These are the Voyages of the U.S.S. K'uu-ch'ish. . .

It seems like I was doing this just last week.

Captain's Personal Log, Stardate 92827.72: It seems like I barely even got a chance to pin on my fourth pip, and already my senior staff and I are transferring to a new ship, the Cochise. It's beefier than the Crazy Horse, with a much larger crew and the latest weapon systems available. In addition, I have a new crew member, Cmdr Remei Castell, a liberated Borg who is a wizard at starship engineering. (Ginny isn't exactly happy about it, but that has nothing to do with Cmdr Castell's abilities.) Apparently, the task ahead is more hazardous and important than Starfleet had originally thought. On the other hand, I can't help wondering if the recent business with the Devidians and Section 31 may not also have something to do with my sudden promotion. In any event, after getting outfitted for anticipated contingencies, we'll be leaving Earth Spacedock yet again for Romulan territory, and from there, who knows?

Named after a great chief of the Chiricahua Apache in 19th century Arizona, the U.S.S. K'uu-ch'ish, NCC-93054, is a Patrol Escort, one of two escort variants available to Rear Admirals, Lower Half; this one an extra engineering console and ensign bridge position.

Plaque Dedication: "We will make peace; we will keep it faithfully. But let us go around free. . ."~~Chief K'uu-chi'ish. As with the namesakes of all Locke's Escort ships, K'uu-ch'ish (or Cochise) led his warrior band in hostilities against the encroaching United States.

As always, I spent way too much time with the various combinations before settling on what you see. I almost dumped the center pylon "wings," but kept them so as to display the Federation News Service logo. The Sagittarius/Virgo paint scheme keeps the vaguely warpaint look, while adding some "southwest" motives. As an escort, I felt the ship needed a darker appearance, making it harder to see in open space.

It took me a little over a week to level up through the Captain levels, partly from learning to use the Duty Officer System. Six of those levels were on Saturday, and the last on Sunday. Every time I completed a mission from "Spectres" (the Devidian episode), I got another level. Come to think of it, the only other story stuff I've done on Locke since returning to STO is the "Temporal Ambassador" mission left over from the Third Anniversary event, involving the crew of the Enterprise-C. I'll bet DTI just loves Locke's mission reports. After paupering myself to replace weapons and consoles still on hand from when Locke was a lieutenant commander, I took K'uu-ch'ish on a shakedown cruise into a Borg incursion daily. She handles pretty well, and seems to have plenty of firepower. But I did blow up a few times when I drew too much attention to myself.

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Levels vs. Experience

 This is a response I wrote as a comment on my STO Fleet's "Editor-in-chief" Tipa's West Karana blog:

I remember talking to a friend about an alternative progression scheme where XP would be used to "purchase" skills and attributes (SA), with no real class distinctions limiting which SA are available, nor a particular level system other than the amount of XP spent (hello STO). He didn't think it would be practical, as the choices would be too complex, and people would be frustrated by the system; or that people would still define SA a la "Elitist Jerks" and pigeonhole "classes" or roles. I never played Tabula Rasa, but the leveling system seemed kind of like this, from what I read; where you started with a generic soldier character and specialized as you went.

What we are really talking about is a system that reflects reality in terms of the way we think we train in real life. Expertise is important. You wouldn't expect a peewee soccer player to make it in the World Cup. River rapids, cliff faces, and ski runs are rated for the expertise required to navigate them successfully. Of course, a game is compressed in almost every way, including the time it takes to become an "expert." But is leveling not the way we train in real life? Martial arts have a colored belt system, where participants demonstrate certain skills and are certified to have achieved a higher level. We have levels in school all the way from kindergarten to twelfth grade (in the U.S.) and then levels in college (albeit only slightly less regimented). I like the way WoW refers to the levels as "seasons of adventure," at least in the letter you get in-game when you hit 80.

Of course, I know my own skills as a player are much improved from when I first started playing WoW about four years ago. It takes much less time to level a lowbie toon than when I first played my hunter in June of 2006. And thankfully, this understanding of game mechanics translates to new games to one degree or another. The question then becomes: how do we make the leveling process less repetitive and more like true experience? And perhaps just  as important especially in our STO fleet: how do we get characters of different level playing together so that each player has a meaningful experience in the encounters?

How I Role

After a long, fruitless night (my daughter needed to go to the emergency room, but they found nothing wrong) and a day recovering and setting up a couple initial pages (the pages listed underneath the blog header), I am ready to throw my two cents into the the blog discussion started by MMOGamerChick, and also touched on by Adventure Historian and Amuntoth. EDIT: CaptainRuz put forth his perspective, as well.

So here are my discernible character trends:
1. I am an altoholic.

I am addicted to "The Glow." I have 30 characters on WoW, 3 captains on STO, and I started 3 characters on LOTRO although that was  mainly to try out the different mechanics. I guess that's why I have so many toons on WoW, as well. This can be a good thing. My main on WoW, Rowanblaze, is the fourth character I roled. I don't know if I would have continued playing the game if I had been stuck with one character. Plus, Blizzard kind of encourages multiple alts with the "rested" bonus, where you get more XP per kill when you haven't played the character for a while. I never really play most of the toons I've started, but I am attached to them nonetheless.

2. Most of my avatars are attractive females. Those that aren't are "cool."

I know there are opinions about men rolling female RP characters. The friend who hooked me on WoW always played male characters because "that's me having that adventure." OK, I didn't know you were a 3-foot gnome who can shoot fire from your fingers. I may not be the first guy to say it, but I never heard anyone else before I did: I would prefer to follow around a female than a male. I didn't realize that preference would call my sexuality into question.

I do have male characters, but for the most part I didn't like the male avatars in WOW, which is the game I've played for far longer than any other online game. Some notable exceptions, in the "cool" category: Tauren males, troll males, and dwarf males. I thought it was interesting that the dwarves in LOTRO could only be males.

Along that line, Locke is the first avatar that I even tried to actually make to resemble me in real life.

3. I have a definite, if subtle, naming convention. Almost all my characters have a plant as part of their name. OK This is obviously an intentional thing. Some of the names I've come up with are pretty clever if I do say so myself. A few examples:

-Poppyshock, a Draenai Shaman, is one of my favorites, and my Twitter handle.

-Hazel Wingnut is named for an herb reputed to be used by witches.

-Pawpaw Mojo (a male) is named for a banana-like fruit grown in the southeast United States.
-Rowanblaze and Rowan Starblanket are named for a tree sacred to the Celtic druidic religion. Ironically, I think "Rowanblaze" is a little stilted, definitely not my favorite name, yet she is my main on WoW.

Notable exception: Donovan Taggart Locke. I couldn't come up with a good in-universe plant name for a human male after using "Rowan" for my first STO toon.

4. I prefer healers.

My two main characters on WOW and STO--the aforementioned Rowans--are both healers. I have played a ton of toons on WoW. I like the survivability of being able to heal myself in the middle of a fight. And other people appreciate someone willing to perform in that support roll.

STO Fleet: Federation News Service

I don't know who reads this who is not already aware, but a new STO Fleet was formed on Wednesday: "Federation News Service, " consisting of STO/gaming bloggers, twitterers, and such. I was invite to join in short order, and jumped at the chance. Maybe we are a collective self-licking ice cream cone, but I am looking forward to playing with these wonderful people. Thanks for inviting me, guys.

I would like to take this chance to thank @leolook for inviting me to my prior fleet, Federation 1st Fleet. I had a good time with you guys, too. It's a shame I can't be part of two fleets.

Some members of the Federation News Service. I don't all the names but I know someone will fill me in. From left: IDK, @Tipa, @Sunsage (me, back to the camera), the glowing guy is IDK, @Caylinn, and @Bluekae.

Most of us can invite people to the Fleet if you are interested. No need to have a blog yourself.