January 2014

My Wurm Online To-Do List

stargrace January 30, 2014 No Comments

The work in Wurm Online is never done, and it can be hard to keep the list of chores straight. I was pleased when I logged in this morning, there were two baby chicks waiting for me in my pen. That means out of my collection of 44 eggs, two hatched. I’m now the proud owner of Toast, and Joseph. Wonderful names if I do say so myself.

Things go much easier if I break them up into separate days and work through a schedule. For example, my main character Blesse is focusing on working the deed, along with fine carpentry, and shipbuilding. I try to dedicate each play session to a different thing, that way I’m not getting bored, my skills are leveling up, and stuff is getting done. Yesterday I spent the day working on my deed, today I will work shipbuilding, and then tomorrow I’ll focus on fine carpentry. The same can be said for my priest, I generally spend time on the alt praying and working up meditation. Today I burned sleep bonus and worked on natural substance which is the ability that lets me create dye. I created healing covers that I sacrificed for a bit of deed bonus, and I created candles for my snow lanterns which were a christmas gift.

Reinforce Les Reveurs mine
Reinforce Starcrossed Outpost mine
Wooden houses at Starcrossed Outpost
~~Finish horse pens at Les Reveurs~~
Build 10 bsb at Les Reveurs
Build 10 small barrels at Les Reveurs
~~Find Blesse’s affinity~~
~~Make Kurwer a lantern~~
~~Make 2 beds at Les Reveurs~~
Finish iron balcony at Les Reveurs

I also had a bit of a scare as one of the avatars made his way to my deed to hang out for a while. These things are gigantic, and can easily catch a player off guard. Thankfully they’re not aggressive.

I love how relaxing Wurm is, and the pride I take in creating the deed and then running it. Working skills is rewarding, and makes the characters worth something. It will be interesting to see how Landmark stacks up as far as a creation game goes.

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

Gaming

The Wombats Prepare For Dragon’s Prophet

stargrace January 29, 2014 No Comments

To the surprise of a few people I’m sure, there are a handful of SOE games that I’ve never played before. Dragon’s Prophet is one of those games though people should keep in mind that the game is only published by SOE, another company works on the development. A group of my online friends called the Combat Wombats have decided that a Friday night game session is in order. A vote was put forth, and the game that pulled ahead ended up being (much to my surprise) DP.

I installed it throughout the day and logged in tonight to make my way through the tutorial and learn the keyboard controls. Of course the first thing I really wanted to do was learn how to hide the UI (it’s F7) and take screenshots (uncomplicated, it’s PrtScr). Things so far are easy. Left and right mouse button are my current two attacks, and they can also set off combos. I do own two dragons from previous claims, but I have no idea how to use them or what they’re even for, so for now I am just keeping them in my bags. I also got a title, and a cloak. I discovered the game has achievements, something else that I had no idea about.

It’s pretty, though the controls are not the most comfortable for me. I prefer using only keyboard commands where possible. In this game, much like Neverwinter, you use WASD to move about, and the mouse controls your view range. You ‘unlock’ the mouse from view by hitting escape which will pop up menus.

Why have I never played before? I’m honestly not sure. The best reason I can come up with is that the game released at a time where I was completely content with whatever my game of choice happened to be, and I had no reason to branch out. Don’t let that confuse you, I’m not unhappy with my games of choice now, either, I just want to try to be a bit more social this year, and that involves playing with some friends (although I will admit that in Wurm Online I am part of a large active alliance, I still spend most of the time playing by myself). How long will this fascination last? Knowing the group of people I’m playing with, I guess a week. Alright, I’ll give us a bit more credit than that, perhaps a month. If we continue past that I will be delighted. We’ll just have to see.

Gaming

Yes, I’ll be playing EQN Landmark

stargrace January 28, 2014 1 Comment

As an early Valentines present I received a Trailblazer pack to EverQuest Next Landmark, which I am pretty happy about. At first I was reluctant about the idea of paying for alpha – but then I thought back to my steam games and how many of those are also in alpha. I gave more consideration to the idea that paying for alpha helps to fund these games and enables them to kick off the ground and pay their employees. I looked at the items that the Trailblazer pack comes with and I felt that I was getting pretty good value, name in the credits and all the rest. Plus when it comes right down to it some of my favorite games involve building and creating locations, especially games like Wurm Online, Terraria, Minecraft, and others of that genre. Chances are pretty good that once EQN Landmark releases I would have wandered my way over no matter what, based on that alone.

There is still a lot of confusion out there about what EQN Landmark IS. Developers have been teasing and there are only a few days left before alpha is set to begin. How things will go still has yet to be seen, but yes, I’m excited.

Is it foolish to get excited? It feels like over the years many of my friends have decided that hype is a silly idea, one that we are better off without. However, I am glad that I still get excited about video games. I’m happy that I can still find that sort of passion in a hobby that I really enjoy. Do I think Landmark is the next big thing? Eh, not really. I think we’re past the days where there is ‘one game to rule them all’. Gamers are too diverse and every game eventually becomes niche to some extent. Still, I am looking forward to playing, and creating.

Gaming

A Sunday of Pet Battles #WoW

stargrace January 27, 2014 No Comments

I decided to spend most of Sunday in World of Warcraft, working on pet battles. There were a few key achievements I wanted to finish off, not to mention it’s an incredibly relaxing endeavour to partake in. When I had to step away I would just mount up and fly into the air to hang out.

One of my main goals was to defeat 40 master pet tamers so I could earn myself the safari hat. This hat gives a 10% bonus to all experience gained while leveling up pets, and I really wanted to make the task as painless as possible. In order to earn the achievement you have to basically defeat every pet tamer out there – but – you only need to defeat TWO pandaria tamers because the horde and alliance each have their own tamers starting out before you get the quests for the continental ones. I wasn’t aware of this at first, and I was hammering my way through the panda tamers slowly counting down the number of battles to go. I relogged to my 71 deathknight, did her lowbie tamer quests, and before I knew it each character had a safari hat in the mail. I also picked up a handy addon that will automatically swap the hat when I enter a battle.

That wasn’t the only accomplishment I had throughout the day though. I also managed to finish off Raiding with Leashes thanks to help from Kanad. This granted both of us Mr. Bigglesworth, an incredibly cute kitty with magical whiskers. Then I slowly worked through other pet achievements, taming in all of the Pandarian zones, in all of the alliance cities, Northrend, and Cataclysm. It was glorious.

Will these achievements help my character in the future? No, not at all. They don’t grant gear or any special skills and they’re not a true method of progression – but they’re incredibly fun, and I had a great time spending my Sunday this way. I can’t wait to see what fun pet battles I come up against next. I’m working on getting 15 of my pets to 25 so that I can participate in the Celestial Tournaments, but that is quite some time off still.

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

Gaming

My Favorite Vanguard Memories

stargrace January 24, 2014 7 Comments

It wasn’t a surprise when I heard tonight that Vanguard would be closing its doors, but that doesn’t mean that I was any less surprised, and maybe even a bit hurt. Still, 7 years is nothing to sneeze at, most companies probably would have closed the door long ago. I wanted to share a few of my favorite Vanguard memories, I’ve been playing off and on since beta, and this game has been one of my favorite for MANY different reasons.

– I was a volunteer guide with the SOE program for approximately two years in Vanguard. I met amazing players through the program and was able to interact and RP with them in ways I always wished I could. This was one of my favorite things to do in game.

– Vanguard was the first game I ever played where I quite literally built my house from scratch, brick by brick. I still own the house.

– Vanguard was the first game I ever played that attempted a ‘seamless’ open world without instances. It didn’t exactly work out the way it was intended, but it was always beautiful.

– I ran a lot of events in game, including a scavenger hunt for my guild ‘Safe Haven’. I eventually joined the EQ2 branch of the guild because they were just that amazing.

As I sit here and think about everything I’ve done in game and browse through the thousands of screenshots I’ve taken I can’t help but get a bit teary eyed. I doubt any but those closest to me know just how much of myself I poured into this game and how much it has given back to me over the years, helping to keep me sane when the world around me was a disaster. I’m so very thankful and grateful that it was allowed to run for as long as it did and I will miss this game very much.

My Wurm Online To-Do List

The Wombats Prepare For Dragon’s Prophet

Yes, I’ll be playing EQN Landmark

A Sunday of Pet Battles #WoW

My Favorite Vanguard Memories

You Missed

Leveling Up With Timewalking

The Construction of Quail Landing

Making Gold – One Sale at a Time

Timewalking, Gets me Every Time