Nomadic Gamer

October 2011

Gaming

What Are YOU Excited About? #EQ2 #WoW #Skyrim #SWTOR #MMORPG

stargrace 13 Comments

It’s a pretty exciting time to be a gamer. There are a whole lot of games and expansions all releasing around the same time. I don’t keep as up to date as I should on the non-mmo gaming front, so my list is probably a bit more sparse then some others out there. What am I looking forward to? Well, there’s the EQ expansion, Veil of Alaris that releases in November. I’m really excited about this expansion, it’s just beautiful. EQ2 is also putting out their ‘expansion’ (I use the term loosely) Age of Discovery. I’m a lot less excited about this update then I am about the EQ expansion. There’s not a lot of actual content coming with it, although with mercenary and a new class I will say that casual players should be pretty happy. I’m holding off on any other comments until I can actually get my feet into it because until then it’s just speculation. I’d be much happier if this was coming as a free update rather then a paid expansion. World of Warcraft has their 4.3 patch coming out (supposedly) some time in November, which I am also pretty excited about. I’m looking forward to new dungeons, new gear sets, and I’m really looking forward to appearance gear for once. I’m even looking forward to the raid finder tool, which I think will be fantastic for casual players who don’t have the time to devote to finding a raid guild – or those of us who are in tiny little 3-people guilds who haven’t been able to raid yet.

I did decide to sign up for a year of WoW in order to get Diablo 3 for free, along with the mount that will be released in 4.3. The game has enough casual aspects to it that I find it quite relaxing along with my adventuring in EVE Online. SWTOR release date is just around the corner, but not being a fan of sci-fi I haven’t pr-ordered and I’m not really sure if I’ll play. I know my other half will be picking up the game and I’ll probably just live vicariously through him and his adventures. Until the peer pressure becomes too great, of course.

Skyrim is one of those non-mmo games that are certainly on my radar, and I do plan on picking up once it releases. The game just looks beautiful and it’s been a while since I’ve played a single player. I don’t really think the sims 3 counts. Speaking of, I’ve been having loads of fun with their latest ‘pets’ expansion that released this month. It’s a great game when I’m not in the mood for anything multi-player.

So what are you most excited about? Perhaps nothing coming out tickles your fancy at all? Let me know in comments below!

 

Gaming

We All Love New Things #EVEOnline

stargrace No Comments

It doesn’t matter what game I play, I love getting new things. Some times those new things are gear, weapons or even crafting supplies. In EVE one of those things is ships. Ever since I heard that there was a little war on ice miners I decided that I wanted an ice mining ship. Technically I could use my hulk (as I’ve already mentioned) but the Mackinaw receives a lot of bonuses for ice mining in specific. Today I decided to purchase one, and I’ve got three more days before I can finish fitting it, but it’s coming along nicely. I gave it the name ‘Cyrosphere’ which I think suits. I was a bit sad when I looked at the insurance value of the ship. The maximum you can get back is 26 million ISK, and the ship is going for roughly 115 million in Jita. That’s not including any money you spend fitting it. I took it out for a spin and was incredibly happy with my results, but I was also very paranoid that I’d get shot out of the skies, even if I was in .7 HighSec. After a few circles of the mining guns I decided to head back to the station and refine my goods, which is where the real money comes from.

Hopefully things will calm down for ice miners before too long, and I won’t have to be constantly looking around for people flying in all of the sudden. Of course it’s better to be safe than sorry, but after losing my hulk last week I really wasn’t in the mood to replace a 2nd ship quite so soon.

It’s almost time for me to upgrade my research agents again. I’ve been working on missions for Creo and my standing is almost high enough to warrant the change. I’ve been with my current agents for a long time, and even though I only visit them when I need a bunch of datacores you sort of get attached to them. Plus they’re in a nice location that’s easy for me to reach when I’m en-rout to my factory outpost.

Once I finish training the ice harvester, I’m going to complete fitting the Dominix (I sort of stopped half way through) and then work on my other crafting skills like mining different types of ore and refining them. Maybe I’ll do a little wurmhole exploration, and eventually I’ll finally get the hang of probing. In the mean time I’m still bugging corp mates to help me with that.

As always, happy gaming no matter where you find yourself! I hope all my friends down south stay safe with the storms that have been passing through. No sign of any snow up here in Ottawa.

o/

Gaming

Relaxation via Mining #EveOnline

stargrace 1 Comment

It feels really good to be back in EVE, and even better to be spending most of my time ‘crafting’. While the majority of people I know spend their time blowing up other ships (be they NPC or players) I spend a lot of mine crafting or preparing to craft. You may hear about how boring mining is, but I find it incredibly relaxing. It’s something I can do while doing other things (especially since I mine in high sec without using cans). I’m working on affording an ice mining ship, technically my hulk could ice mine, but it doesn’t have the bonuses that the new ship would have. It’s about 140 mill ISK to save up for one, so I won’t be getting it any time soon.

I’m thinking of starting up an alt on my main account, simply to be able to produce more in PI. It takes about a week to train the skills I would need and PI products are selling quite well. I have never really required another character on my account because you can only have one character training at a time and you can quite literally ‘do it all’ on one character. It just takes a lot of time.

My new corp and I didn’t work out so I moved back to the smaller one I’ve been a part of for the last year or so. I should have known better, it’s rare that I play well with others (there’s a reason I run my own guild in WoW and EQ2 after all). Long story short, I thought I was joining a friendly casual guild but when I joined and lost my hulk in their sector I received some not-too-kind emails stating that I was making their killboard look bad and even implying that our own members may shoot me down just to prevent this from happening in the future. I understand that everyone has their method of playing the game but as a member who had been there less then a day (and personally, I don’t give a hoot about killboards) I found this discouraging. I never pretended to be anything other then a carebear gamer (in EVE at least) who spends most of her time mining, inventing, and doing PI, whether or not I lose a ship shouldn’t be that big of a deal. It is EVE after all. It happens.

Anyhow. I can continue to spend my time in game doing what I do, which is supplying other players with POS bits, selling ships, drones and other crafted items. All from the comfort of the small but friendly corp that I started out in. I’m just not a blood thirsty player, and I don’t pretend to be.

Kasul managed to probe a nice mining site this morning which was a lot of fun. I’m still trying to get the hang of probing, even in my Helios I have some issues finding good sites. It takes a lot of practice. Thankfully he has no issues with probing for sites for me and I split the profit of anything I mine. He has a little hulk he takes out when he has the time, and I go to the site in the Orca as well as the Retriever (which will eventually be a hulk on my second account. In 18 days or so). The Orca takes care of any rats that wander into the system and it’s a nice hour or two of relaxation in the mornings.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful week! I apologize for the lack of posts lately, but I have been dealing with real life (it crops up from time to time) so I haven’t been posting as often as I’d like. Hopefully things will quiet down after next Friday and I should be back to my daily blogging schedule. Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

 

 

Gaming

There, I’ve Said it. I Play WoW (And EVE) #WoW

stargrace 7 Comments

This weekend was one of those weekends where I almost hate to admit that I play (and enjoy) World of Warcraft. That’s how heavy the snark was that hung in the air. It’s not the first time I’ve dealt with this situation, but it’s yet another reminder of how judgmental people can be. Especially people who are passionate about their hobby (which in this case happens to be gaming). I’ve been on G+ for a little while now (you can find my profile here if you want to add me) and I have a few ‘circles’ of people that I post to. One happens to be a general gaming circle, which I’ve diversified into an EVE Online circle + general gaming, because as it turns out EVE players do NOT like to see posts about other games. Especially not games called WoW. During one post that was actually about social interactions and the lack of finding a ‘home’ in an MMO some random player decided to tell me that since I had posted about WoW, they were going to remove me from their circle. This was the first comment I had seen like that – but not the last. It didn’t matter that I consider myself a nomadic gamer bouncing from game to game, or what I actually had to say. They saw the words “world of warcraft” and panic set in.

Blizzcon lead the way to the announcement about the next expansion which is going to introduce a new race and a new class as well as some interesting vanity pet combat games. Personally, I think the race is an interesting concept and one that has been around for quite some time. EQ2 also has a panda race, and players can quest for illusion items in order to ‘play’ them. The monk class reminds me of a combination between druid and paladin. Able to tank, dps, and heal, but wears leather and is melee combat focused. I haven’t decided if I’ll create one yet but I think it’s pretty safe to say that I will. I don’t find the expansion all that incredible but of course I’m going to wait until it actually launches (or I can test it) before I pass too much judgement. It doesn’t surprise me that Blizzard is feeling some pressure now in the MMO market, after all they’ve been ‘top dog’ for quite a long time and probably don’t know anything else. Years have passed and eventually they’ll have to fall. How they handle themselves during the next little while will make all the difference in the world.

Right now the Halloween event is in game and I’ve been trying to win the headless horse mount which comes from the daily reward. So far, no luck. Last year my warlock managed to win one but the priest just has really bad luck when it comes to that sort of thing. Alterac Valley happened to be the battleground for the weekend, which is my favorite battleground of all time so I spent most of my evening grinding honor points and purchasing a few more upgrades. I picked up the helm and now I’m working towards the honor required for a weapon. 3500 is a long way to go, but I think I can do it. Once I’ve finished of my dps set I’ll continue working on a heal spec. I’ve got a few pieces collected so far (back, shoes, weapon, and pants) but would really like to finish the set off.

In the mean time there’s always archaeology to finish off and crafting to be done. I still haven’t maxed out my tailoring or enchanting, although I have a number of other crafts that are currently finished. There’s lots to do (as always) and I’m enjoying the fact that I split my time between WoW and EVE, two VERY different games but both equally fun and relaxing to me. I hope everyone else had an amazing weekend, no matter where you found yourself.

Happy gaming!

 

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Nomadic Gamer