http://www.downtimehours.com/

It isn't much of yet but I am moving this blog over to http://www.downtimehours.com/.  See you there.  :)

RAWR!

The Secret World started with a patch.  I'd remembered Nosy said something about getting a pet. I went to the store and saw that I could claim a Blood Raven.  I was not sure if that was the pet but I claimed it anyway.  It occupied me a bit while the patch downloaded.  A lot of people complain that games are constantly tweaking themselves.  I don't mind.  The complexity levels and the way that players make sure to find new ways to break the games are such that they need to work on improving themselves.  Otherwise, you have the stories I keep hearing from the players of Day-Z that people have hacked the servers and come to screw over others games for the lulz.

Or something.  I should read their user agreement.  A few years ago one game company took control of your immortal soul when you signed the agreement.  You never know what you are getting into.

When I last left the secret world I was trying to work my way through a multi layered side quest.  I've been on it for quite a while as that it involves killing the demon things that run around in the water.  I've spent a lot of time positioning myself and trying to lure the various  creatures away from the rest of the swarm sot hat I can kill them one by one.  Each one is a battle.  Each time I kill as many as the tier tells me to kill it tells me to kill X amount of another type.  I worked on this for a few hours (I'm very slow at killing things) and finally logged off after I died.

The kill x amount of items mission proved to be very boring.  I logged back in to finish it.  I was a bit nervous because when I last played I was dead in the water.  When I respawned this time I was in, a thankfully clear patch of water. I was able to lure the witches over and beat them down.  I then had to kill another set of things.  I died that time.  Yet another run back to my body I finished and then it told me to go kill the boss.

This part I was worried about.  I ran into the area where they said the boss was lurking and as I got there I saw someone die to him.  This did not make me feel very confident.  I found a little island in the water and stood on it. I don't know why.  The water is only waist deep at the deepest that I have yet found and I don't know if you can swim or not yet.  I had immediately ran into the water to find out when I started playing but so far no deep spots.

I decided that this was the perfect opertunity to summon the Raven that I got (I think its my pet) and see what happens.

Okay.  Well.  Uh.  It follows me and it doesn't drown.

So, off I took a few deep breaths and decided that now was the time to fight the big boss thing.  The side missions and wandering have been good for me.  I'm mildly less squishy depending.  I have no fighting skills. I button mash like a pro but it is getting the job done.  The big boss thing wanders around and I followed it a bit and waited for it to wander into a bit of a clear spot and attacked!

Eeep!  Smashing buttons all over the place! I am on fire for some skill build up like was suggested by one of my fantastic commentors.  Now I just frantically hit everything I have there and hoped for the best.  This is why people have multi button mouses.  I don't need that in Eve!

Rawr!!

P.S.   I will be migrating this blog to my word press account as part of my project to move into my own domain.  This should be the last post here.  The posts are synced up with wordpress so if anyone has this bookmarked, move said bookmarks and subscriptions.

CivCity:Rome

Some games stay fun even as they age.  I recently picked up CivCity:Rome on Steam.  I have the CD but it was nice to have a copy on steam where I can play on any of my machines whenever I wanted ot.

CivCity:Rome is a world builder game.  You build a city, you have some tasks to do, and its funny.  I first heard of it on X-Play when they gave it Four stars and poked fun at the "We need more slaves" dialog that happens when your city is large enough.

CivCity:Rome is not a spectacular stand out game in anyway.  Its very simple.  The graphics are cute more then stunning.  Watching mountain lions (who look like African lions) chase down your people and kill them as they haul their wood is amusing.  Putting up watch towers instead of fire towers and watching your city burn while you scream at the watchmen to put out the fires is... well that may just be my mistake.

It is not a deep game but its a lovely way to relax and play.  I find myself yelling at it a lot.  More so then most games.  "The baker is right there get yourself bread!"

I needed a break from the MMOs and the thinking and drama that comes along with them.  Building some cities, listening to them complain about the warehouses and stagger drunkenly though the streets as I race against my drunken citizens to get my wine sold for trade is amusing and a great way to mentally chill out a bit.

We've recently purchased a ton of games from steam.  I am going to go and work my way through the Prince of Persia series (sands of time, warrior within, two thrones).  That is an amazing story when strung together and one I look forward to writing about.

Imagery - The Secret World

I started with a bag of popcorn to keep me company.  I then had to add a demanding kitty that wanted to be in my lap.  It is hard to kill zombies when a kitty is nuzzling your eye but I made it happen.

I notice that a certain type of Zombie called a Servant of One Death tends to hang around inside of the compound a lot.  They seem tough and I've helped kill a lot of them. I don't know what they do or why they are all over the compound.  Since they are sometimes chasing people I guess it is part of some mission string I have not yet reached.

I also just learned that I can make the chat window a bit smaller by dragging it down.  Yay.  Since no one is talking to me I'm not very interested in the channel and what people are saying.

I've picked up the hard type missions to see how they go.  I randomly found this mission chain and picked it up.  I haven't started it other than looking at the first bit to see what I am supposed to do.

So far I've been successful with the other "hard" type missions I've tried.  I don't think they are hard, hard maybe?  The side missions are easier in general then the main storyline mission.  I'm not in a sewer being eaten by something terrible while confused.

Plus, I now have a sword.  This makes me innately awesome.  I'm thankful for that because I am terrible at almost everything else.  Understanding the magic trees and the various spells and such things.  However, a lot of the technical stuff is secondary.  You can still just play the game and see what happens and that is the ride that I am on for the most part.

Wow.  This game has some pretty brutal imagery for those that are used to pretty, fluffy bunnies.  I don't think that is a bad thing. I also had my first really good battle. I died the first time.  But the second time I positioned myself and used my distance skills to wear her down.  It was great.  She also got stuck on an object and that allowed me to work on her while she tried to get to me.  She got around it but I love that the landscape hinders the NPCs.  I got so worked up that I MISSED the goal and had to fight the stupid thing again because the goal object had a timer.  Who knew?

But I finished it.  I have another mission that I can't find the next step to.  I seemed to have not looked at an object I should have and now I don't know how I got the mission or how to get rid of it.  I'll have to look it up.  For now, it's not a big deal.  I'm sharing popcorn with the cat and listening to Deputy Andy tell me some even more soul killing terrible things about his father   But, I got a mission out of it and while my soul may be a bit less innocent then it was a few minutes ago I have stuff to run off and do.

My next quest starts out with "see what you can do" and it sounds like a sabotage gig. I'm excited.  I'm getting good at moving around the zombies outsides.  Sometimes I totally fail and get chased still but now thanks to my sword I can mow them all down most of the time.  However, I reach my goal and my next order is to kill the things in the way.  That's not stealthy.  :(  And they respawned when I took too long!

I died a lot.  Over and over again trying to fight this thing that vomited green nastiness on me that wasn't one of the things I had to kill but kept spawning beside one.  Ugh.  I finally killed them but it was terrible and I stopped counting after the 10th time I died.  I've also discovered that there is some type of award system for finding the glowing yellow honey combs in square   If anyone is into that kind of thing it's kind of an exploration award mixed with a collection award.

I did a few more side quests and decided to wrap it up for the evening.  I dumped some skill points into my combat abilities and improved my damage some I think.  I'm still getting stomped rather easily.

I did take a picture of this stunning young lady.  When Nosy Gamer did a review he commented on the choice of clothing. Clothing does not seem to carry stats so how you dress is personal choice. It is not the normal the more powerful you are the less clothing and more breast your female character has to show.

For this shot the difference between our two female characters amused me.  I was like blue shirt! (blue is my favorite color) and cargo pants in urban camo! So great.  This is something I'd wear IRL.