Illindir update!
Man, I’ve been busy busy busy with my new job, and, you guessed it, Illindir.
So, Ashley and I teamed up and have been knocking out Danzibar with the help of our great builder, Lositho, and the fruits of our labors are FINALLY paying off: Danzibar is getting neat completion. We tackled one of the biggest cities in the game (somewhere around 800 rooms) and are having a decisive victory over the evil empty vnums! While this is all fine and dandy for us, it means that once we get a few more details ironed out (like Myrra moving soon and getting settled into a new house) we should be SUPER close to a testing phase of the game. This is great because not only can players poke around and break things, it means we can set up all the stuff so we can make balanced mobs and get the crafting system set in stone. So, yay, we are getting super close to testing!
Anyway, I should get back to building, only a few sections to go before the city is DONE and we get to see all the players we’ve missed from Cities of Mdhoria and such (and hopefully a few new faces too).
The Real Folk Blues
I am in a Bebop mode. I need to watch that series again… and again.
But I am feeling glum and excited at the same time, which, in my opinion, is the real folk blues. Just sad enough to remind you that you’re unhappy, even when you’re having fun. I am really looking forward to heading up to Memphis for the week. Its going to be awesome and we are going to get a ton of building knocked out. On the other hand, since Gino moved here, we have never slept apart. Sure there were some nights that we slept in different rooms when one of us was sick, but we always just a few feet away from seeing the other person. I’ll miss seeing my hubby, even if it is just for a few days. Hes promised to call and text me and I’ll see him on Friday night and be able to snuggle up to him. Still, I will miss him, and sleeping in a bed alone just won’t be the same. And I’ll miss my kitties.
On the flip side, so excited about hanging out with Ashley. Its been way too long!
P.S. – Illindir is going really well. Get excited.
Woohoo doing stuff!
Yay, things are going much better!
Gino and I have started to play Gaunlent: Dark Legacy together and its a ton of fun! We found a mutilplayer game we both like and can play for a couple hours without getting bored or frustrated. Up next for our multiplaying enjoyment will be Secret of Mana for SNES. Yes… I love that game… yussssss….
ANYWAY. Illindir stuff is going AWESOME. Ashley and I are teaming up on Danzibar to knock that sucker out, so hopefully we’ll be able to open up for some testing of skills soon and the players will have somewhere to poke around while DESTROYING EACH OTHER. I know some people are wondering “WTF? Why is it taking that long?!” Well, it’s a couple different reasons, the first mainly being real-life being made of suck. I lost my job back in May and it put me in a depressed funk and a highly stressed mode as I desperately searched for a job to pay the bills. As much as I LOVE Illindir, I like having someplace to live and power on at my apartment more… BUT now I have a job (an awesome one at that) so its all good now. Ashley bought a house *mind-boggle* so thats TONS of stress and work right there, making it a little hard to build.
Also, there is one key thing people are forgeting: Illindir is not your momma’s mud. What does that mean? Think about the common muds played (most people we know are from either Cities of M’dhoria or Advent of the Mists at the moment, so we’ll use those as an example). Think of how big cities like Seria, Thelasia, Cranezmore or Gheldale were… probably somewhere between 100 to 300 rooms, give or take. Were they decent sized? Sure, but you ran into the same people over and over and over again and there weren’t a whole bunch of places to go. Danzibar alone is somewhere in the 700 – 800 room range with each room having its own, unique room description. Puan and Fwi are around 350 rooms EACH, give or take, so needless to say, its a pretty big task taking on something like that. Thankfully we have dedicated staff members who want BADLY to see this game open and thrive, so we aren’t letting the task daunt us. We’re not doing too shabby, especially since the conception of the IDEA of Illindir took place in Feb. 2008. The mud is barely a year and half old and we’ve gotten so far.
Also, I chuckled when I heard the rumors of CoM re-opening, and then promptly heard a rumor that essentially went “WTF? No its not, people are smoking crack.” Yes, I paraphrased, but thats ok. Also, the rumor chain was so long, it it was hilarious. It went something like: I heard from Bob that Sue found out from Ted that Jenny had talked to Joe, who is roomates with Jill and Kyle, who, of course, are related to Helen who said that her boyfriend, Rob, was re-opening the mud. While I liked CoM when I played, I don’t think it was the mud for me.
Hrrrrrrrrmmmmmm what else is going on… I dunno, its late, so my brain is tired. I have work tomorrow which I am looking forward to, because that job is AWESOME. I get paid EVERY Monday, get discounts on games AND I get to SELL FRICKIN GAMES. Video games are made of win.
The waiting game…
Alaska time is three hours behind us… so its almost 6:30 am there.
I guess explaining that would be good. An Illindir player and good friend of the staff, Sam, went out boating at about 3:30 am on Monday (Alaskan time) and then his partly submerged boat was found about 10:30am by a bystander. He is still missing, and I am waiting to find an update on if they found anything yesterday. Ashley and I are searching frequently for any information on whats going on, but he lives in a remote part of Alaska, so info is hard to come by. Part of me is tempted to call the Coast Guard and see if they found anything. I hope we hear something soon.
Going on a diet soon…
I really need to start dieting soon. I don’t really eat healthy at all nor do I exercise much… this needs to change. I want to get and stay healthy, which is going to be hard because I love eating candy… lots of it. I am thinking maybe a natural substitute without all kinds of preservatives will be nice, so I found this site: http://www.healthyfellow.com that might help out with that. Cross your fingers and lets see if I can drop a few… eighty pounds!
Otherwise I am really in a good mood at the moment. I dropped off my application to Hobby Lobby, but they aren’t hiring. I came home and filled out an application for a part-time job at a bank here, and guess what? THEY CALLED. They called about two hours after I submitted the application, which was NICE. I have an interview at 10am tomorrow. I really want this job. Its part time, so I can still have time to take care of the house and such AND since banks are closed on Sundays AND are closed by 5 or 7, I will still have time to play D&D and enjoy my anime! Woohoo.
And to those wondering, YES Illindir is still very active, but a lot of the staffers are busy busy busy at the moment, but we are working on stuff…. IMPORTANT STUFFS!
Gino is sleeping… poor thing, hes so exhausted.
Killing time with Sylinx Vorkain
Took a day to myself today and decided to entertain myself by making an array of Sylinx Vorkain Dolls…
So bored, and yet so much fun <3. Tomorrow I work on Illindir!
Enjoying my Spring Break
Bah, I can’t believe Spring Break is already almost over. Ohh well, only a month more and I’ll graduate. Then its tons of phone calls to figure out what teaching certifications I’ll need for High School English. Teachers make about 50,000 a year in VA, so it’ll be a nice job to pay the bills and such with while Gino is in college. I think he’ll complete his degree faster than I did, both because hes most likely not double majoring and it won’t be in English or Theatre. Ahhh well, can’t have two people debating what a book really means in the house, we’d never get anything done. He can read his R.A. Salvatore, I’ll stick to Marlowe, Shakespeare, the Greek playwrights, T.S. Elliot, Edgar Allen Poe… well, you get the idea.
I think we may have to delay moving til next winter. Gino just got his second job as a cook at Pia’s. He made the most delicious soup and brought some home. Hes going to have to make more and bring it to me… yussss. We are going to hardcore save money though. We’ve got the PS3, the High Def TV and a slew of games and movies I haven’t touched yet, including a few series of anime I haven’t watched. I intend to spend some of that at Otakon this year, since we are staying for a whole week and celebrating our one year wedding anniversary then too. Our three year mark for the relationship is coming up, but we’ll probably just stay in and have a nice dinner instead of making a special trip or anything.
I need to stop buying stuff. I have to think that I have to pack all this junk… BUT I am so happy we aren’t moving the couch. I hate it. I want a recliner sofa over this sofa bed. I love recliners with a passion, and since this couch is getting old, Gino said we could dump it and get a new one when we get to our new apartment. I think I found the PERFECT one. Its right off the bay so theres a nice view from the windows and it seems to be about the same price we are paying now. I just hope they allow cats or I’ll still be looking for an apartment.
Getting a lot of stuff for Illindir done and I am really pleased with all the progress. We have people chomping at the bit shouting “When when when!” lol I can’t wait to open for testing, at least let people poke around and see all the stuff we’ve got going on. *happy dance*
Hrmm… its raining and thundering now. I hope the power doesn’t go out, I hate it when that happens.
Getting back to my mudding roots
Bah, I am too sentimental for my own good sometimes. I can’t help but thinking back about my adventures through the realms of Cities of M’dhoria and Advent of the Mists without a bit of sentimental clinging. CoM moreso than AoM has special memories for me since thats where I had my most favorite character, Sylinx Vorkain. She will always be my first character and also one of the most endearing to me, even if she was a crazy, necro-bitch. *sigh* Ahh the memories.
I still remember first logging on. The very first thing I did was RP with Biage Vorkain. I didn’t train a skill, I could barely move about and I still loved RP. Ashley and I still laugh about my… goof ups. One of the most infamous of them being my first time to log off. I just exclaimed that “I grow tired of this world!” and quit. Suddenly Ashley is popping up in my IMs going “OMG YOU CAN’T DO THAT!” Its still hilarious to me, but its an honest mistake. I think its important to keep in mind when you were new and how daunting mudding could be, especially since if its the first mud you’ve ever played. Staff who gets so high on themselves tend to forget that they too were new and made goofy mistakes too and did things they didn’t realize were against the rules. I hope I never get that way. I hope I just PUNISH WITHOUT MERCY THE PEOPLE WHO KNOW BETTER. Ok, so maybe not.
I still remember some of the less-than-savory staff who would mix from telling me I was the worst necromancer ever to saying I was the best they’d ever seen and sending all the new necros to me for help instead of doing their job. Yah… nice. Apparently evil to them was SLAUGHTERING kittens and puppies and hating anything pastel. I was more of the selfish, self-serving person who killed her own parents because it benifted her or because she was just hateful like that. She was a bitch, but she was my lil bitch.
Some of my fondest memories.. ahh.. poking Cyrou’s ears while he grumbled at me, or cutting out Radwan’s tongue after I busted him cheating on my sister. Ahh the fun. I still have a great amount of disrespect and contempt for a lot of the members of staff on both games though. I thought both were stellar games design-wise, but the staff has just let both fall to pieces. This is how I see it: You can have the BEST jewelry store in the country. Best prices, best quality, hands down the best overall, no argument. If you horde the great jewels for yourself and beat and spit on people who come into your shop, who wants to shop there? They don’t, and find that other places have just as lovely jewelry at competative prices. Players are customers, whether they are paying or not. You as the staff get perks they don’t get, but you have to treat the players with respect and civility. And players can’t expect to come in and break you equiptment and curse without expecting to get tossed out. Its supposed to be fun for everyone, not just one side.
*sigh* I am too sentimental, but I guess without the influence of those people, bad or not, I wouldn’t be the player or staff member that I am now, so I’d like to give my… thanks… to the people who showed me the ropes (some of these you can tell are DRIPPING with sarcasm).
Biage/Ashley – To you this is a most sincere thank you. You sat there with me and showed me how to play the game, and not just the controls. I’ll never forget the countless lunches and dinners spent in the cafeteria over less than savory food, just talking about the game and stories. Its some of my happiest memories from college and I do treasure them. Thank you for showing me Illindir, the most rewarding mud experience I have ever had. I love the game and the rest of staff, and without your support, I dunno if I would still be playing muds or not. Thank you for playing my sister and making the Vorkain name infamous with me. I look forward to the misadventures in our future when Earth squares off with Metal.
Myrra/Eirinn - Thank you sooooooooooo much for the opportunity you’ve given me on Illindir. Never have I been able to so freely and creatively express myself and I love you for that. You’ve always let me speak my mind and even when we bicker, it always comes back around and we work things out. Thank you for being patient with me on my crazy days and for having faith in me. I look forward to keeping on workin with you in the future!
Delita/Gino – While we never really interacted on CoM and a lil on AoM, you’ve taught me a lot about mudding. You’ve been ever so patient with me when trying to teach me about stats, combat when I just sit there going “……….” I love you so much my hubby, and mudding is one of the least things I have to be thankful for when it comes to you *super hugs!*
Cyrou Vhel/Tom – THANK YOU for showing that great RP can coincide with great skills. Thank you for showing me that just because someone is a tank and can kick ass, doesn’t mean they can’t RP really wonderfully. I have a better view of the balance of the game because of you and I will always be thankful for that…… *ear tweak and run away!*
Radwan/Mike – Thank you for being soooo mature about RP that involved letting your character get hurt. You showed me that not everyone is always out to just be the best character ever, and that letting yourself get beat can be even more fun for everyone than always being the lone badass.
Anam/Bren – I love the RP we had together, and thank you for always keeping me on my toes RP-wise. The stories you thought up and the way you wrote rubbed off on me and made me a better player. Thank you for showing me that going with the RP instead of pre-planned futures always makes for a great time!
Calidren/Stephen – Thank you for being such a great friend and always being a great person to RP with. You showed me that you can be powerful without having to PK anyone who stands in your way and that good doesn’t just mean SMITING THE WICKED!
Kyrian – Thank you for providing me with some of the most fun RP I had while on Advent. I wish you the best!
Kit – Thank you for reminding me that concept has to come first, even if I really really really want something. I mean this in a serious way. Without the… interesting dealings we had, I would forget that sometimes even if something is pretty cool, if it doesn’t fit with concept, as painful as it is, I have to let it go.
Graven – Thank you for showing me that mud-wide announcements of how terrible everyone is creates poor morale and an unhappy playerbase. Thank you for showing me the dangers of becoming too involved in the game and being too self-serving. I do appreciate your RP time, but now I know that organizations should always be run by players, even if I think they are cool and like them a lot. I know now what it feels like to be on the recieving end of that, and I am grateful I didn’t have to learn that the hard way with my staff position on Illindir.
Kelvyn – Thank you for showing me the line between IRL and game and how it can be trampled on and crossed. I now know the kinds of mistakes not to make with real friends that play the game. Thank you for showing that RP all about myself and feeding my own ego only ruins RP for other people, and instead I should look for ways to flow with the RP and not dam it up like a beaver of self-righteousness. Thank you for reminding me why I hate people that plagurize and making me a better Head Builder because of it.
Merle – Thank you for showing me never to let my emotions get the better of me. I’ll never go on bullshit rants now of how stuff is hard and then torment the players out of sheer bordem or OOC hate. Thank you for reminding me not everything has to be about me and I don’t need to be involved in every little thing that goes on in the game. Thank you for showing me the dangers of getting too wrapped up in a ficticious world. Thank you for showing me the problems with using a mud client as a dating service over a game.
Crystal/Crystal – Thank you for showing me that the game is not always about me, and that I can’t have everything my way or it just ruins the gameplay. Thank you for demonstrating how not to treat my builders if I want them to stay on and be productive. Thank you for showing me how really annoying it is to re-do work non-stop and motivate me to get more involved with my builders as to whats going on. Thank you for showing me that a rude attitude towards things makes everyone else unhappy and reminding me that just because I didn’t come up with a storyline, doesn’t mean it doesn’t have value. Thank you for showing me how destructive favortism with storylines can really be to playerbase morale and never to recreate the next Adalon on Illindir.
Kahn/Jack – Thank you for showing tossing around my “experience” just makes me sound like an ass and to always keep my tone in mind. Thanks for reminding me that I am not the only person in the world whose opinion matters and that you always have to keep others in mind. Thank you for showing me complaining about nothing to avoid doing work is never a good thing, and it just pisses people off.
Silara/Carrie – Thank you for reminding me that no one likes someone who complains nonstop without contributing anything and always has an excuse. Thank you for reminding me that just because my hubby is on the mud, I don’t always have to agree with him and we aren’t a set, but individuals. Thank you for reminding me that not everyone has memory issues and forgets things I said two days ago and then pretend not to know what they’re talking about. Thank you for reminding me people do remember things I say and do, and its really easy to catch me in a lie if everyone has logs of it.
Threyne – Thank you for showing me how not to play muds. I know now that shouting obsenities at the top of my lungs at the staff is not the way to get things done, and RP doesn’t ONLY have to benfit me when I play.
Kairax – Thank you for showing me that arrogance only makes you come off as a prick and blaming other people for my own shortcomings only makes me sound like an self-righteous douchebag. Thank you for showing me through example how not to be so high strung and that just because I don’t like something, doesn’t mean it has to be a bug.
Melova – Thank you for showing me why I hate staff members in IC positions a player should have. I now know the players can probably run it better, since I won’t have the time or intrest to keep up with the position, which just ends up pissing people off.
Vandrar – Thank you for showing me that spouting off unfounded information makes one look like an ass. I know now to make sure to check the facts before I claim that something is a “punk, upstart” anything.
Veral – Thank you for showing me the lines of OOC versus IC and how the can become too much entangled. I lost a friend because of a game, and I know now that sometimes, friendships are worth more than game loyalties.
Verhin/Oliver – Thank you for showing me that going AFK constantly with log gaps between emotes is both annoying and retarded. I know now that it just makes it look like your character has a mental deficit. Also thank you for reminding me that using info gotten OOC in the game just pisses people off and makes you look like a child when you rant about it.
Mwahahah I am evil, but you love it.
Lazy blogging
I always mean to keep up with this, and then I just forget lol.
So I got my two test that I took back and B’s on both. Yay above average! I intend to get an A in one of those classes… yes… an A.
Anyway, what else is going on… ohh! I made a career change choice. Instead of going for my PhD right of out school, I want to teach high school for a while. I want to start kids off younger learning how to write properly and analyze literature, not just scoot by with a basic understanding of a plot (if that). I’ll be challenging, but I am looking forward to it. I’ll research what tests/classes I will need in VA when I get there.
Speaking of VA, this move is making me so nervous. We don’t have enough money saved in the least, so we really have to start working at it more. If we can save up enough we’ll move, if not, we’ll keep working until we do have enough. *nods* We will get there!
So Circut City closed down and we got some GREAT deals the other weekend. I got a really nice mousepad for 5 bucks, the Rocker on DVD for 8, Sweeny Todd, 2 dics special editon DVD for 10 and Guitar Hero, World Tour for PS3 for just 50! Thats HALF of what you normally pay for a BRAND NEW GUITAR HERO! Woohoo! Eventually we want to get the drum set too and the mic for me. I’m a nerd and like singing along.
Been workin on Illindir stuff… go check it out, we are moving along really fast! We even had a meet and greet weekend where people could log into the game for a bit. It was fun to talk to people and we’ve had a stirred interest as of late so yay!
Busy Busy Busy
I am staying pretty busy these days with work and all. Its a major switch from break. I wasn’t even working then, and now I’m balancing work and school. Phew its rough sometimes.
I -have- to get my stuff done for graduation tomorrow. Period. Its due on Friday and I REALLY don’t want this to be SUPER last minute. I have all the paperwork I need, I just have to go meet with my two advisors (theatre and english) and get them to sign off that I’ve done all the classes for my majors. Then I get to take tests… yay. Ohhh well, at least I’ll graduate. Yay!
Work is going along pretty well. I like the job and it pays SOOOO much better than my last job did. Its exicting to have all this money coming in again. Now I get to pay bills… yay…
Valentines Day is going to suck this year. I work 10am – 4pm and Gino works 4pm to close, meaning hes not going to be home til 12 or even 1 in the morning. I am going to clean the apartment up while hes working as a nice surprise for him. Maybe get a ballon and something nice that he’ll like, but just something small. I want to make it a nice day for him when he gets home.
Hes mad at me right now though. I had to do my homework so he had to go into the bedroom to watch TV. I could have been a lil more polite I guess… its just annoying when he kinda downplays my homework, like I should be able to read complicated literature with the TV blaring. Alas, I shall figure out something… eventually.
I am hoping Ashley will come down for Spring Break next month. That would be nice to hang out again, especially since I plan on moving soon.
And for all you curious Illindir peoples (whoever you are) we are working very hard, and making huge strides, so fear not!
