Is there any gems in the rough I should know about? I'm looking for a game with skills to train, and a game where you can plop down a house and build things in the world would be the best. Failing that, I'll settle for an in-depth crafting system by itself. Wurm's concept is intensely interesting to me, but the graphics, payment plans, and so many other general lack of production value issues keep me from being able to play it.

I fear my only option may be ArchAge, which isn't coming out for forever...

Try Heaven&Hearth, but you will need to use one of the custom player made client because the official client is crapy unless they changed it since i played it last time. Just check their forum a bit before diving in. You can build house and an entire settlement, and crafting is the main part of the game, you can even grow tree to have better wood quality and those kind of stuff.

Best bet right now is Wurm online, I just started myself now they added the new server.

Haven & Heart was good until they introduced curiosities, now all you do is sit in your boat picking up things.

My suggestion is to have some patience and play Dawntide when it launches October 1st.

Perhaps Mabinogi, it fits all of those to a point. It's skill based and has in-depth crafting. There's housing but it's not really open world housing, and you're stuck with a tent unless you pay. It has better graphics than Wurm I belive, but they're still outdated, and it's f2p. All in all I don't think that Mab is a better Wurm, just like Wurm with some different qualities. I haven't actually played Wurm though...

Also, if you're looking to "plop down a house and build things in the world"... that definitely sounds like Minecraft.

check out Istaria. not sure if its skill based or not, but i do know you can level all adventuring and crafting areas that you want. so even if its not skill based it has open ended similarities.

also Ryzom is skill based and again you can max out all the skills they have if you want and have the time and patience. no housing, but crafted items are the center of provision for players, rather than dungeons and mob drops.

Vanguard is not skill based and does limit you per character to a specialization. however, they have a multitude of great classes, you can level only crafting if you want on most of your characters and either buy or harvest your own mats on an adventuring set of characters. also you can build housing, guild housing, boats to sail, and while items drop in game they are usually not as good as either dungeon drops or crafted items.

as for Dawntide, it shows alot of promise, however, i have played that game recently and i really can't see how its going to be ready to release except as a first stage Beta come October 1st.

Fallen Earth is worth a look. It doesn't have housing like that, though you can build tents. Hey it is the apocalypse, times are tough! It is skill based, you have a bunch of different crafting paths, guns, melee, camps, food, science, etc. Your combat powers are skill based as well. It is a third person shooter and you have pistols, rifles, melee (everything from swords to two by fours) and heavy weapons. Graphics are very good. Look at screen shots especially newer ones, where they updated lighting.

Originally posted by astoria

Fallen Earth is worth a look. It doesn't have housing like that, though you can build tents. Hey it is the apocalypse, times are tough! It is skill based, you have a bunch of different crafting paths, guns, melee, camps, food, science, etc. Your combat powers are skill based as well. It is a third person shooter and you have pistols, rifles, melee (everything from swords to two by fours) and heavy weapons. Graphics are very good. Look at screen shots especially newer ones, where they updated lighting.

+1 for a better memory than mine =)

FE is also worth a look. its going freemium soon too, i believe October 12th

Originally posted by Seinaru

Perhaps Mabinogi, it fits all of those to a point. It's skill based and has in-depth crafting. There's housing but it's not really open world housing, and you're stuck with a tent unless you pay. It has better graphics than Wurm I belive, but they're still outdated, and it's f2p. All in all I don't think that Mab is a better Wurm, just like Wurm with some different qualities. I haven't actually played Wurm though...

Also, if you're looking to "plop down a house and build things in the world"... that definitely sounds like Minecraft.

 i am not saying mabinogi is a bad game, far from it, but it has imho as little similarities to wurm as WoW

I'm with the OP. I wish there was a game to satisfy me.

Anyway OP, you should also check out A Tale in the Desert. I think it's straight crafting. I don't know if it has housing, etc.

I recall there was a game made recently thats almost a carbon copy WURM, only with MUCH better graphics. (Does a search) Ah it was "Xsyon". Never tried it myself, some friends did. Basically I was told it was WURM with modern graphics, but sadly felt incomplete. Can't say more honestly, could look up some reveiews on it.

I recommend Haven and Hearth as well. I actually like it a lot more than Wurm...Wurm's graphics always bugged me. I would rather see average 2d graphics, than really bad 3d graphics.

HaH is pretty dangerous, though. You learn to avoid people if you are a hermit. :P Luckily, I found a nice village near my cave I claimed. So I'm able to trade with them. The best part is, my area is SO dead...I was on vacation for 2 weeks. Only have a wooden fence (no palisade), and came back...not one fence section was destroyed and none of my items were stolen. My area rocks, and I can trade with the village nearby. If you want to live somewhere dangerous, go to the NW area...lots of aggressive russians up there. They are the most aggressive group in the game. The outer sectors, tend to be a lot less crowded...if going the hermit path.

Outside that...you can raise farm animals, build anywhere. Some terraforming (can cut down a forest, it turns to grassland)...then you plow the grassland and it changes to moor I believe...and then it finally changes to heath. There is a lot of stuff. And I find it more fun than Wurm, even if Wurm had epic graphics...I to be honest, never got into it.

Thanks for the replies! It's really helped. Most of these games I was aware of, but hearing them reccomended based on my tastes makes me alot more interested in them.

Xsyon- I bought and played in the beta. The concept is awesome and the game is like Wurm ultra... but the devs sucked and basically lied to us about what it had as features... It might be a game worth playing in a year or so...

Mabinogi: I always thought it was a chatroom type MMO for tweens, but I saw a stream of it that actually impressed me. Maybe I'll give it more of a try than the 5 mins of confusion I invested a few years ago. The weird payment system (Buying mounts) turns me off a bit though.

Vanguard always interested me, but it sounds dead/dying last I heard.

I've been planning on playing Fallen Earth in Oct. I thought it was a in interesting game when I tried my trial, but not buy and sub interesting.

Two questions:

What about Darkfall? I've heard alot about the overhaul coming down the line, but the hardcore PvP doesn't appeal to me. Is it a gankfest?

Any reccomendation for a Haven and Hearth interface? I tried the game shortly but the interface was, indeed, horrible and I rage quit.

Edit: BTW I have been playing Minecraft since pre-beta. I love it. Just waiting for 1.8, and I've always wanted something like that but online with saved character progression and more player interaction. Currently, since my buddies and I can't get a minecraft server to run stabilly and smoothly worth crap, I hate the online servers because mods just give themselves whatever they want. The act of gathering the resources to make something out of raw unworked items is whats fun about these types of games, to me.

Originally posted by vazzaroth

Thanks for the replies! It's really helped. Most of these games I was aware of, but hearing them reccomended based on my tastes makes me alot more interested in them.

Xsyon- I bought and played in the beta. The concept is awesome and the game is like Wurm ultra... but the devs sucked and basically lied to us about what it had as features... It might be a game worth playing in a year or so...

Mabinogi: I always thought it was a chatroom type MMO for tweens, but I saw a stream of it that actually impressed me. Maybe I'll give it more of a try than the 5 mins of confusion I invested a few years ago. The weird payment system (Buying mounts) turns me off a bit though.

Vanguard always interested me, but it sounds dead/dying last I heard.

I've been planning on playing Fallen Earth in Oct. I thought it was a in interesting game when I tried my trial, but not buy and sub interesting.

Two questions:

What about Darkfall? I've heard alot about the overhaul coming down the line, but the hardcore PvP doesn't appeal to me. Is it a gankfest?

Any reccomendation for a Haven and Hearth interface? I tried the game shortly but the interface was, indeed, horrible and I rage quit.

Darkfall is not a gankfest. Partly because the numbers just arent there and you can PvE for hours without being attacked. You wont have a chance against vets for a long time relative to other games, but if you can find friends that is a different story. I often ran with a sortof buddy system and we took out vets (and made a lot of money as noobs).

Crafting though? necessary in Darkfall because you drop your equipment on death, but not terribly interesting. 1. have mats, 2. click craft. 3. repeat many many times to level. BUT they are talking about a revamp.

Lots of nice stuff about Darkfall, PvE is good honestly, mobs have great AI. Arrows arch when you shoot em, world is beautiful and large. But population, UI, and FFA full loot pvp keeps a lot of people away. I would highly recommend trying it if none of that scares you off.

There is AcheAge but its not out yet looks very interesting has nice graphics you can make your own buildings,villages,boats,ships looks pretty sandbox that is the game im waitng for.

Also if you like fps, crafting and player based economy there is Earthrise.