2016

Death Visits the Little Legacy Family

stargrace June 14, 2016 0Comment

It was bound to happen sooner or later. Death came for Jessica Little who was out in the garden, one of her favourite places to be. Why he’s hiding behind an apple tree with his ipad, I have no idea, but that didn’t stop him from whisking her off someplace else. I’ve placed the urn beside her late husband Alonzo’s urn (pictured bottom right) with a description of what she was doing at the time of death so that as I continue playing this legacy family I remember the little tidbits that make them all unique.

Before Jessica died her daughter Emily did manage to get married to a young man named Tristan Givens, and together they had a baby boy. Right now he’s turning out to be quite the little musical prodigy, although Tristan joined the family with no job and no skills to speak of. A real winner there. For a few weeks he wanted to be an astronaut but now he has switched careers into programming. Emily continues her painting career, and the family already misses the royalty cheques that they were used to getting with Jessica. In fact it was that money that enabled the family to build a few addons to the house, including the garden plot, a new bathroom, and an outdoor patio. Now they’re back to saving up for things although they certainly are not lacking in their enormous house (I believe it’s got 4 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms as it stands).

This means I’ve finally passed on to the 3rd generation of my 10 generation game. I believe I made it as far as 3 before way back when in the Sims 3, but I’ve never actually stuck with a family long enough to make it to the 4th generation (let alone the 10th). I’m hoping that eventually the family will be able to purchase a restaurant and have it become some sort of family business, but it will take quite a bit of funds to get to that point, and I’m not sure the Little family has that sort of discipline.

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

Gaming

FTB Infinity Evolved Skyblock & Texture Packs

stargrace June 12, 2016 0Comment

I’ve been wandering through different FTB (Feed the Beast) mod packs trying to find the perfect one for me. The only mod pack that I played for any length of time was FTB Infinity Evolved, a kitchen sink mod pack with a crazy amount of things to do. It just so happens that FTB also published a skyblocks pack back on April 1st, considered to be ‘hardcore’. Recipes are harder than normal, some are even changed around to involve more components. Some people like these challenges, they can add a lot to your game if you’ve played through regular versions.

I also decided to play around with texture packs, something I’ve never bothered with in the past. There’s some absolutely beautiful packs out there that can completely change what your game looks like. I’m currently using JSTR and love the way everything looks.

I flagged myself as an admin for the server and created 5 different islands for people to start on in case others join in. Then I removed admin (it’s op name and deop name for those commands) and went back to normal play, heading to one of the islands with a friend. Unlike other skyblock mods I’ve played that had me start on a single dirt, this one let me spawn on a 3×3 of dirt. I also got a neat chest filled with a few handy items including a water tile and a lava tile.

We spent some time doing nothing but growing trees, one of the most boring parts of skyblock mods, but once we had a good selection of wood (and sprouts) we were able to move on to better things like generating cobblestone and compressed things. Dirt is now readily available, and I’ve got a little farm set up with a pair of cows, chickens, pigs, and sheep. Of course there was a moment where the lava tile was placed too close to a tree that suddenly erupted into flames, and so did part of our base, and then another moment where a creeper spawned on top of a silkworm infested tree and exploded a good portion of the base when it fell off, but aside from those incidents things have been fairly quiet.

I’ve always preferred the creation side of this game which is a lot harder to get into when you’re first starting out in skyblock. Once things are situated and resources are not quite so rare, it gets a lot easier.

I’ve died once so far and lost a handful of items and tools. I was placing the fencing for the farm when I forgot to shift and ended up walking right off the ledge. Oops. On the plus side I wasn’t carrying anything that couldn’t be replaced. There’s an unwritten rule to stuff everything into a chest if you’re not immediately using it now. I’m not sure how long I’ll stick with this mod pack, but so far it’s fun, and since it’s new people are still exploring it quite a bit. There’s a good number of youtube videos on getting started, as well as a guide in game if you get stuck. Over all, I’m excited to see how far I can get.

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

Gaming

The Legacy Family Continues

stargrace June 11, 2016 0Comment

The legacy family I started way back when continues on, still only in the 2nd generation (while the goal is to make it to 10 generations). Jessica Little is an elder now, and still pursuing her novelist career. Her husband, Alonzo, died some time ago but he still comes around the house and to take Jessica out for dinner every so often. I caved and ended up buying the ‘Dine Out’ pack, which is a whole lot of fun. Their daughter, Emily, is now a young adult and is looking for love. Neither Jessica nor Alonzo approve of the teenage boyfriend Emily has at the moment, but it’s not their fault that he hasn’t aged up yet. Emily is an artist, and her paintings are famous all over the place.

Dine Out allows your sims to visit restaurants, own them, and work in them. So far I’ve only been to one, Cafe Llama. I know there are various themes, and I love the interactions you can do at each one. You get seated at a table, pick a drink and a meal, pay your compliments (or insults) to the chef, and interact with your sims and other sims while you do it. I know I keep wanting an animal expansion, but in the meantime as long as they provide interaction like this one, I’ll be happy.

The legacy family home has grown by leaps and bounds since Jessica first started out with only a few dollars to her name. Each time either Jessica or Emily come home with a paycheque I immediately decide on a room to furnish with high end furniture. There are four bedrooms and bathrooms, as well as a fancy patio with a grill and a nice garden along the side of the house. Emily’s art studio is set up on a balcony so she can have a great view of the world going on around her, and Jessica does her writing in the family room. They’ve taken to hiring a maid as well as a professional gardener to tend to things so that they have more time to enjoy life. Of course I have no idea how much longer that will be, in Jessica’s case. Now that she’s an elder, she could go at any time. Still, it’s been a nice long road playing the character so far. Hopefully Emily is up to the task of keeping the family line going.

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

Gaming

Most Anticipated MMORPGs of 2016

stargrace June 7, 2016 0Comment

As is the norm each year, there are lots of potentially legendary games to look forward to this 2016. However, one genre promises to blow the rest out of the water. Backed by huge crowdfunding campaigns and some daring indie campaigns, the MMORPG genre is fully loaded this year. This piece takes a look at some of the most promising of the lot.

Star Citizen

This game has received truckloads of money from crowdfunding so you should ordinarily know what to expect from the developers. Apart from this fact, the proposed features of this game are enough to leave you salivating. Star Citizen combines multiple genres together in a bid to unleash a new era of MMORPGS. You still need the best bingo sites as can be found here on bingosweets.com to get your bingo fix but Star Citizen covers everything else from first-person shooting and sophisticated space combat to high level economic and social simulation. There is something for everyone. Industry watchers call it the Swiss Army Knife of video games. We agree!

World of Warcraft: Legion

There is a lot of attention on World of Warcraft this year as it had a lukewarm year with the last release. This is supposed to be a big year for the game or we could have the final days of one of the pioneer MMORPGs unfolding before our eyes. Legion is an expansion that will tell us if Blizzard still has enough in its locker to keep the World of Warcraft franchise working. From some of the promised new features on Legion, there is every reason to be cautiously optimistic.

Black Desert Online

The magnificent environment and intriguing characters are not the only things offered by this beautiful game. The game has already launched in South Korea and will come to the rest of us soon. This game takes a unique approach to sandbox MMORPG. With Black Desert Online, you are guaranteed to enjoy a really wondrous experience where you can choose your own paths to play. It promises to better GTA on that front!

Albion Online

Albion Online mixes the political scandal and brutality of EVE Online with a fully packed fantasy world. The game can be played seamlessly on both computer and tablet. It gives you and your friends the chance to build a kingdom in a literally cutthroat environment where dying means starting completely from scratch.

Warhammer 40K: Eternal Crusade

Warhammer: Age of Reckoning died quickly and many felt it was the end for the title. That was before Eternal Crusade was announced. Set 40,000 years after the original, the game has lots of new features but it is still largely about the fight between Ork and man. Eternal Crusade brings something different to the table as it is a tactical squad-based shooter where you will fight a persistent war against other groups for territory control.

The MMORPG will light up the year and we can’t wait.

Gaming

Happy 10th Anniversary, Wurm Online

stargrace June 6, 2016 0Comment

Today marks the 10th anniversary of Wurm Online, a game I’ve been playing in one version or another (most recently with Wurm Unlimited) for over 7 years now. It’s one of a handful of games that keeps me coming back and that I find highly addictive (in a very good way).

In celebration, a number of things are going on. I ended up signing up for two months of premium so that I could better partake. This granted me 5 silver, a tin leather knife, a returners mask, and a gift box with sleep powder. A lot of people are (of course) displeased with their gifts and are moaning about the lack of creativity and how they wish it was something different, but I’m quite happy with mine. Besides, we could have gotten nothing at all.

A big round of updates has come to pass too. With it came Rifts, neat little events that open every few days on each server. You can also create houses underground now, so living life like a dwarf is a definite possibility. It’s nice to see such a large update, and it’s great to see so many people returning / still playing.

I took inventory of what I had in my bags across the handful of characters I still have, made sure my main (the only one premium at this time) had the best of everything, and then set to work cleaning up the two deeds I own right away. I’m currently creating a path that leads from the market deed to my main deed, and I’ll pave it and get it done up all pretty. I know I was working on weaponsmithing, but I’ll probably swap over to something else for a bit, just because.

It’s quite a difference to see how fast (or slow) skills move in WO compared to custom servers in WU. My 7 year old character in WO has low skills compared to my 2 month old character in WU, but I take more pride in the older character (which is pretty normal, I assume).

In any case, it’s nice to be playing again, even if just for a short while.

Death Visits the Little Legacy Family

FTB Infinity Evolved Skyblock & Texture Packs

The Legacy Family Continues

Most Anticipated MMORPGs of 2016

Happy 10th Anniversary, Wurm Online

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