A Pixel Nomad

Blizzard Gets Me

This week has been pretty exciting for a number of reasons, but also pretty expensive. Blizzard seems to know exactly what to put out as a pre-order and deluxe edition bonus, and lets face it, I’m a sucker for those items. That means that I picked up the new Diablo 3 deluxe edition for the treasure goblin pet and other goodies, along with the new World of Warcraft deluxe edition for the pet, and the mount, AND I played (and won) three games of Hearthstone in order to get the mount from that event, too.

These are not complaints by any means, I am excited about each of these pets, and I had fun doing the Hearthstone event. I’ve been having a good time playing Diablo 3, it’s perfect for those days I have limited time and just want to make something explode. My Witchdoctor is level 40, the highest I’ve ever gotten. Tying games together with rewards isn’t anything new, but the rewards from Blizzard’s events lately are ones that really appeal to me. Especially since my collection of WoW pets is still growing.

Have you picked up any of the deluxe editions of a game because of the rewards they gave you (Landmark also comes to mind) in other games? Let me know in comments!

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

Beating Diablo III

Unlike a lot of my gamer friends, I’ve never really been interested in the Diablo universe before. Diablo III was my first experience at all with the game, and since the latest big changes, I’ve enjoyed it quite a bit.

Last night my witchdoctor reached level 37, and I defeated Diablo for the first time. Of course once that was done I ramped up the difficulty, and started playing through again. It’s one of those games I can play that doesn’t require me to exert a lot of effort, which I know sounds badly but I honestly mean it in the best way possible.

Since starting my new job with Carbine Studios I don’t have nearly as much free time as I used to have. In my old jobs, back when I did work that involved videogame news, it was a lot of frantic active traffic filled in with luls. There was a lot of time to game, and I could flip between games easily. Now I’m wondering if I don’t want some sort of schedule so I can still play the games I love and enjoy without feeling as though I have neglected some other game. Anyway, back on topic. Diablo III is one of those games I can play for an hour a day and feel as though I have accomplished something wonderful. That’s very important to me with my limited time.

I haven’t tried another class yet because I’m determined to get at least one character to 60. I did pre-order the expansion but I’ll also admit that the biggest reason was because it comes with a pet for World of Warcraft. If there’s one way to get me to buy expansions and digital collector’s editions, that would be the way. I now proudly own a goblin treasure hunter.

Leveling has been incredibly fast with the 50% bonus to experience turned on in preparation for the expansion, as well as bonuses based on how many are in your party, the difficulty of the game (which you set), and any buffs you may encounter along the way. I went from 32 to 37 in the hour I played yesterday. Now, you may think that is far too quick, but since they’re trying to get people in and playing before the expansion, I think it’s understandable. They want you to realistically gear up for the next part. A reason to buy that next expansion.

Are you playing Diablo III? Going to pick up the expansion? Let me know in comments! As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.

Never Too Many Deeds

You can never own too many deeds, or at least that is what my motto has been in Wurm Online. A few weeks ago I put in a bid for a deed that had a wonderful number of slate and marble ore located on deed. I was outbid, twice, and decided instead of getting into a bid-war with the player, I would just let them have it.

Turns out the person bidding against me didn’t actually want the deed at all, they were just bidding me up. So the person selling contacted me and asked me if I was still interested, which I was.

The deed is located on Release, which is just south of my current deed. I spent the first few days moving items and collecting bulk storage bins from all of the houses on-deed, and the next few days trying to secure the place. For some reason the previous owners decided to build on the perimeter of the place, which isn’t secure. Things decay there and I was not in the mood to have to repair such a large deed so frequently. The place is 65 x 41 which makes it my largest deed yet. The monthly cost is a bit over 6 silver, I am keeping a templar to handle the mines.

I created a wagon as well as a few large crates and over this weekend plan on loading up a corbita to take back to Pristine. In the meantime I created a free to play alt who can look after the basic maintenance (horses mostly) and handle the things that don’t require being premium. I’ve also been working up my Vynora and Fo priests. The Vynora is at almost 40 faith, I’m trying to get to 51 which I’m pretty excited about. Plus check out the view in the screenshot, it’s pretty awesome.

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

A Lack of Posts

I’m still here!

I’m still gaming.. though I’ll be honest it’s not much right now.

I just started a new full time job on Monday, and I’m working out getting used to a new schedule which doesn’t leave me with a lot of free time. As soon as it settles, I’ll be back to posting.

Thank you for your understanding!

Most Useful Wurm Online Program Ever? Wurm Assistant

I wrote a blog post some time ago about Wurm Assistant, one of the out-of-game programs I use while playing Wurm Online. The program has undergone some amazing changes since then and I figured it was time to talk about it again. I still use (and test) this program on a daily basis, and I can not recommend it enough to long term Wurm Online players.

As you can tell by the image above, there’s a new format for timers. You can center click that window and have it always be on top of your Wurm window. You can set each character individually, with their own timers and have popups or sounds per timer. It’s amazing. As you can see I’m currently playing three characters in Wurm. Two are priests. They all meditate. I have timers that tell me when their path question is up, when to turn their sleep bonus off (after the 5 minute timer), when enchant grass is ready, as well as refresh.

This just touches on the very basics of the program. I also use the granger ability to keep three herds organized. The UI for that has changed some what, but it’s still an amazing feature. Then there is the sounds feature. You can attach sounds to specific actions. So lets say you’re leading a horse along and suddenly you realize you’re not leading it any more. How about a warning that tells you when you stop leading? You can easily create this by inputting the text from the event window when you stop leading, and attaching a sound to it. I have a few such sound events. One for when a wall breaks while mining, another for when the ground in front of my character is too full of items, or when my inventory is too full of items. Playing 3 characters at once means I am not always watching the event window, sometimes I’m clicking the create button on the new crafting UI as I talk to friends in alliance, only to find out that I’ve wasted the clicks because my inventory is full. These warnings prevent all of that.

A huge thank you to Aldur who created this program and continues to maintain it. Programs like these are essential to games like Wurm (think Evemon, or UI mods) and this one is certainly one of the best.

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