Continuing Adventures of Cmdr Sleepy - Humble beginnings

You know I like the games ...

I probably don't play them as much as people think. Often, I've expended so much mental energy at work, that when I get home I don't want to burn any more mental energy on the games. Or I'll fall back into the games where I've already well and truly learned the template for playing it and succeeding at it.

There is an exception - when those messages come in, my brain will go "YEY!" as it tries to think of something that'll make the other person chuckle.

I've been writing more here too. Appreciation leads to more scribbles !

Now if I only had a magic hat with "Bonza Post Ideas" hidden in all this clutter.

About that gaming ... I mentioned I wasn't enjoying Elite as much as I had been in the earlier days of me playing it. There's that psychological gratification that comes with upgrading the ship or even going up to the next ship. Milestones if you will. And that psychological reward response that comes from that little win of reaching that next rung.

And I'd hit a point where the next rung was pretty high up and I wasn't wanting to go into the game to work my way up to it. That's the indicative word ... "work". If a game feels like work and not play, it's time to find something else that's more enjoyable for leisure/fun times.

Some may say - why not get out more and see things with people ? Hell yeah ! If it rains in the cricket tomorrow, I'll go see Mad Max. (It can wait a bit). We'll see San Andreas sometime this week with the movie mob. I'll hopefully persuade someone special that she really wants to see Jurassic Park 4 with me. I don't see her often enough and I miss that bubbly chuckle. Or another amazing person who I've only come to know recently might like to accompany one to the IST20 day at Lords :-).

Yep. Options. It's not all about staying indoors.

However - game time ? I've done what I've called a soft reset. I bought enough upgrades for the Python in order to soak up the available capital. Then I bought the starter ship and was left with maybe 50k. Enough to start with, bit more than you do start with but ... hey ... To give you a sense of scale, the starter Sidewinder costs 32k and can carry 10 tonnes the way I have it set up. The Python would cost 56m to buy now and set up costs add quite a bit to that. It's like buying a car only to realise you need to buy the seats extra.

What's a Sidewinder ?

There we go. Something small, paper thin and like a little box. There's about enough room in there for the pilot and an engine ... But to give it credit, it's super manoeuvrable. The Segway of the Elite world ? (if the pilot is carrying the cargo in a backpack perhaps)

While the cricket's been on in the background, I've been going from place to place carrying cargo for the best trades. And running from the one fight I ended up in. It's not worth putting guns on this tiny ship, you wouldn't get to fire them much if you did use them.

From a start of maybe 60k, I'm now up to a ship worth 90k (upgrades!) and have 90k in the bank. And I had fun flying the little thing around too. It's a bit more hands on because you don't have the space to put a docking computer in. That would take 2t of the 10t space and make it that much slower to get the money in.

Yep. Had fun.

Something else I intend to do is have a decent run through a couple of old games, Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate 2. These are old style role playing games where your character is caught up in a much more epic story. My guy is a Kensai fighter (isn't allowed armour, waves a Big Sword) and I've lucky with some awesome stats. The game isn't nearly as much fun as playing the Dungeons and Dragons game it's based on with other people but ... there's still chuckles to be had.

There's that theme again - would rather play with others than be on my own. Although ... would you think this is true ?

Yep. There's dragons in that there Baldur's Gate game ...

Hmm. Random thought - why these games and not others like League of Legends, Warcraft or Counterstrike ? I liked the levelling aspect in Warcraft and the interplay with Guildlink and Violence Reborn. Not so much the repetition. There would be an aspect of improving the character but to all intents and purposes, all 3 games are just plain repetition. That doesn't interest me. The story is what interests me.

So with Baldur's Gate, there is the legendary developer Bioware'a ability to spin an excellent tale. With Elite, it's that progression from humble beginnings to the bigger, more capable ships.

Back to heading out - I think that's one excellent sign. There's still damage on my arms and legs that's proving difficult to heal but ... it's steadily getting better, when I allow it. The damage is still incredibly easy to inflict and takes a while to repair. But it's getting there.

And it's at that point where I may be able to show those arms off in public without being suspected of being the harbinger of the next Zombie invasion. The legs need a little more time.

I think there's a few people out there that think of me like that.

I have my flaws, inside and out. But to know that a few people are able to look past those flaws and like Me. That's golden.

I'd like to pass that message on to you all. Don't try to change yourself because of an impression that someone would like you to be different. If they are attracted to you, they were drawn to how you were instead of how you think you should be. And I know a few people who I whole heartedly believe are amazing. They're all different, which makes them more interesting than anything.

And I'm rambling ... One last pic !

I may be heading back into those clouds soon. I have that next ship in my sights.

Chase your goals ! Even if they are internet spaceships. Although real life stuff is always better than internet spaceships.