Well, my frame ended up being one square too small in some places – and I was going to frog the entire thing and start over, but the idea of that was just so absurdly daunting that I decided that no one would be able to tell if I had to adjust a panel anyway, and I may as well just continue. Thus day one was The Black Cat, by Edgar Allan Poe, and day two is Jack Skellington. I’m looking forward to getting a little stitching done each day, and seeing how this project comes out in the end. I think it will be an adorable Halloween decoration to put up each year.
Even though most of this month has been taken up my my cross stitch SAL and poor days with MS issues, I haven’t forgotten about my cable crush hoodie. I’ve been working away on it slowly, I separated the back and front, and now I’m just working on the front. It’s a lot of sweater, and so squishy and soft. I’m really looking forward to being able to wear it once our winters drop to -40C. At this rate it won’t be too much longer before we’ll be seeing snowflakes.
September 15th started the new season (fall) for Black Desert Online, and of course I wasted no time making a new season character! This round I decided to go with a Shai class, the only support class in game. This character has a penalty to PvP, not many skills, and no big AoE attacks – but they get a bonus to life skills (crafting) and are SUPER CUTE and fun to play (IMO). Their attacks include hops, skips, and jumps, plus swinging a GIANT boomerang. It’s adorable.
This time around I have a lot more time (I came into the last season with only two weeks left to it) to level my character, and I know a lot more about the game. The season rewards have changed some, and there’s a ton of events going on at the same time (8?!) in what I can only assume is an attempt to get people to stay focused on BDO while Lost Ark and New World go through release. You can even get yourself a free copy of the game, if you sign up to play for free for 14 days and then reach level 50. Next time there’s maintenance, you’ll be given a copy. Speaking of, if you get three pieces of gear to Pen quality while playing in seasons, you can earn yourself the $90 upgrade to the game too (only 100 people from NA and 100 people from EU will be chosen for this). I think that would be awesome.
Another QoL change was a quest for a T5 mount. You used to have to progress to a certain point that was quite far in (my last character never made it there) before you could get it, but now you reach that point much easier. So I have a T8 female and T5 male horse – once I get those leveled up, I’m going to attempt to breed them and see what I end up with. I’m excited!
My Shai is nearly to the point that my Guardian was at quest-wise, so even though I’m technically re-doing content I just did, it doesn’t feel too bad. I’m also taking some time to work a bit of life skills along the way (AFK fishing while I write this post) and Shai start with gathering and alchemy at professional 1. I still know pretty much zilch about life skills, but I’ve been making my way through videos (slowly) in preparation for when I do get started in honest. I’ll probably continue to work the main quest on my Shai and try to reach 60-61 and then we’ll see where I’m at.
Honestly, BDO is not the game I thought I’d be playing right now, but I’m very glad that I am. It’s fun, there are tons of people around, and I haven’t had a day where I’ve been bored (yet). I know there are complaints about it being a Pay2Win game, but honestly I have not personally experienced any of that. I also haven’t spent any money on the game aside from my original purchase of it. Yes, you CAN purchase items from the shops, but all of the free things you’re given, alongside the event things, means I just haven’t found a need for anything extra. While that might change, I’m not really expecting it to.
I turned on the remastered graphics for a bit, and just wow. This game is beautiful! Of course my computer starts to scream and complain after some time with it on (especially in the cities) but it’s still just lovely.
When I started playing Black Desert Online two weeks ago, I had no idea that there was a catch up mechanic implemented by means of ‘seasonal’ characters. This works almost exactly the same was as Diablo, where you create a new character, level them up, get perks, and then at the end your character ‘graduates’ over to a ‘regular’ one. The current season ends September 15th, and I’ve been trying to learn and cram so much into this short amount of time before it ends, that there’s just no way for me to get a hold of everything.
Thanks to some awesome friends and YouTube videos I did manage to reach level 58 on my seasons character. I also got my free necklace, picked up a T8 horse, and leveled to 58 – I was hoping for 61 but time was just not on my side. I’ve learned how to enchant armor/weapons, and know the basics to unlocking my awakened self, finishing that quest line and getting new skills, too.
I picked up my time piece which I’m going to use tomorrow, and that will turn my seasons character to a regular character, and take a character that I have under level 25 (at this moment it’s my sorcerer) and create her into my season character – adding on the levels and skill points that the guardian had earned. It basically lets you clone your seasons character to one that is under 25. No reason not to do that.
Today I meant to work on the main story quest, but instead life got in the way so I set myself up with some AFK fishing, and horse training. Dancer, my T8 white horse, is now level 24. I also played around with the remastered graphics – which are absolutely stunning, but my computer fans don’t really like playing on that graphic level for too long (especially in cities). I’m looking forward to starting another seasons character, I hear they’re doing a few things different this time (like making enchanting gear easier) which is always nice. Some QoL bits that are always handy.
Anyway, I might be able to squeeze out another level or two before the end of tomorrow, but we’ll see. Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!
stargrace 
