I awoke to the sound of someone knocking on the door, I must have fallen asleep while working last night because I was barely sitting in one of the chairs I had made. When I opened the door I was blinded by the sunlight, it was already late in the morning. The group before me was still composed of the wrinkled faces of elders, but this time I could see that only a few of them had visited before and the rest were all new. I knew right away that most of my day would be spent showing them what I had made and what could be done with it and discussing what I knew of myself and the technology. They would try to persuade me to give them the technology and I would explain to them why I felt I could not do that. Eventually I might be able to get to work again, but probably not with enough time to try my latest improvements to the tools.
When they had all left I still had some daylight, at least a couple hours I figured. I had been trying to work out how to prevent the ground from sinking after mining up the resources and had implemented the bits and pieces that would be necessary to rework the junk ores from the resource I was actually extracting without first pulling it up. If anyone ever found the cavern it would leave behind they would probably wonder how nature could produce such strange supports our of such a brittle material. I wanted to try it out, but I knew I would need an area farther from the house and I would not have time to make that trip, so I opted instead to gather a few natural materials to make some better lighting for the house.
The noises of creatures trying to get in did not occur again this evening, instead I was left with only the noise produced from my work. I spent hours creating digital blueprints in the device, not having the materials to actually produce the results. I also did my best to simulate how it would work when it was done, though the device could only show me so many outcomes, the real test would come when I could produce this technology. The greatest thing to try was going to be to make a much more sophisticated refiner, one that would hold quite a bit more materials without gaining a lot of weight. The materials required were not all known yet, so there would be some time spent mining, which would also end up producing new tools. My plan was to get out of the house at first light and hopefully avoid the visitors I was sure to have again if I missed my window of opportunity. As the first of my lights began to fade I realized how late it was getting and quickly put everything away, jotted down some notes and got some much needed sleep.
Monday, January 23, 2012
Small Starts
Starting cost for the rookie run is 2.01 PED to buy the finder and the probes to search with. Today I find myself at Ashi, knowing what I know about the area it is good enough to start off, so I head out in search for what riches lie in the ground to the south.
Not much for riches this time, a meager 0.48 PED narcanisum stones, 0.15 PED oil and 0.12 PED lysterium. This isn't much to work with, but with the inferior gear to what I normally use it wasn't a surprising run. The mining also damaged my excavator a bit, dropping its value to 1.94 PED.
Taking a walk afterwards to relieve the restlessness of not working my primary profession took me past a herd of longu, by chance I actually found 29 untrampled papplon, bringing my total to 68. It also appeared something had been digging along the path I walked, because 58 brukite stones had been left lying on the ground. By the time I finished my stroll I found myself at Chimera Canyons, knowing how much I didn't like walking around in the canyon I teleported myself away to Treasure Island, a fairly peaceful area to walk.
After a long, peaceful, quiet walk through the middle and eastern side of Treasure Island I find myself richer by 90 papplon, 19 caroot, 179 bombardo, 25 brukite and 124 sopur. Not a bad walk, was nice to clear my head and remember my goals. Oh, and not to mention the 44 dung to add to the pile, lucky for me our PDAs scan it in and you don't actually have to touch it at any point. With a 64 PEC auction fee I find my PED card depleted to 0.15 PED and hope that the first set of valuable stones sells well.
Not much for riches this time, a meager 0.48 PED narcanisum stones, 0.15 PED oil and 0.12 PED lysterium. This isn't much to work with, but with the inferior gear to what I normally use it wasn't a surprising run. The mining also damaged my excavator a bit, dropping its value to 1.94 PED.
Taking a walk afterwards to relieve the restlessness of not working my primary profession took me past a herd of longu, by chance I actually found 29 untrampled papplon, bringing my total to 68. It also appeared something had been digging along the path I walked, because 58 brukite stones had been left lying on the ground. By the time I finished my stroll I found myself at Chimera Canyons, knowing how much I didn't like walking around in the canyon I teleported myself away to Treasure Island, a fairly peaceful area to walk.
After a long, peaceful, quiet walk through the middle and eastern side of Treasure Island I find myself richer by 90 papplon, 19 caroot, 179 bombardo, 25 brukite and 124 sopur. Not a bad walk, was nice to clear my head and remember my goals. Oh, and not to mention the 44 dung to add to the pile, lucky for me our PDAs scan it in and you don't actually have to touch it at any point. With a 64 PEC auction fee I find my PED card depleted to 0.15 PED and hope that the first set of valuable stones sells well.
0.15 PED on my PED card
73 Common Dung
82 Kaldon Stones
124 Sopur Stones
83 Brukite Stones in auction
124 Sopur Stones
83 Brukite Stones in auction
284 Bombardo
68 Caroot
61 Haimoros
153 Papplon
15 barrels of Crude Oil
12 Lysterium stones
6 Narcanisum stones
15 barrels of Crude Oil
12 Lysterium stones
6 Narcanisum stones
Quad-Wing Interceptor with no fuel
Sleipnir MK1 with 0.56 PED worth of Oil
Gungnir MK1 with no fuel
Blueprint Books (all types) with various blueprints
Earth Excavator ME/01 (1.94/2.40)
Ziplex Z1 Seeker (1.30/2.40)
Back to Basics
Having all that excess PED was definitely a change of pace, in the short run that much PED can be a bad thing, especially when life has been lived striving just to survive. In the long run though, with the investment that was made with the majority of it, it will be a good thing, but for now I need to get back to basics. I spent too much looking for more loot and now I'm back to survival mode, but at least I'll have some steadier income to help get through the dry spells. To help get myself back on track I've decided to take an inventory of what I have and work on keeping track of it all. Ultimately, I have fewer tools than when I began, but that is alright, I'll get things back in order soon enough.
Unable to get to the stuff I left on Arkadia, I will work first with what I have on Calypso. Checking my carried inventory and my larger planet side storage reveals the following:
2.80 PED on my PED card
29 Common Dung
82 Kaldon Stones
105 Bombardo
49 Caroot
61 Haimoros
34 Papplon
Quad-Wing Interceptor with no fuel
Sleipnir MK1 with 0.56 PED worth of Oil
Gungnir MK1 with no fuel
Blueprint Books (all types) with various blueprints, there's no way I'm cataloging all of those
Earth Excavator ME/01 (1.95/2.40)
Ziplex Z1 Seeker (1.30/2.40)
Of course I also have the clothes on my back, but I would hate to sell those and go about naked. Perhaps if things go well I can get something a little nicer than your standard orange jumpsuit, but for now they'll do. I also have the investment I made, but I don't plan to sell those so for now they will remain outside my counted assets. My current plan is to use what little PED I have and try some mining with the rookie gear they developed to teach people new to the planet. Finds usually aren't very good with them, but sometimes you get lucky, so we'll hope that things work out for me.
NEWS: More Content Coming
Yeah, I don't post often enough. I'm hoping to fix that soon. I have added a new item to my sidebar which will hold my current goals. I will modify those as my desires change and increase and will have a new label when I achieve one of my goals, that way people can see which goals I have accomplished that I once had on this list. I would have added the goal of a mining tower, but I already hit that one just a little over a month ago. I am also going to try to modify my playing style to better suit the way I will be able to afford to play. Basically, I need to play again as a non-depositor (because I plan not to deposit much, maybe just a couple times a year to get more gifts) and live off of my earnings or the income from the land deeds I purchased (currently 5). If I can do this then perhaps in the future I will be able to afford a computer worthy of playing this game, but until then don't expect any spectacular screen-shots. I also plan to start adding some pictures to the blog to make it more interesting. I might even go back and add some pictures to old posts, but we'll see if I get the desire to do that or not.
In other news, I have not given up my story, I have just redirected most of my creative juices towards an actual novel. I think I am a little over half way done with that, but it's hard to say exactly when I don't have a formal outline and don't have a clue what will be in the middle of the current location and the end of the story, when that is done I have only a little bit of an idea of what to do with it. My greatest desire would be to find a publisher for it though I hear that is really hard to do (1/10,000 actually get published is what I read). If I can't publish it through a publisher I will likely put the story in the blog and, if I ever have the money to do it, get it published on my own (costs money to publish on your own, through a publisher you get paid, at least from what my research has told me thus far). So, in the future, I may have a book about Sorven and his exploits. If the first one goes well there could be more later, but all of that is up in the air at the moment as I haven't been writing enough lately. And in case you are wondering, I am not suffering from writer's block, I'm suffering from my own lack of motivation. Speaking of, if you would all like to help motivate me, I feel more inclined to work when I know people actually care about what I'm writing (yeah, yeah, write for your own enjoyment and all that, I get enough enjoyment normally just thinking about my story), so let me know in some comments or share this blog with others so I can see people are actually reading what I've written (yes, I look at the number of views of this site fairly often).
My last plan is to start posting about my income and dealings in game, this way people can see how well I do or how stupidly I play (I hope to have less stupidity and hold on to my goals in order to reach them). Some of my goals I will probably never reach, but that is okay, I want to put them there anyway so that people can see what I wish for. If people wish to help me reach my goals I'm sure we can work something out, though I do not like handouts so if you want to help then lets find a way you can hire me to do some work for you instead.
In other news, I have not given up my story, I have just redirected most of my creative juices towards an actual novel. I think I am a little over half way done with that, but it's hard to say exactly when I don't have a formal outline and don't have a clue what will be in the middle of the current location and the end of the story, when that is done I have only a little bit of an idea of what to do with it. My greatest desire would be to find a publisher for it though I hear that is really hard to do (1/10,000 actually get published is what I read). If I can't publish it through a publisher I will likely put the story in the blog and, if I ever have the money to do it, get it published on my own (costs money to publish on your own, through a publisher you get paid, at least from what my research has told me thus far). So, in the future, I may have a book about Sorven and his exploits. If the first one goes well there could be more later, but all of that is up in the air at the moment as I haven't been writing enough lately. And in case you are wondering, I am not suffering from writer's block, I'm suffering from my own lack of motivation. Speaking of, if you would all like to help motivate me, I feel more inclined to work when I know people actually care about what I'm writing (yeah, yeah, write for your own enjoyment and all that, I get enough enjoyment normally just thinking about my story), so let me know in some comments or share this blog with others so I can see people are actually reading what I've written (yes, I look at the number of views of this site fairly often).
My last plan is to start posting about my income and dealings in game, this way people can see how well I do or how stupidly I play (I hope to have less stupidity and hold on to my goals in order to reach them). Some of my goals I will probably never reach, but that is okay, I want to put them there anyway so that people can see what I wish for. If people wish to help me reach my goals I'm sure we can work something out, though I do not like handouts so if you want to help then lets find a way you can hire me to do some work for you instead.
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Getting Back to Work
With the thrill of the tower over, it having been fully extracted just a few days ago, I needed to get back to work. I had invested most of the money to ensure my continued survival, at least as long as the investment is a good one, and with the rest repaired my worn out tools and bought myself a shiny new quad. I had been working with some intelligent individuals back on Calypso who have finally been able to clear my name and image out of the archives, basically making me a free man again. With this freedom, and the new fighter, I should be able to make some trips once more between planets, though I anticipate Arkadia will remain my home for some time, though I am anxious to visit once more with my friends on Calypso. I have decided to have some fun with the money I had left over after my initial spending spree was over and planned to make a quick stop by a certain asteroid to see if I couldn't find something worthwhile, though I wasn't about to hold my breath as I believe it is still a difficult place to mine, the signals are just so weak and hard to get a lock on.
As anticipated, the stop by the asteroid was not profitable, though it did give me some resources to get some more experience in crafting, a skill I have been greatly neglecting since I had extracted my previous knowledge. I knew most of what I was doing would prove to be loss, but it was fun to actually have the luxury of spending it anyway and so I did. Though now, down to the last 300 PED of my tower, I have switched back to conservative mode, though with the knowledge that there will be more PED coming my way regardless of how my runs go. I have not yet run in to any of my old friends, but I haven't been down on the planet that long yet.
As anticipated, the stop by the asteroid was not profitable, though it did give me some resources to get some more experience in crafting, a skill I have been greatly neglecting since I had extracted my previous knowledge. I knew most of what I was doing would prove to be loss, but it was fun to actually have the luxury of spending it anyway and so I did. Though now, down to the last 300 PED of my tower, I have switched back to conservative mode, though with the knowledge that there will be more PED coming my way regardless of how my runs go. I have not yet run in to any of my old friends, but I haven't been down on the planet that long yet.
Monday, December 19, 2011
The Tower Club
Not much has happened in the past weeks since I last wrote. I've been out mining, had some luck, had some non-luck. I've hit a few finds of a good size, stuff that made it easy to live for a few more weeks and in those few weeks I've pretty much lost what was saved up. It seems to go like that a lot in mining. Some weeks you find the good stuff, then others you can't seem to figure out how to lock in on a good signal. I've had to do some odd jobs here and there to keep the PED flowing, nothing special, just your basic work that brings in a small monthly allowance. I had read about an investment opportunity recently that would bring in a steady weekly income, but after reading what it would cost I knew it would take me a long time to earn enough to buy into it. Or, I could just find a lucky rare claim. These rare claims I dream of don't come as a normal claim, the markers are modified to do the extraction for you. It would be nice if all claims did this, but I suppose it would cost too much. Anyway, the term given to these claims is "tower". The claim marker is called a tower because it works like a drilling tower would. It pulls the resource up and stores it until it can be taken somewhere else. These kinds of claims are hard to get, and more people who I've heard of that get them have larger pocketbooks than me and can afford some of the fancy amps that I occasionally try to use, though without much success usually. So I dreamed for the last couple of weeks, wishing I could become part of that elite club and dreamed of using that money to make life easier here. To me it was always a dream. Then I made the next drop.
Words can't adequately describe what I felt when I saw that XXIII size on my finder. I thought, it must be a glitch, I didn't really find something that big, did I? I looked again, making sure I didn't imagine it; no, it was still the same. I checked myself, tried to make sure I wasn't dreaming, but no, the adrenaline flowing through my veins told me I was quite thoroughly awake. I went to the claim site and did a test extraction on it, sure enough I got a message saying that the resource was already being pulled up for me and that I could get the first load of it in about a day. I had really done it, I had hit a tower! I sat there and thought of all my dreams, realizing now that some of them could start to happen. I could get involved in that investment opportunity and make a steadier income, well, as steady as it is for a miner who will use it to search for more treasures. After about ten or fifteen minutes I finished my dreaming and realized I had been standing there staring, I looked one more time at the claim deed and then moved on, finishing my mining run and anxiously anticipating tomorrow when I could extract part of my claim and buy the deeds that were involved in the opportunity.
Words can't adequately describe what I felt when I saw that XXIII size on my finder. I thought, it must be a glitch, I didn't really find something that big, did I? I looked again, making sure I didn't imagine it; no, it was still the same. I checked myself, tried to make sure I wasn't dreaming, but no, the adrenaline flowing through my veins told me I was quite thoroughly awake. I went to the claim site and did a test extraction on it, sure enough I got a message saying that the resource was already being pulled up for me and that I could get the first load of it in about a day. I had really done it, I had hit a tower! I sat there and thought of all my dreams, realizing now that some of them could start to happen. I could get involved in that investment opportunity and make a steadier income, well, as steady as it is for a miner who will use it to search for more treasures. After about ten or fifteen minutes I finished my dreaming and realized I had been standing there staring, I looked one more time at the claim deed and then moved on, finishing my mining run and anxiously anticipating tomorrow when I could extract part of my claim and buy the deeds that were involved in the opportunity.
Monday, December 12, 2011
From a Shack to a House
The morning again came too quickly, I was still tired from my lack of sleep in the last two days but was determined to continue my work. The night had not been restful, too many dreams had flooded my mind. Among which I had seen a device I very much desired to try making. I knew it wouldn't be as good as the one I had seen but it would be adequate enough until I could make it again with better materials. I didn't even think about my hunger until I smelled the fresh bread that came with the revisiting elders, there were noticeably fewer this time and when they arrived they stared at the device I was holding. Clearly it wasn't the one I had made yesterday and they wondered what it was. I explained to them my dream and what this device would be used for. I also described to them the process of how it worked and how I believed it was a design from my previous life. When I had finished eating they asked to see it in action, which I gladly obliged to, I had been wanting to try it out since before I sat down.
We made our way further from town and out of the woods into a wide open field. The device took some moments to charge up, I was sure it was due to the poor energy generator that I had built in it and when it had finished and I pulled the trigger the shock of the energy hitting the ground made us all stumble a bit. A few moments later however and the screen was showing me all the resources available beneath our feet. The device had appeared to work and I then switched modes and began pulling up what it had found. It wasn't a large amount, mostly due to the device being inefficient in its current state, but the things it would find would be useful in making the next version. The elders just stood there, dumbfound as to where these chunks of metallic stone were coming from. I had explained it to them but I don't think they thought it possible. When we were done there were some spots in the ground that were visibly sinking under their own weight and so we had to quickly get the resources out of the area before we found ourselves sinking into one of the new caverns. The load was heavy, even after refining it, but we managed to get it all back to my shop by mid-day. They had worked with metal before, but nothing with as fine a quality as what I had now. They desired greatly to get some of it and so they informed me that since I now had the means to survive on my own that I would now be treated as a regular citizen and need to barter for my food and other things from town. I knew this would give them an edge over the other towns, but I had no room to argue with them as they had control over the fields and livestock. I also knew that they would quickly regret it as they didn't have the tools to actually work the resources yet. They also informed me that the first of the elders from the other villages would begin visiting, having finally received the news and started arriving in town. I knew this would mean a lot more work for me before the evening was through, but I was confident that I could get it all done and still get some sleep before they arrived.
The elders had left hours ago, but not before I confirmed with them that I could be in possession of where my shop was, the concept of ownership was somewhat unfamiliar but they understood it better after I explained it to them. I wanted to make sure the land I was on could be worked in the manner that I had plans for without offending someone for destroying their property. I wasted little time in clearing the immediate area around the shack and pulling in the rest of my resources. I then got to work adding a much larger set of rooms to the building and isolating the shop part in the back of the new home. Moving the furniture was easy with the new device, which had a much better range and could hold more resources in it without being heavy. I wondered at the original design I had copied, would better resources make it even more efficient? I planned to remake it again, but decided to wait until tomorrow. With my new house done I closed it up and once again heard the sound of creatures sniffing outside. It was dark and my little lamp didn't make much of a dent to illuminate the now big rooms of the house, but I could work out how to create better lighting later.
We made our way further from town and out of the woods into a wide open field. The device took some moments to charge up, I was sure it was due to the poor energy generator that I had built in it and when it had finished and I pulled the trigger the shock of the energy hitting the ground made us all stumble a bit. A few moments later however and the screen was showing me all the resources available beneath our feet. The device had appeared to work and I then switched modes and began pulling up what it had found. It wasn't a large amount, mostly due to the device being inefficient in its current state, but the things it would find would be useful in making the next version. The elders just stood there, dumbfound as to where these chunks of metallic stone were coming from. I had explained it to them but I don't think they thought it possible. When we were done there were some spots in the ground that were visibly sinking under their own weight and so we had to quickly get the resources out of the area before we found ourselves sinking into one of the new caverns. The load was heavy, even after refining it, but we managed to get it all back to my shop by mid-day. They had worked with metal before, but nothing with as fine a quality as what I had now. They desired greatly to get some of it and so they informed me that since I now had the means to survive on my own that I would now be treated as a regular citizen and need to barter for my food and other things from town. I knew this would give them an edge over the other towns, but I had no room to argue with them as they had control over the fields and livestock. I also knew that they would quickly regret it as they didn't have the tools to actually work the resources yet. They also informed me that the first of the elders from the other villages would begin visiting, having finally received the news and started arriving in town. I knew this would mean a lot more work for me before the evening was through, but I was confident that I could get it all done and still get some sleep before they arrived.
The elders had left hours ago, but not before I confirmed with them that I could be in possession of where my shop was, the concept of ownership was somewhat unfamiliar but they understood it better after I explained it to them. I wanted to make sure the land I was on could be worked in the manner that I had plans for without offending someone for destroying their property. I wasted little time in clearing the immediate area around the shack and pulling in the rest of my resources. I then got to work adding a much larger set of rooms to the building and isolating the shop part in the back of the new home. Moving the furniture was easy with the new device, which had a much better range and could hold more resources in it without being heavy. I wondered at the original design I had copied, would better resources make it even more efficient? I planned to remake it again, but decided to wait until tomorrow. With my new house done I closed it up and once again heard the sound of creatures sniffing outside. It was dark and my little lamp didn't make much of a dent to illuminate the now big rooms of the house, but I could work out how to create better lighting later.
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