Something from Nothing

There's been a fair bit of speculation about Artificers, since Turbine made the announcement. I've been lurking in the shadows of the DDO forums, trying to glean as much as I can about what qualities this new class might have. Will Turbine implement them in close alignment with the pencil-and-paper Eberron Campaign Setting rule books? It seems unlikely they would stick too closely to those rules. Gameplay in the online environment is much faster and a lot more furious than what the standard evening of tabletop play would see. But, I do hope they keep the essentials.

One of the things that made the pencil-and-paper version so interesting is the Artificer's inherent ability with mechanical objects that gave them the ability to pick locks and disable traps. Making it the only class, other than Rogues, with such an ability. In the realm of DDO, it seemed odd that multiple classes can melée, multiple classes can heal, multiple classes can repair, multiple classes can crowd-control, multiple classes can buff and de-buff, but only one class could protect the party from the peril of a trap when the quest is set to Elite.

Which has now led to many a "they nerfed my Rogue" messages on the forums. Rogues are so much more than trap-smiths, that I can't begin to understand why such a message even exists.

Granted, I don't play Trinarius the way a Rogue probably *should be played. But, again, Trin's not supposed to be a true Rogue. He's multi-classed in a way that I thought best represented the Artificer, in the absence of a true class within the game. As a result, Trin can't assassinate. Nor can he generate the damage many a true Rogue can. But, as I said, he isn't meant to, either.

As should be evident by his arcane abilities. He offers a wide variety of spells meant to make the adventure party more well-rounded. Which is what an Artificer does. Except that a true Artificer imbues items with arcane power, rather than casting spells directly. It was something I struggled with as I slowly brought Trin up to the level cap.

And, similar to an Artificer, Trin's Ranger abilities are intended to allow him to stand in the back, where he can support the party, rather than getting in the way of the enemy's weapons swinging to-and-fro.

The question I continue to find myself asking is whether the Artificer, as Turbine chooses to implement it, will give me the ability to do Trin justice without having to multi-class. So far, Turbine hasn't said much of any substance about how they plan to implement the class.

All I can do is sit, lurk and hope.

In the mean time, may you have interesting adventures!

Resurrection

So, it's been an awfully long time since I last posted anything. Perhaps all those who used to read have moved on. And, that's understandable. I, too, have been busy with other, real life distractions. With luck, I'll return to blogging about DDO more regularly.

One of the things that brings me back to my old blog is a new development on the part of Turbine. It seems they've decided to add a new class to the game. And, surprisingly, it's one of the core Eberron classes that I had originally hoped to play, when I started playing DDO... the Artificer.

In truth, Trinarius, from the beginning, was supposed to have been an Artificer. But, because the game didn't offer that class, he, instead, used the game's allowance for multi-class characters to approximate those abilities. Well, now that Turbine has committed to formally creating the Artificer class, we shall see whether Trinarius becomes the character he always should have been.

Thanks for reading!

Cranky Ol' Velah!

So, it's been a while since I've posted anything.

But, it's also been a while since there's been anything particularly interesting to blog about.

Until last night, that is.

We've finally had enough Face Stabbers return to the game, that we were able to put together a level 10-13 Dragon Raid.

Surprisingly, everyone showed up with raid-ready characters. In the past, it's seemed that there's always been one person who wanted to join us who hadn't yet completed all of the Vault of Night prerequisite quests. I guess everyone *really* wanted to run a raid.

In fact, for most of us, it'd been close to a year since we'd last paid Velah a visit. (Perhaps that's why she was so cranky last night.)

Unfortunately, we didn't have a full raid group. But, at least we came up with nine players: two Clerics, Factotum (Belzur) and Zorgon (Sorgon); two Fighters, Zothra (Craygar) and Bingster; two Rogues, Fatti (Kruella(h)) and Trinarias (warforged Trin); a Paladin, Robinous; a Ranger, Cranish (Bashal); and a Bard, Plagiarist (Tanision).

You'll note that, of the group, none of the characters were Wizards or Sorcerers.

That fact would eventually play its part in the adventure.

Although we only had nine players, most of us were in the level 12-13 range, and we ran the raid on Normal difficulty. (So much for priapism...) This meant that we were a bit over-powered, relative to the recommended level/difficulty setting.

However...

We only had nine players...

And, we're all Face Stabbing Misfits.

Always a strong influence to be carefully considered.

Still, we gave it a go.

And, it was slow going at first. After all, it's been nearly a year since most of us had been in the Vault, and nearly three years for some. *cough* Kru... *cough* Craygar... *cough*

'scuse me... where was I???

Oh, yes...

So, it was a little slow at first. Mostly because none of us could quite remember exactly what to do, what order to do it in, what we should have done first, those sorts of things.

But, we had only two deaths in the Vault of Night (chapter 5), leading up to the actual encounter with Velah.

Yes... Trin was one of them...

And, yes... Trin still has an affection for going skinny-dipping in the lava...

But, at least, this time, Trin wasn't carrying the Voice or the Ring when he did.

No, instead, I had the privilege of incessantly (and annoyingly) reminding Robinous *NOT* to fall off anything into the lava.

I'm surprised no one asked me to stop repeating myself.

But I was pleasantly surprised that we'd all managed to find our way through the vault, all the way to the portal, guarded by Arach d'Kundarak, that would transport us to our encounter with Velah, in the Plane of Night.

However...

The encounter with Arach didn't go quite as expected.

You see... the folks at Turbine tweak things, just a bit, each time they release an update to the game.

And, there had been at least three updates to the game since any of us had last had a chat with Arach.

Y'know... he has more mechanical hounds now.

Four, in fact.

And each represents an element.

Fire, Acid, Ice and Lightning.

'course, we didn't know this until we all gathered 'round the Golem and asked Arach to let us through.

And we nearly wiped.

In fact, the only one left on his feet who could do anything to help us was Plagiarist.

But, his most immediate priority was to keep running.

Before the first seven of us had died, and Robinous had become incapacitated, we had only made a minor dent in the Golem's health.

And, we hadn't done *anything* about the hounds.

Y'know... thinking that, like the good ol' days... just beat down the Golem and the hounds will go away...

Umm... no.

We're not entirely sure, but it seems as though the hounds provide a kind of health/defense mechanism for the Golem.

It wasn't until Plagiarist had managed to revive Factotum, Zorgon and Robinous, that we had a chance to even *try* to deal with the hounds.

But, once back on our feet, with Plagiarist still the focus of the Golem and hound's attention, we finally managed to isolate the hounds, one at a time, and give Cranish, Zothra and Bingster a chance to work on the Golem.

Granted, this is not a new trick on the part of the developers at Turbine, but it was unexpected.

I'm not sure about anyone else, but I was glad that Plagiarist had survived to prevent us from having to re-run the entire Vault.

*That* would've been especially disheartening.

But, we made it.

In fact, it was especially nice that Turbine now fills up a character's health an mana when they successfully complete an adventure. It proved quite useful when we entered the Plane of Night to face Velah.

But, that's when things started falling... Bingster... Factotum... apart.

Yeah...

Turbine had also done us the favor of tweaking the encounter with Velah.

None of our old tactics worked anymore.

And...

We eventually wiped.

I think we had a good plan. It simply needs some adjustment.

And, some practice.

Which is why we re-scheduled the raid for another attempt next week.

'course... it'd be nice if, say... Althena and Maeric would grace us with their presence...

I ~know~ they both check in on us every once in a while...

They would be *MOST* welcome.

And we wouldn't necessarily promote them back into their old positions...

Unless they ~wanted~ us to...

HINT! HINT!!!

C'mon, Boss Lady! I know you're watching. We need our figure head back.

And, you, too Maeric. We haven't anything close to a master-mind anymore...

But, if you just want to leave us to deal with Velah, ourselves.

And, to die a lot...

Well...

So be it...

Just remember... we miss you guys!

In the mean time... there're preparations to be made! (Ya gotta love Q!)

I know I have my old notes on this raid... somewhere... dusty... ... ... somewhere...

Oh, well. We'll keep trying.

Keep it fun!

WTF!?!

So, Update 1 was a bit of a surprise to me. I heard a few rumors about an impending update on Monday, but dismissed it. Turbine has a history of not keeping their word, so I've taken a rather cynical stance on so-called improvements to the game.

However, I was astounded when I tried to log in this evening and the game began downloading Update 1.

I decided to go shovel the snow that's fallen from the first half of the storm while my computer did its thing.

My internet connection isn't the fastest, so I decided to have some dinner after shoveling snow, without even bothering to check the game's progress. In fact, I thought it highly doubtful that I'd even be able to log in this evening.

To my surprise, the game had finished it's update by the time dinner was finished.

Wow!

Then I tried to log in...



Seriously!

What the... !!!

I have *never* had any free play time in this game.

And I have to *wait* to get in?!?

This better be good...

The End of DDO???

You be the judge...

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/95570-Dungeons-Dragons-Brought-to-Life-Using-a-Microsoft-Surface-Table

I know, I know... it's probably another form of vaporware.

But...

Some of us miss the days of gathering 'round the table for an evening of adventure.

It's just that it was sometimes a huge mess, what with all of the die sets, books, papers, figures, etc., strewn all about the room. Why not let the computer do all of that rule-keeping for you, and let you and your friends get together to hang out while you spend more time adventuring, and less time arguing about the rules or rolls, or whatever?

Oh... wait... That's what we have DDO for, right!?!

Well, in DDO, we aren't all sitting together in the same room.

Same *virtual* room, if we're all using voice chat.

Does anyone else wish they could play an adventure from the comfort of their living room recliner?

I do.

And, what about those headsets we all use???

Mine becomes extremely uncomfortable after more than about an hour.

Seems like this might make for a nice coffee table.

Could maybe even load it with other things, too.

Looks interesting, though. Would be nice to have friends over for a gaming session, and still have the benefit of computer assistance, but actually be able to share a social experience in person.

This one's interesting; I'll have to keep an eye on it.

In the mean time, several of us got together for some adventuring last night, and we found our way to the plane of Shavarath.

It's a fascinating landscape, for sure. And the monsters in the "outdoor adventure area" are certainly a challenge; we managed to find two of the rare encounters. And fought a relatively long, drawn-out battle to defeat them.

So long, in fact, that, while running PEBKAC, I was seriously depleting my mana pool. I *had* to launch the DDO Store and buy some mana potions, just to keep going.

What happens when I run out of Turbine Points?

I'm a subscription... err... VIP member already. I'm not about to use a credit card to pay for more Turbine Points. The wife would have my hide, for sure. Seems to me that players ought to be able to buy mana potions from in-game vendors, much the same way they buy healing potions.

Or, better yet...

How 'bout we finally give the crafting system a proper implementation, and allow player-characters to craft potions, scrolls, weapons, etc.???

I mean, shouldn't our characters be doing *something* when they aren't adventuring???

Just a thought.

In the mean time, I'm interested to see more of Shavarath, and the other Planes the folks at Turbine have opened up for us.

Keep it fun!

Where's Trin?

Quite a few people have been asking that question lately.

Rest assured, I haven't gone anywhere.

Well, I haven't left the game, anyway.

The truth is that I *have* been going somewhere.

Regularly.

I've been going flying.

That's right, I'm taking flying lessons.

I'm working on my Private Pilot Certificate.

Aviation has always been a significant force in my life, and my wife finally agreed not to let her fear of flying keep me from doing one of the things I've wanted to do all my life.

So, there have been quite a few evenings where, instead of running amok in the streets of Stormreach, I've been carefully studying maneuvers and proceedures, and preparing for my limited time in the cockpit.

I say limited, because I can only go flying once every couple of weeks. So, I have to make the most of that time.

However, studying for this does consume a considerable amount of time.

Approximately 45 minutes, every day.

So, if you don't see me in Stormreach, please forgive me.

I'm still here.

Just working on one of those things that's *very* important to me.

And, for those interested, the landings are getting good. I should be able to solo soon. Then it's on to cross-country and night flying. If I maintain a good track, I should complete my certificate sometime next Spring. We'll have to see how that goes.

In the mean time, many of the Face Stabbers who've taken a leave of absence from the game are beginning to return.

Even Meany is back.

So, now we're planning the FSM Reunion Raiding Tour.

Not all of the stops have yet been planned. We're working on that one.

I look forward to seeing everyone in game, even if it isn't as often as it once was.

Keep it fun, everyone!

Catching Up

Despite my preferences, my new job simply doesn't have any spare time in which I can take a few minutes to post a new blog entry.

Which is really too bad, considering the rather tedious aspects of the administrative functions I'm currently performing for projects in construction and nearing completion. But, I suppose it's what I signed up for. Particularly since I'm *finally* nearing the end of my internship, and preparing to sit for the architect's registration exam.

Still, I *have* to take some time for myself, to relax and unwind.

And, maybe...

in the process...

catch up on some of the going's-on within the Face Stabbing Misfits, and in DDO in general.

First up... DDO: Eberron Unlimited.

Yep, it's finally live.

Granted, some will say "but it's been live for nearly two weeks now!"

Well, that may be true, but it was *OVER* *A* *YEAR* in waiting.

Seriously. I refuse to cut Turbine a break over that one.

In the mean time, "Free2Play" has gone live as well. And we're even starting to see an influx of players, both new and old, as a result.

Of course, you've probably seen that Kruella and Craygar are back. Apparently, so is Meany. Who's next???

Now, in the process of Kruella and Craygar getting back into the swing of things, some interesting topics have been posted in the guild's Message of the Day.

Including a reference to Tramp Stamps.

Yeah, tramp stamps... tattoos.

Kru had first suggested that we all get tattoos. Then she changed her mind and decided that really, only Trin needed one. On what she referred to as "his buttflanks."

Yeah.

Sorry, Kru, but, despite the fact that Turbine has opened up all sorts of new possibilities for character appearance through add-ons in the new Turbine Store, I just don't see any "tramp stamps" or tattoos.

Besides, I like Trin's image... unblemished.

It's not my fault you can't accept Dwarven perfection, as it has already been presented to you.

Besides, Kru, if Trin were to have a tattoo applied to his already excellent physique, there's only one place you'd be able to find it...

My guess is that Craygar might have issues with you inspecting it. :-P

Of course, there's been other madness in the guild.

It's no secret that some of the guild's best members are the result of earnest and sincere recruiting efforts on the part of Kruella. She is, in fact, the one who recruited me into the Face Stabbers.

(Bet she's regretting that now...)

So, upon her return, she was officially conferred the title and responsibility of Guild Recruiting Officer.

But, I think that may have backfired on her, somewhat.

You see, Soulencer has already met the first prerequisite for becoming a Face Stabber...

He has a twisted sense of humor.

Which has manifested itself in a most interesting way.

Apparently, while I was away on a business trip for work, Soulencer had created himself a new character.

However, without myself or Belzur available to invite his new lowbie into the guild, he turned to the only logical alternative...

Kru!

But, apparently, Kru didn't realize who it was.

And, Soulencer, having such a twisted sense of humor, decided to have a little fun with it.

So much fun that Kru took to avoiding him, and refusing to admit him into the guild.

I think she became particularly frustrated with him once he began offering gold to join the guild.

But, it gets better.

Since Kru wouldn't admit him, Soulencer began asking Craygar for a guild invite, too.

Now, since Kru and Craygar are married in real life, it should be obvious that they *must* have discussed this "turd" that had been bothering Kru amongst themselves. So, as if there were any doubt, Craygar refused, too.

But, Soulencer didn't give up.

Nor did he reveal his true identity.

Instead, he kept pestering both Kru and Craygar until they both /ignored him.

I'm not sure whether you're aware, but the /ignore command makes it so the recipient doesn't hear *anything* from the /ignored character. And, as empirical evidence has shown, you can't even hear a fellow guildie within your current party if he's been /ignored.

So, Kru and Craygar thought they had heard the last of Soulencer's new lowbie, whom they didn't know belonged to Soulencer in the first place.

To them, he was just some random "turd."

Well, while driving across the plains of Kansas and eastern Colorado, on my way home from my business trip, I decided to give Belzur a call to see what had been happening while I'd been gone.

I had no previous knowledge of what had been transpired in my absence, but Belzur explained to me what had happened with Soulencer's new lowbie.

He also informed me that Soulencer had let Belzur in on the joke, so that Belzur wouldn't spoil the fun.

Belzur had first suggested that he should invite Soulencer's new lowbie into the guild, just to see how Kru would react.

However, the conversation took on a life of its own, and before long, it was decided that, since I'm notorious for inviting "stray cats" and "lost dogs" into the guild, perhaps it should be me that sends the invite to Soulencers new lowbie, *while* Kru and Craygar are grouped with me and Belzur, and anyone else who's heard the stories of this "turd" who's been stalking Kruella and her hubby.

To be fair, Kru, it might have something to do with the fact that you like to strip off and dance naked in public.

Maybe...

So, on Monday night, everything had fallen into place. Kruella, Craygar, Tanision, Belzur, Soulencer and I were all grouped together for some Gianthold adventuring.

After we'd been playing for a while, I sent a /tell to Soulencer, suggesting he make an excuse to drop party and switch characters, so that he could log in as Enob, his new lowbie, and nemesis of Kruella and Craygar.

At the same time, I sent a /tell to Belzur, letting him know what was about to go down.

Although Tanision had been aware of the harassment Kru and Craygar had been suffering at the hands of Enob, he didn't know that Enob was really Soulencer, though he suspected that whoever this Enob was, it was surely someone Kru was at least acquainted with.

Still, I kept the secret, and didn't let Tan know what was about to happen.

So, when the time was right, and Enob was finally logged in and ready, I spoke out in voice chat "Hey, Kru! I found us a new guildie, too!"

"Oh, yeah? Who???"

"Hang on just a sec..."

...

*ding!*

...

(in guild chat) Welcome, Enob!

"Oh, *NO*!!! Trin, no! You gotta boot him, like right now!"

Craygar joined in the stern protest, too.

I couldn't hold back any longer. I burst out laughing, and so did Belzur. And Tan joined in, too.

Particularly when I revealed that Kru (and Craygar) had been had.

Not thirty seconds after inviting Enob into the guild, Kru exercised her Officer's abilities, and booted him out, anyway.

Truth be told, I think she'd have booted me from the guild, too, if she'd had the ability.

Of course, I brought Enob back in, but he also logged back over to Soulencer to re-join the group.

Kru has had more than a few choice words about the whole thing.

I think she belives it's all been some sort of conspiracy. However, it was all a simple misunderstanding that took a rather humorous turn, and took on a life all unto itself.

Granted, torturing someone as nice as Kru is somewhat mean, but considering some of the many practical jokes that have been played on the various members of the guild, I couldn't help but play my part in the shenanigans.

Still, Kru promises that "revenge is a dish best served cold."

An apt line from Shakespear.

I look forward to it!

Keep it fun!!!