This week was certainly a banger in variety and fun gaming! We dusted off Hell Let Loose at some point and rolled around in a mix of tank crews and infantry squads depending on the numbers we had with us. I even managed to get a day of some Hogwarts Legacy in on Tuesday, but sadly, I didn’t get the time to go for another session during the week. I’m making due though, and trying to hit it as the opportunities are presented. The Outward sessions, Qvaid and I share have been an incredible journey, and we have certainly been enjoying those! 7 Days to Die still holds all the charm for me it has in the past, and the latest version V1.0 has been a great treat. I do a lot of mining in 7DtD which to some effect is kind of like a zen thing for me. Coupled with the trader quests we’ve been running with the group, it has certainly been great times as well! I am currently testing a bit of spoiler text features on the site, which you should note in the Hogwarts Legacy information below. I’m not sure how well it will pan out just yet as this is the first live post with it, but I’ll make adjustments and/or scrap it should they not pan out well and I have a viable option. Game hard, game long my friends!
Days played: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday
Players: Qvaid, Hobbit
Comments: Qvaid and I gathered some gear and decided it was finally time to start travelling again on Monday evening. After we had everything we needed to travel, we headed out of Cierzo and checked the map. After some brief thought, we decided to head back to Enmerkar Forest to try our luck there again. Once we arrived in Enmerkar, we explored around the forest taken in the new sights, fighting some ghosts, and other enemies we came across until long after our packs were full. Mind you our packs were full fairly quickly, but we scrapped things, dropped things, and used things as needed to stretch out the time as much as we could. Once we had reached a threshold where we couldn’t really adjust anything else, we headed into Berg, and did some inventory management. Since we don’t have the player house in Berg yet, this consisted mostly of figuring out what we could live without to bring the weights down, and allow us more room to spare for other loot later on. Once we had that wrapped up, it was fairly late, so we ended up calling it a night near an exit in Berg to Enmerkar Forest to prepare for Tuesday evening’s adventures.
Qvaid and I picked back up on Tuesday evening in Berg and headed out to Enmerkar forest. We wandered around taking in the new scenery and eventually happened upon a dungeon called Face of the Ancients. We were doing fairly well at the start, and got to the boss, “The First Cannibal”. In a few unfortunate events we were defeated about 2 – 3 times by said First Cannibal, but eventually we were victorious! We opted to use the Red Lich Idol to get the dagger, and after some thought, and discussion, I convinced Qvaid to try the Skycrown Mace with the Red Lady Dagger since she has all the Rogue Engineer skills. I felt like the combination could work well with our current play style since the majority of the time, the creatures we are facing target me after a few spell casts. During our tests of the new build we killed a few beast golems, and stumbled upon a mini dungeon where we acquired the fire poker weapon. We finished up the night killing the Immaculate at the Cabal Wind Temple (I think), and camped at the wind mill close by to see where Wednesday evening adventures might take us.
Qvaid and I continued our treks around Enmerkar Forest battling bandits, beast golems, hive creatures, and cleared out a bandit camp. We also entered the Vigil where we killed a couple beast golems, but decided to hold off on pressing further on Wednesday evening. Qvaid had decided she wanted to move back to her Horror Great Sword, and so we put her skills back in order on her hotbar, and ended up selling the Skycrown Mace and the Red Lady Dagger, along with my Arcane Robe. I picked up a Master Trader Garb at some point, and decided I’d like the extra pocket space since I don’t really make use of most of the damage types the Arcane Robe gives. I also have another in my stash at the Light House in Cierzo, and we desperately needed to clean up our inventory. We did quite a bit of inventory management as we are learning what we can and cannot live without as we travel. I should also note we were defeated a time or so in our playthrough on Wednesday, but we recovered relatively well, and continued with exploration, battles, and inventory management until late in the evening. We finished off the night selling, crafting, and prep to start fresh on the next day we get to play again.
After the gang called it on Thursday evening, Qvaid and I jumped back into Outward for a bit more adventure. We didn’t realize it, but we were very close to being able to purchase the player house in Berg, and so we decided to move forward with the Blue Chamber Faction Quest Line. We immediately purchased the house, and were overjoyed to be able to have quick access to our Stash again. In Outward Definitive Edition the Stashes are linked in all the player owned houses. I ended up buying back a few things we sold to merchants when we were trying to keep our backpacks empty. We also started crafting some better food using items like predator bones, and other more rare materials. We have collected up a rather nice stock of mana stones, and other items used to make Varnishes, and Qvaid boxed all her elemental rags and has moved to using those in the more difficult fights. We headed to a Fortress near Berg, and started working through clearing that, but by that point it was getting late, and rather than dropping down a ledge we were not sure how to get back up from, we decided to head back to Berg, finish up with inventory management and get ready for whatever the next night we can play will be.
Days played: Tuesday
Players: Hobbit
Comments: For some unknown reason, I woke up incredibly early on Tuesday morning. After a bit of back and forth, I ultimately decided I would get my day started with some adventures in Hogwarts Legacy! I finished up the assignment from Professor Ronen where I left off previously and got the Reparo spell! Technically speaking, I had already finished the assignment from before, although he did ask me to repair a statue close by him with the spell to test it out. From there, I wander around Hogwarts a bit and completed another puzzle with the dice like items in the wall. I met with Natsai for a trip to Hogsmead where I spent the remainder of the time I had walking around collecting, exploring, and doing those moth puzzles. I halted here and there for a bit of research as I kept noticing these chests with eyes on them, and I wasn’t sure if I could open those yet. Spoiler Alert:
Unless my research was incorrect, I could not as I didn’t have the spell needed to do so just yet. While I did save and quit while still in Hogsmead it was after I met back up with Natsai and we fought off a Troll. I spoke with the Wizard’s gear merchant and he gave me… my class robe. Since I already had better, I was polite, and just accepted it. I had sold my other gear prior after a bit of research because I kept running out of room. I figured out I could still use the ‘look’ of the other gear, and started just keeping the best in slot I had, and using that feature to give the gear the look I wanted, while being able to equip the best gear I had for the stats. The work day was close to a start by this point, so I went ahead and saved and called it before following Natsai to get that Butterbeer she said we certainly earned.
Days played: Monday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday
Players: Falken, Iron, Kilen, Hobbit
Comments: On Monday morning, I did a bit of mining and construction in the mine in 7DtD before starting my work day. It was mostly in an effort to keep up with the material needs for the group. It was a short spurt of activity, which was interrupted by two zombie attacks, one being only a single zombie, and the other 2 screamers and a slew of other zombies. I was running out of time shortly after that, so I finished off the stack of iron I was gathering, and headed back to the base to put all the materials in the forge box to be smelted later.
Day 28 Horde Night was upon us for Thursday evening! I spoke with the gang after the work day had ended, dinner was done, and the dogs were fed and taken outside. In earnest, I got to my computer quite a bit earlier than I usually manage, even for a Thursday. Unfortunately, it looked like Kilen wasn’t going to make it, and Falken and Iron estimated a time frame starting around 8 PM. I spent roughly an hour watching pointless videos, until I decided to message the group chat to let them know I was logging in to goof around as on my initial login, I noted quite a bit of time before the horde night started anyway. I used that time to mine, as once again we were low on resources, albeit we are not really hurting for anything currently. Plenty of fuel, plenty of concrete mix, plenty of ammo, etc… I mined for something around 45 minutes to perhaps an hour while chatting with Falken in Discord, and Iron hopped on sometime around that time frame. I made my way back to the base, dumped all the materials I’d been collecting, put the miner’s gear back in the box, and doned my Raider Gear. We headed to the Horde base, which is actually REALLY close to our main base, and after we were ready, we all logged out, and I bounced the server to swap it back to 1 hour days. Shortly after the server came back up, the horde night was starting. We finished it up with relative ease with the base we are using, 2 x punch turrets, and Falken on the top floor bombarding the horde with molotovs, pipe bombs, and grenades. After the horde night was at an end, and we’d gathered all the loot, we headed back to the base for some inventory management. Falken called it there, and Iron and I just tinkered around for a bit before calling it a tad later than usual for a Thursday night. I managed to finish up a new mine cover that had coal, iron, and at least nitrate close to the first mine I built and mentioned prior. After completing the cover with concrete blocks for a quick and dirty build, I gathered a bit more materials, and headed back to the base to dump everything, and prepare for the next game night.
Friday evening, and Saturday was a mix of all of us playing at random-ish intervals. We mostly worked through trader quests, Falken picked up because he’s the furthest along in the progressing and can pick up level 5 and level 6 quests. The vast majority of the gameplay was Falken and I, but Iron and Kilen all joined as well as their schedules allowed. I had several rather large mining sessions in between when no one was on, or nothing was going on. I gathered up a decent bit of: stone, iron, lead, sand, and other various materials. I keep the forges rolling, the cement mixes (um, mixing), and did some inventory management as well. I worked in the new mine, and effectively a patch of materials in our underground base, where Falken and I started setting up columns and a ceiling to prevent any sort of collapse. That is pretty much a summary of what we did over the two days of play, as Falken and Iron had RL things to attend to on Sunday, and the rest of us moved to HLL to finish out the remainder of the weekend, once the 7DtD adventures had come to a close.
Days played: Friday, Saturday, Sunday
Players: Aces, Error, Iron, Kilen, Hobbit
Comments: After Falken called it a night, Iron, Kilen, and I were wrapping up some inventory management, repairs, and character well being, when Kilen brought up the desire to play some Hell Let Loose. Iron and I were certainly on board, and shortly after we finished up things in 7DtD, we moved back into the front lines in HLL. Well, so to speak, we started with some Tank action on the server we joined since it was just the 3 of us. Error joined us when he got home from work, late that evening, and we moved to an infantry squad, as it’s really the only option for anything more than 3 people. Ironically, Aces (Kilen’s brother) hopped into Discord and noted what we were playing. He picked up HLL (which was on sale this weekend), and joined the frey with us! It was certainly turning into a great bit of fun! We played to our hearts content, until the early morning hours of Saturday were upon us, and everyone started to trickle out for the night.
On Saturday, Error and I hit a match early in HLL before he had to call it to start getting ready for the work day. Typically he’s off on Saturdays, but this particular weekend was an exception. From there, I moved back to 7DtD for a decent portion of the day, where I was later joined by the gang, and once we wrapped up those adventures, the remainder of us left hopped back into HLL for some more WWII action! Aces surprised us again, and Error also joined when he got home from work, and settled in. Much like our session on Friday, we played until the early-ish hours of Sunday morning, and our numbers dwindled until everyone decided to call it for the night. In truth that happened pretty quickly after the first person called it, but matches in HLL can be rather long, so we could all see the need to just cut our loses for the night when the time came.
On Sunday, Error, Kilen, myself and later Aces were back at it again. Initially since there was only 3 of us, we were running a tank crew again, but after we got the 4th we moved back to a squad, and just played until fairly later in the evening on Sunday. My son called it to prep for bed, and I called it at the end of the match because I knew I wouldn’t really have time for another set. My understanding is, Kilen and Aces played at least a match after I called it, perhaps more since both of them were off on Monday (at least I believe).
