, a spare piece of wood, kindling, and a plank in my inventory now. What can I do with the plank? Let's... mmkay. *Half hour of spiralling Google searches* OKAY..... so I need a LOT more trees cut down to logs cut down to planks for the house AND a few shafts to make a MALLET, with which I can then start to work on some flat land to make plans for a house... Mallet first. Select knife, click create, construction materials, and then shaft. Okay, logs whittled down to shafts, one shaft gets cut into a mallet head. Now I select the mallet head, click on the shaft to create ma... okay, that other shaft doesn't work, fine. Make another shaft. Mallet head, click shaft, create, and mallet... okay, I failed to make it. Failed again. Ah, fiinally, I have a mallet. Christ, now I need to deal with a mountain lion... I now have a littering of wooden bits and pieces and a dead mountain lion in my inventory. Let's... to hell with it, let's cut up the mountain lion. KNIFE. MOUNTAIN LION. BUTCHER. I failed to make a paw, head, something else - Christ, how many items can come from a mountain lion in this game? I made meat. Fine, meat. I'm waaaaaay encumbered, so... drop stuff? Jesus, I have about 40 different things and material byproducts littering my inventory. Drop half of everything. Thieves can steal stuff until I have a house? Fine, whatever... Let's finish the house, and I'll stack up my lincoln logs, and tool parts, and sawdust, and mountain lion meat in it. So, house... I have my mallet. Mallet, let's plan a building on some ground. Not flat enough. Okay... Select shovel. Click ground. Flatten. Dig, flatten, level. Oh, I can't level, I have to be on flat ground to level. Mallet, go plan on my now flattened ground. Not flat enough. *A shorter episode of Googling "wurm flatten ground" and the like* Okay, so... I have to make sure that the slopes to and away from the square's corners and tile borders are all evened out to say flat, doing so by digging and dropping dirt where need be. *Minutes of buggery with digging dirt and hitting the "flatten" and "level" commands* Encumbered by the dirt piles I'm carrying from digging... okay, and now I have piles of dirt, and meat, and sticks, and logs basically just scattered like a bomb went off. Hey, the mallet finally planned a house on that square! Let's see if I can plan it into a slightly larger house with the square next to it. It did! I have a two tile house frame now! Something is happening! Now, let's get greedy and try a third tile house. Oh... my carpentry skill is too low. Fine, I'll take this step by step. Progress is rewarding. Okay, mallet, let's right click that frame and... 'finalize house plans'...... ... My carpentry level is too low to finalize the plans that I started? *Google* Okay, I deleted one tile of the plan. FINALIZE. Okay, it finalized, no change visible. Let's try building a wall. I don't have large nails to do that. Nails. Hm. Nails, that means... metal, which... blacksmithing... *Google* This was the point at which I just called it quits. The graphics have no character or wow, the sound is actually nice at times, mostly considering some of the music. But, those are footnotes. Everything just takes too much in this game. I'm sure I played it wrong and all that jazz. Fine admitting it. But the fact is, I've actually leveled ground and built and installed such things in real life. It was immeasurably more fun, more rewarding. And I'm not going to suggest that comparable aspects of building in game and in reality [i]actually[/i] took longer in the game, but the tedium and overcomplication of doing them through the layers of UI certainly tested my patience more than it could have ever been worth if I'd kept going. After all, it's not like the UI is just part of the early game doldrums of a survival game. Rome wasn't built in a day, but when it was done, Romans happily killed damn near everything they saw. Killing that mountain lion wasn't exactly fun. It was... tedious. This is just the game through and through. I can't totally reconcile that the depth and detail of these operations sounds good on paper to me, but in practice just makes the game an utter chore. I think it just requires that I commit way too much to... you know, a video game. TL;DR - go back and read it.