Stargrace

Diving into LotRO

It has been years since I played the Lord of the Rings Online, and even though my other half and I used to play it together for some reason it is one of the very few games that we actually did not return to year after year (unlike EverQuest, or WoW, or EverQuest2). When they announced a legendary server would be opening (much like the progression servers we know at Daybreak) I perked up a little. It didn’t take much hype before I was fully on board and planning out the characters I would play.

My husband also decided to play, and though we faced a queue any time we tried to log in we both managed to make new characters – yay! He’s playing a Warden, and I opted to try out a lore-master this time around (the one with the pets). I also have a hunter for ease. Last time we played he stuck to a guardian and I bounced between my rune-keeper and my minstrel. We finished the tutorial starter and headed off to Combe to pick up some crafting vocations. This time around I decided to go Tinkerer, and he went Explorer. It should compliment one another well, and if not no big deal we’re not exactly min-maxers anyway.

It’s really nice to be playing again, even if we’re frantically trying to fit those minutes of gameplay in between everything (ie: life). Since we met in a video game (EverQuest 2, for those curious) it seems only fitting.

The server has had a lengthly queue every evening, but during the day it’s not too bad. There are all sorts of returning players checking it out, though a fair portion of my twitter friends are reluctant to start on the new legendary server and have opted to remain on the regular servers – nothing wrong with that! I hope this brings the game some money and more business is never a bad thing.

We’ll see how long I end up sticking with it. I’m hoping to be able to play a few times a week, even if I don’t get much done. I believe expansions release every 4 months, so there’s plenty of time to catch up to “end game” though I have never actually been end game in LotRO before. There is a first for everything.

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Events, Deeds, and an Anniversary

This week Sklotopolis turned 3 years old – an amazing feat for a Wurm Unlimited server when in so many cases they tend to fall apart and become empty within the first few months. It’s thanks to our amazing staff (and players) that this place is so great, and I made sure to thank them all for their hard work. I couldn’t see myself playing anywhere else.

Barefoot is just about done with my new deed on Novus, and it’s looking spectacular. I’ll add some screenshots later this week to show it off, there’s still a few odds and ends that it is lacking and the workshop building isn’t quite done yet. It has lots of room for expansion, which I love.

In the meantime I looked for a small counter-deed on Liberty, and ended up moving (again) where I had settled. Originally I found a place along the East Coast, but sailing from Novus to Liberty (although quick) was still too much of a pain – so I decided to see what was available if I sailed straight from one deed across to the other server.

As luck would have it, I found an enormous deed that was recently disbanded. I claimed a small area of it with Minxes & moved my other Fo priest over there. Now I have two well sized deeds, one of Novus and one on Liberty, and I’m quite happy with the choice to re-locate. I’ve been playing on the Sklotopolis server for over two years now (off and on due to real life breaks) and I needed a bit of a change. Never a bad thing.

This weekend was also another double slaying. We took down a white drake (baby dragon) and a goblin leader over on Liberty. After there was a Ritual of Spring casting, so my main earned herself 5 hours of sleep bonus and a little mind logic. I’m almost at 60 mind logic, which will give me 7 actions – something I am REALLY looking forward to.

Otherwise, things have been quiet. Working on my deeds, meeting new players, making a few sales, the usual, and just how I like it.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Farm Together Made me Hate Pumpkins

I was gifted this ultra casual super cute steam title called Farm Together by a good friend, and I’ve been having a lot of fun with it – until I got wind of their Halloween event. It starts out innocently enough. Harvest 100 cursed pumpkins. Once you do that, you need to harvest 1,000. Then you need to harvest 10,000 – and 1,000 special trees.

You can harvest in a 3×3 area thanks to vehicles and gas – if the farm has those, but each cursed pumpkin costs 500 gold, and when you harvest them you get zilch in coin back. This makes it an incredibly difficult challenge especially for beginners like me. Thanks to the kindness of friends I was able to reach 3,000 pumpkins or so harvested (after blowing absolutely all my hard earned money on the crop before I realized they reward no coin in return) and I decided I give up. There’s a time limit (ie: harvest them by halloween) and 10,000 is just way. too. many.

You want to be a good neighbour, so you not only harvest in a 3×3 area, you till the land, and re-plant. Each action uses gas (or takes you forever by hand) and you can only plant in fall, which has a 17 minute window. The cursed pumpkins take 8h to grow (4h if you water them) and just.. no. NOPE.

This event is NOT FUN. It’s a grind that entices me because I WANT to unlock the cute halloween decor, but after 3k pumpkins I have put my foot down and I am NOT harvesting any more.

Sorry, Farm Together, your event is just more chore than fun.

Change is Good

I recently started playing Wurm Unlimited again, on the Sklotopolis server. Let me start off by saying that yes I promote this server a lot because it’s absolutely one of the best ones out there – and it keeps getting better. The developers recently coded a bot that hooks into the Wurm API and we can now talk back and forth between discord and game. It’s fantastic. It strengthens an already strong community, and I just think it’s a fantastic feature. I also think it’s impressive that this is a feature on a small independent gaming community, and not a larger company.

Anyway, that’s not the theme of this post. What I wanted to talk about in this post is how I’ve recently disbanded my two main deeds, keeping my 3rd smaller coastal deed on Liberty, and moved to Novus.

What spurred this on you might ask?

I recently posted looking for a pre-fabricated deed because I simply don’t have the time to design a new deed from scratch, and at the time I had no coastal home (after the fall of Moumix’ place). Barefoot responded, and offered to build me a deed (with payment of course) on Novus. He found the perfect location, asked me about the smaller particulars (buildings, landscaping, etc) and set to work.

I also joined a new alliance on Novus. I love my alliance on Liberty, but it’s hard to get people talking or to feel really involved because they have known one another for a very long time. My hours also don’t really match up, and while I know people come and go from the game I was feeling a little lonely. Being on a more active server (a lot of people left to Novus when it was linked to Liberty) has helped me feel not quite as lonely.

I do still have one smaller deed over on Liberty, in a new location. I took down Quail Keep and Quail Castle, and created Quail Cove over on the East coast. I’m hoping to slowly (ie: very slowly) turn it into a small town hub for when I go to Liberty events, and for alts. So far it’s going quite well, and despite all the changes I’m feeling happy and confident about them.

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Yarn Review – Boss Lady Yarn Co.

Earlier this year (or maybe it was late last year) I had gotten it into my mind that I wanted to review (for my own reasons) yarn dyed by indie dyers – preferably Canadian. It didn’t exactly take off as I had way too much on my plate, not to mention the cost involved was more than I could spare. I’m hoping to bring that feature back at least once a month. Last month you may have seen me review this yarn that I was absolutely in love with so lets start with the second yarn I chose to review.

The sock above was knit with a yarn called Ivy, by Boss Lady Yarn Co. While it knit up well enough it was not what I was expecting when the package arrived. Because it had been vacuum sealed unwound and no label, it was incredibly messy and easy to get into knots as I opened it. The colours were nothing like what I had seen on the web site and I was really disappointed. They did include a wooden stitch marker as an extra that I appreciated a lot. Notions are a great way to win over an audience with an extra perk.

That’s the picture of Ivy in the shop. Really strong blues and greens, and a white base. What I got was a very speckled off-white base without the strong greens or blues that I had hoped for. I purchased the yarn from the sellers Etsy store, and I left a less-than-stellar review because I was not pleased with the yarn I received based on the shop pictures. Below is what I received.

The owner of the shop wrote me back and stated:

“Leaving a negative review should be a customer’s last resort.”

Let me mention that this was the first time I had ever been unsatisfied with a purchase and left a negative review. I didn’t feel the same way as the seller and it felt as though they were talking down to me as the customer. I felt that a dissatisfied customer should have the opportunity to leave their feedback, and that it was the whole reason there was a feedback option to begin with. I noticed that the new website does not allow people to leave reviews, and I find this a bit troublesome.

I understand that colours show up different depending on your monitor and that batch dying as a small company means there are going to be differences in the skeins, but this just felt like it was not what I had ordered at all. Something for the buyer to beware of. In the future I’ll also be looking for swatches knit up so I can get a better idea of what the yarn will look like if there are multiple colours used.