Mystic Worlds

What’s up? Not much. Some Tera: Fate of Arun

What Was

Playing Don’t Starve Together, The Sims 4, World of Warcraft and Darkest Dungeon have all slowed down.  I’m going to be having what should be minor surgery in a couple of weeks.  This has turned my focus to spring cleaning, getting things ready for hand-off at work and organizing my house and bedroom beforehand. Minimally, I’ll be laid up for 4 weeks.   4 weeks convalescing takes planning!

I like TS4 more than I thought I would.  It’s probably my second favorite of all the expansions, TS2 Open for Business being my favorite.  After redesigning all of the new professions buildings where you accompany your Sim to work, it’s very cool.  I’m very partial to the hospital I designed and downloaded a mod to extend the workday.  Imagine wanting to make your workday longer! LOL I actually wish it was a location that was accessible to her outside of the normal workday.  It’s a hoot seeing other Sims I’ve created as patients and co-workers.  The only thing I’d want beyond what they’ve done, is a way to progress the professions to private practices / home offices.  The same way you can open a bakery, photo studio or retail store on a personally owned piece of property, I want to open a doctor’s office.

In effort of not starving, I meandered back to the single player version because of a RPG mod someone created.  The mod provides predefined classes with their own set of skills and weapons.  It also adds monster villages / towns to spice things up. Instead of the single NPC boss encounters and dangerous critters in certain areas, this puts more combat and excitement into the game.  I wish there was a DTS version.

I’ve lost interest in WOW and Darkest Dungeon for a while. WOW I probably would have played longer if the instances queues weren’t so long for DPS people. I’m really no longer fond of the quest model and not much new with the Warlock class itself.  For now, I hop on occasionally to do garrison stuff until the subscription runs out.  I’m sure part of the issue is playing in utter silence.  No guild or anything.  One of my favorite WOW steamers has started a guild for people subscribed to his stream. And since I’m subscribed, I recently moved two characters over there for the next time I get the WOW itch.

Memorial Day Weekend in Tera

On the same stream, people were talking about trying out Tera.  I guess now that it’s on Steam it’s getting more attention.  I liked Tera well enough.  The combat was good and it had some interesting zones.  It’s still the old school questing model but they’ve amped it up a bit since I last played. There are more daily quests.  They’ve also added a new “Initiative Requests” interface that’s like GW2 dailies. The quests are delivered to you via the interface, you go off and do them and the rewards are received via the interface. The interface will also port you to the appropriate zone.  Tera is large compared to many MMOs and traversing all the zones isn’t exactly speedy.  Battlegrounds have also been added.

Other than the common lockbox RNG that’s favored in many Asian MMOs, Tera’s F2P model is good.  It’s certainly not P2W. It’s pay for convenience such as a map with portals on it. Pay to look good – lots of costumes and skins. Pay to lighten the load – faster mounts, pets with storage space, pets that auto loot.  They have a “Roll Call” promotion going where you earn small treats every day that you log in – minor conveniences. 

Over the long weekend I popped in for an hour, liked what I saw and started leveling my priest again.  Always a sucker for cute cash shop items, I bought a mount that’s a huge hulking creature I ride on top of Cleopatra style and the pet that auto loots.  OMG the amount of trash loot in Tera is staggering.  I wish spending a certain amount in the CS granted a month subscription, I spent more than that over the weekend.  Cuz you know, steampunk rules all and given the chance to dress up in cogs, gears and whatnot is a no brainer! Unique mount, useful pet and gears – ‘nuff said.

Leveling has been fairly fast with the double XP promotion going. Playing on and off, I gained 4 levels over the weekend.  I changed out of my healing spec on the priest to pure DPS.  Her filler skills are shit but she can hold her own. I was even able to do 2 quests designed for 5 mans – BAMS (Big Ass Monsters).  It takes some doing alone but I got her done.  And at least one of the 5 man instances I needed to complete a storyline quest had a single player option.  The bosses were difficult but I survived with more than full health. 

To my chagrin, Tera has taken a page from the Blizzard handbook of designing boss encounters – hopscotching out of circles and obstacles left-right-center has become a thing.  They've even added phases where things get worse the longer the encounter stretches on, which wasn’t going in my favor doing it alone but I managed it.  All in all, it was a fun diversion. I don’t expect to play it “full time”. Not sure I’ll be playing anything “full time” for a while to come but it was definitely worth the download.

 

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Work has been super busy the past couple of weeks which has been a good distraction.  I’ve also been working out of town which forces me to socialize with people even if I’m not feeling up to it.  I’m back home for a couple of days and feeling tired but up for some Don’t Starve Together.

Just before leaving town I played a DST session where I was joined by Brokenwind and Fannel, former guild members from ArcheAge.  I miss playing with them.  They’re great folks but the difference in time zones is problematic.  We ran around one of my DST worlds for a bit and it was good to catch up with them on TeamSpeak.

Over the weekend I was up for more DST.  Unfortunately, there was a game update while I was out of town.  I’m not sure if the removal all previous game snapshots was intentional or not.  And if it was, did they really mean for people to loss access to all of their saved worlds???  I have 3 worlds I play with back and forth, depending on what character I want to play and what’s need to be done.  All of them are over 200 days and have a lot of time invested.  I’m just at the point of having really nice bases, have found Chester, starting to try magic and experiment with the more advanced mechanics.  It will be a real disappointment to lose them all.

The issue I’m having is that the game client crashes to a black screen with LUA errors any time I try to load one of my saved worlds.  Attempting to use the Manager Server window does the same thing.  I was able to create, save and reload by making a new world but ugh, I’d really rather not.

I won’t be completely bent out of shape since its BETA. I’d just like to be clear this was the expected outcome of the most recent update.  I can’t tell from the forum post and the responses. Some players are having issues, with loading the game but not expressing what I’m experiencing while others are asking questions about new console commands.

I’ve posted in the official forums and on Reddit hoping for some clarity, if not a fix.  If anyone has any ideas, I uploaded an image of the crash/error here.  This happens with or without mods installed.  I REALLY REALLY don’t want to lose the world my daughter, nephew and I built if at all possible.

 

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My mood still swings widely between being “okay” and feeling too bereft to do much at all.  I canceled all of my subscriptions for now.  If I play anything at all, it’s Don’t Starve or Darkest Dungeon.  They both offer opportunities for gaming sessions that are fun, have quick options for progression and are just the right amount of detail to take my mind off things.

For Don’t Starve, I’ve moved exclusively to playing the co-op version, Don’t Starve Together, albeit playing it alone.  I liked the option of continuing in my quiet bubble while having the option of sharing the experience with others in the future. DST and Darkest Dungeon are the only Steam Early Access games I've ever purchased and I'm extremely happy with both.

I have three different “new player friendly” worlds going, all of which have seen multiple winters solo.  The first one has all of the normal nasty monsters enabled but “more” of the critical resources. This was before I realized how impossible it would be to kill some of them solo. Or at least at my level of game play, killing them alone wasn’t doable.  I ended up running from Deerclops after he wrecked half my base.  He eventually de-spawned into the nether world.  I’ve seen other more experienced players requiring multiple people to kill the various MacTusk settlements that spawn during winter. So that was another run around until they de-spawn and OMG I need winter to end now!

Having learned from DST game 1, in game 2 I reduced the spawn rate of the nasty named mobs to “less”, left the material spawn rates at their defaults and tried a new character.  In game 3, the nasty named mobs are turned off, days are longer, a few resources are set to “more” and I tried another character.  Recently, I’ve been playing game 3 the most but I pop into to play game 2 as well.

Don’t Starve: The Road to 100+ Days

If you don't establish goals, things can be routine in DS after surviving your first couple of winters.  When spring and summer arrive, I use that time uncover more of the map and improving my home base.  I have small outposts in far-flung locations that contain resources which aren't used often.

I’ve managed to beat all of the other hounds sent my way. With the help of pigs, I've killed 2 spider queens.  I’ve out run Deerclops.  Unfortunately, he wrecked half my base before I was able to get out of the area.  I didn't realize he was on the way.  I have no clue how to kill him alone.  He stomps the pigs too easily for them to be of much assistance. I suspect killing him involves dabbling in the more sophisticated traps and gadgets I’ve seen used on Twitch.  I’m not there yet.

Now that I've officially survived 100 days, my new goal is to find Chester.  This milestone was set when I started my 3rd game.  Not too shabby surviving this long, having only played twice before. With more free time to roam, I’ve uncovered about 80% of the map and still haven’t found the eyebone to summon Chester as a tanking storage companion. I literally spent most of the past warm season looking for him to no avail.  The eyebone isn’t very big. It’s possible I didn’t notice it.  Grrr.  However, I have found other interesting relics along the way.

Smile for the camera.  She's made it to 100 days!  And yes, this is still only my 3rd ever game.

I found where and how to activate a resurrection point and it’s not far from the long trip I make for marble and gears.  I also located Maxwell’s Door.  Thank goodness I’d heard about it on a stream.  The Door is part of the story for the single player DS and your mission to find Maxwell.  Going through that portal takes you to a new world map, leaving all else behind.  You don’t go through it until you’re equipped and ready to abandon your current world.  No thanks.  Not just now.

Oh my, Maxwell's Door. I know what you're for and I'm not ready to leave yet.

After spending another 2 summers searching for Chester, it’s back to my home base.  Winter just rolled in.  I’ve collected items that will let me try out the magic crafting tab while I huddle up near the fire.  I am more than amply prepared for the frost and snow.  I’m not looking forward to the penguins squawking endlessly but that’s what happens when you build on the shoreline.

With a resurrection location enabled, I’m going to head out to find the walrus camp.  I’ll setup a small outpost nearby and see if I can farm MacTusk for good lootz.

Nice! A get out of jail free card. Hopefully, I won't ever need to be resurrected.

Photo Album of other happenings on the road to 100 days

 

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Don’t Starve: Coming up in the World

I’m still playing the same instance of Don’t Starve.  I’ve gone well beyond my initial goal of surviving my first winter.  I have multiple winters under my belt and have continued to upgrade my basecamp and my inventory along the way.

I try to spend a portion of the summer exposing new aspects of game play.  Conquering a new advisory for what it drops.  Gathering materials to create upgrades to weapons and armor.  Add something new to the base camp that I see more seasoned players using.  Essentially, the summer is where I up my game play while simultaneously preparing for the next winter.

I set fire to a distant forest area for the charcoal and ashes used to craft healing salve and boomerangs

Don’t Starve: Getting Started Guide Part 3 of 3

Day 10 – Day 13

Hopefully, by this time you’ve crafted the basic items you need to survive the elements, as well as craft other items.  Winter is only a few days away.  The focus now is to begin storing essential materials and selecting a good food source.  You don’t have to do anything fancy to make it through the cold days.  My first time through it was bare bones, living hand-to-mouth and it worked!  You want meat to help keep your stomach full during the winter.  Depending on what’s close at hand you may have a few choices.  In addition to meat, you want “filler” foods to add to recipes too.  This will reduce the amount of meat required to cook a meal.  Additionally, combining meat with other items in the Crockpot produces a different meal.

Food Sources

Here are the things we want to work on crafting next.  They will help provide and/or support having protein (meat) to add into your crockpot meals.

• Traps (6 to 10) – used to trap rabbits and spiders | 6 grass + 2 twigs per trap
• Thermal Stone – can be heated near a fire to preserve warmth | 10 stone + 1 pick + 3 flint
• Drying Rack – used to preserve meat | 3 twigs + 2 charcoal + 3 rope

If you have time – these are options I didn’t have until my 2^nd winter

• Bird Trap – used to trap a bird | 3 twigs + 4 spider silk
• Bird Cage – used to house the bird you trapped to provide eggs | 2 papyrus + 6 gold + 2 seeds
  Papyrus is made from reeds found in the marsh. I avoided the marsh my first winter.

 

Don’t Starve: Getting Started Guide Part 2 of 3

Enhancing Your Game Play

If you’re not a purist about your gaming experience, I suggest availing yourself of a few mod and iOS apps. There are a few hundred mods available on the Steam Workshop for both flavors of the game.  The ones I’ve suggested below have minimal game impact but improve a few aspects that I find annoying, lacking or improve the fun-factor.

Helpful Resources

• Don’t Starve Wikia http://dont-starve-game.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Craftable_Items
• Crockbook (iOS) lists all known cooking recipes and the stats they affect
• Don’t Starve Items (iOS) lists all creatures, monsters and items, including crafting recipes
• Favorite Don’t Starve Twitch Streamers
  • http://www.twitch.tv/hatebringertv - Excellent for newer players.  Their are a couple new to streaming.   The atmosphere is casual, friendly and very helpful.  The play DST with viewers on a daily basis.  Stop in to say hello and support them by "following" if you like what you see.
  • http://www.twitch.tv/dizzydizaster - Excellent for more advanced play.  Plays beyond 100 day servers on a regular basis.  Explores all the bells, whistles and advanced mechanics of the game.  If you've moved beyond surviving 100 days and what to learn what's next, this is an excellent resource. This is a popular stream and often very crowded so the chat moves fast, making it hard to get the hosts attention for questions. However, is audience will answer questions too.

Steam Workshop Mods

All of these mods are added to your game by subscribing to them via the Steam Workshop page.  Every time you launch the game it will remind you that you have mods installed. Use the MOD option to see your list and toggle your subscriptions on and off.  After you subscribe to a Mod you MUST EXPLICITLY ENABLE IT the first time.

Don’t Starve: Getting Started Guide Part 1 of 3

Your objective in Don’t Starve is very clear – stay alive, don’t starve.  However, starving is often the least of your worries.  You can die in a multitude of ways in DS.  Weather, killer animals, poison vegetation and darkness, will all kill you.  DS is a sandbox survival game.  Think Minecraft meets The Sims minus creative building features.

The game mechanics are straight forward.  You left click to move and interact with the environment.  Alternatively, you can use the keyboard.  I immediately remapped the hotkeys using the Options menu available on the startup screen.  From there you can change settings and controls. No can do WASD for movement.  I also re-mapped the primary and secondary keys to something that was more natural for me versus the defaults. 

Clicking to move and interacting with the environment is much too slow.  You should use the keyboard.  For example, spamming the secondary interaction key will auto-harvest items nearby that match the weapon you have equipped.  This is MUCH FASTER than left clicking every item with the mouse.

Editing your World

Unless you’ve played many survival games or watched a lot of video on DS, I would suggest tweaking the settings on your first game.  Not in a way that trivializes the experience.  Just enough to tone down the RNG death traps so you are more assured of getting through a few days to gain experience with how the game mechanics work.

Modifying the environment settings is done by selecting World which is available on the New Game screen.  It’s the same place you see the Character selection option.  Below are settings I suggest you tweak at first.

• Day = Long
• Rain = Less
• Lightening = Less
• Tall Grass = More
• Rocks (Boulder) = More
• Rabbits = More
• Hounds (black beast) = Less

 

Don’t Starve: OH NO!!

“Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal…”  Wash |Firefly

It was all going to plan. My basecamp was in good shape to survive the few remaining days of winter.  My strategy of eating hand to mouth because I lacked an Ice Box was working.  Whenever I was hungry, I collected a fresh rabbit from one of my 10 traps and cooked up some vittles. 

DS/DST winter gets a bit routine, especially if you lack special clothing. You can’t wander far from your base.  Whenever I must go more than a few yards away I create a campfire nearby.  The only goal I had left beyond surviving until spring was making a Heat Stone.  This would let me forage a bit further if necessary.

Penguins making their way on land by lumbering thru my basecamp

While out gathering more stone because I’d mistakenly thought the Heat Stone needed cut stone and had thereby wasted what I had on hand, I ran into a gaggle of penguins.  They were gathered on a small pond of ice making a huge ruckus.  I already knew not to attack one.  I saw a streamer mauled by the whole pack after attacking just one.  As I stood watching, I noticed they had a lot of eggs. Hrm, eggs.  Eggs I don’t have because I’ve steered clear of spiders which means I don’t have silk for bird traps.  Eggs that can be cooked with morsels to make Eggs and Bacon.  Hrm, I want those eggs.

Casual Gaming: Don’t Starve

The premise is simple.  The execution, not so much. I stumbled across Don’t Starve (DS) and its co-op play alternative, Don’t Starve Together (DST), via Twitch.tv.  After watching a few streams I wanted to try my own hand at not starving to death.  From the outside looking in, it appeared to be The Sims meets Minecraft Survival Mode meets Harvest Moon.  Okay y’all, I’m in.

I’m not much of a solo RPG fan. I tend to get bored playing games alone after having found MMOs so I really liked the idea of the coop option for DS.  A few days after seeing people play it for the first time, I owned both version of the game due to a $19 bundle on Steam that included both versions of the game and a copy of DST for a friend.  Although I’m mostly looking forward to playing DST with family and friends I decided to get my feet wet on DS first.

Test Drive

My first two attempts at DS weren’t very stellar.  In both cases I was dead after the hounds arrived on day 9.  I have an absolutely atrocious sense of direction combined with difficulty in finding an area to collect stone and gold nuggets put me way behind.  I wasn’t starving.  In fact, I was managing my hunger, health and sanity pretty darn good but desperately needed stone for a permanent fire pit and gold to create the science table.  Still wandering around aimlessly by day 8 wasn’t conducive to being prepared to fight the hounds when they arrived.  *sigh*

Disappointed in my showing, albeit making it to day 9 on my first attempt was better than other new players I’d seen, it wasn’t good enough for me.  Reading through a few Reddit threads I picked up on the suggestion to uncover your map by walking along the shoreline while sustaining yourself on the go.  Viola!  That sounded like the perfect answer to my problem of getting lost trying to locate the resources you should start harvesting right off the bat.