NBI: Nearing the end

Time's going faster than I thought. I was just about to publish a "learning challenge" for Ambermist as actuality caught up with me and I was already supposed to write another, unexpected challenge, ominously described as The Final Challenge. So I dropped the other post and got right on it. It struck me that this was her hardest challenge so far, as the assignment was this: "Find three blogs that participated in the NBI, introduce me to each, and give me at least one reason you like each blog."

Three blogs you should not miss

Okay, I admit that finding three NBI blogs wasn't that hard. After all, Syp just posted 111 of them (yup, I counted them). The real challenge was of course to select just three of them. So here I present to you:

Image Heavy: even though she writes mostly about a game that I don't play myself (World of Warcraft), Clumsygrrrl keeps catching my attention with her humorous, smooth writing and her original insights. Both text and images make this into a cheerful blog that you should keep an eye on.

Shards of Imagination: no overflow of images here, but plain, good old fashioned text. And that is exactly what Rakuno is good at. He can write about pretty much anything, but always manages to voice his thoughts and opinions in his very own and pleasant way. Lean back and take the time to read some of his posts. It's worth it.

Hipstalotro: the description "me and my smartphone wandering through Middle-earth's coolest places" made me giggle the first time I saw it. Honestly, who takes on the idea of posting "polaroid" pictures taken in Lord of the Rings Online? Accompanied by humorous captions, this is the perfect picture blog to check on a daily basis.

Cheating

Okay, and while you're at it, I reckon you're not bored yet and want more blogs to check out. Or actually, to be honest with you, I'm just looking for an excuse to present you some other good newbie blogs that I've actively been following. After all, everybody else did it, so then it's okay, right?

• Brazokie's Blog Space
• Kemwer Game Blog
• Real Adventures in Fake Worlds

The NBI has been overwhelming and I sincerely hope that many blogs will make it through and keep being active. I'm also sure that I've missed many good blogs, as there were just too many to keep up with them all. The ones that I've been following (and it's been more than mentioned in this post) are all found in my MMO blogroll. Let me know if I've missed your favorite!


Edit: my initial thought was to only feature newbie blogs in this post, but my chaotic blogroll containing both newbies and sponsors set me up! (I haven't really been keeping track of who's a newbie or not, since I just enjoy reading blogs no matter what category they fall in.) I'll keep it like this, though, the blogs mentioned totally deserve their spot.

LOTRO: Elf captain of Mirkwood

This is going to be an interesting post, because it is as much a fashion post as it is a plea for elf captains. Above you see captain Ravenwyn looking over the Mirkwood forest, contemplating the challenges that lie ahead of her. She is a female human captain, but today she dresses up as an elf captain and thinks about what could have been...

...because, even though Ost Galadh is crowded by elf captain NPCs that quarrel about what offensive strategy to follow until your ears are sore, players are not able to pick an elf as race for their captain. The only option for a player wanting to play a captain is the human race. Okay, I see how hobbit captains are perhaps not what I want to encounter running around. Dwarf captains? They might have been there, but I can understand it's a less suitable choice, as dwarves usually don't form armies and fight in great battles. But elf captains? There were numerous notable elf captains in the history of Middle-earth, and there still are today, during the siege of Mirkwood. These are two legendary elf captains that you might have heard of:

Fingolfin

When the boats were burned after the sad events of the first kinslaying and there was no safe way of crossing the water to Middle-earth, Fingolfin decided to lead his people over the Helcaraxë, the icecap that formed the only connection between Aman and Middle-earth, instead. It was a terrible journey, during which many elves perished, but they made it in the end because of Fingolfin's determination. Many battles against Angband were won under his leadership, and he became a legend among his own people. He ruled as a high king over Hithlum, keeping the lands safe for almost four hundred years. In the end, he rode against Morgoth himself, enraged of all the slaughter that was caused during a sudden outbreak of Angband forces. He died in an epic duel with Morgorth, injuring him greatly. Morgorth limped ever after.

Glorfindel

He lived in Gondolin under Turgon, high king of the Noldor, and was chief of the House of the Golden Flower. When Gondolin was attacked, he accomplished many brave deeds leading his house, but the fall of Gondolin was inevitable. He dueled with a Balrog to hold off enemy forces to buy the last surviving Gondolindhrim time to escape using a secret passage. They fought long, and Glorfindel defeated the beast, but in the end perished as well. When his spirit arrived at the Hall of Mandos, he was re-embodied by the Valar for his loyalty and noble deeds. He was sent back to Middle-earth to aid against Sauron and was granted great powers, almost equal to the maiar themselves. After his return he without doubt continued to influence the events during the War of the Ring greatly, but we are told little of his deeds during this time.

I don't seriously believe they will ever introduce elf captains to LotRO, even if only to avoid the granted enrage of some players ("why wasn't I able to pick an elf captain when I started playing five years ago?") - but I do think that's a shame. In the meanwhile, the only thing I can do is dressing up as an elf captain from time to time, using the outfit featured in this article. I like how it makes you blend in with the elves in Mirkwood. It is also one of the few outfits I find fitting with the Blue Roan Steed, which was available during the Spring Festival of 2010 and 2011 (I think you can still buy it in the Store). Even though it's a congregation of many pieces, it feels like one set: an elf captain set.

       Outfit of the elf captain      

• Runemaker's Hat (rune-keeper Barad Guldur hat piece)
• Malledhrim Pauldrons of the Awakened (crafted supreme (tier 6) Mirkwood-style shoulders) - grey
• Strong Dunlending Battle Armour (crafted Westfold (tier 7) Dunland chest piece) - grey
• Officer's Gloves (crafted supreme (tier 6) Lothlórien-style gloves) - grey
• Shoes of the Stone-student (lore-master Moria former no-radiance set) - grey

In the meanwhile, my captain keeps contemplating about her future, hoping for true elf captains to come...

SWTOR: A short advice

This is why you play SWTOR with drivers installed on your computer.

Twi'lek on my laptop:

Same poor twi'lek on my boyfriend's computer without drivers:

After an hour of handing in quests at eyeless zombies (they were kind and thankful zombies, it has to be said, but still), my boyfriend was very eager to install all proper drivers on his computer. This means I'm able to play Star Wars on his pc again when I don't have the laptop, hurray!

SWTOR: Beautiful Voss and a screenie spree

It's been a while since I last played Star Wars and that was not because I was tired of it - somehow I got totally absorbed into Lord of the Rings Online and (while my boyfriend was rebuilding his pc) Mass Effect. Yesterday evening I returned to SWTOR, though, and tried to gain support from the planet Voss. I've been level 45 for so long now and it is time to get those last five levels done. I now even got the padawan I dreamed of - Nadia Grell (see Companion roulette), so what was I waiting for? The first thing that struck me was that the planet is so beautiful!

I'm usually more positive about the details and the strong realistic feeling of LotRO's landscapes, but for SWTOR, Voss wasn't too bad. I tend to get a bit depressed from all the space ships and electronics, so a quiet planet with a lot of nature was a welcome change. Voss' flora displays all autumn colours and its sky features a beautiful nearby planet, even visible during the day (not that there is such a thing as night in SWTOR - sigh). Even the people inhabiting Voss looked beautiful with their dark blue-with-yellow face paint (picture to the right). Or is that their skins natural colour? It's a mystery to me, and probably to the rest of the universe as well.

So what happens when a picture addict like me gets set loose in an environment like this, happened here too: I went on a screenshot spree. And while the landscape looked great, I tend to get bored by pictures of landscapes only. I want people to stand in it to get interesting pictures. And what did I find out? It is freaking hard to get nice screenshots of moving people in SWTOR! For one, it's near to impossible to get any action screenshots in which I myself was involved, because I'd always see floating numbers and selection circles. I try to avoid these elements as much as possible in my pictures, as they make the images look less realistic. Accomplishing that requires a lot of patience and fast reflexes. I found it was much easier to make screenshots of my boyfriend fighting things than making them of myself. The uncontrollable companions that jump from left to right certainly don't make it much easier. Below the only okay-ish picture I took including myself, and I had just finished casting a spell. I will certainly practice more on this in the future.

Tips for taking screenshots in SWTOR: 

• Preferences --> Nameplates: untick all the boxes that enable floating names (yourself, other players, enemies, companions etc). I also have "Always Show Health Bar" unticked, but I'm not sure if that influences anything (didn't see a difference when switching it back on and off).
• Preferences --> Flytext: untick "Flytext Enabled", the first box under General. You now won't see any floating damage or healing numbers. You can easily switch this back on after your session by clicking the box.
• Preferences --> Controls: tick "Deselect target upon Clicking on Terrain" under General. You can now click the environment around you to select nothing or, if you're not going to be on the picture yourself, select yourself (F1 by default). This way you don't get to see any floating names. If you've set up everything as above, you should also not automatically select your foes anymore when hit by an attack.
• Alt + Z: use this to hide all UI elements. This gives a much nicer effect! Just click Alt + Z again if you want to return to seeing what's going on.
• Composition: think about the angle you want to use and who or what your picture will be featuring. Scroll to zoom in or out to get the result you want.

I realize that there are loads of people out there who don't care about seeing floating numbers or actually like seeing their character's name floating above their heads all the time. It's just a matter of taste. I almost wish I'd like floating stuff myself, as it's so much easier. If you're a crazy perfectionist like me, though, the above tips are the way to go!

So, boyfriend (if you're reading this): sorry for you getting almost killed all the time last night, but here is the reason:

I don't know about you, but doesn't that just make you want to play a jedi guardian? It certainly does for me, and I'm not even that much into melee classes.

A typical result is that I admire the Voss landscape so much, but ended up taking the most screenshots in caves instead! Time to run out, to the beautiful landscape out there that always looks greener than it does on this side...

ME 3: What's better than one Krogan? Ten thousand Krogan!

And what's worse than yet another Mass Effect post? No post at all. Mass Effect 3 is going on and on and I don't have enough time to keep up here with the events that happen in-game. So I'll write another post and it will be a lovely thing to do, as it will be about my two all-time favorite characters: Urdnot Wrex and Mordin Solus. I do have to give out an alert, though: the following will be a huge spoiler if you haven't played Mass Effect 3 and are planning to do so in the future.

We saw how Wrex turned from a mercenary outlaw to a leader of his clan on Tuchanka. Even better, he became a leader with a vision, wanting to stop the Krogan to fight each other and work together instead. With so little fertile Krogan females, he understood that it is better to share than to kill each other, ending up with less Krogan all the way. Who knows, the example of the Normandy with its cooperating races and the knowledge of the Reapers lurking in dark space might have inspired him. The other Krogan are not all so enthusiastic about Wrex' new ideas, but he seems to be making some progress when you visit him in Mass Effect 2.

Wrex likes war, but he does not seek to overflow the whole galaxy with Krogan, even if there would be a cure for the genophage. He has learned from the past. Besides, Wrex is my all-time favorite Mass Effect character, with his awesome sturdy and hilarious comments. I wrote about the complications of curing the genophage (Ode to Wrex, under "Krogan with brains") before, but have always been secretly hoping there would be an opportunity to cure it anyway. I was disappointed in Mass Effect 2, but it seems my hopes were finally fulfilled in Mass Effect 3!

Mordin Solus was able to save one Krogan female test subject that his former student worked on (much to his displease when he found out). I've always been really curious as to what female Krogan would be like, but I was pleasantly surprised. They look like Krogan, but are still feminine (picture to the right). Their voices are heavy, but still feminine as well. And on top of that, they're strong, like their male counterparts, but they're also wise. The one that Mordin saved was an awesome character, with a "we women will save the galaxy"-attitude. She started traveling Tuchanka, advocating the Krogan to stop fighting and work together instead.

Anyway, Mordin was able to extract a cure from the female Krogan, which had to be spread out over Tuchanka by adding it to some sort of huge device, and of course everything ended with a lot of running, jumping, things collapsing and an epic matron threshermaw vs Reaper battle. Unfortunately, it also ended with Mordin dying, which made me sad. My brilliant funny talkative scientist! I guess it makes it a bit less worse knowing Mordin wanted to do it himself, finishing his life's work in the right way. He also was very old for Salarian standards. This made me deal with his loss, otherwise I would have been so depressed!

Overall, this was an epic mission. Tomorrow I'll write about SWTOR again, I promise!

ME 3: Present in a box

It's pretty frustrating, but my boyfriend wanted to upgrade his pc with some new hardware, and now he's reinstalling everything on it. Sure, the result might be grand, but this means that I'm not able to log into SWTOR or LOTRO until it's all done! I usually shamelessly hop to his computer to take screenshots from LOTRO for this blog (his graphics are way better), and I can't run SWTOR on my own computer. I can't post anything about those games right now, so I guess I'll have to expose you to more Mass Effect talk.

Not that that is bad: Mass Effect 3 is very exciting! Now the Reapers are attacking Earth, it feels like everything you do is urgent. I keep facepalming at how different races fail to understand that it's crucial to work together. Luckily I'm making some progress there, and people seem to understand the need better when the threat becomes worse. I just hope we're still in time.

What's in the box?

So what are we staring at on the picture above? It was one of the coolest moments of Mass Effect 3 so far: finding a living Prothean on Eden Prime. He was hibernating in a special survival pod until we woke him up. Thousands of years ago, when the Protheans realized they could not win their war to the Reapers, they decided that they would hibernate, arising with an army when the next cycle would start and the Reapers would have retreated. Sadly enough for them, the Protheans did not have enough power to maintain or reactivate themselves after so many years: they were dependent on species of the future to find them. Then, they would arise with their whole army and seize power over the galaxy of that cycle.

They didn't know that the Reapers would find many of their chambers, and destroy them. Of that whole frozen army, only one Prothean remained: the one we found, called Javik, who embodied the concept of "vengeance" to his people. I must say I was a bit disappointed in our Prothean only being a fighter and a warrior. He's not able to help us create our superweapon at all. Javik does have a great personality, though. He remembers every race he encounters from what they looked like 50,000 years ago, and it is not much of a surprise that he feels superior to them. His remarks are priceless. It's also funny to see how much this freshly awoken Prothean differs from how Liara imagined him. Having studied all known aspects of Prothean life, Liara thought they would fit her own ideals: intelligent scientists that would do everything to stop the Reaper threat. Instead, the Protheans turned out to have had a martial culture, steering an empire that oppressed many alien races. It's cute to see her struggle with this and funny to hear Javik complain about what silly questions the "Liara-Asari" keeps posing him.

Shepard's boyfriends

Speaking of which, I started a relationship with Liara now. In Mass Effect 1, I accidentally ended up with Kaidan. Yes, accidentally. That guy just really talks you into things. I recall something happening as follows:

- Kaidan: "Why do you ask all these things?"

- Shepard conversation option: 

1) Interested in how Kaidan is doing (I read this as: you're a nice guy) 

2) I ask this to the whole crew (I thought that sounded a bit harsh)

- Shepard choosing option 1: "I'm interested in you." (whaaat? that's not what I meant!)

Then in Mass Effect 2, he's apparently happy to see me, but doesn't trust me because I work with Cerberus and I didn't contact him to tell him about it (err, you were on a secret mission, so I wasn't able to track you down, in case you don't remember?) and he walks away angrily from you. After you've killed the Collectors and everything, you see him again in Mass Effect 3 and he STILL doesn't trust you. Seriously, that guy has trusting issues. He doesn't even give me time to explain myself, he just keeps doubting me. That guy just needs a psychologist, not me. I've totally had it with him.

Liara, on the contrary, became more awesome by the day. I think she has one of the strongest character progressions of all companions. She was this really cute naive scientist in Mass Effect 1, but grows to be a wise Shadow Broker. She can still be cute from time to time, but I guess my Shepard likes that. When I told her in the Citadel I wanted to be more than friends she reacted in her old shy but happy way and gave me a small kiss. I'm usually not into character romances (I don't enjoy watching kissing and sex scenes), but I think this one is the cutest I've seen so far.

ME 3: Fish defying the laws of physics

(Did you notice how I resisted writing "fishics: there? Good, uh?) So I'm back on the Normandy now and I'm handling my new appearance quite well. I guess all the Reapers and Cerberus terrorists got me distracted from important matters such as my haircut and the shape of my eyebrows. I must admit that I did succumb to plastic surgery (read: save editor) to get rid of those horrific pink lips of ME 3. Red suits me better. I fit in well now and feel at home again. I even managed to get some of my old fish back in my cabin's aquarium, and I picked up some new ones at the Citadel. The jellyfish are my favorite!

Now I've noticed something fishy (sorry!) about my fish, though. It happened for the first time when Liara visited my cabin for a pep talk. You'd think the screenshot above is just a nice picture of Liara, right? Check again, specifically left of Liara's face. Yes, that's a fish spying on us! At first I thought I was dreaming, but apparently my fish get bored by their aquarium now and then and decide to leave, defying the laws of physics as if it's nothing. Apparently they preferably float freely through my cabin when I'm not watching (picture below). I'm certain they didn't used to do this before. What happened during those six weeks when I was grounded on Earth? Did someone upgrade them with Reaper technology? Did Cerberus equip them with implants so they can gather intel on me during my mission? There's a lot of creepy stuff out there in the universe, but the creepiest of all lives in my cabin!