Laughing at ones-self and Drago Noka

One step at a time, right? baby steps. 

Ok thankfully you don't have to read through each of the gimps (laptop) crazy word/sentence smashes before I then go back and iron out again. Having nothing else for it, A fair bit was done in the online Minecraft World I have found myself stuck in of late. 

 I have been working rather diligently on a village I have dubbed Meepsburg. The village originally had 2, just two, villagers, with about maybe 4 buildings when it was first come across. A tiny little fishing spot situated between three biomes, with a huge rift right through the middle of the space. Farmers attempting to use the farm plot where falling into the rift.. which was a crack n the lands surface created by a nearby volcano who had, some years before the village, settled into pumping a constant and consistent flow of lava into the underground caverns. 

The first thing on the agenda therefor, was to somehow make the hill safe to travel on. Once fences were up and the remaining villagers, were prevented from joining prev neighbors at the bottom of the narrow cliffs and into the vast underground network of caverns, work was started on development. Houses were erected, A small smithy was created, a safe crop farm was put in place and a storage room was shoveled out of the hill. 

Over time, the village grew and became a town. It developed a bit of an import/export business on one side.. 

District 1 brought forth an abundance of food and wood created in the rich soil. on the other side, 

District 2, known area-wide for its desert market, and offering bounties of its rich underground minerals mining trade. 

The main village and hub of the now bustling town had developed its paper trade and a port, where most of the seafaring traders docked. At the end of the refurbished dock, was an eclectic inn and tavern, situated near the lighthouse..A hot spot for sailors and merchants to relax away the evening hours. Near the storage room, is a tall building, occupying the rift area, which houses the alchemists, cartographer, and potions/brewing room (serving both the inn and the market). This effectively replaced the town's previous all-things-magical witch's tower of previous times, located on the hill. Its a serious wonder the dilapidated building is still standing having outlived its owner long ago. 

 

There has also been discovered a new old offline portal to a place called Drago Noka. Its a splendid little builder with what has to be the most confusing set of directions and how-tos(there are few to no how-tos or help for this one) on.. just about all of it but the theme story... living on the back of a turtle dragon. I am going to have to show you the notes I have gathered at some point, on this one, as it is a terrific little building game, and worth the effort, i think, to make a basic tips and useful help page for the entirely lost, like i have been..😆

Drago Noka 

If you are trying to play the game and are lost, Hope these tips help as there isn't a whole lot of information out there and there doesn't seem to be at all in the game. I have heard that Switch is really the platform to play this game effectively on.

ok.. finding things out as i go along. 

There is no Mouse support so I have to use the keyboard.This is my setup.I will use these keys to explain how to find and do things in the game. 

C on the keyboard is set to "confirm". this key lets you talk to the villagers. C will open a chest/box and will also move -one item- in a stack into or out of the chest 

X key is "sub" it will 'use' your tools..(which are on numbers 1-9 +0.) also X will, when looking in a box, move -all- of a stack into or out of the chest inventory. X and arrow keys together will roll/drag ore. 

Z will 'Cancel' and it will open 'options' menu. giving you (along with use of the arrow keys) access to your notebook saves, tools, building, management, housing etc. menues. Z will also list villagers and Mimimi's general tasks/request lists. 

Q and E will cycle through your hotbar of tools. 

 Arrow keys are used for walking direction and choosing something on the game's options wheels. 

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The drill is hard to figure out. Set it up outside, wait for the -full- count downto end. then remove drill and add stairs. (from the build menu) Going Further down? cant use the drill, need to find a hole..somewhere near to a glowing mushroom maybe? 

 Moving ore. click and hold 'confirm" C and a direction arrow, while standing next to the ore,(your attention box on the ore.) You can then either push it forward in front of you, or 'carry' it to the side, or back. Push it to the stairs where it will then bounce into your inventory. 

Also, try to remember, with most workbenches, there are two menus. If your wanted inventory item is missing from the one list, tap the 'Sub'/special X key to hopefully see the other. 

 Mostly don't fret about Grant (there is no time limit).. just don't forget the dragon-turtle. He needs food for growing and strength. the more processed it is, the better it is. His likes and dislikes change. so keep an eye on that. His nearness to other dragons and giants causes 'weather' to happen, in the form of rain, rocks, clay, and trees. special plants will sometimes appear... and bugs or 'pests' show up, like butterflies. If you see them, 'strike at' or 'catch' them, then use them with the mortar n pestle to refine them into element powder. 

Need a nearby pool of water to refill crop waterer. Put your attention box over water (with the waterer in hand) and 'confirm' to fill. 

To get refined Iron you must have built a blast furnace.(use the 'build' and special menus located with the 'cancel' Z button. same place that you have walls, roof, and flooring listed) 

Be sure to leave a free space or two in your chests.. as over time, free items are dropped off in them. 

 Healing potions take a mortar and pestle 'workbench'(to powder) as well as a test tube set (to liquefy) Needs be of the same rarity. 

Wood or cotton wool powder etc for lvl 1 sickness 

mushroom powder for level 1-2 

glow mushroom powder for up to 5. 

Dont forget to toggle normal/specialty ('sub' X key if needed. 

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Nappy yew Hear!!

here it is.. 2020(yet again..as well.. also) are we stuck in a loop? is it a groundhog day like the movie? first we had 2020, then we had 2020(once) and now here it is 2020(too) once again. sure hope we get whatever it is right this time.

This year i got a gift or two, one of which was access to finally get to play the Sims 4. I had been really looking forward to this. all the new options i had head about! now, by this time, i would hope that, if you have been following along here, you might have some idea just how much i lothe games who profess to be offline games yet really are online ones.. some being worse than others. unfortunatly for me, im not able to remain online forever.. i lose connect due to issues with the provider, with repair folks, with a job, or other means of income. I liked how it once was, when I was able to spend some of that forced downtime playing a game i enjoy, untill i could get back online. why are game makers changing that? gone are the days you could buy a game, take it home, plug it in and ready for play! now a-days even if the game is still the same in essence, but you have to be on-line to play it? another play-around with copy protection?
I can apreciate the need to get online for updates and such, it makes sence. but the Sims has taken that 'you need updates' to a whole new level. not only do you need a connection to the net to start the game, but you need to be on steam, and you need to be constantly on the whole time you are playing. its shtupieeed! so now, not only can i not count on the sims for play-anytime but i have half a doz hoops to jump through everytime i do play. (and all this besides the growing price for new content.)makes we wonder if its worth it to even try... the Sims 4 may just be my last actual sight of the game series.
the Sims is not an mmo... it wasnt created as such... I guess it -could- be.. with enough changes... but thus far, it isnt. much like some great games of the recient past. or some in the present who should be... but thats a whole different gripe.

Thus far anyway.. ol Minecraft's offline play is still possible... but they have made it less obvious. I actually had to search under 'new version connections' to find the offline play link. Now that they have 'moved over' to Microsoft.. its startin to look to me, it wont be long before we are going to have to pay per month to be allowed past the launcher screen. Dumb move Mojang. Not only that but all in the name of what was it you said? security? Microsoft? security? bhahaha! you must be kidding me! security for who? certainly not for us... the consumers. you been living under a big rock this whole time if you think Microsoft is secure for us. was this supposed to be another one of those 'for the greater good' things? more like one of those 'to good to be true' things, if you ask me.

and speaking of thought-provoking gripes... Mass Formation Psychosis. Get past all the fribbin hate! I'm just sayin...

nuff'said. XD

*Gingerly steps off the "polo-ticks" soap-(gritty kitty litter)-box*

Within the portals of minecraft, life goes on... I'm lonely.. so its to the online world i go.. where I have to wait... for, as usual, the mods to catch up. -sigh- I wanna see all the new land styles, wanna learn where all the ores have gotten to.. and i have to wait, when do we get to see it already? by the time they all catch up, the ninny warden is gunna be in the dark deep! I hate waiting! and I dont wanna have to run into the big ugly just to catch sight of all the cool new landscapes! the warden isn't even here yet, and already has been banned off my single player. Gunna have enough trouble just getting around the new changes, don't need another mega-mob to run into. the deepdark is scary enough. blehh *taps fingernails on the desk grumbling*

Maybe its the kind of day... thus far this weekend, its been Freezing out! *cuddles in blanket* a weekend cold snap anyone? and we just had a lot of rain too.. I was totally hoping for a little snow to help give a reason for all this cold...but noo....
this is best known in the south, as a weather phych. Mother Nature is just building us up to phych us out. threatening to do something horrible, nasty, and downright mean.. only to laugh at the last second as the sun comes out and dashes away all of the clouds before noon.

Yepyep... still here.

Happy 1st of the end of the year. 

its December. almost hard to believe its going on a year..2022. This blog has been squeaking along since 2005 at its usual pokey pace. amazing. 

Feeling strangely idle this morning, thus far..like I need another new hobby or something. maybe revisited in homedge to the past. (grin) like old games or something. like ...

old Diablo. the content was adventursome, i suppose.. but it was my first game with such detailed graphics as it had. or like 

"the zoombinies".. for which you needed to use yer thinking cap for. or really old games, 

like "wizardry!" where my party, with ample imagination, such as I have, developed their own conversations and personalities, like indy the flatnose (forever running into walls) or Synshae the wanna be.. Bishop! or online games, such was 

Everquest2 and ol Ratakin and his "by the seat of yer pants" aproach to living in a treed Fairy town. (that he was forever falling out of), 

Asherone's Call, whose graphics was 'really dated', but where My character Indy) yeas, her again) developed a server-wide reputation for most deaths, thought she could fly but couldnt, and whom had a -total fear of the little pixies-. (especially those black one's who were just pure evil. or maybe the popular 

Warcraft, with the minotaurs, the blue aliens, and the amazing lands of the panda! Or a revisit to still relevent 

Mabinogi.. whose story is packed with adventure, storylines, and fun times with friends, life skills, fighting skills, and new costumes for your character to parade around in... lookin so smart! or maybe 'newer' games, like 

"Rimworld", who isnt big on the graphics part of it, But! is jam-packed with appeasement of the 'sims' end of gaming. watching the drama unfold around your lil colonists. so fun! ...no I'm not joking! Rimworld is fun!. its like a poorman's sims game with adventure and learning new things all mixed in for your characters. or 

"Timberborn", a building game, whose townships are run by Beavers. or maybe the latest in cool games I enjoy, like 

"cat goes fishing." which is.. exactly as its name implies. somehow it manages to be simple and entertaining as well, to me. a total gem of a game. And theres Always 

Minecraft, who just updated to expanded 1.18... its a whole bigger world! taller, mountains, snowier snow, Goats! and deeper caves, more minerals, danger, and Axelotls! and a shout-out to the hermits for their seasons creation and upbeat versions of life and times in the world of Minecraft, keeps me ever-happilly waiting for the next episode on youtube. Ty Impulse, Cubfan, Scar, Pearl, Mumbo, and FalseSymetry! you and the whole rest of the gang are tops!

and then there are them there games...again.

luv the game but hate some of things in it? yeahh.. me too. here I give a voice to those things in the games I have tried of late. granted most of them are games still in coding works.. but thats the thing really? they need the feedback most during times such as this. so, here we go.

My Time in Portia

What a Beeeutiful game!! sweet color, gorgeous graphics, and such freedom, running around all over town and country, picking up wood, and stone, and checking out crops and animals and finding chests with goodies in them.
Its a shame the quests keep getting in the way! XD no, seriously, I like the quest idea, i love learning about the lives of the townsfolk with whom the higher your rep with each one,.. the more you learn about them. I like the idea of building things to help solve those quests, with each one fitting totally in with the character and situation they show up in.

Here is the problem(s) i encountered tho.
The quests... from the start.. was always a bit over my head. example, townie wanted a sword to practice with. didn't say what kind of sword, but for "to practice with". I had seen practice swords available to be made via my little workbench... so I thought, ok, the guy wants a practice sword. right? and accepted the quest, thinking it would take me all of a moment to run back to the workbench and get a practice sword. I had wood. easy-peasy. nope. got there only to discover, he wanted a 'bronze' sword. bronze? isn't that like, a mix between copper and tin or something?  ok, so it'd take a bit longer to make this sword... i needed metal. but where to get that? i wandered around a little, finding nothing but stone lying about. then i remembered something about a 'ruins' which might include mining... after a bit i found an entry in town that let me in and i found copper... then tin. yay! back to the house and..how much did i need again? hrm.. nothing to show a bronze sword on the workbench.. assembly? oh wait.. maybe i need to smelt the two together in the furnace first and then itd show up... so i created a furnace and smelted the bronze into bars. still nothing. hrm.. maybe i need to build up to it... i made a practice sword.. then another.. and another... well i can make an enhanced practice sword.. i need an upgrade for that. whaa? after looking about for a bit, i found an upgrade weapons box being sold (supersuper expensive!) in the town's tool shop... took about all of the trade coins i had but couldn't seem to do anything with it.. eventually, i returned home and put the thing in a storage box and let the day go by... then with another look, i found i could upgrade the practice sword. yay! i learned it used the upgrade box thingie, still in the storage box, later on. but still no bronze sword. eventually, i managed to gain enough boxes to upgrade my axe and pick plus one and still no bronze sword. ... and the quest ended... never to return.
ok, that was crappy, but wasn't to end there. eventually i learned that no failed quest returns... at least not in my version... not even the main story quests. add to that, all quests were timed, but over your ability to solve them by at least 2 levels. AND..  even when you jump through the research hoops correctly... you still sometimes lack in exactly how quests are to be solved. example... build a boombox.. they supposedly sent schematics but I see nothing changed in assembly instructions.. nor anything different listed in the workbench or furnace. the questor npcs have nothing to add either. So... uhh... what to do before the timer is done and i lose the quest forever? do I need to dash to the wiki again, hoping someone else has instructions ..again?
frustrating. Someone let me know when the quests get straightened out and I'll try to return for this otherwise wonderful game, please!

Minecraft
Now for those of us who have played this game several times, we don't see much of the issues that new players might see..because to us, they are oldhat. I recently got to watch someone play this game that had never played before. and I remembered some of the things i wish i had known when first starting out. there's kind of an order thats useful for beginners.. and oldhats as well.
a) huge rule of minecraft. "Do not dig straight down." you don't know just what you might find yourself suddenly dropping into the middle of. trust me in this, it's good advice to remember. (this should also be the rule for jumping or falling into really deep holes in the ground as well. you-gunna-die.)

when starting a new world, theres a little button you could push that'l really help. a starting chest, which will appear somewhere close to where you spawn in. In it, you will often find either a wooden or stone pickaxe, an axe of the wood chopping sort, some food, and a couple of logs/wood. take those, take the chest, and the torches, if any, that are around it.

first order of business, you need 3 sheep.. . if you kill three sheep and punch/use an axe on a tree or three youl have a bed to sleep through the night unmolested by the nighttime bad guys (a couple logs/wood blocks = makes wood planks, which will make a crafting block. 3 planks and three wool = a bed)
if sheep cannot be found nearby... find the nearest hillside to tunnel into or gather enough dirt blocks, wood blocks, or cobblestone to make a quick shelter to while the evening away... or you can just take your chances with all of the zombies, skelies, spiders, creepers etc, that are going to come by and say hi to you. why risk it on the first day?
there is also the off-hand chance you might see a village right nearby you can then get to and steal a bedspace for the night. (you'l make the villager whose bed it is, sad, if you actually steal it... just sayin. consider the villager.) now, remember, this is 1.14.. not 1.10. so there are a couple of hazards you need to be aware of.

1) if you stay awake 3 or more nights in a row the undead fliers (called phantoms) will come swooping out of the night sky to get a piece of you... make sure you either gain a bed to sleep in, or a solid roof over your head with walls to keep things out.
2) the drowned. zombies will turn into drowned if in water long enough, and they can walk the land at night... as if that wasn't enough, there is also a chance they will spawn with a trident... which will mean a quick death if you arn't ready and well armored. (also bear in mind if trying to explore underwater... they can swim through a one block wide hole. so be careful.)
3) pillagers happen... and they have crossbows. (and you thought getting skewered by a skeli with a bow was deadly.)
4) zombie raids do happen around town. and theres a lot of them.. all at the same time.
5) those little green creepers explode in line of sight. big ouchies. (they dont seem to really mind the daylight either.)
6) dont look at the tall black endermen with the eyes and purple sparkles. (keep your cursor off of them or) they will find you, even if you are waaaaaay over there. if you do look at one, get under cover quickly! crouching to get under a leaf block or under a 2 or 2 1/2 block high overhang. hopefully they wont reach you with their long arms because they can hit really hard. bear in mind though, they may try tearing your shelter apart to get at you. (I once had one tear half my porch ceiling apart before i managed to kill it with my sword)
rule 7) there is no rule 7
8) cave spiders. found in abandoned mines. poison. quick as a wink, moves through one block spaces, and just all around baaad news. worst of the monsters imho.
9) sleeping in a bed in the nether or end is a mega explosive no-no! (especially if you are perched on a ledge above a lava lake.)

and a few good things..
1) spiders are generally non-aggressive in the daytime.
2) creepers and the phantoms are afraid of cats.
3) skeletons are afraid of wolves.
4) endermen are afraid of water/rain.
5) ring the town bell and the nearby villagers will typically panic and get behind a closed door.
6) fences (and stone 'walls') cannot be generally jumped over. (but for spiders)
7) there is still no rule 7.
8) blocks just above the waterline by a block space cannot be jumped up on from the water.
9) the torch is your friend. monsters will not spawn within its bright glow.
10) a pail of water is also your friend when in a pinch. washing monsters a few feet away for needed breathing room, for putting out fires (and lava).. and for scaring the bleep out of endermen. (see no,4 of this particular list)

useful things to know.
a) punching trees works. punching stone/cobblestone doesn't really. (i mean to say, you -can- but you wont get anything but for maybe bruised knuckles and wasted time from it)
b) a wood pickaxe gathers cobble and coal (I think)
c) a stone pickaxe will gather cobble, coal, and iron
d) an iron pickaxe will gather everything but obsideon.
e) a diamond pickaxe will gather any rock/gem
f) axes chop trees.. each type doing a better job of it, while lasting a long time.
g) this is pretty much the case for shovels and armor as well.
h) sand and gravel suffer from gravity effects.
i) generally, water flows... it will move into the block you just removed, down a hole you just created or around a waterlogged fence and down a hillside.
j) bubbles are often created by either a lava block or soulsand. the former drags you down, the latter pushes you up. they -can- destroy your boat...but at least you can breathe while in them.
k) crouching while on a lava block = no damage taken. walking on soulsand.. slower than slow.
L) kelp can be used as food or as fuel.
m) crouching, being still with the mouse, and having a raw cod in hand might just make a friend out of a stray town cat.
n) giving bones to a wolf might just make a good 4-footed friend as well.
o) fishing poles are a terrific tool to have on hand... using one not only catches fishies but enchantment books, leather, string, tags, and enchanted bows as well.

gamesgamesgames, the epicness continues

Yeah.. Minecraft is still in the portal picture for me. on the upside, I am enjoying peaceful mode, and keeping it shallow in order to learn a bit more about the pillagers... from outside the villages. I really rather like the new villagers.. and their trading updates, thank you, Mojang. on the downside, I still dont like the pillagers showing up on my front lawn and tormenting my sweety kitty, or in my sheep pen out back, although the wandering merchant has been fun. I really don't mind the llamas either... and I'm glad for the milk to wash down the bitter taste of those darn illagers.
I did figure the issue with my being unable to get into 1.14 btw. turns out, it -was- my graphics driver (yeas, the integrated one). it was saying the drivers were up-to-date, but really they had not updated since 2004 or something. I had to uninstall those old drivers, and force the computer to actually update to the new ones. so now, I can get into single-player snapshots and updates for longer than 5 seconds. I'm still having issues with the portal into realms though... boo. Feels like a familiar issue though... very familiar.

update: the portal to realms fixed itself. yay! also, they made the pillager patrols follow the same rules as the other mobs in minecraft. put down enough light, and they wont spawn there. double yay! now.. to figure out just why there was only one villager left in my first town. I know they were not terribly pleased with me, when i was there last. but did they all move away? I didn't see them arrive in the second village i had been roosting in... where did they all go?


Here's a small shout-out to a few other good portals (games) that i have gotten a quick chance to check out. These ones seem to work fine for low-end PC's, like mine, and I find them worthy of the time spent looking at them.
What do I consider low-end? well, anything below the GB I suppose. something that could be dl'd easily.. and played on my aged(read: a tinkerers dream for some.. and a nightmare to everyone else) win 7 nyvid pc. ie.. nothing special in power, space, or graphics.


Rimworld
yeah, ok, i know, it seems like such a graphic fail... but really, its a fine bit of enjoyment if your looking for a top-down time management style game. your three little people's crashland on a random planet, and they not only the need to survive... with all the crazy-arse animals biting at their heels, radiation, fire, or blighted wheat to make everyone jump to the emergency.. but they also need to thrive, with warring bands of tribes tromping through, tradesfolk, and mechmachine madness.. while learning new applications of workstations, keep the place healthy, happy, and clean, a bit of learned energy saving, some rocket science, and other such improvements in the effort to once more try to get off the planet. keywords: components, components, components. your going to need a whole lot of them... and that's just to be able to get to the point where you have a chance to be able to make them.

Stardew Valley.
You, like me, love the harvest moon games, right? well, here's one at least as good and in a lot of ways better. you don't -have- to be a farmer, but it sure helps. You don't -need- to mine, and a deep mine it is, but it sure is an enriched adventure. You don't have to marry either... but it connects you to the little town like not much else can. and all that is just scratching the surface. If you can, Give the creator some appreciative applause, its inspired and much deserved.

Graveyard keeper.
Get ready to laugh.. or at least a little muhahaha under your breath, at this one. there is this.. really confused... new graveyard keeper in the village... and a lot is expected of him, judging by the numerous quests he is ladled with from the start. another time-management sort... its worth the time spent just trying to 'catch-up' to the goings-on right there in the immediate area. corpses, talking skulls, a crazy donkey, and a guy who lives in a barrel as well. the need for improving the area, chopping trees, mining stone, defending against slimes and bats.. making chopping blocks and anvils to create better headstones and borders for the graveyard improvements.. making enough coin for a visit to the farmer for seeds, or for another whetstone, nevermind whats needed for better knowledge in which to make these things.. and this beast-o-burden of a 4-footed Godfather is demanding a bushel of carrots just for going this way and that on the road!

The colonists.
little self-aware robots are seeking a new home in their grand desire to live like humans, land on a random world, with likely prospects and take to building a home for themselves. Yet, another time management sort... this one is quirky but quite a bit of fun. especially with the little roadblock disagreements before the repavers are set in motion. The biggest worry, I have found thus far is.. limited surface resources. fortunately, you can move where you want the collections to be made. so if your woodcutter is clear to the left of the screen.. you -can- just ask them to cut into the forest on the right side of the screen... just might take a bit to get them to collect enough to do anything with. and I just love the names they give the various buildings. "shanta's workshop"

The Bard's Tale Trilogy "Remastered".
An old classic game once more brought to the front of the class and showing off the nicest improvements. you start with several characters in a snow-bound city with a quest to stop the bad-guy triggering all the snow! Wander the city, taking on random barbarians, mad dogs and the occasional skeleton mob while leveling up your group, enabling them to take on more dangerous creatures and the dark of the underground. and that's just the first of three games piled nicely into one.

Planetbase.
This game is a little like Rimworld.. and a whole lot like a game I recall... was called Space Colony. but instead of mostly improving the colony from the perspective of the characters, it's mostly from the perspective of the various 'upgrades'. adding more machines which would help improve the expansion of the colony from the local weather, meteors, and expected wear n tear. ...and yet, somehow, make room for traveling tourists.

other.. possible... lower-end time-management style games, if you are concerned about graphic limits.. (I haven't tried these games as of this posting.. as yet, anyway.. but i hope to sometime here.. well, but for Roller Coaster tycoon 2, which is the best of the series imo.)
Embark (like rimworld), Project Hospital, Prison Architect, Townsman, Rescue HQ, and Terraria.

There's also the higher-end games that really look interesting in general.. if your really -not- concerned about graphics limits and space. (again, haven't been there.. yet.. but maybe someday)

Staxel, Ark Survival Evolved, Dawn of Man, Far Cry Primal, Astroneer, Satisfactory, My Time in Portia, Simcity series, Subnautica, the Tropico series, Anno, The Sims 4 and its different installments, the elder scrolls: Skyrim, Fable, Dungeon Keeper, Alchemist's Awakening, Ghost of a Tale, Startopia, Bannished, Owlboy, Foundation,2-point Hospital, and Craft the World.


meanwhile... life goes on in the fantasy land of mabinogi. Kita is once more trying to update her mining skill.. ugh! Windmill is still fairly useless, even at rank 3, not much can be hit with it, and even when it does, it leaves the low level imps ready to kick her butt. the chain weapon is still the best of melee weapons... ok ok, nothing much compares to her twin glads.. plus a boost of speed from final strike.(except maybe the lag monster, whose daunting freeze spells that are a serious killer... and the changes they made to places like fido dungeon to 'make combat more even'.. they meant to say "deadly" to Kita.) They merged servers recently, so am now trying to wait patiently for them to give us a chance to get our names back from the doppelgangers from other servers. what a mess it is.

A game in Particular..

Minecraft... aquatic (1.13) has been a great version thus far. I'm loving the new books/enchantments and the underwater decor. But for the longest time, I have been frustrated by being unable to check out the new 1.14 snapshots being hailed as villages and pillages. my loony computer kept telling me the graphics drivers were up to date.. yet they were, as it turned out, about 4 years out of date. I finally updated my ninny intel graphics drivers and the game finally let me into the latest snapshot.. and before I knew it, most of my poor villagers had died.

The hills were alive and squirming with the sound of raiders.. and i'd only been in town .. nay, in the game, for about 4 days. Now, I hear, mojang artists gleefully going on about how the pillagers have learned how to open doors. heck, my poor villagers have yet to learn to run indoors when they are attacked! the golem died first thing, and after all that effort i took, trying to get him to come home from his hillside jaunt. even though, i had fences up, they still mananaged to t-port inside and I must have racked up quite a bad omen score because I had like 3 groups knocking things and villagers over and I had not even had the time to check out the villager trade system changes or find a spider to beat on for the string to make a bow with.

After all that...horror, I have come to the conclusion, we need an option to turn off pillagers... either that or I will be spending quite a bit more time hanging out in peacefull mode. sheesh

The only way for it, seems to be peaceful mode. even on easy I quickly get overrun with pillagers. even with walls up, the determened nasties pop up inside of the villages to wreck thier havoc on all but the peaceful mode. so setting traps outside the town only catches the traveling merchants and drives village prices into the omg mode. its either that or ignore all villages and do my best to secure against the patrols on my own. Which is really sad because I consider villagers the single best combat vs the game's general lonelyness. (if that makes any sense)

Well, here's hoping they either outlaw pillagers showing up inside villages or create a means of turning the pillagers off before the update officially launches. it's either that or i now have another reason to feel stuck in an old minecraft version.

Out for the moment but still in for the battle

Surviving the dog-dayz of summer once again. Flippin cactus flat heat waves are too much for a lowly kitty o' the mountains to handle.. Whew!! I miss the higher altitudes!!

Been a few changes in living of late,  and the heat even makes the tolleratable adulting rl stuff a serious strain... And other than the occational hissing of my complaints,  the place is filled with the constant sawing of zz's.... Its still better than it was in the not so distant past.. And its cooler as well.

I watched a fun movie.. brace of movies? That have given me a new favorite.  Reminiscent of a big ol giant king of monsters with a horrid case of atomic halitosis.. Enough to make me squeal with fan-girl excitement,  is Pacific rim. (1&2) The kaiju are on the rampage and it's up to the intrepid humans with their giant yeagers to stem the tide. Check it.  Great movie.  :)

Been playing minecraft modded 1.12 of late. Yeah,  i know 1.13 is (finally) out now.. But i wanted a chance to see some of the newer(well,  new to me anyway) mods for 1.12.. especially as I'm not sure when/if some of these mods are gunna update for 1.13... Considering ala changes. Hoping they do.  Not that i have anything against the straight 'vanilla' update..  The additions of the drowned and the phantom are fairly exciting..
But since i have been woefully slow on learning the the different aspects.. (Very slow).  Just getting started on enchanting and slowly getting brave enough to step tippytoe into the nether.) I figure i'll just take my time getting into the new update. Yeah... That's it... Just take my time.. Yeah.  Loving the building aspect though.  My only frown would be.. No changes to the window panes?? You like all those pixely gray streaks? I mean OK.. The 'preview' had a cruddy change to the cobble texture..  (And really,..  Still no stairs for the dorite?? Really?? Aww comeon, Mojang!! You put the purty white stuff in the game with the dorky-lookin patterned cobble... and andisite and..the pink granite! (That plainly goes with n a d a!). The least you could do is give it/them stairs, walls/fences and slabs like the cobble has! ) ... The changes suggested in the preview was a good one for the window glass. You could actually see through it! And here we are in1.13 and it's that grey pixelated glass texture again.  Ok,  fine..  So make that 'preview' resource pack work for the update then..  Ill live with the patterned cobble for a chance to actually see through the windows!
I reciently learned of the value for the mending and looting enchantments.. However did i live without them?!!  What a wonderful addition to my fishing rod and sword!! Now.. Will mending work on my sword?.. Will looting.. Or is it fortune.. work on my axes? So exciting!!

How goes my japanese self-study,  do i hear you ask?  Well...  Interresting you should ask... Kinda.   A little discouraged,  i think.  Feeling once again that I'm not -really- getting anywhere. Can't seem to remember stuff i feel i should have, by now. So backing away a bit... Again.  I have gone through this before,  and managed to recover my motivation,  so long as i don't go totally hands-off. (I got halted into reflection by a double negative sentence, which goes against the grain of -a lot of- growing up grammar learning.)

That is about it for now.. Think i need a cat nap... It's so ooo quiet here...

Minecraftin' it

not feeling much joy in living of late... I keep trying.. and well.. maybe all the fizz has left my pop since sir coo died. not much i can really do with and in my current rl position.... just lots of hoping things will straighten out. sure have been quite tired a lot and so cold! burrr!

Been playing a lot of minecraft.. pretty much as its all i can really play. (and now that ive said that.. my laptop is complaining. I also found some rather nice mods to help peaceful gaming stay interesting.


I discovered the concept of modpacks and peaceful setting.so... since I can't trust just what my computer will and will not do, and the packs are often huge, I went looking for the individual mods that suited me.. I wanted mods that would reflect my peaceful play intents. I wanted some interesting changes to the villages because the game is pretty lonely without the villages.. and the vanilla villagers (squidwards) don't seem to help an iota.I also wanted a larger inventory (its the packcat in me) and storage.
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Forge and Optifine are essential if you want a modded game. forge helps with adding mods into the game and optifine adds.. dynamic lighting!..as well as a bit less lag on the system. I tried to get several villager type mods to work (helpful villgers sadly woulnt loadand millenaire isn't even close to being updated for 1.12.2..) (Update: They did though, just before 1.13. That knocked forge for a loop-de-loopand threw the mods metaphoric 'tables' across the pasture through 1.13 and into 1.14)(forge, as i understand. finally updated to 1.13.. just in time for 1.14 update... and thats still before many of the good mods out there managed any sort of update... I guess Mojang is on a roll now!)
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but the only one that seems to function was MCA which at least gave those villagers a nice make-over and added guards to their communities.. which made an attempt to defend the villages at night. Can't really get them to do normal tasks though, without having to pay thm in gold.
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then i added Toroquest which had even better guards. but the lord questor had a whole lot to be desired...and I wasn't down with having to fight 36 skeletons, 30 spiders or somesuch... and if i didnt accept that one quest, that was it. no more quests outa him. Also liked and didn't like the town-to-town infleuence. Yu could gain rep in one town then go to another and the good rep was still with you.
I didn't care a whole lot for the town zones though... how am i supposed to grow you 64 potatoes if i have to lose rep for taking from your fields?.. even when i'm not in your town by a fair ways, having created my own plot to grow those required potatoes? -.-
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so i added Baileys Dailies.. which was better for a quest system... a bit glitchy.. but better. it added several peaceful quest choices everyday. it never would count my fish as i caught them... but she'd still accept them in person as a quest commpletion.
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pam's harvestcraft, rustic, and peaceful hunger. pam's harvestcraft was great!.. maybe a bit too much though... My goodness! there was a companion mod called something like cooking for dunderheads.. or something to that tune.. that offered a stove/fridge/storage for all that food! which was rather handy. they all worked together too! need bigger storage options tho.. pam's is a huge mod, with lots n lots n lots of food.
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Rustic was a bit like a mini version of pam's offering apple, olive and ironwood trees and a rather nice bee/honey set-up that went with the juice/oil making.
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peaceful hunger.. a nice tweek so being on peaceful didn't mean you were immune from getting hungry.
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I found a nifty, not often talked of 'backpack' mod created by someone called Brad16840. it seems pretty much just what i need... although i think the crafting recipe could use to be a little less... complicated.
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I tried to find a mod that would peacefully give me access to a few mob drops .. attained drops.. but the people who updated it made it so you have to hunt the mobs for the items to grow them. -.- not worthy at all. I can only hope to find something like that mod, only, made for peaceful playing in particular.
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Vein-miner was a rather handy mod...seemed somehow better on the trees then on the rock but.. who's complaining? it knocks out the ores and wood in the blink of an eye.
added along with this, would be fastleafdecay for amazingly quick deforestation .. then all youve got left to do is clean up the random ufo bits n bobs in the sky.. if any, and replant.
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finally found a version of minecolonies that will work past the set-down of the town hall glitch. Had to go to curse for it though, any other mod site seems to be content with the older non-working versons. then I encountered another game crashing bug.. i tried it twice, it ditched me both times...
the delivery person steals whet from the baker before they can bake it into bread. and will take whatever the baker did make, along with whatever is found in the citizen homes, and deliver all items to the warehouse... there to stay, while people starve and happiness tanks through the ground.
then, the moment the happiness score has been at 1 for a bit, the game crashes and I cannot get back in.

My advice to any one of the coders working on that mod, either give us an opportunity to adjust just what is taken by the delivery person, or, perhaps a way to turn off their pick-up visits to certain buildings would work. (there is no reason to be picking up the wheat at the bakers either) as it stands, considering the mess i have to go through to restart everything all over again, i'd rather feed the villagers and deliver stuff without the delivery person.

also, sad for me but i have yet to get the colony level above third.. nor have i quite figured out just what would make my villagers happy? (bot happiness to a 1.5 for adding barracks and 3 towers.. sigh) before something goes wrong and the game is corrupted. This last time, I was beset with an amazingly horrible lag and when I finally returned to the game... all the colony boxes were gone. Still have no real idea what caused it to happen...but i could say the lag was gone.. with the boxes and colonists.
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Animania and Better Agriculture.. very cool concept. I loved the different kinds of creatures.. the 3d forms are beautiful. only difficulties? keep yer rams in their own enclosure or things will very quickly and wildly get out of hand! and.. no way to dye sheep? awww! was sure a nice way to get the colors you needed then was having to color the White wool(only) individually.
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weather mods.. another wonderful idea considering the lackluster attempt by minecraft vanilla to make rain storms. and the dust storms.. wow!! But there was no love from me for the tornadoes n hurricanes throwing everything everywhere. Still I enjoyed it right up until my computer's complaints were finally heard and I took it down.
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Pam's get all the seeds. sweet idea... giving a random chance to gain potato, carrot, and melon seeds when clearing the brush.
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bird's nest, another very nice mod.. it's tiny, like the get-all-the-seeds one is. Gives a random chance to gain a few random things when chopping down trees. (I did try the tumbleweeds one, but the bouncing things were forever destroying gardens and planted fields!)
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unfortunately, birds nest isn't such a grand idea when paired up with minecolonies... the lumberjack has a love for picking them up, and clogging his inventory. So I thought to give another mod called loot bags a try.. well, its a good idea, i suppose.. if you can get the blasted things opened. thus far, every site i have so far visited but one, says nothing about this problem. one complained, same as my feelings, but the only answer anyone had was, right click to use the bag. which i have tried and tried to no avail.so, until i run across a working answer to the issue i'm faced with, this isn't a mod for me.

Dynamic Surroundings. interesting. ohh i like the water bubbles and the lava jets! very nice. the sound affects on switching tools, I liked not so much. (shiver) creepy and too loud. now if only you could cut the creep and get together with Ambient Sounds for background!
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Guess I'll give minecolonies one more chance... off to search for enough flat land to start once again! and No delivery person this time! Maybe I can manage to keep the folks happy for a bit longer.

I would love to play a questpack like peace of mind, .. but can find nothing small enough to work effectively on my computer... which is sad sad for me. there are small paks, but thus far, all but the one (which is huge!), nothing will work for peaceful.

edit: ... after several weeks of trying to get somewhere with minecolonies, 4 huge crashes that would forever glitch my game and having to start all over again...I have come to the conclusion that i cannot play minecraft of any size o ram... I suspect it has something to do with java se platform.. since its usually what crashes me.. my laptop already being sensitive on the whole boot-up idea as it is.. is not of much assurance.

so I am rather bummed. there just doesnt appear to be much of worth to stick with of late. too disapointed in my situation.. and the sorry state of an already sorry laptop...

I even tried watching another drama, got most of the way through, it was a good subject...even if it was a typical time-traveling doctor type. then i left it for a moments break/boredom... and never.. well.. haven't yet wanted.. to go back to it.

I watched a good movie.. wasn't too impressed with friends and family's 'eeehh' response though. lackluster doesn't become any of them. so.. guess its another of those subjects I am on my own with.

So don't let the nay-say-ers lead you astray.. I thought it a good movie... even if it did have a body count. it's name is "Bright". It stars Will Smith as a cop in a rough city where fantasy meets the gritty streets... much like alien nation the tv series did for the aliens... only with fairies, orcs, elves... and a magic-using, class of infernals looking to usher in the return of the evil dark lord.. and with them, comes the smell of the elusive long coveted wish-granting Wands that nearly everyone desires.. to the point of mass killing for even the hint of gaining one. And with this cop is a somewhat fumbling Orc partner and an elf, needing protection from all comers.. including other elves hellbent on retrieving the wand she holds dear.

(and just in case, you don't recall or didn't know of,Alien nation... here's a wiki on it. Link


Edit:

Found an old Mod being updated and I'm so happy about that!! It's a good mod, another really good idea.

Millénaire
now, the issues, are plenty, but it has some amazing potential. its a bit, like minecolonies, in the form of being a growing village, assisted by your gathering skills. that's.. pretty much where the resemblance ends tho. this french original is more a take on history.. with 4 different cultures, Mayan, Indian, Japanese, and byzantine. with each one pretty much speaking its own language. Rather than building anything yourself, you are more of a visiting trader, selling items each village needs to allow them to expand (such as wood, and iron). the more you help the village out, the better your reputation becomes, which will not only give you coin of the realm, but give you influence and access to some of their special items. (such as a village building wand)

Now all of this is great, and i'm loving how with each thing you sell to each village, the more buildings and villagers there are, and many of them have little quests to go here and there around the village, deliver food to a hungry soldier from his forgetful wife, solving mysteries, and seeing what you can do to improve their lives by a bit of land flattening or bridge-building or more resource -gathering.
Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be many coders to keep things moving along...which means your horrible, possibly game-breaking bug might not get got to for some time.

and too, I hesitate in reporting some of it, having gotten the back-side of banning before.
an example might be....

its something been reported before... back a few pages... but I can't help but think it might be related to the circumstances in which the bug happened. my first town, I got as many resources as I could and tried selling them... they didn't want everything i had, go figure... but eventually I think i got them up to max, or near max buildings(to go with their available space), but the baron still gave me a blank stare when I tried to speak with him. then I wandered on for a bit, eventually finding another village.. which turned into a cluster of little villages all in the same area... so I saved t-port at each one, intending to help them all... but, it seems they didn't entirely like each other and I started getting updates about this town disliking that one. so I got a bit more savoy on what else rep can do.. and tried to sooth ruffled feathers... only it backfired. no sooner then I praised my home to the villagers before leaving to gather more material, then they were gleefully at each others throats. I received a scrolling update saying the little village I just left raided my first village, now quite prosperous. in a near panic, i teleported back to the village and was told by the chief, that he had just raided my hometown! Trying to make the situation better, I went to the village board, intending to sell my wares.. and no one would meet me, curious as to why, I walked through the little village to find all the chatting townsfolk, 'stuck' in their homes. yees, all of them, even the chief, as I later found out.

now, I know my rep might have suffered a hit when I was unable to complete a quest because the little tyke wouldn't speak with me, to be able to give him the cake I had for him, I still had the cake in inventory and was hoping to give it a third.. or 4th try when I had returned. (that little boy was the first to get stuck really)

right after this incident, I was at the nearby village (literally over the pasture-field) and I saw several villagers from the 'stuck' village 'moving in'. huh, I thought. ok, maybe its the other merchant I have seen... so I didn't give it much thought, until arriving back at the stuck village, where everyone was still stuck in their homes.. including the villagers I just saw moving into the nearby village. so.. there's 2 of each of them now?

all of this and yet no mention of the horrendous lag i have been experiencing of late. everything slows to a jerking stop and go. including the pigs in the field... but not me... unless you count the instant reforming of blocks I just tried to break with a pick. (is this involving the newly updated forge perhaps? I might have to do a clean reinstall of minecraft for this one.)

gosh!

Summer heat... Ongoing

-.-.....  Yep, i'm bored. Got power.. Go got lights and fan in use..(and not much else) Defying some of the horrendous heat that marks the south's summer time. And as much as i might feel like to do some stuff.. Getting too far from the fan causes overwhelming heat flashes and my brain quickly goes on vacation without me. So.. Yeahh... .. For reasons. I dont like the south summers.

What else...  Um. Movies, of course!!  Well.. Lessee.. I have been through my whole collection at least twice by now.. Having watched my favorites several times more even!
Got to see guardians of the galaxy2 in the theatre.. Fav character died... Why does this always seem to happen to me?!!  Ah well... Still a good movie. Have been watching a fair amount of Detective Conan as well.. And the series of iron fist. Plus korean drama W. Ive also gone over various episodes of leverage.. Even though they have ended a bit ago now.. Its still one of my favs.
Someday, the movers and groovers of neilson ratings neeed to get an -actual- plulse of the viewing public and not just the view of a select few (if that).  Seriously.

Thankfully there's always the option for portal distraction.. (Even if it lacks online updates)

I have been hanging in Minecraft a lot of late. I have been treating it a bit like a basic sims game.. Going from village to village, mapping, naming, improving and securing... Keeping only to what i can readilly find on or near to the surface.. Since im not very much into deep cave exploring, and taking on the risk of losing life and equipment down there. So.. Iron, cobblestone, and its like is my limit.

It's been fun roofing houses, adding counters, beds etc, and putting up fences. I have named a few buildings, such as the town library and smithy.. Chafed at not being able to name villagers.. Especially the one's i have worked with before. One farmer out of a doz in town and i have to look at what each one is selling to find the one with experience and thereby offering more inventory options.. Is -really annoying!!-
On the otherhand... Colorizing sheep is great fun!! And those ninny little always-under-foot chickens are still the cutest evah critters!! (Havent seen a llama in minecraft as yet.. I have heard of thier existance tho.)
So.. Its fun.. Yepyep.

Speaking of libraries.. When i get the chance to go... I usually listen to randoms on youtube... I'm on something of a forced break from linguti a great language learning site... Waiting in hope for a new japanese unit i can go through... Maybe some help with kanji? Or/and more practice with grammar. Need another site like it to play on while i'm waiting... And before you think it.. Yeass.. Im aware of that other website (duolingo) everyone seems to be going on about. It doesnt, as yet, offer Asiatic languages on the site tho.. So, until it does.. Im not interrested. (Getting closer though... Console ios and maybe phones soon.)

Pc dlable gamezes review

Ak now before I get started on this, let me just say, i'm not talkin about ala those game types you are obviously not sposta dl without a really good checker. And I already avoid those tricky sorts that are really just dl for trials and demos before demanding payment for the full version. (like bigfish). Also.. I have tried to give indication where I found the game, it's likely not the only site they can be found at, its just where I found it... and no, no one is paying poor lil o me to endorse their game sites, (that might be a cool idea though.) no, it's just me, enjoying and showing what's out there. ok.. here we go....


Hero Of The Kingdom
(Toomky Games)

most pc style games are usually, fairly short, and have genre's such as puzzle, arcade, time management etc. This one was likely somewhere under time management, adventure and maybe hidden object. You play a farm kid out looking for a missing dad. There is a bit of back and forth, you have to remember where things are.. like who sells what for what, kind of thing. (sell the herbs you picked to buy the pick-axe you need, to acquire iron which you need more.) Your lil hero ranges all over the place, helping the locals build a house, picking mushrooms, fishing, or learning skills such as hunting, and alchemy. It has a moving quest line to keep you interested.. that really, could have been longer. lol! I spent the better part on an evening on this one. only draw-back was trying to see all those ttiiinny lil boxes, crates, mushrooms etc in the trees and such.. when eyes are not that sharp... ahh the squint strain! other than that.. It's a most amusing game and rather well put together. If the creator of this game just happens to be reading this... sequel? maybe yes?


Paradise Beach
(MyRealGames)

This one constantly reminded me of Roller Coaster Tycoon (sans penguin guests). you start with a granddaughter who is the new ceo of a beach resort company. It's her business to make up safe beach resorts with all the bells and whistles to bring in the happy customers while being aware of the chaos they might be causing to the local population of birds, pandas, elephants etc.