War with the Nova Alliance

Welp, it's official. We're at war with the Nova Alliance (Renovatio, Stripclub, and Amateras). It's no secret that part of the reason we left the Nova Alliance was because there was always a little bit of underlying tension between us and Stripclub. Since then there have been a few isolated incidents of them flagging on us, us flagging on them, us sweeping or hunting and then other people we're warring with suddenly showing up. There's two sides to every story, and usually the truth lies somewhere in the middle. So in our story, it seems yesterday was the breaking point where a few of them ganked Gicobbe outside of the Varka Silenos outpost.

Oddly enough, the resulting action reminded me of Sean Connery's line from The Untouchables "They bring a knife, you bring a gun; They put one of yours in the hospital, you put one of theirs in the morgue..."

And here's what happened after they killed Gicobbe and right before we declared:


Anyway, I think it will be a fun and amicable war. Most people in Renovatio and Amateras are good and respectable people and don't trashtalk and in general I expect they will bring this sense of dignity and integrity with them.

Blood Sword Akamanah

...minor addendum, The Blood Sword Akamanah (aka the duals) just dropped to some farmer/botter by dwarf village and our uberfast ninja KillerAngel snapped that thing up faster than you can say, "GOT DUALZ!?!?!?"

Interlude...set customer expectations first.

Interlude's been out the last few weeks and I think initially I was a little unimpressed with the content, based on the additions from the previous chronicles there was so much more. However, after rethinking the issue and placing everything into its proper context I have come to the conclusion that the amount of content is actually appropriate based on its namesake.

An interlude can be defined as an intervening period or episode, somewhat of a transitory or transitional. Popular forms can also be seen as the intermezzo in music, an intermezzo in a meal (meant to cleanse the palate and stimulate appetite at the same time). Basically something small between larger more thematic items.

So, having adjusted my expectations I have come to feel that interlude pretty much is as it should be and thus I've become more comfortable with its level of content. This is probably why the PTS for Chaotic Throne overseas launched the same day our Interlude went live, the time to live for them between modules was very shrot since it is an interlude and not a full fledged "chronicle"-like addition.

So, anyway...been playing with some augments here and there, and they really run the gamut from somewhat useless to just plain amazing with the majority of them being in the middle. My duals got lighter T_T

Also, since they introduced new textures for mystics wearing heavy/light armorsets it appears that some of the mobs got some new outfits too- Plague Golem now actually looks like a Golem as opposed to a stack of rocks.

Other related randomness- I've been in the market for a new convertible lately so I stopped by the New York Auto show at the Jacob Javitz convention center and sent a general invite out to Bartz players who wanted to wander the show aimlessly with me, so I just want to say was nice running in to Chapo and Eminem84, and sorry to see that DamienSin couldn't make it that evening. I'll probably send another one of these out later in the year when Ziff Davis hosts its Digital Life show there (it's like the NorthEast version of the popular CES/E3 show in Las Vegas I suppose but not nearly as fun, however I can just go to this one after work as opposed to flying across the country).

So...that's all I have for today...some good news on a personal level... I haven't been able to play and post as much lately since my father was recently diagnosed with stage 3 lung cancer so I took some time off to help my sisters take him to his various radition and chemotherapy appointments. At the beginning it was pretty depressing, but now that he's done with the radiation and has only a handful of oncologist appointments left they say his outlook's actually alot more hopeful than expected. After 2/3 of his radiation a ct scan revealed that the tumor had shrunk to about 1/2 it original size and he's started to gain some of his weight back.

...anyway...back to work! Oh...here's that Plague Golem picture!

Holy Kamael, Capcom-man!

Several pieces of artwork surrounding the new race for the upcoming Chaotic Throne, The Kamael, have been floating around and in case you haven't seen them yet here are two of the more common ones (to me the art looks very capcom-esque, you can almost see Morrigan or Ryu from super championship street fighter 3.14159a alpha hyper fighting blamming flame throwing r-type limited extreme banana pac man tribute edition influences for sure):