May 2017

Mixer – The New Beam

stargrace May 26, 2017 No Comments

Yesterday the Microsoft owned streaming platform formerly known as Beam was re-branded as Mixer. I joined Beam quite some time ago but I haven’t actually gotten around to streaming on the platform even though I have spent a number of hours watching others use it to stream. The interface is sleek, there’s almost zero delay between the stream and your chat which makes things incredibly nice when it comes to interaction.

None of that is the main reason I like this particular platform though.

As a gamer, community is key to me. When a platform I use gets shut down, it bothers me. Imzy is one such platform though they were not for streaming (you’ve probably never heard of it and that’s OK). Forge is another streaming platform that I used to use but it has changed and redesigned itself so many times I find it unreliable and I don’t have very much faith in it (plus it no longer does what I wanted it to do). The fact that Microsoft owns Mixer sits very well with me because they’re an established company with money at their disposal. It gives me a little tiny bit of confidence that Mixer (even under a new name) isn’t going anywhere, and that they’re invested in the product.

If you’d like to follow on Mixer you can find me there as Mixer.com/Stargrace – the same handle you can find me as pretty much everywhere. If you’re on Mixer, let me know your user name so I can give you a follow back! I spend a lot of time looking for awesome streamers to watch and I’d love to see more of my friends streaming. You’d be surprised at the things other people find interesting enough to watch (as I say this, I’m watching a stream of a seagul nesting. Yesterday I spent the better part of the day with a stream of puppies playing in the background).

If you’re trying Mixer for the first time let me know what you think of it! They’ve just announced a ton of new features including co-streaming, which is really neat to see in action. You can just invite whomever you wish to co-stream (for a maximum of three invites, four streamers total) and the chat channels will merge while the display shows each streamer. Perfect for matches of Overwatch or Mario Kart.

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

Gaming

Flying (again)

stargrace May 25, 2017 No Comments

I knew I had a PLEX sitting around, and decided that it was time to make use of it. EVE has been calling my name for a little while, and I’m usually pretty good at resisting the siren call – but not this time. This time I wanted to play.

PLEX has changed some (I think in March is when it started?) Instead of it being a single PLEX they have measurements like a type of currency. A month of game time is no longer 1 PLEX, but is 500 PLEX. You can purchase different amounts and use them for not only game time, but for character and account functions. You can sell small or large amounts for ISK just like before, and the value of PLEX has changed because of this. If you were to purchase 1 month of PLEX from the CPP store, it would cost approximately $25 USD (you can purchase 110 PLEX increments for $4.99). Meanwhile my subscription only costs $9.99.

Anyway, I logged in and actually remembered what I was up to for once. There were a few items for me to claim, and I had been working on faction in order to fix my standing with an R&D agent. I’m still sitting at -2.1 but it’s a start. I don’t know what I did to mess the faction up, I must have been working on missions that had me attacking them. Anyway, it’s something I can fix at least. I also checked in on my planetary colonies (I believe it used to be called Planetary Interaction, or PI) and set those working again. I joined the help channel to watch a little bit of chit chat flow back and forth and to pick up little tidbits of knowledge. There’s still so much about the game that I don’t know.

I flew L1 missions for most of the afternoon, taking my time, enjoying the views. Not great rewards, especially flying them in a Tengu, but it’s a start. As I work my faction up I’ll be able to access the more difficult missions and get some better rewards. Once I fix my faction I intend on going back to producing drones to sell at JITA. I haven’t done any mining yet (aside from the little bit that a mission had me doing) but I’m looking forward to some relaxing time hanging out in my hulk (or whatever other ship I decide to take out that day).

Speaking of ships, I need to figure out what I want to fly (build, collect) next. I have about 15 ships, which isn’t that many. I know a few new ones have been added since I played last, and I’m wondering what I need to be able to try them out. I guess I’ll have to research a bit!

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

Gaming

If You Had all the Time in the World

stargrace May 24, 2017 1 Comment

If you had all the time in the world to play video games – what would you play? Would you spend the majority of your time in just one game at a time, slowly accomplishing whatever goals you had set out for yourself before moving on, or would you bounce around from game to game, following whatever whims you had for the day?

Do you think your gaming habits would be any different than they are now?

These are the sorts of things I think about when I can’t actually play a game. I have been what I call a ‘nomadic gamer’ for quite some time. I don’t really settle, I bounce around between a few games. Most of them are my ‘tried tested and true’ games. Games I’ve played for years now, and who feel like a comfortable sweater I’m putting on. Those games are familiar, EQ2. EQ. WoW. EVE Online. Wurm Unlimited (or Online). Sims of any form. Banished. RimWorld (a newer addition, but still an addition). Then there are a handful of games that I’d like to get a chance to play that take a back seat to my old favourites. Overwatch falls into that category, as does pretty much 80% of my steam library that I’ve never touched (thank you HumbleBundle).

Gaming is a way for me to relax, and while I enjoy learning and exploring new worlds I find greater comfort in wandering through worlds I’m already familiar with (or at least titles and developers I’m familiar with). Civilization, Tropico, etc. These games are ones I’ve played in various forms over the years, and they’ve helped me through some pretty dark times.

Trying to find a balance of what I WANT to play vs. What I have time to play is a delicate act. The more limited my time is, the more I want to just curl up with that familiar sweater instead of trying to stretch a new one to be as comfortable. Sure, it can be done, and I know exactly which sweaters will end up just as comfortable as my old ones, but it takes time to get there – and time is precious. A cliche, but true. That’s why I end up lusting over a whole slew of games but actually playing very few different ones over the years. Yes, I do try new games – but a lot of my ‘free’ time is spent in familiar worlds that are a simple comfort to hang out in.

Enough musing for one day, it’s time to play some games!

Gaming

RimWorld – Star Wars

stargrace May 23, 2017 No Comments

One of my favourite content creators (they made the Cthulhu mods currently available in the Steam Workshop for RimWorld) published some new mods last week, and wow are they a TON of fun. There are three in total, Star Wars Factions, Lightsabers, and The Force. It adds a bunch of new game play and if you’re a fan of RimWorld and haven’t played around with mods yet (or even if you have) I highly recommend giving it a try. Honestly, there’s no reason NOT to play this game with mods. There is a huge library of some fantastic ones out there and every time I watch a stream on Twitch of someone playing without mods it hurts my heart a little bit. The game is fantastic, but the community of modders is what really makes this game shine.

So far only one of my colonists can use the force. They’re a level 32 Jedi, and I’ve maxed out a lot of the skills available. One of the things I’ve learned to do (which is cheesing the game, but come on it’s fun so what does it matter) is to use the force on trader muffalo’s. You can check their gear out on the gear tab and pick one that has a few items that you could make use of (or sell for a large amount of cash later). Normally if you attack a trader you’ll get a faction hit but if you use the force to make the muffalo go crazy the traders will attack their own muffalo and kill it – leaving behind all of the goodies, and leaving you without a faction hit.

Since I use a lot of other end game mods I collected a fair amount of nice items from the slain muffalo and sold them back to traders who were traveling through space (I have a mod for that, too).

I haven’t tried lightsabers yet, but I’m excited about making some.

Have your own favourite RimWorld mods? Let me know in comments!

Gaming

Free Overwatch Weekend? Don’t Mind if I Do!

stargrace May 22, 2017 No Comments

I’ve never played Overwatch before.

Big surprise, right? I mean I obviously write about nothing except these types of games! Hah. OK So maybe it’s not really a surprise, but the fact that I’ve *never* tried the game is a bit of a surprise to myself, because I like to give pretty much any game out there a bit of a go (the one hard exception being horror games).

When I heard about the Overwatch weekend coming up, I admit, I got pretty excited. I’ve been wanting to try the game for a while now. I watch streamers playing it on Twitch and it looks fun. The characters appeal to me. The community, not so much. I’m a fan of blizzard games, and I’ve already got BNet, so I’m hoping this free weekend will give me a taste of the game and maybe I’ll end up enjoying myself so much that I save up for a copy of it. I could even try to save up some of my in-game gold to pay for a part of it. I don’t have a LOT of gold saved up, but I’ve got enough for a token or two.

Have you given the game a try before? What are your thoughts? Will you be trying it out along side me on the free weekend? Let me know in comments! If you’re looking to add me to your BNet friends list, you can find me there as Stargrace#1783.

Mixer – The New Beam

Flying (again)

If You Had all the Time in the World

RimWorld – Star Wars

Free Overwatch Weekend? Don’t Mind if I Do!

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