Jacxperience

Who is here?

2012-02-12T13:48:00.000+01:00

I begin to understand why it is so hard to reward someone for winning a warzone. If there is a complex problem of actually know who is playing I can fully understand that the reward system is lacking. Who is actually playing this game of Huttball?

Flying saucer

2012-02-10T15:25:00.000+01:00

Now where did that flying saucer go? I bet it was here just before everything went dark...

Me, myself, and the crew

2012-02-01T00:03:00.000+01:00

Here is my crew, with myself in the middle - they all helped me through the three chapters of the smuggler story.

Five Zero!

2012-01-25T00:06:00.001+01:00

This must be a server first!

For a smugger, and gunslinger, and human, and male... and named Jacx, right?

Shhh

2012-01-19T00:55:00.000+01:00

It is small, not so cosy, cold, and there is nothing to do. But it IS a secret story area that was never supposed to be discovered! :-O

...or it's just a bug...

One bottle o'pop

2012-01-17T00:10:00.000+01:00

There are some strange people on these planets... But they sure know how to produce a bottle of beer. *hic*

Legacy

2012-01-17T00:08:00.000+01:00

I eventually went with Vilmos as my legacy name. I took the name from the main character in the book The War of the Flowers by Tad Williams. It is by the way a book I can recommend for you to read too. What did you choose and why?

Score!

2012-01-11T22:20:00.000+01:00

I think I have finally managed to learn a trick or two in Huttball!

Bugs

2012-01-06T12:03:00.000+01:00

SWTOR contains, of course, a LOT of bugs. Here are two recent ones that I managed to catch as screenshots. The first illustrates lightning from a "window" that do not exist, i.e. it should be all "dark". The second one is a loot bug I think I have seen in almost all MMO:s I have ever played - you are graphically in range, but the server thinks otherwise...

Voice behind the mask

2012-01-02T20:34:00.003+01:00

So I have had a thing with hats here, and the other day I discovered a very neat feature!

I got the headpiece you see in the picture, something with a mask. That in itself is not to special, but to my surprise the voice of my character was changed in the coming dialogues (!). There is a filter added to the voice so it actually sounds like he is talking from within a mask.

I'm not sure if this is the common thing to do, but a really nice, and for me, unexpected design feature. And as opposed to "Who are you?" this absolutely adds to the gaming experience!

Misplaced NPC

2012-01-02T18:43:00.001+01:00

What you see here his is a NPC handing out missions. A guy you expect many people have interacted with during the development of the game, in beta, and so on. So why the **** is he placed on the edge of the building? I do expect a LOT of things that needs to be polished in a game like SWTOR, but aren't these things a little bit to obvious to miss?

Loading screen tips

2012-01-01T15:34:00.000+01:00

I am not sure if it was a coincidence or by design, but I never got this tip below before I was level 25. Whatever the case, I find that mechanism something to strive for. Selecting tips relevant for the current character or even better for the current account.

So now when I have a speeder, I really do not need this tip any more...

Post make-up

2011-12-30T18:46:00.000+01:00

After trying the fancy make-up mirror on my previous hat, I have been forced to select another design for an unknown amount of time.

Who are you?

2011-12-30T10:20:00.000+01:00

A nice little feature is the possibility to modify the look of your companions. Unfortunately the modification does not strike through in all parts of the game. A minor detail perhaps, but it when it fails it makes me feel a bit more detached from the gaming experience. The mission image to the left is the standard version of Corso Riggs, and the other the modified one.

Speeder

2011-12-26T00:26:00.000+01:00

Gaining the ship was the first break-point, and at level 25 there is another one: a speeder! It's a slow speeder, but still a speeder.

Unbeatable

2011-12-26T00:17:00.000+01:00

If someone were in doubt ;)

Giving laziness a face

2011-12-25T16:00:00.001+01:00

This sure is one lazy mission giver. The green guy asks me to find a few items in the area, and one of them is almost within arm's reach in front of him!

World Boss - Subject Alpha

2011-12-24T23:22:00.000+01:00

Here you see me and 23 other players joining forces to kill the world boss Subject Alpha in Taris. I had no idea what to expect, but got instructed to avoid some AoE clouds. I have tried that mechanism before... so once we got started it was an easy kill. And my first world boss in SWTOR :)

Preparing

Killing

Looting

Smuggler action

2011-12-23T19:32:00.001+01:00

The smugger do have some nice sets of skills that can be practices in different situations. This seems to be an example of Charm, Smuggler’s Luck, Cool Head, Headshot and Dirty Kick.

After this post I better try my Covered Escape.

SWTOR: New Hat!

2011-12-23T00:14:00.000+01:00

I got a new hat! Just compare my old useless one with the new deluxe version - make-up mirror included!

SWTOR: Subscription fail

2011-12-22T15:10:00.000+01:00

History always repeat. Another MMO launch with huge issues when it comes to server access. SWTOR has tried the path of demanding a CC-registration before the included 30-days game-time is over. Now a million people are trying to update their accounts resulting in overload on the checkout-servers.

SWTOR: Android Securtiry Key

2011-12-22T10:37:00.000+01:00

For Android users outside US you can get the Mobile Security Key here:
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.ea.SWTORSK_row

SWTOR: Your wait is over...

2011-12-13T23:33:00.003+01:00

E-mail: "The moment we've all been waiting for is finally here. Early Game Access* has started, and you can now begin your adventure. To start playing, click on the button below and follow the steps outlined on the page. Welcome to your Star Wars™ saga."

Whohoo! I'm in! You can track me down at the server Tomb of Freedon Nadd. If I don't track you down first with Jacx - the Bounty Hunter.

SWTOR release date changed!

2011-10-18T23:09:00.001+02:00

The release date for SWTOR has changed for the European public - and actually moved closer in time! From December 22nd to the 20th!
http://www.swtor.com/news/news-article/20111014-1

SWTOR Launch date

2011-09-25T10:19:00.000+02:00

Finally we have a date! 22nd December for the European public. As usual there will be 30-days game time included in the box, and there after the subscription will be:
1 Month Subscription: €12.99 ($14.99/£8.99)
3 Month Subscription: €35.97 ($41.97/£25.17)
6 Month Subscription: €65.94 ($77.94/£46.14)

http://www.swtor.com/news/news-article/20110924

SWTOR: Smuggler progression video

2011-09-11T11:20:00.000+02:00

GW2: Asura Week

2011-09-08T23:34:00.000+02:00

Now after we have learned all about the Sylvari, it seems to be time to dig deeper into the Asura race. Hare are the plans for ArenaNets Asura Week:

Monday: Asura Character Design
Tuesday: Asura environmental desgn and advice column
Wednesday: Writing the Asura
Thursday: Asura animation. screenshots, wallpaper and a video
Friday: A narrative

More details: http://www.arena.net/blog/prepare-your-minds-for-asura-week

Anarchy-Online gfx update

2011-09-04T21:37:00.000+02:00

I saw this piece of news over at Massively.com, and it sure brings back some old memories to read about Anarchy Online - the first MMO I played and was the reason I kept playing them since then. Now with an upcoming graphical update, I am very tempted to login again an check it out - whenever it will be released. But for now, here are the latest screen shots for the new graphics. I have do admit that I'm enjoying the nostalgia more than the actual graphics. But I like it!
Click the links: image1 image2 image3 image4 image5 image6.

Guild Wars 2: PAX 11 Panel

2011-08-28T14:02:00.000+02:00

Here is a recording from Arena Nets Guild Wars 2 panel at PAX11!

Video: Torchlight II Developer Commentary

2011-08-28T10:46:00.001+02:00

Torchlight II is developing fine and just about to be released later this year! I've played the first game, and I'm sure I will check out this follow-up. Now with multilayer options, same system system requirements and with the developers tool for the same low price of $20. Smells success!

WildStar-Online

2011-08-28T03:06:00.000+02:00

WildStar-online is a new name for me, and when accessing their web page I was presented by a really great trailer! So click the link and enjoy.

http://www.wildstar-online.com

SWTOR Video: Eternity Vault Developer Walkthrough

2011-08-26T22:38:00.000+02:00

GW2: Trailer and PvP overview

2011-08-17T10:14:00.001+02:00

A new trailer for Guild Wars 2 was released at Gamescom today. We also got more news of the PvP features.

Trailer: Otherland (!)

2011-08-16T23:57:00.000+02:00

This made me quite excited. For several years I have tried to follow the development of the MMO game Otherland. There was a website with very little information, but the last year (or 2) it has only stated "Under construction". But today Gamigo announced the game and the beta will begin early 2012, and the site is up again!

The MMO is based on the novel by the same name, written by Tad Williams, which is the reason I'm excited about what this game could offer. If you have not read it (them, I think it is 6 volumes) yet you should!

GW2: Sylvari lore

2011-08-12T21:52:00.000+02:00

More about the Sylvari lore by Ree Soesbee. I must say that the release of all Sylvari material this week makes this game look more and more interesting. It is fascinating to read about all thoughts that goes into the design of games of huge games like this - and then we only see a tiny scratch on the surface.

http://www.arena.net/blog/dream-and-nightmare

GW2: The home soil of the Sylvari

2011-08-12T18:51:00.000+02:00

Another video about the Sylvari. This one is showing parts of the Sylvari area. You can also read more about it here http://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/races/sylvari/

GW2: TalkTiara interview about Sylvari

2011-08-11T23:06:00.000+02:00

TalkTyria has managed to get an interview with Ree Soesbee and Kristen Perry, it is mainly about the new Sylvari race.

GW2: Growing the Sylvari

2011-08-10T22:10:00.000+02:00

Here you can hear and see the designers Ree Soesbee and Kristen Perry (who also made a blog post) talk about the design of the Sylvari race.

GW2: Sylvari Soul

2011-08-10T10:04:00.002+02:00

Here are more explanations about the Sylvari background with a few sound clips included: http://www.arena.net/blog/the-sylvari-soul

GW2: Designing the Sylvari

2011-08-08T22:12:00.000+02:00

Arena Net start of their Sylvari week with an inside look at the design and redesign of the Sylvari race visuals.

http://www.arena.net/blog/kristen-perry-on-designing-and-redesigning-the-sylvari

SWTOR: Class video for Jedi Consulars

2011-08-05T21:08:00.000+02:00

http://www.swtor.com/media/trailers/jedi-consular

I don't embed the video because their code is set to auto-play (!)

SWTOR: Comic-con highlights

2011-08-05T20:59:00.000+02:00

http://www.swtor.com/media/trailers/2011-san-diego-comic-con-highlights

GW2: Arena Net is planning a Sylvari Week

2011-08-05T20:33:00.000+02:00

http://www.arena.net/blog/next-week-is-sylvari-week

GW2: More on sound design

2011-08-04T09:20:00.000+02:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiamRvDqk9s&feature=player_embedded

GW2: Behind the scene with the sound team

2011-08-03T12:25:00.000+02:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuOUNFsPyiY&feature=player_embedded

Looks very heroic... on his knees... :)

Diablo III: Real money transactions

2011-08-01T23:10:00.000+02:00

A bit unexpected but I'm curious to see how it will evolve. An interesting business model if nothing else. Read here: http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/714952/Diablo-3-Auction-House-Introduces-Real-Money-Transactions/

SWTOR: Flashpoint 'Esseles'

2011-07-29T22:52:00.000+02:00

http://www.viddler.com/massively/videos/422/

SWTOR: Storming a castle in Alderaan

2011-06-25T14:49:00.000+02:00

SWTOR: Return (Cinematic Trailer)

2011-06-07T22:14:00.002+02:00

Star Wars: The Old Republic E3 2011 Trailer

2011-06-05T22:32:00.000+02:00

SWTOR Video: Trooper progression

2011-05-27T20:33:00.001+02:00

Guild Wars 2: Engineer trailer

2011-05-19T22:14:00.000+02:00

Guild Wars 2: The City of Lion's Arch

2011-05-13T23:17:00.000+02:00

Trailer: SWTOR Sith Inquisitor

2011-05-13T22:45:00.002+02:00

Trailer: SWTOR Sith Warrior Progression

2011-04-29T19:53:00.000+02:00

Trailer: Tera

2011-04-22T23:12:00.000+02:00

I'm not a big fan of the Asian design of the characters, but there are some interesting concepts in the game-play.

Guild Wars 2: The Charr race

2011-04-21T21:24:00.000+02:00

In-game footage :)

Glitch Trailer: This trailer made me smile

2011-04-13T22:02:00.000+02:00

There should be an beta sign up now too.

Global Agenda: Going free to play

2011-04-08T13:23:00.000+02:00

The Secret World - Trailer: Everything is true

2011-04-07T21:30:00.003+02:00

85

2011-01-01T18:05:00.000+01:00

It is time to confess, I am back in WoW again and I must admit that it is a lot better than I first expected. And I probably would not have come back it if was not for my old guild who kept one of my characters in the roster. Logging in and see a bunch of familiar names was just perfect!

Anyhow, I have recently dinged 85, and now it is time to grind items with enough iLvl to let me get a taste of the new heroics!

Global Agenda: Assault 5-star combat rating

2010-12-03T23:34:00.000+01:00

Seems like playing a tank assault is my thing in Global Agenda. According to an achievement my lvl50 Engineer has had 5 stars too, but I didn't notice in time for a screen shot - and now he is down to 4.5 stars. I guess I have to play him again. When this one is at 46... and I have leveled up a Medic too :)

Global Agenda 30% discount

2010-09-19T15:18:00.003+02:00

Another offer to get Global Agenda for a reduced price!

These are the official words:
"Sadly, the APB server shutdown leaves their entire community with nothing to shoot or blow up tonight!

So between today and Friday, September 24, 2010, we are offering refugees from APB and other Shooter/MMOs an opportunity to join Global Agenda's growing community more easily and affordably than ever.

We figure you deserve it. And you'll fit right in since you already know how to aim.

All players that purchase Global Agenda on the game's official webstore prior to September 24, 2010, using the promotion code "LongLiveShooterMMOs" will receive a 30% discount off the game. That's $20.99, £13.12 and €15.75!"

Global Agenda 15% reduced price

2010-08-18T22:07:00.004+02:00

If ANYONE want to have a coupon that gives 15% off the price for Global Agenda at the Global Agenda Store (only), feel free to leave your e-mail below and I will send you the code. Currently the price is already cut by 25%.

There is also a free trial that lets you play up to level 15 or so.

Global Agenda is also free from any subscriptions.

Open beta: Battle of the Immortals

2010-05-05T19:39:00.009+02:00

BOI - Battle of the Immortals has just opened up for open beta. The game will be free to play on release.

Give away - APB Closed Beta invitation

2010-04-23T00:12:00.005+02:00

I have a closed beta invitation to give away as a gift. Anyone interested will receive it! It is for the game APB - All Points Bulletin. Just let me know one way or another and it's all yours!

Putricide 25-Man

2010-03-02T15:16:00.003+01:00

As I fail to post anything here, I decided to at least point to a video (recorded by a guildie) of one of our Putricide kills. Enjoy! :)

Fly excrements: ´ ' ¨ ^ `

2010-01-25T17:24:00.006+01:00

This post is unfortunately a bit limited to the potential Swedish or perhaps Nordic readers here.

As you know there all names/server needs to be unique which at times creates 'issues' for people when for example changing server. Têssÿ can tell you more about that in "A Rose By Any Other Name".

Anyhow, this particular use of "fly excrements" to make ones name unique got me laughing quite hard.

So, to all Swedish people, enjoy Mr Läderlappén!!

Solo: Grand Magus Telestra

2009-12-31T15:41:00.004+01:00

It is that time of the year again, Christmas. And with that we get the world event Feast of Winter Veil. As I have not done these quests on my priest, it was about time to get some of them done this year. To manage the 'Tis the Season achievement you need to get a Red Winter Hat that (mainly) drop from some Northrend dungeon bosses. I was not to tempted to /roll for the hat an endless amount of times, so I decided to try and solo Grand Magus Telestra. As you can understand by this post I did succeed! However, it was so much easier to kill her (one shotted!) than to get through the trash. I died several times before reaching her which actually worried me quite a bit - if I have a hard time on the trash, what will the boss do to me then? Anyhow, it was really fun (although not as fun as soloing old Onyxia), and I am tempted to try some other bosses too with my priest.

Here is my trophy picture - and her hat is MINE!

Fishing habit

2009-12-29T01:20:00.000+01:00

I was once again doing the fishing daily Monsterbelly Appetite. Took a flying mount down to the Frozen Sea south of Northrend. I equiped my fishing pole and then it struck me. Why am I standing here again? At exactly the same spot as I always do? It is not that I have to fly to this particular rock, there are many other rocks where I can stand. And I don't have to stand at almost exactly the same pixel of the rock either! I realised that I was doing the same with all other fishing quests, and probably with a lot of other activities too, and for no game-technical reason, just because "that's what I do".

Some day I might try to put some more thinking into this, as I am not sure what the reason is for doing this. Do I somehow think that spot is better than any other? Do I see that spot as my spot? The later is probably in line with what I would guess. A way of making the game experience a bit more "personal".

Popcorn

2009-12-28T11:02:00.007+01:00

A guildie have made a few recordings from our raids in Icecrown Citadel (25-man). The videos does not cover all the bosses (yet), but here they are, Lord Marrowgar, Lady Deathwhisper and the Gunship Battle.

My Warcraft Year In Review

2009-12-15T10:44:00.002+01:00

Tessy at Reflections from the pond tagged me to complete these questions, and receiving a topic for free is always convenient :) So here we go, My Warcraft Year in Review:

1) What did you do in the World of Warcraft in 2009 that you’d never done before?

I quit! And I actually thought it was for good. After playing the game from the start (and even in beta) it was the first time I cancelled my subscription. It was actually really nice to quit, but I am also happy to be back again!

2) What was your favourite new place that you visited?

This is so hard, why can't I state the places I hate instead! But anyhow, I will pick Ulduar. Icecrown Citadel is of course very exciting for the moment, but what I really liked with the encounters in Ulduar was the more chaotic touch to the fights with many things going on, and where you on many occasions have to move around a lot. I really like that!

3) What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?

Jeeves, MOLL-E, Gnomish X-Ray Specs and access to Brassbolt Mechawrench - of course without the need to level Engineering on my priest! And while I'm at it, why not a set of portals? Please?

4) What was your biggest achievement of the year?

It is perhaps not a big achievement, but I really really enjoyed killing Onyxia on my own with my priest (pre 3.2.2).

5) What was your biggest failure?

I have not finished The Eye of Eternity, and I am not looking forward to try it again either.

6) What did you get really, really, really excited about?

I probably should have deleted a few really here, but what I get excited about are trying new encounters and killing a boss for the first time. Not the first time for me only, but for the whole guild. Also completing hard modes and tricky achievements give that extra thrill.

The possibility to once again being part of a raiding guild focusing on 25-man and beating all the harder content.

7) What do you wish you’d done less of?

Argent Tournament dailies! I have never enjoyed doing dailies (except fishing and cooking that I am still doing happily every day as I've done since they got into the game by some odd reason) or any other grinding, so this is no surprise. Thank you AH for Relic of Ulduar!

8) What was your favorite WoW blog or podcast?

You see the once I always read in my list to the right. For the rest I'm quite random actually (and not all covers WoW). Reading them when I have that extra time.

9) Tell us a valuable WoW lesson you learned in 2009.

It is possible to quit... kind of.

10) Folks I’m tagging to Complete this Meme

My list of people is unfortunately completed by others all ready.

Save the general!?

2009-12-02T18:39:00.015+01:00

"Guardian Spirit cast on General Vezax". This quote made me laugh during our last fight at General Vezax

I got a macro from one of our healers since we make these kinds of announcements in the healer channel, and also send a whisper to the receiver. Well, we apparently do not work with our targets in a similar fashion, so when I hit the tank with Guardian Spirit, the quoted sentence was spammed in the healer channel. Of course some thought I had the wrong target, and I have no idea what happened at their end of the screen, but it made me laugh quite a bit! :)

Anyhow, this small event led to something more constructive too. I use Grid and have all my heals connected to different buttons on the mouse that I click when pointing to the relevant target. This means that I can have my selected target to whatever. The macro I got assumed I had the receiver selected as target, so I made a new one that rely on the mouse-over function instead. I thought it might be helpful for someone else, so here it is:

/script SendChatMessage("Guardian Spirit is active on you!", "WHISPER", nil, UnitName("mouseover"))
/cast [target=mouseover] Guardian Spirit
/script SendChatMessage("Guardian Spirit cast on "..(UnitName("mouseover")),"CHANNEL",nil,"5")

The "5" happens to be my channel number for our healer channel.

Sorry General, but no more aid heading your way!

Notes to self: Trial of the Crusader

2009-11-29T18:53:00.010+01:00

As I just did my first 25-man run in Trial of the Crusader, I thought it would be a good idea to make a list of the most basic things I have to remember as a healer - as I know memory fail at times...

GORMOK THE IMPALER
- Stay away more than 15 yards to avoid Staggering Stomp (8s spellcasting interrupt)
- Stay away from fire bombs and patches on the ground
- If you get at Snobold Vassal on your back, run to the melee.

ACIDMAX AND DREADSCALE
- Don't stand in front of them
- Stay out of Slime Pools
- Look for players with Burning Bile, so you can run to them fast if you get Paralytic Toxin

ICEHOWL
- After being kicked to the wall, see where Icehowl is looking and run the other way

LORD JARAXXUS
- Heal anyone with Incinerate Flesh
- If you get Legion Flame, move, and away from the raid

FACTION CHAMPIONS
- Dispell, dispell, dispell
- Run away if attacked and use fear
- Fade from pets

TWIN VAL'KYR: FJOLA & EYDIS
- You can take either Light or Dark Essence, but I go for the same as the range
- When Light Vortex is cast, make sure to switch to Light Essence (or vice versa)

ANUB'ARAK
- If you get "Pursued by Anub'arak" when Anub'arak is under ground (creating Pursuing Spikes), run to an area with Permafrost.
- Stay really low in healing in phase 3 (as Anub-arak will drain 10% of everybody's current health every second to heal himself)

A staff!

2009-11-26T10:59:00.005+01:00

Finally my little dwarf priest got a two-handed staff again! It has been to long with a one-hander and off-hand, but the other night I was happy to get Rapture. I do not think I have used a staff since I had to give up Benediction, and that was a long time ago! By some reason it just feels right with a staff for the priest. The Rapture looks a bit "druid-ish" though...

Oops, I did it again...

2009-11-20T21:01:00.010+01:00

Oops!
... I joined WoW again.
I'll play with my priest.
Get lost in the game.
Oh, baby; baby.
Oops!
... I thought I was done
That I've seen it enough...
I will raid again.

EVE: Pretty kill mail

2009-11-12T23:17:00.010+01:00

There is a first for everything, and tonight I managed to get a kill mail (by getting the final blow) while also being the top damage dealer!

I'm not to concerned about these things, but I must admit that it is not bad at all to get them!

I should probably also add that it was pure luck as I fired and hoped for the best, as always. The fight itself is not much to talk about either, as he was solo and we... 23...

Open Beta: Alganon

2009-11-12T22:12:00.003+01:00

Just a short post about the Alganon open beta. I have not tried it myself yet, so cannot give you any recommendation if it is worth to try or not. Alganon got 'accused' of being a WOW-clone (just by gamers, so nothing serious) due to the looks, so it will be interesting to see how it compares when it comes to game-play. I personally don't think it is too strange that much of the graphical layout is similar to WoW since it has proved to be a fairly successful...

To join the beta just go here.

[EVE] Buy high, sell low!

2009-11-03T17:09:00.004+01:00

A few weeks back I decided to try out a bit of trading - again. And this time on an alt. When I begun to play back in 2003, one of my aims was to become a trader. At that time I was doing more flying than actually trading. Going from system to system to gather the cheapest items and sell them at some remote place for a higher price.

This time around I'm doing the opposite (like many other traders - unfortunately!). I'm docked at the popular "four four" station Jita and not moving an inch! Perhaps not much fun if you don't have a main to do some more interesting things with, but never the less, it is something special about making money (ISK) with basically no effort at all :)

The "trick" is in a way to buy high and sell low. It sounds of course not very profitable, but what it mean is that you should offer to buy some item just 0.01 ISK more than everyone else. So of someone sells that particular item, you will be the one who buys it. Then you resell the item at 0.01 ISK cheaper than anyone else, so whenever someone buys that item, they will buy if from you. The difference is your profit.

As an example, you want to put a buy order at 554,022.02 ISK and sell at 614,999.99 ISK for the item in the picture below. If you succeed you'll get 60977.97 ISK minus taxes (that vary depending on trained skills).

Since I'm far from alone doing this there is a need to update your orders regularly. On many items you end up doing "market PvP" with traders beating each others orders by 0.01 ISK every five minute.

As you understand it is not about making maximum profit per sale, but rather to buy and sell ALL of the items for a smaller profit per sale. You want to keep your ISK moving all the time and not sit and wait for to long for a sale to happen. This makes also the more traded items more interesting than the items that are traded more seldom. Even if the margin/trade is less.

I have not monitored the success though, but it seems to be working really good so far.

I must say that the market system in EVE is really great! ;)

Aion beta is over

2009-09-14T23:51:00.008+02:00

Another beta is over and this time it is Aion. I managed to get myself into the US only beta at first, but a few days later they released some EU-keys, so I re-rolled again.

I only had time to play a few days, but I must say that the game is pretty good looking. The game play is very similar to WoW and that goes for the quests too. Kill that, bring me this, find that, talk to him, deliver this before yesterday and kill some more.

Unfortunately I never got far enough to experience any PvP. The game is supposed to focus a lot on PvPvE, so it would have been nice to see that in action. Anyhow, Aion is not the next game for me.

(Oh, and I did actually spot someone that looked familiar, and she was a priest too...)

Fallen Earth Beta over

2009-09-02T12:28:00.007+02:00

So the other day the Fallen Earth beta ended and the game will open the live servers on September 15th. Unfortunately I will not be one of the subscribers. I can't say why I shouldn't subscribe as it is an interesting game. But I didn't get that right feeling and it also seemed a bit "old school" perhaps. As an old Anarchy Online player, this game could suite me just fine otherwise. However if you generally enjoy crafting stuff then this is probably the game for you! You can craft anything and have a large number of professions (perhaps even all? I don't know the limits yet as I only managed to get to level 6 or so).

Anyhow, no more Fallen Earth for this lady and her horse, unfortunately.

Open Beta: Aion

2009-08-30T13:04:00.003+02:00

Now it is time for another big MMO title to go into open beta. Everyone will be able to test Aion for a week between September 6th to 13th. The game has been up and running very successfully in Asia for a year and has now been reworked to meet a western audience. The game-client is about 9.3GB and can be downloaded from here already now. Currently the FilePlanet version is completely corrupt, so don't try that one until you know it is fixed.

I tend not to enjoy the setting, style and particularly the game play in Asian MMOs, but still looking forward to experience a week with this one.

BlizzCon, SWOTR, Fallen Earth

2009-08-25T18:22:00.005+02:00

There is at least one benefit of being ill, and that is that you get the chance to recap on what is going on in the gaming world.

Two things have caught my attention, the most obvious is BlizzCon 2009. A guy called Cityhunter0505 on YouTube has a nice collection of clips from the event.

Another small collection of clips that I really enjoy are from the developers walkthrough of the coming (and highly interesting) MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic.

I also noted that Fallen Earth has entered open beta for everyone registered at FilePlanet. Head over and get your copy, the launch will be in 20 days so there should be some time to try it out. I still have an hour to download it, so I can not give you any comments on it just yet.

Solo healing! ...but why?

2009-08-12T19:47:00.002+02:00

On my last raid in Ulduar 10-man I got a chance to try some solo healing. I did the arena at Thorim with ease (probably had at least 75% mana all the time:)) and later Razorscale (used one Hymn of Hope at the landing - not much to do at that time anyhow). It was exciting and fun of course but then after a day I wondered... Why are we doing instances/modes that can be solo-healed? This must be an indication that it is time to move on, or scale up the difficulty quite a bit.

On a side note, when I solo healed I seemed to keep a higher mana-pool than otherwise?

EVE-online

2009-07-30T00:34:00.005+02:00

I have been longing for something more challenging and complex again for some time, and decided to once again put life into Jacx - my EVE-Online character. Perhaps I'll put down a post or two about that game too. Until then, have a look at this newly released video if you haven't seen the game before.

(No, I'm not leaving WoW:))

Patch 3.2: Mana regeneration

2009-07-10T12:50:00.003+02:00

In the upcoming patch 3.2 it seems like we will receive another mana regeneration nerf. Replenishment will be reduced by about 20% which probably is the biggest change. When I read about this I tried to look for things that compensate for the nerf.

A potentially good one (from a Holy Priest point of view) is the change of Innervate. Druids Innervate will only give half the mana, but the cooldown will also be reduced in half (down to three minutes from six). I think this is a great idea, since utilizing the spell correctly both the druid himself and a holy priest in need (me me me!) can get an extra mana boost over a full boss fight. Using half the mana on two players is probably more efficient that having it all going to one.

Another change is that all Mp5-gear will get a approximately 25% boost. As a Holy Prist I have not strived for Mp5-gear that much, but perhaps it is time to reconsider. In any case, I have some Mp5-gear so the boost is of cause welcomed.

Finally if you are an engineer you will gain 25% more from the Mana Potion Injectors.

As always I am looking forward to this nerf, as the challenge for a healer is to keep everyone alive and maintain some mana, this will just keep our work interesting ;) And it is still more of an exception that we run completely out of mana.

Surprise achievement!

2009-07-08T17:20:00.007+02:00

Yesterday I was doing a normal Naxx-raid consisting several alts and three Naxx-virgins. We did really good (except me who ran around clueless with my fury-warrior. He has been a tank since the invention of the shield so I use that as an excuse ;)), but what really surprised me though was when Heigan the Unclean hit the floor and The Safety Dance achievement flashed on the screen!

This is an achievement I do not even have on my main who has been there many many times with raids consisting of more Naxx-experienced players. Nicely done everyone, and especially the new ones!

WoW to complex?

2009-07-04T17:50:00.002+02:00

I just read the post Breakfast Topic: Is WoW too complex? over at WoW.com and as the original post state, that is quite the opposite from what you normally ask yourself. Initially I thought I had missed something, but after reading the post I don't think I have. I mean... pets going to a specific tab, money, badges etc going to another, that is hardly about complexity. That is just good/bad design, things that potentially can be hard to find. The complexity of the game is about what casual players never have to attend to. The mechanism of different stats and abilities. The original poster mention resilience as one example, and I agree that the mechanism for understanding that is complex. But is the overall experience of WoW a complex one? Hardly. I remember when playing Anarchy-Online (my first MMO). There you had to consider probably 60+ different stats and skills whenever you dinged, along with a tricky procedure of using implant swapping back and forth in order to change your stats so you could equip that new gear. The experience was a complex one, and that is probably what counts here. Now, just because another game is more complex than WoW is not an argument that Wow is not complex. However, I find WoW extremely forgiving both for the casual and hardcore player.

Mimiron (10-man normal)

2009-06-30T13:20:00.006+02:00

Now I have finally downed Mimiron, one of the keepers in Ulduar. It was at times a really intense, but fun, encounter to heal.

The first phase (Leviathan Mk II) is a walk in the park and what a holy priest needs to attend to, is to put Guardian Spirit on the tank just before Mimiron cast his Plasma Blast. I initially could not spot the warnings for that one, but Big Wigs warns you when the cooldown is off with "Plasma Blast soon!" (or something similar) followed by an emote "Casting Plasma Blast". From the emote you have about 3 seconds until it hits. Apart from that you basically put a heal on anyone being hit by Napalm Shell.

Phase two (VX-001) is the hard one for healers. The raid will continuously take a lot of damage. We put the range in two groups to avoid everyone being hit by Rapid Burst. I learned that casting Prayer of Healing when being hit by Rapid Burst, is not a good idea. All the interruption makes the casting time take to long (my spec do not contain Martyrdom which might help). We also tried to heal on "the other" group to get though our heals more efficiently. Also remember too keep an eye open for Rocket Strikes, if you get hit you're dead (talking from experience). [I need to check why we were standing in groups. I have probably missed something but from reading on Rapid Burst it might be more wise to spread out more?]

In Phase three (Aerial Command Unit) the healing get down to more normal levels. We had three tanks (one for the Aerial Command Unit, one for the adds, and we had one taking the Bomb Bots) to look out for and that worked fine (we had three healers by the way).

Fourth phase is a mix of the previous phases, but without some of the abilities. We had two tanks (and a third acting as assist target for the chest-part) so one healer was put primarily on raid healing. We lost a healer part of this fight which made it extra intense, but also very fun to play.

Player or Character?

2009-06-26T10:44:00.009+02:00

Who do you bring to the raid? Is it the player or the character? What would you say if a character is played by someone not owning the character, and there were other players benched from the raid? How would you react if the switch of player was not communicated, not even to the raid leader? Is it OK for someone else to play the character for lets say one hour into the raid until the right player is available? For me it is obviously the player you bring in 99% of the cases. The only exception I can see is if a specific character is really for the raid to be continued. I would also say that it seems very self centred to "sneak" into a raid like that when there are other players waiting in line.

Sorry for another rant post, but some things really annoys me (and no, I was personally not directly a victim to this).

Leave them behind, I'm running!

2009-06-16T00:51:00.005+02:00

In my last raid I was experiencing something I have not seen in a very very long time when raiding. We were running a 25-man Naxxramas (note, it was not a PUG-run!) and was up against Instructor Razuvious just before our raid time as about to run out. We had a new priest doing the Mind Control of the Death Knight Understudies and as expected we wiped a bit. But that is just fine and not the topic of concern here, you can need a few tries to get that right. But what amazed me during the tries was that on our last attempt I saw one player simply running away from the group back up the ramp after we had one player down early in the pull. Why the [black-tongue-generating-word] does anyone do that? Is it to costly to pay a few extra (virtual!) gold for the repair bill? Even if a try is not the best one, why not try to prolong it a bit at least to help the raid learn what needs to be learned? At least until the raid leader say something else. I have raided for a stupid amount of time, and I have hardly ever seen something that looks so selfish.

Onyxia soloed!

2009-06-12T20:07:00.008+02:00

Ok, I'm not the first one to solo Onyxia, but I tried and made it with my priest in shadow! It took me a few tries, but what a nice feeling when she were lying dead in front of my feet. I expected to get 119 gold, but only managed to loot 57g 15s 27c (the gold was grey so perhaps it was because I kicked the member who I used to create a raid in order to get into the instance in the first place).

Anyhow, gold is not what I need and I killed her for my personal achievement and this is more or less how I did it:

My secondary spec is shadow, but I changed it a bit to get Improved Vampiric Embrace istead of Shadow Reach. I used self-buffs, food, and a flask.

I initiated the fight with a Power Word: Shield on myself, a Mind Blast, Vampiric Embrace, and Devouring Plague on Onyxia before I turned her around having my back against the far wall.

Then I put a Vampiric Touch on her followed by another Mindblast to get the Replenishment ticking. After that I channeled Mind Flay and then it was time for Shadow Word: Pain.

What needs to be done for the rest of the fight when Onyxia is on the ground, is to keep everything running on her all the time. Vampiric Embrace, Replenishment, Devouring Plague, Shadow Word: Pain, and then spam Mind Flay. It is also fairly important to renew your Inner Fire all the time. There is no need to Power Word: Shield yourself if you don't get a bit low on HP.

In the second phase, when she takes of into the air and you get whelps, I made sure to refresh all the dots and replenishments before killing the adds. Shielded myself and channeled Mind Sear until there were only one left that I just nuked down.

I got Onyxia to land again after the second wave of whelps and then it was back to the same rotation as I mentioned above. You take a bit more damage here it seems since Onyxia cast Bellowing Roar so you can not heal yourself as much as in the first phase. This can be a good occasion to use Dispersion to regain a bit of mana so replenishment becomes less of an issue.

If you decide to try it out, I wish you the best of luck! It was a bit of a challenge, but a really fun thing to do!

The effect of taking damage

2009-06-04T14:55:00.006+02:00

The first arena-phase at Thorim in Ulduar is one of few encounters where healers actually take healing aggro. Each new wave of mobs begins with zero threat to the raid.

Now, not only healers have to mind their actions when a new wave of mobs is coming. It is probably more important for the DPS to do the same. What happens if DPS take aggro, is that they also take damage. If they take damage the healers need to heal them, which in return generates threat, making it more likely for the healer to take aggro from the mobs.

The DPS might not think that the damage is so bad, and it can most often be easily healed. But the effect of DPS taking aggro results in putting the healer in a more vulnerable position.

About the Thorim fight in general, the DPS also needs to be aware that the tanks abilities will be on cooldown. As a priest I try to use e.g. Power Word: Shield quite frequently as it generates a low amount of threat compared to normal healing spells, and thus gives the tank a better chance to gain initial aggro (or rather, lowers the risk of myself getting aggro). Just a last note, that If you don't run with replenishment etc, Power Word: Shiled might be a bit high on the mana cost.

Out of mana!

2009-06-03T10:15:00.003+02:00

The mana nerf we got a few patches ago has indeed made mana management something to keep in mind. It has not been a major issue but at least there are reasons to scan the mana bar. There is however one exception that I experienced the other day.

We were, once again, taking down the 10-man version of Emalon the Storm Watcher in Vault of Archavon. I was healing the add-tank and things started of with quite heavy healing already in the pull. That seems to be the normal case before the tanks are in position etc. Things were going smoothly and I kept rolling out my greater heals and renews. The mana was going down so I took a mana pot, used my Shadowfiend, Inner Focus and trinket. Normally this would be more than enough. However it was not, and I got completely dry towards the very last part of the fight. I did announce on Ventrilo that I was running low, and I could see the add-tank desperately looking for panic buttons that was not on cooldown (I can't help myself from smiling a bit when thinking of the poor tank:)). Well the boss went down in time and we got our loot.

Now, we did run without Replenishment in the raid, there were no Innervate nor Mana-tide available, and channeling Hymn of Hope is not on the agenda. Blizzard have announced that they basically expect every raid to contain replenishment, and I think this is where it shows. And I think I can safely claim that it was not a major skill or gear problem (our item-level average exceeds 213 which corresponds to Naxx25), although I think I had to fall back on using Flash Heal more than what should be needed. My overhealing was just below 36000 HP, so for the mana I had there were not much more to to play with.

1, 5, 10, 25-man?

2009-04-09T15:31:00.004+02:00

In my guild you can observe a small discussion about our raiding in Ulduar. Should we go 10-man or 25-man as the main option? This, but particularly a blue post one member re-posted on our guild forum (thanks Kai!) made me write this.

Personally I am all for 25-man raids. And I am happy to read the blue post, and their argumentation:

"I can even see the argument that 10 and 25 need to offer the same item level of gear. As I said, we haven't figured out a way to do it that won't kill 25-player guilds. Someone brought up the example of how 5-player or even solo versions that offered the same gear would trump everything else, and I think that logic is sensible. While the larger groups might be a preference, we think we still need some incentive to manage those larger groups or they will die -- not because players don't like them, but because efficiency is very important in games like this and efficiency can even trump fun. In this case we don't want it to."

This perspective on game design probably hold true even for many long-term guilds. The most fun aspects of the game are not automatically selected by the player, as one might think. It has to be designed. As stated above, if there were possibilities to get the same level of loot with a lower amount of people, the option for larger parties would probably be abandoned for the most part. Now, does this mean that people who say they enjoy the larger raids are only doing them since they are rewarded by better loot? Well, most likely not (I've heard that argument and I must say it is a really narrow sighted one). So what is the reason why people would not choose the option that they enjoy the most, i.e. larger raids, if the same reward could be gained by a smaller group or even individually? I'm sorry to say that I don't have a answer to that. But I am pretty convinced it is due to the interactional aspects of playing a game like this. Getting a 25-man raid going takes more effort than a 10-man. A 10-man more than a 5-man. In the ends I am sure most of us would take the shorter route, not because it is more fun, but because it is more convenient. You login whenever, you get your loot whenever. Fast, easy, and ready at hand. Question yourself why you do your questing all alone 95% of the time. Is it because it is more fun to do them by yourself than with a few friends? Right, I guessed not (of course it can be relaxing at times too).

To make an attempt to conclude this section, I would say that by providing a higher item level on larger raids, Blizzard make sure guilds will structure themselves to gain the loot AND doing it in a way that will be more fun than a 10, 5, or solo way of gaining the same.

As a final remark many state they play the game for the lore more than the loot (personally I play for the enjoyment of killing new content in an way that I enjoy the most, large raids (if possible)). The question is still, how do you want to experience the lore? With a larger number of guild mates, or with a few selected ones or even by yourself?

Mana nerf hope for holy loot?

2009-04-07T11:35:00.005+02:00

I assume many raiding guilds are aware that cloth healers are on the short end of the stick when it comes to receiving healing loot. They will never roll on an item with +hit on it, that's dedicated for DPS of course. However DPS will roll on every other caster gear too, making the competition rather high. Currently I think holy priests are the ones who are lacking the most love. Some give mp5 loot to healers first, but that is currently not the stat you go for as a holy priest. However, lately I've gained some hope that mp5 will be a more crucial stat after the 3.1 patch. I am looking forward to see how the mana-regen-nerf will affect us in practice. Depending on the result, the mp5-gear might be the thing to go for and making holy priests get a bit of priority on loot.

I remember in the old days we often tried to gear up tanks and healers first, as they most often are the most crucial classes. An interesting mechanism is that once you reach a "good enough" gear level as a healer, you don't really need to bother to maximize the gear. It will hardly effect the raid at all. So one way to go when it comes to loot distribution could be to give healers priority early on when going for harder content, and then have DPS move up as the raid makes progress. I can't say I would like to manage such a system, but perhaps it is manageable to some extent?

I would be interesting to hear how others are dealing with this issue, if at all.

"My moment" (abolish disease?)

2009-03-26T18:11:00.005+01:00

The topic of figuring out "my moment" seems to be the current plague, so I'll keep spreading the disease. One of my favourite blogger Tessy was referring to a post at The Egotistical Priest, and now WoW Insider are doing the same. The original question was "Have any of you experienced your own “moment”? A time when the game changed dramatically for you, and you started to view it differently?".

This was trickier to answer than I initially thought. However, my conclusion is that my moment probably was even before I started to play WoW. I can't say I took it "serious" from the first levels, but I had an idea of what an MMO was about. In Anarchy-Online I had tasted the thrill of raiding and being officer and guild master. Later in Eve-Online I was CEO of a nice group of about 50 players - at that time it was more about organisation and diplomacy than raiding as we see in WoW. So my moment was probably when I realised I enjoyed playing MMOs more than any other kind of game.

One thing though, that caught me already in beta-wow, was that everything was running so "smooth". You didn't get stuck when running around and jumping actually felt like jumping. I've tried many MMO:s during the years and still none of them have the same smooth feeling when running around with your character. I would actually argue that this is one of the success factors of the game.

In the raid rules

2009-03-21T19:47:00.006+01:00

Ulduar is coming up with a new set of raid-bosses. I guess many are overlooking their current raid status and organisation, especially since the word is that it will be harder (well, that is not mission impossible to achieve). I was asked the other day to have a look at some ideas for an updated set of raid rules (we also have a discussion out similar aspects on our forums). The ideas were all good of course, the basic things with being in time, repaired, enchanted, flasked and so on. However, when reading through the text I begun reflecting over things that are not seen in our raid rules and rarely talked about at all. The things that makes a raid flow, efficient, fast creating an overall enjoyable experience (there is nothing that drags the focus down more than a slow raid). I'm thinking of things like:

- if you have a pet that needs buffs, spawn it asap
- don't ask to enchant your new gear in the middle of things
- MD-pulls are in the game for a reason, use them!
- Raid leader, master looter, DKP-checker can be 3 different people
- If you don't need the loot, move on to the next pack
- Rearrange the raid groups e.g. depending on where people should be positioned etc
- Use the custom chat channels (don't only create them) to communicate in the background

Well you get the idea, things that actually makes a difference when the raid is running. Having an efficient, fast, and well played raid creates an enjoyable experience. I am aware that if you are in a serious raiding guild these issues are probably not existing, but I think they matter even if you are raiding very casually.

AoE noob!

2009-03-13T15:31:00.006+01:00

The other day I made one of the more noobish act I've ever made. I was AoE-xp-grinding with my mage in Dragonblight when a guildie who was questing in the area suddenly appears next to me. He apparently had to kill 14 mobs of the kind I was killing, so I offered to clear a camp with 14:ish mob for him. "That is what I do all the time here" I said, feeling like I could have done the motion capture for /flex. So off we go to a full camp. I get on my horse, gather all the mobs, they freeze nicely and then... nothing... nothing... nothing. First I thought I had pressed "r" or something by mistake and was about to deliver a informative "1113333333333333" reply to someone. So out of desperation I begun hitting escape and what not. Well, nothing helped and in a few seconds me and what used to be my friend were lying dead. "Oops", I said. Feeling embarrassed by the least. I looked at my action bars and then I noticed. My spell for Blizzard and Ice Lance had switched place! I tried to explain but I don't think that was a great success. So when we were back in our bodies again I took him to the next camp (I think he was staying a bit to the side for a bit) and showed how it should be done with the hope of being erased from his Black Book Of Noobs. Luckily (I don't dare to use anything remotely close to "skill") it was a success. So as a tribute to this embarrassing and rather hilarious event, I made this small video as an example of AoE-grinding.

Thanks Pol! ;)

Living your role

2009-03-09T12:48:00.004+01:00

The other day I listened to a pod cast by Veneretio at tankingtips.com. I really liked the dedication he show when it comes to being the Main Tank of his guild. He states that with the upcoming possibilities to dual spec, he will not have one spec for tanking and one for DPS. He will have two for tanking - since tanking is what he does. I can see all the arguments that for the good of the raid he should have one DPS spec and so on. But I still believe that he is on the right track here. Back in the days when I was raiding on a higher level and was acting MT I consciously never took any DPS gear until it was more or less forced upon me. I didn't want to DPS, I wanted to tank. And by not grabbing that DPS gear this was made perfectly clear to anyone. And as Veneretio say, people saw that I wanted to tank and thus gained confidence in that they wanted me to do exactly that too.

Even though I currently raid very casually I have been thinking of doing something similar with my Priest, i.e. having two healing specs, one holy and one discipline. This is not as "extreme" as having two protection specs since the difference is larger, but my guess is that many Priests will have one of their specs in shadow.

Veneretios attitude is inspiring, that if you know what you want, then you go that path and try to maximize all possibilities there are to be able to do it as good as possible.

Listen to the pod cast here.