Category: Gaming

[EVE Online] Frustrations with Ops

This isn’t a story about covert ops ships, which I adore, but instead it’s about Pandemic Horde and their handling (or lack of) un-anchoring forts and their heavy desire for secrecy to their own members (yeah yeah, spai, I get it). I understand that things need to be kept quiet so that we don’t entice Goons or other NullSec blocks to come after structures that may be un-anchoring, but there were barely any messages sent out that not only was MJ un-anchoring (this has finally completed and MJ BEANSTAR is no more), but that many other forts scattered through PH territory were also un-anchoring. Places where folks do industry, mining, and ratting. On a whim I happened to check the system I spend most of my time in – and yes, the fort there was un-anchoring, too. There was a tiny little brief discord message buried with a single line that we were somehow supposed to infer as to the scale of these changes, and that was it.

Thankfully I got all of my ships out of my ratting / mining systems and hauled them to other structures along with the new home of R-AG. I feel bad for the swaths of people who were unable to get their stuff out in time, who were away, who were wining at EVE, or whatever other situation happened to occur. I feel like there wasn’t a clear -> ‘here’s what’s happening’ message, instead it was “we don’t trust you, we don’t trust anyone in this discord, therefor here is a cryptic message about what’s going on but really no message about what is going on”. Instead of being all secretive we could have flaunted the un-anchoring, and arranged for our people out in force to protect it. Put up some sort of fight instead of what PH has been doing, which feels a lot like rolling over. Yeah, I’m frustrated with the state of Pandemic Horde lately. Looking at the amount of older members who are jumping ship to INIT and other blocks, it doesn’t feel like I’m alone in that thought. Ah well.

Fly your way o7

[Warcraft] Gold Making – Week 44 (2025)

Well, I missed out (again) on getting some posting done, this past week has just been too busy to be able to do all of the things. There were some smaller sales that went on, but nothing too drastic. I’m still selling at a reduced volume, by only posting across my 10 busiest servers instead of the 20 servers I would typically post to. Eventually when things pick up again or I’ve got more free time, I will post all of the places. For now, this feels like a nice compromise.

Recipes were the sales of the week, I have to organize and go through the pets I have listed because I think I’ve forgotten to add them to the mix. Ever since guild banks broke (they display just a cage, and not the specific pet) I’ve shuffled my stock around to the warbank trying to get a nice market flow. It’s important for me to be able to see WHAT pet I’m potentially stocking up on since I use TSM, and Blizzard’s method of just having ‘pet cage’ in the guild bank is fairly useless. It has been broken for some time, so I’m not really expecting anything to change.

Hopefully everyone else is doing well, and the gold is flowing! I’ve seen a few more friends trickle back into retail vs. remix, and with 76 days left to go I imagine a lot of us are just waiting for phase 4.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

[Wurm Online] Halloween – Halloween Everywhere!

Wurm Online (like many other games) has a Halloween event active for this year, so I spent some time yesterday collecting the new treats. You run around to doors (that do not belong to you) and knock – and trick or treat, either a greenish mob will spawn that you have to defeat (this happens for the really nice items) or you’ll get an NPC version who will give you an archaeology bit + a candy. This year the rewards were great, though I did have some issues placing the bat swarm in my house (I think I need a ceiling, and right now my Archives building does not have one).

I had every intention of staying logged in so that I could work on Quail Landing (my partially built very neglected castle deed on the main land of Independence) but instead I got sidetracked with a bunch of other stuff. I did also get the pumpkin lantern that you can attach to a vehicle, and this is probably my favourite item. I immediately attached it to my rare wagon, and now there’s a lit up jack-o-lantern beside me on the seat. Too cute!

I’m glad I got the items, and if you’ve never participated in this event before maybe check it out and see if you like it! Afterward, there’s tons of spooky archaeology bits to collect so you can make some fancy items of Halloweens past.

Happy gaming – no matter where you find yourself!

[Warcraft] Gold Making – Week 43 (2025)

Things have started picking up again now that Remix has been live a while. I figured it would, as is the way with these things. It is a quiet time in gold making. The best time to get into things is right at the beginning of an expansion or major update. Since Legion Remix does not bring much auction house stuff to the market (there are SOME things that matter, like battle pets).

This week most sales came from transmog. A rustmaul sword sold for 600k which was a surprise (these things are plentiful and way over priced) along with Last Year’s Mutton, and a Firekin Amice. Collector’s are out looking for deals.

There were a few recipes tossed in there too, but not as many as usual. The largest seller was a recipe: Feast of the Midnight Masquerade, followed by some Tough scorpid boots.

The biggest change I personally experienced was dropping from selling on 20 active servers to 10. I expect this to be a temporary change, but I found with remix going on some of the servers I sell on were severely under performing, and it was basically a waste of time for me to be posting there. This will more than likely change again once housing is released, and I’ll continue to post on the 20 servers I usually do. For now, it’s taking much less time to post my auctions, and I appreciate that.

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

[EVE Online] Life in NullSec – I Used to Rent

In late 2024 I decided I wanted to try renting a system from Pandemic Horde, so I entered a lotto and eventually my name was drawn. Renting a system as a single player is a LOT of work which is why even though it SEEMS appealing, I would not recommend it to anyone. I know there’s a lot of “renting is EVIL” out there, but that’s not what this post is about.

I had 8 structures in my system. Most were for moon mining, and I reduced the structures down to 5. Each structure needs to be fueled, and you need a surplus of fuel because there’s all sorts of rules about not letting your structures go into maintenance mode which tends to draw the enemies, something you want to avoid.

It was right around the time that mercenary dens were being released, which added another layer of chores to anyone renting because you also had to take care of them – plus there were skyhooks, and all that fun no one asked for. I got to figure out power and workforce and how to add PVE encounters and ore to a system using the resources that particular system had. It was a huge pain in the ass (but also thrilling for anyone who enjoys spreadsheets).

As a renter you’re also required to keep your ADM above a certain level, and while it’s not impossible as a single player, it does require multiboxing and spending a lot of time on it, depending.

My system was set up for industry and mining (both moon and ore) with a little bit of combat tossed in there. I really enjoyed it, but it was just too much for me as a single character (even with 3 accounts) to make proper use of. After only one month, I decided renting simply wasn’t going to be the path I wanted to take, and I returned to my regular scheduled program.

What this did prepare me for is how structures work, anchoring, un-anchoring, the cost, and how an industry process would look. What sorts of industry I enjoyed working with. This all helps me with my other accounts who are living in a wormhole especially since I was contemplating setting up a structure (I’ve since changed my mind, and continue to use the plentiful Wormlife Freeports available). I also made a lot of ISK from it, more than enough to cover the rental and then extra for whatever I needed at the time. When I gave the system up, I wasn’t out any ISK, which is always nice.

I can at least consider it a learning experience. I got to do a bunch of stuff in EVE that I probably wouldn’t have done otherwise. Plus, it was pretty awesome to be the owner of structures and set them all up the way I wanted with the boosts and buffs I planned.

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