Sacred: Journey Journal

Due to having some internet issues over here I decided to play through a copy of Sacred Gold I have sitting around. It's one of those games that my brothers and I intended to play coop but never got around to it, so now - years later - I've decided to win the damn thing since I don't like leaving boxes of games unwon. Obviously spoilers ahead (if you also intend to play through it) but given its age, its probably ok to just read my adventures through it!

Chapters:

1. Beginners Zone
2. The Green Sea
3. Bad Odds
4. Detour XP
5. DeMordrey
6. BFG
7. Return to the Oasis
8. Khorad-Nur
9. A Speedy Reunion
10. The Dark Side
11. Home of the Brave?
12. Cowardice
13. Heavy Reading 
14. Burning Flame
15. I Hate Drow
16. Dam Fetch Quest
17. The Lost Swamp
18. Dragon Knights
19. Mystdale
20. The Fifth Element
21. Sakkara
22. Shaddar
23. Underworld
24. Holy Hell
25. Cursed Forest
26. Paradise, Comparitively
27. Crabs and Bones
28. Volcano Island
29. Marathon
30. The Climb
31. Descent
32. Temple of Hell
33. Anducar

The Sacred Journey has come to an end! Thank you for reading! :)

NWO: Spiders of the Glade

Foundry construction in Neverwinter Online continues at full steam ahead for me, with my fourth quest "Spiders of the Glade" now ready to play. Please give it a try and leave a hopefully positive review! :3

Quest Name: Spiders of the Glade
Short Code: NW-DUWK7BEE7

Like the previous one it should take around 15-25 minutes and is combat focused. Please bring health potions!

1- Log into Neverwinter Online
2- Press L
3- Halfway down is "The Foundry" section. Press the "More" button next to it.
4- Go to the "Best" Tab.
5- Search for "Spiders of the Glade" (without the double quotes), it should come up on the right hand pane and the author should be @josephskyrim.
6- Accept the Quest
7- To start it, you'll need to get to an exit and find the marker on the overworld map.

You are welcome to try my other quests too, if you have the time. ;)

Quest List so far:
Spiders of the Glade [NW-DUWK7BEE7] (15-25 minutes)
Dirty Rats [NW-DGLB37WLW] (15-25 minutes)
Rebel Incursion [NW-DFHLFGNQY] (15-20 minutes)
One Step to Darkness [NW-DNJC9SK7A]  (1 hour running time)

Farcry 3: Gear Check

[Part of the Diary of a Marked One]

Our "helpful"(?) boatman required a better engine on his rickety craft so it was up to us to go grab one from a nearby pirate scrapyard. By "nearby" he actually meant through around three pirate fortifications, one of which being a massive shipwreck, and having to sink a pirate destroyer sitting in the bay. The presence of multiple heavies wasn't really the problem on this map, it was more the multiple sections of endless scum (mostly shotgunners) pouring forth from the jungle in the take and hold parts.

"Hey dudes, get me a motor. Muahahahaha!"

Exploding that destroyer took a LOT of effort (for something that only needed 3 missiles to sink), and for the first time required our gear loadouts and strategy to be up to scratch. Moving together to take the rocket at the high fort using the bunker cover provided worked best. Getting the other missile on the beach was more problematic, until we found that the old stealth system prevalent in the single player game was still valid here. This meant that while my companions made a lot of noise at a fortified spot to attract the endlessly respawning pirate horde, I could sneak down the beach (while avoiding shelling) and collect the missile dumped there to sneak back.

Defending a noisy car motor to winch the boat engine objective at the "scrapyard" village was also quite problematic as the hordes were aided by magical heavies who appeared in the midst of our defenses. Fortunately well placed proximity mines took care of them early, and having the snag of refuelling the motor mid-combat more plausible. All in all this was an overly long and very difficult mission. The only bright side was the competitive section which involved heavy machine gunning our way down a river while on a raft.

Question Time: How would you end an MMO?

Most of the time we read about how MMO's are going and what stuff they can do better. Well, what about shutting down? Alas that is a function that happens sooner or later to many of our online games. If you were in charge of one such game, an MMORPG in this instance, what would you do? Would you add more events or celebrations leading up to the final hour? Spawn enemies in safe zones as the time draws to an end? Unlock all the zones for people to visit (if your game has that sort of thing)?

Perhaps let loose a big blue demon to eat everyone?

Or would you simply switch off the box at the alloted time and think nothing more of it? I thought that this was the path SOE was going to take with its four sunset games, but, in Wizardry Online at least, thanks to player and GM cooperation they still manage to pull off some pretty cool events: another example of good user generated "content". I'm interested in hearing your thoughts on the matter, and how you would go about as a player and/or an owner of an MMO during its end days.

Farcry 3: The Long Way Around

[Part of the Diary of a Marked One]

We next found ourselves having to delay a diamond trade that was going down at a nearby village, just to mess with the Captain's plans. This first involved moving a small train out of the way since it was blocking our only path forward (the tunnel it was parked in) which called a small army of pirate scum bearing down on us. Once they were out of the way we had a small sniping competition, followed by another bridge explosion task. Carrying those heavy bombs really relies on team work since the carrier really is quite helpless.

The next big challenge was traversing a cave that happened to have another pirate army camped within. Seriously, how many of the freaks are there and where are they coming from? I thought I already killed most of the population on this island earlier... oh well. Clearing that took a bit of doing, and only once we got out the other side did we reach the village where the exchange was going to take place.

If only we had... ANY of these!
After knifing the guards we took up position to ambush the convoy which involved having to rocket a number of jeeps, while avoiding a pack of dogs and a large group of shotgun wielding maniacs. Turned out that they had the right idea. The difficulty seemed to ease a lot when I began using their own guns against them. In the end, the village was just filled with dead bodies... and a pile of diamonds, which we buried for safekeeping ofcourse. Not letting those go to waste!

Today I Smiled: Neverwinter Fools!

April Fools is alive and well in Neverwinter, and thanks to the latest patch has me grinning ear to ear. For the next few days there is a skirmish event called Respen's Marvelous Game which sees your characters as table top miniatures playing through some simple D&D settings complete with over the top voice acting from your resident GM Respen and randomized encounters to boot. If you play Neverwinter Online I strongly suggest you try it out a few times! :)

Some of the "players" at the table edge.

Also, they have this silly video which is pretty cute too! The shots of a dragon riding a horse are hilarious.

End of the March Report

Part of the "Odd Jobs of Neverwinter" journal!

Another week of Foundry Quests was completed. This time our agents tried:

The Deserters Tower @ Horvay [NW-DQ89RVF9W]
A simple slaying of deserters from the Neverwinter Army.

Wizards First Rule: Chapter 2 @ reichlyn [NW-DR8MXWH45]
Stays quite close to the original story, with enough changes to make it interesting. This section is focused on Chase.

Towers of the Night @ rabbitfear [NW-DHUAT52RB]
Part of a Campaign involving Cyric, the god of murder, trying to escape his godly prison.

Entertainment for our Guests @ P3rsian [NW-DL419VVPU]
Simple arena combat, with a selection of varying difficulties.

Troubled Spirits @ kaykachyna [NW-DEJL85AE5]
A quest involving strange animal spirits and witches.

The Heroes Tomb @ redfireee [NW-DSDJQCUC]
Heavily story based mission involving a child gaining some really strong powers.

Temple of Elements: Water @ Tumbuk7 [NW-DP20WEP96]
A fantastic and well designed puzzle challenge.

Rescue in the Silver Marches @doctorbadger [NW-DTSKK80J9]
While the premise is rather simple, this quest oozes with love and care to detail and is highly recommended by our agents.

Back to the Past @ OoKennethoO [NW-DIP7QSSUT]
An interesting time travel tale, part 2 of the campaign which began on the previous page.

Uncovered in Swampland @ Waynemando [NW-DQWLC2CT8]
A straight forward dungeon bash.

Barbara's Mansion @ svena2 [NW-DLMJGTCOF]
A beautiful mansion with nice surroundings that make for a great RP zone.

Marrovyre's Mansion @ Happilujah [NW-DIMNVNT99]
Less of a mansion and more of a hut in a forest. One not really worth visiting. RP only.

Guardians of Helm Guild Hall @ Candle71 [NW-DA7GMOY3W]
An unnecessarily large RP zone centered around Helm's Hold.