Good, old remake

Spent last night with a browser game. Sadly it's done more to the remake than the original. I mean of course the Battlestar: Galactica game, which runs on Unity engine.

And quite honestly, I was impressed in a way. Even though the game is a pretty shallow space shooter kind of game, it works nicely, the story progresses nicely and you can go against overwhelming odds against the other faction and make a difference from the beginning. Though of course it's better to go the quest way to gain as much power as possible, but that didn't hinder me at all.

Went in the starter ship into a full out PvP combat over a solar system. Helped down at least one opposing faction frigate and another smaller ship before my meager starter ship was blown to smithereens.

While the game works nice and the improvements on the ships and skills really matter, what surprised me the most was the fact that after I got shot down I received another similar ship with all the improvements and stuff in the hold intact! If this is the case later on in the game, this game may have all the elements of a successful browser shooter MMO.

Then again... the characters were clunky, I couldn't take the cylon from the original series even though as human you could get the original series helmet, uniform and viper... Crap...

But it was fun couple of hours I was supposed to be working on the latest Gnomore episode, which was just an interlude of Gnomore having a mind of his own. That being the explorer one...


Laters.
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Weather takes it's toll (yawp)

Weekend was as uneventful as possible only because of the weather. The sun was shining all the time. And because I ran through all the episodes of The Event which is quite promising both in stories as in building the suspense. Then again, the way it portrays the President and his cohorts is very much the typical paranoid US type, which is quite decently confronted by the pacifistic - but brutal when needed - survivors of the vehicle crash. Not to give any spoilers, that is presented as such: my humble opinion is that you watch the show and try to get past the first three - four chaotic and prolonged episodes. The story starts to open way beyond that point and gives new promising ideas the further the story goes.

On the gameside I've been trying to survive in the Blight of the Immortals, a slow moving but extremely rewarding/annoying/frustrating/infuriating browser RTS, in which zombies are trying to conquer a fantasy continent and players are trying to fight the Blight off. In some settings even each other, but as a support player I've stuck with the co-op play. Lovely little game which shows that a good idea with even a decent presentation leads to a great experience.

I have more or less lost the zest over WoW, now even more than ever. After completing my own goals in the game I'm now only playing (and paying) it for Gnomore and The Three Stooges. I tried to run and have fun with my Shadow Priest, but noticed that its not so fun anymore. The only thing that matters - game wise - is the item level of the gear, and even though you might find a green which is better than you are wearing as blue, the item level of the green is so low that it blocks your progress. Stupid thing is that it's enough to have the higher level gear in your backpack to make your scores high enough.

Also the disparity of the normals versus heroic is daunting. Whereas I was easily in the high end of the damage meters, I'm now at the lowest ones even though I generate more points in dps than earlier. Sure, I'm competing with the people in raid level gear in blues and greens, but that is not the point: this disparity causes the group to force kicks even though I might know the encounter, not stand in the bad and keep on delivering, but not being able to break the magic m&s wall of not exceeding tank dps.

Gnomore project also got a hit in my interest as someone linked a forum post in the US general forums where someone stated that they had levelled a NE druid from naught to cap without killing anything nor doing any quests. All I can say is that the only requirement is to have time and will to sit by the computer, as in everything you can do in WoW. And that druid is the easiest one to go pacifist with, taking into the account the possibility to sneak and gather stuff in travel forms.

But I did get Gnomore into a place where he really shouldn't have gone. More of that later this week.

Godspeed!
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Gnomore, Hinterlands Explorer

Gnomore pictorial 29-31

Deeprun tram to Ironforge and a flight to Dun Morogh for a quest. For some reason or another the griffon takes the turn at the right spot and gives me a chance to take another nice shot of a spot that came pretty familiar to Gnomore in the beginning of his career.

The quest was to find a lost pilot: everyone and their cousins - provided you have ever played a gnome or a dwarf, naturally - knows the location of this miserable wreck. Anyhow, it's just a jump from the questgiver and a stroll down the hill. But why is it so that you are always stealing from the dead?

Another nice thing the game teaches you.

My great big idea was to run to an area where the mining and herbalism could be improved. The initial thought was to run to Arathi Highlands to do the gathering, but on my way I noticed that I have an Archeology site in Dun Morogh area. Off we went, Gnomore on the lead, to the familiar spot.

Here I learned an important lesson about Archeology. You see, the last time I was here, digging for fame and fortune, I couldn't get the third excavation done. Those pesky troggs were at too close a level and caused some real trouble, you see. However, this time I got to dug that one spot only.

Lesson learned: if you leave that one excavation undone, you will have to come and finish it, it doesn't "get old" and reset.

Stupid thing.

You may have noticed that I have a slight problem with Gnomore: he tends to run the way he wants to. Especially when there are possibilities to explore, see new sights and - usually because of the former two - die. So it was this time, too, and only because of this view:

Yes. Uldaman. Badlands.

And there we went, even though I wanted to steer the little gnome to Arathi. Granted, that wouldn't have been a bit safer, but at least a bit.

Long story short...

And off to Arathi it was. Where it became clear that Gnomore has a mind of his own. Instead of wanting to explore the are any further, there was this one nice spot and it's repercussions...

Oh, bugger. Machinery and tunnel. You know gnomes, right? One leads to another and then to another and...

Before you know, something completely unexpected happens.

Gnomore, the Hinterlands Explorer Magnifique. Quite a surprise after all that running around Jintha'Alor and picking bottles and feeding griffons and...

Ok. We didn't... no, I didn't expect to end up in here to begin with:

But in the end, Gnomore is again in Ironforge, on his way to Gnomeregan which is still outpaced and most probably he will be unable to return the quest he was given on the way there.

The phasing sucks, big time, just because you cannot pass the story designed. Why can't it just 'restructure' itself if you pass certain level range above the fundamental change?

Gnomore is at lv31, with a bit over 3k gold and he's already an Artisan in Herbalism. Mining is just a few points short of that. After those skills cap, he will be stuck to picking up grey ores and herbs, forcing me to guide him around the world in search of adventure, exploration and pretty sights to see.

Till next time!
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Evil is as evil does

Spinks asked in her blog, "Do you play evil characters in RPG's?" I even responded to this in the comments, but the idea stuck once again. The original idea was to play a character in Sims Medieval as an evil sorceress or warlock and see how the game evolves. However - as one commenter mentioned - if the evil is just skin deep, evil surface of decorations and clothing with no ingame repercussions at all, it's not good or evil, it's just flavour and skin.

You see, I very often start playing a completely rotten and evil character, only to find myself turn into the nice, helping and concerned janitor of all. I just can't cope with the injustice of being evil, nor the suffering an evil character must inflict.

Bullies run the evil in their way: if you can instill the sense of fear to the average person, then you rule by fear and can resort to evil ways. It's the ruler who resorts to unnecessary violence and acts of cruelty who gets to rule that way and really be evil.

But in the end it only takes the one moment of weakness from the evil bully to turn the scales in favor of the weaker party, as we have recently seen in the Northern Africa, where dictatorships have fallen like domino pieces, one by one.

To be able to be evil, you have to be a bully. To make that evil fall and go, the weak and good have to unite.

If we take a sandbox MMO, there usually are not just one bully, but a set of bullies, who carve their power from the weak, "noobs" and not so good players. They seldom - if ever - turn against each other, because if they lost to another player, they would be in the position of their former prey.

It's funny how we make fun about the carebears, who actually are the heroes of the open-PvP worlds: fighting against the injustice and bullies who are causing unnecessary suffering to the players who are not yet geared enough or seasoned enough to stand their ground. Instead of making these brave few a laughing stock, we should in fact remember them as the revered heroes - and heroines - of the day, the ones we would have liked to see in the school yard more often.

The ones we all would like to be: the strong ones fighting against the bullies of the world, making the living just a bit more tolerable on this small planet called Earth.

Evil is as evil does, but is it as good as it gets?

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Stonetalon Gnomore

Gnomore pictorial 27-29

The spot where Gnomore was left in the end of the earlier run was excellent. There was both Tin ore node as well as a node of Wild Steelbloom. A great start for a different kind of run it was, really.

The scenery in the South-Western part of Stonetalon has gone through the biggest change (if we do not take into account the new spots and the green, living forest of the Charred Vale).

However, I had already decided that this time I would make it way deeper into the areas in search of good spot for Gnomore's mining and herbalism. That means also going deeper into the areas in which Gnomore has no reason to be.

So it was through this rabbit hole Gnomore had to crawl...

As it happens, there is not much reason to go back to Stonetalon, except to get that exploration achievement. The ores and herbs are pretty meh and do not provide any progress in any way, be it monetary, skill or levelling.

Desolace, however, is completely different story. The area is a bit over Gnomore's level, and thus is both challenging and rewarding. For some reason those two words - and concepts - should always be connected, and tightly so.

To put the record straight, here is challenge to you.

Satyrs everywhere and quest starting point out there. The Sargeron area is full of nice little challenges in forms of 'go there' and 'collect these'.

And invisible mobs. Have to hate them for sure. Because of them I decided to postpone certain quests in that area, and instead took a trip to the seashore. Map tells it all...

The shore adventure proved that there are interesting quests available, even though while you're flying on a mount doing nothing except admiring the view, you tend to forget the reason to this.

Desolace has become much more interesting, at least from the point of view of a small gnome not into martial endeavors. However, there are certain things that will not change, like the animosity of the centaurs. Now I think they are both hostile towards the player character until you take your side after a killing quest. Only to get to kill one tribe of them.

But I can tell they both loved Gnomore the same way.

You can just guess how nice it was to see the terrain change in the following manner...

Ah, Feralas. That would be the best place to learn more of mining and herbalism. Gnomore is still short few points in mining to get to the Artisan level, but after being chased by a yeti

into the soup bowl of a RARE satyr

and some other rares

Gnomore got to get his Herbalism up to Artisan level.

Snap visit to the Priestess in Dalaran ushered him to Stormwind, changing the continent for the next episode. Which was refreshing, as all the running away from the mobs really started to hurt my fingers (I know, I know, Gnomore doesn't run faster even if I push my finger through the keyboard...).

Conclusion: It's more fun to run in the areas in which Gnomore has no reason to be due to his low level and pacifistic view of life. Then again, he has already over levelled the areas in which he can gain anything in his main skills, mining and herbalism, so it's next to boring to just keep picking the grey herbs just for the experience they provide.

I rather dare the game and go where he's not supposed to be. Like Hinterlands or Western Plaguelands...
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