31 January 2006

Play cancelled

A visit to the cinema straight fom work put a stop to any plans for a sneaky half hour play yesterday.

No, I'm not an addict after just a few days, certainly not.

The film was a million miles away from Warcraft - a French film called Cache which was just plain odd and neglected to have a proper ending.

Ah well. At least I managed to sleep properly wihout fitfully swinging an axe in my sleep and muttering, 'die, damned, annoying scorpid...'

Level 8 - Searching for mucus

I know we all have to start at the bottom, but collecting eyes and mucus is a bit much for a level 8 shaman.... Isn't it? Still, it's a fitting quest to fill the half hour that it takes to cook the evening supper. Though at one point I leave my troll sitting on the beach, staring at a passing ship to go and shake some pans. Whilst in the kitchen I hear the sound of battle... A one-sided battle. Gah! Almost killed by a crustacean that has crawled out of the sea and attacked me. The shame of it, almost. Hack, slash, zap, pow, eat my Earth Shock etc. Loot corpse, no mucus, no eyes. Sigh. Still another 6 to collect.

Back along the beach I discover an evil level 12 humanoid standing in a cove all alone. I dither and then throw a lightning bolt at him from a distance. He resists and runs over at such a speed that he stops my second in its tracks, then starts whacking me over the head with a big hooked stick.
Agh! Jump into the sea and swim away! He swims after me,
whacking away and depleting my health at an alarming rate.

Nip! Is that a bloody clacker nibbling my feet now too? I swim for shore but I'm whacked into death...


Happily my ghost appears close to my corpse and I'm happy to see that ghosts can walk on water too...

Oh-oh, damn, is that smoke?

30 January 2006

Day 2 - Help Arrives

Ah, the joys of having a level 55 rogue friend on the same realm. Knife shows up after a lengthy journey across the world to give me some cash and kill a few centaurs with me. We kill lots of them until he has to go and leave me in the middle of a lot of angry half-men who quickly seem to realise that knife is awk (away from keyboard, a-haha) and attack me. I have to run and run and run and almost die, which I'm rather reluctant to do.
Razor Hill
Anyway, eventually my helper leaves, but not before showing me a slightly larger town to the north where I can buy merely battered leather armour rather than filthy and battered. Still, there isn't a lot to buy, even with cash, for a low level troll like me, so I buy a shield and head back to the desert to kill more beasts and razor-quill type things until I level up to 7 after a lot of painful deaths all around.

I explore the islands to the south east and almost die (a lot) at the hands of bloody tigers and clackers and lizard type things, and fail in all but one quest there. However, I do find the Goblin tools in the shipwrecks (and many more clackers) and also realise that I don't understand swimming at all.

I also team up with a guy for a while to kill things on an island. It's fun. I storm the castle and kill the head guy (after my first death) and much effort. This all takes a long time. Time passes. I have spent my entire Sunday playing the game, and still want more.

After many hours I make it to level 8 and head for the Orc capital far to the north (far for me), which is impressive, but disappointing as there is nothing at all I can buy for my level there. However, I do become a herbalist and pick up some new shamanic skills there. After wandering for a while and feeling out of my depth, I head back south and determine to finish the odd few quests left down there.

That night I sleep not, and half-dream of Warcraft on-loop.

28 January 2006

Day 1 - Purchase

The Box SetSo I finally buckle under pressure and make a feeble excuse to go to the shops on Saturday morning.

'Just off out to the shops,' I call to the wife as I leave.

Oh, and then, 20 mins later I'm handling the object in the shop. It looks so lovely. Oh, yes it does. Then I'm heading for the till before I can talk myself out of it, whilst I repeat reasons justifying the expense to myself. No, really, I made some up.

The walk home seems long indeed. I resist the urge to tear the pack open and read the booklet on the way back. I wait. I even make tea when I get back before beginning the install.

Woah. 5 CDs? What the?


I begin, it takes forever. It's a good job that the guide book is so long - gives you someting to do whilst it installs.

CD2, watch TV...

CD3, reading book...

Crash, error, sorry, this program has performed an illegal operation and will terminate. have a nice day.

Oh, this had taken over an hour to get to this point. I ended every process not really needed on the PC and polished CD3. Start again - note, no continue install option, oh no, you must delete and re-start...

CD1, make more tea...

CD2, watch TV...

CD3, bite nails...

CD4, pace around the lounge, annoying wife...

CD5, yes, finally, it finishes.

I now think, foolish me, that I'll be playing within minutes. Ah, no. Load, get excited, am informed that I have to download and apply a few patches. A few? Ha! More like two damned hours of downloading.

One long walk along the beach later...

Apply the patches. Another 20 minutes.

By now it's edging towards suppertime. Sigh.

Then, it loads. Oh joy. It works. It lets me in.

Character creation. Hmm, I've had hours and hours of time to research all the classes and muse the advantages and disadvatages of each. I want to play hoard as I have friends there, and want to play a shaman, so am limited to Troll, Orc or Taurean. It looks like half the world is playing Taurean shamen, so I go for Troll.

Nice, gangly, green, bald. I didn't like any of the hairstyles, so chose bald.

In Game

Finally. I appear in a desert-like region, lots of trolls around (of course), near a big circle. I assume that every troll appears here. There are a lot of people wandering around. I'm not sure what to do.

A nasty looking troll runs up to me and stares at me. He says, 'Hey baldy, baldy! Fight me!'

Then a dialog box appears:
Ocylatryx chanllenges you to a duel. Decline or Accept.

I panic at this, click decline and run away. I have no idea if I'm at risk in this area and what the consequences would be for losing (none, it turns out later).

Ocylatryx runs after me, insulting my lack of hair and repeatedly challenging me to duels. I run inside a tunnel to escape and am confronted by large creatures. Are they trolls?

One has a quest for me (the glowing ! is familiar from similar genre of games), so I click on him and so begins the killing and misery for the critters of the valley of trials...

It's a familiar and comfortable pattern - go and kill x of these then come back and I'll give you a dirty, ripped and smelly vest as a reward. So, after an hour I'm still dressed in rags thumping things with a big stick and trying to look pleased when handed a pair of shabby, stained gloves.

Still, I find a shop, trade all the crap I've looted from corpses and steadily progress. I ignore all the other people, and they ignore me. It seems that Ocylatryx was out of the ordinary and most other people are polite and friendly. They even help out if that boar looks like it is going to overcome you as they pass by.

A few hours later and I'm level 5. Oh yes, and I leave the valley.