A cornered foe.

posted this on March 29th, 2010.
Categorized as a-cornered-foe, gollum, Scuttledells, smaegol.

Shorthand Link:
Full link: http://4myrtlecourt.blog.co.uk/2010/03/29/a-cornered-foe-8272128/

A cornered foe

A few days ago, I found myself in a fellowship working my way through the quest chain at Ivorel's Camp in the Scuttledells. Now despite the fact that the group was made up of kinsfolk and allies, it had the dynamic of the most dysfunctional PUG. I think its something about the Scuttledells themselves that seems to purge all sense of navigation and orderly progress. We stumbled about without a coherent plan, frequently got lost, even splitting up to maximise the chaos. In some respects it was like being in an episode of Scooby-Doo (which beggars the question, who was Velma Dinkley). It was immense fun and reminded me of how the game use to be about a year ago, when fellowships were far more common.

The final quest in the chain was a solo instance entitled "A Cornered Foe". Gollum is holed up in a cave in the Scuttledells and imminently about to be captured and taken back to Dol Guldur. For some reason, this is a bad thing, so you find yourself involved in a rescue attempt. Now this is far from an outstanding instance and the task in hand is hardly taxing. But as it involves Gollum, it instantly become a lot more enjoyable. I never tracked down the quest in the Tal Bruinen, where he allegedly pops up in Volume I, and took great pleasure in discovering his pool and Banksy style wall art in Goblin town.

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WHEN NO NEWS IS… NO NEWS

posted this on March 29th, 2010.
Categorized as pax east.

Shorthand Link:
Full link: http://lotro-chronicles.blogspot.com/2010/03/when-no-news-is-no-news.html

Feeling mildly curious about whether Turbine had revealed anything about its future plans for LOTRO at PAX East, I just now did a Google search and came up with what looked like an interesting link to a site called The No News ("Where no news, is gaming news!"). What follows is the complete extent of the information provided:

Next we moved onto Turbine who are the creators of Lord of the Rings Online and Dungeons and Dragons Online. Something I didn't know was that they are actually from here in Boston and were pumped that their hometown was finally hosting the expo. He discussed the new content in LOTRO and D&D Online and were actually giving away free copies of LOTRO and I believe there were members of Turbine signing the copies they were giving away.

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Fraps version 3.2 Released

posted this on March 29th, 2010.
Categorized as General, video.

Shorthand Link:
Full link: http://docholidayj.wordpress.com/2010/03/29/fraps-version-3-2-released/

So I just got this update from Fraps a few minutes ago and thought it was really cool.  One of my issues with Fraps has always been that if I forget to turn it on I tend to forget completely and have missed things from time to time.  Or I forget to turn it off, and the only notification I get is the nice Windows warning that my hard-drive is full :)   But with version 3.2 they’re releasing “Loop Recording” which will basically always buffer the last 30 seconds of action, even when you’re not recording!  So, once you turn this on you’ll only have 30 seconds worth of capture stored but have the option to start (and continue) a recording from an event starting 30 seconds ago.  This will essentially work just like a DVR and provide a sort of “always-on” recording capability without requiring terabytes worth of hard-drive space.  My $37 investment keeps getting better all the time!  Be on the lookout for even more YouTube uploads from me in the future…


Filed under: General Tagged: video

Episode 31: Back from PAX

posted this on March 29th, 2010.
Categorized as episode, Episodes, Episodes from 2010, Interview, pax east, podcast.

Shorthand Link:
Full link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cstmfeed/~3/Ut51Tc3DWm4/

A Casual Stroll to Mordor Podcast Album Art We have returned from PAX East and this is a super short episode as we mainly wanted to let you know that we have several mini interview casts coming out in the week from the Turbine folks we were able to speak with.

See the Upcoming Interviews post for more information on what to expect! You can also see the photos we took while at PAX.

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Weekend news

posted this on March 29th, 2010.
Categorized as festival, group, lotro, Minstral, PAX, reputation, rk, Skirmishes, Warden.

Shorthand Link:
Full link: http://docholidayj.wordpress.com/2010/03/29/weekend-news/

So things have been a bit slow on the news side, but hopefully now that PAX is done we may hear some things from Turbine on what all they have planned for us down the road.  There were a bunch of folks (including myself) who sent a nice long list of questions to Merric and Goldenstar from CStM and they’re in the process of pulling all the info together. I’m not expecting anything earth shattering after Sapience’s comments on the forums, but we shall see.  However, Patience did chime in on a conversation between me and @wickedpt on twitter “@wickedpt Just because we are not talking about something yet doesn’t mean we’re not working on it. Stay tuned. :) so I suspect they’re just phasing the news updates between DDO and LOTRO.  I would expect to start seeing some new diaries and such starting to filter out as we near the end of the Spring festival, although due to the horse issue that might get extended a bit.

In game for me I’ve been enjoying the spring festival doing the dirty work for the dwarves and their Ale Association.  I just hit the first tier of reputation with them and I’m curious to see what’s available from that kindred vendor.  For this festival, I’m just focusing on my Warden but I may grab a few of the rewards/items on my Minnie as well.  I have saved most of my fortunes, so those titles should be pretty transferable – and they’re also relatively cheap on the AH :)  Sadly though I didn’t get in too much time with my RK so she’s still stuck at 20 (or maybe 21) but I’m interested to not only see the new Lone Lands but also see what it is like to run Skirmishes from the start and not from the level cap :)

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Upcoming Interviews

posted this on March 29th, 2010.
Categorized as Episodes from 2010, General, Interview, pax east, update.

Shorthand Link:
Full link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cstmfeed/~3/3dp7UzB0CB0/

PAXEastTurbineBooth So we’re back from PAX East and I think the fact that the login servers are down is a huge conspiracy to force me to edit the recordings I have.  I wanted to give a little bit of a “heads up” as to what we have in the way of interviews.  Some are traditional interviews, while the others not-so-traditional.  Some will be strictly based on the game, while others may talk about stew. ;)   I just wanted to let you all know what was coming and to give you a brief overview of who we talked to.

  • Sapience
  • Clover
  • Tolero
  • Frelorn
  • Moribund
  • SGM (Senior Game Master) Nod
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