It's expensive.
What did you expect. At $140 for the book or $80 just to see it on my iPod (if it works) I really don't see the point of me even trying to get it. The real questions I have is how can someone afford to start this hobby, let alone continue to afford it?
Ok, so that's a different debate. From what I've been seen and told, the rules are easier to understand/use and for the most part the game seems to have improved slightly. There does appear to be a few glaring faults though that some players can abuse for their own benefit and putting their opponent at a major disadvantage, but with that said there was also a rule (according to some people since I never saw it) that means you can make changes to games before play and that you can just say no to gaming with these jerks if you should. Should be interesting to see how that one would work in tournaments.
Will I play it? Despite converting/painting various models (including my Inquisitor squads and Orks) my honest answer is no. Mostly this is now due to the hobby being too expensive and I feel that while I will continue to convert/paint the occasional model, my time (and money) must be better spent elsewhere. Should they bring out a new edition of Warhammer Fantasy Battle, I might take that one up, but only because I already have a decent size Skaven force to use. If you want to defend the costs that's fine, but they already screwed up White Dwarf (both it and Visions I stopped collecting a week or two after they came out) and I can't see why they can't just release a basic book with just the rules and no hard cover. It would be cheaper and most of us could get it. Sometimes this hobby just ticks me off.
Update: So if you wanted updates on some projects, I do have a finished mousling, a nearly finished Dwarf Engineer and have gotten further on the Celestial Hurricanum. Have also got more work done the Inquisition too. Will add photos soon once I get back home. Am away at the moment due to family issues.
Monday 26 May 2014
Sunday 18 May 2014
Wildstar Open Beta - Final
And so with the final day of open beta on us, what did I think? For the most part, it's an enjoyable MMO and I'll be glad to give it a good run through once it's finally released (though despite having a three day head start, my deluxe stuff won't be accessible until game release - thanks EB). Sadly, I wasn't able to get to try the dungeons and adventures (wasn't able to find a group) nor any PvP (once waited three hours to get into battlegrounds with no avail). Particularly disappointed about the Battlegrounds, but hopefully once released I'll get into them and have some real fun. Must admit, Warplots is something I really want to get involved it.
Housing is a major thing that interests me and I find the crafting will be just as investing. Combat is also fun and can't wait to see how it will work in PvP. Kinda sad to see all my work wiped away, although the idea of all the extras available upon release will be more then enough to compensate I think..
See you in Wildstar.
Housing is a major thing that interests me and I find the crafting will be just as investing. Combat is also fun and can't wait to see how it will work in PvP. Kinda sad to see all my work wiped away, although the idea of all the extras available upon release will be more then enough to compensate I think..
Gotta say, love how some of these costume options look too.
See you in Wildstar.
Saturday 17 May 2014
Friday 16 May 2014
Zargooran by Cricky Dave
A while back I did an article about creating Zargooran's physical image (Link) and since then I've not been too sure on how to make that image work. So the best way to see how is to commission an artist to help. Once again I commissioned SupaCrikeyDave for this. Behold:
This unique look of the character has that sense of mystery to him. I'm very impressed just how 'organic' he looks, something which I've had no end of trouble trying to get. His are certainly has that feel to it. Once again, I'm grateful to Dave for his hard work in trying to get this rather complex piece done. So chech out the link to his page for more of his fantastic work.
Thursday 15 May 2014
Wildstar Open Beta - My House Update
So, got a few more hours to play this and spent some time focusing on housing a bit more, so here is an updated shot:
As you can see it's dark. This isn't because I took the screenshots at night, but I change the sky to Northern Lights.
While it looks nice, the level of darkness is affected by the time of day of your plot. During the lighter times the visual light is brighter, but when it's 'night' the area gets really dark. This wouldn't be so much of a problem, but the outside lighting options that you can purchase from the vendor aren't very bright. Given I'm not wanting to buy tech lights, I would like more options for things like an open fire and perhaps Tiki torches. Maybe there are ones I can make later on, I don't know.
I found I got most of my FABkits (they allow you to build these various plots) mostly from doing challenges or from mob drops. A few (like the Moonshine place) can be bought ingame, while the Festival one came from leveling my Path. Speaking of Path, I did get one decorative piece as a result of leveling up:
I like how things like cups and stuff don't seem to have much effect now, but I bet that once you add more things in you could appreciate the details better.
Overall, I've enjoyed playing around with the decorating and it is alot of fum (well, that climbing challenge for that crystal rock thing was irritating), I am looking forward to what I can do upon release.
Hedge Maze
Garden
Festival Tier 2
Moonshine Anyone?
I found I got most of my FABkits (they allow you to build these various plots) mostly from doing challenges or from mob drops. A few (like the Moonshine place) can be bought ingame, while the Festival one came from leveling my Path. Speaking of Path, I did get one decorative piece as a result of leveling up:
Gold!!
As you can see, I have altered the furniture in the house slightly. I do hope that at a later date (I believe level 35) you can get a bigger house with a bigger interior. I also hope so as there is little room in my current one and being an Aurin house, the room is very round and difficult to flatten items against the walls.
Overall, I've enjoyed playing around with the decorating and it is alot of fum (well, that climbing challenge for that crystal rock thing was irritating), I am looking forward to what I can do upon release.
Monday 12 May 2014
Wildstar Open Beta - Housing
Finally, after much waiting I've finally got access to housing. From what I understand, once you reach level 14 (I assume it's that since everywhere I've looked it said 14) and you go to your main city you will received a missed call/message giving you a housing quest. Once you complete this simple quest you get a plot of land. To build a house costs 1 Gold (advance houses aren't accessible to level 35 I think). I was lucky that after much questing, challenges and crafting I had some items to put around the place.
One of the nice features in this housing system is the ability to alter the size of most items. Mixing the sizes around is nice if you want to have variants on visual looks, but it can also be used to make nice little spots to jump to for a bit of fun.
At this level though I do lack money and supplies to really build up on this, but hopefully I may have some better screenshots of what more I could add to this place. This also means I have yet to alter the sky and the level of lighting in the place. Lights themselves work within a light radius as seen below and while I don't mind it too much, I must admit I'm not on maximum graphics so I can't be sure if it could be improved.
Overall, so far I'm enjoying it and I can see myself putting lots more time into this with higher levels in crafting and more currency. Some of the better stuff does require form of currency called Renown which from my understanding, is earned by gaming with other people and the items that do use it are expensive. Given that I'm sure I've not earned any yet, I don't know how easy/hard it is to obtain.
Till next time...
A little fun with various bed sizes.
By increasing the tree size, I can jump onto higher spots for a better look around.
At this level though I do lack money and supplies to really build up on this, but hopefully I may have some better screenshots of what more I could add to this place. This also means I have yet to alter the sky and the level of lighting in the place. Lights themselves work within a light radius as seen below and while I don't mind it too much, I must admit I'm not on maximum graphics so I can't be sure if it could be improved.
Till next time...
Perhaps I need a smaller bed...
Friday 9 May 2014
Wildstar Open Beta Begins
And yes, I really do want to test out housing. I've seen a couple of videos on what people have done so far and that only makes me want to test it out even more. Curse this bad luck.
Also, I just love how these Wildstar trailers always feel like it's a movie. It's nice to see some good story telling through these clips.
Monday 5 May 2014
Dwarf Engineer Begins
So despite all that's happening right now I am getting some time to work on projects. This one in particular will be a two parts, the first being the Engineer and the second being his turret. The reason for this is because I have yet to get a proper design done and that I also have limited supplies at the moment.
As such, I'll work on just finishing the Dwarf first and upload his pic. I'll then work on his turret later on and upload another set of shots with both the turret and Engineer. Also, it is much harder then I thought to convert a backpack with limited parts. Hopefully, it will all turn out good in the end.
Sunday 4 May 2014
Wildstar Beta Weekend - Trade Skills
So, finally got to level 10 and started testing the trade skills out. Unfortunately, I chose Architect as one of them. Where to begin?
The collection trade skills (Miner, Relic Hunter and Survivalist) are easy enough to learn. Upon obtaining one of these skills you must purchase the appropriate item that corresponds with that skill (e.g Laser saw for Survivalist) so you can mine nodes. You can find them by looking around, though icons will show up on your mini-map showing you their locations. These nodes look much like you expect them, such as trees for Survivalist or a WoW like mineral rock for Miner. You must face directly at these nodes to mine them and this is usually a channeling process that can be interrupted if your attacked. Your respective resources will pop out and you need simply collected them (pressing the V key is the quickest way). Plants for seeds you will attack, so just be weary that you can pull mobs as a result of this. Collecting from basic nodes will level you up to Tier 2, then you need the next level nodes up (which will be accessible by this point) to earn more.
Crafting skills are somewhat different to what I expected. Choosing the Architect may not have been my best first choice, since to build most of his basic work will require you to have resources from all three of the collecting trade skills (though I chose Survivalist which is recommended). Leveling up is easy enough, just craft items from the level your on (so novice items will give respective trade skill XP until apprentice, then you need apprentice items to get more....I think?), but it seems learning new recipes is a bit different. Apart from ones you can find, others can be learned through achieving certain goals in that levels tech tree.
For instance, to learn a new set of bushes in Architect, I had to craft 3 bushes of a certain type and to do that I first needed two types of ingredients, then in the crafting menu I selected that bush and after much mucking about, discovered that by adding two copper bolts (which you use currency to purchase - they where 10 copper each) that bush type was available to make. Making three of them then unlocked two new bush types (one of which I needed 5 of for a trade skill quest). So yeah, this was very confusing to learn at first and since my tutorial system was bugged (this is Beta after all) it took me some time to gather materials to keep testing.
Also, you will need to be at a crafting table to do all your crafting, with the exception of cooking, which can be done both at a crafting table and at various cooking spots. There are also supply vendors which do sell other collecting trade skill ingredients, but are very limited in number and have very few choices that are always random (so iron ore was difficult for me to obtain. That said, these vendors can sometimes have just what you need.
Overall, I feel that this system is more complicated compared to other games I've played, but I feel that once I've truly got the hang of it then it will probably be a nice time sink for when I need a break from the action. Next time though, I should try one of the more combat useful trade skills (since I still do not have access to housing for my Architect skill to be useful).
Update:
Well, I'm an idiot. Turns out that the crafting system works somewhat differently to what I thought. While it is simple to craft the basic item, to craft the variant is a little different. What you do is purchase items (like the bolts I mentioned in the example above), but you move over them and when you do a small target appears. What you want to do is select the one which brings the target that's closest to your variant item. You get three slots to do this and if you get the last target right you'll get a success sign appear over the variant on the side bar and the menu will go green, meaning you can craft your item.
Found this out by finding a video on Youtube from someone crafting these under the Beta's old crafting system (which has improved since then). Also say an update video on Housing which has really got me pumped to play. Perhaps in Open Beta I'll get a shot at it.
The collection trade skills (Miner, Relic Hunter and Survivalist) are easy enough to learn. Upon obtaining one of these skills you must purchase the appropriate item that corresponds with that skill (e.g Laser saw for Survivalist) so you can mine nodes. You can find them by looking around, though icons will show up on your mini-map showing you their locations. These nodes look much like you expect them, such as trees for Survivalist or a WoW like mineral rock for Miner. You must face directly at these nodes to mine them and this is usually a channeling process that can be interrupted if your attacked. Your respective resources will pop out and you need simply collected them (pressing the V key is the quickest way). Plants for seeds you will attack, so just be weary that you can pull mobs as a result of this. Collecting from basic nodes will level you up to Tier 2, then you need the next level nodes up (which will be accessible by this point) to earn more.
Crafting skills are somewhat different to what I expected. Choosing the Architect may not have been my best first choice, since to build most of his basic work will require you to have resources from all three of the collecting trade skills (though I chose Survivalist which is recommended). Leveling up is easy enough, just craft items from the level your on (so novice items will give respective trade skill XP until apprentice, then you need apprentice items to get more....I think?), but it seems learning new recipes is a bit different. Apart from ones you can find, others can be learned through achieving certain goals in that levels tech tree.
For instance, to learn a new set of bushes in Architect, I had to craft 3 bushes of a certain type and to do that I first needed two types of ingredients, then in the crafting menu I selected that bush and after much mucking about, discovered that by adding two copper bolts (which you use currency to purchase - they where 10 copper each) that bush type was available to make. Making three of them then unlocked two new bush types (one of which I needed 5 of for a trade skill quest). So yeah, this was very confusing to learn at first and since my tutorial system was bugged (this is Beta after all) it took me some time to gather materials to keep testing.
Also, you will need to be at a crafting table to do all your crafting, with the exception of cooking, which can be done both at a crafting table and at various cooking spots. There are also supply vendors which do sell other collecting trade skill ingredients, but are very limited in number and have very few choices that are always random (so iron ore was difficult for me to obtain. That said, these vendors can sometimes have just what you need.
Overall, I feel that this system is more complicated compared to other games I've played, but I feel that once I've truly got the hang of it then it will probably be a nice time sink for when I need a break from the action. Next time though, I should try one of the more combat useful trade skills (since I still do not have access to housing for my Architect skill to be useful).
Update:
Well, I'm an idiot. Turns out that the crafting system works somewhat differently to what I thought. While it is simple to craft the basic item, to craft the variant is a little different. What you do is purchase items (like the bolts I mentioned in the example above), but you move over them and when you do a small target appears. What you want to do is select the one which brings the target that's closest to your variant item. You get three slots to do this and if you get the last target right you'll get a success sign appear over the variant on the side bar and the menu will go green, meaning you can craft your item.
Found this out by finding a video on Youtube from someone crafting these under the Beta's old crafting system (which has improved since then). Also say an update video on Housing which has really got me pumped to play. Perhaps in Open Beta I'll get a shot at it.
Thursday 1 May 2014
Garden Warfare Gets Microtransactions
Title says it all really, but I'm confused by all the anger for this. Thing is, by now most who wanted to play this on box Xbox formats already have and those who want to play it one PC, for $5 extra for the deluxe edition you know get a bonus 150,000 coins. Really, the only reason I see this being a problem in game would be Gardens & Graveyards mode for plants with Zombies pumping out tough zombies gained from mass spending of coins on expensive packs (with random chance).
I guess most of the anger is the general distaste for microtransactions. Given EA is the publisher, it's surprising that they've held off for so long(they said not at launch, never said they wouldn't do it), let alone the fact that all the DLC for the game thus far has been free. I personally don't see it as too much of a problem (since I don't think there's much of a 'pay to win' here), but well see what effect it has soon enough.
I guess most of the anger is the general distaste for microtransactions. Given EA is the publisher, it's surprising that they've held off for so long(they said not at launch, never said they wouldn't do it), let alone the fact that all the DLC for the game thus far has been free. I personally don't see it as too much of a problem (since I don't think there's much of a 'pay to win' here), but well see what effect it has soon enough.
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