Bound for Tamriel

No I am not dead - far from it actually.

I hate blogs that complain and I have not had much lately that didn't deserve some complaining so I have been keeping my mouth shut and head down.  I have roamed around middle earth a bit here and there and played with my warg -Lulu - quite a bit but like any game of fetch, fighting in the Moors was becoming the same every day.  Take a keep, lose a keep, take an outpost, lose an outpost, gank some poor newbie rune keeper ...  you get the idea.  So I have been mining some asteroids and investigating various other worlds run by other Gods in other dimensions.

I have been playing an active role in Middle Earth now for something over five years.  For all of this time I have given my yearly donations to the God's as a most devoted servant.  Yet despite my steadfast faith, I continue to feel their lack of attention.  My suspicious were confirmed recently with the violent removal of half the LOTRO Gods and the "reallocation" of a significant portion of those remaining.  The Gods overlooking Middle Earth are very few these days which tells me more than anything else what the world of LOTRO has ahead of it.  It is time for this Awesome Champ to move on.

Some of my wanderings have taken me back to Skyrim in Tamriel.  I love the place but it feels so lonely all the time.  I do great deeds but there is no one to sing my praises which makes it all feel rather... pointless.  I have continued with my training and I have been a crafting fool and killed lots and lots of dragons but being on my own all the time eventually left me with an empty feeling. Until that is, I began assisting with the creation of a new world based on the Elder Scrolls lore.

So I have been exploring Tamriel (The Elder Scrolls Online Beta Test)  and all I can say is...

"WOW!".

 I am super excited about the upcoming world creation mega event.  It isn't perfect but it is much closer to perfection than I have seen in a long time.  Where LOTRO was becoming boring and easy and hopelessly unbalanced, I have found The Elder Scrolls Online (TESO) to be extremely challenging, broad in scope, and a huge step forward.  (When a mob is a level higher than you be concerned...)

I will say up front, that one thing LOTRO has going for it is a great social atmosphere.  Singing, dancing, movie making, is still something that LOTRO excels at.  For everything else however, TESO is eons ahead. 

First, you are never constrained into a few narrow career paths.  You have given a few broad choices and tons of room to find your special niche,  Your career is far FAR less restrictive than LOTRO and finding your true calling is a great joy of TESO.

Most know I love crafting all sorts of things and TESO has a far more sophisticated system that makes real sense and is not detailed orientated just to keep you busy.  Just like your primary career, you are not restricted to a single crafting specialty either. You can follow any crafting profession and make anything given the enough experience and effort.  The one caveat is that your hard won experience can be applied to anything equally.  If you chose to train on armor making you are choosing not to train to fight with two handed weapons for example.  You can't have both, you have to chose how to use your time and energies.  Being as  addicted to making things as I am, this is going to be my biggest challenge.

I love the lore of Middle Earth and while the lore of TESO is quite deep I am really only just learning about it.  I am not sure it will ever match Middle Earth in that regard but on a positive note, my old friend, Brother Tom, a dude that likes to keep people healthy while wearing heavy plate steel and bashing baddies with a hammer has promised to join me.  He could never come to Middle Earth, despite my requests because he could never get over the fact that a person that heals in Middle Earth does so by playing a LUTE.

...

Frankly, I always thought that was some sort of joke as well but a joke that I had to look past in order to achieve my high levels of greatness.  The only guy I can think of that could kill with his music was Aegthil of Gondor but I suspect his pink hawtpants had as much to do with that as his lack of musical talent.  Ah well,

Anyway, I expect Tom to be part of my daily life soon which I am looking forward to.

Personally, I have learned a great deal from my friendship with Ruset the burglar.  (no he will not be coming with me. There is no place for hobbits in Tamriel ) and I have chafed at my inability to infuse my awesome damage output with some finesse skills such as LOTRO burglars possess.  TESO does not have those types of restrictions however so I will no longer feel held back from the true greatness that is me and what I can really become.  I expect the new me to be both awesome and crafty.  I might even learn to use a bow and arrow for more than just reaching out and inviting orcs to approach me.

So, while I am sad to leave LOTRO and all my LOTRO friends behind (Morageth the tanking Lore Master has agreed to join me - WIN!) I am so looking forward to being challenged again and to lose some of the silly restrictions the LOTRO Gods have placed around me. Living in world  that encourages its natives to ever greater deeds rather than fleecing them with empty promises like sheep will be my greatest reward.

If I can entice you to give TESO a try I will be happy and I look forward to seeing you here in Tamriel with me.  If not well...  I will see you at a concert sometime.

When you get to the last page...

Open a new book!

All the best my adoring fans.

-Andu

End of season update

Yes, I am a bad blogger, a very very bad blogger.

The fact is though that I have been on a bit of a vacation.  After dealing with the frequent blackouts, freezes, jumpiness and fatal errors upon entering doorways I found myself spending more and more time mining asteroids and developing a manufacturing empire in the EVE universe.  I have also complained in the past  about the lack of challenge for one so gifted as myself and while I can artificially create a challenge by running around naked I wasn't really enjoying my work and when work starts feeling like work then maybe it is time to do something other that work. If you know what I mean...

My former problem seems to be solved.  I am not sure what the exact cure was but my doctor mumbled something about 8 core, 16GB RAM, Nvidia, 1TB HD, SSD, blah blah blah.  I didn't understand a thing but I do know that the frequent blackouts and such are gone and my eyesight is crisp and clean like never before.

With my health returning I went into the Wildemore.  It was rather nice exploring a new area with everyone else moving on to the recent West Rohan campaign.  I felt like I had the whole area to myself.  Of course the whole idea of Middle Earth is hanging out with friends, if I wanted to be by myself I should probably revisit Skyrim or something but whatever, I have lived in Middle Earth for a long time and it was nice to spend some time in it especially with my sight so much improved.  I swear Landroval couldn't match my eyesight these days.

As for my second problem.. well, that hasn't become any better and is in fact worse.  Life is too easy.  I found in my absence that my skills have gone rusty/missing/ all mixed up.  I clearly and not as competent or versatile as I used to be but even with that fact I can usually take a nap in the middle of a battle with nasty orcs and not worry about it too much.  When I wake up I whack them once or twice and they go away.  No challenge not much fun but I do enjoy my homelands and I am not going to leave.  I might spend more time making videos and less time saving the world however.

Speaking of videos, I have heard rumors of another BBB video involving large battles with multiple cameras.  It should be really interesting and yet another ambitious move forward for the BBB.  Naturally BBB have sent agents to speak with my agents and we are negotiating my fees.  I am sure we will work something out and my fans can look forward to me starring in yet another full feature film.

I haven't done much filming lately with my new improved eyesight but I have included a few clips here just to demonstrate what I can see these days.  I think anyone who has seen my earlier clips will appreciate the improvement.  Maybe it is time to consider remaking my very first feature  film.  A film, naturally, all about me.   

Laters, Taters,

-Andu

Videos and Proteges

Proteges first I guess.  I have had time to look around for good videos because I am spending most of my time mentoring others including my protege Brorlion Badaxe, an up and coming champ of dwarfish stature.  He has been quite energetic and eager to learn and it has been fun showing him the ropes. 

He was reluctant about leaving his home in Erid Luin but after completely eliminating any worthwhile activities up there I convinced him to visit a champ trainer outside of Bree.  From there I sent him to the Barrow Downs where he has been quite happy making dead things even more dead.  To be honest, I am not sure how you kill dead things but it seems to be very similar to killing living things so I pointed the way and Brorlion took it to task. 

I have also been giving Bror various deeds to perform to increase his basic abilities.  I tell him, " Go kill 90 slugs in the Shire" and he happily runs off and starts doing what champs do best.  This has left me with plenty of time to look for new and interesting moving pictures.


One of the great discoveries of mine this past week was a moving picture maker by the name of Lina Willowood.  I really like some of the stuff she has done and here is a sample.

Probably my favorite find of the week however is another new moving picture maker Floradine Strongfoot.  Here is a really sweet and simple video that is very well done.  I liked the video and once I had a friend of mine explain the lyrics (written in German) I absolutely loved the video.  I really hope to see more moving pictures like this.

Finally, for something a little different, I would like to recomend these guys.  They do some "interesting" interpretations of the world we all know and love.

That's it for now, I expect Brorlion to be back any moment now after being sent on a quest to hunt 90 orcs around Breeland.  I think I need to send him back to the Barrows next.  There is more dead things that need to be made more dead.

Until next time

-Andu

It. Is. Done.

I read somewhere recently that your film is done production when you are too sick to look at it any more.  I think I have reached that point.  There is clearly room for improvement and my methods changed a bit during the eight months or so that I was tinkering with this but overall I am happy with it.  Next time will be better and I am ready to move on to that "next time".

Sorry for the awful thumbnail.  The video is hosted through youtube and it was the best of the three awful options offered to me.

The video was part of an experiment to tell a simple story without text, dialogue or music.  I wanted to tell a story just with video clips and see how well I could do it.  It starts off a bit too slow but I hope it gets fast enough later before my audience is put to sleep.

I am pretty sure Ruset is glad I am done too.  He has been sitting around a lot waiting for the mood to strike and the cameras to roll.  I think he is a bit anxious to get back to serious burg work.

In other news, I was visiting the west rohan the other day and told not to come back.  I didn't really want to be there anyway. 

That's it for now.  I just wanted to get the video announced so I can get back to other things.... like a couple of other video ideas that I have been toying with...  Funny, I couldn't stand to look at the video editor any longer two days ago and today I find myself dreaming of some new projects that just won't go away. 

Don't worry Ruset, you won't be asked to act in the next one ;-)

-Andu



-Amnd

Winter musings

I must admit, I have not been very busy lately.

I seem to have lost some of my mojo for Rohan.  Maybe it is the lack of challenge. Maybe it is just the time of year when I start wanting a change of scenery.  Recentlly I even spent a few days exploring a galaxy far far away.  Quite an interesting visit but not a long term move for me.

Speaking of scenery, I recently stopped in Snowbourn, a city in Rohan, and I have to say I am really liking the place.  Very pleasing on the eyes, reasonably well laid out.  Lots of trees and nice architecture and of course a land where they worship beautiful horses.  I could see myself setting up a little weaponsmith shop and retiring for a few months.  I am still an awesome champ and I have enemies that need vanquishing but maybe for a few weeks or rmonths I will just relax and enjoy the luxury of this pretty town.

My buddy Storbjorn recently sent me another photo of himself from Forochel. Apparently he is having similar thoughts about that cold nasty place.  Luckily we are not related or I would be questioning my gene pool.

In any case he seems to be liking the place.  He has the social graces of a barghest so maybe I shouldn't be surprised.  Based on the photo I would say he is going native.  He told me he is almost considered "kin" with the locals so I guess that answers that.

I should be nice to him as technically he is my leader as the founder of Something Something Taters; the kin I came over with from our old home on Gladden.

And of kins and kinships, I recently received an informal invitation to join that most august and prestigious kinship, The Lonely Mountain Band.  I have to say I am tempted.  I have joined them a few times recently on their Sunday night raids and they have all proven to be very nice people to work with.  I would definitely enjoy thier company going forward into the future.  My only real reservations are two fold.  One is that I am the last of the Taters, a small and most excellent kinship that at its height was composed of six or seven people.  Small though they were, they were very tight, very professional, and very fun to work with. That group has long since dwindled away.  One of my last remaining kinmates recently had to take a break due to the blanking out illness that has infected so many people since the Rohan campaign began.  Another left for the the Lonely Mountain Band which is how I came to participate in some of their recent activities.

My second reservation is that while very nice and helpful and mature everyone from the Lonely Mountain Band has been, I can't help but notice just how BIG they are.   There are hundreds of people actively participating and I don't know if that is really my style.  Maybe I am just spoiled by past experience with my old small highly skilled team that were available every day.  I am just not sure how I will fit in with a kinship that has rules and recruitment procedures (beyond "if you keep the mini alive  you're in") and actually hierarchies of organization.  It just seems so formal and bureaucratic and there will always be people in there I don't know on a first name basis.  That all seems very strange for me.

And then again, I am the last of the Taters and really the Taters are gone.  I need to move forward and seek new horizons.  And it is just a little bit of a shame that with all my skills I have no one in my groupings to pass them on too.  No matter how excellent I am I cannot make an empty kinshouse ring with my excellence.  Maybe the Lonely Mountain Band needs me to show them what a champ unleashed can really do.

Or maybe not.

-Andu

Is LOTRO too easy?

I think that answer has become "yes".  I don't want to turn the blog into a whine fest but I did a little experiment in Rohan yesterday to test my point.

Belated Holiday Movie

Well, the release date was a bit late for the season but BBB raised the standard yet again with this one.  You might be sick of Jul carols about now but I bet if you sucked it up for the first 15 seconds this video would hook you in.

Look for my stellar cameo that really sends the point home I think ;-)