pbaz
09-07-2007, 03:43 PM
It's 4pm on Monday afternoon. I haven't posted properly here for an unholy period of time. I'm going to fix that right now...
I'll start at the beginning. I'm pretty sure you all know that I'm now in Edinburgh. The last Big Event was moving house from the cute little 1-bedroom that we were renting in Edinburgh's majestic New Town (built in the 18th century, of course - the Old Town is, um, older). We bought a much bigger 2-bed, ground floor, gardened apartment in sunny Leith. Leith is the part of Edinburgh that Trainspotting was set within. It's not all heroin addicts, though! It has been massively gentrified and is one of the most fashionable parts of the city now. You should come visit! Anyhow, the house was perfect, but needed (and needs) quite a bit of work. Our living room is pretty much done, providing respite from the chaos that is the rest of the house. The central heating was gutted and replaced the first week that we moved in. Our next mission is swapping the kitchen with a bedroom so that our "new" kitchen is bigger and faces onto the back garden. This isn't a huge job, but stirring the contents of our rooms to create enough space for total renovation is challenging. Once kitchenn and bedroom are swapped, we'll be happy to take a rest and wait a few months to gather energy (and cash!) for the bathroom project.
Next update - Sandy. The wee man is progressing very well, although he has hit the "Terrible Twos" a few months early. He currently spends most of his time saying "No, Mummy" to his mum whenever she tries to feed/clothe/hug/wash him. His favourite hobby is slapping mum's face whenever possible. Poor Jen's finding him slightly difficult at the moment but we know he'll grow out of this phase. I'm having no problems with him - mainly because I come home from work and play with him till he falls asleep. It's easy to be loved when you're the source of continual fun. Last night, for example, we were painting mum's laptop with emulsion! It wasn't Sandy's fault that I opened the tin and left the brush next to the computer. By the time I had returned with the ladders, he had pulled over a chair, climbed up onto it, grabbed the brush, dipped into the paint and given mum's keyboard a right good whitewash. Mum wasn't too excited by this artistic display. It's proving hugely tiring taking care of someone with this much energy! I'm beginning to think that my WAR participation will be even less than I first imagined, since I'm unlikey to get more than an hour or two per session - and perhaps only one or two sessions per week! Consider that it took me 35 days /play to get pBAZ to lvl50 in DAoC. If it takes me a similar amount of time to reach the top tier in WAR, it'll be around 3 years to get there at my expected pace!
Now for the meaty stuff... WAR itself. It's been fascinating dipping in and out of the WAR saga as we approach open beta. I really like the way that "passive" classes have been dumped (i.e. healers). I'm sad that there's not going to be any element of stealth in the game, because I was looking forwards to recreating the "old times" in DAoC when stealthers had plenty of targets to choose from and, probably, had an absolute blast playing. I suppose my greatest excitement is around the fact that we'll be jumping into a very popular, populated game with lots of opportunities to explore, roam and (this is important for me) focus on the end-game from the start. One of my biggest regrets about DAoC was not getting fully into the "end game" as early as I could have done. By the time I realised that I was missing the most important part of the game, it was already too late for me to feel like I could catch up. With such limited time on my hands now, I will have to take the long view of WAR. To ensure maximum lifespan and enjoyment of WAR, I will want to get into the RvR side of the game properly. I understand now what people like Pin, Alpha, Belomar, etc were doing in the early days of DAoC. They were using the early days to learn their "trade" against other people who were just learning. They got up the skill curve on a level playing field. Arriving in RvR 3 years later meant that I had a lot of learning to do against much better qualified opponents and I just couldn't do it. I'd like to try to avoid that problem with WAR - although I'm sure my lack of play time will make the situation just as difficult for me, but at least I have a strategy from day 1!
Finally, my apologies for being so appallingly bad at keeping in touch. I'm still, basically, PC-less at home (my computer is sitting on top of a pile of boxes and I need to stand up to use it! I usually borrow Jen's laptop to surf) and I'll cling to that excuse for as long as I can! My plan is to build a shiny new rig some time over the next couple of months - probably after the kitchen is done (completing the kitchen lets us move the dining table out of the living room and, therefore, creates the space for a PC desk). I may just end up taking the easy option and getting a laptop (although the idea of not having a desktop makes my flesh crawl - can you really have a laptop that is an acceptable gaming machine?). Do try to use this site to keep in touch. I get all guilty when someone posts here when I haven't posted for ages (thanks for the prod, Ast! :D). I also recognise that I'm paying for this site, so I may as well use the bandwidth, instead of letting it lie mostly dormant.
Thanks for reading. Please give me an update on what's going on in your part of the world!
I'll start at the beginning. I'm pretty sure you all know that I'm now in Edinburgh. The last Big Event was moving house from the cute little 1-bedroom that we were renting in Edinburgh's majestic New Town (built in the 18th century, of course - the Old Town is, um, older). We bought a much bigger 2-bed, ground floor, gardened apartment in sunny Leith. Leith is the part of Edinburgh that Trainspotting was set within. It's not all heroin addicts, though! It has been massively gentrified and is one of the most fashionable parts of the city now. You should come visit! Anyhow, the house was perfect, but needed (and needs) quite a bit of work. Our living room is pretty much done, providing respite from the chaos that is the rest of the house. The central heating was gutted and replaced the first week that we moved in. Our next mission is swapping the kitchen with a bedroom so that our "new" kitchen is bigger and faces onto the back garden. This isn't a huge job, but stirring the contents of our rooms to create enough space for total renovation is challenging. Once kitchenn and bedroom are swapped, we'll be happy to take a rest and wait a few months to gather energy (and cash!) for the bathroom project.
Next update - Sandy. The wee man is progressing very well, although he has hit the "Terrible Twos" a few months early. He currently spends most of his time saying "No, Mummy" to his mum whenever she tries to feed/clothe/hug/wash him. His favourite hobby is slapping mum's face whenever possible. Poor Jen's finding him slightly difficult at the moment but we know he'll grow out of this phase. I'm having no problems with him - mainly because I come home from work and play with him till he falls asleep. It's easy to be loved when you're the source of continual fun. Last night, for example, we were painting mum's laptop with emulsion! It wasn't Sandy's fault that I opened the tin and left the brush next to the computer. By the time I had returned with the ladders, he had pulled over a chair, climbed up onto it, grabbed the brush, dipped into the paint and given mum's keyboard a right good whitewash. Mum wasn't too excited by this artistic display. It's proving hugely tiring taking care of someone with this much energy! I'm beginning to think that my WAR participation will be even less than I first imagined, since I'm unlikey to get more than an hour or two per session - and perhaps only one or two sessions per week! Consider that it took me 35 days /play to get pBAZ to lvl50 in DAoC. If it takes me a similar amount of time to reach the top tier in WAR, it'll be around 3 years to get there at my expected pace!
Now for the meaty stuff... WAR itself. It's been fascinating dipping in and out of the WAR saga as we approach open beta. I really like the way that "passive" classes have been dumped (i.e. healers). I'm sad that there's not going to be any element of stealth in the game, because I was looking forwards to recreating the "old times" in DAoC when stealthers had plenty of targets to choose from and, probably, had an absolute blast playing. I suppose my greatest excitement is around the fact that we'll be jumping into a very popular, populated game with lots of opportunities to explore, roam and (this is important for me) focus on the end-game from the start. One of my biggest regrets about DAoC was not getting fully into the "end game" as early as I could have done. By the time I realised that I was missing the most important part of the game, it was already too late for me to feel like I could catch up. With such limited time on my hands now, I will have to take the long view of WAR. To ensure maximum lifespan and enjoyment of WAR, I will want to get into the RvR side of the game properly. I understand now what people like Pin, Alpha, Belomar, etc were doing in the early days of DAoC. They were using the early days to learn their "trade" against other people who were just learning. They got up the skill curve on a level playing field. Arriving in RvR 3 years later meant that I had a lot of learning to do against much better qualified opponents and I just couldn't do it. I'd like to try to avoid that problem with WAR - although I'm sure my lack of play time will make the situation just as difficult for me, but at least I have a strategy from day 1!
Finally, my apologies for being so appallingly bad at keeping in touch. I'm still, basically, PC-less at home (my computer is sitting on top of a pile of boxes and I need to stand up to use it! I usually borrow Jen's laptop to surf) and I'll cling to that excuse for as long as I can! My plan is to build a shiny new rig some time over the next couple of months - probably after the kitchen is done (completing the kitchen lets us move the dining table out of the living room and, therefore, creates the space for a PC desk). I may just end up taking the easy option and getting a laptop (although the idea of not having a desktop makes my flesh crawl - can you really have a laptop that is an acceptable gaming machine?). Do try to use this site to keep in touch. I get all guilty when someone posts here when I haven't posted for ages (thanks for the prod, Ast! :D). I also recognise that I'm paying for this site, so I may as well use the bandwidth, instead of letting it lie mostly dormant.
Thanks for reading. Please give me an update on what's going on in your part of the world!