Ceolrigan, Pathfinder

Skyrim: A Nord's Tale, Part 4

2011-11-25T07:43:00.001-08:00

I formally joined the Companions, and learned that the Circle, that group that is the central leadership of the Companions, all are werewolves. I heard through the grapevine that players who join the Circle can also become werewolves. Since I've committed to the Companion track, I think I'll gun for that.

I also took down two more dragons and learned a little more about that storyline. It looks like there's a big master dragon that's resurrecting other dragons. I forget his name, but he mocked (pitied?) me when he resurrected another dragon in front of me. Curious. I need to explore that more.

In light of the limitation on how many skills you can master, I've stopped exploring alchemy and magic in favor of my skill focuses - Heavy Armor, Two-Handed Weapons, Smithing, and to a lesser degree, Enchanting. I may drop Enchanting, depending on how easily I can acquire magical items in the future. I like the idea of smithing magical jewelry, and I'm starting to amass quite a collection of components for that.

My most recent perk acquisition is Dwarven Smithing. Dwarven armor seems to be just a little better than steel armor, so I'll be upgrading my armor as soon as I can to that standard.

Skyrim: A Nord's Tale, Part 3

2011-11-17T19:36:00.001-08:00

Whiterun, my new home

So I finally solved the Sapphire Claw dungeon... something Shroud Barrow. Ended up being a Draugr corpse blocking my ability to depress a button to lower the drawbridge. I had to use my Unrelenting Force Shout to move it aside so I could lower the bridge.

Once that happened, though, things got awesome. I fought more Draugr, took out a new Draugr Overlord, and learned a new Shout... which I haven't yet tested out. On the way back, I found a bandit hideout with an AMAZING view of Whiterun. I may run that dungeon again just to see the view. It's simply awesome.

I went out looking for iron ore deposits, because I was excited to try out mining. I found a few, but the highlight of that particular adventure was when I was wandering along a path and, all of a sudden, a dragon dropped out of the sky right on top of me. Scared the crap out of me! I dodged out of the way and let Lydia shoot it with her bow while I hammered away at the thing with my Whiterun Axe. Eventually it went the way of its predecessor (Dragon Kill Count: 2), but that certainly was not something I was expecting. The long run to Whiterun hauling massive amounts of dragonbone was a very anticlimactic aftermath.

I'm getting closer to my goal of owning a house in Whiterun. 3,000 gold down, 2,000 to go. I'm trying to level my smithing and enchanting skills too, but those are expensive, since I don't always have the ingredients I need to craft things. Enchanting in particular is pricey.

The Big Story wants me to head northwest to a far-away town. Eventually, I will go that way, but for now I'm concentrating on exploring the area around Whiterun.

Skyrim: A Nord's Tale, Part 2

2011-11-14T17:43:00.000-08:00

Alchemy in Skyrim is vaguely unpleasant at first, since in order to discover the first alchemical property of something, you must taste it. This is all fine and good, but some of these ingredients are less than appetizing - skreever's tails, for example.

On the other hand, blacksmithing is a real gem. I've learned how to create steel items now, though I don't yet have steel ingots. I discovered something interesting - iron ore deposits. I didn't have a pickaxe with me at the time, and apparently that's required to mine ore. I'm excited about this development, though - it means I don't have to buy ingots or ore!

I became a Thane of Whiterun by helping defeat a dragon, and the Jarl assigned Lydia to me as my own housecarl. She's come in very handy, though her pathing AI has been very irritating at times. She was probably the only reason I survived an encounter with an ice troll, though she herself didn't remain conscious for the entire event. Trolls are brutal, especially if left to heal for a few seconds.

After ascending the Throat of the World to meet with the Greybeards, they gave me additional Words of Power to give me one new Shout and beef up my existing one. I like the Norse feel of the draconic language; very different from the usual Elvish/Latin draconic languages.

Returning from Hrothgar, I solved the mystery of a ghost in a nearby barrow, only to discover a very complex dungeon hidden beneath it. As of this writing, I'm stuck on a puzzle in its depths. Supposedly, I should be able to rotate four stone pillars to lower a wooden bridge, but despite doing what I thought was the correct pattern based on clues in an adjacent room, the bridge remains stubbornly vertical. No idea how I'm going to fix this one.

Skyrim: A Nord's Tale, Part 1

2011-11-11T19:00:00.000-08:00

Last night at midnight, I purchased Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim for Xbox 360. This morning I got up at my usual 5:30 and went straight down to the living room to play.

The next few blog posts will be brief updates on my adventures in Skyrim. They'll be out of character, more a log than a story.

After a dragon's attack conveniently freed me from captivity and nuked my captors, I was spirited away to a Nord village by a fellow survivor. As a Nord myself, it was interesting to see the culture surrounding the village, and how the villagers reacted to my chosen race as a familiar stranger.

Of the massive arsenal I acquired in the hour or so of play this morning, the weapon I've used the most has been a two-handed battle axe. I loved that I could, straightaway, put the axe on the grindstone and use an iron ingot to turn it into a [Fine] Battle Axe. Crafting systems ROCK!

I'm a little overwhelmed by all there is to do. With so many choices and quest givers practically throwing themselves at me, I just shut down and ignored the quests, opting instead to do some exploring. I plan on delving into the inventory/item system next, checking out what I can do in that arena.

I want to see if there's something to these spider eggs I picked up on my flight from the dragon...

Learning to let go....

2008-09-09T06:47:00.000-07:00

Two months later, I'm no longer playing Age of Conan or Star Wars Galaxies. Several months ago, I posted on the RPG.net forum asking for advice on what MMORPG to try. I was bored, and posted a list of the MMORPGs I had played and decided I didn't like. It was very lengthy, being at least two dozen entries long.

One of the replies I received was something to the effect of "you obviously don't enjoy MMOs, so quit trying and find something else." At the time, I brushed it off as a snide remark.

Now, though, after playing World of Warcraft again for the past few weeks, I've come to realize there was some truth in that statement. It wasn't that I don't enjoy MMORPGs, but rather, that I wasn't playing them for the right reasons.

I was trying MMO after MMO in an attempt to recover the same feeling I had when I first played Star Wars: Galaxies. I erroneously believed that if I could just find an MMO with a good feature set that closely matched SWG's, I would relive those days.

Now, though, I'm playing WoW and actually enjoying it. Why? Because I'm doing the two things I haven't done since the Old Days of SWG - I'm A) talking and questing with other players because of a shared interest, and B) I'm judging WoW on its own merits, rather than compared to any other game. Specifically, I'm enjoying just questing and not worrying about grinding to maximum level.

Now, my acquisition of Spore two days ago has eaten significantly into my free time. It's a fantastic game, and everything I'd hoped for when I first learned about it two years ago. Not since Galaxies had I had so much anticipation for a game. However, despite this, it's so different from MMORPGs or FPSes - both intensely multiplayer experiences - that I doubt I'll play it as anything more than an occasional curiosity.

At the end of the day, it seems that what I really want out of an MMO is to have fun with others. Ironic, that.

Age of Conan

2008-07-01T09:54:00.000-07:00

So I purchased Age of Conan, despite the numerous reviews saying that the game is heavily broken.

So far, it's not bad. I haven't reached the magical level 20 yet, where according to reviews all content dries up and disappears. I hear that crafting is completely broken and unusable. However, for the time being, I'm enjoying beating the snot out of lots of things...and I especially like switching between solo-instance and multiplayer-open areas. I look forward to the PvP.

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I'm also subscribed now to EverQuest II. EQ2 ran a promotion where I was given two months access to the game, with a trial of all released expansions and adventure packs to date. The kicker, and what made me subscribe again, is that I get to KEEP all those things if I subscribed within the trial period. I'll maintain my subscription for awhile and probably cancel it later, but at least I'll have gotten all that extra content...for only the price of a single month's subscription.

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In Star Wars Galaxies, the Fifth Anniversary event is going on. I acquired the items, but I'm slightly irritated at the way the badge and title for the event are being handed out. Only 24 players - one for every hour - each day are given the Hero of Empire Day reward, and the event only lasts until July 22nd, so a large majority of players will never receive it despite trying for it. I suppose this gives some value to the reward, then, for being scarce. I think a quest would have been a better dispersal mechanism, though.

Back to the World of Warcraft, and...

2008-05-26T09:02:00.000-07:00

I spent the past month playing World of Warcraft with my fiancée and Star Wars Galaxies with the IA. WoW is actually fun now that I've stopped trying to just gain levels. I think the QuestHelper add on helps...it makes questing a lot easier, and reduces the amount of down time I have. That, and my fiancée's advice to only do yellow quests and to abandon green ones immediately.

However, as of Friday I've started a month-long experiment in fitness and finance, and part of it is the temporary cancellation of both of my MMO subscriptions. Catch you in 30!

Operation: Endor Fog

2008-04-10T21:43:00.001-07:00

A Storyteller event in SWG, hosted by ObiRadd, in which the Imperial Army massacres a bunch of Ewoks.

Embedded Video

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Finally, at long last...

2008-03-30T20:17:00.000-07:00

Scin Karetyr, CL90 Commando. Finally. The long grind is over....and I can't help but think, now what? So, let's review those goals:

Goal Update

Major Goal #1: Hit CL90 with Scin. Done!

Major Goal #2: Acquire a Vigo. No progress.

Major Goal #3: Imperial Army space wing. No new progress.

Minor Goal #1: Finish the Rare Weapons Collections. Got two new items for the Rare Melee Weapons III collection.

Minor Goal #2: Fuura Hengwen, Shipwright. No progress, and I'm seriously considering just staying a Domestics trader.

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So. Now Major Goals #2 and #3 become #1 and #2, and Minor Goal #2 is scrapped in light of the fact that I'm just enjoying Domestics too much. I'll have to work more on my major goals, it seems.

I should also mention that I'm working on a machinima movie for my guild, the Imperial Army. That could be considered a Major Project rather than a goal, as it's an ongoing and very long-term process.

On leveling and collections in SWG

2008-03-04T12:18:00.000-08:00

Recently I hit level 88 with Scin. One of my guildies promptly gave me an AK-Prime rocket launcher, the most powerful Commando weapon in the game, just because he had one lying around. The IA, to put it mildly, rocks.

I've taken part in some PvP and instances since then, and I have to say that my damage output has skyrocketed. I've also started learning the ins and outs of Commando tactics, and I may actually be effective in combat in the near future.

However, I have made almost zero progress towards level 89. Now that I've gotten the greatest prize of Commando, there is very little motivation for me to continue the painful grind to CL90. I still hold it as a goal, though, and will probably just do the thirty-nine missions it will take to get me there in a four-day grind marathon. Leveling in SWG is not particularly fun.

The Collections, however, are awesome. Despite their huge requirements compared to EQ2's collections (completing the Peko Peko kill collection requires defeating 100 peko pekos, 100 giant peko pekos, 50 peko peko albatrosses (not soloable), and 25 peko peko albatross matriarchs (VERY not soloable)), they're a whole lot of fun. If I'm bored or waiting for an instance group to get set up, I'll run around and kill a few dozen critters or NPCs for a kill quest, or search for some of the elusive items for the weapon collections. The rewards are varied and interesting, ranging from titles to new abilities, and it's a blast just finding out what collections are available.

Goal Update

Major Goal #1: Hit CL90 with Scin. Almost there, only 39 missions to go.

Major Goal #2: Acquire a Vigo. No progress at all.

Major Goal #3: Imperial Army space wing. Did a brief tour as a gunner on the Titan VI, one of the IA's gunships.

Minor Goal #1: Finish the Rare Weapons Collections. No progress.

Minor Goal #2: Fuura Hengwen, Shipwright. No progress, and I may end up keeping Fuura as a domestics trader instead. I enjoy the low time sink and bevy of creativity involved in domestics crafting.

Imperial March

2008-02-12T11:45:00.000-08:00

I resubbed to Star Wars Galaxies despite discovering the announcement that no further expansions will be produced for it, and despite the gnawing suspicion I have that Bioware and LucasArts are producing a SWG-killer.

The reason is the Imperial Army.

This player association has made its home on Chilastra for as long as SWG has existed. They're a great group of people, and I first joined up with them in 2004. I've been forced to take extended hiatuses from SWG for various reasons, but I was always welcomed back into the fold whenever I returned.

I keep coming back to SWG because of the community. It's a dedicated group of honest, hardworking, and genuinely fun people....and not just the IA, though they're obviously at the top of the heap.

So then, I'm back. And now, my plans for the future.

Major Goal #1: Hit CL90 with Scin. I'm halfway to 88 right now, which is a major milestone. I'll finally be able to wield the lava cannon and hence become roughly on par with the 90-level PvPers. Up to now, I've been relegated mostly to lighting people on fire in PvP and hoping someone else finishes them off before they get me. Hitting CL90 will be the final culmination of a very long and occasionally tedious journey with Scin. Whether I stay Commando or not will depend on how much fun I have as a CL90.

Major Goal #2: Acquire a Vigo. The privateer gunship is a very cool-looking boat from the outside, and as a master pilot, it's both a duty and a desire to acquire the most powerful weapon in the privateer arsenal. I intend to make my Vigo into one of the "main characters" in Scin's backstory, and appropriately deck it out with Imperial decorations. Though I'm a privateer, I still need and want to show solidarity with the Empire.

Major Goal #3: Establish Scin as a core part of the newly organized space wing of the Imperial Army. It's time to really build the space wing, especially since it is so new, and if I can drive increasingly better performance in space battles I will consider this goal met. It's a tall order, though, as reliant on teamwork as it is. Since Scin is a privateer, he will only be able to act as a crewman on gunships or Decimators in PvP.

Minor Goal #1: Finish the Rare Weapons Collections. I'm intrigued by them after finding one of the rifle parts behind the Storm Lord's throne. I want to acquire these badges and see what comes of it.

Minor Goal #2: Turn Fuura Hengwen into what Scin used to be - a one-man starship engineering company. Though I don't relish the idea of factory-style production, artisan-style might suit me better. It has in the past.

From LotRO to...

2008-01-12T16:53:00.000-08:00

I canceled my LotRO account, having decided it just wasn't the kind of game experience I'm looking for. While some of the features were interesting and the quest content was phenomenal, other games I've played - like SWG - held my interest for much longer.

So, I'm playing 8 days of a SWG trial with my old account, and I bought Guild Wars. So far, GW is a lot more fun than when I last played. That 5 minutes at a friend's was nothing compared to my current experience.

SWG...well, it remains to be seen whether I'll resub or not. I also bought a copy of D&D Online, as it was on sale, but I probably won't install that until I tire of GW.

More later.

Yuletide

2007-12-30T16:33:00.000-08:00

I haven't had a chance to play LotRO much lately because of the holidays, but yesterday I managed to get on for awhile. I trekked from west of Bree to the Shire, partly finishing a quest for Celandine Brandybuck in the process. The Shire is an amazing location and I love exploring it. The sights are fascinating...especially the Hill and the surrounding environs there. The plots of a certain ill-meaning hobbit up that way came to my attention, and of course I did something about it.

The end result was I finished a level 1 quest chain with a very entertaining storyline and got a Yule Tree yard decoration for my efforts.

If anyone hasn't done this quest yet, I highly recommend it. Lots of fun!

Minstrels in green linen

2007-12-20T06:06:00.000-08:00

My guild, the irreproachable Crescent Order, has seen fit to grace me with a full outfit of custom-crafted light armor and a new cloak. All of it is a verdant hue, with intricate patterns weaved into the cloak. My armor score shot up something like 50 points, heh.

I didn't get around to composing music as I thought I would. I got distracted by SOE reenabling my Star Wars Galaxies account for a trial week. My greatest accomplishment in either game, though, was reaching 13 with Ceolrigan. I didn't spend a lot of time in-game.

That said, a quest that was giving me a lot of trouble - defending a hobbit by name of Constable Bolger from waves of attacking bandits - was finally completed last night. Just as I was about to be defeated again by the bandits, a level 28 guardian came by and killed all of them for me. It was a happy moment, heh. He disappeared before I could thank him properly.

Musical Talents

2007-12-19T08:20:00.001-08:00

Last night I started experimenting in earnest with player music, and while the possibility of lag concerns me, I was absolutely thrilled with what I could do. There are some noticeable limitations in the music system, but it can still be used to compose songs for in-game entertainment. I happened across a minstrel in Bree who was playing Greensleaves on a harp. That was cool and all, but I'd much rather see original works.

To that end, over the next few days I'll try and come up with some short pieces to play in Bree's more populous areas. We'll see what kind of reaction I get.

Lord of the Rings Online: Introducing Ceolrigan

2007-12-18T08:43:00.000-08:00

The first MMORPG I ever played was Everquest I. I bought the game at the insistence of some friends when I was living in New Zealand and loaded it onto my PC. I created my character and started killing bees. And more bees. And more bees.

It bored the hell out of me. I uninstalled it after a day of playing and gave the game, and my account, to another friend. That "friend" still owes me money (unrelated event), but that's a story for another time.

Around the same time I read Lord of the Rings cover to cover - 1100 pages - in two weeks. It fundamentally changed how I viewed fantasy. Back to that in a bit.

In July of 2003, I played my second MMORPG ever: Star Wars Galaxies. I had belonged to a pre-release guild for over a year at that point and was absolutely enthralled by the game for over two years. SWG was different from any other game I'd seen before, and while the grind was still present, it was present in a form that was enjoyable.

Of course, we all know what happened in 2005 to SWG. It doesn't bear repeating here. I kept playing off and on after that, but eventually (2007) I permanently canceled my account.

Over the years since 2004, I've been playing various other MMORPGs in an attempt to recapture some of the enjoyment I experienced when first trying SWG. The list is long, and none held my interest for longer than a few months at most. World of Warcraft holds the record for second-longest played MMORPG for me, but I never got beyond level 37 due to the return of the Bees Syndrome.

Enter Lord of the Rings Online.

I tried this game out on three separate occasions with three different trial accounts. The first two times, I was very impressed with the graphics and the epic feel of the introductory quest lines, but couldn't get into it for reasons that now escape me. It probably had something to do with time commitments and absence of a guild.

The third time was different.

This summer I read most of the Silmarillion. I loved the flowery writing style, the epic tales, and relived the two weeks of Lord of the Rings that I'd experienced years before. This was after the second trial, but before the third, which started a mere week ago.

My "Third Age" of LOTRO trials finally bore the fruit promised so long ago by the creation of this online Middle Earth. And now, retail copy and subscription firmly in my hands, allow me to introduce the persona that may one day equal Scin Karetyr in my memory:

Ceolrigan of Rohan, Minstrel and Spider-Foe.

At time of this writing, Ceolrigan is a level 11 Minstrel dressed in stylish purple and blue garb. Regrettably, his weapon of choice at the moment is a not-particularly-attractive club; as soon as I acquire the necessary bronze, he'll be properly wielding a longsword once again.

What is so enjoyable about playing Ceolrigan is the musical quality of combat. The various melodies that erupt from his lute during battle lend it a somewhat more fantastical quality than seems usual in MMOs.

More than that, he is a Historian. I'm a history graduate, so this naturally strikes me as ironic. I have yet to sample crafting in LOTRO, but if it's as enjoyable as combat, then I'll likely spend equal amounts of time doing both. My time as a Doctor, a Shipwright, and an Architect in SWG matched my time spent slaying Rebels and Ewoks. There's nothing quite like a break from battle to make it seem all the more enticing.

I rejoined one of my old SWG guilds, the Crescent Order, as a member of their Kinship in LOTRO. They're good people, and being in a good guild always makes for a more memorable MMO experience.

Last night, shortly before logging out of LOTRO for the night I discovered a player neighborhood. Player housing in LOTRO is much different from any other MMO's housing scheme. It seems to combine features of EQ2's instanced housing and SWG's global housing. While the neighborhood is instanced, it contains an entire area with street names and numbers and, apparently, decoratable exteriors and yards. While the price of a house seems very high at my current level, it's going to be one of my main goals to acquire and furnish such a place. I can see many entertaining player events taking place in neighborhoods and look forward to it with great enthusiasm.

Other than acquiring a house, my main goal in LOTRO is to experience the story. In retrospect, every time I cancel an MMO account, it has been because I had no clear goals. SWG lasted longest, but unfortunately the game simply didn't provide enough incentives anymore to create goals. LOTRO gives me incentives, and it gives me gentle proddings in the general direction of leveling that are unusually well-hidden for an MMO. I actually enjoy leveling for once.

Over the next few days, weeks, months, and perhaps years I will be updating this blog with the adventures, misadventures, and musings of Ceolrigan of Rohan, as told by his player.