LadyCrimson

Downloading now. Took me a minute to figure out how/where to download the darn thing. All these service sites all connecting together these days... Also realized Borderlands 2 had put out the level-cap increase patch/DLC, which seems included with the Season Pass I bought, and the new character Psycho class, which is not included. I'm not sure I'm interested in spending $10 just for Psycho-man...don't tend to like BL-melee. Anyone try him yet? I guess I hadn't gone online w/Steam in a few months or more...it went all crazy updating all kinds of things on me. Haha. And starting to get more into Neverwinter Online too, even tho I still don't have the panther. Definitely seems to shine more once you're lvl 20+. And I still have the next alpha build of Planet Explorers late this month or maybe early June if they fall a bit behind. Too many games I have to find time for, all of a sudden!! Halp!

Ohhhh....cool. How's it playing for you so far? I've been waiting for that one for so long...

... at least I don't have any lawn-cat statues. Yet.

I'm trying to level up more so I can see if I think I'd even play the game more than another week or two, but I obviously have a discipline weakness for kittah related things ... which is why I had 9 cats once. Apparently it still applies when they're made out of pixels ...

I figured the items made via professions wouldn't sell for that much, considering anyone who levels them can make them. Maybe at first but if it's anything like WoW, that won't last too long. I haven't been terribly impressed with the Auction House listings I've seen. I just realized that the $200 Founder's Pack panther companion is the actual one that I wanted ... the "cat" for the 1million astral diamonds is a tiny non-combat pet with passive bonuses. Which is cute too, but it's not the big black panther. Also gives you 3 more chr. slots. This is why I don't like/usually avoid pay-for-cool-stuff MMO's in general. I'm an obsessive type (yes, sometimes even when I'm not really 100% "into" something) so I'll end up wanting something, start thinking about spending too much money, then have to slap myself repeatedly in the face to try to prevent myself from actually doing it. My cheeks are getting pretty red this noontime.

I've thought it might be latency, but it happens at 3am + the rest of the game actions don't feel "behind". The Cleric hesitates a half second before she goes into that weird postured slide of hers. The shield/sword fighter drove me crazy because you end up either blocking constantly but not being able to attack effectively, or just being like the 2H fighter (eg no point in using block at all) Btw, is there any point/advantage in raising a profession if you can't wear the results?

I liked the Kobold one enough to give the creator a 50 diamond tip, first time I did that. Light fun. I should look at the Foundry tools ... maybe if you design a fun quest or three you'd make a little currency over time.

Anyone else have trouble with the dodging mechanic? I get the double-tap idea and/or the shift key, but it doesn't work reliably. Half the time you double press or press shift+movement key, there's this long hesitation before you slide out of the way ... or if you're blocking, there's this long hesitation between taking your finger off the block key and being able to swing a sword again. And by long, I mean a second or two, which in combat is really long. It's highly annoying and equals one using a lot more potions as you're knocked down over and over and over instead of dodging out of the red circles. Which is why I don't think I'd do well with the rogue class, who has to be nimble? The cleric is definitely the best for me so far. Tho if they fixed the dodging I might like one of the fighters ok.

Unless triggering stuff from a website shortens the time required for them to perform tasks, I don't see how it saves me any time. I've reached a point where most of the time it's too long anyway, so I just login, put up the new task, log out, come back an hour or six later. ... My higher lvl is the Cleric (19 now). I tried the 2H weapon fighter and the shield/sword fighter. Probably DEL again to try the mage. If I felt like spending $200, I noticed you can be a "Founder" and get 2 million diamonds, a super panther, spider mount, and other such things in one big package. If you're really into the game, seems like that'd be a better deal then $30 for some zen to trade, occasionally. Not that I'm that into the game. It does feel more and more like a "dungeon crawl" game (for solo play I mean) and while that's always fun in small doses, I tend to prefer the more open, wandering rpg's. It's been nice to alternate between NWO and Path of Exile tho...keeps me from getting too bored of either, too fast.

Anything under 600 pages is a short book and paperbacks of 1000+ pages aren't that heavy. Hardcovers are a pain tho...too big for comfy lying in bed reading and too heavy to cart around. Hardbacks are for getting authors to sign them. I don't think I'd be interested in having authors sign a Kindle.

Ah, I get it. Didn't realize players traded zen for astral diamonds. $30 still seems steep for a companion pet tho, as mentioned. Reached lvl 16 ... that one quest for killing three Orc leaders finally did me in (died). Those tiny little spaces to fight in and a cranky dodge system. Thankfully they didn't make me do the whole dungeon bit over, just had to run back and kill the last leader who smote me down. So I could choose the newbie quest companion and chose the cleric, because I have no use for a dog. Haha! ...anyway, this is the first game where I find myself watching Netflix on one screen while standing around waiting for professions to finish their short tasks over and over...while also waiting for the hour to go by to invoke the gods and get free rough diamonds. Ah well...it's free. Maybe in a year I'll have a lvl 30 chr.

Chinese take out, The Voice, some lovin', then midnight gaming. It's a rough life, but someone's gotta do it. ...altho my bad knees have been particularly terrible lately. My fault, been slacking on the leg/knee strengthening stuff too much. Squats are a no-no. I should build stadium benches in the backyard to walk up and down on.

Ah. I thought those would open up a browser/website or something. I'll check it out later, thanks. Also ... can you use a direct CC, not PayPal? I'm not familiar with the other non-PayPal CC options they were listing...

Hm. They must have changed the rates since March-ish then. People were whining that $50 got them 5300 astral diamonds which would barely buy certain mounts or something. Is there a page that lists the exchange rates/packages without first having to sign up for their zen membership or whatever it is? I couldn't find one on the "buy zen" page, but I often miss things like that. And yeah, I know about the Foundry quest/1000 diamonds. But I'm not doing it once a day + other earning options for six months or a year for a companion. I was willing, once, to do a lot to get the flying mount in WoW...(which didn't actually take that long, relatively speaking) ... I don't think I'm willing to do it again.

Puppy - "Food, water, play ball, sleeping bed and blankie. Doggy-heaven? I think so." Charcoal grill ... good choice, Labadal.

--Condolences to both you and your mother, TN. --I don't think I've ever seen vacuum-packed ammo before. --I'm in one of those moods/having a craving where 10 pounds of chocolate sounds about right.

I do know what you mean...tho I mostly feel like that in PoE's caverns, the ones where the twisty tunnels make it impossible to see enemies in certain corners etc. Outdoors/most room-dungeons are fine. And I still think it's mostly their artwork scale in some places. Diablo doesn't have dozens of towering tree trunks that go "offscreen", for example, trying to give a sense of scale or something, or those spaghetti narrow, high walled caverns.

Well, I pushed ahead to lvl 14 ... did that Foundry quest, started the professions. Explored the main town a bit more, and then went to go see how much real money = Zen/astral diamonds. I had to rely on forum posts because I didn't feel like signing up to something just to get that info Seems rather inflated ... eg, $50 won't get you much of anything (maybe 5k-6k "astral diamonds?"). Which is sad, because I still want that cat companion and would've been willing to fork over a bit o' cash just to shorten the time, because that's how I am. But alas ... ....those times-to-completion on professions are pretty insane, too, even taking into consideration the notion that if you were doing it yourself (vs. "hiring") it'd take time to do it. And while the Foundry is great in some ways, for someone who likes to play alone, it's not quite as interesting as it might be. But that depends more on the players and what they design, not the developers. So yeah...there's a few things I still want to get to/try first, but then I'll probably hang this one up.

I don't think it's that much closer of a viewpoint than Diablo3 was. Maybe a little, but not much. Sometimes size of the surrounding features make it look closer than it really is (like really wide cobble roads). I was probably zoomed in a little for the above screens, too.

We bought a cheap gas grill when we moved into this house...used it a while that summer and haven't since. It works fine, but it's just not the same as charcoal BBQ. Mostly tho, I don't like cleaning the grill all the time. The old Webber, you'd fire up the coals and let the high flames burn the gunk off the grill and scrape it off with a metal brush ... the gas grill you have to scrub/wash. But they're definitely great when you want to cook a lot of meat at once.

Never been to Act3 in PoE before (didn't exist at one time...). (oops meant Act3 not Act2 .. fixed) Aha, the overwhelm you with numbers trick... ...not as bad as it looks, just funny. I do need better gear now tho...

Caught up on 2nd season of Grimm now. We had watched the 1st season and then I stopped paying attention a couple episodes into the 2nd. I like the new developments, feels like the show is smoothing out more ... although there's still some moments of cheese or stupidity that I don't like ... but any character/plot turn that gives Captain Sean Renard (Sasha Roiz) a bit more air time is ok by me. I hope it survives another season or two. Don't think it has much more in it than that, but I'd like to know more about a couple plot lines....

Is this going to be a pic of a large, manly grill, or a pic of some mouth-watering BBQ that's immediately going to make me want some of my own?

I'm still waiting.