Ghosts and Spectres

Destiny Bucket List

Ghosts and Spectres

One of the things that I love about Destiny is that there are so many intricate things to do… but unfortunately a lot of them require a full group to actually do them.  I mean it is awesome that I have Axioma Clan to back me up in doing these, but my default “non-raid night” stance is wandering around aimlessly soloing things.  So as a result there are several things that I just have not been able to accomplish for one reason or another because I needed to organize a group.  One of those was finding all of the pieces for the Dead Cult Ghost from the Paradox Daily heroic mission.  I love the Stranger’s Rifle so much, and when I found out that there was a year two version called No Time To Explain… I knew I wanted it.  Unfortunately to get it you have to go through a series of jumping puzzles in the daily heroic and retrieve several different dead ghost shells.  After turning that piece in the next weekly reset you should in theory get the follow up quest from Lakshmi from the Future War Cult.  I had watched a handful of videos and I knew that under pressure there was zero chance of me successfully navigating the jumping puzzles and finding all of the ghosts on my own.

This is where my amazing friend Jex comes in because he seems to have the sort of mind for remembering strange destinations.  The problem being that Jex is just about to head out on vacation for a week… and as of writing this post he should already be travelling.  I had a ton of other folks offer to help out like Broken and Wet, but by the time I made it in game I had an invite waiting on me from Jex and shortly after my friend Sagacyte joined.  I of course died a few times doing the jumping bits, and as far as the sped up vault of glass jumping puzzle… I just hung out watching Saga complete it like a pro and pull me through to the other side.  I died a handful of times but not apparently during the critical junctures, because I believe there is a piece of this quest that you cannot die during.  In any case if all works well next Wednesday I should have the final step that ultimately leads to my shiny new No Time to Explain.  I am super thankful to Jex and Saga, and all the other people in Axioma Clan who offered to help out with this.  Now I guess this just leaves the Black Spindle that has eluded me, but hopefully with all the light levels we have been gaining getting that done will be significantly easier.

Spectre Time

Ghosts and Spectres

So last night Jex literally snuck on just long enough to get me my cult ghost and then disappeared into the background again to prepare for his trip.  After he left, and ultimately Sagacyte left as well I wound up heading downstairs to play Destiny from the comfort of the couch and remotely connected through my laptop.  It feels like my Warlock is the unwanted orphan of my characters, because he always seems to get the worst hand-me-downs.  This is largely a side effect of simply being the last class that I leveled, and as a result having the lowest overall light level.  The truth is though that I like playing my Warlock way more than I like playing a Hunter.  I think I would probably enjoy the hunter, but it is going to require copious amount of time unlocking class abilities to really get to that point.  Gunslinger seems like the hunter for me, but it is also the class I have progressed the least.  Whereas on the Warlock I pretty much like all of the classes for one reason or another, with Sunsinger probably being my least favorite.  In any case I wanted to chill out and spend the night working through some of the bounties that I had stacked up for the warlock.  On both the Hunter and Warlock I tend to accept bounties until I have no more room, and then once a week work through most of them.

Ghosts and Spectres

The interesting lesson learned last night while wandering around and completing bounties is just how much I like the Red Spectre.  I mean I only held onto this weapon because it looks like Red Death… and I am so in love with Red Death.  The roll on this weapon is not amazing, but in spite of that I find that I really enjoy using it.  It kicks like a mule, but it seems to do so way more predictably than a lot of the other weapons I have with shit stability.  In theory once I get it properly leveled it will be performing better, but even in the stock form I enjoy it.  What it ultimately feels like to me is Fabian Strategy… that is once the rate of fire boost kicks in.  This thing is a really strange archetype, because it is not really a bullet hose because it has way more impact than they do… but it has a much faster rate of fire as compared to a lot of the slower rifles I have.  The only problem is…  whether or not I will be stealing this for my Titan once I get it leveled up.  I have a bad habit of stealing the best weapons for that character, and giving the others my scraps.  In theory I would love it for all of my characters to be self sufficient, and I know that thanks to the miracle of the website and mobile app… there is never a situation where I need to use a crap weapon.  However when it comes to day to day play I always seem to just go with whatever happens to be in the inventory of a given character.  The positive of this however is that I end up testing out a lot of weapons that I would not otherwise play with… and often times finding some gems in my dust bin.

 

Light Improving

Catching Up

Light Improving

One of my favorite things about the April patch is that I finally feel like I am catching up to all of the folks who have been playing since the dawn of time.  More important than that… I feel like I have a clear path to be able to reach 335.  There are things within my control that I can do solo that will allow me to slowly but certainly make progress.  Namely one of the big ones right now is faction packages.  Many of the factions have the code that make sure an item that comes from that package is better than your current light level.  So this means I am constantly getting upgrades that I can either use as is, or infuse into my existing item from doing Vanguard and the three Tower faction missions.  This also means that those daily bounties are more important than they have ever been, and the same goes with the crucible bounties whenever I am feeling my Wheaties and decide to do some serious pvp.  More importantly than any of this… I feel in control of my own “Destiny”…  pun intended.

Much of my early frustration with this game is it felt like there were missing rungs on the ladder that I had to have someone show me where I should be climbing.  Now I feel like there are objectives that I completely understand that I can be knocking out regularly to better myself.  At this point as the above image shows I have managed to take my Titan to 321, Hunter to 310 and as of last night Warlock to 302.  The Warlock and Hunter will likely always be second stringers for me, but I do want to spend more time pushing them up.  Namely I would really like to unlock all of the stuff on all three sub classes but that simply requires a lot of play.  As for now I am still very much enjoying the process of infusing up old weapons and dusting them off to enjoy them once more.  I have a lot of really great weapons, that were just lacking light level to be used on a regular basis.  At some point however I am going to have to reconcile a bunch of the stuff and figure out which versions of which weapons I intend to keep permanently.  For example I have six different Havoc Pidgeons sitting in the bank and five different 1000 Yard Stares…  as well as a large assortment of Zarinaea-D.  I don’t really need ALL of them…  just keep the best rolls and swap weapons as needed via the web site or mobile apps.

Pipe Dream

Every so often I come up with an idea that while I lack the technical know how to actually build it… I know it is functionally possible.  Within the server services world.. there is a marvel of modern science referred to collectively as the IP KVM or remote keyboard/video/mouse switch.  While remote desktop is a thing that works great most of the time… there are times when you need to literally lay hands on a box because something has hung on boot up.  This is where the IP KVM steps into play, because it emulates sitting physically at the keyboard from quite literally anywhere on the network that can reach it.  The other awesome thing about them is that generally speaking they are almost as good as sitting on the box with many of them getting to the point where you can hardly tell the difference.  What I want is for some budding entrepreneur or kickstarter campaign to come up with this technology… but for consoles.  Sure PS4 Remote Play is cool, but I also want to be able to play remotely from my PS3… or even say older analog systems.  The idea would be a rack mounted type system so in theory you could dump all of your consoles in the equivalent of a server room.  Instead of harddrive arrays you could build special four unit high rack cases that allowed you to plug in a whole slew of console games and have them selectable remotely.

The other idea would be that each console had custom hookups and the hardware KVM device would allow you to configure emulation of the devices.  So you could remake your Nintendo controller to be fully functional from something like a PC connected Xbox 360 controller.  Now there are oddities like the Wii/Wii U that would be difficult to emulate but in theory most controllers work just fine for other controllers.  For years I’ve loved this idea of having all of the games I want to play “on tap” and thanks to both the Twisted and official PS4 Remote Play app I am using the hell out of this functionality.  It is cool as hell to be able to sit downstairs on the sofa with my laptop and have full access to all of my PS4 games, and be able to play them with minimal latency.  I just wish this same concept worked with everything.   It feels like this is the sort of thing that would be doable, just no one has tried to make it work.  Even if you started with only consoles that supported USB controls and HDMI output… that would give you a decent base unit that could then maybe be expanded with retro modules that daisy chained onto the base unit.  So here you go… I give this idea freely to the world… just someone make it happen because I want to throw money at you.

 

Ship Happens

Meeting Folks

Ship Happens

It feels like over the last several days we have gotten an entire years worth of rain… all at once.  There is so much standing water in my front yard that I am beginning to think I actually do have a pond.  The only positive of this is that once it has all soaked in everything should green up even more than before.  The only negative about the rain today is that I am supposed to go out to lunch today, and the place we picked is within walking distance of my work.  It would seem silly to drive for something that close, but I am hoping by the time lunch rolls around the rain has at least slowed to a sprinkle.  The reason why I mention this happening at all is because who I am meeting for lunch are long time gamer friends Damai and Erry which is kinda cool.  They are passing through town on their drive across the country, and in theory they should be getting to Tulsa around noonish.  Now I got to meet Damai at Pax South, but this will be the first time meeting his sister Erry which is kinda cool.  As far as where we are going, I picked a BBQ joint that I like because honestly… when it comes to Tulsa cuisine I always struggle to pick that one quintessential thing that everyone needs to try.  Normally I would have suggested a sausage cheeseburger from Ron’s but that doesn’t always make great “travelling for long distances on the road” food given the copious amount of grease.

The funny thing about meeting folks that I have known for years online, is that no matter who it is I always get nervous.  I always worry that I won’t live up to whatever impression of me that they might have in their head.  Granted at this point I have met a bunch of folks that I have gamed with for years, and it has all essentially worked out fine once the initial awkwardness of translating that teamspeak voice to a physical body.  That said it still stresses me out far more than it should.  The positive about going out for a meal is that it gives an activity to focus on other than trying to fill all of the gaps with discussion.  Hell even with people I have known for years, my vehicle of choice for hanging out is over a restaurant table.  There is something primal about sharing a meal together, and there is also something comforting about it as well.  All of this said I am not terribly stressed about this situation since as I said before I have at least met Damai in the flesh before.  It should be really cool and I have blocked off a decent chunk of my schedule to allow for variance in when they actually get here.  I should probably totally ask Rae to see if she wants to come too since she at least knows Damai.

Building a Fleet

Ship Happens Ship Happens Ship Happens Ship Happens Ship Happens

The strangest thing about the recent Destiny patch has been what seems to be a massive increase in the number of ship drops.  All five of the above ships I’ve gotten since the patch last week.  One came from the loot boxes, three from doing various activities, and one from opening treasure boxes.  I am not sure if I just hit a lucky spot in the randomizer or if they changed the magic formula that indicates if drops happen.  It feels like what they have actually done is made the chance of a ship drop disconnected from any other rewards, which in theory makes you roll on a much shallower loot table.  In any case I am a huge fan of whatever these changes are because it is helping me build out my fleet.  I am still chasing the taken ship from the loot boxes however, because I love that ship model and I have yet to get any of that variety.  I do think that the Ripship Pardoner above is just about the quintessential “Titan” ship… big bulky and heavily armed.  There are times however that I kinda wish that the ships actually “did” something, or that there was some sort of a ship to ship combat mini-game along the lines of SWTOR.  Granted I never played the one is SWTOR but it was nice knowing it was out there.

Ship Happens

Another aspect of this patch that I am loving is the fact that it once again rewards me for doing patrol missions.  That seems to be just about the fastest way to level my Vanguard and Faction reputation.  Every ding rewards you a package and those packages take your currently equipped loot into consideration meaning that more often than not I end up with an upgrade.  Yesterday I pushed a faction across and wound up getting  a 322 piece of armor that was immediately infused into my Iron Banner arms.  I love that almost anything I can do right now has the chance of giving me an upgrade.  I’ve also noticed that PVP seems to be dropping weapons more often, because last night pretty much every round I played had someone walking away with a legendary weapon.  I ended up walking away myself with a Red Spectre with a less than amazing roll… but I am still going to try and make it work because I love the whole “Red Death” graphic.  The biggest problem is the stability on the weapon, but I am willing to see if I can make it work.  In any case right now I am just in love with all of the options I have and each one of them has a path that can get me upgrades.

On Honorable Mentions, 2015

This is the other backlogged post I have, then we’ll be into more recent things. At the end of January we did a Games of the Year show, and there are a few things I really enjoyed in 2015 that didn’t get much time on that one. Some of these made brief appearances on the blog, and some of them in the podcast; I consider all of these worth trying if you get a chance.

Evoland 2

The subtitle of this game is “A slight case of spacetime continuum disorder”, and it does live up to that. It takes probably the best segment of the first Evoland (the time travel section where you’re moving between 3D and sprite graphics) and uses it as the central premise of the game. For most of the game you are moving between the past, present, and future, occasionally messing things up enough that it affects a later era. Where Evoland mostly stuck to pretending to be Zelda or Final Fantasy, Evoland 2 is less restricted, and borrows from things ranging from Street Fighter to Puzzle Quest (in addition to a core that is mostly Zelda). It also has a card game that isn’t a triple triad knock-off, and I really enjoyed it. This just barely missed the cut for top 3 last year.

On Honorable Mentions, 2015 On Honorable Mentions, 2015 On Honorable Mentions, 2015

Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon

The Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games have generally been pretty good, and I would call the DS series (Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky) some of the best games with pokemon in them. The previous title, Gates to Infinity, was much less outstanding, but this one’s a return to form. For those unfamiliar, the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games involve playing as a pokemon, working through a series of randomly-generated dungeons towards some goal. This tends to be save-the world-type stuff, and a lot more story (and more serious story) than the main series. This one features all of the pokemon revealed at its release (all 720 of them) and features a story that is far better than the main games. It eliminates the random element of pokemon recruitment found in previous Mystery Dungeon games, which is nice, because there are plenty of other random things to worry about. This is my top 3DS game from last year.

On Honorable Mentions, 2015 On Honorable Mentions, 2015 On Honorable Mentions, 2015

LBX

I mentioned this a bit earlier. LBX is a solid mix of RPG and Robot Fighting game. Even though the actual robots are only about a foot tall, the battle system most de-emphasizes this by placing you on artificial terrain, so it feels like you’re still piloting giant robots. It has an obligatory tournament arc, and is full of other cliches, but it’s not really any worse for it. The story also goes a few places I wouldn’t expect for a kids game. Add in the large number of postgame activities, and there’s a lot here. Give this a shot if you like Level-5, action-RPGs, and/or customizable robots.

On Honorable Mentions, 2015 On Honorable Mentions, 2015 On Honorable Mentions, 2015

Star Wars: The Old Republic

This got revisited when I was going Star Wars crazy right before The Force Awakens came out. The Knights of the Fallen Empire content is one of the best pieces of narrative I’ve seen in an MMO, and some of the system revamps that go along with this (allowing you to use any companion for anything) were really appreciated. Changes to the leveling content also mean that you don’t need to do all of the (generally lower quality) side quests when levelling a character, and it gave me a chance to see some of the class stories that I did not have the patience to complete when the game came out. I’ll admit that other than the story content, there’s not a whole lot here that interests me, and the F2P model is still “please subscribe”, but it’s still worth checking out. The next chapter came out somewhat recently, so I’ll pop back in at some point to check that out.

On Honorable Mentions, 2015 On Honorable Mentions, 2015 On Honorable Mentions, 2015