Rome Total War....

Somebody said something to someone that started a chain reaction....

Fallout 4.... Official High Resolution Texture Pack for PC

 

Next week will see the Fallout 4 Official High Resolution Texture Pack for PC weighing in at a hefty additional 58 GB's!! Plus recommended PC Specs of Windows 7/8/10 (64-bit OS required), Intel Core i7-5820K or better, GTX 1080 8GB, 8GB+ Ram.


Bring it on Bethesda.... I'm glad I got my new PC!

Darkest Dungeon....

Second one down. Stage three of the Darkest Dungeon is next in my sights. I think I can 'waste' some time to gain more gold and crests etc in preparation. I took in a team for stage 2 that just about did the job. I don't want to push my luck again so soon.

I might even take the time to bring a band of brand new no experience characters into a short ruins run. What luxury.

Darkest Dungeon.... whats the worst that could happen.... :)

Rome Total War.... All the factions....

With a readjustment of my last campaign to be more defensive I decided to change faction and start a new campaign from scratch.

The Armenian faction have a similar unit set as the Seleucid's (ok they are limited and a lot weaker in infantry) but they start in the area I was using as a border. This combination made me want to see if they were viable as a small holding, maybe 5 regions, Seleucid's willing. And see where I could go with them.

The Armenian faction is not a faction a player can usually select to play. Indeed they are not an unlockable faction at all. You need to change a game text file to make it happen. The change is nothing like brain science or rocket surgery. Just copy and past.

The file in question is the   descr_strat.txt   file in the:
steamapps\common\Rome Total War Gold\data\world\maps\campaign\imperial_campaign
folder within the games install location.

Before editing the file, as always make a backup copy of that file!

The text to edit is at the start of the file, and look like this:

campaign        imperial_campaign
playable
    romans_julii
    romans_brutii
    romans_scipii
end
unlockable
    egypt
    seleucid
    carthage
    parthia
    gauls
    germans
    britons
    greek_cities
end
nonplayable
    romans_senate
    macedon
    pontus
    armenia
    dacia
    numidia
    scythia
    spain
    thrace
    slave
end

You then need to rearrange (or delete/cut/paste) it to look like this:

campaign        imperial_campaign
playable
    romans_julii
    romans_brutii
    romans_scipii
    egypt
    seleucid   
    carthage
    parthia
    gauls
    germans
    britons
    greek_cities
    romans_senate
    macedon
    pontus
    armenia
    dacia
    numidia
    scythia
    spain
    thrace
    slave
end
unlockable

end
nonplayable

end

 

Starting the game up and starting a new campaign should now show you all the factions as playable.

While I'm play as the Armenians and have access to them as a faction the intro video is that of the Parthian faction. Parthia is the closest faction to Armenia in terms of units and starting location that is normally unlockable. The game is clever that way.
The map and description are blank but at least it lets you play the campaign unhindered and doesn't crash because of the edit. I'm sure there are mods that fully alter the map, description and intro movie. TWC was the best mod community site to look for information back in the day, although I think it's seen better day's it's still a great starting point for information/mods.

As always editing game files is at your own risk but if all else fails a reinstall of the game fixes all.

Command & Conquer....

I picked up a version of Command & Conquer's ultimate collection a while back. Having a lot of newer games to get through I only did a few missions of the first game, enough to get the nostalgia out of the way. I've since been watching a youtuber's playthrough of the game. One google has lead to another and I found out that the credit music I remembered from my own original playthough was removed. But only in the gold edition of the game. It seems to have been added back in as a track in other versions of the game, that now plays during the campaign.
Lots of chopping and changing but I'm glad it's still a part of the game. It's worth sharing....

Fallout 4....

Sometimes you return to a game after a while away and get a moment you never saw before, the light makes it look almost 'nice'.

Faffing around and readjusting settlements is all well and good but I'm not a glutton for punishment:

I'm in the middle ground... Somewhere....

WoW.... Raiding at last....

I'm still faffing about with WoW and despite the guild now being in a situation to actively do normal raids and fill in the gaps with Mythic plus mythic dungeons etc. I'm still at a loss for being generally enthusiastic about the expansion. I feel like I'm in a loop of exciting fun guild progression once a week with 6 day's of blind grinding that I dont' do so mainly stay offline.... So I'm back to considering if it's a rotation worth paying for.....

I am not a rotisserie chicken....

I am a rotisserie chicken....

 

I am not a rotisserie chicken....

I am a rotisserie chicken....

Planetbase....

Two down, two to go....

Darkest Dungeon....

I'm waging a war with my current roster of people as they have diseases, quirks, traits and stress that I have to compromise with to get the content completed. A normal game can take you as long as you like. With the New Game Plus version of the game I'm restricted in how long I can take to reach and defeat the end game.

I thought it was 90 weeks for NG+ but with the first stage of the darkest dungeon completed and a few other dungeons later I only noticed my current week 56 shows 56/91 weeks. Maybe doing the darkest dungeon stage 1 added a week. Handy if it's true. Not often does this game give you some breathing room.

Another deal on a dungeon crawler....

I don't know why there are so many dungeon crawler games peeking my interest of late, maybe it's all the sale/deals like this one:

http://store.steampowered.com/bundle/281/

Lord of the Rings Online....

I've only played LoTRO for what may have been a few hours during a 14 day free trial back in late 2010. It was due to go free to play at the end of that year and I think I wanted to see the game before that. At the time it didn't feel like something I could get into. WoW rules all and was a greater draw to me than the LotRO build of that time.

It's hard to think that that game is now approaching it's 10th anniversary this coming April.
2017 seems to be a year that reinvigorates the game. The takeover of LotRO by Standing Stone Games seems to have given more freedom to do things with the game regarding it's future development. It's good that the developers stayed with the game just under the new name. They seem to be dedicated to the game and that can only be a good thing.

This year will bring a paid expansion to the game in the summer with two major content updates in the Spring and Autumn. The expansion is the first one in a few years so it's an interesting move for a free to play game that I'm sure will be used to fund further development. I'm sure the spring content update will be more than just an event for the 10th anniversary. The post from the producers is very optimistic and I'm sure has brought new hope for the loyal fans that have stayed with the game. What stood out to me as well was that they want to update the graphics/engine. Something that worked well for STO.

https://www.lotro.com/en/game/articles/lotro-producers-letter-2017-plans-new-expansion-and-10th-anniversary

Looking up more details has me thinking of installing it and seeing if I can resurrect the old account.

A good LotRO YouTuber that I've also come across is Balthelion who has a long standing walk through and more info on the game:

Star Trek Online.... Season 12 release & 7th Anniversary Gifts - Day 5 & for the weekend

Day 5 brings a free factional Tier 5 Starship from the C-Store. Claimable for the full weekend.
Another nice addition for my characters. Unfortunately for me both my Romulan and Klingon characters are not high enough level to claim them.
Hopefully, like other offers in the past, once they are high enough to claim it, the ship will still be available. I did the same with my newer Temporal Agent characters with an offer that my main at the time had claimed a good while before they were even created. Fingers crossed it's not a case where they are only available in the future if pre-claimed by a character before hand.
Still nice to get some free ships now.

Star Trek Online.... Season 12 release & 7th Anniversary Gifts - Day 4

Day 4 gives to us a two Specialisation Points per account, and two Featured Episode Crafting Packages per account. Or in my view Spec one point and one Craft Pack for both my Engineer and Science characters. Which is nice. Spec points will allow better a better skills and I'm sure at some point I'll get into crafting 'stuff'.... maybe.

 
Today is also the official start to the 7th Anniversary Event and the launch of the new season.

The main points of the event being a daily mission to be rewarded with vouchers that in turn can be handed in for a ship(once you have 1000 vouchers). Q once again is the mission giver for this event.

As well as that there is a new featured episode which marks the start of a new mission arc/storyline for the new season. Which having played today I have to say is both good in looks and gameplay.

Maybe the gameplay is down to my new Engineering character who seems to be a lot more survivable in situations than my tactical character and way above my science one.

I've also gotten to update my Engineers ship with a mission reward that turn his ship visually into something a lot better than the fuzzy dice.

Old look

New look

It's a big improvement.

As this is the third time round the STO universe but my first time round with the newly improved visuals I have to say I am enjoying it a lot more.

Star Trek Online.... I thought I knew

I thought I knew about Star Trek Online's career path's and the basics. But after watching the latest guide by a YouTuber it's made me take all I thought I knew about tanking and thrown it all up in the air. I'm grasping at what I know and thought I knew. But I'm grounding myself on what I've seen work for me. Practical v's Academic.

A eye opening guide to the 'tanking' in Star Trek Online:

 

 Star Trek Online - DPS Tank Building Guide

  by

 Mr Valikin

Star Trek Online.... Season 12 release & 7th Anniversary Gifts - Day 3

Day 3 See's extra ship slots available for all characters, an extra two ship slots per character and five dry dock slots per character. No argument from me!
Both the extra ship slots and dry dock slots need to be claimed per character from the C-Store(In Game Shop) per character. So with this offer only available for 24 hours it's best to claim them a.s.a.p.

Star Trek Online.... 7th Anniversary Event Reward Ship

 
The details of the 7th Anniversary event and it's reward ship are out.

It's an interesting ship even if it's listed as a science vessel I think there may be some workable fit's to make it effective enough for an Engineering character, Tactical players are still better off with anything else. Still a Free T6 ship is a free T6 ship. At this stage for my characters I'm happy with what they have. I'll get this and try my Science character with it to see if it's a more effective vessel than what she has.

I'm glad that the community voted vessel turned out to be the 'Alpha' design and that it's being used in this way. For the entire community to enjoy.


The Event also has a featured episode that once completed will grant 400 event vouchers. So with 600 more vouchers to complete the event reputation and gain this event ship it shouldnt' be too much of a grind.

Rome Total War....

 

The latest campaign I've been enjoying in Rome Total War has been as the Seleucid Empire. As it has progressed I've found myself pushing the boarders out, as aggression has come. Taking over these new lands in the last 30 or so turns has stretched my military and coffers to the limit. I've reached a stage where I've got a lot of civil unrest as well as sizable rebel forces because of it. Not to mention that I've now come into the direct line of fire of the main roman factions. Despite my tries to destabilise the Romans I've had more success by having the Iberians as allies and through them forcing a way into Roman holdings.

It's a lot of hard work to keep this empire together never mind face the full impact of the Roman forces. So I decided to roll back the clock by about 130 or so turns. My early Empire. I traced my saved games back to the first offensive push I made. Right at the turn where I was to land troops I reloaded and turned the ships around. These offensive troops are now the base of a new defensive line. Time to see if I can last for a longer time as is and not push to greater and greater holdings.

The current state of the empire gives a small southern land crossing. Easily dependable by a few forts.

The northern border is a bit more tricky but still very defensible. It's tricky for an attacker to get to by land as it would take about 10 turns to get to never mind attack through valley's and over mountains on the forts I put there. Never mind the rivers that block routes and funnel the enemy allowing me to defend on bridges.

With the land borders sorted that leaves attack by sea. The AI doesn't do long sea voyages. At least I've never seen it happen. They usually go for short hop invasions. So any attacks will most likely come into my empire in modern day Turkey. Overall the Empire as it is now is a smaller more manageable and defensible place. I can do little to curb landing forces from the sea; But I can setup new inland defensive forts to quickly react to an invasion force. I'll also increase the size of my fleets. I can also increase the number and use of my spies, assassins and diplomats to help in defence.

I'm looking forward to see how I will survive and maintain the empire without invading new lands.

WoW.... Another new look....

I got a quest reward from a raid boss giving my warlock a new transmog set. The Chosen Dead mog set has everything bar a look for the shirt, tabard and staff. I'm not that gone on the look, but it's not a total turn off... It is a change....

Hive Jump....

The first time I saw the steam launch trailer for this game my nostalgia yelled out Turrican. That alone peeked my interest.

As it turns out the game has a huge amount of ways to play with others, co-op/multiplayer, online and offline.

It's currently 25% off on steam at the time of writing. It's tempting, it may be a contender to replace Terraria as a fun co-op game between a friend and myself.....

Planetbase.... Step 2 of the challenge mode....

The challenge modes are a good focused way of playing the game without getting overly fancy with what you can or are allowed to buy/build.
The second "mission" is to get 1000 in game currency within 30 day's from an already constructed base.
Given the speed of the day/night cycle I thought I'd have to speed to the goal. But a day for the challenge seems to be a day and a half within the game.... strange but OK. So in hindsight I can see I made the rookie mistake of rushing to sell everything that wasn't nailed down. This gave way to a spares shortage and in turn a breakdown of the solar panel and wind turbines. With no power comes no air. With no air comes a lack of breathing colonists.... Shame as I was just over the 800 mark with 14 day's to go. Time for another attempt.

Star Trek Online.... Season 12 release & 7th Anniversary Gifts - Day 2

Day 2 of Star Trek Online's seventh year/release of season 12 combined celebration brings another gift. Free on the C-Store(the in game shop) day 2's item is the Intel Uniform set.

I claimed it but not wanting to mess about with my main characters look too much I only used bits of the new set to "enhance" his look..... not to shabby...

Ghost Recon Wildlands....

I've been keeping my eye on the game but I have to admit this latest video on a single player mission is making me want the game more. I seems to be really shaping up to be the game I wanted. It reminds me of a crossover between Splinter Cell, Hidden and Dangerous 2 & Far Cry.

I'm looking forward to the PC version but this is the PS4 footage that they released.

Star Trek Online.... Season 12 release & 7th Anniversary Gifts - Day 1

Today marks the first day of Star Trek Online's seventh year/release of season 12 combined celebration.
Each day players will receive a gift from the C-Store(the in game shop) for free. The gift will be available for 24 hours before they move onto the next item.
For a player like me who has never paid a penny into the game it's fantastic.
Today's free gift is the 21st Century Formal set of clothing. Any character can claim it and once claimed it is available to use on any character on that account.

So a big thanks to those who run the event and gift giveaway's for STO.

Eve Online....

I've been surprised at how easy it's been to detach myself from my old mains's/alts and trial characters. I'm still doing some quick skill update's but I'm glad to be no longer lingering or ship spinning with them. My two "newer" Alpha main's are all but trained up. These two characters were born of the old 60 day account codes from the collectors edition's. A fitting use of the time before they were invalidated. They have about two weeks of training from being maxed out on the Alpha's skill set. My PVP character is still the lesser used of the two. I've maybe logged in once a week to update his skills. The corp he is in is all talk and little show, I've seem more corp mail's about missioning on him than on my PVE character. I may need to join in a null corp to make his PVP a proper career. My instinct now is to go with a null corp I've been in previously.
On the PVE front my character has been progressing through level 3 missions to gain both standings and isk. War dec's have left the level 4 mission and mining fleets inactive. All activity is at ones own risk. Still I'm at the far end of the corp's space so I have plenty of warning on War targets. Level 3 missions are short and easy enough to get through in war time. I've also done a little mining and BPO research. Having only one slot for research is a limit but at least it can be done. I like that the structures in his home region allow repair via tether, its a nice feature or the citadels.
With the lack of training to do I got to park my main "good implant" clone in his old Caldari HQ and flew a fresh clone with only basic slot 6 to 10 implants. I also got enough isk from missioning to buy a new Gnosis for this new area and potential level 4 mission fleets in the future. He is well set in this new are/corp.

What I like about this corp is that they take a lot of lower SP characters in frigates, destroyers, cruisers and some logi cruisers into level 4 missions. It's a fun inclusive way of getting the level 4's done.
They have also been doing mining fleets with 10% ore for the corp, 10% for the Orca boost and the rest divided between all participants. Again it's a nice way of getting the lower skilled/newer characters to both participate and earn isk.