Grab Bag of Playing

I'm keeping my Archmage on ice until the next patch so that I can try the Tier 3 Gates of Ekrund. I'm not in the mood to play another character, and Tier 4 is a back and forth keep game, so nothing huge to report. So how about some random screenshots from the ol'screenshot folder? Yeah? Yeah!

This made me laugh entirely too much:


Ooh, pretty trees in Empire Tier 3:


Killed this guy on the way up to an Avelorn warcamp, finally got the unlock for the Moldy Coin Purse. No wonder nearly everyone has this pocket item, yet I've never seen it (it's a high traffic area):


Last but not least, the view from a Keep, as Monolith's Order pushes back Destruction:

Oh no! They killed Karl!

But bloody hell, congratulations to Destruction on Karak Eight Peaks! They killed Karl Franz! I've not been playing much this weeks (Sims 2 has been pulling me into it's black hole) but I've been keeping an eye on Monolith's Realm War page, and we're inching closer and closer to Tchar'zanek. It's just a matter of time...

Russenscheller Graveyard

Something I noticed today - the graves in Russenscheller Graveyard in Praag's ORVR lake have names on them. I guessed they'd be real people, perhaps the dev team, and I was right:



I can only presume that Mythic resurrected Pete Lipman to walk their halls as a zombie Deputy Art Director.



Can't make this one out, but it's a beautiful design.



Someone left flowers for terrain artist Brian Clarke.

There are plenty more. While you're waiting for a BO to tick over, why not check them out?

Ostland is Beautiful

One reason I am looking forward to getting a new desktop in 2009 is to experience the graphics turned up to 11 (the other is to stop crashing to desktop every hour and cut the lag in keeps - my problem, not the game's fault).

Holiday Week

The holiday week lends to extra casual playing because it's so quiet, so instead of trying to batter through the stagnant Tier 4 Elf zone, I've been playing Icepick, my Knight of the Blazing Sun.

Any game is fun when you're playing a class that just will not die (Knights can take on equal level Champions and win, no wonder Order have been battered in Scenarios from launch day) but I like the Empire storyline a lot - Tier 1 focuses on the Norse invasion, and now Tier 2 is about plague and sickness and um, trolls. I also caught sight of Yetis in the distance, but at level 21 I think I'll have a go at them a little later.

I've also come across a lot of unlocks, more so than in the Elf tier (although it could be that I wasn't familiar with the game enough/too squishy to look properly) - 2 coming from bestiary items, and one from walking into a spider cave.* When I ding 40 with Kipling, or finally lose my patience with Tier 4, I'm going to run her through all zones and have a solid day of exploring the world, and I value finding unlocks and items organically, rather than relying on Google.

Not much else to report: I've barely touched Tier 2 scenarios so my renown is falling by the wayside and that's on my to-do list in the near future. And scavenging is working out to be a nice little money spinner - it's sole purpose is to funnel resources to Kipling for cultivating/apothecary, but until the right level drops come along, I will stack that gold pile high.

*Sidenote: what is it with Warhammer and spider caves? They're everywhere!