sevenofeleven

Gleaner Chronicles is done up on Gdocs.
I got it edited by someone from Fimfiction.
All I have to do is to update the current chapters and then post the new ones.

Afterwards, I will start posting the next part to the story: Gleaner Chronicles: American Monsters.

I'm not sure what the schedule is but it will get done.

Another year gone and a new one awaits.

I went by the JibJab site to see if they have anything for 2015. Didn't see anything. Anyway, these folks make some great year in review animations. Maybe they are just late.

What did I do this year?
Wow! The crickets are pretty loud here.

Next year, I resolve to do something amazing or at least something memorable.
Yeah, in 2016, I will chew ass and kick bubble gum! Okay, bubble gum is a pain to kick, it just gets stuck on my shoes.

Happy New Year!

Path of Exile

Path of Exile is the name of a game that I have been playing for a few weeks. It looks like Diablo 2 with the bright red health globe on the left side, and the blue mana globe on the right. The graphics are more like Diablo 2/Lord of Destruction than Diablo 3. It's grittier and darker. To dismiss this game as a Diablo clone would be a disservice, there are a lot of things that are different and interesting under the hood.

I heard about this game after seeing a video going over why Diablo 3 breaks wrongly from the other two Diablo games. I didn't agree with the guy's video, but I decided to give this game a try. Its a 5 gb download. Don't expect to be playing right away because there are updates to be downloaded too. After that is done, then you might be able to play.

One big change from the Diablo games is that there is no money in the game. You can't walk up and buy a new sword with a hundred gold. Nope, you have to barter for that sword. Got an orb of Transmutation? You have a new sword. Though in the early stages of the game, your weapons are rusty, but still serviceable. Later stages or Acts as they call them in the game feature better weapons. At the start its driftwood and corroded, rusty stuff.

If you have a pile of junk you picked up, you can barter and get Scrolls of Wisdom which are id scrolls or portal scrolls. Portal scrolls take you to the nearest town. Depending on what you barter with, you can get different items. Scrolls of Wisdom are also used as money too.

One good thing POE shares with Diablo 3 is the stash that is shared across chars. Its the best way to get cool weapons in the hands of chars you make in the game. Also sometimes you find orb shards, bits of an orb. Combine enough shards and you have a full orb. There are a lot of different orb types. One orb will update a normal item to a magical item. Another orb will take a normal item and turn it into a rare item. One orb will randomly change the abilities of an item. Also some orbs are used as money too. I will talk more about orbs later.

You start the game and pick a character class, there are seven but one is not pickable from the start. You have to do something heroic near the end of one act to get that char.

Witch Magic user, uses intelligence.
Marauder Fighter, uses strength.
Ranger Bow master, uses dexterity.
Templar Fighter with spell casting abilities.
Duelist Melee fighter with dexterity.
Shadow Melee fighter with intelligence.
Scion Can use intelligence, dexterity and strength in any mix.

There are also three main attributes, Strength, Intelligence and Dexterity.
Each of these are assigned a color, Strength is red, Intelligence is blue and Dexterity is green. Its important to have these colors down because your wearable items except for rings and amulets have one or more sockets. Later acts add more sockets. These sockets are for skill gems, gems that hold your abilities. Want to cast fireballs? You will need a gem and a matching colored socket for that. Skill gems don't work sitting in your inventory. They work in your wearable item's matching sockets. The good news is that skill gems level up when you have them equipped. Even skill gems you don't use but have equipped level up.

Its a flexible system, if you find some better abilities later, you can remove the old skill gems for new ones. There is more to skill gems. Recently they added support gems. These gems enhance skill gems they are linked to. Besides having to make sure you have the right colored sockets, you may have to worry about having linked sockets.

There is an orb that will change the color of a socket (Chromatic Orb), but its kinda random which sucks. You have to trade a lot of other types of orbs to get a Chromatic orb. The Orb of Fusing is used to link up sockets, but it is also random. It could link up all of your sockets or take away links that you already have. Then you have to buy another one or wait until you get one from a loot drop. If you have all of your sockets the right color and linked, then you can put an ability and two support gems next to it.

One of my chars has Glacial Hammer, an ability that freezes enemies and shatters them into icy blocks. I added an area damage support gem and now my char can freeze and shatter enemies in an area in front of him. Support gems like skill gems also level up when equipped. Skill gems come in Red, Blue and Green. It is possible to use gems that don't support your class. A Marauder could use a fire trap spell, he just has to keep his dexterity high. This brings up the passive attributes.

Passive attributes are ones that the char just uses without having to pick them, they also include the main three attributes. You get one point when your char levels. That is done with a bright golden flash and a choir. There are so many choices. If you have a melee char, you could decide to use that point to raise your char's strength or raise elemental resistances, health regeneration, elemental damage, damage over time or other abilities.

Unlike Diablo 3 in which different classes have special abilities powered by different things like rage, chi or wrath, all chars in POE just use mana. Putting a few points in mana regen or raising the mana level is good for your char. There are no mana potions other than the flasks on your char's belt. Flasks fill up in towns and also in battle. If your char keeps fighting and does not get hit, he/she will have full flasks. While health potions in D3 have a cooldown, there are no cooldowns for flasks in POE.

There are a lot more things in the game that I did not cover like the Masters and Hideouts. The game supports PVP and also multiplayer.

Stuff I like about POE:

1. A lot of the regions have tons of atmosphere. I find myself creeping along in areas so my char does not get mobbed by enemies.

2. There are a wealth of options for customizing chars by using skill gems and the passive tree.

3. Each area has its own artwork, the Marketplace looks much different than the wet and almost gray Docks.

4. The voice acting helps to bring out the character of the NPCs.

5. Boss fights except for two exceptions are doable. There are no one hit kills. If you don't do anything dopey and keep your eyes open, you have a good chance.

The first exception was this fast moving snake boss that also fired spikes downward. I spent too much time watching it zip around.

The second exception was when my char got trapped up some stairs. The boss basically smacked her up. If you keep moving and dodging attacks you will be fine.

6. Totems are basically turrets that can heal your char or do other things. Decoy totems can piss off monsters and draw their attention. Some totems can cast spells or use ranged attacks. There are also items in the passive skill tree to improve the totem's effectiveness.

Totem and traps have a lot of depth on what effects and spells you can apply to them. Its even possible to have a trap generate a totem. Also depending on the support gem, you can add a special effect like extra cold damage to the totem or traps attacks.

7. Enemies use the same skills you do. You can see the effectiveness of certain skills when they are used against you. Firestorm's power can be seen when a mini boss in the first act uses it against your char. Also spells you use from the start still keep their usefulness in later Acts.

Stuff I don't like:

1. Staring at an almost black page with the Grinding Gears logo on it while the game loads. Come on guy and girl why don't you do something with that empty space? Show first person scenes from areas in the game or maybe some tips and hints not shown in the loading screens.

2. The game needs to show and explain things more. I put points in for accuracy and more criticals, but I have no idea that they work. There is no feedback on that. In D3, you can tell if your char is doing crits when you see golden numbers.

The wording on some support gems should be clearer on what they do or how they do it. Your skill gems level up, but you don't know what's getting better.

Yes, there is a wiki, but if you are in the game its not strange to expect to get info from the game. This is something D3 does well. Its real easy to tell if an item is better than what you equipped.

In Act 2, you get to meet Catarina, a master who is into dead things. When you meet her, she wants you to bring to her some corrupted creatures that you have to reanimate. I figured that I needed the zombie spell to do that so I ignored her. Only one of my chars had the zombie spell. It ends up that all you have to do is to click on the glowing green circle to reanimate the dead creatures. Any char can do that.

Somehow, this info should be in game so players know what to do.

3. If you have one set of weapon(s) for regular enemies and another set for elites and bosses, you can switch between them, but the mapping of skills gets screwed up. Its like the game forgets your mapping when you switch weapon sets. Its really annoying to have one set for elites and switch back and find out you are using the default weaker attack instead of what you mapped for your regular set.

Its pretty annoying to be pissing around with the default attack when you had mapped a better attack before.

4. Loot drops are kinda “meh”. A big part of that is sockets. Unless the weapon is way better than what I have, I will not bother with it. I leave so much loot on the ground, I expect the cops to give me tickets for littering.

Upgrading equipment is a pain. The sockets have to be the same colors as the current equipment or you have to change them. Chromatic orbs work randomly, maybe you will get the right colors in one click or five Chromatic orbs later. Run out of Chromatic orbs? Then you have to get other orbs and trade them for Chromatic orbs. Once you get the right colored sockets, you may have to worry about linking the sockets.

Have a skill gem and two support gems, then you need to link them up. Orbs of Fusing will link up your sockets or take away links. They work randomly too.

I did not cover finding weapons and armor with one socket, yes, there is an orb that will add more sockets but I don't bother with stuff that does not have the right amount of sockets.

Imagine having to do that for all of your equipment. What a pain.
I really care about linking and socket colors for weapons. I don't care that much for armor. It is important if you want a skill that you can use all the time like summoning a totem.

5. There needs to be more feedback for certain skills.
In the game, there are skill gems that give abilities that supposed to work automatically. You don't do them. One of them is Riposte, when its charged, your char retaliates on his own. I have no idea if its working.

6. The Automap sucks.
In one level, it left out all of the barricades. That area is blank, but you can see the barricades in the level.

In another level, its hard to tell what you are walking on. Is the white stuff the walls and I am walking on the black, wait, I am walking on white stuff too.

In some areas, the map works fine.

7. Monsters are sooo rude.

There are these quest giving NPCs called Fallen Masters. They like to camp out in the middle of monster town. Make sure you clear the area before having a chat or monsters will gnaw on you while you are talking.

8. Hitting the escape key in the middle of the game because of Life does not pause the game. Head back to town.

9. The game forgets your password from day to day.

10. This is not a dislike, but more of an observation. In D3, you can get extra xp by killing a group of enemies in one blow or smashing a lot of things. POE does not care. No extra xp there if you kill ten enemies with one blow or spell.

They patch the game a lot so some of the things I complain about may be fixed. The game is stable. I have had few crashes or disconnects back to the loading screen. Any goodies my chars pick up are still in the inventory.

At first glance POE seems to be a Diablo clone, but it has a lot of depth. Now I think more about the passive tree and what skills I want my chars to have. Diablo 3 gives you some power to make the char you want, but POE gives more power.

The story is interesting and the later acts add more things to do. The writers have spent some time to make a whole world with books and etchings to give the player some idea what has happened. Some books and etchings are read aloud and they sound great. Don't forget to check out the wind carved stones, the story of Kaom is a tragic read.

The game has a store with micro transactions but, I have found that the game is fine for free. I have played one game and they based buying armor and health off of gems that can be bought with real money or by finding them in game. That can be a pain to grind around for gems to buy better equipment.

I would recommend this game to folks that like a good click and kill game like the earlier Diablo games. The POE Wiki even has a section for Diablo 3 players.

Fears.

Everyone has them. You might cringe or giggle at the ghosties but they are there.
I have a bunch of fears but I am functional.

Well, at least more functional than Adrian Monk.
That guy is afraid of milk.

I will share one with you. I am afraid of the Dark. The psychologists call it "Nyctophobia".
www.msn.com/en-us/health/welln…

Seriously, I can't sleep in a totally dark room. I would just freak out.

When I went on a business trip to Atlanta, the room was pitch dark at night. I had to keep the bathroom light on, and keep the door cracked for some light.

Lucky for me, there are streetlamps outside at home so I get enough light. My computer's motherboard actually glows bright enough too.

I also can't walk by a totally dark room without looking in or closing the door. There is a voice inside that whispers,"Take a peek, maybe you will see something." I would like to ignore that voice, but I just have to look.

That is the other part, the fascination. I want to see if there is something looking back. Thank goodness, I don't see anything. This also covers my interest in empty dark storefronts, dark areas under bridges and other places.

Do you have a fear and fascination with the Dark?
Please share.

Goodbye 2014.

Here is a jib jab video for it.
www.jibjab.com/originals/2014_…

For 2015, I will spend more time doing figurative work. More people or people like things and less things.