Ammo

A Lost Month

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August has been ... not a great month, IRL.  I'm not going to delve into things, but it's been the sort of "not great" that causes me to basically withdraw from and not be around as much in certain places.  Unfortunately, that means Blaugust was sorted into the pile that I couldn't mentally deal properly with, but hey - I've got a few days left, and the blog won't be self-destructing and deleting itself off the internet come September 1st, so let's forge onward.
A pair of my favorite in-game events in XIV happened this month.  I was glad to see the return of the Eorzean Nimble Warrior jump puzzle for Moonfire (and with the new 'hoofin' it' debuff that barred all Behemoths from entry).  I didn't even bother trying to get allll the way to the top of the 'extra' puzzle, but the little deck on the side was a cute touch and another great spot to chill with pals and watch the fireworks.  Allowing players to get tokens with fishing and cooking again was great, and very welcome.
The above screencap is from The Rising, and it's only been out for a day or two, so no spoilers here, but once again the devs managed to make me get a little emotional with the clever use of minions and heart-felt words from the XIV team.  I can always feel how much Yoshida and his crew care for the world and players every year with this event, and I'm grateful for this place they've given us.
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Meanwhile, I also managed to complete the achievement for the Raigo whistle - 60 wins in Frontline battles (the non-ranking PVP zones) while wearing a special Garo title.  I nearly gave up hope on this out of general frustration, but a few days of landing in good groups that really wanted to coordinate and I was well on my way to finishing.  I will never use the title "Makai Summoner" title ever again.  Phew.

Little Pink Moogle Cottages (part 1)

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One of my favorite things to do in XIV is mess around with housing.  While the housing system isn't perfect, it's certainly not the worst and over the years several handy 'bugs' have been discovered, leading to a larger variety of ways that decorating enthusiasts can design their homes.  Many designers feature their newest builds on their blogs, and even offer their services to other players.  I enjoy checking out some of those blogs for random inspiration, and try to design cozy interiors fitting of my characters.  I'm gonna show off some of Isalenne's house today with a small screenshot spam...
Plot 36, 12th ward in Mist on Cactuar.  Isa's house is still a WIP - I was lucky enough to snag a medium a month or so before Shadowbringers.  I managed to get a lot of it done, but there are a few rooms and areas that I haven't finished yet, but I do like what I have so far.
The yard is ... I haven't really figured it out yet, but at least this corner has a nice view of the beach.
Still playing around with the main floor... right now this leads to a comfy room with a fireplace on the left, and an unfinished kitchen on the right.
I've probably spent the most time in the upstairs library ... lining up a bunch of lofts, windows and planters.  It was frustrating at times, but I'm really happy with the end result. I was inspired by the popular false ceiling look that a lot of designers have been using, and I wanted lots of light and plants. There's also the bathroom, master bedroom and guest bedroom up here, but only about two of those are finished.  
I decided on a small bar/recreation room theme for the majority of the basement.  The corner next to the bar has some couches, and the loft above it has seats, too.  On the other side of the fountain is another fish tank and some musical instruments.
The sewing room is in the back and also the dreaded junk storage area - please don't look, it's a mess!

Feel free to stop by Isa's place, hopefully I'll be finishing up the last few rooms and details soon~!

Shadowbringers Ate July

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... aka, oh my goodness, it's August.  Which means it's also Blaugust!  And this year I'm joining in with the fun of making the effort to blog more.  This is, of course, all Bel's fault, and if you'd like to follow along with the host of these bloggy shenanigans, here's the main post full of informative words.
Gaming Goals
Before Shadowbringers arrived, I'd made a shortlist of things I'd hoped to get done in XIV.  I actually got a decent amount of them done, but not all.  Now that I'm through MSQ on both characters, I'll be back to crossing things off that list and adding some new stuff, too.

Isa needs to finish her beast tribes.  I'm in the home stretch for the Vanu Vanu and Vath, just the final tier of rep to go.  Once those are done, I'll do all the uniting of the tribes quests.  She also has some crafting jobs stuck in the 60s, and I'd like to get those up to 70.  With MSQ out of the way, I don't mind going back and doing beast tribe quests... when I remember to.  Next, I'll do her healing role quests on scholar and work on getting red mage to 80, because I still prefer doing endgame stuff on that job.  I don't expect to get all of this done during the month, except for the beast tribe stuffs.

Aluze is a little bit better, his crafting jobs (other than culinarian) are all over 70 - and it's been rather easy to level with the new facets and leves, the main problem is just having all the mats on hand.  I keep running low on gems from FATEs because I keep buying materials, but with retainers catching up that will help a lot (plus generous FC mates have been a blessing).  The main goal other than crafting is getting the last nine wins for the Garo pvp mount before it's gone.  I've been sitting at 51 of 60 wins for weeks, and now that more people are queuing for pvp again I should hopefully be able to finish this.  His astrologian is nearly 77, and I should have enough goetia to gear that job up at 80.
Art Goals
I've been fortunate to have a decent streak of casual commission work, and I'm taking this week off to draw for myself.  I haven't drawn any "big" pieces of art for myself for awhile, and I also haven't made any of my timelapse videos lately.  I go through random phases where I have no problem drawing for others, but I get artblocked drawing for myself, and I'd like this month to not be one of those cases.

​I guess we'll just see how it goes.

A Ginga for Isa and the Rainbow Doggo Parade

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This past week has been a bit stressful IRL, so the XIV escapism has been very welcome.  I knuckled down and got the rest of my ten wins in PVP for Isa's Ginga Pipe, and she now has her fancy metal pony.  I can now happily remove her "Makai Astrologian" title and put on "Kingsglaive" forever.  She's also in the home stretch with her HW beast tribes, and even if she won't be done with them before SHB, they'll all be allied Soon.
This week on Exodus, our little primal farming group put in extra time fighting Seiryu (now that we're clearing him consistently), and most of us are now proud owners of the pretty blue wolf.  This was the last wolf several of us needed, so we also now have the final SB Primal mount reward for collecting one of each whistle.  We thought we'd still be farming Seiryu into SHB, but that happily will not be the case, although we will most likely be helping a few members with their collections.   But for the most part we'll be tackling fresh story content and re-doing all of our houses with the new batch of decorations coming our way in just a few days...