Stargrace

A New Addicition #Terraria

I was gifted Terraria on steam some time ago, but never really played the game. The one time I logged in I was so completely lost I had no idea what I was doing or what the point was. This weekend, all of that changed. First, I highly suggest people check out the wiki. Like all sandbox games, the wiki is very important to gameplay. I browsed the getting started guide which was a huge help.

What’s the point? Well, you play a little avatar, and you get placed down in the middle of a world. Think minecraft, only 2D. You can explore, craft things, find dungeons, treasure, and at night things get dangerous. There is danger during the day too, but night is far more dangerous, especially during a ‘blood moon’ which is when the bad guys not only spawn in abundance, but can also open doors.

I set up a server for a few friends and I to play on, and play we have. That’s my house in the screenshot above – the smaller house. The gigantic hotel to the left of my place allows NPC to come and stay in our area. You can spawn different NPC for completing objectives in game, like defeating a boss. Each world is guaranteed a few particulars. Each end is ocean, and there’s a dungeon. There are different biomes like forest, desert, and jungle.

Right now Halloween events are going on, and I’ve been collecting goodie bags filled with costumes and rotten eggs. I’ve got a nice collection of costumes so far, a creeper, bride of frankenstein, princess, ghost, and a handful of others. I managed to loot an icy sword as one of my first weapons, and it shot bolts out that I thought were amazing until I got an agile space gun, along with a suit of meteor armor which lets me use the gun without it costing mana.

The game is quirky, fun, and creative, all things that I enjoy an enormous amount. There are so many little unique do-dads and bits and bobs that the gameplay is really whatever you want to make of it. I’ve had a lot of fun collecting trophies for my house, furniture from dungeons, and just digging down as far as I could to see where it lead and what I could find.

Of course because it’s a 2D side scrolling game it won’t be for everyone but I’ve never let that stop me from enjoying something before and if you’re fond of sandboxes, minecraft, wurmonline, or those types of games I would highly suggest you check it out on steam.

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

Extra Life Schedule

It’s almost time! I’m still taking donations for Extra Life, which will go to benefit the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario. I’ll be playing video games for 25 hours (daylight savings!) and streaming these games on my twitch channel. Interested in what games I’ll be playing? This is a very rough outline, games and times can change at any time.

4am-6am – EverQuest 2
6am-8am – Elder Scrolls V
8am-10am – The Sims 3
10am-11am – Terraria
11am-12pm – Wurm Online
12pm-4pm – EverQuest 2
4pm-6pm – Hearthstone
6pm-8pm – Civilization V
8pm-9pm – Triple Town
9pm-10pm – Faerie Solitaire
10pm-11pm – Sim City 5
11pm-12am – Rift
12am-2am – Guild Wars 2
2am-3am – Wizard 101
3am-4am – EverQuest 2

Other games I have lined up but didn’t add to a time slot include BioShock Infinite, Pirate 101, Torchlight II, Tomb Raider, King’s Bounty The Legend, and Neverwinter. I’ll be voicing during part of the stream but not all of it, and while I’ve already met my personal goal it’s such a fantastic cause that I hope I can raise a little bit more!

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Happy Halloween!

Once Again Betraying #EQ2 #EverQuest2

A few days ago I was talking about how I managed to finally complete the ‘new’ quests in the reamped City of Freeport. I mentioned that there is an achievement for completing the quests in both Freeport and Qeynos. Last night I went over to Qeynos to see if the NPCs would talk to me at all seeing as I was from Freeport, but all they did was sneer at me and tell me to go away.

It was time to (once again) betray Freeport and move to a ‘happier’ place.

I’ve betrayed a LOT of characters over the years. My defiler used to be a mystic back when level 90 was the cap. The inquisitor used to be a templar. The dirge used to be a troubador (a few times, I’ve probably betrayed that poor bard about 10 times over the years) and so on. I don’t mind the betrayal quests anymore and I can usually betray from evil to good in about 20 minutes or less.

So I headed off to Gorowyn, became exiled, made my way to Greater Faydark, and before too long was welcomed into the open arms of the Queen. Hopefully those snobby Qeynos citizens will be less likely to brush me off when I go looking for quests this time around.

Thanks to the game mechanic that leaves you with the quality of spells you had last time you were that class, I only had levels 91-95 to replace. A few black star sapphires later, I was back to my regular healing self. I can always go back to defiler later if I want, but I think I’ll stick with the mystic for a bit and see how things go.

The guild also managed to ding level 69 which means we only have ONE more level to go before I can purchase a T3 guild hall. I’m incredibly excited, I have been working towards this for a long time. Earning guild status is not too difficult, and less so when you’ve got an active guild, but when you have a guild that consists of three people it can take some time. I’m looking forward to decorating the new place. I don’t know when we’ll reach level 70, as we’re currently only 13% into level 69, but I’m hoping within the next week or two. We’ll just have to see.

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

It’s Not Always Fair #MMORPG

As we all learn sooner or later, some times, things are just not fair. This carries over into the MMO world too and can sometimes be a harsh lesson.

Take Wurm Online, for example. A player was banned for cheating not too long ago. Typically this is a zero tolerance policy, if you’re banned for good that’s just the way it is. However, this particular player who was banned happens to be popular on YouTube, and brings new players into the game, so after a few months, they allowed the player back. Other players who were banned were not allowed back, and it was decided that the popularity of this one person was worth any backlash from the loyal player base that they may incur.

Fair? No, of course not.

On a lesser degree, there’s extra-life coming up. Some groups who are quite popular with social media are receiving extra attention from the games that they’ll be streaming, where the little guys who are not quite so popular, are left behind. Even though everyone is raising money for the same cause. This happens quite frequently. I’ve been running my blog for over 7 years now but it’s not a “news” site, it’s just me writing about my adventures in whatever game I happen to be playing. As such, I don’t typically qualify for contests and prizes to give away to readers. Maybe once upon a time, but things have changed as more and more news sites have been created.

Am I a little bitter? Yes, I don’t feel that it’s fair. So what can I do about this feeling I have? Well. The best thing to do (again, for me personally) is to move on and ignore it. Know that I’m doing the best that I can, and as always I’m not doing doing this for any special reason, I write because I love writing. Raising money for extra-life has been a trial in patience this year. I’m incredibly grateful to everyone who has donated and supported me, but it has been much more difficult than previous years of fundraising (this is my first year doing this particular charity, but I have raised money for NaNoWriMo in November and other events over the years). I understand that money is tight, but a small part of me wonders if it’s because with the popularity of Kickstarter and humblebundle, we now “expect” that a reward and prize comes with our “donations”.

Anyhow, just some rambling thoughts this morning – back to our regularly scheduled blog posts!