I finish Guild Wars 2’s Janthir Wilds prologue, revisit Champions: Return to Arms with a PS4 controller, and make progress on my LEGO Thunderjaw build.
I talk so little about Guild Wars 2 here that I don’t think anyone really knows I play it. It’s the only MMO I play, actually, but I only find myself playing it an hour a week, when Team Spode comes together to play it.
I finally finished the super extended long Janthir Wilds prologue. That’s the newest expansion that brings you to yet another new region of Tyria, with yet another new race, the bear-like Koda. They call themselves the Kodan.
Bears? I don't remember any bears in the Ko-Dan Armada...
It’s always funny to me when NPCs accord my character great honor when I’ve mostly just skipped through the content. “Call me Commander or Wayfinder? Why not simply… HEY YOU, YEAH YOU THERE. WHO ARE YOU AGAIN?”
After talking to approximately 1000 people over the course of 20 or so hours, I finally was set free in the Janthir Wilds, where I met the Kodan and then talked with them a couple more hours. I really feel like I should be taking notes. I also tamed a new Warclaw – a big kitty – but I don’t know if I want to replace my WvWvW Warclaw. It took a long time to earn it, back when we were doing WvWvW.
It’s actually only the second mount I earned; I found the Skyscale such a grind that I never finished either of the quests to unlock it. Still hoping they at some point just give it to me.
Anyway. More to come on that.
Rallos Zek wasn't defeated by me! He just remembered a dentist appointment!
After getting the PS4 controller working with the PSX emulator so that I could play Um Jammer Lammy (after trying an XBox controller and a PS3 controller and been disappointed by both), I wanted to see how well that controller would work with PS2 games.
I have like a hundred PS2 games, between my collection and Kasul’s, and I bought more in California that I haven’t yet written about, BUT… I’d played Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance II, same developers and same engine as used for Champions - Return to Arms, and it had a minimap, and I’d had problems with the lack of same the last time I played RtA… was I just missing something?
Turns out I was. The minimap works just fine. I’d tried an evil playthrough first time and didn’t make much progress, so decided to restart and work with a good playthrough – much easier.
Character armor screen
This time, I am playing a wood-elf ranger. Having played both a melee and now a ranged class, I think melee probably has the edge in playability. Ranged is fine if things would just stay at range, but they rush you. Rangers start off at range but then have to switch to melee midway, requiring them to keep both their ranged and melee attributes up to snuff.
Anyway, controller works fine, even the vibration functions work. I haven’t tried it with a game with pressure sensitivity, like Mad Maestro, but I have read that it will not work – hence experimenting with the PS3 controller. Which worked a little.
More Thunderjaw
I spent a couple hours yesterday making more progress on the MOC LEGO Thunderjaw. Part of the time was separating a lot of the bricks into similar shapes and doing some repacking so that every step wasn’t interrupted by looking through half a dozen bags for the brick I needed.
This pretty much finishes the body. I had to use a little glue for some pieces that just wouldn’t stay on. I expect to use a lot more glue. Even touching it causes pieces to fall off. I think this model is going to look great, and am looking forward to integrating it with my Tallneck, but I have come to appreciate the work LEGO does with its official models with the piece packaging, assembly instructions that don’t include pieces that have to hang unsupported in mid-air until the next step, and the durability of the finished model.
I can’t go crazy with the crazy glue yet (so, it’s “sane within normal limits” glue at the moment). We plan to put together a homebrew lighting kit and so some disassembly will happen once it’s done.
I hope to get some mini painting done this week, so look for that.
Have a great week!
