AggroChat #442 – Cute Fish and Eldritch Horror

Featuring: Ammosart, Ashgar, Belghast, Grace, Kodra, and Tamrielo

Hey Folks! This week we are down a Thalen which bumps a topic that we bumped last week, but whatever we have more! Bel starts off the show with a discussion about Blaugust coming soon and how the changes in the social media landscape are introducing it to more people.  From there we talk about the One of One Ring search being over, which dives into a discussion about whether or not the Sol Ring being an auto-include is good or not. Kodra has been using the SteamDeck as a primary travel computer and this works shockingly well.  We talk about the weird game that is Dave the Diver and then branch off into a discussion about whether or not Pizza Tower is actually good.  Tam shares some nostalgia of revisiting the Battlezone ‘98 Remaster and how it is a type of RTS that never really had its day.  Finally, Kodra and Ash share some of their progress in Four Job Fiesta as it is nearing the end of that event.

Topics Discussed:

  • Blaugust is Coming
  • 2 Million Dollar Card Found
  • Debate about Magic the Gathering “Auto Includes”
  • SteamDeck as a Primary Machine
  • Dave the Diver
  • Pizza Tower is Good?
  • Battlezone ‘98
  • Four Job Fiesta

Mobile Matters

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For years I have said that I really did not think that gaming on my phone was really my “thing”.  It was a platform that I largely felt didn’t quite fit my lifestyle, because in part I felt like I either had access to PC and Consoles…  or simply didn’t have the ability to game period.  Recently however I have been eating the hell out of those words.  For the last week or so I have been getting used to a new phone, and at some point I will probably do a proper review of it.  Functionally I could not bring myself to spend $800 to $1000 on a new phone… and my Samsung Galaxy s5 had lots of problems.  This lead me to branch out and look into some other options… and I finally landed on the ZTE Axon 7 which is a very solid attempt at a Chinese flagship killer.  When I finally do a proper review I will get around to more about that, however suffice to say I am enjoying it.  There is a thing that happens with PC gamers…  when we get new hardware.  We go through this phase of installing everything that we have cared about in the past… and trying it out on the new setup to see what has and has not improved.  With this new phone being so much more powerful than my previous one…  I found myself going through this same routine and testing out things like the android Hearthstone client.  When I say the previous phone had issues…  it is because once upon a time I rooted my phone in an attempt to bypass the AT&T blockade against tethering/wifi hotspots on my current plan.  I still have one of those ancient grandfathered in iPhone unlimited plans…  and while they have raised the price there is no way in hell I am giving up $25 a month unlimited mobile data.

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While the S5 is technically no longer rooted, I seem to have tripped some anti-tamper seal of a sort on the phone and it fails the Google Safetynet test that app manufacturers have started incorporating into their apps.  This means that I was forced to stop playing Pokemon Go when they patched in this protection, and similarly have been unable to experience Fire Emblem Heroes, Mario Run or a whole slew of newer games that just do this check by default.  The biggest problem with me and phone gaming in the past however was the battery life, and the way that a few minutes of Final Fantasy Record Keeper could shave off 25% of my battery before I even realized.  With the new phone this seems to no longer be the issue that it once was… and either because the processor does not need to work nearly as hard…  or the fact that I have a 3250 mAh battery (instead of 2800 mAh) I can functionally play games and still use my phone for everything else that I want to.  As a result lately I have been heading to bed fairly early and then chilling out there and playing mobile games until sleep finally claims me.  Similarly while I am out and about I am starting to play a lot more Pokemon Go, but have not really gone out on catching jaunts like I did around the release a year ago.  I contemplated going out last night but it was still over 90 degrees outside after 9pm, so I figured I would leave that to a cooler evening.

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The games that have seemed to clamp down the hardest on my attention however are Fire Emblem Heroes…  which is a thoroughly charming tactics style combat game and of course Final Fantasy Record Keeper that I already played a significant amount of in the past.  This is the point where I admit that I have never actually played a Fire Emblem game in the past, and while I am sure the actual games are not terribly similar to this mobile title…  it does make me a hell of a lot more interested in them.  The premise is largely nonsense…  but it is the sort of nonsense that I find myself enjoying at the moment.  The biggest problem with these games is that I really have no clue what I am doing on a regular basis… and not even sure what the best way to do anything in game is.  I’ve been slowly working my way through the story in Fire Emblem, and in Record Keeper I noticed that they seemingly have gotten less sparing with handing you a bunch of characters.  I worked my way through most of a Final Fantasy XIV themed event dungeon… and picked up Yshtola, Minfilia, Yda, Papalymo, and Cid…  and started working my way through a similarly FFXII Zodiac Age themed one.  Much like in Pokemon Go… the excitement for me is in the collection of new characters and not so much in the leveling and battle.

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Lastly I have been slowly working my way through Final Fantasy V on the phone as an attempt to do things like play over my lunch break…  which admittedly has not actually happened yet.  I got completely wrecked last night by Garula, which means I am going to have to sort out a decent strategy for this one.  Of course I am not playing the game legitimately… and instead am doing the Four Job Fiesta…  which means I am attempting to take him down as a party of four Black Mages.  Its time to go figure out some strategery so I can get past him and get my next set of jobs.  I find the mobile FFV client a little wonky… and especially in mobiles where you need fine motor control…  that is not a thing the touchpad really gives you.  Getting through the poison plants at the top of the mountain was not really a thing…  so I simply opted to walk through a couple and take antidotes.  Regardless it works well enough for my needs and gives me a reasonable platform without really shackling me to a specific location for playing it.  I kinda hope we eventually get a version on the switch through either virtual console… or a release of this mobile port to it.  Whatever the case….  someone seems to have replaced me with a doppelganger that does not mind mobile gaming all the sudden.

 

Chain Run Dungeons

Worst Party Comp Ever

FFV_HorriblePartyTime Last night I was feeling more than a little out of it, or at least too out of it to actual do much of anything meaningful in Final Fantasy XIV.  So after finishing my hunt quest and randoming my way into an Aery dungeon group…  I opted to just log out for the night.  For a period of time I considered simply going to sleep… and this is honestly the option I should have taken.  The Four Job Fiesta is like a religion to my good friend Ashgar, and until the night before last I had not actually even registered for it officially.  So as I sat there swaddled in a comfy blanket on the very comfy sofa… I opted to dig the xbox controller out of the console beside me and officially start my fiesta.  The rest is history as I was up fairly late getting my start in the world.  In past Fiestas my party comp has not been terribly horrible… or at the very least I have bought my way to freedom using the Jobfair donation system.  This time however being I think my fourth year participating…  I am just going to let it ride.

So when the game assigned me monk for my Wind job…  I didn’t think much about it.  I figured that would be an easy beginning to the game.  When it gave me Berserker for my water job however…  I started to dread this decision I had made.  Then when I was assigned Beastmaster as my fire job… I realized this was going to be a really odd ride.  I figure the answer to my freedom will once again be out level the content, and I have already gotten a start on that notion as I just defeated the Library of Ancients at level 21 which is about five levels or so off the normal pace I believe.  Next time I play I will be going after my earth job.. and wondering if it will be salvation or another nail in the coffin on this horrible party.  Admittedly I have never actually used the Beastmaster but I always hated how fiddly Gau was in Final Fantasy VI and never actually used him as a result.  In theory this is going to be a return to that sort of thing, but I need to do some serious research on what all I need to do and when I need to do it, especially as I am just about to get an airship for the first time giving me a wider range of freedom to go off collecting abilities.

Chain Run Dungeons

ffxiv_dx11 2015-06-23 21-11-03-54 In part the reason why I opted to log out last night instead of play is that I am sitting on a strange wall.  Right now I am about half way to level 57 and I have a bunch of options on how to get there.  I could go do all of the quests that I missed doing while skipping my way around the world and ignoring most of the side quests.  I am sure that Square has intended me to level using these, and the fact that I am largely ignoring them is completely breaking their content design.  I could always go join a FATE train somewhere, as this has always been a viable method of leveling especially now that so many people are doing it and there are almost always FATE groups in the party finder.  It seems that Northern Thanalan is once again an active hotbed of FATE running, and in theory this would even be good experience for a Heavensward character.  I am doing my daily hunts but they are honestly more for the currency provided and while they each provide a decent chunk of experience… there are far better and quicker ways to get it.

All of these are completely viable options, but I would far rather just run a bunch of dungeons.  The problem is that my preference will always be to run dungeons with the Greysky Armada folks.  Unfortunately they are either quiet about what they need for dungeons, or have not unlocked a given dungeon yet.  I’ve run a few groups a night for the last several nights, but if I am going to rely on dungeons as a means of leveling I am going to have to step out into the larger community and just start random queuing.  Now we get into the dilemma last night…  I could have tanked a run for the guild, but I did not have the presence of mind to do so with strangers.  Don’t get me wrong I love the FFXIV community, but dealing with anyone that I don’t already know inflicts a mental toll on me.  My default and original state is that of an introvert… and over the years I have forced myself to be more extroverted…  but doing so…  drains me.  Last night I was an energizer bunny that had wound down, but tonight hopefully I will begin chaining dungeons once more in order to get the last of my level so I can move forward in the story again and hopefully unlock dungeon four.

Unusually Trying Week

Not really sure why but this week has been a really rough one for some reason.  In part I think it is because at the start of the week I had to deal with the being alone, as my wife was once again travelling.  Thankfully only for a few days and as of Wednesday she should be home for the rest of the summer.  It just seems like everything has been stressing me out far more than it should.  I labored over the decision to go ahead and cancel the World of Warcraft account, just to keep it from auto renewing.  I have stressed over a dozen different small issues at work, and I have been stressed that I no longer have the ability to do everything in Final Fantasy XIV.  Right now I am a tank… and if the group already has one of those it means I have to sit out and watch from the bench as the group goes off and has fun.  I liked that I could work my way into any group and fill whatever slot they happened to need, because in truth…  running things with my guild is always the thing that I love to do the most.

The problem is that I will get there once again, but there is an almost insurmountable amount of leveling standing in the way.  I have this odd relationship with grinding… I enjoy it, but only when I don’t realize it is there.  If I am grinding towards a goal of some sort…  then I realize how much work is going to be needed to get to where I want to go… and simply start to shut down.  When I am just grinding as part of my default state of running around and attacking everything in sight… it becomes a happy and carefree place instead.  The problem being that right now I know the end goal… and for whatever reason I am having trouble compartmentalizing and ignoring the finish line.  I think I am just wired strangely… because so long as I don’t know where the finish line is I will keep pushing ahead blindly until I finally accomplish whatever it was that I wanted to accomplish.  However once I know where the boundaries are, and what it is going to take to get there…  the game changes and in a strange way goal setting de-motivates me.  So long as I am on this fun romp of discovery, life is grand…  but right now I need to somehow figure out how to ignore the goals and go back to playing everything for sheer enjoyment.

Ruins of Kel Voreth

One More Day

Tomorrow has a fairly significant sequence of events happening.  Firstly my wife is flying back into town from the first conference of the summer, and secondly she is doing so on my birthday.  Currently I care far more about the first part of that statement than the second.  These conferences are always rough especially when they straddle my birthday.  There have been times in the past when I was all alone for the occasion and it is really hard to keep from disconnecting from the world.  However tomorrow when I ding 38 I will have my wife back home, and I hope her trip is safe and expedient.  The flight back home from this event in past years has been riddled with downtime and layovers… and I hope she actually arrives on time this year.

As far as the birthday part of tomorrow, I really have no clue what I will be doing.  I took the day off from work mostly because she would be flying in and I would need to get to the airport and pick her up without really knowing an exact time based on past years experience.  I figure I will likely either play Wildstar or something on the PS4 while waiting.  Past that I have no real big plans, as I won’t likely get together with family until the weekend.  I always have a sort of contest to see which automated bot wishes me a happy birthday first.  So I am curious who will win that race this year.  Its funny when we live in a time when that is a “thing” and I take a perverse sense of pleasure in it.

I just hope that I will be breathing tomorrow.  For the last several days my allergies have been going haywire and this morning it finally hit my lungs.  I woke up today struggling to breathe, and am contemplating taking a breathing treatment.  If it stays too bad even after the treatment I am not sure if I will be able to go to work in this condition.  Having asthma and allergies is a blast…  and right now the cottonwood is blowing hard outside.  I wish I could find wherever the cottonwood tree is and remove it… because it seriously makes my life miserable every year.  However I guess were it not for the cottonwood… the would be something else to take its place in the making my life miserable department.

Buying Rapidfire

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As of yesterday morning I was sitting outside the Fire Powered Ship sequence that ultimately leads to the fire crystal.  I had been assigned the Geomancer for my fire job, and having had it in the past…  I knew I really wanted no part of it.  As a result I ended up using Gilgabot’s Job Fair to buy my way to freedom.  If you end up with an assignment that you really do not like for whatever reason, you can donate more money to charity to “buy” the class you really wanted.  As a result I ended up picking up the ranger for my fire crystal, though it might have been interesting to see what it would be like with a ninja instead.  The ranger gives me access to rapidfire, probably the most overpowered melee-friendly secondary ability in the game.  With the knight it will likely be an i-win button against a few of the later fights.

Last night I played through the Fire Powered Ship, collapsing Karnak Castle and the Ancient Library in rapid succession.  I continued on to Jachol and Cresent Island and now have officially gained my Ranger crystal.  Tonight I will play through the Ancient Desert which should be interesting to say the least.  Not sure if I will steam roll the sandworm or get steamrolled to be honest.  I would really like to get through Soul Cannon tonight if I can and pick up my earth crystal.  I went ahead and requested this yesterday when I picked up the fire crystal just so I would know whether or not I wanted to buy my way to freedom again.  I was given the Dragoon which honestly I am fine with.  I’ve always loved the dragoon in the Final Fantasy games that have had them, so actually looking forward to finishing with it.  Maybe it is that I have just recently played through this much of the game already during our draft game, but it seems like it is going so much faster for me.

Ruins of Kel Voreth

Belghast.140616.221241 Last night at some point during the night I had muted Teamspeak, and not realized it.  So while I had wondered why everyone was being quiet I didn’t really think much about it until Tam messaged me asking what I was up to.  I guess they were pulling together a dungeon run, and while I had considered going to sleep… I opted to stay and dps the run since Shandrah would be tanking.  I have to say the Wildstar dungeon experience is kinda amazing.  I know I have said this about other games, but Wildstar dungeons really do feel like World of Warcraft raids.  We would have likely wiped over and over were it not for the fact that Shanbot has been running the dungeons with pugs since she often plays during a west coast timeframe host often.  As a result she knew exactly what to do on each of the boss strategies, and we managed to make it through the instance without much in the way of wipes.

Belghast.140616.233202 As the dungeon went on the encounters ramped up significantly.  One of the things i liked was that there seemed to be a bit of randomness to the dungeon itself.  One of my friends mentioned that when they had been in the dungeon the quests they were given were completely different.  The final encounter was something that could only be described as “Bullet Hell MMO”.  As a fan of the Bullet Hell shooter, I found the encounter really interesting.  We wiped the first time because it had bugged out and we managed to get phases one and two happening at the same time.  Without this bug occurring the encounter was actually rather manageable.  I am honestly amazed that any pugs are able to get through this dungeon, let alone do so in a timely manner.  Now I find myself really looking forward to running it again.

Belghast.140616.235401 The big change for me last night was that I had literally just finished setting up a DPS build in my second slot.  I had been slogging through content since about level 20 as a full tank, and honestly I thought I might have an easier time dpsing my way through the encounters.  It was fortuitous that at that moment almost exactly, Tam got ahold of me to dps the dungeon.  Now I feel like I have both hotbars set up and ready to go if I need to do this again.  I really liked dpsing as an engineer and might have to install damage meters just to see if I am even vaguely close to the other dps in performance.  I feel like I am lagging behind, but maybe that is just because I am not used to doing it.  A lot of the engineer dps abilities are tightly targeted and it is hard trying to lay them down in a way that the mobs won’t move out of them until the effect fades.  I look forward to giving it another try another night… and increasing my performance.

Wildstar PVP

Tonight ZeliBeli has scheduled a PVP night in Wildstar, so I will be doing that along with some FF5.  If you are on Evindra Dominion you should totally check out the anook event if you are interested.  I have not even touched PVP so far in the game, so I look forward to getting my feet wet with friends.  As it stands right now, since tomorrow is my Birthday I do not have a Elder Scrolls Online night scheduled, because really I have no clue what tomorrow evening might bring.  Here is hoping that my wife is back home and that all of her flights were successful.  In the meantime, going to beat things up with the guildies in Walatiki Temple.

#Wildstar #FF5 #FourJobFiesta #RuinsofKelVoreth