Pledge results

-Not sure how many of AoC (see xfire), almost to 25. Had fun doing some solo sneaking and random grouping.
-SWG, no clue how much time in SWG, but I got it running again and enjoyed myself.
-Did blog some stuff. More to come, thoughts on FCTS and such.
-No uploaded Screen shots :)

Between now and next Monday:
-Hit 28 in AoC
-upload more screenshots
-have more fun in SWG
-blog stuff

Early morning SWG

Wow, you know your galaxy has population/enthusiasm problems when you do a bazaar search and there is 1, count em 1, weapon available for sale in the entire galaxy.

So far this weekend

Space PVP on Valcyn last night. Macbook Pro is really having issues running SWG since Ch11 came out, though I don't know if it's linked to that or not. An event of 3 15 minute rounds took 2.5 hours. Hrm, not a big fan of that.

Today I slept late, then ran errands, so I didn't get into AoC until 6pm or so. Hit level 23, ended up grouping with a guy I helped fight off attacking Vanir. We finished one of my quests, he shared one with me, we grouped with a level 33 guy to finish the shared, and along the way I got both 1/2 way to level 24 and 3/4 of several other quests I had. Should be able to solo those.

Along the way, I noticed that my shuttle pc is now showing video ram in dxdiag, which means SWG will let me play in a windowed mode. The shuttle is 3 years older than the MBP, has a prev gen vid card (X800XT vs MBP's X1600), and is using the same wireless mouse (I take it back and forth). Lag is not showing like it does on the MBP, although I'm still not impressed with SWG's performance on a machine that was built to play games 2.5 years after SWG was released.

Will start resizing screenshots for upload to Flickr and will update again tomorrow. Also, I added AoC friend Zangra's flickr photostream to my links.

I Pledge

Taking a cue from old episodes of YaMB, I pledge to do the following before Monday, Dec 15th:
-AoC for 6+ hours (gotta hit 25 or maybe even 30)
-SWG for 4+ hours (gotta hit at least 10 on my new Starsider Trader)
-Blog something
-Upload those dang screenshots
Maybe I should do also pledge to pledge for the next month. Got a busy time at work and I need to be able to relax. Theoretically things like the above relax me.

Keep meaning to update but....

I keep meaning to update but don't know when I'll find the time. Doing this update via the email update function, woot. Don't worry, more screenshots, stories, and even some actual thoughts of the state of different MMO's will be coming along the line at some point this week. I said "Don't worry" because I know that's been keeping you up at night lately. So stop it.

Latest randomness

So I'm away from Age of Conan for a week. Kind of nice but I didn't get a chance to upload any screenshots before I left home. Hoping to be back on Sat and maybe I'll do it then.

I finally hit 20, got a big ol' battle axe. Figured out that mentoring in Tortage is pretty much useless for the lower level folks. I'll need to spend my next first moments of AoC retooling my toolbars to take advantage of new combos and such.

And on a completely unrelated note, I've found a new tv show to captivate me (I need to take a break from Firefly, having seen each episode prolly 100 times, though not recently, per aforementioned break). NCIS. Caught 3 episodes last Sat on USA. Good stories, good characters, good writing, and it actually makes me laugh. Been awhile. Besides The Office, I only really follow Rescue Me which won't re-air till Jan or Feb. Tonight is a new episode from season 6 on CBS, tomorrow is a marathon on USA.

And on a "podcasts I listen to" note, where the heck is Hyborian Herald #13? I'm jonesing pretty badly. I guess YaMB are recording 101 tonight. Considering how non-plussed I am about Hoth (granted I haven't been there but I have a 90 ent and a 14 smuggler, and you need 4 people to go to Hoth), I'll be interested to see what they have to say on the state of the game.

And on a pizza note, at some point I'll upload pictures of my double decker pizza from my phone and put it up for y'all to see. In the meantime, enjoy your turkey day if you celebrate it (and why would you turn down a chance to eat turkey, potatoes, stuffing, and gravy, do you hate all that is right and good in this world?).

I've yet to upload screenshots of my plains experience. Found a hill I wanted to get up but there were too many durn Yeti. Unbelievable amounts of Yeti. Deciding to go another way, I headed across the plains and found an abandoned camp with a gong. I rang the gong. Didn't seem like a good idea but my toon looks so good I just can't tell her no. Stupid girl. Two Hyperborean warriors ported in and kicked her pretty little rear before she could even get a good combo off.

Forgot to mention a couple of things that I found over the weekend. I enjoyed running from a Yeti who spotted me and caused me to de-cloak. He was level 41, me 17, so I ran and jumped off the mini-cliff into the river that was going by. Phew, saved by a lack of inhibitions. It was fun when I realized I might get to the river before I was killed and that escape was within my reach.

Inventory overflow. I completed the bat demon quest but my inventory was full so I couldn't turn it in. Except I could, I just couldn't get the loot or xp. Then lady Zan (possibly a trucker) told me of the inventory overflow. Cleaned out my inv of some things, claimed my loot and BAM, xp. Good xp, left me 3 points away from level 17.

I also love the Fresh Kills concept. I know EQ2 has vitality which is nice, but fresh kills combined with AoC's better levelling curve (better IMO) is just delicious. Also nice? The chat ui. I love all the options available when I right click. This is so much nicer than SOE's version (SWG and EQ2). EQ2 does have a great guild managment system though, so I'm hoping AoC matches their chat quality in the guild system as well.

*Update* played with MrBubble again last night. Will post tonight and upload screenshots.

Screenshots from this weekend

Amandara_picture003
Originally uploaded by RHTblog

Here are some screenshots from this weekend. You may notice some weird issues due to the age of my system.

Oh, and you may notice MrBubble from YaMB in one of them.

Goodbye Tortage

Welp, I'll be dropping my Station Pass before long. Will play EQ2 over Thanksgiving probably, and maybe check out the holiday events, but for now I think I'll get my EQ2 fix through West Karana and other blogs. Age of Conan has taken possession of me.

My buddy and I have leveled from 5 to 17 completely by grouping (sometimes adding others) and killing crocs, gorillas, and others in the White Sands, and by doing quests in the Archeronian Ruins. Our battle against the bat demon was aided and made possible by a great group of people we happened to see running through the area and invited to our group. Standing atop the bat demon's ledge, there was just an amazing view. This game's visuals have hooked me in. Not just the style of graphics (EQ2 is amazing but the "feel" isn't right for me, isn't real), but the grand vistas. It was actually a screenshot in Cimmerian mountains that kept me coming back to any blog entry I could find about it, and finally prompted me to buy. Nothing on the AoC box captures me like the online mountain vistas I have seen. I'll upload screenshots I've taken later this week. Keep in mind I'm playing on a P4 3.4Ghz, 2gb ram, and an ATI X800XT. Not exactly current hardware (bought in Aug and Sept of 05).

The city of Tartania is beautiful but I had an urge to find mountians so I went to the area known as Lacheish Plains. Being a barbarian I had the advantage of stealth which became necessary when I crossed into an area with Yeti's. While running across the landscape trying to find the highest possible vantage points, I took a small fall and was de-stealthed. Taking advantage of the Yeti-less aspect of the immediate area, I started running to the next hill when I was set upon by two others, a level 17 and 18, some sort of melee classes (was too busy fighting to check). I was able to dispatch them both without making full use of my 2 step combos that I gained with level 17. What a rush. From "oh crap, I'm going to die" to "whoa, I just took that one out, and I still have 2/3's health" to "BRING IT ON SISTER!" to "aww man, I wanted to finish her off with the new combo". It was awesome. Since I lived, I bear no ill will towards them :) but instead instantly thought how special an element pvp adds to this huge world. Even if I had died, I would have been saddened at my reset in travel but since it was an even level ambush, it would have been ok, just "man, I wish my buddy would have been with me." 

This is why Age of Conan has captured me. The gameplay is something I enjoy (not just click auto attack and wait for specials to refresh), the graphic style is truly spectacular, and the lore background are just awesome. If only SWG could carry out the first part, and do slightly better on the second. Also, props to the Hyborian Herald (also a member of VirginWorlds), which is another thing that had me hooked. As with YaMB, I listened to it before I played the game, and while not even close to YaMB's style, he puts out a great podcast, and I eagerly await episode 13.

Anyways, that's all I have for now. Thanks to my buddy for giving me the social element, to my random group-mates (now on my friends list), to Funcom, and to Streamweaver for helping me find my gaming home. I haven't enjoyed a game (pc, xbox, 360, or ps3) this much since my days of QuakeWorld (thanks Muppet Clan), Half-Life (thank you freshmen year floormates), or Quake 3 (thanks Barker house foes). If you're on the RP-PVP serve Hyp, feel free to add Amandara to your friends list and look me up in game.

AoC Update

Ymir's pass is out and the new patch requires an update to DirectX. The link they provide didn't work for me (first you have to jump through hoops, then it fails to install). This link works (thanks forum poster aocmmo). Logged in to get some of my 20 Fresh Kills for the day. Needed about 4 to hit level 10 (in Archeron (sp?) ruins). Woot!

I should also add that even though I have an old pc (P4 3.4Ghz, 2Gb ram, ATI X800XT) and AoC is only getting between 12 and 20 fps, I've seldom noticed any hitching or fps problems. Compare that with SWG or EQ2 on my Macbook Pro (bootcamp, Core Duo 1.8Ghz, 1.5gb ram, ATI X1600) and it's impressive/ridiculous. If only the MBP had 30gb worth of HD space for bootcamp. My Thanksgiving week off (woot!) would be able to be filled w/ awesome AoC, but instead will be web surfing, maybe some SWG or EQ2, and other things not involving a PC. I've got a book I need to plow through anyways I guess.

Also, Metaplace's build mode looks way too intensive for someone as lazy as I. We'll see how that goes.

And in semi-related note-ish-ness (to the AoC topic), I love the commentary to Conan The Barbarian. You can't beat Arnold's observations. "Ha, I just hit that guy." Wow. Granted, they're not all like that, but 30-40% are. I do appreciate the commentary in general though (but I'm a fan of movie commentaries with directors and actors).

Metaplace

Got into Metaplace Beta, creating my first world (Age of Threepio).

Happy to be /stuck with you (and holiday talk)

Last night, ran around with Mr. Bubble just outside the walls of Tortage, trying to complete "A Brother's Vengeance." We were 2 level 8 (and then 9) fools getting schooled by Picts. We're both Barbarians, so no heals = either quick win or certain death, especially if a 3rd Pict happens upon our battle. We finally made it near the quest goal Pict, tried to be clever and sneak around to the side, and we both got stuck between the rock ledge and a tree. /stuck never worked. For awhile I was able to loot some enemies, which was weird considering I was clicking on a Pict that was just out of range of hating me, clicking combos, and hoping he would come at me. The combo click seemed to loot something from somewhere. Unfortunately they were all loot pieces that were orange to me. Will probably give it a try again tonight. "Tune in tonight at 8EST to Beavis and Butthead in Tortage." Fools we are.

*Update* R2D2 we wish you a merry Christmas. Thank Yoda for Holiday Extravaganza episodes of YaMB. It's cold here in Wisc, but no snow that will stick yet. It's not even Thanksgiving and I'm jonesing for Christmas. Or maybe just snow and a holiday (come on Turkey day, hurry up and get here). Also, regarding snow, today is Snow Plow Driver Appreciation Day in Wisc, so of course it's raining.

Q:Why do you think I'm building this dam? A:Because you don't know that lava beats bricks.

That quest dude outside tortage is great but he needs to realize that Lava wins. That's how it rolls. Continued on with my new toon on Hyboria (female Cimmerian barbarian, woot!) and grouped up with a buddy for some levelling goodness. Ran some random quests, killed lots of crocs, panthers, and picts. Good times. Love the dual wielding. Didn't realize I could sell looted crap to anyone I can buy stuff from, good call B. Gonna do my best to hit 20 and escape Tortage by next week. Not sure my buddy will have time to group and level that much.

Going to try to figure out the deal with the Underhalls and maybe try doing White Sands as Epic. http://aoc.wikia.com FTW. Anyways, that's all for now.

Mondays

Sometimes it doesn't pay to get out of bed. Guy's night out tonight. Hopefully get some AoC in too. Slaying picts sounds good about now.

*Update*
Day may be looking better. Time will tell. Picked up Conan the Wanderer over a quick run at lunch. Four short stories. Will see how they fare. Unfortunately that was the only book by Robert Howard at the W. Side 1/2 Prices Books (a place a recommend highly to any lover of reading).

Age of Conan

So all those concerns about Age of Conan not playing on my shuttle pc because a)it has an ATI X800XL (not exactly the latest and greatest) and b) DirectX thinks my card has no video ram (corroborated by EQ2 and SWG being kind of doggish). Oh yeah, and it's got a P4 (dual core but not a core 2 duo like the pimps have). Well, all those concerns were for naught, at least so far. Only have about 45 minutes in but it was smooth enough I didn't think about it. Not bad for 1680x1050 on a 4gen? old card. Guess I'll have to start taking screen shots to compare to people who are actually able to run it in high-res, and find out how to tell how many fps I'm getting. 

On a side note, Conan the Destroyer Collectors Edition doesn't scale up to 1080p like most dvds do. Don't recall having this problem last night w/ the Barbarian. Maybe it will just be the intro part. Laters.

I need vacation

I can't wait for Thanksgiving. First bit of vacation I'll have had for months. And there's pretty much no chance I'll get to take anytime off before or after it (I'm on-call over Christmas to boot). Work is getting to be pretty stressful while getting ready for a go-live the first week of Nov (while I'm also on-call). My boss thinks that things won't be cleared up by Thanksgiving, but I think that's crazy. Maybe I'm a moron, or maybe I understand my system better than she does. I guess we'll find out. Just wish it was Thanksgiving now. Damn that week off is going to be nice.

Sunday Sunday Sunday!

Welp, >24 hours into the weekend and no HKO, SWG, EQ2, or Solitare has been played yet. Small chance I might get some in around noon, we'll see. 

Apparently, a number of YaMB'ers are actually rolling into HKO, based on the postings of one Brit who has actually installed it and gotten it to work. By my count there are now 7 YaMB'ers either in HKO or hoping to be. Freaking crazy. MrB didn't know what he was starting when first made a HKO joke oh so long ago. There are also going to be Guild Races (what's that?) and a race to build New York City in HKO. They're going all out it sounds like. Maybe I should install.

Friday!

Woot for Fridays! Been a long week, covered on-call for a coworker. Watched "The Office" last night, and did my best to pass on beta keys for the new Call of Duty for 360. Hopefully I can get some D.I.R.T.Y. in this weekend. It'd be nice to get that magic carpet. Might even get some serious SWG time if the mood strikes me.

Mondays and such

Feels like the weekend is never long enough. Had a buddy in town over the weekend which was great. Didn't get much sleep which = no gaming. Did pickup Ironman on Blu-ray. Pretty sweet. Finally watched "The Good Shephard" (bought it 9 months ago). Good flick. Still jonesing for YaMB Episode 100, this week hopefully?

Games and such update

So, Vanguard never did run acceptably and is now gone. SWG and EQ2 have been downloaded again. Apparently Spore is all the rage but my disk space limitation is still a problem. Will try to check out the creature creator tonight.

Current podcasts that I'm listening to: Hyborian Herald, EQ-IQ, Equal Perspectives, Shut Up We're Talking. Eagerly anticipating Episode 100 of SWG w/ Yivvits and MrBubble.

MMO's

Installed the Vanguard trial. Apparently didn't need to wipe out EQ2 and SWG prior b/c Isle of Dawn doesn't require 20 Gb like the full game does. Also downloaded Dark and Light which apparently is dead/defunct/etc even though the website is live and the client available. Too bad, was looking forward to seeing what it had to offer.

Re: VG, performance blows. I'm not talking in game, I'm talking char selection screen when trying to adjust video options. Apparently it's incapable of playing in windowed mode. Forum time.

There will be blood....

Is an "interesting" movie. I sat there at the end, after the last line thinkin "surely they're not going to end it after that line." And then they did. See it at your own peril.