Exactly what the title says!
Let the problems of 2010 plague you no more, for the problems of 2011 are upon us!
Friday, December 31, 2010
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Friday, December 24, 2010
I Got Butchered Again
And this time, it's serious.
See, this game is like Runescape in progression. It's not that hard until about halfway through.
For instance, in my 2 weeks of playing, I worked my way past the Frigate class, the Destroyer class and the Cruiser class. My corporation delivered to me my first Battlecruiser, the Drake. At this point, the only practical ship a player can expect to fly is Battleship or one of the Strategic Cruisers/Advanced Mining Vessels. Up from that are Capitals, which are mostly pipe dreams.
The Drake is a ship type which kinda has a love/hate following. Like Torag's armour. It's dirt cheap, all the new kids run for it as soon as possible, it's freakishly tough. I have minimum skills (yes, even EVE Online has skills) and I was able to use the Drake to take on over a dozen other Battlecruisers at the same time and win on my own. It's that kind of vessel.
The ship's main strength is its shield. The Drake can fit an obscenely powerful passive shield tank, which basically means your shields are so outrageously tough that they can shrug off most damage and recharge so quickly on their own that you never have to worry about that particular bar. The Runescape equivalent would be your character's health naturally regenerating so quickly that multiple enemies constantly damaging you can't keep up. The Drake has more defensive bonuses than many battleships and can still mount a good amount of damage alongside that.
So yesterday (or today, it's the 25th here already), I learned two things;
1. Fighting a powerful passive shield tank is hard. I would like to take this opportunity to apologise to every unfortunate NPC crewman, pilot or captain and their next of kin/families. Today, I went one-on-one with my first battleship. I'm in a shield-tanked Drake, so I'm pretty much unstoppable one-on-one. Thing is, I learned how obnoxious it was to fight someone just like me.
I was putting 7 Heavy Missiles into that stupid thing per salvo. One salvo every 13 seconds. That's over 28 gigantic missiles per minute into a single target. The bastard's shields kept recharging. Every time I pulled a piece off the shield bar, it recharged in the time I took to launch another salvo. I even dropped 8 million (the ship itself cost me 26 million) on upgrading the missile launchers and a control system and this bastard still didn't go down.
In the end, I gave up and lost the launchers, equipped salvagers and looted the battlefield. The battleship had lots of escorts, but I murdered them all before moving and failing against it, so I looted everyone whilst waiting for a corpmate to bail me out.
2. Losing a ship sucks. It's EVE Online, you expect death wherever you are, but somehow, my death was one of the most humiliating ever. Thing about the Drake is, I have 11k effective HP on me. That's 11k damage someone has to do to me to kill me in a single blow (excluding recharge/repairs). Approximately 5k of that was armour and hull, which were the second and third layers of defence. If I lost my shield, I still had enough of a window to run away.
So the only way to effectively kill me was to prevent my escape. Now, the most common way of escape is a Warp. When you go into Warp, it's over. They've lost, they can't possibly catch you. Problem is, warp requires that you be aligned to a destination AND be at 75% of your top speed. This can be troublesome for a slow ship with low acceleration, but they can usually take damage long enough to survive. Warp Scramblers prevent warp at all, thus preventing escape. Simple.
Problem is, I never got warp scrambled. The bastards who got me did so because when I aligned to my destination and started accelerating, I accelerated into a piece of the environment (a small station array and a floating warehouse). So I couldn't get speed and I was trapped between these two, while taking a pounding. The crappy AI tried to keep lining up but it's crappy, so my ship spun around on the spot hopelessly for several seconds before exploding. I lost most of my equipped modules and cargo contents (including the expensive upgrades).
Howsabout some perspective;
When I got my Drake, I had 60 million. I dropped 26 million into it (saved 2 million because the corp made it for me and didn't need much profit). I drained another 16 million to buy the fittings and kit it out for battle.
So I'm down to 28 million in my wallet. I dropped half of my entire cash pool one one vessel. Thankfully, I made a fair portion of it back. It was yesterday that I hit 32 million odd again, even after many, many expensive spare parts and upgrades. I was left at 26 million after selling some stuff and buying ship upgrades against that bastard Battleship.
Then it exploded. The stuff I salvaged was worth all of 5 million.
However, I insured the ship and the insurance payout was a solid 22 million and after corpmates killed everything at the mission, I looted the wrecks and made some cash. The corp leader generously handed everyone 10 million (Christmas gift <3).
In the end, I was left with 65 million.
Short version? These last 2 days of work have been worth exactly nothing. I'm back to the Cruiser I abandoned in my hangar. I'm back to leeching offa my corp mates in missions for income (missions are divided into levels. Higher levels = more payment and more difficulty. My Drake could perform most level 3's without much trouble. Level 4 is the highest). So for the first time ever, I was effectively independent and could make a steady, reasonable income without asking the corp for help every 10 minutes.
Then it blew up. Really. EVE Online is generous to the dedicated, strong player but it sucks ass when you lose.
There's my Christmas Eve (when typing that, I nearly typed 'Christmas EVE'. Signs I need a break). I wonder what joys Christmas day will bring me.
Regards, IVIilitarus
See, this game is like Runescape in progression. It's not that hard until about halfway through.
For instance, in my 2 weeks of playing, I worked my way past the Frigate class, the Destroyer class and the Cruiser class. My corporation delivered to me my first Battlecruiser, the Drake. At this point, the only practical ship a player can expect to fly is Battleship or one of the Strategic Cruisers/Advanced Mining Vessels. Up from that are Capitals, which are mostly pipe dreams.
The Drake is a ship type which kinda has a love/hate following. Like Torag's armour. It's dirt cheap, all the new kids run for it as soon as possible, it's freakishly tough. I have minimum skills (yes, even EVE Online has skills) and I was able to use the Drake to take on over a dozen other Battlecruisers at the same time and win on my own. It's that kind of vessel.
The ship's main strength is its shield. The Drake can fit an obscenely powerful passive shield tank, which basically means your shields are so outrageously tough that they can shrug off most damage and recharge so quickly on their own that you never have to worry about that particular bar. The Runescape equivalent would be your character's health naturally regenerating so quickly that multiple enemies constantly damaging you can't keep up. The Drake has more defensive bonuses than many battleships and can still mount a good amount of damage alongside that.
So yesterday (or today, it's the 25th here already), I learned two things;
1. Fighting a powerful passive shield tank is hard. I would like to take this opportunity to apologise to every unfortunate NPC crewman, pilot or captain and their next of kin/families. Today, I went one-on-one with my first battleship. I'm in a shield-tanked Drake, so I'm pretty much unstoppable one-on-one. Thing is, I learned how obnoxious it was to fight someone just like me.
I was putting 7 Heavy Missiles into that stupid thing per salvo. One salvo every 13 seconds. That's over 28 gigantic missiles per minute into a single target. The bastard's shields kept recharging. Every time I pulled a piece off the shield bar, it recharged in the time I took to launch another salvo. I even dropped 8 million (the ship itself cost me 26 million) on upgrading the missile launchers and a control system and this bastard still didn't go down.
In the end, I gave up and lost the launchers, equipped salvagers and looted the battlefield. The battleship had lots of escorts, but I murdered them all before moving and failing against it, so I looted everyone whilst waiting for a corpmate to bail me out.
2. Losing a ship sucks. It's EVE Online, you expect death wherever you are, but somehow, my death was one of the most humiliating ever. Thing about the Drake is, I have 11k effective HP on me. That's 11k damage someone has to do to me to kill me in a single blow (excluding recharge/repairs). Approximately 5k of that was armour and hull, which were the second and third layers of defence. If I lost my shield, I still had enough of a window to run away.
So the only way to effectively kill me was to prevent my escape. Now, the most common way of escape is a Warp. When you go into Warp, it's over. They've lost, they can't possibly catch you. Problem is, warp requires that you be aligned to a destination AND be at 75% of your top speed. This can be troublesome for a slow ship with low acceleration, but they can usually take damage long enough to survive. Warp Scramblers prevent warp at all, thus preventing escape. Simple.
Problem is, I never got warp scrambled. The bastards who got me did so because when I aligned to my destination and started accelerating, I accelerated into a piece of the environment (a small station array and a floating warehouse). So I couldn't get speed and I was trapped between these two, while taking a pounding. The crappy AI tried to keep lining up but it's crappy, so my ship spun around on the spot hopelessly for several seconds before exploding. I lost most of my equipped modules and cargo contents (including the expensive upgrades).
Howsabout some perspective;
When I got my Drake, I had 60 million. I dropped 26 million into it (saved 2 million because the corp made it for me and didn't need much profit). I drained another 16 million to buy the fittings and kit it out for battle.
So I'm down to 28 million in my wallet. I dropped half of my entire cash pool one one vessel. Thankfully, I made a fair portion of it back. It was yesterday that I hit 32 million odd again, even after many, many expensive spare parts and upgrades. I was left at 26 million after selling some stuff and buying ship upgrades against that bastard Battleship.
Then it exploded. The stuff I salvaged was worth all of 5 million.
However, I insured the ship and the insurance payout was a solid 22 million and after corpmates killed everything at the mission, I looted the wrecks and made some cash. The corp leader generously handed everyone 10 million (Christmas gift <3).
In the end, I was left with 65 million.
Short version? These last 2 days of work have been worth exactly nothing. I'm back to the Cruiser I abandoned in my hangar. I'm back to leeching offa my corp mates in missions for income (missions are divided into levels. Higher levels = more payment and more difficulty. My Drake could perform most level 3's without much trouble. Level 4 is the highest). So for the first time ever, I was effectively independent and could make a steady, reasonable income without asking the corp for help every 10 minutes.
Then it blew up. Really. EVE Online is generous to the dedicated, strong player but it sucks ass when you lose.
There's my Christmas Eve (when typing that, I nearly typed 'Christmas EVE'. Signs I need a break). I wonder what joys Christmas day will bring me.
Regards, IVIilitarus
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Ultramarines Review
Fans of Warhammer 40000 be rejoicin' last year when news of a Warhammer 40000 film based on the Ultramarines would be released. 40k's a gritty sort of thing, lots of grimdark and deep fluff, so it's hard to turn it into something that translates well onscreen.
I like to think this movie isn't an introduction to the universe, but rather for established fans. It only introduces 2 out of 8 factions and plays out on exactly 1 planet and its orbit. Fans of the universe will most likely enjoy the action and grimdark the movie helps to convey through (flawed) CGI.
Characterisation and portrayals of tech are fully intact, thanks to Dan Abnett as writer. The film stays so true the tabletop game that the characters and equipment were modeled to tabletop specs, to the point where the Land Speeder's weaponry is as comically oversized here as on the tabletop.
Writing and character interactions are solid, conveying the holy duties of the Marines in a way which isn't particularly cheesy. The prayers, warcries and manner of speech stays true to the tone of the fluff, without turning into a hammy mess.
There's plenty of violence and a few thrills along the way, to flesh out the battles. Some people might have expected more action, sooner and others might like less of the grit and violence present; I sit in the middle, there's enough action along the way to the big twist and climax (yes, there is one) to keep viewers satisfied without hampering the story and turning it into a cheap action flick. Ultramarines is a sci-fi thriller at heart.
My only real beef with the film is the CGI, and that seems to be what everyone else is grinding on, too. Facial expressions and facial modeling are far from what I've come to expect in today's CGI films. Everything that wasn't a face was rendered rather well and meshed well with the environment. A few of the bloodier scenes are hampered by the flawed CGI and closeups of characters aren't quite what they could be.
The entire film itself feels like a game of Warhammer 40000 played out in CGI with fleshed out characters. The story of a squad of Space Marines led by 2 veterans who go to secure an ancient relic in the hands of Chaos and must then return it to the ship sounds like something that would be done on the tabletop by a pair of creative gamers.
I'd hand it 7/10, just for keeping true to the universe, good writing, gritty action and flawed CGI. It really does feel like those nerdy toys on your table came to life and started kicking ass.
Regards, IVIilitarus
I like to think this movie isn't an introduction to the universe, but rather for established fans. It only introduces 2 out of 8 factions and plays out on exactly 1 planet and its orbit. Fans of the universe will most likely enjoy the action and grimdark the movie helps to convey through (flawed) CGI.
Characterisation and portrayals of tech are fully intact, thanks to Dan Abnett as writer. The film stays so true the tabletop game that the characters and equipment were modeled to tabletop specs, to the point where the Land Speeder's weaponry is as comically oversized here as on the tabletop.
Writing and character interactions are solid, conveying the holy duties of the Marines in a way which isn't particularly cheesy. The prayers, warcries and manner of speech stays true to the tone of the fluff, without turning into a hammy mess.
There's plenty of violence and a few thrills along the way, to flesh out the battles. Some people might have expected more action, sooner and others might like less of the grit and violence present; I sit in the middle, there's enough action along the way to the big twist and climax (yes, there is one) to keep viewers satisfied without hampering the story and turning it into a cheap action flick. Ultramarines is a sci-fi thriller at heart.
My only real beef with the film is the CGI, and that seems to be what everyone else is grinding on, too. Facial expressions and facial modeling are far from what I've come to expect in today's CGI films. Everything that wasn't a face was rendered rather well and meshed well with the environment. A few of the bloodier scenes are hampered by the flawed CGI and closeups of characters aren't quite what they could be.
The entire film itself feels like a game of Warhammer 40000 played out in CGI with fleshed out characters. The story of a squad of Space Marines led by 2 veterans who go to secure an ancient relic in the hands of Chaos and must then return it to the ship sounds like something that would be done on the tabletop by a pair of creative gamers.
I'd hand it 7/10, just for keeping true to the universe, good writing, gritty action and flawed CGI. It really does feel like those nerdy toys on your table came to life and started kicking ass.
Regards, IVIilitarus
Sunday, December 19, 2010
The Mining Lasers on the Osprey Go Zzzt and Zzzt
Turns out, making friends in EVE is a damned good idea.
Joined a corp a few days ago (2 days, really) and found they were kinda like me. They stick to high security space (like real wimps), run missions against NPCs (like rich wimps) and accept new players (like real pro gamers, right there).
Basically in high-sec, you best source of money is mission-running or playing the market (which is hard), so most people mission run. Missions in EVE are repetitive affairs of 'take this to here' or 'go here and kill this' or 'go here and kill this and bring something from the kill to here'. Grind missions to get ISK (ingame currency also, amusingly, currency of Iceland) use ISK to buy stuff.
I'm gonna primarily do mission-running for money but, I got bored today so I mined.
See, I ground up a lotta cash today from missioning with friends (more like leeching; they kill everything for me and I still get a portion of the rewards). I actually doubled my wallet total. Used a bit of the cash to buy a new ship and start mining.
I found to my dismay that mining in EVE is depressingly similar to mining in Runescape and is only slightly less tedious.
It follows the same formula of go to asteroids (rocks), finding one and locking it as target (looking for an empty rock), turning on your mining lasers (the actual mining), waiting (waiting), letting your cargo hold fill up (letting you inventory fill up) and then warping back to station to drop the ore off (teleporting to the bank to drop the ore off).
Hell, once you're done mining, you even have to refine the ore into valuable minerals used in production. Right; production. That's where you turn the stuff you mined into stuff you can use to make stuff you can use. Like Smithing. EVE Online's economy is about as close to a fully-player driven economy as you get. If you buy a Tech I (average quality) ship, it was sure's hell player made. Vast majority of average hulls are player made and sold on the market. So's most of the equipment that doesn't drop often from NPCs.
I say mining in EVE Online is only slightly less mind-numbing than Runescape because f a few simple things;
Rocks don't disappear. You can mine a single rock for hours and hours and not have it deplete. Because of that, you don't have to check back every few seconds to switch rocks. No fighting over rocks, either.
There's no obnoxious 'tik tik tik' sound when I'm in another window. In EVE, most sound is muted when you switch windows or minimize. Oh, sure, there's a zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzt sound, but you can switch that off without impeding yourself.
You're mining in a spaceship with lasers. If you had to choose between a career of mining in clothes/armour with a pickaxe and mining in a spaceship with lasers, what would you choose?
Storage is easier. I don't have to click all the time on the map to get somewhere. I right click on my destination station and press 'Dock'. That's it. Game takes care of the rest and I just have to drag my ore into the hangar.
Making a difference. Most players in Runescape can only mine up to mithril or adamant. Most players on Runescape don't even bother using mithril or adamant the way it was intended to. We don't make weapons for combat use, we make stuff to grind our skills. In EVE, every single mineral, even the most basic has uses. The most basic mineral is Tritanium. It's the most common, but is also the one needed most when manufacturing. I've maybe mined less than 5 hours in my entire EVE Online career and I'm making a difference for my corp-mates.
Mining in EVE is still only slightly nicer than grinding skills on Runescape. It's still a grind and it's about as bad as it gets in EVE, in terms of boring. It's still boring.
I miss mission running. The other guys in the corp are too busy doing other things and I'm stuck out of an income. ;-;
Regards, IVIilitarus
Joined a corp a few days ago (2 days, really) and found they were kinda like me. They stick to high security space (like real wimps), run missions against NPCs (like rich wimps) and accept new players (like real pro gamers, right there).
Basically in high-sec, you best source of money is mission-running or playing the market (which is hard), so most people mission run. Missions in EVE are repetitive affairs of 'take this to here' or 'go here and kill this' or 'go here and kill this and bring something from the kill to here'. Grind missions to get ISK (ingame currency also, amusingly, currency of Iceland) use ISK to buy stuff.
I'm gonna primarily do mission-running for money but, I got bored today so I mined.
See, I ground up a lotta cash today from missioning with friends (more like leeching; they kill everything for me and I still get a portion of the rewards). I actually doubled my wallet total. Used a bit of the cash to buy a new ship and start mining.
I found to my dismay that mining in EVE is depressingly similar to mining in Runescape and is only slightly less tedious.
It follows the same formula of go to asteroids (rocks), finding one and locking it as target (looking for an empty rock), turning on your mining lasers (the actual mining), waiting (waiting), letting your cargo hold fill up (letting you inventory fill up) and then warping back to station to drop the ore off (teleporting to the bank to drop the ore off).
Hell, once you're done mining, you even have to refine the ore into valuable minerals used in production. Right; production. That's where you turn the stuff you mined into stuff you can use to make stuff you can use. Like Smithing. EVE Online's economy is about as close to a fully-player driven economy as you get. If you buy a Tech I (average quality) ship, it was sure's hell player made. Vast majority of average hulls are player made and sold on the market. So's most of the equipment that doesn't drop often from NPCs.
I say mining in EVE Online is only slightly less mind-numbing than Runescape because f a few simple things;
Rocks don't disappear. You can mine a single rock for hours and hours and not have it deplete. Because of that, you don't have to check back every few seconds to switch rocks. No fighting over rocks, either.
There's no obnoxious 'tik tik tik' sound when I'm in another window. In EVE, most sound is muted when you switch windows or minimize. Oh, sure, there's a zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzt sound, but you can switch that off without impeding yourself.
You're mining in a spaceship with lasers. If you had to choose between a career of mining in clothes/armour with a pickaxe and mining in a spaceship with lasers, what would you choose?
Storage is easier. I don't have to click all the time on the map to get somewhere. I right click on my destination station and press 'Dock'. That's it. Game takes care of the rest and I just have to drag my ore into the hangar.
Making a difference. Most players in Runescape can only mine up to mithril or adamant. Most players on Runescape don't even bother using mithril or adamant the way it was intended to. We don't make weapons for combat use, we make stuff to grind our skills. In EVE, every single mineral, even the most basic has uses. The most basic mineral is Tritanium. It's the most common, but is also the one needed most when manufacturing. I've maybe mined less than 5 hours in my entire EVE Online career and I'm making a difference for my corp-mates.
Mining in EVE is still only slightly nicer than grinding skills on Runescape. It's still a grind and it's about as bad as it gets in EVE, in terms of boring. It's still boring.
I miss mission running. The other guys in the corp are too busy doing other things and I'm stuck out of an income. ;-;
Regards, IVIilitarus
Saturday, December 18, 2010
I Got Butchered
Not as active as I used to be. Stellar Dawn forums are sinking fast under a combo of inactive smart people (and, to a lesser extent, Jagex) as well as active stupid people. I've been playing EVE Online.
A few hours before this posting, I joined in some fleet action with my alliance (in EVE, a corporation is a clan. A bunch of corps under one banner is an Alliance). We camped gates (stood at an entrance and shot whatever walked in), waited around (because the guys we were hunting didn't wanna die) and roamed a bit, (because our targets wouldn't fucking sit still).
I caught a rather nice picture of the fleet. If you look closely right in the middle, there is a very small ship the shape of a caltrop amidst the big guys. That's me.
Nice thing about EVE Online is detail.
Like, when you get killed, the your ship fitting is shown in detail with a picture of the ship. Location, exact date and time as well as amount of money lost during that event and amount of damage you took is also saved. Both you and your killer's names are noted, the corporations you served in are written down and even the weapon used against you us remembered. It gets down to the point where what was in my cargo hold is listed, as well as what portion of the cargo was destroyed in the explosion.
Then all of it is instantly posted onto the internet, without input from either side. Right, so I'm Nytoxias and I got shot to bits.
The moment I notified my corp members of my unfortunate demise, they found the page detailing my death before I even undocked from the hangar, now halfway across the galaxy. It's that kind of attention to detail which makes the game so much fun.
Want me to go into part two?
It's called a killmail.
When you are killed, you and the person who dealt the finishing blow each receive a mail which is stored in your character sheet (no, you can't delete it). Your character sheet has your list of kills and losses and these mails can be viewed any time.
The mail looks something like this;
I scrolled down in the mail because the first part was who took part, what they flew and basically everything on the killboard. The cargo manifest and stuff I lost is the more interesting bit. I'm amazed they keep track of it all.
So no. I bear no ill will to my attacker and if you ever read this, I wish you well in your future piracy and newbie harassment attempts.
If this were Runescape, I'd tear my hair out and whine, and whine and whine. But it isn't. Death is all too common in EVE. Second rule of EVE is "Don't fly anything you can't afford to lose." because in EVE, there is no place outside of a station that someone cannot theoretically kill you at. If you're in space, you can potentially be killed. It's just how much risk the attacker is willing to take.
I smiled when I died, not out of defiance or denial, but because it's a nice moment. I got my first Loss killmail. Got podkilled for the first time (that's when he blows your escape pod to bits as well and kills your body for good). In fact, earlier when I bought and fitted that ship, I said into the chat, "I just blew today's income fitting out a ship I'll probably lose anyway." one of the veterans replied with, "Welcome to EVE."
I love EVE Online already.
Also to Lady Dragon, I only got the idea to stalk Jagex with that thread because I saw how quickly posts in it were usually locked. I only realised it when I looked into the recent posts out of curiosity.
Regards, IVIilitarus
A few hours before this posting, I joined in some fleet action with my alliance (in EVE, a corporation is a clan. A bunch of corps under one banner is an Alliance). We camped gates (stood at an entrance and shot whatever walked in), waited around (because the guys we were hunting didn't wanna die) and roamed a bit, (because our targets wouldn't fucking sit still).
I caught a rather nice picture of the fleet. If you look closely right in the middle, there is a very small ship the shape of a caltrop amidst the big guys. That's me.
Nice thing about EVE Online is detail.
Like, when you get killed, the your ship fitting is shown in detail with a picture of the ship. Location, exact date and time as well as amount of money lost during that event and amount of damage you took is also saved. Both you and your killer's names are noted, the corporations you served in are written down and even the weapon used against you us remembered. It gets down to the point where what was in my cargo hold is listed, as well as what portion of the cargo was destroyed in the explosion.
Then all of it is instantly posted onto the internet, without input from either side. Right, so I'm Nytoxias and I got shot to bits.
The moment I notified my corp members of my unfortunate demise, they found the page detailing my death before I even undocked from the hangar, now halfway across the galaxy. It's that kind of attention to detail which makes the game so much fun.
Want me to go into part two?
It's called a killmail.
When you are killed, you and the person who dealt the finishing blow each receive a mail which is stored in your character sheet (no, you can't delete it). Your character sheet has your list of kills and losses and these mails can be viewed any time.
The mail looks something like this;
I scrolled down in the mail because the first part was who took part, what they flew and basically everything on the killboard. The cargo manifest and stuff I lost is the more interesting bit. I'm amazed they keep track of it all.
So no. I bear no ill will to my attacker and if you ever read this, I wish you well in your future piracy and newbie harassment attempts.
If this were Runescape, I'd tear my hair out and whine, and whine and whine. But it isn't. Death is all too common in EVE. Second rule of EVE is "Don't fly anything you can't afford to lose." because in EVE, there is no place outside of a station that someone cannot theoretically kill you at. If you're in space, you can potentially be killed. It's just how much risk the attacker is willing to take.
I smiled when I died, not out of defiance or denial, but because it's a nice moment. I got my first Loss killmail. Got podkilled for the first time (that's when he blows your escape pod to bits as well and kills your body for good). In fact, earlier when I bought and fitted that ship, I said into the chat, "I just blew today's income fitting out a ship I'll probably lose anyway." one of the veterans replied with, "Welcome to EVE."
I love EVE Online already.
Also to Lady Dragon, I only got the idea to stalk Jagex with that thread because I saw how quickly posts in it were usually locked. I only realised it when I looked into the recent posts out of curiosity.
Regards, IVIilitarus
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Thoughts on EVE Online
Absent because EVE Online worked!
Me complying with the title of my blog, I dove straight for the Caldari (the railgun and missile guys who are non-nonsense practical types <3) and kitted out a railgun Destroyer ASAP. I'm actually doing better in a railgun equipped ship than I did in the recommended ship using missiles.
Also, Stellar Dawn Forums being saturated in new, stupid people who revive dead threads, start dumb discussions, post stupid things and in general, don't know how to type.
Jagex nowhere to be found. It's one week away from being a month since they appeared to have dropped us.
Regards, IVIilitarus
Me complying with the title of my blog, I dove straight for the Caldari (the railgun and missile guys who are non-nonsense practical types <3) and kitted out a railgun Destroyer ASAP. I'm actually doing better in a railgun equipped ship than I did in the recommended ship using missiles.
Also, Stellar Dawn Forums being saturated in new, stupid people who revive dead threads, start dumb discussions, post stupid things and in general, don't know how to type.
Jagex nowhere to be found. It's one week away from being a month since they appeared to have dropped us.
Regards, IVIilitarus
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Stellar Dawn Forums be Dead and Jagex be Stupid
All Jagex forums have a Change/Move/Lock Requests thread. I only use it to stalk Jagex. See, when someone is done with the chore of doing what we incompetent players forgot about at first, they have to hide the post.
It's been over 2 weeks since a post was hidden. Jagex isn't even looking anymore.
Sucks, don't it?
On a stranger note, the forums have recently seen a rise in players who can't type and have no clue as to what the hell is going on.
Regards, IVIilitarus
It's been over 2 weeks since a post was hidden. Jagex isn't even looking anymore.
Sucks, don't it?
On a stranger note, the forums have recently seen a rise in players who can't type and have no clue as to what the hell is going on.
Regards, IVIilitarus
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Stupid EVE Online. Stupid CCP
Reason I haven't been posting is that I've been trying to get EVE Online working.
Problem is, those idiots at CCP can't put out a useful client if Iceland's economy was threatened by even worse things. More than 5 failed downloads so far, on most available methods. It kinda sucks.
During that mess, I've been mostly reading up on EVE and waiting. What a waste.
Regards, IVIilitarus
Problem is, those idiots at CCP can't put out a useful client if Iceland's economy was threatened by even worse things. More than 5 failed downloads so far, on most available methods. It kinda sucks.
During that mess, I've been mostly reading up on EVE and waiting. What a waste.
Regards, IVIilitarus
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Behind the Scenes Says: SNOWBALL FIGHTS! =D
New Behind the Scenes is nice and all, with a life-changing modification to Defence which will reshape combat and a long-awaited update that we've been wanting for years in the form of a Dragon Defender (it's like a Rune defender, but more betterer)
My favourite?
Snowball fights.
This Christmas, I can finally relive those lovely memories of that 2007 Christmas Event, the first time Runescape got a taste of permanent snowballs. I even wrote a guide about it on my dead bloggy blog that got featured on Vaskor's. I think that was the first time I ever got on to Runescape Reader's Digest.
If you're a Runescaper, read the Digest sometime, it's awesome.
Regards, IVIilitarus
My favourite?
Snowball fights.
This Christmas, I can finally relive those lovely memories of that 2007 Christmas Event, the first time Runescape got a taste of permanent snowballs. I even wrote a guide about it on my dead bloggy blog that got featured on Vaskor's. I think that was the first time I ever got on to Runescape Reader's Digest.
If you're a Runescaper, read the Digest sometime, it's awesome.
Regards, IVIilitarus
Monday, November 29, 2010
Combine Theme Song 'n' Stuffs
Somebody came up with the bright idea of The Combine needing a theme song.
So here, I'm adding all of my own selections for the idea. The songs are all in the music player in the corner. Just have to find them.
My proposal is to have 3 Themes. (shit!) One for The Combine as a whole and one for each Arm. I strongly suggest you listen to each song end to end.
My selections come down to this;
Combine Main Theme:
Other 5. Battle Theme 2
Epic 6. Revelations (possible Scholarly Arm song, too)
Orchestra 4. Company of Heroes
Scholarly Arm Theme
Other 6. Battle Theme 3
Orchestra 5. Spectre Induction
Militant Arm Theme
Orchestral 3: The Old Republic
Other 4. Battle Theme 1
As a side note, I would like to say that I automatically reject ANY song with lyrics that aren't justified. If you like the tune, find the instrumental.
So here, I'm adding all of my own selections for the idea. The songs are all in the music player in the corner. Just have to find them.
My proposal is to have 3 Themes. (shit!) One for The Combine as a whole and one for each Arm. I strongly suggest you listen to each song end to end.
My selections come down to this;
Combine Main Theme:
Other 5. Battle Theme 2
Epic 6. Revelations (possible Scholarly Arm song, too)
Orchestra 4. Company of Heroes
Scholarly Arm Theme
Other 6. Battle Theme 3
Orchestra 5. Spectre Induction
Militant Arm Theme
Orchestral 3: The Old Republic
Other 4. Battle Theme 1
As a side note, I would like to say that I automatically reject ANY song with lyrics that aren't justified. If you like the tune, find the instrumental.
Friday, November 26, 2010
Full of Pie is Such a Sweetheart
She gave me a Hexcrest for free <3
Sure, it's only worth like 170k, but it's a show of just how wonderful she is.
Regards, IVIilitarus
Sure, it's only worth like 170k, but it's a show of just how wonderful she is.
Regards, IVIilitarus
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Robot Genocide
The Stellar Dawn forum has recently seen a spate of Roleplaying threads.
The first 2 that got in before mine are at 91-92-179-84679 and 90-91-269-84049.
I dove in and dropped my own. 91-92-178-84650
Robot Genocide was launched recently and there won't be killing for a while. I want to tweak it with the community and build up support for it before launching, so as to guarantee success.
It's a very, very humourous take on giant robot warfare. Doesn't take itself seriously at all. Absurdity is the norm and the aim is to live up to the title.
Have a looksie, pl0x.
I also caught these 2 funnies in Canting yesterday, when the Tasks update was released. Perfect comedic timing right there.
Regards, IVIilitarus
The first 2 that got in before mine are at 91-92-179-84679 and 90-91-269-84049.
I dove in and dropped my own. 91-92-178-84650
Robot Genocide was launched recently and there won't be killing for a while. I want to tweak it with the community and build up support for it before launching, so as to guarantee success.
It's a very, very humourous take on giant robot warfare. Doesn't take itself seriously at all. Absurdity is the norm and the aim is to live up to the title.
Have a looksie, pl0x.
I also caught these 2 funnies in Canting yesterday, when the Tasks update was released. Perfect comedic timing right there.
Regards, IVIilitarus
Monday, November 22, 2010
Common Sense
http://services.stellardawn.com/m=forum_fo/c=goZZO68v45c/forums.ws?84,85,327,84434
It's kind of like that.
It's kind of like that.
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Fanfic Uploadies!
I would like to take this opportunity to bring news of a historical event. And to wave my ego in your faces a bit more, that too.
I made the first Stellar Dawn non-developer uploaded fiction onto fanfiction.net.
A very short series and a short story.
Most of my existing stories are found here, but fanfiction.net has far fewer restrictions such as censorship and post size, so I will be posting all future Stellar Dawn fanfics to fanfiction.net. I may or may not upload more of the pieces from that thread to fanfiction.net.
I'm still getting comfortable with the format for fanfiction.net, so future uploads will be more organised and of a higher quality, as these 2 uploads were meant for the Stellar Dawn forums, hence their small size.
I made the first Stellar Dawn non-developer uploaded fiction onto fanfiction.net.
A very short series and a short story.
Most of my existing stories are found here, but fanfiction.net has far fewer restrictions such as censorship and post size, so I will be posting all future Stellar Dawn fanfics to fanfiction.net. I may or may not upload more of the pieces from that thread to fanfiction.net.
I'm still getting comfortable with the format for fanfiction.net, so future uploads will be more organised and of a higher quality, as these 2 uploads were meant for the Stellar Dawn forums, hence their small size.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
http://allthingspie.blogspot.com/2010/08/back-to-real-life-and-new-runescapian.html
http://allthingspie.blogspot.com/2010/11/in-memory.html
http://runescape.salmoneus.net/forums/index.php?autocom=blog&blogid=1764&showentry=57119
http://runescape.salmoneus.net/forums/blog/merch_gwyar/index.php?s=ba1599c5ef5900a16f47875afe4fa218&showentry=57138
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Stellar Dawn and Fanfiction.net
Namely that Stellar Dawn now has a Fanfiction.net section. What this means is that Stellar Dawn has a place on the internet's largest source of fanfiction and any fanfic writers for Stellar Dawn now have a place to post their fanfiction where it might be seen.
What really intrigues me isn't the site, at this point. It's the Stellar Dawn secion's lone entry. A Stellar Dawn Story Competition entry by a fellow named T.A. White. It's the only one there, hinting at the fact that this T.A. White may have set it up for us. White's profile leads to his official website and his website says he works for Jagex as a quest designer, writer and programmer. His resumé is present on the site.
This means two things.
1. Jagex lets their own employees enter their competitions (and lose)
2. This guy works for Jagex and that means his story might have hints to the game.
Which is awesome. I'mma trawl it for hints and so should you.
Regards, IVIilitarus
What really intrigues me isn't the site, at this point. It's the Stellar Dawn secion's lone entry. A Stellar Dawn Story Competition entry by a fellow named T.A. White. It's the only one there, hinting at the fact that this T.A. White may have set it up for us. White's profile leads to his official website and his website says he works for Jagex as a quest designer, writer and programmer. His resumé is present on the site.
This means two things.
1. Jagex lets their own employees enter their competitions (and lose)
2. This guy works for Jagex and that means his story might have hints to the game.
Which is awesome. I'mma trawl it for hints and so should you.
Regards, IVIilitarus
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Fuck. He's Back.
The Stellar Dawn forums, being relatively small and unknown, don't see a lot of trolls. A few mildly immature people, some who can't spell, some who say stupid/do things occasionally (that last one would be me), but no obnoxious little pricks running around, actively trying to be jerkasses.
Today also sees the launch of 3 new tags which are sure to see additional use in the future.
See, somewhere early on, some guy named Quiet Plea posted a bit and left. Nothing amazing. Get a lot of people excited by the news of a new MMO, post a bit on the forums and disappear. Figured it was one of those happening.
He came back some bit over a month later a total asshat.
Started roaming about, mild wannabe moderator. I didn't really notice, this was back before the Headquarters forum, so us losers who dove into the clan-making business to sate our enormous egos left our threads to stew on the Stellar Dawn section. It got so bad that eventually, the first page of the Stellar Dawn section was 1 third Jagex stickies and the rest were the clans in a bump war (Combine included, the rule was stay in the top 5 on the front page or someone gets booted. Yeah, I'm an ass.)
See, the Titans and Borg were having a few minor issues between them, usually one guy poking fun or accidentally derailing the thread onto their discussion or something and then someone would settle it. Pretty soon, the clans basically made peace over the issue and more-or-less let their members have some discussions in the threads. Not like anything else was happening, this was before Jagex started dropping their characters on us to keep the ball rolling.
He shows up and starts telling everyone on the threads to quit screwing around, even joined the Titans for a bit, just to do stupid things at the Borg. Both sides told him to shut the fuck up (in nicer terms, natch, they're good people) and he starts calling it 'abuse' and 'life threats'.
[reasonable opinion]What a whiny little bitch.[/reasonable opinion]
I noticed, but didn't join in. Passive observer, until he either got onto one of my threads or did something really stupid. So I told him to fuck off (in nicer terms, natch, I'm a good person). Flame wars erupt, troll accusations are flung, I think he got 2 threads made telling to get the fuck offa the Stellar Dawn forum? He just kept pulling the 'abuse', 'you're a troll' and fake moderator when he was being a fuckin' dipshit.
So Jagex banned his ass, shot all of this posts out and locked the threads.
Another happy ending.
So we did the clever thing and forgot about that twat, carrying on with our lives. At some or other point, someone named 'It Is Truth' showed up and started posting. Some of his stuff was a little useless to the discussion, but no worse than anyone who showed up before, so we let him keep it. Even made some slightly useless posts on my threads, but I just ignored him. Didn't really take notice.
A coupla days ago, he posted some or other thing a little to close to Quiet Plea's stuff and someone took notice, called him out. I just noticed that post and dug a bit deeper into Truth's posts. Got that same 'I'm better than you, if I'm wrong, you're a troll' attitude as Plea.
The title of this post echoed in my head as I dug a bit deeper.
He's definitely back.
Not much different. He's a little more anti-religious and jackassey than before, but not much else.
Give this little shitter 2 weeks before he gets banned again.
Something like this.
He dropped this on the Remembrance Day thread (Veteran's Day for the Americans).
It's kind of like that.
This post illustrates one of the smaller reasons I started this blog: to say things I'm not allowed to say on Jagex-run forums. My personal soapbox and screaming booth. really.
What an obnoxious little fuck. Want to be rid of him for good. Had enough the last time he showed up.
Regards, IVIilitarus
Today also sees the launch of 3 new tags which are sure to see additional use in the future.
See, somewhere early on, some guy named Quiet Plea posted a bit and left. Nothing amazing. Get a lot of people excited by the news of a new MMO, post a bit on the forums and disappear. Figured it was one of those happening.
He came back some bit over a month later a total asshat.
Started roaming about, mild wannabe moderator. I didn't really notice, this was back before the Headquarters forum, so us losers who dove into the clan-making business to sate our enormous egos left our threads to stew on the Stellar Dawn section. It got so bad that eventually, the first page of the Stellar Dawn section was 1 third Jagex stickies and the rest were the clans in a bump war (Combine included, the rule was stay in the top 5 on the front page or someone gets booted. Yeah, I'm an ass.)
See, the Titans and Borg were having a few minor issues between them, usually one guy poking fun or accidentally derailing the thread onto their discussion or something and then someone would settle it. Pretty soon, the clans basically made peace over the issue and more-or-less let their members have some discussions in the threads. Not like anything else was happening, this was before Jagex started dropping their characters on us to keep the ball rolling.
He shows up and starts telling everyone on the threads to quit screwing around, even joined the Titans for a bit, just to do stupid things at the Borg. Both sides told him to shut the fuck up (in nicer terms, natch, they're good people) and he starts calling it 'abuse' and 'life threats'.
[reasonable opinion]What a whiny little bitch.[/reasonable opinion]
I noticed, but didn't join in. Passive observer, until he either got onto one of my threads or did something really stupid. So I told him to fuck off (in nicer terms, natch, I'm a good person). Flame wars erupt, troll accusations are flung, I think he got 2 threads made telling to get the fuck offa the Stellar Dawn forum? He just kept pulling the 'abuse', 'you're a troll' and fake moderator when he was being a fuckin' dipshit.
So Jagex banned his ass, shot all of this posts out and locked the threads.
Another happy ending.
So we did the clever thing and forgot about that twat, carrying on with our lives. At some or other point, someone named 'It Is Truth' showed up and started posting. Some of his stuff was a little useless to the discussion, but no worse than anyone who showed up before, so we let him keep it. Even made some slightly useless posts on my threads, but I just ignored him. Didn't really take notice.
A coupla days ago, he posted some or other thing a little to close to Quiet Plea's stuff and someone took notice, called him out. I just noticed that post and dug a bit deeper into Truth's posts. Got that same 'I'm better than you, if I'm wrong, you're a troll' attitude as Plea.
The title of this post echoed in my head as I dug a bit deeper.
He's definitely back.
Not much different. He's a little more anti-religious and jackassey than before, but not much else.
Give this little shitter 2 weeks before he gets banned again.
Something like this.
He dropped this on the Remembrance Day thread (Veteran's Day for the Americans).
It's kind of like that.
This post illustrates one of the smaller reasons I started this blog: to say things I'm not allowed to say on Jagex-run forums. My personal soapbox and screaming booth. really.
What an obnoxious little fuck. Want to be rid of him for good. Had enough the last time he showed up.
Regards, IVIilitarus
Monday, November 15, 2010
Stellar Dawn's Gonna Happen in Real Life!
Or some kinda shit right outta sci-fi. Soon, in fact.
About 10 minutes from now?
NASA's website spat this out, "WASHINGTON -- NASA will hold a news conference at 12:30 p.m. EST on Monday, Nov. 15, to discuss the Chandra X-ray Observatory's discovery of an exceptional object in our cosmic neighborhood."
So there's something near us. Exceptional. NASA's got hold of it.
This sound like the beginning of an awesome popcorn flick to you?
Checkit. More at this place.
This'll either change the face of the Earth, or be another lame attempt at NASA to stay in business.
Better be aliens who're gonna give us mech technology and space babes.
Regards, IVIilitarus
About 10 minutes from now?
NASA's website spat this out, "WASHINGTON -- NASA will hold a news conference at 12:30 p.m. EST on Monday, Nov. 15, to discuss the Chandra X-ray Observatory's discovery of an exceptional object in our cosmic neighborhood."
So there's something near us. Exceptional. NASA's got hold of it.
This sound like the beginning of an awesome popcorn flick to you?
Checkit. More at this place.
This'll either change the face of the Earth, or be another lame attempt at NASA to stay in business.
Better be aliens who're gonna give us mech technology and space babes.
Regards, IVIilitarus
Sunday, November 14, 2010
On the Origin of Pastries by Means of Bored Forumites
Space Pie (or Spacepie) is a micro-meme that, I dunno. Sprung up somewhere, and only went...somewhere from there.
See, Space Pie is a pastry. And it's edible. It's name has 2 words; Space and Pie.
Then it goes to Hell.
It's kind of like that.
See, it kinda sprung from bum-fuck nowhere and caught on. Kind of like The Combine.
Someone asked what it was and the community responded.
It only gets better from the first post.
More insight.
First rule of Space Pie appears to be something along the lines of, "Don't ask about the ingredients of Space Pie."
On another thread, a forum mod tries to exercise another, overused and dead meme.
So they jumped him.
That's Space Pie in a nutshell. Space Pie is traditionally given to new players introducing themselves, as tokens of goodwill or used as justification for war between 2 parties.
See, Space Pie is revered. Of course we have a Space Pie Appreciation thread! Well, I just respect Space Pie. I don't worship it. But these guys do.
Respect Space Pie. Or else.
Regards, IVIilitarus
See, Space Pie is a pastry. And it's edible. It's name has 2 words; Space and Pie.
Then it goes to Hell.
It's kind of like that.
See, it kinda sprung from bum-fuck nowhere and caught on. Kind of like The Combine.
Someone asked what it was and the community responded.
It only gets better from the first post.
More insight.
First rule of Space Pie appears to be something along the lines of, "Don't ask about the ingredients of Space Pie."
On another thread, a forum mod tries to exercise another, overused and dead meme.
So they jumped him.
That's Space Pie in a nutshell. Space Pie is traditionally given to new players introducing themselves, as tokens of goodwill or used as justification for war between 2 parties.
See, Space Pie is revered. Of course we have a Space Pie Appreciation thread! Well, I just respect Space Pie. I don't worship it. But these guys do.
Respect Space Pie. Or else.
Regards, IVIilitarus
The Combine: 2; Everyone Else Added Together: 1
A certain bright spark named Mr Wiggglez saw an influx of clans and a few larger, clearly dominant ones (Combine included, bitches) and decided to organise, moderate and incite a war between us.
The Inter-Clan challenge was thought up to foster some growth between people who generally don't know each other. And to fill our time while Jagex continually screws up their marketing and information release strategy.
Clans are invited to an event suggested by a player. Someone fills out a suggestion form, Wiggglez takes a look, approves and invites whichever clans. Clans may turn down an invitation. Once participants are organised, a date, time and place are all determined.
At that point, The Combine shows up two-thirds of the time and kicks everyone's asses.
Proof?
6th post of this thread.
This is why I love The Combine.
Regards, IVIilitarus
The Inter-Clan challenge was thought up to foster some growth between people who generally don't know each other. And to fill our time while Jagex continually screws up their marketing and information release strategy.
Clans are invited to an event suggested by a player. Someone fills out a suggestion form, Wiggglez takes a look, approves and invites whichever clans. Clans may turn down an invitation. Once participants are organised, a date, time and place are all determined.
At that point, The Combine shows up two-thirds of the time and kicks everyone's asses.
Proof?
6th post of this thread.
This is why I love The Combine.
Regards, IVIilitarus
Adding Stuff
I <3 you people.
In fact, I <3 you people so much that I added a Muzak Player for ya'll.
I'll be adding a crapton more tracks soon. Gonna make this a lot more winny.
Yay! Fire! And silly!
The music only starts if you hit the play button. Yeah. So if you wanna listen and read other junk, just hit play and open up other links in tabs. Use one page for music.
Regards, IVIilitarus
In fact, I <3 you people so much that I added a Muzak Player for ya'll.
I'll be adding a crapton more tracks soon. Gonna make this a lot more winny.
Yay! Fire! And silly!
The music only starts if you hit the play button. Yeah. So if you wanna listen and read other junk, just hit play and open up other links in tabs. Use one page for music.
Regards, IVIilitarus
Saturday, November 13, 2010
The Combine
I'd like to take a moment to jabber on about The Combine.
See, I made The Combine (we call it The Combine and refer to it as the Guild, we are The Combine. It's a name. We happen to be a guild.) when I decided to jump on the clan-making bandwagon. Nobody else was doing it, so I was essentially the first guy to really make a clan for the sake of making a clan, and be able to say "I made a clan before the game was released. I don't care if it's stupid, but I did it."
At the time, I recall the major clans were were StellarStop, which is more of a fansite community. Really, it's a fansite. There's a link. Visit sometime. There was also the Void Alliance, which collapsed.
See, StellarStop was founded as a community and bunch who would get to know each other before the game. The Void Alliance was a 'heavy Roleplay based/milsim' clan. Founded on the 14th and 16th of July, respectively.
So it was a good 10 days into it that my ego hit a peak and decided to found a clan so I can say, 5 years from now, "I FOUNDED A FUCKIN' STELLAR DAWN CLAN BEFORE YOUR CHARACTER EVEN STARTED!"
Riiiiiiight.
So on the 27th of July, The Combine showed up, and man, that'll be remembered as a dark day.
See, I started The Combine as a Tech-race specific guild to help myself. Ya know, let it grow and crash eventually. Every clan I ever started and/or joined died or I left for some reason, so I figured this would wouldn't be any different. It'll die a few months into the game and I'd write a heartfelt goodbye and join some other loser clan or something.
That plan went screwy when The Combine actually took off. Now I had problems. People were really coming in and we were becoming a respected clan because I kept stressing intelligence and maturity in the opening that only intelligent, mature people showed up.
So I overhauled the thread, shut down recruitment for a few weeks and rewrote that trash into something useful. Took it seriously. I'mma actually run this shit and make it last, because my plan of building an ego just died with a load of awesome people flying in.
The original Combine thread is over here.
Current Combine thread is here, and a helluva lot better.
See how the original sucked ass and the new one didn't?
In the time between I panicked as my plan died and I actually took responsibility for a well-established and well-stocked clan, the Borg and Titan Empire were founded, on the 3rd and 10 of August, respectively and they started snatching up people, useless, inactive as well as mature and intelligent.
See, we mighta been founded weeks earlier, but we never became the biggest or best because our leader was a dumb, egotistic fuck who tried to manipulate our collective ass into making him more respected and when he finally got his act together, the others were way ahead. Wait a sec...
Okay, so short version is, when I got swamped by people who were awesome, responsibility kicked me in the balls and I took it up, building [bold, unjustified declaration]one of the best clans in-non-existent-game[/bold, unjustified declaration].
As it turns out, when I redirect the effort I usually use to promote myself, I can do some pretty awesome stuff.
Like The Combine: The Offsite, Official Forums!
The Combine: The Twitter!
The Combine: The Facebook Page!
Okay, maybe the Facebook Page is a little much, but you gotta admit, I do some pretty insane/stupid stuff when I put my mind to it. Like found a guild for the sake of founding a guild. And then actually turning it into something meaningful.
Since then, a whole bunch of other clans have jumped on the bandwagon and most never quite take off (or get any members at all). See? Jump on a bandwagon first and they call you trend-setter. Do it too late, and they call you unoriginal copycat.
Shit.
I'm a leader now.
And I got stuff to do.
You know what, founding, building and running a guild has been a learning experience thus far. I've been stressed out, I've panicked, I've jumped with joy at the prospect of new members, I've overseen discussion, participated in them, we've made ourselves a known guild and I was at the head of it.
With the above in mind, I can say one thing with utmost sincerity and honesty;
It's really, really hard, please don't make me do it again.
I mean, really. Do you know how much effort goes into doing shit like that? If I knew, I woulda found some other way of getting an ego trip. So watcha say, Combine! Let's not crash and burn/spontaneously collapse or appear destined for greatness and die overnight like the Soviet Union did?
Also, if you look up near the top of my blog, you'll see a fish tank (with fish). Click inside to feed them. That's one fishy for every Combine member, rounded down. We're at just over 20 at time of this posting and I can safely say we have the best people here.
If the fishies aren't busy eating and you move your mouse cursor around in the tank, they follow you around. See, it's a responsibility. You can either be nice and feed the fishies, helping others, but losing attention and love they give you (or your cursor), or you can have a fleet of mindless drones following you and asskissing you at every turn, who never quite find happiness with you.
Thing is, when you're leading them around in little circles and fun shapes, you're not always getting pampered and you might just as well be leading them away from the edges of the aquarium, to swim freely (or if your guild is dumb, to swim back into the wall). And when you're feeding them events and plans, you've got a responsibility not to treat them as your personal army of do-anything-I-say drones and have to keep them functioning to what the community as a whole wants.
That's what it's like to be a leader.
It's hard.
Regards, IVIilitarus
See, I made The Combine (we call it The Combine and refer to it as the Guild, we are The Combine. It's a name. We happen to be a guild.) when I decided to jump on the clan-making bandwagon. Nobody else was doing it, so I was essentially the first guy to really make a clan for the sake of making a clan, and be able to say "I made a clan before the game was released. I don't care if it's stupid, but I did it."
At the time, I recall the major clans were were StellarStop, which is more of a fansite community. Really, it's a fansite. There's a link. Visit sometime. There was also the Void Alliance, which collapsed.
See, StellarStop was founded as a community and bunch who would get to know each other before the game. The Void Alliance was a 'heavy Roleplay based/milsim' clan. Founded on the 14th and 16th of July, respectively.
So it was a good 10 days into it that my ego hit a peak and decided to found a clan so I can say, 5 years from now, "I FOUNDED A FUCKIN' STELLAR DAWN CLAN BEFORE YOUR CHARACTER EVEN STARTED!"
Riiiiiiight.
So on the 27th of July, The Combine showed up, and man, that'll be remembered as a dark day.
See, I started The Combine as a Tech-race specific guild to help myself. Ya know, let it grow and crash eventually. Every clan I ever started and/or joined died or I left for some reason, so I figured this would wouldn't be any different. It'll die a few months into the game and I'd write a heartfelt goodbye and join some other loser clan or something.
That plan went screwy when The Combine actually took off. Now I had problems. People were really coming in and we were becoming a respected clan because I kept stressing intelligence and maturity in the opening that only intelligent, mature people showed up.
So I overhauled the thread, shut down recruitment for a few weeks and rewrote that trash into something useful. Took it seriously. I'mma actually run this shit and make it last, because my plan of building an ego just died with a load of awesome people flying in.
The original Combine thread is over here.
Current Combine thread is here, and a helluva lot better.
See how the original sucked ass and the new one didn't?
In the time between I panicked as my plan died and I actually took responsibility for a well-established and well-stocked clan, the Borg and Titan Empire were founded, on the 3rd and 10 of August, respectively and they started snatching up people, useless, inactive as well as mature and intelligent.
See, we mighta been founded weeks earlier, but we never became the biggest or best because our leader was a dumb, egotistic fuck who tried to manipulate our collective ass into making him more respected and when he finally got his act together, the others were way ahead. Wait a sec...
Okay, so short version is, when I got swamped by people who were awesome, responsibility kicked me in the balls and I took it up, building [bold, unjustified declaration]one of the best clans in-non-existent-game[/bold, unjustified declaration].
As it turns out, when I redirect the effort I usually use to promote myself, I can do some pretty awesome stuff.
Like The Combine: The Offsite, Official Forums!
The Combine: The Twitter!
The Combine: The Facebook Page!
Okay, maybe the Facebook Page is a little much, but you gotta admit, I do some pretty insane/stupid stuff when I put my mind to it. Like found a guild for the sake of founding a guild. And then actually turning it into something meaningful.
Since then, a whole bunch of other clans have jumped on the bandwagon and most never quite take off (or get any members at all). See? Jump on a bandwagon first and they call you trend-setter. Do it too late, and they call you unoriginal copycat.
Shit.
I'm a leader now.
And I got stuff to do.
You know what, founding, building and running a guild has been a learning experience thus far. I've been stressed out, I've panicked, I've jumped with joy at the prospect of new members, I've overseen discussion, participated in them, we've made ourselves a known guild and I was at the head of it.
With the above in mind, I can say one thing with utmost sincerity and honesty;
It's really, really hard, please don't make me do it again.
I mean, really. Do you know how much effort goes into doing shit like that? If I knew, I woulda found some other way of getting an ego trip. So watcha say, Combine! Let's not crash and burn/spontaneously collapse or appear destined for greatness and die overnight like the Soviet Union did?
Also, if you look up near the top of my blog, you'll see a fish tank (with fish). Click inside to feed them. That's one fishy for every Combine member, rounded down. We're at just over 20 at time of this posting and I can safely say we have the best people here.
If the fishies aren't busy eating and you move your mouse cursor around in the tank, they follow you around. See, it's a responsibility. You can either be nice and feed the fishies, helping others, but losing attention and love they give you (or your cursor), or you can have a fleet of mindless drones following you and asskissing you at every turn, who never quite find happiness with you.
Thing is, when you're leading them around in little circles and fun shapes, you're not always getting pampered and you might just as well be leading them away from the edges of the aquarium, to swim freely (or if your guild is dumb, to swim back into the wall). And when you're feeding them events and plans, you've got a responsibility not to treat them as your personal army of do-anything-I-say drones and have to keep them functioning to what the community as a whole wants.
That's what it's like to be a leader.
It's hard.
Regards, IVIilitarus
Inaugural Bullshit
Ladies and gents, welcome to IVIili's new house! I just set this layout and stuff up and stuff and stuff.
Here, I'll be blogging about my as yet non-existent Stellar Dawn character and his/her adventures, pandering my opinion about things and shamelessly advertising for things I like.
So let it be know that on this (in?)famous day, (Sunday, November 14, 2010), this blog was launched.
I'mma start writing later. Need sleepies.
EDIT: Also, let it be known that I was the second Stellar Dawn blog, ever. Mmkay? Awlright.
Regards, IVIilitarus
Here, I'll be blogging about my as yet non-existent Stellar Dawn character and his/her adventures, pandering my opinion about things and shamelessly advertising for things I like.
So let it be know that on this (in?)famous day, (Sunday, November 14, 2010), this blog was launched.
I'mma start writing later. Need sleepies.
EDIT: Also, let it be known that I was the second Stellar Dawn blog, ever. Mmkay? Awlright.
Regards, IVIilitarus
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