Month: November 2016

Scale hunt

Tactalicious & Craftalicious

I’m not going to pretend that what I did was much of an accomplishment since I know that people run this quest (solo) on elite. But for me it served 2 purposes – I could do it and secondly I got what I wanted.

A new invasion is somewhat of a pain to run – the trip there can be intense but it’s not too bad. It’s a lot of random corridors for 3 levels before end boss and it gets progressively worse from trogs on the first floor (with some bearded), then more hard hitting stuff and finally everything from golems to air ellies and fire ellies.

Luckily for me the subsequent floors are somewhat smaller in scope. You only have 1:30 but that should be enough – enough to die at the end boss and return to perhaps kick his @ss before the quest resets.

I died once and that was…

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A sullen sun dies in blaze

Tactalicious & Craftalicious

There is a question I keep asking myself. Not just lately – but almost always. Why am I doing this? It’s a question you should, or at least I will ask myself about almost everything. There are so many things that are driven by needs. That drown the passion you once had, overrides the impulse to get in contact ‘with that one thing’ that burns and braids in your soul.

Why am I waking up each morning around 5am to prepare myself for work. The bowl of serial. The haunted dark under my eyes that only seems to spread as I grow older. The receding hair line and the tired ‘I’m to old for this shit’ look as my reflection scares me of the reality that grows, fester and mold around me. Becomes me.

But then there are those moments. Like a sputtering engine darting into life. Like that one hit with…

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My End Goals in Various MMOs

Occasional Hero

I’ve been playing a good amount of Star Wars the Old Republic lately. I’ve been meaning to get back in and see the last couple of expansions’ stories if nothing else, and Dark vs. Light gave me incentive to do that. Then recent announcements about changes to endgame that basically say that they don’t want my money unless I subscribe (cliffnotes version: no engame gear for F2P players, F2P players can no longer buy weekly passes for dungeons, raids, PvP, etc.) had me ready to ragequit, but, when I thought about it, I realized that I have literally never done a raid in SWTOR, and it’s been years since I did a dungeon with anything other than a PUG. Sure, this means that I will never expand beyond this kind of occasional, casual play that means I will give them little to no money, but still, it doesn’t mean much…

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Uncharted Atlas

Dyson's Dodecahedron

uncharted-atlas

If you spend any time on Twitter (and of course, you have followed me on Twitter too, I’m sure), and like maps (which is why you are here, right?), then you should check out Uncharted Atlas.

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Uncharted Atlas is a bot that randomly creates and then posts a map every hour and scatters towns and cities around it. The naming algorithms are a little weird, but they are internally consistent within a single map, so the various towns and cities feel like they belong together.

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I’ll admit, I cherry picked a bit to find some maps to show off here – generally there’s 4-6 good maps in a day of posts – many are pretty boring inland maps with no coastlines and only a few rivers, whereas the coastal maps are definitely the better ones.

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You can read about how the bot generates the maps here.

And the…

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News Flash: Turbine announces “Dungeons & Dragons OFFLINE”

The Order of Syncletica

The motor pool commute is MUCH more interesting when you have to re-route your commute due to dragons on the roadway.

I’m still reeling over today’s announcement from Turbine of a bold new game that takes Dungeons & Dragons to your very doorstep.

Many of us enjoy D&D in one form or another, such as the venerable Obsidian and Atari “Neverwinter Nights” games, the “Baldur’s Gate” games, and, of course, “Dungeons & Dragons Online.”

But Tolero, Senior Hatchery Specialist, announced a new D&D product that not only may be outstanding once out of alpha and beta, but controversial.

“Turbine is excited to announce DUNGEONS & DRAGONS OFFLINE, a bold new way to challenge and vanquish the horrors of X’endrik and the Forgotten Realms–without a computer!”

Using a special belt-mounted device and virtual-reality goggles, DDOffline creates a virtualization of D&D non-player characters and enemies that blend seamlessly with…

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The Most Important Gaming Tech Evolutions

mrluvvaluvva

With all three major VR headsets now available to the general public; we have officially heralded the beginning of a new era; if the PSVR, Oculus and Rift have it their way – gaming has been irrevocably changed. We’ll not be able to go back to traditional, screen-based gaming; regardless of what Phil Spencer thinks…

…PSVR has gotten me thinking though. I used to dream of something like this when I was a kid playing my SEGA Mega Drive, and now here it is and it’s almost as good as I pictured it way back in 1991.

What else has changed since then though?

Almost too much! There is literally too much for me to list here and still make it interesting. What I’m going to do instead is to tell you what I consider the best technological advancements in gaming.

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The Garden Palace

Dyson's Dodecahedron

There are borderlands where fortified structures are the norm for those with riches and influence. Where civilization isn’t strong, and the law can’t be trusted to keep you safe. In these places instead of manor houses and mansions, those who have the means instead build fortifications and bunkers.

The Garden Palace The Garden Palace

The Garden Palace is such a structure – a squat chunk of black stone with a pair of windowed domes on the roof. The domes let in enough light to maintain a small garden within the structure – providing a place for the songbirds that the owner collects as well as a small pond to relax in while listening to them.

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The Garden Palace is currently occupied by the smuggler and trader Morgolant the Blue – a half-elf well known for his laziness and decadence (a masquerade he maintains to keep his opponents and trading partners in the dark…

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Casting Rocky Horror, DDO-style

Even Now

Lolth N. Furter
As a few of you may know, I’m in an annual local production of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” I play Dr. Scott, a role I fell into accidentally when the guy who was supposed to play him stopped showing up after a few rehearsals and the director discovered I could do a German accent. (Actually mine’s more Austrian, but close enough for our purposes.)

We just wrapped up five shows in three days, and my voice is pretty much nonexistent – Dr. Scott’s voice is about five octaves lower than mine, LOL. But while I can’t talk very much right now, I can write.

So I was pondering what to do for my weekly blog when it occurred to me that it might be fun to cast Rocky Horror… with DDO NPCs. And since I couldn’t think of any better ideas than that – well, here you go. The…

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A good reason to run Mabar and Winter Festival

Tactalicious & Craftalicious

According to this forum subject it now appears that the new crafting system works with festival additional damage. Currently there are two – solar (1d4 light damage) that you can get from the new Mabar event and frost (up to cold burst) from the Eberron winter event.

I don’t know about frost for sure, but it is considered a festival type damage addition and you can only have 1 on at the same time. That would be force (if I’m not correct but I will change), solar and frost. Force is something you can add to any item using a stone of change recipe and solar and frost is applied from the events. Now it is possible that frost won’t work because of the nature of how you apply it but if this is any indication crafted items are considered the same random loot, at least how they are created…

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My favourite MMORPGs – IntPiPoMo 2016 (1)

GamingSF

As the first in a series of posts for the 2016 version of International Picture Posting Month, I’m posting pictures here that capture aspects of my favourite MMORPGs, illustrating in “a picture is worth a thousand words” way why I love them. It’s a bit of a random list, I’m trying here to pick up on aspects of games that differentiate them from the others in my mind.

1. World of Warcraft – dungeon fun

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Although questing has always been a major part of my World of Warcraft experiences, the 5-person dungeon was really what dominated my playtime throughout the years. The shared laughs, frustrations and surprises while running the game’s many dungeons are treasured memories.

2. World of Warcraft – art style

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I’m a big fan of World of Warcraft’s art style, I think it has stood the test of time extremely well. This is particularly true of the…

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