My Kingdom for a reasonably priced horse!

As he surveyed the battlefield Brian took stock of the men he had lost, the buildings burned and the peasants crying in the street. He thought about the futility of war, whether the castle has been truly worth the cost and whether he could reclaim the losses on expenses.

Brian is my character in single player medieval-em-up Mount and Blade: Warbands, which sees you live out your life as a medieval mercenary free to loot and pillage as you please. Having clicked through the character creation process, deciding that Brian was the son of merchants and worked in a shop, I realised that this wasn’t really the start that one would expect of a die-hard soldier of fortune.

After beating some bandits to death with an abacus (and admittedly several peasants wielding cleavers helping) Brian set off to find others to share in his adventures. The early years were spent travelling from village to village, hunting bandits, rescuing cattle and explaining the relevance of crop rotation to a back-dated agrarian community. Gradually more and more people began to follow Brian (and it had nothing to do with the fact he paid them a lot of money), farmers turned pike men, cattle ranchers turned knight errants and Dave.

Dave is a footman that looks like a large number of other footmen within the army of Brian; he has fearlessly stood by Brian’s side through thick and thin. Ok so I cannot actually name my troops, but he looks like a Dave and, given his resemblance to all the others, he seems to survive every battle.

With Dave at his side and astride his mighty horse ‘Net Present Value’, Brian has left his life as a former accountant completely behind. Indeed nothing can express the sheer joy of charging headlong in to battle lance in hand. Until, that was, Brian was inexplicably awarded one of the major cities within the game.

No Dave, that is not what I meant by Hedgehog Formation!

Having taken service with one of the kings Brian took part in a few castle sieges, his ability at strategically concealing himself for most of the battle resulted in him gaining most of the credit for the ensuing victory by virtue of being alive. This resulted in said king rewarding our hero with a big shiny city.

I am playing with the diplomacy mod enabled so I cannot be sure to what extent this is within the 

original game, but having been awarded a major city Brian was then in charge of hiring defenders and sending out patrols, even building a few improvements here and there. It was a little disappointing to find that Brian was unable to rename the city ‘non-current asset’ and so it remained with the somewhat less believable name of Suno.

In fact following on from being given a city Brain (somewhat ironically) spent a lot more time looking at balance sheets and budget reports. Needing to work out exactly how much money would be coming in to which city, however the upshot of this was that Brian (and Dave) now led a troop of the hardest, most expensive warriors around. Indeed if it was not for the fact that Brian’s maximum army size is about 80 odd he would have long since deposed his employer and established a kingdom free from tyranny and fiscal inaccuracy. So off they went again, in search of more castles to capture and a vain hope that one day they would be able to command enough troops to at least stand a chance against an entire kingdom!

This game is one that I always go back to, it’s fun to feel part of an epic battle, leading from the front or a nearby sheltered position. There is a great deal of pleasure in taking an enemy lord captive and ransoming him back for a vast fortune. While combat can be a bit challenging at first charging in to the enemy soon becomes second nature, although I never quite got the hang of the shooting mechanics.

I definitely feel that I got my money’s worth with this game (given my total play time to date of 72 hours), especially since it was on sale when I bought it originally. So if you are looking for an interesting diversion you can find Mount & Blade: Warbands on steam.

EVE: Raiders of the lost Comm Tower

Often there are features in games that keep us coming back for more, that little mini-game or part that for whatever reason we cannot seem to stop playing and for many of us that is often enough to carry us through the more troubling aspects of the game. In the exploration elements in Eve online I have found something so addicting that I try to make sure I am online at low population times in order to maximise my chances of finding something.

Exploration takes the form of an interstellar treasure hunt; upon warping in to a system you scanners will let you know if there are any anomalies (an ‘x’ on the treasure map of the system if you will) hidden in the current system. It is then a matter of firing off some probes and positioning them in space to try and get a more specific location, reducing their range and the distance between them until you can warp to the site.

It may not look like much, but this holds the key to great wealth (maybe)

My main targets in space at the moment are data sites and relic sites, in that order. In high-sec space data sites are undefended and contain materials that are worth at least a few million ISK, occasionally there is the odd blue-print, but I have not yet found one of any value. Relic sites usually contain parts which sell for significantly less, however there is the occasional gem hidden amongst the rubbish. Each of these sites requires you to play a hacking mini-game which causes loot to erupt out of the site once completed. In a manner similar to the crystal maze your time is limited and you need to grab as many of the containers as you can before they disappear.

All of the above are indeed fun, however they are not the reason that I cannot stop playing. As soon as I enter a system with possible sites I know I am in a race, but in this race I usually cannot see my competitors and even if I do I have no idea if they are in front or behind me. Every second counts as I reposition my probes and reduce the ranges in order to secure that elusive site location, hoping against hope that I am just far enough in front of the competition. Often it will take 4 or 5 systems worth of looking before I find something viable, making the desire to beat everybody else even stronger.

Nothing quite beats the high of warping in to a data site and finding all of the data points untouched and yours for the taking! A quick scan to identify any super high value targets and then I set to work taking as much as I can as quickly as possible because even after you win the race does not stop. That’s one site in one system and in Eve there are A LOT of systems, each one being searched for by any number of players all hoping for that elusive score.

An untouched comm tower, my holy grail!

I recently sold my exploration findings and made about 120million ISK for a few hours work which, although not big-league profits, is a fair amount for someone operating in the safer parts of space without much experience. Once I have the skills this will be being spent on better probes, a better ship and a decent cloaking device because, although high-sec exploration is fun, the real excitement (and money) is in exploring the parts of space where there is no security. Guess where I’m going…………….

Eve Online: That's my goal! (maybe)

SO my Eve online trail has come to an end and all things considered it has been an exciting couple of weeks for me.

After the initial information overload passed and I had completed the tutorial mission (which are a MUST for completely new players) I had sufficient money to strike out on my own and see a little more of space. With an infinite number of possibilities before me I decided to charge headlong into the unknown as a miner!

The shear excitement as I sit in an asteroid belt focusing intently upon the rocks before me cannot be put in to words, will they move, will I hear their screams as my mining laser rips through them or will they serenade my with Queens greatest hits? Excitement to one side mining is a good and relatively safe way to get started in eve and not just because it’s a stable income stream.

Mining buys you time to think, which is a much needed resource in Eve, as I sat there orbiting a rock that had a particularly stoney expression I began to look at my skills and form a plan in my head over where I wanted to go. The plan was simple get some skills behind me and get a better mining ship, I worked out what I wanted to aim for, checked the skills I would need and dutifully set myself to training them.

It was like that when I got here!

I took occasional breaks from mining to make sure I had covered all of the available tutorials and at the end of the advanced combat tutorial was pleased to be rewarded with a shiny destroyer. Having seen that I would take a mere 40 mins or so to train the skills needed to sit in it I overrode my previous skill choices and set my destroyer skill to train.

40 mins and several asteroids later I sat in my destroyer and dutifully kitted it out with all of the gear I had been given/picked up during the tutorial missions and headed off for my first level 1 security mission. Some scientists had become stranded in the middle of a gang war and I needed to go in and rescue them, so off I trotted. I cleared through the first bandits without any difficulty taking down 4 or so in my destroyer and only losing 25% of my shields in the process. 

Fuelled by the rush of victory I plunged in to the next area of space and took care of the two bandits on radar. Then their friends turned up, about 8 of them and promptly took apart my beloved destroyer in an exceptionally short space of time. I had a small bit of gamer rage at this point because I didn’t understand where I went wrong or how I could have done better, I used the best gear I had.

And it was at this point that one of the great features (which I touched on in my earlier post) saved me from quitting and missing out on this great game, the community. I posted into rookie chat that I had just lost a destroyer to a lvl 1 mission and yeah there was quite a lot of light-hearted mocking, apparently it should have been easily doable, but one of the people from the channel private messaged me and took me through the errors I had made.

First off none of the starting equipment is particularly useful, anything with civilian in front of it needs to be replaced with the real versions of it (apparently my civilian shield booster was a bit of a chocolate fireguard). Secondly because of the race I was playing and my lack of experience missiles and missile launchers were my best option to start with. So he talked my through a cheap fit and then got me to message him a copy of the fit to check I had done it right. With a nod of the head he said that was a good start and to give him a yell if I had more questions and I went on my way.

We're gonna need a bigger boat!

I returned to the room of doom with my new destroyer decked out in missile launchers and I tore through it. The massive range of the launchers meant that I could easily out range each of the attackers, the afterburner the guy had suggested meant that I stayed out of their range and a shield-booster that restored in 1 second what my civilian took 4 to do meant I was basically unscathed. 5-10 minutes of advice, that made the difference between struggling and striving.

Yes Eve is a daunting world, it is so much about how much you know, but the people are there who are willing to share their knowledge with you. I was given some advice by The Ancient Gaming Noob which I want to pass on ‘set yourself a goal’, try out those tutorial missions and think about what appeals most, then message rookie chat for advice. You will get a million and 1 opinions but it will give you plenty to think about.

Having decided that mining was the way for me, I promptly set about training as a miner and then I found exploration. This has had such an affect on my gaming life in Eve that I want to write a supplementary post about it in order to fully explain why exploration is (for me) the most addictive thing in this game so far.

You can try Eve Online for 14 days for free, with some restrictions so it’s worth checking out. However to go back to another piece of advice I received ‘you get out what you put in’ so make sure when you do take that trial you make sure you have time on your hands. Finally if you are still debating whether to join us in New Eden have a read of The Ancient Gaming Noob and pOtShOt to give you an idea of some of the fun that can be had when you get further along in the game.

And yes I have subscribed to the game!

Back in WoW: It's Grim Up North(rend)

WoW has suffered from a bit of neglect recently as I have spent a lot more time in EvE Online chasing down relic sites and getting blown up because I don’t know what I am doing. However my girlfriend and I found some time this weekend to give some much needed love to our pandas.

Having recently broken free from the rather dull landscapes of Outland we are now comfortably settled in to Northrend and are busy exploring the Grizzly Hills.

Team Panda, ready to leap into action at the slightest sign of a node or skinnable!

We had already severely depopulated the wildlife in the surrounding area and a completed a quest which involved a lot of time spend grunting in a toilet (this quest is even more disturbing if two of you enter at the same time and forget to switch off your imagination!). So it was that Team Panda (Bamda, Harrietander and honorary member Clawd the Raptor)  were armed and ready to once more to face adventure, danger and my overwhelming desire to skin everything in sight (I have FINALLY got my leatherworking up to use Northrend materials).

We started off with a few of my girlfriends favourite quest-types, find the items, gathering various plants in order to make some strange concoction. Thanks to a slightly longer draw-distance I managed to track down mine faster (something that is apparently unfair). We then, with the aid of a human with an identity crisis, abducted a local troll and then proceeded to reduce the local troll population to a more manageable level (namely zero). Well I say we, given that I am playing a brewmaster monk and Harrietander is a marksman hunter it is usually the case that I despatch my opponent only to find her and Clawd looking somewhat perplexed surrounded by 6/7 dead bodies.

So, having taken out a large number of trolls for their mojo we eagerly await the next quest in the chain, take out some zombie trolls and steal a magic orb. Again we take to the skies soaring to our destination only stopping as the cry of ‘NODE!’ rings out and Harrietander the engineer has to stop to do the necessary bash-rock-with-pickaxe manoeuvre!

Bamda also doubles up as a node tax service!

Gem duly stolen we then head off to a mysterious outpost which turns out to be populated by worgen who then proceed to chase us as we run away on horseback, something that has Bamda looking particularly uncomfortable. This chase was made even more interesting by the need to take a cake out of the oven right in the middle of it, let that be a lesson to all WoW and baking do not mix! Please Bake Responsibly!

This is horse looks like the thoroughbred of sin if ever there was one.

I do feel a bit bad that I have neglected my paladin in his quest to gear up and introduce Garrosh to my hammer of righteousness, but I still have not moved guilds to one that is active and as a result I feel less of a need to do that right now. Besides it is  fun to go adventuring with Team Panda (I am working on a theme song) and when I am on my own EvE Starts to call………

EvE Online: Choose your own adventure

I had originally planned this to be a test drive article, seeing what I could get out of Space-em-up MMO EvE online in a day of play. However after starting a trial account and doing my first day I got the feeling that to base my experience of EvE on a day’s worth of play would do it a disservice (more than it would other MMOs). This is a game that invites you in for the long-haul and rewards you as such.

Space is definitely pretty, beat that lens flare JJ Abrams 

Right from the word go the game challenges you to find your own way to play it. The tutorial missions go over the very basics (how to mine, scan and fight), fit you out with a few ships and take you through the process of flying in space. After that you are left to your own devices, to the point that in any section of space another player is free to attack you (although there is an interstellar police force who will seek vengeance on your behalf).

After those first missions it really is up to you what you do, but finding some way of making ISK (the game’s currency) is something of a prerequisite to conducting activities in the more dangerous areas of space (known as low-sec and null-sec). To fit your ship out with anything more than the basic equipment you need a source of income and that is where one of EvE’s most famous features comes in to play…. The Economy!

EvE’s Economy is primarily player driven and so almost anything that you buy you are buying from a player (the same goes for selling). This allows players to carve out almost any niche they want in order to make money within the game. There are corporations (player run organisations, similar to guilds in other games) and players who make their money buying goods in systems where the price is low and freighting them to systems with a higher price. There are miners who look at what minerals are needed where and then go off hunting for them. There are even a large number of pirate organisations who dog some of the more profitable routes in order to hijack those cargo or minerals.

In addition to ISK the other limiting factor on what you are capable of is skills you have because in order to use any ship or piece of equipment you need to have the correct skill trained. The skills themselves start off basic (mining, salvaging, trade etc.) but then allow you to train more complex skills (for example a refining skill for a particular ore type). The skills themselves improve not by use, but by passive training, you add a skill to your que and it will take a given time before you go up to the next skill level. The skills themselves train in real time, even when you are offline and given there are skills which take 20+ days to train this is a good thing.

This is one of the more intimidating aspects of the game, it does not hold your hand, you need to put a bit of thought in to what you actually want to do right from the off. Fortunately there are always people in the rookie help channel who are willing to share their expertise. Following getting my pretty destroyer blown up during a level 1 combat mission I got some solid advice and an EvE friend out of just asking what went wrong.

 That man is small, that ship is far away!

While EvE’s subs numbers a less than that of other MMOs there really is a strong sense of community, born out of an understanding that you cannot really charge in and expect everything to be alright. Everyone there has made mistakes similar to my destroyer incident and most people are pleased to share their knowledge on what they think works best.

As for me, I am going to stick with EvE and give a proper summary at the end of my 14-day trail. Although I don’t think that will spell the end of my adventures in eve!