Constant Learning is Sometimes Disappointing

Daily Ramble 23: Constant Learning is Sometimes Disappointing

One of the things I like about the games I play is that there’s always something new to learn about. Today I learned the components needed to craft a bed and table in Albion since I wanted to gain their benefits for the laborers I’ve boarded on my island. I’ve also opened up a learning requirement in SMITE since I need to get up to 18 gods mastered in order to play in ranked mode. Sadly though, not all learning is good as I learned that a podcast I’ve really enjoyed has been canceled.

Furniture

One of the main things that a personal island does for someone is provide a place to build houses. These houses are places where you can store things, you can decorate, and you can invite laborers to stay as they provide work for you. I’ve got 2 houses so far and with the last upgrade of my island, I have room for a couple more that I’ll have to build sometime soon. My first house has a Magic Crafting laborer in it. He pretty much has been working to gather trophies that can be used to improve laborer performance. Once I start crafting more, I’ll have him make staffs or other magic items. The other house has Merchant laborers – 2 of them – who actually bring in silver every day.

All laborers perform better if you decorate the house they live in with various furniture. As mentioned above, the trophies can be placed in a house to grant a little bonus to productivity, but the main item is a bed for each of the laborers to sleep in. These can be purchased at the marketplace or you can craft them, like I did at the toolmaker. While I was there, I also built a table for each of my houses that supports a bunch of people in the house.

With the furniture I figure I’ll start getting better returns from the laborers – so much so that I should be able to use the proceeds to build my next set of houses.

There’s so many things to do in Albion it seems I’m always discovering new items to craft, new spells or skills to learn, or new bonuses to pursue, and I still haven’t even moved into the more dangerous, higher level zones.

A New Mage in SMITE

In SMITE, there always seems to be something new to do since I’ve only really played 9 different gods. I’m not sure how many characters they have in the game, but its most likely more than 100. While I’ve seen quite a few as opponents, I’ve tended to gravitate towards a few but now that I want to get into ranked play, I’ve got to expand my roster. When I started playing and realized how much fun the game was, I purchased a bundle that gave me all gods then and in the future so I don’t have to worry about purchasing anything, but learning about all the gods is another thing. There’s so much to figure out about each god. Right now I am trying to learn about Scylla.

She’s a mage which is a class I tend to like in most games as they are primarily ranged characters, but I think I should learn a few gods from the other classes so if called upon to fulfill that role in a game, I won’t be totally clueless. If anyone has suggestions about Guardians, Junglers, or Warriors that are easy to learn, please let me know.

Human Race

Finally, I’ve been listening to a podcast called Human Race put out by Runner’s World for the past few years and I’ve really enjoyed it. Sadly, today’s episode was the last – the magazine has decided not to keep it going.

This podcast, hosted by Rachel Swaby was a great bridge between real human stories and runners, telling wonderful tales about real people who run, suffer tragedies, and rise above adversity. I’ve loved listening to stories about car crash survivors, running streaks, running to beat Alzheimer’s Disease, and people accomplishing things society tried to prevent them from doing. It’s been an uplifting break in a world that seems to be filled with negativity and I’m sorry to see that Runner’s World has canceled it. Hopefully Rachel will find a place where she can bring something similar to the world – it’s certainly needed.