As has been the case with the more recent Hobbit Plays posts, you’ll note quite a bit of chatter concerning Outward. It’s more so that the adventures for Outward are a bit more easy to describe, it is an adventure rpg after all. It’s also become my favorite game as of late, and Qvaid and I enjoy it very much. Thursday was the last day we were able to continue said adventures this week, because she had a busy weekend of crafting planned with my sister. I enjoy all the other gaming and adventures as well, of course, it’s more so that in most cases, it’s harder to note what all we did and some of the activities tend to be more repetitive as well, because of the way those games are designed. I enjoy all the gaming experiences I have with family and friends. Some games are just easier to move towards a somewhat symbiotic manner to reflect the adventure involved. Game long, game hard my friends! 🙂
Days played: Monday, Tuesday
Players: Qvaid, Hobbit
Comments: Qvaid and I had a gaming session of legend on Monday! It was a holiday, and I was off work, so we got a much earlier start than we typically would have been allotted and we made the best of it, we could! We were still waiting on Rissa of the Blue Chamber Collective to give us our next assignment so we decided it was finally time to try and clear the Cabal Wind Temple in Enmerkar Forest. Initially, Qvaid and I both were running around the temple killing Illuminators and luring Shell Horrors into the main room to lock them in. Both of us were racking up corruption, and it dawned on us fairly quickly this might not be the best method. After some discussion, Qvaid decided she would stay up top and handle the switch at the top of the entrance to obliterate the Shell Horrors, and whatever else, I managed to lure into the deadly trap room. We were able to completely clear the temple and collect all the sweet loot and chitins to later craft some more horror weapons. To be fair though, neither of us are currently using any of the horror weapons. Qvaid has a Horror Great Sword, but has been using the Starchild we got from killing the Royal Manticore lately. After returning to Berg, Rissa was ready with our next assignment, and we started assisting Roland in his desire to become a Mage. Sadly during the processing of working through the Whispering Bones Quest line, Qvaid and I failed the Purifier Quest we were working on. It was still on our mind, but apparently we misjudged just how long we had to continue work on that mission. On a brighter note, we finished up the Whispering Bones Quest line with a perfect completion! Roland and the Lich, Whispering Bones are now one. Sadly Roland sacrificed himself in the process, but he is no happy, and his sacrifice helped us save the Ancestral Memories! Roland and Whispering Bones will now be immortal guardians of the Ancestral Memories for the Blue Chamber Collective! Qvaid and I wrapped up the night with inventory management and preparations to start more adventures on Tuesday evening after the work day had come to a close. At that point we were still 3 days out from the next assignment from Rissa in any case.
Tuesday evening was yet another epic tale of adventure for, Qvaid and I! Qvaid decided she wanted to use the Thrice-Wrought Halberd from the Cabal Wind Temple. I suggested she get the Moon Swipe ability to use with it, and she was more than happy to give that a shot. We looked up the ability on the Outward Wiki and found it could be learned from a Wandering Mercenary in Monsoon and so we were off! During our travels we noted the next assignment had come available from Rissa, but we were in mid travel to Monsoon. We booked it to the city in the Swap, got her skill, and rushed back to Berg for the next assignment. Rissa informed us there was a demand of peace between the Blue Chamber Collective and The Heroic Kingdom that came from none other than the Living-God, Elatt! Our task was to convince the other Blue Chamber Lords: Sagard, Rastarte (Of Montcalm), and Highlord Cyr (Of the Ash-Giants), that we need to seek peace. The obviously place to start was Berg with Sagard. Unfortunately for us, we had to effectively beat Sagard into submission, but we were victorious, and Sagard held respect for our dirty fighting tactics and agreed to peace, with a warning that he’d eventually be proven right and that the Kingdom of Levant could not be trusted. From there Qvaid and I were off to Chersonese to discuss the matter with Rastarte, of the Montcalm Clan. Typically that area is hostile, but Rastarte eventually came to his senses and proclaimed he too would honor the request for peace, although he did request the Blue Chamber Collective send allies their way to protect them from the Undead Armies they would no longer be feeding victims. With 2 of the Chamber Lords ready for a peace treaty, Qvaid and I rushed to the Hallowed Marsh to speak to our friends the Ash-Giants and seek Highlord Cyr’s approval. Fortunately, they were ready for peace as well, and other than the travel and battles along the way, it was a relatively easy task. Qvaid and I did take time to fight where we wanted too, needed too, or had too, but we were also moving with quite a purpose. We ended the night with a glorious victory against the Scourge in Monsoon. Queen Calixa was dying, and Elatt’s only option was to allow her to ascend to a Goddess of the Heroic Kingdom. Both for terms of diplomacy and to insure all civilizations of Aurai would thrive instead of being in a constant state of survival. This process attracted all the scourge nearby! Qvaid, myself, and the armies available in Monsoon had to fend them off while Elatt tended to the soon to be Goddess Claixa. Qvaid and I obtained a perfect outcome for both the Ancestral Peacemaker and the Scourge Battle that came after. We were awarded a Tsar stone from Claxia prior to the battle, Qvaid downed the Peacemaker Elixir, and we received the Crimson Armor set, which Qvaid happily wore after the battle was over. We were able to purchase the house in Monsoon, making a total of 3 houses Qvaid and I now have at our disposal! We ended the night per the usual inventory management, and preparations to start our adventures again on Wednesday as the work day comes to a close!
Qvaid and I were kind of at a loss on where to go on Wednesday evening after the Blue Chamber Collective Faction quest was complete, and the battle with the Scourge was over. Since we were already in the Hallow Marsh, we decided to head over to the Spire of Light and see what that was about. Turns out, it’s a dungeon controlled by a powerful Gold-Lich. As we approached the thrown at the top of the tower, the Gold-Lich felt it was time to address the trespassing of Qvaid and I. After we found out, the Gold-Lich was bent on destroying humanity, we couldn’t just let that pass? We managed to complete his minions and to defeat the Gold-Lich, although as a lich he can’t be killed completely. He proclaimed that his phylactery was well hidden from human kind and we’d never completely be able to destroy him. Qvaid and I did the only thing we could, and threatened to come back on a regular basis to defeat him and keep him week for the rest of our days. The Gold-Lich decided he’d halt his work until after our life spans were at their ends. In good faith he provided us with a full set of his armor, which is mage based, and I happily doned! Qvaid also got the Pillar Greathammer from our exploration and she’s ready to give that weapon a try! He also will allow us to return once a week from now on to collect 3 rare resources from his machinery that can collect the resources. Over all, it was a decent agreement. We benefit from it, he benefits from it, and since his plan was already projected to take centuries to come to fruition, we’ve bought time for all of our loved ones in Aurai, and many more to come down the line. Let’s hope some other adventures pick up where we left off at some point to stall him even further. To be fair, a bit of our progress was stalled, as we were doing research on skills, quests, and looking up resources we’d gathered, hoping to find the next set of weapons, armor, or quests we could move too. We do see that our journal says, perhaps there will be more news in Berg, and we of course will hit that at some point. Mostly we just wanted a bit of adventure before getting tied back up into a timed questline, and both of us are certainly glad we paid the Spire of Light a visit!
After the gang (well, Iron and myself) called it in 7DtD on Thursday evening, Qvaid and I hopped back into Outward for a bit of adventure! We had already prepared for a bit of travel on Wednesday before calling it, and so we headed off to Enmerkar Forest, and had a bit of combat here and there on our way to Chersonese. We made it to Chersonese with little issue, and headed over to the Voltaic Hatchery. I kept seeing mention of the Light-Mender’s Lexicon that was up for the taking there, and given the new set of Gold-Lich gear I had, I was hoping to add it to my repertoire! Fortunately for me, Qvaid was more than happy to assist me with said adventure. By the end of the evening, we did manage to finish clearing the dungeon, and I now had the shiny new Light-Mender’s Lexicon equipped. By that point though, it was getting late, so we camped outside the dungeon near the entrance, in preparation for our next adventures to come. Qvaid also has a great armor set, and a couple of really good weapons at her disposal currently, but I’m hoping to find something for us to seek out for her for our next adventures. That task is a bit more difficult, as thus far she’s settled on Halberds, and has taken a fancy to the Moon Swipe ability that using those weapons grants. Over the course of our adventures, she’s moved from Great Hammers, to Great Swords, and finally to Halberds. She did test out the Pillar Great Hammer we got from the Spire of Light, but the weapon is a bit too slow for her tastes, and she doesn’t have the ability to go Cabal Hermit at this point (class), to use it’s abilities to boost the weapon speed.
Days played: Thursday, Friday
Players: Iron, Kilen, Hobbit
Comments: Thursday evening was a bit of a slow start for everyone. I logged in and looked over the resources, and noted we weren’t really hurting for anything per se, although the gang did smelt down all the raw iron I mined previously. I grabbed the miner gear and headed off to the mind, while listening to some tunes via Apple Music. I was able to expand the tunnel to our first mine, and move on to expanding the tunnel to access our second mine from there. We also have one that is running low on resources right beside the base. I got a decent amount of stone and raw iron with some other random minerals and resources here and there. I headed back to the base, did some inventory management, restocked the forges with materials, and headed out on my motorcycle to gather some wood. Again, not that we need anything in particular at this stage in the game, we have tons of cement mix, forged steel, forged iron, etc… more so just to be sure we have what we want if we want it. Iron joined the game as I headed out to gather some wood to replenish our diminished stock. He went for a quick scavenging run, but headed back towards the base as night was about to fall. At that point, Iron said he’d be calling it soon, and so I went ahead and logged off for the night myself. The only combat I dealt with was a couple screamers that attacked while I was mining raw iron in the 2nd mine I made. Mining is kind of relaxing for me, so even still I had fun, especially with some music going in the background while I worked.
Friday evening, Iron, Kilen, and I ran some trader quests until we were effectively full inventory on our selves and our vehicles. It wasn’t the Tier 6 Quests we are used to running with Falken, but we started in Tier 3 and worked up to around Tier 4 for the majority of the time we were playing. At some point Aces hopped into Discord and we moved to some Hell Let Loose to finish out the night.
Days played: Friday, Saturday
Players: Aces, Error, Iron, Kilen, Hobbit
Comments: After we wrapped up our adventuring in 7DtD the lot of us moved to some HLL to finish out Friday night. We had a few good matches, before Iron called it a night, and Error joined us for a few matches once he had his work scheduled done. Aces, Kilen, and I played until the early morning hours and called it on the last match we were in once that came to a close.
On Saturday, Error, Kilen, and I had enlisted again into the hells of Hell Let Loose. We played quite a few matches, and ended on a pretty good note! We had an epic match to finish out the night, while playing an armor squad. We were in a light german tank, and seen an enemy recon tank ahead. We managed to chase it down, and it engaged us in an open field. I had the tank in 4th gear, and didn’t let up, because we needed to move! Recon tanks are fast, and have a lot of maneuverability. The recon managed to circle around to the rear of our tank and landed a hit! I pulled our tank around to face the recon, and Error unleashed a barrage of hits as I rammed our light into it. We managed to come out victorious! It was mostly luck, which we all happily admit, but it was SO AWESOME! What really topped the cake on that little adventure, was a heavy tank crew pulled up beside us right after we won, and said, “Yo! That was sick!”. They covered us, while I hopped out and repaired our tank from the hit. We went on to win the match, and ended up calling it there, as it was getting late. To add to the excitement above, what was nice about the whole ordeal is we are starting to see improvements, albeit, slow, but improvements! Hell Let Loose is such a great game!
Days played: Saturday
Players: Error, Hobbit
Comments: During the earlier part of the day on Saturday, Error and I had some great Minecraft sessions! The majority of our adventure was gathering resources in a fairly large underground cave we found in relative proximity to our current base. It’s been a fantastic place to get red stone, iron, diamonds, and other various materials we need to get on our way to other crafting! We managed to make several decent runs to said cave, and are finally starting to stack up some of those resources we need to move further into progression. You know things like, the enchanting table (or whatever it has become), trips to the Nether after we get that Nether Portal, brewing stations, and quite a few of the other new crafting stations Minecraft has implemented since last we played. I’ve noted several new ones, including a grindstone, and stone cutter, for example. There is also the anvil, but I believe that did exist during a playthrough I had with Qvaid some time ago (or at least some variation perhaps). I could be mistaken, I admit it’s been a VERY long time since I had a serious Minecraft playthrough. Qvaid and I were the last to delve into Minecraft, and that was quite a long time ago. In any case, Error and I continued our mining runs, until Kilen hopped into Discord and asked if we’d be up for some Hell Let Loose, to which we both happily obliged!
Days played: Sunday
Players: Aces, Error, Iron, Kilen, Hobbit
Comments: Ironically, I remember first reading about Vein quite some time ago. Several of us were really excited about the possibility of Vein coming to fruition, because it comes off to us as like a cross between 7 Days to Die and Project Zomboid. Both are games the majority of us LOVE! It has the first person aspects of 7 Days to Die with the complexity and depth of Project Zomboid (At least to some extent, with promises for more features later). Now the hype was lost over time, as well, the game only has two developers and it has made progress, but it’s slow progress. That isn’t a complaint mind you, just a fact. It’s expected as I imagine both of these developers have other jobs, real life, family, etc… they also have to balance in between time to make for such a massive project. I digress. We ended up loading up Vein on Sunday after I mentioned it to Error, when I noted some recent content popping up in my YouTube feed. He took a look at it, and wanted to give the demo a try. It appeared as though Multiplayer was operational, albeit, a bit on the janky side. In any case, we hopped in and started poking around on a new yet interesting Zombie Apocalypse! Before long, Kilen, Iron, and even Aces were downloading the demo to hop in and walk around with us. Our initial attempt was a game on Error’s PC, but the game performance was starting to tank after some time. We started over on my PC, and it held up for much longer, but eventually the performance hits were back. It seems this is a bug the devs are aware of, and are working to fix, although I noted in a dev blog they are having a hard time duplicating it in tests. The main issue is it ‘takes a considerable’ amount of time to generate the issue in multiplayer. As everyone knows, time is a hard thing to manage when it comes to projects like this. They asked if anyone could duplicate it consistently on a regular basis, to please submit a bug report. That information could help them track it down much faster, and thus lead to a timely solution being implemented. On a somber note, I was having trouble with my stomach on Sunday, and had quite a few ‘afk moments’, so the majority of the gang had called it by the time I finally got that under control. Error and I finished out the evening gathering some resources, and trying to get some cooking underway, but we were struggling with the recipes, as we found a camper truck, and pulled it into the garage of our fire station base. I suspect we need a ‘cooking pot’ instead of a frying pan to cook the rice we had available. Performance started to tank as we were out gathering more resources, so we ended up calling it not long after that, for the end to a great weekend of gaming. On another note, Falken gets an honorable mention as I did note he downloaded the game as well, he just never joined us. I’m not sure if he got side tracked with other things, or if he just decided it wasn’t for him in it’s current state.
