Valkyria Chronicles: Grinding levels. I think the problems I’ve been having battling the Batomys dreadnought in The Battle at Barious was because my lancers were sitting around level 4 or so, my scouts and shock troopers were at 6, and my snipers and engineers were also barely leveled. Just leveling up with the missions isn’t doing the trick. So it was time to head into the skirmishes. The first skirmish can be done in a single move – actually, it can be done by a single character in a single move, but that skirmish isn’t worth much XP, so I moved on to the next one, one of the city maps I did in the campaign. I managed to finish that in three moves, which was good enough for a “B”. I looked at a cheat guide to find out how to do it in a single move – I’ve already done this map in the campaign, this is not cheating really. ...

Played “Party Crashers”, ST-HUY4Y2D5Q by @Winin, first Star Trek Online foundry I’ve played in years. In this, you tell a junior officer a story while beating the hell out of him in the gym. The story is the direct sequel to the one in the Cardassian arc, where you’re wiping the True Way Cardassians off of a breakaway colony planet. In this one, an anniversary celebration is interrupted by pirates after their precious medicine shipments… but those pirates aren’t acting alone. There’s some dark presence behind them. A shorter, dark presence. With big ears. And a lumpy head. ...

Yay, Dungeon Master 7! People are actually playing my older quests. It’s weird. #Neverwinter #Foundry  This was posted on Google+

More progress on Newfallen. I’ve been getting some recent good reviews on Befallen as it exists now, which is puzzling. Maybe it’s because I joined Scribe’s Enclave. But it gives me pause about totally ripping out all the old stuff. I think people liked the adventuring party on the second level best, so I’ll be sure to keep them. Roofed up the entry hall. I added some arches to separate it from the main room. The original Befallen did not have them, but it adds so much to the look that I think people will agree that the original ought to have had them. ...

[gallery ids=“11328,11327”] At +Todd Edwards /Winin’s suggestion, moved my dungeon inside, built inside the largest empty cave room. Now, making an entire dungeon that fits into one room is more of a challenge than I was looking for… but I can snake a hallway into another cavern if I really need it. Anyway, now that Newfallen is inside, I have control over lighting. There’s nothing more that sets the mood for a dungeon than lighting, and not working on lighting is one of the more common beginner foundry mistakes. For instance, see my original Befallen, where I had no clue. Anything you let the foundry do FOR you, like lighting or adding room decoration, just means your quest will look just like someone else’s quest. ...

Finally got far enough in Crypt of the NecroDancer to hit my first chapter boss, King Conga. You have to move according to the conga beat – move move pause… Best roguelike of 2015 for me so far. This was posted on Google+

[gallery ids=“11332,11333,11334,11335”] More work on “Newfallen”. Added some walls so I could see how the map was looking. There will be a few more rooms. This is an outdoor map (yay for horses in dungeons!) but I want it lit like an indoor map. This is tough because the dungeon ceiling pieces are one-sided, and light from the sky shines right through. I put an opaque rock over the entrance, but rocks like that ruin the minimap (remember, sparkly is useless in custom maps, players will need the minimap). ...

[gallery ids=“11321,11320,11317,11318,11319,11315,11316”] Valkyria Chronicles: Battle of Barious Desert done. I’ve been working on this one for a couple of days. It’s a desert map with occasional sandstorms. The huge number of enemy lancers and light tanks makes advancing the Edelweiss an issue. I always knew this mission would have to be won by scouts circling around the back while the main force provides a distraction to the south. The commander said snipers would be important, and provided some positions for our snipers. The enemies have lots of snipers, too. Our snipers were to take out the machine gun and sniper nest above the first capture point to allow foot soldiers to come through, kill the enemy lancers and shocktroopers, and retreat to the newly captured point. ...

My first foundry quest, Crypt of Befallen, was confused, poorly plotted, etc – all the same mistakes I see made by every first time author. It’s embarrassing to have that quest be the entry point to my Adventures in Norrath campaign. I’m sketching ideas for a remake with an entirely custom map, no pre-built rooms. I’m building this version in mid-air so I can have actual drops to the second and third floors. The old story, such as it was, will be discarded. I’ll still keep the concepts of other adventurers camping bits of the dungeon in. The current villain, Mezzinia, will be tossed out and replaced with a dark elf villain to connect with the plot running through the next three adventures and finally culminating in my next new quest, Bloody Kithicor. ...

I finished “It’s a Wipe!” tonight. I won’t spoil the last raid because it’s something people should figure out themselves. Nobody spoiled it for me :) Some of the fights took a couple tries – actually, I think the first one took like three tries, and the second one took twice. The last two were funny :) You can see my winning raid group in the picture. Most of these raiders hate, hate, hate me. But, I needed my best-geared guildies with me. ...