I know, which is why I want to build a smithing setup nearby the Swamp, preferably in a Meadows by the coast as I said, as that way I can simply forge the ingots there and either ship the finished ingots back home via boat or forge iron stuff right there at the forward base. The portal is just to get me back and forth between my original home and the new forward base while I’m setting everything up and afterwards if I want to pop back home to harvest crops, honey, ferment more potions, etc… Ore/ingots will have to travel by ship. I really like my current home and don’t want to have to build it all over again closer to the swamp.
Aside from my starting shack, I moved and rebuilt my primary base once. To move it to a meadow on the coast after I had enough bronze to build a Karve. After that ore comes back on the boat.
My main strategy is to sail until I find an area I want to exploit. I pull up to the coast, throw up a workbench, portal, chest and just enough wooden walls to surround them right there on the coast near the boat. Then I take materials for a second portal with me to go find whatever I’m looking for. When I find the tomb/silver vein/villiage/whatever I set up the second portal on site. Swamp tombs provide a nice initial wall to build against. These “a” and “b” portals connect back to portals next to each other in the main base.
I exploit the resource, dropping ore into a chest so I can portal back to drop everything else off, rest, repair, and occasionally tend to crops, etc. Once I’ve gotten all ore from the site I hit the running power and make runs from the site back to the boat to fill the hold. I then portal from the boatside “a” portal to base, and from base to the on site “b” portal and repeat until I’ve gotten everything back to the boat including the broken down “b” portal and workbench, walls, etc.
Once the hold is full or I feel I’ve got enough of whatever I was looking for it’s a sail back to main base. Maybe doing a little exploring on the way if the wind is against a direct return.
That’s pretty much what I have done. Though I moved it from an inland lake with poor ocean access to a canal area I dug between the lake and open sea once I had the big boat that took the narrow turns poorly.
I have a forge/smelt area I really like at my main base. Once you have the longship, I find sailing the ore back to be fairly relaxing. Not everyone will prefer that though. I set it up with dock, storage and smelt area all cart pathable.
My main comment was on the ore/ingot, as my first run I thought I would be so smart and smelt onsite and portal the ingots back to my workbenches. That was a great plan until my first ingot! Genius. >.>
So it’s been a bit since this happened, but me and my merry band launched our first boat last week to take to the high seas and find some new playgrounds to explore. For whatever reason, I wound up in charge of the steering which took me a bit to get used to. We almost ran into a sea serpent, I think which I couldn’t really see from behind the sail but they all yelled at me excitedly to suddenly turn, and then as we were just making our way over this massive storm hit us. I mean I know there are storms which happen on land, but suddenly the waves seemed problematic. My nephew was convinced we were all going to drown due to my poor steering and the size of the waves… he was cheered on by his mom and dad who also tried to claim we were all going to drown because I wasn’t “doing it right.” We landed just fine with only grazing a large builder for the incoming.
It was great fun. I don’t remember finding exploring that cool since the Ruins of Kunark days when you got on those giant ships and just marveled at the idea of seeing land you might some how get to.
We found out that the swamps are a bit hard for us, so we’re back to trying to convince lil nephew that it’s fine for him to die… we’ll just get his body back. Also, he is learning to to run away better with the group which we did a few times. Nothing like, hey I wonder how hard this guy is… dead, and having the others shout run away. Follow us! Quick! of course the adults in the group are not so panicked about dying so much as it is kind of a pain so we tried to avoid it a bit.
We now also have our first portals.
I mentioned this upthread and it could be common knowledge here for all I know, but you can build secure, unraidable bases in the large indestructible swamp trees. The trick is finding a tree growing at a 45° angle, for easier ladder placement.
Once you get up there, you can place campfires or hearths on smaller branches, or with more work place stone structures and put the campfire hearth on those.
Figured this might be relevant/useful to @SlainteMhath and @nesrie.
It is! We just built a base where it seemed okay to build it real quick so we wouldn’t be stuck on the other side of the ocean. We haven’t found a permanent place just yet. I assume it’s the ancient trees you’re talking about since they’re big and not all straight up.
The huge trees, yep. I don’t think they have names. (Ancient Trees are the smaller trees you can chop down that yield Ancient Bark.) If you’re lucky, you’ll find a suitable one near the coast.
Oh, before you begin construction, you might want to take a gander at the area near the third boss and build there. That could save time and work, later, and you might even be able to take advantage of the elevation during the fight.
We haven’t done the second one. We just shortcut our way across the ocean to it. I don’t think we can see the third one until we beat the second one right?
I think any boss waypoint can be added to the map, at any time. But the runestones that trigger a given boss waypoint are located in the corresponding biome (crypts, for boss #3), so you probably won’t get that waypoint until you actually explore the Swamp a bit. So my advice might or might not be useful, depending on how much you guys end up building before tackling swamp crypts.
I’ll keep the advise in mind for sure. I am not usually the this is our fort spot decided, but our current one gets filled with water some times so I am sure we’ll not make it permanent. Heh, it’s up the hill… really didn’t think the waves would get that far!
Boss spawns I found through exploring were not added to the map by the game. I can add a marker though myself of course.
I have gotten the stones that mark the closest boss spawn to mark additional spawn spots, when the closest to that stone was yet unmarked.
This has been consistent with all bosses so far.
The second boss showed up right after the first, although we might’ve looked at the stone. We knew where that was the whole time thus the push to take a ship rather than huff it. The ship sale was so much fun, despite my passengers, or because of, freaking out during the storm. That was a hell of a storm!
I have been in a storm that wrecked my boat and killed me before I made shore. No passengers to scream at me though. ;) But storms that strong exist. That was the karve and it was fully loaded with ore, both were factors.
Ironically bronze nails did not float. Boxes of ore did however.
I made a third floor lookout where a large area of ocean is close to shore. I enjoy just watching the storms.
Yeah we are using a karve, and my driving was fine. We made it.
Wait so if we lose our boat and die in the ocean we can still get our stuff back?
Your “body” floats. Not sure about stuff in the hold.
Stuff in the hold converts into crates when a ship breaks. Just like the contents of a cart that breaks. (And it’s possible to finagle crates from a broken cart onto the deck of a ship).
Oh, but do heavier crates float? Not sure.
Those did.
So the Draugr village I found turned out to still be in the Meadows biome (I guess they always are?) and the Swamp doesn’t start until further north and west. On the positive side, I raided the village in daylight after sailing my karve up the coast and was easily able to handle two and even three draugr at a time. I now know how the sausage is made…I wish I didn’t. The best part was when I heard a Troll nearby in the forest, so I went and got him, led him to the village, and watched the chaos ensue, zinging fire arrows into the mess from a distance. The Troll took out the Draugr watchtower, it was hilarious to see them all fall out as the pieces came crashing down. I ended up killing the troll when he ran out of draugr that were outside of the buildings. I collected tons of loot and left the remaining draugr hiding in their longhalls.
Given what appears to be the direction the Swamp biome is expanding in (towards opposite coastline) it looks like my best bet may be to sail my karve back home, grab the materials to build a second karve, trek overland to the opposite coast, and sail north to the swamp from there. I can build my FOB in the Meadow below the Swamp, and start exploration from there with a ship, forge, portal, etc. on site.
Question : Is it best to leave the body piles in the draugr village buildings intact so that you have a reliable source of entrails? Or are they common enough that it doesn’t matter? Will the draugr within the village still respawn if there are no body piles left in the village?
You will be able to make plenty of Sausage with entrails. The limiting factor is Thistle
I grab Thistle even if there is a gang of baddies chasing me!
Good question. I think it depends on the extent of that Swamp, and on your access to other Swamp regions (you’ll eventually find others). I probably wouldn’t sweat it.