Remember... It's Okay to Steal

I hate when people in groups need on things that are offspec without asking or even caring. I always wait for mainspec people to roll or ask if they're taking a while. Make me expect the same courtesy.

Been leveling the warrior and hit 89 last night, so I've been queue'd while questing. Takes anywhere from 10-25 minutes a pop. So on the 19th attempt it was a relief when the Choker of the Pure Heart finally dropped. Unfortunately the healer was paladin and he rolled:

Amazingly the next queue it dropped again. Sadly the tank was a DK. *sigh* Annoyed enough to post and tweet.

While it's frustrating it's not unexpected. It really wouldn't bother me if the timing weren't so bad. A 480 neck would be a helpful iLevel boost as I'm about to hit 90—making heroics and LFR that much easier to get into. Well that and I've been repeating Shadowfang Keep so many damn times for nothing.

So the next time I feel like rolling on something, I will. Spread the karma.

You Picked a Bad Time to Patch, Friend

Spent a little time over on the new Island then came back to Skyrim to wrap up some minor quests and store all my new reagents/armor. Had a couple of crashes so decided to restart the computer. Trying to launch the game I was just greeted with:

The Update News button was useless. Just a link to the Skyrim newsfeed where the official announcement was up along with a "63 days later here we go PC users!" blurb. Nosing around the folders there was nothing new except in the Data folder. There's another 1gb texture file: HighResTexturePack03. Yay!

Erm… maybe. Starting to wonder if all these crashes are due to my video card getting max'd out. Might be time to upgrade the old GeForce 450.

Yay for Real... Maybe

There we go. Something a little more beefy. Nothing's changed in the game folder so poked around some. Found Dragonborn.esm and Dragonborn.bsa downloading to C:\steam\steamapps\downloading\72850\Data. Weeee!

Something Just Happened.... but What?

Yay! Well kinda…

It went really fast. The TESV executable is the same. And there's no new ESM. Will try launching the game and restarting Steam. Maybe do a verify files…

Tick-Tock, Dragonborn

Ended up pre-ordering Dragonborn from Green Man Gaming since they had it for $16. While it's only four dollars less it's the principle of the thing. I hate how the DLC concept drives the industry. Bethesda hasn't milked it like Capcom or most EA game yet it I'm loathe to contribute. Usually I'm fine waiting a couple of months until they go on sale. But … yeah. This is Skyrim.

Got an eMail from GMG about an hour ago with the key. According to Steam it unlocks in less than two hours. I spent some time last night clearing up my main character's file. Finished the Dawnguard story line, dismissed Serana, sold of some junk, did some Smithing, et cetera. Also got the Skyrim directory cleared out. I actually have ten different characters so it took time to get their saves compressed and add-ons organized.

Then there was the Clean Save process. I've been pretty good about trying out mods with the other toons while keeping few on Aenara. Currently she's attached only to the official DLCs, the Portal 2 mod, and the Shadow Striping Fix. I like the SSF since it doesn't use scripts or have any resources. I attached my own BSA to it with custom meshes and textures. I hate loose files. All of this made it easy to clean-up and prepare for Dragonborn.

It's going to be difficult to play without SkyUI and Categorized Favorites Menu. The geniuses at SKSE code so fast hopefully it will be back soon. And I really, really hope this doesn't break Wrye Bash for too long. Then there's the CK... how long will it be til it gets updated? And what new functions and resources will be available to mod with?! *excitement*

That's a Damn Lot of Nerds

Just watched MarineKing lose 0-3 against NeasTea in the Iron Squid 2 Finals. The games were so decisive what I found more interesting was the crowd shots. There are a ton of people packed into the Le Palais des Congrès. It makes me shake my head. I would never consider traveling and buying tickets to something like this.

Guess I'm old now and out of the demographic. *sigh*

ESO Beta Access Sign-Up'age

Getting closer to reality…

Laid it on pretty thick in the "Why should you get Beta access?" section:

I'm the type of gamer that will look at every aspect of a game and, given the chance, will provide positive and negative feedback to developers. As a software engineer I can provide specific, technical details. I've been playing MMOs since 1999 (in EverQuest) so I can be pretty opinionated. I enjoy solo play but also raid lead along with running regular group content with friends and random PUGs, which means hours and hours of playing each week. :)

It would be great to get access but I also wouldn't mind waiting. I'm going to buy/play it for a least a month no matter what.