Accomplishments: In an hour this morning, I started a new Assassin character and got her up to Level 5 without much trouble at all.

Assassins: While I don't know a lot about Assassins yet, I'm very impressed with the ease and fluidity of their attack strings (main attacks, off-hand followup attacks, etc.) and how you quickly learn to choose a battle strategy based on the target's current health and capabilities.

Environment: From the first moments of play, the beauty of the natural, wild environment in Factions is breathtaking, from the waterfalls to the lush, misty vistas that overlook forests, seascapes, and mountain passes. The presentation of architecture and natural features throughout the environment really works for me, as the world in Factions already feels like its massively more varied than Prophecies!

Leveling Up: Getting from from Level 1 to 5 was the work of about 40 minutes, and my travelling group of four characters took out some bad guys and bosses that I wouldn't have even dared approach in Prophecies. I suspect the leveling up process is going to be much faster, but I'll track that as I go along to compare.

Annoyances: In terms of the presented information, the "Tablets of Wisdom" scattered around the opening play area offer a lot of good advice to the noob, but the information written on the tablets really isn't couched in the same rich, clear language that marks the overall Canthan style. In the noob introduction, after dealing with the frequent long pauses and the handful of weird NPC moments where I wasn't sure what to do next (did the quest crash?), these Tablet info-dumps strewn all around the opening area with gameplay strategy tips could have been designed SOOO much more thematically.

The Whole Tooth, and Nothing but the Tooth: Yesteerday, I went to the dentist for the first time in about five years, and was astonished to learn that I have no cavities. While my gums could use some work, and I'll have to go back in again for some more work on the built up tartar, the Sonicare really proved itself during this period. Possibly up there in the "top ten product purchases ever" category, as I used to have a cavity per visit every time I went to the dentist back in my 20's.

Attention of the League: I picked up my first couple of invitations on XBox Live, for people who saw me play CoD:WaW and wanted me to join their guild. While I don't play enough to be in a guild, I appreciate the nod, and I'm glad that all my hardwork on COD, GOW, and Halo has paid off!

Job Status: I had a good phone interview two days ago with Bungie. While I didn't work out for their current job listings, I'm very pleased that they spent a half hour talking through my skill sets - and I'm hoping something will blossom from that conversation in the future. In addition, it looks like I'll be starting up a short-term contracting gig this coming Monday, which could open up some interesting possibilities if things go well. More news about that when I can talk about it, but it's a pretty cool opportunity!

Accomplishments: Picked up a Fire Sword as a random drop from a Hydra, which seriously helps the war effort! Boom, baby!

Failures: While I successfully explored the Crystal Desert and got locks on my map for all three of the cooperative missions involved in the Ascension storyline, I don't think I can do these missions alone with just my band of NPC's as backup, or a group of random PC's picked up in town. I'll need to organize a group of friends sometime later this month to go in and help me through this section of the game, as with my current level of skills, the NPC's are just too random to pass certain sections of these missions without continued party wipes.

Next Task: I'll be moving onto Factions, starting with a beginning character and working my way up through the opening content.

Accompishments: Managed to pass the cooperative mission at Sanctum Cay without much trouble, courtesy of some good pulling, and great use of the new katana I purchased over in Cantha.

Lessons Learned: Save for one "party wipe via cat", I was able to get through the mission in about three tries, with the third try resulting in no bad mob collisions or party member deaths. While navigating through poisonous swamps can be difficult with a party of NPC's, doing flagwork and careful pulling can let you eliminate most threats if you're careful.

Going Forward: We're getting to the point where I don't have a lot of personal knowledge about the game maps, so I'll need to play a bit more conservatively in the coming desert battles. If I remember correctly, some of the lead-up to Ascension is a real bear to hack through, and I'll just have to rely on what I learned and keep on going.

Things I'd Change: Opening up a set of skills that specifically work in public spaces, that are related to amusement or non-griefing situations. Being able to sprint through certain public areas would be great, though I kind of understand why Arena did it this way, to truly deliniate between combat zones and public areas where players are "safe".

Over the last couple of mornings, I've been working on a couple of projects, including a set of board game rules I'm working up, and hammering out synopsis documents for the teleplay that one of my writing partners and I are working on together. While the board game rules went pretty well, the initial work on the teleplay notes this morning were kind of like pulling teeth. Eventually, I got into the rhythm of it, but I feel I had a wasted hour of puttering about with the keyboard without much benefit.

Since two of the novel queries I submitted back in early May have gone unanswered, I figure I'll get the next raft of query letters put together this week for a couple of other publishers. While I'm not writing off the two agencies I sent work off to, as it's now been double the 2-4 week waiting period, I may as well continue to get the word out to the other agents that I have on my list.

I've received some good notes from my alpha readers on my Ferry Folk manuscript, and I suspect that while the book is going to need some serious scrubbing to get it ready for submission, the cut-down from 160,000 to 100,000 words is largely a success. I also got word back from a late-beta reader on Goblin Girl, in that she also really enjoyed it, and pointed out a couple of areas that could use some light tuning up as result.

All for now,
-Scott

Accomplishments: Managed to get through Aurora Glade by using my brains rather than brawn. In terms of trying to capture the three end-zones, I decided to try and out-run the other team rather than try to fight them head on, and things worked out well. By just concentrating on the goals, I just repeatedly conquered the different areas one after the other. By using a Sprint power to give me an extra boost I was assuming the NPC's wouldn't have, I eventually outran them to victory without ever exchanging a sword-blow.

Adventuring: Once I got out of Aurora Glade, I followed the main quest series through Riverside and up and around to Fisherman's Haven. In terms of character strength, as long as the party doesn't get tackled by two or three groups of monsters at a time, we're doing ok. But at this higher level of play, the careful balance of movement and planned aggro is rapidly becoming key, as without carefully working out where you are going to move to next, it's possible that one of your henchmen will draw the monsters to your location just when you don't want them to.

Pretty Stuff: In this incarnaton, the Strand, with its blue water and palm trees, probably stands as my second favorite location in the game in terms of beautiful visuals. I know more good stuff is going to be coming shortly, but on my good monitor, it's just a pleasure to watch the water move about.

Accomplishments: Leveled from 18 to "21" this morning, and managed to chop my way through most of the Maguuma Jungle. Yesterday afternoon, I did a great deal of shopping and selling of objects, and got myself in top shape to take on the next major section of the game.

Armoring Up: After selling off pretty much all the trade goods I collected over the last week and a half, I was able to pick up a really nice set of "85's" is Cantha. This armor, compared to the 50's I was wearing, and the 60's being offered around the home territories, is way superior. As result of doing this (and combined with an elite Elementalist skill I havested in Cantha yesterday) I'm now able to tank just about anything in my home territory. The process of working out all of the logistics took a while, but in the end, I now have a ton of armor and defensive runes that will let me probably handle anything the mid-game throws at me.

Aurora Glade: This important battle represents an interesting challenge, as at the end of a long road of monsters and bad guys lies a simple three-end zone game of base capturing. While I suspect I can win this with one or two more tries, learning that a loss in this game means re-doing the entire half hour trudge wasn't especially fun. But, with looking through some online notes, my strategy of "hold the center" looks like it should work, if not just taking it to the enemy with all the annihilation I can muster.

Going Forward: I suspect my summer contracting work is going to start soon (fingers crossed), so I'll probably be putting GW down for a few days so I can get some work done on a few of my own projects before the next wave of creativity-for-hire starts up. Overall, I probably was able to get my character up to the level 20 cap with about 35-40 hours of play over the last week and a half or so, and I'll be interested (once I finish Prophecies) to see just how fast the level-up speed compares to Factions and Nightfall. I know that Arena wants people to get in the game faster, but are we talking about 5 hours less, or 15?

Accomplishments: Up from Level 17 to 18, with half my session messing about in Cantha, and the other half trying to chop my way through the Maguuma Jungles.

Noted for Next Time: The consumable scroll, Hero's Insight, might be quite useful for the next character I run through Cantha. Being able to earn bonus xp during the days of milk and slaughter via a turn-in might work out quite well, though my current character is kind of beyond that stage in her development.

Bloody Annoying: Things that pop out of the ground and gnarl all over you, without much warning, and usually when you're in the middle of another fight, are really annoying. While it keeps things lively, facing three or four seperate swarms of mobs at the same time is never good, even when you have the upper hand.

Accomplishments: This morning marked a good power-grind from Level 15 to 17, with a side-trip to Cantha to pick up some more buku XP.

Leveling Up: I've exhausted the first wave of quests available in Cantha, and used the same heavy-lifting trick with Brother Mhenlo's NPC gang to clear out a whole zone of bad guys for little to no effort. While the average quest in Kryta is paying about 600xp right now, over in Cantha I'm earning up to 800 to 1000 xp in a single thirty second battle! Now, having leveled up significantly, I'm back to Kryta continuing my drive to explore the width and breadth of the Divinity Coast, in search of new places and new boss-monsters to harvest Skills from.

Lesson Learned: In GW, you're only as good as your party. Even after getting all manner of good tools and xp in Cantha, I suffered a near party wipe as result of a poorly thought out mob pull. Realistically, if I had to do that road of Ettins again, I'd probably switch to an Air/Ice Elemental model and just plow through it, rather than try to continue to desperately chop down the waves of Ettins that kept wandering into range of the fight.

Beautiful Things: The Divinity Coast is just breath-takingly beautiful, including one vista that just left me staring for thirty seconds. The new monitor I picked up, a 22 inch Acer, helps a bit - but I expect the scene would be just as beautiful on my old Dell monitor.

Being Unique: I picked up a set of armor a few sessions ago which I intend to wear until it's time to move up to the next kit, without adornment. So, I'm dressed in a warrior's white outfit, which I figured would make me stand out like a noob amidst the city-zones. However, in all the time I've played, it seems I'm the only one who is wearing an outfit in plain white, which weirdly makes me stand out in the crowd as something unique and shiny. How's that for strange?

Talk about a clearing-house morning! Rose up from Level 12 to Level 15, courtesy of letting the NPC's perform most of the heavy lifting.

Tour of Kryta: When you first reach Lion's Arch, a cluster of four heroes are waiting around outside talking amongst themselves. If you stop and listen for the full conversation, you can pick up a quest to escort them to a nearby settlement. However, after a small side combat, I decided to take the full tour of North Kryta with the four extra high-level heroes in tow, and annihilated everything on the map with little to no problem. Ka-ching!

Water Taxi: Additionally, by travelling over to Cantha and running a few quests there with a bunch of high-level NPC's, as long as you keep to the rear and don't let yourself get stomped on, you can earn buku experience and loot for a quick series of combats and missions.