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....
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....
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....
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!
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
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....
