Anyhow, I’ve been playing lots of games. But I thought rather than a Sims update or another game update, I’d go with a WoW update.The last time I actually wrote about WoW was early January this year, so three months ish. Since then a fair lot has been done!

Since January I have become “Mystically Epic”. I have “got around” with the Shado-Pan, become a Champion of Chi-ji and completed Operation: Shieldwall, as well as more recently plundered a Thunder, defeated some ancient mogu, paid to slay, /bowed to Kroshik and destroyed an expensive vase, as well as finally mopping up the Klaxxi bombing quest. I have discovered over 10 lost treasures of Pandaria and hunted down all Pandarian champions.

In PvP, I reached the Private ranking. In raiding, I killed Ragnaros Heroic and Sinestra, finally killed Galleon and excitingly completed my second challenge mode – getting Silver in Gate of the Setting Sun. I mopped up 3 more of the “collect 5…” archaeology achievements, became exalted with Operation: Shieldwall and in scenarios completed the Assault on Zan’vess and the Dagger in the Dark scenarios, as well as aiding the Jinyu and the Dwarves in A Little Patients, finished a Brewing Storm with 2 thunderpaw guardians alive and destroyed all Broodmaster Noshi’s eggs in Scenarios.

I’m now sitting at 16,315 achievement points, which is nice, but the leaders in guild are way ahead; Zal is at 17,655, the chap behind him at 17,635 and behind him there’s someone on 16,770. THEN person number four is on 16,415. Then me! I like to think I have a job, in contradiction to all these people, and satisfy myself with that

But it can be really challenging. I like L4D a lot, and them opening it up proper in to the Steam Workshop and the world of Mods has reinvigorated my passion for it. I have installed a few mods so far, and I’ve downloaded quite a few maps to play with. But, just getting back in to the game has been interesting enough in itself.

Whilst rocking my Tesco Value Pills;

and my Sonic Adrenaline boosts;

my MASTER SWORD AND HYRULE SHIELD!

and finally, my Mr Boombastic Boomer Music, I have been entering the world of online play with Left for Dead. My first experience was good. I remembered how much fun there is fire-axing people to death, and I picked a couple of campaigns I remember well, and me and Adam did the concert campaign, which is always brilliant and probably my favourite. Except for the zombie clowns. They’re fucking terrifying.

But last night, me and Lewis entered the fray. We completed Dead Center with a rotating Ellis and Coach, neither of which stuck around long and spent more time as AI than real players (which were actually useful, if you can get them to split up and cover your back during the petrol phase at the end, which we did), but obviously expecting this quality twice in a row was tooooo much. In to The Parish we went, and we lost “thepantsmaster” several times to boomers, smokers, spitters, witches, goo, idiocy, tanks, chargers…well, mostly everything. He nabbed off with my health pack when I was laying incendiary ammo down (so I vindictively let a charger kill him, then stole the health pack off his dead body) and that just sort of mapped out how the rest of the day was going to go.

Our other player WHO TALKDE IN BALDY SPLET WRODS in capital letters a lot, wasn’t much good either, but at least he tried. The final straw was on the bridge section of the level, where thepantsmaster fell OFF the bridge twice, and me and Lewis were left to fend a four man load worth of zombies between the two of us. I don’t think we even got half way.

Sigh! Unfortunately, I got a fair amount of nerd rage and rage quit the game at that point.

BUT NEVER FEAR! I’ll be back, kicking ass and taking names.

But then. Disaster strikes. I click on Mindy’s profile and discover she’s only a few days from hitting Elder status. She has her new baby! But unfortunately, it’s a girl.

Icy is born (Enjoy your Icy Delicious Pepsi from KFC)

Ovid and Mindy got to it again and she luckily got pregnant again (Fertility lifetime bonuses for the win).

Time passed whilst we anxiously waited for the baby to be born, and Trafford aged up to his elder status.

He also started acting VERY STRANGELY.

I later discovered he was working undercover. But for a short time I really was most worried. Mindy’s second child was born. And…a girl. Again. Enjoy was christened (linked to Icy when it came to names) as Icy grew from toddler to child.

It was officially time to panic.

Mindy hit old age, meaning her and Ovid could no longer have children. She “moved out” (read; kicked out) and Ovid went out on the pull again but couldn’t bring anyone home or go steady, and I have no idea how to start any sort of divorce proceedings. I didn’t want to kill her off, so just decided Max was going to be the focus for the heirs of this line.

Him and Keely finally got to woohooing, and luckily got pregnant! Icy aged up from a derpy, grumpy looking child to a teen with slightly bizarre dress sense for school;

and Keely and Max dashed off to the hospital to have their child. The first screen that popped up was that it was a baby girl! And there was outrage on my computer chair. ANOTHER girl?? I named her Historia (Hyrule Historia is on the floor) and was about to start thinking of a new plan, when miraculously! Another screen popped up. It was twins, and twin 2 was a boy! Baby Klaus (after the guy who made Carcassonne, also next to my desk) was born.

Ovid, attentive uncle, watched on as Historia aged from baby to toddler;

and Enjoy aged up from child to teen, keeping her talent for REALLY BAD HAIR.

Finally that evening, Klaus and Historia both aged up from toddlers in to children, and Generation 6 had its heir.

As you can see, Ovid took after his grandmother, Whitney, in colouring, whilst Max retained the original genetics from the first generation female. None of them have actually kept my first generation male starter character genetics though!

Trafford, heir and man of generation four, and Cindy, his wife, were both working. Why not? Cindy passed into elderhood whilst painting in her uniform;

A few days later, Ovid aged up in his underpants from a teen to a rather hairy young man. He looks suitably impressed with his transformation however;

Then! Suddenly! Death! Again! Poor Cindy, wife of Trafford and mother of Ovid and Max, passed on. This is the problem with my men marrying older women.

She wasn’t happy about it. You’d think I would have learnt wouldn’t you? But no. Ovid was a young adult and ready to pull, so off he went in to town.

He met Mindy. Things moved quickly, and very soon they were married. COINCIDENTALLY, in the bedroom.

Woohooing ahoy, and Ovid was determined to give the family a male heir. Poor Max, however, feeling like he might unfortunately end up forever alone and single, and went to play on the slides, where he aged up!

There is some REALLY bad fashion sense in this family.

Mindy, Ovid’s wife, became pregnant with their first child!

And Max went on an outing and met the lovely Keely. He fell for her most quickly, and on their second date, back at the house, asked her to marry him! I’ve never had a Sim say no to marriage yet.

The aim to have Trafford and his new wife Cindy have plenty of children was proceeding well, as Cindy was pregnant again.

Their first child turned out to be a son! Which meant I was getting extraordinarily lucky with my childrens’ genders. Their first little boy, named Ovid (I had my uni text book, Metamorphoses by Ovid, at my side when he was born) aged up successfully from a baby to a toddler.

A short while later, Cookie, twin one from Generation Three, aged up into elder territory and whilst seeming quite excited beforehand, seemed a little distressed afterwards!

 Lakeland, what with him being her twin, joined her in aging up, looking equally as distressed by his new dodgy outfit;

Cindy’s second baby was born, and it was another boy!! Max (Lemsip Max Relief) was born, and continued to have the blond derp gene from his generation one female side.

Shortly after his birth, Cindy aged up to elder. I’ve actually struggled finding women close to my mens’ ages – possibly because I send them out on the pull the day they hit young adult. Ovid, Generation 5′s first heir, ages from toddler to child (fully potty trained, walking and talking), and Max followed him a couple of days later;

Unfortunately, amidst all these happy events, we had two deaths. Cookie, the elder twin of Generation Three, passed away. She was very shortly followed by Lakeland. This was the final death of Generation Three, leaving us with only Generation Four and Five alive.

This is where things got a little bit worrying.

Look. Just look. At this outfit.

That looks like a snakeskin jacket to be and some dodgy sandy flares. However it wasn’t until I’d let Trafford have a kip and some food and carted him off into town that I realised quite how bad things had got.

See that screenshot above? Yea. See those flares? Yea. That pattern. It’s the pattern that really lowers the tone I feel.

Anyhow, it seems like the lovely lady he was chatting to was quite happy he couldn’t dress himself, because they were incredibly compatible. One short evening later and TA DAAAAA:

One private ceremony later and this very attractive (but unfortunately for my house’s finances, very poor) lady became part of the Carling household. I say lady, because I’ve forgotten her name. As always with the Carling men, things moved quickly, and a few hours later she was pregnant.

The final event of this tumultuous evening was when the lovely Elvira entered elder-hood. She’s achieved her lifetime wish so is quite happy just pottering around, but she doesn’t look too happy about her new nightwear or hew back pain;

And so that right there is our current story line.

With Lakeland and Cookie both slowly working their way towards pensionable age, I’ve decided I want to expand the household a little more, and am going to try and have a larger family. Whilst in the past I’ve simply stopped as soon as one generation gave birth to a boy, I think I’m going to try and aim for at least four children from Trafford. Knowing me and my luck now, he’ll have four, and they’ll all be girls. But we’ll see I guess!!!

New updates soon…

Baby Trafford aged into a slightly bizarre looking, confused toddler.

This was a big exciting event for the family that he spent totally alone. Oops. We had another death in the family next however, as our first second generation member Whitney passed away. This started to panic me slightly, as it meant Lewis was probably on his way out as well!

As you can see both Lakeland and Cookie are most distressed by their mother’s death. Trafford aged up into a young boy, and then a teen.

However, despite us thinking all is well with the world, Lewis passed on having seen his only grandchild age into a teen and seeing both his children, the twins, age into Mature adults.

The family was very distressed but Lewis got the biggest gravestone of the lot.

Just a couple of days later, his elder sister Freda passed away, surrounded by lovely paintings, her sister in law and her niece.

Anyway. A couple of days ago we finished with Adam shuffling off this mortal coil and the babies Lakeland and Cookie settling in to their cribs. Things have moved on quite considerably! Through a lot of work (neither Lewis nor Whitney had jobs, meaning they were at home all the time) they intensively potty trained both babies, as well as getting them talking and walking, which meant I got to pick all three of their childhood traits as they grew into children;

and then in to young adults. Luckily Lakeland was turning in to a bit of a looker, which would hopefully be useful for when he hit the town to find himself a lady.

Although I don’t know where he got his fashion sense from.

Amusingly, all physical looks seem to be coming from their father/grandmother. Although Cookie has her grandfather’s dark hair, their face shapes and the hair colour of both Lewis and Lakeland have been a pale pale blond.

I also decided that both of the children needed to improve their life skills early on, and set Cookie to improving her logic skills and Lakeland his creativity with painting. Lakeland decided the best way to paint was in his dressing gown and bunny slippers.

Whitney, Lewis’ second wife, aged up to elder levels as the twins aged up to young adult level, and Lewis followed become an elder a couple of days later;

I actually feel a little sorry for Lakeland. Because Cookie was born a few seconds earlier, she gets a big attendance at her aging up ceremonies. Unfortunately, poor Lakeland is left to celebrate alone.

However, his snappy style is all that matters and he set off into town to chat up a series of women. A few failures to romance resulted in him hooking up with one lady and on their second date (conveniently scheduled at his house) he asked her to marry him.

WHAT A SURPRISE! She said yes. He looks as thrilled and bewildered as she does and she really is going to have to get a new outfit as well as shift a few pounds post pregnancy. Which! Luckily happened.

A couple of sets of woohooing later and she was pregnant;

Which for an evening’s work was pretty good going!

The next step will be to see what gender the first 4th Generation baby is.

I’ve put Lewis back to work to get a bit of extra cash coming through, as Lakeland’s new wife didn’t bring much with her, but Whitney gets to live out her old age quietly practicing chess having fulfilled her lifetime wish of maxing out handiness and logic. Lewis has just 2 more points of logic to max out before he also gets his lifetime wish.

Check back next time to see how the legacy challenge is working out!

]]> http://view-through-branches.com/?feed=rss2&p=4047 0 http://view-through-branches.com/?p=4047 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheViewThroughTheBranches/~3/EIEVijjzE1k/ http://view-through-branches.com/?p=4043#comments Wed, 20 Feb 2013 11:18:46 +0000 Soph http://view-through-branches.com/?p=4043 Read more »]]> I started off with the first Torchlight, playing the ranger/hunter type character (because she was the girl, and I’m like that) and randomly allocated spells and skills and numbers and figures and gear in a totally bizarre and incoherent nature. So, when the second game came out, I thought I should have a go at the co-op game, with someone who knew what they were doing.

Enter @huntarded. I decided steer away from the pistol ranger type class this time, and go with the engineer type class.

So I have!

This is my funky engineer;

currently dual wielding a claw and a massive hammer with which I do HUGE AMOUNTS OF FIERY DOOM damage. @huntarded is playing on a ranger (because he never plays on anything other than a hunter);

however his usefulness at telling me where to put skills points and skills is non existent, which means I am still throwing my points into skills at random (I realised the other day I’d put 7 points in a two-handed specialisation, whilst dual wielding) and increasing my skills at random, few points in strength, few in dexterity and whatnot.

But, despite dying 6 times in about 15 minutes yesterday (didn’t have a great run) and losing about 10,000 gold, I don’t seem to be doing too badly, although I’m not sure whether what seems to be a melee class is right for me. I’m tempted to reroll a mage and go with a ranged class.

Ah. This threw a minor spanner in the works but Lewis was not to be deterred. Off he went back to the park and bumped in to Whitney. Whilst canoodling with Whitney outside the house, Ebony chanced upon them. Slapping Lewis across the face and scaring Whitney out, she was not happy. She ‘accidentally’ got locked inside a doorless room and unfortunately passed away less than a day later.

I actually felt relatively bad about this, but Lewis obviously didn’t. Whilst still grieving the death of his first wife, he proposed to Whitney and married her in a quiet private ceremony.

Life continued on, and after a few unsuccessful woohoos we had the first major death in the family. Blair, having not even had the chance to retire, passed away quite peacefully whilst still mourning the death of Ebony. Who she’d only known for about 2 days. Things move very quickly.

Adam continued his descent into senility and took to spending most of his time in his dressing gown, playing his guitar in Lewis & Whitney’s bedroom. This caused some pregnancy tension that’s for sure.

Whitney became pregnant and dashed off to the hospital. Great disappointment was upon the family when the baby popped out as a girl – Cookie Carling (…I had an empty packet of cookie dough bites on my desk) but this was soon followed by JOY as Whitney had twins and the baby boy Lakeland Carling (Lakeland Plastics carrier bag on my bed) joined his little sister.

I’m still a tight arse which means cheapo cribs are the way forward, but neither baby seemed all that fussed.

Unfortunately we then had a very sad moment as Adam, our original legacy creator, passed away. I was actually genuinely quite sad. And really annoyed because I was half a point off maxing his lifetime wish.