2011

Lets Make Straw, and Bricks #atitd

Continuing my adventures in ‘A Tale in the Desert’ I finished off the tutorial and then learned that I would have to become a citizen of Egypt. In order to do this I’m required to work on a long list of tasks and complete them all. I think I may be about half way done this list so far, give or take a few tasks. After I learned carpentry and built my wood plane and then built boards I had to learn how to create a brick rack (used for creating bricks). Then I gathered some sand, some mud, and some grass – and I turned that grass into straw by leaving it out to dry. When you click on your character you have a “drop” option, simply drop all the grass, watch it, and it dries into straw. Larger amounts of dropped grass take a longer time to dry. So far everything has been very quick.

After those tasks were done i set out making bricks, they used a combination of straw, mud, and sand. I haven’t learned what I’m to do with those bricks yet but I expect they’ll be a part of a later project.

My next goal was to head to the School of Art and Music and ask them for flax. They handed me 3 seeds and sent me on my way. I found a little area of land close to my other crafting tools and planted them (pictured above) and then weeded them. You have to actually pay attention during the process, or else you won’t see the weeds sprout up. Now I am off to the school of Art and Music to learn how to process this flax, and if my task list is any indication I’ll soon be letting this flax rot in water, and then taking it from the water. Why? I don’t have the faintest idea. Apparently this is some giant process leading towards greater things, but I haven’t bothered to scroll through the list of tasks to see where I eventually end up.

It’s a nice quiet way to spend some game time that doesn’t require me to pick up a weapon (per say) and I’m really enjoying it. Will these types of games ever be my main and only choice? No, probably not. I do appreciate having something different to play. Different in the goals and method of going about things. I still intend to give Wurm Online a try since I have been hearing a lot about it from Massively, if you’re playing or have played either of these games feel free to let me know what you thought in comments.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Ore! #EVEOnline #Tweetfleet

Last night I took the Orca out after Kasul scanned down a few grav. sites and finally got to stretch her legs (so to speak. Don’t worry, I know ships don’t really have legs). The shear size of the Orca and how much she can carry was finally realized. I had been waiting for leadership V to finish – this would allow me to fit my mining foreman links, I have one for laser field enhancement (increases the range of your fleet’s mining lasers, gas harvesters, and ice harvesters) and also fit my laser optimization which reduces the duration of those mining lasers. Yum. Kasul flew his new hulk, and I boxed my 2nd account, flying my retriever. It’s not a hulk but it will work for now. After about an hour or so of mining we made 10 mill ISK in ore, and had completely filled up the Orca. Yum.

Now I have to decide what I want to work on next. Ship wise, I think I’m pretty well set. I like the dominix and the hulk, orca, and helios as my main ships. I could use better guns on the dominix, and there is a lot of processing I could pick up as well. I am training tactical shield manipulation V currently so I can finish fitting the orca, and then I’ll decide what to do next. My 2nd account is working her way towards a hulk, so I can pass the one that I’m currently using on my main account. I’ve spent so much time crafting and working on PI as well as invention / manufacturing lately that I haven’t gotten around to doing any missions lately and my guns are going to get rusty at this rate.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Pre-Order Bonuses and Collectors Editions #DA2 #Rift

Ah, how quickly we have moved on from the lackluster (to quote my earlier twitter comment) 2010 game releases, to the (what so far appear to be) amazing 2011 line up. March is shaping up to be a simply amazing round of games and I hope the rest of the year will follow. I may have an empty wallet now, but the enthusiasm I’m seeing on other blogs and especially on twitter (follow me, I’m @_stargrace) is incredible and refreshing. I honestly can’t remember the last time a large number of my online friends decided to play something all at once. We may not be on the same faction or the same server, but it’s a start.

There are three games that I’ve picked up for March alone, and each one comes with its own collectors edition and pre-order bonuses.

March 1st (February 24th early access if you pre-order): Rift. There is a pre-order bonus for the digital edition which includes: Founders pricing (sign up for multiple months at a cheaper price), shrouded sourcestone rune, a companion pet, beta access, head start access, and 30 days of game time (that is the total package, including things that are available with the regular non-pre-order box like 30 days of game time). There is also a digital collector’s edition, which includes everything I just mentioned plus a collector’s satchel, a mount, and a bogling wastrel which I assume is some sort of companion pet. Then there is the retail collector’s edition, which includes an 8GB USB drive, the rift soundtrack, a SteelSeries gaming mouse pad, and a hard cover comic. I ended up pre-ordering the basic digital edition because (aside from my wallet exploding) I just prefer digital for this sort of thing. I am excited about early access, and I didn’t want to lose out on days because of slow delivery. It seems to always happen here in Canada. The comic was enticing, but an extra $20 for that one item was just not enough to pull me in.

March 11th: Dragon Age II. There are also pre-order bonuses if you order before the 11th of January, which is an upgrade to the signature edition. That has a code for a bonus playable character and missions, downloadable game soundtrack, exclusive in-game digital armory, and additional downloadable items whatever those are (I haven’t been able to figure it out). I haven’t gotten this one yet but with a little luck and patience I’ll be picking it up before the 11th of January.

March 22nd: The Sims Medieval. I could not be more excited for this game. Their pre-order (ends on March 21st) includes 3 bonus throne rooms in Barbarian, Dark Magic, and Princess themes, as well as two exclusive outfits in Monarch and Executioner themes. I’ve already pre-ordered this from EA (thank you for letting me use PayPal!) and can’t wait to start playing. I openly admit I’ve been a fan of the Sims franchise for a very long time and even if it’s completely horrid I’ll still purchase it.

Anyone else looking forward to a game or two this year? Share below in comments!

Finishing What You’ve Started #Gaming #DragonAge #Fable3

It never fails, the holidays come around and Steam goes and has a massive sale which empties your wallet and fills up your hard drive. This year I managed to resist most of the sales, only picking up Neverwinter Nights 2. Which I still haven’t downloaded, yet.

I have a gaming resolution for this year though. No more will I make purchase after purchase, never finishing my games. I’ve never really been a big console or single player RPG gamer to begin with but I think this year that will change. First on my agenda was Fable 3, for the XBox 360 (Feel free to add my gamer ID by the way, you can find me as Stargrace05). I had played a lot of Fable 3 previously and knew I must be some what close to the end. I won’t be giving any spoilers away but I’m glad that I managed to finish a game. It’s actually the first game I ever finished hence the reason for this post.

Next on my agenda is Dragon Age. I bought this back in March and played a few times before my PC got a complete overhaul which required me to reinstall and start over. I’m not very far into the game so far and I also have awakening to play through but I’m looking forward to it. The game is fun and the story intriguing.

Other games that are sitting on my computer that I’ve never finished (and barely played at all) include King’s Bounty (both The Legend and the Armored Princess), Neverwinter Nights 2, Gothic II and 3 (which I am not sure I’ll actually ever play, that was a random purchase that looked neat at the time but now I’m thinking WHY?!), Portal, and Torchlight. There are a few other games that I wanted to pick up but haven’t yet. It’s hard to justify spending more money on games when I have those to play through and a lot of great games releasing in the future (especially MMOs) that always take up a lot of my time. I also have the entire Sims 3 collection but I don’t really count that as requiring me to “finish” it because it’s more MMO-esc that way, there’s no clear end to it. I do feel that I’ve put in more than enough hours of entertainment to justify the cost though which you can see over at Raptr. It categorizes all the Sims 3 expansions separately, but they’re all there.

Whether or not I’ll actually stick with this resolution I have no idea. Knowing me I won’t finish another game until next year, but hey, at least I got one down!

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.