Fallen Earth

Free time game time...hmmm...sure. Hopefully the game won't run into the updater issues that I encountered previously.

On some level, the game strikes me as, to parody the common analysis of Fallout 3, as "Morrowind with guns". Given that the only friend I have who has tried the game considered the combat somewhat clunky, I may be more accurate than I thought.

Or not. Have to play around a bit first. Faction system has always looked appealing, though.

CCP's Dev Blog

* Vacation + catching up + injuring my wrist = failure at blogging.

First, World of Darkness is not Twilight. This is not difficult to understand. Reducing everything involving vampires, werewolves, or some sort of urban fantasy to an attempt to cash in on Twilight is approximate to considering all science fiction something to try to profit off Star Wars. I am admittedly excited about the idea of a World of Darkness MMORPG, though I much prefer the oWoD background stuff for Mage: The Ascension (rules confuse me, though).

In any case, the Developer blog here is quite interesting. I find the variety of information that CCP provides about the game process appealing, though not all of it is particularly comprehensible.

This information about development teams would be much more useful if there was some sort of baseline to which it could be compared. Overall, I can't see much devoted to fixing bugs, outside of the teams dedicated to exploits and debugging fleet battles.

I haven't run into any major bugs within the game yet, but the Catalyst model issue becomes irritating at times.

That which needs a list

DDO:

~Find a guild
~Find a good block of time to play, since trying to play with anything under 45 minutes seems to end poorly.
~Actually level the cleric, since lower-level stuff can be done in smaller time blocks.
~Do more raids. See first item.

EVE:

~Get my Ishkur. And Helios.
~Be able to do level 4 missions.
~Determine a better way to categorize systems for scanning.
~Check notes on overview settings

WoW:

~Level farming alt on Bronzebeard.
~Take at least some advantage of the Midsummer Fire Festival
~Play my shaman occasionally.
~Work on old-world raids and dungeons before Cataclysm.

Other:

~Steam sale!

Divided Objective

I want an assault ship. Admittedly, larger ships with massive amounts of firepower and tanking capabilities are somewhat appealing, but they're also slow. So, assault ships. The basic skills for these will take about a month, and the supplementary ones will take much longer.

And of course, I need a solid financial base to pay for and outfit the ship. Given the recent wardec, I've had a bit more of an interest in scanning as a way to make ISK. The difficulty with this comes in both with finding ideal scanning areas, and with training up the skills, which cuts into my assault ship training time. And given that the more powerful assault ship would lead to running higher level missions and making more ISK, it's a bit of a trade-off.

But first, learning skills need to be trained.

Currently, I have four ships: A Catalyst fitted out for PvE damage, even toying with Tech II railguns on it. Another Catalyst fitted for salvaging, an Imicus for scanning, and a Tristan for PvP tackling that I still need to fit.

I could fly a battlecruiser, though I lack some support skills. Still don't wish to do so.

The Old Republic

So, I greatly enjoyed the Hope trailer, even if it does not show much or all of what gameplay will be like.

However, it does showcase some ideas related to balancing the different classes so that Force users are not overly powerful, while still seeming skilled and capable, which I'd consider a major concern for making the game enjoyable. In the Deceived trailer we saw both a bounty hunter and a Twi'lek wreaking havoc along with the Sith Lord, and in Hope we see the different ways a Republic Soldier can face down a force user as well.

Flamethrower. Mmmm. Maybe we'll run into a few Ysalamiri as well.

Having Nothing to Lose

My corporation's most willing PvPer right now has been playing for only a couple weeks, and attributes her willingness to engage in such to that she has no important and expensive implants or ships to lose.

However, even if a new player doesn't have much to lose, they still may lack financial resources and standings. And I've certainly encountered enough resources directing newer EVE players away from over-extending themselves with nicer implants and bigger, costlier ships until they have the skills and experience to use them effectively, and the funds to fit and replace them.

And of course, it's easier to risk and thus learn with a 500 thousand ISK destroyer or a 200 thousand frigate, even if the fitting is worth several times the cost of the ship, than with the 20 or thirty million a battlecruiser could cost.

Though more comprehensive insurance would still be nice. For now, I'll stick with my smaller ships and cheap implants and the relative lack of death penalties. Though, an assault ship really does look nice. Or a stealth bomber.

Cataclysm Rogue Talents

No more hunger for blood. Yay! Admittedly, the talent wasn't nearly as annoying once it no longer had to be spammed every 15 seconds, but it still was a relatively inelegant. There were also some occasional complications once ruptureless cycles became more popular, and thus rogues wouldn't be putting their own bleeds up.

Curious what the cooldown on Vendetta will be, and I'm rather tentative about having another "you have x percentage more damage" talent, though it is a cooldown rather than just a self-buff.

There are a few more talents for leveling rogues such as deadly momentum, though I'm guessing the recuperate reset will be much more valuable for such rogues then the slice and dice aspect. Never did use S&D much while questing.

For combat, restless blades is quite interesting. Killing spree isn't on a particularly long cooldown currently, though, especially with the glyph.

In subtlety, the energy regeneration of energetic recovery is interesting. I haven't played any form of subtlety since the Burning Crusade, and have some hopes about being able to use it in Cataclysm.

Also, there's this:

Nom Nom Nom [NNF] (2 points) - When you Ferocious Bite a target at or below 25% health, you have a 50/100% chance to instantly refresh the duration of your Rip on the target.

I sincerely hope they don't change the name.

Druid Talents
Rogue Talents

Please send time machine and waffles

I was sick, I didn't update.

Especially intrigued by the new rogue trap mechanics for DDO. Partly because I'm playing a mechanic rogue, and partly because most of the rogues I see have taken the assassin path. Hoping this will bring a bit more diversity, and am also interested in how important the health pool of a DPS character seems to be.

In EVE, don't expect planetary colonization from me anytime soon. My focus is on Tech 2 weapons and Frigates for now. Also got the boyfriend into the game as well, he seems much more interested in mining and research than I am, and a couple of his friends seem interested in returning to EVE since we're playing. I'm curious if part of this is related to setting up objectives and goals in the massive sandbox. So far, I'm much more drawn to newer, slightly more powerful small ships than to larger ones. Own a half-fitted cruiser and not much desire to use it over my destroyer.

Started a game of Fallout 3, though there hasn't been much time to play. I'll admit that to not being terribly fond of the color scheme, but have enjoyed it so far. If I had more time, I would be trying to get some time in with Fallen Earth, but I'm already playing three MMOs.

Have a Blizzcon ticket, though WoW hasn't been particularly exciting for me lately. Partly pre-expansion boredom, along with new shiny games to play with. Still unsure about Cataclysm, much of which can be attributed to my apathy towards much of the Wrath raiding.

Outside of video games, I've been invited to play Mage: The Ascension, and am working on an entropy mage character for that. There may also be LARP associate with the campaign at some point, and I'll need to find appropriate outfits for that.

My Dungeons and Dragons Eberron campaign will be in its eleventh week this Friday, and we just had a new player join. Everyone seems to be enjoying themselves, though the new Scout rolled critical failures on most of his attack rolls and the Druid is beginning to regret taking a vow of silence.

I have some people who are interested in a D&D one-shot, though not all of them have been responsive about dates and times. I'm hoping to run this at some point in July, depending on what is viable for the players.

There will be a more in-depth article on Friday, given that the one today is more of an overview.

Updates

Back. Somewhat. I've been busy with other writing. I'll be making some changes to the layout over the next few days, and I'm planning on starting with a Mon/Weds/Fri schedule for writing.

I'm hoping to get a blogroll on here as well, though that may be a bit longer.

Planning on some EVE and Dungeons and Dragons Online posts for this week, and perhaps some Eberron 3.5 commentary, as I'm running a campaign in that setting.

~LFS