Planetbase....

I've been playing a fair amount of Planetbase, (currently 30% off on steam).
Sticking with my first base despite several disastrous events. Events mainly of my own doing as well as some natural events that can be unlucky like an asteroid impacting on a dorm full of sleeping colonists.


A small event tends to cascade in failure with this game. If you expand your base too far too fast you'll see your lack of engineers come to the fore when you need a new water extractor a.s.a.p.
Even if you mark it as a priority build your resources are now spread out in unfinished buildings. So while you wait for more resources to be extracted/created and then processed, your water reserves are flowing away. Next thing you know your out of water. No water means that your biodomes and food production is degrading but more importantly no water means no fuel for oxygen creation. So with everything waiting on a few blocks of building materials and a free engineer to build the needed structure it's all gone to hell. With alarms and notifications popping up the last thing you need is for armed intruders.

But it's the joy of dragging your base and your people out of that kind of scenario that makes you want to strive forward. You learn from the experience, you see what went wrong and you change your base and priorities.

Looking back on my previous stages of my base makes me think how simple is looks in retrospect but how much challenge it was at the time.

There are many facets to this game. If you want to keep your base at a good level and purely trade to gain coins for the sake of it it's possible. If your base has enough prestige and you allow visitors to use your facilities they will pay for the privilege. Get a distress signal from a wayward ship that needs medical help you can do so. If that distress signal turns our to be false and intruders attack, you need to hit the red alert button and be glad you got that extra security guard.

There are a lot of in game awards to work towards. I think I'm due an award or two but they are not highlighted yet so maybe things are not as plain as they say they are....

You can tell a lot about a game by the music. I love the game and it's music fits it so well.

No Mans Sky.... 1.1 update bigger than I thought.

I was surprised with the new Foundations update, with it's download size being 1.3GB and the content that it has: http://www.no-mans-sky.com/foundation-update/
I'm still going to wait for the patch of the patch before I reload the game.

Have a look at Baertaffy's Twitch footage:
No Baer's Sky (1.1 Survival Mode Update)

The best clip of that being: https://www.twitch.tv/baertaffy/v/103893045

No Mans Sky.... Foundation Update

I think the games company may have learned from the way they handled things with the game. There is to be an update with which they shall start to enhance the gaming experiance: 
http://www.no-mans-sky.com/2016/11/development-update-2/

Hmmmmmmmmmm. 
I think I'll still be avoiding the game for some time to come despite any new updates.
The road to Hell is paved with good intentions but as the game is already there it will take some good changes to get things back into the good graces of gamers.

Planetbase....

With the latest Steam sale I took the opportunity to buy a game that's been on my list for a while Planetbase.

I've only started to play but already its' proving to be a game that requires forethought and balance. Getting to day one took a few tries. It's not a game you can just play as if you had unlimited resources. You have to get to know the game systems, the terrain and the limits of the structures in that terrain. It will take some more time to figure out what works best with my own play style never mind whatever the game throws at me. There is less danger of failure from anything due to a random event but that is the lick of the draw or roll of the dice.

A worthy review that lists the pro's and con's:

Planetbase - Review from Idiotech

Eve Online.... My New pre Alpha's.... pt7

Both my pre-Alpha's are now proper Alpha's. They ran out of their full game time just after the 22nd. Which was handy as they both received the bulk of the rewards despite not spending a penny or having a payment process in place.

 
My PVE Caldari character has a larger skill list remaining to go through:

That time shown has now doubled as an Alpha has the -50% training speed.

I've not done much 'pve'. After fitting out the free Gnosis I tested it in a level 3. I was not impressed. Like all lower SP characters that reach into a greater tier of ships n fits, more SP is needed. I might wait until he has most of the other skills maxed out (for an alpha). Especially the drone skills.

So far I've found that the Distribution and mining missions are the best solo activities.

I'm still training my PVP Minmatar character, I've yet to try and get into faction warfare. The only thing I have done with him is to retrofit his ships with t2 items.


I'm in a bit of a quandary as to what to really do with these two characters. I may put them on the back burner again and micromanage my other characters. If I'm to do anything with them I need to do it sooner and in a corp that's not my usual choices...


I think SP/training time is hugely devalued. As the alpha skills are free and the time to train then in is unlimited, I've found myself not caring. Even with the limited queue length. I'll stick on a few short skills and a longer one, those may take 3 or 4 day's but I'll leave them to train and maybe come back to them after a week. The only motivation previously was that I was paying for the time so I wanted to get a skill on training as soon as I could. Now its all free and even if I miss the end of the queue by a day or two the character isn't really loosing anything other than learning a skill sooner. At the level of the alpha's that really isn't a lot to loose. I was thinking of anyone subbing from an Alpha account... why bother subing sooner when your can get the skills for free as an alpha. IMHO all alpha accounts should wait until they have trained the alpha skill set before moving onto being an omega. Maybe that's just the bitter-vet in me. I know that Eve is a long term game. Newer players may be in the rush to the next shiny thing.... for me I've been in the game too long, there is no rush.

Blast from the past.... System Shock 2

I took the opportunity to buy System Shock 2 during a previous sale. Like other games I had played many moons ago I was able to use my old saved games and relive the OP nature of the character I'd spent far too much time on. I recall playing the game and stashing all the unused/fixed/spare items in the main elevator what links the games levels. On reloading the saves I was reminded of the second stash I had created just outside that elevator on a replay, gaming the game to get items and horde them. The things you do when you want to stay in a game and revel in it.

It took a minute or two to get used to the controls again. I may have to remap them to be like a more modern shooter.

Despite the nostalgia, the gamplay and atmosphere stays true if you accept the games aesthetics as an "art style", rather than saying it's outdated. I must look up the mod that had the updated graphics.

Eve VR and headsets....

Despite my ranting about CCP, the march of technology has made me more curious about the next wave of VR headsets. It should be an interesting time.

As part of my curiosity I have been watching the new video's from a youtuber called Reload
that I want to share, his VR playlist is worth a look.

Eve Valkyrie.... You did it again CCP....

An old Eve buddy has been out of the game for a few years but had the opportunity to get into Eve Valkyrie on his PS4. This post is prompted by his bragging leader board screenshots. The last day I was chatting to him about the game I was notified with an e-mail about the game being available on steam.
I looked it up being somewhat optimistic but was immediately turned off when I saw all the DLC that was available... it was all for in game gold.
My friend said that it wasn't needed to play the game effectively as he hadn't paid for it and his top 10 US killboard ranking showed. That eased my mind again. I dont' mind microtransactions, I hate in my face transactions.


I still think for the game that it is it's too pricey, even if Gunjack is given away free.

Not that I'd buy it, I dont' have a VR headset for my pc. It did get me thinking about it. By the time I would get a headset the game may be cheaper and I'd have a go...

Then I remembered... There was a part of the Eve collectors edition that gave free Eve Valkyrie stuff, let me check that out!

What a mistakah to makeah.....

I've said a lot to bemoan my view of CCP's handling of the Mystery code. I could link it all again but nah I'll remind you afresh and in short order:

CCP said:

CCP never really did it and CCP Falcon inherited the mess and was less than enthusiastic for it saying:

 Leaving the community to this day saying:

So here I am today owner of two mystery codes pondering the game and the free Eve Valkyrie item.
The item is :

Oh goodie! A free fighter to take into space and blow stuff up in and it would be all special and stuff(can you tell I'm saying things sarcastically now!).

Still a free item is a free item. So I was wondering what the game community thought of the free ship in the game. There should be Eve collector edition gamers in Valkyrie right.... Yup there sure are.... But the free ship never made it into the game.....
https://forums.evevalkyrie.com/t/regarding-the-templar-mk-ii-prototype/3749/4 
&
https://forums.evevalkyrie.com/t/first-decade-collectors-edition/2717/2

So another thing to add to the list of CCP screwing over customers.

Yes, there is a lot that can be said about game development, delays and workloads, but when CCP does not say anything about the likes of the free fighter or the mystery code when they should have been ahead of the curve, it points to a lessening of the trustworthiness, reliability and integrity of the company and the employees that company puts forward as the face of the issues.

Not to mention it p*ss's people like me off. I bought into the product thinking I would be part of the games great future not to mention the broader CCP game family. What a dupe.

Yea....... CCP you did it again, you f**ked with me. I won't be buying Eve Valkyrie.

Eve Online... Alpha's but not those Alpha's

With the tapering off of activities on my newer "pre-trial" Alpha's, the release of the expansion and Alpha clones proper has seen me spreading my Eve time around a lot of characters.
I got to micromanage my heart out the last day or so with getting two Alpha alts through the career agents. I drew the line at getting them through the SOE epic arc. That would be a long step too far.
Both are my pre subscription trial characters. Both are now neatly tucked in a station training the remaining Alpha skills left to them.

I've fitted out a combat frigate and destroyer, as well as a mining frigate, exploration frigate and Haulers. Once some skills are done I'll equip and fly a Caracal cruiser to add to the bunch.
The keep container (I'm all about keeping stuff) holds the free festive launcher and its flares, I know there will be more to "keep" added over Christmas. All in all not a bad setup for a low level pve toon.

I know I said this before but....
The fewer the skills to learn the less I am likely to actually use the alt's.
Long term I see no reason to have them outside of nostalgia and being able to have them spare.
Of all these alts I may end up only using my pre-alpha 60 day new account character which is currently still an Omega.
I can foresee a lot of people doing the same. Leaving them once they are done and not returning.


I'm surprised at the number of players in the game this weekend. It's all looking up.

The starter systems as well as the career agents systems are full of player "interactions" in one way or another.
Most via local chat, new players helping new players, old players helping Alpha's and some of all ages and clone types just killing anything they see.
Thankfully I was only targeted once on a character and was shot at only as I warped off.

evehermit's post was an eye opener for me: https://evehermit.wordpress.com/2016/11/15/clubbing-kittens-and-seals-and-puppies/

I've had a list of things to lookup/update/get and do on my "mains" once the expansion/update brought it's changes but I've been putting that job off. The inability to hop into a ship to see the fit is a deterrent but I could still be moving assets around etc. I've not had the motivation with all the alts I've been tending to. Maybe in the next week or so. Motivation will be hopefully lifted once the twice delayed "gifts" are redeemable.

My Eve online update....

I've seen the  number of players increase in the starter systems but not in the ratio I thought I would have seen. I expected more older accounts to come back online and the place to be totally flooded with new Alpha's. While the number of older characters back is greater in my view the flood of new new Alpha's has not really hit yet. For the older players the nostalgia will only last so long.
I guess it's like a trickle of water in a basin, small amounts over time = large buildup. Lets hope there is staying power in the new free Alpha's and that they do become a consistent thing.

I've not had a lot of real activities to do in the game. Nothing other than self imposed busy work.

Outside of the quick nostalgia of getting access to older characters (that I thought I'd never see again) I've been spending most of my in game time "sorting" those old characters out. Checking skills, running them through the career agents etc. Getting them through the basics.

It's all down to micromanagement of these new "alts". I have so many of them, 6 accounts with 7 characters.
- 3 (on 3 accounts) old trial ninja looters.
- 3 (on 2 accounts) my old pre sub game trials.
- 1 old character inherited from a transfer (1 account).

The older the character the more skills that need to be trained.
Running the characters through the starter/career agents is funding any skill books needed etc.

The three ninja characters have been the most neglected, I may form them into a corp and use them to be a base for "careless activities".
2 accounts with three characters are my old pre sub trials of Eve. Nostalgia to the max with them. I've been spending the most time on these as they need more attention to detail.
The other "inherited" character is all but done with just a few skills to clear up in the alpha list. This character with the pre Alpha trials characters mean more to me than the others I used as ninja's. I'll finish sorting them out sooner rather than later.
My 2 main old subbed accounts have 3 characters each. All are unsurprisingly maxxed out on the Alpha skill list bar one character which does has some room to learn a level or two of the allowed Alpha skills. So the free training is not going to waste on that account for now.

It's all busy work. My own doing from my own need to run these characters through the career agents and get them trained.

My thoughts on that are to finish off the career agents and leave them with a pve fit cruiser, T1 hauler and a mining venture. With the skills simmering along the way. The fewer the skills to learn the less I am likely to actually use them. Long term I see no reason to have them outside of nostalgia and being able to have them spare. Of all these alts I may end up only using my pre-alpha 60 day new account character which is currently still an Omega.

I've come to the conclusion that for anyone to get any value out of Alpha clones the player will have to subscribe. I dont' see this being taken up in a huge way but I also don't see a lot of people staying long term with the Alpha's for the same reason at least in a long term continuous way. To add to that mix I found it interesting that this poster found it hard to find ways to make money from Alpha's.

The ongoing patching of the expansion has resulted in 2 extra downtimes today which are understandable yet annoying.
Besides the known problems, I hope to not see any further "quirky" problems pop up.....

Perplexing Pixels....

Perplexing pixels for CCP that is. With the expansion out after a weeks delay it seems that the expansion/sub rewards are going to be further delayed, release now set to be the 22nd.
There has been no reason for why there is a delay in awarding the internet pixels, there seems to have been ample time to get things worked out (9thSept & 7thNov).
Then again they gave expansion access to a twitch streamer and he broke the game, then they delay it a week. I've waffled on before about that.
Maybe time isn't the the key, but there is a common denominator, CCP.
Delays like this make me question the company. Make me question why I should pay a cent for a game or anything else they sell. I'm now sure more than ever they are doing this delay to keep people sub'd to the game. The 'offer' was active from the 16th of Sept, so if you subbed for it and did it till Nov as they asked then the rewards are going to arrive a week after your 2 month sub has gone inactive. Nice one CCP. So all I can think is 'cash grab'. If true its a such a lame thing to do and a way worse cash grab than offering the trinkets in the first place. I'm sure that the people that actually paid to get the rewards are not happy. I know I'm not happy and I didn't pay for a thing.

The more I type the more I ramble into an ongoing rant. I could go on for a while but I'm not going to waste the time.

Cities Skylines....

One to share, a city that is a far cry from my own efforts....

Strictoaster Let's Design Cities Skylines — Cedar Valley: City Tour

WoW....

It seems that the next patch to wow will make it easier to level and to gear up, when it hits I doubt I'll level up alts the way I have done previously. I had been taking it easy with levelling up, my warlock did ding 110 last night.

Thanks to a few guild normal dungeons I was able to level and get some gear. Once I dinged they took me to do a first Heroic run.

It was a good night but once out of the Heroic I started to sort out what is next I quickly realised that the main portion of the game is the 110 grind for gear/reputation/daily quests.
There is a lot to ponder....

Ubisoft 30....

I was glad to see the first two games when they came out for free from Ubisoft. They were games I had purchased on their original release PoP-SoT on PC and Splinter Cell on Xbox(yes the original console and game). 
Ubi may be promoting free games that do take players down memory lane but for Ubi it's to get people to use their software instead of steam.
All in all the more free games the better, not just from the nostalgia angle but good games are good games, even if revisited for a short moment or two. 

https://club.ubisoft.com/en-us/ubi30

This month it's the Far Cry 3, stand-alone retro 80's futuristic Terminator meets Tron expansion.
It's clichéd, over the top fun. It's had me laughing so much in the opening few minutes I have to recommend it.... plus... its FREE! I now regret overlooking this game when it came out first.

After playing it I now have a need to go watch Predator & Terminator.

Only one more to claim when its out in December.

Even if your not a PC gamer Blood Dragon is now also available free on the Xbox's 'Games with Gold' subscription.

So I'll be claiming it there are well.  I love having so many 360 games on the Xbox one.


Have a look :

theRadBrad Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon Gameplay Walkthrough Part 1 - No Time To Bleed - Mission 1 

Eve....

I'm been swaying back and forth in mood and motivation at the thoughts of the next expansion, and Eve in general. Some things I thought were ok, others were 'meh' or ignored. A lot of what was presented is I think taking the game in a direction that I don't like. After reading a lot from the dev blogs and the media coverage I was left in information overload. I think there was too much analysis which lead onto too many what ifs.

Some things were cleared up for me from Eve Vegas and the commentary in the meta about what was shown there.

What has really cleared my mind and made me actually think better of the coming changes are the latest patch notes.
I dont' think I've seen a set of patch notes that've been laid out in the same way. Not just a wall of plain text bullet points but all the content explained in one go including videos dev blogs and forum links etc. That's not to say they were off the mark before but maybe it's just the inclusion of the embedded video's. Something has made it "better" in my mind this time around.
Maybe there was so much content coming, spread out over so many previous dev blogs for what seemed like such a long time, that having one official page with it all stated was a lot clearer for me...


https://community.eveonline.com/news/patch-notes/patch-notes-for-eve-online-ascension/?utm_source=ingame&utm_medium=notification&utm_campaign=

As for the greater future of Eve I'm still not sure, I'm a lot less uneasy than I was. Could I be showing a little faith in CCP and the game, maybe, and that scares me.

What I'm still confused about are the coming "rewards". Both my "pre-Alpha" characters are fresh accounts with 2 months of free game time included. So a little bit of a special situation.
The latest update to clear the muddy waters has been of little help to my case.

https://community.eveonline.com/news/news-channels/eve-online-news/update-to-celebratory-rewards/

The subscription-time page also states:

Maybe, just maybe, they will be seen as having "paid" month's.


Time (again) will tell....

WoW.... Warlock woe's

Warlock's are evil. Horde Warlocks, specifically Undead warlocks are more evil (imho). Yes "Evil" is a turn of phrase and there are 50 shades of evilness....
I've been playing my horde warlock, dungeoning and questing to get him slowly but surely to 110.
What brings me to post this is this little guy:

This cute, innocent little bundle of moo which has just been discovered by an 'evil' horde undead warlock. Yes if it wasn't for the XP this little moo moo would still be floating down the river....

What joy it would be if the character themed artifact weapon quest remained true for all questing in an expansion. So no more generalised quests... Each class gets it's own perspectives in each area. Not every area needs quest givers they could all be in your class hall. Wouldn't that be deliciously immerse. Just saying....

Blast from the past.... A Warlocks warlock....

Ho Ho Ho.... Merry wtf....

I 'think' there may be some pricing issues with the site....

Snap....

If only there was a balance.... €1.11 or €11.11

Eve Online.... Gallente NPE

I don't think the extra week is going to change all that much with the NPE since I saw the stream. 

EVE Online - New player experience (Gallente) from delonewolf is well worth a look.... 

Star Citizen....

I've upgraded a lot of hardware in the last few weeks and have to say seeing the new build now makes me want to see Squadron 42 and Star Marine out soon. I also no longer suffer from the skidding greycat. With luck it will stay that way.

Star Citizen really really needs to emerge from the vapourware zone.

WoW....

A legacy server would be of interest but I think the nostalgia would wear off quickly. Once I see the quality of like changes that are in the game today but were not in vanilla I'd be unhappy to live in vanillaville(©®™). I can recall large questing area's where I had my character run back and forth to town to do handin's (old darkshore); None of this flight path every 10 feet nonsense or that mounts at level 20 lark.

It would be nice to visit pure vanilla wow but not to stay. I'd think twice if it was vanilla wow with all the quality of life enhancements of today's wow. That may be a mix of contrasts too far for Blizz to act on. Then again I could just level a character to 60 and lock the xp gain.... Last time I tried anything like that was with a level 19 pvp twink, epic setup and gear but not a soul to play with or against. Even with twink guilds they seemed to be seasonal and sporadic at that. A capped server may be better?

Eve Online.... Portal

 
No corny Portal cake is a lie joke. The "portal" app for Eve Online does look good.


https://community.eveonline.com/news/dev-blogs/introducing-eve-mobile-portal/?utm_source=ingame&utm_medium=notification&utm_campaign=

I could see myself using some of the features but not many. It's still nice to see it implemented and with luck it will only get better over time.

 

EVE Online....

After reading this I'm glad I took the opportunity to use the keys that came with my collectors editions when I did. Once the expansion hits for a week or so it'll be interesting to see my usual and older characters in game as Alpha's and both accounts I created to be alpha's in game as Omega's.

Ah there's the sale that was talked about.... I still wont' be buying SKIN's with anything other than in game isk or AURUM that was free.

It was interesting to see more information about the mining operations that are to come. I still don't like where this has come from and where it may go. Time will tell.

delonewolf showed what this is like on the test server.

And the start of his recent Eve Talk had some more insight from him.

Expectation vs Reality

NMS: Time will tell....

It seems that Sony is the Hello Games public shield, saying that they are still working on the game to "reveal itself to be all that it can be".... 

The NMS part is 35 minutes into the video:

STO.... An Interesting offer.

 
It's that time of the year again.... STO lifetime subscription sale.

A good review of the pro and con sides of the free/subscription/life memberships are done in a video from Brent Justice:

As much as the bonus's of the lifetime sub appeals to me I dont' think I'm that into the game to validate that kind of outlay. I'm happy to cruise with the free version. That has brought home more with the current event the Crystalline Entity Event, too much of a grind for me despite the rep rewards.

WoW.... Utility will return.

Thankfully Blizz has seen some of the error of their ways...

Great update video's from BellularGaming:
 

Eve Online....

Highest player count I've seen in a while....

Then again stats say no....

Eve Online.... My New pre Alpha's.... pt6

I've not been doing much on my pre-Alpha clones. What time I did spend was mainly doing a standings/pve content grind with a mix of P.I. maintenance on my "PVE" character.

I've again completely ignored the 'PVP' clone. His time will come and will be done more so when Alpha's are in the game. Once they are I think there will be more of an opportunity to join other players as an under geared/skilled pilot. I think there will be a lot more acceptance of that type of limited character. I've spent a good bit of time in null and I know that if anything T1 is roaming solo they are as good as dead. All other null solo roamers today for the most part are in expensive ships and fits. Not to mention that those pilots intend to loose those expensive ships. I've seen a skilled T2 Wolf pilot giving the run around to a T1 fleet of 20 frigs/destroyers and cruisers all the while picking off stray ships and smack talking in local. It was fun to see but really really bad to have been a part of (fingers of blame where everywhere, even during that prolonged 'fight').

Back to my missioning alt, he has hit a top wallet balance of just over 70 million twice, but both times were followed by splashing out and spending(ships, SKIN's, modules, rigs, deployables, bpc's, bpo's, etc...). 

Part of me still thinks I'm getting a free Gnosis when the expansion hits. Thinking so I went out and got a Moa and it's fit to test out another Caldari cruiser with the level 3 missions.

I'm not happy with it. Range on the weapons is lack lustre. In trying to get into range, kill the npc's and then warp out I did stray into armour a good few times. Thankfully the system did have a 'freeport' citadel so I was able to get free reps.

Even with a drone bay for 3 light's it was only with this ship that I lost all three in quick succession first time out. Loosing T1 drones wouldn't have been bad at all but the ones I was using were the integrated versions and the same cost as tech 2's. Sad to have lost my first drones with this new ship.
I think I'll be selling it off and getting a second Caracal to use with a jump clone to avoid the 20 or so jumps between the Caldari Navy and SOE agents I have been using.

The ship list for this character with 2 million SP is maxed out for what an Alpha clone can use and has been for a while. the idea that it's the other non ship specific 'core' skills or fitting skills that really make you able to fly a ship is a lot more pronounced and visible in performance as an Alpha.

If the expansion release doesn't grant a Gnosis for this character I'll be grinding a little further to get one. I then use it and stick with being overpowered in level 3's.
Once the alpha's hit I foresee my future isk accumulation coming from missioning. Besides combat missions, solo I feel it would be faster to do distribution missions as well as maybe mining are a lot more approachable and doable. Maybe even at level 4.
Granted all of those may be a longer grind to get LP to use on store items for sale rather than use.
I am looking forward to seeing what Alpha corp's form and if alpha's will band together in Gnosis's's's's's's's's to do level 4's.

I've been mindful to avoid adverse faction standings when doing missions.

With access to level 4 Cardari Navy missions, I moved onto the SOE and I'm almost at level 4's with them. Once done I'll look into R&D agents but by the time I think the expansion will be out. I'll have to look up R&D access for Alpha's, they may not be able to farm datacore's.