New Blog

Very few people still read this and I'm trying to streamline my usernames so I'm making a new blog dedicated to gaming: Stormborn Rage

My Twitter handle is the same.

I hope you few keep in touch. I'll be trying to update those a lot more frequently.

And if you already play the games I do, these are my IDs:
PS4: VStormborn17
Battle.net: Stormborn#11275
ESO: VeronicaStormborn
BDO: Family name Mystarria
GW2: VeRAWR.1096

I hope to see you soon!

Getting Lost in Black Desert

So now that I've been playing the game since the earliest of the early headstarts, and am still playing, spending soooooo many of my waking hours in-game, I can give a bit of a better perspective, deeper than just "it's awesome!". (I still think it's awesome, though.)

Black Desert Online isn't for people like my husband, although I guess it could be, depending on how you look at it. He wants games with goals, where you head straight for the finish line and get rewarded for it. He even plays MMORPGs like that: in WoW he wants to be a decent raider, and see all the end-game content. He's also tried PvPing with me in the past. The thing is, I want to get lost. Don't shove me through the world with blinders on. Let me take in the scenery. There's enough bullshit rushing in our day-to-day experiences. Let's take it easy in the game, and actually enjoy the journey. If you agree with my opinion, you may genuinely enjoy Black Desert as I have. Granted I'm still not max level, or even close, but I feel like I get a ton of enjoyment out of the game, and that it's worth the investments made.

My only real complaint in the game so far is the level of evil RNG we have to try to overcome. For example, I recently got a tier 3 hawk. This took me way longer than it did most people. I had one brown hawk I got as a reward from my pre-order, one brown hawk as a reward from the Maehwa event, and one sky hawk that I purchased separately. I followed a plan, believing that leveling your pets gets you a higher chance at a higher tier result of exchange. (It's exchanging, it's not actually breeding. You take two pets, combine them, and they turn into one new pet.) I took the two tier 1 level 10 brown hawks and exchanged them, and I even had my fingers crossed, but what did I get? A tier 2 brown hawk. Tier 2s are the most useless things ever. They start back at level 1, and they start off with one buff, but unlike the tier 1s, they don't gain a new one at level 10. They only have one buff. So I traded two looting and buffing pets, for one, and I didn't even get a new appearance as a result. I was pretty pissed, and of course I was directed to the "suggestion" forum to express my grievances. I took some time, regrouped, and leveled that tier 2 and my tier 1 sky hawk. Once they reached level 10, I took a deep breath and exchanged them. The result was a little bit underwhelming at first, but overall I like it.

This shows the buffs I ended up with, 3% karma regeneration and 3% hunting exp, neither of which I will use, at least for now. Thankfully Tuulikki kept the ability to find rare monsters, which is one of the things I really like about bird pets. Her name is the name of a Finnish goddess, and means "little wind".

Here are some pictures of her in-game.

As you can see, she's white and teal.  She's not what I had hoped for (a burgundy color that I've seen around), but she's fine the way she is.

The thing is though, that all over the web I've found all these people saying they mated two level one t1s and got a t3 right away, whereas I leveled all of mine to 10 each time and ended up only going up one tier. There doesn't seem to be any sense to it. At least when it comes to in-game horse breeding there are ways to calculate likelihood of results. This seems to be completely random.

I've gone a bit off-track, but it's little things like this that I find very frustrating. There is definitely a lot of RNG in this game, almost to the point of absurdity. I don't know much at all about the end-game, but - and this might drive off some people, too - it seems to be a lot of grinding, which may or may not be the fun part. Getting a group and endlessly slaying doesn't sound terrible.  There's also competitive or non-consensual PvP, depending on your goals. Some people are dead-set against PvP, and won't even fight back, and I think it's a little sad that that's okay. The really hardcore PvP crowd are so overgeared that there really isn't anything you can do to stop them from killing you... or your horse, which is way worse. Horses with death counts produce lower quality foals.

I 'made' my hubby buy Overwatch last weekend, so I may start playing that soon.
Our battle tag is Stormborn#11275 if you're interested in joining a noob on her first few matches.
I just have to peel myself away from BDO, first...

Black Desert Online or The Game That Keeps Me Awake

I've been part of a multi-game LGBTQ guild since I started playing Skyforge.  Recently they started talking a lot about Black Desert Online.  I hadn't heard anything about it and hadn't been exposed to any of the hype.  I wasn't very interested in it, but I wanted to be an active member of the guild.

Prior to CBT2, BDO released their character creation tool, a small program dedicated just to creating a character.  I was so attached to the beauty of the character I created.  (She's a sorceress and I named her Elysia, but that name was taken by the time I had a chance to reserve.)  They were having a Beauty and Beast contest for which you had to submit your best creations, and there were several winners, but everyone got prizes just for participating, so of course I did.

(Yes, that's pink hair!)

After playing with the character creator, I was intrigued.  I entered several contests to win a beta key, and actually won for once.

We had a late-night gaming party at the start of the CBT.  It opened at 2AM central (8 UTC).  I had a blast.  My first impressions of the game were a bit 'meh', but that quickly faded as I realized just how much there was to do and how immersive it was.  The only complaint I had then and still have is the translation/localization.  There are many pieces of quest text that either don't make sense or are grammatically incorrect.  I was and still am very disappointed in that.  I'm sure there are some English majors out there who would have jumped at the chance to edit in-game text.

I decided to go ahead and blow all of my money, pre-ordering the $100 conqueror's package of the game.  I was really nervous about spending that much money on the game, any game, but this game in particular.  I had read a lot of chatter about pay-to-win, high cash shop prices, and a variety of other complaints, but - especially since the cash shop hasn't opened yet - I haven't had any problems.  I'm also fairly certain I've already gotten my money's worth out of the game, considering how many hours I've logged already.

Five days later and I am still having so much fun with this game.  I have been playing A LOT every day since the pre-release, and still want nothing more than to be playing right now.  Unfortunately the game is currently undergoing maintenance, but should be finished very soon.

I ended up making several versions of the same 'Elysia' character (now named Verisiel) but am so happy with the finished product.  I chose the family name 'Mystarria', after a land in the Runelords saga.  Family names are what you identify as in the game.  You can add a friend to your list and whichever character they log in as, as long as it's in the same family, you will see them online, and there is one guild in which you can place all your characters.  Building a guild is really hard work.  You have to start out with a clan with a maximum occupancy of 15 players, and have to save up 100,000 silver to turn that into a guild.  Then you have to complete group quests - gathering only in the lower levels - until you save up enough money and points to expand the guild more.  There are also salaries - you can get paid just for being in a guild.  Oh, and to be eligible for a salary you have to sign a 30 day contract.

Screenshots in this game turn out amazing.  When you hide your UI (default Ctrl-U) you enter this mode where the background is fuzzy and blurred, and you center in on your character.  There are also different photo filters you can put on your gameplay and screenshots.  You can change from the Vibrant (recommended setting) to a large variety of other options.

Don't mind the screen clutter!

(Vibrance)

(Filmic)

I had gotten to the point that immediately after taking care of my diabetic cat I would go right back to bed, and sleep for most of the day.  This game has given me a reason to stay awake!  I've also been in intense pain for the past week, but it's been made more bearable by a heating pad and being able to play BDO.  I've even been staying up late playing and still waking up on time and staying up.

There is just so much to do in this game!

Come and join me in-game!
Black Desert Online is now available for purchase.  Today was the general public release date!
It starts as low as $30!

https://www.blackdesertonline.com/shop/GamePass.html

My New Favorite Pasttime

I treated myself to quite a deal on cyber Monday.
Here's a hint...

I, of course, bought the Game of the Year edition, because I just can't do without the added DLC (that costs $15 each and so more than the cost of the game in this case) and the extra goodies that came with it.

Unfortunately, I've run into some problems with the game.

I haven't been able to access any of the extras that are included in the GOTY edition: no weapons, mounts, or DLC.  So I made a ticket through the EA/Origin website, and had even more problems with that.  The first response was speedy, but was just informing me that I should wait longer - despite already having waited 5 days - before expecting it to show up.  The next response took about a day, and after that I waited almost a week to get a response, and that was with me sending out daily requests for aid.

I don't know if this was the reason, but I finally gave up and contacted BioWare, telling them that I love their game but am probably never going to buy another one because of the EA/Origin [lack of] customer service.  Shortly afterwards I received a special personal email from someone who works at EA.  He informed me that he would be helping me and that he may need to access my account, which I agreed to.  Well, it still hasn't been fixed, and he's off for the weekend and works extremely early in the mornings, so I'm SOL for now, at least until Monday.

One person responded to my original EA ticket saying that I should un/reinstall the game.
Given that my max internet speed is 6 Mbps which generally equates to 800 Kbps download speed, I'm loathe to do it.  I barely managed to free up enough space on my multiple hard drives to be able to cut/paste the folder onto another drive, saving the game while I download another copy.  (More hard drives is at the top of my Christmas wish list.)

I have spent almost 70 hours in game so far, without my precious extras.  My first two characters were modeled after the Daenerys example found here: http://imgur.com/a/sAeSn
I don't really like the way either turned out, especially in the eyebrow area, and the game also does this really gross thing where when you're standing in shadow your face looks like a raccoon wearing makeup.
Here's an example of what I mean.

In my opinion it looks pretty gross.  (Plus her eyebrows are all wrong.)

Sadly, that's the character I've spent the most time playing, mostly because every character I've made since still ends up looking like that.

It seems like a combination of the blush and eye makeup compounded by the lack of direct light, and it's just awful.  So I made a new character and she still looks pretty messed up.

This is my most recent character, made today, at the request of the EA employee who said I might find the items on a new character I made.

As you can see, the game has the potential for beautiful characters, it just falls short when not in cinematics or at least conversation.

I hope I'll continue to be happy with this one, who I named Elysia.

As you may have noticed, I've chosen to play a mage - at least for my first time through.
I found this article after I started that confirmed that it was a good choice.  http://kotaku.com/tips-for-playing-dragon-age-inquisition-1660270767
I like how it adds into the storyline of the battle between the mages and templars.

Based on the amount of time I've spent in-game so far and how I'm nowhere near done nor am I sick of it, you can definitely say I'm enjoying this game and am glad I got it.  If you, like me, can find the GOTY edition for $39.99 I recommend picking it up, and hopefully the extras and DLC work for you (unlike me)!

The only other RPG that's not an MMO that I've played extensively was Skyrim, and I'm still not done with that game.  Yeah, there's an awful lot to do in that game, but I also kept encountering bugs and glitches the second time around (the first time my character, that I had progressed farthest with, disappeared).  So I haven't spent too much time going back and giving it another shot, because the bugs have been quite annoying.  I may give it another go once I'm done with this, though.  Of course, I also play The Elder Scrolls Online, which, while not perfect, I also recommend.

Thanks for reading and ...
"May all your hits be crits, and all your loot be epics..."

edited to add
I've also encountered this glitch that makes my weapon damage animation trail behind in the sky.  It's really annoying.  Has anyone else seen this?

Blizzcon 2015

I convinced my hubby to purchase a last minute digital ticket to Blizzcon on Friday.  Most of what I've seen so far pertains to World of Warcraft, but I've watched a bit regarding Overwatch, too.

I hadn't logged into WoW for months, despite keeping an active subscription, because I wasn't too interested in anything it had to offer and didn't think there was anything I could do that I had any interest in.

Blizzcon changed that.  Legion looks amazing!

I'm no Blizzard fangirl but I am rather sucked into the universe (for lore's sake!), and I had pretty much given up hope on enjoying WoW again.  The reveals on the new mechanics, the new class (Demon Hunters!) and all the little things, and a lot of the big things, really make a huge difference.  They'll be vastly improving quality of life by introducing the wardrobe, with *shared* items across your account and the addition of *every* quest reward, even the ones you didn't choose, to the wardrobe.  It's going to be amazing!  I was so hoping they'd introduce a wardrobe like they have in WildStar, and this is going to be even so much better than that!

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/19954576/world-of-warcraft-game-systems-panel-11-7-2015

They're also making it much more dynamic.  Now you can choose any of the zones to start off in, regardless of your level, and the zone scales around you.  Unlike Guild Wars 2, where you're knocked down to specific levels based on what zone you're in, in WoW the world will revolve around you.  They stated that they want it to take roughly the same amount of time to kill an enemy regardless of level, so even if you're in what would be considered the "third" new zone, you'll be able to keep up and kill with people higher level than you.  I don't think it was discussed how this would affect world PvP, as they obviously can't employ the same mechanic there, but I still think this is great.  I like to complete entire story lines, something that will be necessary in this expansion, (in order to receive an item [the name of which currently escapes me] from each zone).

http://blizzardwatch.com/2015/11/06/blizzcon-2015-broken-isles-leveling-zones-scale-level/

The new Artifact weapon system looks so interesting and awesome, and the Demon Hunter class is promised to be more mobile than any other class so far, and who doesn't love that?  They better give us an extra character slot, too, because I'm jumping right into that story as soon as I can.

CBT (beta) is expected soon, and - even though I still haven't gotten an invitation to join the Overwatch beta - I'm optimistic about it.  I dislike putting a ton of hours into betas because they wipe the data and you have to start over, but it could be very useful in figuring out how I'm going to make my blood elf demon hunter look, and getting a head start on combat mechanics, learning the class, and sneak peeks of the new content!

So, since Friday, I've logged into WoW for at least a few hours each day.

What am I doing?  Dailies, garrison stuff, and attempting to get the meta achievement for flying in Draenor.  It's going to take some time, but hopefully I'll get there.  I've also decided I want to try to get the legendary staff for my mage, but I'll need help for that.  (I don't know if that's just because my gear is terrible or if it's not really possible to solo everything as a 100 mage, but I'll just accept it as fact based on the 1 minute it took Shannox to kill me.)

If you're trying to find stuff to do while waiting for beta, or the actual release, of Legion, hit me up @VeRAWR#1628.  I know it's lame, but I already used up my one chance to change it and that's apparently all you get no matter what.  :(

Join me!

WildStar in Free-to-Play Beta Mode

As I'm sure many of you know, WildStar goes free-to-play on September 29.
If you haven't heard of it before, it's definitely worth a look.  (Conversely, if you purchased it previously and stopped playing, it's worth taking a second look, as many things have changed, presumably for the better.)
It has many charms, not the least of which is the entire premise of being a "wild west"/outlaw space exploration sci-fi game, featuring many interesting races (are they really races or are they species?).
The game as we know it begins outside the planet Nexus, which is where the game will take place.
I usually play as an Exile, usually as either an Aurin or a Mordesh, two very different but awesome "races".

I'm currently on the beta/PTR, because there's no way I would drop some cash on this game just to renew when it's so close to FtP release.

I've begun to encounter some of the many things I've missed about the game.  That's not to say the game is perfect, but no game is.

On the Exile side, there's a really touching and interesting quest line regarding a creature called Elderoot, a technologically enhanced, intelligent tree.  Of course the Dominion have to come along and ruin everything, but I'll try to leave spoilers out.  (It is within the first five levels of the game, though.)

Screenshots (on an Aurin Spellslinger):

and Elderoot

I'm approaching this FtP release with an open mind, and trying to get other friends to play with me, too.

I have a guild that I'm part of in other games that is playing WildStar, too, but they're playing on a PvP server and I don't know if that's really going to be fun for me.

As usual, I'm unsure of which class I want to play.
I think my highest level character in the live version is a 20-something Mordesh Medic.
I'm not sure how leveling will be compared to how it used to be.  One of my friends who used to play complained about running out of quest content in a zone before leveling high enough to move on.  If that is still an issue, that's really going to suck, but I never saw that happen when I played (again though, only in my 20s).

WildStar may not be for everyone.  Similar to TERA, it has a "real action" combat style.  You can't just tab target and hit 1-5 for a kill: you have to aim your skills and avoid the enemy's skills as well.  I'm sure this makes end-game content extremely challenging, and I don't know if I'll ever feel 'good enough' to get into that.


If you can't wait to check it out, here's a link to the forum post with info and a link to the beta client:  https://forums.wildstar-online.com/forums/index.php?/topic/129471-closed-beta-test-features-summary/

Let me know if you've played it before or are willing to give it a try in the comments!

Skyforge in Almost Open Beta

Hello again!  Today I want to talk to you about Skyforge, the up-and-coming MMORPG that features both sci fi and fantasy elements, in which your goal is to transition from immortal to god.
I purchased a founder's pack on Friday and have been playing it since.
(Unfortunately, I was only able to afford the cheapest version but I want the best one, so feel free to donate to help me get there.)
Skyforge is beautiful and captivating.  The combat system is new and keeps me on my toes.  I think I'm more mobile in this game than I've been in any other, including TERA.
Skyforge has some items in it that remind me of Star Wars, including at least two of the mounts.

Starting out in Skyforge, with the basic edition: You only have three classes to choose from, but you can switch between these freely.  They are the Lightbinder (my choice), Cryomancer, and Paladin.  The Lightbinder is a support class, that can both heal and damage.  The Cryomancer, which seems pretty cool but I haven't really played yet, is pretty awesome, too.  They wield this weird cryo-tech crystal and specialize in frost magic.  The Paladin is pretty standard, a righteous tank.  In your character menu you can swap between these classes.  You have more options if you purchase the higher tier founder packs, including the berserker and the gunner.

Character customization is pretty nice.  There aren't that many standard choices but you have quite a few customization options to change facial and body shapes.
I made my character look like Angelina Jolie!

Of course, the hair isn't exactly her, nor is the eye color or awesome facial tattoos, but she's got the cheekbones, lips, and nose down for sure!

One thing that I'm not a huge fan of is boobs.  The basic, 50% that you start out with is pretty massive and those things jiggle like crazy.  I mean turn your character a tiny bit and they turn into jello.  I had to go down to like 30% and even the 1% is still like a C cup.  Some armor and costume options (costumes, woot!) make the boobs less jiggly, but pretty, wispy cloth options are very 'free'.

Overall though, I really like what I was able to do with character creation.  You can even change the way your character runs, from "girly girl" to aggressive, which is badass, and the way she stands.

One thing I'm torn on is the character system.  You only get one character.  You can change the way she looks, but you can't make "alts".  I'm an alt-oholic, this is hard for me!  I usually make one of each class and become the master of none!  The reason for this is understandable: you can be anything you want on one character, and you can go back and do lower level zones to gain enough skill points to level each class you want to play.

Regardless, I'm still very much enjoying the game.  The combat is fun, graphics are good, and the story is intriguing.

My character name is Elysia Starstorm.  Look me up if you decide to play.  It goes free to play on Friday, in open beta mode.

Food is calling!  I must be off.

Thanks for reading, and I'll see you in game!