On to the next

I finished up at my current job today.  Kinda sucks leaving as I liked the work, and the people.  Just had an opportunity I had to take.  So thus ends this chapter.  It's a new kind of job for me so I am a little nervous.  Hopefully I can make it in the faster paced world.

On the game front, still waiting for Chapter X to get closer before I get back into SWTOR.  I should be doing alts, but I just haven't been in the mood.  Think it is the holiday's.  Although, I have been playing ESO almost daily.  Just so much I have never done in that game, plus world PvP.  The new DLC drops in a month of so too.  I still haven't done much with the first two.

Hope you all are doing well.

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Status Update

Good news on the Werit front.  I've acquired a new job and start soon.  It's a step up from where I am now, but more risky.  I'm very excited though.  I'm a very self-motivated person, and this new job will give me plenty of opportunity to do things.  Of course, it may mean less blogging and gaming.  Such is life.

I'm mostly playing Elder Scrolls Online right now.  I really enjoy the world and just exploring.  It helps when that exploring leads to profit using the Guild Stores.  I'm in three merchant guilds at the moment.  I recently crossed the 20,000 gold threshhold at level 16.  I also PvP once in a while too, just for fun.  I'm still advancing, but slowly.  The ESO game world is huge, especially when you spot to pick up everything.

We are less than a month out from Chapter X of SWTOR.  That'll be cool.  Some people are still upset about the lack of new group PvE content, but BioWare doesn't seem too moved.  That's fine with me though, group PvE activity ranks last on my favorites list.  Not that I am opposed to it being added to the game.  I figured we would have at least gotten a new solo/tactical/hard mode Flashpoint by 4.1.

Hope you all are doing well!

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Variety is the spice of life

While SWTOR is my primary game, I am mixing things up pretty well lately.  I do a chapter of Fallen Empire every weekend, run a Tactical Flashpoint, and do heroics throughout the week.  That will likely change once I complete the expansion and I start doing alts again.  But it leaves me with a lot of free game time. So I am spreading it around.

I am still working my way through Halo 5.  I tend to do a mission a day on weekdays.  It's really well done,  even if I am a little lost.  I think I finished Halo 4, but I never did the DLC.  So there is a gap in my lore knowledge.  The game has some very epic moment which are not even cutscenes.  That's one thing I love about Halo.  I should be coming up to the end, just in time for Fallout 4!

I've also been playing with the STO Admiralty system.  It has some interesting variety, but there isn't much gameplay.  So I just end up spending about 15 minutes a day in there messing around.  I'd like to start playing for real at some point, but just haven't lately.

Thanks to expansion hype, I have been spending some time in Guild Wars 2 as well.  My Engineer (of course) is still only level 26 I think.  The zone exploration theme really supports short gameplay, so I hope in for short amounts of time.  GW2 does some things really well.  I love how easy it is to sell items on the Trading Post.  

ESO is on the outside looking in right now.  They have a new DLC which looks really cool, but I just don't have time right now.  I want to be playing more of this game.  Someday ESO, someday.

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Justice For All

Not the excellent Metallica album.  Elder Scrolls Online is introducing their Justice system in Update 6, which is currently on the PTS.  This update basically allows players to steal from, and kill, non-important npc's in the world.  This has long been a staple of the single player Elder Scrolls games, but is rare in MMO's.  Beyond pick-pocketing your enemies, not too much has been done with theft even in sandbox games.  Your nefarious actions will not go unpunished though, as npc guards will attempt to stop you if you are seen.

Overall, I'm not so sure how I feel about this system.  It is neat, I'll give them that.  And they are adding a whole new skill line to go with it.  However, I'm not sure what the point is.  Players will be able to sell their ill gotten gains at a fence, but is that it?  Is this really just a way for some to make some extra cash?  Update 6 is just the first part of the Justice system, later updates will introduce player inflicted justice in the form of PvP.

I applaud Zenimax for trying something new in the MMO space,  I just hope there is more to it than earning some extra money which is usually not hard to come by.  For more information, check out:  http://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-gb/news/post/2015/01/26/update-6-guide-the-justice-system

I am actually still subscribed to ESO, and plan on playing again when the update goes live.

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New ESO Solo Content

Elder Scrolls Online went to QuakeCon this year and held a panel about the future of the game.   They even live-streamed it for everyone to see.  Sadly, I had a prior engagement at an ice cream parlor, so I missed it.  As usual, Dulfy was all over it and posted an excellent recap.  There was a ton of information revealed, enough for multiple posts.  

The biggest news, for me, was that they are working on a new solo PvE zone called Wrothgar!  I have been wondering what kind of additions they are going to do for solo players.  Now we know.  There is no information about who it is intended for, but I imagine it'll be an endgame zone.  It looks to be Orc heavy as it includes their ancestral capital Orsinium.   

I have a long way to go before I'll be able to play the new zone.  However, it is nice to know it'll be there waiting for me.  When?  No one knows yet.  All we really know is that Update 3 will be about guilds.  I'm pretty excited none the less.

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ESO Update 3

The ESO team has started to talk about their third update.  The big feature of the last update was a 'new' veteran dungeon, the Crypt of Hearts.  Of course, the first update was the Craglorn group zone along with Trials.  I will be looking at this as I always do, from a solo first player perspective.

Guilds.  Guilds seem to be the focus of this patch.  They are getting the ability to design their own heraldry and wear it as a tabard.  I am a part of the guild, so that is pretty neat.  Guild pride!  The other big guild feature is they can hire traders.  These seem to be NPC's which allow players access to their guild store.  There are 122 locations for your guild to bid on.  It should help the economy a bit.

Dyes.  You can now dye your armor.  New dyes can be unlocked via Achievements.

Veteran Ranks.  I have to admit, I am pretty ignorant when it comes to the veteran rank system.  But it looks like ZeniMax will be revamping it.  One of the main changes will be to make it more solo friendly.  I am pretty happy to hear this, as if I ever reach those ranks I will be doing them solo for the most part. This is just the first stage of their changes to the veteran system.  Technically, this should already be in the game, but I'm grouping it with Update 3.

Overall, it seems like a decent update.  I am still waiting on new solo content to be added to the game.  Maybe that will come in update #4.  We won't have to wait long, as ESO seems to crank out the updates at a good pace.

For the full rundown, check out this post:  http://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/news/post/2014/07/08/the-road-ahead---july-8

 

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ESO Update 2

I'm a little behind with my ESO news.  I know it's not the hot new thing anymore, that title belongs to WildStar.  But I am still quite interested in what goes on with it though.  It feels like Update 2 came pretty quickly after Craglorn's release.  Although, I'm not the best judge of time anymore.  As you get older, it feels like it passes quicker.  The patch notes for this update are pretty hefty.

Crypt of Hearts.  They released a veteran version of this dungeon.  While neat, it is of no interest to me.  I barely have time for solo content much less the group content.  This makes the second update in a row where the focus has been group content.

Lighting.  I won't pretend to understand how they did it, but they made improvements to how windows and lighting from them works.  The screenshots they provided look excellent, so it should provide some improved ambiance.

Weapons and Armor.  You can now pick up weapons and armor throughout the world from racks and other placements.  I'm not quite sure why they did this, as they don't seem very useful.  They are not worth anything, they are low quality, and they don't give you much of anything when you deconstruct them.

Bug Fixes.  There are a huge amount of bug fixes and balance changes included with this patch.

It was a decent patch, especially considering the turnaround time.   I do wonder what they have on tap for Update 3 though.  Hopefully it will include some non-group content.

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ESO vs WildStar

ESO and WildStar are the two new hot games.  I'm currently only playing ESO, but I still pay attention to what is going on with WildStar.  Just this week, WildStar announced their first content patch, The Strain.  Its a good time to compare the kind of updates each game is putting out.

ESO.  Craglorn is already live, and the Crypt of Hearts has been announced.  Both introduce new group content to the game.  Craglorn included a new zone for groups to explore and ESO's first trial (raid).  It also bumped up the veteran rank to 12.  The Crypt of Hearts is introducing a veteran version of an existing dungeon.

WildStar.  The Strain will introduce two new zones.  These zones have solo and group content with no level increase.  They also include new 20 player group content.  PvP considerations were also made when building these zones.

And the winner is...  WildStar!  Unlike ESO, WildStar is introducing content for all types of players.  If I played WildStar, there would be something for me.  Also, the Veteran level creep in ESO is a bit concerning, so I am happy to see WildStar not going there just yet.

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Bite-Sized Gaming

These days, finding the time to game is becoming more and more difficult.  Between work, projects, and family, gaming just gets lost in the mix.  That is unacceptable!  I will find a way to play games regularly again, even if it is not as much as it used to be.

I think the answer lies with how I work on my projects.  I pick one small task to accomplish each day, and no more than that.  I think I need to apply the same philosophy to my game playing. I am going to pick a small task, like doing a quest, and just try and accomplish that.

ESO is still my main game, so I will apply this new plan to it.  I'm just going to try and do one quest, or explore one area per day.  I will still progress at a glacial pace, but it is something.  Speaking of bite-sized gaming, it is also one of the core ideas behind Project Venice, but more on that later :)

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ESO Update

I managed to log into ESO a few times this week, but did not really accomplish anything.  I advanced a couple of quests, but that's about it. I'm just not in any rush to advance, which is odd.  During beta, I really wanted to get to level 10 so I could PvP.  I enjoyed it quite a bit too, but lately I just have not had that motivation.

The Craglorn update is out this week too.  As I've written before, there is nothing for me in there.  It looks really cool though, as the zone is packed with stuff to do.  Hopefully the Trials give something for people to chew on for a while.  I'm pretty sure I'll never step foot in them though.

I also read that the next update will include a new Veteran Dungeon.  The details are pretty sparse, but that is pretty unexciting for me.  Hopefully they throw in something for us solo folks.  I know, I have a ton of content ahead of me still :)

If you want to check out what Craglorn has to offer, Dulfy has a great guide.

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End Game Worries

I am still enjoying my time in ESO despite the lack of time to actually play it lately.  Other commitments have conspired against me.  I'm still only level 8 and not even to my Daggerfall main city yet.  At this rate I'll reach 50 sometime next year, maybe.  Even though the end game is far away, I can't help be worried about what Zenimax has planned.

Craglorn is a rather large content patch coming soon to ESO.  It is all about groups, which is fine.  I am a bit disappointed, as a solo player, that a new zone is being introduced which I can't enjoy at my own pace.  The world building in this game is amazing, so I really feel like I will be missing out. 

We now have precedent for the kind of content Zenimax will make for groups: zones, dungeons, trials.  I really want to see what they will do for solo type players.  Right now, the end game content for us is to do the other alliances quests.  I'm not sure I like the idea of this.  I try to identify with my character and it seems jarring that he'd suddenly be doing stuff with the other alliances.  I'd much rather roll an alt and explore the content that way.

I had the same concerns about solo content additions with SWTOR.  Would BioWare be able to add quality story based content at regular intervals to their non-group players?  I think the answer to this has been no, they can not.  Makeb was a full blown expansion, not regular content.  It's not surprising though, the cost of creating high-quality content is high in terms of voice acting and other production values.  ESO also uses a lot of voice acting, will this limit them in the same way it does in SWTOR?

 

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Skill Point Paralysis

I can be a rather indecisive person.  This applies both in real life and in my MMO gaming.  Luckily my wife is more decisive, so it helps balance things out.  Of course, she can't really help me in game.  That's where ESO's skill point system really causes me trouble.

Skill Points are a limited commodity at my lower level.  The fact I am leveling at a glacial pace does not help either.  So when I do get a skill point, I often stare at my screen for long stretches of time unsure of what to do.  This last skill point caused a particular dilemma.

Do I gain another combat ability or put the skill point into crafting?  Using a new ability would be fun, plus I could start progressing it.  On the other hand, I'm not really having trouble killing stuff at my level.  As a guildmate said, there is plenty of time to put points into crafting too.

But I do love crafting.  I'm getting loot all the time which I end up deconstructing.  The Extraction (Metal Extraction in this case) would allow me to get more out of every Blacksmith item.  Without it, who knows how many improvement items I am not getting.

After a bunch of play sessions with that skill point sitting there, I went with Metal Extraction.  It just made more sense for how I spend my time in the game.  Luckily, I'll be gaining another point soon as I am almost level 8.  Now where to put it...

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ESO Routine

I am a very routine oriented person.  I do things at certain times each day and have a process for just about all of my activities.  Spontaneous is not a word that has ever been used to describe me.  This personality trait crosses into my MMO time as well.  This blog post is a part of my Sunday morning routine.

As I have been playing ESO more, I've noticed I have started to develop a routine.  It goes like this:  I log in, do a quest or two in a certain area of the map, explore the area, farm resource nodes, head back to town and craft.  Depending on my time, I may skip the questing and just farm resource nodes.  I love finding a nice spot that has a lot of spawns.

This makes for a very slow rate of progression.  I may do quests only once or twice a week, the rest of the time is spent exploring and hunting those dangerous resource nodes.  I am currently only level 7 but that's ok as I am having fun.  The world design in ESO is extremely compelling so I don't mind exploring it as much as possible.

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Guild Banks and Cheating

As many of you probably know, I play MMO's mostly solo.  I do like to join a guild, or in ESO's case, multiple guilds.  I do it mostly for chatting, but I will very occasionally group up.  Sometimes I'll also do some crafting, but not very often.  I pretty much avoid using guild banks, or the help of higher level guild members.

Using the guild bank feels like cheating to me.  In the case of House Stalwart, it is packed to the brim with resources and assorted items.  I know they are there for anyone to use, but it just doesn't feel right to me.  I have no problems putting stuff into the bank, but I can't bring myself to take things out.

I feel that I should advance solely on my efforts and not take help from the guild.  That's not to say that I think other people are cheating by using the opportunities available, it's a valid part of the game.  I guess it's just a personal choice that I should be able to do things on my own.

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My ESO Crafting Choices

The Elder Scrolls Online has a pretty robust crafting system.  It's not SWG, but it is also not WoW either.  I think it is somewhere between the two.  In ESO you are not forced to choose which crafting skills you want to take.  The only limit is how many Skill Points you want to spend.

The downside to having access to all crafting and gathering skill lines is that it is just a lot to manage.  I've decided to only concentrate on a few of the options:  Blacksmithing,Woodworking, and Enchanting.  I like to where Heavy Armor, so Blacksmithing is a given.  Plus, I eventually want to use a one handed weapon too.

Woodworking allows me to craft staves, as well shields for when I can swap weapons.  Finally, there is Enchanting which lets you make, wait for it, enchantments!  I just like how you combine the ingredients to make your effect.  I see a lot of these when I am out farming nodes and it's fun to translate them.

Provisioning and Alchemy are pretty neat and useful too.  However, I just can't fit those in to my game time.  Same goes for Light Armor which I just don't see myself wearing.  I do gather a lot of Jute though, not sure why.  I never did take to the experimenting nature of Alchemy in any of the previous ES games.

 

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Mixed Feelings about Craglorn

Recently, Zenimax announced the first content patch for ESO.  It is what they call an adventure zone, named Craglorn.  If you have not seen the video below, it pretty much tells you all about it.  Craglorn is a zone made for 4 person groups, but also includes instanced boss fights and a 12 man trial which is like a raid but timed.

So why the mixed feelings?  Mainly because it is all group content.  I certainly understand the need for it.  There should be group content for the 'end game' players.  It sounds pretty cool if I look at it from that point of view.  The problem is, this content offers nothing for me.  Never mind that I am mostly a solo player, by the time I reach the end game this content will be old and I may not be able to find any takers.

Craglorn also sets precedent for the kind of content Zenimax might release in the future.  If adventure zones are group focused, what kind of content can solo players expect?  It really comes down to adding new quests and story lines.  They could use old areas, ala The Secret World, but it'd be cool to see them in these new zones.  So I will be a little worried until I see what they have planned for us solo types.

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8 Hours

I managed to get a little time in with ESO this week.  Not as much as I would have liked, but something is better than nothing.  I am still on the starter island of Stros M'Kai.  I've clocked in around 8 hours of time there, and I am still not sure I'm ready to leave.

Quest wise, I think I have done them all.  There is still a jumping puzzle (I think) on the North West side of the area.  I hate jumping puzzles, but I wonder if there is a chest waiting at the end of it.  A chest would likely mean some gold and items I could deconstruct and possibly research.

I think it is a testament to the games world that I am in no rush to leave the starting area.  The downside is most people in the guild have outleveled me by quite a bit.  That will make grouping, if I ever do, a bit more difficult.  That's not a big deal though, as I like to play at my own pace anyway.  No screenshot today as ESO is down at the moment.

How is your /played looking?  Are you clocking in a lot of hours but progressing more slowly?

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Guild Store

One of the interesting choices that the ESO team made was to include a Guild Store instead of an Auction House.  Once a guild reaches 50 members, the store unlocks.  You can access it at the same place you find your bank.  I've also heard you can make a public store at controlled keeps in Cyrodiil.

This sparked an interesting discussion on Twitter by guild leader, Belghast.  The question was something like, how do you feel about making money off of fellow guild members?  I was at work and could not really participate, so I figure this is the next best thing.

I'm a little torn on the subject.  I do love making money, especially playing the Auction House.  Buying low, selling high; Cornering a market, it's all a lot of fun for me.  That's not really an option in ESO.  Actually, it is probably still possible, but requires a heck of a lot more work.

When it comes to guilds, my attitude is a bit different.  In real life, I never charge friends and family anything.  My only requirement is that they come get whatever I am giving away.  The same goes for the guild, as I consider them friends.  Although, the guild is pretty big and I don't know many of the people in it.

I was recently considering putting up Blacksmith items for people to deconstruct.  I was thinking of charging 15 gold per item, which covers the cost of the style component. I don't really intend to profit off of the guild, but being close to breaking even would be nice.

So where do you stand on making money off of your guild?

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Crafting and Stros M'Kai

Don't worry, no spoilers here.  I had a bachelor weekend, so I was able to get a decent amount of ESO in.  I was still on the Daggerfall Covenant starter island of Stros M'Kai, so I figured it was time to finish it up.  I believe I did all of the quests, but it is hard to be sure in ESO.

Overall, I thought it was a good experience.  I really enjoyed the environment, desert with some tropic touches.  The story was pretty good too with some memorable quests.  I ended up being level 6 by the time I was ready to head for the mainland.

I continued to get sidetracked by resource nodes.  I made some nice progress with enchanting, adding Disease damage to my frost staff.  I also worked on Blacksmithing.  Thanks to some helpful advice, I traded some Iron Daggers with a guildmate and deconstructed them.  I also deconstructed some of the loot I found, getting myself a good ways into level 3.

I spent a skill point to get Keen Eye: Ore.  I am tempted to do this for other resource gathering, as I do love me some nodes.  Speaking of which, I got an achievement, Node Harvester III, for using 100 nodes.  I am torn though,  crafting does not seem to be the best way to go about leveling when compared to deconstructing items gotten from combat.  That makes me question the value of large scale harvesting.

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Guilds and Crafting

Finally, I can blog again.  This has been a bit of a busy week in the Werit household which has prevented me from blogging and actually playing anything.  Luckily, that is about to change.  I have free time ahead of me which will be spent developing and playing ESO.

I managed to join up with my guildmates from WAR, Silent Reign.  Sadly, they chose the Ebonheart Pact as their alliance.  Foolish decision, as the Daggerfall Covenant will reign supreme.  It's still neat I can be in chat with them though. The guild system does seem ripe for cross-realm abuse in PvP though.  I know people can just talk out of game, but this just makes the barrier even lower.

I was moving along nicely on my Imperial Templar, but then I started to find resource nodes.  That led to me finding a nice route to collect them and me camping said route.  I gathered about 160 Iron Ore before I finally made my way to a city so I could craft.

I don't know if I am doing crafting wrong, but it seems incredibly slow to level.  My Blacksmith bar moves ever so slightly when I make something and then subsequently break it back down.  It's also not cheap, as I have to by Nickle for each item I want to craft.  Is there a trick to raising your crafting skill level?

The first items I crafted was Iron armor for my Templar.  I do like having a matching set.  The style system is pretty neat in this regard.  Add in the ability to convert almost any item to the Imperial style and you end up looking decent and not like a clown.

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