2008-03-27 - The way of the shortblade

Log Entry for 19-07-10.

It has been a long time since my last entry, reason being I am not very active upon Calypso at the moment, maybe I will be in the future but I do not know.

I have managed to get a couple of Kesmek Betts and have worked my way through these quite speedily, the first one I did OK on, turning a small profit, the second was a disaster with a loss of over 50%, my fault though, I thought I would have a go at the Longtooths seeing as they were there and I remember having quite a few successes against these in the past, I think then they were somewhere west of Jason Centre. Last time there had not been that many colonists slaying them and the returns were quite good. this time there were many colonists working through the herd, a longtooth would materialize and be attacked almost instantly, the loot from them was for me at least poor, though I did see a team get a decent HoF on a mob they had stolen from me after I was about a third of the way through it. I know had I killed it, it would have had no loot but was more surprised by the rudeness of some of the people on Calypso, it has been a long time since I have experienced that.

I managed to complete the first iron challenge for the longtooth by slaying fifty of them, one Bett was not enough to complete this and as I could not find another in auction completed the last five or six with a Cleric 3C and an en-blade 9. The 3C could get through 2 and a bit longtooth on a full charge.

It was a fun experience, at one point I was carrying so much weight from low value loot that I could only walk up to a longtooth and start stabbing it, often I would not get there before another colonist shot at it and it charged off, frustrating but funny.

The Lair has been put back together, it is not as it once was but I am relatively happy with it, no doubt there will be some tweaking going on. Though the Lair is fit for use there are no Tigers to use it, the only one I have seen recently was Mr. Pilkington and that was not for very long. Will have to wait and see if any return.

Vehicles have been introduced, I did spend sometime wandering around on the day of introduction in the hope of being given one but it did not happen, I did not even see anyone giving them out. Pets have not yet been reintroduced, beginning to wonder if they will be, would be good to try them out to see if they can still be raced.

I was unable to get myself another Bett after the Longtooth experience but managed instead to get a Bicak Blix, this is nearly as good as a Kesmek Bett but does not last as long, spent sometime hunting Itumatrox but with out much success. I was also trying a little mining having noted that there have been more globals in this field lately, I did not do very well at all, it seemed almost as bad as when I first started playing and had no skills, something odd here! It was towards the end of the Blix that Trinity suggested a team Longtooth hunt, another Bett was on offer in auction by then so I got that and after unloading what loot I had we met at Corinth. We did quite well, it was a lot of fun and after a small HoF, Trinity was able to get some 5B plates, this should help a lot with future hunts. I had another solo go at the Longtooth the following day but it was not very successful.

I have a couple of tasks ahead of me now, Firstly I intend to register for all the iron challenges of which I am capable, doing these should provide some skill rewards. Secondly, I need to find a way to hunt smart, I have tried a few suggestions in the past but these have not seemed to work for me!

 

Log Entry for 02-08-10.

Surprisingly a lot has happened! I have been busy with the iron challenges, I have completed all the scouting missions (these seem fairly pointless) and have completed the killing of the first 100 mobs of Argonaut, Armax, Atrox, Droka, Feffoid, Foul, Hiryuu, Merp, Molisk and Warrior. I have only the Araneatrox to do to complete the first one hundred of all current iron challenges.

I decided to try to use my Cleric 3C and my range of en-blades to complete the challenges with, whilst less efficient than the Bett, it would allow them to raise their tier levels, this has worked quite well and many of them are now on 0.9, many but not all.

Of the completed iron challenges, the most notable was the Warrior, this was going rather badly and then I got three decent globals in quick succession, this made this one of the most lucrative hunts I have had. I did relatively well with the Feffoid and the Armax also the Droka were not too bad!

I had to get some new equipment to cope with the Droka, I was not able to deal with more than one of them at a time plus there were other types of robot in the vicinity, I ended up getting a long range plasma rifle so I could pull one out at a time. I found I could destroy up-to generation eight, though it was touch and go with these most of the time.

Having gained as many attributes as possible from completing the challenges I started on the Araneatrox, the scouting mission it's self proved difficult, trying to get the third coords in particular was hard, I tp'd to it once but the chips are inaccurate and I missed it, I was promptly killed. Trying another day I got as close as possible and noted my coords, then tp'd again, again I missed and was quickly spider food but I made a note of the coords I had arrived at and compared them with the ones I had selected. I returned to the point I had tp'd from and tp'd again, this time allowing for the error, OK I died but I got the way point :).

An odd thing happened trying to get the fourth point, I desperately needed to answer a call of nature, so I found somewhere with no mobs nearby and left Cee waiting there, I arrived back just in time to see him slaughtered by a herd of Atrox, he had started running in the direction he was looking all by himself, I think it was the IR controller I use being low on battery, but that does not explain how he had managed to equip the FAP and had started to heal himself! Maybe he is developing a life of his own, if so I can only hope he is smarter than I am.

Having completed the scouting mission I left the area, the Araneatrox there were way too tough for me, I TP'd to Oyster Isle and headed North to LA07, here there are Araneatrox young. I can take these using the Bett, the 3C and en-blade 9 do not cause enough damage to be effective. It is a long fight and a critical from the beast will often end with me being killed but with regular stops for healing I can kill the little spiders, so far I have managed seven of them. I suspect this would be far more efficient if I had someone to heal me so I could keep stomping on the spiders, they regenerate so quick a break to heal slows the process greatly.

I also completed the jungle mission that starts at Osere, this was quite good fun, the end was quite tricky, at least for me. I will not go into details, I would not want to spoil this for others. There is another one of these that starts at Fort Troy, I may take a break from spider stomping to do this.

Other than the Iron Challenges I was pleasantly surprised to see Tiger for a short while! Other Tigers on-line have been Mr. Pilkington and Lindsie, we even managed a soc. hunt for the first time in ages, Mr. Pilkington, Lindsie and myself went to Twin Peaks and took out a few argonauts with Opalos. I enjoyed the hunt very much, it has been a long time since that has happened.

 

Log Entry for 05-08-10.

It seems log entries are like buses!

The Araneatrox are proving to be a challenge, though of the eleven I have killed so far ( I think it's eleven) only one has managed to kill me, the time spent healing and the amount of HP regenerated by the spiders in this time is proving costly. With this in mind and the knowledge that the Bett would soon expire I made my way to the nearest known auction house, Cayuze. I had not been there before so gained a TP in the process, there were two mission brokers here. One offering a Rippersnapper Iron challenge, I have of course signed up and am expected to do a scouting mission, the other wanted me to look for shuttle debris or something similar, I have also signed up for that. Plan is to do as much of them while killing spiders.

At the Auction House I was surprised to find several Betts on offer, I snapped up the cheapest full TT offering and had a look at other blades, the Genesis Firefly caught my eye, not literally you understand, I am not wearing an eye patch! Having thought of that I want an eye patch, made of Longu of course! You hear that MA, Eye Patch BPs please. Anyway the mark-up on the Firefly is less than the Bett and it has a greater damage per second by nearly 20%, it is marginally more expensive to use and does not last as long but I can put up with that and the cost may be offset by the lower mark up. In addition I am quite close to maxing it so I should get most of the benefits. I bought one.

Next I started looking at Medical Packs, I am currently using the good old FAP80, until now it has proved to be completely adequate, now I need a greater heal per second so with this in mind I start looking at the kits on offer. It's a mine field, no doubt there are those out there who are familiar with all this stuff and two whom it is a field of daisies. I however need to do some research before I look further.

The way things are going it seems I am about to up my game again, I know that's a continual process but there are points that are easily distinguished in the process, the last one for me was the purchase of Ghost Armour and to a lesser extent the 5B plates, it signifies the taking on of tougher adversaries. I know full well that another armour up grade is coming and will need to consider very carefully which way to go, another mine field!

So far these Iron Challenges have proved quite expensive however at the end of them I shall have better equipment, skills and abilities. Would be really nice to get some more profitable hunts and recoup some of the cash though. Tonight I shall be looking at medical packs before going to try out the new set-up, looking froward that.

I have also noticed that next Wednesday is the 4th anniversary of my arrival on Calypso so I am going to have a think on ways to celebrate, any suggestions anyone?

 

Log Entry for 06-08-10.

The new blade did not work so well! It started at about 50% and was dead by the time I had done 9 Araneatrox. It went from tier 0 to tier 1 just while doing the first one :). I have a bid in on a better med kit, I hope that will provide a bigger improvement. After the enthusiasm of yesterday it was all a little disappointing and the loot rewards were not good, the biggest was about 12PED which if I remember rightly is about the cost of the kill.

Whilst stomping on spiders, I did complete the Rippersnapper scouting mission, it was very dull and involved a lot of swimming, have to say I did tp a few times to relieve the monotony. I also did the other mission available there, well I think I did, it was in two parts, scout some wreckage and then collect some boxes from different sites. All were easy to find but on returning to the person who issued the mission nothing happened, I have a green tick to say it's done but as far as I could tell received no reward for my efforts, I get no response from the mission broker! Sound familiar to anyone.

On the up side I am enjoying my new pirate image! it's only a matter of time before I have a leg amputated and start hunting on crutches. Are MA planning on introducing galleons any time soon?

 

Log Entry for 09-08-10.

Well the issue with the mission broker resolved it's self, after logging in the next time I clicked and got a response! I now have to kill 200 mobs in a certain area. Decided to take a look but then went back to the spiders. This was not going well, I had purchased a better med. kit it does one third more healing in the same time but still I was struggling. I took a break and went off to kill 100 Rippersnappers for an Iron Challenge. This was easy but time consuming, I did not find a large shoal at any one time so there was a lot of swimming but I completed it and got myself an extra intelligence point.

Back to the Araneatrox, this now seemed much better, not sure if it was just circumstances or if the intelligence helped but I was able to stay alive much easier, was not being hit quite so often and the new med. kit was working well. Only problems I now have are critical hits, these tend to kill me with no chance to heal. Managed a few decent loots from them as well, 4 globals and few almost globals. Not sure if it's profitable, somehow doubt it but it is not a dead loss, I have now done seventy five of them and hope to have a few more decent loots before I complete the first part of the challenge.

I took another break from the spiders, it requires a lot of concentration to stay alive and went for a team hunt with Diogen (think that's spelt correctly). I had meet him whist doing the foul challenge. He took me off in his motor, first one I had been in. It is a fast mode of transport, I may have to get one! We were killing Bery, Trips and Faux with Opalos. He got all excited when his Opalo reached tier 0.9, showed it to me and everything, he wanted to go back to an AH to upgrade it, I did not understand but he did it and upgraded. I have since realised that for unlimited items the upgrade has to be done manually, having several blades and a FAP at 0.9 and having been waiting for ages for them to upgrade I feel a bit of a fool.

Part of the upgrade process is that you need another item to add as an ingredient to perform the upgrade, this can be an expensive process depending on the item involved! I have upgraded my 3C, and two en-blade 5 Mentor Editions. Still got the en-blade 9 to do, not sure I should risk my spare :).

 

Log Entry for 16-08-10.

An interesting week, the Araneatrox Iron Challenge came to a crashing halt when I ran out of blade, there were none available on auction, I even resorted to searching the malls for hours! Malls are dire, I think MA needs to do something about them, I have been having some thoughts and may put them in a support ticket suggestion type thing.

Wednesday saw the fourth anniversary of my arrival on Calypso, I had arranged a hunt by way of celebration, mid week is a difficult time for many and few managed to make it, these were Trinity, Lindsie and Slarty. We tried the Atrox near Sakura and had next to no luck but it was fun. Several people had suggested other dates/times to do this so I arranged a second event to celebrate for the Saturday.

Friday night and I spotted a Bett on auction, I purchased this a bit sharpish and was ready to continue the Araneatrox Iron Challenge, I completed my first 100 kills on the Saturday. It was very satisfying to have achieved this, it is certainly the most difficult thing I have attempted in my time here and I seem to have learnt from it, certainly I was finding it much easier at the end than at the beginning. Partly an increase in skills, partly an improved med. kit and partly an improvement in technique. I shall be coming back to this mob in the future, who knows I may test myself against a mature! All my kills were youngs, aren't I a bully :). It seems there are just two more Iron Challenges left for me to start and these are both on CeePee and are against mobs that use acid as part of their attack. I will have to make enquires about CeePee as I have not been there, will also need to take a look at my armour and plates to find a suitable defence against the mobs I will be dealing with. Hell I don't even know how to get there now there are no spaceships!

Saturday night was without doubt the highlight of the week with the four year anniversary hunt. In attendance at various times (as people came and went) were Anna, Mora, Nexus, Slarty, Una, Red, Trinity, Phunk, Karl and some aging bald guy (me). A link to the thread about this http://www.eu-chronicle.com/showthread.php?t=8224 so as not to repeat myself too much here. I was really pleased with the turnout, some of the team I had not seen on line for a very long time, thanks to all who turned out. The five globals and a HoF were definitely a bonus. The hunt went on for about two and a half hours and we slaughtered many Ambulimax. We were supposed to be using TT weapons but people used what they wanted and no one cared :) which was really cool, everyone was just having fun, a truly brilliant night on Calypso :).

It has got me thinking about organising some other events in the future and I have started to scout a few locations for this, these are not hunting events, more the kind of thing the Tigers used to do when there were enough of us, thought I might offer a similar experience to EUC members :).

Next up it's find a birthday present for Cee, I have no idea what he would like, he's really difficult to buy for, you know the type! Maybe I'll get him a comb! :)

 

Log Entry for 23-08-10.

This week started slowly but speed up toward the end! Went shooting robots with Karl one evening which was quite hectic but not difficult.

On Friday evening I headed off to CeePee to participate in the Kreltin and Aurli Iron Challenges. I had planed this quite well but failed to execute the plan! Firstly I had taken the wrong plates, I was still wearing the 6As, good for the robots of the previous evening but pretty rubbish against the mobs at CeePee. I decided to try the Kreltin first and worked my way through these quite well considering the lack of plates however when I reached number thirty six my blade expired! Opps!

I had to come back to Calypso as the import fee on a replacement blade was a ridiculous amount, I found a blade on action and swapped out the plates and stored some of the loot I had got before returning to CeePee.

Now with 5Bs the Kreltin became quite easy and I completed the One Hundred challenge with little of interest to talk about and collected my intelligence gain from the broker who hums a lot! I also made a start on the Aurli, wanted to see how easy/hard they would be and I calculated my blade would probably last the full One Hundred. The next day I slowly worked my way through these and found I could withstand the onslaught of five of these whilst still slowly working my way through one, this kind of thing happened often when there were other hunters in the dome! When alone it was quite calm, I could pick off one with the plasma rifle and work through it with the blade but when there were several hunters there were Aurli running all over the place, very hectic and good fun. It was this that threw off my calculations and my blade expired after Seventy Nine Aurli, I was not too disappointed, I had managed a few globals and one was quite a good one but it did mean another trip to Calypso! So back down I went, got another blade, almost forgot to collect it from the auctioneer! I put loot into store as well as placing some goods on auction. Fully repaired and with another blade I jumped in the TeePee and headed back to CeePee.

The last twenty or so were easy and I collected my intelligence gain, I hope this does make a difference. It seems the reward for the Five Hundred challenge for both the CeePee mobs is an attribute gain, this is better than the fragments for Calypso bound mobs and I find myself wondering about doing these challenges first, only issue of course is the number of blades I would require to complete this without a return to Calypso, probably eight to ten, it's a big investment! Doubt that will happen.

I had not in my four years on Calypso visited CeePee and then in just one weekend I went there three times! Must try to be a bit more organised in future. I am planning on staying there and doing some more Aurli before I return but for efficiencies sake will need to do this when the dome is quiet.

It seems I have been challenged to a duel, Slarty and I are to fight it out in a ring to determine who is the Pirate! Quite looking forward to this and am even tempted to leave CeePee before my blade is burnt, I shall try to resist the temptation :).

 

Log Entry for 31-08-10.

Well I stayed on CP for as long as I could and managed to get just over one hundred of the way into the five hundred Aurli, toward the end I was using my Cleric 3C and en-blade 9 and was surprised to find they both worked quite well though with the 3C I could only do about eight Aurli before it needed repair!

I returned to Calypso for Trinity's anniversary hunt, we went to Nea's and the team did rather well with five globals to our name. Once again this was a great deal of fun. All of us at EUC should try to organise these more often even if it is only for fun :).

I discovered why Cee has a tendency to run off by himself and do stuff when I am afk, it seems my wireless controller is effected by incoming messages to my mobile and puts out a string of commands :). I am going to have to experiment with it for a laugh!

Having completed all of the 100 Iron Challenges I was at a bit of a loss. After some thought I decided to complete the "Clear the area" Challenge based at Cayuze. This I have been doing for the last few days. I am almost done having killed a hundred and ninety two of the required two hundred mobs. Once again I am down to using the 3C and the en-blades but am sure I will finish this with those. Only reason I have not continued this morning is because the servers have been taken down for a new update to be implemented. Will try to complete it later today. I am rather disappointed with the returns from this, all have been poor and in nearly two hundred kills of Bristlehogs and Itumatrox I have not had a single decent loot. Looks like I had best polish the old begging bowl! :)

 

Log Entry for 08-09-10.

Well I completed the "Clear the Area" quest after which an update brought some more challenges, in particular the Daikiba Iron challenge, this I did, at least the first one hundred using my TT fist, it had enough charge to do 102 Daikiba. I did this challenge on the cheap with no armour and no healing, embarasingly this did mean I was killed three times by low level Daiks but the total cost of the hunt was just the charge of the glove, pity the returns were less than 50%. I can certainly understand why people get disheartened especially if they have sweated to earn the PED in the first place!

I also did the new quest at Cayuze, this was the usual run around a bit type thing which was dull but an interaction with a character made it worthwhile, made me laugh a lot :).

The rest of the week has been spent selling stuff and waiting for a blade to turn up on auction, so far no joy. After there being a plague of blades a few weeks ago there is now a famine!

 

Log Entry for 13-09-10.

The Auctioneer at Sakura is getting fed up with me, I can tell! I'm not sure if it's because I have been standing there staring at her for a week or because of the constant drumming of my fingers upon the counter. Suffice it to say she does not look comfortable, I'm not going to tell her I'm waiting for a suitable blade, then again if I do it might freak her out some more :D.

 

Log Entry for 05-10-10.

The latest update brought the ability to tweet your achievements, globals etc. direct to Twitter. As I am a twit I thought this would be a good idea and logged in and set it up to tweet everything, then I logged in to try it out.

I got lucky! There was a blade available so I snapped it up quick! Karl and Trinity told me that PA was significantly different so I went to check it out, it looks very futuristic but looking out to sea I spotted an island and curiosity got the better of me, so I got wet!

Approaching the island there were some swimming creatures and I got attacked by a razortooth and got to test the new blade, the kill scored me a loot of nearly 45 PED, almost a global, wouldn't that have been nice as the first tweet? That was not to be, shortly after I fell off the island and was attacked by another razortooth, I was killed so my first tweet was 'ChelaBias Completed the "Death" quest at Planet Calypso!', to complete this task you have to die and be revived! Not an auspicious start but probably the shape of things to come :).

 

Log Entry for 16-05-11.

Well it's been a while, I have not been in world much this past few months but made a bit of an effort this weekend and I have to admit I had some fun. Got a chance to catch up with Anna, Slarty (who is still a pirate) and Una whilst I tried to learn to fly! Yes I bought myself a Sleipner, learning to fly it was interesting, the controls are somewhat odd, not what I am used too and getting to grips with them had some rather entertaining results. Bailing out is not to be advised, I did not mind the long fall or the death on impact but was a bit annoyed with myself at the damage done to the craft when it crashed. I would like to experiment with bailing and putting the craft into inventory whilst falling, it needs to be done quickly otherwise the craft goes out of range but am wary of failing and causing extra damage. Would be a nice way to arrive if I can make it work though!

I checked out the apartment, it was still there untouched, not dusty and dim. It's all set up for use by the Tigers but I doubt that will happen now, bit of a shame really. Will put some thought into the situation.

I did complete the Feffoid 500 iron challenge and the Longu 100 iron challenge, increased my metallurgy skill doing that, didn't even know I had a metallurgy skill to increase but apparently I have! Loot on the Longu was not too bad initially but fell off rather badly as I progressed.


I have been experimenting with other blades all Limited of course, the Ice Dagger X is a nice piece of kit, it lasts quite a long time and is not ridiculously expensive. The Dagger of Destruction is quite nice too but does not seem to last. Currently I am trying a Genesis Firefly, not sure of it's durability yet but it does a nice amount of damage, still need to max this one so it may be an economical blade once I have done that, certainly the markup is not very high.

 

Log Entry for 23-05-11.

I seem to be back! Not sure how long for but I am quite enjoying my time on Calypso at the moment. I have been using the Sleipnir quite a lot, strangely it does not seem very expensive and is certainly good fun. My landings have improved significantly but more practice is required, I will certainly get that.

I have been hunting Neconu and have completed the 100 Iron Challenge. That done I am trying the Eviscerator 100 Iron Challenge, consequently I am spending a lot of time in and around the volcano near to Scylla. I have taken several other challenges to do at the same time, so far it is working well and I am 40% of the way there. The loot from the Neconu and so far the Eviscerator challenge has been dire!

I have also been mining quite a bit and enjoying the solitude of this, as a plus there has been some success, no really big hits but I did manage an IX and a couple of XIs and lots of smaller finds, certainly getting more hits than misses. The profit from this will help to offset the hunting losses.

Being back I have had a few ideas as to competitions that I or we could run, one of these will just work, all that is required is competitors, not sure how to drum those up. The other two need some work before even thinking of competitors. None of them are as complex as Canley! I miss Canley :(. Do you miss Canley too?

 

Log Entry for 30-05-11.

Been quite a busy week, I have spent most of completing challenges around the volcano and doing some mining here and there, the mining has not been to bad and I must be close to break even maybe even a bit better.

During the week I have gained several levels in different skills and managed a couple of small globals as well as completing the following quests:-

I Did Karen Wong. Not sure what I did that was wong but apparently I did it, I'll not hear the last of it either!

A grave Errand. This involved scattering some ashes in the crater. (It was on my way and I was already dressed in mostly black).

Go to the Robot Psychologist Camp. Getting here was easy even just running, the follow up is a bit trickier, I am part way through it.

Scan the Robot's soil samples. I'm so glad it was soil samples, it could have been so much worse!

Iron Challenge 100 Eviscerator. This was a loss financially but it's done and I can move on, I just wish Karen could!

Into the Volcano. This took a couple of goes and mostly involved pulling the Eviscerators away from the mining equipment before using it. I got lucky when an Eviscerator nine spawned and had a go at me while I was doing this as the mining equipment prevented it reaching me. I was then able to get back into the Sleipnir and fly away, making sure to give the Eviscerator the finger as I did so (almost caused me to crash that).

Alexander Selkirk. I have know idea what this challenge is but apparently I did it! Maybe it's what I did wong? Nah, I'm sure I would remember that!

The Long March. I cheated, it was more of a quick fly, stopped along the way to attack a few atrox and do some mining.


I have spent a lot of time in the air, I really enjoy flying the Sleipnir and it certainly made many of the challenges a lot easier than they would have been on foot. Maybe I should give it a name?

Karl was logged in one day and I had a chat with him and caught up a little, he is currently exploring Arcadia. Also chatted with Anna (also on Arcadia), Tigeress and Cantbe. Was good to see team serious back on-line.

Still thinking about how to get EUC back in the action and trying to make it look active with posts here and there. Good to see some other posts as well.

 

Log Entry for 06-06-11.

An embarrassing incident!

This week I completed the atrox 500 iron challenge and made a start on the next 1000, also manage a couple of globals and gained a few levels here and there. I am not sure exactly what as the twitter side of things that records all that kind of stuff so easily seems to be failing. I must look into it, it's so useful as a reminder of what this senile old sea dog has been up to. Am I beginning to sound like Kets? Perhaps I should seek help!

Today I thought I would take a flight through the Eudoria PVP zone and take a look at the oil rig, I have no idea why I decided to do this, in retrospect it's a daft idea, in nouveauspect (and I'm just inventing new words here) it was a daft idea before I thought of it!

Maybe I could have been a little more sensible about it kept high but I wanted to take a look around so I hedge hopped over the terrain (I like flying low) and gained some height as I approached the rig to take a look around. The rig looks quite impressive now (if that's what it is), there were a couple of vehicles on the ground speeding about and it looked like they were having fun.

Suddenly I heard a missile, my evasive manoeuvres were about as good as Han Solo's when he out ran an Imperial ship by drifting slightly to the left, however Weeder's aim was far superior to that of the Empire's and I took a hit, reducing my already damaged Sleipnir's 'health' to about twenty five percent. A second missile hit a second or so later blowing the craft up, I fell to my death with as much panache as I could muster! Had I been quicker I would have got a screen shot of the event, must admit to being rather tempted by the idea of returning and making a movie of it. In the event though the only record I have is an image captured shortly after my revival, which I have attached, see the first image.

Well you know me! I stumble about in the dark bumping into every obstacle in existence. I thought I had lost my Sleipnir, though feeling rather disappointed by this I knew full well it was my own stupid fault so I took a look at auction to find a replacement and found one that was coloured and of similar colour to my ghost armour too boot. OK it was a little more expensive than an uncoloured one but it looked cool and I am desperate to be cool (I'm about 1.5 levels away from it).

So I bought it and very nice it looks too, I was outside of the outpost taking a photo of myself with my new vessel (See the second image) when I got the message that my old Sleipnir had been "returned to planet storage", from where I could apparently recover it! Checking storage, there it was and now it had full 'health'. OK it's a mystery to me I have no idea what happened there, a limited item repaired! If only it had repaired my almost defunct Bett as well.

The new Sleipnir is now in storage and I am again using the first one. I have requested an explanation from the nice people at Calypso Support and will post a follow up report.

I had a chance to chat with a few people during the week, Anna, Una, MOH and Slarty, I have not seen Karl though.

I am now short of a decent blade, waiting on auction. I'll check in regularly.

Once again mining has been quite good, managed to double my money on some runs and no runs have halved it, quite pleasing that. I do rather like the new mining system and am enjoying spending lots of time in the wilderness and rarely seeing anyone about any more, some parts of Calypso are like a ghost planet!

Well that's me for the week, now I don't have to go and get a cat out of the sink!

 

Log Entry for 08-06-11.

Follow up report.

Following my escapades of a couple of days ago I have now received an explanation from the nice people at Calypso Support:-

Apparently, Vehicles have two types of condition. The first is the condition that applies to all items, as they are damaged this deteriorates (not with vehicles). The second is a Structural integrity condition. What happens is as a vehicle is damaged, from me flying it into things or being shot at the Structural Integrity is reduced to a point where the vehicle is broken. It is possible to repair this. When Structural Integrity is repaired the overall condition is reduced slightly and that damage can not be repaired.

So it seems that Weeder or one of his colleges repaired my vehicle for me. Think I will have to fly over the oil rig and shout my thanks :).

 

Log Entry for 13-06-11.

It has been quite an eventful week, I spent the first part of it mining and hunting with little success, I wandered aimlessly as a clod, so no real surprise there!

After much arranging and confusion I finally met Nexus (AKA John PlayerOfGames Darrow) at Ashi and we began our voice chat testing. Very quickly we ascertained that Nexus could hear me but that I could not hear him. As I have configured my microphone we assumed it was an issue with his mic. How wrong could I be? Fortunately there was a by-stander, or perhaps that should be by-listener, Andresso Black. He could hear both of us so it seems the issue was with my earpiece! A really good job he happened to be standing around at the time.

I sorted the issue the following day. I had voice chat set to play through my speakers and not my ear-piece, I can only guess that it wont overlay the sound of background and voice either due to their system or mine! Works now though and I have ordered what I hope will be a decent headset, it will need adjusting, I like to adjust! Once I am happy I may try subscribing to one of the voice services just see what a team hunt can be like with audio.

The announcement of space and the ensuing competition caught my eye. I decided to have a crack at the Calypso Shinkiba Young competition, the person who scores the biggest loot from one of these or (announced later) a Male Snablesnot Mature between the start and end of the contest wins a fighter. Well I know I have no real chance but if I don't try I won't know! Fortunately there is an Iron challenge for Shikiba, I had already done the 100 back in the day when they were Daikiba and looked cuddlier (them not me). So I signed up for the 500 challenge and completed that, then I signed up for the 1000 challenge and completed that (Would have done it in just one day had I not been forced to go the pub "The Howl and Tremor". I am sure you can guess just which sad act has started the 5000 challenge! So far my biggest loot is 22.5 PED, not a competition winner that one but I will keep plugging away.

The headset arrived, tonight I adjust and test!

I have spoken with Karl, Nexus and Una this week. Karl is still on Arcadia getting TPs, Nexus was testing localised chat and Una went to the pub, though not the same one I was at!

Skills gained this week (thanks to twitter), 19 Brawler hit, 24 Brawler damage, 16 Ranged laser damage, 9 Laser pistoleer hit, 8 BLP pistoleer hit, 17 Paramedic, 6 Mounted BLP hit. Also, apparently I am "Bred with a purpose" but then so are the Shinkiba!

I spent sometime adjusting, I like to adjust, the controls for my Sleipnir, trying to make it more manoeuvrable and with some success I might add (although further adjustment is necessary). Strangely not all the controls work, I shall have to post to see if others have this issue or if it's just me.

That's my week, at least what I can remember of it. Hope yours was good too.

 

Log Entry for 20-06-11.

It has been a week spent with the Shinkiba! The result of this is quite a few skill gains in areas that I do not normally use, it's quite interesting to see how quickly my low level skills rise when I just get on with something. Considering I started the 5000 challenge last week I have not done particularly well, I am currently on 1968 most of them young. For more details see thread "Aiming for orbit?" http://www.eu-chronicle.com/showthread.php?t=8402

The headset adjustment has taken place, a simple task of soldering some leads to plugs and a socket that ten years ago would have been a doddle has been a struggle. My vision is not as good as it used to be and even with my glasses it was difficult! The first attempt was a failure, after some testing I found the problem to be a faulty socket. It tested as correct when there was nothing plugged into it but once something was it shorted the microphone to earth. A replacement socket was procured and connected and it is now working brilliantly. I have an idea to make a PTT switch with a bypass on it so I can plug an MP3 player into it. Not sure if I will do it but it could be fun, Party Cee! I'm wondering if I should look at creating a howto for this? If anyone ever reads my waffle an opinion on this would be nice.

Sweat Camp, where no good deed goes unpunished! I decided I missed the mentoring system and thought it a good idea to do some anyway, I desperately needed a break from the Shinkiba! I wandered around for a while, there were not many people here not like it used to be. I watched a few people and in the end selected one who seemed polite and helpful and spent a little while chatting to them, they seemed OK and I decided to help them have a little more fun by giving them some of the Shinkiba loot I had been collecting (what used to be called a FAP but is now a sphere thing and a power fist) and which was now pretty worthless as there was so much of it on auction. I suggested this and they were keen, I had to get the stuff from storage but they had to log so we added each other to our respective FLs and agreed to meet later.

We did meet and I handed over the two items, the person was pleased and was trying them out when I started being harangued by another avatar, possibly the first persons friend. They wanted money, they wanted to know why I gave stuff to one person and not to them etc. I tried to explain but the person just got more and more insistent and upset. I found it rather wearing on my patience and in the end I just left. I will do this again I have no doubt, as I do not wish to become the kind of person not doing it would make me but I think in future I need to be more selective.

Generally speaking I have noticed that Calypso seems less friendly than it used to be, when in the wilderness I see someone else on the radar I usually call "Hi" or "Hello", in the past I have almost always had an answer and often a short conversation about how things are going and what people are up to. Recently however it is unusual to get a response! When I do it is usually from someone who seems 'Old Skool', hard to explain what I mean by that so I won't :).

This week I have been chatting mostly with Una, who by the way was on the Swedish WoF team when they took the title for 2011 by beating both France and the USA in the final. Well done Sweden, congratulations and well done Una for taking part and of course being on the winning side. I admire the dedication it takes to do this, I wonder if I would have enough to take part next year!

Skills gained this week:- 8 Plasma Pistoleer hit, 14 ranged BLP dmg, 7 Electro kinetic hit, 5 Biotropic Profession, 13 Electro kinetic dmg, 8 Electro kinetic hit, 9 Electro kinetic hit, 14 Electro kinetic dmg, 20 brawler hit.

Did I mention I've been playing with an Electro kinetic chip?

 

Log Entry for 27-06-11.

Well the Shinkiba Challenge is over, I was knocking them down until the very last second, to no avail of course, I was completely trounced but I am glad I took part, I did gain a lot of skills, had some fun and have ground my way through a good part of the Shinkiba 500 Iron Challenge, strangely I cannot remember how far I got, maybe I'm trying to blank it from my mind! Toward the end Una did suggest a change in strategy, go to Rocktropia there have only been a handful of low globals there as opposed to a 1K plus HoF on the Shinkiba, a good plan and one that after much consideration realised I could not do as I had not downloaded it yet :).

Space is here, I have not actually been there yet but Tiger has! Yes Tiger is back and so is PBG, it's really good to have them on-line again. He bought himself a Sleipnir and a thruster and dashed off as fast as his little legs could carry him, so far to my knowledge he has been to Rocktropia where he was involved in some unexplained incident to do with a mobile phone and to Arkadia. Returning to Calypso in between. It seems it does not take very long even in a little Sleipnir though no doubt you would be a bit of a sitting duck if one of those Quad Wing Interceptors should come by.

Speaking of Quad Wing Interceptors (QWI), our very own Slarty (the old space pirate) has got himself one. He was kind enough to offer me a trip into space which I had to decline as I still had not downloaded it! He did take me for a trip around the contaminated zone. I took some ammo the idea being that we have a crack at destroying something. First attempt ended in a comic disaster, Slarty's anti toxic shot had ran out and he bought the big one on entering the zone, leaving me falling to the ground in an out of control QWI. I had to leg it back to the outpost and we tried again, after Slarty rolled up his sleeve that is. I hope it was his sleeve anyway! The second attempt was more fruitful, we came across a Pitbull and as Slarty flew past I tried to destroy it. I shot 30PED of ammo into it and I guess we got about a third of the way through it, I expect I missed a lot, the gun has a kick and when firing it was no longer possible to see the target and let's face it I am not good with guns! Wonder if we can get a dirty great knife attachment for these vehicles, possibly call it a Cosmic Bett? I hope that made you groan! Though we failed to destroy the Pitbull it was a lot of fun, thank you Cap'n Slarty.

Once again I found myself without a blade, I had been bidding on a Bett but lost it as I was not prepared to pay the buy out price. There was nothing else on action that was of use to me, the level was either too high or too low or the condition was too poor. Goldilocks went skipping through the mall at Twin Peaks looking for a blade that was "Just Right" and avoiding the three bears, especially baby bear as he's a vicious little sod with several ASBOs filed against him and he does crack (allegedly). Well I didn't find a blade that was "just right" but in my despair I bought a Dagger of Despair (unlimited), I had looked at the stats and although not as good as a Bett it was getting there, I figured I could use it when I was in between blades and I had sampled far too much of Daddy bear's whisky, which is why I had stopped skipping by the way, well that and the drunken incident with bare Mummy bear! Anyway, I bought the Bett, the MU was high, the last listed was decade so one had not been sold on auction for at least a year (must look that up). The deciding factor was how well it went with the Longu outfit I wear (need to clean that, just can't get the bear hair out). So I escape from the little cottage even though I had found a bed that was just right!

I test the blade on Leviathans, seemed like a good idea at the time and I thought the water would help sober me up and get rid of the bear smell. It is not to bad, not as effective as a Bett or a 3C but it gets the job done and it does not run out too quickly. I did not however have much luck.

The next morning, complete with hangover and an uncomfortable feeling in my groin (I have not yet dared to look). I continued agains the Leviathans still with poor results and decided they were not the mob I should be doing (neither are bears btw).

After spending the day recovering I decided to enter an event for only the second time in my existence here. Baby Trox Sunday. It was a good laugh, I did get a global near the beginning of this 90 minute event which put me in 5th place (there had already been two HoFs). My position lessened as the event went on and at the end I was in 19th position. I did have to return to an outpost for weapon repairs part way through. Quite a few people left the event before it ended and there where offers of reputation trading which seemed odd to me, guess it's normal!

I have entered a competition on http://www.nextisland.com/ in an attempt to win an estate on Next Island oddly enough, hopefully Daddy bear will not be able to find me there, he's upset about his whisky, I think the expression is "as angry as a bear with a sore head", talking of "sore head" I really should make an appointment with the Doc.

Look, in my defence she looked stunning in that teddy, or was that me?

I have not seen Una on-line much this week, probably getting a rest after WoF. I have spoken with Slarty, Tiger, PBG and a few strangers!

Skills gained this week are:- 10 Electro Kinetic (Hit), 15 Electro Kinetic (Dmg), 22 Whipper (Dmg), 25 Brawler (Dmg), I also unlocked a new skill Power Catalyst. In addition I Completed the achievement "Brick", which is by far my finest achievement and I am willing to help you do the same!

Chela Cee Bias,
Brick for hire.
​

Just don't tell Mummy bear. Please.

 

Log Entry for 04-07-11.

I have spent a lot of time on calypso this week and I have learnt a valuable lesson. The lesson is "Do NOT get drunk in world while your credit card is at hand." I may have to write that out One hundred times! Basically the Dagger of Despair has caused me some despair. Since purchasing it I have found one for a little over two thirds of the price I paid, I have completely used it and repaired it at least five times maybe more and most hunts I am only getting 40% to 60% return, there was one notable exception where I luckily scored a HoF for 301 PED, this was done with the 3C as the Despair had just expired (it takes 301 PED to repair the Despair), that hunt made a profit.

In addition to the HoF I did manage several globals, four against Leviathans two against Atrox and one against a Shinkiba, only my second with the Despair. Incidentally all the Leviathan hits were against Matures!

This week I purchased a Thruster for the Sleipnir, so I am now ready to enter the space race, I have a few ideas as to how to make a few PED from this. However most of my ideas are rubbish and I very much suspect I will end up losing, it's nice to be good at something :). I have not yet launched myself into orbit, I wish to know more about safe zones etc. first.

I have upgraded my armour set, my finder and the Despair to tier 1, the Despair is already approaching tier 2.

The competition for an estate on Next Island being run by nextisland.com has come to an end with results to be announced on Tuesday (tomorrow). There was a rule change during the contest which I was not aware of, unfortunately it does affect me so I suspect all my entries are now void!

I entered another hunting event, this time it was a longu iron grind. I came 21st this time, there were not as many globals as there were against the atrox last week but I was up against the likes of Darth Boobie, once I realised I was playing way above my league I knew I had little hope, I continued anyway and against the longu the Despair did last the hour with quite a lot to spare.

This week I have mostly been chatting with Tiger and PBG, also Slarty and briefly Una. Slarty seems to be doing well with space tourism.

I did spend some time topping Shinkiba in an attempt to get that 5000 Iron challenge completed I am getting close to the 3000 mark now. I did complete the Argonaut 500 Iron Quest and have started the 1000.

Quite a lot of skill gains to report:- 15 One Handed Clubber (hit), 39 Knifefighter (hit) (almost cool!), 22 One Handed Clubber (Dmg), 22 Two Handed Clubber (Dmg), 13 Laser Sniper (hit), 10 Laser Pistoleer (hit), 2 Enhancer Manufacturer, 12 BLP Sniper (hit), 11 Gaus Sniper (hit), 11 Electro Kinetic (hit).

OK here goes :-

Do NOT get drunk in world while your credit card is at hand.
Do NOT get drunk in world while your credit card is at hand.
Do NOT get drunk in world while your credit card is at hand.
Do NOT get drunk in world while your credit card is at hand.
Do NOT get drunk in world while your credit card is at hand.
Do NOT get drunk in world while your credit card is at hand.
...........

Maybe I'll finish by next week!