Another in my Rivendell series… this time the lights…

oof.  I hadn’t realised it has been so long since post no. 3 (oct 2016!!)  *ahem*   All challenges can be found under the 30 day challenge tag,  I’d love to hear other people’s answers, feel free to join in!  (Original questions)

16. Take a lotro selfie

17.  did you read the books before playing the game?  If not, has playing the game made you more curious at all?

I read the books as a child and teenager, watched the films, then played the game (pretty much order of release I suppose).  The game though, has made me more curious about Middle Earth, the developers have done a great job in rounding out snippets of lore and allowing you to explore places only briefly mentioned.

18. If you could throw an NPC into Mount Doom, who would get barbecued?

Hmm I’m not sure I would…  Although it’s tempting to say any of the suicidal escort quest npcs…  I think most of the bad guys either get their comeuppance or are on the road to redemption.

19.  Show off your favourite mount.

Steed of the Alliance of the Third Age.  I like this horse mainly because it jingles as you ride.

20.  If you could only have one skirmish, which would it be?

Strike against Dannenglor or Protectors of Thangúlhad are amongst my favourites.  I like Protectors for the catapult, but I’d probably go for Strike as it’s an offensive skirmish and so you have more control.  I love the setting of that ruined courtyard, plus Mirkwood elves!

Quite often, whilst running around in ESO, I’ll think hmm that sea isn’t very realistic… it’s so flat and calm.  However….  I live by the sea and most days I visit, it looks just like this…

I might see if I can get better comparison shots both in game and also RL (especially when the tall ships visit)

a while ago I posted a pic on G+ of my Lore-master fighting a fire grim with the obvious choice of fire…  My friend was tanking and she replied with her view of the fight…

I’ve finally had my first experience of playing a pen and paper RPG!  I did try to join the D&D soc at Uni but in retrospect I think he must have thought I was taking the mick (the guy pretty much refused to speak to me).  The strange thing is if I had joined, I would have ended up meeting the same people I ended up being friends with anyway (and one of them is my long-term boyfriend/partner/need a better term).

In the intervening years, it just never really came up, although given that this was the early 90s and console/PC RPGs really started to take off with MMORPGs followed not that long after, it’s perhaps not surprising that my RPG-ing stayed computerised.

So anyway, with two members of that original D&D group I never got to join (Dimzad & Aeo) plus Leron (another newbie – yay!) and our 9 year old (Thybb), we ran a very short, easy campaign as a taster.  The system and world is pretty confusing at the moment, but as we play more I’m sure it’ll get easier.

I ended up with one of the pre-built characters, a druid type I suppose, an affinity with trees and wood at any rate, which seems to suit me.  My 9 year old played my rabbit familiar / earth mage (slightly cheaty but an excellent way to include him but allow for a shorter attention span).  Dimzad played a fire mage with a wooden foot, Leron is a shape-shifter, nature affinity mage and Aeo was GM.  I’m sure I haven’t quite got the details right, but it doesn’t matter too much, I’ll learn as we go.

I think the scenario we played was called Promises, Promises.  It wasn’t what I was expecting, (obviously I was expecting to battle some nasty things in a dank cave or something) as it is more of a detective story.  It was very good in letting us explore some of our character’s abilities though and introduce us to the world (I suspect this is exactly what it was designed for :P)

I caught the sun setting at the same time a dolmen was happening – quite pretty

School holidays are just bad for blogging, at least for me.  All normal routine goes out the window and things just get pushed aside and then I have to remember and push myself to write something.  It’s all good though, we had a lovely Easter hols with some very nice days out.

I did manage to log into ESO every day to do crafting writs for the Anniversary Event.  I only have 4 motifs left to complete now (!), although come the release of Summerset that number will increase again.  Now the event is over, I’ve had a purge of characters and I’m down to 5, which is a nice number and I enjoy playing all of them.  Sort of.  My Nightblade is my main and obviously I love that playstyle.  My stamsorc and magsorc are huge fun also.  I’m less sure of my magTemplar and stamWarden but I think that is lack of familiarity rather than actual dislike (see: Dragonknight.  Just can’t get on with this class).

Lotro, I’m now working through the Anniversary quests I didn’t complete last year (the trifles) and the new Year 11 quests.  The gollum mask is horrendous, it’s funny but it’ll be gathering dust in my vaults I think.  I’ve got the items I like so I don’t need to grind tokens now.  I remade my High Elf Captain to a High Elf Warden and he’s about to start Trollshaws.  I already have a Rohirrim Captain and it just felt ridiculous having 2 captains.

So.  Plans.

Lotro, I will get back in the routine of doing dailies with my Loremaster, get my Hunter through Mordor and chill out in the Trollshaws with my Warden

ESO, there are some solo achievements to work on with my NB, crafting writs to do and I quite fancy questing through Wrothgar and Craglorn with my MagSorc.

I decided to continue the old sindarin posts I did (now unpublished), but I’ve thought of a nicer (and possibly easier, possibly more difficult way) to do it

Astronomical objects:

• sun – anor
• moon – ithil
• star – êl or elen
• host of stars – giliath

Translations from: Hiswelókë’s Sindarin Dictionary and Parf Edhellen

There are many more terms for star (e.g. gîl) and variations thereof, this page gives a good summary.  I stuck with these terms for simplicity.

You’ll find these popping up in place names and names all over Middle Earth.  Obvious examples would be Anórien and Ithilien in Gondor  (Sun-land and Moon-land respectively), Lin Giliath in the North Downs of Lord of the Rings Online (Pool of the Host of Stars) and Eldar (the name given to the elves by Oromë).

NB. el and elen can sometimes mean elf (e.g. Elessar ~ Elf-stone)

[all outfits]

yeah…

Anyone who reads this blog knows that I Middle Earth and Mirkwood in particular, so it’s perhaps not surprising that my High Elf in ESO started to get a slight Thranduil vibe going…

So this was the inspiration pic:

and this is my take on it in game (it really needs a swishy cloak :P):

Whether it succeeded or not, I have to say it’s one of my favourite outfits I’ve made

head: N/A
chest: Abah’s Watch Jack (M) 1,000g
legs: Abah’s Watch Guards (M) 1000g
shoulders: Ancient Orc Pauldrons (H) 250g
feet: Ebonshadow Sabatons (H) 1,000g
hands: Ebony Bracers (M) 1,000g
waist: n/a (any unnoticeable belt)

Dyes: Lycanthrope Grey and Coldharbour Ash Black

Swords: Ebonshadow Swords  (He’s actually a magicka sorc, so the swords were just for this)

Dyes: Julianos White

• red – caran (Garth Agarwen, Lone-lands)
  
• yellow – malen (Lothlórien)
• blue – luin  (Cape of Belfalas, Gondor)
  
• green – calen (The Old Forest, Buckland)
• brown – baran (Brandywine River, The Shire)
  

It is interesting that more colours are not present in Sindarin, such as purple or pink, I found a really interesting article about why that may be.  There are more colours for types of red and brown and sky-blue but sadly not the colours for me to post a rainbow.  The colours in the screenshots are so gorgeous.  I have edited them slightly so they have a more similar level of saturation but not by very much at all (the blue is unedited).

sindarin source

It was fun to revisit the Skyrim areas and compare notes and I really love Stormhold in Shadowfen.

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned Craft the World on my blog before, but it’s one I play when I just fancy getting away from it all.  I really enjoy the mix of exploration, combat, building and defence.

I’ve been working my way through the Campaign which leads you through four biome types (forest, ice, desert and underground) which get progressively harder.  So far, I’ve found that once you unlock the Tesla Tower in the Tech Tree, and get set up, defense of your base is largely automatic so you can ignore the previously deadly and annoying waves of attackers and get on with mining and exploring.

So far, on Underground mode, my standard defense is not going to work as the waves parachute down from the sky and I’ve heard that goblins dig up…  Underground has been really tough so far, wood is really hard to get hold of.  I’m getting there, though I’m sure my dwarves will be wiped out again at some point

These are all places I find I leave my characters when I log out or find excuses to travel to…  I’m just going to let the pictures speak for themselves.

I’ve left out so many places which I absolutely love so I think I might do another one of these!

I think the sun may have gone to my head…  Instead of enjoying playing my Warden through the Trollshaws or exploring the very pretty and fun Summerset with my Nightblade, I’m playing that game I have very mixed feelings for – Black Desert Online.  I’m not really sure why, but I’m enjoying myself.

Part of the reason why I re-installed it is because I’d forgotten my Musa’s name.  When I finally logged in and saw it, I realised why. (Gilornor – why on earth did I call him that?!).  I was very pleased to see that I could use the Lahr Arcien costume for 7 days, I always did like that pirate costume

As I am a returning player, I can choose the Olvia set of channels that give an XP boost.  It really does make levelling very quick indeed.  I’d actually have a full set of level 49 characters if I hadn’t got distracted by, well, all the other stuff.  I’ve deleted a couple of characters and made a few new ones.  I still really enjoy the Musa playstyle and he is currently my sole level 49 (as it is pvp at 50 and beyond, I haven’t decided which character to try out yet), I still can’t get on with the Ranger but she is my horse trainer so that’s fine.  I’m not sure about the Tamer – I need to play her to figure out whether to keep her.  I’ve rolled a Dark Knight – and I really like her.  To be honest, she seems to play pretty much identically to the Musa (whirling about with a blade) but seems to hit harder.  I’m also trying out the new class Lahn, her combat style is very graceful but still involves mostly whirling about (vertically as well, which does add some interest), so I’m not sure if I’ll keep her.

Finally I rolled a Ninja (he also whirls about if I’m honest).  He’s basically my Valencia character to organise the distribution of silk.  If you’re getting an impression of Keanu Reeves, I have absolutely no idea why….

So I’m planning on building a bigger boat (I like big boats, I cannot lie) and sailing around the distant seas they added in.  It will probably end in disaster as I’m under-levelled but, honestly, half the fun is seeing what you can do when the odds are against you.  I plan on more sightseeing at high speed as well (Kamasylvia to be precise).  I may get a house there.  I’m also decorating two houses, one in Heidel (my new base of operations) and one in Valencia (my Ninja will at least be idling in beautiful surroundings) which is involving complicated contribution point and inventory managing.  I’m also going to level my T6 horses and hope for some T7s…  Oh and I’ve taken up farming, alongside fishing, crafting and gathering.  Um yes, cooking and alchemy too.

Just don’t ask me why.

Gaming:

Still playing Black Desert Online.  Currently training 4 Tier 6 horses who will hopefully give me some T7s to start the whole process again.  I got the Dark Knight to 51 and it’s been fun seeing a bit more of the world.  Still decorating but nearly finished the Heidel house.

I think I’m on my usual summer MMO holiday as I haven’t played either the Lord of the Rings Online and Elder Scrolls Online for a while.  I still love both games and will be back in soon I think.

The TES 6 announcement has of course made me want to replay Skyrim (again and maybe actually, you know, finish the DLCs).  I’m resisting so far.

Reading:

Mythos: A retelling of the Myths of Ancient Greece, by Stephen Fry.  (excellent by the way)

Revelation Space by Alistair Reynolds (right at the beginning)

Watching:

The Bridge (final season currently showing on BBC2).  Saga is such a fantastic character.

Dietland (on UK Amazon Prime).  I’m really enjoying this (only 2 episodes so far!) and I have no idea where it’s going, which is good.

Doing:

Lunching at the seafront and reading at the park while the hobbit plays.

welp, the resistance totally failed… maybe it was the ESVI teaser at E3, maybe it was the announcement of the new Blades app due out later this year…  against my expectations, I’m back in Skyrim obviously, and glad about it – am having an absolute blast.

Obviously I first had the fun of modding (and I do actually mean fun not “fun”).  I found the Legacy of the Dragonborn mod, which is beyond amazing.  It breathes new life back into the game and is encouraging me to get out and explore and redo quests (and in some cases bother finishing quests…).  In this mod, you end up co-owning a museum and library and all the things you collect (books, unique items, armours etc) are displayed.  It’s very pleasing to run round and find out what has changed and seeing the displays fill up over time.  There is a quest line and also an Explorer’s Guild (archaeology!) to run.  I highly recommend it to anyone who’s played through a few times, has the Skyrim itch but isn’t sure if they want to do the same old stuff again.

I’ve added in a few extra mods which have compatibility patches (cloaks of skyrim, immersive armours and Badgremlin’s collection) but aside from that have only added in Total Character Makeover and Obsidian Weathers.  There is now an alpha build of SKSE and so, SkyUI can be used at last.  I’ve kept the additional mods light as Legacy is a huge mod.

Screenies? more than you can shake a stick at   These are mostly of gorgeous scenery (the portrait of Lydia being the obvious exception):

and a few shots from the Legacy of the Dragonborn mod:

ESO: The most gorgeous house (in my opinion) they’ve released so far, is currently available for a short period of time. I absolutely love it, from the fact that the whole space is outdoors, there is a complete ship and a shipwrecked half-ship to live in plus ruins and nooks.  Most importantly there is plenty of sea.  It’s perfect (aside from the cost).

The problem is, I just can’t be bothered to play at the moment.  It’s a great game, more good things than niggles, but it’s just not appealing to me at the moment.  In fact, I’m starting to think that perhaps it’s time to stop with MMOs all together.  The main pull with this genre for me is grouping up with friends and for various reasons, that’s something that’s just not happening and hasn’t been for a while.  So I think I’m going to have a break, not buy the house and see what happens.

I will still continue to play Lotro though, it’s the only Middle Earth game that captures the feeling of the books for me and I miss being there.

I’m still having an absolute blast playing Skyrim (with Legacy of the Dragonborn).  Actually, that mod has probably given me the best experience yet.

I’ve finished the Stone of Barenziah for the first time ever,  I’m the furthest through Dawnguard than I’ve ever got before and I’ve actually set foot in Solstheim…  Aside from the one time I actually finished the main quest, I usually just clear and loot dungeons and spend most of my time with the Thieves Guild.  (and messing around with house mods).

In fact, I’ve been thinking that after this playthrough I might see how many mods I can get to run with Oblivion and give that another proper go.

I’ve taken part in Blaugust before and always found it fun and useful.  It has a new relaxed form this year, billed as a summer festival of blogging.  It is incorporating the Newbie Blogger Initiative to provide support, encouragement and community to new bloggers as well aiming to re-energise and re-connect for current bloggers.

Belghast has the full details (including link to discord) and I strongly encourage you to take part

I have signed up as a mentor, although I’m not sure if my experience or motivation will be what people are looking for.   I run very hot and cold with blogging, I don’t get lots of page hits and I’m not well known in the blogging community (I have been blogging for nearly 10 years though…)  That all sounds pretty negative but it’s not really   It’s just that I primarily blog for me and I’m a bit of a slacker and also happen to be very bad at being social via twitter etc.

The aim of my blog has always been somewhere to bung the ridiculous amount of screenshots I take and, to a lesser extent, describe my adventures.  More importantly though, I’ve realised that this is a medium in which I can indulge in some semi-creative efforts and experiment.  For example, I did really enjoy re-telling Volume 2 of the epic story in Lord of Rings Online via screenshots and bubble captions, it’s quite old now (think was originally started and published in 2012) but I guess that shows how much I enjoyed it.  I did a couple for ESO too.  I’ve been experimenting with game panoramas and collages which is very enjoyable and also began a diary for one of my Skyrim characters (sadly not to be finished as I lost the save files and specific mod installs).  I don’t think any of them are that good, but I really enjoyed the process and that was the point.

I also use the blog as an outlet for useful ‘stuff’, which is mostly an excuse for putting pretty pictures with some words…  For example, the translation of colours into Sindarin, a quick reference to some dailies, or sharing an idea of how to follow either a dwarven or an elven path through Lotro.  I also enjoy the 30 day challenges as they are also an opportunity for favourite screenshots and I can choose how verbose I want to be with the written answers. Oh and sharing outfits…

I will be participating in #BlaugustReborn and I am more than happy to be a mentor, although I’m not sure if my motivations and output are going to be of any use

OK so, you want to blog about gaming but you’re not sure where to start or what to write?  Funnily enough… that’s exactly how I feel right now!  This blog is mostly an online gaming diary with a few creative efforts, guides etc thrown in, so the advice I give will be from this angle.

host:
I use the free wordpress.com, I do like as it has a fairly easy interface, a good choice of themes and some customisability.  It does have it’s niggles though.

Naming your blog:
I think the best advice is to keep it general in case your blogging topics shift.  I started with Suzita Starshadow (named after my EQ2 character), which to be frank, sounds really naff.  StarShadow is only marginally better, but it is at least general, short, and easy to spell.

Subjects:
The first thing that I feel is important is that you write about what you enjoy, not what you think others will enjoy.  If you have a great screenshot, post it up.  If you’re proud of an outfit you’ve created or a house you’ve decorated post that up.  If you’ve had a blast running around X dungeon – describe your adventures.  If you roleplay, try developing your character on your blog.  Experiment too – you don’t have to publish the results and your blog can change and develop over time. The subjects you write about may stay varied and personal or they may develop into a theme – follow your interests.

Writing:
Read your posts back to yourself, make sure it flows.  Ask someone to proof read for you if you’d like an opinion before you publish.  One of the best pieces of advice I can give is to write your post as a draft, let it sit for a few days and revise and revise and then revise some more before you publish.  I would also recommend trying to illustrate your post with a screenshot as blogs are very visual and it really can catch your reader’s attention.  Having said that, it may not suit some type of articles or your style of blogging so down to you.  You can also preview your posts to check formatting and it can be easier to proof read too.

Writing about more than one game:
I tend to write about most games I’m playing, rather than just concentrating on just one.  Generally I tend to have one MMO going interspersed with various single RPG games.  I try to keep the majority of my posts about my long term MMO and throw in a few posts about the single RPGs here and there.  There may be other ways to combine this but I find this style of blogging works well with my gaming habits.

Schedule:
Writing regularly is really helpful to keep readers coming back to your blogs (something I’m not very good at!)  When I’m organised I like to have a schedule along the lines of a screenshot twice a week, thoughts and descriptions of my adventures once or twice a week and occasionally a guide.

Finally:
It is perfectly OK to blog as a hobby, without worrying about site stats and similar, if that’s what you enjoy.

just a quick note to say that I’m not around until 3rd Aug – I will be catching up with all things Blaugust related then.  I do have 3 posts scheduled though