2018

Pokemon Let’s Go

stargrace November 20, 2018 No Comments

I don’t really keep up with Nintendo, even though I own a Switch I’ve had the same 3 games for a year now. Then people in my timeline on twitter started talking about the newest Pokemon game, and I knew I had to get it. The last Pokemon game I got was for the 2DS so it had been ages.

The game serves as a great base for people unfamiliar with the franchise. It’s very traditional, and that’s what I love about it besides the fact that I can play it on my TV. I spent most of last night wandering around with my Evee capturing a few new Pokemon and doing some simple battles. Then I learned I could change my Evee’s clothes, and via touch screen interact with her.

It’s all just too cute, and that’s exactly what I wanted.

You can friend me of course, my Evee is level 10 so far and I’m taking things slow. I’m also paying more attention to what Nintendo has coming down the road so I can work on expanding the collection a bit. First I’ll need to get a micro SD card since my space is limited. Hopefully I can find one on a black Friday sale.

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

Gaming

Goodbye, Stropp

stargrace November 16, 2018 No Comments

I’m getting to an age now where friends I’ve met online I’ve known for 10, 11, and 12 plus years. They’re friends I talk to on a daily basis, people I care about. When one goes missing or is suddenly quiet, we notice.

In most cases it turns out to be nothing serious. People step away from their online lives. Social media can be overwhelming. Family emergencies crop up.

In other instances, this isn’t the case and that’s how it was with John. I knew John for a long time. We were friends on steam, facebook, twitter, and hung out in the Combat Wombat discord. We talked games. We talked food. Hell we even talked politics. Around the end of September we stopped hearing from him in our discord, and today we learned that he passed away October 6th. I still don’t really know what to make of it, or how to talk about it because it’s not a comfortable situation. I’m sad.

Stropp. John. Your comments, blog posts, conversations, and friendship were felt by many, and you will be missed.

To everyone else – don’t wait until your friends are gone to tell them how much they mean to you. It does not matter if you’ve never met in person, some of the strongest friendships are those types. Be sure your companions know just how important they are.

Gaming

Diving into LotRO

It has been years since I played the Lord of the Rings Online, and even though my other half and I used to play it together for some reason it is one of the very few games that we actually did not return to year after year (unlike EverQuest, or WoW, or EverQuest2). When they announced a legendary server would be opening (much like the progression servers we know at Daybreak) I perked up a little. It didn’t take much hype before I was fully on board and planning out the characters I would play.

My husband also decided to play, and though we faced a queue any time we tried to log in we both managed to make new characters – yay! He’s playing a Warden, and I opted to try out a lore-master this time around (the one with the pets). I also have a hunter for ease. Last time we played he stuck to a guardian and I bounced between my rune-keeper and my minstrel. We finished the tutorial starter and headed off to Combe to pick up some crafting vocations. This time around I decided to go Tinkerer, and he went Explorer. It should compliment one another well, and if not no big deal we’re not exactly min-maxers anyway.

It’s really nice to be playing again, even if we’re frantically trying to fit those minutes of gameplay in between everything (ie: life). Since we met in a video game (EverQuest 2, for those curious) it seems only fitting.

The server has had a lengthly queue every evening, but during the day it’s not too bad. There are all sorts of returning players checking it out, though a fair portion of my twitter friends are reluctant to start on the new legendary server and have opted to remain on the regular servers – nothing wrong with that! I hope this brings the game some money and more business is never a bad thing.

We’ll see how long I end up sticking with it. I’m hoping to be able to play a few times a week, even if I don’t get much done. I believe expansions release every 4 months, so there’s plenty of time to catch up to “end game” though I have never actually been end game in LotRO before. There is a first for everything.

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

Gaming

Events, Deeds, and an Anniversary

stargrace November 4, 2018 No Comments

This week Sklotopolis turned 3 years old – an amazing feat for a Wurm Unlimited server when in so many cases they tend to fall apart and become empty within the first few months. It’s thanks to our amazing staff (and players) that this place is so great, and I made sure to thank them all for their hard work. I couldn’t see myself playing anywhere else.

Barefoot is just about done with my new deed on Novus, and it’s looking spectacular. I’ll add some screenshots later this week to show it off, there’s still a few odds and ends that it is lacking and the workshop building isn’t quite done yet. It has lots of room for expansion, which I love.

In the meantime I looked for a small counter-deed on Liberty, and ended up moving (again) where I had settled. Originally I found a place along the East Coast, but sailing from Novus to Liberty (although quick) was still too much of a pain – so I decided to see what was available if I sailed straight from one deed across to the other server.

As luck would have it, I found an enormous deed that was recently disbanded. I claimed a small area of it with Minxes & moved my other Fo priest over there. Now I have two well sized deeds, one of Novus and one on Liberty, and I’m quite happy with the choice to re-locate. I’ve been playing on the Sklotopolis server for over two years now (off and on due to real life breaks) and I needed a bit of a change. Never a bad thing.

This weekend was also another double slaying. We took down a white drake (baby dragon) and a goblin leader over on Liberty. After there was a Ritual of Spring casting, so my main earned herself 5 hours of sleep bonus and a little mind logic. I’m almost at 60 mind logic, which will give me 7 actions – something I am REALLY looking forward to.

Otherwise, things have been quiet. Working on my deeds, meeting new players, making a few sales, the usual, and just how I like it.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Gaming

Farm Together Made me Hate Pumpkins

stargrace October 23, 2018 No Comments

I was gifted this ultra casual super cute steam title called Farm Together by a good friend, and I’ve been having a lot of fun with it – until I got wind of their Halloween event. It starts out innocently enough. Harvest 100 cursed pumpkins. Once you do that, you need to harvest 1,000. Then you need to harvest 10,000 – and 1,000 special trees.

You can harvest in a 3×3 area thanks to vehicles and gas – if the farm has those, but each cursed pumpkin costs 500 gold, and when you harvest them you get zilch in coin back. This makes it an incredibly difficult challenge especially for beginners like me. Thanks to the kindness of friends I was able to reach 3,000 pumpkins or so harvested (after blowing absolutely all my hard earned money on the crop before I realized they reward no coin in return) and I decided I give up. There’s a time limit (ie: harvest them by halloween) and 10,000 is just way. too. many.

You want to be a good neighbour, so you not only harvest in a 3×3 area, you till the land, and re-plant. Each action uses gas (or takes you forever by hand) and you can only plant in fall, which has a 17 minute window. The cursed pumpkins take 8h to grow (4h if you water them) and just.. no. NOPE.

This event is NOT FUN. It’s a grind that entices me because I WANT to unlock the cute halloween decor, but after 3k pumpkins I have put my foot down and I am NOT harvesting any more.

Sorry, Farm Together, your event is just more chore than fun.

Pokemon Let’s Go

Goodbye, Stropp

Diving into LotRO

Events, Deeds, and an Anniversary

Farm Together Made me Hate Pumpkins

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The Construction of Quail Landing

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