Lord of the rings online

A new fix, seemingly to “fix” ruined Hunter. Of course, they cannot do it. All SSG could do is listen to players. They would not, they never did. So, dear SSG, “fix” all you want – you cannot fix the damage you did.
One talk in Regional. Which is already much. Word chat is full of nonsenses that are not worth even mentioning.

Bloxd

Nothing, except plans for small Imperial transport. 10 people crew, living quarters, kitchen, command room, generators’ room and storage + captain’s bridge: all makes a really big monster.

Master of Orion 2

Another set of victories of my expanding Sakkra. Sometimes I run into maintenance crisis, when my command points cannot support massive fleet. Most popular problem – not enough colonies. I need at least 10 system very quickly so that I could start research and building of fleet.

SR

No playtest, just discord full of silly “jokes”, like “I want to troll and place an ugly plot above nice town lol”.  MOP and others are full of too optimistic reviews. Little do they see that game has no community, no crafting, exploration and fighting are on the verge of impossible.

But yeah, living on nostalgy of Star Wars Galaxies. Ehem, SWG failed as mmo, so if you follow them, you are doomed to fail too.

—

I really want some kind of activity and socialization. Lotro means only one thing: running on Loremaster and grinding kills. Kill 300 orcs, then kill 200 wargs, then 300 spiders, then 100 giants, then explore 28 little huts, find 3 towns…all that I have done many times in a row. If Bloxd was not for 3-9 years kids, i would just live there. If SR had any crafting or community, I would live there.

None of this happens or will happen. Except for Master of Orion 2 – I can see absolutely no solutions. And by all gods, i want some solution. Some normal easy building mmo with no “thou art the chosen one, go and save us from anything” tropes.

Lord of the rings online

Even fanboys scream. Official forums are full of posts with data – each skill explained, nerfs presented and logic conclusions made. Some players park thei Hunters, some leave.
SSG does not care, they never cared about players. Never listened to them. They just destroy classes. Minstrel nerfed, then Loremaster destroyed, now Hunter destroyed.
Since I would never get any help with setting up Hunter – I need to park my Hunters too.

Bloxd

Nothing. Few lobbies that I was visiting were locked due to griefing, few “me da owner me ban” kids auto-banning me, one kid who asked for teaming and without waiting for answer spawned tens of golems nearby. i got killed, lost everything…after resurrecting kid asked for teaming. I refused, so he retaliated and finally banned me. Banned for just wanting to be alive.
I am spending hours with Excel trying to make blueprints of Star destroyer style transport. Whatever I plan, it is too huge. Lots of logistic/logic problems.

Master of Orion 2

I started over-reacting. Always building battleships even when I don’t need them. To attack one and last enemy planet I send some 2 Titans and maybe 7 battleships. But that’s just to make sure I win.
Sakkras are still good. Their arc-enemies are probably Silicoids and Psylons: first race can live anywhere, second may operate almost invulnerable ships/defenses.

SR

Looks like we had playtest, but it was really late for me. A pity, I missed.
And I do miss that only kind soul in all playerbase. To talk to her, even about non-SR things.
There are many thoughts about SR, 75% – pessimistics. When I try to explore my options, predictions are really grim. Worst part: no person in their “community” to talk about it.

—
I still need some game to play, some normal half-peacefull game where I could have my little plot and build there. And somebody to socialize with. Now all I can see is complete silence.

Lord of the rings online

Absolutely nothing. Log in, take hobbit presents, leave. Only once had a nice talk with kind player in /Regional. Global chat? Less and less I am interested in it.

Bloxd

Random lobbies, 1 griefing. Some kids left their rocket launchers unprotected. A mistake, you know. 999 super rpg launchers quickly turned spawn and one house surroundings to hellscape.

SR

We had playtest. First part was standard – boring: get trash items, delete trash items, repeat. I keep wood, coal and some weird stone (because someone told one should keep it).

Then there was system message that data is being written, we may experience lags/rubberbanding. I got disconnected.

When I re-connected, chat was actually working. I could talk to person on the other side of the map. To my surprise, I found one player talking to other. Re-asked if she wasn’t an NPC. Well, that was a kind and wise, helpfull veteran player – a rare quality for bullying silent veterans.We talked about game, crafting and other things. She even offered me a gun (which at the start of talk I automatically refused: who knows, it could be a trap. And I was wrong, it was just kindness).

That player made my day bright. So far the only one who is kind and nice, helpfull. A gem amongst simple stones, a shining example of what any mmo player should be. If SR had more of players like her – community would quickly form.

Despite nice good talk – crafting is still impossible. Finding any tier1 metal is impossible. Walking any further from spawn is just suicide.

Other players somehow manage to craft and I have no idea how. For me, all I get is red (no such stuff) or yellow (no idea what it means in SR) lights. So I just hoard wood, coal, few random gas and all metals. Have ~800 antigravium with nothing to do from it. If only there was a chance to craft, I would start my own town, my beloved medieval style. Just by all gods, give me opportunity to craft.

After all, my days in SR are getting brighter. SR does not seem to be “most anti-social mmo” as I used to call it [for myself]. And yes, socialization looks like a perfect miracle.

Maybe, just maybe things are getting better for me? One or two kind players, few talks and I could start enjoying SR or even Lotro again.

Lord of the rings online

“Controversial” changes are in power. Official forums is full of angry users. ALmost everyone presents data proving nerfs. Many players openly tell they will keep their Hunters as mules. Hunter, it looks, is no longer a viable class.

SSG does what it knows best: takes working system, destroys it and defends their action with fanatism. SSG cannot be wrong. SSG never made any mistake. SSG never will make any mistake. All SSG is doing is perfect and good. This is the logic of our developers.

Well, Minstrel as entertainer only; Loremaster without any pets; Hunter as quick taxi only – this is reality of Lotro.

SSG must leave mmo scene and leave Lotro to ones who play and understand. But for now, it is nerf after nerf, bad decision after bad decision, arrogance following arrogance.

Bloxd

Nothing new.

SR

Update that did great many things good. We got an introduction in famous Servitor humour style (I really adore that humour). Intro is teaching how to walk (WASD), interact (G), use grapple (R), crouch (useless, but still Ctrl). Then we must choose adventure school – much like Lotro – receive free tools and recipes.

We enter space station, where we can pick quests or just teleport. Lucky, we got teleporters with names of planets above them. From then, we are on our own. Except intro lenght (for me it was too long) – everything goes almost perfect and user friendly. We get tools according to our school, we get recipes and some freebies.

I was really happy to be able to arrange tools in a way that suits me. I was really happy that I did not have useless blaster. It never had any combat value, so let it go to the void. Instead, I got usefull Xylo-something to chop wood.

Surrounding are gorgeous. We have glowing trees, we have night when it is really dark, we have some good visuals concerning stones.

And then everything went too traditional: players running around, not bothered to talk to each other (it’s most antisocial game, after all); me grinding useless stones and soil just to delete it; enough enemies around to NOT to go further; lack of any indestructable things that would help to navigate. And absolutely no metal. None at all.

Crafting is still the worst I have ever seen. I had enough coal to produce something – yet I could not. I need coal, but game does not recognize I have it. Always same “???/15” thing. Nobody and nothing explains this anti-intuitive system. Am I suppose do type something in command prompt, like “/Starsreach_I_want_to_craft_plz_give_me_access”? Am I supposed to press some weird combination of keys, like Shift-A-Alt-WSD-Control-L? Or am i suppose to be at some location?
Raph answered that I must prospect for metal and it is deep. Deep means death, since there is no way to land safely and get out safely.

To my pleasant surprise, my long feedback was read and even received reactions (including Raph’s). Then, lots of players were posting their impressions. Most are good, many players point to problematic things.

SR got really nice updates. Crafting remains same nightmare with no clues what it does and how it does and why it does not work.

And I still remain alone in this game.  Nobody to talk to, nobody to ask help for, no metals, no crafting, no exploration. As always, I am imprisoned to walking distance from the spawn.

A pity. But well, without any help what could one do in convoluted game like SR? Yeap, just stand alone at spawn. That’s all I can do in SR.

Lord of the rings online

No play, because of huge update. Hunter and Burglar got nerfed, there are already reports that red Hunter suffered the most. It is natural for SSG: promise anything, deliver nerfs. Well, all my toons are mostly useless now. Minstrel with minimum damage, Loremaster without pets, Hunter with minimum damage…

But of course, forum fanboys will cry tears of joy. That’s why fanboys exist: to applaud every move of developers.

Anyway, will try to ask in Lotro chat if wise ones have any advice about re-setup.

Bloxd

Nothing, just random servers. Trying to make blueprints of simple Imperial transport. It is huge + would be difficult to arrange in Imperial triangle design.

SR

We will have new update. Previous planets would be destroyed (nobody will miss them), then some “hub” will appear, currency will be introduced, then quest giving machines will be introduced, also some materials got rarity changed.
A pity, all skills would be wiped, so my unlucky toon will have to grind stones/metals again.
Currency is, of course, not needed. Nobody asked for it, nobody needs it.
Quests are just nonsense. What would quests ask in a game, where crafting is impossible, fighting is impossible (you always lose, because your weapon does some 2 points damage to monster with ~3000 points), exploring is almost impossible (lack of any indestructable visual guidance). So, whatever your “quest machines” ask for, is not doable.
Bright side: at least would grind stones/metals again and would have something to do.
Trolling side: developers speak about this space platform as of…social hub. Social! In a  most anti-social game that denies any in-game socializing! Good luck with that.

Master of Orion 2

A bit of playing, leading my evil Sakkra to victories. Never suffering defeat or losing any colony. Always relying on numbers and Mauler devices/planet destruction.

—

Looks like I would have to change my Hunters, avoiding nerfed red line (useless form now). SR would be just to waste time in harvesting-deleting circle.Only Bloxd with its kids remain as something playable. Maybe my third server will be of any good and enjoy visitors.

My gosh, I do miss socializing in any game. And can’t find any, even when i am doing everything in my power to socialize.

Lord of the rings online

Just little chatting. I was surprised to hear we have a new Kinshio named after…my phrase. Once I coined a phrase “Phial of eternal darkness”.  Well, one of many phrases, nothing special.
Apparently it was. Now we have Kinship named for that phrase. I feel a little proud.

Other than few chats, nothing more.

Bloxd

One mad lobby where owners, unhappy at griefing, started killing me every time (even without knowing it was me). You log, you go few steps out of spawn – owner  with machine gun kills you. Even if you do walk.
Well, revenge was swift and cruel – a serious griefing, including parts of owner’s house. Result: lobby was closed. I won.

SR

Looks like gameplay, but too late for me – did not made it. A pity, I expected to play with chronophasing.

Lord of the rings online

Just a little talk (when chat is active). No activity and right now I do not need it.

Bloxd

Random lobbies, random bans (“me owner, tp or ban”). Laughing at those 8 years “owners” that mostly are either pro, fbi or ninja (rarely  – dragons or cuties).  But if those are out future, I prefer no future at all…).

SR

Nothing done. Just watching local “community” competing in stupidity. One person proposed de facto unlimited PvP – so called “justice system”. Which in fact means – kill everyone, if you overkill, you are the target. So, newbies would just be slaughtered (“unlimited faction warfare! And you know, all newbies are for me Evil Faction, muhahahah!”) for the sake of slaughtering.
I do not comment on stupidity. But it just confirms my guess: SR is becoming EVE 2.0. Same unlimited warfare, same hardcore.
My feedbacks are very nicely ignored. I post – no reactions, except occasional Raph’s comment. I could as well post nonsense like “Keergoodu planet macaroni today bus was late madmen rule Annunaki star wars discountedgoods Lidl what did I wrote” style thing. Or intentionally write nonsense, like “On Hypetheraceae planet gathered 500 Opal gas baloons from ThragMuhag plant”.
Game-wise, it is still impossible to craft and fight, thus – to explore as well. I am still stuck and that lame desert place with no option to return back (and nobody offering any help).

Master of Orion 2

This is where I spend most of time. Few times I got a shamefull victory: let my enemies advance, destroy 1 civilization…and controlling too little planets to sustain normal fleet. Once I succeeded in risky “backyard” startegy – when you get many nice planet behind your homeworld…and forwards there is only trash. So, you colonize your backyard and explore forwards. When you meet your enemies, your civilization is ready for total war.  I do ignore diplomacy, my only diplomacy is my fleet that destroys enemy planets. So far did not ran into my worst enemies – Psilons and Silicoids. Fights with them are really satisfying, my Sakkras meet equals. And yeah, only then destruction of enemy planet becomes a must.

—

I am slowly healing from burnout (all thanks to wise leader of my former Kinship), being too busy with managing Sakkra.
SR becomes the disappointment with my person being villified and ignored. If in Lotro I can find some kind, wise, friendly souls – in SR there is no such thing as kind player. in SR, there is no in game socialization, so you are always alone with nobody to help or ask for something.
It is easier to conquer everything in Orion-2 on hardest settings – than to dispute with another rubbish in SR discord. Try to win dispute with person who knows that Annunaki Death Fleet is approaching us, entire 815 trillion cruisers, each having 1 billion heavy bombers and dreadfull WhuMhuTer cannons. Try to win such dispute and you will fail every time.

I think about SR as of failed hopes and extinguished enthusiasm. WHat I needed there was some corner to build my own medieval civilization step by step, grinding for resources, placing structures, talking with other players, visiting their plots…
All this became just failed dreams.
[grumpy]

Lord of the rings online

Stormsong was the only active. I stood in Bree, chatted with others. This time managed to share my really grumpy mood. In Lotro – truth to be told – I have nothing to do, must force myself to grind boring things.

Other players came to share their thoughts. There was one wise thought, by my former guild leader: just try to play singleplayer game. And I have my beloved Master of Orion 2. What else could match Sakkra death fleet, wiping out all life from known universe?

Which could sound like an option. Or – if I had any good ideas – building in Bloxd.

Bloxd

Nothing. I need absolutely new ideas about medieval builds, need to build up my lore and then make server. It could probably be a ghost town, but who cares? Main thing would be me.

SR

This game slowly, yet surely sabotates itself. This time they announced that skills would have to be bought for (so they claim) in game currency. Raph has no ideas that newbies would have no means to earn a single coin. You are new, all you can do is harvest trash materials that everyone else has. After short time, your tools break and you have nothing. Feel free to beg others and receive “f*** you, noob” in return.
This is the bright future Raph sees. Ok, good luck to them…

—

For me it’s either Master of Orion2 or new server (ideas, where to get them?) in Bloxd…or something minecraftish with normal population. I do need some normal, adult socialization and can hardly get one. What I need is at least one normal adult person to talk to.
But gods think I want too much…

Lord of the rings online

Total doing nothing. Standing in Bree, trying to chat (sometimes even succesfull) and that’s all. I know I can grind Enedwaith, same over-boring slayer deeds. Wolves, then Elhudan/wood trolls, then giants and ghibers.

Why? Because there is nothing else to do. And because I have done it maybe 4 times in a row. Boring as hell.

Bloxd

Mostly thinking about new medieval server. I must plan it much, much better. Not be afraid of size. Very clearly outline my own lore. And of course, have simple visitor in mind.
Visual guidance is a must. Some soft push “go there” is a must. Long distances is a bad thing, player would just NOT go too far.
Good thing: all this World building thing. Have two houses, paste them as much as you want and only later change minor stuff.

SR

I read about updates that no longer concern me. I read about other planets that are months travel from spawn. I can see people crafting, while I plianly cannot.

In any normal game it won’t be a problem: go, ask, receive answer; if still unclear, ask and find some kind player to show you step by step. After some “try-fail-retry” you will find a way to deal with problem. Of course, not in SR.

All I can do is stand at spawn. Go to safety of nearby mountains. Harvest trash stuff. Empty hopper. Harvest trash stuff. Empty hopper. For some relaxation – use chronophasing just because it looks cool. Harvest chronophased trash. Empty hopper.
Yeah, repeat it untill some 1500 points are received and you can get another [useless] skill.

“What the heck would you do when Metallurgy is finished?” – one could ask. I have no idea. Metallurgy is the only thing I can advance. Ranger is not an option, it does not work. Forester can work to certain limits. I mean you can go with tool, discover various useless flora and gain 30 xp for discovery. You can unlock certain skills…but not woodcutting.
All other things physically cannot be advanced.
Crafting is impossible, because game refuses to accept I have required materials when I have them. Without fully upgraded Ranger (10.000 points, if not more) I cannot build a plot (camp expires within 15-20 minutes. Remember I cannot craft, so camp tool is worth 500 planets). Crafting is impossible, because for many things I need wood and I cannot chop trees, even if I could, I need extremely rare tier 3 metals which are simply NOT present on training planet (tier1, tier2 and surprisingly tier5 – are).

All I would need is a simple friendly person able to explain things step by step. And with local “community” I have no chance in finding one.

A pity. I had so many hopes in SR and each of them almost faded. If any gods existed, I would ask to re-ignite these hopes. Make me believe again.

But for now, there is a burnout and silence. The only little hope is Bloxd with a mega-server, build on medieval settings as a solution for burnout…

Lord of the rings online

Was really lazy. Logged in few times with no wish to do anything. Few chats, most not succesfull.  Yesterday started Enedwaith deed grind with Windstorms and ran upon one forgotten quest.

Oh yes, we have producers’ letter. Hunter and Burglar will be heavily nerfed, at the end of the year we got level increase to lvl.160. Embers could be used to purchase special scrolls for Traceries. Usefull thing, even if expensive and must be used within 24 hours. Kinships will get calendars so that everyone in Kin knows. Usefull, nice thing too.

Bloxd

Visiting random lobbies, looking for inspiration and founding none. One player agreed to help me with building. Looks like I will start another lobby, this time even better. All that I need are two things: visitors and 1-2 helpers who could devote time for building each day.

That’s all. I could create stories, place some borders what can and what can’t be. Only few visitors a day and few devoted admins – that’s all I will ever need in Bloxd.

And of course, some revenge on “me admin me kill and ban lol” kids. You know, killing everyone at spawn or 2 steps from spawn is not nice. Banning just because of banning is not nice too. Face consequences, kids…

SR

Playtest was there. I was there, gathering my usual trash resources. Get them, empty hopper, throw everything that is not metal, repeat. Got another useless skill tis way. Now, only one skill remains…and I would NOT know what to do.
Metallurgy is the only skill I can advance as much as I need. Forestry is possible, but extremely limited: approach tree, use your tool and if you are lucky – you get 30 xp. Number of flora around spawn is very limited, so amount of xp you can get is limited too.
I still cannot craft (have metals – game tells I do not; have diamonds – game tells I do not have gems). Cannot explore. Of course, cannot fight.
Gameplay was full of monsters’ attacks. Some mob appears and immediately all area is bombarded. Hundreds of meters radius is just nuked. Every few seconds another circle red, wherever you go/run – you are inevitably killed. Very “funny”.
Local “community” almost ceased to exist for me. Well, my posts attracted attention of Raph himself * and one from game admins. That’s all. Everybody else does not care what feedback tells.
*Raph, sorry, your message is still unread. Reason: it is too easy to predict what you have written. And I know it won’t sound nice.

From now on – the less SR, the better. Need to focus on Lotro (grind…) and my building project in Bloxd. Ironically, Bloxd community is far better that SR one…