Volcano wants to take away my WAR time, but I say, "NO!"

Mt. Redoubt has been ill lately, like someone with a bad case of the  stomach flu. The scientists have been taking its temperature for several months now, ever since it was getting a little rumbly in the tumbly, if you know what I mean. At work, we have to bag our computers before we leave in case there is some spewage while we are away.

Just over a week ago, the volcano finally prayed to the porcelain god that is our vicinity. The vomitous eruptions have been off and on for about 9 days now. There were periods of explosive activity, followed by that period where you say to yourself, "Wow, I feel good now," only to be rushing to the lavatory in another 20 minutes and screaming in technicolor.

What does this have to do with WAR? Well, my house has a forced air heating system, which means it draws air from outside, heats it up and blows the heated air throughout the house. You can see where I'm going with this can't you? If there is ash in the air, it gets sucked in also, heated up and blown throughout the house, right into my vacuum creating computer with its uber swirling fanage.

Anchorage has been lucky to not be in the path of the ash after the numerous blasts. On Saturday though, the wind was just right and sent a nice shower of ash headed toward our little ocean side community. I screamed toward Mt. Redoubt, "You can't stop me from playing WAR! I must make more talismans. I must go pew, pew, pew with my bow at scantily clad dark elves and orcs that aren't smart enough to switch to Geico." Realizing that I may need to do something, I opened up my furnace editing UI, and stacked two Filters of Ash Extrusion right at the entry point of airflow. I did notice a faster cooldown of my house, but I did not notice any ash getting through. Win! I put on my warm socks, pulled on another sweatshirt, and went back to pouncing around Eataine.

Petition to capitalize Don't

Taken from: http://breakfastatwar.wordpress.com/

Title of post: Top 5 Bucket o’ Lawlz - 3.27.09

Number Three. Things you Don’t want to hear from your healer.

Best Quote. Random Zealot; Ok Maggots! I want at least two forms of guard on me. I dont get them, I go dps mode.

I love how Don’t is capitalized in the title. So from here on out, I’m capitalizing Don’t as well. All the cool kids are apparently doing it. I love threads like this where people share hilarious moments like this. Some of them are pretty generic, but there are definitely some that stick out and had me cracking up. And it’s long enough for me to go through that popcorn.

I'm all for it. I am a math teacher, and one of the things I like to impress upon students is that things in life change. Look for ways to challenge the status quo. Don't is a pretty important word. We use it for things like: Don't touch that! Don't you dare look at me like that? Don't you know who you're talking to? We always capitalize at the beginning of sentences, so why not capitalize it in the middle, like this?

What if I Don't come over there? I Don't care if you're 200 lbs heavier than me! We Don't need no education!

So here's to Don't; spread the word!

Where is my seige tower?

Alright, so last night the Little Rascals, aka Brigata di Morte, was making a fortress raid on Fell Landing. Fort raids unfortunately, are not as common as I would like. The chance for everyone in the area to rush to the fort to attack or defend is an hour of extreme fun. While the whole experience is enjoyable, I have some ideas for improvements.

Sure some classes get to slip through the postern undetected to cause havoc on the enemy's side, but some of us outside can either attack the oil, attack the door, attack the guards, or try and attack the people on the wall. This is OK, but it isn't enough. In Medieval times, sieges often meant starving the inhabitants by cutting them off from the outside world, building giant siege towers to allow attackers onto the wall, or even digging tunnels under the wall.

When a fortress opens, have a PQ start in the zone. Within the hour, the attacking side must complete the PQ. If they complete it, then it grants a time bonus to the siege, maybe another half hour or hour. Then, during the second phase, the attackers can complete the PQ again. With a second success, the timer extends again, but opening up a PQ for the defenders outside the walls of the fort, but the Lord will start to lose health at a rate of 2% every minute or something. If the defenders are able to complete the PQ, then the lord is saved and the attackers must assault the lord like normal. This forces the defenders out of the fortress, but demonstrates an act of desperation to save their lord. If they push the enemy out of the zone, then the fortress raid is over, and the zones reset. If they are unsuccessful, the attackers can go in and attack the lord like normal.

The next idea I have is about wall siege weapons, mainly a tower and a tunnel. What if the tower was similar to a ram? You could buy them at the vendor. It could be usable at specific, but various, parts of the fortress outer wall. Once erected, it created a stair that wound up from the bottom to the wall, allowing attackers to run up and flood into the courtyard. This doesn't sound like it would be too difficult of code to create. After all, toons and banners have collision detection, and this could also. It could be attackable, just like other siege weapons. If destroyed, any toons on it would take falling damage, like normal.

The last idea I have right now is for a tunnel. This would be similar to the siege tower, but allows attackers to go under a wall. Again, there would be specific spots to put it, like other weapons, and it would be attackable like the other weapons. Once it is built, attackers could run under a wall into the courtyard. Defenders could attack it and destroy it to instantly kill anyone in it.

These are just some suggestions to make fortress raids more enjoyable, other than just run up to the door and start pelting it with arrows, like I normally do, sprinkled in with the occasional shot at the oil or a sorc that is standing too close to the edge for her own good.

Vent music bot

Do you like to listen to music while you play games? Most of us do. We all have favorites depending on the game we're playing. Most of us have often wished everyone we were playing with could experience the same song because it rocks or it gets your head bopping to the side a little.

Our guild recently added a ventrilo music bot to the server. Now, when we are hanging out, dueling, raiding forts, or just arguing over who can do more damage to the door, it's set to music. I would have to argue that it has made the game a more enjoyable experience. There are no more awkward silences when someone just burped or when you hear someone yell at their kids. We can now just sing along and enjoy the tunage.

If you don't know how to set it up, check online. I searched for 5 minutes and found many accurate descriptions and videos that walk you through it. You'll be singing "Hotel California" with your guildmates while beating down some witch elf in no time.

Ard ta Eat!

Gunbad . . . ah the memories. I must say it's been months since I first wandered through the subterranean muck-encrusted hallways that is Gunbad. I dug it the first time I entered. I took so many screenshots and raved about it to all my friends. I wanted to go any chance I got, but I rarely was able to get a group together to go in. So, I kept leveling, and eventually I hit 40, and Gunbad was but an empty memory in my dusty attic.

Then last night, Topia said, hey let's go see if we can kill Ard ta Feed. Sovyan, Topia and I ran through the wings to find the mythical squig. Unconfirmed, but suspected to us, you had to complete the other three boss kills in order to zone in to ATF. So we quickly knocked out the other three bosses. By this time, Sovyan was having so many server issues, she dropped. So it was down to Topia the tank, and Limadrial the rdps.

We finished the three bosses and headed to ATF, he was an ugly squig with two maws. Topia tanked and I spanked. We killed him with me getting the killing blow (Ard ta Eat). Topia and I hung around and did a PQ for 25 minutes or so, and then went and killed ATF again, letting Topia get the kill shot.

Once done, there is something called the Henge that becomes clickable in his lair, but nothing seemed to happen, save for some rocks falling from the ceiling. Three is also a clickable door but nothing happened with that. What gives? I did get a piece of Redeye gear, the chest.

Overall, it was a lot of fun, and I would recommend trying it again for those people that have not been there in some time.