Meeting Folks
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
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.
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.