• Bluecoal Diaries — 02052015

    Posted on by bluecoal Comment

    Excellent! These followers are finally starting to get some decent gear. More of them are ready to tackle those
    more challenging missions. It’s about time. It seems like such a waste to send them out just to get fighting
    experience. Really, they can get fighting experience and bring back some quality spoils.

    This week they brought back a good quality robe that I can use. It’s durable and not too fancy. Kind of nice to
    not look like a geisha or such when out trying to kill things. That was the problem with the Pandarians. They
    seem to think that if it’s good quality and durable that it needs to be fancy and ornate. Really, I want it to
    protect me, it really does not need lace. I’m still fuming that all they let us Warlocks wear are robes.
    Seriously.

    Lantressor. What to do with that guy. He walks up to me the other day and tells me that his blade thirsts. What on earth. I guess, he is bored in the mine. I know he’s got stuff to kill down there. I’ve seen it. The Goren have been making inroads and every once in a while I run into a few when doing my rounds. I think he’s been doing more than he’s letting on though. I sent him out on a mission since I had one that could use his skills and while he was gone, I did my rounds in the mine. Unbelievable. The Goren were just about to overrun the place. Took me twice as long at least to get through there just for killing Goren every few feet.

    Now I got the guys at the Barn yammering for work. They got all those beasts sheared for fur and they want more to do. I’m glad they want to work, but really, there is only so much I can do in one day and getting them more beasts is not high on my list. I suppose it should be. The tailors have also been hollering. They ran out of fur to make clothe out of and they have a couple of pieces of gear they want to make for me but not enough clothe to do it. I think they are also secretly hoping that I will upgrade their shop.

    There has been a lot of talk when I make my rounds of the garrison about which shop will get upgraded. I can’t believe they keep on about this. I’ve got to look into some of it soon though. I need a few more followers and a few of them need more stuff to do so I may have to make some really big changes. Somebody won’t be happy. That’s always the way of it.

    I’m also starting to get messages from a couple of my Horde sisters about wanting to make their way to Draenor. I don’t know how well that is going to go. But may have to keep an eye out for them. They’re Blood Elves though. They look just a little to pretty for this environment. They might break a nail. Can you imagine a Death Knight Blood Elf with a broken nail. It isn’t a pretty site. She as a heck of a temper.

    It’s back to chores and more menial stuff for me for now. I’m hoping to get out a bit again soon. Maybe see what other skirmishes I can get involved in. If Lantressor thinks his blade thirsts, he has no idea how much I am itching to throw some flames around and totally destroy something. If I don’t get out soon, it may be my
    garrison.


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  • Bluecoal’s Diaries — 01312015

    Posted on by suguay Comment

    While it has been a busy week. It has not been very productive. Most of this week has been taken up with chores. Some of those chores have become a little more time consuming since the Mine and the Barn were upgraded early in the week.

    Upgrading the barn is just a step to the final upgrade. Right now they can produce fur and feasts. But what we
    really need are Savage Blood and the foreman there tells me he can’t do that until it gets upgraded one more
    time.

    The Mine upgrade has not been bad. We opened up another shaft and so are getting much more ore and stone from there. We’re finding some carts with a variety of items in them, including some Archeology fragments. I’m hoping to find enough to start getting an idea of what the history of the place looks like. Draenor is so different that what was left of it as Outland in my timeline. The only thing about the new shaft is that we keep having to deal with Goren in the tunnels. Like they found a new hole to tunnel in through. It’s a bit annoying. I’m told that I might be able to get someone to patrol the Mine if I upgrade it again. I guess these guys don’t want to work in dust. What do they think this place is a 5 star resort?

    The Warmill is finally starting to produce gear for the followers. They don’t do it regularly but every once in
    while I find they’ve left me a nice piece or two to hand out. As a result the followers are better equipped for
    some of the missions they are being asked to go out on.

    I did take a couple of the followers that were working in garrison building as send them out on a few missions. They needs a bit more experience. Things are starting to heat up and I want them ready for anything. Besides there is a bit more going on and more hands are needed in the field right now. Better they be out there taking care of business than hanging out here working in a cushy garrison building. They’ll get soft. Now if there aren’t any missions that need them, well then they are going to work. I don’t have time for lay-abouts and hangers-on.

    Especially with the various campaigns popping up. This week we headed over to Shadowmoon Valley. They called it the Sargerei Campaign. At least I got to do something in Shadowmoon Valley besides fish. That was a nice change. Supposedly this little campaign was all about trying to disrupt the rise of Socrethar. There’s a bunch of Dranei over there that are turning against their own people in favor of the Burning Legion and they are trying to raise some demon or something. They think Valen was a fool. I don’t have time for such traitors. Really. Feel the same about my own people.

    And what is up with this disguise thing? Really? Infiltrate? Seriously, that’s just not satisfying. That disquise
    is uncomfortable and it smells. What have these creatures been bathing in? I don’t understand why we can’t just go in and be straight forward about it and wipe them out. What is the point in letting such traitors continue?

    The campaign was more challenging than I expected. I did get some help from the garrison when I called. At least they were on the ball. Still the commanders are calling it a success. We were able to bring back some intel for them and while they aren’t pleased with it, they are glad to have it.


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  • Bluecoal’s Diaries – 01182015

    Posted on by suguay Comment

    My followers came back with a very nice new robe for me. I should really give them a nice bonus, or perhaps a bit of Dragon P.I.E. to
    warm them up here in Frostwall. Once they returned I was able to send a few of them back out to help out with the Liberation of
    Shattrath, finally. They performed well and the mission was a success, I am pleased to say.

    With all the work to do around the garrison it’s a wonder I ever get a chance to leave. But, I was finally able to get those Abysal
    Gulper Eel Eggs that the keeper of the fishing shack keeps asking for. Sheesh, as many as he keeps asking for I’m starting to wonder if
    he isn’t using them for caviar instead of stocking the garrison pond. Though is he is, he is keeping that delicacy to himself and not sharing it with the command staff, myself included.

    I’ve had Gazlowe make some improvements around the garrison. He’s upgraded the War Mill and the Fishing Shack. Now it’s not quite a
    shack. As a result we’re getting a little more productivity there. I’m going to have to ask him to upgrade the mine soon. There’s
    definitely some improvements that can be made in there. It’s really a mess right now. But the War Mill is not performing as I had hoped. I’m getting a lot of scrap. I don’t need scrap, I need gear for my followers. They are being asked to do more and more dangerous and difficult tasks. They need gear if they are to survive.

    As always there are the chores that need doing. Setting work orders for all manner of things from fur and cloth to herbs and ore. You
    would think these people would know by now that they just need to keep making this stuff instead of waiting for me to tell them. Then again, I suppose they need to know where to pull the resources from to begin with. Really. Some initiative would be nice.

    I did finally get over to help out in Nagrand. There is so much to do over there. Good news, while storming one of the strongholds there, I picked up another follower. I think he’s going to be really good once he’s fully trained up. I’ve been sending him out with some of the veterans to get a bit more experience. The work in Nagrand continues. So far I’ve mostly been able to help to bring in some supplies but is seems there are some particularly dominating beasts that need to be taken care of which I expect to be able to do soon.

    Meanwhile, Rokhan sent me off to the Stonefury Cliffs to assault the Bloodmaul Stronghold. It turns out that Ogres are not the easiest
    creatures to kill. They have enslaved many Orc and Dranei, and even the Lava Elementals. I was able to free a few of the slaves and cause some disruption to the goings on there. I fear it is not enough.

    There is more to do. I can’t sit around here writing reports all day.


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  • Starting to ‘Get It’ in Repopulation

    Posted on by suguay Comment

    Learning a new game is always fun and challenging. There are things that seem to be pretty easy to pickup and things that are more unique and require a bit more work to learn. I’m finding this out with Repopulation.

    Basic combat is pretty easy and at the moment, because I’m not very far along, pretty easy to do. The crafting
    system itself, while involved and robust in appearance isn’t too bad, however, there tends to be a bit of a catch
    with the tutorials. It helps if you keep whatever materials you might make for one tutorial as the next may use
    it to build upon. Not a bad idea for the system, just a bad decision on my part.

    I did the next crafting tutorial to make some metal bars with certain attributes. And then I turned them in for a
    request for the city. Then I decided to do the next crafting tutorial and found I needed them. Hrmph. I spent a
    very long time trying to either purchase the equivalent or find the ingredients to make it. I succeeded for one
    item and went to turn it in and found I needed the other bar. I still haven’t found a replacement or made one.

    With that particular frustration hanging on I decided to do some assignments. I took mostly courier type of
    assignments right in the city. I did take one to help out with the Setlang population that has been getting out
    of control and attacking people. I also got to die for the first time in the game. I had been shooting an adult
    Setlang and didn’t pay attention to my health when a juvenile started attacking me. A little baby one. I
    remembered I could tame it and have it as a pet but I couldn’t find where I put my taming button and while I was looking for it the little monster killed me. Ok, it really was my fault. I admit it. Still.

    While I was running around the city picking up and delivering things I noticed that some of the NPC’s I was
    dealing with had the option to ‘shop’ as well as deal with the assignment. So I started checking out what they
    were selling and what their profession was and all. I was able to pick up some recipes this way. I had to
    purchase them of course. But at least I am starting to get some things I can use. I’m not sure what I’m goint to
    end up specializing in yet. So I’m probably just throwing coin away at the moment but I’ve tried to get basic
    things that I might want for a variety of professions.

    I also used the Trade system or Auction House as many know it. I can’t say that I’m an expert. It’s going to take some time for that. But I did manage to purchase some items. I even managed to filter so I wasn’t spending forever reading what was available. I also managed to post something for sale. Though I haven’t been back on to see if it sold. The trade system appears to be set up for you to create and manage your own store. I seem to recall reading something about that being a feature, but it has been a long time since I read that. And it does not yet appear to be fully functional. Or because I am in the NPC capital city I am unable to use it. I’m not sure. But I look forward to it being available. That should be fun.

    So that’s where I’m at. I’m starting to get the hang of things better and I do enjoy the game. I’m finding a lot
    of things that I’ve seen something similar in other games, but that’s for another post.


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  • A Little More Repopulation

    Posted on by suguay Comment

    I had decided that I wanted to spend those training chits I had on some additional weapon training for when I went out into the wider world. I did that. But in the process, I got one more training than I intended because I didn’t read carefully and clicked the wrong option.

    I had to paid close attention but when you speak to a trainer, you are give the choices to use a chit, pay money, or pass. It seems to me that the pay money and pass options might not always be in the same order. While it sounds like a complaint and a problem, to me it is not.This would only be a problem if I wanted to mindlessly click through things. And as I have played a few things that let me do that, this is a bad habit. You assume you are selecting what you want based on where that selection was in the list from a previous encounter. I sort of see this as a feature because it encourages me to pay attention. That is a good thing.

    I got my training and headed out to the capital city for my faction. For this toon I chose OWN. I figured I would first try playing what looks like might be the more privileged faction. Appearances can be deceiving and I have no doubt I will find the constraints of the faction culture soon enough.

    I did a few assignments. They come in the form of email. I had a whole list of them available and I opened a few and read them. There were a couple that I just closed out. I didn’t accept or decline them. Mostly because I’m still not sure what I want to do with them. There were several courier type of assignments that I did do. Some were a little frustrating as the pickup target or the end target seemed to wander around quite a bit and the map indicator had me running around in circles at times. I only had one that I failed at and it was more of an optional thing not something I actively accepted.

    There was an assignment to provide lilac to someone as the city needed it. I found some lilac, I couldn’t find the person to deliver it to. She seemed to move all over. Then she left so I failed. However, now that I have read about lilac I know I could have probably gone right to the medical facility and found her there instead of trying to follow the arrows.

    The thing with the arrows and the mini map might be something that needs to be fixed. Again, I still like things that make me think and so I don’t mind now that I know I need to put a little more thought into what I am doing. But, if it is a feature that is going to be available in the game, it should probably work properly. Who knows, maybe it was because the target was moving all over, then again, I had one that seemed to come and go on the map like he was being rezzed and de-rezzed.

    I spent a little over an hour playing and made a bit of coin. I even managed to learn more crafting. I also got outside the city and ran around a bit that allowed me to practice harvesting as well as a bit of combat. There are vultures and another hostile creature lurking just outside the city that attack when you get too close and so defending yourself is a requirement. As the looting process is not quite like other games, this is something that tends to need a little practice as well. You have to remember to select the corpse and use the corpse extraction function.

    Most of the time when I play games I use the built in tool bars and do a lot of just clicking with the mouse. I don’t usually bother with macros or even the hot-keys. Though if I’m fishing I use the hot-key. It’s just easier. However, I can see with this game where more efficient button mashing will be required. I think I will get tired of trying to find my abilities and will want an easier way. According to my macro mad friends this will be good. It will change my habits. Yeah, we’ll see.


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