Water

Main / Items / Water

Description

A clear scentless liquid.

Water is found on Wurm's coasts, lakes, and wherever the terrain drops lower than the constant level of Wurm's water table.

Types

All water tiles are categorized into 6 groups:

1. Sea - open water
2. Sea shallows - open water shallower than 25 dirts
3. Lake - enclosed water, larger than a pond
4. Lake shallows - enclosed water shallower than 25 dirts
5. Pond - enclosed water, not big enough to be a lake
6. Water - not big enough to be a pond

Any water tiles underground are considered lake or pond or water, depending on size.

Lake water is considered fresh, while sea water is considered brackish. Brackish water can be drunk and used for cooking as usual (with no ill effect), and can be boiled to make salt - 1 salt per kilogram of brackish water. The type, depth, and category of water affects the kind of fish that can be found within.

All surface tiles with a corner underwater (i.e. below the water table height) are marked as water. There is then a fill process, starting at the map borders, marking any connected water tiles as sea; shallow connected tiles (i.e. less than 25 deep) are considered sea shallows.

Once all tiles connected to the borders have been handled, any bodies of water that contiguously cover at least 7 tiles in a row (N-S and E-W) are considered lake tiles. Additional water tiles next to lake tiles (i.e. the lake fills its connected tiles) are also considered lake tiles. Any lake tiles that are less than 25 dirts deep are marked as lake shallows, and any sea shallows tiles that are closer to a lake tile than a sea tile are converted to lake shallows.

For any remaining bodies of water tiles, if the body is a contiguous body of 2 in a row (N-S and E-W), the tiles are converted to pond tiles, along with any adjacent water tiles (i.e. the pond fills its connected tiles). Note that pond radius is intended to be smaller than lake radius, so a pond is a body of water that’s too small to be a lake (but still large enough to be a pond: 2-6 tiles in radius).

Any tiles in caves (i.e. underground) with a corner under water is then marked as water. Large contiguous bodies of underground water are then marked as lake or pond, depending on size, in the same way as above-ground lake and pond tiles.

Notes:

• Inland body of water surrounded by shallows = lake (assuming it’s large enough, pond if it’s too small)
• Inland lake connected to sea by at least 25 depth canal = sea
• Inland lake connected to sea by less than 25 depth canal = lake
• Any tile with water, less than 25 depth = shallows (sea or lake depending on closest water tile)
• Lake = 7 radius (N-S, E-W), pond = 2 radius (N-S, E-W)
• All water in caves is automatically fresh
• Single tile over 25 deep = water, probably won’t get fish in it

Water tile category seems to be determined at server restart. Therefore a fresh water lake can became salty (so a sea) after connected to salty water trough a deepth enough canal and after server restart. On the opposite a inland sea can be re-turn back into fresh water lake after server restart, if the connecting channel is fullfilled over -25 dirt level (-20 remains still deep enough for biggest boats).

Usage

• Other than a safe refuge from a variety of non-swimming animals and monsters, water has a number of practical uses and can be collected in containers.
• To collect water, activate a portable container capable of holding liquid, such as a pottery flask, pottery jar, water skin, bucket, small barrel, etc, right-click a water tile, and select "Fill". The action is executed on the tile itself, so if it's too far away, an event window message will show "You are too far away".

Once collected, water is used to:

• Create food through cooking it together with other ingredients.
• Bake flour into dough.
• Drink to regain stamina regeneration (can also be done directly on the tile)
  • Drinking will refill the water bar at the rate of 4.5% for every 0.1 of water volume
• Mix with other items using alchemy to make dye, lye, etc.
• Temper metal smithing items
• Wash cloth items
• Water pottery items before hardening in a fire
• Can be used to treat acid wounds similar to healing covers which also turns it into a burn wound

Water Level

Wurm's water table is universally set and is, therefore, always found at the same level.

Water depth puts some restrictions on various actions:

• Over water table: (>=1), can plant, can meditate, can drop tent, can plan house
• Water table: moist tile (+/- 0) no drink option available, no plant ("The ground is too moist here, so the bouquet of orange-red flowers would rot."), no meditate ("You can not meditate here. It is too wet."), cant drop tent ("The ground is too wet to pitch your tent there. You'll need to drop it on higher ground."), no plan house ("You can't build on water.")
• Water tile: below water level (<= -1) drink, refill options available
• Passable by shallow draft boats: Five below water level (<= -5) (Crude canoes, Rowing boats, Small sailing boats, Knarrs)
• Digging: Up to seven dirts below water level (>= -7)
• Passable by Large carts: over Seven below water level (>= -7)
• Tunneling: North-western corner at most 12 dirts below water level (-12)
• Passable by deep draft boats: Twenty below water level (<= -20) (Corbitas, Cogs, Caravels)
• Surface mining: Up to 25 dirts below water level (-25)
• Floor mining: Up to twenty five dirts below water level (-25)
• Plant Reed tile: over Thirty below water level (> -30) if not too much slope
• Dredging: Up to 180 dirt, depending on your digging skill (-180)

Traveling on the Waterways

• It is possible to swim reasonable distances across water, but if the player's stamina falls too low while in the water, they will start to drown and eventually die. This makes crossing large bodies of water very difficult without a boat or a swimming animal on which to ride.
• While unladen and unarmoured, a player can swim at about 8km/h.
• While swimming, players suffer a large combat rating (fighting) penalty, so it's not recommended to fight while doing so.

Additional Notes

• For a list of possible containers for water and other liquids, see the containers page.

• Water can also be found at certain fixed locations by using a pendulum to perform divination. Water sources found in this manner must be accessed by placing a fountain or well on the spot.

• "Rare Water" is a possible item. Its special features are still unknown.