The Farstrider Scout

The results for the June 15th Autocross event finally got posted.

The two marked as DNF (did not finish) is where I missed a gate, and the number in the PEN block is the number of cones I plowed over.  If I hadn’t taken out those 5 cones on my last run, that would have been my fastest time.  Even still, with the PAX index, I came in at around 50 seconds, which I don’t think was too bad for my first time.

The next event isn’t until the 27th of July, and while I’m definitely looking forward to it, I really can’t find much to do to prepare for it.

So, what does one do when they game that they had planned on playing for a long time falls through with no decent replacement in sight?

In my case, it involves going back through whatever games I had installed on my computer – Silent Hunter 4, Star Wars Galaxies, Vanguard, Everquest 2, Lord of the Rings Online, Team Fortress 2, Jumpgate…  All with mixed results.

The changes being made in Age of Conan are a huge letdown. Unfortunately, despite the 200 page thread on the forums regarding the issue and the drop in players as shown by Xfire’s tracking, Funcom has seen fit to ignore the outcry and forge ahead, leaning more and more to a forced group/guild style game.

We don’t do that kind of thing, so we’re taking our money elsewhere.

Yesterday marked our three year anniversary (no, not the site, you twits, our marriage!).

Three years is a long time, in some views.  Others, it’s rather short.  It’s all a matter of perspective – my parents have been married for at least 26, but I would put it into the 30’s.

I won’t say things have always been easy – in reality, things have been extremely difficult at times, and it’s been a rough road we’ve travelled.  And I won’t say I’ve been the perfect husband either, because I know some of those difficulties have been created by me.

But in all this time, despite the hardships, I’ve never stopped loving my wife – if anything, I love her more now than the day I first proposed.  And I’m looking forward to many more years together, be they long or short.

I love you, Gina.

Whelp, we’ve cancelled our AoC accounts (for now), thanks to a sweeping, and gamebreaking, change in game mechanics.  I’ll probably resub in a week or so, once I get tired of playing Silent Hunter 4, because try as I may, I’m finding it difficult to go back to any other MMO’s.

But, back on subject…  This gamebreaking change that Funcom has seen so wisely to implement, is to scale all elite mobs and bosses to the player’s level and, more recently increase the difficulty of all mobs level 70 and above. 

The first change was made (don’t quote me on this, as I can’t find the source of this information) in order to address the issues with gold farmers.  Unfortunately, the end result has been cutting off content for those who are incapable of, and/or unwilling to, find a group to do this with, as well as making it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to complete the content with a group at the required level range.  Not to mention that, since normal players can’t farm grey elites now either, it makes any gold seller’s job easier, as horses cost a minimum of 2 gold, which is quite a sum.  Most items at level 40, when you can first ride a mount, sell to a vendor for a copper or two and some odd tin.  Since in this game, 100 tin = 1 copper, 100 copper = 1 silver, and 100 silver = 1 gold, that’s quite a lot of farming you need to do in order to buy your mount within a few levels of being able to ride it.  Most people I see in game don’t have a mount until around level 55.  There is a thread on the Funcom general forums with over 100 posts of complaints, and well over 1000 views…  Yet Funcom has seemingly seen fit to ignore this issue.

The second change was only made today and while it’s too soon to tell for sure, early rumors are saying that it’s impossible to solo at level 70 now.  Can you say “Forced grouping”?  I sure can.

I haven’t posted in a while, mostly because between work and getting the car ready, plus my normal play time, I just haven’t found the time.  I did make it to the Steeda event on Sunday though, despite the alignment on the car not getting done (which is getting taken care of tomorrow morning, I might add).  It was cloudy, muggy, and a bit on the warm side, but there was a breeze that helped out somewhat.  When I was racing, I didn’t even notice it.

The people there were, thankfully, very friendly and helpful, and I think I learned a lot.  I was doing much better by the end of the day, despite the amount of cones that I ploughed over on my last run.  The heavy ass end of the Saturn seems very conducive to drifting around tight hairpin turns, which helped set me up for the next gate on the course…  But it was also a downfall on the slalom until I learned to maintain a constant speed, instead of slowing down or trying to pick up speed (which was right before the hairpin turn as well, I might add – not exactly a good thing).

Sadly, I didn’t get to take very many photos, because when I wasn’t racing, I was working the track, and they didn’t want anything distracting us from our jobs.  Work wasn’t as bad as I expected it to be though, mostly just chasing after cones that drivers knocked down/off their marker box, and calling them in.  There were quite a few spectacular cone explosions – one from one of the Steeda Mustangs, and another from one of the local racers who ended up taking out 7 cones – most of a “wall” in one go.  Someone also managed to score a hit on the timing gate lights with a cone that got thrown from their tire at high speeds.

All in all, I had a blast, and I think I’m definitely going to keep going.

Good lord, how am I going to afford this?

Only a few days left until the autocross/Solo II event this weekend, and part of me is having second thoughts.  Talking to…  “naysayers”, for lack of a better word, at work, hasn’t helped, and neither has the fact that my “crew” has been slated to leave for a TDY, so he won’t be able to help me at all…  And I still need to do a couple of other things before the car is really ready.

At the very least I need someone with another car so that I can put anything extra I have (food, water, spare tire) in it while I run with the Saturn…  And I haven’t asked my wife since I doubt she really wants to watch me, being paranoid about my driving and all.  I’m kind of running out of options though.

I also need to dig out my camera, and possibly my video camera, so I can at least get some pictures up here.  Aaaagh!

Not mine, but I wish it was…

I’m definitely starting to slack when it comes to posting, though I’d say that rerolling on a different server to take advantage of the lower population of idiots has had a slight impact on that…  But, only 5 days later and I’m 11 levels higher than I was before, and I figured I’d take advantage of the server downtime to post (as opposed to, ya know… chores around the house?).

My wife seems to have finally settled on a class to play (HA!  We’ll see about that.), and we’ve been joined by one of my friends from work.  There are a few issues with him that we’re working through, since he’s used to playing WoW with a large guild and ventrilo on a PvP server…  Two items that I consider unneccessary crutches.  I think that he’ll come through alright in the end though, as his particular amount of bad luck can’t last forever.

Finding a new bow is my biggest problem at the moment.  I’m spoiled by the extended range of my Amazon Bow (sorry, no special links like WoWhead – I’ll post a screenshot later.), which allows me to snipe with impunity.  I’m still able to take some things down before they even touch me, but I don’t expect the bow will last through the 40’s.  I have seen one rare bow drop on the trader that had a +3 range increase (as opposed to my +5) and I probably should have bought it, but since I’ve been running around for the last 11 levels in late 20/early 30 gear, the amount of damage increase that I will most likely see will outweigh even that bow.

There’s a lot of complaining going on in the community right now, and rightfully so – there are still a lot of issues to be ironed out.  Overall though, I would have to say that this has been one of the smoothest launches I’ve been part of in a long time.  Still, I really wish they would do more faster…  But I’ll be patient, and wait – I’m hooked, and I know it.

 

It’s almost sad the amount of people in Age of Conan that think that they can take people down twice their level by themselves.  Granted, I’ve done similar things (taking down a level 35 soldier type at 28; taking out a level 30 demonologist at 24…), and it’s been close almost every time, but each time I’ve picked my battleground carefully and almost always popped off a potion as soon as they started hitting me.  I do have a few things on my side – better bow, probably more experience….

The latest one was some poor level 23 Herald of Xotli who decided he was going to jump me as I started to take down a boss the same level I am (25, at the moment).  He charges me in demon form just as the boss is getting to me, I kill the boss, snare the HoX, pop potions and scoot to the bottom of the hill.  He follows, and by the time he gets to me, I’m at half health/stamina.  He proceeds to run circles around me, trying to kill me, and I just open up with my bow.

Now, there’s one thing I’ve learned about the game mechanics that seem a little broken but until they fix it…  It’s going to get abused.  It doesn’t seem to matter how fast you run circles around me – if I’ve got you locked as my target, my arrows are going to hit you.  No if, and, or but about it.  HoX drops like a sack of potatoes, and I dissapear since I’m so close to the rez shrine.

He proceeds to talk shit, so I drop him again, then resign myself to plinking him with mez shots as he tries to figure out where the hell I am.  One thing I’m learning fast to do is be a ghost – strike, and be gone.  He only found me once, and it was rather amusing to watch him Hellstep… right into my trap. 

And then, of course, there’s the level 6 who thinks he’s going to backstab and kill someone level 22.  <sigh>  What is with people these days?