Glasswork and Hired Help

 Today I made a good deal of progress on the Masterwork, mostly in those four-way arches that will eventually line both sides of the cathedral interior. Notice that some of my dirt scaffolding is still in place. I removed as much of the redundant/unnecessary scaffolding as I could, but some of it I forsee myself needing again in the future, so I left it there.

I also finished up a bunch of framework for the windows, and with Squid's help, got them all even ("three singles and a double!") Then I gave her a bunch of glass and she filled in all the windows I had framed up for me.

I am excited to see what it looks like when the details on the outside - the flying buttresses and such - are finished as well. I hope they will dress up the outside, because right now those walls are a bit too smooth. I will have to post pictures of those archways on the interior once I get them all finished. Also notice that doorway smack in the middle of the wall. That, in all likelihood, will not be in the final version, but with the walls up, I needed something to let me in and out between my storage chests and the construction easily. Why I couldn't just put the chests in the middle of the cathedral I don't know.

In honor of all my talk of flying buttresses, I give you the only movie reference I know of related to classical architecture.

The Loot Dropper

Those of you with the constitution to handle it, and especially those of you who need to work on your Angmarim slayer deed in Angmar (no? durr), will find this little tidbit to be particularly tasty.

In north-eastern Angmar, near Gath Forthnir, is the little nasty village of Bail Catharnakh. In the nook of one of the buildings, interspersed between angmarim, duvardain and gorthorog, you can find this charming little fellow - a Cargul.
As a level 50 mob (elite I believe) with 10k health, he's a bit of a hassle for lowbies, but if you're at level cap, you can get some decent loot off of him. He and his buddies all have a relatively quick respawn rate, and his friends go down without too much of a fight, the two archers and the one melee npc. The Cargul can throw out some fears, disarms, and silences, but other than that he's not too bad. Within thirty minutes of farming him, I had gathered, among various old level 50 weapons/armor/pocket pieces/jewelry, these prizes:

And also a "Tome of the Snake" cosmetic pet for my Loremaster - the only one I was missing :) I still have lots of characters who need the angmarim slayer deed, so while I'm working on it I'll be sure to catch this guy a few more times and see what else I come across.

The Yule Fest

I know this is late, the Yule Fest is over. But I found these in my screenie file, and didn't want to just delete them. Instead of your normal Yulefestery, this year Turbine gave us a whole new area with Frostbluff. It had several activites, like an eating contest, a very fun little theater instance, and a snowball fight. There were others, I just can't remember them at this point in time. Oh, and one of the cool things about this festival is it was the first time in the game you are asked to make a moral decision based on what you have learned through the story. Once you have made your choice, that's it. No going back. Also, this is the last time I will mention that moral dilemma. It was a bit traumatic to make. Not that anyone cares, and several people thought that the new Frostbluff area this year wasn't that great, but I thought it was pretty cool, so I will share a few screenies I took with you, the theoretical reader (because we all know you don't exist. I'm writing to the vast emptiness of the internet here, and there is no one out there).

 Here we have a view of the snowball fight, and me and Squid's lovely blue outfits. Also a view of some poor sucker who bought that $25 horse.

As a Loremaster, Thyrra has lots of animal friends, but not all of them are .... 'pets.' Edinburgh the fox, for instance, never listens to anything Thyrra says and will get up on the table and eat pie, regardless of her protests. Or, lack of protests, in this shot. I guess she's resigned herself to fate.

Here is Squid on her Hobbit Pan, who is sitting on her pony.... and isn't she just the cutest hobbit you will ever see? Squee! I want to hold it!

 I found out how to get onto the roof of one of the houses, and Indy had some fun dancing around on the chimney for a few minutes until someone shot fireworks at her.

And finally, a shot of Indy and Squid at sunset in Frostbluff, on our new Glittering Yule Steeds, this year's addition to the festival horses.

Now just to wait and see what they do new for Springfest this year.

Discrepancies

Only after I started raising the walls a bit in my cathedral did I notice something when going back and forth between my reference photos and what I was actually building - my building was not tall enough. To truly capture the grand majesty of a cathedral, I need this thing to touch the sky, literally, as I will probably go all the way to the top of the map. So, after some more tedious math and some re-working, I managed to get at least one side to the correct height, so far anyways.

I don't know if you can really tell from this screenie, but notice that the right side has openings that sit significantly higher than the openings on the left side. The right side is correct, height wise anyways. I still need to work on the windows a bit. But it's coming along, and I have height now, yay! Oh, and that other side needs fixing. Maybe Notch will have invented colored glass by the time I get ready to put the windows in.

More work tomorrow, maybe, if the ice-storm doesn't kill me.

The Masterwork

I love Minecraft. I've been playing for a few months now on a friend's multiplayer server, and I've enjoyed building my little creations. And I mean little seriously. Even my greatest work so far, my Elfstone Castle, is nothing compared to what I have just undertaken. I have taken a very basic floorplan of the Metz Cathedral and am working on building it in Minecraft. It will be rough. It will probably be ugly. Especially as I have no capabilities for stained glass and the Metz is known for its windows :(

I'm not sure if you can see the sheer size of this undertaking from this screenshot or not, but this is the basic groundwork for the structure. I will continue to post updates as I add bits and pieces, and maybe I will get it finished and make it beautiful.

The hardest part so far has been that I've had trouble counting out the grid appropriately and my measurements have been off. I finally think I got them right. You'd think, after almost 26 years, that I could learn to count in multiples of ten.

The One Lotro Horse I will probably never get.,,,

Because as of right now it's only available in the LOTRO store for real money. About 25 bucks' worth. For one horse. For one character. Across ten characters, that's ... wayyyyy more money than I want to spend. So yeah, the Steed of Night, available in the Lotro store for only 1995 turbine points. Go buy it, if you have the money to burn. If not, just enjoy Kismet of Gladden here, who shelled out the bucks for the thing.

Perhaps there really are people in this game crazier about collecting horses than I am.

Sly Cooper Returns!

One of my favorite game series has always been the Sly Cooper games. Well, let me back up a bit. If you've gathered anything, it's that I have a fondness for platformers in general, but Sly has always had a place in my heart. There's just something about that slinking raccoon that makes me smile. The trilogy of games were all released several years ago for the PS2, but were just recently re released on one disc for the PS3. My wonderful husband got it for me as a surprise gift, and for the past few days I've been reliving the stories I enjoyed so much back when I first played the games.

You play as Sly Cooper himself, a dashing raccoon thief, and sometimes (more often in the later games) his cohorts. The games are cel-shaded, but the series is one of the few games I have found that manage to tie the uniqueness of the graphics together with a reasonably sound story. 

Granted, the game series is geared towards younger audiences (throughout most of the dialogue this is readily apparent, but there are odd snippets here and there that lean towards an older listener), but that doesn't mean the average adult gamer can't get a kick out of playing the series.Some sections of the game can be fiendishly difficult, and with the 'one death and you have to start over' rule, this only intensifies the feeling of having to get it right the first time. There are some power-ups you can collect to temporarily override the one-death rule, but at the most you have two or three chances to get it right before you have to start over again. The other games have different versions of this, but as I haven't gotten to those games yet my memories are still a bit hazy. Stay tuned though, because when I get to the second and third games I will be sure and post more!

Strange times in Middle Earth

Ask anyone who plays lotro with me regularly, and they will tell you that I am a screenshot addict. I am taking pictures all the time. Besides a particular obsession with taking pictures of every single spider in the game (don't ask me what that's about, I have no idea. It's just something I started doing because I felt it needed to be done. Yes, I am weird), I like to take pictures of things I find amusing or .... interesting. Most of them, like the picture below, end up being the rigormortis poses of dead mobs, but sometimes it's other things too.

I couldn't help it. We killed the giant and he looked like a turtle. Enough said.

Sometimes, the game yells at you to Go. Away. Now.

Cocoons. Spiders will build them anywhere. Even on top of shacks. Because, you know. spiders regularly build cocoons.

Speaking of strange spawn locations, I found a buried treasure! Half-buried, anyway.

I used to have a lot more, but apparently when I went through and did a mass cleanup of old files I accidentally deleted my weirdness folder. :(

Not that any of you care about any of this, assuming there are any of you at all and this is even worth mentioning. Which, I suppose, it's not.

Blogging. Never have so many said so much to so few about so little.

And she fell down into the big Underground....

Lately, I've been playing Minecraft. A lot. When my husband first showed me the game, I thought it was meh, but once I tried it myself, I found it very addicting. The graphics and gameplay are simple, and there is literally no story, dialogue, or (if you in multiplayer mode) combat. All you do is dig. And build your ultimate _________ (<--- Insert whatever you've always wanted to build here).

If you are in single player mode, the concept is simple. You start out somewhere on a randomly generated landmass, with nothing in your inventory. You must find shelter and a light source before nightfall, because soon the monsters will be out. This comic from Penny Arcade best describes the early stages of the game to me.

After a while, I kept deleting and restarting my single players saves because I wanted a landscape that was inspiring and really would challenge me to build something fantastic. When I loaded this world in, I was wowed from the start and have been in love with it ever since. However, being in the shade from the cliffs and grotto means that I have to deal with more monsters than usual, and I have died several times.

Last night, a friend of mine from lotro and I received an invite to play on another lotro friend's multiplayer Minecraft server. We checked it out, and have decided that multiplayer is much more fun than single player. Sure, the game is still in alpha, so the multiplayer mode doesn't at this point have all the functions that single player does, but the general concept is still there. I found it much more fun building things when other people could see what I was building and not only admire them, but offer advice, make their own modifications, and such.

Theories and I are in the process of building a gigantic fortress - which, due to a lack of knowledge about where the rest of the players had started building, is VERY far away from everything else, but we are okay with that. The friend who invited us built a massively long bridge/highway from their village to our fortress, so now we at least know how to get to them if they need us, or we need them. Multiplayer currently has no monsters though, so unless we are suffocating under a pile of sand and need to be dug out, that won't really be an issue....

The Strongest Horse in the World

Up until the release of Enedwaith, the highest amount of hp a horse in lotro could have was 150. Once Enedwaith was released, however, the opportunity to get two new horses with 200 hp. This may not seem like a big deal, but that 50 points could very well make the difference in whether or not you get knocked off your horse while you are riding though dangerous territory.

The only caveat to obtaining both of these new horses is that you have to be at Kindred standing with the Grey Company and with the Algraig, the two new factions. Normally, it takes me weeks to get to kindred standing with any faction, but suppose the thought of a shiny new horse or two had me all excited or something, because here I sit, just eight days after the release of the new area, and I am sitting proudly on my Grey Company horse.

 He is a fantastic blue-grey color with wonderful detailing on all his tack. His mane is also done up in tiny little braids. The name he came with was Hunter's Pride, which I wanted to change to Wolverine in honor of a rather embarrassing episode from a couple days ago, but the game told me that was an invalid choice for a name.   :(

Anyways, now just to push for the Algraig rep, which I know will take much longer, as there aren't as many opportunities to further it and the dailies can only be done, well, once a day. /sigh.

Until then I am content with my new horse, and also in the fact that I am only one of two or three possible people on Gladden right now to have the horse. That could just be because only certain people have announced it, but whatever.

Leaving Moria

So, the other night, Squid and I finally left Moria (I know, I have been slacking severely in my Lore-master chronicles and I can't recall if I even mentioned us going IN to Moria in the first place, but whatever, we left it). She had been refusing to leave Moria until the epic line prompted us to, because, in her words, "Once I leave Moria, I'm not going back." After running all the way east to First Hall, we stood for what seemed like ages at the doorway, just staring out into the last bit of darkness. Squid claimed she was afk, but our burglar buddy, Licentious, suggested that maybe she had Stockholm Syndrome and that perhaps Moria had been so bad to her that she couldn't tear herself away from it. She huffed and puffed at this and claimed that she could leave anytime she wanted to, thankyouverymuch.

So we left. The sunlight outside was bright and stark after the long dark of Moria. The elves of Lorien, of course, were snobby and wouldn't let us in. So we had to run back and forth, carrying arrows and clearing the orc muck out of the Nimrodel before they would let us pass. They are very protective of their realm, and even shot Squid for trying to enter Lorien before they said she could. Heck, they even stuck a couple arrows in me for getting too close to their borders while trying to clear out orc muck.

Finally, we had done enough menial demeaning work to satisfy the elves, and they let us into Lorien. As we rode our horses down the pathway, with twilight just coming on and the last bit of sunlight fading away into blue duskiness, Squid couldn't help but exclaim how beautiful everything was. I had to agree with her. Lorien has always been one of my favorite places. We ran around performing more tasks for the elves, helping them keep the forest alive and well, like in this screenshot, where we are singing to the sick trees. Apparently, in Lorien, that helps.

Eventually we had done most of the quests that didn't involve a lot of killing and resorted to outlandish acts, simply to see how far we could push the boundaries. One of the defining marks of Lorien architechture is the construction of Talan, or great platforms high up in the boughs of the Mallorn trees of Lorien. There is a deed to discover all of them, and in the process of climbing up all of them, we discovered that the huge branches can be walked out onto.

This of course led to all sorts of shenanigans, which, inevitably, led to misadventure. The problem with jumping around in branches high up in trees is that you will most likely fall out, and it is a lonnnnnggggg way down. And when you fall a long way, you will die. Which we did, more than once. It was loads of fun though, and in the end, as the sun came back up over Lorien, we called it a night and went our
separate ways, leaving the rest of Middle-earth for another day.

Perhaps eventually we will make our way further east towards Mirkwood, or even south into the wilds of Enedwaith, but for now I am content to sit and relax in the eaves of the Golden Wood.

Dear Turbine,

Dear Turbine,
I will admit, when I first heard you were giving lotro a free to play option I felt a strange sense of dread and uneasiness creep into the back of my mind. I dismissed it, carefully, even after getting into beta and seeing so many things that seemed, in my mind, to break the spirit of what lotro used to be. There were things in the store that shouldn't be there, there were things that cost points to unlock that should have remained open, and the fears that the community would be destroyed hung like a cloud over the beta testers.

Slowly, as beta wore on, my fears gave way into acceptance, and once the free to play headstart launched on the 8th (just last week!), my fears were for the most part relieved, as some of the major issues I had with things I'd seen in beta seemed to have disappeared. Of course, my being a vip subscriber helps alot, I'm sure, as many of the money-grabbing tactics I saw displayed for f2pers in beta do not apply to me.

I will be honest - I am thrilled that you listened to the community on several of the issues that were brought up in beta, particularly the quest dialogue revamp and the reputation horses. However, I do not believe you are ready for free to play. Why do I say this? Because, even though you added new servers and new hardware to handle server stress, I have not been able to enjoy the game for the past three days because it has been such an outright lag-fest. I know you are working on it (at least, I hope you are), and part of me is thrilled that so many people have flocked to this game, which, over the past two years, I have grown to know and love. Most of me, however, is still upset at the fact that I, today, cannot even get into the game, and have been sitting in a queue for upwards of thirty minutes now, waiting to get into a game that will be so laggy it will be unplayable. I am paying you good money every month for a product that is supposed to work, that is supposed to not give me issues. My subscription runs through December, and if I do not see any improvements, though it pains me to say it, I will probably be canceling any further payments beyond that point.

I know the cancellation of one subscriber is no real threat to your company, what with the masses of f2pers and the income they will bring you through your lotro store, and I am happy that your development team may finally be seeing the money they need to bring even more fantastic content to this game. While my cancellation may be no real threat, I want you to seriously consider the workability of your current system. If more and more people cancel, or even if the f2pers stop playing because your game is simply unplayable with so many people on, then how will you make money if no one plays? You will be back in the same boat you were in before. Remember the sayings - one vote can make a difference, one grain of sand can tip the scales, one drop in the ocean can cause a flood? Those are true for a reason.

Be wary, Turbine, and get your act together, or my letter may not be the only one you see. I know you are trying to fix this, at least I hope you are, and I hope whoever monitors the servers warned you about this and didn't blithely assume that everything would 'be ok.'

With regrets,
a disgruntled elf

The Cloak of the Cluck: Flying the Coop

For those who have lots of patience, quick reflexes, and perhaps a friend or two to help them along, the Cloak of the Cluck is a pretty interesting little item to get in lotro as a cosmetic piece (it does have some stats, but they are low and rather useless). Also, this post is going to be extremely long, prepare for a wall of text or two.

After doing some pre-requisite quests, which introduce you to the plight of the chickens at Sandson's farm in the Shire, just north of Michel Delving, you are able to start the series of session plays known as "Flying the Coop." These place you in the body of a brown rooster, level 1, with only about 32 morale. Yup. You better watch your step, because it's a big world out there, with lots of things that would love to have chicken for dinner.

You start in the Shire, at Sandson's Farm, where you first must go to some of the different animals scattered across the Shire and ask them for help in defending your coop from the invading wolves. Old Sally, near Tuckborough; a Fox near Woodhall; and Farmer Maggot's three dogs, Wolf, Fang, and Grip all refuse to help you, so you are then sent back to Sandson's farm in dismay. This quest is not too difficult and can be completed solo if you watch out for the brigands and wolves scattered about. Most of the enemies in the Shire will at least warn you before they attack, so this is probably one of the easiest of the sessions to complete.

After you finish Flying the Coop, you are presented with a series of regional session plays that can be completed in any order. All of these start at Sandson's Farm, and some of them can take over an hour and a half, so be prepared for a long run of bobbing and weaving, especially if you don't have anyone to help escort you (in our Kinship runs, I will usually run as an escort on my 65 hunter and turn anything that gets too close to the flock of chickens into a pincushion). I will present my takes on the different regional session plays in the order I have done them, though keep in mind that once you complete the basic Shire Flying the Coop, the regional ones can be completed in any order.

For the Ered Luin version, you must run from Sandson's Farm up to Thrasi's Lodge to speak with the injured Lynx mother. This one is not too difficult, especially if you keep to the road. It's simply a bit long, and for the most part, empty. There aren't many enemies at all to worry about between the Shire gate and Duillond. The most difficult sections are in crossing the Rushock Bog, but most of the creatures there can be pretty passive, just hope your escort, if you have one, doesn't have the Shire bounty open or you don't run into the troll that sometimes wanders around the bog at night. Another area that might give you trouble is just before Thrasi's Lodge, as Dourhands and crebain like to hide in the trees. After speaking with the Lynx mother, you are sent back to the Shire.


For the Bree session, you must speak with several creatures scattered across the entirety of Bree-land. This, to me, is one of the hardest ones to complete, as there are many places where a careless step could get you killed and you will have to start all over. For this one you must speak to the cow on the roof in Buckland, Wink the Cat in Bree (in the cat lady's house on the Scholar's Stair), a Horse at Hengstacer Farm, a Squirrel up on an island in Nen Harn, and Sniken the Neekerbreeker in the Midgewater Marshes. I have not yet found a route that doesn't require much doubling-back or too much dodging. There is a pesky wall of cliffs between the Marshes and the fields by Nen Harn, I have found a path through them once, but have had trouble finding it again and usually end up looping around through Archet and coming down through Combe and then cutting diagonally across the marsh. There is a path for sure on the far right through the Weather Hills, but unless you feel like messing with the chance of stealthed wolves and a camp of level 55 half-orcs, I suggest you avoid that route. One thing I will mention is that those attempting these quests should pay attention to the quest dialogues of the different animals if they can, as some of them are quite humorous. My favorite is definitely the squirrel up on the island, he's psychotic.

For the Lonelands you have the relatively simple task of running to Ost Guruth and speaking with Radagast the Brown, seeking his help. As long as you stick to the road and have a bit of good luck, this one is also easily soloable. Sometimes, especially closer to Ost Guruth, you will run into lynxes, wargs, spiders or half-orc archers close to the road, these can take a bit of effort and adrenaline to avoid, especially the archers. Your evasive skills (ie ALL your skills) can be very useful here, and play dead if you have to. Once you speak to Radagast you are again transported back to the farm.Apparently no one has the time to help a poor chicken out and you are refused again.

For the North Downs you also have a single creature to talk to: the Aurochs Yearling south of Gatson's Farm. For those without an escort, this one can be a bit of trouble, but if you have an escort or two, feel free to cut across country and head in an almost straight line towards the yearling. However, take care when crossing the river that flows down the center of the North Downs - there are high cliffs on the right bank that can make crossing difficult if you don't hit it at just the right spot. When I ran it I thought I could just cross the river at any point, but picked a bad place and spent several minutes swimming up the river looking for an accessible exit point. After speaking to the Aurochs Yearling, who of course also cannot help you, you are transported back to the Shire.

For the Evendim session, this is perhaps the easiest, but also the most boring of the sessions you can play. For the most trouble free route, something easily soloable, simply run along the roadways through the Shire till you get to Brockenborings, then head east and jump into the Brandywine. Then swim up the Brandywine, avoiding getting too close to the banks on either side (especially up near the big curve to the left near the brigand's camp. There are archers that can peg you if you are too close to the right side. If you have an escort, as in the above screenshot, then feel free to run along the left bank, with your guardian angel pegging away at any nearby nasties. Then continue up the river and across the Evendim lake until you get to the Eavespires, where you must speak with the Ent Longbough. Keep in mind that if you jump in the water while pressing w (or whatever your movement is set to) you will swim faster than simply moving forward. Don't ask me why, I don't know and it makes no sense. After successfully completing this session you are, naturally, transported back to the Shire.

The final session to be completed is a trek to Rivendell. This one is without a doubt the longest and the most difficult. It can be soloed up until you reach the Bruinen Forges, but after that I have not yet found a way to reach Rivendell without some sort of help (or a great deal of luck and skill). The bears and lynx, the lurkers, badgers, boars and sickle-flies are a bit too scary for me, so I called in some help from a Rune-keeper friend of mine for the last bit, but if you are confident in your Fowl Fleetness and Bobbing and Weaving, then by all means attempt it. Just remember, if you die, you have to start back at the Shire and run all that way again.

For all that effort, you are rewarded with the Cloak of the Cluck, a fantastic looking cloak that shows off your patience and mad skills to the rest of the lotro community.

As an escort for chicken runs, I have to say the hardest part is seeing the chickens if they happen to get in tall grass or too far away. They are kind of tiny. Also, I developed a funny paranoia and kept looking behind me and doing a headcount to make sure I still had all my chickens and hadn't lost any.

Oh to cosplay.... one day.

All this talk of Gamescon lately has got me wondering what I would cosplay as if I ever were to cosplay. Granted, I in no way have the body shape for any sort of that right now, it would take a lot of work and effort, but I'm pretty sure it would be worth it in the end. Plus my husband and I have already talked about how fun it would be to cosplay, and while he was thrilled with the idea of me dressing up like someone from a game or anime, he wasn't too keen on the hundreds of horny basement-dwellers gawking.

Anyway, back on track, it didn't take me long to decide what my cosplaying goal would be. Or at least the realm containing possible goals. The Prince of Persia series has always been my favorite, so I would have to go for either Farah or Elika. My only problem (besides me currently looking like a fat otaku) would be deciding which of the girls to go for. People have told me many times that I look a bit like Elika, from 2008's PoP:

Not a horrible choice, all things considered. She's dressed relatively decent, for a vidjagame chick anyways. I know I could do the hair, at least.

My second (and third, as it were) option is to be Farah. My only issue here is, would I play the Farah from Sands of Time or the Farah from The Two Thrones? They have some significant differences, and while I think I like the character of the Sands of Time Farah, I prefer the costume of the Two Thrones one.
 To the left here is the Farah from the Sands of Time. Her costume is simple, not too revealing (I'm loving the fact that her skirt goes to mid-thigh and I wouldn't have to wear anything..... drafty.
 If nothing else, I could definitely do the whole hairintheface thing. That's something I've always been good at.



 The Farah from the Two Thrones is a bit more complicated:

Instead of a costume that could be achieved with nothing but cloth, this Farah has some definite leather/metal action going on, something that could prove problematic. Her bow is a lot more detailed as well. Check out those weird patterns.

Also it looks like this skirt a bit more on the skimpy side, so I'd definitely have to make sure I was absolutely ready to go after portraying her.


In the end, I would probably go the lazy route and just go after Elika since her costume looks the simplest, but would that be unfair to poor Farah?

/sigh

Death to Narmeleth!!!

So Squid and I finally finished Volume 1 of the epic story in lotro. Thank heaven. Finally. I think she was ready to strangle the elf-woman by the time we were done. But, all that matters, besides strangling, is that we finished, and that we have these lovely white horses to show for it.

Oh, and matching cloaks, but it was night-time in Rivendell when we finished, so the pic didn't turn out quite as well for that one.

The story really is nice though, and if you pay attention to it (unlike sis, who just accepted and moved on without reading) it pays some interesting tributes to some lesser known Tolkien lore every now and again.