Blackrock Reboot

by on March 5, 2006 at 1:00 pm
Posted In: MMO

So… after a delay for real-life events… we finally made it to Blackrock Depths. It’s huge, huge instance, and is central to many later events and quests. I’ve been hearing of it since I started playing WoW a year ago, and well… it is so very odd to be going into that place that was so full of awe and dread 50 levels ago.

Thanks to the nice GameSpy Level 60 Guide, we were all loaded up with BRD quests… and looking forward to freeing up some of those nine slots in the allowed list of 20. It was the usual list of suspects: Blanc (60), Blondiewood (60), Dejek (59), me/Dunain (59), and Gottesfaust (55).

Things went pretty well. We started down the line of cells in the Detention Block, checking for prisoners as we went. Thankfully, the doors can be picked, so we started getting quests done without the key….

One fight went a bit bad with some adds, and then I managed the classic Hunter mistake. I selected a distant target that happened to be in a direct line with my intended target and told Lance ‘Get ‘im!’ As usual, I was slow trying to correct the problem, and we got another group. One wipe….

Almost.

Gottesfaust recently went Holy and picked up a talent that causes the entire party to get healed when he dies. With that shot in the arm, we lasted long enough for Blanc and I to be able to finish off the fight, and wait for the other three to get back.

Very nice, but let’s try not to use that too often, shall we?

A second near-wipe happened further in when Dejek got surprised by some hounds while scouting the next room. I feigned and made my way back to the entrance while everyone else ran back.

So, Hunter 1; Rogue 1. Bleh.

And then the server decided to take a hand in things as we were all summarily booted out to the select character screen. Upon going back in, we were all given message along the lines of ‘not your instance, will be ejected in 30 seconds’, even the group leader. And yeah, we were all in separate instances.

So… we did the two quest turn-ins we had and went back in. We almost immediately got a Crumpled up Note that restarted a quest chain that had dead-ended. We went in and took care of that, and proceeded on. Found, confronted and killed Incendius. Drooled over the Dark Anvil. Pity the Dark Forge is much further back in the instance. (Three of us had the materials on-hand to get Dark Iron Smelting, just in case.) Heading across the chamber, we confronted Fineous Darkvire and got Ironfel. We headed up the ramp and back to Franklorn’s statue and completed that quest, so we all have the Shadowforge Key.

After that, the server decided to dump us again. We called an hour-and-a-half break for people to fix and eat dinner. During that, Blanc and I mucked around some in Searing Gorge, figuring out what we needed to do to get our Thorium Brotherhood rep moving (What the Flux seems to be what stalled us). I also picked up three Dark Iron nodes, so my stockpile of ore is growing, and is probably going to get out of hand soon at this rate.

After dinner, we went back in, and started trying to get Coffer Relic Keys (need 12, the party had only managed 7 to this point). We got to the outer part of the bar and paid a little more attention to it this time. Blanc noted a scroll marked “Blacksmithing Plans”. We defeated the group in front of it, I trotted over and was just clicking on it….

Boot to character selection screen.

ARRRRGH!

Sigh, after that we decided to go do something outside of an instance. The chosen venue was farming Blue Dragonscale in Winterspring. Blanc and I have done a little of that, but this time we went into a big, big cave that has a goodly number of Dragonkin. And in the back, was a Dragon, Manaclaw. Nice little fight, not bad.

Behind him is another dragon, Scryer.

Nope, nuh-uh, not even close after four tries and a terrific respawn rate on Manaclaw. (Kill him, spend a couple minutes clearing and getting ready, get killed by Scryer, run back, Manaclaw is already back.) He came back during our last try at Scryer.

Final judgment: We need better equipment.

Which was part of the reason for going there. Dunain is now sporting a pair of Blue Dragonscale Shoulders. (And wishing he could turn them off, they’re not ugly -that comes later- but they look kind of silly on him.)

Final tally: Hunter 1, Rogue 1, Server 3, Scryer 4.

Dejek hit 60 during the first run into BRD. Dunain saw his bar move pretty far, but it is currently 1 and 1/3 segments away from that magical land where it’ll never move again.

Until the expansion. -_^

We spent a lot of time in BRD, and did what seems like a lot of stuff. But a glance over some of the guides show we’ve barely gotten anywhere, and haven’t hit the hard stuff yet. A look at the quest log supports this… 0.0 Geeze….

└ Tags: ,
 Comment 

Roxio is Not Welcome in This House

by on March 5, 2006 at 8:51 am
Posted In: Life

It turned out there was one bit of software that hadn’t made it’s way onto Micca, the CD/DVD burning software. So, I go into the big folder of driver disks, pull out the disk TDK gave us and install the version of Roxio Easy DVD Creator they gave us. Standard stuff, reboot, etc.

Blue Screen Of Death.

During boot up.

Oh good, reset, hit F8, Safe Mode. BSOD. Sigh.

A bit of research tells me the particular error usually happens randomly during operation, and is caused by a driver conflict (really?, gee…), and the recommended activity is to disconnect everything possible from the computer while you repair the problem.

Well, that isn’t necessary here. Open case, yank the DVD power cable, power on. Boots fine.

So… an update maybe? Roxio of course, is much more interested in selling me version 8 than helping with 6. But it isn’t too hard to get through their site to the downloads. Where I find you must register their product in order to get their patches.

Say what? Unlike almost everyone else in the world, the fact that I want to patch a program isn’t good enough to say that I may already have it?

During this, I also decided to turn off the junk they have auto-loading into the system and see if that gets me down to the occasional BSOD instead of doing it on boot. So, shutdown…

Micca immediately restarts.

Oh, really? This is a problem I’d never isolated on Desert Rose. You tell Windows to Shut Down, and she immediately reboots at the point the power should shut off. So that’s why….

Easy CD Creator gets summarily yanked from the system. We’re now on a 15-day trial with some other software that’ll cost us… $25 if we like it. You’ll probably hear more about it if we do.

Edit: I’ve verified on Desert Rose and Micca that uninstalling Roxio does not solve reboot from power off issue. >.< I figure they’ve changed a registry entry somewhere. Anyone know how to fix this?

└ Tags: 
 Comment 

Frigate Fun

by on March 3, 2006 at 1:10 pm
Posted In: SFB

Well, due to job situation, Patch couldn’t make it online Wed night for a little SFB on our effort to finish off the Mantor battle.

I was going to continue introducing Mark to F&E with that time, but realized the save files are on a computer that isn’t plugged in at the moment. So we went back to SFB and started a little L-FF vs. Z-FF fight. Got through a turn and a half in 1:10. Not bad at all for online.

Anyway, it’s been different. A little bit of shield plinking. He’s eroded my #6 and #5, I’ve hit his #6 and #4. I’ve missed twice with my one disruptor, which is annoying.

He’s performed two HETs already. Thanks to a Breakdown of 6, he can get away with it, and it’s certainly playing havoc with where I think he’s going. I’d personally say they were not the best thing to do to pursue the battle.

But he’s actually doing them. Which I think is the point for him at the moment. Now I just need to get him to read the sign at the Academy that says “Use your tractors damnit.”

A decade ago, that was my problem. I can’t remember if I ever used my tractors back then (at least without prompting from Colin). Three attempted Kzinti anchors is a big improvement, even if I did throw away a FF on the successful one, though I should probably consider them for drone defense more.

Heh, I can teach an old fox new tricks. ^_^

└ Tags: ,
 Comment 

Razelikh the Defiler

by on February 27, 2006 at 1:30 pm
Posted In: MMO

Well, in the aftermath of An’Quiraj, we ended up pursuing the Fallen Hero of the Horde quest line, and having a grand time with it. We were slightly over-level for much of the chain, but it was obvious that it was ramping up fast to a climax that would want high levels and a full group. So that night, Blanc, Dunain and Blondiewood freed souls from being bound to this plane, killed a gigantic felhound, learned the true name of a demon, and gathered the materials for a demon-hunting weapon from… crystalized giant poo.

I now know much more about giant biology than I have any desire to.

Anyway, much of the rest of the week was spent on get getting Dejek and Gotesfaust up to speed on the chain, and finishing up such things as visiting Dunain’s teacher so he can forge the weapons. (Sigh, the game won’t trust Dunain to forge his own weapons….)

So, that left killing his three lieutenants before moving onto the big baddie. We got the group together, and set off. With a full group… lets just say there wasn’t much left of them and leave it at that.

So we set off to the Fallen Hero to get the final part of the chain. …And to celebrate Blondiewood’s 60th! The entire chain is fairly XP heavy, and the turn-in for this part put her over. So we now have two 60s for Muse and one for Moos.

So, then off to summon and kill Razelikh. Oh and the two other elites he summons. No problem!

Well, first problem: you summon him on top of a mountain. You get to the top of the mountain by stepping onto this giant rune in the ground (you get down much the same way). But my video card decided it didn’t like it, so I couldn’t see the rune. This was very confusing, as I teleported a couple times without any idea why. But we worked around it once I looked over at Smudge’s monitor and saw what was going on.

Second problem: We didn’t sort out what was going on properly. Blanc lost aggro, and well, we ended with a wipe with him about half down.

Things went much better the second try, until Blanc and Blondiewood got punted off the mountain despite our efforts to prevent that. They had a soft landing, and nearly got back in time, but it didn’t really work out. Mr. Annoying Boss (^_^) was down to maybe 1/6 health.

What we learned was that he really is immune to most everything. Including all of Blanc’s taunt abilities, which explains what happened the first time.

Anyway, a just a few tweaks to account for placement and all the darn immunities, and third time’s the charm!

In other news, Farmishi made 40 yesterday. I knew paladins get their mount for free, but I was all set to go adventuring for it… and when I arrive at the Cathedral of Light, they just hand it over to me! -sigh- I wouldn’t have minded some, you know, effort?

And, she’s now a weaponsmith. I pushed her to 40 because I was out of bank space to hold the materials I was collecting for that, and what I had on hand *barely* lasted through the skill-up process. (Anyone need Heavy Mithril Gloves?)

└ Tags: ,
 Comment 

All Frigates, All the Time

by on February 19, 2006 at 9:06 pm
Posted In: SFB

After three Kzinti FFs came waltzing up to a Fed CA and practically crippled it in one go, Mark and Patch expressed interest in learning more about how frigates operate. I had had thoughts towards that some time back, so working up a three-way frigate squadron battle wasn’t a problem.

We’ve been fiddling around with terrain lately, and at the last second decided to plop a black hole into the mix (not something I’d fight near in real life, but it makes for a fun game).

Y138

Patch James Mark
Klingon Kzinti Lyran
F5 71 FF 62 FF 62
E4 55 FF 62 FF 62
E4 55 FF 62 FF 62
Total 181 186 186

The game started with everyone opting to circle the black hole in the same direction. I wanted to hit the Klingons first, instead of last this time. He wanted to tangle with Mark instead of me for a change, and Mark was trying to engage me. We really had decided on the black hole at the last moment, that is to say after we had done the first turn’s energy allocation, so most of us weren’t going as fast as we’d like with the Great Attractor around, and we treated it with some respect. After that, we speeded up and the Klingons got a bit daring for turn 2, and I followed suit for the end of 2 and most of 3.

For turn 3, I ended up with a Close Encounter of the Exchange Weapons Fire Kind with the Lyrans. One of them had already been damaged and had split off, so I was quite willing to go 3 vs. 2 with them. As they had already fired off the disruptors at longer range, it ended with me doing good amounts of damage to both of them, and one of mine taking a decent set of internals, plus a few downed shields. I considered doing a Kzinti anchor during the range 0(!) pass (and should have), but held off the battery power.

A little later, Patch showed nice drone technique by passing above (relative to the black hole) the shot-up Lyrans and firing off drones that were accelerated in by the black hole. Mark was already cruising at the limit of the ‘safe zone’ (right outside the point of no return), had no weapons or power left, and had to eat both of them.

After that, Patch and I tangled at the beginning of 4. I got my wounded FF shot up some more, but it was still operational. At the same time my untouched FF went to range 1 of the F5, tractored and unloaded. It didn’t stay untouched for long, but there were more speed-8 drones in the area than available phasers. Getting them to hit took much of the turn, and crippled the F5. At this point the tractored pair were slowly headed for the black hole. I decided to see if I could get the F5 to go down the drain and release for my own escape.

Mistake #1: I rode it down too long. I should have realized I hadn’t kept us as far over to the side as I needed and given up (but maybe auctioned at the turn break for another round of drones). Mistake #2: when it was obvious that he’d get us both killed, I misread the situation and dropped the tractor before I realized that the increase in turn mode would still kill me (with no HET available in time to boot).

So I threw away a perfectly good frigate for no real purpose. I may be the guest of honor at the Patriarch’s next banquet again. T_T

We called it a day, well satisfied. By the points I figured out, me and Patch are about tied (I gave him full credit for my FF…). I realized later that everyone else was disengaging, so I should get points for that, but I don’t think I deserve a victory after that big a muff anyway.

The calendar now advances to Y140, and our next battle is going to be Patch and Mark together against a force of (sub-light!) Romulans. After fast Kzinti ships with slow drones, I figure sub-light Romulans with fast plasma torpedoes should be an interesting change of pace. They’re a bit worried by the excessively high crunch power, I’m worried about whether I’ll even get to hit….

└ Tags: ,
1 Comment