2019

Intrigued by ANNO 1800

I’ve never played anything from the ANNO game series before, but the latest one that is coming out, 1800, looks fascinating. I debated picking up one of the older versions while they’re on sale (ANNO 2070, and ANNO 2205) but so far I haven’t pulled the plug. The reviews on both games are mixed and include issues with gameplay and technical problems. The newest one isn’t due out until April and it has a pretty hefty price tag, so I don’t think it will be a purchase that I make right out the door. $80 CAD is a lot of money for a series I’ve never been invested in. Thoughts?

While I was checking out ANNO 1800 Scopique asked if I had seen Foundation before. Foundation is an early access game developed by polymorph games, and claims to be a medieval city building simulator. A lot of friends have it on their wishlist, but I don’t know anyone who is playing it yet, and I have no idea if it’s any good but the trailer for the game certainly makes it look neat. I think it’s one of those games where I’ll just have to wait and see (ie: wait for a sale, and then we’ll see).

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

Down Goes the Black Drake

We gathered together on the Sklotopolis Liberty server to take down a black drake that had been harassing the villagers for some time. It was a great turn out with a lot of neat items raffled afterward. The blood that dropped created oil of the armour smith, so I brought alts along because my tools didn’t have this particular imbue and I still need to work up plate smithing (sitting at 77 right now, I’d like it at 90 at least).

I didn’t win anything from the raffle, but Ogur got a nice set of carpentry tools. I’ve declined a few drake sets in the past but haven’t had much luck otherwise.

There’s also a rift up on Liberty but players opted not to do it after the hatchling event, probably because most of us teleported to the event location and would need to use karma to get back home and THEN ride out to the rift again afterward.

Overall I had a great time, I always do at these events and I’m thankful the developers (and players) take the time to organize and run them. Maybe in the future my luck will be better.

February Challenge

January is over, and the 31 days of no fast food completed! As I mentioned in previous posts there were days I wanted to dive into a big mac, and others where it didn’t even bother me.

Now it’s on to the challenge for February, which includes no chips, no pop, and no candy – plus whatever naturally transitions over from January. Fast food is no longer automatically off the menu, but I’m hoping by abstaining all of January and breaking that habit I’ll choose to make healthier choices.

The hardest part of the challenge for February is going to be no pop. I typically drink one 350ml can a day, sometimes two. I’m hoping to replace that with tea or water, though I already drink an enormous amount of water daily so I’m not too concerned if it doesn’t get replaced at all.

The rest of the goal for February includes getting out twice a week as a family. The temperatures have been -30 to -50 Celsius lately, so this is not an easy task. It’s also made all the more difficult by our location. This challenge is just as important as the main one and I hope we can accomplish it, but even if we don’t I’m hoping for at least a tiny bit of improvement.

Last month I managed to lose 5lbs from 225 to 220 – the overall year goal is to get below 200lbs. I am not sure how much weight I’ll lose this month on the new goal, but hopefully it continues downwards or at least I don’t gain any more.

Sales in Wurm Unlimited

I recently passed the 1 gold mark in Wurm Unlimited. It’s the first time I’ve ever earned that amount of money and I’m really proud of it. I know I could have earned the money ages ago if I focused, but there was always something to distract me. You can also donate to the server for some silver, but I’ve never really wanted to do that.

Most of my coin has been earned through selling steel tools. I make a batch and then randomly enchant them, selling them as affordable items for relatively new players. With the ability to earn 25c each day just from voting, and a very generous bounty system, my tools are well priced so that newer players can have ‘good’ items and then purchase even better items and enchants later on.

What to do with the coin? I’m not sure yet. The only real use I have for money is deed expansion, and I can’t expand until I can get a hold of a neighbour who is blocking me in on one side. I’m attempting to purchase their deed, but so far I’ve never seen them around. Aside from that, I’m trying to purchase a supreme bone from someone so I can get a weapon of mine done. When Ogur and I go to Caza I typically end up tanking, and I’d like to work on a nice set of gear with a weapon and a shield for it.

I don’t mind paying well for the few items I do end up needing. Putting the money back into the economy is the best thing in a player-driven market like this.

WTF Wednesday

It’s time for another post about steam games where developers didn’t think about whether or not they should before they went off and did it. Today’s gem is called xmas zombie rampage 2 – that’s right folks, this is a sequel. In it, John Iron is back and he’s a marine killing machine. Whether that means he kills marines, or he is a marine, we don’t really know.

What we do know is Christmas presents and girlie pictures have been stolen by zombies and it’s time to strike back. I’m guessing from the screenshots the thieves have decided to decorate the woods with these items…


I’m not sure which is harder to believe, that there are zombies who care about girlie pictures and Christmas presents, or that this game is selling for $19.99 CAD in the steam store.