Rants tag

Rants, ruminations, and rambling remarks from my mad, muddled, meandering mind.

Monday, June 29, 2015

On a Whim

I have discovered an unfortunate pattern in my posting schedule. As an instructor, I find that on days when I am "on the podium," I am less inclined to write in the evening, and I don't really have any time to bang one out during the day. I also spend quite a bit of time in the evening editing news stories on Holosuite Media. And before I know it, a week and half has gone by with virtually no activity here on IHTtS. I started this post at least a week ago, but then time slipped on by.

As you might know from my comments on my last post, I fairly quickly decided to drop kitty Achillea; not because I didn't like her, but because I knew I wanted a male Firran, and I wanted to keep a slot open to create a battle buddy for Scooter's toon, should she decide to play, as well. The hair options are really limited if one wants any kind of realism (on a catperson), but I ended up with a look I like for fuzzy Rowanblaze. He's kind of tiger striped—though there is a more distinct tiger pattern available—and I did my best to match his hair (mane?) to his stripes. Rather than pick up Archery as on Achillea, I went with Sorcery to begin, which in ArcheAge (pronounced with a hard "k," as I discovered—"Ark-Age") means elemental magic: fire, ice, and lightning. Later, I picked up Witchcraft, and I am angling for Vitalism third, making this Rowan a "Shaman." I think it's a good fit for the type of characters I usually give my personal moniker.

I'm not sure why, but I thought the Sorceror would be really squishy, and he may be. But after picking up on a few of the basic ability mechanics I'd missed at first, he can mow down just about anything before it even touches him. The prime example is that the initial Flamebolt spell takes a second to cast, but then can be fired off three times in rapid succession. Combos, which for me are almost always in effect, create a ton of damage. Granted, fuzzy Rowan is still really low level, so that may change in the near future.
In the end, I haven't really gotten to play him much. SWTOR—and its subscription—still pull me in that direction, though I think I am going to start really running through the stories rather than dabble on planet quests, both so I can see them before the 12xXP goes away, and to get the legacy advantages. I'll have to forgo some of the Light/Dark points and affection gains available, but I may return to the planet-side stuff later. . .
~~~
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Friday, June 19, 2015

The Bel Effect

So Aggrochat Episode 60 was called "Second Chances," and Belghast, along with his cohorts from Stalwart Gaming, were talking about games they had recently returned to after having discarded them for various reasons. Featured in this discussion was ArcheAge, a Korean import brought to the States by Trion Worlds, of Rift fame. (Forgive me if you know all this already.)

Scooter and I had enjoyed dabbling in ArcheAge last fall; however, technical issues with her computer kept us from getting very far before we gave up. But I was intrigued by the Skill/Class system and character progression at the time. My recent trip to Seoul helps me appreciate some of the elements of the game as well, like the townsfolk speaking Korean, the design of the Harani, etc.

In any event, the Aggrochat episode made me think it would be cool to try it again. You know, to keep from burning out on SWTOR stories (which, as you know, we have also been giving a second chance). I had uninstalled it somehow, and I think I used a different login than my Rift account (all now linked through Trion's Glyph). On top of this, something glitched right near the end of the installation process, and I had to start over. Then stuff and things happened. All that meant that, even though I decided to check it out on Tuesday evening, it was last night before I was able to log in and create a character.

Following Bel and the Aggrochat crew, I decided to role a Firran on Tahyang server (doubly appropriate since Tahyang was the legendary prophet/leader of the Firran). I wasn't too sure about the females, who seem very kawaii (if that term can be used for a Korean aesthetic). As opposed to the male Firran, who are much more catlike. But Scott Rankin likes them, and thinks they look more alien than human, and they don't need to be that catlike anyway. After messing around with the character creator for at least an hour wherein I discovered that they can be given more feline features, I came up with a face I liked. So, meet the ArcheAge version of Achillea (I almost gave her green hair). I only got up to level 5 or 6 before logging off, starting with Archery, and picking up Occultism along the way. I plan to make Vitality my third skillset, forming the class referred to as Blood Arrow. I may still role a male Firran, and save the cute for a Harani. Maybe I can even convince Scooter to give the Cat Folk a try.
~~~
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Thursday, June 18, 2015

Yet Another Alt

On Sunday, I raced through the "end" of the Inquisitor story on Tollkirsche; that is, the third chapter of Vanilla SWTOR. Consequently, I unlocked the Red Sith Pureblood race for all classes. My original impetus for this was to create a "special snowflake" Red Sith Jedi (Lightside, of course), which I am sure has been done a hundred times already. However, for some irrational reason, I don't want to start a Jedi right now, so I ended up creating a Smuggler.

Captain Albarossa is a tough-as-nails freighter pilot who will take just about any job if there are enough credits involved. A milk run to Ord Mantell ended up being a huge headache, as the Jewel of Vasar, Albarossa's ship, was hijacked along with its cargo while he was in port. Cutting a bloody path across Avilatan Island, Albarossa tried to track down the gun shipment and the Jewel, as well as the double-crossing scum who stole them. Now he's on his way to Coruscant, reluctantly teaming up with Corso Riggs, a Mantellian mercenary with a grudge and a gun fetish.

Albarossa can literally charm the pants off many of the ladies he encounters, who find his smoldering eyes and chiseled visage irresistible. However, dark and greedy, he's all about the credits, and woe be unto anyone who stands between him and that big payday. The "over-grown padawan" Riggs is not going to be happy with his new sidekick's decisions most of the time, I'll bet.

He's not quite the gentle snowflake I'd envisioned upon completing my Red Sith Assassin. Albarossa ("Red Dawn") is a variety of wine grape from the Veneto wine region of Italy. I had a difficult time coming up with a good name that fits my general theme. But I like how his name is sort of descriptive—he's kind of the color of red wine—while also making him sound a bit like a pirate. I also like how most of the darkside conversation choices make him sound a bit tougher. I always thought the male smuggler sounded like a milquetoast, wishing they'd used the gravely baritone who voiced Nico Okarr in the "Return" trailer. As it turns out, the smuggler's spineless tone was as much a result of the lightside dialogue I'd been choosing as the performance of the voice actor. Now all I need is a cool hat... and a duster.
~~~
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. If you are reading this post through RSS or Atom feed—especially more than a couple hours after publication—I encourage you to visit the actual page, as I often make refinements after the fact. The mobile version also loses some of the original character of the piece due to simplified formatting.

Monday, June 15, 2015

Speeder Keys

UPDATE, 6/16/15, 8:00 p.m CDT: The keys seem to have expired. If you haven't redeemed yours, I think it's too late. Sorry, folks.
UPDATE, 6/16/15, 7:30 a.m CDT: All Keys have been claimed, pending Velvet Silk's response. Congratulations, folks. :)
UPDATE, 7:23 p.m. CDT: I need contact information from Velvet Silk, but other than that... Only one key not spoken for.
UPDATE, 3 p.m. CDT: Only two keys not spoken for.  If you're interested, let me know. I'll be distributing them in about three hours.
UPDATE, 11 a.m. CDT: Four keys left. I decided to hold onto the comments for now, will be contacting the individuals later with the keys.

No time for a contest—particularly since I thought today was the 14th, not the 15th—I have Prinawe Congregate speeder keys available for the first nine (9) folks that express interest in the comments below. I'm temporarily opening comments to anonymous readers, but I am also moderating all comments, so you can leave contact information if you would like. The simplest would be to include Google+ or Twitter handles and I will contact you privately with the key in about 10 hours. The deadline for submitting the key to BioWare is 17 June, two days from now.
~~~
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. If you are reading this post through RSS or Atom feed—especially more than a couple hours after publication—I encourage you to visit the actual page, as I often make refinements after the fact. The mobile version also loses some of the original character of the piece due to simplified formatting.

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

#NBI2015Safari Winners

I did not do nearly enough to promote one of the best events of the Newbie Blogger Initiative this year, which was the NBI Safari, sponsored by CT Murfy over at Murf Versus. As it turns out, the Safari was a screenshot contest, and he has now posted the winners, based on viewer votes. Head on over to check out all the great pics people posted and maybe add some folks to your regular reading rotation.
~~~
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. If you are reading this post through RSS or Atom feed—especially more than a couple hours after publication—I encourage you to visit the actual page, as I often make refinements after the fact. The mobile version also loses some of the original character of the piece due to simplified formatting.

Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Link Preferences Reader Poll

I just went down a minor rabbit hole and now I have posted a little poll on the side of the blog. When browsing (blogs in particular and, specifically IHTtS) would you rather have links open in the same window/tab (replacing IHTtS) or that links open in new tabs/windows (based on your browser preferences)? Or would your rather decide in the moment and use whatever method (e.g, ctrl-click) to do it yourself?
~~~
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. If you are reading this post through RSS or Atom feed—especially more than a couple hours after publication—I encourage you to visit the actual page, as I often make refinements after the fact. The mobile version also loses some of the original character of the piece due to simplified formatting.

Saturday, June 6, 2015

All the Galaxy's a Stage (Part the First) . . .

. . . in which I discuss this weekend's exploits with the illustrious Scooter and discuss my primary SWTOR Characters. (and also learn about html hex color values)

Saturday and Sunday were a productive weekend for me—in Star Wars: The Old Republic and not much else. Scooter spent a chunk of the day on Saturday out and about with her daughter, leaving me to make some progress on my Sith Juggernaut, Buloke (who will discussed in a later post), and Valerija, my "baby" Sith Sorceror. I ran my first PUG using the queue (Black Talon) and got 20 commendations for it. They must be desperate for people to go, because I think that's a daily reward for running at least one. I also started a new Sith Warrior; more on that later.

Chatting with Scooter on Saturday evening, we decided to role two Sith to run together. We also went Dark Side. Since I already have two Inquisitors, I decided to role another Warrior, with the intent make her a dual wielding Carnage Marauder. Scooter, preferring a good stand-off from the actual melee, roled a Sorceror. We so thoroughly enjoyed ourselves on Saturday night that we were up until 2 in the morning; then, after a couple errands on Sunday, were playing again by about 11 o'clock. By the time we were too tired to go on last night, we finished about a third of the way through Dromund Kaas and are about level 17 or 18.
On Twitter the other day, Zernebog and I were discussing character names, and he seemed impressed by my choices. We agreed to do (redo) write-ups on our characters. This ended up being a bigger project than I realized at first, and I am only about half finished. But I figured it might be better to break it up a bit anyway. Most of my characters are on...

The Ebon Hawk:

Achillea

Mirialan, Republic Commando
"There's some good in this world... and it's worth fighting for."

Her name recalls the martial prowess of the Greek hero Achilles, and is the genus name for yarrow, a medicinal herb used by him to treat his wounded men in Homer's Iliad.

Lieutenant Achillea Sunsage is a Republic Army medic who has risen quickly through the ranks as a result of the defection of her special forces squad, codenamed "Havoc," and her subsequent pursuit of her former comrades. Like many of her people, Achillea has a strong sense of right and wrong, and will not compromise her principals for any reason, which occasionally gets her in hot water with her commander, General Garza. But she is loyal to her new squad, developing especially close relationships with the Imperial defector, Elara Dorne, and her second-in-commend, Aric Jorgan. Her facial tattoos symbolize her skill in marksmanship and the healing arts.

Admittedly, I don't have much of a backstory for Achillea. But she is a direct spiritual successor to my TSW Illuminati character, Samantha "Lonestarbelle" Hawthorn, a smart, tough-as-nails maverick, doing the right thing despite the disapproval of her superiors. I had an Achillea during my original tenure in SWTOR, but decided to start her over when Scooter decided she wanted a new smuggler. We have just left Nar Shaddaa at about level 32.

Valerija

Human, Sith Sorceror
"The Force is strong with this one."

Her name is a Slavic variant of Valeria; the Latin root means "to be strong" or "to be healthy." Valerian is an herb with many medicinal uses.

Valerija is a former slave from the Outer Rim, both strong in the Force and bearing a striking resemblance to her Sith mentor, Darth Zash. Little does she know, Zash plucked her out of obscurity with ulterior motives. Despite the prejudice of Harkun, her Sith Overseer on Korriban, Valerija excelled at her trials, managing to tap into both the Dark and the Light to accomplish the tasks set out for her.

Force Lightning the primary visual effect of Sorceror abilities, is supposedly only available to adherents of the Dark Side. But, of course, the game mechanics allow for a purely Light Sith, which is the direction I've taken Valerija. Hence her ability to tap into both Sides.

After having been through the first part of the Inquisitor story with Tollkirsche (below), I thought it would be funny if the Inquisitor actually looked like the NPC, Lord Zash. At the same time, I have in the past tended to go with the Female Body 2 (Athletic) but was "admiring" the the curvier Body 4. So I designed her by following Zash's appearance, then changing the body and complexion slightly, making Valerija a softer, curvier version of the Sith Lord. Though not visible here, Valerija wears trousers rather than the tradition robes of a Sorceror.

Morrenia

Human, Sith Marauder
"Let me show you the true nature of the Force."

Her name is the Genus for a South American plant commonly called Strangler Vine.

A member of a Noble House of Naboo, Morrenia was identified as a Force sensitive by agents of the Sith and recruited by overseer Tremel in a powerplay against Darth Baras. Accustomed to privilege and adept in the Force, she took her training and the carefully arranged trials for granted, and is not particularly disciplined. Her tendency toward sardonic quips is the cause of great consternation on the part of her new Master; though it amuses Morrenia's slave, Vette, at least as long as her biting wit isn't directed at the Twi'lek treasure hunter. Her slight form belies Morrenia's vicious skills in lightsaber combat. Wielding a blade in each hand, she pounces on her enemies with little warning, cutting them far deeper with the plasma than with even her rapier tongue.

Morrenia is the culmination of a sort of fascination I have with this character model: Body 1 (thin), Asian physiognomy, striking purple make-up. She is the third such figure, the first being Heliantha, a dark Jedi Consular I started in order to re-familiarize myself with that story, with the intent to continue my Sage, now named Rowanblaze (more about her later, too), who is about to depart Coruscant. I cheated a little, this portrait is actually of that character. The second Kabuki-esque Heliantha was/is a Sith Marauder on Begeren Colony that I started on Saturday afternoon. But Scooter, understandably, wanted to continue to build her Legacy on The Ebon Hawk, so I went ahead and started over there. As I had already named a character Heliantha, I searched for another name that I liked and had some meaning. With Morrenia, I made her as pale as I could, so she really does look like she could be on stage in Tokyo, or at home among the courtiers of Naboo.

Versteckt

Cyborg, Imperial Operative
"In my experience, there's no such thing as luck."

German for "covert" or "hidden" (sort of pronounced fur-SHTEKT)

Gideon Sho is a cipher agent with Imperial Intelligence, known as "Versteckt." He is also a mole from the Imperial Mercenary Corps (my original guild), a group of anarchist pirates descended from Revan's original army, who settled on a moon that now falls within Imperial space. While playing the part of a loyal spy, Versteckt attempts to subvert Imperial policy at every opportunity—letting dissidents and enemies of the Empire escape to the Republic, secretly sabotaging the war effort on Balmorra, etc. Not that Versteckt is a friend of the Republic by any means, he has no compunction about killing Reps, Gangsters, or anyone else who gets in his way. On the other hand, he is not a walking bloodbath, if there is a way to get what he wants by persuasion—or seduction—Versteckt will take that option.

My original idea for his name was "Cypher," but that was unavailable for reasons that will be apparent to anyone who has run through the Agent storyline. Versteckt was the only character I got to max level during our first run in SWTOR. I always liked the slick, debonair look he has, I simply had to make hime a cyborg just for those shades. He is still at 50, because Scooter and I haven't picked him or her Bounty Hunter back up since returning. I also find it a little odd that his shirt is a little "blurry" no matter what quality my graphics are set to. Sadly, my original guild didn't really survive the big server merger of 2012 and the naming chaos that followed.

Tollkirsche


Pureblood, Sith Assassin
"I find your lack of faith disturbing."

German for belladonna or deadly nightshade (literally, Great Cherry) (sort of pronounced "toll-KEER-shə")

A former slave who has shown tremendous Force potential, Lord Tollkirsche is the former apprentice of the late Darth Zash. Though Pureblood, his origins are actually somewhat obscure, nothing is known of him prior to his appearance on the slave markets of Zygerria. Personality profile indicates an off-balance individual who sadistically delights in the suffering of others; though he shows compassion and a feral sense of justice on random occasions. Tollkisrche is another link to Revan; he was observed making several trips to the Revanite camp outside Kaas City, before departing the system on an errand for his master. It is debatable whether he can be trusted by the Dark Council. However, like a Kaas electrical storm, Tollkirsche is becoming a force to be reckoned with.

Tollkirsche was my wildcard back when I played before. I turned off the Light/Dark indicators and just chose what I wanted to do with worrying about the points. I also ended up doing a lot of the space fighter games with him. While upon my recent return, I finished up the second chapter of Tollkirsche's story, I haven't really played since, and my only interest in doing so is to unlock Pureblood for use on the Republic side for Jedi.

As I have indicated, this is maybe half my roster, the rest I have played barely or not at all since returning to SWTOR. As long-time readers know, I put a lot of time into coming up with names that are unique and have symbolic meaning in some way. I hope you've enjoyed this little review.
~~~
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Friday, June 5, 2015

Pics of the Day: We have a Winner!

At home on the Fleet...
You may recall that I posted a couple weeks ago about Ravanel's Speeder Giveaway. Well, you are looking at the lucky owner of a shiny new pink Prinawe Congregate. When I saw that it came with a drab dye pack, it gave me hope that—at least on some characters—I could dye the speeder a different color. But no...

...or at home.
Something I hadn't noticed before is that the "lens" in SWTOR is a bit fish-eye. Stuff in the foreground is stretched a bit, making the speeder seem longer than it really is in a few pics. This pic of my beauty parked on my Nar Shaddaa party pad shows that it is not super long.

It fits perfectly on the "Neon Moon," but I'm not sure it does anywhere else, really. Is it a little weird that I am considering getting a matching dye pack for Valerija?

Do those colors even go together?

On a side note, I thought this was really cool. In the Slippery Slopes Cantina on Nar Shaddaa, there is a stage that I figured would be a perfect place to take a picture of the speeder. However, when I got over there, there was an Imperial RP event going on. I didn't want to interrupt just for my own selfie, but got a shot of them partying. Almost every avatar you see there is a player character, including the singer and the two stage dancers. So The Secret World is not the only place they throw dance parties.
Pary On, Imps!
~~~
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. If you are reading this post through RSS or Atom feed—especially more than a couple hours after publication—I encourage you to visit the actual page, as I often make refinements after the fact. The mobile version also loses some of the original character of the piece due to simplified formatting.

Mistaken Identities: Roleplaying vs Puppeteering in MMOs

Syp brought up an interesting topic this week that I have touched upon myself on occasion. The question of how separated is he from his characters in games.
The first is that my characters are merely a digital extension of the human me. . . The second is that my characters are a fictional collaboration between the assets and story of the developers and my own imagination.
~Syp, Who Am I? An Existential Crisis in MMOs
Though this may be part of what he intended in his second position, I think there is a third option: That the character is essentially a creation of the developers, and I am merely following it through the world. That third option may be more valid in certain single player games than in MMOs. I know that Bhagpuss has expressed this point of view about his characters, as has Tyler Edwards.

Echoing what Ettesiun wrote in commentary on Syp's post, I think that, without a backstory, an MMO character is literally just an avatar of the player, regardless of the appearance or gender of the character. Even when the player does something through the avatar that the player would not do in real life, it's still the player making the decision. Oftimes, the themeparks gives little choice beyond taking or refusing to take a given quest. Other, more sandboxy MMOs, may have so little story to them that the players must either create the fictions or simply play as themselves.

I tend to develop, at the very least, vague backstories for my characters, and they end up making decision I would not necessarily make. On the other hand, they tend to be amplified versions of me, again, regardless of their gender. Like Syp, I have a propensity for playing females.

SWTOR offers some variation in the manner of accomplishing a quest, but in the end, they feel even more on rails in many ways, because my characters often say things that don't quite match up with what I interpreted the dialogue choices to mean. Every once in a while, I back out of a conversation and start over because the dialogue is so egregiously out of character.

TSW gives my character no opportunity for dialogue at all during the cut scenes. (Then again, neither did WoW when I played, or many others.) But it is precisely those games that I do the most character development in. Dr. Samantha "Lonestarbelle" Hawthorn has an extensive background. Achillea Sunsage, my Trooper in SWTOR, has virtually no background at all.

So, in the end, I tend toward the second option Syp gave. I develop my characters within the framework of the game world. They have personalities of their own, but there is a lot of overlap with mine. How consistent am I in that? I'm not sure, But I am not as concerned about it as Syp apparently is.

How about you? What is your relationship to the characters you play in MMOs?
~~~
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. If you are reading this post through RSS or Atom feed—especially more than a couple hours after publication—I encourage you to visit the actual page, as I often make refinements after the fact. The mobile version also loses some of the original character of the piece due to simplified formatting.

Monday, June 1, 2015

NBI Class of 2015

So another Newbie Blogger Initiative has come and gone, and this one was not without its controversies and angst. However, it seems that everyone came out unscathed. Like much of what I post, this list is conveniently cribbed from Belghast the Aggronaut, unflagging cheerleader for this corner of the game-blogging community.

Just looking at the list, I am mildly surprised at the number that are dedicated (at least in part) to SWTOR, perhaps thanks to a resurgence in players due to the 12x XP "event" currently underway. Regrettably, I have not read many of these worthy blogs. The ones I have read are starred, but I'm sure all are worth checking out, and I intend to do so in the coming days.
My own blogging month was a pretty great, thanks to some inexplicable awesomeness the first week, and pretty solid numbers since. May was my second highest month ever for pagehits, and by far the highest in almost two years. I know we're not supposed to obsess over such things, but I do anyway. I  have pretty consistent numbers (trending generally upward); but every once in a while, the graph spikes. And this time I can't attribute it to a specific post; which is good, I suppose, but also maddening.
~~~
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. If you are reading this post through RSS or Atom feed—especially more than a couple hours after publication—I encourage you to visit the actual page, as I often make refinements after the fact. The mobile version also loses some of the original character of the piece due to simplified formatting.