LP Grinding!

17 Dec

So TP is now LP, and there have been quality of life changes made by Standing Stone Games in the last 10 years, and I hear something truly exciting, changes to UI are finally in the works! But regarding LP grinding, some of the CRAZY slayer slogs have been toned down, at least in the earlier zones. I kinda was disappointed that the brood hunter was reduced from 150 and 300 (really!) to 30 and 60 cos I had the staying power to do this in the past but OMG it was a true grind. I sense these changes have been made to many of the early zones which only makes a TP now LP grinder quite happy!

My old guides for BREELAND, ERED LUIN and SHIRE

You can check out my old TP grind in this post from 2013 – Living on the Edge

I think my new LP farming is very much based on this but it has become more disjointed in the sense that I now almost never have big LOTRO sessions, ‘old gamer git syndrome’?

LP farming map/guide/infographic in 8 parts

ARCHET (pt1 & 2 anticlockwise ish…)

COMBE (Left to Right to Left)

ERED LUIN (Bottom to Top)

SHIRE (Clockwise)

STADDLE (Left to right and back again, and back and forth!)

BREE, WEST of BREE and NORTH BARROW DOWNS (Bree: up then down, Norther Barrow Downs: anticlockwise, then down)

SOUTHERN BARROW DOWNS (Down then up, down then up and final down, then anticlockwise sweep into clockwise and then out!)

OLD FOREST (Give up hope, after you have done it a few hundred times, maybe, maybe will you have no problems… use the in game map, it helps, kinda, well not much…)

So LP grinding is done…more in-depth guide coming… I find you get lots of TP , lots of task items and lots of rep items. And I enjoy it in my twisted way. I prefer champion as its very active and good at pulling groups of mobs, but many say Beorning is better, I have tried but I wasn’t sold, mini and LM can also sail through! Want more of a challenge, up the difficulty, just look out for the NUKEs ( Still don’t like it!) and you level a little too fast… its quicker to not out level mobs when doing slayer deeds!

Will break it down in the future… this is only the beginning…

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Tsu + LOTRO = Alts + LP(TP)

15 Dec

So I have been busy doing what Tsu does best which is basically running chars through LOTRO, when they click they go further, but I always get them to around lv23 and leave em in Bree. Yeah its my old TP grinding, as many have pointed out for the time gettin a second job would be quicker! But I loved it when it was TP (Turbine Points) and am still loving it its now LP (LOTRO Points). It truly is an old school vinyl long play experience.

When I returned, my original main, Tsuhelm, was on dark server having been consolidated, my RK main, Tsukuld, was on one of the surviving US servers, and my many alts were all over the place, but mostly on US servers. I was playing in Argentina and the time matched well, not with the US but with GB as I played in the morning and it was evening and night in GB, so got to play with Europeans on the US servers. I was now in Denmark and didn’t need to adapt for the time difference so I decided to start again on a EU server. I didn’t know that 64 bit servers were coming this year!

So after a year of LP grinding and with some adventuring, just not yet up to going back into Moria, but am close on a couple of chars. I now have 45 chars over 5 servers – but 27 on Orcrist. 20 on main account and 7 on secondary account which I created for my wife who promised to give LOTRO a go but never did (but I keep improving it just in case she does hop in.)

Tsuhobch is my trader extraordinaire, short in stature but mercantile in nature. By buying and selling hides in the auction house, also with those farmed from the LP runs, has amassed a small fortune! Also pretty nifty with a needle and is my tailor.

TsuDwach is my armourer with a sideline in woodcarving.

So its been a busy time in LOTRO and I must admit I am really enjoying myself, and now here I am sharing my fun with others:

Hello! Hello! Good to be back, good to be back
Hello! Hello! Good to be back, good to be back
Hello! Hello! Good to be back, good to be back
Hello! Hello! Good to be back, good to be back
SCOOTER – Hello! (Good to be Back)

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Tsuisbak UPDATE

14 Dec

Well many years have past and I am very happy to declare that I have been able to start playing LOTRO again! WOOT! Life in Denmark is still tough but hasn’t prevented my wife and I getting gaming set ups for my 2 teenage sons. So I can hop on every-so-often and play some LOTRO.

I have to admit to having missed LOTRO so much yet getting back into it was a struggle at first, I tried to hop on to old chars, and it was like jumping onto an old moving car… tricky! I kept missing a handhold and getting run over, so I started from scratch, this was a couple of months ago. Actually, I checked when they introduced the 64 bit servers, and was before then so nearly a year, time flies when ur having fun! The old UI on new PC’s was a slight eyesore, and the lag pre 64bit was hell… but I LOTRO‘d on.

So what the f*** have I been doing, how did I survive so long without LOTRO, now I am back I don’t really know, it has again become a backbone of my daily routine and my number one escape from the stresses and strains of the real world (we wont go there, RW is a b****!) Always was a GAMER and life without games would be like life without beer (I have had to cut back on that too, did I say RW is a b****!) It was close to a ten year hiatus, and although RW has been super busy, I must have been able to get some gaming in right?

COC

Yeah I have kept CLASH OF CLANS ticking along almost constantly until recently, a little bit bumpy but always there in the background, I even ended up being clan leader for 2 years but in the end I simply got bored of the gameplay, SUPERCELL have kept improving the interface and smoothing over cracks to create a much smoother gaming experience and oddly enough without the cracks I wasn’t enjoying it anymore!

MCOC – MARVEL CONTEST OF CHAMPIONS – popped back last year and OMG power-crept to death, dropped right out again!
MINECRAFT – not played much, but it is still there and every blue moon the boys go on a Minecraft binge (on their PC’s) it may rub off onto me diving back on the PS4, but I always find it so boring, lacks the long term story and interaction I crave and after the first few nights in survival I am safe and therefore bored! They need to insert adventure into it. I always though it would make a great 3d D&D map creator just needs to add in monster spawns and some basic scripting. Yeah, yeah, there are probably mods to do that, but I am an OLD gamer(git) and am starting to act like one, ‘If it don’t work the way I want am not gonna fix it!’
GACHA GAMES – tried lots of em on my shitty android phone – GENSHIN IMPACT probably stands out the most and I got further in that than most, jumped back in a year or to ago when my nr1 son also started playing but the game is now too huge (and my phone needed to be upgraded to play!) and it quickly vanished. If I could link my account to my PS4 then I may have popped in occasionally but you have to start from scratch so ….meh! Presently having a daily fix of MORIMENS – slay the spire vibe with Cthulhu and tentacles!

PLAYSTATION4 – to my wife’s chagrin we have been paying for the PSplus accessibility which our budget can not really afford and there have been many games I have enjoyed – GHOST OF TSUSHIMA, probably being the game I have spent the most time in was nearing 100% completion. I have also purchased a few RPGs (WITCHER 3, DRAGON’S DOGMA), JRPG’s (SHIN MEGAMI TENSUI VENGEANCE, PERSONA 5 ROYAL) and CRPG’s (DIVINITY ORIGINAL SIN, DRAGON AGE INQUISITION) but nothing stuck. I bought and enjoyed HORIZON ZERO DAWN, and every so often jump back in. I treated myself to a full price ELDEN RING. I loved the exploring and the world is AMAZING but not the boss combat. My youngest son after wrapping GOD OF WAR RAGNAROK, eventually got in to it and completed it over and over, he laughs at the number of hours I put in without completion… I wonder as a younger person would I be able to do the same as my son, master the bosses and fully extract the elixir from Elden Ring, both my sons do not get LOTRO and I have failed miserably to pass on the love of MMORPGs to them. Sad as toddlers in Argentina they would sit on my lap and take control of my mounted characters. Talking of disappointments, while unable to play LOTRO I did try all the MMORPGs on the PS4 and boy was that underwhelming – even FINAL FANTASY 14! I loved my first exposure to FFXI (well that is what I remember, but I am not sure I could play it today like some still do!) and played (loved) all of the FF games up to 10 and FFXIV is beautiful and smooth and very, very, busy but after 3 or 4 attempts it does not click for me! I have just reinstalled WARFRAME which I enjoyed as a FPS the first time but got lost with all the menus… have heard it has been updated… let us see.

Got to love LOTRO skies

So back in LOTRO and now back in WORDPRESS, TSUHELM the blog has never been away sitting there in the depths of the internet! I have popped in and boosted my own stats by reading through my madness from time to time. Will I keep blogging? I hope so, I have found that while LOTRO‘ing having a story or goal to explore while playing gets you through the grinds, no I will clarify, it makes the grinding enjoyable! It even pushes me to do it over and over, its FUN! Even if these blogposts are not read, well read (not well written) or even if they are not written in RED!

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LOTRO-less in DK

14 Jul

Wow its been a long time since I added to this blog… needless to say a lot has changed. My application to stay in Sweden was rejected even though I had found work in Denmark which gave me an income to support my family there – actually I was technically accepted and was provided with a Swedish social security number the week after I left Sweden for Denmark but this in no way helped my family situation as the authorities, those happy smiling faces that are swedish bureaucracy, had already rejected my Argentinian wife and more shockingly denied the Britishness of my British passport carrying children. There is something wrong in the state of Sweden me thinks, don’t worry Sweden I hold no grudge to you personally… NOT that I will endevour to stick the knife in from time to time… as you greeted my family which turned into a full blown grating!

DENMARK

So now working and living in DK again after over 10 years away. Odd to be back and to be honest happy to be back. Still not plain sailing – the global traveller that I am is now finding that the world has changed and its harder to move around especially with family in tow. But super nice apartment in super expensive Østerbro has served us well and now moving again to Frederiksberg for I hope the last time this decade. My kids have settled in to a fantastic school and are even speaking danish already. My wife has struggled with the language but never deterred is getting there and has landed FT work so we are in the Danish system and here to stay. HU-fucking-RAH… its been a funky trip!

GAMING…

Still no LOTRO 😦

I did try to install it on the cheap laptop we bought in DK (EVERYTHING is done ONLINE here without a computer/smartphone you cannot even communicate with the school or Kommune (local council)) but it did not work… not powerful enough 😦

But I am still casually gaming on my phone…

MCOC

Champions_2019-07-10-22-08-39

Yeah still GRINDING but no way as much as before. I joined a local Danish alliance which turned out to be too time consuming and after yet another shitty 5 star crystal pull… Spidergwen …duped, my second after Ant-Man I decided enough was enough and I quit but after a day I was back in my own alliance with my son’s accounts as fellow team members and there I still am but things are more relaxed, we dont grind, no-one bitches at me and most of all win or lose in alliance events all that matters is having FUN!

The alliance has grown, it certainly has alot of deadweight but as long as they pop in every 10 days it dont matter and we plod along growing a little every day, suits me fine.

Champions_2019-07-10-22-10-28

I now have 35 five-star heroes, still only 2 dupes but SpiderGwen has been revamped and kicks butt, she is best champ fallowed closey by my Venom and Blade. So now armed with more potent champs I am able to handle the trickier content if I can be bothered and occaisionally I have a little push and I am getting better slowly.

Most importantly without the BULLSHIT stress I really do like this beat-em-up, its a nice generally balanced game.

COC

Clash of Clans_2019-07-10-22-04-11

Had over a year away and only recently came back … some improvements put in by SUPERCELL but nothing amazing. My clan kept me in which surprised me and they were all happy to see me back which is the main reason I have stayed and now I am nearly finished with upgrading all my walls and will move to th11… maybe it will get truly ENJOYABLE again… or not… but I am willing to try and find out now.

CR

Clash Royale_2019-07-10-22-05-00

Its an on and off thing… still think it could be better but meh I pop in every so often and sometimes I have nice match ups and then other times I can have long runs of meeting up with OP opponents which just bore me… so many people must have spent a fortune on this game!

MINECRAFT

I have regular co-op games with my nr2 son who is still so good at this game but cant say I find myself drawn to it… it lacks a raison d’etre… 

I did try to build an old school D&D dungeon in it for my kids but found it so frustrating and slow and that populating the dungeon was just impossible so it died a death!

FUTURE…

PS4 is on the horizon but aimed at the kids rather than myself but I am hoping with my kids growing and now with 2 incomes we will find more leisure time so that I can get off the casual (ish) mobile games and get some proper gaming done again. I may even save up for that GAMING PC! I dream of LOTRO’ing again… I do, I really do!

But what with biking around with the wife and kids, swimming, and work I dont have that much time to spare.

TIME the nature and progression of events and the enemy of the busy gamer! 

Oh and dont get me started on politics, populism and the ongoing fucking BREXIT!

Lot of catching up to do…

12 Sep

Last post 15 feb… oh WOW update needed!

MOVING/MOVED

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I suppose the big news is that I am NOT back playing LOTRO! But I did get to leave Argentina and take my family to Europe… I am now slowly sinking into Sweden… yeah it’s not been as easy as I expected and the Swedish bureaucracy has been much worse than I ever imagined. The last 2 years has literally overwhelmed Sweden with a tsunami of immigrants, which has not left much of a welcome for Tsuhelm n family. Me, EU citizen (Don’t get me started on the ominous BREXIT and the possible future ramifications!), with newly Britished sons and non EU wifey. Swedish friends have slapped their heads in disbelief that I chose to move to Malmo, which was the main entry point, and most affected city in Sweden. I just wanted to be close to my beloved Copenhagen; I also hoped that my network of friends would be there to smooth my return. Well they have certainly helped me but nothing has clicked into place so we have ended up in expensive accommodation, have only a limited right to remain in Sweden and I need a job like YESTERDAY. I did cheekily force the authorities to take my kids into the Swedish schooling system and my wife is busy studying Swedish everyday and wanting to kill me every other day for my unpreparedness… just another of the harsh realities of life of a EU jobseeker in Sweden.

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Tsu and Sons in Malmo.

So you can maybe imagine that I have no time for gaming right? Well that would be way too sensible…

LOTRO

Webp.net-gifmaker

Still no working computer… we dismantled my wife’s old oft fixed computer and brought the harddrive along with the 100’s of gigabytes of family pics which we gave up trying to backup in the cloud. I had always promised myself a new gaming PC when I finally returned to Europe but jobless and living on the edge in Sweden maybe now is not that time. So the 10th anniversary has gone, Turbine has become Standing Stones Gaming – with all the pipe weed in game its surely should be Standing Stoned Gaming. I just hope they do a good job as the vociferous fanbase will Stand (them up and) stone (them for spoiling their) gaming… Little snippets of news that have reached me have indicated that it’s still going… and indeed one can simply walk into Mordor… or not!

Do I still play with my COC…

Yes I am still playing… I have been super close to packing it in at times and yet again another clan has slowly died… we are hanging on just and hoping that after the long absent leader popped up and handed over the reins that we may be able to turn it around. But does anyone really care?

I have reached th10 and boy if I thought upgrading walls at the end of th9 was slow this is downright tedious. I cant be bothered to grind out the farming for wall upgrades so I just slowly plod along. The introduction of a new base to build and slightly skewed raid dynamic offered a brief respite but that has now sunk into even more of a time sink. SUPERCELL still know how to introduce the occasional buzz into play with events and odd happenings (builder vanishing was great!) but overall does not remove that lingering stale taste in the mouth after you realize that you have spent years licking a time sink!

And BR?

Nope I quit… I didn’t rage quit, or decide to stop playing, it just stopped being opened, it is still installed… Nr2 son was massively into CR and I left my big active clan (Supreme Cream – WOOT!) to make a family clan with him. We plodded along slowly, we LOVED the 2vs2 which they removed… then added back and then removed. And I notice it’s back again! But for fucks sake make your mind up! I think the 2vs2 mode is a proto Bridge. It plays so well this way, getting to know your partner and his playstyle and then factor in the opponents and their game. Maybe with the massive amount of permutations now available BR’s complexity becomes its undoing. I was enjoying myself so much that I was on the verge of recommending friends (non-gamers) to come and play with me… but the effort (or cash!) required to build up decks is just too much and I simply fell off the cliffs named ‘NOT BOTHERED.’ Now I don’t even miss it.

MINECRAFT

OK not really my addiction, but my nr2 son’s favourite game and his skills just keep growing. He constantly amazes me and I can see that he isn’t cheating, he’s not copying from YouTube vids. He really creates his own amazing structures. Our new apartment in Sweden weirdly came with an Xbox 360 and the State library rents outs games for free. I have had to rent out Minecraft continually (I keep trying out LEGO games, so far nothing has beaten the LEGO movie game.) and I will keep doing so until I find a cheap second hand version somewhere or until I start earning again and then I will buy a new version. Both boys love playing together, something they were not able to do with the PE edition on their ipads (without getting Microsoft accounts!) And do I play? Well of course I get sucked in every now and then. And boy does this game suck you in … I once spent 2 days working out how to get pistons and redstone to manipulate lava flows over a secret cave… why? The mind boggles! I built a waterslide to bedrock to speed up mining for my son who promptly found diamonds and was over the moon for days! I then installed a water lift with signs and airpockets to quickly rise back up again, which my son ignores as he prefers his own staircase!

What a game!

And yet more MCOC

Yeah I have come close to packing this in as well, especially when the original alliance I was in, started to die. An in game friend introduced me to his new alliance and they accepted me, and I have been there ever since. For a game that sucks in so much time, they are surprisingly undemanding. I mean they want you to meet targets but they do not demand arena grinding or full participation in all events, which I imagine would quickly suck in every minute of every day. It is that GRINDY!

I keep promising myself and alliance mates to get better at fighting but it’s slow (for me at least!) I cannot justify perfecting MCOC while looking for work, I do try by explaining it away (to non gamer wifey) as stress relief but to be honest if my work drought continues I may well have to let it go. I am already letting ride the daily arena grind (just for milestone prizes) and it shows in that I struggle to earn enough to level champions. Talking of which MCOC has done a great job at maintaining the MARVEL universe throughout, It manages to hit every long dormant MARVEL nerve I have ever had and it keeps them lit and throbbing for more.

My roster is continually growing… now 5 five star champions, and a plethora of 4 stars too… some of them maxing out. Next year 6 stars will be introduced, as the power creep sets in, surely without new gameplay this may be the first death knell sounding.

Screenshot_2017-09-12-11-04-12

Like every cash gobbling mobile game MCOC has an interesting back story Korean giant Netmarble bought out Kabam in February and it has been far from smooth sailing since. A couple of fluffed updates has managed to introduce fractures into a once solid group of hardcore players. Update 12 was a costly fiasco and even the latest update introduced changes that were clearly not well thought out. A bug got passed quality checking that has managed to corrupt in game gold for many players. Interesting read here.

FUTURE

Nr1 get a JOB

Nr2 get a gaming PC and catch up on a lot of gaming…er LOTRO!

Nr3 get a PS3 and 4 (yes both) as I have missed out on some amazing games… Dark Souls, I offer you my still pulsating heart to chomp on and spit out!

Nr4 start surfing and swimming again (maybe swim then surf is safer option.)

Nr5 if non of above kill me (or wifey) I hope to start blogging again… let’s see what the 2nd half of 2017 brings Tsu’s way.

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Mordor Second

15 Feb

Never political me…

Love it!

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TSU minus LOTRO = unhappy TSU

29 Dec

I can’t remember the last time I played LOTRO…

I think we had just repaired my wife’s PC and I spent over a day to get it reinstalled, I had been busy over the anniversary event (Update: Gaming draggin! – 1st Jun) festival and thought life was going to be rosy but my disillusion with LOTRO quickly reappeared, I think I basically have lost my way and don’t know where I want to take my lv65RK.. I had taken him out of Rohan where to be honest he was enjoying himself (except for the ‘my-little-war-pony’ bits) for the anniversary event, after which in LOTRO: Gettin INTO LOTRO again… 26th APR I decided to go to Great River where the game quickly got boring again…

On the 29th of July (GAMING: Pokémon GOne?) I again tried to play LOTRO due to my nr1 son wanting to play… I even created an account for him but he is too young and even with my coaching and help he quickly lost interest… and that was that…half a year later I have not played again, not helped that for 5 month’s my wife’s computer has been out of action I blame the installation of MINECRAFT for the kids which I reckon has permanently damaged something in the motherboard as now every couple of weeks it just crashes again… and MINECRAFT itself is unplayable!

The MINECRAFT adventure was amazing though, I am a late comer to it, and the kids both got hooked straight away, I liked the more lethargic survival approach but found it got too easy too quickly with nothing to really keep me pushing forward… My nr2 son turns out to have the ability to create huge and complex houses… not bad for a 4 year-old! Nr1 son used it mainly to create ingenious machines he had seen on YT and indeed we have had to curtail their YT watching habits away from the same old MC videos… especially one episode of Lucky Blocks pistols…  which has 3.3+million views… which my wife and I felt were mainly from our 2 kids…

As the PC (when working) cannot run it anymore we installed it on the ipad and nr2 again started doing remarkable things, nr1 was quickly found to be sneaking back to YT all the time! Presently they are both fighting over the new Mario Run app (which is having problems with a lack of free content I gather…)… when not being banned from any access due to bad behavior…

So back to MY gaming… and my thoughts of coming back to LOTRO, somehow the news (I popped back to LOTROPLAYERS to check if true… LOTRO Players News Episode 182: What What Whaaaaat??) that LOTRO n DDO will be spinning off from TURBINE awoke this desire to play again…

I then stumbled on Malaysian Gamer’s YT video ’10 Reasons to play LOTRO’… and oh boy was desperate for my wife’s computer to be fixed… it has been and I am still itching to install LOTRO yet again… it will probably take a day… so maybe over the new year holiday (we got the 2nd of JAN free from work for some weird corporate reason!) …I just wonder how long it lives this time… surely 2017 must bring a new PC into the household?

Oh another nice YT video byThomas Huayra: ’10 lifehacks for LOTRO’, some stuff to try out here:) Also great to see Nakt is still LOTROing and blogging, and he mentioned our old clan leader Taltoz is still also in game 🙂

Undoubtedly if I start playing again I will probably start blogging again, you have been warned… TSU’s mad ramblings could be coming back soon… unsubscribe now… ur last chance to preserve your sanity.

So sans LOTRO what the hell have I been doing?

Now having moved back into Buenos Aires (6 blocks from Congress no less, sounds good it’s actually not that nice an area…) I have been swimming more than I did when I actually had my own pool, but am still not in body-surfing form… I ripped a calf muscle playing Frisbee with myself 😦 that didn’t help but hope to get back into chucking plastic again this summer, I walk to work most days now – 15 blocks so a little more activity and a HUGE saving in time. (I saw a BMX for sale yesterday…so tempted!) Work has been a huge focus for 2016 which contributed heavily to my blog’s demise, simply no time to spend at work in blogland! But 2017 looks very quiet, to the extent that my job (the whole department’s in fact) looks in danger which could  impact quite negatively on future gaming plans… touching wood it works out, although being made redundant in Argentina is quite a generous process and would easily fund my family’s return to Europe. But being jobless anywhere is not good at this time and OMG 2016 has been bad for politics and world travelers such as myself, especially as I am married to a non EU citizen 😦

Wife n aforementioned kids of course eat up lots n lots of my time, I have really enjoyed Stranger Things, Happy Valley, The Night Of, Game of Thrones, WESTWORLD, Daredevil, Luke Cage, Preacher and Star Wars Clone Wars (all episodes seen for first time :)) . I survived a plethora of others, notable mentions to How to get Away with Murder, Gotham, and Night Manager!  Started and gave up on quite a few too, the biggest disappointment being 2nd season of Mr. Robot.

I half-heartedly started a TSUISM project for blasts of creative madness, incorporating some of the LEAN culture work is attempting to instigate (I won’t go there…):

tsuism-lean-donut-philotsuphy

So no gaming then?

Computer basically out of action (so no EVE online either!) or in use by others so I continued my casual gaming on my phone(s*) in the shape of CoC, CR and MCOC. All of which I am submerged in to differing degrees.

*Why phones…I was always suspicious of geezers with more than 1 mobile, now I pack 2 myself (and I am not counting the ipad which is best for MCOC!) Now I have 1 phone for CoC, CR and phone calls and my wife’s old phone which runs MCOC, mine did not, it’s kinda laggy, a little too small and has a tendency for the screen to come off but it’s my fall back for when nothing else to do or I need to play MCOC and family ipad is in use.

CoC – CLASH OF CLANS

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th9… just before…

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th 10 🙂

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Backdoor is painful!

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cmon get it front door!

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2016 Xmas tree on my border 🙂

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oh events 🙂

I left my dead Philippine clan and joined a British Clan. It’s super-active nowadays but unorganized and unsettled. The leader is permaAFK! So we have a constant stream of new recruits and we are struggling to maintain a core of good players; we had a huge fall out and lost 2 good factions – one of which is continually inviting me to follow. Funnily one of the newer members is also one of my best friends from GB who reached out over FB as a fellow CoC player and he decided to join the same clan :). Notice I start by talking about the alliance and other players, in the end the longevity of this (all?) casual game is about the people u play with not really the game itself…

I recently reached th10, always fun starting a new level, I should have kept levelling my walls n heroes but to be Frank (who I am not!) it was SIMPLY BORING! So th10 antics ahead… its early days as u can tell by the pics… not even done a new base design and my bastardized WAR base which was a Clash Tutor th9 thumper design is a truly weird beast. I am now nr1 base in WAR which is quite a daunting role as to be honest I am too casual a player to hold that position… but I suppose I am the most consistent donator so I get away with it 🙂

CR – CLASH ROYALE

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I have come so close to stopping playing this game… I got invited to Supreme Cream’s CR group and it made a huge difference initially with the then ‘NEW’ tournaments (which turned out to be crock!) and the constant donations of cards which still help a lot 🙂 But recently actually playing the game became a bore, there was simply no necessity to play… as a f2p player gold costs are too high to contemplate nothing less than monthly goals! Then during the last update SUPERCELL introduced the Clan Chest and suddenly the game came alive. There is a 2 week on off cycle but I missed the thrill of piling up crowns after only a day of rest… I even started to mess around with Mortars just cos I wanted to. I have used a cheap deck since day 1 and only really changed it recently with the addition of the Black Knight (Monty Python sketch)

So it goes, soon I will reach lv10, so tougher castles… maybe by end of 2017 I will have all my cards that I use raised to level 12… I doubt it but I suspect I may still be playing.

MCOC – MARVEL CONTEST OF CHAMPIONS

My 4* (and 1 5*) heroes
Act4 …story mode is HARD! Great measure of where u r in abilty 🙂
Arena… Grindier than LOTRO!
GOLD realm … xmas generosity 🙂
LUCKY opening…cat4 basic
Event completed for another cat4basic
Wish I had more days like this one…

And last but not least the game that has consumed my idle moments to the ire of my wife! Our alliance has grown to full size and it’s become more stable but it’s such a DEMANDING MONSTER! It’s a casual game that sucks up your life… and of late for pitiful rewards… as the core mechanism for progress is the chance opening of hero crystals for better n better heroes (or using to improve those you already have) and in which I have had the longest streak of crap… so why is it such a TIMESINK…again it’s the people! Yes being in contact with 30 other players 24hrs a day in game and also via FB and now LINE, who are constantly pushing u to log in, do something, reach yet another target for another reward which may help gain another crystal… Can you tell I am close to my limit? It was fun and when I was busy at work it was actually useful, I was applying and practicing team building ideas which I could replicate as best I could in my workplace (My department works in 2 sites, one in Buenos Aires another in Manila, and the company is Global. The alliance has members in Europe, US and me in Argentina!)

But I do love beat em ups and I grew up on MARVEL so this game hits those buttons hard 🙂 When you do have a row of good fights (when the special button on teeny tiny touchscreen works!) the adrenalin kicks in and the RW simply vanishes – all focus is in the game, those are the sublime moments when you realize that you LOVE this game.

There is always something to do in game as well, it may be tedious and repetitive (aren’t all Beat Em Ups?) but each fight is practice and can lead to improvement, I have found that I can even win some fights without being able to see the screen… they recently introduced an AI mode for the most basic quest fights which does an OK job of removing some of the tedium. The main alliance focus is the Alliance Quests and Alliance Wars which have the biggest rewards (much of which is hidden behind shitty RNG) but working as a team is essential to attempt the harder maps(AQ) or beat the harder opponents (Wars). And the whole alliance is needed, all 30 players, to really make it work which is why it can get quite stress inducing 😦 Arguments flare up, no shows and wrong paths end in dissension, its all quite dramatic at times. Maybe too much so, and I am seriously questioning how much longer I can soldier on, I helped start the group up and the leader understands I have a wife n kids and a busy work life too so I do get by.

I reckon after the new year I may get some luck that should drive me onwards, if not a break could be coming… maybe a LOTRO break (not away from but BACK to!)

So TSU is back maybe for just this quiet end of year day at the office… I wish you all well in your lives be they real or virtual.

GAME ON

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COC: HEALER SLAMMIN!

24 Aug

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Once upon a time a long time ago, healers triggered air traps… before I played COC! Now they will again in the proposed changes coming soon…

http://forum.supercell.net/showthread.php/1238065-Upcoming-Healer-Changes

 

I am surprised by this planned nerf…

claws off our healers.png

In a game where SPAM is coming to dominate the only real training for strategic play since you first get her is the HEALER. Yeah the QW is OP but in quite a different way to a SPAMMED bowler/miner army which is mindless OP! I like the variety the healer adds to the attack, a unit that has no attack herself… more of this kind of unit please!

But as many have pointed out the Queen Healer combination should still be doable, just not so OP, clever spacing of those air seeking mines to prevent QW! I was even thinking it may be possible to trigger them by sending out scouting minions… new nick name CHAFF!

QW1.jpg

Even if it does end up workable, here I is crossing my fingers, I still think it is a simplification of the game, another lurch to the dumbing down of COC… I am finding as I progress in the game (now on the road to maxing th9) that it drags and drags, if I hadn’t changed to a more active clan I would seriously be slowly letting my COC fall off!

FINAL WORD: SPAM is still the order of the day!

spamcoc

 

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GAMING: KABAM!

12 Aug

gamers love!

KABAM! make MARVEL CONTEST OF CHAMPIONS which is sucking in more and more of my free time… The CEO of Kabam, Kevin Chou, wrote about ‘Traditional Retention Metrics in Mobile Gaming’ in an article for VENTURE BEAT  (VentureBeat describes itself as, ‘the leading source for news & perspective on tech innovation.’ )

With regards to retention:

‘We now think exclusively in terms of years — not days, weeks, or months.’

And words to make any gamer’s heart melt:

‘The simple fact is this: if optimization and monetization are the driving focus behind a game’s development, that game is set up for failure. ‘Today, mobile gamers need developers who passionately create games that people who love games love playing.’

Well I hope he truly does practice what he preaches because I really think THE MCOC formula really works for me… MARVEL SUPER HEROES, BEAT EM UP MECHANICS and ever more complicated ALLIANCE related BATTLING.

And that social pull of helping one’s fellow gamer, your teammate that really sticks. At WORK I am struggling to create better bonds with our Manila office, in GAME I am now trying to foster connections over half a planet with total strangers and then help communicate instructions in the heat of battle! Putting into place lines of communication, getting to know all the members and creating standard operating procedures…

I am not sure which is harder, but both are helping develop skills that are quite interchangeable between both worlds of WORK and PLAY!

 

 

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GAMING: Pokémon GOne?

29 Jul

185tgq

‘I just don’t see the appeal, is it some kinda mass hypnosis?’

Not even having arrived yet in Argentina and already some reports are stating the NEW GAMING CRAZE that is Pokémon GO! may already be on the decline… cor arn’t we a difficult crowd to please, us modern gamers? Fickle we is…

I have to be honest with you all I am desperate to have a go, and will rush out to play (if my phone can handle it) as soon as it does officially arrive. BUT I do hope (eventually) there is some implementation of the original Pokémon gaming that I so loved the first time around. Although even then I was on the mature end of the Pokemon gamer and missed out on the social side then!

Until then I will keep trying to get back into LOTRO – kids permitting – they are even asking to play themselves (more on this strange development in an upcoming post)…

I will keep hammering away at MCOC, now developed mastery skills in evade and parry and finally the actual fighting game is more fun as well! My Alliance is getting more and more serious in being competitive and that’s going to take quite a bit of energy.

COC is slowly going nowhere fast, but I still am attached to my TH and want to see it prosper…

And finally CR has picked up slightly in my GameDAR as I was accepted into my fellow bloggers clan: Supreme Cream and life in a busy clan is so much different to a dead one…more on this as well in coming weeks 🙂

Have a great WEEKEND all 🙂

 

 

 

 

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