What I’ve been up to lately

I haven't made a post in a little while, so I want to catch up my multiple personalities (and anyone else who is interested) on what is going on with my hobbiest/permanent vacation lifestyle.

Strategy Gaming:

I still consider myself to be working on Grow Tycoon, my pot-growing Colonization mod. I have also taken on the duty of rewriting the Civilopedia for the Colonization mod Mare Nostrum. It's a (relatively) simple reworking of Colonization to fit the world of the  Mediterranean Sea around roughly 700-300 BCE (if I remember correctly).

Right now I am basically copying Colonization's civilopedia into spreadsheet form, listing important XML files and tags with their appropriate entries. I figure having this will streamline the actual editing of the XML files and help ensure consistency for both these and any future mods. Of course, I am making these available to anyone who wants to use them via Google Docs.

I am slowly becoming addicted to both Nile Online and Ikariam. For someone without a desk job, I am spending far too much time obsessing over my monument's limestone production and the technology levels of my colonies' phalanxes.

I've also found myself craving sessions in Hinterland and Disciples 2. I had almost forgot how much I love Disciples ... I wonder when the new one is coming out?

MMORPGs:

Not much to report here, really. I am still playing Lord of the Rings Online and I still don't have a level 50 (not to mention 60) character, though I am a bit more focused on that as I really want to finally get down into Moria. Or maybe I'm a little afraid of those drums in the dark and I am subsconciously keeping my leveling at a snail's pace. Naaahhh. I'm a friggin Elven Lore Master from Mirkwood, what do I have to be nervous about? Right?

I have taken up playing the MUD Lusternia: Age of Ascension. Talk about a steep learning curve ... but then again I quite literally haven't seriously played a text-based game since the 1980s. Man, have I been missing out.

This is my first "real" MUD (or MUSH or whatever), and I am having a pretty good time with it. I think a lot of it is nostalgia for my textual childhood combined with the appeal of a modern MMORPG - in fact, the only thing Lusternia (or any of the various other popular MUDs) lacks is the graphics. Everything else - titles, achievements, crafting, pvp, housing, cosmetic clothing, etc. - is there with far more to boot.

In fact, in Lusternia I have finally found a game that not only lets my character smoke, and not only lets various herbs and pipes give him buffs, but even to a degree requires him to smoke to take advantage of those buffs in combat. Any game that lets me have a pipe hanging out of my mouth while I am sticking my claymore through an orc is sure-fire winner in my book.

I allowed my Star Wars Galaxies trial to lapse. I think it probably still has the best crafting in the MMORPG genre, but sadly it is a game that reeks of death. I found the animations poor (and not because they are old, just poor - like when a mob starts running to you, disappears then reappears dead at your feet).

There also seems to be a prevailing opinion amongst (some) players that the optional trading card game and the in-game perks you can win by buying virtual decks will ruin crafting and is a cynical attempt at "RMT" - even worse, since buying a pack of these virtual cards won't guarantee you an item. Therefore there will be plenty of players with uber gear - the same players who can afford to lay out hundreds of dollars on starter packs to find that one random item.

As you know if you read the last post, I was considering pre-ordering Darkfall. Well, if you have followed that game's launch at all, you will understand me when I say I am very glad I decided against it. Though I will point out it is not simply because of what the various users of MMORPG.com have to say about it (I believe Obi Wan would refer to that site as a "hive of scum and trollery").

The poor launch does not irk me in the least, strangely. And I say that even considering if I was one of the lucky few to pre-order. Aventurine's utter lack of any meaningful public relations is annoying and precludes me from finding them really trustworthy, but at the same time I can understand it as a tactic if they are purposely trying to keep the game small and want to turn people away without appearing to be turning them away. Bad way to do it, but I can understand.

I am bothered by the reports of botting, speedhacking and macroing. If the game is truly as PVP-focused as it is said to be, then this cheating can and will truly kill it dead. In the non-MMO world a single cheater can cause an entire server to clear out and constant cheating will earn the server a reputation that ensures nobody will ever want to play on it again. But even this, at this point, doesn't make me not want to get the game (it's still too early to really tell).

Overall, I think it's the players. Considering the type of posts one can expect to read on the Darkfall Forums and taking into account the stereotypical player of a heavy-pvp game, I'm not sure if I will ever play this game.

Ahh, who am I kidding? But I'm definitely waiting for the jury to be out on this one.

Everything Else:

I took advantage of Steam sale on Lost Planet: Extreme Condition. We'll see how that goes, as it is not my usual sort of game. But hey, it was $5 and lets you blow apart monsters in an arctic wasteland. Thanks to its handy tool, I already benchmarked it and get passable frames-per-second (~85 snow, ~45 cave) at 1440x900 resolution with 2xAA. I'll have to fiddle with some more settings.

I am still a Team Fortress 2 addict. TF2 has, by this point, become one of my all-time most-played games. A legendary list, to be sure, and a list which it shares with such luminaries as SimCity and SimCity 2000, Might and Magic 2, Civilization 3, Baldur's Gate 2 and World of Warcraft. For better or worse, I have put literally hundreds of man-hours into each of these games. Comprised as a whole, they would represent a pretty decent chunk of this life I am existing in. Fun!