IntPiPoMo 2017 16-21/50

I really love Elder Scrolls Online too. The game is so pretty, their elves looks so nicely not human, and they have an interesting and well developed lore. I always find myself taking a ton of screenshots. Here are a few of my many characters. (I have two of each class, total, but I think I forgot to grab shots of either Nightblade.)

Altmer Dragonknight, Brynfaeran Laekoriath and pet.

Altmer Sorceror, Celhaerin Firalien.

Celhaerin and a bird.

Dunmer Warden, Velidran Hla'Dres and bear in Morrowind.

And my main. Almost level 50, finally. Altmer Templar, Talynthas Galethaere. (Ebonheart Pact)

More Talynthas.

Not pictured, another Dunmer, a Bosmer, a Khajiit, a Redguard, a Breton, and an Imperial.

IntPiPoMo 2017 9-15/50

Some pictures of a few of my characters from Black Desert Online. I love the character creator almost unreservedly. Almost, if it were not for the gender locked classes and the severe imbalance of female to male characters. (Almost twice the number of things to play if you want to play female characters). Still I've made any number of characters look almost exactly as I pictured them, so here's a small sampling.

 Alzerit the half-elf. Kind-hearted lover of animals.

Alzerit's twin brother, known only as Song, a monster with a pretty face.

Maerenath the wolf.

Vaelanys, noble and healer.

Ranethir the wizard.

Sun Yushin. The dragon's spirit.

IntPiPoMo 2017 5-8/50

Some screenshots from Wildstar. I don't really play this much. Every time I log in I think I really should play it more, maybe actually finish leveling something. But somehow I never seem to. They were giving out free level 50s so I re-rolled my little Esper into one of those but now I have no idea what to do with him. He's still cute:

Serrys Starpetal. The Esper.

Falrian Sunblossom. The Spellslinger. I spent nearly all his money to get him this strange horse thing. I like it.

IntPiPoMo 2017

     This looks like fun! And though I plan on writing throughout November (and have successfully done it thrice), I am not ambitious enough to try NaNoWriMo this year. But maybe this will do something to help get me back into posting on this blog regularly again. I hope so.
     Today's November 2nd, so I'll start with a few pictures. Unlike the name and pretty much everything else that ever appears on this blog these aren't from an MMO, but from the new Assassin's Creed Origins. It's too pretty to resist posting at least a few shots from.

    This is currently one of my desktop wallpapers. (It cycles through pictures from a folder that mostly contains a selection of favorite screenshots from games)

     I'm picky about horses in video games. These are really pretty good.

     Alexandria. And pyramids in the distance.

     Cats. You can pet them in this game. These three followed me around for a while, meowing afterward.
     In conclusion: If they would ever make an Assassin's Creed MMORPG, where you could customize your own character and flit around through all kinds of historical periods and locations climbing buildings and making mayhem with your friends it would make me one of the happiest people ever. Expect a return to regularly schedule MMO things tomorrow.

The Secret World and Legends

     We won't even talk about how long it's been since I posted anything to this blog. I could write a catch up post but I'd rather jump into what's been eating at my head for a few weeks.

     I was a latecomer to The Secret World. The game had been on my radar for some time before I finally picked it up, but it was a sub game and I could not justify paying more than one sub at a time and everybody I knew was in WoW. Then it was buy to play but I kept talking myself out of spending the money even though The Secret World very much sounded like my kind of game. It was a steam sale that did the trick. And I'll admit that what finally made it stick was a friend who had the game and volunteered to join me. I had a character ready-made, translated from some of my own urban fantasy tales. The screenshot above is my first from the game, my character Roland in the foreground and my friend's with the white hair there behind him. The coffee shop and the actual cups of coffee the character drank was one of the first things I got really excited about.
     Little details matter. And The Secret World is a game full of little details. Both in the environments and the story and in the system for weapons and combat.

      I started out with a blade and blood build. At the time I had picked it for character reasons and with no real idea what I was doing. It worked well enough in Kingsmouth and though neither of us particularly liked parts of the first zone we did like the game. A lot. Sometime in Savage Coast I swapped my blood for pistols, and started working on a starter deck. It fit the character even better than blood had and I never looked back, though I appreciated the ability to simply make that change.
   

     My one quibble at this point (and to the present) was that in a game I was enjoying as a duo there were the odd solo instances that force me to play alone and took us a little bit out of the story we were making alongside the one given to us. This isn't a complaint limited to The Secret World by any means, and while I understand it for reasons of balance I will always find it frustrating when a game that by its nature is a social one forces me to play alone. Still, we enjoyed Egypt even more than we'd enjoyed Savage Coast and Blue Mountain, and Transylvania even more.

     Tokyo's Aegis System is one that feels interesting, but annoying and it slowed our progress through the main storyline very considerably as we suddenly felt not just weak but underpowered and set about working back through achievements and issues to see if we could improve the feeling. But wasn't Aegis that brought our progress finally to a halt. That was the news of Secret World Legends.
     I have mixed feelings about the announcement. On the one hand I have a growing liking for action combat and if the new system is put together well I think it might make for a more fun playstyle when it comes to the battles. I don't mind the idea of starting over terribly since our progress had been slow and spotty with other games in the mix and neither of us was ever playing for end game or gear chasing or for any reason other than story and the world.

     I love this world and I wish there was far more of it. Any world where I can play my kilted Templar and let my RP work in bits of fae lore and legend that aren't explicitly in the game's canon without feeling like I am breaking a single 'rule' is a win for me. I love this game and the stories and the investigation missions that make me think and google demon names and latin phrases. I love the secret passages and the secret societies and that this is a game that not only gives excellent story but feels like it screams out to have my own stories added in.
     And I'm afraid. I'm afraid that the new game will be simpler in the ways I least want it to be. I'm afraid that the limited size of the zones might complicate our grouping together. I'm afraid it won't be as good as I want it to be. I want it to be wonderful and I want it to thrive.
     I'm excited a bit by the idea of starting again and making more stories as we level through it again (though I'm still not sure I feel the level part is necessary). I am excited to see the changes, and hopeful that it will mean more in time. More story, more zones to explore, more of everything I like.
     But I can't help feeling a bit worried too. The announcement had to be made, but the waiting is hard. We had been working our way through Tokyo again, making real progress and the announcement yanked the rug from under us both a little. Why keep progressing and working on achievements when we'd have to start it all over soon? And that's my worry. We've moved to another game to play and wait in the meantime. I know we'll both be there to try Secret World Legends as soon as the doors open. But how many people who had played much longer than my 330 hours (according to Steam) will feel that same let down and just stop playing as I did... and not come back?
     It's a nice cushion that they're leaving the old game where it is, that they're transferring over at least most of the things we bought. But that doesn't quite fix all the things that they're taking from long time players. I just really hope Legends is good enough to more than make up for it so that it can thrive.

     I'm very much looking forward to Roland's new adventures. I just really hope they won't leave me wishing for his old ones.

I went to Auroria once...

But all I got were these lousy screenshots.

     In all seriousness. I was one of the lucky people who was actually able to get into the game shortly after the Auroria launch. Three of my guildies had managed it as well so as soon as I logged in I got invited to a party and told to get over to Solzreed. So off I went by worldgate and gallop to Desireen (since I'd never been there to have the location.) Then I glided onto the guild clipper just offshore, Aelithar landing with a flourish square in the middle of the deck. (I'd never manage to do that again if I tried it.) And off we went. It was a long ship ride north, with plenty of time for chatting and speculation and worries about running into the Kraken or the Oran'thul. I'm not sure which would have been scarier but we avoided both.
     The lag hit just offshore and the clipper and everybody on it started lurching in slow motion. But we eventually made it to land and mounted up to ride. I don't have patron so there was no land dreams for me, but the guildies had some hopes. So we rode around to have a look. It was chaos. We died once to a large group of mobs and again to a massive pvp group. The castles got claimed... but there was no land at all to be had. It all seemed gone in seconds, even with so much of the playerbase unable to even get into the game.
     My husband and best friend ran into the glitch that locked them out and after I logged off for my raid in WoW that night I was unable to get in again either. And there are no roll-backs. The problems didn't really cause me any trouble, but for those people who were pinning their last hope of land on Auroria and couldn't even get into the game... I feel awful for you. I think the entire thing was handled pretty shoddily. There was no way it could have been handled that would have made everybody happy, but it seems like something could have been done better.

     The next day when all was said and done I logged back in. I'd logged off near a shrine in Marcala so I took advantage of being there to do a long exploration ride while it was a little less chaotic. It's a pretty continent with its own eerie music. There are floating motes of ash and lots of large scary undead monsters. The East has three Castles at the moment (Sinister, The Oran'thul, Meowcenaries) and the Arcadian Guard claimed one for the west. None of the Eastern Castles had started going up when I was there, but the Arcadian Guard had already build a nice sturdy looking structure.

     Much sturdier than these ruins I found during the exploration. I was happy to finally find one area of Auroria with some ruins. It seemed to me like it should be full of ruins, but perhaps most of them are in the large part of the continent that's still not open.

     When I'd finished looking around I recalled back to Marianople so Aelithar could go about the more prosaic business of planting and harvesting and running trade packs. No land for me, No Archeum trees, no reason for joining the current pvp insanity that is Auroria. And you know... I'm still having a really good time in this game.

Level 50!

     Today, only partway through questing in Hasla, Aelithar hit level 50. This is a huge thing for me. This is only the second MMO that I've ever leveled a character entirely to cap. It's also the first MMO I've played since Beta. Perhaps it's silly that I get warm fuzzies in addition to a feeling of accomplishment. It's not like it hasn't taken me ages longer than many others after all. Still there he is, my level 50 paladin, fresh and new in his level. He's got a lot left to do. Needs to get to Karkasse to pick up the lower part of the last set of questing armor, needs to figure out what he's doing after that. So many quests handed to me at level 50 that I felt a little overwhelmed and wasn't sure what to do or where to start.
   So I went first with something simple. I wanted more hereafter stones, so I needed raw stone. Went over to Cinderstone and rowed out into the ocean so I could mine the stone along with Starshards to make into jewelry later. A simple thing I didn't have to be max level to do, but it was something simple and relaxing to let me figure out my center. And mining Starshard isn't -that- simple. After all Aelithar doesn't have any breathing tools, so as an elf with the swimming racial he has just enough breath to swim straight down, mine the node, and swim straight back up before drowning. Three nodes got me enough stone for three hereafter stones, enough Starshard for three ingots and burned through a LOT of labor in very short order.
    But he has enough hereafter stones to make me comfortable in heading back to Hasla later and I proved to myself that playing my paladin doesn't end at 50. I don't know if I'll shoot for the ArcheMaster title. I'm not sure I even want all the skillsets at 50. But after much debating I think Aelithar might take a short break from being called a paladin to be an Abolisher while he finishes up the Hasla quests. Why? Because that lets him level Auramancy to 50 on the backs of his Battlerage and Defense sets... and that means that if his guild needs a healer he can be a Templar (Defense, Auramancy, Vitalism) for them. And a Templar's also a pretty awesome thing to be.
     Another interesting thing happened when I hit 50. I noticed the guards started doing this:

     I'd seen them refer to other players by name before but I guess I hadn't paid attention. I thought it was something they did for the Founders and such. But I guess it's for max level characters. And I won't lie... it feels a little good to see it.

Nightmare Tides and things and I'm still here in Droughtlands

     Rift's new expansion dropped today? Yesterday? I've been getting emails about it anyhow but since Daethrys was only level 38 this isn't so exciting for me. Still I couldn't resist logging on to see if there'd been any basic changes that would make a difference for my slowly progressing Huntsman. Not really, though I'd swear there'd been a graphics change. Only I'm not really sure if it was anything the game did or just that I'd barely poked my head in since getting the new computer. What I do know is... wow the new computer lets me play with things turned all the way up and it's gorgeous. It was beautiful on my old machine, it's even better on this one.

     Just look at how pretty Daethrys is. (Have I mentioned I love Kelari men?) I played with my graphics settings some, emptied his bags onto the auction house, and then quested long enough to hit level 39. It wasn't far. Quests and killing things seemed a bit easier. Not sure if there have been changes or just reacquainting myself. Daethrys definitely makes faster work of murder in Rift than Aelithar does in Archeage.

     Archeage definitely hasn't been supplanted. I spent the morning in Erenor(I think that's the name of that world) though Aelithar's reached the rather sloggy grind stage of questing. 47 last night and maybe a quarter of the way to 48 this morning. He's left Windscour Savannah now for Perinoor Ruins which so far is an interestingly creepy sort of zone.

     My goal for myself is that if I can manage it I'd like to hit 50 before Auroria is released. Definitely before Warlords of Draenor if I can. I'm miles behind most people at leveling, I guess I'm slow at it. I don't think of myself that way in WoW where I can slog through things I've done before at a pretty good clip if I put my mind to it. Other MMOs where I'm reading every last quest and exploring things I haven't seen before, well the leveling slows down. I get distracted by random things.
     I love Archeage. This is an MMO that feels almost like it was made for me. It's got so many things I've always wanted in an MMO and even if in Free to Play I can't take part in all of them I love it for that. The PvP end game is not really my favorite thing, but oddly I find that when I'm not drastically outnumbered I'm much less terrible at it than I thought I was. I'm... actually almost having fun with the PvP sometimes. I'm not sure what to think about that. I do know that Rift will be seeing me back  at some point too, but I think it's Archeage that's my second MMO home.

Maybe PvP is okay even if I'm still terrible at it

    Level 44. Very slowly making his way there. The patch dropped in WoW. First new content in over a year so that's taken up a bit of time, but I have still been finding time to sneak into Archeage for a bit every day. Last night I logged onto a War in Rookborne Basin where he's been questing and got killed by a couple of level 50s in very short order. At the shrine there was a whole group of people from OTG and as I started to run back up to die on my quest again one of them whispered me and invited me to run with them.
     Turns out they were running around in a small warband fighting all the reds they could find. All of them were level 50 to Aelithar's 43 at that time, but I managed to stunlock a few enemies and help down them. And it was fun, though I think part of the reason I'm bad at pvp is that I can't help feeling guilty for doing the same thing to people that they've done to me. So I feel bad running with a group and help slaughtering people. Though when big groups showed up to fight us it felt pretty good. There was some dying and some getting lost and falling in rivers, but I had a lot of fun.

     I logged off for real life stuff and logged on a bit later when the war was over and quested to 44 in peacetime before calling it a night. Aelithar keeps taking his mounts into tents and inns and noble's houses. He doesn't see why not. So he and Blackthorn camped last night in a Firran tent inn.

     This morning I logged onto a zone in level four conflict/unrest and did a bit of questing alone anyhow. It was misty and beautiful but reduced the view distance a bit which made me feel both safer and more nervous at the same time. Harder for enemies to see me... but harder for me to see them too. And I have to admit that even knowing I'm going to die, there is something about questing in enemy territory in the mist that appeals to the same part of me that likes horror movies. In the screenshot above Aelithar and Blackthorn both look like they hear something, but it was a false alarm. The hour or so I was on this morning was mostly a good day not to die.

Archeage and a little bit of Guild Wars 2

    Aelithar has passed the level 38 hump and made his way safely (for the most part) to level 42 so far. Hellswamp was interesting, pretty yet creepy.

     But he caught a ship bound for better pastures and is now enjoying the wonders of lovely tropical Sandeep.

     Mostly it's been questing though here and there when the labor points build up high enough I feel comfortable there's been a bit of crafting. Mostly more Hereafter Stones.

     Which is what he's industriously working on here. It's no secret that Archeage is a pvp game. I also make no secret of the fact that I am bad at pvp and (probably as a result) don't particularly like it. I still love this game. I'm glad that the pvp doesn't give xp penalties, because one of the other reasons I dislike pvp (aside from being bad at it) is that pvpers for the most part seem to fight like cowards. I've been killed by several level 50s. Two at once even. And people like to wait until a mob's got my health down a good bit and then start something. But the guy today takes the cake. He was only a few levels higher but such a coward.
     Fighting mobs in Sandeep I'd just finished a couple that had Aelithar down to a sliver of health when this fellow attacked him. I fought back some but the result was inevitable. Respawned at the shrine, rebuffed, filled my health bar and then noticed the guy was just up the hill where I'd been fighting the same mob. His health was down to about half when I thought turnabout was fair play and went up to give him a go. Charge off horseback, hit him hard with my shield... out of range... what, where is he? Spin around flailing only to see him running off at top speed down the hill into the safe little no combat zone around the shrine. I couldn't help rolling my eyes.

     Finally got to try the Jury Duty thing once one morning when I logged on quickly after downtime and got a low number in the queue. It was interesting.  I'd wondered what it was like and now I know. Like a true paladin Aelithar thinks evildoers should get the maximum sentence.
     So I'm still loving this game and pvp cowards or not I'm feeling very confident that Aelithar will get to level 50. What he does then I'm not sure. Maybe he'll build a ship.

     Tonight though, a bit late I felt like logging on for something, but warzone didn't sound like fun so I thought Guild Wars 2 (which I bought at half price a while back and semi-abandoned for Archeage) might be good for just a quick session. It is.
     I'm still trying to decide on my Guild Wars 2 main. I made a Sylvari Ranger to start: Tamyrlinn Ferahn but he felt so squishy and it was frustrating. (Probably partly because mobile combat)

     So after 100% map complete in Caledon Forest and the Grove I gave him a little break and rerolled my originally Norn Guardian idea into a Sylvari as well.

     Alystaer Starleaf is definitely growing on me, though the new feature pack's changes for low level characters soured me briefly even before Archeage released. I don't like the changes, don't like the Skills on my map that I apparently just can't do yet when Tamyrlinn could before. I don't like the nagging indicator up top. But I do like Alystaer and he's definitely in the running for main against Tamyrlinn. The plan is to get Alystaer through Caledon as well and then decide who the focus is moving on. But tonight was a nice relaxing play session, which I needed. Did two hearts and an event and then completed the Grove map. 

     I do think it's a good game it was definitely relaxing and enjoyable tonight. But even as a very big noob to GW2 I can't help thinking it was better before they made it noob friendly. Still I'll be poking around in there off and on, and in a few more sessions maybe I'll have picked a main.

I'm slow at leveling

     Aelithar is level 38. I'm slowly getting there in this game, though I feel slow. Aside from the two Harani the hubby and I play sometimes, my friend SprYte and I added a pair of elves on Calleil. But mostly I think what makes me slow is that there are so many things I can keep getting distracted by doing. Some of them help with leveling like the dungeon I ran with three guildies and a random dps we picked up. That was an adventure. We were dps (and in my case rather tanky) things and we'd been hoping to find a healer outside the dungeon. Turns out the only thing we could find was another dps. As a paladin I was the only one with any Vitalism skills at all. So rather than attempting to tank I found myself attempting to heal with a grand total of two healing spells. Thanks to a well coordinated group we did finish Burnt Castle and it was loads of fun.
     I'd only intended for Aelithar to have Silverbirch for a mount. After all in a game where your mount is persistent in the world and has to be carried in your bag, collecting seems silly. But then I found out that the Lilyut Horses you could purchase on Mirage Isle not only ran faster and had melee based attacks, but also could be leveled and upgraded. Needless to say he promptly went to Mirage Isle and spent most of his gold on a foal. Raising it up was simple enough once I realized I needed a carrot and then Blackthorn got most of the way from level five to level ten simply running the longest way from Solzreed back to Cinderstone Moor.

    There is just so much about this game that's done right or at least right for me. Trade packs, farming and mount leveling conspire to keep all the zones busy and alive. (I can't be the only one riding a lot of places the long way to level up my mounts, can I?) Not only that but the world it pretty enough and busy enough to be a place I just want to be. Aelithar has several hereafter stones in his bag, but often as not traveling involves just riding because I'm simply enjoying that.
     Mounts as persistent entities in the world that you can level and gear is something I have always wanted in an MMO. Add in combat abilities for them and  they are something that I easily get attached to and that becomes part of my character's story. Battle pets are a wonderful concept as well though I've done very little to level mine. Aelithar's a paladin so for me his mount is a more important thing than his battle pet. Knights and trusty steeds and all that.
     The mix and match ability of armor and weapons is great for me too. Aelithar's been using a sword since level 20 (the same sword incidentally :P) but one of his guildies offered to make him a weapon if some of the mats were acquired and after some thought and internet research I decided the best thing for his primarily tanky build was a club. He got a new sword from questing the day the club was finished. The dps for the sword is slightly higher but the club is close enough to feel comparable when questing and his heals have at least doubled their output making him feel more like a paladin than ever.  It's great that some classes can function best by mixing armor types and possibly unexpected weapons.
     I love the way classes work as well, though I've got to talk myself out of taking Vitalism on everything. Aelithar had to have it to be a paladin, Mirzai ended up taking it because his hit things in the face partner sometimes needed healing. And Vanydor the elf I'm playing with a friend has taken it because that ended up rounding out his Archery/Shadowplay combination into something called Ranger than I couldn't pass up. I've got enough credits for one more slot, so maybe I can talk the eventual Firran out of being healer-y.
     Someday when more land is available I'd really love to go patron and make a house. I love the houses and the making and decorating them yourself part is another thing that feels great. I also think I might like a boat. A real one that's a bit bigger than the little rowboat he got from a quest.

     Something like the one he's on with his guildies here.

     I really enjoy the combat animations too. They look very dynamic. And if will admit to getting a kick out of this quest where not only were there the usual fantasy game succubi to fight but incubi too. I have very rarely seen incubi in games because they aren't sexy women so it was nice that the sort of sexy (mostly creepy) demons come in both genders for once.
     Overall I'm still loving this game. And Aelithar is 38, which is where Daethrys in Rift and Tirasiel in Aion have both ended up hitting hitching points. But right now I definitely feel like Aelithar's going to move on past and keep working toward 50.