44.7 :: Terror in Tera

** I realize my embedded images look like crap.  I'm trying to figure out why as they look fine in the edit screen, but somehow lose their "shape" when I publish.  I hope to have it corrected soon.**

I can't believe it's been over a month since I posted last.  Seems like it was just last week I put the last post up here and somehow 39 days went by without me noticing it.  Granted April is a busy month for me and work hasn't made it any less busier.

-slurp-

Gaming wise I've been playing a little bit of Diablo 3 and Tera Online.  My son and I started up a couple of Season 3 characters in D3 and made it to level 70 in a 2 weekends of play.  Blizzard has really changed the game a lot since I leveled my first character and I must say the experience was a lot of fun.  Of course now that we're level 70, we are going through the painful grind of Paragon levels (800 in total if I want to max out everything), running Adventure mode on various torment difficulty settings and running through rifts.  It's not as much fun as we had while leveling to 70 but it's still a good time trying difficult difficulty ratings to see how well (or badly) we do.

In my free time (what little I have) I've also been delving into the world of Tera Online.  For a game that is free-to-play (f2p) it has really done well for itself.  The character creation is simple but offers a decent variety of choices.  There are 8 classes to choose from with an additional class if you have a character over level 40 on that server.  I've only been playing for a week or so and my highest level character is an Archer class at level 36.  I also decided to try my hand at a Warrior class which I'm pleased to say is quickly catching up to my Archer.

-slurp-

Tera features some stunning graphics and the combat animations are very well done.  The targeting and movement controls are a bit different to get used you, but once you have it down you wonder how you ever managed to play click to target games (i.e. World of Warcraft) before.  Wildstar and Neverwinter have similar no-click targeting combat but Tera seems to outshine them both.

I'm uncertain what the future holds for me in the Tera universe.  So far I like what I see and I look forward to logging in when I have some free time.  Whether that will continue in the weeks to come we'll have to wait and see.

-slurp-

As I mentioned earlier, April is usually a busy month for me.  Since my past post I celebrated a birthday, my oldest son's birthday as well as my sister's birthday.  April also concluded my large project at work; a project that I have been working on for the past 15 months.  As a result of that wrap-up, I spent a lot of time getting things finalized with my development team, individual development tasks properly sized and just plain old fun.

The 15 month project may have wrapped up but my next one has already begun.  This next project isn't nearly as aggressive as the last, but it will still be a challenge to wrap up by the end of 2015.  Overall work is OK.  I have a great team of developers who (for the most part) have their heads down and do their jobs and a great management team backing me up.  In a few short months I will be "celebrating" my 10 year anniversary with this company.  Hard to believe it has been 10 years.

-slurp-

"The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why." -- Mark Twain

May the 4th be with you!

Cheers,

Al

44.6 :: The Beginning of WoW

World of Warcraft has been a part of my gaming arsenal for a very long time (over 10 years now).  I was checking out some of my old stuff over on http://web.archive.org and I stumbled upon a post I made back on November 10, 2014.  It describes my first foray into the World of Warcraft and my initial impression of the game.

Posted November 10, 2014 @ 09:36 MST

So I signed up yesterday for the new WoW Open Beta. For those who don’t know what WoW is, sheesh :) WoW stands for World of Warcraft. Any gamer should remember the Warcraft games and how popular they were. Blizzard has come out with their first Massive Multi-player Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) entitled World of Warcraft.

All I can say is “WOW” :)

I started up a Human Warlock last night on the Beta Server 13. I made it to level 6 while casually playing for about 3-4 hours (not bad). I was able to have enough cash on my to do all my necessary training and advancements. The questing system is simply amazing in this game. If you’re used to other MMOGs and they way they do their questing; WoW will blow your mind :)

I have my little Imp pet (just like in the Single/Multi-player Warcraft games) and him and I set out for some adventure :)

Within the span of that 3-4 hours I was reunited with some old gaming friends from Dark Age of Camelot. I also completed about 11 quests AND I had a tour of the Alliance capital city. In WoW, it is Alliance vs. Horde. Each side has equal races/classes they can choose from, and you fight :) Similar to how the RvR aspect works in DAoC, except it is only 2 sides and they are equal. There are only 2 classes that are special to each side, all the other classes are shared.

The graphical world is stunning, the music and sounds take you in unlike any other game. The emotes are hilarious :) When you type lol, your character bursts out in laughter holding her stomach (yes, my toon is a chick). You can flirt, dance, kiss, hug, cheer, etc, etc, etc.. You even have “vocal” commands. I can do a /cheer which does a simple animation of me cheering, or I can do a /v cheer which makes my character yell out a cheer :) /v silly will make my character tell a random joke (which can be heard). Character make hand gestures and express emotions while they interact with the world. Overall, the game has so many “little things” that make you laugh :)

I was walking around the start village when I came across this oddly familiar looking character walking around. I click on him to be greeted with that familiar nasal sounding “Hello".. I nearly fell out of my chair with laughter. I watched this NPC (non player character) for a few minutes as he walked. He headed to a tree where he proceeded to start chopping wood. I couldn't believe it, it was like being inside the old Warcraft games :) After chopping wood for 30 sec, the Peasant turned around with an arm full of wood and walked back to the village. As I said before, it's the little things ;) This toon had no purpose to the game other than to give us old Warcraft fans something to smile about.

You older players will remember how angry the characters in Warcraft would get if you kept clicking on them. Well, Blizzard has brought that over to WoW as well :) I had guards getting angry at me as I continued to interact with them over and over :) Just for laughs I fired up an Orc player on another server to test this over interaction :) What do you think I was greeted with?? You guessed it… the famous “STOP POKING ME!!!!” :)

I urge you guys to give the game a try. Last I heard they had closed down the open beta sign ups, but if you get a chance to get on and take a look, please do :) If not, you will want to pick this game up and enjoy a free month of play. As with almost every other MMOG, it is a pay to play on a monthly basis.

Blizzard has an excellent track record when it comes to making games. Their attention to detail is unmatched. You can’t go wrong with a game from Blizzard ;)

If I go back and look at all the posts I've made over the years about this game, I find it funny that this one the one that started them all.

Cheers,

Al

44.5 :: Gaming Weekend

Yes I know, almost every weekend is a gaming weekend for me.  This weekend was a little bit different as I finally accomplished a few things in WoW that I have been working on for quite some time.

-slurp-

[wowhead achievement=4603]

If I had played the game properly, this achievement should have been completed YEARS ago.  Unfortunately I never had the opportunity to run this particular raid dungeon when it was current (level 70); now I'm level 100 and it is very easy.  My son and I have been running this dungeon once a week to get the achievements listed.  Yesterday we were finally able to pull off the last one we needed to get the overall achievement and the flying skeleton dragon mount that goes with it.

[wowhead id=51955]

-slurp-

The second major achievement this weekend was the one I received for looting 25,000 gold.

[wowhead achievement=1181]

This may not sound like a lot, but when you consider this achievement only counts looted coin, it is much more difficult to obtain than expected.  The next goal in this line is the 50,000 gold looted achievement which is going to take some time.  After that there is the 100,000 gold and 200,000 gold achievements and then I've completed the entire set.

Other than those major achievements, I reached level 100 on yet another character (Orc Warrior).  This is my fifth level 100 character since the expansion launched and I've started on my sixth (Night Elf Priest).  I must admit, leveling 90 to 100 is a lot faster than 85 to 90 was in Mists of Pandaria.  Even though the quests are exactly the same as the past 5 times I've done them, I still find things along the way that I missed on previous characters; that makes the leveling experience a little more interesting.

-slurp-

Well folks, that's all I have for updates.  Been playing a little bit of Eve Online; had one of my ships destroyed because I wasn't paying attention but other than that Eve has been fairly quiet.

Cheers,

Al

v38.8: Hold Reset, Press Power

Howdy folks,

-slurp-

As most of you know, I'm a gamer.  I'm someone who enjoys many different types of games and play as many different types of games as I can get my hands on.  I've always been a gamer going back to my early years and the family's first computer; a Commodore Vic20.

-slurp-

v37.6: Gaming Update

Good morning folks,

-slurp-

I haven't posted any gaming updates lately so I thought I'd make a quick post about what I've been up to with regards to gaming lately.  After all, this site is supposed to be senseless ramblings from a UNIX administrator and gamer.

-slurp-

v35.6: Friday WoW

Good morning folks,

-slurp-

What a week this has been.  I wish I could say it is over but I still need to make it through this day before I can finally say my work week is over.  I won't say it hasn't been stressful but it has definitely been busy.  Between things going on in the office and things going on in our personal life, I've barely had time to sit and relax or even play any games.

-slurp-

v34.9: Hello Mr. Theclaw

Good morning folks,

-slurp-

It has been a few days since I posted last so I must apologize for not being more on the ball.  Sunday I started coming down with a nice little cold and flu which resulted in me extending my time off by a day as I called in sick Monday.  I spent most of the day laying down and resting and didn't get an opportunity to post.  That means yesterday was officially my first day back in the office and before I realized I hadn't posted a musing, it was already the end of the day.

-slurp-