Well, today was another good-ish sort of day – Julian went out this morning to do a bit of shopping, for things like cereal, which he forgot to get the other day, and to check the P.O. Box in Doncaster, to see if my new Birth Certificate had arrived early. It hadn’t, and I think I’d be being just a wee bit over-optimistic, to expect it before the end of next week (but one can only hope!) and really, I don’t even know if they’re going to allow me to make the change or not! 
Oh, and you might have noticed that I’ve changed the format of the blog – it’s the same template, but my favourite eldest daughter informed me this morning that she hadn’t been able to see the links for the new caesarstone and laminate colours – and she was quite right – set out the way it was last night, with the side-bar at the bottom instead of on the side as it is now, for some totally incomprehensible reason, links were only visible on mouseover! In other words, you couldn’t just see links within the text – you had to physically mouseover lines and words to see if any links were present. Now, I have to ask you – how stupid is that?! Anyway, they show up alright in this format with the sidebar visible – I’d much prefer it to be on the bottom, but if it’s a toss-up as to what I’d prefer, and my readers being able to see my links, well readers, you win hands down 🙂 However, I will point out to you all that the difference between a plain old, ordinary, everyday, underlined word, and a link, is fairly subtle – in underlined words, the line is very close to the text. In links, there’s quite a noticeable gap between the line and the text. And if you mouseover that slightly lower line, it thickens up a fair bit, indicating that it is, indeed a link. So there you go – from now on, if I say something along the lines of “This is what I’ve done – what do you all think?” with a line under one or more of the words, you should be able to see that it’s a link, without having to mouseover the whole ruddy blog! 😉
Getting back to this morning! While Julian was out, I Rifted! I managed to get my new Primalist up to level 24, and it’s still far too easy! In a way, it’s good, and you can just go sailing gaily through thick and thin, killing as you go, tr-la-la-la-lay… but in actual fact, it’s a bit boring! Once you get your “shot rotation” worked out – the order in which you use your weapons so as to maximise the damage you inflict on enemies – you hardly even have to look at the screen! It’s just a matter of ‘plod, plod, plod, oh look, there’s a Goblin! shoot, bash, wollop, shoot, oh, not dead yet? Here, have another one of these (shoot)! plod, plod, plod‘ – rinse and repeat, ad infinitum! There’s no real challenge in it anymore! Actually, I think I’ve been saying that for quite some time – that there’s no challenge in the game now. I suppose it’s just a matter of Swings and Roundabouts, Supply and Demand – in an effort to attract more players, the game writers make leveling up easier, so that more players will want to join in… but by the same token, those game writers run the risk of boring their older, more seasoned players, who then turn their eyes elsewhere, looking for new horizons and something with a bit more “meat on its bones” – I know I’m looking for something a bit more exciting, and Julian is dipping into World of Warcraft again (though that was the main reason we walked away from it – the writers were “dummying it down” it down too much, and it was getting boring!) Which is a great shame – it’s a really good game, and I like it a lot – but it’s just getting too “same-y”, too “Ho-hum, here we go again….” from starting area to level 65 End Game scenarios – nothing really changes but the power of your weapons and the calibre of your attributes or abilities. Nothing surprising ever happens – even most of the foes you’ll face are all basically the same – they just become bigger, nastier, and more formidable – but they’re still mostly the monsters that you grew to hate and kill back in the starting out area (and most of them even look the same!) I suppose I was hoping for something “different” with this latest patch – and it is! Different! But the basic game play is still the same, and once you’ve worked it out, you still use the same shot rotation until you could do it in your sleep. Ah! I think I’ve just hit on the problem! I think they really need to make the AIs smarter – or at least introduce some true randomly generated reactions to their repertoire! As we, the players go through the same old ‘plod, plod, plod’ routines all the time, so do the poor old monsters and baddies! (I bet they get bored, too!) If we, the gamers, are predictable, the monsters (the AIs) are even more predictable. The writers have managed to introduce a teeny-weeny bit of randomly generated behaviour in some of the level one critters – sometimes when you shoot at them, instead of just keeling over and dying as they almost always do, occasionally (very occasionally!) they’ll stand their ground, or even (try to) attack you! This surprises you – this startles you – you often don’t quite know how to react, and if it was a high-level monster, you’d probably be dead! The critters though are only level 1 – their defiance doesn’t last more than a couple of seconds – but if the writers could do a bit more of that sort of thing with really high level mobs, there’d be no more ‘plod, plod, plod’ – we gamers would have to think and react quickly, and that would be much more betterer! 🙂
Weigh-in this morning. I knew it was going to happen 😦 I knew it had to happen 😦 But that doesn’t mean that I have to like it, or take it without grizzling! I went up a point – from 69.9kg to 70.0kg! I suppose that at 70.0kg I’m still on my final goal weight, but I need to be lower, so that I don’t end up over my goal weight when I start on Maintenance! The anti-fluid tablet haven’t been working as well today – I guess I’ve probably shed all the fluid that those other wretched pills made me retain, and now I’m “back to normal” as far as fluid retention is concerned. Now all I have to do is start walking on my treadmill again… I reckon I could you know – my foot only hurts if I try to flex my toes… but I’ll be a good girl (for now!) and keep off the treadmill until we see what the results of the x-rays say *sigh*
So – tomorrow is Sunday, and I’d imagine that Julian and I will be quite busy in The Wilds… I’m actually wondering exactly where in Telara these Wilds are! To get there, you have to go to one of the very early zones called The Droughtlands – then you go though a portal to what used to be a closed off area in The Droughtlands, run around there a bit, and then step through another portal into The Wilds! I must have a look on the world map tomorrow, if I can – er… I mean I’ll remember to look at the world map, but it may not be possible to see where we are in relation to the world map, especially if The Wilds is located in an “elsewhere” area, like another plane, or something. Anyway, I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow night, because right now, that’s about all I have for you tonight 🙂 Do drop by again tomorrow night though – and find out what we did in The Wilds – if we died or not, and if so, why? What my weight got up to (or hopefully down to!) and also if we’ve decided exactly where the veggie garden(s) will go – and lots of other interesting and fascinating things besides! Until then, please sir on your hands and bee good, remember that the more you overthink, the less you will understand, and don’t forget to drive carefully, to keep warm – or cool, depending on the weather, and to look after yourselves – but most importantly, don’t forget to stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂
My Word! 