Nomadic Gamer

Gaming

Before We Leave

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How is it that this game actually released back in 2021, and I’ve never heard of it before! Before We Leave is a city building game with graphics that I absolutely fell in love with. It is a part of the xbox game pass for PC and it reminds me of a mixture of Banished, Dorfromantik, and all of those other city building games where you’re in charge of minions and need to survive. I haven’t gotten very far into the game yet, but there’s a tech tree (I’m researching at a library at the moment), mining, harvesting, growing, and everything in between. The people show up from a hatch in the ground where they’ve been staying, and finally decide it’s time to live above ground. Right now I’m building a ship, I imagine you get to move on to other islands over time, and things are not complicated (yet). There hasn’t been any combat or invasions but I think that’s coming.

Have I mentioned enough times yet that the value from the xbox game pass is insane? Well, it is. Here’s the 3rd game I’ve tried this week, without having to invest in anything more than $1 (I know the price goes up after this month, and I know that games tend to shuffle around and I may not get to play them forever). If I love the game and then decide I want to purchase it, that’s an option too.

In the meantime, I’m just having fun figuring out the best places to put roads and buildings so that everything is accessible (which is the major issue with this game so far). As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

DailyCreative Real Life

AI Art – I have Thoughts

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I have watched the art community react in horror to most of the recent AI developments when it comes to art. People are worried about their jobs, people are worried about their style being stolen, people are worried about their actual works being stolen and used to create these AI generated pieces. AI art is getting to the point where it is difficult to tell that it’s AI generated. As an artist (even if beginner) myself, I’m torn. I absolutely do NOT like the idea of artists work being stolen. I’ve already had to splash giant watermarks on my own stuff when it was being taken for NFT’s – but how long until the AI can remove the watermarks (this is already a thing, I know). How long before a company doesn’t even bother to hire an artist to design for them, but instead types in the artist they want to emulate, a bunch of key words, and there’s the next piece already done for them in a matter of seconds.

As mentioned above, I agree that AI art can be great for certain things. Much like a reference, or for generating ideas that an artist can then take and put their own spin on. I don’t make a living from my art, so I don’t see the later part becoming an issue for me personally, but I can see why some artists out there may be worried. It’s already difficult to make a living as an artist. How many will be replaced with AI over the next 5 years?

I belong to a few Facebook art groups and already people have been posting their AI works claiming them as their own traditional pieces. While that might fool someone who doesn’t know any better, to some of us it’s pretty apparent (especially when the person drops 10+ pieces, all a different style, with no proof of process). I think that having a time lapse of the actual work is going to become more important, and I think there will be more requirements to ‘prove’ you created the piece yourself.

I think technology can be amazing, but I think in this instance it’s also very dangerous. I’m just incredibly uncomfortable with using artwork without permission from the artist, in any capacity. I guess we’ll simply have to see where this goes.

DailyCreative Spinning Yarn

Merino/Nylon

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This spin was an absolute delight. It’s knitpicks stroll (75% superwash merino, 25% nylon) that I picked up in bulk a few years back, when I first got my wheel. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing, so I didn’t touch it at the time. I wanted to see how my sock yarn spinning would be, so I tried it out. I have 19 other bundles just like this one to work through and goodness, I am in love.

I have some dye that I hope to use (requires some preparation) once I spin some more and ply it. It is by far the most lovely fiber I’ve ever spun before, including the aplaca. I’m going to make this particular batch into a 2ply but eventually I’m hoping my spinning gets good enough that I can make a fingering weight 3ply. I spun the entire 4oz over the course of three days, which is absolutely fantastic for me. In case you can’t tell by my gushing, I really like this fiber.

Gaming

LFR

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I worked on my alts this week, raising their ilevel to 240 so that I could participate in the new fabled raids that were released. The new loot is 265 ilevel, which has been a significant upgrade. My druid has been a LOT of fun, so much so that I’m contemplating using her as my main in Dragonflight (I was going to go with paladin). The only downside I have towards the druid is that I’m just a bit tired of constantly wearing leather gear. I’ve played my Demon Hunter and Monk for so long now that playing a plate wearing class (the paladin) has been refreshing. I don’t enjoy healing on the paladin, though.

I also managed to complete some world boss kills – there is one in The Maw who rewards 285 gear (rarely) but getting to that one has been a huge pain. I normally do the overworld boss along with the Zerith Mortis one and then I call it a day. I did not step foot into Darkmoon Faire, though I probably should have. I also got my 7th character on the alliance side to 70 (a paladin, go figure) so that team is coming along nicely.

There’s still plenty for me to do in game, despite nearing the end of Shadowlands. One of my least favourite expansions, I’m glad that I’m not burnt out like so many of my friends.

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

Gaming

Making Gold in World of Warcraft

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SavedInstances is the awesome addon that tells me all of the details that I’d usually have to use alt-o-holic for, in a neat little menu that I can customize a bunch of ways. This little blurb is hidden unless you mouse over the far right hand side header, so I didn’t even know it was there until someone told me. How is gold making going?

I have 40 characters, 23 of those are level 60. Let’s skip the total time played on this account because of course my account is ancient. Looking at the total money, I’m pushing towards 13 million gold across the servers that I play on – not too shabby! I have a gold making challenge ongoing right now to reach cap across one server (something I haven’t done since BFA when I spent 5 million and bought the AH mount, and then how multiboxing works changed). I have almost 6 million gold over on Argent Dawn (low population RP server) and then the next runner up is slightly over 4 million on Winterhoof (my horde team lives there, and that’s where I spend most of my time these days). The other servers are just ones I occasionally play on – Blackwater Raiders is a server I started on for my Rags to Riches challenge a few months back. I started there with zero gold, flipping on the AH, and now I’ve grown to 2.5 million gold on that particular server.

Hyjal is where I purchased my 291/304 items from to take back to Argent Dawn. I used to have a few million there but I’ve since transferred it all off. Area 52 is where I play with a handful of friends, and is where I pick up battle pets (they’re always nice and cheap compared to my main servers) to level up and then flip. That’s how I’ve gotten so many level 60s, actually. Pet battles.

In any case, making gold is alive and well even if it has slowed down (for me) slightly. I know a lot of people are still making gold from legendaries, but that was never something I got into. Plans for the gold? Absolutely nothing besides continuing to pay for my accounts. I buy tokens when they’re cheap (below 200k ideally) and just continue to add game time. As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

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