IntPiPotpourri

And so we come to the end of International Picture Posting Month. I hope this is a strong finish, though it is a bit eclectic. Seeing how as it is #MirialanMonday (for those in the know), I'll start off with a couple of my favorite recent pics. Heliantha (me) and Lulara (Scooter) are toiling away on Balmorra now. It's fun to see Heelee's many faces. Achillea, my trooper and Heelee's older sister, is ever the professional soldier. Heelee, the Smuggler, is a lot more expressive.

In this first pic, it looks like someone stole her puppy. (How about that duster, though? Njessi would probably kill me for putting my green-skinned beauty in a red coat.)

While she's generally a good character, Heelee gets to be a sarcastic butt a lot of the time. (Here, she's channeling her inner Han Solo. I kept her original "scamp" clothes from character creation and just this past Saturday outfitted Risha in the top and boots.)

And don't make Heelee angry. You wouldn't like her when she's angry. At the first sign of a boasting threat, Heliantha's likely to put a blaster bolt through someone. Par for the course in this game, but it felt really cool to take out an entire cantina full of thugs at the opening of Chapter 2.

And then there's Lulara, calm, serene . . . and gorgeous in that white and mint green ensemble she picked up on Alderaan.

Just look at the detail on her tunic. All too often, the costumes in this game seem a little plain, then you see something like this. (In the conversation I got this shot from, Heliantha is speaking. But for some reason, the camera was trained on Lulu.)

If Mirialans are not to your liking, how about some epic space shots? I like this one with Heelee's XS Freighter, silhouetted against a nearby star as it leaves Carrick Station (the Republic Fleet).

A space shot without a player ship in it! The Republic Valor-class cruiser Fortitude returns to its orbit following a harrowing descent into the atmosphere of Deralia.

I've been trying to get a decent shot of Lightspeed/Hyperspace, but it's hard to position my character properly. This one is pretty interesting, I think, with the characteristic streaking stars transitioning into the waves of hyperspace itself. (No wonder they need nav computers.)

This one is slightly more artful, taken by Heliantha from the central passageway of Lulara's Defender.

I've also been making progress on my Knight, Zarzamora. He and Lord Scourge are getting along famously. (Though, in a bug similar to Vector's impeccable imitation of Kaliyo, Scourge does a perfect Sgt. Rusk.)

"Don't cross the streams!"

And lastly, how about a few actions shots? I feel like I should try to take more of these with the user interface hidden, especially now that I have some buttons floating in the middle left of the screen.

But I do love the way the lightsaber effects look. (Don't ask why Zarzamora's crystal is hot pink. It made sense at the time.)

This brings my personal total to 55 pics. It was rougher than I thought it would be. Congratulations to everyone who completed IntPiPoMo, 50 pics in 30 days!

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Lulara the Luminous

We're nearing the end of IntPiPoMo, and I need to make a strong finish. Since late October, when Scooter and I ran through the KotFE content on Glember and Morrenia, we've been focusing on brand new characters Lulara and Heliantha. While I enjoy the flirt and sass of my pigtailed Smuggler, Scooter has taken on the more serious character and storyline of the Jedi Consular, reflecting the Mirialan archetypes Luminara Unduli and Bariss Offee. (All these pics are from our latest trip across Nar Shaddaa.)

Speak softly, and carry a big Trandoshan. Qyzen Fess will not put up with your crap.

While Heliantha hands out free tickets to the gun show, you can see Lulara racing into the action.

Where I might have jumped to Tharan Cedrax (and his holographic helpmate, Holiday) at the end of Nar Shaddaa, Scooter has stuck with her trusty Trandoshan.

"Darth Lulara" has a nice ring to it. Just put on a haughty air and make a few threats.

IntPiPoMo is here! Chestnut has details, but the TL;DR is 50 pics in 30 days. With only a few more days, get to it! And let Chestnut know in the comments on her post.

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. If you repost part or all of the work (for non-commercial purposes), please cite me as the author and include a link back to this blog. If you are reading this post through RSS or Atom feed—especially more than a couple hours after publication—I encourage you to visit the actual page, as I often make refinements after the fact. The mobile version also loses some of the original character of the piece due to simplified formatting.

A Different Kind of Game

In a bit of a departure—OK, a massive departure—from our typical weekend gaming, Scooter and I had the opportunity to attend a sport almost unheard of on these storied pages: American Football. A local high school we have an interest in made it to the 6A (school size) area playoffs, meaning a trip to AT&T Stadium, the home field of the Dallas Cowboys.

How exciting it was for these young athletes to storm the field in a major sports arena. The stadium will hold 80,000 rabid football fans. Not so many showed up for this high school tournament, but there were still plenty of fans on both sides.

We were rooting for the Greywolves to beat the Stallions. Both teams had dominated their respective local leagues and now were coming together for the first time to compete.

Like many sporting events, American Football (especially in Texas) is steeped in ritual and tradition. Every game begins with playing the national anthem and honoring the American flag, as well as those who defend it. Usually, this ceremony is handled by members of the Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (JROTC).

Scooter and I got prime seats (we'd never normally be able to afford) in the mezzanine right on the 50-Yard line. We also got a parking spot (normally reserved for VIPs) as close as you can get to the stadium entrance without having disability license plates. Unfortunately, I didn't think to snap a picture of that.

I ended up spending half the game watching spectacular plays like this one on the "Jumbotron" view-screen that sat above the field (also visible in the flag ceremony picture). The only bigger screen in Texas belongs to a nearby NASCAR track, Texas Motor Speedway.

Not only the football teams, but also other organizations like the marching bands, got the thrill of a lifetime performing at Cowboy Stadium.

The Greywolves defense kept the normally high-scoring Stallions to a single touchdown, and the teams were tied at the end of regulation play.

Unfortunately, after a round of overtime, the Stallions came out ahead by a point. The final score was 14-13. Congratulations to the Stallions on their victory. And also congratulations to the Greywolves on their spectacular run this year. They had the best football season in the history of the decade-old high school.


IntPiPoMo is here! Chestnut has details, but the TL;DR is 50 pics in 30 days. Get to it! And let Chestnut know in the comments on her post.

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. If you repost part or all of the work (for non-commercial purposes), please cite me as the author and include a link back to this blog. If you are reading this post through RSS or Atom feed—especially more than a couple hours after publication—I encourage you to visit the actual page, as I often make refinements after the fact. The mobile version also loses some of the original character of the piece due to simplified formatting.

swtor IN SPACE!

Getting pictures of starscapes in Star Wars: The Old Republic involves capturing a lot of rocket engines. But they are worth it for the beauty. Let's start off with a fairly recent pic, Morrenia's Sith Fury, the Tempest, on approach to the Imperial station at Ziost. The pale blue world was beautiful . . . before.

Our second pic is actually part of a pair. Rowanblaze's (yes, I have a character named thus) Defender, Tranquility, getting ready to land on the Smuggler's Moon over Nal Hutta.

We learn a couple things as the Tempest nears the Vertical City. First, that Imps land at a different time of the month than Pubs, but around the same time of day (or night). Second, Nar Shaddaa is not tidal locked the way our own moon is.

Achillea's BT-7 Thunderclap, Havoc's Honor, moves to land on Tatooine, the planet farthest from the bright center of the universe. (And yet, still pretty bright.)

This is one of my favorite SWTOR pics, and the one that graces the desktop of my gaming rig. This time, Silverleaf's D5-Mantis, Wayfarer, departs the Imperial Dreadnought Tyrant, in orbit of Corellia.

The next few pics show the marked increase in detail BioWare devoted to cutscenes in the Rise of the Hutt Cartel and Shadow of Revan expansions. In the first, Wayfarer plies its way through an asteroid field in the Prelude to SoR.

Here, we find Wayfarer on approach to the Pirate Haven, Rishi, with the Rishi Maze spiraling in the background.

Finally, the Tempest peels off, setting course for Ziost after receiving a distress signal from an old friend.

I hope you've enjoyed this ever so brief tour of the Galaxy. We didn't even have to leave the ship.

IntPiPoMo is here! Chestnut has details, but the TL;DR is 50 pics in 30 days. Get to it! And let Chestnut know in the comments on her post.

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. If you repost part or all of the work (for non-commercial purposes), please cite me as the author and include a link back to this blog. If you are reading this post through RSS or Atom feed—especially more than a couple hours after publication—I encourage you to visit the actual page, as I often make refinements after the fact. The mobile version also loses some of the original character of the piece due to simplified formatting.

Little Coruscant

Heliantha and Lulara have just finished their sojourn on Nar Shaddaa, and I wanted to post a few more pics from the beautifully rendered Smuggler's Moon.

I'm sure a lot of folks in the United States associate Nar Shaddaa with Las Vegas and other gambling meccas. But despite the obvious parallels with Sin City, I believe the devs drew more inspiration from the neon jungles of the Far East.

I wish I had decent nighttime pictures of my visit to South Korea's Uijeongbu and Seoul earlier this year, but these daylight snapshots will have to do for comparison. Imagine all those signs you see lit up against a black sky.

The frequent public announcements in Huttese only add to the feel of an exotic city in a foreign land for this American traveler.

The story goes that the deep rose sky is a result of massive pollution on the moon, but at least one does not need injections or a face mask to breathe in the ecumenopolis.

It's always good to have nice ride in a party city like Nar Shaddaa. I even have a speeder that matches the city perfectly, my Prinawe Congregate.

The nightlife on Nar Shaddaa is amazing, of course. Here, a group of Imperial RPers party it up in the Slippery Slopes Cantina on the Promenade.

Remember to "Ride Responsibly," folks.

The Vertical City seems like the perfect place for a former Imperial Agent to hang out, so my Legacy Stronghold is attributed to Versteckt, my IA, and the first character I got to 50, back when that was a bigger deal.

In a feeble attempt at creativity, I snapped this photo of some medical (torture) beds after dispatching some evil scientist.

I tried to get a shot of what many of my journeys through SWTOR look like. Here's a slightly Indiana Jones-esque map journey, with Heelee and Lulu speeding through the Red Light Sector on their Meirm Agamas

I'd hate to have to live on the surface of Nal Hutta, but it certainly casts a beautiful, ephemeral glow through the red clouds of the Smuggler's Moon.

I'll let this shot be the transition to my space vista collection, which I hope to post tomorrow or Sunday.

November is International Picture Posting Month (IntPiPoMo)! Chestnut has details, but the TL;DR is 50 pics in 30 days. Get to it! And let Chestnut know in the comments on her post. Some of these pics I have posted previously, I only count the new ones in my total.

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. If you repost part or all of the work (for non-commercial purposes), please cite me as the author and include a link back to this blog. If you are reading this post through RSS or Atom feed—especially more than a couple hours after publication—I encourage you to visit the actual page, as I often make refinements after the fact. The mobile version also loses some of the original character of the piece due to simplified formatting.