You know, I really have to visit here a little more often if I expect you to \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n
My interest in the game waxes and wanes with how busy my life is and last year was a whopper.\u00a0 Lots of changes, a 5 week strike at work, and just generally having to be selective in my choices with entertainment.\u00a0 What brings me back to Realms once more?\u00a0 News 1090 naturally.<\/p>\n
About 3 years ago I was approached by Akael to work on an update to the Darkhaven Art Gallery.\u00a0 I was really honoured to participate, I know that it’s such a pivotal area for so many newer players.\u00a0 I felt that there was a lull in the levelling areas for the 30’s so that’s sort of where I put my focus.\u00a0 I also looked at the gear in those levels and where I was still wearing academy equipment or other similarly low level stuff and thought, hey these are gaps to fill.\u00a0 You can let me know if I hit the mark or not, but I think at least some people will be happy with the stuff that was brought in.<\/p>\n
I’ve been around this week testing and helping to fix some logic errors in the area.\u00a0 I can’t thank Destre enough for her efforts, that woman is\u00a0devoted to seeing things in the game be top notch!\u00a0 Thanks also to Akael, Ceirana, Zistrosk, and all the others who worked on this project in the background.\u00a0 To my mind having such a great and diverse group working on these projects helps\u00a0keep the quality up.<\/p>\n
I’ve heard people in the past complain about how long these projects take, hey, there’s lots of time spent checking and rechecking and then fixing things.\u00a0 Let’s not forget our imms are volunteers giving their leisure time to do these things.\u00a0 I had to take the idea that “I did my part, it’s in their hands” … but it was exciting to see it ported.\u00a0 This is the 3rd time some piece of work of mine has found it’s way into Realms and it’s a thrill every time.<\/p>\n
The first was an IOQC area I wrote as a member of DS waaaay back in the day.\u00a0 You had to find and return dragon eggs, but everyone just ended up killing the dragons… the only problem is the dragons used “murder” instead of “kill” and so the spam was unbelievable.\u00a0 Also killing the dragons was ridiculously hard to discourage that behaviour but … when IOQC teams go at it, they are definitely determined teams and view challenges as things to be overcome.\u00a0 It went … oh… 4 or 5 hours?\u00a0 Intended time… 90 minutes?\u00a0 Yeah.\u00a0 Learned a lot about not assuming how people will approach the problems.\u00a0 Sometimes when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail \ud83d\ude42\u00a0 Funny thing is that it was Destre helping then too, with an emergency assist from Moonbeam if I recall correctly.<\/p>\n
Many of you may also recall I worked on the Guild of Spirits, stepping in to help with that project.\u00a0 Though I didn’t have much to do with the initial design I am happy with the touches I left on it.\u00a0 There are times I wish that I had been more active in the Guild of Origin build but you do what you can.<\/p>\n
So what’s next for me?\u00a0 To be really honest I don’t get a big thrill out of playing the game anymore.\u00a0 I see equations when I look at the game… damage in, healing potential, damage out … scheduling problems like getting 4 people online who want to do the same thing etc.\u00a0 These days I do continue to enjoy mapping as much of the Realms as I can, I do have a project underway that I put down 2 years ago that I think I should finish and share.\u00a0 I also see a couple of unfinished building projects I think I may be ready to put my hands to and see if they can get to the finish line.\u00a0 Of course there’s also more ideas … a totally new area … but finish one thing before starting the next!<\/p>\n
I have not yet explored the other new paintings that my fellow builders worked on, I look forward to exploring them soon.\u00a0 If you see one of them online, thank them!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"