Sunday, August 25, 2013

I Got My Ticket!

Anyone out there going to Blizzcon and a fan of the Twisted Nether or Blog Azeroth?  Join us for a party during the convention, and let Fimlys and Hydra know you'll be going here!  I know it's a few months off yet, but if you have the tickets I know you have been planning what to wear and what bag to bring and what shoes to wear, so why not plan your meet-ups, too?

That's all I have.  I'm supposed to be sleeping, but I saw Fimlys' post and had to point to the meet-up from way over here, too!


Saturday, August 24, 2013

What Do They Do While I Nap?



Kadaara, Naboo.

She's not really dressed for the beach, but the sun was high and the umbrella and sand inviting, so she sat.  Not very many people visit Kadaara on purpose.  I wasn't the exception, as I had purchased a round trip out of Coronet on Corellia to go find some good resources to use for Jenmo's bio engineering.   Any port on Naboo would do, as there WAS some nice wild meat to be had, which had finally shifted, so I found some decent domestic meat and bristley hide and went for that.  Trouble is, one buff session is too long for me to sit here and play, as I want a nap about 45 minutes in. I did some lazy window shopping in some of the shops just on the outskirts of Kadaara's influence then returned to just outside the city to this resort area and she sat there, doing nothing, for several hours while I slept.

Master Dancer, Master Musician.

Karin fluted her way to Master Musician while I lay on the operating table getting a much needed plumbing repair.  I came back, trained her, and set her up as a buff bot in our city cantina.  She has a invitation macro and has some of the extra skill tapes and bio engineered clothes, but isn't top notch yet.  She looks good though, doesn't she?  A little shopping or some lucky drops will have her where I want her in no time!  Like the "aquarium" on the stage behind me?  I can't wait to have the credits to set me up a large house and decorate it with all sorts of neat things.  My shop is nice, but it's for business.

Part of *e* Not So Pretty Clothiers shop.

A small salon area for Karin to do hair in, or dance.

Sitting area for trying on outfits or waiting for me.  While I nap.

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

AFK

Waiting.

Getting some plumbing work done, finally.  I'll be away from here for at least a week, possibly more while my system gets used to be short a few pieces.  After that, if I do make it back here, it may be temporary, because this work is expensive and I'll have to cut back on things like internet and toilet paper.

Have excellent vacations without me.  I hope to hear great stories when I get back!


Saturday, August 17, 2013

New Faces In Old Places.

Corellia.

Still living on Corellia, travelling the galaxy and collecting resources.  Karin is tooting her chidinkalu in the cantina in Coronet.  Eromee is decorating her tailor shop in PreCU City.  Jenmo is collecting the best quality resources, with Eromee's help, to craft tissues to add stats to Eromee's clothing.  They have very few credits to their names.  The guild has been successful in keeping most everyone else on the server from getting to loot the Acklay, resulting in some pretty nice sales of inferior bones, with some of the better ones stored away for future weapon crafting when the other resources reach the right level of awesome.  Since I felt left out of the fun, I started a new toon, Pushke Tufeng.

Not a randomized name, really!

She is working her way to completing the marksman tree, then will work her way through the rifles tree.  After that, I will probably get some scout for the terrain negotiation (and the harvesting, hate to kill creatures and not get the resources!).  That still leaves some skill points to consider.  I'm thinking Master Marks(wo)man, Master Rifle(wo)man, Master Scout, then Ranger 3xxx, for the terrain negotiation.  She won't need the terrain negotiation in the caves killing the Acklay, but I want her to be able to do more than just that.  I've never been into PvP, but my guild is, and I could lend some comedic relief while I get used to the controls.  Missions are easy, but people are not predictable, and I predict that I will be doing a lot of this while we play together.

Icapacitated, again.

Here is the profession calculator for anyone who is curious.  Bio-Engineer is only partly implemented, and Creature Handler is still in the works.  Space Flight professions and Jedi are not in the game yet, either. That isn't really limiting, though, because there is so much more to choose from! Like playing in a Star Warsy Rock Band?  Why not?!

Mandovial Riff!

Sunday, August 11, 2013

Summer Is Done, Playtime Is Gone.

Bathing Beauties.

Work (and school) start on Monday the 12th. I spent way too long at the beach yesterday with my family and am paying for it right now.  Way to send the summer out with a bang! Monday is coming too soon and my burn will be a painful reminder of how much fun I had Friday.  Never fails.  I always go back to work burnt.

Don't take my picture!

I'm out of time on World of Warcraft.  It's OK, really, I wasn't playing anyhow.  Usually, this period of WoW ennui happens in the middle of summer, but this year it waited a little longer.  I have been playing a lot of Star Wars Galaxies Emulator, and a little Draw Something 2, with some late night Candy Crush (mostly because I am addicted, not because I love it or anything) and Tiny Tower. SWG:EMU is on even when I am not actively using the keyboard, because a lot of my game time is macro'd so that I can enjoy the end game and miss the drudgery of some of the grind.  Playing music for 11 points a flourish is tedious when you are trying to get 350,000 experience points, and crafting instruments for 125 point per practice run is only slightly better when I can be at the keyboard.  Besides, if I am at the keys while this macro is running, I can chat with the other entertainers that are at the keys.  This is only fun when there are other entertainers present, as most of them are AFK macro bots and will remain that way when they master their dance and music trees so that they can AFK buff people while their second toon is off scouring the dark mountainous areas of Dathomir for Night Sisters.

Lot of guildies hanging out in the cantina with me this night!

SWG really did an MMO right.  Players being able to train others in skills they had already learned, players needing other players to gain the necessities of life in game.  Sure, you can get your health and action buffs from an afk Doctor-bot and your mind buffs from another afk entertainer-bot, but for most things you would want to min-max your toon, you need to interact with a player.  Here, take for example my crafter, Eromee.

Crafting cloth for special clothing.

That enhancement slot on the recipe is optional. but the option is something I want to start providing.  Bio-engineers create enhancements that will add skill modifiers directly to the clothing I produce, which will make them more attractive to the end game players than all the cool colors and styles in the galaxy.  Eromee needs to find a Bio-engineer badly.  Unfortunately, the only way to master this profession right now is by finding faction bases and using their skills on a terminal inside it.  So, until they make sampling DNA live(it is on Nova test center now!), the best tissues are a dream.  Still, there are useful tissues that can be made.

Click to see larger.  The fine print in the rectangle at the bottom tells all.

Above is just an example of what can be added.  Those fibers can be added to another cloth I make called a Reinforced Fiber Panel.  There are other tissues that enhance Wound Healing for dancers and musicians, Mask Scent and Camouflage for scouts, add bleed defense for all classes, Injury and Wound healing skill for doctors, medics, and combat medics, Warcry and Intimidate for brawlers, and so many more.  It is possible for Eromee to get the supplies to add, for example, 14 to dance and music wound healing and with four sockets for skill tapes, the dancer could add more of the same to the cap of 25 points, or add something different, like a modifier to pistol accuracy (most entertainers are purely entertainers, but some like a little excitement, so this is possible!).

This SWG emulator allows for two toons from an account to be on at a time, with up to 10 toons per account.  A person can only have one account, and special request must be made to have another account log in from the same IP address (for family or roommates who play).  So, even if you could make another character, you would not be able to fill every anticipated need.  Some of the things you need have to come from other players, because not many of us can devote a good chunk of the day to grinding out a skill tree just to get a few things it offers.  Now that I have said that, let me introduce you to Jenmo, my master Teras Kasi artist, and future Bio-engineer.

Going to train another box in Bio-engineer. Look, a butterfly!

Eromee buys some of her resources from other players, because she can't be bothered to dig them up herself most of the time.  Jenmo is the workhorse of the team, going out into the wilds to kill large animals and bring back hides to use in crafting, and the money from the missions that spawned them.  Since she was already out there, she is now also harvesting the meat and bones to use in her tissue crafting.  Money gets siphoned into Eromee for upkeep on buildings, vendors, the few resource extractors she bothers herself to plunk down (right now she has small flora harvesters on Dathomir harvesting evergreen wood and a larger flora harvester down on some fabulous fungus on another planet or moon), and to buy more of the resources she isn't gathering.  Thankfully, Eromee can use any resource, regardless of quality, to make her items.  Jenmo needs quality and potential energy and flavor, so Eromee passes the good stuff to her, and Jenmo will, in the future, pass quality tissues back. All so she can make fabulous outfits that people want to buy, like this.

Lizards might buy this?

I had a better screenshot of a skinny green Mon Calamari girl wearing a darker green revealing skirt and a light bustier, but things go missing in my screenshot folder. I think it has something to do with taking screenshots on one screen and then on another.  Screenshots get replaced by one of the same name.  Oh well.  The outfit above has room for 2 modifications, which is nice, as two cloths pass the 25 points allowed (the rest are not counted) as a skill modifier. If both items had four sockets each, that would leave room for many skill tapes, and since it's a challenge to find higher point skill tapes in what any toon would need, the more sockets, the better.

So, that is only a small bit of what I have been doing in SWG:EMU.  I'm enjoying it so much, and old friends keep popping up to play all the time.  I missed this MMO so much!  Glad that the EMU team is working on this.  As soon as I have some cash that isn't being used for gas or toilet paper, they get it.

What have you been playing?  Got anything that excites you about it?  Comment below.  Until the next time I drag myself out of my game to share my fun, I hope your virtual vacations are as great as mine!