tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16202471247659413002024-03-14T02:17:47.698-04:00Full Time CasualGaming, Software Dev, and MediaKevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00720797197086595309noreply@blogger.comBlogger19125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1620247124765941300.post-46305822331486721982024-01-18T13:19:00.001-05:002024-01-18T13:19:20.438-05:00Enhanced logging in TempusGameItVersion 1.9 is <a href="https://tempusgameit.com/download" target="_blank">here</a> and with it comes a few changes to better help understand exactly what the heck is going on when you're running the app.<h3 style="text-align: left;">New Look Options Screen</h3><div>The options screen has been updated to include both options and info. Included now in the info is a more clear view of what version you're running, as well as the addition of the path to the log file on your machine.</div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEifQgMAsJNgWFKpezlZT3wme55JlJ9R-m7sPjAeVPTSwrmcXardNB9-44H3rPubC1fLYI7Yr7XT3g72LSfAxv8MEq1Eg2r-z70mv6qBXzhyyYejPQRLwjVyHRWmbqf_MyVk8xO2v6QoEl-rIfO51SZi1KNLBCnIP-2aaKZQ9MoRsWQGNFZmVw64QGVzg6di" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="573" data-original-width="1156" height="318" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEifQgMAsJNgWFKpezlZT3wme55JlJ9R-m7sPjAeVPTSwrmcXardNB9-44H3rPubC1fLYI7Yr7XT3g72LSfAxv8MEq1Eg2r-z70mv6qBXzhyyYejPQRLwjVyHRWmbqf_MyVk8xO2v6QoEl-rIfO51SZi1KNLBCnIP-2aaKZQ9MoRsWQGNFZmVw64QGVzg6di=w640-h318" width="640" /></a></div><br />There's also a new option available--"Enable verbose logging". By checking this option, you'll be able to see all of the finer grain logging that the system does. This should be especially helpful when troubleshooting problems or seeing what folders are getting scanned and what executables are being checked for a match. This option goes hand-in-hand with the log path, since that'll be the place that you will want to look when you want more information on what's happening.</div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjhpa_upFbW8XyqI1BXUvT9Jz4PA9WltVNpgau4pUH6to2JWzFeVqA1Hr1-DhZpQ-DmVkbeponVsZjaDiLI18P_kCV7KIPFBaZO4kx61LIppXoSWPKYjyl2OB_Nrzyfa230EML58-OGF_qwxR8se7GMmB4iHJTgShLLcDjddCUTGvPw_DpPXskbt6333_Gr" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="650" data-original-width="1201" height="346" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjhpa_upFbW8XyqI1BXUvT9Jz4PA9WltVNpgau4pUH6to2JWzFeVqA1Hr1-DhZpQ-DmVkbeponVsZjaDiLI18P_kCV7KIPFBaZO4kx61LIppXoSWPKYjyl2OB_Nrzyfa230EML58-OGF_qwxR8se7GMmB4iHJTgShLLcDjddCUTGvPw_DpPXskbt6333_Gr=w640-h346" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hey look! Lots of text!</td></tr></tbody></table><h3>Ignored folders</h3>We've also hard-coded in a few folders in your Windows directory (for those running on Windows) that will be ignored. They're mostly related to Windows Update, but they're huge and have a lot of executables in them. Skipping these should help improve scanning times for anyone who has games on the same drive as Windows.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">If you're one of the brave souls testing out TempusGameIt, thank you! If you're interested in giving it a try, stop by the <a href="https://tempusgameit.com/" target="_blank">TempusGameIt website</a> to download the client. And visit us on discord <a href="https://discord.gg/G8NC7Yda" target="_blank">here</a>!</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00720797197086595309noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1620247124765941300.post-68783067272005778392024-01-09T17:27:00.000-05:002024-01-09T17:27:05.756-05:00Add Game Enhancements to TempusGameIt<p>Happy New Year!</p><p>I'm excited to announce the general release of game creation updates supporting the new way we track and match games.</p><p>Last year we switched from a more rigid system of executable definitions</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjCXdthofsVzSd9rUJrF6E4Z0zAkHU2YEtxvKw_TxhApkndAm31c-Apmx_mnLLj5HmubLJNZoru8LP618Fl-Vyw9_m1I8jSgwpNkTTN-T-6yZgJTzWm_4W0WGpSdKUrspIm3DCZYVehzknYXKTDbzMF0Uuox-c_7ZgZ6nxfk-ONDTgSfyZ9TXeSwVmnajom" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="332" data-original-width="212" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjCXdthofsVzSd9rUJrF6E4Z0zAkHU2YEtxvKw_TxhApkndAm31c-Apmx_mnLLj5HmubLJNZoru8LP618Fl-Vyw9_m1I8jSgwpNkTTN-T-6yZgJTzWm_4W0WGpSdKUrspIm3DCZYVehzknYXKTDbzMF0Uuox-c_7ZgZ6nxfk-ONDTgSfyZ9TXeSwVmnajom" width="153" /></a></div>to a more flexible system:<p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEisUuE6WzG4HWb6c_acx-R3QMd5odN5GFB0a1INmknmzCXplZiXnwVg5g8OGALqTtFontvPLkuA98_m2jgSjRgKvqX0UGL0Cno16yKeYiPGcfKHzNWs75Mg8BaXNhOvwmGI68nNMi-vktnTzKJb23mGsgJPO1UanS4X_TaVbD1BCui3QRYnNftX3gczxXEP" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="134" data-original-width="204" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEisUuE6WzG4HWb6c_acx-R3QMd5odN5GFB0a1INmknmzCXplZiXnwVg5g8OGALqTtFontvPLkuA98_m2jgSjRgKvqX0UGL0Cno16yKeYiPGcfKHzNWs75Mg8BaXNhOvwmGI68nNMi-vktnTzKJb23mGsgJPO1UanS4X_TaVbD1BCui3QRYnNftX3gczxXEP" width="320" /></a></div>This simplified view better accounts for the different ways that games are run and built across platforms (and even in the same platform--I'm looking at you Path of Exile with a different executable for steam versus non-steam). It also helps automatically importing process definitions from certain third parties, as it more closely matches how they are defined there.<br /><br />The backend and client have been using the new definition for a while now, so there's no major change in the file location or process monitoring. But the client had lagged behind when adding new titles. It had a UI that reflected the old structure, and we used the API to transform this data into the new structure.<p></p><p>No more! The UI has gotten a bit of an update to allow for multiple executable and bundles to be defined. It has also loosened the requirements on osx of having both a bundle and a process and instead now just support a generalized "bundle" concept.</p><h4 style="text-align: left;">The New View</h4><div>Here's what adding a new executable or bundle looks like for an existing game with many items already defined:</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTwK27SZr7N2MHHu0K7Jn1ZMGEJRIlhsjYHHGbpRq-8SsTMGpaDd5RH1ICyV4x0PVieANyQomO7dPI0QCI2CDVTVVtEDa7c_2dgqq65-O0gaz9lY9bsqm55mPiHaRWjv7df4QkZwiQyRH4y6m6I3RDx1_2L-t51byRf944qkKNEVY38e2GiYuBZU0v4Ra4/s1140/Screenshot%202024-01-09%20at%209.46.00%20AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="1140" height="323" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTwK27SZr7N2MHHu0K7Jn1ZMGEJRIlhsjYHHGbpRq-8SsTMGpaDd5RH1ICyV4x0PVieANyQomO7dPI0QCI2CDVTVVtEDa7c_2dgqq65-O0gaz9lY9bsqm55mPiHaRWjv7df4QkZwiQyRH4y6m6I3RDx1_2L-t51byRf944qkKNEVY38e2GiYuBZU0v4Ra4/w640-h323/Screenshot%202024-01-09%20at%209.46.00%20AM.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div>At the top next to the box art is the name of the file that we're setting up as one of the game files. Below it is the list of all current detectable files, including their platform.</div><div><br /></div><div>The toggle on the right side of the new file allows you to toggle to more detailed information for file and process matching:</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSQGSKBok1GcpQYI8oURjZCrPBQ1q4JW4iRJcPOrSRD9CPQ1PLsuphqddP8T5wtY0staBqO70BjETfl6NxonDlaQBOGYi1kwMUdjNOiXn6ViUPCJXV93999gl4ScsoCLOePt_rMpbvwnlsfFc6X8JgN8T5ZUqnCgY9u_Gj43HwrUCESaaI6imhD6aYSHIh/s1130/Screenshot%202024-01-09%20at%209.46.14%20AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="571" data-original-width="1130" height="324" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSQGSKBok1GcpQYI8oURjZCrPBQ1q4JW4iRJcPOrSRD9CPQ1PLsuphqddP8T5wtY0staBqO70BjETfl6NxonDlaQBOGYi1kwMUdjNOiXn6ViUPCJXV93999gl4ScsoCLOePt_rMpbvwnlsfFc6X8JgN8T5ZUqnCgY9u_Gj43HwrUCESaaI6imhD6aYSHIh/w640-h324/Screenshot%202024-01-09%20at%209.46.14%20AM.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div>On osx, this will drill down into the app bundle and match against the running process. In a lot of cases, this isn't necessary. It only shows up in a few places.</div><div><br /></div><div>On windows, we go up a folder level, to help us disambiguate files that share a name across games (like <span style="font-family: courier;">client.exe</span> or <span style="font-family: courier;">gameclient.exe</span>). Having a parent directory often helps reduce mismatches on these common names.</div><div><br /></div><div>Once the game is updated, the remote catalog is updated as well. Then a refresh is made, and a scan is performed, and you should now see the new game running!</div><div><br /></div><div>Here's the whole process in action with bonus detailed runtime information.</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="329" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/HYQrWr6rpZ0" width="481" youtube-src-id="HYQrWr6rpZ0"></iframe></div><br /><div>Let me know what you think in the comments below!</div><div><br /></div><div>You can try this out by downloading the app and creating an account at <a href="https://tempusgameit.com" target="_blank">TempusGameIt</a></div>Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00720797197086595309noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1620247124765941300.post-71052030799333126642023-09-21T18:20:00.004-04:002023-09-21T18:20:31.863-04:00Out for a bit<p> Sorry for the lack of posts. We had some family bereavement than transitioned into an eye surgery, so I’ve been very AFK. </p><p>Got clearance to resume looking forward over the weekend, so hope to get back to gaming and coding a little bit. </p>Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00720797197086595309noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1620247124765941300.post-91227287416362904422023-09-01T10:28:00.001-04:002023-09-01T10:28:03.884-04:00TempusGameIt: Auto-import is in dev<p>Did some hacking this week and finished building out auto-import of games into the TempusGameIt catalog. ICYMI, the import works like this:</p><p></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>Pull down the latest version of Discord's detectable's file, which contains game executables by platform (Windows, OSX, Linux), and the Steam ID</li><li>Lookup games in TGI by the Steam ID to see if they have been imported.</li><li>If we haven't imported them, hit the IGDB API to pull the game metadata by Steam ID. This gets us the name, description, box art, platforms, and genres</li><li>Store the IGDB metadata along with the executable information from Discord in the TGI catalog</li></ol><div>I set this process to run every 24 hours, and it imported close to 5000 titles. Here's the run from last night, and it included a certain popular title, which made me excited to see the process in action.</div><div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV-PSjolJapTBtLCBfgdGAONKE2ptVFOZm_7mSegYUUqlNuSKEtuZWPAf6MI0xv6O3d6KJjpSgnmo7QE_d7WeGigofeoJLzOrVRs_Fx07K6rrrJIG3ZgHqwjan7beDd8EZUOlPxvhUxPTPsa1Dvl5SHTZ6sp_owmTcbegvd7E41ZlwD6gg9LmEyLv9rtMT/s715/Screenshot%202023-09-01%20at%209.11.37%20AM.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="615" data-original-width="715" height="344" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV-PSjolJapTBtLCBfgdGAONKE2ptVFOZm_7mSegYUUqlNuSKEtuZWPAf6MI0xv6O3d6KJjpSgnmo7QE_d7WeGigofeoJLzOrVRs_Fx07K6rrrJIG3ZgHqwjan7beDd8EZUOlPxvhUxPTPsa1Dvl5SHTZ6sp_owmTcbegvd7E41ZlwD6gg9LmEyLv9rtMT/w400-h344/Screenshot%202023-09-01%20at%209.11.37%20AM.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Starfield is here (even if I'm not in early access)!<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUz6xRggXHuWimWjGiqqS0CG9bajgr_PfV0Cv9Cnty9jjYcGZ2LESz3zpmSXPKaZE-iPIyYIqJ-QgO1pKcmiGjJrZTtcxynfd9GqzWycMcEEEIvnFEyL3rT1hIYVd1BU9fKtYlV5WPP_lRvXtLmevAWKuc_wkPWWTV-BbGuiZ7MH1XgXRwQUvhZRV13VC8/s1296/Screenshot%202023-09-01%20at%209.51.03%20AM.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="797" data-original-width="1296" height="394" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUz6xRggXHuWimWjGiqqS0CG9bajgr_PfV0Cv9Cnty9jjYcGZ2LESz3zpmSXPKaZE-iPIyYIqJ-QgO1pKcmiGjJrZTtcxynfd9GqzWycMcEEEIvnFEyL3rT1hIYVd1BU9fKtYlV5WPP_lRvXtLmevAWKuc_wkPWWTV-BbGuiZ7MH1XgXRwQUvhZRV13VC8/w640-h394/Screenshot%202023-09-01%20at%209.51.03%20AM.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">It's full of stars!</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></p><p>This sudden explosion of games in the catalog has led to a much more interesting view on the <a href="https://dev.tempusgameit.com/games" target="_blank">games</a> page, as there are now all sorts of titles that I haven't ever heard of.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsPG8CvszIVIiH1wPtROxqPYkmtY2HzNeNxn6aUpKKSQaYeTs_qKxlAsuRFgh4N_wtXxlyi49i8GH1mA3jHs25ShtddqxmlcdawBK8RiR4_mgJH1w2Qharp987vrkufuaetQQJSKCDFhIzJDeDb60xGfcl7XJNkcg5BRW21Af5GXVC5tsSAeAGI7TLVJxK/s1579/Screenshot%202023-09-01%20at%209.52.56%20AM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1068" data-original-width="1579" height="432" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsPG8CvszIVIiH1wPtROxqPYkmtY2HzNeNxn6aUpKKSQaYeTs_qKxlAsuRFgh4N_wtXxlyi49i8GH1mA3jHs25ShtddqxmlcdawBK8RiR4_mgJH1w2Qharp987vrkufuaetQQJSKCDFhIzJDeDb60xGfcl7XJNkcg5BRW21Af5GXVC5tsSAeAGI7TLVJxK/w640-h432/Screenshot%202023-09-01%20at%209.52.56%20AM.png" width="640" /></a></div><div><br /></div>So suddenly there's a several new features that we need to build out to make the catalog more manageable and performant<div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Filtering by name</li><li>Filtering by genre</li><li>Filtering by what I logged time against</li><li>Sorting by most popular</li><li>Sorting by newest</li><li>Improving the API that serves the catalog to the client so we're not blocking the client as badly when sending down a big update</li></ul><p>I also experienced mismatches on my local machine, where the scanner would find "launcher.exe" and associate it with a game that I didn't have.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhaQAima7ZkiJcQCrF-smpRWkp6SmPXQAnLNvJ3dc3211gyMGpHbTvHJqBghkg3jxeD75EMrTcn5k7_JVoesfpI4SiI0xhcGDIp5n-XpqFJs1ruSYRWyuLBrlNQu14jNQoBqx9SNhBefpDMF-TKVRrHbDagNwPaKsOr5PPWzbiJ4i_BoGEi5OqcwDssuBQ/s1286/Screenshot%202023-09-01%20102643.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="884" data-original-width="1286" height="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhaQAima7ZkiJcQCrF-smpRWkp6SmPXQAnLNvJ3dc3211gyMGpHbTvHJqBghkg3jxeD75EMrTcn5k7_JVoesfpI4SiI0xhcGDIp5n-XpqFJs1ruSYRWyuLBrlNQu14jNQoBqx9SNhBefpDMF-TKVRrHbDagNwPaKsOr5PPWzbiJ4i_BoGEi5OqcwDssuBQ/w400-h275/Screenshot%202023-09-01%20102643.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">:til: about Aura Kingdom</td></tr></tbody></table><p>Interestingly enough, Discord solves this by including the parent directory in their executable, which means that I can fix this by taking this into account when path matching in the client.</p><p>All in all, some great progress made and I think this will help a lot if more people are interested in trying it out.</p><p>As always, you can see what's on tap by visiting the <a href="https://trello.com/b/0qj8Jtr9/tempusgameit" target="_blank">Trello board</a>.</p></div>Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00720797197086595309noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1620247124765941300.post-81803302802812976672023-08-29T13:43:00.002-04:002023-08-29T13:43:58.305-04:00TempusGameIt updates<p>At the end of last year during the holidays, I took some time to work on some features over at my personal side project TempusGameIt.com.</p><p>And those changes sat idle for quite a while deployed out to the development environment. Over the past week, I buckled down and made sure things looked good, and pushed them live. </p><p>Here's what's new! </p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Game Source Updated</h3><div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">Originally I sourced all of the game information from GiantBomb, but I had been eyeing IGDB as a better source of information. So I made the switch over to linking games to IGDB. The box art is much more consistent both in presence and dimensions, so we're less likely to have a link return a 404, or to have square or misshapen box art.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Another big bonus is the fact that many titles include a link over to their Steam record if present. This is a big win that I'll talk about in a sec.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">In light of these changes, I updated the game card to include these links too.</div><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeaMXwr0JV5FckCZn1ZkwUJpvm7hzerfk8Lp9vuv8sL0lhDgUsIpHuIstoatTgsQrj2a32lsJJiZqVyaUg3JBXUm7if5bwkMTCANDoJ-YRWIDYkECnrCUL3QVZ1sCP1YM7x47Aad_aypoN7Vt_u6eY7rfmW1PZn7IDs9rlWA-gsEII84FzISOqWGIl-FKV/s498/Screenshot%202023-08-29%20at%2012.16.16%20PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="498" data-original-width="307" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeaMXwr0JV5FckCZn1ZkwUJpvm7hzerfk8Lp9vuv8sL0lhDgUsIpHuIstoatTgsQrj2a32lsJJiZqVyaUg3JBXUm7if5bwkMTCANDoJ-YRWIDYkECnrCUL3QVZ1sCP1YM7x47Aad_aypoN7Vt_u6eY7rfmW1PZn7IDs9rlWA-gsEII84FzISOqWGIl-FKV/w123-h200/Screenshot%202023-08-29%20at%2012.16.16%20PM.png" width="123" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Now with external links</td></tr></tbody></table><h3 style="text-align: left;">Discord Detectable Integration</h3></div><div>Discord exposes <a href="https://discordapp.com/api/v9/applications/detectable" target="_blank">a JSON file</a> containing a plethora of information that they use for their in game presence. The most valuable for me is the process information for both windows and osx. Currently in order to detect a game, users need to add the game to the TempusGameIt catalog, by pairing up the IGDB entry with a running executable. We can short-circuit that now since we've got the executable from the discord presence and can connect it back to an IGDB entry via the steam ID.</div><div><br /></div><div>So now hopefully games that you're interested in playing should be available somewhat automatically, via the power of cloud-sourcing 😆.</div><div><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">Steam Achievement Linking</h3><div>Steam exposes player achievements via their <a href="https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Steam_Web_API#GetPlayerAchievements_.28v0001.29" target="_blank">Web API</a>. Since switching to IGDB, we now have the Steam ID of a game, which in turns means that we can pull a user's game information from Steam. The only requirement is that the user has linked their Steam account to TempusGameIt.</div><div><br /></div><div>This means that we can now link up achievements earned in a gaming session back to their TempusGameIt session. The great part about this is that it generally applies to all Steam games that support achievements. There's no custom code or hookup points like there is with the World of Warcraft or Everquest 2 achievement linking.</div><div><br /></div><div>You can see this <a href="https://tempusgameit.com/sessions/6158e6571f70b80011423f24" target="_blank">here now</a> in New World</div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9_wZV2aP5VlYZbJ0yAh1k3Y-zHm15zlRaW84yE4T_8cgLdia_lByls_Ut6yJhqy8YkZKzQGHjDkAsZvJoSswbt_-q_D7ZbWmIR4c3UaSE7djhJat16lrZp0DzbUenDIMCAJygOLVLgdUYvaWNpCo4DmHQQC0I4qbRyVOWsRSwBKcrX13fJGtVnF3sZkx8/s452/Screenshot%202023-08-29%20at%201.28.14%20PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="216" data-original-width="452" height="153" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9_wZV2aP5VlYZbJ0yAh1k3Y-zHm15zlRaW84yE4T_8cgLdia_lByls_Ut6yJhqy8YkZKzQGHjDkAsZvJoSswbt_-q_D7ZbWmIR4c3UaSE7djhJat16lrZp0DzbUenDIMCAJygOLVLgdUYvaWNpCo4DmHQQC0I4qbRyVOWsRSwBKcrX13fJGtVnF3sZkx8/s320/Screenshot%202023-08-29%20at%201.28.14%20PM.png" width="320" /></a></div><h3 style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Warcraft Link Fixes</h3><div>I finally fixed the achievement linking for World of Warcraft that broke when they re-did their API back in 2021 maybe? This is back up and running again, and should happily detect new achievements and link them as you earn them in game.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqg97q1GSU_GbRecioGxtDEjt-F6ZNw5rl7e9Nin7hC8mMOe_IIFOexbBr1zMHLLnueRcCJ1gha5XG4WV6xk9we1WSjEOuehG_e0FckVC9W06WluS8sDUVxUbSTmkjF4k8KH3mZzbiJZD0CkHuANxJe0BzTYDZjsVWGliDmVe4KMPD3eR8icwDVTS_4RG7/s635/Screenshot%202023-08-29%20at%201.37.31%20PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="321" data-original-width="635" height="162" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqg97q1GSU_GbRecioGxtDEjt-F6ZNw5rl7e9Nin7hC8mMOe_IIFOexbBr1zMHLLnueRcCJ1gha5XG4WV6xk9we1WSjEOuehG_e0FckVC9W06WluS8sDUVxUbSTmkjF4k8KH3mZzbiJZD0CkHuANxJe0BzTYDZjsVWGliDmVe4KMPD3eR8icwDVTS_4RG7/s320/Screenshot%202023-08-29%20at%201.37.31%20PM.png" width="320" /></a></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">What's next?</h3><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">One of the big gaps for me is gaming on a non-Windows install and properly tracking that time. Things like FFXIV on OSX are not detected, nor is LOTRO running through CrossOver on OSX. I'm working on improving client support for this detection. I know there isn't a huge segment of people playing in these environments, but the gap is there and I'd like to get it closed.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Also coming is a rework of the gallery support for screenshots, as well as a general Screenshots section on the sight, where you can view screenshots for users or game without having to dive into the respective items.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I try and keep the <a href="https://trello.com/b/0qj8Jtr9/tempusgameit" target="_blank">Trello board</a> mostly up to date. Feel free to check it out!</div><br /><br /></div>Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00720797197086595309noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1620247124765941300.post-56509324897460723142023-08-29T11:56:00.000-04:002023-08-29T11:56:00.501-04:00Last week in gaming updates<p>The weeks continue to be busy with work, school, and after-school activities, as is clearly evidenced by my gameplay.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw0I-iFwg8OgpmQD02U0Zo-dBntb-LOH3FaEQUlrT5Hfj0RIUg5QYa5O3Hfwbvdwi3q1i5kCRhSW1ZOzXAbfOcR7BDZp7Gov1P0WMncaOuXgZ9zDbEoZftRg6VTqD3OVlyCKq4SieLYWJ5uwXFdyiJgLG4mvPXxy_R64DWNx8H78u_67kXKEZfsKcPsItB/s1375/Screenshot%202023-08-28%20at%203.08.04%20PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1061" data-original-width="1375" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw0I-iFwg8OgpmQD02U0Zo-dBntb-LOH3FaEQUlrT5Hfj0RIUg5QYa5O3Hfwbvdwi3q1i5kCRhSW1ZOzXAbfOcR7BDZp7Gov1P0WMncaOuXgZ9zDbEoZftRg6VTqD3OVlyCKq4SieLYWJ5uwXFdyiJgLG4mvPXxy_R64DWNx8H78u_67kXKEZfsKcPsItB/s16000/Screenshot%202023-08-28%20at%203.08.04%20PM.png" /></a></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">Elder Scrolls Online</h3><div>I spent most of my gaming time in the <a href="https://tempusgameit.com/users/kevin/game/52f669385715615634e212e4" target="_blank">Elder Scrolls Online</a>, and most of that was wandering around in High Isle's Galen zone with no real purpose other than exploring, doing zone events, and the odd side quest. It was mindless fun that was an easy way to wrap up the go-go-go IRL day.<p></p><div>Along the lines of Eveli re-appearing in Deadlands, ESO does a great job of having you cross paths with characters as the story progresses over the years. This time I got to see my old buddy Razum-dar and we sussed out a pirate haven dressed in disguise.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://tempusgameit-production.s3.amazonaws.com/screenshots/511c66ba70adf5ec0d000001/52f669385715615634e212e4/Screenshot_20230824_002023.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="335" data-original-width="800" height="335" src="https://tempusgameit-production.s3.amazonaws.com/screenshots/511c66ba70adf5ec0d000001/52f669385715615634e212e4/Screenshot_20230824_002023.png" width="800" /></a></div><br /><div>ESO--for the assorted "offness" of its art style/direction to me--always does an amazing job of setting up beautiful places.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://tempusgameit-production.s3.amazonaws.com/screenshots/511c66ba70adf5ec0d000001/52f669385715615634e212e4/Screenshot_20230826_000839.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="335" data-original-width="800" height="335" src="https://tempusgameit-production.s3.amazonaws.com/screenshots/511c66ba70adf5ec0d000001/52f669385715615634e212e4/Screenshot_20230826_000839.png" width="800" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://tempusgameit-production.s3.amazonaws.com/screenshots/511c66ba70adf5ec0d000001/52f669385715615634e212e4/Screenshot_20230828_214852.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="335" data-original-width="800" height="335" src="https://tempusgameit-production.s3.amazonaws.com/screenshots/511c66ba70adf5ec0d000001/52f669385715615634e212e4/Screenshot_20230828_214852.png" width="800" /></a></div><br /><h3 style="text-align: left;">World of Warcraft</h3><div>In Azeroth, I spent most of <a href="https://tempusgameit.com/users/kevin/game/510fb456902a601858cb43a1" target="_blank">my time</a> replicating what I was doing in ESO--logging in and doing nothing in particular. If I was around for the top of the hour, I'd run a time rift, since those are easy, fun little exercises that have a chance at dropping a mount or an interesting piece of gear for transmog.<br /></div></div><div><br /></div><div>I also managed to finish up the trader's tenders for the month of August, so that also reduced the drive for me to log in and play.</div>Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00720797197086595309noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1620247124765941300.post-77140121088254888172023-08-21T11:34:00.003-04:002023-08-21T11:34:34.557-04:00Monday gaming brief<p>Been a busy week again at work with push on to hit some deadlines. So gaming during the week wasn't too high on the priority list once things were said and done. I played a lot of things this week on the weekdays, but they were in short bursts testing something for work, so it looks more interesting that it actually was.</p><p>This weekend though my wife was a bit under the weather, and that ended up translating to some more gaming time. Here's the breakdown from <a href="https://tempusgameit.com/users/kevin" target="_blank">tempusgameit</a></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_MZ2tumxhGxbVQDFVlK8iN3PhC9v-Slbmv-0_tdso3NHdK61nWw3M97iY0kP3xl7ISj0r7kPvLkTYt2mmnAIt-KCOeI3PX6WWb9uVkG6vcMqyoojiTQTtYcaCKiDofrknTyTXcEJSDR62rL7y3wVQPGJTpu3Bh_fFG0ozyqlIutsbbNuwC2Yc7K27qoU0/s1182/Screenshot%202023-08-21%20at%2010.32.58%20AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1019" data-original-width="1182" height="552" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_MZ2tumxhGxbVQDFVlK8iN3PhC9v-Slbmv-0_tdso3NHdK61nWw3M97iY0kP3xl7ISj0r7kPvLkTYt2mmnAIt-KCOeI3PX6WWb9uVkG6vcMqyoojiTQTtYcaCKiDofrknTyTXcEJSDR62rL7y3wVQPGJTpu3Bh_fFG0ozyqlIutsbbNuwC2Yc7K27qoU0/w640-h552/Screenshot%202023-08-21%20at%2010.32.58%20AM.png" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">The Elder Scrolls Online</h3>The Zeal of Zenithar event served its purpose and got me to come back to the game and do more than just login for the daily reward. I've got about half of the expansions halfway complete, and I decided that I'd work in a completely random order and picked Blackwood to finish.<div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://esossl-a.akamaihd.net/assets/img/cms/media/4a5bd1d03cdb87bd4563ed71b51446e7_the-elder-scrolls-online-blackwood_wallpaper-1280x1024.jpg?no-resize" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="800" height="256" src="https://esossl-a.akamaihd.net/assets/img/cms/media/4a5bd1d03cdb87bd4563ed71b51446e7_the-elder-scrolls-online-blackwood_wallpaper-1280x1024.jpg?no-resize" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div>I had previously finished the Blackwood portion and left off somewhere in the Deadlands. Turns out I was maybe halfway through this part of the story, and it was a fun, not too long ride to the end.</div><div><br /></div><div>I had forgotten how enjoyable I found the cast of characters that accompanied me along this ride. It made me wish that some of the folks that you encounter and adventure with as you follow the story could also be companions. For example, Eveli is fun and a bright spirit, and I'd love to have her along for the ride.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://tempusgameit-production.s3.amazonaws.com/screenshots/511c66ba70adf5ec0d000001/52f669385715615634e212e4/Screenshot_20230819_163726.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="335" data-original-width="800" height="335" src="https://tempusgameit-production.s3.amazonaws.com/screenshots/511c66ba70adf5ec0d000001/52f669385715615634e212e4/Screenshot_20230819_163726.png" width="800" /></a></div><br /><div>While Eveli is an old friend from Wrothgar, my favorite new character is clearly Arox the Mutilator, a fierce Daedra stuck in a daedrat body. His enthusiasm for mayhem on your behalf is bar none.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://tempusgameit-production.s3.amazonaws.com/screenshots/511c66ba70adf5ec0d000001/52f669385715615634e212e4/Screenshot_20230819_161414.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="335" data-original-width="800" height="335" src="https://tempusgameit-production.s3.amazonaws.com/screenshots/511c66ba70adf5ec0d000001/52f669385715615634e212e4/Screenshot_20230819_161414.png" width="800" /></a></div><br /><div>The final fight against Mehrunes Dagon is pretty incredible and makes me appreciate how Zenimax has balanced out major beats in the story with making a fight fun but not hard. The visuals were pretty incredible, especially when Mehrunes bent over to yell:</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://tempusgameit-production.s3.amazonaws.com/screenshots/511c66ba70adf5ec0d000001/52f669385715615634e212e4/Screenshot_20230819_160400.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="335" data-original-width="800" height="335" src="https://tempusgameit-production.s3.amazonaws.com/screenshots/511c66ba70adf5ec0d000001/52f669385715615634e212e4/Screenshot_20230819_160400.png" width="800" /></a></div><br /><div>But after a fun time and multiple phases we vanquished him, and the Anchorite used the power of the Ambitions to banish him and we were victorious.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://tempusgameit-production.s3.amazonaws.com/screenshots/511c66ba70adf5ec0d000001/52f669385715615634e212e4/Screenshot_20230819_160542.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="335" data-original-width="800" height="335" src="https://tempusgameit-production.s3.amazonaws.com/screenshots/511c66ba70adf5ec0d000001/52f669385715615634e212e4/Screenshot_20230819_160542.png" width="800" /></a></div><br /><div>I seem to remember having a bit of a challenging time adjusting to the dramatic shift in setting from Blackwood to the Deadlands. Having a bit of separation was nice though, and I found the stories set up in that plane of Oblivion interesting and fun to play through.</div><div><br /></div><div>Up next, I'm going to finish up High Isle, as I'm pretty close to finishing the first half of the chapter!</div><h3 style="text-align: left;">World of Warcraft</h3><div>Time was ticking on August, and I was seriously behind on the Trading Post for the month, so I figured I would dedicate a bit of time to try and catch up. And it was TBC Timewalking last week, and I always love a good TW event (even if it means running Magisters Terrace).</div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://tempusgameit-production.s3.amazonaws.com/screenshots/511c66ba70adf5ec0d000001/510fb456902a601858cb43a1/WoWScrnShot_081823_185053.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="335" data-original-width="800" height="335" src="https://tempusgameit-production.s3.amazonaws.com/screenshots/511c66ba70adf5ec0d000001/510fb456902a601858cb43a1/WoWScrnShot_081823_185053.jpg" width="800" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Good riddance</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div>It was fun to be back, after having taken nearly a month away. The biggest challenge was convincing myself that I had bound Power Word:Shield to the "1" key and Prayer of Mending to the "2" key, but once I worked that out, I was all good. Timewalking is such a low pressure, easy way to scratch that itch and heal some dungeons.</div><div><br /></div><div>I also caught up on a bunch of Niffen quests and managed to see all of the different sniff sites and earned the achievement. In addition, I finally did the 3 days of intro quests and unlocked the dragon daycare, although I don't know how much of that I'll do, given that as far as I could tell the rewards were pet battle goodies, of which I don't ever really play.</div><div><br /></div><div>I had enough tenders to buy the Spirit of Competition, which I'm glad to have gotten. I missed it when it was released the first time around. I'm guessing that was when I had let me account lapse, and it was one of the things I wished I had from back in the day. So, now checked that item off.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://wow.zamimg.com/uploads/screenshots/normal/1113243.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="448" data-original-width="800" height="448" src="https://wow.zamimg.com/uploads/screenshots/normal/1113243.jpg" width="800" /></a></div><br /><div>I'm just a few bits away from the Blood Troll transmogs, and that should be easy to get in the next couple days.</div><div><br /></div><div>All in all, a low key, fun time back in Azeroth. I don't know how long I'll stay, but it was nice to be back--even if it was just for a few days.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://tempusgameit-production.s3.amazonaws.com/screenshots/511c66ba70adf5ec0d000001/510fb456902a601858cb43a1/WoWScrnShot_081823_200336.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="335" data-original-width="800" height="335" src="https://tempusgameit-production.s3.amazonaws.com/screenshots/511c66ba70adf5ec0d000001/510fb456902a601858cb43a1/WoWScrnShot_081823_200336.jpg" width="800" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div><div><br /></div></div>Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00720797197086595309noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1620247124765941300.post-11302186512021539612023-08-11T11:44:00.000-04:002023-08-11T11:44:00.255-04:00Ultima IV<p>In the spirit of Blaugust, I'm reflecting on the games that were important to me throughout the years. One that comes to mind pretty much immediately is Ultima IV.</p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEglGE2NBm5SXGvacSQaRJTCO6jba0PtoVSlff1dKMJhQWqjoNh6Z6Ljw-vFd68o2Xo73vyAZQBW3a1oaDfxHsKDhuYwnR6I6mu-2Nd95wmW5MQFAlwBT0uzvtpHT_F97bojK2z-95Oqlau3NKpZz1chn9Hb18f451q27LZN0KOSpMNUbDStKSlaFzYYU09f" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img data-original-height="1504" data-original-width="1056" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEglGE2NBm5SXGvacSQaRJTCO6jba0PtoVSlff1dKMJhQWqjoNh6Z6Ljw-vFd68o2Xo73vyAZQBW3a1oaDfxHsKDhuYwnR6I6mu-2Nd95wmW5MQFAlwBT0uzvtpHT_F97bojK2z-95Oqlau3NKpZz1chn9Hb18f451q27LZN0KOSpMNUbDStKSlaFzYYU09f=w281-h400" width="281" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">If I could get a print of this to frame and hang I would!</td></tr></tbody></table><br />I was almost 11 when this was released, and at the time I was completely beholden to whatever software my dad was purchasing. I don't think I'll ever know what made him pick this up--maybe a favorable review in a Apple magazine at the time? But at some point the game with the fantastical cover above just showed up at the house.</p><p>I distinctly remember that we set up our Apple IIc with monochrome monitor in a corner of the basement next to the laundry room door. Looking back, the monitor itself had a tiny viewport but at the time it seemed amazing. And so crisp too compared with the Intellivision and TI-994a that were run off our old TV.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://igotoffer.com/apple/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/apple_cII.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="408" data-original-width="527" height="248" src="https://igotoffer.com/apple/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/apple_cII.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">It ain't easy bein' green</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div>I don't recall the details of how or when I decided to start playing, but I do distinctly remember creating my first (and only) character named "Gregory". Since this was before I had gotten into Middle-Earth or cut my fantasy teeth on David Eddings it seemed like a proper fantastical name. Looking back too, it was pretty ingenious that the character creation was all based off a tarot deck and if you didn't really know the game, you didn't really get how to tweak your character into whatever class you wanted. Perfect for a kid who would have been overwhelmed by a D&D style character sheet.</div><div><br /></div><div>So I created Gregory and apparently valuing sacrifice above all else, ending up a tinker outside of Minoc. And away I went into this amazing world rendered in shades of green.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www7b.biglobe.ne.jp/~crazyunit/applewin/img/cu14-u4-green.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="416" data-original-width="588" height="416" src="https://www7b.biglobe.ne.jp/~crazyunit/applewin/img/cu14-u4-green.png" width="588" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>I was well and truly hooked. I'm pretty sure that it was the first game that I ever completed. Being a kid with time on their hands I remember doing everything. Everyone that could got a magic ax (because you could throw it at a distance it would return). I cast tremor with abandon. I delved dungeons with Yup and ZDown. I hung the cloth map on the wall. I learned and became proficient at reading and writing runic. I made a necklace out of twine and the novelty ankh included in the box. </div><div><br /></div><div>At some point I decided that I needed to take a look at the disk I was using as my save disk in Copy II+ and peek at the raw sector data.</div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiZVJH2B6Yc9qusmqMHSlk31M7fYpifwWFx7aI-uAjHBvgeO5zfylKyipd8_WlELvdamyN7no1DUW_OU6Qsi2HDVXbsXyU_Re-PlBybxtt5ES9OMfy8UgpKR9zUrnWK-PezRj4XYNNXzBN-H_e_z4mBn4jK2IfPMjKgDx7lGEgoD3VM2D7lLb7sorZB-fbJ" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="421" data-original-width="589" height="229" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiZVJH2B6Yc9qusmqMHSlk31M7fYpifwWFx7aI-uAjHBvgeO5zfylKyipd8_WlELvdamyN7no1DUW_OU6Qsi2HDVXbsXyU_Re-PlBybxtt5ES9OMfy8UgpKR9zUrnWK-PezRj4XYNNXzBN-H_e_z4mBn4jK2IfPMjKgDx7lGEgoD3VM2D7lLb7sorZB-fbJ" width="320" /></a></div><br />I did a string search for my character's name, and low and behold "Gregory" appeared in the random string of characters on the disk. Interesting... Oh, and look, these numbers here look like his stats. What happens if I set them to FF? Suddenly all of my characters were maxed and I was crushing everything in site. If I remember correctly I was also able to max out inventory, so things like reagents were never an issue again. Nor was gold.</div><div><br /></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjw87IyQ3ZME0RwNiJV8SbPQXonJDyUenWILC6fO3hgo64CrKN4Q3srvzAcuxhHApdwVhB-aGgRntgRgy25GMauZZVXNIoa7wt_NoD2rJQdwVHBeNIsTIyckDpWUwQ9hKJ4k7lowpusgQESI_lqxnpNOS185KI7wtZsOWhVGSa1nCvvqq6IX4tywJGfassz" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="485" data-original-width="573" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjw87IyQ3ZME0RwNiJV8SbPQXonJDyUenWILC6fO3hgo64CrKN4Q3srvzAcuxhHApdwVhB-aGgRntgRgy25GMauZZVXNIoa7wt_NoD2rJQdwVHBeNIsTIyckDpWUwQ9hKJ4k7lowpusgQESI_lqxnpNOS185KI7wtZsOWhVGSa1nCvvqq6IX4tywJGfassz" width="284" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The sector editor as pulled from the manual</td></tr></tbody></table><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Then one fateful day I accidentally had the wrong floppy in the drive and walked around Britannia and had geography data paged in from the disk. And it put garbage on the screen. But that garbage on the screen was all sorts of different pieces of terrain and creatures. Which made me wonder, what happens if I open up my save disc in sector editor again, and look for long sequences of the same number? Would that correspond to the map of Britannia?</div><div><br /></div><div>It did.</div><div><br /></div><div>So, that led me to find a convenient chuck on the map, and dutifully count between 0 and 255 and place them on the map. I suddenly had a map of every integer to "tile" in the game. </div><div><br /></div><div>This led to me completely reworking overland Britannia--not unlike you can do with Minecraft these days. While my memory is a bit hazy, I remember dutifully constructing long walled passages between the cities so that I could travel without the annoyance of random monsters or waiting on moon gates. I ran them across the vast ocean too (who was represented by 00 IIRC), so that I could forgo having to keep track of a ship. I was an 11 year old laying down an interstate in my fantasy world.</div><div><br /></div><div>Looking back I don't recall ever making it farther than hacking the overland map, since the dungeons were 3D and I don't ever remember trying to rework those.</div><div><br /></div><div>But that aside, Ultima IV was probably foundational for the individual that I became both personally and professionally. It really sealed how much I loved video games (RPGs especially). It showed me that I could use computers to modify someone else's creation and later construct my own. I'm especially thankful that my parents sacrificed a good chunk of change way back when so that we'd have an investment in new technology and that they encouraged me to enjoy it and harness it.<p><br /></p></div>Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00720797197086595309noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1620247124765941300.post-21671626873726662072023-08-07T12:12:00.002-04:002023-08-07T12:12:29.344-04:00Hope Springs Eternal (Mon Aug 7th Edition)<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://images.rawpixel.com/image_1000/czNmcy1wcml2YXRlL3Jhd3BpeGVsX2ltYWdlcy93ZWJzaXRlX2NvbnRlbnQvbHIvcHgxNDQxMDY5LWltYWdlLWt3eXE5MDZ6LmpwZw.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="150" src="https://images.rawpixel.com/image_1000/czNmcy1wcml2YXRlL3Jhd3BpeGVsX2ltYWdlcy93ZWJzaXRlX2NvbnRlbnQvbHIvcHgxNDQxMDY5LWltYWdlLWt3eXE5MDZ6LmpwZw.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>Last week was a week! Kids' first day of school was on Tuesday, and everything was fun but busy until later in the afternoon when the company's founder sent a message that was along the lines of, "hey, there's some weird things going on with that feature you released. Can you take a look?" And a bit later in the week one of the product people was asking, "Hey, how are we looking on publicizing that feature next week?"<p></p><p>So most everything was tabled last week, including both Blaugust as well as and any kind of real gaming. I messed around briefly in Elder Scrolls Online doing just enough for the daily Zeal of Zenithar event, but that was the extent of things.</p><p>The PR for the assorted fixes just went off to review an hour ago, so here's hoping for a more relaxed pace this week. I'd love to catch up on a little bit of Lord of the Rings Online too, as I'm close to getting the legendary item reward track seagull at level 25.</p><p>I am happy that everyone is excited about both Palia and Baldur's Gate 3. At some point maybe I'll try both, but until then I'll enjoy them through other peoples' enjoyment.</p><p>Hope you have a wonderful week!</p>Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00720797197086595309noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1620247124765941300.post-24093938151164408462023-07-31T19:31:00.004-04:002023-08-01T12:23:53.312-04:00Star Trek Podcasts I really like<p>I've been a Star Trek fan from way back when, watching the original series in syndication in 80's as a little kid, and through the launches of all the other Trek series since TNG back in the day. </p><p>I'm a big podcast fan too and find a nice pairing of Trek/Pods works really well. Here are some the most noteworthy ones for me.</p><span><a name='more'></a></span><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.theincomparable.com/imgs/logos/logo-randomtrek-1x.jpg" style="display: inline; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="350" height="200" src="https://www.theincomparable.com/imgs/logos/logo-randomtrek-1x.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><h4 style="text-align: left;"></h4><h2 style="text-align: left;">Random Trek</h2>A fun review of old trek shows, hosted by Scott McNulty. It is an easy listen, there's a good variety in the series that get picked, and it's fun to hear other people talk about Star Trek and what they like and don't like. The guests are varied and interesting and I've always thought "what would I say if I were a guest?". It's also fun to listen to Scott repeatedly mix up Reed and Tucker.<p></p><p><a href="https://www.theincomparable.com/randomtrek/" target="_blank">Website</a> <a href="https://feeds.theincomparable.com/randomtrek" target="_blank">RSS</a></p><h4 style="text-align: left;"><span></span></h4><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.theincomparable.com/imgs/logos/logo-vulcanhello-2x.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="700" height="200" src="https://www.theincomparable.com/imgs/logos/logo-vulcanhello-2x.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><h2 style="text-align: left;">Vulcan Hello</h2>Another Star Trek podcast hosted by Scott McNulty, this time with co-host Jason Snell. They both have a very deep knowledge of trek, have great on air chemistry, and have an easy, low pressure perspective on the canon of trek. They both can offer fair criticism of new Trek without being mean or petty (which is a good thing--especially for Picard).<div><br /></div><div><a href="https://www.theincomparable.com/vulcanhello/">Website</a> <a href="https://feeds.theincomparable.com/vulcanhello" target="_blank">RSS</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://is1-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/Podcasts114/v4/ce/89/ea/ce89ea9e-d28d-f653-27a1-590abb2d5383/mza_16841548832953525789.jpg/313x0w.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="313" data-original-width="313" height="200" src="https://is1-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/Podcasts114/v4/ce/89/ea/ce89ea9e-d28d-f653-27a1-590abb2d5383/mza_16841548832953525789.jpg/313x0w.webp" width="200" /></a></div><h2 style="text-align: left;">The Delta Flyers</h2><div>The real heavy hitter on this list. Hosted by Garrett Wang and Robert Duncan-McNeill (yes, Harry Kim and Tom Paris). Started as a fun project during COVID, they watch each episode of Voyager in order, give a story synopsis, comment on the guts of film making, and generally offer incredible views of Voyager, the cast & crew, and production. RDM is a accomplished director and producer at this point in his career and I've learned lots of jargon from this podcast. One big praise that I can laud on this podcast is the fact that its given me more of an appreciation for Voyager and its characters and the actors behind the characters.</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://www.thedeltaflyers.org/" target="_blank">Website</a></div>Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00720797197086595309noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1620247124765941300.post-47776750639240809092023-07-30T15:01:00.004-04:002023-07-30T15:01:30.853-04:00King's Gondor Complete<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://assets-cdn.daybreakgames.com/uploads/dcsclient/000/000/234/421.png?v=1.0" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="357" data-original-width="800" height="89" src="https://assets-cdn.daybreakgames.com/uploads/dcsclient/000/000/234/421.png?v=1.0" width="200" /></a></div>For whatever reason, the mood came over me to play a bit of <a href="https://tempusgameit.com/users/kevin/game/510fb486902a601858cb43ac" target="_blank">Lord of the Rings Online</a> this week and I as able to wrap up chapter 1 of "The Song of Wind and Water" AKA King's Gondor.<p></p><p>It was an easy romp with a few pieces of gear upgraded here and there. As a bonus, I always enjoy questing alongside of Gimli and Legolas and as a dwarf I feel like I fit right in. There were a few folks who were happy to see me again which required a trip or two out to lotro-wiki, since it has been ages since I've done the Gondor content.</p><p>It was in good introduction to the new directions that we'll be heading in Middle-Earth, and while some of locales seemed very sparse with regards to quests, this is just the first part of a greater whole. So I'll keep that in perspective before judging things too harshly.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://tempusgameit-production.s3.amazonaws.com/screenshots/511c66ba70adf5ec0d000001/510fb486902a601858cb43ac/ScreenShot_2023-07-29_175539_0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="335" data-original-width="800" height="269" src="https://tempusgameit-production.s3.amazonaws.com/screenshots/511c66ba70adf5ec0d000001/510fb486902a601858cb43ac/ScreenShot_2023-07-29_175539_0.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="text-align: left;">Lugging around a bucket of oil from one of the beacons of Gondor</i></td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://tempusgameit-production.s3.amazonaws.com/screenshots/511c66ba70adf5ec0d000001/510fb486902a601858cb43ac/ScreenShot_2023-07-29_175926_0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="335" data-original-width="800" height="268" src="https://tempusgameit-production.s3.amazonaws.com/screenshots/511c66ba70adf5ec0d000001/510fb486902a601858cb43ac/ScreenShot_2023-07-29_175926_0.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="text-align: left;">Then a barrel of rusty weapons to foil some wayward folks' plans</i></td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://tempusgameit-production.s3.amazonaws.com/screenshots/511c66ba70adf5ec0d000001/510fb486902a601858cb43ac/ScreenShot_2023-07-30_001911_0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="335" data-original-width="800" height="268" src="https://tempusgameit-production.s3.amazonaws.com/screenshots/511c66ba70adf5ec0d000001/510fb486902a601858cb43ac/ScreenShot_2023-07-30_001911_0.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="text-align: left;">And finally I got to meet with some of the characters that I think we'll be seeing in this fall's expansion when we head to Umbar.</i></td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><div>It makes sense now why they surprisingly added all the additional appearance options to human characters, since they needed to start account for a world where everyone doesn't look like they're from Scandinavia. I'm excited to see what they do with the city, and am hopeful that we'll get to see some biomes completely different that what we've got so far. Do I smell some seaside desert perhaps?</div><div><br /><p><br /></p></div></div>Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00720797197086595309noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1620247124765941300.post-38533062652882507672023-07-29T11:54:00.002-04:002023-07-29T11:54:22.757-04:00It's Blaugust y'all!<p>Hanging out here in at the hair salon while kids get their back to school cuts. It seems like a great time to mention that today is the start of Blaugust 2023!</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiliyZG4MxVYwVR35iXlt-DHpTbFFze3Hj00XckLobxP6BFavCBGmJJ8RT_t0gs7l3ejAnD512d82mBMXbUSiopAfu5oypuPf_oXYftgrbiTq6iBvAzVpLiS-lba1Lc_oR3Xe2uydsV6vAlpaMfPzhj8S98TAet0VkHsUQ-ff42Th3mI2MFlBaVkDU-t-XZ" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="671" data-original-width="1000" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiliyZG4MxVYwVR35iXlt-DHpTbFFze3Hj00XckLobxP6BFavCBGmJJ8RT_t0gs7l3ejAnD512d82mBMXbUSiopAfu5oypuPf_oXYftgrbiTq6iBvAzVpLiS-lba1Lc_oR3Xe2uydsV6vAlpaMfPzhj8S98TAet0VkHsUQ-ff42Th3mI2MFlBaVkDU-t-XZ" width="320" /></a></div><p>If you're here congrats, because it means you must have sailed to the very ends of the internet. This blog has been dormant longer than the Martians hiding under our streets waiting to vaporize us with heat rays.</p>I'm hoping to use this as a way to encourage myself to share a little bit more in long form, instead of the typical short form burst of me over on masto (@kevinbrill@gamepad.club). If you're here and thinking about blogging, now is a great time to start!<br /><p></p><br />Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00720797197086595309noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1620247124765941300.post-13132810297025478162023-07-17T09:28:00.007-04:002023-07-17T09:28:55.563-04:00Why we containerize everything!<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://spls.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/single-GP-shipping-container.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="534" data-original-width="800" height="214" src="https://spls.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/single-GP-shipping-container.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>This blog is currently hosted over on blogger (and has been for 10+ years sporadic activity). There's a few things that I'm not in love with. The editor kinda sucks--I'd really love a simple markdown editor. Also using a more custom theme seems to take away some of the basic layout bits and pieces. Lastly in the spirit of owning your own content, I'm not super excited about all my content being hosted on google's services.<p></p><p>So I thought why not look to run Wordpress on my server in the basement (affectionally known as "edoras", since all the household computers have Middle-Earth names)? 20 years ago this same server hosted a drupal instance which I ended up retiring after a few troublesome apache updates. So first step in getting Wordpress running was to make sure that my old mysql server instance was good to go. It was not. Apparently we're all on <a href="https://mariadb.org/" target="_blank">mariadb</a> now (which is cool), but <a href="https://apparmor.com/" target="_blank">AppArmor</a> was interfering with the mariadb systemctl service from starting. I messed with it for 15 minutes or so before giving up.</p><p>I had to remind myself again, this is why I should run everything in a docker container. So maybe I'll give it another go when I get a bit more free time. It seems like running both wordpress and mariadb in a container would be an improved solution, and ideally I'll lump them into a compose file so they all spin up together and the networking between the two isn't as much a of PITA. I should also be able to include some automated SSL certs too, which is nice.</p><p>But that is something for another day. For now, I'll keep chugging along here, and we'll see how things go before I really invest in some infra.</p>Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00720797197086595309noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1620247124765941300.post-88581487802360189892023-07-14T11:40:00.001-04:002023-07-14T11:42:51.396-04:00Dusting things off<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/64/Blowing-alkali-dust-Owens-Lake.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="150" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/64/Blowing-alkali-dust-Owens-Lake.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>Let's blow some dust off the site and get ready for Blaugust 2023! I'm going to take the plunge this year and see how it goes.<p></p><p>I've enjoyed the small circle of online acquaintances I've made over on mastodon at <a href="http://gamepad.club">gamepad.club</a> and it has inspired me to dabble in more long form writing.</p><p>Here's hoping it goes well!</p>Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00720797197086595309noreply@blogger.com0Decatur, GA 30030, USA33.7709887 -84.2963391999999915.4607548638211512 -119.45258919999999 62.081222536178842 -49.140089199999991tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1620247124765941300.post-82660193709380356692017-08-14T13:14:00.001-04:002017-08-14T13:14:29.978-04:00I can live without twitterAfter all the nonsense that has gone down over the past months with our current presidential administration, I've come to release that my twitter feed had largely turned into a place for people to vent their frustration without taking any real action.<div>
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So I just went ahead and removed it from my devices. Life is that much more peaceful now, and I can control when I consume news, and hopefully receive it from reputable sources that aren't sensationalizing.</div>
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And I stopped checking FaceBook months ago. Social media really isn't that much of a thing for me. I've found that if I'm interested in something, there's normally a place for it on Reddit. Here's some of the subs that I like:</div>
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https://www.reddit.com/r/Atlanta/</div>
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https://www.reddit.com/r/Rift/</div>
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If you've got lots of angst over what's happening in your social media feed, then by all means, stop checking. It'll make a world of difference!</div>
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<i>Interested in tracking your PC game play time? Get started now with <a href="http://tempusgameit.com/">Tempus GameIt</a></i></div>
Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00720797197086595309noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1620247124765941300.post-30538148592687275352014-08-05T18:53:00.000-04:002014-08-05T23:12:03.477-04:002.8 on WednesdayRift Patch 2.8 is coming this Wednesday (the 6th of August). I'm excited to see it drop, since it's the first major content update for me since I've been max level.<div>
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RiftGrate has an <a href="http://riftgrate.com/2014/07/31/rift-2-8-madness-wakes-release-date-announced-lore-piece/">awesome summary</a> of what's in the patch.</div>
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I'm probably most looking forward to the prelude quests, since the story content is typically fun, engaging and can be completed over the course of a few play sessions. </div>
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The part that I find most interesting in the scope of features and the strategy of a dev team are clearly the <a href="http://riftgrate.com/2014/06/13/livestream-summary-13th-june-2014/">Auction House updates</a>. The fact that Trion is cool with sharing price history for items is a bit mind blowing to me, since most companies seem to either not be interested in exposing this data, or push it off onto third party addons. I may taken it upon myself to create an index, lumping together some of the most commonly traded components and tracking their prices on a regular basis. I would be curious to see how closely pricing on the AH reflects the overall health of the economy in game, and even the overall health of the game itself. Hmmm, it looks like I've just created a project for myself...</div>
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See you in Telara!</div>
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<i>Interested in tracking your PC game play time? Get started now with <a href="http://tempusgameit.com/">Tempus GameIt</a></i></div>
Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00720797197086595309noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1620247124765941300.post-63161472744821885192014-08-04T17:00:00.000-04:002014-08-04T17:00:00.699-04:00Rift weekend update<div>
Late last week, I managed to get to Honored with the Torvan hunters, and picked up the next tier of cape. I also stopped being cheap and spent around 20k in Infinity Stones, and added a few pieces of gear and upgraded them to help balance out some inconsistencies in what I'm wearing.</div>
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Over the weekend, I spent most of my time working on the first tier of hunt rifts, ran a daily raid rift with my awesome guild (Go go team <a href="http://grievancegaming.org/">Grievance</a>), and knocked a few more zones off towards the <a href="http://www.rifthead.com/achievement/725561048/bane-of-the-bloodfire">Bane of the Bloodfire</a> achievement. <div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJASw7_j6fNRNJRWasiDNohzOXSQu3YcpgfkgNU2jc9Lm2O8f7h0PvNDru71MgRsh-r_8xYScEP6nJcruyXkofBByWnlAaN1bbowPRUpb3n2byvxu-Vg4brs47FW4OxO_iPhBS8Wz6awKC/s1600/2014-07-02_015143.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJASw7_j6fNRNJRWasiDNohzOXSQu3YcpgfkgNU2jc9Lm2O8f7h0PvNDru71MgRsh-r_8xYScEP6nJcruyXkofBByWnlAaN1bbowPRUpb3n2byvxu-Vg4brs47FW4OxO_iPhBS8Wz6awKC/s1600/2014-07-02_015143.jpg" height="180" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Riding around Ashora</td></tr>
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Still working from a place of fear, I continued to do nothing with my raid healing spec. Whenever I ended up in a zone event, I did a good job of keeping the group up and felt effective, until a chloro showed up, and completely kept the raid healed leaving me with nothing to do. Today over lunch, I went ahead and watched <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQQCO0CE4cw">Seatin's really good video on Warden healing</a>, and it was much less overwhelming than <a href="http://forums.riftgame.com/game-discussions/rift-guides-strategies/class-guides/cleric-guides/426444-2-7-ahovs-warden-guide.html">Ahov's guide</a> on the forum.<br />
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The next time I get a chance to play, I'm going to spec into Warden and <b>make it happen</b>. The beauty of zone events is that no one bothers you if you're sub-par, since it is typically such a zerg fest. I think too, that the need to switch to better raid frames may not be as urgent if I get a decent Warden build. There's a lot less targeting of individuals while running a Warden, which seems to be the main sticking point I have with the default raid UI and Sentinel healing.<br />
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Rift is really getting its hooks deep into me, I'm having a great time, and keep looking forward to playing. Last week, I got into the Archeage beta, and messed a bit with Wildstar, but I keep coming back to Rift. I think I need to write up a summary of what I like in what Trion has done, and what makes it win out versus other titles.<br />
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Keep on gaming, and I'll see you in Telara!<br />
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<i>Interested in tracking your PC game play time? Get started now with <a href="http://tempusgameit.com/">Tempus GameIt</a></i></div>
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Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00720797197086595309noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1620247124765941300.post-13659199820953831132014-07-31T12:19:00.001-04:002014-07-31T12:29:23.405-04:00Rift musings<div>
Summerfest is over, I'm at level cap and it will be a few months before Nightmare Tide. I'm clearly a goal oriented achiever, so, <a href="http://prettylittlesith.com/2014/07/29/personal-goals-in-swtor/" target="_blank">a lot like Heather over at Pretty Little Sith</a>, I had to set some goals to keep me interested.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinhr9AZd0JEYBs-efNgNzwiYKw3aU6AFZz6P5yoDAwwPid1i8dZ_SAv-rfnlUqY61t-YSOFgfTPjxZGKtlBBbB1S5LBPXd-GpOCFP40BFKFgQRkkGyxsrPmSAQicj_QF5_cAcH6Aln8vLW/s1600/2014-03-07_001324.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinhr9AZd0JEYBs-efNgNzwiYKw3aU6AFZz6P5yoDAwwPid1i8dZ_SAv-rfnlUqY61t-YSOFgfTPjxZGKtlBBbB1S5LBPXd-GpOCFP40BFKFgQRkkGyxsrPmSAQicj_QF5_cAcH6Aln8vLW/s1600/2014-03-07_001324.jpg" height="250" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A random photo of Bruun</td></tr>
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I'd like to get into expert dungeons and raids, but I feel obligated to not have a hodge-podge of gear hitting the ground, especially since I'm a masochist and like healing. I did a bit of research on the basics of gearing for a new 60, and identified a few spots that needed to improve. I was fortunate to have hoarded a bunch of lockboxes while leveling, so I had a good start in some areas, but they didn't fill in all the gaps. So, I tasked myself with replacing my cape and lesser essences.<br />
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The best route for this was via the rewards from the Torvan hunters, and I needed about 10k rep to get honored, so that meant it was time to do some <a href="http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/09/27/rift-lets-you-go-on-the-offensive-with-hunt-rifts/" target="_blank">Hunt Rifts</a>. Someone was LFM in 60 chat for some Great Hunt IVs, so I joined up and away we went. I initially started as DPS, but with a group of 10 and just one healer, were having issues, so I switched over to my Sentinel build--since that was the most up to date healing build that I have. In all, it was pretty successful and I had a good time. It was enlightening though, and I ended up with a few spots that I'd like to improve upon:<br />
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Sentinel has to go</h3>
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This is clearly something that I know of, and I have just never pulled the trigger, but sentinel is just not working in a raid environment. A majority of the heals are too slow, and by the time they pop, the chloro has topped the whole raid off. So, I've got a warden build in my future for sure. Testing new healing specs is pretty low stress, since most random groups seem to be pretty casual about roles and performance, so I can just go for it.<br />
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Raid frames need improvement</h3>
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I have the default rift raid frames set up, with mouse-over healing macros, but I've been having issues with the raid frames not properly notifying me when someone is out of range. So I end up burning a cooldown on topping myself off, when I really needed to pour some healing into the tank. I'm also not too enthused about my current key bindings. In general, I think I need to get comfortable with <a href="http://www.curse.com/addons/rift/click-box-healer" target="_blank">Click Box Healer</a>, which is fine, since I ran <a href="http://www.curse.com/addons/wow/vuhdo" target="_blank">Vuhdo</a> a thousand years ago with Omar in Azeroth.</div>
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Support is an option</h3>
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I always enjoyed running a bard, pre-Storm Legion. I think it might help out with me wanting to have a hand in generally supporting and improving the raid, and not just be in a single focus DPS role. Now that the new souls are here, clerics have a true support soul in the <a href="http://riftgrate.com/oracle-soul/" target="_blank">Oracle</a>. This looks fun to try, I just have yet to shell out the cash to pick up the Dream Souls pack. </div>
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It's good to have something to focus on, and that is always key with getting me to stick with a game long term. I'll make sure to keep things updated as I go!</div>
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<i>Interested in tracking your PC game play time? Get started now with <a href="https://tempusgameit.com/">Tempus GameIt</a></i>Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00720797197086595309noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1620247124765941300.post-29857317525030464202013-08-06T23:30:00.004-04:002013-08-06T23:30:56.445-04:00SWTOR: Welcome BackOn a whim, I pulled down <a href="http://www.swtor.com/" target="_blank">The Old Republic</a> last weekend, and to my surprise, I've been having a great time. I tried SWTOR at launch (thanks to a generous gift from my bro), but it didn't stick. The expectations were too high--could it wrap in dialogue in a meaningful way, could it tell a story and still be an open and expansive universe? Would it be the next big AAA title?<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Blue Lightsaber, Big City</td></tr>
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It fell flat against all those criteria, and I dropped it. Now, a year and a half later, I'm back in and having a great time. I actually saw the movies when they first came out (the first and best three), so I have Star Wars in my DNA. What is cooler than wielding a light-saber, and whacking away at Imperials? <br />
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What's the difference with me this time around? I think that I've convinced myself that <i>The Old Republic</i> is best view as <i>Knights of the Old Republic 3</i>. There's you, doing your thing world to world, righting wrongs, and generally being Jedi-two-shoes. And occasionally, you have the opportunity to team up with other people to accomplish other goals. You really get the best of both worlds.<br />
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So my big takeaway from this experience is to take a step back and remove the expectations of what you think a game should be, and what the "internet" thinks a game should be, and try to see what the game actually is. You may be surprised.Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00720797197086595309noreply@blogger.com0