2016

Weekend Wanderings in #BDO

stargrace March 27, 2016 0Comment

An Easter event is taking place in Black Desert Online. You go out collecting eggs and turn them in for various house rewards. You can also choose to eat the eggs instead and they’ll give you buffs. Unfortunately you need 40 of any one egg type in order to get the housing item, so the chances of me getting any of them is pretty slim. At the time of this post I have a grand total of three eggs, two different types. I’m sure I could try to go crazy and farm them, but that’s just not how I enjoy playing the game.

When I logged in yesterday I realized that I had skipped a bunch of areas on my way to Velia. I headed back to the Western camp and picked up a bunch of tutorial quests that involved harvesting, crafting, and trades to the outer farms. I received a second donkey, and two more free workers. Since I don’t have lodging for them I’m just keeping the forms in my inventory for now. One of the tutorial quests taught me how to craft trade goods in order to sell them for more money. I set a worker out to create a potato box, using 10 potatoes (which another worker harvested) and a black powder (which my 3rd worker crafted in the refining house I purchased). Then I went and did a bit of AFK fishing in anticipation of my potato boxes completing. I haven’t sold them yet so I’m not sure how the money compares to vendor sold trade items, but it should be an increase. I completed a few kill quests that just wanted some local wildlife and I thought about just how large and involved the world is.

I still haven’t claimed my purchase items yet, and I haven’t decided on a permanent home to live. I have a cheap residence over the Inn just to be able to use my cooking tools and I’ve put a few furniture items in there that I got from quests simply to move them out of my inventory. I still need to find some sort of light source for the inside of the home, it’s always way too dark.

My character reached 50 hours played, and I got a claim reward from it that included some experience boosts and some dye. I’m still only level 18, but that bothers me less and less as I find other things to focus on and keep myself busy. The game requires quite a bit of time investment, something I don’t mind. It’s nice to feel pride in creating things again, pride in the levels I do have.

Today I’m hoping to explore worker created trade items a bit more, and finally step into the amity game. I also have a lot of trade quests that I want to clear out of my journal. I had three quests to trip little children in the town of Velia, but I had no idea how to trip them so I ended up forfeiting those quests for now. I tried to run into them, run ahead of them and cut them off, etc, but nothing would give me an update no matter who I attempted it on. Maybe I just never found the right NPC, but it was frustrating me. I need to remember that I don’t NEED to complete every quest (though it would be nice). I even tried to watch a few videos on those little kids running around. Everyone else seemed to be able to find them and “trip” them within two minutes or so. I spent a good hour running around – nope.

Maybe next time.

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

Gaming

10 Days of EVE Online for .99? Sure!

stargrace March 26, 2016 0Comment

Lately I’ve heard the siren’s call to return to EVE Online, but I’m reluctant to spend $15/m USD, especially since that’s really $21.22 Canadian a month. You can imagine my excitement when I saw that there was a ‘come back for 10 days’ deal going on. There seems to be two versions. One version is come back for free, and this seems to be aimed at those who have been away for quite a while. Then there’s also a come back for .99 (the same 10 days) and this seems to be aimed at people who have been away, but not for as long. I have two accounts, and received both emails. At first I was confused, I thought it was my main accounts that had received the 10 days free vs. my alt account who received the .99 offer – but it’s actually the other way around.

I signed up for the 10 days, and I may end up picking up the $9.99 deal that I also have. I do have a PLEX stashed away for a rainy day too, so that’s always an option.

As always, it was easy to dive right back in. I had a bunch of holiday claim items and I took those back to my main base first. Then I set out working Caldari State faction, which is what I was trying to fix last time I was playing. I’m still only able to run Level 1 missions, and in a Tengu this is extreme overkill, so I managed to grind my way through quite a few quests as well as the special storyline missions that pop up after you’ve completed a number of those. I didn’t bother salvaging or looting any of my kills, though I know I could have for a bit of extra money. I was more interested in just getting as many missions done as I could.

I didn’t dive back into invention like I typically do, though I’m debating setting up my 2nd account for the 10 free days so that I can do some mining between my orca and a hulk. My 2nd account is my mining account, and my main I use for hauling. It would be nice to make some extra cash and mining is always so relaxing.

Have you taken advantage of the return to EVE email?

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

Gaming

Trying Out Steam Link

stargrace March 25, 2016 2Comments

My birthday is coming up in April, and as an early birthday present from a friend I got steam link along with a steam controller. I haven’t actually used the controller yet (that will be today) so for now I’m just going to focus on talking about steam link.

What it does isn’t anything we haven’t heard of before. It basically takes steam and streams it to your television. There are 3 USB ports for various accessories (mouse, keyboard, controller) and it runs wireless or wired. For my first set up I decided to go wireless because my ethernet cable doesn’t quite reach. I decided to use my wired xbox controller, and I also plugged in my PC keyboard and mouse since a lot of my games are not controller supported. The steam controller takes away the need to have these extra accessories, but again I haven’t used it yet, I wanted to get used to the basics first.

Setup is incredibly easy. Just plug in the power cord to the steam link box, and plug an HDMI cord from the TV to the box. That’s all that’s involved if you’re going wireless. If you’re playing wired (which many people suggest) then plug in an ethernet cable to your router. It was that simple.

There were a few updates for steam link before I could connect to the steam account on my home network, but it downloaded and installed quickly. The first game I tried was Stardew Valley, and I have to say, I absolutely love steam link already. I experienced no lag at all, and the games look beautiful on my TV. As a pregnant woman, I get uncomfortable if I sit at my desk for any length of time these days. Being able to game from the couch is a huge relief (and probably exactly what was in mind when this particular gift was given). It’s also perfect if your PC is in another room from the TV. Stardew Valley only has partial controller support so I soon swapped over to Telltale games, Minecraft. That game also ran perfectly, no lag. No issues at all as it has full controller support. I played for a few hours, loving every second of it. It also inspired me to start playing my other telltale games, I have so many of them and I’ve never loaded them up.

You do need to keep your PC on with steam running for this to work. I ended up just turning my monitors off since I wasn’t using them. You also get the regular steam overlay, with chat and pop ups and all the rest. One of my favourite things about steam link isn’t the fact that I can play steam games on the TV – but that I can add non-steam games to steam, and stream them to the TV as well. That means games like BDO, WoW, and EVE Online I can also play from the couch and not my desk. This is an enormous bonus. You can pick up a cheap bluetooth keyboard and mouse if you want, and those will both work with the steam link. The box for my steam link just happens to rest on the coffee table in front of the TV, so it’s very simple to go wired. I may think about purchasing a wireless keyboard / mouse in the future though, just to have less clutter around. Either way, having options is great.

Over all I’m incredibly pleased. I hear that steam link went through a bit of a rough time at its initial release, but I have had absolutely no problems with it. The one problem I may run into is lag, but again I can combat that by going wired vs. wireless. I suppose my biggest ‘issue’ is that the box came with lots of packaging and I prefer a more minimalist approach to trash, but at least it can be recycled.

Do you have a steam link? Like it? Thinking of getting one? Let me know in comments!

Gaming

Overpowered Lowbie Monk Tanks

stargrace March 24, 2016 0Comment

After reaching level 33 with my troll warrior, I suddenly decided that I wanted to try out a monk instead. See, I have an alliance monk, but it was one of those boosted characters that I rarely played so even though she’s level 92 I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing. Compared to my other characters she feels like she’s made of tissue paper. I die on practically every WoD quest.

I decided to make a Tauren this time around. Getting to level 12 was pretty easy – and then I had a thought. I wanted to catch up to the other 33 monk I’ve been playing with and I wondered if I could go and solo Ragefire Chasm. Once again my character was wearing heirloom (pants, shirt, shoulders, hat, charms, necklace, cloak, weapon) but would that be enough? I was pretty certain that my warrior would not have been able to solo it at that level, I could barely hold my own at level 33. Maybe monks were different. I decided to go down the tank spec, one I’ve never played before. I’ve always WANTED to tank, I keep saying I am eager to learn and then when it comes time to queue for dungeons I completely freeze.

I was still too low level to pick up the quests, but that was alright. I’d do a run or two to get some levels and then snag them – IF I could complete the zone.

Turns out I could. Easily. I went from 13 to 19 in a matter of minutes, I think I cleared the place twice. I was excited to hit 20 because monks get a daily buff that grats 50% more experience from kills and quests. I filled my bags with some green loot to sell on the AH and by the time I hit 19 I had already fallen in love with the class. We’ll see how long that lasts.

Ragefire Chasm was a breeze – could Wailing Caverns go just as smooth?

It was a bit more difficult, but by then I had a heal that I could use on myself and it was just a matter of spamming some attacks, regenerating some chi, and healing myself if the damage got to be too much. The zone was certainly harder than Ragefire, but just like the first dungeon I was able to solo it with no deaths.

Since I had my 50% bonus buff, I actually went from level 19 to 25 in one run of the dungeon.

Nice.

Now I’m debating Blackfathom Deeps. So far the monk tank is incredibly fun – even though I’m sure it can’t last. Playing through the game this way is exciting, and it’s a break for me from doing the usual garrison runs every single day. It’s exactly what I need to renew my interest.

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

Gaming

Completed a Raft – So what’s Next?

stargrace March 23, 2016 2Comments

When you’re workers are doing stuff, you need to be online. They don’t complete things while you’re offline, which helps account for the numerous AFK fishing people out there. The game really doesn’t want you to log off. In some ways this is a fantastic idea, it makes the world look constantly vibrant and filled with players even if they’re not actually doing anything or active, because they just never log out. In other ways this is a weird awkward system.

My workers finally finished the 28 steps required to create a raft license. I turned in my quest, got some experience, and set out on the open water as soon as I could. The cute little otter NPC who resides on the docks of Velia gave me a quest to head out to an island and visit some family members of his, so that’s where I went. Once there, that otter gave me another quest to gather him some fish, so I set out to do just that. Of course I never caught any of the fish that he wanted because that’s how my luck in video games goes. Like Stardew valley, for example. I had been catching loads of sardines, no problem. Then one day I got a quest for sardine. Not a single one to be found. You can apply that lesson to pretty much any video game I’ve ever played.

I find the raft very lovely, though I’ve heard many others complaining about it. I don’t find it slow at all, and after the awkward handling of my first wagon, and my first donkey, I think that it handles rather well. Better than either of those other mounts so far.

Now that this major craft project is completed I have to decide what I want to work towards next. Completing quests in my journal? Staying in Velia? Moving on to the next town? Linking more nodes? Simply exploring? I also need to decide what to do with my Velia workers in the meantime. One is still out collecting potatoes, but I have two others free. The shipyard does let me make a ferry, do I want to make that as an upgrade to my raft? Or I could free up those houses I bought for something else, or I could swap them to a different function. There’s always so many choices to make – the joy of sandbox games.

If you’re playing Black Desert Online these days what have you been up to? How do you spend your time? Let me know in comments!

Weekend Wanderings in #BDO

10 Days of EVE Online for .99? Sure!

Trying Out Steam Link

Overpowered Lowbie Monk Tanks

Completed a Raft – So what’s Next?

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