Gamer's Ramblings

This morning I had a chance to play with my Sims family who has moved into the huge castle.

It's a rather big family and will grow even bigger when they have lots of kids. Which they are supposed to.

There are Elaine and Henry, the oldie couple and parents of Soz, Althor and Kelric. And the there is Jaibriol who is married to Soz.

So next up, anpther Sims pic spam.

Soz and Jaibriol cuddling:


Soz and her brothers Kelric and Althor playing Fooshball (or whatever it's called...)


Jaibriol listening to Soz's baby belly:


Kelric at Jennifer's house, a pretty girl that he was flirting so hard with he fell asleep on her couch:


Soz teaching newly born Kennan how to talk:


Grandpa Henry telling little Kennan all about garbage:


Jaibriol playing for tips in the park:


Grandma Elaine teaching little Kennan how to walk:


Kelric and Jennifer falling in love after Jennifer had seen in what kind of castle he lives:

Divinity 2:

Next week Divinity 2 is scheduled for release. I have mixed feelings. I WANT it to be good, I want it to be brilliant actually! But history has taught me that RPGs are always bugged beyond sanity on release.

So the wise thing to do is to wait a few months before getting them and then enjoying the patched and working version.

I have Divinity 2 on pre-order...

I'm such a hopeless fool...

But what can I do watching these theaser trailers...???

http://www.divinity2.com/

---

Earth Eternal:

This game is now in closed beta it seems and as usual I am not included. Nothing to cry about though since I have plenty of games to play currently. It is scheduled for release "summer of 2009". Hmmm... that should be soon.

A new trailer is up at the website:

http://www.eartheternal.com/videos/Earth-Eternal-Teaser-Trailer

I still think it looks very cute. Kind if clunky and simple but it's a browser game so one shouldn't expect stellar grafics. But it sounds and looks like it will have great depth of story so I am really looking forward to trying it.

And this will be a game where I will have a very hard time deciding what I want to play since there will actually be a huge variety of races to pick from.

Yesterday we started what our SG is refering to as "TF week" - meaning we are doing one TF each afternoon for the Task Force Commander accolade (except the bugged Manticore TF).

Of course we started out with Positron and a rather small team since some of us called in that they couldn't come.

So it was just:
- me with Snicklebeast (PB)
- Dark with Willy (Defender)
- Zombiemaus with Umpa (Tank)
- Fire with an NK who's name escapes me...

With so few the TF was blessedly low on bosses which can be a major pain in the ass with CoTs, Vazis and Clocks. We still had a hard time to start with since both Willy and Umpa were level 10 and still lacking a lot of useful powers.

So there was a fair bit of dying at first:


They did however both level very quickly so the further in we got the easier it was.

By the last mission and both of them at level 16 we cut through the mobs easily.

So we can say the TF was a good start and today we will tackle Synapse and his zillions of Clocks.

So we were planning to do the Statesman Task Force yesterday afternoon. Which is the hardest TF in the game. And currently even harder since there seeme to be a bug with the technicians that repair Recluse's towers that makes them get off one heal each which can't be prevented. So basically the towers are WAY harder then usual when they are hard anyway.

So we decided to do something else.

I'm not really sure we CAN do the States TF with Magma as a tank anyway. He is willpower and that is - as far as I have seen - not a set that can survive holding Recluse. So I think it might become a frustrating endevaour. From what i have seen the only set that can decently tank Recluse is stone or invul with a VERY good personal empath. But since Fire is hellbend on trying I guess we will at some point and I will pray we can make it.

But back to what we DID do yesterday and that was the Fathim the Kind TF.

I really like the Shadow Shard Task Forces (except Quaterfield of course). Sadly they are not done very often.

So I very much enjoyed yesterday's trip. Since my claws/reg Scrapper Yasha still didn't have the Rularuu claws I dusted her off. The rest of the team was:
- Fire on Magma Stone (tank)
- hubby on Galahad (tank)
- Dark Way on Joey Jordison (scrapper)
- Zombiemaus on Claw Kitty (scrapper)
- Tech on Ryna (defender)
- Gambit-X (another scrapper from a coa SG)
- and Daggorineth on a Illusion/storm troller (a very nice player who I have done a few TFs with)

Obviously it was a melee heavy team butit worked pretty well. Having so many people with self rez really was a boon.

We did had some starting problems when we were still getting used to each other:


But after that we made it through the TF pretty smoothly.

The only thing that was really annoying was that Fathim didn't get a phone to call him even AFTER we were done so I had to fly the long long way to him after every mission. HELLO?? DEVS??? CAN WE GIVE THE BLOODY THING A PHONE???

The last fight against Lanaru was very cool with everyone flying around him:


And in the end he exploded:


We even got the SG badge for completing the TF several times which we didn't have yet.

All in all a fun afternoon.

So what did we do today.

When I logged in Fire, Tech, Dark and Zombiemaus were already on. We were all in an adventurous mood and had nothing else we wanted to do today so we of course decided to do a Task Force. After some arguing back and forth on which one to do we decided to tackle the Croatoa TF since a few of us had never done it and me and Tech hadn't done it in a while.

We both recommended it as we had done it several times and rembered it to be short and sweet.

It took us a while to get a team set up with at least one character who had the contact Katie hannon to start it.

We ended up with one tank, two blasters, one scrapper, one force field defender and one peacebringer.

What is missing in this set up? Exactly. Debuff.

I do not recomment trying this at home, folks. It took us nearly two hours to cut down Mary three times. And me and Tech had more than an ear full about how we had recommended this endless TF as nice and easy.



Anyway, when we FINALLY were dne with that first mission the rest took us... uh... I think 30 more minutes.

After that Tech and me insisted on doing it again, WITH debuffs. To prove that it could be done quickly.

So I grabbed Terra Nova, my rad/rad defender and she got her Illusion/Sonic controller and we RIPPED through Mary. Damn that felt so good.

So we did the Croatoa TF twice today and grabbed the witch hat for 11 different toons. Nice, eh?

...is especially hard when that single parent is a several centuries old vampire who is absolutely not used to caring about anyone or anything.

Yesterday me and May had another rpg session via chat.

As you may or may not recall, last time Fahima got herself into trouble and out again.

This time she arrived back at the city to face the vampire who adopted her when she was still a child and tell him everything was all right.

Only she didn't really get a chance to do so since she was immediately locked up safe and only let out again when said vampire had been able to secure a suitable bodyguard for her.

Of course there is much more to this than May knows right now but since she reads this journal I can't tell.

Important thing is we again had a lot of fun and this time around I think we are getting much closer to what we want Fahima to be in this version. It's is hard to deviate from the childlike version she was in the original game but I think we are getting there - slowly.

I am still not up to my usual standard in story telling though. Some things don't come out as clearly as they should and I sometimes forget to mention important details. But I think it's getting better and that's what counts.

In a few months I should be back to my former perfection.

At least I have an abundant amount of ideas again so we shouldn't run out of things to do for a while.

You may have noticed that I haven't been playing Sims much for the last week. That is mainly due to the fact that hubby has been off work and has been using the game CD.

Not for himself though. I have another new family and they need a special home. A genuine british castle complete with gardens. That was a rather daunting undertaking for me so I asked if hubby would enjoy to build one. He was delighted. So for the last week he has spent hours building that perfect castle and yesterday, at last. he was done and I got my castle delivered.

It's the most awesome, detailed piece of Sim architecture I have seen to date. Take a look.

This is the front:


And the backside with a look at all the garden details:


I haven't really had a chance to take any screens of the inside yet but it takes about a minute to load. THAT much detail!

My family has moved in and now they are starting out their lives. More on them later. Still working on finding what is where and who sleeps in which bed currently...

Okay... so I've missed most of this double XP week. And you know what? I don't feel bad about it at all. I mean, come on, I have 12 level 50 toons... not like I really need any more, eh? In fact I feel like I did just the right thing, enjoyed it when I felt like it.

And I felt like enjoying it last night.

Me and hubby logged in Gram and Galahad and did Maria Jenkins Praetorian arc. It is always great fun to smash all those Praetorian superevil overlords. It was so even more this time since on a Scrapper and Tank they really didn't stand a chance. The only one who gave us a bit of trouble was Black Swan.

Well... her and Tyrant himself... but more on that in a moment.

We picked up a friendly Peacebringer we have teamed with before and Tech on her Blaster somewhere along the way.

Right on time for the last fight Dark Way and Zombiemaus logged in as well so we faced Tyrant with a six man team.

Now I was on heroic to be able to cut through the arc quickly. And Gram is level 47. So can anyone explain to me why we faced a level 50 Archvillain in Tyrant??

Something is seriously buggy with the boss and AV spawns since i15.

Of course he wiped the floor with our sorry butts. So the Peacebringer and Zombiemaus went and got their level 50 Scrappers instead.

And that did the trick and we were able to kick his teeth in.

Here we are with rescued States after the fight:


On the plus side he gave a hell of a lot XP at that level and with double XP. Gram got 240k for his kill and another 500k for completing the arc. So she is almost level 48 now and Galahad made it to level 47.

Today I played the remaining scenarios of the tutorial, learning how to trade and how to fight.

I can say there is one thing that annoys me so far and that is that the maps are so damn small. It is really hard to build up a good infra structure when you hardly have enough roomto even place all the gathering and production buildings.

I have always had the military aspect of these builder games. If I want to play a game where I have to build up military it will not be a city building game. There are enough others that specialize in the fighting aspect, don't need it here really. I want to build CITIES! I loved how they gave you a choice of military or building scenarios in Pharaoh and how you could simply pay off any attackers in Emperor and I kind of hope there will be something similar here. Military is clunky and it needs way to much room on the much too small maps.

Here are my little soldiers fighting invaders:


Another thing I very much liked in Emperor was that you stayed in one city over several scenarios, giving you a chance to really perfect it and not making you start over with the small fry building from scratch with every mission. It would be nice to see this return in Caesar IV. I'll soon know if it does when I start the proper campaign.

What i really love about Caesar IV is that you can now zoom in so far and enjoy all the pretty details.

This is a lowest level house:


So pretty!

I'll report more when I know it.

Last night me and May paid our first real visit to Grizzleheim after completing the introduction quest. Since it is new for me too we deceided to go there before we continue with the main quest in Marleybone.

I must say it is VERY pretty:


The monster movement is different than in the other zones. You get pathways that lead to open places that have monster walking around on them but if you hug the edge you can pass them easily, or you can enter the place fight. It is nicely done and not annopying like Marleybone at all.

The monster designfrom what I have seen so far is very cool. Grumpy old bears and tribal, dancing ugly hogs.

The items I have found so far looked very cool as well though none of them had better stats than what I have with Hannah currently so she didn't put anything on. There are some pieces that Blaze or Amber might use, though.

Fight so far have been pretty easy since both Hannah and Sarai are already level 27.

All in all I have thoroughly enjoyed our first trip and look forward to more.

Caesar IV is the latest part in the city building games series that began with Caesar I and has also seen Pharaoh, Emperor and that greek one which's name escapes me right now... I've played all of them and loved all of them to different degrees. My absolute favorites were always Emperor and Pharaoh. There is just something incredibly soothing about watching your tiny little workers slave away on a pyramid for several hours...

Anyway, Caesar IV has been out for a while now. I am not absolutely sure why I didn't get it when it first came out. I probably was playing something else, or there were bad reviews or whatever.

Today I came across it in the bargain bin and just grabbed it.

Damn, am i happy I did!!

So far I've only played the first two scenarios but it's so cute and pretty.

You can now lay diagonale roads and houses. You get to build aqueducts again. And... and... there are just so many little citizens running around doing their thing.

I have spend weeks building the perfect cities in Pharaoh and that wasn't even half as pretty as Caesar IV. If this stays as much fun as it is right now... I can see myself spending a LOT of time with it.

Here is a look at Verona, the second scenario I played:

Okay

I stand corrected and humbled and boy am I GLAD:

https://www.wizard101.com/site/posts/list/8342.ftl

They've changed boss fights back. No more bosses casting more than once per round. No more usuing of spells they don't have enough pips for. No more summoning extra minions. The only extra they retain is being able to use power pips and that is okay with me.

Thank you for letting me keep playing and enjoying your game, KingsIsle.

They are also fixing the spawn rate of reagents so crafting may become more feasible too.

All in all nothing but good news!

Tonight me and May went in to face Krokopatra and finish off Krokotopia.

Krokopatra is one of those "enhanced bosses" so I wasn't quite sure if we would even be able to beat her. She was one of the bosses I had tested earlier soloing and I didn't stand a chance.

But first we had to fight our way through the 2 bosses that guard her as the test of strength. I've had trouble with them before so I warned May off them. Which was pretty funny since we cut them down in about 2 attacks each. For once we had no annoying fizzles and drew the right cards.

Tempestra even dropped a very cool looking staff for me. It does less damage than the wand Hannah is currently using though, so I'm not quite sure yet what to do with it.

Then we fought Krokopatra. It was not an easy fight but duoing her she was doable.

I still have to renew my opinion: bosses being allowed to cheat is just WRONG!

Here is Sarai's frostwyrm blasting a Krokomummy:


So now we have reached Marleybone - my hate world... back to the annoying rooftops.

Or maybe we will pay a visit to Grizzleheim first. We haven't decided yet.

There has been quite a bit of positive talk about this game lately so I decided to give it a try even though it really doesn't look like my usual cup of tea.

It is not a game that runs via client but in a browser so there really isn't much of a download. Basically you just creat an account and can hop right in. The game stores some data on your computer but that takes about two minutes. Very fast and easy.

Then you get into character creation and this is a game that really deserves a recommendation for the creation options. You get to pick the usual like haircut, face. But you can color everything in minute detail and you also get to pick clothes and shoes and there are some very cool, well done options to pick from and they are all color customizable as well.

I created a girl and went in.

You start out with a very well done tutorial that explains all the basics. And there aren't many. Actually everything about this game is very simple but well executed. You run forward, aim your huge gun at the equally huge monsters and press fire until they are dead. You get aditional powers later on it seems but from what I hear they aren't really any more complicated than the gun.

Not really exciting?

No, but the world looks very cool and you get extra clothing items like funny masks and capes to further customize your character.

You also get extended jump and run passages - which is absolutely not my thing in games.

All in all this is a very well done, simple, relaxing game. It does not require much thought to play so if you want to unwind and were always looking for a multiplayer game with jump and run features and a cartoony look you will probably love this to death.

It's not for me though.

Today - after a long, much too long time - we did an SG TF.

We had arranged before hand for the new Reichsman TF. Everyone showed up on time or way before time.

Everyone but Sparkish. We had agreed to meet at 3 pm and 15 minutes later he still wasn't there. Which is absolutely unusual for him. I started looking for a replacement and Burns happily agreed to come along. He still needed to finish his mission though so we waited a bit longer and I warned him that if Spark did show up in that time we would take Spark along of course. Well - he did show up at half past 3 so we were able to do the TF in our originally planned team and Burns was quite a bit disappointed. I'm sure we'll get another chance to do it though.

The first fight ended with a team wipe. We were EXTREMELY out of practise. And of course Magma is still a tank in training... No. Actually he's not anymore and doing quite a good job. We just keep joking about it endlessly. He takes it good humoredly though.

After that we did really well. Dark Way died on his defender constantly but that was due to the fact that he insisted on not sking and fighting +5 mobs can be a bit dangerous. He got from 45 to 47 in 2 hours though so I guess it was worth it.

Now for the Task Force itself... It was quite disappointing. The story is bland. They re-used old maps, Reichsman looks like Bison from Streetfighter... the only actually new thing in the TF are three new rooms. Really very, very mediocre. There are a few hundred arcs in the Mission Architect that are much better.

Basically there is no reason to do it again.

No special reward like the costume pieces in the ITF, no grand merit reward (20 merits). The only thing it has going for itself is that it is pretty fast with just 2 hours.

Anyway, we beat up reichsman with zero problems. Which maybe was a due to the fact that we had 3 Vanguard heavies running around with us...

Here we are after everything was said and done (from left to right: Claw Kitty, Moss-Man, Klingensaenger, Ashuroa, Sparkish, Ryna Shar Xym, Magma Stone & Daggoner):


Since the whole thing was so quick and the afternoon still young we decided to do another TF. Sparkish had to go but the rest quickly settled on attempting the manticore TF since it is quite easy and not that long.

Most of us had toons in level range for it so we relogged to those and started the TF with Jaerven joining us on his blaster Hotwire.

We got through the first mission with some defeats (since we were mostly fighting +3 to +5 mobs). But when we entered the second mission we hit a brick wall. Namely 2 level 40 Paragon Protector Elite that happily ground us to dust.

The Manticore TF is capped at level 35. So of course they shouldn't have been there. I sent in a petition but as usual the GM reply was not that fast so by the time one got back to me we had quit. At least the GM informed me that it is a known issue and being worked on. So I guess we'll have to avoid that TF until it is fixed.

After that we quickly did the aura mission with several toons and then called it a day.

So!

Zukunft has started into it's week of double XP event and naturally I was there.

On friday I was taking it slow. Knowing that you have a whole week of double XP ahead takes the rush and grind out of it nicely for me.

First I played with Snicklebeast, my Peacebringer, who I am starting to like more and more. I never before got the hang of the shapeshifting in the right moment to get the most out of a Kheld I guess. He leveled from 26 to 28 in a nice team with Spark, some sg mates and some random people.

Then only me and Fire were left. I logged to Swara and we did one of the Ourorobous TFs together (the 5th column one). We had quite a bit of trouble beating up Nosferatu and the last battle against Maestro, Requiem and Vandal with there zillion ambushes was epic but we prevailed and had a lot of fun.

Afterwards we sat on one of the rocks floating in the O-zone for an extended chat:


Today was a bit more hectic. I got a great team together right from the start with Fire, Tech and Vulcano and various other people we picked up along the way. I played Snicklebeast again. This time we played his Kheld story arc on Striga and we all enjoyed going back there since we hadn't been to Striga in a long time. When we were done with Snickies arc we continued with Striga missions of Vulcano.

It was a great team with 3 Khelds:


Snicklebeast is level 30 now.

And last but not least: in the evening there was a ship raid. Since I have been wanting the Vanguard boots for Gram FOREVER I went with her.



I must say a shipraid plays VERY differently on a scrapper.

My usual is blaster, defender or corruptor. Those they pretty stationary. With Gram I was constantly jumping around from target to target all over the ship. It was fun but I think I enjoy the other version more.

Halfway through the second run Dark Way and Zombiemaus showed up as well. They are finally done with moving house and back online and ingame. YAY!! for returning mates.

So now Gram has proper Vanguard boots which completes her techy outfit.

She also leveled to 46.

I wonder if maybe she will hit level 50 during this double xp week. But I won't grind for that. I'll just play whoever I like and enjoy the extra reward.

Well... sort of... nothing really definite:

https://www.wizard101.com/site/posts/list/8018.ftl

After playing a few days the outcry in the Wizard101 forums has grown to a proportion that has obviously forced the devs to reply. I wonder how many people who bought the one year sub have clamored for their money back behind the scenes...

Anyway... this really doesn't say anything on if they will moderate their changes to an acceptable level or not but at least it offers an explanation. One that leaves me baffled such as these almost always do with MMORPGs...

They wanted to make the encounters more interesting, with puzzles to solve and strageties needed? Why? When did anyone ask for anything like that? If I wanted a complicated battle that requires preparation and will take me an hour or two to complete I don't log into Wizard101. There are a plethora of other games that offer this. What made Wizard unique and so dear to a great many players was the casual, easy fun. Log in, kill some stuff, grab some loot, move on. It's relaxing. Complicated and difficult does NOT equal good. There is a great beauty in simplicity and that is what was just thoroughly destroyed in this game.

And than of course there is the great and true saying:

Don't fix what's not broken!

So now they are at least considering going back on those changes it seems.

My hopes are low.

From what I have seen in my long games career is that devs never go back once they have made something that they consider an improvement and that their player base hates.

I am not sure what the reason for that is.

Maybe they are so sure they no better how their players are supposed to have fun that they simply write off all complaints as players being too dumb too see how brilliant their updates are and that with time those players will come around. History has proven that doesn't happen. Players will just leave.

Or maybe they are too proud too admit they were wrong?

Whatever it is, I will wait and watch. For now the great love I had for the old Wizard101 outweighs my frustration. Let#s see how long that lasts.

Well... I have to say I am very, VERY disappointed with what KingsIsle has done with this update.

Nerfing things in a game is mostly not liked by the player base. The bigger the nerfs the more outcry.

With what KingsIsle called "Enhanced Bosses" they have basically ruined the game for soloing.

Bosses can now cast more than once a round and they can cast high levels spells using just one pip.

I was willing to give this a try and have done some testing today with all my different wizards (one low level in Wizard City, one medium in Krokotopia and Alyssa in various shards). The results are pretty clear - none of the lower levels wizards are able to beat any bosses anymore. Even in several tries. They would have to have a team to manage them so soloing is dead for them. Alyssa had trouble with lower level bosses she would have wiped the floor with before this update.

Conclusion: I will not be playing any of my lower level wizards anymore.

I will give duoing with May a try. If we can still beat bosses with Sarai and Hannah together we will keep playing, if not I will have to quit Wizard 101.

I am very, very sad about this. There was a lengthy discussion about this in the test server boards and basically NOBODY liked the so called "enhanced bosses". Why KingsIsle went through with them is beyond me since they at no point explained WHY they thought this to be a good idea.

What REALLY pisses me off is that the rest of the update is wonderful. Grizzleheim looks beautiful and I would have loved to explore it at length. Crafting looks interesting. The new chat options would have made communicating so much easier. The bazaar looks like a great way to get your hands on equipment that you would have had to farm for endlessly before.

But all that hard work is ruined by the fact that for me, this game is now unplayable solo.

I really don't get what goes on in the heads of devs sometimes...

So you may remember that I lost one of my families and all their progress due to a nasty bug a while back. I really was heartbroken and not sure what to do about it. I still had their original creation copy but it was such a sad thought to start all over again.

Especially going back to their house with all the memories of their old selves in pictures, certificates, the garden, the upgraded items... so sad...

But now I have come up with what i hope will work for getting them into Sim Town again: I have asked hubby to build a new home for them.

It has turned out very differently from the one that I built. Everything feels a bit cramped. It's not as luxurious. But it has it's own kind of charme. Certainly a lot more rustic than the old one.


It was nice to have them back. They are quite a big family.

Here they are at a picknick in the park:


From left to right: Colin (dad 1 to the kids), Yaden (Colin's husband and dad 2), Miriam (the teenage daughter), Vian and Siva (twins, boy and girl) and Dwayne, an old mate of Yaden.

The kids obviously will be going to school. Miriam is the brilliant rebellious type, Siva loves to paint and Vian loves running around. Yaden is doing the law enforcement career. Colin stays at home for now and cooks but he will probably get a part time job at some point. Dwayne is a solitary type. he stays at home too, gardening, tinkering and fishing.

Good to have them back.

Since Zukunft is still down...

Yes you heard that right, it's wednesday now and they STILL haven't fixed whatever they have broken... two days down now...

I logged into Union today to repark my dayjobbers there at least.

Jaerven was on as well. We chatted a bit about what we thought of the recent lack of anything new and exciting in CoX and then he snatched me away to get the new PvP badges on his Badgehunter Evil Incarnate.

Since I always help him with his badges this was no exception and while we were at it Slave Child grabbed those badges as well so she is not well over 500 badges even after losing all the Mission Architect badges.

Which is nice on one hand and then again... nothing more than nice. Badging is really losing it's interest more and more to me. It's not an obsession anymore, just a nice bonus.

Damn, I hope Going Rogue will bring something new and exciting... I hate being bored by my favorite game.