Yet another great week of gaming! I admit Friday was a bit of an odd scenario from the norm, but I made due and managed to have a fantastic session of gaming and adventures in Hogwarts Legacy! Error mentioned he wasn’t really in the mood for Age of Conan this weekend, so I gave Kilen a heads up and we managed to find a replacement or two for the game in this week’s schedule. I’ve already made the jump back to Windows for my gaming rig, although I should mention it wasn’t because things were not working in Linux. Mostly I just got the impression a game would eventually force me back at some point, and I decided to do it now rather than later. I posted about the failure to jump ship on Windows, here, if you’d like to give that a look. I’m hopeful to get the opportunity to test Linux out again at some point in the future, but with all the Anti-Cheat mess going on in games and the refusal of most companies to just toggle a switch on the software, I decided it just wasn’t quite there for me…yet. Game on, my friends!
Days played: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Sunday
Players: Qvaid, Hobbit & Error, Hobbit
Comments: Ah the grand adventures of Aurai! On Monday evening, Qvaid and I picked back up where we left off in Monsoon. There is at least a dungeon or so we haven’t completed in the Hallowed Marsh, but we decided we were eager to get started on the work in Caldera (Partly, because we believe we haven’t started the timer on that quest yet, but also because we are not positive we have not.). We stopped by the Soroborean Caravan in Monsoon to see if we could hitch an easy ride out to Berg, but there was no such luck. It seems they only offer rides to Harmattan from inside towns. At least I’m starting to believe that is the way it works. We did however find one in the Hallowed Marsh that just so happened to be going to Berg. We decided to pay the 200 silver, and a couple travel rations to speed up the journey a bit more. From Berg, Qvaid doned her hot weather based armor, and I decided for now, that I’d try to tough it out in the Gold-Lich set I love so much. We rested for the night, and headed out in the morning(ish) toward Caldera! “We’re going on and adventure!” We made it along the path to Caldera in Enmerkar Forest with relative ease, killing a few bandits along the way. Once we arrived in Caldera, we did get lost for a bit. We kept turning right to try to get into Old Sirocco. We finally managed to see where we needed to go though. And not a moment too soon, given I was quickly running out of supplies to combat the blazing heat of Caldera! Entering the now ruins of Old Sirocco, we happened upon a rebellion of sorts, and witnessed a noble being tossed into the lava below. I’m not sure the best way to go about it, but the letter said ‘leaders’ and well these chaps appear to be the ‘leaders’ now. I handed over the message, and they agreed. They all headed off to the Abandoned Quarry, and Qvaid and I decided to check out the ruins of Old Sirocco for a bit. We managed to clear everything up to the door of the ‘Elder Brother’, but decided perhaps we should hold off in venturing into that area for now. I mean, technically speaking the new leaders were waiting for our arrival in what would soon be ‘New Sirocco’. I would like to note, however that Qvaid and I managed to take down our very first Scarlet Emissary! We needed to make the trek to New Sirocco though because both of us were ill prepared for the heat, running out of water, and I was running out of supplies to combat this infernal heat! Ultimately, we made it with little issue, but our initial trips took quite a bit of time just to reach Old Sirocco, so the night was starting to come to a close. We managed to do a bit of inventory management in New Sirocco, and we found that I could use the Needle Teas Qvaid had, as just her gear and some water would keep her cool enough. We also picked up more water skins we’d had in our stash, spoke to all of the new leaders, and started construction on the first building of New Sirocco, which was housing. We had to call it shortly after that because we’d already stretch the time far beyond what we had intended for a Monday evening.
Qvaid and I picked back up on Tuesday evening, for some more shenanigans in Caldera! We took a brief glance at SheenShots Complete Guide to Building New Sirocco, after calling it a bit late on Monday evening, and had a plan to get this new city rolling when we came back. On Monday night, we’d already started the construction of one house, and decided to follow Sheen’s advice about moving forward with the other two. I just purchased House B and House C from Josef and ran out to close to where we placed House A, and done. Fortunately, we hadn’t camped the night before, so all the houses would effectively be on the same timers, starting the following day. Qvaid and I camped in New Sirocco, and headed out the next morning to start exploring. We camp across what we believe to be Gep’s camp with a Mysterious Long Blade near a camp fire. We have two Gep’s Drinks, but not enough to repair said mysterious long blade yet. Qvaid stored it in our Stash in New Sirocco for perhaps an attempt to build and use it later. I decided while I do love my Gold-Lich set, I needed something more in tune with the heat of Caldera, and swapped to a mix of Master Trader, Entombed, and topped it off with a goofy blue Wizard hat to combat the heat. We explored around a bit, before stumbling on the Steam Bath Tunnels and decided to head in and see what it was about. It appears the place was taken over by giants, and other beasts, but we managed to do a full clear. We also got to of the rare samples from said dungeon. By this point our packs were full and we were having to toss stuff on the ground and deconstruct other items to keep our movement in check, so it was back to New Sirocco for some inventory management. Normally we’d have made the mistake of heading back out for adventure, but given the scheduling of Tuesday, both of us decided it was probably best there to call it a night. We finished out the night with the inventory management to prep for our next adventure, and noted we only had about a day or two before the houses we placed would finish construction (or maybe just the first phase of construction, this is all new to us so we aren’t quite sure how it works yet.). This time we went to sleep at a decent hour and we were able to take another look at Sheen’s video mentioned above, to our fortune, thus far we don’t think we’ve made any mistakes yet.
Mistakes were made. Mistakes…were…made… On Wednesday evening, Qvaid and I headed back out into Caldera to bide our time while we were still waiting for the three houses we started construction on in New Sirocco to finish. Now, ironically, I’ve seen numerous videos on some being called, ‘Ancient Dwellers’ in Outward over the course of our play time, interesting, and research. With all that ‘research’ in mind, you’d think I’d have known better, but I still flipped that switch, and unleashed the ‘Ancient Dwellers’ into the Caldera areas.
Qvaid and I ended up in a bit of a jam and were defeated at some point. We were rescued by none other than, the Friendly Immaculate. Since we didn’t have much time in Caldera yet, we came out of his cave, but had no real idea where we were. We stumbled upon The Vault of Stone. I remember thinking to myself. Why does this sound so familiar… Well we walked around the caves, gathering hexa stones, looting, and you know the basics of adventure. I noted some gates here and there that could not be opened. And…eventually stumbled on the switch, that I figured would open them. Qvaid and I have a habit of trying to clear every dungeon we can, so that was in fact our goal here. We need to see what’s behind these gates.
I noted the following Steam achievement pop up after flipping that switch, “That was a mistake…” Needless to say, I remembered what I just did about that time. We happened to encounter an Ancient Dweller shortly after that. It was a rough fight indeed, and I’m fairly certain the only thing that allowed us to come out victorious was the use of traps. It took us some time, and two revives for Qvaid to take down that foe. We packed up and high tailed it out of there only to see an Ancient Dweller roaming near the entrance to The Vault of Stone afterwards. We also managed to get lost, and had an incredible time getting back to New Sirocoo, although we did finally manage that after encountering all kinds of new monsters along the way. Bruised and battered we headed back into New Sirocco, and noted the houses we left being constructed have more phases to go through. We started those, did some inventory management, and ended up calling it there for the night.
Qvaid and I picked back up in New Sirocco on Thursday evening, where we left off prior. The houses still had a few days of construction, and we were reluctant to start any more building or construction until those finished, so we headed off into Caldera to see what kind of trouble we could avoid (or get into). We mostly explored around the outside areas of Caldera as we have been lost a time or two already and we were trying to get a better grasp on where everything is. We stumbled upon the Primal Ritualist trainer at some point, and to our surprise we noted any…one…can…use…totems. Initially, both Qvaid and I were going to craft both totems and use them. I noted how excited Qvaid looked at the class, and decided we should probably test how they work before I waste the extra resources to craft the totems. Qvaid crafted both, and then we headed outside the trainer hut to test. And that is where we found out: 1. there was no need for both of us to have them, and 2. You are not near as good with their use if you are not a fully specc’ed Primal Ritualist. You can’t set the totems close enough to each other to get the benefit of both, AND no one else can set one close enough to it either. So it was decided Qvaid would handle the totems because she really wanted too, and because I usually have my hands full trying to cast spells and get out of the way of things I’ve upset by doing so. This was the first time, I think Qvaid had wished she’d saved a class to get something else. I believe she really wanted to be a full on Primal Ritualist class to get full use of the totems. I’ve already encountered that myself, when I came to the horrific realization that I specc’ed for Hex Mage and Rune Sage and they both have a TON of skills. To be fair, they don’t pair horribly with each other, it just doesn’t really leave you a lot of room for other skills on your 8 total spots. Unfortunately, nothing can be done as both of us have 3 total classes completely built at this point and she doesn’t want to start over just yet. We fought quite a few of the Calgreys, Gastrocins, a Gargoyle, Elder Medyses, Drifting Medyse, Torcrabs, and a Myrmitaur before heading back to New Sirocco for some inventory management and to call it a night!
On Sunday evening for both Outward Gaming Sessions, Error and I started a new game. He recently purchased the game, and given Falken, Iron, and now Kilen were MIA, it seemed to the perfect time to give the wonderful world of Aurai a run. It’s the first time I’ve played Outward in a co op scenario that wasn’t split screen, so we were not quite sure how it would work off hand, but we managed to get it squared away, and were gaming together in no time. Well once you get past the initial character creation. It seems you can’t enable co op when you first start the game, and you have to wait until you are back in Cierzo. In any case, we got the ball rolling, and managed to purchase our fitness skill from Eto in Cierzo, and got ready to start adventuring. Unfortunately due to the time frame we started, the things we worked on while in Cierzo, and the fact that Error was going to need to call it soon, we didn’t accomplish an incredible amount before that adventure came to a close for the night. We got everything mostly ready to start an adventure again at some point when scheduling allows.
Take 2 of Sunday evening was another adventure in Outward with Qvaid and I. By default the game only allows 2 player co op, although I’ve read and heard there are mods you can use to have more than two people per game. Qvaid and I picked up in New Sirocco where we left off, and shortly after the 3 houses we left being constructed were completed. We went ahead and started the construction of the Hunter’s Lodge, Masonry, and Lumber buildings as well shortly after that. It looks like we should complete that quest with time to spare at this time at least. We started our adventure off with a hwooping (typo intended there, because it was indeed a hwooping!). We encountered an Ancient Dweller in Caldera close to the entrance to New Sirocco. Qvaid and I decided to take it on, and well, after Qvaid retreated back to New Sirocco twice to revive me, we did managed to take it down on the 3rd attempt. Those things are so fast, and quite a rough fight. We wandered around Caldera for a bit, but decided we wanted to head to Levant to pick up an alchemists backpack to help preserve food in New Sirocco while we are working on it’s construction. We gathered a few things for the road, and off we went. From Caldera to Enmerkar Forest, to Berg to rest and resupply. From there we headed to Abrassar, and then after hitting a few of the Ornate Chests that we unlocked via the Arcane Machine, we were finally in Levant. By this time, it was getting late, and we decided to call it a night there. We do still have two Orante Chests we can go after once we start our adventure again, but I’m not sure if Qvaid will want to do that, or if she would prefer to just head back to Caldera to check on the construction of the resource buildings we created.
Days played: Thursday
Players: Hobbit
Comments: On Thursday evening, I messaged the gang to see if anyone was up for any gaming via our usual methods of communication. I went ahead and logged into 7DtD, and did some inventory management, checked the base resources, and the usual shenanigans while I waited for a reply. The reply didn’t really come in any sort of a timely manner, so I decided to hop out and Qvaid and I picked up in some Outward. It’s not a complaint mind you, I realize all of us have adults lives that can get busy at various times, I figured the lack of a reply, likely meant the case for anyone that would typically be able to join me on a Thursday evening for some adventure.
On Friday evening, I stood alone in the heart of the Zombie Apocalypse. Scheduling seemed to have everyone busy, although Iron did attempt to make an appearance, he was having some issues with his headset, and after some time, decided to just call it a night. I did a bit of mining, before I decided it might just be time to hop over to Hogwarts Legacy, and use this time to get some solo game play in.
Days played: Friday
Players: Hobbit
Comments: A bit later on Friday evening, I started off with some moth mirror puzzles, and wandering around Hogwarts collecting more of the floo powder markers. Sebastian taught me the disillusion charm, after I spoke with Professor Fig and we made our way into the Restricted Area of the Library where I found a book that might hold answers to the Ancient Magic I’m able to see. After that, I met with Natty and we discussed some investigation on the troubles with Ranok and Rookwood. I managed to assist Grace Pinch-Smedley, with retrieving the Lost Astrolabe from the lake, and I even assisted Arner with getting his carts back. I also solved a few of the puzzles Merlin left behind for his fellow Slytherins (Although technically speaking, my character is Ravenclaw – hey, I just took the test online, and that’s where the sorting hat put me! 🙂 ). It was getting late by that point so I ended up saving before I got back into Hogwarts to pick up another day as scheduling allows. Even while left to my own devices, I had a fantastic time, playing Hogwarts Legacy. It truly is an incredible game!
Days played: Saturday, Sunday
Players: Error, Kilen, Hobbit
Comments: Error and I started our Saturday with a bit of a cog in the ole gaming ear. He wasn’t in the mood for any Age of Conan this weekend, and with a bit of a random decision on his part, we started another round of Project Zomboid. In this particular case, he hosted the game, and I walked him through the server settings we typically use for PZ. Kilen managed to join up with us much later in the evening on Saturday, and we finished up at the base reading books to increase experience gains with skills such as: carpentry, trapping, fishing, and the other slew of skills you can work on in PZ. It’s certainly a game quite a few of us love to fire up and play every so often.
On Sunday, Error, Kilen, and myself continued our zombie apocalyptic adventures in PZ, and played through a fairly large portion of the day. By later afternoon to perhaps early evening, we gathered supplies, worked on skills, read books, cleaned up, cooked, organized inventory, and all the other similar shenanigans, until Kilen had to bounce for a bit unexpectedly. Error recently had purchased Outward Definitive Edition, and we decided it might be the perfect time for us to give that a test run.
