oooooooo

I've been sucked in ...

Starcraft 2 ... granted the single player campaign was pretty nifty, the multiplayer is where I'm at currently ... no, not ladder matches, or skirmishes ... hell no ... I can't play RTS's for crap, especially against people that have absorbed their life into playing them and knowing "if I move this group of people at this frame in their animation, then order them to do this action on this frame of their move command, they can fire another round of bullets faster than if I let them do their own animations". I'm sorry, not my deal. I prefer the lovely maps people make for custom reasons.

Things like RPGs, multiplayer scenarios if you will. I mean, that's all the single player is, an RPG where you're given a task to complete, not always will it be "go blow up every other living being on the map". A couple that I find myself popping into are the tower defenses, just because I've always loved them. Also I've been seeing some promising 'mmo' type of games where you save your character data while you're playing the map. Granted the character is saved on your computer, it doesn't matter much...It's still fun to pop in with random other people and see that they've worked hard on their characters, or are fresh into it ... now, for the work hard, that could mean playing solo with cheats, or straight up hacking the character file ... I've not tried either, as it just seems silly. Half the fun is found in actually learning the map and leveling up off it.

There's one RPG that's out there that's been in development still for some time. Recently they opened up a new area for you to go into on the map (it was there before, just no access or monsters in it). In that area the monsters are crazy hard, and the boss in there is bugged (it only has 1hp LOL)... oh, not to mention the dev put in a new armour that isn't described what all it does, but at the very least it doubles the shield power you've got ... that and the new god-weapon ... thing has a range more than that of the character's line of sight (fog of war dissipation). So if you've got someone else running around ahead of you, you can shoot at the stuff that's fighting them, without any problems.

So, yea, I also go through my normal array of webcomics daily...and on one in particular, they mentioned something about Portal 2 ... I knew it was coming, but haven't been watching for anything. After seeing that little blurb about it, I went on Steam and looked up, and subsequently downloaded all the videos they've got for it. I can't believe some of the things they're adding in...but it will definitely be rich on the storyline...much more so than it was before. I mean, the original Portal seemed to be mostly a training grounds to teach you how to do certain things ... granted the second version will have some of the same teaching parts, but one video in particular shows a series of jumps and portaling that will more than likely take numerous attempts and subsequent deaths before getting it right.

In light of this, I went in and tried to go through the first Portal ... it seems they've added a new achievement in it, wherein there's radios strewn about... no, not just a few... like 26 of them?!? Sure, finding them is one thing, but then, you've gotta carry it around, through whatever area you're in, to try to get it to 'tune in' to some frequency thing. I've found quite a few of them, while some are easy to get, others are just plain a pain in the arse. The main problem with some of them, is that the radio is in an area that's either just out of reach, or you've got to figure out where the true point is for the radio to pick up the signal ... a couple of them exist way up high, so you've got to portal up to then hold the radio out the other portal to have it get the signal. I'll be going back into it later to try to find the ones I've not gotten yet. Luckily the ones you've taken to the proper spots have a green light on them rather than a red one as is the default. I'm hoping that one of them isn't the one in the fly-through path after you beat GLaDOS, 'cause you've gotta cheat to get to that one. Oh, and this time through the levels, I noted that they changed some of the areas. They added some new cubby holes and things like that just for extra flavour ... and possibly for where the radio needs to be brought, or is found. This, and I need to find out why my mouse isn't showing up in game, it's kind of hard to shoot portals without the reticle...or do menu stuff without the mouse either.

::sighs::

So yea, lots of things going on.

First of all, I've still not gotten a job yet, and am actively still seeking. I applied online to a place called "the Internet Company" ... it seemed promising at first, as it was a simple little job of inputting data that people were calling in about. Unfortunately it was a work-from-home thing ... well, only unfortunate as I don't have a quiet area to take the calls without interruption. Granted on Monday the two eldest children go to school again, I'd still have the littlest one to keep watch over and everything. Not to mention the two puppies that tend to stay inside, and like to wrestle and make lots of noise.

So, I've also been back in contact with an old high-school buddy (who was also my best man in my wedding). Apparently he's getting ready to be on a civilian contract to assist the army to change their financial systems ... over in Afganistan. He used to be in the Army himself, so he already knows what they're working with. They were looking for, not only the financial experts, but also IT people ... like myself. Seeing as I worked on the DOD networks already while I was in the Marines, I figured I might as well try my hand at possibly getting a job and getting on the same team as he was going to be. I called the girl that was the secretary for the recruiter that he got hired from, and she send me an e-mail with the info of what they were doing and looking for...and requested for me to send my resume along with. She had told me that the recruiter would get back with me that day, but it didn't happen ... I figured maybe the recruiter was busy or had a lot of applications to go through. I sent that in on Tuesday ... so, I'll probably e-mail her back today to find out what the deal is, perhaps the recruiter is looking for someone that really is interested in doing the job.

This same friend of mine also wanted to stay in contact just in case I didn't get the job. He figured the best way would be to get me into the same games that he's got... Of which, he plays World of Warcraft, and Starcraft 2. Seeing as I don't have the money to afford to get either one, and especially don't have the money to pay for the monthlies on WoW, he thought he'd be generous and get me Starcraft 2, on the stipulation that I re-activate my battle.net account that has my US WoW applied to it already. He said that if the job pays him well and everything goes great, he may pay for the addons for my WoW account and pay for the monthlies so that I could play on the same server as him.

This takes me to Starcraft 2. I played the original SC and had fun at it, but my main problem is that I'm not much of an RTS fanatic, especially online combat vs other players. I'm more of a scenario / use-map-settings type of player. Mainly because triggers are much easier to play against compared to a living being that knows how to micro-manage their troops to the best of their abilities. I mean, what I've seen some people able to do with 5 troops, takes me 15+ troops to do the same damage with the same loss percentage. As such, I usually play just the single player version and break the scenarios by overpowering completely. There were a few maps that had some time-constraint where I had to survive to the end, that I just went crazy on and annihilated the enemies on the map and their bases, the game would then tell me "the (race) are no match for us and have retreated", and then end the map in victory. Of course, some were funny that would end this way, and the ending scene was of the enemies still assaulting. The ending left me a little confused in that I didn't know how they'd be able to do one of the other race's storyline whenever they released it (not going to say which, just in case you're like me in the fact that you haven't gotten the game yet due to whatever reason).

Final Fantay XIV's NDA (non-disclosure agreement) has been lifted. So technically I'm allowed to talk about what's in game and release information ... Granted I've already done some of that LOL. As it stands, right now, even if I had the money to get the game, and money to pay to play it ... the only reason I'd have to get it would be the nice crew of people that I've met during beta. The constant crashes that have yet to be fixed, and the new crashes that have been popping up lately have made this beta version impossible to do much of anything. A patch went out just the other day that fixed the major exp gain that was caused by the opening of beta-3 phase. The exp gain in guildleves (the quest system in XIV) used to be major, but now it's back to normal. The system is till broken and highly favours the melee classes for exp/rank gain in a fight. Casters still get the shaft on multiple fronts. All classes don't get rank exp on every move, but with melee sitting there constantly attacking, they get more chances to get rank exp. All classes also only get exp while there is a fight going on. This means that casters, with their casting times, and the borked agro right now directed towards casters, don't get much chance for exp in a fight. Healing the melee after a fight before the next one also doesn't grant exp seeing as there's no fight going on. As casters also don't have passive-mode regeneration of MP, pretty much all casters are forced to take up the thaumaturge line at the very least to 16 for stigean spikes, which give MP to the caster for damage they take from melee strikes from mobs. Granted, with the current agro crap that's going on, casters definately will get hit in a fight if they decide to cast anything. Right now, the agro / threat system is messed up to the point of, when a caster STARTS casting a spell, not when they finish whatever spell, they get massive agro.

The party system is counter-intuitive to a point... you don't want a party more than 2 or 3 people, as fights will finish too fast for anyone to get good experience. Partying is only productive for doing guildleves. Partying for regular grinding? Not so much ... it's much better to just grind on your own. The surplus system that's in place is also completely stupid. If I want to grind my thaumaturge up to cap first, without touching any other classes, I should be allowed to. I shouldn't be forced to take up another class once I get my first class to 13.25 ... I mean, if the max level is going to be 90, I should be able to maybe grind to 50 before the need to switch classes comes up. Granted, there is the ability to mix class abilities, so it is good to level multiple classes, but I shouldn't be forced to, especially before 20. With only 2 caster classes, the current system basically forces casters to take up both caster classes, and with how fast it is to get any class to 13, the first class would still be in surplus...so the casters then have to take up craft skills and/or gathering skills. I myself was in surplus by a long shot, I took two days off and finally got out of surplus on my thaumaturge. This means that while it only took me two days to hit 19, and have a tonnage of surplus, it took two more days of not playing to get rid of the surplus. With the latest patch, the guildleve system is fucked up as well now, in the fact that now while going out there, you'll crash, and with the fact that if you crash / log out / whatever to loose connection, that guildleve will fail and you can't do anything about it for 2 days server side.

That's the other major problem with guildleves ... from the time that the server pops up, the guildleve system will start... the timer that is. You have 48 hours to complete the (up to) 8 guildleves before you can turn in what you've completed/failed and get more. This isn't 48 hours from the time you pick it up, or finish the quests, but on the server when you're able to turn them in. So, those two days I took off, I had some quests already checked out. I tried to get them done but with the new crash system that came up I wasn't able to test to see if I could have completed those quests and turned them in as I had gotten them before the turnover time. So yea, beta is now completely unplayable by many, and the server population has completely died down compared to what it was before this latest patch.

As for my relationship frontage, yea, still looking for someone. Perhaps if I get the job in Afganistan I'll meet someone while I'm there :).

why,

First:

Windows 7 update ... WHY THE HELL did you put in some 'sticky keys' thing by default to be on. You hear the keys being typed out which is annoying as all hell for one... and second, if you're a fast typer like myself, it would prevent you from typing double letters at all unless you either hit another random key (shift for example) or waited a (default) 1 full second before hitting that same key again.

Second:

Why is it that when you set up an auto-payment thing, that when it doesn't go through properly it takes 3 months for them to inform you that "oh hay, you owe us money for the last couple months that we couldn't get money from your set up account ... and you owe us for this month too" ... I now have a bill of almost $400 due because they didn't turn off the service in question after the first month of not getting a payment.

Third:

Why, when you go apply somewhere, if you don't get any reply back, even automated, does the company get upset when you show up a few days after applying, just to see if they got the application? .. well, maybe it was just that guy. I dunno, but still ...

Fourth:

Why haven't I gotten hired over the last 4 years of seeking and constantly applying everywhere... heck, I've resorted to having friends look up jobs as well in places that I may not have thought about myself. I've applied at so many places that if my resume gets printed out at all of the places, that would be a couple dozen reams of paper (glad I don't have to print that many out m'self, that'd be some expensive ink expenditure as well)

Well, let's see if we can't improve the attitudes around here a bit...

1) I stopped in at a small computer store that has been in the area for 2 years already. This store though, is new to the area. They stated that they're not looking for people right now, but in a couple months they will be. They suggested I go ahead and plug in my resume to them so that they have it on file and everything.

2) The person at Universal I did get to speak with said that my application did get in, but has not been looked at yet. There were too many people there when I showed up or he would have had me see someone while I was there. He said that the recruiters usually look at the applications that come in over the web within 5-7 business days ... granted I applied on Saturday, so today was technically business day 3. Hopefully I'll be able to get the job there.

3) Sticky keys was fairly easy to turn off ... albeit stupid that they'd put that on by default and not pop something up initially when you restart that says "hey we turned this feature on, and this is what it does ... do you want to leave it this way? or did you want it off".

-=-=-=-=-=-

4) FFXIV Beta 3 is now live, ... well it went live last night at 10pm eastern ... There have been some major improvements, some unwanted or 'over the top' improvements, and some fixes that we have found to be very major.

Major improvements that were wanted: New classes ... this includes the craft skills that were not implemented in the previous version. Software mouse is now much improved, mainly due to the following improvement ... uncapped FPS from 30 to 120 !! yay! now instead of walking around and seeing a solid 30 in the corner from FRAPS running ... I see it jump up into the 70's and usually steady around the 40's for my card and the settings I've got everything on (which, actually are the standard 'high' settings).

Unwanted / over-the-top improvements: Guildleves are now ... crazy. Before they were a great way to get money for everyone ... now, with the faster combat times, the skillups for people are few when you're in a big party (that they want you to do anyway by the way). If you're alone however, sure you won't share the wealth in gil for other people in a party, but the experience you get from a single kill in a guildleve is extraordanary. Before the exp in leves were about as much as if you were just grinding away on mobs. Now it is like 10 times better! I went from a 1/1 thaumaturge/physical to 5/8 thaumaturge/physical just by killing 6 monsters that were part of the initial storyline and included guildleve. This is MUCH improved over the original method where I was 2/5 after doing a full 8 guildleves and grinding on monsters for 3 hours. But that's part of the problem ... it's way too fast. Now with how fast you level, you don't get as many crystals to be able to craft.

Also in this list is the thing that they implemented towards the end of beta 2, and that is surplus ... they have not told us what this is for, but if you start off, and level up on one class, once you get it to 13, and about a quarter of the way into that level, you start getting surplus experience. This causes your experience at first to be cut by about 10% or so. Granted it doesn't seem like much, but as you go, it can eventually get as much as cutting off 100% of your experience, and all of it go to surplus ... again, we're not sure what it's for, but some people have tried to 'push through' it and actually gained surplus levels. How to avoid it? ... level another class. Sure this works in theory, but some people (like myself) are not too keen on doing the whole gathering or crafting scene. Also those of us that are hardcore caster class users ... we're limited to two jobs then, and that's not that great especially when you get both classes into surplus, then you're just SOL until you decide to take up a craft or 5.

Fixed things: Healing people now causes agro -.- Awwwww there goes our trick ... was in a party initially with about 8 or 9 people just to go from the get-go and from level 5 or so for everyone, start doing the level 10 ranked guildleves ... this would normally give us a good amount of money by doing this. But when I as a caster, came and healed people, the mobs ripped right off, and hit me once, and I died .... yay squishy ! . . . And the heal? ... only healed 10 HP ... granted this was a very low level group, so no provoke abilities were in play, and I didn't wait until good agro was established by the DD's up front ... but the monsters were also dying so fast that I wanted to get my turn in the class experience ... so yea ... partying, great ... for melees ... casters, not so much. Especially if you're a healer.

Also kind of strange that was added: option to change a spell from AOE to single target ... granted this is great, default was always AOE ... although AOE damage spells never target things that are not claimed red name for you or your party (this means even though you could gather 5-6 low level mobs around you and cast an AOE, only the current target gets the damage, and the red named (claimed) mob is always the first one you started attacking). The other problem with this: to change it from AOE to single, you'd have to click the little button that says Area of Effect .. after choosing a spell ... this means that people like m'self that play strictly with the keyboard for this game ... can't change it from AOE to single target ... Oh, and the simple fact that even if you do click it, it doesn't change it to non-aoe when it is cast. This also means that when you hit a spell to cast, you have to confirm the aoe-ness to actually cast the spell ... an extra click that wasn't needed before.

Also, now the battle regimen thing cannot be arrow-ed over to in combat, you have to click it as well to get into the battle regimen mode.

-=-=-=-=-

Still lookin for a potential female friend / partner too ^^

-=-=-=-=-

I'd love to be able to afford to get FFXIV retail, especially the collectors edition preorder, but, yea ... this surprise bill, and lack of a job really doesn't allow for it. So, if you're a super kind soul, that would love to donate anything to help me pay for this stupid bill first and foremost, and even better, if enough came in to get the FFXIV retail, I'd be forever thankful.

Beta 2 over, now to wait for beta 3

Yea, a few days ago the beta 2 version of FFXIV ended. I had gotten in on the beta 1 version, and that was basically a VERY limited time slot type of deal. Beta 2 was the first time that they turned the servers on for 24 hours straight for about a week or so.

So, now, there are a few sites out there where you can get in on Beta 3 keys. I'm not looking for one so not sure where they are. If you are on twitter, look up the hashtag #ffxiv and you should see some people posting about it. In beta 3 we can expect some nice things... but here's the official post from FFXIV devs on the forums:

Thank you for your continued participation in the FINAL FANTASY XIV Beta Test.

Phase 2 of beta testing will come to a close at 17:00 (PDT) on Wednesday, August 4th, with phase 3 (Beta 3) scheduled to begin mid-August.

In Beta 3, we will be adding new classes, new features such as linkshells, and a host of other adjustments and changes based on the feedback we've received thus far. The following is just a selection of what's in store for the next phase of testing.

[System-related]
- Significant adjustments to mouse controls
- Changes to the item menu display and controls for equipping gear
- The implementation of the following features:

• Linkshells
• Text commands
• Auto-complete/auto-translation dictionary
• Player macros

[Event-related]
- Local levequests will once again be available
- A sound effect and on-screen message will accompany the completion of a quest
- Completed quests will be recorded in the quest journal

[Battle-related]
- Changes to animations, effects, and combat speed
- Passive /Active mode will be toggled automatically when speaking to an NPC or locking on to a monster
- Players will be able to select either a single target or an area effect when casting spells
- Adjustments to balance guildleve rewards versus monster strength
- Various adjustments to overall battle balance

Full details will be announced in the Version Update Details section of the Beta Test Site on the day Beta 3 commences. Related updates to the manual will also be posted on the Beta Test Site.

We look forward to your continuing feedback and support.

NOTE: All character data will be deleted at the end of Beta 2.
All character profiles, images, and blogs on the Players' Site will also be deleted at this time.
Testers can continue to provide feedback on the Beta.

So, yea, those of us that were in beta 2 had our char's wiped, which isn't any big deal, some of them were pretty messed up with bugs LOL.

I myself am extremely happy to see that they're fixing things that have been complained about since alpha. Pretty much everything that they announced that they're fixing or making adjustments to are much needed.

As for the 'new classes' ... we can only assume they mean the cooking, fishing, alchemy, goldsmithing, and perhaps some new caster and fighter classes.

A little insight as to what you may want to do if you get in on this next step of beta testing ... before the servers go live ... which, we all hope they will either push back, or show some drastic improvements to the gameplay that would otherwise kill the game at launch. First and foremost, the more you use an item, the more it gets wear and tear on it ... all weapons must be repaired via blacksmithing, and possibly other crafts depending on what the weapon is made of/with...at least that's what I understand, as I've not tried the craft skills. Your weapon will be the most used of course, with armours being used less especially if you're a back-line fighter/caster and not getting hit. So, you'll more than likely want to raise up your different craft skills as you go.

Sure you could go to an NPC to repair your stuff, but they can only repair it up to 50% of it's max durability. Granted, that's good enough, but why spend that much money if you could repair it yourself ... or perhaps find someone to do it for you. I myself, as a caster, didn't see the need to repair my stuff that often...mainly because I wasn't getting hit unless I was soloing, and my weapon didn't get much wear on it that I saw.

There are some tricks that some of us beta testers had found out, that we'll more than likely attempt when the servers re-open, and hopefully they'll still work. We didn't see any way they could change the system to make our trick go away, but to us, that's all good. When and IF you get into the beta, make sure to search the forums for the Vent server that's set up for us, and being paid for by a fellow player. There are channels for the different servers, and channels for other things as well. It is a GREAT and possibly the BEST way to get a party set up and get in on some of the flippin great stuff if it's still working.

I myself will be going with a caster class again, although I may take up thaumaturge first, as it's abilities, while nifty, are only a CONE casting ... so in order to heal or do anything with anyone, you have to be facing them. Conjurers are complete sphere, so it doesn't matter if I'm facing away, towards, or off to the side, my stuff will still go off. This, and the fact that the thaumaturge heal spell is awesome in that it does a bulk heal, then applies a regen effect as well, this means that you get two chances to get experience for the class.

Each class, when you do a move, you have a chance of gaining skill in that weapon type you're holding at the time. This means that you could start of on pugulist, get to level 4, get the second wind skill (healing), go to lancer, be leveling that up, and whenever you use second wind, you'd get exp on lancer...even though it's a pug skill. Now, not all skills can be used by other classes. There are some that require that weapon type to be equipped. I believe the thaum heal skill can only be used by casters, while the conj heal skill can be used by either caster or melee.

The craft and gatherer classes are not really used in fighting monsters at all. Seeing as they get no real fighting skills, you can't even leech in a party. As stated before, you only get experience for using the skills while in that class...and the only combat skill that the crafters and gatherers have, is "throw rock", which is just throwing a rock, that does only 1 ... yes ONE ... point of damage. That doesn't do much of anything but piss off the monsters of course, and they like to go to kill whatever squishiest creature damaged it is.

I do hope that they keep the healing abilities off hate list, as that is one of the best things I've seen thus far... I can heal a party member that doesn't have taunt yet, let them be the one holding melee hate, and I can just keep piling on the heals getting skill ups and keeping them alive ... all while the creature doesn't turn to me. But, if they change that ... well, it'll suck some, but I'm sure I can work it out.

it's been a while again..

So, what has been going on? Get ready for a big wall-o-text!

Well, for one, my wife and I have smoothed things out as much as possible for the smoothness that can come from what's going on between us. We're not planning on getting any divorce at all... at least not yet. We are firm believers that children should be able to see both parents without a hassle. Our relationship has grown into just being good friends. To our family and friends that may read this, it may come as little or great surprise, depending on how much in the loop you are. Basically we have both agreed that the love just isn't there anymore. We are classifying ourselves as being "separated" even though we live together still of course. This is for multiple reasons of course, not least of which are the kids. But we have other things that depend on us being married... my disability for example, and the fact that we actually still like each other and support each other the same.

This also means that we're both available for dating, but that is one thing that would be VERY difficult to do on both sides. For her, she's not wanting to get into another marriage right away at all. For me, I don't get out much, and admittedly I'm in no shape to be approached. The other thing that we've agreed upon is that whomever we get together with has to know that we're still married and don't plan on getting a divorce until we know each other are going to be financially stable. They also need to know that if they plan on moving in here, that they would have to mesh well with the entire family that is already here.

On the good side of all this, is that all of these things we desire to make sure each other is happy, could be helped along with a new house. Now, it's no secret that our house sucks royally in more ways than one. I mean come on, I fixed up the underside of the house with duct tape not too long ago. The lot we're on though, is slated for multi-family living. So we could technically build here, and make a little duplex type of deal, or some specialty home wherein there would be two master bedroom / baths. Either way, we'd still like a unit for renting to be able to have some form of income while I'm not working.

Speaking of which, I don't remember if I posted this, as I've been kind of pissed about everything and not wanting to do much. That job I know I mentioned that I got a call about getting an interview? Yea, that fell through the floor. The day prior to the interview, the regional manager called me and said that they had filled all the positions and were canceling all the rest of the interviews. So, here I sit, still with no job. But wait! That same friend that I went to Orlando with to check on a couple places, he's got a contact for some job based in Afganastan ... Yea, overseas. He told his contact about me, and they had said that they might be able to find something for me. Unfortunately I've not gotten a contacting from this other person as of yet.

So in the mean time, I'm looking around on multiple sites trying to find jobs, trying to find a date that'd mesh well (Don't think I'll find one online but meh, who knows ... also not too thrilled that these 'date' sites want to charge you almost $50 a month just to be able to e-mail someone else to try to get more information from them). I've also been playing a variety of different things...

And thus comes to the gamer part of me...

FFXIV Beta(2) -=-=-

So, previously I had posted that there was no way to change jobs in FFXIV, well, I was wrong. Apparently you can get a weapon that is designated for another class, and once you equip it, you are now that class. This means that you can have one character for everything ... well, maybe not everything. There are two levels in the game ... a physical level, and a class rank. The class ranks are for whatever class you are at the time, and the physical level is a static thing that goes up as you level any class. Each physical level, you gain some stat points that you can distribute amongst different stats, and another set of points to put into elemental resistances. Each physical level, you also gain some HP and MP, which doesn't seem to be dependent upon any stats (you don't get more HP for having more Vitality type of deal).

With this, you can basically go around and start with one class, get up a ways, then grab a new weapon, and start leveling up another class. Now I say weapon, but this could also be crafting tools, or gathering tools. Yes, there are separate classes for crafters and gatherers. Currently everyone is grinding up smithing, as that's the one class that can repair weapons, and I'd suppose metal armor...not sure about cloth or leather armors though, possibly from those respective craftskills of course.

This brings us to repairs. No previous Final Fantasy game that I know of has introduced the idea of your items degrading over use. To me, this seems like just a main money sink for people to just pour their gil into. Although it is also a method for them to basically flood the market with blacksmiths seeing as they're the only ones that can repair weapons. The durability of the items seems to degrade the more you use them, so if you're a caster (like me), your weapon will degrade the more you cast spells. Your armor will degrade the more you take damage as well of course. This means that weapons are the most used, and would be the ones most needing repairs. Once an item is zero durability, all of it's stats that it may have are now not in effect, and you are now considered to be wearing the most basic of items. Thus causing less damage, and taking more damage.

The craft system I've not tried yet, but have listened in to those crafters in the ventrilo server that is open for beta testers. There are no recipes given in game that I've heard of yet. There are some that are in the forums. But the rest... it's a matter of trial and error. This isn't a case of "open up this crystal and throw some random stuff in and see if it goes" ... this is a case of "equip your crafting items, start the crafting interaction, plug in different items, including the possibility of some kind of crystal"....this could actually be MORE THAN ONE crystal in some cases. Also, the crystals... yea ... there's now 3 types. The smallest being a Shard, next being a Crystal, and the last being a Cluster ... Currently there is no way to break down the different crystal types, or combine them to make them bigger. Once you've put in your items into the craft thing, and tell it to craft, it will tell you what it MAY produce. Some recipes can actually produce different results as the end product. Again, I've not tried the crafting yet, so I'm not sure how it all works, but apparently as you're crafting you have different skills or choices to help your crafting progress. There is a durability count that if it reaches zero, you fail the synthesis... There's also some other bar that is for quality I think, where if your quality is high enough when you succeed, you could get a high quality result. And of course, there's the progress bar, that once it's full, you have possibly created the item ... again, that's a possibility, as if the durability is too low, or the quality too low, you don't get anything.

Enough FFXIV for now... other things that have been taking my time up when I'm not in the mood to fight with the controls in FFXIV that still are horrible at times.

Web Games -=-=-

Tansformice ... a lovely little flash game concerning mice, physics, cheese, and holes. Well, there's a LOT more to it that just that... See, you really should register there, as then you'll be able to get different titles which is cool. They don't send any spam or anything, heck, I don't even think they require an e-mail address... it'd just be there to be able to keep record on the server as to what you're doing and stuff. Of course you can just sign in and try it out.

Each stage (of which there are currently 96) can have up to 80 mice in it (though when a room has 25, any new login person gets shoved into a new room, so the only way to go above 25 is to have people actually switch to that room). Many stages have a shaman mouse, possibly two. The shaman mice can build things to help the other mice get to the cheese, and then return to the hole. This includes things from simple bridges, to complex catapult (mousapult?), or even floating 'boats'.

Hilarity ensues as the physics of the stages sometimes acts completely goofy. There are some stages that have lighter gravity, while others completely reverse gravity after a short time of the stage starting... forcing the shaman to have to build fast before this happens, a roof of some sort to keep the mice from flying away. There are other stages that have the flash flipped and rotated, so while pressing right, you head left, but on top of that, you're upside down, so you have to think like as if you stood on your head to play it.

Some stages have 'traps' that will kill mice fairly effectively. That's the nice thing... you can crush a mouse all you want, but that doesn't matter... the only thing that matters is going too far off the screen in any direction. The 'bottom' of the screen is really the death point, while the sides and top are a bit further off the screen than what you can regularly see. This means that when that shaman builds a boat and it flies off the top of the screen, you could be a while before you come down...The most notable 'trap' is the 'anvilgod'. This creature is dangerous... one stage in particular (sometimes with different wind directions playing in too) will have an anvilgod staged in the center, it's center point anchored to the world, with a bunch of force-anchored anvils attached side to side in either direction of the center one. At the ends, are a bunch of rotating anvils, with all of these things attached, the rotating anvils cause the snake of anvils to flip, flop, and knock mice around wildly, as you can't ever tell how it's going to go. These rotating parts can be used in other stages for fun, but mostly when there's nothing else to do but make fun of the system.

You'll get some hackers here and there, flying about, insta-building when they get shaman ... no distance too far to build ... overall just really poor players that don't know how to use the game to it's true method and have fun with it.

More information can be found at the wiki, including the different stages, how to do things as a shaman, and how to wall-jump ... a nifty tactic that takes some getting used to to be able to do, but is useful at times.

Next up ... Shooters !! -=-=-=-=-

Two words: Alien .... Swarm .....

Another word? ... FREE

Where? Steam.

What is it? ... a third person shooter, that plays much like Left 4 Dead, and I'd suppose Left 4 Dead 2. You start off, having up to 4 players on a team. The objective is to get to the end of the stage without dying of course, and shooting many many aliens along the way. Unlike L4D, the 'director' isn't in it's own mindset to send swarms whenever it pleases (although there is a console command to make it that way), rather, it sends swarms at set points in the storyline as you go through the levels.

There are 4 difficulty levels. Easy, Normal, Hard, and Insane ... If you're new to third person shooters, and to the game, I'd say go through on Easy just to get the lay of the levels, learn what different parts bring swarms, and overall get a feel for being in third person. The view is at a 60 degree angle, not completely 90 over the top, so you're actually looking somewhat down (again, there's a console command to switch this if you really want a pure over-the-top look). Just as a fore-warning ... do NOT go into insane levels unless you really want to die and see the game in the most insane of conditions. Things will pop out of floor vents that you didn't see on previous difficulties...parasites are in every stage... and overall, there's a TON more things to shoot and kill (and they all have more life so you best be good at conserving your ammo).

As you go through the levels, you'll get experience points at the end. Depending on the difficulty level you chose to play in, this may be at a reduced exp gain (easy mode), no change (normal) or some good gain (hard and insane). There's also achievements for doing different things in levels, some of which can be re-earned and gotten points for (like dive-rolling under a certain alien's shots, or getting the killing blow on a shield bug). There are 27 levels total, and once you've reached that level, you'll have access to the full armament of weapons and extras ... up until you decide to promote to the next rank... then you're back at level 1, but you've got a nifty icon next to your level, signifying that you've gone through and gotten level 27 at least once. There are three promotions over all, so once you've reached 27 the fourth time, that's it. Of course you could just sit at any of the level 27's and use the weapons to kill aliens and get the different achievements for killing with those weapons.

There are maps that some people are making to be able to have some more fun with the game, but while in these add ons, you won't get any actual experience towards your levels ... this prevents someone from making a level with say ... a single objective to hit a button right where you spawn, and thus get a ton of experience for basically doing nothing. But these levels are sometimes greatly built. A few of them are just survival tactics ... start off, find a place to set up a defense from, and go to town. Some of these survival ones are just that... survive as long as possible without dying, and when the last person dies, you start over. I was in one of these (called office) ... I was the last person standing ... and I was just walking around, torching aliens as I walked around the stage, never being in one place too long to make the director that was programmed for this map, send any big baddies that I couldn't take out. I was around for a good 3 minutes before the other 3 that had died previously, finally started complaining saying "you're too good, now die... let's start again" ... I agreed it was getting boring to be alone, plus I was running low on ammo finally...When I finally died and we went to the next ready room, they kicked me out LOL ... oh well.

-=-=-=-

Thus ends the massive wall-o-text ... I think ...

I'll end with these requests: If you know of (or are) anyone that is a building designer that would be able to take in some information about my property here, and things that I'd like to see in a house, for free mind you ... send 'em my way. ... If you know (or are) a woman that would love to be with a caring 32 year old guy with back problems that prevent him from loosing some unwanted pounds, but loves to live life to it's fullest...direct 'em my way too ^^