Home from home....

Not a lot has been happening on the gaming front. Another week away from home.
This working lark puts a  big dampener on the gaming life, but I guess the pay does help ;-p
Roll on winning the lotto!

Last weekend saw a lot of faffing about on games… playing but not really doing anything… it was annoying.

Wow has made a comeback, Skyrim has fallen to the side, Eve is still chugging along. Xcom has been left waving in the wind... until the new one comes out.

A friend in and out of wow placed me in a situation, last week he signed me up for a raid, told the raid leader I would be there etc. And that was before he told me.
I never raid when away form home. The broadband dongle does tend to be a bad connection. So not wanting to let him or them down I setup wow and mumble and was surprised that it all worked.
Despite a "dc" or two. My Main, the hunter, between normal and bonus rolls got about 5 replacement parts.... nice.
I'll be in the same situation this Thursday.... lets hope it works out just as well.

Skyrim was stopped dead in its tracks. As I didn't bring my laptop home and I didn't copy my latest saved game onto a usb stick I couldn't work on continuing the story line...

Time in Eve has been a few rounds of quick updating, skills and P.I.   
After a number of people asking about my POS's position for sale, I think I have a persistent buyer. Next day or two will tell for sure.
I picked up the second Eve collectors edition from the post office last night. Just before they shut, another 2 minutes and I'd have had a disappointing trip. I added the codes and got the "stuffs", including the plex, but it sold for 20 mill less than the other one last week. Still 600 Mill each for free is nice. 

An alt was finally admitted to the 0.0 corp, I didnt' get to do much else than read the current alliance/corp mails, setup the proper intel channels and get a general feel for the corp. I was gonna go get a hauler and P.I. command centres, but there are a number of war dec's just out, hi-sec hubs are not safe. I'll get another alt to ferry about some stuff for him.

My Eve related web reading has been greatly reduced, I still check both the blog's of CSM members Jester and Mike, with http://evehermit.wordpress.com/. I've also been reading their blogroll entries and looking at the top 10 sites that they list.  

I've also started to cast an eye on Dust 514. The equivalent Dust version of a CSM member is a CPM, so have been reading http://hansshotfirst.blogspot.com

MEDIEVAL LAND FUN-TIME WORLD!

Skyrim, bringer of death...

Some kills are interesting in Skyrim.

Like defeating a dragon, depending on the finishing move, you can see your character jump onto its head and start stabbing away.

Sometimes a mace to the face is an old but good one:

Mace to the face.

Again a less traditional kill but still an oldie but a goodie:

Stick this

And then some combo's work well. This dude was thrown with a shout behind this open door, he couldn't move beyond it... so I fried him alive ( for an undead ):

Walk this off

The Second decade....

While in the mood to splash out during the summer I purchased two of the collectors editions.  Golden pods for two accounts. One arrived yesterday. The other should be here today.

It's all well packaged and parcelled up. 
At 4kg its a hefty feel and after waiting for it to arrive for so long you feel like its value for money. 
Time to open it.

I haven't checked the board game yet.

The "history" book is very well done and looks fantastic. I like it. It's the hefty part.

The CD with the music doesn't really interest me but I'll prob listen to it once.

The Rifter usb hub is ok, not the best build quality in my view.  It's all a bit too fragile and fiddly to constantly be used as a usb hub. Too many bits that can be broken off. I had hopes that it would be great looking when it "lights up", but one lil dim light does not a desk-side eye-candy Rifter make... I was disappointed with that. It's a better top shelf ornament than a usb hub. The second one will be staying in the box.

Codes, codes, codes. The best part of the deal. The Second decade code gives the plex and other offers as they happen from now until whenever CCP decides you have to upgrade it. The other code is for Dust ( I don't play it ). 
The last code gave these goodies:

\o/

 

So being an in game collection junky I was wide eye'd at these. 

1 plex, going for about 600 Mill on the market as of last night. I won't say no to that.

The other items are fun with only a fraction being practical. 
The golden pod looks really cool. As does the new Magnate frigate.

I'll be keeping the BPC. Last night if selling there was a lot of undercutting by large margins but prob would go for 300 Mill. I'm sure the price of that will jump wildly.

The set of cloth's for both a male and female character. As my first account is a male and the second account is a Female I'll swap and have a double set for each. Plus an eye "implant".
 
I have not gotten details of the robotic arm for eve avatars. Or about the Valkyrie fighter.

Somethings a little off...

 

POS Down...

The POS has stopped all function, I collected the last of what needed to be done. Sold off most of the remaining modules and fuel. This has netted me about 600 Million. It's quiet nice to get a bulk return on previously invested isk. 

I've renamed the POS with a For Sale sticker... not sure if I will leave it up for a while or take it down ... Will see what happens over the next week or so.

My main recently passed the 50 million skill point mark and my second accounts main has just passed 35 Million.

Had I not started training an alt on the mains account, an extra 20 Million SP would have been the mains. The thoughts that the main would have been a 70mill SP Char is nice... roll on this time next year!

My Faction Warfare alt was kicked from corp, probably due to inactivity, or people thinking "SPAI!", but given my retrospective thoughts it may not be a bad thing.

This means that 3 of 6 characters are homeless. Sounds like a fresh start to me.

I need to start playing the mains as mains and stop living through the alts. But its hard keeping in mind that I should do stuff on the mains more then alts… 

The last week has seen a my second main and an alt get storyline missions appearing. Both did well and got bounty of about 22 million for each mission, with the rewards on hand in they both got about 25 Million.Not bad and the extra sec status boost and rep is always good.

Alts Raven

My second main's Tengu

Skyrim goes on...

The weekend saw me get a good few quests out of the way. Most had been on the list for some time.
One of those was a seemingly simple quest, which brought me through a dungeon, a dwarven ruin that I had previously visited. As I went through I recalled seeing an item at the end of this dungeon, I could not use it at that time, so I presumed the current quest ended with it's use.

So being late at night and in a last push to finish the quest I went on, used the item and was surprised... It didnt' end the quest, not by a long shot. Instead it opened a stairway to an area that I can only describe as another world. Blackreach.

My Guesstimated size of it on the main map.

It was VAST and was the last thing I wanted to see at that time of night (morning)!

 

Blackreach

 

It was so different in look from the rest of the game (but not that much), I was compelled to go further, take quests and discover more.

Elder Scroll

The fact that that that chain involved an Elder Scroll should have raised alarm bells.

There are a few more quests that are all based around the same character and the Thieves guild. That will comprise the main part of the questing next.

Once that is done I'll start the quest chain to do the Stormcloak Rebellion rather than side with the Imperials.
And then finish off the main storyline.

Random stuff corner.... drop or re-pickup items.

That Skyrim thing...

Once you get to a certain stage of a game, when you are familiar with the way it works, you can start to take advantage of it.  I’m doing just that with Xcom and Skyrim, two games I’ve been getting back into.

I really enjoy the part of the game that see's your character(s) at the best that can be. Usually its at the end of a game and that is a pity. So much time is played reaching that end game gear. It should last longer.

The main joy of getting back into single player and turn based games is the pause… cup of tea ready, no problem… hit escape.

I found it so strange the first time I did that with wow.. walking down the middle of a road.. cup of tea ready, hit escape.. oh yeah, its “persistant”. Hence the safe spot is important. Every-one has those moments.

Skyrim:

The Old me

Over time I've seen my character developed and progress getting great gear and spells, to both get through any encounter and endure any dungeon.

It’s a big game! There are so many side quests/encounters and things to do that it has taken far longer than a normal play-through doing the main quest line. I like to clear as much of these as I can. I did it with Oblivion and I’m doing it with Skyrim.

It’s about enjoying the journey. Am sure I’ve said that before…

Right now I only have a few things left to do and that’s before the main quest. I do not have any of the expansions: Dawnguard, Hearthfire or Dragonborn. I'm not sure the second counts as a real expansion...

At the beginning I was looting and grabbing anything I could get to either sell or use. I’m at a stage now where I am selectively looting as I have so much gold it no longer matters. And have multiple sets of gear depending on the mood and methods needed to complete quests.

My current look

I think my character has some great gear. Very heavy handed smash stuff in the face with a mace kind of guy with a handful of flame in the other.

A chest in the main home of my character  ( with his wife and pet dog ) contains one of every armour/weapon + enchanted specials. Another with foods and materials for alchemy/enchanting.

In a bedside chest I have the best armour/specials and one off items.

I’ve not read up any recent guides, I had downloaded so many when the game came out I found it started to spoil the game. I'll only look stuff up if I'm really stuck with what needs to be done or where to find a specific item that's been eluding me for a long time.

I like the addition of the housecarl, the live in home security.
But don’t use the housecarl’s as quest buddies. But tend to use the other random people who can tag along or you can hire.

The last of these was a certain flesh eating “buddy” you get from a quest line. But as I needed to sacrifice a “buddy” for another quest … she was the obvious choice, and made me feel better after having done a few things to get her to the “buddy” stage… I don’t think I spoiled anything there…

I have super equipped my “main” house’s housecarl. But it’s a pity the armour doen’t show up once she is in default house mode. Maybe there is a mod for that….

Merc for Hire

I’ve not used any mods other than the hi-res texture pack that was done by the makers of the game. I found that there were too many conflicts with adding on more and more add-ons, but it’s great to have a game that allows it. I made good use of it in Oblivion.

  ______________________ 

  

I've since gone back and completed a few more bits. And have to eat my words as the end of the mage side of things has seen me reload saves a few times. It's been hard going to kill certain new creatures. Guess I jinxed it!
I've also started to ignore people who start giving extra options where you can help them. That type of automated mini side-quest distraction I can do without. They dont' affect anything besides getting you gold.
I should have a good bit more cleared this weekend. Only when that's all done will I see about the expansions.

Some quests just have to be laughed at.

Gaming ahoy..... not!

For the Gamers!

It's either a feast or a famine. Gaming wise.

With the lack of a proper internet connection and being away from home it limits the gaming.
When home I've been back into Xcom and Skyrim, I hope to put up some info about those adventures. 

Wow has been relegated to the "I dont' even touch the icon any more" realm.


Eve is pretty much in automated mode, a few minor tweaks of P.I. and POS jobs, a quick glance at skill q's and its done.

Weekend that was...

Didn’t get up to much on Eve. Did my usual updating of skills, PI and POS jobs. Did an underwhelming lvl4 mission for old times sake... Sold the processed PI materials and allowed the characters to keep the proceeds for themselves. Another week should see me actively trying to sell the POS(location). Checking online I think I’d be lucky to get 140 mill…

Both my mains are on long training skills (20+ days) so they don't need constant attention. It may be a good time to get that FW alt doing stuff.

Got an alt to apply for a nullsec corp just to get an alternative income from ratting, null PI etc. with luck they will accept… but it was strange to not hear anything over the weekend... not even a rejection.

I played a bit of XCOM Enemy Unknown and also a bit of Skyrim. I must write up some bits about them.

XCOM: Enemy Within

Only saw that there was an expansion last week, so have pre-purchased it on steam yesterday.

The first game was a great one, I must go back for a little replay. The new game looks like it adds a good amount of content, am looking forward to it. I can see myself taking a lot of time to progress due to the "need" to get everything researched and have the proper fully equipped team ... or two... plus a cast off/ragtag crew to have fun with....

Just not sure I want my team being "mech-ified"...

Steam has a sale on both games as I write:
75% off the Enemy Unknown - http://store.steampowered.com/video/200510
&
10% off new Enemy Within - http://store.steampowered.com/app/225340/

Change always comes...

His view of the planet was majestic, ship nose toward the equator, inertia carrying him sideways in orbit.

Clouds, deep blue crystal oceans, lush green archipelago.
Mother nature at her best, developing and enduring since its creation.

This planet had no great history, no place in texts to make it noteworthy.

Hard to imagine busy lives below.



Change always comes.



It's water made it precious to some but only for how fast they could process it.

This one like many others was no exception.

Always philosophical in this type of orbit.
Thoughts to broaden the deepest minds.



Change had come, externally, to plunder.



His view changed.
Oceans blackened, lands darkened. roaring red flames and intense white flashes light up features on the landscape.

His came closer to others in orbit, salvo's from them glowing brightly through the atmosphere.

A message blinked, he aligned his ship toward them and thrust to a stop.


More flashes appeared as ships dropped out of warp between him and his fleet.



Breath before the storm.



Change always comes.

_______________________

I came across the image while doing a lil look for a good desktop image.

http://www.hdwallpapers.in/view/star_wars_fiction_planet-1920x1080.html

I guess it just prompted me to type a little....

Got that Minmatar feeling...

A while back I came across both of these around the same time, I think they suit each other well, especially when thinking about Eve online and the Minmatar race....

http://andreewallin.deviantart.com/art/Wasteland-2-Desert-Rangers-295902265

A friend in need....

Let me give a little back history about a friend of mine... 

We worked together for a good while, he got me into wow, we played a lot of online games over the years. He started playing Eve about 5 or 6 weeks before I did yet we didn’t know it at the time and only a catch up mail later did we get to talk about what we were both playing. 

In eve we are polar opposites. 
He jumps online with the avid enthusiasm of an overactive 8 year old. 
I login and have a set routine I do first. 
He thinks quickly and then does it. 
I need to plan, think about, and research before I dip my toe into something. 

I have perseverance and he has a short attention span. 


You get the idea...  It’s amazing that we play at all.

Anyway a few month's back while messing about on eve, my mate convo'd me, we were each doing our own thing at the time. We started chatting about what was the best money maker. I talked to him about incursions and wormhole stuff. We chatted a lot about them that night. A day later he was in a wormhole corp and out running sites in a tengu.

A week or so later I got a text message on my phone:

“Lost a Tengu balls ;) come run some missions”

So knowing he had a CNR for running missions I hopped on as an alt that was close and refitted, then undocked and started the 11 jumps to where he was missioning. 

We had a bit of a chat about the WH corp getting jumped when in a site, his tengu getting smacked and  about my alts current tempest fit.  

That fit had some spare drone room. I threw in some salvage drones to fill the gap as they were handy.

He'd never seen or heard of them (he does not read patch notes..... or generally be informed...).

He was in jaw dropping awe and wanted them a.s.a.p. He bought the skill book about 4 jumps away. As I was still warping towards the mission location he had the time to go collect it. 

In doing so he went afk to go bio and get a drink. 

Although he thought he had clicked on the stargate he had miss-clicked and selected the mission's next acceleration gate… 

If you know Eve you can see where this is heading.

Sooooo what he thought was a normal jump turned out to be a warp to the next stage of the mission… 

Sooooo while he was getting his relief and a refreshing beverage, his ship got noticed, no doubt screaming in pain with the full aggro of the mission, loosing him the CNR. 

He came back to see the wreck of his ship and his pod happily bobbing in space next to it.

Many expletives followed.

A sad week for his Tengu and CNR.  

I have just gotten to the system by then and waited while he fitted out a drake he had nearby and we went back to salvage his wreck.

My alts tempest was unable to hold the full damage for long without warping, I was prepared to go on but he said it wasn’t worth it. So we canned the mission and ended the night.  

I contracted the gear I was able to pickup but it wasn’t much. At least it was insured. 

Still not much consolation. 

I'd like to say that the moral of the story is to always watch D-scan in a wormhole, and always be sure your warping to the proper place when in an expensive ship. 
But really some things just happen, when they do don't beat yourself up too much about it. Learn from it.

In eve you start with nothing and you can always get back to where you were. 
It just takes time.

its not its new

Very true about some people on the interwebs.... in more ways than one....

From http://www.explosm.net/

http://www.explosm.net/

Forgot about this....

Came across some old pvp stuff about wow and it linked a bunch of videos.  I think its still a good watch even if your not into wow... still at 30 minutes stick with it.

Another blast from the past...

Command Ship model changes

I'm not a big fan of the changes that are going to be made to the command ship models. Both my mains can fly the Nighthawk and the Absolution.

Absolution

Nighthawk

Over the time it's taken to get the skills trained etc. it's been a journey I really enjoyed and the models of both reflect a change from the norm.

I can see the reasoning behind the change, The Drake is the T1 missile boat of choice so it should be the new model for the command ship missile boat. It's not the worst hull to change to.
But for the Absolution, I think the current hull, from the T1 prophecy looks fantastic as the gold and red command hull.  Changing it to the Harbinger hull! I wouldn't want to touch the thing! lol

With something that's been in game for such a long time people get attached to the things they work for. Sentiment and emotion kick in. They have with me.

The official forum thread is filled with 50% for the change and 50% against from that I can see.
With the argument that people that don't use them want the change and those that do, don't want the change.

Time will tell.