IFN Soldier Lizzy

IFN Soldier Lizzy’s Log
Entry 20 : Surprise Oratan Attack







Do I need to say more?

It was a short one though, by the time most soldiers and colonists have seen this it will have passed. Nice try Oratan!

 

IFN Soldier Lizzy’s Log
Entry 21 : Carabok Conquerer



After long hours of swunting and hunting (read: farming), I have completed my first mission for the IFN. I feel pretty proud even though these Carabok are one of the easiest creatures to combat on Arkadia, but also the most annoying. Think this; you are melee, on a roll killing them Carabok. And along comes a new colonist with a peashooter killing everything in your way. You don’t want to know how many times I felt like shouting at their spacial awareness incompetence. In a few years I will laugh at you complaining about your high ranged weapon costs, while I’m laughing all the way to the bank with my cheap ass stabby stabby blades!

Superiority complex aside, since first landing on Arkadia I have done many things, mostly good ones, some stupid. I am still sticking to short blades, but I can’t fully make up my mind whether to keep Bun or sell him. He’s level 4 now, and I’m hoping to trick a friend of mine to level him to 7 on Calypso. I still have zero desire to go back there, so having someone level it for me might be the best outcome. Especially now that someone on another message board is claiming there is more in store for pets!

Next up on the hunting menu is the pesky flying stinger the Arkadian Hornet. I hope the weather is so that they will stick to the ground like a few weeks ago. I don’t want to have to jump like a frog to be able to hit them.

 

IFN Soldier Lizzy’s Log
Entry 22 : Dromia Conqueror

I was hoping this latest entry would be about the Gold Rush 7/7 results, but they have yet to be announced. Instead I will announce this;



And yes, I have worked on the Arkadian Hornet mission too, but I’ve worked hard on the Dromia mission before to prepare for the Gold Rush event and was very close to finishing it. And I also wanted to see how much the mission reward for stage 5 would give me in my melee skills. Knifefighter (Hit) went from level 29,57 to level 29,72 and Knifefighter (Dmg) went from level 27,63 to level 27,72. Not too bad really.

In other hunting news; if I want to get a psych evaluation before finishing all the puny missions, melee is the way to go on Arkadian Hornets. It is anything but efficient. Borderline insanity. Since there are more than enough missions I can skill knives on, I decided to go with my Adjusted Bukin’s Rifle. Also knowing that eventually in the far future I will have to acquire a ranged puller anyway. Laser rifle might be the way to go and the Bukin’s got a nice range to it too. I already got it to tier 1 and maybe an extra tier will make it into a good enough range puller for me.

On Gold Rush; I hope my score counts. Yes, I did the full 20 hours, but going only 7 seconds over that time it worries me if they still count it as valid. There have been issues in the past with event results, and I hope the curse doesn’t hit my home.
I do believe my score is good enough to have a good chance at winning something, although I have decided for myself that I don’t need an apartment on Arkadia just yet. There are many safe places to camp, outside of the noisy firebases.

 

IFN Soldier Lizzy’s Log
Entry 23 : Battle Simulator Update

I was thinking about asking for more funds from the home front since mine were running low. With the new BatSim updates I was able to do a few runs. First carefully, then trying to increase my speed for the scoreboard. I did not fail to finish any of the runs which was nice, but they sure seemed to increase the difficulty.

The changes were nice and rewarded me with 2 (!) HoF’s, enough to cover some hunting for a while.



My jaw dropped with the first HoF, then even further with the second.



So, with 2,5k in Universal Ammo I had to think. What to do with that?

Well, I still wanted to finish the Jori mission, I still have a lot of short blades to hunt them with, so that will be my goal for now. Dropping the Arkadian Hornet hunting for a while and get rid of this ammo.

 

omg wow gz

 

im jelly right now -_-

 

You can borrow my ruby kanin and level it to level 7 if it makes you feel better to have something fluffly and cuddly with you.

 

These are really fun to read; and big gratz on your BatSim HOF today!! Well deserved!

 

checked the hoflist this morning and thought WOOOOT GZ LIZZY

 

IFN Soldier Lizzy’s Log
Entry 24 : Skills & stuff

Skill gains have slowed down drastically over the last few weeks. Even with the 20% skill pills I have gathered from BatSim, I’m lucky if I get 5% skill towards my shortblade hit/dmg.

I’m still working on the Jori mission and my current calculations show that I might still get up to 3 levels in shortblade skills by the time I finish it. Still not enough to use my Aakas Fire Dagger. Good news is, it will get me close. I hit level 30 in my HIT profession, didn’t realize I also unlocked Serendipity with it. So with 4 more puny missions and the Ostelok, Halix and Feran mission still on my list I will certainly get where I need to be, and then some.

BatSim got a new spreadsheet for tracking, and with the new month upon us I will have a good look at what these changes will have to offer me excluding the HoF’s I had earlier.
Although, so far I did 29 runs and not a single run where I got improved loot, but after my luck the first day I think I had that coming. I can suffer a 2,5k ped ‘loss’ this time tracking before I should give up farming, since that will be my breakeven point. With an average loss of 3,90 PED per run that will be 642 runs without getting improved loot. Sometimes I hate math. 642 run averaging around 10 minutes each is 6420 minutes, 107 hours of farming, or 4,5 days of non-stop farming.

Meanwhile, I am saving all the loot I get that is used to make the Viceroy armor. All but the paints are easy to get. Jori give Orange paint, but with over 5000 kills on them I barely got 400.
If I will ever go and try to get the Modified Viceroy, I don’t know. It is not the costs per se that are holding me back, more the fact that whatever PED I put into it will be lost as I cannot sell it when I am done with it. I will have to weigh the pro’s and con’s and make up my mind once the times comes.

Since I don’t have any pictures to post, have some music.

 

IFN Soldier Lizzy’s Log
Entry 25 : Mission Hunting

A long time ago I made a spreadsheet for max and min maturity hunting. Listed all the creatures on the basis of health, from lowest to highest. As of this day I still use the spreadsheet, even after finding a complete interstellar one.

With shortblade hunting I first figured out what weapons I wanted. TT knives for puny’s, then Khorum Ice Dagger, so forth. This is how it looks like now minus the Carabok mission that I have finished.



You can see what stages of missions I already completed (yellow) and I even color coded the stage 6 missions by what I deem worthwhile for my personal goals. There are some creatures mission from the list of course, but this is just to show the general picture.

Now I can easily see what mission I can do with what weapon as I slowly work my way up. Puny missions are in their TT knife bracket, Jori / Ostelok / Halix / Feran are for the E.L.M. knife or the Khorum Ice Dagger.

So what’s the use of all this? Can’t you just go out and hunt whatever?

By working my way down the list I try my best to make sure that I will never hunt above my level. That with every new mission I am almost certain I got the skills to do it. I can make notes easy and I can satisfy my needs to plan stuff (way) ahead of time. Also because it all takes time, I have an easier time to keep my bankroll where I need it to be.

Sounds a bit too good to be true.

And it is. A lot of mission rewards I have little use for, some mobs have zero MU so it’s hard to earn back losses at times. And grinding puny mobs, or any mob, can become rather tedious and boring.

My advice, you either go nuts with a list like this as I am doing, or you do research. Lots of research. What mob do you want to hunt? Does it give skill rewards you want/need? Does it give loot with enough MU to at least have a chance at breaking even? And don’t forget, eco hunting reduces your losses, even if it is by 1%.

I’m happy to talk to anyone in game if they have questions about hunting, but I give no guarantees that I can help you. Don’t come to me when you complain about massive losses or 50% returns but got no spreadsheet/logs to back up your claims.

Lootius is love,
Spreadsheets are life,
Give me GR results,
Before I poke the IFN with my knife.
‘Meh.’

Ned, the part-time poet.

Yeah ok... I might be a bit bored of farming at the moment seeing how much I've posted this week.

 

IFN Soldier Lizzy’s Log
Entry 26 : BatSim Walkthrough.

 

I made a drinking game where I take a shot every time you say "easy!" in that cute Dutch accent. Now I'm extremely intoxicated.


(Great vid tho!)

 

IFN Soldier Lizzy’s Log
Entry 27 : Gold Rush Results

The results are in! I am so happy right now! Yes, I did enjoy sleeping under the stars of Arkadia, but no damn star would keep me dry from rain or warm from the snow. With this new apartment at Valiant Firebase I can display my trophies, store my uniforms and stay dry and warm if needed. Love it! I may not be assigned to Valiant Firebase myself, but I am assigned to Resolute Firebase. The last time I was there, there were no apartments.



Dylan from the IFN allowed me to pick from a few apartments, and I chose apartment #10. Not only because of the number, but also for the location and the view.



Alas, now I need to get back into the world, and start collecting furniture. A small part of me wants to decorate my new home only with things I find, but I might be in the market for a table or two.

So, with all the universal ammo I had, I felt like I needed to liquidate some of this ammo for furniture. Lo and behold I got my first Hall of Fame entry for mining!



So this will partly go to furniture, but I also decided I wanted to get rid of the Universal Ammo in favor of getting an Ozpyn 1X2 shortblade. I did mention earlier that I would sell the apartment if I’d win it, but after getting so lucky this week in both BatSim and now mining, I am going to hold off on that idea.

 

Don't jinx my luck!

 

IFN Soldier Lizzy’s Log
Entry 28 : Discovery

Today I made two discoveries! Else Light - Bravo (+blueprint)



And this is what the lamp looks like when put on a ceiling.



There is also one on the Arkadia auction for an insane price. Be one of the first to own one!

*EDIT*

I discovered two more items! Else Chair - Alpha (+blueprint)



And this is what it looks like when placed in an apartment.



There is also one of these to be found on the Arkadia Auction.

Happy decorating!

 

IFN Soldier Lizzy’s Log
Entry 29 : More changing of plans

Over the last week I have done some thinking. Reading other message boards I came across a comment that really struck. It basically came down to having to figure out your own endgame determined by the PED you either have, or are able to deposit periodically. This would not only determine your playstyle, but also your activities.

It made me think about things. How eco am I really playing? Am I making the right choices? So forth and so on. My first big decision was to stop hunting creatures at max maturity. Only hunting at the lowest maturity for me. There is less risk vs rewards, but there should be more stable returns at a lower cost per creature.
With that decision also comes less expenses for armor, healing and possibly future weapons. So I also decided to sell some of the weapons I got on the auction.
Also, on making the right choices, I am dropping all mining and crafting activities. I’ve listed some of my blueprints on the auction, and crafted materials as a result. The PED is better spend on holding on to loot stacks to sell for MU. That will eventually cover some losses. Doing low cost hunting might enable me to slowly increase my PED reserves by deposits from the home front, causing me to slowly move up in mob difficulty. Also selling some crap that I have will help me move forward a bit too.

All fine and dandy these changes. Now here are somethings I won’t change. I will keep my apartment as I won it fair and square, and fuck not feeling like an Arkadian citizen -army personnel or colonist-. I am going to stick with the idea of only decorating my apartment with items I loot, not crafted. Mainly for the challenge. I am still sticking with shortblades, but I know it will be the TT ones for a while. I will probably avoid doing BatSim until the reward bug is fixed*. I still want to get the adjusted resto chip. I might consider leveling the Ruby Corinthian Kanin I got because it will be a while before I can get a Hermetic Perfected ring, but I don’t know when I will find myself back on Calypso again. Willingly. And last but not least, I am still planning to do all Arkadian hunting missions with the exception of Magurg Female and the Dehera defenders**.



*The improved reward gives 1/10th of what they told it would be. So get 5% loot, you actually get 0,5%, get the 90% and you actually get only 9% of the bonus loot pool.

**Magurg Female and the Dehera Defender missions would require farming Aakas 1 (cheapest option) for 4 years straight doing 20 runs minimum per day. I know they are also found in Sal’Diresh, but I don’t know the count per dungeon.

 

IFN Soldier Lizzy’s Log
Entry 30 : ‘Meh’

That was the last week. ‘Meh’. Nothing more to it. Back on Calypso messing with pets as I told myself no hunting until Loot 2.0 is in play. I have decided that I wanted a Corinthian Silver Kanin, mostly for the looks. I am currently leveling a Ruby as I have yet to find a Silver. The looks are mostly because of my new outfit to fit in a bit better with the colonists in the universe.



Zone Shirt, Zone Pants and Mannell Shoes. No dyes, not textures, nothing. I have to thank Auktuma from Calypso for the shirt and pants.

Other than shopping I did do a little hunting, but nothing much special. I went after Eudorian Devils, but after realizing I don’t have the skill to tame the rares (I found a Sapphire) I stopped doing that too.

Now, back to spamming trade chat in Twin Peaks. To sell some pets and to buy a Silver Kanin.

 

IFN Soldier Lizzy’s Log
Entry 31 : Name change

Today I asked MA if they could change my name. A small change, but nonetheless rather important. They granted my request.

From now on I am called: IFN Soldier Lizzy Storm.

Now, please don’t all go out and ask for a name change. MA is very clear about reasons not to change names. The name of you avatar is your identity in game, especially since you are only allowed one account – one character. (Yes, there are alt avatars, MA states on their website that you technically can make alt accounts, but all accounts will be locked if there is an investigation on one of them due to various reasons.)

Since I have been known as Lizzy Storm for a long time now, even with a new account I was able to have it changed – also in a way so it won’t conflict with avatar names known in the system.

If you are thinking about a name change, make sure it is part of your identity like it was for me. You can also change your name if you were smart enough to use your real name as avatar names. As far as I know you cannot have your nickname changed, so only your first and last name on your avatar.

Anyway, I am overjoyed I can run around as Lizzy Storm again.