November 2011

November is Almost Over?! #WoW #NaNoWriMo #Skyrim

stargrace November 28, 2011 0Comment

Despite the lack of posts, I am indeed still here! I have been busy completing my NaNoWriMo story for this year, I’m 4,500 words away from the goal of 50,000 and considering I wrote 5,600 today I’m not too worried about meeting that number. It’s been a very quick month, November always seems to go by way too fast. As such I’ve barely played Skyrim at all, I just haven’t had the free time. I’ve been doing a lot of reading, a lot of knitting, and I’ve been having a blast in WoW. I know, why am I playing that crummy game, eh?

Well, my little guild is level 4, almost level 5. We’ve been inching our way along doing weekly dungeons since the guild consists of three members. I also managed to get my shaman to 85, which makes her my third 85 character. I really enjoy playing the shaman as both a melee dps and a healer. I’m finally able to enter the ZG and ZA (Zul’Aman, Zul’Gurub) dungeons, and she’s parsing quite well. I started doing firelands quests on her (groans) because the gear would be a significant upgrade, and I’m anxious to see how she performs in PvP since I have never attempted it on the shaman before.

Aside from that I’m gathering the last bits of information to get my 2011 Gamers Secret Santa off the ground, this year has fewer participants than last year but still a nice steady number (75+ people at the time of this post). Then there’s also Christmas shopping for my family which is going a bit slower than I would have hoped, but I’m sure will come together closer to the 25th.

It’s hard to believe that November is almost over. I can’t believe how fast it’s gone. As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.

Gaming Real Life

End of the Month Updates #NaNoWriMo #WoW #PlayGlitch #Skyrim

stargrace November 23, 2011 2Comments

Hard to believe there is only a week left of November, which means only a week left for NaNoWriMo. I have been trucking along, but due to a series of events beyond my control (ok, if I were less of a klutz they would be in my control I suppose) I’m still two days behind in my writing. I hope to make that up between today and tomorrow, but we’ll have to see how it goes. I’m sitting on 36,000 words to my NaNoWriMo novel so far, and I’m closing in on the last bit of writing a lot quicker than I would have expected, even taking weekends off. The story is one I’m quite happy with and while it does need some work, that’s what December is for. I will hopefully have exciting news regarding this whole adventure some time around the end of December / beginning of January. We’ll just have to see.

When I’m not writing I’m still trying to sneak in some time here and there for gaming, but that time has been less and less these days. I FINALLY finished doing all of the Fireland quest chains, and today obtained my mount. It’s fire-filled, and great. I’ve also been playing Glitch here and there when I can, and I wish I could say that I’ve been playing Skyrim but I just haven’t had the time.

I hope all of my friends who are celebrating Thanksgiving tomorrow have a great time of it! I celebrated mine already here in Canada, but that doesn’t mean I can’t live vicariously through all those people enjoying turkey this week! Many hugs.

Remember, if you want to participate in the 2011 Gamers Secret Santa, you only have until DECEMBER 1st to register!

Gaming

Updates to Vanguard:SOH #VGD

stargrace November 21, 2011 6Comments

Greetings adventurers!

As many of you know the Vanguard Development team has been working hard on delivering you new content to Vanguard! We are currently getting close to migrating this update over to the test server so that those interested in checking it out early, as well as, aiding in the testing and balance process can do so!

So what is in the first upcoming update….

· Overland Raid bosses

· New Dungeon – City of Brass

Massive progressive dungeon with thirteen bosses and new rewards for players that can survive long enough to obtain them

· Removal of Corpse recovery

This will aid in making the leveling process more enjoyable as well as remove the frustration that can be encountered from suffering a death penalty

· Experience curve decreased

Experience has been modified to make leveling a new character a bit easier

· Increase in loot drop rates

· “Golden Path”

Riftways instructing players to ideal leveling areas with new rewards for all levels

We look forward to everyone getting an opportunity to check out all that this update has to offer and seeing you in Telon soon!

Thoughts? There are 8+ pages of comments from other VG players, some of them are upset with the changes, but over all I think they’re great. Now if only the game would go free to play to get some fresh blood in there.. Are these changes enough to get you into game again or is it too little too late?

Gaming

Seasonal Happenings in Glitch #PlayGlitch

stargrace November 20, 2011 0Comment

While most of my friends are playing the SW:TOR beta, or going on about Skyrim, the game I’ve been playing most this weekend has been Glitch. It surprised me too. I had taken a bit of a break from the game because I was working on a skill that would take 9 days to complete, and I lost the motivation to log in. This weekend however, the urge was there and so far it’s lasted all weekend. My little ‘stargrace’ has been busy in-game. I worked on a lot of mining and then I noticed there were some seasonal items around – the gardening vendors now sold pumpkin seeds which are used in some seasonal recipes as well as pumpkin carving! You can drop these cute little items outside (or inside) your home, and even teach them phrases. The packages of pumpkin seeds claim that they are only around during certain holidays, so I decided to load up on them (I bought 100) and store them in my cabinet for when all of those pumpkin moods over come me.

I’ve got 45 skills under my belt, am level 18 (almost 19) and have 137 achievements, which is really nothing in the grand scheme of things. Keyrings have also been added to the game so that you can give your friends a key to your house, they can come visit you at any time of the day or night whether you’re home or not. Beware though, this also gives them access to your cabinet, so if you don’t want your friends rummaging through it and stealing your 100+ packages of pumpkin seeds, you may want to warn them ahead of time. Or at least don’t give out keys to random strangers.

Next on my learning path? Alchemy! I love the creation process of Glitch. At first I focused on animal related skills so that as I wandered it would be easy to make money no matter where I was (animals are found pretty much everywhere) and since then I’ve focused on mining, as well as some gardening. Now I want to be able to create things, and we’ll see how far I get with it.

If you’d like to add me to your friends list in game please feel free! Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.

Gaming

Into Argath, Bastion of Illdaera #EQ #EverQuest

stargrace November 17, 2011 2Comments

It was time. Ninga and I headed to steamfont where we waited for the blimp to arrive to take us to Argath. There’s a platform up on a hill not far from the Ak’Anon entrance and when the blimp is about to enter the zone you’ll see a zone wide message indicating it’s on the way. If you don’t want to travel there the ‘old fashioned’ way you can use a guild portal (if you happen to belong to a guild in any case) or you can see if you can hitch a ride from a druid or wizard who have unlocked their travel spells. For me the entire blimp ride was nostalgia of boat rides. We giggled as the blimp slowly came our way. It started off looking so small in the distance but when it finally docked and revealed its true size we were in awe.

Levitation doesn’t work in Argath, so if you zone with it on and expect to just drop off the side and calmly float to your destination, don’t do it. The view reminded me a LOT of the Moors of Ykesha in EQ2. You are confronted by alien type NPC on a long dock and meander your way further in to find the NPCs you’re looking for. Alt W (the ‘find’ command) lists all of the NPC you may be searching for in case you’re like me and unable to find your way.

Because the expansion is only two days old, the zone was absolutely packed. There were more than 150 people all trying to do the same small chain of progression which involves a language quest of the Argathians.

First time visitors to Alaris will want to speak with Atleris, the Council Pinnacle, inside the Council chambers.

Argath is the gateway into Alaris and is the site of a slatemated conflict between the Argathians and the invading forces of Erillion, the City of Bronze.

It can be divided into four sections. The top area (the “crown”) and passage downward (the “neck”) are both entirely safe. The neck leads down to the “arms” which is a fortified area overlooking the erupted forge (the “belly”).

The outer areas of the arms and the entirety of the belly are full of hostile creatures. Looters and thieves are found among the Argathians in the arms. And in the belly are the Erillion forces who will attack on sight, as well as the steel masses and floating blades who are enemies to both the Argathians and the Erillion forces.

We picked up the first quest required for language progression, one from Captain Walkath, that required us to fight a few of the Erillion invaders. The problem was that so many other players had the same frame of mind. We found ourselves a little niche and went to work on the small group of mobs before deciding that we would probably have an easier time of things if we waited a little while for the initial rush of players to pass through. The encounters were not especially difficult at this level, our group consisted of monk (Ninga), healer merc, enchanter (myself), and tank merc. Mobs can be partially slowed, but they haven’t been able to be fully slowed for a few expansions now.

We killed one of the 14 mobs we needed and then decided that our time would be better spent continuing our progression of the Underfoot expansion (two expansions old now) so we headed to Pellucid Grotto. I loved what I saw of Argath, it’s just a little too crowded for myself. We’ll be back before too long, I’m certain.

As always, happy gaming no matter where you find yourself!

November is Almost Over?! #WoW #NaNoWriMo #Skyrim

End of the Month Updates #NaNoWriMo #WoW #PlayGlitch #Skyrim

Updates to Vanguard:SOH #VGD

Seasonal Happenings in Glitch #PlayGlitch

Into Argath, Bastion of Illdaera #EQ #EverQuest

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