2021

DailyCreative Goals – November 2021

Completed:

Once again I didn’t actually complete too many of my goals, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t have a creative month. In fact, it was probably one of my most creative months yet, which is wonderful. I did not finish the back of my cable crush hoodie, and I did not complete my Halloween storybook SAL cross stitch, but I did get pretty close. I trailed off at the end after a few bad days. I’m planning on using it as a book binding, I just have a few squares left.

I also completed a few pieces of art, including the mock watercolour digital picture above. I attempted some traditional art, too. I made two Halloween pieces and framed them for decoration which I am quite happy with. I also bought some actual watercolours, but I’m brand new and have no idea what I’m doing so that’s going a bit sideways at the moment. Still, I’m persistent and going to stick with it.

WIP:

  • Cable crush hoodie
  • Halloween SAL

November Goals:

  • Work on cable crush hoodie
  • Complete at least two pairs of socks (cranked)
  • Complete two christmas balls
  • Complete the Halloween storybook SAL
  • Finish one or more other creative projects (drawing, etc)

This is a more adventurous set of goals for November, mostly to remind myself to budget my time and to prove to myself that I can get things done as long as I schedule myself and actively work towards goals. No big deal if I don’t actually get there, but that is the goal, in any case.

Doing Guild Missions – Together!

I’ve played a lot of games where it’s detrimental to have a small guild – especially in MMOs where PVP reigns supreme. It makes sense, the biggest collection of people tend to be required for objectives.

This isn’t the case in Black Desert Online – at least in some aspects.

Guilds are categorized based on their size. From 1-15 you’re considered a small guild. Right now we have 10 members, and about 6 of us are actively playing. When I first started the guild I thought we’d always be too small to obtain any of the guild buffs that I wanted active because in other games that is most certainly the case. Opening the guild mission window though, I was pleasantly surprised. The missions are also organized based on the size of your guild, so if you’re a small guild, you have small missions.

These missions are broken into three categories. There’s combat, life, and trade. They can be completed (with effort) solo – and they’re even easier if you get together and do them. Last night three of us joined up (well, I hardly counted, I was level 15 and being power leveled by my husband’s Sage) and in less than an hour we had defeated the 1200 mobs required for our mission.

This gave us enough guild experience for me to purchase the next tier of gathering buff, essential to collecting items. We’ve also already finished obtaining the fishing perks, and next we’ll be working on AP (which I think means attack power) to give a nice little passive boost to that.

It’s nice not to feel completely useless as a guild. It’s nice to be able to earn coin and buffs and to join together and get things done. I wish there was a bit more selection for the other categories (there’s rarely any trade quests, there’s a page and a bit of life, and most of the missions are combat centered) but I’ve come to appreciate what we do have. If any mutuals out there are looking for a guild to call home you’re welcome to look me up in game and come join us.

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

RNG, RNG Everywhere

Black Desert Online has a lot going for it – but this game relies almost exclusively on RNG and that can sometimes be incredibly frustrating. To reduce RNG in the game you can earn items, get free ones from claim, or of course purchase them from the shop.

Everything. Is RNG. Your loot, your gear, your horse breeding, there are elements in all of it.

Last night I got Elma (my female T5 horse) to level 30, and Melvin (my male T5 horse) to 29 – I paid the 30,000 silver fee to start the 2.2h breeding process. RNG stated I had an 8% chance at a T8 horse, and some other random chances at T7 or T6 horses. At least it would be an upgrade, no matter which way the tokens fell.

I ended up with a T6 female that looked very much like the T5s with a bigger mane. I sold the T5 female I used to breed (Elma) since females only come with one chance at breeding unless you reset them (and I wasn’t going to use a reset token on a T5) for 30,000,000 silver which I was quite happy with. Now I have a T7 female, a T6 female, a T5 male, and another horse that I haven’t registered yet. Breeding horses isn’t an enormous money maker for me personally, but I do hope to one day get a T8 that I can attempt to make into a dream horse, and it’s something I can work on while mostly AFK doing other things.

All in all? It was a pretty great night.

What Happened with New World?

Life is too short to play games that I don’t enjoy, or to play games that I don’t enjoy as much as xyz game. That’s what happened with New World for me – and I don’t think spending a lot of time talking about something that I simply didn’t enjoy is a good way to go about things. That being said, I had already put up a post about my thoughts on New World September 30th – and I haven’t logged in since. It’s more of a case of ‘I already have a game I fully enjoy’ rather than ‘there are a million things wrong preventing me from playing’ though there ARE some things wrong. It also just didn’t fit into my gaming style. I go AFK all the time. I don’t get a lot of ‘sit down and play’ time – and BDO caters to my specific style of gaming. There are things I can do while AFK. I can fish, I can train my horse, I can craft, I can even gain experience and skill points at the training dummy. When I’m ready to sit down and play there is a plethora of things to do, and the world is just breathtaking.

Will I return to New World? Maybe, in a few months when things have changed/updated. Games are always evolving and nothing looks exactly the same as their release date. I knew the game wasn’t going to be for me, and I bought into the hype anyway when I was perfectly content playing what I was already playing. Sometimes, FOMO (fear of missing out) just wins.

Workers, Promotions, and Potatoes

When it comes to hiring workers to do chores for you, there are three you can choose from. Giant, human, and goblin. Goblins work the fastest, but they also are the weakest and they require a lot of food upkeep. Not great for overnight crafting/harvesting sessions. Giants have a lot of strength, but they’re also the slowest. I found them far too slow for my node harvesting endevours. Humans are between the two, and they’re a pretty good balance for my game play style. Every 10 levels when they’re done working you can attempt a promotion, so right now for 24 hours PotatoGob is working on a promotion test. He can fail this test, but if he passes his name will turn blue like the other two at the bottom of the list who are ‘skilled’ workers.

I took a page from PixelOne in guild and have named them after their activities, just to keep them straight in my mind. So far I just have them out in the world harvesting for me so I can take their materials and then craft with them, we’ll see what other trouble we can get into. I think I’d like to craft furniture, or maybe ships, but I have no idea what any of that entails. Yet.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Nomadic Gamer