I just finished publishing a catch-all update on Alysianah's World of Star Citizen. It talks about what I'm doing in the SC space as well as a couple of other games I've been dabbling in. With most of my free-time still being allocated to Aly's World, there's not a whole lot left over for much else. However, I have managed to tiptoe around in World of Warcraft Legion and The Sims City Living expansion pack. Hop on over here if you'd like to read more.
November 05, 2016
May 26, 2015
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.
January 23, 2015
WOW: Where was I?
When I last played WOW I was focused on getting my Warlock to 100. I was starting to feel too much of the grind attempting to get do 3 characters in parallel. My level 96 Priest and level 94 Mage are permanently parked in their garrisons except for going out to trap animals for fur.
I also started to chaffing at the more old school questing approach of running back and forth to quest givers. So close to hitting 100 on the Warlock and having begun to do LFG dailies, I pretty much abandoned doing anything I didn't want to do. I was trying to follow the main storyline quests far as I could identify them but skip side quests and filler.
What I enjoy most is exploring each zone to find the “open” quests that remind me of GW2. I like finding named mobs and tracking down Followers. If not for the long LFG queues for DPS characters, I’d do the instances a lot more as well. But as it is, I can barely fit two in during a normal play session. I need to get a couple more items to hit the ilevel needed for LFR. I could probably buy my way there on the Auction House but I haven’t resorted to that yet.
Newest Follower - found while exploring.
I had a real treat before the holiday thanks to a long time WOW friend. He ran me through Black Temple to let me see the encounter with Illidan, who is my favorite lore character. It was fast, fun and lucrative. He reminisced about how long setups where for the bosses when the content originally released versus his ability to slam through them now. *Smile*
Big thanks to Crowelf for running me through Black Temple!
Sauntering my way to 100 and working on my garrison is still enough entertainment to remain subscribed. I am looking forward to being eligible for LFR and hope the queues are quite as long.
December 18, 2014
WOW WoD: The Story and Old Friends
It’s only a couple of days away from my real life holiday vacation. YEA!!! I’ll be M.I.A. the last two weeks of the year. Here’s wishing all of you and yours a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
The Story thus Far
So far I’m happy with Warlords of Draenor. It’s Blizzard doing what they do best. It’s also the first release where I’ve been able to see the phasing technology in action. I haven’t quested much since BC. When I have to quest, I appreciate how the experience is being personalized with my character at the center of the action.
My priest and mage have been parked in their garrisons for the foreseeable future while I concentrate on playing my warlock. I have a small itch to heal on the priest but OMG the last time I played my priest in WOW, healing randoms almost annoyed me to the point of hating the class. Here’s an oldie but goodie post of my Top 10 Lies about Priests.
For now I’m sticking with the warlock. The ease and survivability of the demonology specialization is awesome. I feel very much like a character dabbling in dark magic. I NEVER get tired of Demonic Leap! I like the idea of the Demonic Gateway and portals but I’ve yet to find a practical way of using them on a regular basis. I’ll keep at it though. The animation and idea is too sweet to pass up without a fight.
Old Friends
I’ve had barns built in my garrisons for a while now as a way of producing more of the Sumptuous Fur needed for tailoring. The minute the first one was constructed, I was happily surprised by the familiar faces assigned to manage it on my behalf. Always and forever an Alliance side player, the trek through Goldshire was and still is, one of my favorite WOW zones. EVERY ONE OF MY CHARACTERS, regardless of race, was leveled in GS. So I know the Stonefields and the Maclures, and their star crossed lovers’ version of the Hatfields and the McCoys.
Maybell's tale still plays out in Goldshire
I was rather tickled to see NPCs I knew running around my garrison. So much so, that I made a trip to GS to see if they’d been removed from that zone now that they’re part of garrison content. Nope, they’re still there with the original quest series in place. I suppose that makes sense. Their presence in WoD would be meaningless if their original context was removed.
Really Ma Stonefield, you had to tag along??
It was funny to realize that the lovers had overcome their family issues and married anyway. This is evident by Maybell’s persona in my garrison being Maybell Maclure-Stonefield. She’s a modern woman! Too bad Ma Stonefield came along for the ride. I don’t imagine having your mother-in-law in tow is pleasant under the circumstances. Hopefully she makes up for her presence with good vittles.
Hrm. Her son, Tommy, doesn't look very enthused about it.
Often it’s the little things that bring a smile to your face. Many players won’t get significance of that family being there together. But for me, it brought back the fond memories of my early days in WOW. The wonder and adoration I felt romping around the Eastern Kingdoms during its vanilla days.
December 16, 2014
WOW WoD: 1st Two Instances
As of last night, I’ve now completed the first two instances in Warlords of Draenor a few times each. They were good as expected. We all know that Blizzard creates high caliber 5-man content. Not having done PUG 5-mans since Burning Crusade, it took me a while to warm up to the idea. WOW players don’t exactly have the best reputation when it comes to being open and friendly to new players in dungeons. After all, “link me your achievements and ilevel” was born here.
A Dip into LFG
While accepting that WOW is for the most part, old school questing, there are times when I don’t feel like running around to the tune of a quest log. Yet I need character levels to unlock various aspects of the Garrison. The other night I wanted to do something to get XP but wasn’t in the mood for quests. I decided to armor plate my sensibilities and queue up for a random dungeon.
It took roughly 30 minutes to get into a group as DPS which wasn’t a big deal. I rode around uncovering locations on the map and killing named mobs for lootz. That’s a favorite pastime of mine in WOD. Finding named baddies, elite and all, and taking them on for what their dead corpses provide. It’s either an upgrade or disenchanting fodder, and I need a lot of fodder!
I spy a a dangerous guy. I like hunting named mini bosses and elites to solo.
Luckily for me, I’d watched multiple videos on Bloodmaul and Iron Docks. More than lucky to be honest. THANK GAWD I HAD. I suspect that by now, the average WOW player is into their 2nd or 3rd character so the alts running around the game are better geared than newcomers and recent returnees. Their DPS mitigation and output is far superior, making normal 5-mans a cake walk for them.
Road Runners
People are powering through the instances like their pants are on fire or a gun on their mother. You barely have enough time to loot before the group races forward to the next encounter. Not a single word spoken in chat – nada. No explanations, words of caution given. Zip. Zero. You better know what you’re doing, are a quick study or can fake it ‘til you make it. If you die they’ll resurrect ya when they get around to it. It’s a white knuckle experience for a casual player. And don’t even THINK about watching cutscenes. I was in a party where someone was kicked over it and in another where they were told to watch it on YouTube. *Sigh*
A RPG story is playing out everywhere, linking quests to dungeons to garrison
You can choose to take your time and indulge in the show
I felt under pressure to do the DPS expected and what not. However, some of the encounters are too disorienting the first few times around to focus on it. I was more concerned about not being the one to die, not standing in the colored stuff, evading bombs, dodging fiery boulders on a narrow ledge, being aware of where to go and the DPS priority when multiple mobs are up but no one is marking targets. I can’t even IMAGINE making it through these mad dashes as a new player. OMG, I suspect it would be the first and last time.
As it was, I felt prepared enough to avoid being Leroy. I never died or came even close to it but my DPS was last or second to last. No one complained. They might have been glad I kept up, never holding them back and that was enough. For me, I’d like it to be better and to feel more confident at the encounters and the class, both of which will come over time.
I enjoyed the instances – gray hair inducing runs that they were. *Smile* If you want a more measured romp through the dungeons where you can enjoy the show, I suggest forming your own party of friends or guild members. And expressly state that you want to watch the cutscenes and take the time to listen to the various NPC conversations that take place around you. They’re really well done and there’s lots of cool stuff to see that you won’t have much chance to appreciate during a LFG mock-5 tour of them.
December 11, 2014
WOW WoD: Mo' Garrisons
I now have 3 of my 5 characters beyond level 90 and in their garrisons. My next goal is to have all of their garrisons with their profession buildings unlocked, Store house and barn. The store house is to ease the burden of sharing resources across the characters and the barn is to support the tailor. The other two character’s harvesting needs are supported without me having to place a specific building myself, as they need mining and herbs plots that come free as you level the garrison. Getting the free resources supplied by the garrison to the appropriate character, is one of the main reasons I’ve prioritized the Store before other beneficial buildings. Shuffling via game mail is already getting old.
Not You Again!
One of the reasons I rarely do alts unless I’ve played a game for a LONG TIME, is that the content feels stale in the 2nd and 3rd go around. There have been few exceptions to this rule. The two games where I did alts relatively close together but enjoyed the ride again were Rift and GW2, both of which had considerably more content than you needed to level. Hence on my alt, I only redid a small portion of the quests I’d experienced the first time around.
For the early 90s in WOW that’s not going to be the case. The road to your garrison is a handcrafted experience that requires you to complete certain quests. This is unfortunate. As I’m doing it on my third character in such close proximity, I can feel quest fatigue settling over me. I’m not knocking WOW for this. The experience they’ve crafted is very well done and some of the best quests I’ve seen from Blizzard. I wish this style of PVE content and phasing technology had been in place for Burning Crusade, which played out the events of Illidan, my favorite lore character.
Killrogg Deadeye talking smack. I really do enjoy the cut scene and RPG style questing
I doubt their intent is for you to parallel rush characters into their garrisons. However, the benefits of having a garrison on each character, quickly leads you down that road. If for nothing more than having XP generated from Follower Missions. Still, I’m taking responsibility for the fact that I’m deciding to rush them forward all at once.
Oh really? One of us is going to run home to mommy before this is over & it ain't gonna be me!
On the upside of doing so, I’ve zoned in on the class that will become my main. They’ve done some really nice things to the Warlock and after a 7+ year absence, I will be returning to where it all began. Saylah, the first character I created in WOW, did hardcore raiding with and played for 3 years straight without ever creating an alt, will once again take center stage as my main in WOW.
December 09, 2014
December 08, 2014
What I’m Playing: Sub off. Sub on. – Part 2 of 2
The past few days have been interesting as I contrast and compare playing ArcheAge and World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor. When I’m in AA I marvel at how gorgeous the world is and that even at my new casual pace, I feel part of a breathing world and economy. In WOW, I’m impressed by the graphic update and how they’ve been able to breathe new life into old art assets and add more visual depth. I’m logging into both of these games for different reasons and find them equally fulfilling.
Sub On
My intention in WOW is to focus on the Garrison mini-game. So far, it has not disappointed me. Wow’s questing model and combat mechanics feel very old school to me after playing GW2 and AA’s level how u wanna. And the more active combat styles of GW2, Terra and WildStar. I really dislike having to stand still taking it to the face as a caster. It’s not something I’m used to doing anymore. I knew what I was getting into going back to WOW and for that reason, don’t want to focus on doing a lot of questing content.
From the features I saw, I felt as though the Garrison would have enough to occupy me for an hour a day – at least. Watching max level players managing their garrisons at level 3, it was apparent that I could spend even more time by collecting and managing followers, harvesting resources, doing invasions, etc. Enough so, that if I did nothing more than that, it would be worth a monthly subscription.
Oh My!
To get my garrison I had to play along and complete a quest series to unlock it. At first I was like “Ugh. Really?” But they’ve done an excellent job with the opening quest series. It took me right back to the cinematic feel of the opening experience in GW2 and when the Death Knight was introduced to WOW. Using Blizzard’s phasing technology, you’re actively involved in the story playing out, not a secondary participant running alongside 100 other players. It’s much more solo RPG-esk and I noticed the introduction of new objective completion mechanics. Nothing ground breaking mind you. There’s only so many different ways of getting a player to complete a quest task. Still, it was enough to make me notice the change. In under an hour, I had achieved my goal of unlocking my garrison.
Woot, this garrison is mine!
It’s an Integral Part of the Journey
Inside my lowly garrison, I immediately had things I could achieve – mini game tasks to complete. I started a work order to place my first building, sent followers on a mission and collected goodies from a crate. Simple stuff like that. Not a lot to do. But enough to wet your whistle and appetite for more.
To get more however, I had to venture forth and … quest. Here’s where I had to decide if I was going to turn that it a positive or negative. I decided that I would do what I felt like doing and no more than that. Although WOW isn’t designed as much to level in that fashion, my goal isn’t to hit max level. it’s to play with garrison features. And I might as well explore since I can’t fly past things. So off I went, out into the wilderness of Shadowmoon Valley.
Blizzard couldn’t have designed a better themed environment for sucking me into wanting to run around. Abundant, vibrant, fanciful and pretty zones are the bees-knees to me. It’s my style of fantasy MMO! It felt natural to do this and that, from the list in the upper right hand corner, while I was out exploring. We won’t mention the name of that “thing”, it’s pure evil. One by one, I got objectives done that unlocked more activities in my garrison. *Sahweet!*
Mine unlocked after reaching Garrison level 2
Even when I did stuff I wasn’t sure was directly tied to giving me new garrison features, they were ate least, directly related to the story playing out in WoD. It was still about me and the garrison I’m maintaining for the war effort. I wasn’t asked to go get pig ears for some dumbass farmer standing less than two feet from the blasted pigs. I was out doing serious business! Little by little, over the course of a few play sessions my Garrison hit level two, I’d added more buildings and unlocked a mine. Color me happy. Color it fabulous.
Hello there. My very own Paladin. She's mine ALL mine!
Jury is out
The jury is still out on how much PVE content I intend to do in WoD. My first priority is completing quests that award/unlock garrison features. What else I do along the way remains to be seen. I know that once mine hits level 3, I want to dig into the nuances for the benefits of having certain buildings versus others, collecting all the followers, gearing up my followers and doing garrison invasions. With all that at hand, I don’t know that I have the time for much more in WOW. I haven’t given up on AA yet and have farms and properties to manage there. I may see some dungeons here and there but only time will tell.
December 05, 2014
What I’m Playing: Sub off. Sub on. – Part 1 of 2
Yep, I’ve joined the 9,999,999 gamers playing the newest World of Warcraft expansion, Warlords of Draenor. Once I decided to unsubscribe from ArcheAge, I handed my money to Blizzard. I need to have a reliable MMO for the winter. I’ve not given up on AA. I’m holding out hope that Trion and XL Games can turn the ship around. However, I felt the need to voice my displeasure by withdrawing monetary support.
Sub Off
I’ve neatly downsized my operations in AA. My large farm plot is being used exclusively to craft and house Aged Cheese. I can’t fit 7 Aged Cheese larders down at a time, 2 cows for the milk required and 2 sheep to continue supporting my tailoring profession. Larders take 3 days to mature and do not require any attention in between. On my small farm I have another 2 cows and 2 lemon trees which also go toward supporting my Aged Cheese business. This change reduces my effort down to visiting those locations twice a day to feed livestock, draw milk and pick lemons.
I've become the Aged Cheese Lady
At my two houses, I’ve reduced the effort of harvesting and replanting yams and lotus multiple times a day, by raising chickens - nuttin’ but chickens. This serves to eliminate my peace time trade runs from Halcyona to Gwenoid. I’m harvesting eggs from chickens purely to remove the more time consuming effort of harvesting/gathering/butchering one thing to replace it again. Eggs sell at a decent price and were always part of my farming portfolio. The difference is they’re the sole focus of my Lilyhut operation, replacing the more profitable but consuming Yam Pasta trade.
Less Effort + Less Profit + F2P = Holding Pattern
My farming and trade operation used to require 3 hours per day minimum for farm management + 1.5 hours to do trade runs. I was routinely producing enough raw materials to support crafting 15 - 20 packs per day. My habit was to do at least two trade runs per day. When I was feeling more motivated and/or there weren't any guild activities taking place, I would do 3 or 4 runs.
Based on how things have been going in AA lately, I’m no longer willing to commit that much time or energy into a game I’m not sure is heading in a sound direction. My new line-up only requires a couple of hours a day tops but only yields 28 trade packs per week (14 Aged Cheese and 14 Milk Soap = 4 trade runs). That’s a huge reduction in production and the time required to execute it. Aged Cheese, Milk Soap and eggs will translate into more than enough money per month to cover using in game gold to retain my Patron status while waiting things out. I no longer have immediately goals to upgrade my armor, weapons or acquire a trade ship until I’m certain that I’m staying.
I will measure the success of this transition. I want it to stand on its own feet and not eat up the gold I’ve already earned. I removed gold from my character and placed it in the Warehouse, only seeding this experiment with 25G. I will no longer be purchasing Labor Potion from the AH either. All funds and LP earned will be kept to support on-going production, paying for APEX each month and acquiring Tax Certificates.
January 23, 2014
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