I've ran almost out of my old Elf flesh, and it was time to finally start using the new Kislev flesh. At first I was a bit disappointed with the results, because I thought it was a base color and it didn't cover the model as good as it should. But when I wanted to write this post, I wanted to scan a phrase from the White Dwarf  issue 388 in which the new colors were detailed and each kind of paint was explained. Only then I noticed that the Kislev flesh wasn't a base color, but just a layer, much like the old Elf flesh. This means I have to revise my initial thoughts about the new color as I go along writing this First impressions before starting is that I had to shake the little bottle of paint better. The first time I opened it, there was clearly still some pigment on top of the paint. Closing the lid and shake some more made the pigment mix with the paint better. This is new to me, since the old colors didn't have this much pigment in them. Then the first layer painted as I used to paint in the past. I'm a 'light painter', using not too much paint so that the details of the model stays as visible as possible. With the old Elf flesh this was a problem, showing the black undercoat clearly, while after adding a 2nd layer of Elf flesh would hide the undercoat for about 85% or so (giving an unintended good effect though). Now with the new Kislev flesh, the 1st layer of paint is doing a much better job than the old Elf flesh, though one layer as I used to paint still shows the black undercoat, but a lot less than the Elf flesh does. After adding a very thin 2nd layer, the coverage of the paint is over 95%, making the new Kislev flesh far better than the old Elf flesh to use as a base color over the black undercoat. In the picture above I've used bot paints, with Elf flesh on the left side and Kislev flesh on the right. Though the Elf flesh might seem to have better coverage after the 1st layer, it's not - the flashlight of the camera clearly brought up some of the pigment on the thinner parts of the paint, making it look like the Elf flesh has better coverage... Then the color itself. When I bought the Kislev flesh, I already noticed in the store that it was a bit darker. As the above picture shows, putting them close together indeed shows that the Kislev flesh is a bit darker than the Elf flesh, and I can't say otherwise. But this one layer is not all that I'm applying to these models. I will add a wash to make shade-effects, followed by 2 different dry-brush colors. I think after I'm done the darker Kislev flesh won't show that much darker anymore as it seems now I think in all, the new Kislev flesh is a better quality paint than the old Elf flesh was, and I surely hope that this quality goes for all other layer paints as well. Right now I'm thinking about old colors like Snakebite leather and Red gore, which are awful to make a good paint-job with as well. But since I sill have enough paint in those old bottles, I'm not gonna buy new ones until I really need new ones ...and the old Elf flesh of which I still had a bit..? Well, I'll keep that as 'spare'. I have about 30 models painted with it, and those models aren't finished yet. So when I make a mistake, I can use the old paint to correct (read; hide ) it...

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Remember me ranting 18 months ago about TERA becoming a subscription based MMO with cash-shop after their announce to use Digital Rivers (a micro transaction service provider) as payment service, as well as pointing out FROGSTER as European TERA publisher? EnMasse Entertainment was quick enough to come into action against such aquisitions and came with the following statement two days later: After a press release by Digital River announcing our e-commerce partnership a few players expressed concerns that TERA would be a micro-transaction game in addition to requiring a subscription fee; that is not the case. TERA is not a micro-transaction or cash-shop item game. The game is built and designed to function as a subscription-based game. We would have to make dramatic changes to the game's design to support micro-transactions and there is no intention of doing so. TERA will have paid services, which could include character transfer, name change and gender change. We do not have a complete list of these services yet, but we will let you know as we confirm them - those services will likely be available inside the game. There may be a point in time of TERA's lifecycle that we offer "vanity item" sales, pets, and other items that players have enjoyed in other AAA+ titles. To clarify the press release further; Digital River OFFERS many options to En Masse to choose from for TERA and for future products we publish. We're more than happy to answer questions, and hope that this clarification allays any concerns you might have. Now that was a nice statement at the time, and the mentioned micro-transactions are the regular ones for almost any subscription-based MMO. That was then... Today I heard the news that EME announced their cash-shop, and it doesn't only hold the above mentioned micro-transactions. It includes some fluff items, which I am okay with since they are not game-breaking. But adding a cash-shop (while you stated not to add any in-game items other than account services) this quickly after the release of a MMO must mean something. I've mentioned in the past already that in Korea and Japan, TERA kinda failed and for the US and European release I heard a lot of players complain about the game being empty when it comes to actual content (which is not the reason I didn't buy the game BTW). It looks like EME is looking for new wayt to finance their (only) MMO and fluff items (as a start) in a cash-shop seems a good way.  And while we're at it, combining the failing subscription numbers world-wide and the start of a cash-shop, I am wondering if (or rather when) TERA will transform from subscription based MMO to Free2Play with a full cash shop. As I said on August 12, 2010, FROGSTER is the king in milking players with a cash-shop (just look at Runes of Magic), and it would have been a logical choice to let FROGSTER publish TERA for Europe if EME kept in mind that TERA might be needed to transform into a Free2Play MMO sooner or later...

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As I wrote yesterday, Cea was in need of a new name after her world transfer. I was thinking hard for a new name, but could not come up with anything special though That was till around noon when I logged on again and I was greeted with a 'Hi Demi' from the kin-members that were on. SO I figured, why think had about a new name when everyone already knows me as DemiGoth? Not to mention, being the (new) author of Gambit Helper 2, for which I also use DemiGoth as handle, the choice was clear Oh yeah, did I mention that this blog is also named DemiGoth's Role-Playing adventures? When I started this blog back in 2007, I was referring to DemiGoth as the little dwarf in Lineage II, but I also used the name in Lord of the Rings online (dwarf champion at the time) as well.

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Ah... World transfer has succeeded, Cea is over with all her 120 vault slots filled and her 5 bags full of stuff and the 85 gold she had as well. But... ...as I expected, the name Cea was already taken on Snowbourn. Not as 'freep' (Free People character) I think, because I could not add the name to my friendlist, so I guess it's a monster. Sadly though that monsters and Free People share the same name database So Cea ended up being named Cea-1 on Snowbourn, and I have a free name-change now. But right now I have no idea what to name my cute hobbit. Most names I normally pick are either taken or don't really feel like hobbit names to me. I hope the readers of my bog can help me out a bit Also, with Cea(-1) coming to Snowbourn, I decided to move to a new house. Since she already has a 'Return to Michel Delving' skill, it seemed odd to have a hobbit hole in The Shire. With my kinship having a kin-house in Bree, and me not liking the Dwarf homes (too dark for me), I went for Falathlorn. The outside is yet decorated, but the inside is on the 'to-do' list. With 2 complete furniture-sets from 2 servers, I have a bit too much stuff to stock in the house. And the same goes for cosmetic clothing as well. Right now I'm stocking most (I hope all ) cosmetic clothing on Rezy and will check later what's double (and can be sold on the AH) and what's not. Looks like I'll be having a busy couple of days coming up with all the sorting of stuff I have now

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Today I've had a really long talk with Heliomare, a company specialized in work re-integration for those with a physical handicap, people with autism and those with a  brain dysfunction caused after birth. Well, I'm clearly one in the 2nd category, so it was time to get started... Last week I've had an hour-long introduction talk to compare Heloimare's offer in re-integration help with the small office around the corner here. After putting some thought to it, I figured Heliomare was the one for me, not for the actual re-integration, but more for the job-coach for when I find a job. Personally, I think it doesn't really matter for work re-integration weather I'm sick or unemployed - in both cases it's for the agency to help me find a job. But when I get a job, keeping it is something that will need a different for those being sick (or other wise disabled) and those being unemployed. Basically, someone who is unemployed had no real restrictions on why not to keep a job, while someone whit a disability can have problems keeping the job just because of the disability. In my case, boredom and social contacts with my colleagues might be problems I might encounter, and that Heliomare could help me with. Help me either alone, or as mediator with my (to-be) employer... But there's an other thing as well to be mentioned... Coming Wednesday I'm having an application meeting to become a mailman. I know, far below my intellect, but I think it's a good start to get back to work again. My coach at Heliomare thinks it's a good start as well, but wonders if a job-coach for this 'position' is needed. Honestly, I don't think so either... But as said, being a mailman is only a temporarily job to me. From there I can try and find something more suitable for me at ease and then I do need Heliomare - both for the re-integration itself, as well as job-coach. And since by the time the UWV will give approval for the re-integration process will take a few months, it might as well come at the time I can start to search for the more 'suitable' job

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It's been a while since I played with Dahrcie the last time, and to be honest, I had no clue what I was doing with her. Therefor I decided to do some deeds and finish the original Epic story to get know the Rune-Keeper class again. Earlier today I finished the 4th maps when it comes to deeds, and I have done the following maps when it comes to deeds:    - The Shire (1 left to do in the list)    - Erid Luin    - Breeland (1 left to do)    - North-Downs For The Shire I have still to do the full "Life of a Bounder" quest completion (75 total), and I know I still have to restore the postal services, run the pies and do the inn quests. But right now I don't really feel like doing them and will push them forward a bit more In Breeland I only have to do the complete spider deed in the Barrows. Not a daunting task itself, but the problem is that there's somewhat a shortage of spiders in the barrows, and during the weekends there are too many players in the barrows killing these spiders. So for me it's one to push to the coming week. In the mean time I did finish the original Epic story line (up to book as well, and am at the start of book 9. But since it brings me back to Angmar again, I thought to skip it and enter Moria instead. That was BEFORE it was known that tomorrow the revamp of Moria will be released (Update 7), and thus I can now go back to Angmar and indeed give book 9 a go... And about learning the ropes again..? I think by now I have a good idea again of what the Rune-Keeper is capeble of. Though she has very low morale (a bit over 2.000) and wears light armor, I know she is capable of massive destruction, and by now I have learned again how to survive with these bad odds

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With my 'return' to SecondLife and giving my creativity a new go, I thought to start simple. The board I was working on earlier this week is working in it's basics, but I have it still under development to add some real good options. But having that board expanded in functionality, I kept hitting the wall of that odd LSL script (used in SecondLife). Where in the past I was familiar with it, I now have to re-explore it's possibilities again. So I thought to start 'simple' and create a status board for my character's 'shop'. This board works quite simple. Drag & drop 1 texture (preferably the avatar's photo, but anything will do), and that picture is displayed automatically. The top part showing the name is automatically set to the owner's name, and the on-line/off-line status is refreshed every 60 seconds. When the avatar is on-line, it tells ON-LINE as shown on the picture above, and the background is green. When the avatar goes off-line, the status below says OFF-LINE and the background that used to be green will turn red. Of course, I will expand the features in this board, and make some minor tweaks (I noticed that the name isn't fully centered for instance). As extra features I was thinking of an AFK and DND (Do Not Disturb) status as well.

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I heard from someone from our kinship that the world transfers are up and running again, and he's transferring his character from Evernight to Snowbourn. Since I figured it'd be a money only payment, I didn't put much thought to it. That was till today, when I was requesting in-game GM help for some weird problem and stumbled on the world transfer FAQ. Here it was said that a world transfer would cost me € 21,95 or 2.995 TP. Since I still had close to 3.500 TP, I thought to get Cea from the dead Withywindle server and transfer her to Snowbourn. But before I made the application for the world transfer, I transferred all items and (mainly) money to Cea so that I could get as much as possible from Withywindle to Snowbourn. First I expanded her vault to the maximum (in-game) money can buy (120 slots) and started to sort out what I wanted to keep and what could be sold. Then it was time to clear the house and abandon it (hope I won't forget to update the blog template and remove the Withywindle address ) and get as much (more like all) furniture and garden stuff with her. When I was done with that all, I made the above screenshots as proof of what kind of stuff I had with her, so I can check if all went well with the transfer. Now I have to wait a 'typical 3-5 days' (as said in the eMail confirmation) till the actual transfer will happen. In the mean time I won't play Rezy, since there's no use to play a level 35 Warden when a level 51 is about to come to the server. Instead I think I'll play my old runekeeper to mine up to tier 5 so that Theraon can craft a bit. And I might be playing Theraon as well the coming days

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It looks like I finally managed to get rid of that 1 year subscription-deal with Blizzard. I changed the bank-account for direct-debit into my old one (which I guess/hope is not yet used by someone new) and I was waiting for Blizzard to get the 'news' of the charge back because the account is no longer active. Well, this news came last Saturday (took them quite long I think) and I received an eMail notifying me of it. Since I expected it to happen I didn't check yet, but my curiosity took over today and I took a peek on my account: I am glad that the World of Warcraft account is locked out now, and I don't think I'll ever reactivate it. Like I said earlier this month, the spark is completely gone, and frankly, I still wonder why I keep returning to a MMORPG that's so shallow and easy that a 5-year old kid can play it like a 'pro'. There's only one 'problem' now. The pre-purchase of Diablo III is still active, and I'm not sure if I can play it or not next week. With that, I even wonder if I want to play Diablo III at all. If it's like the 'original' Diablo, I'm quite sure I'll be bored quickly of it...

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Yesterday I decided to give my creativity and concentration a new test. Therefor I decided to return to SecondLife again and see if I'd be able to create some nice things again there. One of the first things to do was get a piece of land (not too expensive) and get started with the 1 Prim Rental service again (to pay party of the fees for the land I now own). The 1 Prim Rental service was setup in about an hour or 3. The task itself wasn't hard, but setting up and configuring 100 rental boxes was the consumer of time When that was done, I started to copy scripts and objects from my old toon there to my new one. Reason is that the old toon has a lot of friends in her list and I want to 'craft' in silence a bit After the most important scripts were copied, it was time to continue on the projects again. The first one is the Old Yeller (see above), which is a huge text-based billboard that the owner can modify as (s)he pleases. The board has 5 lines of 60 characters total, and is now working in it's basics, showing white text as you command it. Next to add are things like CENTER options and COLOR for the text displayed (probably per line).

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