Like, Why?

Why does writer's block happen?

I mean, I had a stroke of genius. And nearly had a stroke, too, but mostly the genius, not the fatal kind. I'd suddenly plotted out the entire story end-to-end. I knew exactly where the characters would go, how the story ends, what happens to who. I even had a half other chapters plotted out, down to who would be doing what.

So why is it an hour after all of that, I slam into a wall and suddenly, can't put a single word down? I know exactly what's supposed to happen, so how can it all stop now? Moros' writer's block was justifiable. I had no story, I just had explosions and violence, but this time, I've got something that might work and I've still been screwed over.

Well, that felt better. Time to write.

Regards, IVIilitarus

I Made an Oopsie

I was reading the Elements of Style by Some Guy.

It's an awesome book.

Until I realise that I screwed something up the book tells me not to.

"Formerly, science was taught by the textbook method, while now the laboratory method is employed."

"Formerly, science was taught by the textbook method; now it is taught by the laboratory method."

"The left-hand version gives the impression that the writer is undecided or timid; he seems unable or afraid to choose one form of expression and hold to it. The right-hand version shows that the writer has at least made his choice and abided by it."

Well, damn. I do it all the time.

I like to pretend I'm demonstrating my impressive vocabulary. I often flat-out refuse to use the same words in one sentence, because I know there's another. This doesn't lead to purple prose, I make sure the writing is varied, but I need to lessen it.

There's probably a lot more I got wrong.

Regards, IVIilitarus

Where Men Fear to Tread

70 Dungeoneering. Might push for 85 for Frost Dragons, might realise that when Jagex thought they had an effective system of bot-killing, they lied through their teeth/got screwed over. I'm just happy for the 70. Slayer next.

Brings the total to 1892. No Champion scroll in sight yet. I switched over to whip from Dragon darts against those skeletons, works faster.

Regards, IVIilitarus

That Which Does Not Kill Me...

Getting into RuneScape isn't as painful as you'd think, but there was pain.

3 or 4 Crafting levels set me back quite a bit. I miscalculated and turned out to be making a 50% loss instead of a 50% profit like I thought. 1.5 million I'll never see again.

I caught a few Dungeoneering levels and I'm well on my way to 70. 2 levels to go. I got a Slayer level, and an Agility level just because I can.

All of this puts me at 1890, which is shockingly speedier than I'd expected to reach my 1900 Total level goal.

I am now buying off some Dragon Darts and I'm heading to the Lumbridge Catacombs.

The Skeletons down there drop Champion's Scrolls.

Regards, IVIilitarus

Stupid Fish

I've got a month offa school. Look's nice. Got a bit of RuneScape on, that's something I haven't done in months.

I found out the economy on RuneScape fell apart whilst I wasn't looking. Bandos Godswords somehow made it to 6.4 million. It's really nice for people who want to buy one, but I'm one of those bastards who already had one and can no longer show off because it's worthless! Still have the Armadyl Armour, Dragonfire Shield and Dragon Claws to back up my ego, but still.

Did what I haven't done in a long time. Caught some Rocktail. 250? It's a start. I've got enough living minerals stocked up to be worth 4 million in Rocktail once caught and sold. At least the Rocktail prices didn't die. Cooked shark was at 443 and my order bought at 300 each. Strange.

The Stellar Dawn website's first birthday is coming up on the 14th of July and there is a RuneScape event being held to commemorate it, on the 16th. It's only been about half a year since we've gotten anything official from Jagex.

I'mma set a goal for myself. 18 levels on RuneScape. Any levels. I'm shockingly close to a 1900 total level and can probably push most of it out by the time the month is past. I don't have anything else to do. Battlefield 2142 is getting little, and I can only shoot so many people before it gets boring.

This also means I can complete a few of those longstanding goals of mine, like 70 Slayer and 70 Dungeoneering. These are some of the lower skills I have and could use a boost. I won't even look at Runecrafting because I hate it so much.

Regards, IVIilitarus

Good Trolls

Fun story.

Yesterday, a troll made a few accounts and feigned a rather convincing roleplay on the SDOF, very similar to the type the J Mods used, capitalising on the activity spike. The thread reached over 400 posts in less than 48 hours. It was then confirmed fake and hidden.

What's notable here is the fact that a determined troll can cause that level of enthusiasm. Most players were skeptical, but hopeful. Among his first actions, the troll opened communications with a similar protocol to the ones used to shut them down, but with one crucial flaw: Mod ComNet, a Jagex Moderator made the last post. This person wasn't a J Mod.

Then another account was used to spam the threads in the Headquarters section.

Several characters were used in the main thread, short conversations were held, the group went completely nuts.

I responded with complete skepticism and negativity, as is standard. When he showed up on the Combine's thread, I promptly told him to, "get the fuck off of my thread."

Respect to the guy who pulled this.



Regards, IVIilitarus

Time Waster

I played Sins of a Solar Empire over the weekend.

SoaSE had 2 expansions stuck to the original and I grabbed both. I heard a new expansion was coming out sometime in a few months and it would include massive ships called Titans. It's already got starbases. Feels too much like EVE for me to ignore.

In short, SoaSE is a very, very big RTS in SPACE! The developers tagged it as a RT4X game, but it doesn't have enough 4X elements to really qualify. It's much more about fleetbuilding and genocide.

Incredibly, the game is very ,very long. I played a game with/against 9 AIs and it took 9 hours to finish on Normal difficulty. The games are hellishly long, owing to the scale and some realism. It's a magnificent time waster.

Regards, IVIilitarus

You Shall not Parse!

No meaning in the title. I just like the pun.

Activity on Stellar Dawn is spiking. That's a problem, considering that an off-hand comment in an interview can cause this. Pre-Beta forum activity is supposed to remain steady and increase over time, not spike at intervals. Things only spike after a low average. Low forum activity average screams of incompetent marketing. A spike means it's likely to drop back to original levels.

EVE Online is fun. Lasers are win and stuff. I got bored of Moros and needed something with less violence (but not lacking violence) and more thought to get the noodle working.

Regards, IVIilitarus