Oh dear, it’s terribly late – never mind, “things” had to be done – like messing about in Telara, and walking on treadmills… Yes, “Into the Wilds” is actually in Telara! Not on some Atlantean continent rising out of a previously empty ocean, like the Plain of Water – a remote and somehow topsy-turvy place with water on top and dry land underneath… As I think I said several blogs back, it’s in the previously blank area behind the Droughtlands, in Telara! I did manage to find the way into Act 2 – the instructions, or the method of getting there, were in the last lot of Hotfix Patch Notes, which went live on October 21st. Act 3 goes live on November 4th, so it should be ready for us next Sunday, if we manage to finish Act 2. It was a really good day – we got to listen to the bombastic, snide, and really terribly corny conversations of the self-styled “King” and his new “girlfriend” (for want of a better term!) Of course, with us both being level 65, we couldn’t level up any further, though we did manage to make another 3 Planar Attunement points. Planar Attunement points are a little bit like experience points – you have a long orange bar (experience bars are green!) showing you your progress towards your next point. The more Planar Attunement points you put in a particular element (Earth, Fire, Water, Air, and Death) (please don’t ask me how “Death” is an “element”, cos I really have no idea!) opens up new abilities and new enhancements for you… Well, it’s complicated! You’ll just have to take my word for it… Julian didn’t die, but I managed to make up for that by dying twice! The first time was all Julian’s fault, anyway… the place we had to be standing in to finish off a particular quest was occupied by an Invasion Force. Now, the way to eliminate Invasion Forces safely and successfully is to “pull” the evil creatures surrounding and protecting the central idol towards you one by one – so that you can pick them off one at a time – and then go in and destroy the central idol. Well, these particular creatures seemed to be a little bunched up, but Julian shot at one of them, intending for it to come careening towards us on its own – instead, they all came rushing at us together – Julian ran away, and…. I died. It’s alright though, I didn’t suffer… it was very quick, and relatively painless The second time I died was probably my own fault. We were running around in this deep canyon, chasing after and killing mobs of what looked like dwarf T-Rex’s – and all of a sudden, we ran around a corner, and there ahead of us we saw a big one! Big! (*nods vehemently*) Now, Elites are just extra tough mobs, and their “portrait” frame has spikes around it – the Elite’s level is written in red underneath it (at this stage that’s usually “65”) “Specials” are Elites (with the spiky frame) but have a little diamond next to their name to indicate that they’re worth more points. This particular mob had the spiky “Elite” portrait frame, no “Special” diamond, and his level was written as a red “??” – indicating that he was more than 5 levels above us – which is cute, because the game only goes up to level 65, for players and monsters alike! It was probably very rash of us, but we decided to give him a go… we hardly even tickled his ribs! He polished off my pet in one foul swoop, and we decided “we can’t handle this! Run!” We ran… with him pounding along behind us! Unfortunately, I must have zigged when I should have zagged, suddenly I felt a whiff of his breath on the back of my neck… and I fell over, stone dead! From then on we put a little sign over his head (you can do that in Rift!) to warn us to stay right away from him! I’m wondering if the “??” level indicator is perhaps a sign of “thingz to come” in the game! Will Trion raise the level cap in future expansions? I’m betting that they’re going to have to – World of Warcraft had raised the level cap at least twice in the five or so years that we played it – but the thing is, the more you expand a game like WoW, or Rift, you need to either raise the level cap, or make the levels harder to get to. If they make the levels harder to attain, people tend to give up too quickly: “This game is too hard, and too slow to level up in – c’mon, let’s go and play something else!” If they leave the level cap at 65 (or whatever) players will reach their level cap too early in the game and feel that they have nothing worth playing for anymore, get bored, and go elsewhere. Trion have partially got around this with their Planar Attunement points system, but it’s not going to hold players’ interest through another expansion. So yeah – I’m betting on them raising the level cap, and I’m also betting on the introduction of flying mounts in the next really big expansion (where I think that massive level “??” brute might have escaped from!) It will indeed be interesting to see what Trion does next with Rift! 🙂

Weigh-in this morning. Wasn’t pretty! But then, I knew it wouldn’t be – having missed out on one of my anti-fluid tablets yesterday Still, it wasn’t as bad as it might have been, I only went back to where I was the day before yesterday, from 68.8kg to 69.2kg, so I guess you could say that under the circumstances, I was quite lucky! 🙂 I’m not sure what tomorrow holds – I’m now back on those damn fluid-loving, fluid-retaining pills (though my feet aren’t particularly swollen tonight – how strange!) I’ve upped my treadmill speed to 3.4kmph, and I’m now walking for 18 minutes (approximately 1000 steps, or 1 km) instead of only 15, three times a day. The only thing that annoys me about this walking – apart from it being deadly boring – is the time it chomps out of my day! I just wish there was something constructive I could do while I was mindlessly putting one foot in front of the other – like read my kindle! Or dictate the blog into a speech recognition transcriber (or whatever they’re called!) But something so that I didn’t feel I was… not wasting – what’s the word I’m groping for? I dunno, but so that I’m not losing valuable time when there are so many other things that I need and want to do! 😦 I actually like the walking part – it’s just that I get so impatient while I’m doing it!

Tomorrow, weather permitting, my favourite youngest daughter and her husband are coming over to go looking at veggie garden necessities with us. If it’s pouring with rain, all bets are off, and no doubt I’ll spend the day Rifting, or working on my new desktop wallpapery thingy – when I’m not too busy walking, that is! (see what I mean? I don’t get a chance to settle to doing something, like Rifting, or graphicing! I feel that I’m always watching the clock for when I have to go off and do my next treadmilling!) Julian was saying the other day that he doesn’t think I need to use the treadmill three times a day – he thinks twice would be sufficient – but I feel I should keep up the routine – after all, isn’t it a matter of “energy in, energy out”? So whatever, until I reach Maintenance level (65kg) I shall keep on doing what I’m doing – full speed ahead, and damn the torpedoes! 🙂 And that’s really about it from me for tonight! 🙂 Call in again tomorrow night to see how my weight went, now that I’m back on those wretched pills, and whether I managed to get anything at all done between walkies! Until then though, please continue to bee good, remember that the only limitations you will ever have are the ones you put on yourself, and don’t forget to drive carefully, to look after yourselves, and to keep warm – or cool, depending on the weather… but most importantly, don’t forget to stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂