Failing at the Basic Chemistry quest

Grouping up with a guild mate to defeat Chillmaw as part of a daily Argent Tournament quest I ask if we could continue as a group to clear out some of the lingering quests in my log that require help to complete. As she agrees to come along to heal my reckless self we head to the southern ramparts of Icecrown to kill some giants, after which an NPC tells me to continue my good work by mixing some formula in to a cauldron, for a quest he calls Basic Chemistry. This quest, he says, will probably require five characters to be in with a chance of succeeding. Pshaw, I think to myself, that's five ordinary characters. We are heroes, two should be enough. At least, we can have a jolly good go with only the two of us. A plate armour-wearing death knight DPS monster and a tree-hugging druid healer has often proven to be quite an effective combination in PvE.

I get a flask of the formula to throw in to a cauldron and we fly off to attempt the quest, wondering how challenging the five-man quest will be for the two of us, but quietly confident of completing it easily. I find the cauldron, chuck in the fluid and out jumps a nasty ghoul bent on eating my flesh. I start beating the ghoul away with my two-handed mace as my druid friend heals any wounds I take, but then I get a warning to apply a further application of the agent. First, I wonder 'what agent?', then repeated warnings appear. I don't think it can be the fluid I used to start the quest, partly because it is never referred to as an 'agent' anywhere in the quest text or on the item itself, but mostly because the item is still on its cool-down from being used initially. The timer runs down and the quest fails.

Scratching my head as to what happened I suggest restarting, just in case something bugged the first time. But, sure enough, the same events occur as before, with warnings to add more of the agent and my quest item remaining on cool-down until after the quest is failed. My guild friend cannot help, because she isn't on the quest and so doesn't have the quest item herself, yet I cannot use the quest item more than once before the quest fails because its cool-down is longer than the quest timer. This strikes me as flawed, so I create a ticket to talk to a GM about it, hoping that it is an oversight that can be fixed.

A GM opens a conversation with me a little later and after acknowledging my question suggests that perhaps I should bring along some friends who also have some of the agent. It's an obvious solution to the problem, but one that frankly I find unacceptable. I am in but a tiny guild and pick-up groups are difficult enough to create, and cope with, for instances, I certainly don't want to spend hours looking and waiting for other people casually wanting to complete this arbitrary and otherwise unexciting quest.

I fully appreciate the desire to create more challenging content that requires collaboration to complete, but having to synchronise quests, particularly quests that are part of chains, before being able even to attempt these more difficult quests goes beyond the expectations of a friendly and social game. If there were a particularly good reward or interesting conclusion to the quest, such as opening the quests to be able to fly a Netherwing Drake by defeating Zuluhed the Whacked in Burning Crusade, for example, then there is sufficient motivation to work together as a group and ensure everyone remains at the same point in the quest chain. But as far as I can see this is just another quest, and all I can think to do is abandon it for being a waste of effort.

The main problem with this type of quest is what happens when others complete it. As with Zuluhed the Whacked, when a character completes the chain to move on to the next step they cannot return to a previous stage of the quest, so the quest item is no longer available to them, which of course means that they can no longer help anyone else. So by encouraging players to complete the quest in groups the designers are potentially locking out other players from being able to complete the quest, as the number of characters available to help naturally dwindles. If you can't get the quest, you can't get the quest item and you cannot contribute towards the quest completion. It becomes logistically improbable that enough players can be found to complete the quest together, particularly one that offers no real incentive to complete in the first place.

The GM notes my frustration and, if I would agree to a disclaimer, is happy to forward any suggestions I have to the designers. Hmm, I haven't actually thought of any ways for the quest to be improved, but I really ought to at least try to be constructive. It's not too difficult to quickly come up with the suggestion that not all players need to be on the quest for it to be attempted. If the quest item were allowed to be shared amongst party members, as long as one player is on the quest, then it would allow for the increased complexity of multiple applications of the agent by different people at different times for the quest to succeed, thereby making the quest able to be completed without simplifying it or requiring logistic complications of quest chain synchronisation. I may not have been quite as eloquent at the time, but I got the basic idea across and I'm sure the designers are smart enough to work out the details.

MMORPGs are social games at heart, by the very nature of them being massively multiplayer. Whilst player skill certainly should be a factor in contributing towards success, and equipment options appear to be a necessary evil in creating a more level experience, denying access to content because of contrived complexities that make finding groups more difficult seems to be antithetical to the design philosophy of the genre. Forced grouping generally makes players grumble, it should come as no surprise that adding further requirements to a forced grouping leaves a player with a bitter experience.

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Tags: gnomesblight, mmorpg, world of warcraft

A return to known space

The main problem with living out in w-space, away from the known regions of New Eden, is that there can be little to do by oneself. There is no regional market or stations, which means no buying and selling or manufacture of goods, and no agents to talk to for missions. The cosmic sites of interest are generally too difficult to clear of sleepers without help, and once the encounter and mining sites are cleared there is little to do but wait until new ones surface, which can be found through scanning. So when I find myself alone at the POS I find the most productive way to spend my time is by scanning for new anomalies.

Occasionally I find a new wormhole, either back to known space or to further w-space, or sites of interest to be explored at a later time with company. It is quite a relaxing way to pass some time, watching the probes gently scan for signals. The added logical puzzle of refining the search volumes to fix a single strong signal makes it a better form of fishing for me. I am probably not doing myself any favours by probing in my Drake battlecruiser, but heading out to the middle of nowhere with no expectation of results only strengthens the analogy to fishing.

It is not me who finds the wormhole that exits back to a low-sec system one jump away from high-sec space, but it is an excellent opportunity for us all. We can haul a load of our loot, salvage and ore out to sell for profit, without having slow, lumbering ships spend too long in low-sec space. For me, I take the opportunity to take care of business. The wormhole heads back to Caldari space, so it is not long before I am back at one of my bases and checking on my sales and production queue.

I make the trip to my manufacturing plant and deliver my waiting jobs, and as I spend time shipping them to the market I check and adjust the prices of modules I still have listed for sale. Although my stocks aren't particularly depleted, as I have only been away in w-space for a few days, I had put the modules in to production to fill gaps. The good news is that the gaps in the market are still present, which rather baffles me, but I am only too happy to oversell my goods in woefully understocked markets.

Noting what modules continue to sell well I set up some new production runs, buying enough extra minerals to cover the manufacturing needs. There is no great rush for the new module runs to get off the production line and to the market, but as I may not be able to get all my housekeeping done and get back to w-space through the same wormhole that got me here, and no one is sure when the next viable wormhole to the POS will materialise, I think it's a good idea to start the runs as soon as possible. It is much better that I didn't have to wait for manufacturing jobs to complete this time before being able to restock my sell orders, after all.

With business taken care of it is now time to spend some ISK on skill training books. Whilst I generally only pick up skill books when I have a particular need for them the complete lack of availability of them in w-space makes me realise more the importance of being prepared. As such, I rifle through the market looking both for some books that should benefit operations directly—for example, remote armour repair systems, to support better my non-Caldari colleagues in battle—as well as some more skills that look like they will expand my horizons and opportunities a little more.

Now it is just a matter of taking care of business whilst waiting for the chance to return to w-space. I may as well plan my activities as normal, and be prepared to drop them with little warning, so I head back to my mission base with Core Complexion, Inc. with the intention to continue increasing my standing with the company for Tech II manufacture datacore acquisition.

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Tags: drake, eve online, industry, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space

Drumming in Rock Band 2 versus Guitar Hero: World Tour

The playing of fake plastic instruments has quite captured my attention, at least in the form of fake plastic drums, because I find drumming to be a whole lot of fun. The drum kit that comes with Guitar Hero: World Tour is not far removed from an electronic drum kit, albeit only in strict association with the gaming software. Without the Guitar Hero game the drum kit is nothing more than a set of pads. I suppose that isn't entirely true, for the main reason I bought the game for the Xbox 360 console is because the kit is also compatible with similar fake plastic instrument game Rock Band 2. It would be the height of folly then not to purchase the other game, for additional faux-rocking entertainment, particularly as I wouldn't need to buy another set of instruments.

I chose Guitar Hero: World Tour as my initial set-up partly because I was familiar with the game, thanks to rock machine Zoso, and partly because the layout of the Guitar Hero drum kit seems to be more authentic to a real kit. A claim to authenticity is perhaps a little audacious for fake plastic instruments but the Guitar Hero drum kit has three drum pads, two cymbals and a kick pedal, which I thought surely must compare favourably to Rock Band 2's four drum pads, kick pedal and rather obvious lack of cymbals. Even so, the featured songs of Rock Band 2 look to appeal to me more and surely one fake plastic instrument game is little different from another, so I pick up the Rock Band game to try it out.

I have to say, it's quite surprising what a lack of cymbal pads, or their presence, can do for a drumming game. Ignoring the common kick pedal from here on, with only four drum pads to represent all the sounds of drum kits of rock, metal and pop bands plenty of context-sensitivity is required. The yellow, blue and green pads in Rock Band 2 can represent a hi-hat, crash, or ride cymbal, and any of the toms, with the red pad being the snare. Whilst this still promotes a certain degree of coordination and rhythm, in order to hit the right pad at the right time, knowing the song well doesn't guarantee that playing the song in the game will be easier.

It isn't possible to aim for one cymbal or other in Rock Band 2 when knowledge of the song indicates a cymbal is to be played, because that cymbal note could be played on any one of the yellow, blue or green pads. That the cymbal beats can be played anywhere might not be such an issue if they weren't by necessity intermingled with the drums, so that any particular score might be forced to play the same cymbal sound on different pads if only so that you don't strike the same pad several times in a row only to produce entirely different sounds. So knowing the songs themselves doesn't help with playing the drum track in Rock Band 2, only memorising the pattern of colours scrolling down the screen will improve performance, excepting attaining excellent drumming and sight-reading skills.

Even after memorising the scrolling patterns and gaining advanced rhythm techniques Rock Band 2 feels much less like drumming than Guitar Hero: World Tour and more like Dance Dance Revolution played with sticks, precisely because there is less emphasis on learning drum and cymbal beats and more on hitting the right pad at the right time. With the pads being so reliant on context there cannot be as much awareness of stick-crossing or maintaining a continuous beat after striking a cymbal in Rock Band 2 because there is no difference between hitting a drum and hitting a cymbal. It even feels the same.

In comparison, the drum kit with Guitar Hero: World Tour is far superior in set-up. The same issue of context-sensitive pads arises but in a much more limited form. The red pad is the snare, the blue and green the toms, and the yellow and orange the cymbals, where the high, medium and low toms, hi-hat, crash and ride cymbals can be played on a variety of the pads. However, the yellow and orange pads are always cymbals, and the red, blue and green always the drums.

Not only is the context-sensitivity much more clearly defined but the physical structure of the Guitar Hero: World Tour pads also makes a significant difference. The drum pads are, I assume, similar in both games, but the specific cymbal pads are a solid chunk of rubber that presents a more rigid surface to be struck. In effect, hitting a cymbal is a different experience than hitting a drum pad in Guitar Hero: World Tour, one that helps provide the more authentic drumming feel sadly lacking in Rock Band 2. Having the cymbal pads raised above the drum pads, requiring more relative movement and spatial awareness.

There are additional cymbal packs that can be bought to augment the Rock Band drum kit and although these will definitely help with the feel of drumming in the game I imagine they rely quite heavily with learning the songs, as the cymbal pads share the same pad-space as the existing pads. A green note to be struck in a song could still be a tom or a cymbal, and both the green cymbal pad and green drum pad will register a correct hit for the note, thus the cymbals can only be played definitively when the song is known fairly intimately coupled with good skills to switch between the pads.

Hitting a quick fill that ends with a cymbal crash is a far superior experience in Guitar Hero, bouncing fluidly off a few drum pads before reaching up to finish on a thick cymbal hit, against the comparatively bland and homogenous Rock Band equivalent played entirely on similar-feeling drum pads. As a means to practice coordination and limb separation both games provide roughly similar tools, but Guitar Hero: World Tour goes much further in making you feel like a drumming legend in your own living room.

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Tags: console, drumming, guitar hero, rock band, xbox 360

The most dangerous game

The sleepers don't seem so tough. They may be more diligent in determining active threats and keen to pop drones but our simple two-man fleet recently managed to defeat a few waves of frigates, cruisers and battleships, and when we were bolstered with another fleet member we sailed through the complexes. Having some more time available I wake myself up in w-space again ready for some action. It isn't long before a few of us are heading through a wormhole leading to another w-space system full of sleeper sites to explore.

There have been some hints of activity in this new w-space system, the possibility of probes from other capsuleers being seen. We need to keep on our toes to make sure we aren't ambushed when in the middle of a heated battle, particularly as the local channel is ineffective at providing intelligence in w-space. In normal systems the local channel provides at least basic intelligence in the form of showing the number of capsuleers piloting a ship in the current system, so when local is empty you can be confident of safe travel. However, w-space interferes with some systems and capsuleers appear in local only after they first send a communication through that channel. If pilots keep communications silent it simply isn't possible to know who else is in the w-space system easily, needing instead to scan ships down manually.

Knowing that there may be others present in the system means a careful watch is kept on the ship scanner for incoming probes, which could inform aggressors as to our location. It is half-way through an encounter with sleepers that the alert is raised, combat probes appearing close on the scanners. The order is given to warp out and head back through the wormhole to the POS. We are collectively in w-space for profit and a strictly PvE corporation so we all immediately disengage the sleepers and fire up our warp engines, ships aligning to the distant wormhole.

But then something curious happens. Instead of dropping out of warp at the wormhole I find myself caught on the edge of two spheres of static some 68 km from the wormhole. This is clearly too far to pass through the wormhole and quite unexpected. As unfamiliar as the situation is, I think I know what is going on. Rather than continue my course through the energised sphere to the still-distant wormhole in my sluggish Drake battlecruiser I throw my field-of-view around until I am looking in a direction orthogonal to the intersection of the wormhole and the spheres. I find I am in luck as I spy a planet whose direction will take me towards the closest edge of the sphere, and I align myself immediately. Within a few seconds even my slow Drake has crossed the boundary of the sphere and I engage my warp drive to the planet, managing to escape from the warp bubble.

The direction of the planet I was quickly able to visually scan down has two benefits. The first is being able to escape the warp bubble, a tiny and localised ship-created ball of space in which warp engines cannot function. The second in that it should now offer me a clear path back to the wormhole, as warp bubbles need to be placed with considerable precision to catch ships travelling through warp and any unexpected path should be able to avoid them. As soon as I drop out of warp I twist the ship around and warp back to my bookmark for the wormhole, soon finding myself only a couple of kilometres from its horizon, where I expected to be the first time. I look back to where I had been a minute before and see two hostile ships, a Sabre and Arazu, attacking my colleagues who are thoroughly snared. I start to lock on to the two targets but caution gets the better of me. I head back through the wormhole and to the relative safety of the POS.

I have to admit that I am really quite proud with myself for recognising the threat so quickly, particularly one previously not encountered before, and being able to negate it calmly, getting myself out of serious trouble unscathed. It is only because I read journals of other capsuleers remember a recent tale of a capsuleer encountering a warp bubble near a jump gate, causing him to nearly lose a ship. Even though the technical details were light the description was clear enough to help me recognise the same situation and recover from it, for which I am most grateful.

I am not so proud at not being able to communicate this quickly or clearly enough to my colleagues to save them from harm, nor for effectively abandoning them. I made my decision knowing that my Drake would be quite ineffective in PvP combat, particularly against hardened capsuleers out for blood in superior and more appropriate PvP ships, and I don't think anyone would appreciate my losing an expensive battlecruiser just so I don't appear to be left out. I hope I made the right decision, as it cuts me to sit safely at the corporation's POS as the pilot of a Tech II ship, a colleague, is podded.

The communication channel fills with panicked information about who is safe and who is still under attack. Thankfully, the other pilots manage to get back to the POS safely. Although one more ship is lost the capsuleer is able to warp out in his pod. It is at this time the aggressor notices an earlier faux-pas in his accidental broadcast in the w-space local channel, announcing his presence mid-way through the combat. Having been unmasked, and mostly successful in his attack, he thanks us for the good hunt. This could easily come across as abrasive, considering our losses, but as the alternative is some confrontational and abusive victory cries I find it somewhat honourable.

The pilot points out that he had been watching us for quite a while, seeing us at the POS, heading off through the wormhole and then entering the sleeper site, before setting up his trap. I'm sure it is of no comfort to our podded colleague at this time but I find it technically interesting, at least to learn from. One important lesson that I will take away from this encounter is not to warp directly to an exit point if threatened. If we are in danger from other capsuleers and need to escape in haste, it may just save a clone to warp to an intermediate point first.

The sleepers may not be particularly tough, but we are able to encounter them on our own terms. Today was an important reminder that we are in frontier space, a lawless area where anyone can be hunted. Even though we were aware of the risks and vigilant we weren't entirely prepared. We were engaged on someone else's terms and became the sleepers ourselves, dangerous but ultimately unthreatening.

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Tags: drake, eve online, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, pvp, scanning, sleepers, w-space

Engaging sleepers in w-space

Waking up in w-space puts me rather an unfamiliar position, and not just relative to the rest of the galaxy. Being away from normal space, and the market, agents and stargates that I have taken for granted so far, I find that I am entirely reliant on my corporation not only to offer some activity but also to keep me alive and safe. I can't remember another point in my time in New Eden—or Paragon City or Azeroth either—where I haven't been able to keep myself amused one way or another. The sensation is a little unsettling but I chose to jump through a wormhole to unknown space for adventure and to help where I could so I will keep a positive attitude.

No one is around when I finally gain awareness of the POS and my surroundings, which leaves me floating in space with nothing normal to do. However, whereas I thought I didn't have scanning capabilities in my Drake battlecruiser that is not entirely true. The probe launcher is merely a different type of launcher module and by modifying my ship's fitting, which is possible at the POS, I can sacrifice one heavy missile launcher to enable me to scan the system for anomalies and, more importantly, wormholes. It's not that I want to leave so soon, particularly without having accomplished anything, but more that if I can find a way in and out of the w-space system myself I can keep myself busy whilst remaining available to help the corporation.

Just as I set-up the new fitting and get a probe launcher installed a corporation colleague arrives. He points out that he has been busy scanning himself and that there are bookmarks kept in the hangar to all the wormholes and anomalies he has scanned down, including an exit. The exit leads to a low-sec system four jumps away from high-sec, which is quite a risky path to take in a sluggish battlecruiser but, like I mention, getting out isn't my priority. Instead, it is suggested that we go through another wormhole, this one leading to a w-space system that is rich in sleeper sites. A two-man fleet is formed, my battlecruiser and his battleship, a bit of refitting follows to allow for mutual remote shield repairing, and we head out to find some sleepers.

I have to admit that I am quite nervous. I am in effectively lawless space with no easy route home and the tales of the sleepers being fiercer and more ruthless combatants than the known races and factions is a concern. But I am also excited to be here, venturing outside of known space with a small group of capsuleers relying on each other. We warp to the wormhole, get sucked through it to another unknown system and head out to the first of the bookmarked sites known to have sleeper activity. Warping in to the complex finds some sleeper sentry guns and a handful of unrecognisable frigates and cruisers, all packing quite a punch.

The combined firepower of our drones is enough to take care of the frigates whilst we focus fire on the sentry guns and cruisers. Although the heavier drones get popped occasionally, the rumour appearing true that sleepers are more aware of multiple and mutable threats, my own light drones stay unscathed, perhaps because of the much lower damage they are capable of dealing. Meanwhile, the sleeper ships are steadily destroyed by our guns and missiles as the sleepers' incoming fire shifts between my Drake and the Dominix, keeping us on our toes as we need to manage what is effectively our combined tank. We are able to withstand the worst, even when sleeper battleships warp in, and the first site is cleared!

As our shields recharge I take time to loot my first sleeper wreckage, if only for the experience and to see what sleepers carry. It looks like some exotic data interface, which I store in my cargo hold to drop off at the POS hangar later. Our shields recharged we warp to hit a second sleeper site. The second site is much the same as the first, but the incoming fire appears to be much more destructive and causes us to warp out for a breather on a couple of occasions. My fleet mate has to leave behind his drones the second time we warp out for respite, which is a small sacrifice, but when we warp back in we are just in time to see them finish off a battleship that was proving quite resilient.

We don't take the time to recover the drones, instead moving to another sleeper site. A third corporation member turns up and joins the fleet for some sleeper hijinks. His additional firepower makes clearing the sleeper sites more efficient, particularly when his long-range gunnery skills destroys distant sentry guns. It is not long before another corporation colleague arrives, this time taking to a salvaging ship to recover all the profit we have so far left behind. She was tickled to see some friendly drones abandoned in the second site and was able to pick them up, which is a fitting conclusion for the sturdy drones that helped us defeat a sleeper battleship.

After the fifth site my time has run short again and I head back to the wormhole to take me back to the POS. Despite the bleak-looking start I have ended up having a fabulous time. Forming a fleet to venture further in to w-space—if meaning can be found in relative positions of w-space—to engage sleepers and loot their arcing wrecks has been quite exciting!

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Tags: drake, eve online, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, sleepers, w-space

Dungeon master Sapphire

Along with Gnomesblight getting the Wintergrasp Veteran achievement my warrior, Sapphire, has managed to keep busy. Sapphire is still trying to attain exalted status with the Argent Crusade to complete the Argent Tournament achievement list, although my casual gaming times playing World of Warcraft will make that goal last quite a while longer. But with the guild keen to run an instance or two at weekends I have been delving in to dungeons again.

The last dungeon I need to gain the Northrend Dungeonmaster achievement, awarded for completing all the Northrend five-man dungeons on normal difficulty, is Drak'Tharon Keep, situated on the border of Zul'Drak and Grizzly Hills. Despite being without a lovely priest to heal, our wonderful tree-form druid is available and only the previous day we prove it quite possible to run through Drak'Tharon Keep with only four people, when other guild members complete their Northrend Dungeonmaster achievement. I took Gnomesblight in as a damage-dealer that time, as my death knight had never visited the keep either, and still needs to defeat Gundrak and Halls of Stone for the achievement. Sapphire, however, just needs this keep to be cleared.

Having been in the instance the day before and finding it quite straightforward, with the guild's gnome warrior tanking, I have the layout and mob patterns fresh in my memory. I think it is fair to say that I chain-pull my way through the whole instance, smoothly working from group to group, maintaining healthy aggro on all enemies without straining the healer's resources. I don't even pause before pulling the bosses, I am that comfortable.

It is the kind of instance run I find soothing, even though I am tanking. I can just concentrate on the simple task of sitting at the top of the threat meter without having to worry about my health dropping too far, the mobs breaking free and attacking someone unexpected, or someone not knowing a complex boss fight. Credit must go to my guild, as all present are happy to maintain a constant pace through the instance, keeping the damage and healing flowing right to the end where I also finally get the Northrend Dungeonmaster achievement.

I have successfully tanked all of the five-man instances and bosses in Northrend, giving me the experience and knowledge to enter any of them as the tank with confidence. If we can increase our DPS output as a group then maybe we'll start venturing in to heroic instances. At the moment, I don't think we're quite ready but when we are we all have good experience of the standard instances, which will likely prove quite valuable when attempting them at the heroic level.

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Tags: achievements, drak'tharon keep, gnomesblight, mmorpg, northrend, sapphire, world of warcraft

Telegraphs at Islington Academy

Ah, I see. In the small print on the ticket the venue is listed as the Academy 2, even though the banner text mentions only the Islington Academy. This explains why I went to the wrong entrance. I'm not entirely sure why the distinction between the two venues isn't more prominent on the tickets and all the other advertising material, I'm hardly going to be ashamed to be going to a smaller venue. Indeed, I prefer the more intimate places, where there are no barriers between audience and band, where it's possible to chat casually with the acts between sets when buying merchandise. I think I'm going to enjoy this evening.

From the emphasis given to Lights Action from the promotional material and when buying the ticket I was under the impression that this is a dual-headlining gig, with the Telegraphs supporting. This isn't a problem, I just make sure I head out early enough not to miss the support act slot. When I finally get to the right venue I find that not only are Telegraphs headlining but there is another support band to play before Lights Action, extending my evening out a little. Hearing and seeing more live music is generally a good experience, so I won't complain.

First to play are Pharaohs, who are on stage so early that the venue is far from even half-full and no one has dared to get close to the stage just yet. Front man Jonny encourages everyone to step up after some introductory riffs, and such is their energy and charisma that people do actually all walk up to the stage rather than remain hovering around the edges. Despite the low numbers in the audience Pharaohs receive a warm reception, deservedly so in my opinion, for the songs are played with skill and enthusiasm, are catchy and fun, and the band are friendly and confident. When a string breaks on one of the lead guitars half-way through the set Jonny pulls it off the bridge and declares they'll finish the set with only five strings. A heckler tells them to get a spare guitar, but Pharaohs call back that they are a rock band, they don't need spare guitars. The rest of the Pharaohs' short set is just as good as the start, even if I'm not convinced that 'this one's a bit dancey' when there is a long string of triplets in the middle. I am completely drawn in to the music and will definitely keep an eye out for more from Pharaohs.

Lights Action spend quite a while setting up, although no longer than the posted set list gives them. It turns out that they are having equipment problems, even pausing after the first song for the drummer to fix his hi-hat. That's about as interesting as their set gets for me, though, as they seem determined to cram as many power ballads in to a forty five minute set as possible. Having the drummer pound every single beat vehemently and the singer croon every note so hard he winces makes for an intense set but it's just not my bag. After a couple of songs I get bored and wander off for a while.

Finally, Telegraphs take the stage and thump straight in to album-opener The Argument, a technically impressive song that also gets heads nodding and bodies bobbing with its musicality. After a quick introduction from Darcy Harrison, to prove that the first song is no fluke Telegraphs hit hard with the brilliant Your First Love is Dead, a track so cool and full of rock that it gives the impression if the whole set continues building on this crescendo there will be explosions of some sort before long. Instead, we are encouraged to think as political song Rules of Modern Policing has biting lyrics that ring true in the current climate. The only drawback to the song being that listening too closely can depress you, but such is the effect of good music, and it's possible to let the music wash over you instead for a positive vibe.

All the songs played are from debut album We Were Ghosts, with other highlights showcased being the uplifting We Dance in Slow Motion and the epic-feeling set-closer Notes From an Exit Station. Despite there being plenty of appreciation for Telegraphs it is simply difficult for the applause to sustain given such a small crowd and so no encore is played. But as the saying goes, always leave the audience wanting more, and Telegraphs have shown just the kind of powerful, interesting and enjoyable music they are capable of creating and playing. With such an energetic and passionate live set, backed up by an excellent album, I have no doubt that Telegraphs will continue to grow and look forward to seeing them again.

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Tags: gig, islington academy, lights action, pharaohs, telegraphs

Becoming a veteran of Wintergrasp

Gnomesblight, my death knight, has finally reached one hundred victories in the battle for Lake Wintergrasp, granting her the achievement of 'Wintergrasp Veteran'. The last few victories took a while to get under my belt, what with the Horde being so powerful at defending of late and my continued drumming in Guitar Hero and other console games taking up some of my time. However, despite the Horde's recent dominance it is worth noting that the Alliance already had control of the region and defended successfully for my climactic victory. The average level of control of the region appears to be cyclic in nature, where one side dominates for a while before the tables get turned. I have a theory about this.

It seems reasonable to me that despite the frantic open PvP of Wintergrasp it will not be able to maintain the same excitement perpetually, which personal experience shows. The more seasoned Wintergrasp players will eventually enter the battle less frequently, either having completed all the achievements, bought all the equipment available from honour and token rewards, or merely looking for something different to do, taking their wisdom and specific knowledge of Wintergrasp strategies with them. Following in their wake are newer or less experienced players, either with their own ideas of tactics to implement or learning everything from scratch.

When one side has the more experienced players fighting on their side there is a distinct advantage against players who may not realise the relative merits of the different siege vehicles, the significance of attacking or defending the southern towers, or the importance of controlling the external workshops. Experience in general PvP combat also offers a distinct advantage. It takes time to learn all of these aspects of the battle and only some of it can be disseminated through raid communications, particularly when players either assume a similar level of experience is shared amongst everyone or that other people pay attention to what they write. The most valuable experience is that gained from actions, and sometimes we simply need to let people learn the hard way.

But eventually familiarity is gained and the newer players become valuable assets to the battle. And just as they get warmed up to the sophistication of the battle to become a potent combined force some of the more experienced players are returning less frequently whilst newer blood continues to join. There looks to be a natural cycle to this flux, one that I assume to be reflected in one or the other faction's current dominance in Wintergrasp.

However, the most important lesson that can be learnt in the battle for Lake Wintergrasp is that no battle can be considered lost until the very end. My one hundredth victory in the region seemed lost from early on, when the Horde may have exploited the system to gain early access to vehicles, but a successful assault on the southern towers combined with a strong defence helped secure the victory for the Alliance. Attacking Wintergrasp Fortress may be the more straightforward battle strategically, but every new player to the battle needs to learn that defending Wintergrasp is quite possible, even against a determined aggressor force.

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Tags: achievements, gnomesblight, mmorpg, pvp, wintergrasp, world of warcraft

Boldly going where I haven't gone before

I can be quite timid at times and I know I am too shy for my own good, despite how it can appear in communication channels, which explains in part my adventures in New Eden being almost exclusively in high-sec and mostly solo. I also know that I really ought to try to get more involved, in spite of my timidity around other people. When I find out that some of the corporation are planning to enter w-space to explore and adventure I quickly offer my services, excited by the opportunity to experience more that EVE Online can offer whilst fighting the urge to shrink away from the unknown.

I am able to contribute a little early on, having only recently researched and manufactured a batch of core and expanded probe launchers, which I donate. It's really not much compared to the POS components and fuel that others are contributing, but I do what I can. Other than that, I feel my nerves rising as I figuratively bury my head in the sand and continue with capsuleer life as normal, unsure whether I'll actually be able to head out to w-space as hoped.

Today I jump in to my pod to find out that a suitable wormhole was found. A subset of the corporation has jumped through and started to set-up the POS as a base for w-space operations. I begin to feel really nervous, knowing that I will have to decide quite soon whether to follow or shy out. The first wormhole used has collapsed, I am told, but another has opened up in the w-space system that leads to a low-sec system. I don't know if I am fortunate or unfortunate that I have just received a communication for a storyline mission with Core Complexion, Inc., but it encourages me to stay secluded in my own part of high-sec for another half-an-hour or so, my mind trying to ignore the obvious opportunity in the hope that inaction will resolve the situation for me in time.

The call comes out asking if I have time to form up and get to the wormhole, and whether low-sec worries me. Strangely enough, after my short time with the PvP corporation last year and having some experience of travelling through low-sec it's not low-sec space that worries me in the slightest, I just assumed I'd have no trouble getting to the wormhole, it's just self-doubt that's crippling me. The best way I have found to overcome this fear is to just get my head down and focus on one step at a time. Realising this moments after my salvaging Cormorant enters warp, heading a couple of jumps away to clean up the mess I made of some Amarrian ships, I agree to head out to the wormhole.

I turn my empty Cormorant away from the stargate and dock at the station, changing to my Drake before heading back out. I am taking the battlecruiser for its possibility to tank sleepers found in w-space, as I believe we are still intending to avoid PvP, which is just as well in a Drake. My autopilot is set to navigate me to the boundary between high-sec and low-sec a couple of jumps away from the wormhole, where I will rendezvous with others. The high-sec travel is as simple as always, jumping from gate to gate, until I reach the high-sec system with the gate to low-sec. At that point I shift my thinking and awareness to the possibility of unprovoked hostile action.

Even in the high-sec system it is not advisable to head straight for the gate to low-sec, because a ship sitting on or close to the gate could be a lookout for ships on the low-sec side, waiting to trap anyone coming through. However, if the gate is clear on one side it is quite likely to be clear on the other, if only because pirates themselves don't want to see a fleet bigger than theirs jump through the gate unannounced. What I need to do first is find out if anyone is lurking on top of the gate to low-sec.

It is now that I am grateful for my limited PvP experience and the knowledge I acquired about staying safe in low-sec with safe spots in a system, along with understanding how to use the on-board scanner to monitor gate activity. I start to warp around the system to make a safe spot within scanning distance of the gate, shortly coming to rest at a distance of about one AU from it. My scans show little activity overall, and the one battleship I notice turns out to be a member of the corporation coming to help form a better escort for us all.

With the hauler turning up, warping to me at my safe spot, and the gate and systems looking clear we warp to the first gate and jump through. Perhaps feeling that speed is of the essence, particularly in the sluggish hauler, a direct route to the next gate is taken, although my sense of caution has different ideas and I try to get to a position where the gate can be scanned first. An Onyx appears in the system and starts to follow us, which is unsettling for a small fleet of capsuleers definitely not looking for a fight, but we only need to jump through the second gate and warp to the wormhole to be relatively safe again.

The Onyx follows us through the second gate and I immediately warp to a corporation colleague located at the wormhole, quite forgetting that the other ships are not as agile as my own. Once arrived I turn back to the gate as soon as I drop out of warp, not having much opportunity to marvel at my first sight of a wormhole. Luckily, I have learnt from reading the mistakes of others and remember to bookmark the location of the wormhole instead of relying on the proximity of colleagues or having to scan it down.

Returning to the stargate shows that the Charon is just about warping away safely, as some provocative chatter—I believe the kids call it 'smack talk'—appears in the local channel from the Onyx pilot. Our Raven warps out just after the hauler, which leaves me alone with the Onyx, but not for long. As I see the Charon leave I am already planning my exit, setting about creating a safe spot in the system to monitor the gate. The Onyx starts to lock on to me as my warp drive engages to get me away safely.

It looks like everyone is safe, although the corporation of the Onyx pilot sends another capsuleer in to stand on the stargate, which I am now monitoring from my safe spot away from the wormhole. In the mean time, my corporation finds out the bad news that the wormhole is not allowing the Charon to jump through it, which presents a problem. Some cargo is transferred between ships but the Charon has to stay behind, the pilot chivalrously telling us all to jump through and get to the POS and she'll brave the short trip back another day, hopefully when it is quiet. I hope she doesn't get ambushed.

With the order given I jump through my first wormhole, finding myself in a system off the charted maps of the known galaxy. Remembering again to bookmark the wormhole's location on this side, even though it is not likely to last beyond the day, I warp to the corporation's w-space POS. This is another first encounter for me, never before having been to a POS. There, inside the shields and amongst friends, I have to say goodnight. My next visit to New Eden, if indeed it can be called New Eden, will start in w-space. My main concern is being in a ship in w-space without scanning capabilities, so I have no idea what I will be able to do beyond floating in space. It is good that I was able and took time to set-up a jump clone last week, although it remains to be seen whether I can make use of it at the POS. One thing is for sure, I am having an adventure.

Posted in Gaming | 3 Comments »
Tags: drake, eve online, low-sec, mmorpg, penny ibramovic, scanning, w-space

A cymbal short of a full kit

I have given up on my orange cymbal. Certainly, adjusting the sensitivity of the Guitar Hero: World Tour cymbal made a significant improvement to the number of notes registered but errors still crept it. It is quite possible that my lack of skill contributes to some of these errors, but occasional notes are still being dropped when I am keeping a simple, straightforward beat on the orange cymbal, which involves no relative movement of my arms and so the same spot is being hit with a fair amount of accuracy. Missing notes through a lack of skill encourages me to improve, a note dropped because of faulty hardware frustrates me.

I revisit the e-mail from my previous exchange with technical support for the game and find the helpful link to the Guitar Hero warranty information page I was given. Opening that page I follow the simple questions guiding me through the warranty returns process. At the end of the diagnosis I am instructed to file a question at the site I used previously to request a USB-to-MIDI cable, so I submit another request for a replacement orange cymbal. The reply I receive tells me that I am in the wrong place and must address all such warranty requests to the warranty page, completing the circle. Hmm.

After double- and triple-checking my inputs to the automated warranty pages are both the correct inputs to make, such that I hadn't misread any questions or responses, and result in sending me to the technical support page I reply with this information. I can see no way to progress my warranty claim on the warranty page and my only option to submit further information is with the technical support page. With a confident response coming back that I must be submitting the wrong information somewhere I try again, even changing my inputs to see if the warranty page's 'choose your own adventure' game has some hidden options, depending on which page I turn to.

Unfortunately, the best automated response I can get is to check my manual for hardware warranty claims, which I tell the technical support fellow, along with information about the date I bought the game and from which company, as assurance that the equipment is within the stated ninety day warranty period. Although my previous exchange with technical support in asking for the USB-to-MIDI cable was a little frustrating I managed to get a helpful and positive result, and this time is no different. Technical support submits a warranty request for the orange cymbal, confirms the RMA number with me and my issue is resolved quickly and efficiently. I have to give credit to Red Octane's support structure because of their quick response times and positive attitudes, particularly as I raised both my issues, and got them resolved, during the evening.

With any luck, I'll soon have a new orange cymbal for my Guitar Hero: World Tour that is as responsive as the yellow cymbal pad and my problem with occasional missed notes will only be attributable to my own mistakes, which I am endeavouring to fix with more practice. In the meantime, I can still continue my drumming practice, although I might be better suited to playing a bit more in Rock Band 2 as it doesn't have and thus require the use of an orange pad, which at least dodges that problem. The game has some issues of its own, though.

Posted in Gaming | 2 Comments »
Tags: console, drumming, guitar hero, rock band, xbox 360