Final Step, New Journey

Hello everyone,

I have masks !

They’re from a small scale supplier called Beverley’s Masks (linky), which I found via one of the discords. I like the designs, they’re cheap (£5 inc postage to UK) and they arrived on Wednesday after I ordered them on Sunday evening. Very happy with that. Would definitely recommend. I have my new Elite t-shirt as well, which was ordered as a second item to an Elite themed mask … I haven’t got the mask yet.

Three cheers for Beverley’s Masks, a hearty BOO HISS for Frontier’s suppliers.

I’ve been trying out a new game … I might well be in there a fair bit over the next week (hands permitting) because I’ve been enjoying it so far.

That’s Bashara Dannalae and she has a Pointy Hat. And an outfit that she’ll catch her death of cold in. (A better one will appear later).

The game is Final Fantasy XIV and it’s started out as a massively charming massive multiplayer game so far. They must have done a huge amount of work getting the facial expressions and emotes just absolutely perfect. It’s a very pretty game and I’ve been enjoying my time in it so far.

Bashara ventures forth … to adventure !

An upgrade later and she’s visiting the housing district. I haven’t checked this aspect of the game out much so far. I’m only on the free trial at the moment although I get the feeling that I might race through the content on offer and get to the free trial level cap before the game goes on sale again. We shall see !

And that’s Bashara as I left her this evening. Better armour, a hat with Two Pointy Things and an eagerness to punch lots of things while in search of more story to play through.

But I needed to break for munchies and I have to manage my hands these days.

I’m on leave next week though ! So lots more time available. I’m not planning on going too far although I think I’ll venture out at some point (with my masks!) when the latest cricket finishes.

So if Final Fantasy XIV is the new journey, what’s the Final Step ? The Drew Wagar Elite Lore Tour came to a close yesterday evening and I had the privilege of being involved in the final stream. Fun times, quite probably the coolest thing I’ve been involved in with a game.

Let’s see if this works … oh well, (the movie clip thing only does Youtube) … This link will take you to a 53 ship mass hyperspace jump at the end of yesterday’s stream. It was pretty awesome to have my little ship along for the ride.

As usual, click for bigger. Spot little Tea-89 creeping in to the shot there showing off her markings.

It was great to see so many ships in one place.

There was a decent variety of pretty ships to look at too, most pilots had gone for the more long ranged ships but there were some of the different types too. That shot includes a Beluga Liner, several Anacondas, a couple of Imperial Cutters, Asp Explorers, Krait Phantoms, a Dolphin,, an Orca, an Imperial fighter, a Federal Corvette and a couple of Cobra Mk3’s.

Time for a better look. Up in the top right is the megaship Zurara, which I’ll talk about later.

It’s been great listening in to Cmdr Wagar’s Lore Tour. He’s got a very listenable to voice and is massively keen for the Lore that’s gone through the 4 major Elite games. (Curiously, he shares my frustration at the development of the lore dying a death since the start of the year).

But all good things come to an end and there was no more Lore for now to tell. This is just before the final gathering for a formation flight past the Zurara …

Setting up for a spectacular mass hyperspace jump out of the system. It was great to see and I think Cmdr Wagar got a massive kick out of it during the livestream. It’s always good to see a big grin. (Link to clip again)

As for me with the Internet Spaceships, I’ll be making my way back more slowly … hopefully visiting some places along the way. But a bit slower because I think I’m a bit burned out on the game. There are more pictures to come though !

Time to say good night though and I think … open up Existence by David Brin.

We’re not out of the woods yet with what’s going on outside. Looks like there’s still a lot of dangerous people out there who aren’t taking the corona seriously enough. Live how you want to, if you don’t feel safe in a particular situation, get out of there.

Be safe, be well, enjoy what you’re getting up to.

Books ! And a little bit of buggying around

Hello everyone,

I feel tired ! Dunno why, haven’t exactly been doing that much. Perhaps it’s lack of sleep, or my body getting used to not doing very much. I’ll be out of the house soon though, for more than just stocking up the cupboards again.

Also been doing book … Not just one book as well but two ! Let’s see. It should be through the Google thing by now :

Actual paperback. Perhaps rare in this era of ebooks and Kindles … Signed by the author too :

Big nod. (Yes, that’s my thumb). This was a case of seeing a sequel to a book I’d already read and enjoyed and being content to pay a little more than e-book price in order to support that local bookshop and to get one with a little, superficial aye, extra.

What’s the book about ? It’s the sequel to Embers of War, which sets up this world by introducing the setting and characters which include the spaceship at the centre of this trilogy, the Trouble Dog. After being required to undertake an atrocity that ended a war, she retired from naval service and joined the House of Reclamation, an organisation dedicated to rescue and preservation of life. This middle book sees the Trouble Dog and crew embark on another rescue attempt, this time to jump into the unknown to rescue a ship of salvagers who came a cropper when they attempted to do a bit of illegal salvage on a wandering generation ship.

Oh and all hell is breaking loose in the galaxy while this is going on. I don’t want to say too much more about the plot cos it’ll spoil both this book and the previous book but …

I love the Trouble Dog, she’s a ship with attitude and an avatar that combines smart, tough, sassy and resourcefulness. The book swaps between various characters, with its 400 pages broken up in to 83 chapters which each focus on a central character. The Trouble Dog is the star of her own chapters.
As is Nod, an alien of the Druff race which are innately brilliant engineers. Every ship has a Druff engineer that keeps the ship going. They’re utterly alien, written expertly by the author and lend a welcome change of perspective to the books.
And I like the rest of the human characters too, who all have their own driving characteristics, mental flaws, issues and other quirks that make them and keep them interesting.

This one is very definitely a Middle Book and as such it moves the general plotline on considerably. It doesn’t give an end, Embers of War is definitely the beginning and … I got the last book in the queue to read. I’ll be looking forwards to that one as much as I am looking forward to reading Absolution Gap.

The second book was Artificial Condition, by Martha Wells and it’s book 2 of the Murderbot Diaries. The first comment that always comes out about these books is … HOW MUCH ? The price is a bit too inflated for my liking at £6 for essentially a novella. Still, this one and All Systems Red (book 1) were both captivating reads. The central character just goes by their self given name, Murderbot. They’re a former SecUnit (Security Unit) that’s gone rogue. Except all they want to do is have a chance to peacefully watch as many entertainment serials that they can.

It doesn’t work that way though, so Murderbot ends up on adventures that have gone from pure survival and a start in figuring out the events that made them go rogue. Cos they didn’t just go rogue originally, they were involved in the death of all of the humans in the place it happened.

I’ll be back for more of the Murderbot Diaries. They’re a fun read. Bit quick … but that also means that it’s tight writing that rattles the story along without any more padding than is necessary to tell you what’s going on in Murderbot’s head.

Recommended – both books.

Buggying around ? Internet Spaceships again ! Gotta admit, I’m having to be a little careful with play time because my hand and shoulders are bugging me again but it was good to get back to the populated bubble again and have a little explore. I left it last time at the Hawkins Gap Bases (the spelling is horribly inconsistent I know).

This was a good one to fly by … It’s a ringed planet lit by the local neutron star.

The end of this journey took me to Cortes Base, which has been adopted by a race circuit for intrepid fighter pilots and maybe by pilots of the little ships too. I may have to check that out. I took the buggy in there …

I found a couple of issues along the way, This is a dome on the outside of the base where the foundations don’t quite reach to the ground. I’m actually ok with this, although it reveals some of the magic around how these planetary bases are generated and built in the game. A couple of glitches are ok.

I never gave the birds eye view ! There we go, on approach.

This was the way in and … you may be able to detect another glitch. The ramp doesn’t reach quite all the way to the ground. That’s ok, I had jet boosters let me jump up there :-D. Little bit of creative use of a jump ramp maybe but it was still good to get in there.

And have a little look around. Click for bigger on these by the way.

One fun thing is that the scale is all good. The bases are massive … and in scale. Those windows up there genuinely look like a floor high each and the ground floor doors to that hangar building are scaled correctly for the rover.

Lots to explore too.

Bit quiet out there in the streets … I might have got there a bit late, their time.

Couldn’t get in to the actual base though.

Lots to see in there.

It was getting time for me to put the game to bed as well though …

Another peek from a safe distance and then it was time to be off and make a proper landing.

Outside of the internet spaceships, I’ve been working on a Dwagon Alphabet. I have most of the letters now, although it’ll take a fair bit of tweaking time before I’m happy with them all. People like them though. The first one was a Happy Birthday message for someone which I hope she enjoyed … and then more Dwagon Letters have sprung up from there as I produce them. I’m a fan of the Clip Studio application that I’ve been using, it makes the drawing and editing with the tablet happen very easily.

I think that’s it for tonight though. Stay safe, be well, steer clear of the internet if it’s causing you grief (lots has been coming out into the public eye lately, much of it unhealthy).

Dwagon Alphabet will come later but for now … out take from the excursion !

Landing Autopilot’s been sniffing the rocket fuel again.