2024

Black Desert Online – Some QoL Changes!

When I want to game, but don’t really have the time or maybe I’m out of spoons, the game I jump to is almost always BDO – this game has a lot of AFK / passive game modes that make it absolutely worth it to get my gaming fix when things are a bit rough. It has also been quite some time since I played, and a lot of QoL changes have taken place that I am completely in love with.

First, I created a Dosa, my first male character (my one issue with BDO is that classes are still restricted by gender). I made a season character – but seasons have changed now, they’re no longer static dates that rotate, you can create one when ever. I had a scholar in the works (the newly released class before Dosa) but decided that I didn’t want to continue with that, for now. Anyway, apparently life skills are now family (account) wide! That was one of the first changes I noticed. This is a fantastic change, I used to swap characters all of the time and I’m very glad it went account wide. On that same note, harvesting tools are also now shared across your family, another VERY delightful change.

One of the less favourable changes that happened is the hotkey for fishing, it’s ‘ now (the key beside enter) on QWERTY keyboards, other languages might have it elsewhere. To stop fishing, right click and move back to battle stance. Confusing, I actually had to watch a video on how to fish since the changes took place.

There’s been a bunch of other changes too, things I haven’t managed to wrap my head around yet. I don’t know what artifacts are, how to use them, or what to do with them. The same can be said for the transfusion window. I do have bits and bobs scattered all over the place, so I’m taking my time and sorting things out and figuring what I want to work on – when I don’t have the time to actually pay attention, I set up for some AFK fishing (there’s an event going on at the moment) or some mount training.

BDO has never been the easiest of games to get into, there’s a LOT to it, and the cluttered UI easily scares people away – but – I think learning the mechanics slowly is doable, and I really love how beautiful the game is as well as the incredibly robust life skill system (crafting). There’s apparently a new life skill releasing this year and I’m excited to see that, too. Plus, the game doesn’t require a subscription and the expansions are always free. Sure, there’s lots of ‘please buy this’ in the shop, but I’ve honestly never felt that pressured, they give away so much for free.

In any case, I’m enjoying my return and hopefully I can figure out what else has changed given some time. As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Back to Warcraft, and Making Gold

As is my way, I’ve been wandering around for a few months now and haven’t really played much world of warcraft. I didn’t like Plunderstorm, and I didn’t enjoy the Pandaria Remix, either. I’m not a fan of removing players from the world and sticking them on their own servers, or time limited events. Breaks are good, and I do tend to take breaks from Warcraft, knowing that eventually I’ll wander back. It helps that I only spend in-game gold on my subscriptions, and I stopped feeling ‘guilty’ over my wandering ways years ago.

Anyway. This week I wandered back. It was Timewalking (Pandaria, go figure) so I completed that with my paladin, which is the character I think I’ve settled on as my ‘main’ for The War Within. I also happened to return when Snail Fight! Was up in Legion, so I spent the rest of the evening leveling up the 214 pets that have just been sitting there. I managed to get the list down to 100 or so that still need leveling. Doing that got me another level 70 character (my alliance rogue over on Argent Dawn) as well as 50-61 on a Warlock over on Hyjal. Almost all of my alts have been leveled exclusively through pet battles, my method of choice.

Sales this week were sporadic because I couldn’t decide if I was honestly returning to the game or not. At one point I had stuffed all of my AH items back into banks across Azeroth only to pull them out and put them for sale (again) the next day. The API has been down since the 27th of June, so TSM & sniping in general have been restricted to a per-server basis rather than region wide. It’s not unusual for this to happen, especially when an expansion is being worked on – the API has gone down in the past, and I’m confident that it will get fixed – eventually.

Wandering away from Warcraft lets me appreciate the things that it lacks, as well as the things that I love. I still haven’t found a community within the game, and that’s always the main downfall I have with it. I stick to my own happenings, doing my own things. My sporadic and random play time doesn’t lend well to static groups or raids, so I fit in when / where I can.

Anyway, that’s enough reflection for tonight. It’s nice to be back, and here’s hoping sales continue to swing upwards as I get back into my routine.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

ISK Making for the Month of June

It was a pretty good month as far as making ISK is concerned, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at my chart, because I spent everything on subscribing two accounts for 6 months each – that gives me plenty of time to earn it back, at least. Before all of my spending, I earned about 4 billion ISK – which is 2 billion less than last month, but I had sold off some of my high sec items that created the influx and I knew it would be a one time thing. The ‘goal’ is to earn enough to subscribe a single account each month, and then pay for my 2nd account with real money – if I earn extra (and pay for both accounts with ISK) then that’s good too.

Anyway! The ISK came from multiple things, as it usually does. A large portion is from PI, I now have it set up on 5 of my characters. Selling PI has slowed down a tiny bit but the prices have increased, so I’m not too phased. Another portion came from industry, I’ve been making drones, ammo, and a few smaller ships. I was contemplating getting into reactions but I have no idea what I’m doing, so I’m going to take a pass on that for now. Ratting and missions made up another portion of the ISK, nothing fancy about that. A large portion came from exploration, I sold everything I collected except for datacores. I didn’t get any exceptional drops or items, but a lot of little things that moved pretty well.

I did a little harvesting this month – gas only. I wasn’t in the mood to orbit rocks, and I avoided it whenever I could (the exception being those daily quests that sometimes have you out there). Now that both accounts are situated with game time, I’m excited about just stocking up and seeing what I can get into. I don’t fly any particularly expensive or fancy ships – maybe that will change (though I doubt it).

Skill wise – my main is currently working on supply chain management so I can work on industry a few jumps away, my exploration character is working on cybernetics V because there’s a specific bling implant I want. That’s right, it’s time for the blackglass + zeugma bling to happen. My combat alt is currently working on gallente cruiser V (only 8 days to go!) and the back up mining character is working on deep core mining III, even though I haven’t been in the mood to mine (I have a bunch of MCT so I wanted to use them up and why not be skilling). Finally, my marketing character is working on gallente hauler V, because I’m trying to get her into a blockade runner. After that she’ll go back to the marketing skills, she has all of the basic ones but I’d like to expand and specialize a bit more. I’d also like to (maybe) practice running to Jita, and I need to make a bunch of bookmarks for that, too. I’m contemplating moving my marketing stuff there. I know it’s the largest market in the game, I’m just not a fan of how busy it all is.

Anyway, June was great. Let’s see what July brings! As always, fly your way! o7

That.. Is a Lot of Mobs

I’ve never actually seen a Sentient Infested Supercarrier before – until today, at least. This is one mean encounter, and not one that I was willing to get any closer to. Thankfully there’s the ‘look at’ option, so I can stay far away (cloaked, too) and just watch from a distance. Not only was there a sentient infested supercarrier, but there was another sentient matriarch in that bundle, too. Those ones I can usually defeat without any issues, but a supercarrier is well above the content I can handle. The bounty alone is 340,000,000 ISK for that single ship. Woah.

Heavy Drones V – FINALLY Completed

My main character just reached 52,000,000 skill points – and I FINALLY completed heavy drones V which feels like it took forever. I’m very glad that’s finally done, and now I’m moving on with small projectile turret V – I believe the current skill plan I have was to optimize my Stratios for Superior Ghost caches in exploration. I try not to load too many skills up in my plan because I’d like to actually remember WHY I am training what I am. It doesn’t always work out the way I’d like, though.

Character overview:

  • Main – 52,000,000 skill points
  • PI alt – 1,700,000 sp
  • PI alt – 2,800,000 sp
  • Combat alt – 6,600,000 sp
  • Mining alt – 7,300,000 sp
  • Market alt – 2,800,000 sp
  • Exploration character – 13,100,000 sp

None of my characters have *that* many skill points when compared to other characters created in 2009 but I feel like I’m at a comfortable place now with things at least. My exploration character is on an account by herself with no alts, and I may eventually let it lapse to alpha state, I’m not sure. My main can already do all the fun exploration things, so the skills double up quite a bit.

I don’t really use the mining alt any more, but I know they’re nice to have, plus things may change in the future. My PI alts barely do anything except log in, re-set the PI extractors, and deliver their PI once a week. I know activities in Eve really ramp up the more accounts you have, but two is a comfortable number, we’ll see if that changes over time.

Fly your way! o7

Nomadic Gamer