Stargrace

Restless

I’m not sure when I played EverQuest last, but it was probably a few years ago. When a friend started talking to me about The Heroes’ Journey, an EverQuest EMU, I was interested. I’ve never actually played an EMU before – and a lot of that is because of the moral decision associated with it. SOE/Daybreak/Whoever they are now have never taken down the numerous EMU that have been around over the years (doesn’t necessarily mean they approve), and they even officially endorsed P99 at one point in time giving them legal permission to run. If they’re OK with it then why shouldn’t I be. Anyway, we’re not here to debate the ‘should we, shouldn’t we aspect of the game.

I patched up, and read a bit about the server before diving in. Unlike P99 this EMU is focused on giving players a good solo/small group experience – while disallowing things like multiboxing. Every character is basically three classes in one (hence my screenshot above which is my Shadowknight / Monk / Beastlord character). There are a few other QoL changes, you can create respawning or not respawning instances so you don’t have to compete with everyone else, you can trade just about every item in game including epic components, and you can enable AA at level 1 (you even get a few QoL AA for free). There’s a progression to the server, you have to accomplish certain goals to unlock the next expansion/content – and they have two methods for this. You can choose the ‘Hero’ path (which includes things like killing both Vox and Nagafen), or the ‘Explorer’ path, which includes collecting some specialized items and turning them in to an NPC.

So far? I’m having a lot more fun than I was expecting and I’ve just reached level 16. I started playing EverQuest when Luclin was released, so that’s the expansion I’m most familiar with. I leveled up in Shar Vahl, headed out to Mistweaver’s Thicket, then headed to PC to grind in the caverns a little bit. There are about 3,500 people playing at any given time (at least this weekend while I’ve been playing) with some 14,000 people total involved since its release.

I don’t know how long the interest will last, but in the mean time, it’s nice to be playing. Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Bring on the Comfort Games

Way back before I had kids, I started streaming – I even did it on a fairly regular basis! Then life happened, and the years passed by. I haven’t streamed on any sort of reliable schedule for almost 8 years (coincides with the age of my oldest, gasp). I’m hoping to change that, and I’ve said this MANY times before and it has never actually stuck, but that doesn’t stop me from trying (again, and again).

I’m aiming for 3 days a week, following a Friday/Saturday/Sunday schedule. I’m looking at a time of 8pm-11pm EST (I’m actually Atlantic, so this would be 9pm-12am for me) or MAYBE some early morning streams (we’re talking 4am-6am EST). Those are the times I’ve got ‘free’ in my day. I’m planning on doing variety streams with no static game set (that could change) and sticking to my ‘comfort’ games (my comfort may not equal yours, and that’s OK too) like EVE Online, Wurm Online, World of Warcraft, Euro Truck Sim, and other games like these.

I’m hoping I can hold myself accountable because this is something that I’ve wanted to do for a while now, but time is always an issue. I don’t see that changing any time soon, so we’ll see how it goes. In any case, it should be good cozy fun. One of the more annoying parts is just setting everything up. Sure, there’s OBS, there’s my stream deck, digging out the microphone I have, making sure my computer can run everything – and then there’s also the fact that I want to stream Eve, and snipes are a thing and I have to be mindful of any chat on display so a large portion of my screen is blurred (per the screenshot above). It won’t completely prevent folks from dropping in on me, but I am hoping it should help a little bit.

Anyway. I haven’t decided which week I’ll be starting my stream attempts on yet – so check my twitch page if you’d like to be notified.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Back in Signal Cartel

The end of 2024 was really difficult for me and my family, a lot of stuff was going on and so I let my EVE Online subscription lapse, and stepped away to deal with all of that. I didn’t have the mental energy to explain to others how hard things were, so I didn’t post about a leave of absence to Signal Cartel, although I should have. The corporation has a process if you want to rejoin. It involves you being out of the corporation for a certain amount of time, first, based on how many days you were there. Since I had 280+ days in the corporation, I had to wait 60 days before I could reapply.

So that’s what I did. In the meantime I continued to live out of my Wormlife Freeport (still living there actually, really like it a lot), did some mining, missions, and just got back into the swing of things. I only had to wait about 1 month before I was able to reapply, and the process after that was incredibly smooth.

I’m now settling into things again and I’m incredibly happy to be a part of the family that showed me I can actually play this game the way I want to. It feels good to be back.

Fly your way! o7

Exploration Adventures

While I’m waiting to return to Signal Cartel (I believe there are 6 more days before I can apply) I’ve been doing a lot of exploration. It’s one of my favourite things to do in game, and it relaxes me most when I am in a wormhole. I think it’s the whole “out of sight, out of mind” theory. Sure, there could be people around cloaked, maybe I didn’t check d-scan fast enough, maybe they were waiting on the site for a passerby like me but I don’t SEE them (at least, not yet) so I’m calm. I have a method for completing relic and data sites. I always use a perch, and I warp to and from each container, using the perch. Once I’ve got a few hundred million ISK worth of items I look for a high sec connection and I dump my loot into a structure, then I contract it to my market character to pick up. Sometimes I’ll use a viator, sometimes if I’ve got PI to pick up I’ll just add it in with the squall. Slowly, it adds up over time.

My little helios has discovered billions of ISK worth of items by now, and it’s the least decked out ship I own. The only other ship that brings in that amount of ISK with almost zero cost, is my gas huffing ships.

I’m not sure I mentioned it, but it’s nice to be back in EVE. Comfortable. I am also still playing Wurm Online and World of Warcraft, but there isn’t a lot going on in either of those games lately. In Wurm I’m working on my deed, making bricks, and attending the few slayings I happen to see posted. In World of Warcraft, I’m in a constant game of trying to catch up, and waiting for player housing. I did dip into BDO briefly, but I’m always so lost when I return to that one. I also patched up GW2, but again didn’t actually DO much. I’m usually so tired by the end of the day that I head straight to anything simple and comforting. Hopefully that changes, but if it doesn’t, that’s OK too.

A Year of ISK

It has been exactly 1 year since I returned to EVE Online, in what was my longest round yet, seeing as I’ve played off and on since 2009. I DID take a 3 month break, from the end of November, to the middle of February, but for the remainder of the time, EVE was my main MMORPG.

When I returned, I had 4b ISK to my name which I promptly reduced to 2b because I wanted to replace a Tengu that I lost. I also lost 600m worth of datacore to Safety, which was a valuable learning experience that I did not repeat (that year, at least). Over the months, I spent ISK on a LOT. I purchased 6 months of game time with RL money, but purchased the rest of my game time with ISK. I bought a lot of ships, and a lot of random things I needed. I sold off a bunch of stuff thinking I would no longer need it only to learn that I do indeed need it.

Through all of those months, whether I played or not, I kept track of the ISK I made. I’ve been waiting to see what the year long total would be and I finally have that number (note: I do also have blurbs for each month on what I spent that ISK on, but I’m keeping that out of the screenshot for intel reasons):

34,892,012,261

That’s overall ISK earned for the year after taking into account everything I’ve spent and what I started at.

What am I going to do with all of that ISK? I’m actually not sure. I’m feeling the urge to set up in a wormhole again, and I might decide to do that with a POS rather than my Orca (or rather, a POS AND my Orca) or I might just decide to fling ISK into the sky and purchase an athanor (under the assumption that the ISK is already lost). In any case, it has been fun tracking the spending habits of my EVE Online characters, and I don’t imagine I’ll be stopping any time soon. Despite the fact that I know Warcraft has player housing just around the corner, and I *am* still playing Wurm Online, too, EVE happens to scratch a gaming itch that other games can’t reach.

As always, fly your way! o7