Returning to D&D.

     I finally got into 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons. I have been away from it for a while, leaving 3.5 and not getting into 4th, but rather playing Pathfinder instead. As I explore this version of D&D, 5e, I want to write a blog entry here and there about the features I like, or wish they would include. There is a lot I like about it so far, but just a few things that I would like to see improved.

     I like that the main setting takes place in the Forgotten Realms world of Toril. It's a classic setting, with various tribes of humans around the world. My experience with this setting comes from Black Isle's RP sprite games (Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, etc.). I'm not quite used to the Forgotten Realms pantheon. That will take some getting used to when creating clerics. I'm more used to those of Greyhawk (Pelor, Olidammara, Nerul, etc.).
     Ravnica, the ecumenopolis setting of a series of Magic: The Gathering cards, is a possible alternate setting! I had to get that book when I could. Some other Magic settings, like Zendikar, are available in PDF form, but Ravnica is a physical book.
     In the grander scheme of things, the cosmology has returned to the Great Wheel. I'm used to this, as it is the cosmology used in 3.5.
     There is no mention of prestige classes, which is fine. I didn't think that I would welcome such a change, but I love what was done instead. Let's say a player wanted to make a mage-thief. He starts with a thief, then plans his skill points - present and future levels - around that future leveling. He adds a few levels of wizard, then he can chose to take on arcane trickster class levels. Now 5e just has archetypes; that same player can just take on limited spellcasting ability at 3rd level without multiclassing. In future blog entries, I might talk about archetypes that catch my eye, ones that I've come up with, or ones I've adapted from prestige classes from earlier 3.5 supplements.
     Bards are more powerful now! I've always loved the class, as they are very music-oriented, and they have random pieces of knowledge. Now they have a full 9-level spell list, and have a feature called Secret Magic; at certain levels, they can pick two spells from any other class' spell list. So, you can have a bard that sings down a Meteor Swarm. Also, I've converted my 3.5 7th level bard, Sirrus Kobayne, into a 5e 7th level bard of whispers.

     The stripped-down skill system will take getting used to. You don't choose skill ranks; you just have proficiencies based on your class. That does make it a little less customizable.
     At higher levels, spellcasting is a bit limited. But there is versatility in spellcasting. For instance, Wizards (for example) combine their class level with their Intelligence bonus, and that's the number of spells they can prepare. The spell slots tells the player how many of each level they can cast. So, they can prepare two spells of Level X, but only have one slot in Level X, so there's a sense of versatility.

     In future entries, I would like to talk about supplements that I wish would be adapted to 5e. 5e isn't terribly old, but I think a lot of players are missing the Draconomicon, for example.

Joys and irritation.

     I finally got my hands on the second season of the latest gen of Hitman! I just started it a week ago, and so I know that I just barely made a dent in it. There was a good and bad that came with getting it.

     The good came with the game itself. The gameplay is the same as it was in the first one (of this gen). The only difference I really saw was that the opportunities -- signature ways of killing your targets -- are now called mission stories. I've accomplished most of these, but that doesn't mean there aren't more ways of taking down dummies.
     The story, itself, is really intriguing. It delves into 47 and Diana's respective childhood. And one of the other NPCs that seemed like an enemy doesn't seem like it now.

     The bad came with installation. I've reached the end of my PS4's memory, so I had to delete No Man's Sky. I like that game, but it's always updating, which gets frustrating. I can't remember the other game I had to delete. But, I'll reinstall them whenever I get an external hard drive. Not this month, but sometime this year, I will.

Mechanical mayhem

     I finally got around to getting Horizon Zero Dawn! I'm only at level 19, but I would like to talk a bit about how it's going so far.
     When I got it, the cashier said it would have won several game of the year awards, if it hadn't been for Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. He however conceded that, when a Zelda game comes out, it makes it harder for other games to compete. But name-dropping a legendary series in comparison had me more intrigued.
     It is an amazing game! The setting is some post-apocalyptic future, where any surviving members of humanity have started civilization over again, and have re-entered the late neolithic or early bronze age. However, machines from the past have also evolved, so in addition to natural wildlife, there is mechanical wildlife roaming the world. Technologically advanced relics that still work seem to be treated like magic.
     The heroine of the story is a woman named Aloy, who is now my first video game crush. And yes, I know that makes me sound like a geek. But anyway, she's an ass-kicking tribal woman. She wields a spear, traps, and bows; and I do like sniping. The combat system within this open world is intuitive, once you get the hang of the controls.
     In addition to combat, there's a technique that is available called override. With a device that dropped after a boss battle, you can take control of some machines. After exploring some caves known as Cauldrons, you learn to take control of more types of machines.
     Roleplaying is a fun aspect of HZD. You talk to various people from your own and other tribes, who give out missions. Missions are divided into Main, Side, Errands, Cauldrons, and Tallnecks (overriding a huge mechanical dinosaur to discover more of the map).
     I think, when I get home, I'm going to search for more Cauldrons and Tallnecks. Right now, I'm writing this at work, and it just makes me want to get home more.

Gaming over the past year.

     It's hard to believe it's been a year since I last posted in this blog. Nothing posted in 2018. So, I guess I have a lot to say, if I can remember it all.

     As a Christmas present in 2017, I got Sims 4 for the PS4. I like it quite a bit. It's not open-world, like Sims 3 is, but it has a lot more detail. Of course, like many, I made a Simself as my first character. And he's married to a Sim-Denise who already had a son.
     The first sims have aged and died, and now her great-grandsons are adults. One's a musician and the other is an E-sports competitor. Six live in a mansion whose bottom floor is based on an amalgam of various Clue mansion boards.
     This past Christmas, I got myself the expansions City Living, Vampires, and Get to Work. I reused my original characters in the new city setting, San Myshuno. So far, I like it.

     I've been playing Grand Theft Auto Online with someone in Utah. I've been using the resulting heist money to do the biker and nightclub updated content. So, I have a flying motorcycle and a Bugatti-like car. It's pretty cool.

     I've gotten back into playing Borderlands 2. I've been playing it at times with someone in England. I started my first combat-oriented character, Axton the Commando, and gotten through the Captain Scarlet expansion story. His special attack is pretty cool. It's a turret that shoots at all enemies within range; and I've upgraded it with rockets. I mostly rely on machine guns for him, and I have multiple ones for each type of energy attack. With the help of the guy in England, whose Maya the Siren is level 72, my commando jumped from 21 to 23 within 15 minutes.
     Speaking of energy attacks, I've found something cool while playing BL2 on PS4. The glowing bar on top of the controller changes color, depending on which type of energy is used; standard blue for none, light blue for electricity, orange for fire, green for corrosive, purple for slag, and yellow for explosive.

     Thanks to finding the books for less than half-price on Ebay, I've gotten into Dungeons & Dragons, 5e. I have the three core rulebooks. I already love the idea of getting rid of prestige classes in favor of expanding existing core classes with class archetypes. Archetypes are a way of differentiating the various members of a class. A thief rogue is different from an assassin rogue, for example. I also have the campaign setting Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica, which is based on the popular Magic: The Gathering setting.

     Speaking of Magic, I've completed a few decks. So far, I have a discard control, a mill control, and a burn-counter. My next one will either be the zombie or demon deck. Now, after completing a deck, I've been buying $2 deck-boxes for them, instead of relying on flimsy paper-board.

     Out of boredom, I decided to re-install Sims 3 for my computer, for the boring overnight shifts. It works. It's fun, but makes me want to go home to play Sims 4. My main character, Beavis Meeseeks, is a time-traveling ghost-hunter. Makes a good TV show, or a brief SNL sketch.

     So, anyway, that's pretty much it. I just got Horizon Zero Dawn, but I haven't started it yet. I probably will after work, and before I take my nap.

Vanity.

     Ever take a personality test? Nothing official, but a random thing posted on social media. I have. In fact, I've taken many. But on this blog, I want to talk about personality tests that refer to gaming. I've taken an alignment test, a race test, and a class test. My results have influenced my gaming experience, tabletop and otherwise.
     I found out that my ideal character is a chaotic neutral half-elf bard. I've taken this and included it into my RPG experience. Most of my characters have been CN Half-elf bards named GB. In at least one game, I have a party member named Gerard Barnaby; in The Temple of Elemental Evil, the face of my party is named Galen Burnwood.
     Some might say that I'm just in touch with my inner self. Others might say it's a matter of vanity.

RANT: Mini-games.

     I have to say it. I hate most mini-games in the middle of good games. This is where the action stops, and in order to continue, you have to press buttons or do some old throwback mini-game in order to continue.
     My first experience that made me rage-quit for a while was in the first Dead Space game. In order to continue, you had to shoot rocks coming for the ship while the shields were coming back online. Basically, you had to play Asteroids for a few minutes or not play Dead Space at all. It is horrible. I went online and many people said, and I agree, that it pretty much ruins replayability.
     My most recent experience with this bullshit is God of War 3. All the action and fun had to stop at the big string instrument thing. In order to continue, I had to play a music box puzzle. What I had to do was hit the buttons in a sequence, timing it just right, or I had to start it again. If I wanted to play Guitar Hero, I would play Guitar Hero.
     By the 50th try on these mini-games, I find myself screaming at the TV "Just let me get back to the real fucking game!"

Atlas Rises!

     "No Man's Sky" keeps getting better and better. I got it right after Hello Games released the Pathfinder update. Now they've released the update called Atlas Rises. It kind of messed up my game, so I restarted. It's fine by me, since I needed to reintroduce myself to it. I just hope that the progress I've made won't get messed up with any updates next year.

     Now I have mastered farming, bought a freighter (named it Gygax), and I have a small fleet of ships; thus far, I have two fighters (Dragon's Fang and Screeching Imp), a hauler (Thunderhorse), a shuttle (Pack Mule II), and an bug-looking explorer (Starhopper).

     In addition, I've completed the Atlas Path and the new Artemis mission line - something surreal and involved holographic messages with new aliens. Now both of those mission instructions say "The Universe is yours to explore, enjoy." That is a good thing, since the heart of "No Man's Sky" is exploring the universe, anyway.

     So, now that I've left the Euclid Galaxy and am now exploring the Hilbert Dimension, I find myself wondering what I would do if I were in charge of the next update. And I've come up with new ideas.

     It would be fun, interesting, but also infuriating, if they had an update that added more variety and realism to the star systems. From what I understand of the game thus far, when a new system loads, it starts with color of that star, then number of planets, then basic layout and environment of each planet is established when you scan and land on them. If I had a say in the development of the next update, I would like to see more challenging realism in the generation of each star system.
     First, establish the number and size of stars in each system, and therefore the Goldilocks zone. Binary/Trinary stars would be cool, actually, and would make interesting habitable areas. Different types of stars would have different temperature effects.
     Second, establish the number of orbiting bodies. Usually, this would be around 10-20. In addition, this step should make size matter. This includes adding gas giants and dwarf planets, as well as different planet sizes.

     Third, from size, the program would determine gravity, expressed in a G-number. Varying Gs have a variety of effects. The most obvious effect would be that jetpacks and launch thrusters would be more or less efficient; also, jumps would be longer or shorter. In addition, this would also have an effect on falling damage and habitability.
     Fourth, have the temperature vary, depending on the latitude. The worlds would be much less homogenous.
     Fifth, those which falls into that habitable zone, and where, would have a greater likelihood of habitability.
     If solar system generation were done like this, most planets won't be habitable, but they would be good sources of minerals and crystals. These types of worlds could have large, paraterraformed domes, like stations. Also, it would make finding a habitable world more rewarding to find, and players will want to spend more time exploring each one.

     Regardless of whether or not my ideas are implemented, I've been enjoying and looking forward to seeing more of this ongoing development, and chatting with others in posts about it.