Tales of the Aggronaut

Bizarre Obsession

July 17, 2017 by Belghast

This weekend we recorded somewhat of a mega show of AggroChat. We originally sat down thinking we might not have a complete show… and then recorded for two hours and wound up dropping a few topics to try and manage the show length. There were a whole slew of topics but one of which is one that I did not expect to blow up to the level at which it did. Kodra has been talking magic for a year or so in his adventures in doing drafts through Magic Online for each of the expansion releases that have happened. Lately however I have found myself obsessing about the game even though I have not regularly played it since the tempest cycle. Magic the Gathering will always have this nostalgic characteristic for me because I have had a lot of really good times playing it. The problem is… once I entered the adult world I stopped having a regular stream people to play with. I’ve never really gotten involved with a local shop doing the Friday night magic thing, because in truth people just don’t play Magic the Gathering the way I want to play it. The prevalence of NetDecking and combo magic turned things into a weird cold war… where you either needed to be playing whatever the new hotness needed to be… or at least come up with a way to counteract that new hotness. When I last stopped playing… the format of choice was called “Type II” and I believe this translates to the “Standard” in the current naming of formats. So when I left during the Tempest cycle it was all about the combo to beat… and either scrambling to get the cards… or scrambling to get something to beat it.

The style of Magic the Gathering I enjoyed was back when you never quite knew what you might be encountering in a players deck. Maybe it just took my area while to get super competitive, but in early tournament play I only ever once encountered the “power nine” but instead came up against a lot of seemingly fun to play themed decks. For me a lot of my decks centered around some card that I wanted to play with… and then blunting the negative effects of that card. So say I wanted to play with the Lord of the Pitt, I would run some token creatures that I could just keep churning out to feed to it rather than pay the 7 life upkeep. If I wanted to play with Leviathan I would run Icy Manipulator and Twiddle to keep from having to pay the two island tax to untap it each round, then figure out some way to retrieve islands from the graveyard every so often. It was fun trying to figure out a way to counteract what was not good about the cards and then figure out how to make them work well enough to be playable. Some of the most fun I ever had was in college the magic store I used to hang out in had a deep common bin… and we would end up building these $5 decks out of the archives and then pit them against each other. I guess the modern equivalent to this would be pauper, but even then… that format takes itself way more seriously than I wish I could when it comes to MTG. I’ve been trying to sort out a way to play the game how I want to play it… but also find some people to play with.

The biggest problem right now is availability of people. There are enough folks who have played MTG at one point in their lives to maybe create a lunch time group at work. The problem there I am not not sure what sort of format would work best. I am leaning towards something janky along the lines of Pauper Commander… without the commanders. Where you functionally construct a deck of common cards without the ability to repeat any cards. I would functionally need to probably fund a lot of the commons given that there are simply not enough in any one set to make up a deck of entirely common cards. I think a format like that however might bring back the random weirdness that I miss from playing Magic. There were moments where you would sit down and encounter something you never expected to see… and it would be interesting to figure out how to adjust to that and find a way to either defeat it or work around it. In truth I love common cards, because they tend to be the unappreciated workhorses of magic. It always bugs me a bit when people just dismiss them and toss them aside like garbage… when you cannot really make ANY deck without relying on a whole slew of them to serve as the glue between those higher dollar cards. I have no clue how this will end but thusfar it has simply been a case of be re-familiarizing myself with Magic the Gathering and trying to figure out if this is really something I want to jump back into.

Week with Axon

July 14, 2017 by Belghast

zteaxon7

I have now now been using my new phone for a week and thought I would talk a bit about some of my impressions this morning. Firstly I feel like I need to explain my decision process a bit and how I ended up with a non-AAA manufacturer phone. For some time I have balked at the price of cell phones. Yes I am old enough to remember a time when you just walked into the cellular carrier and they gave you whatever phone you wanted along with your one year contract. After a point that became a two year contract, and eventually a discounted rate on the phone… and now they just charge you a monthly fee as part of a rent to own style scheme to dilute the cost of your insanely expensive hardware. I’ve not swapped phones nearly as often as the manufacturers would really like me to… my first “smartphone” being a Samsung Blackjack 2 which upgraded into an iPhone 3gs which caused me to venture into android land… where I have had a Samsung s2 and a Samsung s5. My natural upgrade path would then probably be the Samsung Galaxy s8 but those are around $800… and I didn’t want to spend that amount of money on a phone.

As a result I started looking at a handful of other phones, the less popular brands looking for what is essentially the best bang for the buck. I looked at the product offering from OnePlus, Moto, HTC, Huawei and ultimately ZTE. The finally decision point came down a duel between the ZTE Axon 7 and the Huawei Honor 8… and after reading a whole slew of reviews I finally pulled the trigger and ordered my Axon 7 for around $350 from Amazon carrier unlocked. For sake of reference in the marketing image above… I have the dark grey model on the far right. I was honestly expecting to get what felt like a second rate phone, but what I got instead was something that seems almost indistinguishable from the traditional quality of the flagship phones I have owned. The phone arrived in this weird white leather texture box that was extremely thick that slid apart to reveal a whole bunch of pack in items. Firstly there was the phone, that came out of the box with a screen protector installed. Secondly it came with a rubbery phone case for you to use if that is your thing… until you likely went out and got your own case later. It would probably provide a bit of shock proofing, but more importantly some grip which I will get into later. There was the ubiquitous charging brick with a fairly long usb type c cable, but what I was not expecting was a little adapter that let you use a micro usb cable and convert it to type c. Finally there was a pack in SIM removal tool on a rubber keychain, allowing you to in theory take it with you… though any straight pin or paperclip will do the trick to eject the SIM card tray.

Relevant Specs

Operating System: Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow (upgraded easily to 7.1.1)
Display: 5.5-inch, 2560×1440 AMOLED Gorilla Glass 4
Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 Quad-core 2.15GHz
GPU: Adreno 430 GPU
RAM: 4GB
Onboard Storage: 64GB
Expandable: microSD up to 2TB
Rear Camera: 20MP f/1.8, PDAF, OIS, 4K/30 video
Front Camera: 8MP f/2.2, 1080p/30 video
Battery: 3250 mAh
Charging: Quick Charge 3.0, USB Type-C
Connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11ac dual-band, Bluetooth 4.2 LE, NFC, GPS, GLONASS
Networks: Both GSM and CDMA supported
Dimensions: 151.7 x 75 x 7.9mm
Weight: 175 g

The phone was released a year ago so in theory to compete with the Samsung Galaxy S7, but for sake of reference the specs are pretty comparable to the S8. It shipped with a ZTE android distribution called MiFavor which I have opted to simply go with because it seems to have really solid patching support via a software updater. It shipped with Android 6.0.1 but through the course of a handful of patches I was able to take it to Android 7.1.1 and it performs really solidly. One of the weird things going on with this phone is that like many international focused devices it comes with dual SIM card slots. What makes it interesting is that the second SIM card slot also serves as you micro SD card, which means the device only has the one card tray and everything fits neatly in it. So far the battery life is excellent and for reference I wound up playing Final Fantasy Record Keeper from bed last night for about two hours and only used 15% of the battery. The graphics are and screen are beautiful and everything seems to run so much better than it did on my Galaxy S5… but granted that was a really aging phone at this point.

The only gotchas I have run into thus far is a combination of two things. Firstly this is a really heavy phone… like if I got into trouble I legitimately feel like I could chuck the phone at someones head and potentially knock them out… or maybe give them a concussion. The second part… is that the full Aluminum body is slick… like insanely slick which is magnified by the fact that it is heavy. In theory that flimsy rubber case that they give you in the box is probably to help counteract this. However there have been multiple times I have had the phone damned near slip out of my hand while pulling it in and out of my pocket or just while holding it and using it. I purchased an aftermarket case that I liked to try and negate this so it isn’t a deal breaker but just something you need to be aware of. The size of the phone is fine for my giant sized hands… but for most people this is probably going to feel like more a “phablet” and less like a phone. So far I am loving it and I have zero buyers remorse. The only problem that I can see with this product is that the pricing seems to be extremely volatile. I purchased mine for around $350… and yesterday when I went to link it to a friend it was selling for closer to $450. If you can find one for the right price though I think its an amazing flagship replacement, and very worthy of going up against the more well known phones. As I continue to use it I will probably do follow ups to this quick review as the device ages.

Mobile Matters

July 13, 2017 by Belghast

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.

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.

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.

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.

Warbears and Stormsplitter

July 12, 2017July 12, 2017 by Belghast

We will lead off with the accomplishment of the night. I knew I was pretty close to the ARR Warrior “Raid” mount but I had lost sight of actually going after it specifically. I never really did anything to purposefully grind for this, and for the most part got my 200 “high-level duties” organically by running various raids with the free company. It was at some point during our Omega runs that I happened to notice I got the achievement, and that prompted a trip to the guy near the waterfall in Gridania… who also apparently had the Maelstrom themed mammet waiting for me as well. The way I ride this mount is sort of insane, with me reaching down and trying to hold onto the fur and it runs around insanely. It is funny how animation cycles affect how we feel about the speed of a mount, because while this is technically the same speed as everything else I own… the feels so much faster because of the dynamic run loop. Grizzled warbear is probably the most Bel mount in existence… and it is only slightly sad that it doesn’t fly. There is however a newer bear that supposedly does have the ability to fly… and at the moment I am 49 of some silly number of 70+ content needed for that achievement. I doubt I will purposefully grind for it, but instead someday also be surprised when I see its achievement scrolling by after tanking a dungeon for someone.

Once upon a time in a small town far far away… I was a little skater punk kid. Technically I only grew up an hour away but we are going to call it far away for sake of the narrative. I was lucky enough that I had a half pipe in my yard, that we bought second hand and moved to our location and reassembled. Now this was too small to have a roll in, so it was functionally a “drop in” style ramp. For those unindoctrinated… most ramps have a bit of metal coping at the top of the lip that is there to protect the wood of the ramp from the “trucks” aka axles of the skateboard as you come up to the top and grind. Getting onto the ramp involved danging your board out over the edge of the ramp, with your back trucks butted up against the metal coping and then shifting your weight from the tail of the board to the front causing you to “drop in” to the ramp. I found this process completely terrifying, and each time I went out to skate the first few runs involved me not being willing to give myself over to gravity… and ultimately sliding down the ramp on my ass. Eventually I would loosen up and get comfortable and be able to drop in just fine for awhile and be able to ride the ramp legitimately for the rest of the day.

The reason why I have related this analogy is that for the most part… doing new organized content in an MMO is like dropping in for me. I am super hesitant for awhile and unwilling to venture off on my own and give it a shot. I didn’t do a whole lot of solo grinding of Alexander because I felt like I needed that safety net there in case something went wrong. Similarly this expansion I have thusfar been unwilling to join a party finder group to do Susano Extreme or Lakshmi Extreme, and last night… was the moment I dropped in for the first time. My friends Mor and Grace decided that we were going to do the encounters, and we recruited Muspel as well… and the four of us… two tanks and two heals set forth to build a party finder group. Susano was for the most part a learning experience, but very quickly it became a situation of having to work the kinks out and get our dps up high enough to be able to beat the enrage. With about 20 minutes to spare we manage to do it and I got my first kill under my belt. Lakshmi did not go so well, and not only was it much harder to pull together the group… but it also was pretty clear early on that we had nowhere near enough dps to be able to finish the job. After some wipes… having someone drop… refilling the group and re-queuing… only to wipe again due to not enough damage… we opted to call it for the evening. That said I now feel significantly more comfortable in either fight as a tank, and in theory I would probably be willing to solo queue from now on. I got over the coping… and got my weight shifted in the right way and now am more or less fine. However it is only because I went into the content with some people that I trusted… that I was eased over the edge, so I appreciate it when someone is willing to just hang out with me and answer my questions while I do new harder content.