Road to 5 Million for the Ultra (Ultra) Casual

Instead of tracking money every single day in World of Warcraft I decided to switch to a weekly system (along with blog post) so I could prevent myself from burning out too much. We’re still above where we need to be at this time – but if money doesn’t start trickling in a little bit faster we won’t make the goal of 5 million in 365.

Now a lot of this is not because of lack of sales (per say) but because I still haven’t gotten back to actually PLAYING the game. I log in and re-set the sales I already have – and while that does work to earn some coin here and there, in order to make the big money I need to be doing a tiny bit more than I have been. Being active is absolutely key to my earning gold in game.

Still, we’re closing in on 1.7 million gold, and that’s also not too shabby. There was a time I had never seen more than 100,000 gold before and I was always asking my husband to help me out if I saw a mount or pet that I wanted. Gold is also still moving in an upwards pattern and that’s really important, we haven’t slipped down too much with broker fees.

I do have a new gaming schedule set up that should help me get more involved in World of Warcraft and help inspire and motivate some money making. The problem is when I get attached to a game (currently Dwarf Fortress) I tend to ignore all other games and play that one until I burn out, and then I wander back to the other games slowly over time. I’m hoping to prevent that by spacing out what I play each day, and dedicating time to each one.

Will it work in rejuvenating my love of gaming? Who knows. I’m also taking a bunch of courses at a local school and of course I’m still a full time mommy to two littles, so it’s not like I have a lot of spare room on my plate – but I’m going to try.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Dwarf Fortress – Fortress II

I started a second fortress with far more knowledge of what I was doing. I used the macro tool to create uniform bedrooms quickly, and stayed ahead of the population (for once). I figured out how to interact with caravans, and pissed off the elves by trying to trade some leather that were inside a wooden bucket (that they chided me for because hey that bucket was ONCE ALIVE). Sorry.

What I failed to do was set up a military, any sort of training, weapons, armor, or army, so when the goblin siege happened we were woefully unprepared. Not only that, but I had left the gates of my fortress wide open (ie: I had zero traps set) and I forgot that I mined away one of the support walls down on a lower level that lead to a flowing river.

Guess who flowed right in, turning the water red with blood.

Goblins. That’s right. Goblins.

BUT we survived! We rebuilt. We had a new mayor and things were looking up.

Until a wereass (yep, a were donkey..) showed up on the map. They wandered right into my base and turned into their typical self which happened to be a night troll. Looking for mates.

They bit a good portion of the population before they were killed, so once the wereass body was handled and things looked like they were calming down again (hah, things never calm down) shit hit the fan in a big way, and dwarves started dying all over the place.

That’s where I decided to abandon the fortress for now. Next time we’ll build up bigger, badder, better – maybe with some sort of military so we can handle stuff. Maybe we’ll lock the doors, this time, too. Maybe we’ll have doors at all (I just had staircases leading to our lush caverns).

Round three will be glorious.

Intrigued by ANNO 1800

I’ve never played anything from the ANNO game series before, but the latest one that is coming out, 1800, looks fascinating. I debated picking up one of the older versions while they’re on sale (ANNO 2070, and ANNO 2205) but so far I haven’t pulled the plug. The reviews on both games are mixed and include issues with gameplay and technical problems. The newest one isn’t due out until April and it has a pretty hefty price tag, so I don’t think it will be a purchase that I make right out the door. $80 CAD is a lot of money for a series I’ve never been invested in. Thoughts?

While I was checking out ANNO 1800 Scopique asked if I had seen Foundation before. Foundation is an early access game developed by polymorph games, and claims to be a medieval city building simulator. A lot of friends have it on their wishlist, but I don’t know anyone who is playing it yet, and I have no idea if it’s any good but the trailer for the game certainly makes it look neat. I think it’s one of those games where I’ll just have to wait and see (ie: wait for a sale, and then we’ll see).

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

Down Goes the Black Drake

We gathered together on the Sklotopolis Liberty server to take down a black drake that had been harassing the villagers for some time. It was a great turn out with a lot of neat items raffled afterward. The blood that dropped created oil of the armour smith, so I brought alts along because my tools didn’t have this particular imbue and I still need to work up plate smithing (sitting at 77 right now, I’d like it at 90 at least).

I didn’t win anything from the raffle, but Ogur got a nice set of carpentry tools. I’ve declined a few drake sets in the past but haven’t had much luck otherwise.

There’s also a rift up on Liberty but players opted not to do it after the hatchling event, probably because most of us teleported to the event location and would need to use karma to get back home and THEN ride out to the rift again afterward.

Overall I had a great time, I always do at these events and I’m thankful the developers (and players) take the time to organize and run them. Maybe in the future my luck will be better.

February Challenge

January is over, and the 31 days of no fast food completed! As I mentioned in previous posts there were days I wanted to dive into a big mac, and others where it didn’t even bother me.

Now it’s on to the challenge for February, which includes no chips, no pop, and no candy – plus whatever naturally transitions over from January. Fast food is no longer automatically off the menu, but I’m hoping by abstaining all of January and breaking that habit I’ll choose to make healthier choices.

The hardest part of the challenge for February is going to be no pop. I typically drink one 350ml can a day, sometimes two. I’m hoping to replace that with tea or water, though I already drink an enormous amount of water daily so I’m not too concerned if it doesn’t get replaced at all.

The rest of the goal for February includes getting out twice a week as a family. The temperatures have been -30 to -50 Celsius lately, so this is not an easy task. It’s also made all the more difficult by our location. This challenge is just as important as the main one and I hope we can accomplish it, but even if we don’t I’m hoping for at least a tiny bit of improvement.

Last month I managed to lose 5lbs from 225 to 220 – the overall year goal is to get below 200lbs. I am not sure how much weight I’ll lose this month on the new goal, but hopefully it continues downwards or at least I don’t gain any more.