Mystic Worlds

Likely to Revisit EVE Online in 2009

I didn’t do much gaming over the long holiday weekend.  With my vacation time coming to an end, I spent most of the time offline with my family and friends.  I logged into Warhammer Online (WAR) a few times for very short playing stints.  As has been said thousands of times already on the internet, WAR’s ability to let you play short sessions while accomplishing a lot, is one of its saving graces.  Even when it means doing it alone, it’s still do-able and often times fun.

I listened to all of my favorite podcasts which have whittled down to fewer than previous years.  Several of my former favorites have gone the way of the, “podcast fade” with no information or messages to their listeners about when or if they are ever going to return.  *Sigh*  This basically gets me down to less than a half dozen podcasts I listen to each week, two of which are Harry Potter related.  Boo-hiss to the faders – I miss your podcasts because they were very entertaining.  I’m sorry that real life or whatever came up has stopped your shows.  *sniff*

I’ve been giving some serious thought into re-subscribing to EVE Online.  You know the one – the game that some of us love but rarely leave the ship’s hanger when playing.  Yeah, that game.  I’ve heard from a few players that ambulation (in-game avatars) isn’t coming until late 2009.  Drat and double-drat, that’s a long time away.  When I subscribed in the past, I played mostly the PVE side of the game.  My last go ‘round reeled me into the “How horribly wrong PVP can go with amateurs,” side.  It was nothing if not exciting.

WAR: Averheim goes from High to Low Pop - Free Transfers Offered

I logged into the game today to complete the Heavy Metal event and was greeted by a notice that my server, Averheim, was low population and as a result, free transfers off the server are being offered.

I'm saddened by this occurrence.  Averheim dropped to medium population and was an incentivized destination for other low population servers and even with that, we went from medium to low!?!  Oh my. *sad face* The guild is meeting tonight to decide if we should switch servers.  Oh hum.  I don't have an opinion on where to move so I'm not going to the meeting.  Where ever COW goes is where my characters will live.  Besides which, I don't have any conflict characters anywhere else and the chances of my names being taken by another player is very slim.

Oddly enough, the oRVR lag on Averheim last night during the HM event was sick.  If that was lag on a low population server, what the hell is it like on medium or high pop?  Which leads back to my preference that they work on fundamental game fixes before becoming too absorbed in, "Must have more oRVR now, Grrr!"

The Averheim player community is trying to work together to make a decision and preserve server unity.  If you want to get involved and voice an opinion check the thread here.

WAR: Between a Rock and A Cross

I do not envy Mythic right now in trying to fix Warhammer Online.  Mark Jacobs issued a statement to the community to shed some light on upcoming improvements, mostly related to encouraging Open RVR (oRVR).  It appears to have been met with mixed reactions.  A portion of players who wanted a game dominated by oRVR, want it NOW.  They don’t want to wait the potential months it’s going to take to execute the full vision.

I’m definitely concerned.  I understand that they have to find a way to fix oRVR and appease that segment of the player base.  However, I see some fundamental problems in core mechanics of the game.  In my mind, these are more important.  The PVE content is empty but provides one of the character progression models. It’s more common for 1 to 3 people to be grinding out the Public Quests than the full groups it was designed to accommodate.  COW is a large guild, yet we recently couldn’t field 10 people to do an instance, even though it was posted in advance on our forums. 

Itemization is just weird sometimes.  The rewards are supposedly tailored to your class but I’m often presented with choosing the lesser of two evils.  Armor isn’t usually a primary stat stacked by cloth wearing classes but sometimes I have to choose the item that has the most AR because the other stats are just silly for my class.  I get things with Willpower (+healing) or Ballistic (+ranged weapon damage), when as a magic caster what I really need is Wounds (+health), Intellect (+magic damage), etc.  I have a difficult time determining when to break out of set pieces where you lose the accumulated bonuses when the individual rewards, supposedly for my class, have these odd stat choices on them.

WAR: Another Week of Activity Comes to a Close

My last week of freely writing and playing Warhammer Online is coming to a close.  I'm still on vacation through next week but will be cooking and entertaining for Thanksgiving, like many other Americans. Here are a few pictures from two random and unrelated adventures from this week.

This week concludes with roughly 23K word count worth of fiction writing, Rank 33 on my Bright Wizard, Rank 11 on my Warrior Priest, obtained the first tier reward from the Heavy Metal event and lots of household chores completed, including a variety of homemade sweets and frozen desserts.

I hadn't planned on playing my WP at all until the new classes were released.  Unfortunately, my bank and backpack are completely full of herbs that require water to be turned into potions.  My Cultivating is maxed at 200.  My Apothecary is at 168.  I can either start selling the herbs even though I need them to finish out leveling and want the potions, spend all my gold on the expensive water being sold on the Auction House or get out there and gather my own water.  I opted to bring out the WP and set her to scavenging me a free source of water.

HP Fans: Try Septimus Heap Book Series

I don’t usually take time to do book reviews on my blog.  However, since I asked for some book suggestions recently and do occasionally discuss Harry Potter, I thought this would be appropriate.

From the wonderful list of steampunk book suggestions my kind readers provided, I went with the anthology, Steampunk, edited by Ann & Jeff Vandermeer.  I haven’t started it reading it yet.  I was toward the end of a different book when I solicited the advice, and it’s that book series that I want to discuss.

I loved the Harry Potter series.  As a reader, I’ve missed the anticipation of a new book.  As a fantasy lover, I miss having a story that bridges my fascination with all things magical, somewhat medieval settings and strong characterization.  I’ve read that many of the HP fans have gone on to read, Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer.  I’ll probably get around to reading it at some point.  However, I’m not in the mood for a vampire love story right now.

Casualties of WAR Goes Multi-Game

The WAR guild that I’m a member of, Casualties of WAR (COW), is discussing branching out into other games.  Based on the COW forum posts it appears to be inevitable. In all honesty, this concerns me.  You can’t keep people in a game they don’t want to play and people do play multiple games, yet it worries me that the focus will drift away from Warhammer Online.

Oh well, it is what it is.  I don’t have an interest in playing any of the other MMOs currently being discussed except, EVE Online.  I have no interest in WOTLK.  As much as I loved EQ2 crafting the leveling aspect bores me to tears.  I suppose I could stomach LOTRO.  I’ve read that they improved the solo ability and having an active guild would help to have fellowship members when needed.  But honestly, if I’d wanted to play those games, I’d have kept my subscriptions.  EVE stays on the list of “would go back” because I could play in a very passive manner if I wanted, and being in a Corporation of people I liked and trusted, would let me explore avenues of the game that I didn’t have a successful chance at doing last time around.

Just Mind Boggling...

A few comments on a podcast complimenting an aspect of WAR as compared to WOW, some how launched into the speakers being a "certain type of player" that someone whose heard a few comments can now claim to "KNOW YOU..."  This type of behavior just boggles my mind.

I'm also left wondering why it had to get personal?  I could claim to now know the poster based on their behavior in the thread.  None of which would be complementary but I just didn't see the need to go there.  All I can say is like, "Wha? Wow? And why?"

*Shakes head and walks away*

WAR: Stars Aligned this Week

Things fell into place yesterday evening.  I logged into WAR to find several people already online.  A few more came on shortly after and before long we had a full warband heading out to complete yesterday’s Heavy Metal Event (HME).  The nature of the event allowed us to combine T3 and T4 characters.  That combination wasn’t without its funny moments.  The T3 rank healer accidentally got herself RVR flagged and healed us T4 people a couple of times, which promptly turned us into chickens.  I was laughing too hard to remember to take any pictures.  Boo me!

WAR: Servers Being Taken Down Again

Before you loose your cookies and start crying virtual tears over your Heavy Metal completion plans, be forewarned that the servers are going offline...

Greetings!

At 10:30 AM EST this morning, all live servers will be coming down for immediate maintenance to improve server stability. We expect to be back online by 1:30 PM EST.

As always, stay tuned to the Herald for the latest information and updates!

Yesterday I made the mistake of going to the Warhammer Alliance forums to read more about the patch and ran into people shrieking & throwing a fit over the downtime.  Opposite to that reaction, when I sat down to play and was presented with a dialog box saying the server was going offline in 5 minutes, I recognized that I could in fact, go do something else.  I opted to finish shampooing the carpets.  One if the other tasks on my list of things to do in addition to writing.

18K words completed for NanoWriMo, homemade chocolates, cashew brittle and strawberry sherbert finished and 7carpets cleaned!

WAR: Another Two Bite the Dust

Two real life friends have decided to take a break from WAR and return to play WOTLK.  *Sigh*  Their decision doesn’t have an immediate impact on my game play since they rolled Destruction and I rolled Order.  As it happens they rolled on my server thinking that they would run across me in game and gank me.  Too bad for them that even at my casual pace, I’ve out leveled their lame asses. *Kisses*

I’ve fallen a tad bit behind the guild crew that I’ve been grouping with when the opportunity presents itself.  I really enjoy their company.  We share similar levels of chattiness and can tolerate each other’s humor.  I would say enjoy, but I think a couple of them might simply be suffering in silence.  During the week they stay online later than I do.  Fortunately, they come on considerably earlier than the bulk of the guild.  The hour or so before they get on I can solo which helps to unwind from my day at the Funny Farm, before attempting to be social and civil.  If they happen to be on before me because I’ve worked late, I'm often greeted by a group invite the minute I materialize in game.  They are a great bunch which is one of the reasons I’ve been afraid of losing pace with them.  Now that we’ve hit Tier 4, I don’t have to worry anymore.  There are no other rank divisions that can bar me from playing with them.  *Whew*