I’ve gotten in the habit of dabbling in games.  I try this, try that, but am not really settling on anything in particular.

I still play DDO once a week, and for now, it’s plenty for me.  I still have about an hour of Mass Effect 2 to play.  I am sort of refusing to finish the game, so the adventure won’t be over until the week Mass effect 3 comes out.  Yes, it’s damn odd. I don’t know what to say about it. LOL

I finished Fable 3.  I am in the last chapter set for LA Noire.  Dragon Age 2 is gathering dust. What a disappointing game.

I am never going to come close to finishing Final Fantasy 13.  EVER.

I still need to pre order SWTOR.  I am dragging my feet on it because I am still miffed about the $150 bucks they want me to lay out for the Collector’s Edition.  I’ll end up buying it. My procrastination proves little other than a quirk in my inner monologue.

With my few hours of play time, I want to make sure I am enjoying myself.  I want fun. I want bang for my buck. I want it all.

This week the Fall Festival in LOTRO is proving to be a delicious gift to the LORO community touching on all my feel good places!

How cute am I?  I have been working my tail off to garner as many of the festival goodies as I can.  I can’t help myself.

In all seriousness, if you only have time for one festival in LOTRO, make it this one.  The Haunted Barrow dished out scares and giggles your first time through.  Take the hand of a beautiful companion and enjoy all the thrills and chills.  Huge kudos to Turbine!

If you need a good guide to the festival, head over to A Casual Stroll to Mordor.  They always get the goods early, and make sure to put up pictures, maps and written material to help you through.  I don’t know how they have time for it all, but I adore them for doing it!

It’s my favorite time of the year. Beautiful fall color, crisp breezes, pumpkin scents wafting from the pie in my oven.  Some people love Spring and new beginnings. I love Autumn and the chance to let go as the cycle winds down.

Whatever your leanings, I hope you are given the chance to drill down to find those experiences that fill you up.  Games are meant to be stress relievers.   I say this a couple of times a year as a reminder to those who take in game angst to dramatic heights.

Find your fun.  *raises a glass as a toast* Get to it!

Game on!!!

Yes, yes I am still around.  I have been super quiet on all of my outlets lately.  It’s for a good reason.  After a long and somewhat torturous search, I finally landed a job.  Getting used to the commute, the long hours, lack of privacy and overall suckiness of my cell carrier’s signal in my building, has left me with maybe an hour or so on the weekdays when I could game. I am not loving it.

While I have been slaving away nine to five, LOTRO’s Rise Of Isengard has launched, the Turbine forums suffered some sort of disuruption, SOE is hacked AGAIN, Blackberry’s implode, Iphone 4s announced *rolls her eyes*, Steve Jobs find everlasting peace, Kindle Fire announced…I could go on for a while.  It’s been one heck of a busy month.

I noticed something though.

A. I am doing more content on Google +.  The conversation threading is simply better.  I can include photo’s and video’s with ease.  It’s changing the way I think of putting out content.  I am not giving up the website, but it might have even less on it now.  You can click the Google+ button on the front page of my website and follow me if you are not already!

B. I get most of my gaming news and some world news through twitter.  It’s fast. It’s succinct.  I don’t have to listen to commercials to get a quick bite of the pulse of my games.

C. I really don’t enjoy facebook.  The changes over the last month have left me scratching my head.  For an innovative company, they sure are going the way of myspace.  I want more control over my content, my way, not yours.  I am not going to set up lists on a site I have used one way for years. I don’t want to set up subscriptions.  And for effing sake, leave the bloody timeline alone you ID10T’s!

D. I really don’t like new content when it is launched.

The last one surprised me a bit.  I had been looking forward to new level’s in LOTRO.  I wanted new places to take the fellowship.  A new set of book chapters to explore.

My main in LOTRO is a Ministrel.  The overhaul to the skills, spells, triaits, LI’s, resistances, and so forth  slated for ROI left me with a bad headache.  I was overwhelmed.  The day of launch I think I updated my launcher and went to sleep.  The next day I didn’t play.  Nor the next. And then it became a pattern of avoidance.

While I was busy figuring out how to handle a 12 to 13 hour day, LOTRO had a few hicupps. The LUA plugin mess frustrated many.  There were a few other bugs here and there.  It always take a week or so for the majority of the game breaking bugs to filter out on  live server.  No matter the testing, you need a bigger pool of players to really learn how to fix your game code.

I’ve watched my twitter, read CTSM, checked out the LOTRO news on my new android phone apps (squeals…I love this blasted thing!) and didn’t get a single little pinch of curiosity until this weekend.

It’s been about a month.  Everyone has calmed down for the most part about the bugs.  Most things have been fixed. The mad rush is over.

I logged into LOTRO tonight.

I will say though, I seem to do this in all my games.  I tend not to play on launch day unless Static Group is meeting in DDO.  I swing wide of all new quest zones.  I don’t want need to be the first to find the new shiny.  In fact. I’d rather you find it.  I’ll get there eventually.

I am not sure if it is an aversion to new stuff, or if I don’t like the speed with which a lot of people inhale new quests, or if I don’t like spending my precious gaming time being bounced from one bug report to another.

Just to touch on a few of the other topics I wish I had time to talk about this month.

I was excited about the Kindle Fire until I realized how Apple-like Amazon is thinking. It’s looking like a pretty closed shopping system.  While it’s running Android, it’s doing it Amazon’s way.  I am not sure if I want to participate in this experiment.  I want a fully fledged tablet.  What can I say, I am just greedy!

The Iphone 4s announcement sure left a lot to be desired.  If you are excited about, fabulous for you.  I want ed to see them push forward, not recycle. *shrugs*

Yes, as of this writing, the Turbine forums are still down.  I don’t like being right about things sometimes. I had tiptoed over to the mylotro page a week or so ago when the lotteries were finally reinstated.  I noticed Turbine wanted me to log in with game password.  One password for the forums/mylotro and the game seemed nonsencial to me.  I even mentioned the lack of forethought on twitter.

A couple of days, maybe a week later, the forums go down for a back end issue.  Noone is out and out saying they were hacked.  What they are saying, is change your blasted passwords.  If you haven’t, get on that.

I don’t know what else to say about that.

Maybe they will get back online this week with some better corks in the security holes.

I might have giggled a little when blackberry’s had am implosion.  I have had my new Android phone less than a month, and if I could I would have it surgically implanted in my hand.  I don’t really use it as a phone.  While I will make the odd call on it, I mainly use it as a mini tablet compluter. I don’t miss my blackberry at all.  Well, ok … I missmy blinky light.

I hope I can continue to game a few hours here and there.  Killing pixels seems to keep me balanced.  I need to think tactically, plan out manuevers and decimate the enemy into a smoldering ash pile.

I’m not bloodthristy in any way, shape or form!

What have you lot been up to while I am chained to my desk?  Do you rush out to play new content as soon as it is available?

I am off to find some dinner!

Ohhh …War in the North hits the streets ON Nov. 1st. See video below for eye candy goodness!

Game on!!!

While I denigrate my blackberry on an almost daily basis, I was grateful to have my smart phone and it’s access to the world outside.

I particularly enjoyed my twitter feed.

Monday turned out to be especially entertaining.  Fernando Paiz had expounded excitedly about all things U11 for DDO over the PAX weekend, and in his unfiltered enthusiam, created the worst PR blip to hit Stormreach since the free to play announcement two years ago.

I sat in the house waiting for the next round of chainsaws to start crunching the big tree out front and cradled my phone.  Tweet after tweet exploded and within hours the DDO community was on fire.

Everyone was chattering back and forth about Artificer’s being a store only option.

****Important Correction made at bottom of article!****

Things went from bad to worse throughout the morning while I wished for someone over at Turbine to draw the short straw and make an official announcement.  There is nothing like the vacuum of information to cook up a good helping of nerd rage.

By the time Turbine got around to confirming the rumor, the community was frothing at the mouth.

VIP players vocally expressed their anger on the forums, in podcasts, blogs, facebook, google+ and twitter. There wasn’t a social platform I belong to that didn’t have a rant somewhere about the Artificer debacle.

I knew what they were angry about. Artificers would only be a store option for U11. While there would be an opportunity to earn the Artificer class via House Cannith favor later in the year when U12 launched, for next few months if you wanted to play the new shiny class, you were going to need to pony up Turbine Points.

What I found especially offensive personally, was the bonus points we received this summer prior to Fernando’s verbal diarrhea. Anyone who says Turbine doesn’t know what they are doing, isn’t paying attention. A well thought out plan is/was/will be in motion. You can gripe all you want about Artificer’s not being free in U11, but honestly Turbine has already given you the points to buy Artificer’s for free. They just didn’t tell you.

To further shaft the VIP community, TR players will be able to open quests on hard regardless of their account type, and able to open quests on elite on the second TR.

Once I read the above announcement and coupled it with the Artificer mess, I sort of threw my hands up in the air.

Here is a chart from the DDO Compendium illustrating the account types.

I am not in the habit of defending Turbine. If anything, I am usually waving my fist in the air to punctuate my ire. However, in looking over this chart, I think there are still some really good things I receive for my 10 bucks a months.

• I don’t have to buy adventure packs. If I want to run a quest, I don’t worry about whether I own it or not.
• I can sit still in the marketplace for 60 minutes before I am auto logged off. When am I going to stand around for an hour?
• My buyback option has 40 slots. While I don’t think I ever needed that many, it’s a nice thing I guess.
• I get the shared bank for free.
• I have 10 character slots.
• I get 500 tp’s every month

It’s not a bad list.  Alright, it’s not really a great list either.   In essence, I only pay 5 bucks a month to play DDO because I get 5 bucks worth of TP  every month.

Am I upset about the changes?

Yes I am.  I think there has been a slow attrition of perks for the VIP community.  We have been bent over, and quite frankly my bum is sore.

Just throwing this in the mix.  Were VIP’s getting early access this time?  Not that I know of.  *sigh*

Personally I haven’t made my decision yet on whether or not I will purchase Arificer.  When Favored Soul came out, I had the 2500 favor to purchase it on my home server.  I  liked earning it.  It felt like a great accomplishment even if it drove my guild nuts.   A year later I wanted to roll one up on another server and purchased it from the store.

I would have liked for DDO to line up everything for the community like they have done in the past.  I know Turbine is a business and from that perspective alone, it’s mercenary, but sound.  You want to merchandise a new product for the maximum return.

They missed the trick though.  They’ve positioned themselves to potentially make less then they would have had they made this announcement with a little more grace.  DDO is famous for having a vocal minority on the forums.  I used to think that’s all it was.  A minority.  However, this time around, it’s hit all the airwaves.  People who were looking forward to this update feel it’s been soured by a companies bottom line.  Gamer’s are fickle.  Turbine may have overstepped.

Many of the complaints mention Artificers being a core class to Eberron.  The perceived fleecing of the VIP community in asking them to wait to earn what should have been free in the first place rankles.

About mid week on the forums, the goodbye posts started.  Geekdom wasn’t pacified as of yet.  I have never felt quitting was the way to improve something I felt passionately about, but I have to say, the double hit made me wonder exactly what goodie I get from DDO’s subscription.  If I continue to feel I play DDO enough to justify the cost, which come on is seriously what I spend at the coffee shop a few mornings a week, I will keep paying.

What do VIP’s want?  They want to feel like VIP’s.  The entire structure needs an overhaul.  We aren’t getting the goodie out of our subscription.  In all honesty, we could all quit tomorrow and use our banked points to replace what we would lose being a subscriber.  It’s hard to hang onto a customer when you aren’t giving them the value of their purchase.

@Zefflon thinks I have not been near harsh enough in this article. He had already canceled his subscription at the beginning of the summer, and doesn’t want to give DDO another dollar of his hard earned money. He wanted the title of this article to be “DDO can kiss my ass!”

It’s an interesting conundrum.  We can speak with our wallets and not buy the product, but are there enough people willing to wait? Probably not.  We are society with a short attention span.  We want what we want now not later.

Perspective is the great equalizer.  I’ve been on a job hunt out in the real world, weathered a  Hurricane, bounced through an earthquake, and the general business of life has had me busier than a one armed wall paper hanger.  I don’t feel the great well of angst when I’ve watched the Stormreach core player base ostracized after they spent years paying for a game we weren’t sure would be there in the future.  We hung on by the skin of our teeth only to have them kicked out by the people we were loyal to.

I stopped believing in fairy tales a long time ago. Even in a MMO life isn’t fair.

So how do you feel about it? Are you excited for a new class? Are you going to buy it? Wait to earn it via favor? What are your thoughts?

Game on!!!

****Important Correction****

During discussions on the above article, it was pointed out to me that Turbine made an official comment on the Artificer favor situation early on Saturday morning.  I apologize for missing this in my research for the article. Thank you everyone for keeping things honest!

They were debating the Diablo 3 double bombshells dropped last week.

1.  You will need a persistent internet connection to play Diablo 3

2. There will be a real world money Auction house.

*sigh*

I managed to swallow my rage so as not to wake up Zeff.

Hey Blizzard made the same decision as far as requiring a constant internet connection for Starcraft II.  I don’t remember much squealing about it.  The real world money thing , however, left me fuming.

I checked my facebook when I got up today, and found PC Gamer had interviewed Jay Wilson at Gamescon about the internet connection issue.  In his brilliance, the Diablo 3 game director said “ the game’s not really being played right if it’s not online…”

He had a few other gems to share. When asked “But what about those without a stable internet connection? What should a player do if, say, the internet wiring in his house is flawed?”  Wilson replied “Erm… upgrade the wiring in his house?” He went on to explain “So the notion that there’s just tons and tons of people out there that aren’t connected – isn’t… I don’t think is really accurate.”

Combine the first two shockers and add in a sprinkle of arrogant asshat, and I have cooked up one heck of a hatred for a game I salivated over for years.

I loved Diablo 1 and 2.  I have played through them multiple times. I played single player campaigns, and used battle.net to connect to others to play.  Mainly I played alone trying to get Deckard Cain to give me a hollow leg and get the cow mode to pop.

According to Jay Wilson, I wasn’t playing correctly.  I am not sure why he feels he can disparage the hundred of hours I spent enjoying two beautiful games, but he sure anointed himself Chief of Police for all things Diablo.

PC games have tried several different anti-piracy techniques.  The latest has been the “You must be online all the time or you can’t play me” tactic.  It’s pushed many gamer’s to throw  mice, make angry phone calls, and abandon games they would have otherwise finished.

I wasn’t terribly familiar with the issue until my husband deployed.  He had taken his laptop with him, and I wanted to send him a new game to play.  It took 3 Best Buy employees and I half an hour of going through boxes to find a game.  While most new games don’t require a constant internet connection, almost all require a one time connection to verify your purchase.

My husband was in the middle of the ocean on a US Navy ship.  I was lucky if they had enough connectivity for me to get an email, there was no wifi for personal use for goodness sake.

I’ve talked to other military spouses and we have all come to the same conclusion.  Buy an Xbox and send them games.  The era of stand alone PC games is dead to us.  The extreme measure’s PC game houses are asking of paying customer’s has left the field open for consoles to squeeze in for a take over.

I could probably swallow the interent thing, but Diablo 3 had to shove crap in my face with the Auction house.  Historically Blizzard has been rabid in it’s battle against gold farming maggots.  Unfortunately they seem to have suffered a role reversal and are now going to make the ultimate gold farmer mecca.

While there will be the traditional gold Auction house, the real money Auction will support the selling of gold.  One way or another I am going to be helping a gold farmer.   Blizzard has also decided they are going to take a flat fee cut on every transaction on the Diablo 3 real money Auction house.  Dollar signs must be dancing in Blizzard’s head.

I could probably ignore the Auction houses entirely, but I can’t seem to fight red haze when I take the entire proposal into consideration.

I am sure Diablo 3 will sell a bazillion copies.

In my own personal opinion, Blizzard can take Diablo 3 and shove it where the sun don’t shine.

Game on!!!

P.S.  I normally spend hours making sure I include pretty pictures and video for my posts.  I am so mad right now I refuse to honor Diablo 3 with screenshots and trailers.

I had to take an AFL this week.  That stands for Away From Life.  Mostly I was taking a break from making desicions, but I was also finding myself completely buried under social networking.

If I am at home on my laptop, I generally have the following things running:

• Trillian which in turn is connected to Windows Messenger, Skype, Aim, gtalk, Yahoo messenger
• Netvibes which I use for all my RSS feed reading
• G+ which streams google+, facebook and twitter
• Xfire which I use to talk to gamer friends
• Steam because I don’t have all my gaming friends on Xfire

That’s what I have running before I ever actually DO anything on my laptop.

I’ve been giving some thought to how I use all this connectivity.  Do I really need all of it?  How are my connections benefiting me?  Are they all productive?

I’ve also been thinking about how I send out information.  It’s always in flux.

At the moment, I am using G+ to cross post to twitter and facebook.  I didn’t spare many brain cell’s about it until another person I follow started doing the same thing.  On a particular spammy day, I noticed I was getting the same information from them 3 times.  Considering they posted about 20 times in 24 hours, this led to a heck of a lot of noise in my stream.

How can I use each of the social networks I am connected with to converse with all the people in my life?  Generally speaking, I use facebook for family and navy friends, twitter for gaming friends, and I am discovering I use g+ almost like a blog.  Can I parcel out the content I am creating to connect better with each audience?

How much time is it going to eat up posting original content to each feed?

Does anyone really care?

I know I care.  I have unfollowed some people lately and parred down the cross post mania to one network per person!  If you’ve lost me as a follower or friend lately, it’s because I am only listening to you in one place because you aren’t being original in 3 or 4 places

I wouldn’t really have gone this far with over analyzing my social web presence  if I hadn’t fallen completely in love with G+.

If I receive a friend request on facebook and I accept, I am automatically subscribed to the friend’s content.  It didn’t  impact me negatively until I became a cafeworld addict.  In order to be my neighbor, you and I needed to be friends.  When I added about 25 people from the zynga forums to my cafe, I had people talking about a ton of stuff I really didn’t want nor need.  I also can’t understand all of it because some of my best  CW neighbors are over seas and post in their native language.

If you follow me on G+, I don’t have to follow you.  I have had a few people add me and I wasn’t sure who they were.  I put them in the “Who the heck are you?” circle and drill down on my G+ stream to see what they chatter about.  If I find out they are a gamer friend, I just move them to that circle.  G+ makes it so darn easy to control my stream and the type of content I read.

I wanted to highlight a link to the DDO folks the other day.  I could have posted it on twitter or on G+.  I ended up putting it over on G+ because I could put a full picture, the link and comment without hitting the 140 character ceiling.

I was a little scared last week when G+ added in the games tab.  One of the most annoying things about facebook is the games.  I am addicted to one, and I say its awful to read all those game notifications on my profile, home page, newsfeed and so forth.  I didn’t want my G+ trashed by all the game nonsense.

Google listened.  G+ game notifications stay on the games tab.  They are not in my stream.  Ever.  I have been playing Zombie Lane over on G+ (which is campy and fun btw), and I have sent gifts, asked for neighbors, published stories about my adventures, and it all stayed on that one tab.  It’s simply sinful how happy it makes me

For now I am going to keep all three networks.  They each reach a separate audience and offer unique ways to interact.  In the future, I can see myself only using G+.  It is simple, clean and functional in ways facebook and twitter can only kick themselves about.

I have added a follow me on G+ button to my homepage.  If you haven’t gotten an invite to G+ and need one, let me know.  It’s a beautiful thing, and I am totally enchanted by it’s fabulousness.

It’s going to take me a little while to par down my cross posting habit.  Bear with me while I wean myself off

How are you using your social networking? What tips can you give me on how to control the amount of content I put out as well as feed on?  I really want to hear what you are doing and how you are managing your networks

Game On!!!

I have been enjoying learning to craft in DDO.  Ok,  you caught me. *blushes* I am not a good liar!

Our static group second generation character’s are working towards level 5.  As a group, they have been passing all ingredients to me.  They have also been giving the odd weapon or armor to deconstruct.

Last night I had a full inventory, and went over to House K to crunch some stuff.

I ended the session 4/1/5.  Not really all that great.

All crafting can be a grind.  Most games try to find ways to help players achieve their goals with minimal aggravation.  In their quest to remain different, DDO has created a system so convulated you need a flowchart to navigate it.

If you think I am exagerating, please take a look at Crafting with Courtney.

For instance, in Episode 6 Courtney shows us a Min lvl 5 Acid Maul of Everbright.  If you read the link I posted above, you will realize in order to make this min lvl 5 weapon (which is bound btw),  you are going to need to have your Elemental crafting at 33 and your Divine at 19.  ACK!!!

I am not sure how our group could even begin to get one of  the six of us at a crafting level where I can make gear the group can use?

I remember hearing on DDO Cocktail hour’s crafting special, that you could deconstruct bound shards back into ingredients?  I may need to go figure out how to do this.  There is no way I am going to get anywhere close to Elemental crafting 33 while we are in level range. *sigh*

The big crafting experiment makes me want to throw something!!!

DDOcast highlighted a web app created by JFlanigan.  I love this person, as I recall they had one of the first shroud crafting apps.  Anyways, JF has created a fabulous app for crafting.  I don’t know how comprehensive it is, but my goodness it has 897 recipes so far!!!

This is mostly what I have been looking for.  If I want to make a set of goggles with a secret door clicky, what do I need? Make me a list!!!

Here is what an output can look like on the planner.

Seriously:)

Ok, so in looking at this, I can tell right off I will not be making a secret door clicky for a while.  Level 40 crafting if I make it bound?  Level 79 if I make it unbound? ACK!

I am back to wanting to throw something

I need some ideas for how this system could be improved.  How can I make the most out of the limited resources our group has to pull from?  Do you have any tips on ways to improve my level ups?  What are you doing with crafting?  Are you finding it useful?

I am not giving up.  I love that we have crafting.  Dang, you caught me lying again.  *sigh*

I love the idea of DDO crafting.  In practice, I have found DDO crafting massive suck.

Game on!!!

Since my marriage, I have spent a considerable amount of time alone.  Well, almost alone.  Within months of saying “I do”, I conned Zefflon into getting the beagle.  She is rarely away from my feet! I adore her.

I’ve learned to make sure my doors are locked, the windows bolted, to leave lights on when I know I am going to be home after dark, and to not venture out without checking in with a girlfriend so someone knows where I am. It’s the same precautions most people make. It’s common sense stuff.

I may take the level of paranoia to new levels though. I’ve only had my car stolen once. I’ve managed to avoid a home break in. My game accounts haven’t been decimated by thieves.

Whatever my “luck”, I harbor a multi-tiered self alert system. I notice my neighbors habits. I can identify the sounds around me with ease. I pay attention where I park. In a large shopping center, I won’t walk between suv’s.

I am paranoid. Not quite on the level of Mel Gibson in Conspiracy Theory, but it’s still a pretty strong character trait.

Zefflon puts up with my system. He can’t change it, and he figures if I feel safe there is nothing wrong with it.

Friday morning I got up and made breakfast for us. After the hubs left for work, I climbed upstairs into bed to watch some program on the DVR. About 8ish am I heard the front door open. The weather stripping has been stuck on the top of the door, and it makes a distinctive sound.

I figured Zefflon had forgotten something at home, and had stopped back by after morning quarters to pick it up. I jumped up and went to the stairs.

The beagle ran in front of me down the stairs. About halfway down, she started barking loudly and all the hair on her body stood on end. I heard the front door slam shut.

Something was wrong.

I ran back up the stairs and grabbed the phone. I don’t know what I was thinking. Actually, I don’t think I was thinking. I called Zefflon and asked if he had just been in the house. He said no. I told him someone had been.

The beagle wouldn’t calm down. Probably she was picking up on my vibe. Whatever the case, I got up the courage to go back downstairs. I checked the front door and it was re- locked. I immediately chained the door and went to check the back door and the fence. Everything was secured.

I looked out the front window, but couldn’t see anything to clue me in on what the hell was going on.

By now I was scared and wondering if I should have just called the police. Zeff asked if we had any maintenance tickets pending, and I checked. We didn’t. Not to mention, if maintenance comes they will normally call first. They know we have the dog. If they had come by, why did they slam the door and leave? There had been no notice we had an inspection of any sort, nor a work order left in the house.

I got a little more than just freaked out at this point. I locked the puppy and myself into the bedroom. Zeff was going to call housing and see if they had any record of someone having  been out at our place.

Hours went by.  I couldn’t get calm.  I didn’t know who had a key to our house.  I didn’t know who had been inside my house.  Someone had been inside my house without my permission.

I was keyed up and could hear every sound.  Maintaining that kind of adrenaline rush for a sustained period of time isn’t healthy.  It is, however, a natural reaction to stress.  In the heightened state I was hyper aware of my environment. It’s one way our bodies have of making  us safe.

After lunch I got a call from Zeff.   He had confirmed housing had made a large error.  Painting contractors had been ordered for Unit D.  They had misunderstood and had asked for the key to B when they went to the housing office.  The contractors had opened my door and been scared off by the beagle.

I had my answer.  Everything was reasonably ok.  My home was secrued.  I was safe inside it.

A stranger had entered my home by mistake and had not announced themselves. Nor had they, once they realized they were in the wrong house, let me know who they were.

Ok, I was getting angry.  Why had the housing office given our key to a contractor? Who were theses contractor’s that they had access to the keys of an occupied unit without being escorted by staff?  Why was there not a procedure in place to keep this kind of mistake from happening?

Neither the dog nor I really reached a state of serenity all day.  By the time my husband came home, I was a little strung out.  I need perspective. I had misplaced mine somewhere.

We talked alot.  He’d been in contact with the director of our housing office and ensured the mistake would not happen to another family.

He also figured out why I was upset.

I’d felt helpless in my own home.  The place that I considered sacred as a haven of peace and sanity against the crazy world outside the front door.

I’d stood on the stairs clothed in a t-shirt expecting a surprise kiss and hello from my husband.  If it had been someone with nefarious intentions, I would have been at their mercy.  I hadn’t protected myself.  I had not called the police.  I had been exceedingly stupid.  I was the dumb blonde in every horror movie we all scream at to not open the door!!!

I owe myself and my family more respect.  I need to be smarter about emergency situations.  While I do have a well developed sense of paranoia, when something happens that everything says is wrong, I need to not ignore my own internal alarm system.

As a result of the unexpected visitor, I’ve been looking into security systems.  If I am unable to make the decision to call authorities, then I need to leave that in someone else’s hands.

I’ve also been looking into a self defense class.  I need to train my body to have the correct reactions.  I need to make sure I have a set of skills which will make me more successful if something were to happen again.

This may have been a relatively benign false alarm, but when the universe gives you a trial run, you better pay attention.

I never want to stand in my house and cower.  I may only have a t-shirt on, but I am a strong confident woman.  I’ll not have that stripped from me.

To my gamer readers who have read this far down, you all have people in your life who you cherish.  Help them protect themselves.  Enroll in a self defense class with them.  Check their homes for burnt out light bulbs and faulty doors or locks.  Empower them to be their own best advocate.

To my navy spouse friends, we all spend a ton of time on our own.  We need to be aware of our environment.  Take the time to assess your own safety plan.  Do you need an alarm? What would you do if someone entered your home uninvited? Have you taken a self defense class lately? It never hurts to update those skills and give them a workout!

While we like to think our homes are our castles, every castle can be besieged.  Take better care of yourselves than I did this week.  It is always better to be proactive than reactive.

My dog is my hero She may be all of sixteen pounds, but she sounded like a german shepherd ready to take a bite out of someones rear end when she stood on the stairs between the people in my house and me.  She has been spoiled with biscuits, treats and chew bones over the last few days.  I can’t thank her enough for being aware of danger and trusting her instincts!

Everyone needs a wake up call from time to time.  I hope my experience clues everyone in to the simple things we can all do help ensure a bubble of safety around our family and friends.

Game on!!!

We’ve been running a lot of instance’s lately. It’s come to my attention some of us are confused on when to use a potion for a debuff, and when not to.

I had this issue until I got what I consider the best plugin available for LOTRO.

Have you ever wished when you were poisoned, a pot would pop up on your screen and you could click to drink it? You need Buff bars!

BUFF BARS!

People have said they had some trouble understanding Buff bars. I totally understand that. I am going to try and break down what I’ve learned while using the plug in.

First, I don’t use just buff bars. I use a plugin manager to help me with all of my plugins. There are several available atm. You can check them all out over at lotro interface.

Please read the very detailed instructions on how to install a plugin for the first time over at LOTRO Interface!!!

If you think you are going to use more than one plug in, I highly recommend using a plug in manager.  It makes loading and unloading so much less of a pain in the rear. It also allows you to be able to pick and choose what plugins you want to run per the circumstance you find yourself in.

Now that you have loaded Buff Bars into your game, you need to configure it. This is not overly complicated, but if this is the first time you are messing around with your UI, you might find it a little overwhelming!

1. Load the LOTRO Client and log into a character.
2. Type /plugins load buffbars (and seriously if you are gonna load more than one, please utilize a manager)
3. Type /buffbars options

Now you are gonna see a screen like this…

Take a breath and don’t panic. Here is where you can fully customize the buff bars experience.

Buff bars can be set up to give you information on the current buffs you are running with timers (for instance how long until you need to eat more food!), Debuffs that have hit you with a timer, a timer on how long until you can drink your next pot (especially handy for when you are between power pots!), and a quick slot bar that will literally pop up in the MIDDLE of your screen to give you a pot to drink for a debuff you have been hit with. Seriously, this thing really rocks it.

The first thing I do on this screen is hit the quick slot options.

I then click on each of the categories listed and click on the pot I want to pop up. There are generally 6. The plugin knows what is a wound, a fear and so forth. Please note, as you level, you will need to update these pots as they do not auto update!

After doing my quick slots, I hit accept and press ctrl \. Look for the quick slot bar and move it where you want it on the screen. Also check to make sure all 6 pots are slotted correctly!

Next let’s set up the behavior you want for the actual buff bars. Type /buffbars options. Click on the effects option.

You can have all your stuff in one list. I don’t personally recommend that, since in the middle of an instance you generally need your debuff feedback to be a little more accessible.

So, here is what I do. Under the effects window I click COPY once, then twice. I rename BUFFBARS COPY1 to be DEBUFFS and BUFFBARS COPY2 to be Cooldowns.

I then click on dropdown and select Buffbars. I uncheck Debuff and Cooldown in the General section.

I then click on the dropdown again and this time choose Debuff. I check Enabled in the General Section, and uncheck Buff and Cool down.

I then click on the dropdown again and this time choose Cool down. I check Enabled in the General Section and uncheck Buff and Debuff.

Then I click accept.

Now hit ctrl \ . You will see all the pieces of your UI again. Find the 3 windows you just created. Buff bars, Cool down and Debuff. Move them to where you would like them on your screen. I generally keep my buffs to one side of the screen where they can be seen when I look, but not crowding the beauty of LOTRO’s graphics.

I put my cool down bar above my debuff bar and make sure my Quick slot window is near them. Why? Because when a warg rider hits me with a chill and a minor fear, I want to make sure I drink my fear pot after the chill has gone off. It has a much shorter cooldown than the minor fear, so I need to be able to see those timers. I place the cooldown bars right there in case I get hit by something else in the meantime. This way I can see what’s on me and when I am going to be able to drink another pot.

I was hit with Poison. See the debuff, and then the pot on my quickslot bar. It’s right in front of my face making me drink it

Now you can see that I drank the poison pot and the cool down timer is the green bar on the screen. Super Handy!

That’s it!

The first time you redo buff bars it seems like it is going to take forever, but if you ever have to do it again, it will be a breeze!

Here is what my final screen generally looks like.

Feel free to ask any questions you might have!

I hope this helps and you continue to enjoy your times in Middle Earth!

Game on!!!

When Player’s Handbook rerolled week before last, I thought I would give it a try.   I wanted to see if I could make items that would benefit our non- twinking party as we leveled up.  I am also curious as to whether or not it is so expensive as to be out of range for new or casual players.

The team is passing me as many items as they dare to.  We’re broke again, so every copper counts.  Letting go of some of the items to give me to deconstruct might prove our undoing as we get higher up in level.

I took a jog over to House K, and entered the crafting hall.

The Beta message cannot be ignored.  It pops in the middle of your screen.  You have been warned.  Keep this image in your mind.  You will be referring to it later

I’d poked around from time to time, and knew enough to surmise I would need to decon items before I could craft.  I had also seen the crafting bound and unbound shard stations.

I plunked in every single item the group had passed my way.  It equaled a whole lot of nothing once I was done pulling off essences.  I was a little disappointed, but valiantly walked over to a bound shard station and cranked up the machine.

I made a total of 3 shards with the items I had pulled off our loot.

We just dinged level 3 on our new babies Wednesday night.

My crafting stats are 2/1/2. *rolls her eyes*

All I can say is this crap better get fabulous and fast!  At the rate I am going, the party will be broke, I will have no return in craftable loot to offer my team for their sacrifice, and I will have carpal tunnel from cranking the dang machine.

I am not completely sold on this system.  It’s laborious.  Fact is, I need some help.  I am overwhelmed by the process.  I can figure out which shards I can make by placing the essence’s in the book one at a time. It’s tedious to say the least.

What I feel I NEED is a good recipe book with the end item being the beginning and the ingredients underneath.

The DDO compendium is trying to accomplish this, but to be honest, it is falling short.

The recipe book is listed via nick names.  I can’t tell what I am looking at until I go digging into the links.  For instance, I was wondering if I could make some secret door clickies for our group, or maybe featherfalling items.  I need to go through all the links to see what the recipes actually do?

Basically, crafting in DDO sort of stinks right now.  They have been making some changes slowly.  It is getting better, but boy it’s like watching molasses drip off a spoon.

I think it’s sort of ass backwards.  In every other type of crafting I have ever undertaken, I have known what I was going to make, and I searched, farmed, or created the needed material/ingredient to make XYZ.

In DDO, I am making the material/ingredient then figuring out what I can do with it?  Does this make sense to anyone else?

Why do I need to make a bazillion useless shards in order to level?  Why am I sinking our hard earned plat into something I can’t get anything out of until I am broke, tired and frustrated?

Every crafting system has a grind.  It is a component of the art.  If you want to be good at something you have to practice.  I am not calling that into question.  What I have an issue with is making a bunch of BOUND shards I am not going to be able to do anything with!

And then there are the mistakes.  In the current patch  (10.1) that has gone up on Lammania, they made a ginormous “error.”  They adjusted the higher level recipe’s to make them more challenging to generate the craftable top tier loot.  From what I can gather, they added a bunch of raid loot as ingredients.

The forums are on fire discussing it.  Madfloyd has already spoken on the forums addressing the issue.

I stopped reading the forums a year or so ago when I realized there was little constructive discussion going on over there, but I peeked over on the lammy thread today to see what the general consensus was. I discovered flame after flame, threats, angst, and nerd rage.

I felt a little ill after I left the thread.

If you are going to cancel your subscription to DDO over crafting, please do not let the door hit you where the good lord split you.   In fact, here, let me throw down some grease to hasten your escape.

If you are angry, be angry. I can accept that, but I am not sure what there is to be angry about other than a mistake being made and then caught on the preview server.

* Will the patch go live? At this time, it will.  Will it matter? I don’t think so. I think everyone has gotten their knickers in a twist over something trivial in a system that is in BETA.

Also, you are entitled to absolutely nothing.  Turbine doesn’t owe you diddly.  You rent time on their servers for your own enjoyment.

That said, I would also like to point out that Turbine does not wake up in the morning and ask themselves how they can piss off the entire community in one foul swoop!

My hope is that this will all blow over.  The community roars from time to time, but it dies down.  Crafting is here to stay.  It is still in beta (remember when I told you to keep that screenie in your mind? This is your sign!), and I expect lots of roller coaster ups and downs as the system is refined.  Everyone wants it to be successful, both Turbine and players alike.

If you have a link to a crafting resource guide, pop it into the comments below. I would love to highlight it here on the my corner of the interweb, and I’ll let DDOcast know about it.  I could really use the help as I slog through the current crafting mess.

If you have trolled over here to make much ado about nothing, please be aware I liberally apply the ban hammer to nonsensical bitter diatribes left on my site

Game On!!!

*
During the process of writing this post Madfloyd responded to the Community with a further update. The patch will not go live.

Here is an old screenshot I found of us from 4 and a half years ago (and about 4 rigs later!)

It has been one of the most fun gaming groups I have ever been a part of.

Since we capped a while ago, we’ve found ourselves trying to find new goal ingame.  It’s been hard.  While there are still some things we have yet to accomplish, we’ve touched most everything.   We are still having a good time, but we might have been a little bored.

We decided to do something kind of crazy tonight.  On a whim, we made babies.  We didn’t just want to roll new characters.  We wanted the new children to challenge us in new and interesting ways.

So…

We rolled a 1d8 for a new race.

1 halfling
2 1/2 elf
3 human
4 1/2 orc
5 dwarf
6 elf
7 warforged
8 drow

We then rolled a 1d11 for our class.

1 – Fighter
2 – Ranger
3 – Paladin
4 – Wizard
5- Sorcerer
6 – Rogue
7 – Favored Soul
8 – Cleric
9 – Monk
10 – Bard
11 – Barbarian

Meet the children!

Goritrix, whose father was a dwarven arcane archer, looks more like his human mother. He’s chosen to follow the Sorcerer path.

Wonall is a full elf. We are still trying to figure out how a human and an elf didn’t make an half elf, but whatever the case, he’s chosen to sing the exploits of his battle cleric father as a bard.

Omiena surprised us.   The drow showed up at the exit of the grotto and told us she was the daughter of a once great rogue. I have sent a missive to the halfling Keylet Undoall    for further clarification on her daughter’s shocking turn to the healing arts.

Zeffley the Sorcerer looked a little out of place shifting back and forth on his feet outside the tavern.  Rowanslash, his human mother, had disdained magic of any sort.

Rowanshadow, who’s father Borgii never lost his crush on Rowanslash, came out of the shadow’s of the cave’s exit to try and pick Randall’s pocket.  A rogue down to her very human toes, she’s learned to never let an opportunity slip away from her.

Rhasorca scared the small group on Korthos Island.  A large Half-Orc carrying a flaming great axe, we thought him a barbarian come to aid us in our quest for coin.  He quickly let us know he was a Sorcerer who couldn’t get the need to pound on kobolds out of his system.  We questioned him on his parentage, and with some trepidation he explained his Paladin father Rhaid had adopted him when he was a baby.

With introductions out of the way, the young ones marched off into a nearby crypt to clear it of evil.  They finished their first quest without trouble, other than the rogue blowing her very first trap box o.O.  The intrepid bunch made their way into the Village Storehouse.  In a matter of minutes, the party split up and found themselves over matched by a Sahuagin foe.

After brushing off their foolish defeat, they regrouped and mastered the dungeon as a team.

Without a true meat shield, they carefully picked their way through the quests on Korthos Island.  By the end of the evening, they gained a new level and took a break in the tavern to tell stories of their own bloodthirsty adventures and knock back an ale or three.

Now here’s a final twist to keep the children on their toes.  Every level they can roll the dice to see what the fate’s offer them.  Roll carefully children.  It’s a tangled web you weave, and the consequences cannot be undone.  Should you reject the roll, you may continue on your current path to fame and glory!

Like their parents before them, the group thinks bubble heads are good luck

***

Between outright bursts of giggles and questions about builds, the night turned into a renewal of all the reasons we love DDO, and playing DDO together.   I can’t wait to find out what kind of trouble the group of us find as we work through the game’s content again.  Not to mention, I have no idea how an unbalanced group, half of which are sorc’s, is going to tackle the upper end content!  I almost can’t wait to find out

GAME ON!!!