Eve Online.... That ticket.

After speaking with a GM via the ticketing system I have an answer but not a satisfactory one. The GM was uncharacteristically contradictory in giving me answers.


After a lot of back and forth to restate information that was in my first message I was told that there were indeed items to be redeemed in my system. I sent on screenshots of my empty redeeming system. I thought this must mean there were indeed extra items to claim but that there was some error with the redeeming system on my accounts.
But no the story went on to more contradiction from the GM. This and growing irritation for me in having to restate information I had already given peeved me off.
Worse still was trying to explain to a GM that the e-mail form his company was informing me of extra gifts that had not appeared. It's in the title "EXTRA".

He didn't get it. And in the end I couldn't be bothered to push the issues of his contradictions/explanations.

Which leaves me back at square one.
So ultimately I get an e-mail form CCP after the 12 days of Christmas gifts are given out and completed. It says that "extra" gifts are to come. But they don't. After my interaction with a GM I'm ultimately told I've claimed all there was to claim(today). So really what the extra gifts mail is talking about is the last day gifts of the "12 day's" and the usual gifts form the "new year" celebration.

There is nothing else.

Deleted expletive filled patagraph....

So really CCP why send the e-mail about EXTRA gifts, why send an e-mail at all!


Oh look an e-mail on how I rate the support I received....

Battlefleet Gothic Armada....

The second of my Steam winter sale purchases was Battlefleet Gothic Armada. Like my other purchase(Doom) I got this more for the single player than the multiplayer.  Getting both games at half price for that reason made sense to me. Both had been on my wish list for a while.
I'm finding the game immersive and fun(the PC Gamer review is worth a read for details.).

Eve Online.... My latest update.

Today sees the "usual" newyear's offering of a launcher and fireworks to redeem. The difference this year is that the launcher is now called a Display Launcher and has five times the cycle time than than the previously given festive launcher that fires the same charges.

More for my collection.

Despite getting this e-mail:

I've not gotten any further redeemable items on any of my accounts.
Time to log a petition I think...

Did I mention Doom....

It's a great game, I'm loving the single player, but the little touches really make me laugh....

This turned my facepalm jump into something truly EPIC!

World of Tanks.... Winter changes....

I'm still plugging away every now and again with World of Tanks on my Xbox One.
Part of the changes for the "holiday" winter season is the introduction of a toy tank and a related map to play on, fun, free and worth a blast for a game or two at the very least. Comparing this to what other games do is like night and day. I've never put any real world cash into the game but they have my interest.

Star Trek Online....

Almost there, 6 more day's and the reward can be claimed....

Doom.... The new one.

It's been a while since I've been fully into an FPS, or more to the point a single player FPS. I did do the usual one run through with the likes of the Battlefield/Call of Duty games over the years but this new Doom game is a real blast (pun intended) from my past in regard to nostalgia. It really brings back memories of my Quake 2 day's.

Doom 2016 Track:

Quake 2 Track:

Ah memories......

There are lots of replay options in regard to game mechanics for the single player campaign. Kill trick shots, multikills and weapon/suit upgrades are all to be worked toward. Not to mention the glory kill system that makes the game truly awesome. I may never play the multiplayer but with the single player this good it doesn't matter. At half price on Steam now it is a bargain.

Nostalgia and a shotgun....
Lots more to chase down....

Eve Online.... Day 13 gift(s)??????

Rant to follow:


Day 12 has come and gone, but with an e-mail from CCP yesterday announcing new special gifts I had to logon.

The E-Mail looks like it's promising the world:

Website not so much:

The e-mail and the update site info gave very conflicting messages.....

When I read the e-mail I was left wondering were the 12 days of Christmas redeemables really the 12 days of Christmas. The special items in this new 'phase' are exactly the same and the "12 day's" redeemable items so really its the '18 days of CCP deciding to give you random items based loosely on a yearly holiday/seasonal/religious + New Years event'.
I wish I'd known that from the start. the daily login required for the "12 days" now sucks as I can get the same items albeit in a random order over the next 6.  Or cheaper on the in game market on Jan 1st 2017. CCP taking random to the next level.
Special is not special if CCP can give the items away again and again and again like each time is the first.

And where are the new redeemable items, this new pack to collect... They say it's available "now". It's not in my redeeming system.

As for these new items being special.... Take the 12th day items, the SKIN giveaway was new for this year but in this event it was so random and repeated it looses it's special nature. Special for this new phase I think not. As for the festive launcher and the snowballs to fire from them they were years in repeating. Not special at all.

This all leaves me even more confused about the items and the way they were done.... the randomness again, crazy.
Take the free shit and shut up I hear you cry.... I would if the items had meaning. The daily login for 12 of the days was a waste time and effort just so that CCP can say their player logon numbers were great over this period of time.

Dont' let me start again on the e-mail notification to promote a set of  "special" items that are not redeemable when they say go redeem them "now".

Eve Online.... Day 12 gifts.

A Happy Christmas to all.

The last day of gift's brings 2 festive launchers and 300 snowball ammo to use with them, as well as a random SKIN. No massive loot pinata but that was a 00.01% chance, you gotta have hope right.


Till Next year!
o7

Eve Online.... Day 11 gifts.

Ah there's the venture SKIN, once for everyone in the audience. Thanks CCP...

And a venture to put it on. OK.

So if this SKIN comes with a free ship to use with it where were the others.... I jest, I know I should be happy with the skin, and I am, I'm just confused as to why this skin came with a ship to put it on.  Where were all the ships for the other skins given away... its the lack of consistency from CCP.
If it was to be really meaningful to get this ship why not give it a fit, even a civi module fun fit.  Or some mining skill books... Anyone who uses a Venture has one already, it's not like they are rare. Anyone who doesn't probably won't want the venture they will just "learn" the SKIN or sell it.
So to get the ship as part of this "gift" really is meaningless.

I could go on and waffle but its the randomness again today that get to me.
I'd have said nothing but great to get the skin if it was only the skin but they went and gave the ship.... what was the point of that. None.

Brings to mind my Day 9 gift afterthoughts....

Steam Wintersale....

So it begins....

Eve Online.... Fire cell....

After a bit of mulling over I decided to buy the Astero SKIN with my two main accounts.
Both had 200 ish Aurum from previous free Aurum from CCP from a while ago(years?).
So that with the latest 300 Aurum left me with enough to spend 400 on the Astero SKIN. The mulling over was between the Astero or Stratio's Fire cell SKIN as both types were going for 400 Aurum each. Both characters own a Strat but use Astero's more, decision made.

Looks nice, pity the Alpha state won't let my characters fly them....

Eve Online.... Day 10 gift.

Day 10 brings a random ship SKIN.... surprise, surprise. Freaking random.... why CCP why...
Day one was perfect.

Of the 13 accounts today the 'random' crates dropped 3 Maller and 2 Talwar SKIN's. One more and 50% of the SKN's would have been 'doubles' for this round. It's a pity that they are also the same ratio as I had before. That's a lot of doubles for random drop's. I should play the lotto this weekend!

A Caracal SKIN also 'dropped' but is not pictured as a friend was looking to get one for a cheaper price than the market was offering. ISK for a SKIN was too pricey for an alpha, all I asked for was one soul....welcome to Eve online.

I hope there is a Venture SKIN day planned.... 10 down, 2 to go....

Planetbase.... Easy bits done....

With all the easy bits done it's on to the Challenge modes.... part one, attempt 3....

It's not just the limited resources or pared-down tech tree that makes this a challenge it's the ever vengeful RNG.... And my poor freaked out Colonists....

Darkest Dungeon.... Neeeeeeext

I lost a crew of four in a dungeon and on my return to town was greeted with this:

I love this game.

Star Trek Online.... Half way there....

Ignore the song playing in your head from that title. Ignore the joke and the this line if your too young to know the song.

My Star Trek Online daily mission is continuing, I now have half the vouchers I need for the free T6 ship.
At my current rate of getting the daily done I should have enough vouchers with a leeway of 8 day's. I can foresee only 3 or 4 days where I will not be able to do the mission so I still have plenty of time to get it all done.

During one of the dailies I noticed that a player had changed their uniform to be akin to a certain superhero, kudos!

Darkest Dungeon.... Stress....

The latest patch has altered a few things that have made the gamplay a little more survivable. At least in my view. I had a week(1 turn in game) to fill in with a dungeon run as I waited for other characters to be healed and de-stressed. So I took a bunch of new recruits into a short dungeon to see how far I could push them. Given that this is a New Game Plus run. I was surprised how far they went.

Here is the measure of the pain:

Specifically:

All of them on death's door was a secondary concern. I dont' say that much in dungeon runs.
They show a lot of stress resulting in resolve checks and for three of them very bad results. Making them all stress each other out further as they bounced bad speech between themselves.

I did end up having a run for the first Cove boss that proved interesting. As part of the boss mechanics she can cast a "Sirens call" on a member of my party. She did so several times successfully. Once however she called my healing Vestal who was close to a resolve check when I was pleasantly surprised:

 

 Strange to see it from that angle as the enemies don't have to deal with stress.

Also strange since the last patch is the number of "good" resolve checks my characters had, I'm not complaining but it's a noticeable change... maybe I'm just lucky.

BaerTaffy's video's are my goto source of entertainment for Darkest Dungeon runs. It's been interesting to watch is early runs when the game was in early access. Still fun to watch like this one regarding stress:

Eve Online.... Day 9 gift(s).... afterthought.

In trying to be witty and provide some varying perspectives on what peoples expectations are regarding "gifts" and "presents", I came across a forum post that asked the question "What is the difference between gift and present?". The first reply was "A gift is a present that no one wants.".
Classic reply that brought a smile to my face, it sums up a lot of my views regarding 'some' of this years 'gifts' from CCP, none of which made me smile as much as that reply.

"....you can’t please all of the people all of the time" etc. etc.

Eve Online.... Day 9 gift(s).

More randomness for the sake of randomness from CCP.
Today we get a random number of the 'vanity' non-usable items for our hangers. Waste of a day's "gifts" imo. They should have added in a ship SKIN or two to the mix and made it somewhat more meaningful. Or removed the 'random' from the equation and let the collectors have the items in one go rather than have to spend valuable time and a few thousand isk going to a trade hub to "compete the set", never mind freeing up the other day's to really give to the players.

Eve Online.... Day 8 gifts.

Free gifts again....

Todays' gifts are the red and white caps for male and female characters as well as a random holiday ship SKIN.

Other than the random nature of the SKIN today has not got much for me to complain about....
I hope there are a lot more free skin combo's coming in the final day's.

Darkest Dungeon....

I've been playing a good bit of Darkest Dungeon of late. I'm getting used to the 'New Game Plus' version.
I'm glad that there are constant tweaks, additions and improvements. Today's latest patch notes are of interest.
The upcoming expansion should also be a great addition.

Eve Online.... Day 7 gift part 2.

An interesting post I only noticed in other Eve news post was this one from CCP.
A post very late in the day, even later the further east you are on this little planet.
I can't help but think it a desperate manoeuvre in the ever 'present' cash grab from CCP.
Yes I did moan about no gift today. But I'm not the only one. This newer promotion of 300 Aurum is a gift that you can't buy anything with. Good to save but CCP doesn't want you to save it. Good thing they have a sale on 4 frigate SKIN's, oh my the sarcasm....

I don't know which is more lame, the first discount to use real world cash to buy any item(that you didn't need) at a discount, or, the virtual currency to buy the virtual discounted SKIN's in a way of pushing new players into the in game store in a bid to get them to buy Aurum.

CCP really putting the Capitalism into Christmas this year.

Wearable pc....

I think I'll be waiting for the next generation of wireless VR headsets.

Eve Online.... Day 7 gift.

And today there was nothing to redeem......

But wait... whats this:

https://community.eveonline.com/news/news-channels/eve-online-news/yoiul-festival-day-7-gift-15-merchandise-in-eve-store-until-january-10th/

Yea right. As if I was ever going to give them another cent. A 'discount' or "sale" is only a valid if you needed/wanted to buy an item(s). Since seeing the items in the shop when it was launched I don't, an offer like this is no incentive. This only brings to mind the sucker punch of the collectors editions, another lack of virtual goods for a steep cash price.
Their gift is to allow you a discount on their store. Really Lame CCP I would have preferred a virtual lump of coal, it has more value.

Eve Online.... Day 6 gifts.

The cerebral accelerator is today's main gift, it comes with another gift of a random collectors piece.

Imperium Galactica

For years I've been trying to get Imperium Galactica to work on newer systems without success. For a while I was able to use the reworked/improved java version of the game Open I.G.(https://github.com/akarnokd/open-ig). I never had much luck with the game running through DOSBox, but gog.com are selling a version of the game running through it: https://www.gog.com/game/imperium_galactica

Eve Online....

It was nice while it lasted: Exploit.

Eve Online.... Day 5 gifts.

Pants for all....

Thankfully no randomness here. Roll on the baseball caps and the Concord speeding ticket! Venture SKIN for all?

Eve Online.... Day 4 gift(s).

The next gift(s) are again random(So prepare for a waffling rant post). They are the true "keepsake" novelty items that serve no function in the game other than being a collectors piece.

There are a lot of them listed on the market that have either not been handed out yet or have not been collected and sold to show on the market. So I presume that there is only a selection of the items offered as today's "gift(s)".
Of all my accounts there was a high degree of randomness, one item for some, two items for others and only two characters that got three. Of all the items collected only three items showed up as the bulk of what "dropped":

These are things that others only see as isk via sales, others will just trash them or ignore and forget them. My style, is collecting them because I can. The random nature that CCP is using for this type of item makes no sense other than to piss players like me off. Why introduce RNG for the sake of RNG.
I appreciated when you'd have gotten all these items in one go in previous years. This new way of splitting them up between day's and randomness is such a rip off. I feel that way because I am the anal collector. It's the small things like these and the way they are 'given' that sways my favorability away from the game.Yet again I'm thankful that I'm not a paying customer.

Yet more for me to keep an eye out for on the market. The Ship SKIN's are still rare and way over priced.... so far.... I presume randomness will play a factor in pricing for these newer items as well.

Eve Online.... Day 3 gift.

Today's free gift is one random SKIN for a frigate/destroyer/cruiser. The random nature sucks, with luck the market will pick up later and a flood of cheap SKIN's will hit.
It would have been so much better to do as they had done on the first day and provide 4 SKIN's along racial lines for a specific ship class. I say that from the perspective of a collector, it's hard work to ferry items around.

I am really liking the look of the "winter" Venture:

No Man's Sky.... Again....

I've returned again to take a trip in the game. The enhancements to the universe are all good additions. The changes seem to have made the accumulation of materials to make warp core's less abundant. I'm finding it easier to sightsee on planets for cash, gathering what I can as I do and then head to the space station. Once docked up I use the money from sightseeing to buy everything else I need to make the fuel. Hardly exciting stuff. Maybe it's just the planets I'm finding. Procedural generation and all.

Yet again I got a chance to take a wormhole....

Yet again the wormhole travelled me a large distance at a tangent that somehow makes my journey a little less.  Starting with 160946.5 light-years to the centre I take the wormhole travelling 818161 light years in "a" direction landing me at a destination that is 159593 light-years to the centre.
Dear space friend find me a wormhole that is short and to "the" point! I feel that wormholes are pointless. As is the journey to the centre at this stage. It will take so long to get there isn't frustrating and why should I bother knowing the spoiler that is worth spoiling....

Maybe I should build a base and retire.....

There is something in me that will not let go of the game until I get "value" from it. I don't know what that value is.... Reaching the centre of the universe, a try of the survival mode.... build at least one base....

Time will tell.