Break

I haven't had much time for gaming in the past few weeks, and it looks like that trend may continue. Seeing as this blog is dedicated to gaming, and my lack thereof recently, I haven't had anything to post.

So it's au revoir for now; hopefully we'll meet again in the near future! =)

Character Update

WoW
I'm still playing WoW with my girlfriend; our two gnome mages are level 66 & 64.
It's a good thing we're taking it slow, because I don't know if I have it in me for the gear grind at 80. I seriously think I will revert to BGs only at level 80 unless I can get a core group to do 5-man instances. I have no interest in raiding. That is the same approach I took when I hit 70 on my first mage- BGs and Arenas.

Darkfall
My Human on Darkfall is slowly, but surely, getting up there. I'm currently sitting at...

65 - Lesser Magic
49 - Mana Missile
61 - Heal Self
13 - Mana-to-Stamina
30 - Greater Axe
30 - 1h Sword
25 - Parry
20-25 - Most Defences (Rigor, Defence, Fortitude, etc.)

50+ on gathering timber, ore, and herbs.

I need to get my hands on some arrows to start my archery. I'll probably purchase the Bowyer skill along with Herbalism. That way I can make my own arrows and potions, and gathering the herbs to make potions gives a few berries. That allows me to equip myself with all the consumables and just worry about purchasing armor, weps, and mounts.

If anyone is located near the Human / Alfar lands, and is interested in some PvE gold grind, then let me know. I know a few good secluded spots. I would ask the clan, but if it doesn't involve the blood wall, they don't look too interested, hehe. I keed, I keed!

EvE
I'm not currently subscribed to EvE, but before I canceled, I had all my learning skills (tier 1 & 2) up to LvL 4. I was also just getting into some of the Tech II frigates, and was working on Tech II small blasters as well as other T2 small modules.

I am set to hit factional PvP pretty easily when I do come back.

Dakfall: New Player Tip

When you start out in Darkfall you will be hard-up for gold, weapons, and armor. The typical MMO player response to this is to grind out some starter mobs and build up some supplies before venturing to harder mobs with better loot.

That idea sounds good, but what if I told you how to save 2-3 hours of time grinding mobs?

Yes, that is right, you start with a +10 alignment in Darkfall. What is alignment you say? Your alignment is basically your moral scale. It ranges from -100 through +10. You start at +10, but you will lose -8 alignment points when you kill a member of your own races' alliance.

If you drop below zero alignment you will become red (murderer) and not be able to enter NPC towns (there are PK towns where the guard towers won't zap you, though).

Where am I going with all this? Well if your simple math is as bad as mine, then I don't blame you for missing it above; however, take a look again. Yes, that is right, you basically get a "free" kill when you start your character.

I decided to take this advantage and make the most out of it. So this weekend while hunting mobs in a populated area I observed my surroundings. It was late and there was only one other person hunting. This person had been there a long time by the looks of the graves.

So I did what any self respecting player killer would do. I murdered the person when they were busy with a goblin mob.

After all was said and done, I thanked the goblin for his help with a mana missile to the face and proceeded to take my 2-3 hours worth of loot and skipped all the way to the bank.

The goblins drop 5-10g per, and this guy had over 300g on him and TONS of weapons and armor- not to mention the potions, food, and other random supplies. It would have taken me 4-5 hours to gather everything this guy was carrying.

But wait, that's not all!!!

Actually it is... I've just always wanted to say that.

I'm a $2 MMO Whore

Yes, it's true, I get around when it comes to MMOs. I went ahead and canceled EvE online for now. I trained plenty of skills towards my HAC pvp goal, but I still don't have the time (currently) for a game that takes so much preparation for PvP.

I will come back to EvE, as I always do, but for now I'm going to relax in two MMOs.

The first being WoW. This game I played for about 3 years, and the whole time was pretty fun. The game is solid and has a sprinkle of everything; however, it is still a themepark game- I've ridden every ride in that park =/

But, I have not ridden the WoW themepark rides with my girlfriend yet. She is currently enthralled with WoW (her first MMO), and plays it religiously. I went ahead and bought another copy and started my own gnome mage to roll around with her.

Even though I've played WoW through and through already, it still has a shred of fun by experiencing it with someone sitting next to you. Also, I feel pretty useful answering all her WoW questions- probably my first time as the SME (Subject Matter Expert).

The problem with just playing WoW is that when she, or other people I know IRL, are not around or online- I have no desire to play the game. Enter: Darkfall

I created my new character on the North American server last night; this time I went with a human as there looks like no chance of Mahirim ever getting 4LR (Four-legged-run).

Now I know what your thinking... Darkfall takes time to prep for PvP just as EvE, what gives? The answer is yes, they both have preps that takes place before PvP, but in Darkfall it's the resource gathering (food, regs, arrows, armor) that takes the time. Once you have a stock-pile of supplies, then it's just a matter of grabbing your sh!t and heading out.

In EvE it's the gathering of resources AND the actual ship fittings before leaving the station. I know you can stock up on modules and save equipment loadouts, but it still would be monotonous prep times.

I'm going to remain guildless in Darkfall for now since my guild on EU-1, Inquisition, has decided not to pickup the North American release, but rather wait for Aion. If you're planning on playing Aion and don't have a guild yet, then look into Inquisition (link on the sidebar), they are a great guild with awesome leadership.

After a month or so of skill gains and resource gathering I'll start to search for a guild, but I might join one sooner since I can't wait for more group PvP stories to share with the blog.

Linear Progression Leveling Should Lead to a Horizontal Ssandbox

I realize there is a strict line between Themepark style games, ala WoW, and Sandbox games, ala EvE; however, I want to know why both environments can't come together.

Why can't there be an MMO where there is a linear progression game of quest and leveling up till level cap, and then the vertical character growth stops and horizontal growth begins.

The end game would be void of quest and such, but have more other things to do, such as housing, world events (this should really happen more in all MMOs), and collectibles.

There would still be raids, but the rewards would be cool furniture for your house, or some rare outfit you could don at the bank. I'm reaching far here on the rewards, but they could really be anything that didn't give your character additional power.

Would most of the linear progression types be turned off from a system like this once they hit level cap and gathering more powerful items for their character wasn't possible?

What about the reverse; would a sandbox player be able to stomach 80 levels of quest just to get to the sandbox?

What game was I playing...?

The Ancient Gaming Noob had this idea awhile back and it was brilliant- so much so, that I decided to run with it myself. Thanks Ancient Gaming Noob!

All you have to do is read the quick description of what took place in the game and guess which game I was playing.

On to the story...

The forums announced a wedding to take place; my guild master at the time reads this post and plans on the guild attending this event. The guild master gathers everyone up an hour before the wedding takes place.

We equip ourselves with explosives and dress in formal attire for the event. Once the wedding starts and we're inside among the crowd we announce over roger wilco the countdown until we all trigger our explosives.

The explosives go off and everyone, including the bride and groom are running around trying to avoid the damage, but in the end almost everyone at the wedding died, including ourselves from the explosions (a few people made it out the door and ran away).

I felt bad for grieving a wedding, but at the same time I was amazed that this kind of content could come from a GAME, an MMO for that matter...

Darkfall News Leads Player to EvE Online

Ok, maybe the title is a little over-the-top, but the recent news of Darkfall wanting players to pay for their game a SECOND time just to play on the American server is ridiculous. As much as I love Darkfall I don't think I can bring myself to pay another 50 bones!

So until I can log on and create a new character on the American server without purchasing the game a second time... I'll be playing EvE.

I just qualified to fly Interceptors last night, and while I have enough cash to drop 22m on a Taranis, I just don't want to fly the ship until I have more supporting skills, such as Tech II Small Blasters / Rails.
I also need to do some research on reprocessing and manufacturing. I have been reprocessing meta one items and selling everything else. I need to find out which skill increases your yield from reprocessing, and which skill lowers the materials needed for manufacturing. I want to start making my own ammo, and maybe some small frigates.

I really wish people could have enough standings with a newbie corp to at least make ONE clone! I have a whole set of +3 implants that are preventing me from PvP right now. Now those are not the most extravagant implants, but they still cost me money. I have 5.0 standing with the Federal Intelligent Agency, but it goes up SOOO slow from running missions. I'll be happy once I get a couple clones setup so I can PvP implant free- for now.

So other than running around EvE and finishing the light-side / dark-side ending of KOTOR, I'm just waiting for more news about Darkfall. I really hope they change their minds and come up with another way to get American players over to the new server.

As I've probably mentioned, I am planning on rerolling with my clan on NA-1 when it's released. I'm just tired of the wolf and it's ridiculous size disadvantage; I'll be rerolling human this time around. I'll also probably drop polearms for 2h swords, but everything else skill-wise will remain the same.

I have taken a short break from Darkfall until the new American server is released; I don't want to get burnt out on the EU-1 server while waiting for NA-1.

I decided to install Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR) and give it a run since I was deep into MMO's back in 2003 when the game was released. I have to say Bioware did a great job on this game; the game is a blast to play for a six year-old title.

So far I've cleared Dantooine, Tatooine, and half of Mannana (sp?). Other than two decisive decisions involving currency, I've chosen Light-side responses during my conversations. Those two Dark-side responses saved me 4,500 credits, so I think the slight Dark-side hit was worth it.

I just wonder how well Bioware will be able to incorporate this so-called "story" pillar into their upcoming Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO. I mean it works great in the single player RPG environment, but how are my responses to the story going to change the story if other people are involved. What if someone from my party picks a different response than me in an instance, dungeon, plex, whatever- would they see different content than me during that run?

I'm not sure how they're going to do it, but if the game is as fun as their single player titles, then I think they'll have a hit on their hands. I will definitely check it out, but it wouldn't be a long-term solution to my MMO habit. I'm sticking with Darkfall for that. I just can't put in the amount (high) of effort I want to in a character in the themepark setting. It's fun to run through those types of games, ala WoW, but for me they're better left once you hit max level. I don't care how fun a themepark is, but if you ridden all the rides you will eventually get bored.

A sandbox game, however, has infinite amount of content generated through the imagination of the players- now that's my type of end-game!!!