The Farstrider Scout

I pulled a rather costly mistake in EVE recently; a combination of allowing myself to be distracted by the ongoing Alliance tournament, flying in low-sec with my freighter, not paying attention to the people in the system and gambling at their benevolence, picking the wrong place to jump to, and then attempting to log out as my ship was being blown to pieces.  Ultimate cost to me – 700 million ISK for the freighter, and another 100 million in implants for my clone.  Fortunately I was running on an empty hold, having just delivered some cargo (to a member of the corporation who’s corp/alliance mates blew up my ship, oddly enough) and had been on my way to a different station in the same system to pick up a load for somewhere else, so no loss there.

About an hour later I was back in the system, moving my cargo the slow way – in a cargo ship with a hold 1/29th the size of the late Kismet, and I was chatting with the same people who killed me.  I think I was being pretty good natured about the whole thing – I know when I made a mistake, and a stupid one at that.  But as far as stupidity goes, what followed tops even that…

One of the players – we’ll call him “Max”, because I don’t recall their names – puts out an offer:  Join our corp so we don’t kill you anymore.  I counter with a joking remark that now they’ve stooped to extortion.  He asks me how that is, and I point out that he’s effectively said “Join our corp, or we’ll kill you.”  He is still at a loss and replies that that wasn’t what he said at all.  Riiiiight.  I leave with a “I’ll consider it”, and let the matter drop.

The next day though, I get an in-game mail from their recruitment officer.  It’s obviously a canned message, but I’ll put it here because I really don’t think I can convey the stupidity inherant in the message…

Hey, would you be interested in joining a new corp? I only try to recruit people we kill. It usually gets us better recruits, because if they can overcome their loss, reason with their killers, realize their folly and grow a pair, they can become a very decent player when it comes to EVE

So, here’s what I can tell you about the worst alliance in EVE. General Tso’s is a large mass of idiotic assholes that take nothing seriously. They play the game, and they really don’t care what happens. Usually when they fight, they get owned, because not only are they noobs and can’t form any decent mass, but they always pick off more they can chew. General Tso’s are some of the biggest griefers around, but don’t fear them because they are nothing but the dirt on the ground. They like harassing people, and no one, not even members of their own family are free from the agony. When it comes down to it, however, General Tso’s are nothing but a band of interweb dorks with no real social life and try to compensate their small phallus’s by making other people rage in game.

Here’s the serious note. There is nothing serious… this is a game. If you can take getting your balls busted, like to joke about poo, sex and other naughty stuffs, then you should fit in. If you can hold your own, and you don’t get offended by topics such as religion, gore, sexual behaviour mainly composed of the homosexual nature, racism, politics and anything else close to being offensive, you’re already a member and don’t realize it yet. So get your loser ass into our corp, or get your loser ass corp in our alliance. Or war us. We’ll fight provided the tactics are right, until our little bums are red with rashes from getting pounded, and then we’ll run and hide until it all blows over. And then the game goes on…

Toss Jade Elaira a convo. He’s a rather interesting male/female hybrid. Or maybe you’ve already heard of him… Or maybe you know him, you just don’t know it. After all, Jade is sending you this because he’s had some contact, major or minor, with you before.

So basically, you’re a bunch of idiots and losers, and telling me this is going to make me want to join your corp…  Why?  How?  I don’t know, this one is beyond me.

For those that aren’t in the know, EVE Online released their latest expansion, Tyrannis, last week, along with their new social portal, the EVE Gate.  With this new expansion, the face of EVE undergoes a massive transformation as they take their next steps into bringing about their console MMOFPS (which I sincerely hope they release for PC as well), Dust 514.  Players will now be able to interact with the planets themselves, instead of just mining the numerous moons around the EVE universe, placing structures and gathering resources in what is supposed to be a step to phase out the remaining NPC driven portions of the economy and put it entirely in the players’ hands.  The full portion of this doesn’t go into effect until 6 days from now, and at the moment all people can do is train the neccessary skills required to make the most out of the expansion, and I made sure that I’ll have next Tuesday off so that I can try and get my grubby fingers into what is promising to be a massive land grab.  But at what cost does this come?

The first, most visible cost already, has been the planets themselves.  They’ve changed considerably.  One of  my “home” systems is Ommare, a second-to-dead end system in the Essence Region, held by the Gallente Federation, and this is where I first noticed the changes.  The first planet you see, or used to see, I should say, when coming into the system from Cat, the “opening” to our dead end road, is Ommare X.  Originally, it was a beautiful reddish brown desert, or “arid” planet, with a few sparse weather patterns swirling in the atmosphere.  A brief side note here – kudos to the art teams that did the planet surfaces, because with few exceptions, they’re beautiful.  Now, no longer an “arid” class, this planet, the outermost one in the solar system, has become an “ocean” class planet – pure water, sparse weather systems, and a hurricane/typhoon at each pole.  Science, I would think, would dictate that due to the distance from this solar system’s star, it should be an “ice” class planet.  Sadly, I do not have any screenshots showing the planet prior to it’s sudden change.

There’s a new game that was just put out by Infinity Ward called Call of Duty: Modern Warfare d20.  It’s really simple to play, all you need is this handy chart (see below), a 20 sided die and a 6 sided die.  You roll the d20 and the result determines what happens in the game, with the d6 filling in several minor variables.  Results are as follows:

On a roll of :

1:  Your lobby fills up and the game begins to load.  It stops on “Waiting for Server…”, and 15 seconds later, times out.  Reroll 1d20 and start again.
2:  Your lobby fills up and the match starts to count down from 40 seconds.  After 40 seconds, it begins to choose a host, which takes 8 seconds.  A host is chosen, who then leaves.  Reroll 1d20 and start again.
3:  The game lobby inexplicably closes.  Reroll 1d20 and start again.
4:  IWNet is down, and you are unable to play any online matches.  Roll 1d6 to determine how many hours it will be before you can play.  As there is no advance warning or any sort of notification for this event, after the rolled number of hours has passed, roll 1d6 again.  After that final rolled number of hours has passed, reroll 1d20 and start again.
5:  You are able to get into a game, but the chosen host’s connection is poor.  Roll 1d6 to deterimine how many minutes of horrible lag you must endure, after which, reroll 1d6.  On a result of 1-3, the migration fails and you are kicked back to the lobby – Reroll 1d20 and start again.  On a result of 4-5, the migration succeeds, but the new host is no better – Reroll 1d6 to determine if you are the new host; 1-5, no, reroll 1d6 and start from the beginning of d20 result #5; 6, yes, go to d20 result #6.  On a result of 6, you’re able to play the match to completion without any further problems.
6:  You are the host, and your connection is poor.  Roll 1d6 and halve the result to determine how long other players must suffer through the horrible lag before the game chooses a new host, after which reroll 1d6.  On a result of 1-3, the migration fails and you are kicked back to the lobby – Reroll 1d20 and start again.  On a result of 4-5, the migration succeeds, but the new host is no better – start from the beginning of d20 result #5.  On a result of 6, you’re able to play the match to completion without any further problems.
7:  You are in a lobby with lower than the number of people needed to start the match countdown.  Roll 1d6 to determine how long you must wait for the required number of people, then reroll 1d20 and start again.
8:  The game lobby inexplicably closes.  Reroll 1d20 and start again.
9:  You are able to get into a match, but one of the players is a hacker with the nuke killstreak reward.  Roll 1d6 and halve the result to determine how long it is before he sets it off.  Reroll 1d20 and start again.
10:  The Steam Cloud is down, and you are unable to play any online matches.  Roll 1d6 to determine how many hours it will be before you can play.  Halve the result if you were smart enough to check the forum for maintenance warnings beforehand.  After the rolled number of hours has passed, reroll 1d20 and start again.
11:  You are able to get into a match, but there is a hacker on the opposing team.  Roll 1d20 to determine how many times you are killed by him before the match ends, then reroll 1d20 and start again.
12:  Unable to migrate host.  Reroll 1d20 and start again.
13:  Your lobby is merged with another.  Reroll 1d20 and start again.
14:  Your lobby fills up, and the match starts to count down from 40 seconds.  At 1d6 seconds, almost all the players dissapear.  Reroll 1d20 and start again.
15:  You are able to get into a match, but one of the players has the nuke killstreak reward.  Roll 1d6 to determine the player’s temprament:  1 – The player is an enemy and uses it because their team is losing; 2 – The player is friendly and uses it because your team is loosing; 3 – The player is an enemy but no matter what, they never use it, or wait until the very end of the match to do so; 4 – The player is an enemy but uses it despite the fact that their team is winning; 5 – The player is friendly but uses it despite the fact that your team is winning; 6 – The player is friendly and no matter what, they never use it, or wait until the very end of the match to do so.  For all results except 3 and 6, roll 1d6 to determine how many minutes it will be before the nuke is set off.  Reroll 1d20 and start again.
16:  The game lobby inexplicably closes.  Reroll 1d20 and start again.
17:  Your lobby fills up, and then inexplicably tries to merge your full lobby with another.  Roll 1d6 to determine how long it does this until the game lobby closes.  Reroll 1d20 and start again.
18:  Unable to connect to host.  Reroll 1d20 and start again.
19:  You join a game already in progress.  Roll 1d6 and halve the result to determine how many minutes are left in the match.  You are able to play for that long after which reroll 1d20 and start again.
20: You are able to play a full match to the end with no problems whatsoever.  Once the match is over, reroll 1d20 and start again for the next match.

I hope you all have fun playing this wonderful and entertaining addition to the Call of Duty series!

It’s true, it doesn’t! And such a dissapointment too.

It’s somewhat of a sad state of affairs when, given available technology these days, MMO developers, with few exceptions, do not include seasonal weather into their games. In fact, the only exceptions that come to mind are Dark and Light, in which it may not even have been implemented given the game’s spectacular failure, and Asheron’s Call.

Every other major MMO, be it WoW, LotRO, WAR, or Planetside, weather, while dynamic, is not seasonal. Its always summer in Bree.

Have I used this title before?  I can’t remember, and I don’t feel like looking.  Anyhow, here is this:

Social networking is evil.

Broad generalization, sure, but I’m being dragged, kicking and screaming, into the Facebook scene, no thanks in part to my sister.  And, of all people, my dad has an account as well.

This is bad.

I suppose, ultimately, giving the masses a voice on the internet isn’t entirely a bad thing.  On one hand it shows just how stupid people are, and on the other hand it does have valid applications in some areas – I had to use it to finish my security clearance.  But the biggest thing I hate is that some of those people, if I’m sticking my hand into that pool, are going to get their stupid on me.  I don’t want that.  I have my own brand of stupid, and I like it the way it is.  Leetspeak is not 1337, CAPS LOCK is not cruise control for cool, and TyPiNg LiKe ThIs or in the abbreviated style of txt msgng all the time just makes you look like a tool.

So, anyone that pokes their head in on my Facebook page, don’t get all click happy waiting for updates from me.  I’ll visit it, probably about as much as I visit my Yahoo email account when I’m home, but this is my home.  I’m staying here.

and up… and down…  Otherwise known as “Bunny-hopping“.  More prevelant in the FPS world, it’s also beginning to invade MMO’s, and it’s annoying. 

RPG players, if you’re doing it, it doesn’t do anything for you(with the exception of Age of Conan) except make you look stupid.

FPS players, if you’re doing it…  Not only do you look stupid, it’s a pretty cheap tacic.  I can pretty much gurantee that any soldier on the battlefield will not be jumping around like a jackrabbit because either A) He’ll get tired very quickly, or B)  He’ll be tired, and then dead.  Not that that argument holds any water… but still.  (Edit:  One exception to this rule – the Tribes series (Starsiege: Tribes, Tribes 2, & Tribes: Vengeance (to a lesser extent)  all rely on a form of this tactic, called “skiing“, which is a legitimate and accepted tactic within the Tribes community.)

Please.

Stop.

Think of the children.

You will not win.

I don’t know what I did to garner so many comments (AoC Beta?), but your comments will never see the light of day…  Though I doubt that you’ll get the message, since most of you are probably bots anyway.

I’m sure most of you have been in the situation where you’re wandering around, you spot another hunter, and you look at their gear, look at their spec, and /facepalm.  But do you try and help them out, and if so, how?

I’ve about given up on it, due to the poor responses I’ve gotten, ususally from me letting them know that +spell dmg or +healing doesn’t do them any good, or that they’d be better off with savagery or +35 agi on their Terokk’s Quill instead of firey/icy weapon.  But it really irks me, and really makes me want to point out their problems and try and help them improve when I’m in a PUG with someone like that.  Even more so when I’m there on a guild run at the request of another guild, because one of their members knows me, and I’m essentially helping them prep for Kara, said hunter included.  Their lack of knowledge forces the rest of the group to pick up the slack and cover, and not all groups are prepared to do this.

Now, I know what my real problem in this situation was – I started comparing the other hunter to my previous runs, and silently expecting him to live up to the level that I had performed.  I’m not a happy camper when someone else is assigned to add duty and I’m being eaten alive, forcing the healer to pay attention to me, and not the tank or my pet.  And thinking back on it, I understand that that comparison is bad, especially seeing as how it was his first run through the instance and all…

But what really set me off on my little nit-picking rampage was on the final boss, before we were ready, he fired off a shot and caused the rogue to die.  All because he didn’t listen.  Sooo, after the boss was dead, I kind of exploded.  Not in game, mind you, because that would have been really bad, and I value what little reputation I have on this server…  But I just started rattling off every little thing I could find wrong…

• Dual weilding swords with poor stats and icy weapon
• BoE/quested shammy greens with +spell damage and healing
• Poor talent choice – improved stings and arcane shot, but no Aimed Shot or Mortal shots in his Marks tree (He was BM spec, which I didn’t bother to look further into)
• Meleeing the final boss
• Running up to drop an immolation trap on the final boss
• Abysmal DPS – the tank did better than he did.  I understand that tanks can place high on the DPS meter, but this was pretty bad.  And yes, this was looking at only the final boss fight.  Being on add duty is not condusive to topping the damage meters… Which is part of the reason he was on add duty.
• Having been 70 long enough to collect the money for his epic flying mount and becoming exalted with Netherwing, yet while somehow still working with all of the above.

The wife told me to shut up, so I did.  QQ and all that.

The good news is, the rest of the group seems to be just about ready.  The rogue needs to swap out a few pieces of gear, but she’s already pushing out 500+ dps, which is more than I can say.  She would have topped the meters if she hadn’t died twice.  I just hope they don’t try to take the hunter to Kara…

Oh, the things that irk us…

The cable modem going on the fritz… Still.

Warlocks and their ability to DOT me Outland and back, causing me to die moments after I’ve killed them…

Rogues being able to stunlock me until death…

Teammates in the BG’s running around like chickens with their heads cut off…

Group members who have more experience with an instance, but offer up no sort of advice or information on how to go through it…

Going through 70 levels without really touching fishing or cooking, and then finding out that the cooking daily requires 300 minimum cooking…

Still, I got my final Kara key fragment, so the day wasn’t a complete loss.

So Vree and I are sitting at the Overlook tower, waiting for the capture to go through, watching the scope and cycling between beast and humanoid tracking every so often so we don’t get jumped by another hunter.  There’s a Blood Elf Warlock there as well, level 63 I think…  And this level 70 human paladin shows up on his gryphon.  Hunter’s Mark, Scatter Shot (I later find out that he’s immune to Freezing Traps while mounted on the flying mount, and Scatter Shot as well, I think), and I pull back for an Aimed Shot.  He’s flying away at that point, but the warlock chimes in with “Don’t…  He’ll kill you!”

…Wait, what?  Isn’t that the whole point of flagging /pvp?  A chance to kill or be killed?  Given the fact that we were two heavy DPS ranged classes, we probably could have burned him to the ground.   Given the fact that we were two heavy DPS ranged classes, we probably could have burned him to the ground.   Why do you think I opened up first!  It’s called WORLD PVP for a reason, people.  Seriously though, I see this a lot on my server… from HORDE characters no less!  It took us two or three hours to get enough people together to take Halaa, and probably the only reason that we suceeded was because the 15 or so Alliance that had been there got bored and left.

My wife speculates that the Horde characters we see are Alliance re-rolls, and vice-versa.  I’m almost inclined to agree.  And I know how the argument goes – I’m on a carebear server, what do I expect?  Well, I’ve played on quite a few servers, and none of them have had people as limp and scared as I see on Moon Guard. 

It’s frustrating at times, because I like world pvp.  I grew up under the old school of a massive tug of war between Tarren Mill and Southshore and I’ve been finding myself running around flagged more often than not.  Most of the time I just get stared at, but sometimes it makes situations a little hairy, usually someone who thinks “Hey!  Easy prey!”. 

/sorry

/no