LucidMagic.net

Still no luck.

This is the error message I get when I try to login. Not even as far as the character selection screen.

Yeah, I used another one (found on the bioware forums) to get IPs to direct connect to.

Is the throbbleserv IP up-to-date? I've gotten a "Server Timed-Out" error the past few times I've tried.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/02/12/new-dungeons-and-dragons-game-sword-coast-legends-coming-in-2015


New DnD based game coming. Look like it could be interesting with the option to have someone be the real time DM.

The Boston area is gearing up for our fourth snowstorm in two weeks, with a fifth coming on Thursday. This is what we have already. The mound on the corner of the driveway is getting up to my neck. Actually starting to get a bit frustrated with it all... :p

Yeah, I generally hate dealing with in-game crafting systems because I'd rather be out adventuring than sitting at a forge trying to make gear, but I've found something oddly satisfying about setting small goals to build for myself in minecraft. I don't think I'd ever want to sit around making these huge elaborate creations that other people make, even in creative mode (free access to all materials without having to mine them and immunity to mobs), but it amuses me enough...mostly I build around getting stuff that will lead to adventuring. Right now I'm working on getting materials to fully explore and defeat an ocean monument I discovered, but it's difficult because I have to defeat the elder guardians in the monument before I can really make progress, because they severely limit my mining ability and I'm limited by however many water breathing potions I've managed to bring with me.

clicky

Apparently in the half hour before the announcement officially started, they had one of the voice actresses going around asking people what they thought Heart of Thorns was (even though it was obvious to pretty much everyone for several months that they were gearing up to announce an expansion), and one guy she asked answered "PvE that doesn't suck?" Woops.

Every now and then I log back in and derp around for maybe half an hour, but I'm pretty bored of it. I don't think the expansion will actually get me back into the game.

They are bringing back guild halls and GvG though, which could be interesting, but I've never gotten into GW2's pvp system soooo...

They just announced the first expansion at PAX South. They're starting to talk about new features. So far I've just come to the conclusion that Arenanet's president is a really awkward presenter.


edit: (watching on twitch)

edit 2: also learned that I've been pronouncing "Maguuma" wrong for ten years.

I had literally no intuition for what the game wants you to do when I started. I wouldn't have figured anything out if I didn't look online because the game gives you no guidance beyond telling you to move with WASD and open your inventory with E. It's got two basic modes. Both of them will start with a random seed map that generates a unique world based on the seed number (you can input a seed number to get a specific map though). Survival starts you with nothing (although there is an option to start with a chest that has a few basic items) and you have to collect resources to build shelter and feed yourself before dark when mobs come out and will attack you. Early on the mobs are kind of frightening, but once you collect enough materials to craft armor they aren't nearly as dangerous. Beyond that it's completely sandbox. You just go around collecting the resources you need/want to build whatever elaborate infrastructure you want for shelter, farming, herding, enchanting, brewing, etc. There are some temples you can rob in the deserts, and I guess there are a few end bosses to fight as well, but that's about it. There is also a creative mode that allows you to fly and build with unlimited resources and mobs won't attack you either. All this can be single player or multiplayer, and multiplayer servers can do some futzing with the game structure to create new objects/abilities/commands if they want.

Honestly though, I don't know how people played the game when it first came out though. I'd hate to have to sit there and figure out recipes via trial and error. The first time I played I didn't want to look anything up and I died. A lot. I'd have gone nuts, especially if I had to figure out how red stone worked. The game allows you to create logic circuits by connecting red stone power sources to various things either directly or via red stone circuits, but I don't think I would have ever figured that out on my own (especially since my grasp on it is still very tenuous even after reading explanations...).

So yeah, you can build a world, but then it just sort of sits there feels special about itself, not like NWN where you could actually craft a story to play through. The soundtrack is surprisingly very nice and relaxing though. I think I expected 8 bit music or something with the art style...


edit: This is probably one of the more interesting examples I've seen of a minecraft server altering the rules of play to create a minigame with it's own mechanics imo.

It's like Inception. How many layers deep can you go?

I enjoy tactical gameplay just fine, but not when it means micromanaging three NPCs in addition to the character I actually want to play.

Picked up a bunch of games when the Steam holiday sale started...Machinarium, A Story About My Uncle, Anna, Only If, Kario, and Dragon Age: Origins. The only one I've really dug into so far was Dragon Age, which I just had to put down out of frustration...it should have everything I would enjoy in a game, but the combat and party systems are obnoxious and ineffective. I have no desire to sit there and micromanage a group of NPCs in addition to my character.

Yeah, doing that now. From what I can tell only the first two Thief games were affected though. Weird.

You have way too much faith in our government's equipment not sucking. I worked with the NSA and for the DoD and their computers were all horribly outdated. It was quite a shock actually. The best computers on base belonged to the virtual reality department.

That doesn't remotely surprise me. My Dad works for a defense contractor, and he says they still have computers running Windows XP floating around. The problem is whenever they want to upgrade to a new system they have to make sure it's compatible with all of their security systems (and places like that tend to have very dense security systems and take a while to update).