It's been quite a few years, but looking back at my old posts made me smile. I'm definitely the same silly weirdo I was back then! I was also pleasantly surprised to see that I've since overcome a bunch of my gaming challenges.
Guess who has a max level tank character in the Elder Scrolls Online and has even successfully tanked a veteran dungeon? THIS GAL RIGHT HERE! It's still daunting at times, but also immensely satisfying. My best friend, Matt, was instrumental at helping me through that. He's a healer in game and a therapist in life, so I really couldn't have asked for a better friend to help me through my nerves. In most MMOs the hard part of getting a random group together is finding a healer and a tank. DPS (damage per second) players are a dime a dozen, so being with Matt took all of the "Oh no, if I suck the healer will get frustrated and leave" thoughts out of my head. After years of feeling like I wanted to play that role but couldn't, actually getting to do it successfully gave me some crazy endorphins. For days after I felt like a beast on my runs (real running outside), unstoppable in Beat Saber, and generally like a freakin action hero.
It still makes me nervous, but I'm going to keep pushing through that, because the other side of the tunnel is so much fun. Another struggle I've since overcome is the remapping of my brain to stop keyboard turning/clicking in MMOs. The solution that worked for me was to get a Razer Naga mouse with the numbers 1 through 12 available as keybindings on the left side of the mouse. My left hand handles WASD movement, jumping, and in game shortcuts not bound to numeric keys. My right hand handles attacking/blocking, camera movement (since in ESO mouse movement allows you to look around your character), and all of my abilities using the numbered side keys. My brain loves this setup and now it's like second nature. I definitely can't go back to a regular mouse without number keys.
What else what else, I guess I've just been trying to listen to what my body wants. I haven't really used this blog since being diagnosed with endometriosis, but I feel like that messed with so many things in my life. Chronic pain, surgeries, being told it's all in my head and psychosomatic, or that being stressed about the pain is causing the pain!?!?! being put on Lupron (forced menopause to try to help with endo pain, but really it just makes your joints hurt, gives you hot flashes, and makes you feel like you're losing your fucking mind and doesn't do a damn thing for endometriosis), SNRIs to try to help with potential nerve pain, and crying way too much after having my feeling and symptoms ignored. I've learned a lot about it since getting diagnosed in Jan 2014.
This past year has been especially rough and included 2 ultrasounds, endoscopy, colonoscopy, CT scan, eventually an MRI, and then surgery that only really cleaned up adhesions from my previous surgery. I went to physical therapy for a few months starting back in April and that helped a lot, especially from a mental perspective. It helped me turn my frustration into determination, see some real results from exercise, and has at least bolstered me mentally. I might have some level of pain daily, but have you seen my arms and abs lately, lol?
It helps in so many ways though. I know that if I do need more surgery I'll be able to recover more quickly if I'm in excellent shape beforehand. Doctors take you more seriously if you're in shape (it sucks that this is true, but especially when you have endo so many doctors want to make it YOUR problem in YOUR head, so showing that you're already trying hard to take care of yourself helps). I was rear ended in May of 2016 and then fell off my bike two weeks later (landing on my chin) and needed stitches. PT definitely helped with some lingering issues from that, ones that I didn't even know I had! It has helped me better categorize my pain - pains I can fix with physical activity (car and bike stuff), and pain that requires light stretching and ice or heat (endo stuff).
I feel like lupron, different attempts at birth control to manage symptoms, and trying SSRIs and SNRIs to make things better mostly only made it harder to hear myself. Things started to feel flat. I'd wake up and imagine another day like the one before, bereft of highs and lows, just trying to get through the pain. Sometimes it was excruciating, sometimes dull and heavy, but no matter the type it was constantly draining. It was especially difficult because to an outsider all of this was invisible. I kept feeling like I was failing everything because all of my passion and determination just evaporated.
It's still not perfect, but keeping myself physically active helps, and my wonderful wife is helping me reach out to a fantastic doctor. I found a great group on Facebook (Nancy's Nook) that has a ton of endo resources and a list of the best excision specialists. I'm going to have what I'd call an endo "grandmaster" check things out, and continue to do what I can in the meantime. Endometriosis and gaming, yep, that's what we do here :)
Sunday, July 21, 2019
Monday, February 13, 2012
Valentine's day/Anniversary post!
So this post has nothing to do with gaming, but rather than create a gigantic note in facebook I thought this would be easier to format for readability.
Today is Ariel and my 2 year anniversary! And no, I didn't ask her to be my girlfriend because it was the day before Valentine's day and I was lonely :P We actually met on January 28th 2010 (the most lovely Thursday I have ever had) and spent every minute together that we possibly could since that day. I knew very quickly that I wanted her to be my girlfriend, but of course I tried to wait so that I didn't uphold all of the lesbian stereotypes (Ha, right, we're vegetarian lesbians living in Philly with 2 cats). On February 13th I finally got up the courage to ask her. I remember we were hanging out in her room and I was being bashful. She knew I wanted to ask her something, and obviously knew what it was, but I was still all shy. She eventually pinned me down and wouldn't let me up until I told her what was on my mind. "I want you to be my girlfriend" I said, and she kissed me :) Then I confirmed with her that the kiss was in fact a yes.
Someone called me on the phone, I think it was Angela, and as I told her what had just happened I heard Ariel go tell her roommates and squeal with happiness. It was sooooo cute. So honestly, Valentine's day didn't have anything to do with it. But on Vday we did go get some awesome Sushi at Gaja Gaja on south street and make people sick with our love filled stares.
Last year at this time I was proposing to that lovely lady XD and I figured it was about time that I write the story of the proposal and what led up to it...
Months before we were seriously talking about getting married I asked her what type of ring she'd want. She said she didn't want diamonds since there is always the chance it was a blood diamond, etc. All she wanted was a band (silver/white gold in color) with a tree on it for sentimental/nature loving reasons. After a ton of searching I found a woman on Etsy that hand makes all of her jewelry, and she had a tree of life band that was perfect.
At a family gathering in December prior to proposing I showed a picture of the ring to Ariel's mom and told her some ideas about how I might propose. I was thinking of taking Ariel to a bed and breakfast and her mom told me there was this beautiful B&B they used to go to when Ariel was younger (Cherry Mills Lodge in Dushore, PA - about 3.5 hours away). Ariel hadn't been there since she was 8 or so, but it was one of her favorite places, and they had a room with a working fireplace and other awesomeness. It looked perfect!
Our 1 yr anniversary fell on Sunday 2/13/11 and we always said we didn't want to get engaged until we hit the year mark, so I booked the room for that weekend (2/11 - 2/13). Then I just needed a way to actually ask her...
As all of our friends know, we're big nerds and love a lot of Miyazaki movies & play video games together. Also, Ariel is always pushing me to do creative things since I haven't done much since graduating, so I decided to incorporate all of that stuff together. Since we had such a long drive to the B&B (btw she had no idea where we were going, it was a surprise till we got there) I made a game for her. I drew a bunch of our favorite characters like the Kodama from Princess Mononoke, Ponyo, a Sackboy from Little Big Planet, and others. Then I wrote silly rhyming riddles that hinted at who the character might be. I put all of these in folders and every half hour or so in the car she got to open up a new folder and try to solve the riddle. When she got it correct she was allowed to see the picture that was hidden behind it.
Here for the first time ever on zee internets are those silly poems and pictures:
#1
This person has many a change of outfit
Accumulated in different lands bit by bit
He tugs you around
Makes silly smiles and frowns
But when dreams need saving he does it
Answer
#2
They click and they chatter
They're hard and they're white
They never get fatter
They're in and out of sight
I should probably mention before I cease
The things in question are not teeth
Answer
#3
She comes from a world where we cannot stay
She fell in love in only a day
She enjoys a select few things to eat
One of them is a salty meat
Answer
#4
In nature he's rooted
The ore that they've looted
Makes his creatures turn evil
And cause an upheaval
Answer
As we got closer to Cherry Mills Ariel was extremely confused because she didn't recognize anything and we were literally in the middle of nowhere. About 10 minutes before we got there I gave her a hint and said she had been there before. Then she saw the sign for Cherry Mills and started crying, it was the sweetest thing ever.
When we got all settled in our room I gave her another folder that just said "What's the one thing you wish we could have done on our first date, even though it would have been creepy and there's no way we could have done it?" We're always telling each other that we wish we had a video of our first date because we'd love to watch how we met again, but of course we couldn't do that. When she figured out I meant "video tape it" I got out my camera, started recording, and put it on the dresser near us. Then I gave her the last folder that said "Can I keep You?" which is what we always say to each other. Then I did the whole get down on one knee thing and actually asked her to marry me/showed her the ring. There was lots of crying and chocolate and strawberries and champagne.
It took us at least 6 months before we could watch the video I took, and since then only a handful of people have seen it while over at our place. Ariel might kill me, but here it is!!!
Warning, this might make you cry.
For those of you that watched the video, I REALLY need to work on making my limbs flail a bit less, but oh well. That was seriously the best weekend ever. The full album of pictures can be seen here.
So Happy Anniversary and Valentine's day punkin. You make me so happy everyday and I can't wait to marry you! (fyi for everyone else, we're shooting for the fall of 2013 since it's a bitch to save up for weddings).
Today is Ariel and my 2 year anniversary! And no, I didn't ask her to be my girlfriend because it was the day before Valentine's day and I was lonely :P We actually met on January 28th 2010 (the most lovely Thursday I have ever had) and spent every minute together that we possibly could since that day. I knew very quickly that I wanted her to be my girlfriend, but of course I tried to wait so that I didn't uphold all of the lesbian stereotypes (Ha, right, we're vegetarian lesbians living in Philly with 2 cats). On February 13th I finally got up the courage to ask her. I remember we were hanging out in her room and I was being bashful. She knew I wanted to ask her something, and obviously knew what it was, but I was still all shy. She eventually pinned me down and wouldn't let me up until I told her what was on my mind. "I want you to be my girlfriend" I said, and she kissed me :) Then I confirmed with her that the kiss was in fact a yes.
Someone called me on the phone, I think it was Angela, and as I told her what had just happened I heard Ariel go tell her roommates and squeal with happiness. It was sooooo cute. So honestly, Valentine's day didn't have anything to do with it. But on Vday we did go get some awesome Sushi at Gaja Gaja on south street and make people sick with our love filled stares.
Last year at this time I was proposing to that lovely lady XD and I figured it was about time that I write the story of the proposal and what led up to it...
Months before we were seriously talking about getting married I asked her what type of ring she'd want. She said she didn't want diamonds since there is always the chance it was a blood diamond, etc. All she wanted was a band (silver/white gold in color) with a tree on it for sentimental/nature loving reasons. After a ton of searching I found a woman on Etsy that hand makes all of her jewelry, and she had a tree of life band that was perfect.
At a family gathering in December prior to proposing I showed a picture of the ring to Ariel's mom and told her some ideas about how I might propose. I was thinking of taking Ariel to a bed and breakfast and her mom told me there was this beautiful B&B they used to go to when Ariel was younger (Cherry Mills Lodge in Dushore, PA - about 3.5 hours away). Ariel hadn't been there since she was 8 or so, but it was one of her favorite places, and they had a room with a working fireplace and other awesomeness. It looked perfect!
Our 1 yr anniversary fell on Sunday 2/13/11 and we always said we didn't want to get engaged until we hit the year mark, so I booked the room for that weekend (2/11 - 2/13). Then I just needed a way to actually ask her...
As all of our friends know, we're big nerds and love a lot of Miyazaki movies & play video games together. Also, Ariel is always pushing me to do creative things since I haven't done much since graduating, so I decided to incorporate all of that stuff together. Since we had such a long drive to the B&B (btw she had no idea where we were going, it was a surprise till we got there) I made a game for her. I drew a bunch of our favorite characters like the Kodama from Princess Mononoke, Ponyo, a Sackboy from Little Big Planet, and others. Then I wrote silly rhyming riddles that hinted at who the character might be. I put all of these in folders and every half hour or so in the car she got to open up a new folder and try to solve the riddle. When she got it correct she was allowed to see the picture that was hidden behind it.
Here for the first time ever on zee internets are those silly poems and pictures:
#1
This person has many a change of outfit
Accumulated in different lands bit by bit
He tugs you around
Makes silly smiles and frowns
But when dreams need saving he does it
Answer
#2
They click and they chatter
They're hard and they're white
They never get fatter
They're in and out of sight
I should probably mention before I cease
The things in question are not teeth
Answer
#3
She comes from a world where we cannot stay
She fell in love in only a day
She enjoys a select few things to eat
One of them is a salty meat
Answer
#4
In nature he's rooted
The ore that they've looted
Makes his creatures turn evil
And cause an upheaval
Answer
As we got closer to Cherry Mills Ariel was extremely confused because she didn't recognize anything and we were literally in the middle of nowhere. About 10 minutes before we got there I gave her a hint and said she had been there before. Then she saw the sign for Cherry Mills and started crying, it was the sweetest thing ever.
When we got all settled in our room I gave her another folder that just said "What's the one thing you wish we could have done on our first date, even though it would have been creepy and there's no way we could have done it?" We're always telling each other that we wish we had a video of our first date because we'd love to watch how we met again, but of course we couldn't do that. When she figured out I meant "video tape it" I got out my camera, started recording, and put it on the dresser near us. Then I gave her the last folder that said "Can I keep You?" which is what we always say to each other. Then I did the whole get down on one knee thing and actually asked her to marry me/showed her the ring. There was lots of crying and chocolate and strawberries and champagne.
It took us at least 6 months before we could watch the video I took, and since then only a handful of people have seen it while over at our place. Ariel might kill me, but here it is!!!
Warning, this might make you cry.
For those of you that watched the video, I REALLY need to work on making my limbs flail a bit less, but oh well. That was seriously the best weekend ever. The full album of pictures can be seen here.
So Happy Anniversary and Valentine's day punkin. You make me so happy everyday and I can't wait to marry you! (fyi for everyone else, we're shooting for the fall of 2013 since it's a bitch to save up for weddings).
Thursday, September 8, 2011
It's been a while!
I guess that's the nature of the summer, right? You take some time off zee internets. I still played WoW quite a bit, but I didn't have a lot to write about, or the discipline to make myself do it anyway :P
The topic on my mind right now is keyboard turning and clicking. For anyone that doesn't know what that is, keyboard turning is using the WASD keys to control your character's movement. Clicking is clicking each spell on your action bar using your mouse. I started playing MMOs back with Ultima Online, and honestly I can't remember what it was like to use the controls in that game, but somehow it started me as a clicker. I'm pretty sure it used a click to move interface, so no keyboard turning there.
Then in EQ I actually used the ARROW KEYS to move my character, lol. For some reason I had an aversion to WASD in that game. Then Hellgate London was sort of a hybrid. That's where I learned to use WASD for movement. Since I had to hold down the mouse button to fire my weapon, and since my weapon was always in use I couldn't use the mouse buttons to click on my skills. Fortunately that game didn't have a ton of skills, and they were easily bound to the number keys above my WASD fingers, so that worked out just fine. Then came WoW...
I don't need anyone to lecture and tell me that mouse turning and keybinding all of your spells is a better way to play. I know that the response time for turning is incredibly fast using a mouse, and rather slow using WASD. I also know that keybinding allows you to hit your spells faster, since you don't need to move your mouse over them before using them. It all makes perfect sense, but I just can't seem to bring myself to make the change.
I'm a very visual player. I associate each of my spells with their icon. If I haven't played a class in a while I'm most likely to describe a spell by its affects or its icon, not by the actual name. I like having my rotations/priorities laid out in a way that makes visual sense to me. I know I could still do that and use keybindings, but then the locations of the spells on my action bars would need to match the locations on my keyboard or I'd get confused or OCD about it, heh. I don't have a ton of OCD ticks but I feel like that would be one of them.
Then we come to mouse movement vs. using the WASD keys to move. Of course keybinding is infinitely easier if you're a mouse mover because you can use those prime spot movement keys for spells instead. I just CAN'T seem to get used to it for the life of me. I created my newbie warlock to learn a new class and also try and teach myself mouse movement and keybinding from the start with a new character. I don't like holding down two mouse buttons all the time to move. For some reason it seems harder than just holding down W for forward and other keys to turn. I did keybind autorun to my side mouse button, and that helped a bit, but I don't like being on autorun a lot because I feel rushed. I like knowing I can let go of a button and I'll stop. Yes technically I can click it again, or press both my mouse buttons and that will override the autorun, but I don't like doing it that way! :P
I've tried to play around with the jump shots that hunters do (run away, jump, while in the air turn behind you and fire a shot, then before you land your jump turn back the same way you were facing originally) and I honestly don't know if it's worth all of the trouble. Okay okay, it's worth it for other people, but not for me, lol.
I suppose I'm just a creature of habit. Honestly, 10 levels of mouse turning and keyboard bindings on my warlock made me not want to play WoW anymore. I kept thinking, if this is the way I HAVE to play in order to be the most effective, then why am I playing? I don't like doing things and not doing them the best I absolutely can, which is why I considered trying to give up my habits in the first place.
Then the other half of my brain kicks in - this is a GAME that you play for FUN. Why not play it the way that's fun for you? You were a hardcore raider in EQ2 and were part of a competitive guild that was one of the first in content on the server. Clicking and turning never held you back there. In WoW you've leveled two toons to 85 and have more on the way, and your main character (death knight) does REALLY well at PvP and in dungeons. Honestly the only reason I don't raid more is that I like to keep to myself and I put too much pressure on me (I have to know EVERY encounter flawlessly before I see it otherwise I'm wasting everyone's time - which is unrealistic). I should be fine with knowing the general strat but needing practice. There's a first time for everything.
I guess this blog hasn't helped me make a decision at all. Keep torturing myself by learning this new way to play and uprooting over 10 years of habits, or continue as I am understanding all of the drawbacks it entails? Meh, once games are like the holodeck I guess I won't have a problem anymore.
The topic on my mind right now is keyboard turning and clicking. For anyone that doesn't know what that is, keyboard turning is using the WASD keys to control your character's movement. Clicking is clicking each spell on your action bar using your mouse. I started playing MMOs back with Ultima Online, and honestly I can't remember what it was like to use the controls in that game, but somehow it started me as a clicker. I'm pretty sure it used a click to move interface, so no keyboard turning there.
Then in EQ I actually used the ARROW KEYS to move my character, lol. For some reason I had an aversion to WASD in that game. Then Hellgate London was sort of a hybrid. That's where I learned to use WASD for movement. Since I had to hold down the mouse button to fire my weapon, and since my weapon was always in use I couldn't use the mouse buttons to click on my skills. Fortunately that game didn't have a ton of skills, and they were easily bound to the number keys above my WASD fingers, so that worked out just fine. Then came WoW...
I don't need anyone to lecture and tell me that mouse turning and keybinding all of your spells is a better way to play. I know that the response time for turning is incredibly fast using a mouse, and rather slow using WASD. I also know that keybinding allows you to hit your spells faster, since you don't need to move your mouse over them before using them. It all makes perfect sense, but I just can't seem to bring myself to make the change.
I'm a very visual player. I associate each of my spells with their icon. If I haven't played a class in a while I'm most likely to describe a spell by its affects or its icon, not by the actual name. I like having my rotations/priorities laid out in a way that makes visual sense to me. I know I could still do that and use keybindings, but then the locations of the spells on my action bars would need to match the locations on my keyboard or I'd get confused or OCD about it, heh. I don't have a ton of OCD ticks but I feel like that would be one of them.
Then we come to mouse movement vs. using the WASD keys to move. Of course keybinding is infinitely easier if you're a mouse mover because you can use those prime spot movement keys for spells instead. I just CAN'T seem to get used to it for the life of me. I created my newbie warlock to learn a new class and also try and teach myself mouse movement and keybinding from the start with a new character. I don't like holding down two mouse buttons all the time to move. For some reason it seems harder than just holding down W for forward and other keys to turn. I did keybind autorun to my side mouse button, and that helped a bit, but I don't like being on autorun a lot because I feel rushed. I like knowing I can let go of a button and I'll stop. Yes technically I can click it again, or press both my mouse buttons and that will override the autorun, but I don't like doing it that way! :P
I've tried to play around with the jump shots that hunters do (run away, jump, while in the air turn behind you and fire a shot, then before you land your jump turn back the same way you were facing originally) and I honestly don't know if it's worth all of the trouble. Okay okay, it's worth it for other people, but not for me, lol.
I suppose I'm just a creature of habit. Honestly, 10 levels of mouse turning and keyboard bindings on my warlock made me not want to play WoW anymore. I kept thinking, if this is the way I HAVE to play in order to be the most effective, then why am I playing? I don't like doing things and not doing them the best I absolutely can, which is why I considered trying to give up my habits in the first place.
Then the other half of my brain kicks in - this is a GAME that you play for FUN. Why not play it the way that's fun for you? You were a hardcore raider in EQ2 and were part of a competitive guild that was one of the first in content on the server. Clicking and turning never held you back there. In WoW you've leveled two toons to 85 and have more on the way, and your main character (death knight) does REALLY well at PvP and in dungeons. Honestly the only reason I don't raid more is that I like to keep to myself and I put too much pressure on me (I have to know EVERY encounter flawlessly before I see it otherwise I'm wasting everyone's time - which is unrealistic). I should be fine with knowing the general strat but needing practice. There's a first time for everything.
I guess this blog hasn't helped me make a decision at all. Keep torturing myself by learning this new way to play and uprooting over 10 years of habits, or continue as I am understanding all of the drawbacks it entails? Meh, once games are like the holodeck I guess I won't have a problem anymore.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
long overdue updates!
So the project I was working on for my brother fell through, but it's okay, because it was a good excuse to get a lot of practice and remind myself I can still make shit in 3ds max :P
I'm not going to rush out and look for a digm project anytime soon, but if my brother comes to me and needs something now I won't be so scared to try.
As for gaming, I cancelled my WoW subscription for the time being. Running my daily quests was starting to feel like a second job, and my play times weren't very conducive to when everyone else wanted to play. I think my friends that only play very very casually will probably want to come back for patch 4.2, and I think it'd be fun to start raiding a little bit when that happens. I'll definitely resubscribe for that, but for now I'm enjoying a summer break.
The weather is beautiful, I just got my fiancée an early birthday gift (her bike) so we're going to be outside doing that a lot, plus I have a million other games to catch up on. Starcraft II, how I've missed you! And Assassin's Creed is still going well. I can stealth kill the best of 'em. I had a really good long weekend and so far the work week isn't too crazy. The only thing I can complain about right now is that our central air is broken, but I already called our landlord and he's gonna get a repairman out ASAP, so until then it's lots of fans and ice water!
I'm not going to rush out and look for a digm project anytime soon, but if my brother comes to me and needs something now I won't be so scared to try.
As for gaming, I cancelled my WoW subscription for the time being. Running my daily quests was starting to feel like a second job, and my play times weren't very conducive to when everyone else wanted to play. I think my friends that only play very very casually will probably want to come back for patch 4.2, and I think it'd be fun to start raiding a little bit when that happens. I'll definitely resubscribe for that, but for now I'm enjoying a summer break.
The weather is beautiful, I just got my fiancée an early birthday gift (her bike) so we're going to be outside doing that a lot, plus I have a million other games to catch up on. Starcraft II, how I've missed you! And Assassin's Creed is still going well. I can stealth kill the best of 'em. I had a really good long weekend and so far the work week isn't too crazy. The only thing I can complain about right now is that our central air is broken, but I already called our landlord and he's gonna get a repairman out ASAP, so until then it's lots of fans and ice water!
Thursday, May 12, 2011
WoW vacation
Sorry about my silence, I haven't had a lot of spare WoW time...or gaming time in general. I guess this has been a success though because now I'm taking my "tanking" into the real world. One of the few things that scares me more than tanking/taking a leadership role is doing anything creative/to do with digital media. I'm pretty confident in analytical exercises, the reporting I do for work - writing macros and doing math - budgeting...all of those boring things. Being creative scares the crap out of me because there is no "right" way to do it. Also, since I went to school full time while I worked full time I have horrible confidence about what I learned there, and I feel like all of the other students I graduated with were years ahead of me.
Now I know all of that isn't true, but it's hard to convince myself otherwise. For someone that's usually more logical than necessary, I have issues with that bit of logic. Fortunately my brother is a programmer with a lot of augmented reality experience. He hasn't given up on me yet, and keeps trying to get me to do work for him. I finally finished a prototype of some models he needed, but it's really complicated because I have strict vertex limits, polygon limits, and any animated files need to be .MD2s that require me to use a plugin to export them...plus I only have the trial version now because we're not sure if we need that plugin and there are all sorts of stipulations on that version. Static models need to be .OBJs so that's not too bad, I just hope they all work for him on his end.
I feel a lot better now that they're done (for now) and hopefully after Friday we'll get the go ahead for the full project. Chester and other digm people, get ready for me to contact you in case of emergency!! :P
Now I know all of that isn't true, but it's hard to convince myself otherwise. For someone that's usually more logical than necessary, I have issues with that bit of logic. Fortunately my brother is a programmer with a lot of augmented reality experience. He hasn't given up on me yet, and keeps trying to get me to do work for him. I finally finished a prototype of some models he needed, but it's really complicated because I have strict vertex limits, polygon limits, and any animated files need to be .MD2s that require me to use a plugin to export them...plus I only have the trial version now because we're not sure if we need that plugin and there are all sorts of stipulations on that version. Static models need to be .OBJs so that's not too bad, I just hope they all work for him on his end.
I feel a lot better now that they're done (for now) and hopefully after Friday we'll get the go ahead for the full project. Chester and other digm people, get ready for me to contact you in case of emergency!! :P
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
More socializing, go me!
So today I realized that it's be over a week since the new 5 man instances were released in WoW and I still hadn't run them at all. Unacceptable! I queued up for a random zul instance (Zul'Gurub or Zul'Aman) and waited the 30 or so minutes it took to find the rest of the group.
When I first zoned in I wasn't sure if I was extremely lucky or unlucky. We were assigned Zul'Gurub and I was grouped up with 4 guild mates from another server. 3 of the guildies seemed nice enough but when I asked a simple question about fight mechanics, and no one had the answer, I told them I would look it up fast. One of the guildies said "or /camp" meaning I should just give up now. He immediately got a thumbsdown playerscore from me, lol. I decided I would hang in there anyway and try to be as knowledgeable as possible. I HAD read all of the fight mechanics when the zones came out, but that's a lot to read and remember without ever experiencing them. I try to think the best of people when I first meet them in a random group, but apparently this guy took the opposite approach.
The first boss was pretty challenging. Lots of poison everywhere, literally a poison maze with poison tendrils chasing you, and sometimes you'd get linked to another player and would have to run away from each other to break the chain. We wiped at least 7 times, but were getting close. On one of the later pulls we were SO CLOSE to winning, but the healer went down. I felt like I was going back to EQ2 times, since DKs now have a rez ability. I sacrificed myself and got the healer up, and we downed him! They all thanked me profusely, as some of them didn't even know about the DK change, and the mouthy guild member stopped ragging on me.
I had WoWhead up with all of the boss strategies, so I continued to tell them the strats for the next 3 bosses. We wiped at least once on all of them, but then got it down fairly quickly. One of the guild members had been there before and tried to give strats, but he was dps and didn't inform the tank or healer about any special spells or positioning, but between the two of us we were able to explain everything.
The second to last boss has a fairly simple strategy, but there is a lot of movement and reactionary things that need to happen. We just couldn't down him. We tried at least 20 times, and then tried to move on to the next boss but realized he wouldn't appear until this one was down. We took a 20 min break for food etc and came back to it again. Still no luck, so we ran around the instance and killed anything else we needed for a quest.
In the end we decided to call it, because we were only getting tired and frustrated. It's a shame because they turned out to be a really nice group of people, and I wish I could have finished it with them. I'm rarely social in a group, but in this situation I almost acted like the tank. He was a good tank, but he didn't want to strategize. Fortunately I was up for it, and it makes me think that maybe I will make a good tank someday. When we all decided to leave they said I should transfer servers and group with them more often, heh. I told them that if all of my friends magically stopped playing I'd consider it, and we wished each other good luck. So maybe it wasn't a technical success, but I had fun, and it was definitely worth the time invested.
When I first zoned in I wasn't sure if I was extremely lucky or unlucky. We were assigned Zul'Gurub and I was grouped up with 4 guild mates from another server. 3 of the guildies seemed nice enough but when I asked a simple question about fight mechanics, and no one had the answer, I told them I would look it up fast. One of the guildies said "or /camp" meaning I should just give up now. He immediately got a thumbsdown playerscore from me, lol. I decided I would hang in there anyway and try to be as knowledgeable as possible. I HAD read all of the fight mechanics when the zones came out, but that's a lot to read and remember without ever experiencing them. I try to think the best of people when I first meet them in a random group, but apparently this guy took the opposite approach.
The first boss was pretty challenging. Lots of poison everywhere, literally a poison maze with poison tendrils chasing you, and sometimes you'd get linked to another player and would have to run away from each other to break the chain. We wiped at least 7 times, but were getting close. On one of the later pulls we were SO CLOSE to winning, but the healer went down. I felt like I was going back to EQ2 times, since DKs now have a rez ability. I sacrificed myself and got the healer up, and we downed him! They all thanked me profusely, as some of them didn't even know about the DK change, and the mouthy guild member stopped ragging on me.
I had WoWhead up with all of the boss strategies, so I continued to tell them the strats for the next 3 bosses. We wiped at least once on all of them, but then got it down fairly quickly. One of the guild members had been there before and tried to give strats, but he was dps and didn't inform the tank or healer about any special spells or positioning, but between the two of us we were able to explain everything.
The second to last boss has a fairly simple strategy, but there is a lot of movement and reactionary things that need to happen. We just couldn't down him. We tried at least 20 times, and then tried to move on to the next boss but realized he wouldn't appear until this one was down. We took a 20 min break for food etc and came back to it again. Still no luck, so we ran around the instance and killed anything else we needed for a quest.
In the end we decided to call it, because we were only getting tired and frustrated. It's a shame because they turned out to be a really nice group of people, and I wish I could have finished it with them. I'm rarely social in a group, but in this situation I almost acted like the tank. He was a good tank, but he didn't want to strategize. Fortunately I was up for it, and it makes me think that maybe I will make a good tank someday. When we all decided to leave they said I should transfer servers and group with them more often, heh. I told them that if all of my friends magically stopped playing I'd consider it, and we wished each other good luck. So maybe it wasn't a technical success, but I had fun, and it was definitely worth the time invested.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
MMO Classes
Some of my friends briefly mentioned support classes either in blog comments or on Facebook, and I wanted to write a little bit about them because I think it's a fascinating subject. Especially because of some recent events.
In both Everquest and Everquest 2 there were a number of different classes. I'll mostly talk about EQ2 because I played it the longest. Ha, a while back I checked my time logged on my old main EQ2 character and on him alone it was something like 191 days. INSANITY.
Anywayyyy, in EQ2 there are 24 subclasses. There are four main archetypes - Fighter, Mage, Scout, and Priest. Within each archetype there are 3 classes. For instance in Fighter there are Warrior, Brawler, and Crusader. And then each class has a subclass, so a Warrior can turn into a Berserker or Guardian. I pity the poor fools that thought up this system and tried to balance it through all of EQ2's changes and expansions. On the other hand, it led to a REALLY great gaming experience, even if it is cumbersome to the designers.
When you think about the archetypes you have a basic idea of what each one will do. Fighters will tank - they'll keep aggro and take the hits. They each have their own flavor and pros and cons, some are better at encounters with lots of adds, others are better with a single target, some have small self heals, some primarily tank by avoiding most attacks, and others, like the plate wearing tanks, just mitigate the damage. The priest archetype heals and keeps everyone alive, but they all do it differently. There are wards that protect against incoming damage, HoTs or heals or time that tick over a duration and heal a certain amount each tick, and direct heals that just give you life when cast. It's more complicated than all of that, but that's the general gist.
The mage archetype includes your magic users. They are generally ranged casters - some have pets that do damage & others do not. Some are high damage, others are more DoT based or damage or over time, and then we get to the interesting classes thought of as "utility." They don't do the highest damage, but they provide group wide or raid wide buffs that make everyone else perform better. They might augment attack power, regenerate everyone's mana faster, things like that. The Scout archetype has the same thing. The three classes under them are Predators, Rogues, and Bards. The Predators deal huge damage, the Rogues deal a lot of damage but can take a few more hits, and then there are my favorites...THE BARDS.
The Bards are Dirges and Troubadors. Dirges mostly augment melee classes, making them perform better. Troubadors on the other hand are more useful to casters. I loved playing a Dirge, as stated in one of my first posts, because they are a jack of all trades.
This type of class is unfortunately being seen less and less. In MMOs the designers want the player to feel like a hero in this imaginary world. Take WoW as an example. They want you to feel like a legendary tank, or an amazing healer, or the class doing the most damage. Who wants to be the most useful or everyone's favorite companion? In a world full of people showing off their e-peen no one wants to be a utility class anymore. It's such a shame. It was my favorite role to fill. You had to think quick on your feet - should I run this buff? Should I rez that person? Is it most important for me to get my debuffs on the boss? Which debuffs should be cast first? When do I use my spells that interrupt? When do I siphon my own life to the tank. SO MANY DECISIONS.
I often bounce between being a very shy person to a rather gregarious one. If I'm with friends I know well, or with new friends that give me alcohol, I'm super talkative. Other than that, when it comes to meeting new people, I'm pretty damn shy. Even in WoW where I will probably never see that same random person again I am still shy. Being a utility class FORCED me to interact with people in game. I'd have to talk about what buffs they wanted me to run, I'd be calling out if I was rezzing someone, and besides - when you're a utility class you're not competing with people's e-peens and at the same time you're helping them, so they just love you right off the bat.
Playing pure DPS, especially as a death knight, doesn't allow for a lot of interaction with strangers. I have one buff that helps other people, and I should keep it up all the time, end of story. Plus death knights aren't a very liked class (it's getting better though). I'll make new friends with other players if I'm in a group with mostly my friends and we all get to talking, but that's it...
Until last week! I was working on the last achievement I needed for the Easter in game holiday and it was a pain in the ass. I had to find a female orc over level 18 and there aren't ANY. I was camping outside of the horde tol barad base, hoping one would run by. Other alliance people were there as well, and since we had nothing better to do we got to talking. To make a long story short the whole process took about 2 hours and a nice Priest joined me in my quest for the female orc. We ran all over the world together and eventually found one! And then the next night we saw each other online and decided to PuG (pick up group) a Baradin Hold raid. Oddly enough I've never done that in all of my time playing WoW. I might join a raid with friends I know in real life, or solo, but I haven't really made any random in game friends in a looooong time. Not since EQ2. Not since I was a helpful dirge.
I guess I'll see where this all goes, but breaking through some of my shyness has made me feel a lot better. Okay, enough of this absolutely gigantic post. No one is going to read this one anyway, lol.
In both Everquest and Everquest 2 there were a number of different classes. I'll mostly talk about EQ2 because I played it the longest. Ha, a while back I checked my time logged on my old main EQ2 character and on him alone it was something like 191 days. INSANITY.
Anywayyyy, in EQ2 there are 24 subclasses. There are four main archetypes - Fighter, Mage, Scout, and Priest. Within each archetype there are 3 classes. For instance in Fighter there are Warrior, Brawler, and Crusader. And then each class has a subclass, so a Warrior can turn into a Berserker or Guardian. I pity the poor fools that thought up this system and tried to balance it through all of EQ2's changes and expansions. On the other hand, it led to a REALLY great gaming experience, even if it is cumbersome to the designers.
When you think about the archetypes you have a basic idea of what each one will do. Fighters will tank - they'll keep aggro and take the hits. They each have their own flavor and pros and cons, some are better at encounters with lots of adds, others are better with a single target, some have small self heals, some primarily tank by avoiding most attacks, and others, like the plate wearing tanks, just mitigate the damage. The priest archetype heals and keeps everyone alive, but they all do it differently. There are wards that protect against incoming damage, HoTs or heals or time that tick over a duration and heal a certain amount each tick, and direct heals that just give you life when cast. It's more complicated than all of that, but that's the general gist.
The mage archetype includes your magic users. They are generally ranged casters - some have pets that do damage & others do not. Some are high damage, others are more DoT based or damage or over time, and then we get to the interesting classes thought of as "utility." They don't do the highest damage, but they provide group wide or raid wide buffs that make everyone else perform better. They might augment attack power, regenerate everyone's mana faster, things like that. The Scout archetype has the same thing. The three classes under them are Predators, Rogues, and Bards. The Predators deal huge damage, the Rogues deal a lot of damage but can take a few more hits, and then there are my favorites...THE BARDS.
The Bards are Dirges and Troubadors. Dirges mostly augment melee classes, making them perform better. Troubadors on the other hand are more useful to casters. I loved playing a Dirge, as stated in one of my first posts, because they are a jack of all trades.
This type of class is unfortunately being seen less and less. In MMOs the designers want the player to feel like a hero in this imaginary world. Take WoW as an example. They want you to feel like a legendary tank, or an amazing healer, or the class doing the most damage. Who wants to be the most useful or everyone's favorite companion? In a world full of people showing off their e-peen no one wants to be a utility class anymore. It's such a shame. It was my favorite role to fill. You had to think quick on your feet - should I run this buff? Should I rez that person? Is it most important for me to get my debuffs on the boss? Which debuffs should be cast first? When do I use my spells that interrupt? When do I siphon my own life to the tank. SO MANY DECISIONS.
I often bounce between being a very shy person to a rather gregarious one. If I'm with friends I know well, or with new friends that give me alcohol, I'm super talkative. Other than that, when it comes to meeting new people, I'm pretty damn shy. Even in WoW where I will probably never see that same random person again I am still shy. Being a utility class FORCED me to interact with people in game. I'd have to talk about what buffs they wanted me to run, I'd be calling out if I was rezzing someone, and besides - when you're a utility class you're not competing with people's e-peens and at the same time you're helping them, so they just love you right off the bat.
Playing pure DPS, especially as a death knight, doesn't allow for a lot of interaction with strangers. I have one buff that helps other people, and I should keep it up all the time, end of story. Plus death knights aren't a very liked class (it's getting better though). I'll make new friends with other players if I'm in a group with mostly my friends and we all get to talking, but that's it...
Until last week! I was working on the last achievement I needed for the Easter in game holiday and it was a pain in the ass. I had to find a female orc over level 18 and there aren't ANY. I was camping outside of the horde tol barad base, hoping one would run by. Other alliance people were there as well, and since we had nothing better to do we got to talking. To make a long story short the whole process took about 2 hours and a nice Priest joined me in my quest for the female orc. We ran all over the world together and eventually found one! And then the next night we saw each other online and decided to PuG (pick up group) a Baradin Hold raid. Oddly enough I've never done that in all of my time playing WoW. I might join a raid with friends I know in real life, or solo, but I haven't really made any random in game friends in a looooong time. Not since EQ2. Not since I was a helpful dirge.
I guess I'll see where this all goes, but breaking through some of my shyness has made me feel a lot better. Okay, enough of this absolutely gigantic post. No one is going to read this one anyway, lol.
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