10000 Refugees and Counting

Many years ago, 14 at least, we were having a 4th of July celebration. My son had a lit sparkler or a punk or something along those lines and he snuck up behind. My family yelled, I turned in the course of events he jammed that lit firework into my hand vs my ass where he was aiming. Funny kid, funny.  The firework basically melted into my hand a good quarter inch or so. It took years for my hand to heal completely. Ever since then not only do I keep an eye on him when he handles fireworks, I watch other people and how they handle fireworks. I don’t let people with fireworks behind me and I make sure that I’m protected from the sides and I also keep an eye on others I like to think of it is once burned twice shy.

Is this fair to anybody that I’m passing judgement on entire group of people where even the person who committed the wrong isn’t the same person? No, not especially but it seems better to error on the side of caution. I bring this up because a good friend of mine Travis who I do a podcast with 2 Trolls & a Brew” posted this picture.

 

trade

I commented “just do it in Missouri” for those we don’t know Sam Brownback is the governor of Kansas and I live in Kansas. So simply what I am stating is I do not want these refugees to come to Kansas.

I have a list of perfectly logical reasons why 10000 additional people shouldn’t up and be moved to Kansas.

  • Our economy can’t handle 10000 unemployed right now
  • Education our education system at the moment is incredibly taxed with the people we already have
  • Housing, we really don’t have the additional housing for 10,000 new people.

And that is before we add the risk of bad apples sneaking their way into our mist. It doesn’t seem unreasonable for me to say I am not on board with the plan to have the federal government vett 10,000 people and drop them off in my backyard.

Now you want to bring in a small groups of families, bring them to my local community. Let me talk to them. Personally, vett them. I would be more than happy to give a family a place to live, food, whatever they need. More than happy to do that on the small scale that I (capitalize supergiant Mega “I” ) sign off on. And i bet we could find 10,000 willing households to do the same. I would guess a lot of them right here in Kansas.

Unfortunately what I think when I see this sign is a 10000+ strong refugee camp. And that is no good. No thank you.

I think back to a few years ago when the Occupy Wall Street people, Americans in America primarily, were camped out in different major cities and I would read story after story after story about crimes that were going on in these miniature camps of volunteer individuals. Just picture that happening on a scale 10 times as large and a place where the people in these camps feel that they don’t have the rights to report these things and where they don’t have the ability to leave on their own volition.

As I write this I keep going back to the number 10000. I think it might be the massive number that is causing my issues, for example that is a fifth of the population of the town that I’m currently living in. Now if you say bring us a hundred refugees three hundred. No problem.

Should the number of refugees be that important to me? I don’t know and yet it is.

I don’t have the answers to this one. I just have to balance my fears vs my willingness to help. Fear is not logical. It just is. Send me 4-5 and I can help, send me 10,000 and i will see you later.

As always leave comments,

<3s

Ddo and Twitch

Look at me kids, I am writing about Dungeons and Dragons Online for a change. Watch out!

So i have been looking at the different Twitch numbers. Number of viewers, number of streamers things like that and do you know what i learned? That DDo has less viewers and streamers then pen and paper Dnd and games like Mario Sunshine. Amazing games btw… But still it can be aggravating at times, because you know what? I like to watch others play as long as they are being entertaining. I don’t think it is any secret that i am into Magic right now. And a lot of the time i will just log into DDo and do some mindless grinding (or while working) watching someone else play magic on the other screen.

I know that we have had a big push lately, but it is just not enough. I wonder what it would take to boost the numbers. Looking last night (after servers got back up), Magic got to around 3k and DDo didn’t break 100 and League was over 80k. We just had an update and my personal twitter feed just had a lot of nothing. Today is better, but not great.

So this is where my head is… ChannelFireBall helps some of its Magic writers that also happen to be streamers pay for their time. I know that other major websites do the same. So why not DDo? I look at the League streams listed now and i see at least 10 sponsored streamers right now. Seems like cheep advertising to me.

The wife and i have been talking about trying moving my for $$ job to streaming 4-5 nights/days a week but i couldn’t pay anything with the low numbers i see in the DDo streams. The highest DDo stream i have seen was about 150 and that was one of Jerry’s Lunch streams where he was previewing things with a Dev and giving out codes like candy. Not saying why people where watching, but i saw a lot of “hey Jerry is giving away point codes on the stream” when i fired up my game and looked in the channel chats and not a lot of “wow X looks cool as hell”….

I am just saying, who would like to see Turbine sponsor a few part time streamers? Pay for their subs, kick them a few codes to hand out on streams etc… Hell i would move a lot of things around for a few $ in my bank account. All in the name of advertising. Speaking of ads, why don’t we have some sweet Youtube ads targeting gamers. I have to watch Rainbow Six new game ad about 10 times a day think a DDo ad would pop up in my Youtube….

 

Oh well, I hope to look into the Rogue pass this week and see if there is anything that makes me want to take more then 2 rogue on any of my builds or rework my ranged rogue.

 

<3s

10 Hours in the ER

Taking this Monday off of Magic, if i have something Magic related i will knock it out later this week. But i want to share for those that don’t follow me on Twitter or Facebook the events of this last week.

Last Wednesday was like any other this summer. Remmie went to football practice, the wife was at work and i went in to the backyard and did the gardening thing. While i was out back i heard lots of sirens but i live on a crazy 5 lane street that intersects another crazy street a few blocks down so sirens are not real uncommon. But i was wondering where Remmie was as i could use his help.

When i finished up in the garden, i asked the wife if Remmie was home and she said not yet. And just assumed that he was goofing off with his friends after practice. It happens he is 14 after all. So i jump into the shower. With all my hair gone what was a 20 min affair is down to 5 mins. So i was practically in and out. I step out and start drying off and my wife opens the door with a look of dread i have only seen from her a handful of times, the someone is dead look.

I let her finish her call, getting ready to be all supportive husband guy, when she hands up and freaks out. I get “That was Remmie’s coach. He said some boys just told him that Remmie was hit by a car and he was taken to the hospital.” That was all we knew. Wet and naked, she tried to fall to the ground but i wouldn’t let her.

I fell into cold practical Samius mode starting to order her around. Let work know and get logged out. I started to dress but i herd her fall to the ground and start to slip into a pure panic. I few well placed words snapped her out of it. But mainly the idea that we NEEDED to be at the hospital right the fuck now got her moving.

We were ready to head out in less then 5 mins after that. We would have been out faster but the EMS called us from Remmie’s phone. Told us that he was alive, that he never lost consciousness and he asked him to call us but he would need stitches.

That really helped. Our mental images of Remmie splattered all over the road changed to him getting clipped and hardly hurt at all. That was a sweet break from the nightmares my brain cooked up.

Once we saw him we knew it was better then the worse we had been picturing but much worse then the better that we had in mind.

Now for him it went something like this.

He was riding home with his friend Jeff. For some reason Jeff has crossed Ohio (that crazy street that i live on) earlier that usual and left Remmie on the far side. He was riding like he always does to cross at the pizza hut that is right in front of out house (which has an intersection) when a woman in a huge SUV slowed and stopped in front of him wanting to turn to cross his path. He also stopped to let her pass. But she waved him to go first, he checked for traffic and crossed the street. There was a driver behind the SUV waiting, and she happened to be a former neighbor so we got the rest of the story from her. She saw Remmie start to cross just as a woman flew past her in the inside lane. This woman didn’t see him until the last sec when she hit the breaks and broad sided him in the turn lane. He flew up over the hood smashing out that cars windshield, flying over the car and smashing down on the ground sliding to a stop a few feet behind the car.

My wife wonders if the diver had not panicked and slammed on the breaks so hard wold she have avoided hitting my son as the collision happened in the turn lane. And she wouldn’t have been in the turn lain had she not hit the breaks so hard and lost control… I would rather not think about it. It would drive me super crazy.

Okay lets do some fast forwarding, Wednesday 10+ hours in the ER (not that we needed all 10 hours, just that the ER fucked up real bad in a few ways), 51 stitches in the elbow another 150ish along the shoulder and base of the head. Once that one was done he was complaining of head pain and Tonya went looking and found a 2 inch hole in his head. It just didn’t bleed like a head wound and was missed that took some number of stitches and staples. He was admitted and the doctor had me convinced that we would be out on Thursday. But my kid hasn’t be hurt like this before and was sure his pain level was a 2 so they kept his pain meds lower. But the doc looked at his heart rate for the night and decided to up his pain meds. We asked for those meds and the nurse started to argue with us about what he can have with a pain number of 2… Tonya pissed pulled out her Kindle and found the description of the pain chart, after looking it over he decided he was 5 or 6. And the magic pills rolled in and Saturday his pain management was under control and we were home.

He is asleep as i write this but he seems to be in high spirits otherwise. He even had a friend spend the night last night. It was nice to have someone keep him company. Most of Saturday he just wanted to sit but not be board. We tried to keep him company but we are not teenage boys.

If you read this please try and keep and look out for others. Had the first woman not flagged him on or just went once he was stopped this wouldn’t have happened. Had he seen the other car he wouldn’t have tried to cross. And had the driver that hit him been paying a reasonable level of attention she could have slowed and kept control of her car, avoiding hitting him. I will tell you the one thing i know for sure, you don’t want anything to do with any part of this situation. You don’t want to be hit, you don’t want to be the hitter, you don’t want to be root cause you don’t want to watch something like this. Hell the people not directly involved that saw him get hurt seem to be the most shaken. Just not believing that he is okay. Just be vigilant you really don’t want any part of all this.

Thanks for your positive thoughts.

<3s

Magical Monday 6.2.14

My magic life is real good right now. The whole fam is up for drafting almost at a whim. And they are getting fairly good. My son still tends to draft around life gain but he is at least winning a good amount of time. He and the wife are planing on doing a two headed draft at Gencon this year and he already has enough tixs for like 3 drafts for times when the wife and i are doing things he is just not into, like role playing for couples. Man i wish that was an event. Maybe i need to plan it out and host it myself in a few years.

Anyway as i said my magic life is doing well we even got some friends to come over the other day for a triple Journey draft with all my packs from FNM wins (and the box we bought) and i started to notice a personal trend both at the store and at home unless there is a money rare i wont pass…

The thing is i will always go for the junk constellation build almost every time it is available. Last weeks FNM, i tried to diverge and draft blue/black agro and it was just not good enough. Ended up 1-2-drop. In my defense the wife was also “done” and i was also fairly close the end of my rope as my head had turned up to six on the old pain dial and i was not in the mood for random bullshit like calling over a judge when i attacked into a tapped-Pinned to the Earth-Swarmborn Giant and a Nyx Infusioned-Monsterous-Ravenous Leucrocota with my sryfish and a bloodcrazed hoplite that became my own 6/6 and 7/7 post blocks thanks to a Polymorphous Rush. My opponent who just won a few simi-large events tried to argue that my guys would be 0/6s. I almost strangled him. It was just a thing were he was trying to squirm out of a loss. But i was pleased when the judge came over and smashed him down. Didn’t help that before we even started this player refused to move to me because he had “to much stuff” even though i was sitting next to my wife and she was already started the match. Asshole.

Sorry for the derail, my point is that in constellation is just so much value that i can’t seem to get away. I need all the value!

Pretend that this is a pic of LSV

and it says “I don’t always draft” “But when i do it is for Value”

I watch all kinds of draft videos/coverage and i just yell at the screen what the pick clearly is and somehow most of these people find ways to win in other archetypes. I don’t know how they do it. I could draft other archetypes pre-Nix but not now. Hell we even did a draft the other week with a core set over a Born because the shop didn’t have enough Born for all the drafters and constellation was still all the value.

Soo good.

What are your top 3 uncommons/commons?

<3s

25 is Weaksause

I have a window where i can write like a champ. I can’t spell a bloody thing but the werds just flow out of me. Unfortunately for me that time is about 5 mins after i crawl into bed while my brain tries to do anything but relax around the pain in my head until i finally pass out for whatever sleep i can muster. For some strange reason i feel it is trying to escape the pain and get my body to sleep regardless of the throbbing electric fire that is my skull 24/7. The real crime is i only remember about 20% of those werds unless i get up and make notes. Even so nothing ever seems as good in the morning as it does at midnight. Think it has to do more with werd choice, what i can spell vs what is in my thesaurus.

Anyway something was bothering me giving my brain a target to claw at both last night and most of today. And it is DDo related for a change. Oh, i am talking about the changes to grouping levels for quests.

I get it we don’t want to allow 19s in to epic quests because epics get out just too much xp for the heroic xp curve to handle. Which is bull shit! That is a rant best left for a DDoCtH or a While we are Playing, but if a 19 can handle him/herself in an epic quest THEN FUCKING LET THEM! If 99% of new content is built for 20+ level questing then let people play that content. Now if you want to impose party member penalties because someone is 3+ levels higher then the 19 then that is fine. Adding a minim level to the quests was just LAZY CODING. I can think of 3 better ways to keep heroic players out of epic content with out imposing level minims. Again another show.

I bring this up because this has burned me a few times in the last couple of weeks. Right now i am on a bit of a DDo break/TR tear… Can one both be on a break and on a tear? I am not playing much during the week as i am mostly focused on eTRing Samius but i am not really loving the epic levels solo like i was when i was able to catch people in the evenings. I don’t really love the idea of heroic TRing anyone as i feel that the current endgame is sewed towards ranged dps and Samius is all ready filling that role better then most. So while play anyone else?

So anyway some time in the last week i went to jump into one of the new quests with Tobril and the ladies but i was too low level to join them. No worries i will just do X, i need to go and do it anyway. In that case it was the “farm chores” but it has been quest Y or restocking or flagging or whatever. But i spent some time in the week and Saturday crossing into level 25 what i thought was the lowest minim level for doing the newer content so as to be a helper. Turns out that 26 is the minim level. Grrrr!

Could i swap and jump to someone like Butterz? Sure but i would have been more of a hindrance then a help. Not that bards aren’t great and lots of fun but again the end game favors ranged dps. Her idea of ranged is Dwarven Thrower. Are you a giant? Sweet take extra damage. No? Sweet take extra damage. If only 2d6 was sweet damage… And my arty is also rocking out at about level 25. So no help there either.

No i really thing this minim level is lazy and is a quick fix for what was an exploit that just should be the rule of law. If a heroic could complete an epic they deserve the xps.

There is one other thing that has been eating at me while we are on the topic of epic xps. Why if we now have these stupid minim level nonsense is there a penalty for having someone 3+ levels over you anymore? Why do you have both? Either the watermark is here (minim level) or here (someone 3 levels highter then you) not both? Again i would point to sloppy juggling to fix a perceived exploit. But hey even i can’t ride a dead horse.

Am i alone in this? Comments.

<3s

Shutterbug

I was a bit of a shutterbug yesterday and thought why not share?

Ever watch Loth eat a man?

Ever watch Loth eat a man?

I am slowly leveling that last little bit to 28. Normally i have the DG whom i talk into helping me make a huge push to cap out. eXp is a lot slower when you are doing it alone. Right now i am mostly doing the 3 simi easy epic quests then explorers or trying to pick up missing saga pieces like the above quest.

 

FU_elminster

Fuck you Elminster!

Moving on to the next quest in the chain i get all the way through the quest when i notice that a flag did not complete…. I log in my alt account and have Steampower join and practically rerun the quest and i was able to proc the follow dickface to check off but not the leave the Under-dark…  I didn’t want that xp anyway!

 

Come on Nightfall, there be werewolfs to but to sleep!

Come on Nightfall, there be Werewolfs to but to sleep!

After my frustrations with quest objectives checking off, i decided to just run a few explorer zones. Sweet shot no?

 

Well that was my day in ddo. Now to get that last 200K or so just in time to TR for the weekend.

<3s

 

 

 

FABulous!

I just want to be FABulous!!!!111!1! Like all the time.

But sometimes i want to have visual clues as to what armor i am wearing. And while i am at it i know i was in the minority here but i also liked the old style of bound to armor,skins. Don’t get me wrong i also love the new style of skins but i spent money on those old skins as well and some times i want to see them again.

For example what i am wearing right now.

Base Skin

Base Skin

Bound to Armor

Bound to Armor

Bound to account super skin

Bound to account super skin

 

What i want is to one bring back the bound to armor skins in addition to the new super skins. Maybe don’t make any new B2armor skins unless it is easy to do so and the sales are worth the hassle. (I would think it would be both fast and worth wild but i dont have access to the data to know.)

In addition to bringing things back i want a drop down not unlike how metamagic feats now interact with quick bar icons, but per armor.

First remove this skin on of toggle and replace it with the following functions at the top level with matching over rides on each piece of armor. Always use Base, Always use B2Armor, Always use Equipped Cosmetic Skin. Set Always use Base as the default. If you really like the main toggle being like what it is have it change color, Transparent for base, Silver for B2Armor and Gold for Cosmetic.

Okay so that might sound hard, but it is not really. I have two armors in my pack that i tend to swap between say Fire Rest 30 (more like an Icy Regiments) and Cold Rest 30(Dragon Touched set up for amp but you get the idea). I don’t know about you but i tend to forget what armor i am wearing if i say look like image 3 all the time. So i buy a B2Armor skin for one of the armors and set it to always on. Ergo when i swap between them i get the visual of the swap.

Another issue i have with how having a Cosmetic Skin equipped is currently working is say you are wearing something like the Garments of Equilibrium, Ie something that has 3 hitpoints and is always falling off. With an  Cosmetic Skin you have to look and see. The other day after a rough couple of quests in a row in a chain (where i didn’t what to run back and sell/repair) I was naked for i am not sure how long. Then once i repaired i didn’t notice that i was naked and did another quest. Good thing i needed to swap armor for some reason and i noticed that i was in the buff.

Well what do you think? Base/B2Armor/Cosmetic toggle for armor skins?

<3s

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Things and Playsel and Streams

Last night and this morning as i was falling to sleep and waking up i had a lot of versions of this post rocking around in my head. Things i want to cover and things i want to talk about. But i don’t have the clearest idea of how i want this ideas to flow into one and other. So if things are a little muddled in the transitions bear (or bare you you also dislike pants) with me.

Right this moment i want to defend Turbine and its Player Counsel. People it is something NEW and SCARY and NEW. Did i say NEW? Ie, change. I thought we all wanted change?

I think most of us can agree that the Mornlands system was less then ideal. Closed/Hidden/Secret we had no idea what was coming until it was mostly too late to get our two cents in on. I remember  the first time i saw the new AC changes. I don’t even remember how many blog posts i did on AC and getting one that mattered and how many i wrote on how the current system is a removing the incentive to work at an worth wild AC. And i was fairly active working with the tools i had at my disposal. But we got the system anyway, and with it we got a promise to do a revision pass soon. To my knowledge there has been no talk of a follow up AC pass.

Maybe this PC, that is a dumb name by the way…. Maybe this Player Counsel can get in while it is still possible to herd the cats around to a plausible idea.  Maybe not. But it is new people, Lets get off everyone nuts for a minute and see how things shake out.

Okay that said 3 more things on the Player Counsel.

  1. Anytime i am reading the forums and i see “Read by a member of the Player Counsel” i am likely to shoot my drink out of my nose. If you are a member of the Counsel, unless you and i have spoken and you have an opinion that i respect (not necessarily agree with but respect) then tagging a post with i read this and i am important might as well be pissing in the wind in my eyes. That said anyone can earn my respect with well thought out responses and replies on things that the Player Counsel will be working. Still however “Read by a member of the Player Counsel” is likely not to garner any good will on my part.
  2. I have been asked if i am going to be on the Player Counsel or not. Short answer is No, i will not be. But as i understand it, the reason is due to one i am not willing to change, my friendships with those that work at Turbine. I could have or it could be perceived that i might have a stronger voice in the Player Counsel due to my friends at Turbine and to a lesser degree this blog and the different podcasts as the podcasts are how i got to meet and become friends with these people. And if i have to give up being on the Player Counsel to still be able to talk and hang out freely with these people well then i guess it is not for me. No matter how much my wife thinks i need to be part of the decision making process when it comes to DDo. Guess I will just have to get hired.
  3. I am getting really tired of typing Player Counsel. And we know that PC is a dumb-ass name. Can we please find something else? Playsel? Or Pounsel? Or maybe we can just nickname members all Bob and call it the meeting of the bobs, Motbs for short?

The other thing i want to talk about is streaming. I think Turbine needs an official stream(s)/schedule/team. It doesn’t need to be running 24/7 but i bet we could fill 80 hours fairly easily among there different games. Start with one stream and rotate things on a schedule, Asheron’s Call Mondays, LoTRs Tuesdays, DDo Wednesdays, Dev Friday Public Play,  etc…. Then as things pick up we can expand the coverage to include other members in the party. I really feel that using these streaming services can provide a real advantage to the companies that take the time to do so. I spent some time last week ice jumping on stream. I ended up doing a Q and A with people that just wondered into the channel looking for something else to play. WHILE ICE JUMPING PEOPLE!

I have watching the MtG online coverage of events for a long time now. But you know what i really love? Just watching some of the pros that i really love and respect just playing MtG live on stream with their thoughts on things as the play.

Mind blowing right?

Jump over to http://www.twitch.tv/directory tell me that DDo doesn’t belong on this page?

Okay, things to do xp to earn TRs to knock out.

<3s

U20 Loot, Like there are Other Things.

For today’s post i want to look at the new loot in U20. With 2 quests there is not that much to examine but what the hell. To be lazy i am just going to run the link out to the wiki and then just reference as needed. http://ddowiki.com/page/Update_20_named_items

Golem’s Heart: An augment…Blue? Good start. ml 28? Boo. Proc 2% does some damage heals some damage. Think that 2% is a little low but for the most part it is cute. Not worth farming for but i would be super happy to have one in the chest.

Hunter’s Slayer: Silver Greatsword.. Wish i would have caught this before Monday’s While We R Playing as an option to eSOS, not in raw power but with the much easier ability to farm up. 3.5[2d6] 17-20×2 is a respectable damage profile atleast while farming up that SOS shard. As a all in plan it wouldn’t be bad but i think some of its properties makes it more appealing to people that are not 100% dps all the time or for those that want to add it to their golf bag vs a fairly large subset of mobs.

Cyran Guard: This is a docent right? So it is meant for arty pets? Because it doesn’t DOOOOO anything. I wouldn’t even give it to my robot dog….

Deconstructor: Another augment, this one gives 2 worth wild properties in the right slot.  ml 26? Fuck yeah! Much better.  Adamantine and 3d6 damage to constructs… So Ady is lvl 12 so 3d6 TO CONSTRUCTS IS WORTH 14 MORE LEVELS to the minimum level? wtf…. /facepalm wtf? But on the flip side it is LEVEL FUCKEN 26 which is 2 lower then the other new named augment but it is +1 than Draconic Soul Gem. Yeah makes sense.

 

Well that was fun times. Agree/Disagree? Comment Below.

<3s

 

Short and Hairy

I have been dancing around this idea for a while now but after reading Geoff’s article this morning i think now is the time to stand and stay this out loud. Dwarf’s are currently the master race. And if you want to have the idea low gear leveler i think you want a dwarf rouge/X build.

That feels good to say… Hope it was super controversial. It was in my mind…

I feel like i lead the curve on things like this and then jump ship right as it becomes main stream. So i half feel like there will be a huge up swing in the fat halfling characters. I remember reading a tag some were that said something like: Will play any class or race except dwarf and rangers, they are the easy buttons of DDo.

Now i dont know about the ranger thing, but i will say 6 or so ranger levels are fairly sweet. But i totally agree that the dwarf is the master race right now knocking the plastic helfs off their throne for the foreseeable future.

I currently have 4 actively being played dwarfs or fat halflings, Samius, Butterzotch, As400 and SamiusJr. And i have to say the racial line is amazing.

  • Massive amounts of Con and HP equals staying alive power, no brainer.
  • Iron Stomach is great, drink any pot and get lots of perks.
  • MORE SWEET AXE ACTION!!!!!!
  • Bonuses to Tactics, if you are a tactics person you know how important these bonuses are.
  • The dragonmark gives SR, a forcefield and an earth grab attack… Okay so SR and forcefeild bitches!
  •  And Throw your weight around, WTF? Con give HP, Con is damage, Con is HPDPS? Yes please!

And you know that mountain line is not bad either, if you have the HP do you really need reflex saves? Just twist them in.

Also my quick 2 cents on what is the best single class to level up. Is the one that had the lowest score, yep for me it was the fighter. Namely when i was doing the tank on the cheep thing he mostly leveled to cap solo at the time. All he needed was the best AC i could muster for the least amount of work all the amp i could fit in after that and a Vamp Morningstar of PG (i think) with a guild slot… I felt unkillable most of the time on Samyus back then. His Ac was always solid so i didn’t take a lot of damage what i did take i was able to heal back with a cleave/great cleave and when it was time to fight the boss i would haste up and go as big dps as i could. 9/10 times i could get them before they got me. If i were to do it again yep he would be a dwarf… They are just too good not to play right now.

<3s