Making Christmas

This morning I woke up to find that Christmas Time had come to Animal Crossing Pocket Camp. I'm so excited! I absolutely love Christmas, it's one of my favorite holidays. I hadn't even considered that we might get seasonal decorations and limited time crafting from our little mobile game.

Everyone was sent a Santa Hat to help get you in the spirit, and you can find that in your mailbox after you log in. The event only lasts through Christmas, so if there are decorations or outfit pieces that you want, you will want to get busy collecting Candy Canes and completing special Timed Goals. If you want that adorable top you'll want to craft a Jingle Fence, for example.

Candy Canes are a crafting material, like cotton or wood, and similarly you won't be able to just go pick them from a tree. You can get Candy Canes from completely Timed Goals, as a bonus reward when you do favors for your animal friends, and from the Shovelstrike Quarry.

To find what you can craft with your Candy Canes, look in the Special - Limited Time category of your crafting menu. It's the fancy seal with a leaf in it, where you could find the KK Slider or Tom Nook chairs to use your Leaf Tickets on. Take note that some of your Timed Goals that award Candy Canes are to craft these special holiday items. You have to spend candy to make candy, or something like that.

That Snowman decoration is calling my name and it's going to set me back 300 Candy Canes, so it's time to go help some more of my animal friends. Happy Holidays from my camp to yours.

Caff Goes Pocket Camping

Animal Crossing Pocket Camp was released yesterday, and I have been playing a lot. I'm sure the shine will wear off eventually and I'll just play when I'm bored instead of making time to sit down and fish or run errands for my animal friends, but for now I am hooked.

If you are just getting started Isabelle will guide you through making contacts with campers and learning how to do tasks for them to raise their friendship level. She'll teach you about getting fruit from trees, fishing, catching bugs, and how to build furniture, but there are a few little details that she'll leave out.

You are going to want to make some friends, either by sharing friend codes or by befriending players who you'll find around the map, because asking friends for help is the only way you can access the Shovelstrike Quarry without spending 20 of your precious Leaf Tickets. While you will be able to acquire Leaf Tickets as you level, they aren't so plentiful as to waste on the chance to earn a few Bells unless you plan to spend a lot of actual money to buy more in the cash store. When you go to the Quarry you'll see a button that allows you to ask your friends for help, once at least 5 people say yes you'll be able to go in and smack some rocks to find treasures that Lloyd will give you bells for.

You'll want to make sure you check your friend list periodically to see if other people are asking for help. If someone wants to access the Quarry you'll see a shovel next to their name. When you help people you'll be rewarded with Bells in the mail later, so even if you wouldn't help your friend just to be nice you can do it to help yourself get a new pair of shoes. (Be nice and help your friends, this whole game is about being nice.)

Which brings me to what I love the most about ACPC is that it is joyful. So far none of the animals are being grumpy at me, instead every thing is a chance for happiness. When you catch a bug or a fish near another player's NPC or one of the animals they get so excited and applaud your success. It brings me a little bit of joy every time. When you build a new amenity the campers hanging out at your place will come celebrate the new building.

You will run into inventory problems fairly quickly if you're in the habit of collecting every fruit, bug, shell and fish that you see. So far it seems that you can build infinite furniture, but the stuff you collect to give to your animal friends has a low cap. Two bits of good news here, the first being that you will gain more inventory space as you level and the second is that you can sell your excess stuff for Bells. I'd advise holding onto any rare items you come across because the payoff for turning it in as a quest will be greater than just selling it, but the more common items just use your judgement. Depending on how much space you have available keeping 5 to 10 of a fish can have a great pay off so that you aren't trying to find squid all of a sudden when multiple animals desire 3 at a time. Just keep fishing and collecting and the game will tell you when you run out of space. Sell a few items or list them in your Market Box for other players to purchase, and you'll be good to go. Don't let it get you down.

There is a lot more to the game than I am covering here, this isn't in depth by any means, I just wanted to gush a bit about how much fun I'm having with the new Animal Crossing Pocket Camp game. I am having so much fun. Now I have to go, I just saw a tip on twitter that you can shake non-fruit trees and sometimes Bells fall out. I'm going to go check it out while I wait for my next set of quests to come up. I'm saving up to build a massive Tree House for all the cuties at my camp; I hope to see you there.

Flying Off The Handle

Today a post came out on Polygon and the only thing I've seen come up much on Twitter is item #4, that flying isn't coming back anytime soon if at all in the World of Warcraft. I've have read my twitter timeline, there's been a lot of unhappy sentiment, a fair amount of commiseration, and very little discussion.

I have no interest in discussing the matter, so I can't really blame anyone. I've seen exactly one person come into a conversation and have the opinion that not flying is the best thing and it should stay that way (a week or two ago). Two people started talking around me, seeming to try and persuade each other of their points of view. I told them I didn't care why they thought not-flying was great, it's not great to me.

Perhaps on the far end of the RAWR spectrum is Ember. I think she makes very good points. Beware there will be F-bombs ahoy, she is well and truly angry. The points still stand though, and I don't think she's wrong to be angry about being told flying won't come back.

I'm more blah about the whole thing. I want to be able to fly. I enjoy it, I like being able to zip around look at things, look for things. I get lost on the ground, and I usually play short races so it's hard to see over rocks and such. Being able to fly up gives me perspective that I don't have otherwise. I did pet collecting and archaeology while I was leveling, as I passed through the areas. I don't do it at all now. Which is a shame. I actually kind of like archaeology, but I'm not going to spend ages wading back and through mobs to do it.

I'm not mad though. I thought that leveling without it was fine. There are plenty of ways to skip mobs and content without it, even before you get the robot in Gorgrond or Aviana's Feather. I figured out the bare minimum to open up level 2 garrisons, to speed my alt ways.

Honestly the only thing not flying means to me is that I play a little less. I don't know if I'd be more likely to level an alt if I could fly or not. I've done a few, most of them faired fine without flying. Mostly they leveled passively through XP missions and mining in the garrison, then brief bursts of questing.

I'm pretty sure I'd play my main more if I could fly. I'd be looking for treasures. I'd be looking for rare spawns. I'd be doing pet battle trainers and fishing up lunkers. Instead when it's not raid night I log in, do some treasure missions, open some salvage, hit the AH, and log out. Lately I've been working on the legendary quest on my paladin and I've been trying to spend a night a week on that.

Still I'm not mad. I'm just not playing as much, and I'm a little bummed.

To cheer us all up, let's look at this flying chocobo. Because yes, FFXIV is adding in flying now.
Welp.

Video captured from the Twitch broadcast on May 21, 2015 Letter from the Producer LIVE Part XXI. The flying bits start around the 40 minute mark.

Bigger Is Better

My first time through the process of establishing my garrison I was quite unhappy with how long it took me. It seemed like I was doing something wrong. I really wasn't, but I could have done it faster if I had been less distracted. I've enjoyed wandering around and doing quests in a less than optimal fashion the first time though, but if I'm going to build more than one garrison, I cannot do the same on multiple characters.

Taking notes as I went along I have determined the bare minimum of quests that you need to do in order to unlock your level 2 garrison.

**Note, I have only done the horde quest lines. I have not leveled any alliance characters yet.**

The first step is of course to go through the Dark Portal and complete the Tanaan storyline. Make your way to Frostfire Ridge and establish your garrison. Do the quests presented in your garrison until you have rescued Olin. After assigning Olin his first mission you should get the quest to rally the Frostwolves in Wor'gol. From this point the following quests need to be completed.

Rally the Frostwolves (follow this chain through Moving In)
Gormaul Tower
These Colors Don't Run
Deeds Left Undone
(Honor Has Its Rewards can be skipped)
Great Balls of Fire
The Butcher of Bladespire (this kill rewarded me with quests for my primary professions)
To The Slaughter
Armed and Dangerous
Last Steps
Moving In
Save Wolf Home (continue this chain through Back to Bladespire Citadel)
Free our Brothers and Sisters
The Farseer
Pool of Visions
Back to Bladespire Citadel
(Ga'nars Vengence can be skipped)
Securing the South (continue chain through Strength of Our Bonds)
(We Be Needin Supplies and Ashran Appearance can be skipped)
They Who Held Fast
Of Fire and Thunder (might be optional)
Into the Boneslag
Moving Target
The Strength of Our Bonds
Where's My Wolf (and followup Enfilade)
Enfilade
The Master Siegesmith
Return to the Pack

After you go to your garrison and turn in Return to the Pack you should have the quest Bigger is Better from Gazlowe. BAM level 2 garrison and plans for all your level 1 profession buildings.

I've read that reaching level 93 will also trigger the ability to get the level 2 garrison. I completed all of these quests and was barely into level 91. These quests didn't take very long and I ended up building my garrison so quickly that I don't have the resources I need to build structures. Oops.

Doing the quests for your professions will open up that blueprint ahead of getting to the level 2 garrison, but I believe they only drop for production professions that you have (requiring a minimum of level 1 skill). So if you are a double gatherer, your choices are to level to 93 or do this quest chain.

A Bad Bad Thing

I've started gearing up my paladin that was boosted to 90. I actually really like tanking on her, because I love throwing my shield around. It's just fun. Throw shields and drop hammers. I love it. I am however not experienced in tanking at the level cap. Usually I just queue as DPS and go along for the ride, but last night I really wanted to finish a step in the legendary quest line, and I could not get a group. I hit that tank button and zoned in almost* completely unprepared to tank those bosses. When the raid was finished I had to tell someone about it, and Rades was there.

I thought my co-tank meant it was their first time tanking in Terrace of the Endless Spring, but in fact they had never before set foot in that raid on any character. Excitement!

I did know a little, so I was able to guide us through killing the trash before the first boss fight. Call them back to fight Tsulong when they were headed up the stairs. We both died to Lei Shi's enrage when she one shot us, but she was still defeated in one attempt. We didn't have a raid wipe until Sha of Fear and that was because I hadn't adequately expressed the importance of standing in the gold circle in front of Sha, which is the one tanking thing I knew going into the zone.

Shout out to Ogmur of Lightbringer for being a good tank with a great attitude, and the rest of our raid for not calling us out on being total nubcakes. I'm sure at least a few of them had to have noticed our lack of skill/knowledge, but no one said anything. We just did our thing and had a good time.

Wrathion thinks I'm hot stuff now, and I'm not about to tell him otherwise. After all, I need my cloak to save me if Corv isn't there.

I feel less hesitant to tank again next time. This was a great experience and a boost for my self confidence. So often LFRs can be brutal and cruel, you hear horror stories of people never wanting to tank one again. It's not all doom and gloom though, sometimes you just get to have some fun.

*DBM is largely to credit for anything I did right as a tank in there.

Alphabets

We all knew that World of Warcraft was going to do SOMETHING to counter the launch of WildStar. When they started setting folks up with access to the alpha client yesterday it was hardly a surprise. Anyone who was honestly shocked hasn't been paying attention. It sounds like things are still quite rough, and it seems a bit late in development to only have one zone open, if that's true. To be honest though there were a lot of issues with the beta of WildStar only a couple months before launch, so I don't worry that WoD is going to be a mess at launch. It will be fine*.

I do not have access to the alpha, so I won't be talking about it here. If I got access tomorrow I still wouldn't be logging in though. There was a time when I would have hopped in to check out garrisons, but now I just don't have the time. Between playing WildStar and continuing to play Mists my gaming time is pretty much spoken for. If you are in the alpha playing around I hope that you have a great time, and that you help get all those bugs fixed so I can jump in and have a great experience this fall when it goes live. If you aren't in the alpha and want to be, then I'll cross my fingers for you.

Good luck, have fun, and all that jazz.

Just Outlands don't get all excited

*Fine as a relative term, it won't be perfect, because it never is. It will be fine though.

Garrisons!

Oh gosh, I am just so excited. I cannot wait to play around with garrisons. Yes that's a plural because if it's at all possible I will have garrisons going on every character I can. I imagine it will be much like my multiple farms where they don't all get upkept every day, but none will be completely abandoned. I do have to say I wish we had seen more of the horde artwork, but the alliance stuff is really looking nice. I enjoy this picture because even though it isn't the fanciest building you can see how the garrison feels like a place, there are other structures around it.

 Oh, that picture and many more can be found at the latest Artcraft blog here. A common question is where will you place your garrison, and I just don't know. I'll probably put it some place convenient to other places. I won't really know until we get out into Draenor though.

I was really excited when pet battles and the Tillers farm were announced and I was not disappointed. I hope my guts are right about garrisons too. I think it's going to be really cool!