Gaming – Page 227 – A Pixel Nomad

Jurassic World Evolution

I’m pretty sure I had heard of Jurassic World Evolution before, but with so many games releasing daily, not to mention that it’s E3 and there are new videos / presentations / other happenings going on, it seemed to have slipped my mind. A friend graciously gifted it to me yesterday, just in time for release today. Since my little was up at 4am (which of course means I was up) at around 5:30 I was able to download the game and install it, jumping right into the theme park.

I read a few reviews that brought up some legitimate concerns like the fact that you can’t play in sandbox mode until you’re further in the base (tutorial, basically) game, and you need to complete the missions in order to unlock objects to use in your theme park. For a game that was designed by the same folks who created Planet Coaster, you may find it lacking in a lot of areas – but that shouldn’t hamper your enjoyment, it’s one of those “stop comparing it to every other game” moments.

I started out learning about bioengineering dinosaurs, and then decided to work on the security of the park. I created Berta, a fairly docile herbivore. Spent some money to add some research into genomes, sent a team out to examine fossils, and then with their discovery created George. Another herbivore. I’m not ready to get into the meat eating (people eating??) ones yet.

I placed some food for them where tourists could easily watch so that my park rating goes up (who wants to go to a park to see dinosaurs if you never get to SEE dinosaurs) and did a practice escape run by letting George out of his pen. A helicopter came and tranquilized the creature then air lifted him back to his (now) secure home. Easy peasy. I imagine things ramp up in difficulty as you progress through the game, but for now it’s fairly straight forward and I’m OK with that.

The game is also just plain beautiful, something I appreciate. I’m sure when things get really hectic (like a meat eating dinosaur is on the loose going after my tourists) I’ll sing a different tune, but for now it’s quite a relaxing and tranquil place to hang out.

There’s not a lot of park customization available (absolutely nothing like planet coaster), but so far that hasn’t really bugged me. Maybe when I’m further along. There’s a lot of research to do, dinosaurs to discover, gnomes to study. There are three paths (which are not really that different at all) of research to progress down and various things to unlock with each. You’re also in charge of 5 islands, each with their own finance and budget to look after. Unfortunately many players are commenting that the game seems to lack ‘stuff’ and you may find it quite repetitive after a bit. I also think the price tag ($62 CAD) way too steep for what the game offers at this time.

With all that said, I’m happy to be creating dinos and content to watch them romp through my park, eating trees and hopefully not tourists. For now, at least.

An Odd Conversation..

Every so often I’ll have a really weird conversation with someone, and yesterday was the day.

I got the tells above, and then the person said that their lag was too bad and so they’d have to write their proposal out to me and send it to my character in the mail. I said alright and said that I hoped their lag cleared up soon, that was the extent of our conversation.

They never did mail me, so I have absolutely no idea what they were going to propose….

Very weird.

Some Days you Make More than Others

This morning I had one of my largest sales yet, and it’s one I’m glad I went for. I found a Teebu’s longsword for sale on the auction house for 70,000 gold. Thanks to Tradeskillmaster I knew that this typically sells for a LOT more – so I made the decision to buy it and flip it. Normally I pass sales that are this expensive, 70k isn’t exactly a lot of money, but I’m still new to the markets and learning my server.

I’m very glad I picked it up, since it sold for 250,000 gold over night – of course now the person who purchased it is attempting to sell it for 500,000 gold, but I’m still really happy with my turnover and my profit. I expected to hang onto it for months, transmog does not move fast – but I was pleasantly surprised. Doing all the calculations I’ve made almost a million gold this month alone – minus the 240k I spent on a token and working my crafts up. Will I be able to keep it up? Probably not, and that’s OK. I’m not making gold because I HAVE to in order to support my account, I’m just doing it for fun and because it gives me goals to work towards. I really enjoy having goals and seeing what I can earn. A meta game, if you will.

Still, it was sure nice to wake up to that gold in the mailbox. I wouldn’t complain at all if it happened a few more times, teehee.

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

Legacy Family 3.0 – Part One

Blesse Petites. That’s the name of my latest legacy challenge founder. She wants to paint, is naturally good, loves being a goofball and started her legacy with zero coin and just an old ancient statue that an uncle left to her in his will.

Her first day was spent at a nearby park, cooking hotdogs and sleeping on the benches. She found a job that pays barely anything and collected a few rocks and some flowers to sell. To who, I have no idea. Random rock collectors I suppose.

She tried to make some friends but it sure didn’t help that she was almost immediately sprayed by a skunk. Instead she spent her time talking with the stray cats and dogs that seem to frequent the area.

She has a large piece of land (64×64) that she hopes to build a home on – eventually. Working a few days gave her enough coin to purchase a bed, toilet, microwave, fridge, and a lonely bar stool. She can at least stop living at the gym and parks even though the neighbours find her sense of style a bit.. disturbing.

It won’t always be this way. At least, that’s what she keeps telling herself.

Using Tradeskillmaster to Snipe

I’ve said a few times that my time in-game is pretty limited, and nothing has really changed there. I often sit in game at the auction house waiting for sales to snipe, only glancing at the screen every so often or when something triggers my sniper. This allows me to play with my son, clean the house, and do chores and whatever else needs to get done while still having a potential of making some coin. What it doesn’t do is automate anything for you or allow you to gain money AFK, so that’s not what this post is about.

Sniper is a feature of tradeskillmaster. It scans items as they are placed for sale, and allows you to see if they are under the market value. Having this information is only half of the equation though you still need to know the market of your server and understand how it can be manipulated. You also need to know what sells and what won’t sell. For example vendor sold items are often placed for auction well below what they seem to be ‘worth’ – that worth is an inflated price from people playing the market though, hoping to catch snipers unaware.

With Legion ramping down and most of us eagerly awaiting for the pre-show to BfA, I haven’t been sniping as much gear as I normally would. People are liquidating their stock hoping to sell before it becomes worthless (aside from appearance items). This is a great time to buy things like craft supplies.

There are some unique instances where sniper has really paid off for me – it doesn’t happen ALL the time, especially on a low population server, but if you’re lucky you can walk away with some amazing deals. Someone who forgets a zero, someone who doesn’t know the worth of an item (especially if none others are for sale), someone who just wants to sell fast and they want to sell fast now. Take the screenshot above as an example. The flame shield currently drops in game, and even shares an appearance with another item – a player put it for sale for 500g and less than 4h later, I re-sold it for 43,000 gold. Not a bad little profit.

Again, sales like that don’t always come along. I (these days) run two accounts, my main one that I use for playing, and my husbands I leave up so I can snipe. There are good days and there are bad, but it’s all a little extra income on top of my main money makers, and pretty hands-free, which I appreciate. Sometimes I strike it ‘big’ (not big compared to real goblins, but big for me) and other days are a bust. It’s all about waiting, and patience. So. Much. Patience.

There is also a short list of items I’m always in the market for if they drop below 50% market value in order to resell. Medallion of the legion, elixir of rapid mind, most craft materials, a handful of pets and mounts. They don’t come up in my sniper searches too frequently, but when they do I’m almost always guaranteed a simple sale, which is nice.

I did some calculations yesterday, and so far for the month of May I’ve earned almost 500,000 gold, and I’ve spent 240,000 gold (I did pick up a token earlier in the month to help pay for a character transfer). That’s not too bad. It’s not a great month but again we’re in a weird lull where it’s a sellers market (liquidating for BfA) and I expect that things will turn around once the expansion gets nearer.

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