Frey has gone.  Without telling anyone, very unusual.  Did he get a lead regarding Karliah?  I think I need a backup plan, I’m not sure where this Guild is headed.  Perhaps I ought to see if I can gain some respectability here in Riften?  I can’t move anywhere else, it’s too cold or too near Whiterun.

Well, a now defunct skooma operation, some fire salts and ice wraith teeth later and the Jarl here has offered me a Thaneship.  I’ll have to keep my nose clean in Riften now, but it should be a good cover story.  I’ve had to buy Honeyside, a little home by the harbour.  It’s quite nice and comes with it’s own Housecarl.  I shan’t be using it much though.  I’ve taken to camping just outside Riften when I can, the trees here are beautiful.  They are smaller and younger than the trees in my native Valenwood but pretty.

I don’t even know where to start.  I don’t even want to write this down in any detail.  I think it mostly ended well.  Short version – Brynjolf isn’t dead!  Karliah isn’t the enemy, Frey was, he’s now dead and I am a Nightingale in service to Nocturnal.

I’m not sure how I feel about being a Nightingale, the benefits will certainly be useful but… I am now bound to her in life and death.  They wanted me to make me the Thieves Guild Master but I refused.  Brynjolf is far more suited to the job than I, I have agreed to stay with the Guild for now though.

Lester found me in Riften.  I didn’t think he would come after me.  He’s staying at The Bee & Barb and wants me to go to the Greybeards.  He’s refusing to leave until I agree so I’m avoiding him for now.  It’s very awkward.  I am thinking about using my status as Thane to get the guards to throw him out but it will lead to questions, questions I don’t want asked…  I’m going to travel to Solitude as I have a special job from Delvin, perhaps he’ll just go away.

The job went well, well sort of.  I hadn’t planned on having a hulking, blond Nord blunder about behind me while I’m trying to be discreet.  I don’t know how he managed to follow me, I tried to shake him a number of times but he’s proving remarkably persistent and remarkably adept – there is more to this than it appears I think.   I have settled for ignoring him, though I did at least persuade him to wait on the path while I paid a quick visit to The Dainty Sload to plant some contraband.  I may have achieved this by grazing him with an arrow laced with a mild paralysis poison.

My new fur tent was an amazing investment!  It actually keeps me warm, even on the North coast!  Lester had gone from the path by the time I returned – I think I must have finally convinced him.  Even so, I’ve decided to take the scenic route back to Riften – I’m travelling to Dawnstar to visit a museum that has just opened. It sounds very interesting and I think the Guild will be very interested to learn of any valuable items.

The museum of Dawnstar was incredibly disappointing – seems to be more of a front to lure adventurers in to collect pieces of a daedric weapon than an actual museum.  I’ve had enough of Daedric Princes and politely declined.  I did, however, help a priest put an end to the nightmares plaguing the town.  It was quite interesting and I suppose by interesting I mean, I had to kill a lot of people and I travelled back in time…  It seems I can’t get away from Daedric Princes though, it turned out that Vaermina was stealing people’s memories which caused the nightmares –  if I’d known that I may not have helped.  It can’t be good to be noticed by them, surely?  I am glad I helped though, what a horrible fate.

I’m now travelling south with Lester, towards Ivarstead.  He caught up with me yet again, this time with a Thalmor in tow!  That was a meeting I wanted over very quickly.  Part of the reason I ran to Skyrim was that the Thalmor only have a small presence here…  Anyway, this Thalmor mage has been tracking me magically which explains why I haven’t been able to shake them.  In order to get rid of him as quickly as possible, I thought I’d better go along with Lester’s plan to visit the Greybeards.  There’s no way they’re going to want a Bosmer thief for Dragonborn.   It’s ridiculous to even imagine it!  I’m sure it’ll work out and I can get back to a normal life.

It is slow going in this cold.  I do seem to be acclimatising a little to the cold, but we still need to make frequent stops so I can thaw.  One such stop was in a cave, I felt quite guilty clearing out the bears from their den…  however I was close to freezing to death and they wouldn’t share.  Surprisingly, there was some loot, it looked to be a hunter’s cave perhaps, I felt a lot less guilty when I spotted the previous tenant’s corpse.  Death by bear… *shudder*  Still more furs at least, I don’t think I’ll ever have the constitution of a Nord.  Speaking of Nords,  it’s very awkward between Lester and myself, I do believe I may be in more danger of getting frostbite from his attitude than the weather!

[vaguely in-character diary of my playthrough | all entries | mods I’m using]

We were attacked by a dragon, it seems we travelled too close to its lair.  He was guarding an enormous treasure chest – I love this part!  We do make a good team, Lester basically annoys the dragon (he has a talent for that I think) while I snipe from the shadows (possibly also my talent).  I don’t think I could do this on my own, I’m just not built for head on combat, it’s not where my skills lie…  As the dragon died, there was that same glowy swirl that whirled around Lester and myself…. It got me thinking and I may have an inkling of an idea, I wonder if I can make it work?  I think it’s time to apologise and start to be nicer…

Well there’s nothing like a long protracted fight through a blockade to help thaw a frosty attitude!  I had previously apologised on the road, which  was met indifferently but I kept up a steady stream of chatter and his attitude had finally started to thaw when we came across the “toll road”.  There were quite a few bandits to take down and the leader was surprisingly skilled, but no match for us.  The loot was generally terrible – I really don’t understand why people bother with this petty thuggery.  Lack of skills and smarts I suppose.  Anyway, I did find the leader’s stash of mead which made a fine present for Lester.  He is very happy now, things are almost back to normal.

The rest of the journey to Ivarstead went without incident.  I ended up telling Lester how I came to be in Skyrim, of the disaster that was Auridon and he did look quite horrified when he realised what he’d done involving a Thalmor in the hunt for me. We’ve also been discussing the dragon situation.  It seems that the dragons are becoming more widespread and more of a problem.   I’m starting to… like life here, at least a bit.  Maybe just the south and the pretty forests surrounding Riften.  I don’t want it burned down, I want somewhere to enjoy the riches I keep stumbling upon… I mentioned that I’m fairly sure the leaders of Skyrim and the Greybeards will want a Nord as Dragonborn, Lester did admit that a Bosmer being named would be highly unusual.

We also solved a mystery for the people of Ivarstead. They were convinced that it was haunted and the place is gaining quite a reputation.  It’s actually really funny – I wish I’d thought of this!  Anyway, some wizard was encouraging this rumour by faking the hauntings to hide his presence there.   He drove himself mad looking for the sapphire claw to open the rest of the barrow.  Ironically, the barkeeper gave it to us as a reward for solving the mystery…  more treasure!

I’ve been feeling very upset and angry about some of the events of this year and instead of burying my head in the sand and whinging, I’ve decided to try and do something about it.  In particular, environmental issues and local issues.   There are many worthy causes out there but I think just choosing two as a main focus is enough for one person.

I accept that my efforts may be futile and a drop in the ocean of what’s needed but I hope that in conjunction with other people and their efforts, our societies will start to swing to a more sustainable model.  So I’m just going to detail here the changes I’m making, the causes I’m supporting, the petitions I’m signing etc.  If you’re not interested, these are links to all video game posts / MMO only posts / single player only posts.  I’ll be sorting these action posts under ‘hope’.

Christmas related actions:

I’m going to be buying as many presents as I can from Etsy, Notonthehighstreet and our local second hand toy shop.  I want to support individuals and small businesses as well as the big global companies.  Buying some toys / items second hand will at least give more use to the plastic as a toy before it ends up in the food chain.  (thanks to sylversyl for the link)

Re-use our fake Christmas tree for at least 10 years / until it falls apart (as that brings the environmental cost down).  Environmentally, it’s better to have a real tree which is then chipped or burnt but not if it ends up as landfill. (check your local council services – most will have facilities for this or may even provide a free pickup in the new year).  This BBC article goes into a bit more detail.

Buying wrapping paper that doesn’t have glitter or foil or a plastic coating.  I’m hoping to find some recycled wrapping paper even though part of me is a bit resistant to this (sparkles and glitter!) but honestly, it’s just ripped off and thrown away…

Donating items weekly to our local food bank collection points.  We are lucky as these are conveniently found in our local Co-Ops and Tescos (probably other major supermarkets as well).

How about you?  what are your tips?

*edit* and obviously Tolkien quotes are perfect for this sort of thing ;)  image found here

Anyone who’s a long time reader of this blog will know that I love a decent housing system in a game.  It’s not the reason I play MMOs but it’s something that I very much enjoy doing when I’m not dungeoning.  You can read the official article here and one by MMORPG.com here.   I’ve also embedded the short video with a first look at the new houses (it doesn’t show all racial styles).  I am very glad that they are going the EQ2 route and having instanced housing and also the ability to own multiple homes.

so… preparation, from what we know so far

Although the first house will be free (part of a quest to introduce the new system), subsequent houses will cost gold (and yes, just like other MMOs, there are crown shortcuts and I’m sure there will be crown exclusives later on too).  So, I’m trying to hoard gold…  it’s not easy but I’m selling through my trade guilds as much as possible (and thieving, natch..)

I already have a character who is level 50 (with necessary skill points) in all crafting disciplines as some items will require multiple professions to make.

I’ve also been working through my achievements.  It’s a little difficult at this stage to know which achievements will have house decorations / benefits so I’ve been working on as many as possible…  I have most of the crafting, questing, exploration, character, guild, normal dungeon achievements and I’m working on the ones I have left (I’m looking at you, harvesting 10,000 items!).  I’m hoping my regular group will start working on the veteran dungeon achievements soon too.  It’s a complete guess at the moment, we’ll have to wait until it’s tested to know specifics…

I have, however, finally finished Shalidor’s Library (I had two I hadn’t bothered to pick up in Cyrodiil).  Each sub collection completed will entitle you to buy the relevant set to place in your house from the Mage’s Guild.  If you prefer, there is an addon for PC which shows locations of lorebooks on the map.

To be honest, this housing system is everything I hoped for.  OK, with one exception, no additional storage.  That is a bit annoying but I believe it’s possible it may come in a future update.

I’m really enjoying the New Life Festival so far, the quests are very fun and so are the rewards.  There does need to be a couple of improvements, in my opinion, to make this run a bit more smoothly…  Firstly, I would prefer if I could pick up all 9 daily quests at the same time (as much as I like the NPC Breda, it is quite irritating to keep travelling back…) and secondly, I would prefer if you looted a stash of the xp boost drink / item, again rather than having to visit every 2 hours.

But minor moans, overall the festival is very well done and very enjoyable – screenshots ahoy!

Finally, there is a very useful thread on the forum which gives help for some of the achievements.

blog:

well, I’ve managed to keep it going although some months were very quiet.  For the time I managed it, I did enjoy the tues/wed/fri regular posting so I may try that for next year.  Like, really try… maybe…

single player games:

I finally played through the Mass Effect series – well, I’m halfway through 3 but I think that counts.  Really enjoying it.  I have to say I think ME:2 was the one I’ve enjoyed most so far, but I’m looking forward to the Citadel DLC in 3.

I did start another DAI game, with the aim of a “perfect play through” but I haven’t finished that (of course).   I did avoid Skyrim throughout the year to build anticipation for the special edition launch.  I’m partway through that, taking a break over Xmas and will continue with both the game and the write up of my play through.

MMOs:

So I started the year in gw2 but as our normal group activity declined, so did my interest.  I was incredibly disappointed with the implementation of crafting for the guild halls, (far too much of a grind/gold sink) something which may have pulled me through quiet times. Although the world is very pretty and a lot of the PVE is very fun, there’s not much in the way of ‘sticky’ secondary systems that I can remember.  Although my main focus with MMOs is group activities, I like to have things I can work on solo to benefit my character.   I may pop back at some point as it would be very fun to go back and group up with the GGGs though

I enjoyed BDO for the few months I played, I did always know it would be an short mmo holiday for me.  It almost has the opposite problem to GW2, amazing secondary systems but boring pve…  It’s definitely worth checking out though as some of the systems and the world building are outstanding.

I have made some progress on one of the stories in SWToR finally, although still not all the way through the first character story.  I imagine I will pick this back up later in the year for a month or two.

Lotro, I’ve now caught up on the epic story for my LM.  I’ve really enjoyed exploring the new areas, they are absolutely stunning.  Honestly, even though the graphics are ageing, it’s one of the most beautiful and immersive virtual worlds around.  I’ve just been happy exploring, taking in the view and listening to the soundtrack…

I had occasional bouts in Landmark.  It’s very much a niche game and it’s nice to know it’s there, when I’m in the mood for building.

The big MMO for me this year has been ESO.  The game is going from strength to strength – in fact, I’ve heard it’s the only MMO which is steadily increasing its playerbase – how true that is I don’t know but what I do know is that in game, it is thriving.  There are tons of things to do (solo and group) and although most of the pve content is now super easy, there is challenging content if you want it.

I now have a stamblade, a magplar, a magsorc, a stamsorc and stamknight at max level with an up and coming magblade.  My stamblade is my main and I’m now sitting at around 410 CPs, they come in at a steady rate and I’m in no rush to get to cap.  I’m mostly working on achievements on my main though.  They are quite varied and involve pve, crafting, pvp and dungeons.  I’m working on achievements because it seems like some housing decorations will be tied to them!  I still like the stamblade’s playstyle the best but a close (and tied) second are the stamsorc and the magblade…

The housing system has just gone live on the test server and at first glance, they have done a fantastic job!  It’s almost everything I wanted – free placement, player crafted furniture, achievement furniture items, books – just lacking storage and mannequins really.  These are possible in the future as it is a system that will grow alongside the main game.   There are some niggles but as this is the first iteration on test, this isn’t the place to discuss those.

Deltia has put together a preview of all the houses, grouped by type and includes the cost.   I can’t afford the largest homes but I think I can afford the ones I want to buy and I have one or two on a wishlist.  I need to rein my enthusiasm in as well as it’s better to have things to work toward and an ongoing project really.

Anyway, these are my favourite houses:

First purchase is likely to be Snugpod, Elden Root (45,000 gold).  This is an inside only house but it is very close to the Elden Root wayshrine and the Undaunted enclave.

Bouldertree Refuge, Greenshade (190,000 gold).  I’ll probably get this quite quickly, this would be my main character’s home and has an outside and inside to decorate.  An alternative would be The Gorinir Estate in Grahtwood, this has a larger outside area and an extra pod but it also costs 780,000 gold.  If there are any aesthetic change to these houses I might reconsider.  I have put some random decorations in the pod below.

Hunding’s Palatial Hall, Stros M’Kai (1,295,000 gold).  This is one I’ll need to save up for.  I’d also like to have a fair amount of recipes and mats before I tackled decorating this house too.  I like this house mainly for the outside as it has a fantastic view (and sounds) of the ocean.  It also has a stable, a tower and some walkways.  It looks towards Hew’s Bane (and is in similar style) so when my thief finally pulls off that heist, it might be mine

Autumn’s Gate, The Rift (60,000 gold).  I quite like this Nord style house, this is a house perhaps for the future.  Sorry for the picture, it was just past dawn and raining…

Quondam Indorilia, Deshaan (1,265,000 gold).  I’m not sure I’ll ever stump up the cash for this, but I do like this Dunmer style house.

The houses in Reaper’s March (Strident Springs (1,289,000 gold) and Serenity Falls (3,775,000 gold) are beautiful, especially the outside areas, again I’m unlikely to buy these, though perhaps in the future…  The two crown store only purchases are stunning – as they should be.  We don’t know the price of these yet.

Many of the achievement gated furniture items are locked behind things like, completion of the main quest for the zone, guild or exploration achievements.  I found an achievement vendor for Orsinium, the Shadowy Supplier will sell Dark Brotherhood themed items but I haven’t found anything yet for the Justice system or Thieves Guild (N.B. prices shown in screenshot are test server prices – it was noted in the patch notes that the pricing hasn’t been finalised yet).  I have had to use a template character so it’s been a little difficult testing out achievement related purchases…

I’m very much looking forward to this going live.  In preparation, I’d just suggest working on your zone / guild / etc achievements and saving your style materials (each furniture item can use 5-40 or so of them and if you’re decorating in one particular style, you could run out of them quite quickly.  I think you can buy them from the crafting vendors though…    Oh and saving your gold

What houses are you interested in?

well, wednesday used to mean a screenshot so here are some panoramas I haven’t published yet.

I don’t know what it is about this series but it’s kept me hooked for nigh on 20 years now…  Well probably something about the sneaking, the thieving, the freedom, the world…

Anyway, I have been playing a LOT of ESO.  I have a regular Thursday evening dungeon group with friends which is always fun and a regular Sunday evening trial (raid) night with a very nice guild.  We seem to be progressing nicely at normal level, we’re getting to the stage where it’s mostly easy and getting quicker each time.  I’m worried my DPS isn’t up to scratch for the trials though and I’m not sure whether it’s my gear or me or both…  One of the new target dummies may help with that.  Speaking of which, I think they have done a great job with the first iteration of the housing.  My only gripe would be that housing mats should drop more often and also be contained in hireling mails / surveys.  It will be interesting to see what they introduce in the future.  I ended up buying the Gorinir Estate in Grahtwood, which is a bargain in terms of size at 780,000 gold.

With the excitement of the Morrowind announcement, I obviously started a new playthrough of the single player game   Apart from a half hearted attempted a year or few ago, I haven’t really played it since release and I mostly had memories of it being dark, very grey and dying a lot.  I’m glad I’ve picked it up again, it’s a lot easier than I remembered and the landscapes more varied.  I’ve also grabbed a companion mod for um… science or something.

Which leaves me with my Skyrim SE playthrough to finish.  I want to but I keep playing ESO instead.  I also need to finish my ME3 game too.

Yes I know, this blog has been very quiet lately.  It’s mostly an issue of RL stuff taking up headspace.  Everything’s OK though.  I have still been doing plenty of gaming though (shocker!), it is a good way to switch off for a while.

So, ESO.  I’m still having a blast playing this – mostly thieving, catching up on some achievements and I still have my dungeon fun night and also a raid night going.  I’ve noticed the reduction in dps on my stamblade which is a bit disappointing, but I’m sure a future update will swing the balance another way.  So long as a class isn’t totally wrecked, I don’t mind the balance swings and roundabouts – I do feel it is part of the price you pay for such variety.  Both GW2 and Lotro manage to generally seem to keep the balance (though they too have had their moments) but they do have a far fewer amount of variables to pin down than say, EQ2 or ESO.  Plus my formative MMO years in EQ2 hardened me to the bow nerf bat…  It’s the person behind the character I say!  #notbitter

I did have a very low moment when I compared dps parses between my stamblade and my magblade.  My magblade not being even nearly as well geared up, with a very dodgy skill setup and I had no idea which skills were where.  I was shocked and, admittedly, very downcast (and yes, I whinged and moaned guild-wide)  when my magblade’s dps was significantly higher.  Later I remembered that my stamblade was actually wearing her thieving gear (speed! stealth! fight – uh nope..) and so her dps wasn’t in fact beaten by my facerolling of my magblade…  *ahem*

We ran through Blackheart Haven on vet mode the other night, which was incredibly fun. The scenery here is outstanding – a massive indoor and outdoor instanced zone, filled with pirates, pirate skellys and repurposed shipwrecks – if I wanted to see a premium priced house, it would be this one…   At the beginning you can wear a pirate disguise and the pirates were all fooled by our shouts of ‘yarr’ and ‘me hearty’ and other such clichés so we decided to join in the pirate party:

but our healer decided to pick a fight (I guess someone spilled her pint!) and we went full on bar brawl instead:

Anyway, I now have a new trophy to add to my monster bust housing display