Final Step, New Journey

Hello everyone,

I have masks !

They're from a small scale supplier called Beverley's Masks (linky), which I found via one of the discords. I like the designs, they're cheap (£5 inc postage to UK) and they arrived on Wednesday after I ordered them on Sunday evening. Very happy with that. Would definitely recommend. I have my new Elite t-shirt as well, which was ordered as a second item to an Elite themed mask ... I haven't got the mask yet.

Three cheers for Beverley's Masks, a hearty BOO HISS for Frontier's suppliers.


I've been trying out a new game ... I might well be in there a fair bit over the next week (hands permitting) because I've been enjoying it so far.

That's Bashara Dannalae and she has a Pointy Hat. And an outfit that she'll catch her death of cold in. (A better one will appear later).

The game is Final Fantasy XIV and it's started out as a massively charming massive multiplayer game so far. They must have done a huge amount of work getting the facial expressions and emotes just absolutely perfect. It's a very pretty game and I've been enjoying my time in it so far.

Bashara ventures forth ... to adventure !

An upgrade later and she's visiting the housing district. I haven't checked this aspect of the game out much so far. I'm only on the free trial at the moment although I get the feeling that I might race through the content on offer and get to the free trial level cap before the game goes on sale again. We shall see !

And that's Bashara as I left her this evening. Better armour, a hat with Two Pointy Things and an eagerness to punch lots of things while in search of more story to play through.

But I needed to break for munchies and I have to manage my hands these days.

I'm on leave next week though ! So lots more time available. I'm not planning on going too far although I think I'll venture out at some point (with my masks!) when the latest cricket finishes.

So if Final Fantasy XIV is the new journey, what's the Final Step ? The Drew Wagar Elite Lore Tour came to a close yesterday evening and I had the privilege of being involved in the final stream. Fun times, quite probably the coolest thing I've been involved in with a game.

Let's see if this works ... oh well, (the movie clip thing only does Youtube) ... This link will take you to a 53 ship mass hyperspace jump at the end of yesterday's stream. It was pretty awesome to have my little ship along for the ride.

As usual, click for bigger. Spot little Tea-89 creeping in to the shot there showing off her markings.

It was great to see so many ships in one place.

There was a decent variety of pretty ships to look at too, most pilots had gone for the more long ranged ships but there were some of the different types too. That shot includes a Beluga Liner, several Anacondas, a couple of Imperial Cutters, Asp Explorers, Krait Phantoms, a Dolphin,, an Orca, an Imperial fighter, a Federal Corvette and a couple of Cobra Mk3's.

Time for a better look. Up in the top right is the megaship Zurara, which I'll talk about later.

It's been great listening in to Cmdr Wagar's Lore Tour. He's got a very listenable to voice and is massively keen for the Lore that's gone through the 4 major Elite games. (Curiously, he shares my frustration at the development of the lore dying a death since the start of the year).

But all good things come to an end and there was no more Lore for now to tell. This is just before the final gathering for a formation flight past the Zurara ...

Setting up for a spectacular mass hyperspace jump out of the system. It was great to see and I think Cmdr Wagar got a massive kick out of it during the livestream. It's always good to see a big grin. (Link to clip again)

As for me with the Internet Spaceships, I'll be making my way back more slowly ... hopefully visiting some places along the way. But a bit slower because I think I'm a bit burned out on the game. There are more pictures to come though !

Time to say good night though and I think ... open up Existence by David Brin.

We're not out of the woods yet with what's going on outside. Looks like there's still a lot of dangerous people out there who aren't taking the corona seriously enough. Live how you want to, if you don't feel safe in a particular situation, get out of there.

Be safe, be well, enjoy what you're getting up to.