Hobnanigans Fun

Hobnanigans Fun

This year is flying by... while I have read that lotro is not putting out "major" new content soon, I am very content with that as I can barely keep up with the minor content updates. Fangorn? Yes!... it is an update, but I think it came out the same week as the Anniversary festival, then as I was getting ready to go toward Fangorn, I got drawn in to a few raids and other activities, not to mention that the stat calculations were changed and I spent time playing with "new lotro math", plus there were new quests in Trollshaws to see (yes, they were for level 40-ish but I don't pass up any quests ever), and then along came Hobnanigans!

I will get to Fangorn eventually, but I wanted to recap some of the fun from Hobnanigans. It will be a short duration mini-event that pops up periodically (One rumor I read was a few days each month; we shall see). 

So, in short, it is a game of soccer (or hockey) where your team tries to boot chickens into the opposing goal. The game is setup to be 3v3 or 6v6. The field for 6v6 is slightly bigger than the 3v3 field. There were a few glitches that I'm sure will be worked on, but overall, it was addicting and lots of fun. It had some neat loot to barter also.

I didn't get many good pictures while playing, but here is one where the Game Hen (the chicken ball) decided she had enough and flew up and refused to come down. That did seem to happen a lot, especially during 6v6, undoubtedly something to be worked. Regardless, it was still fun hanging out with friends doing something that didn't involve dire situations saving the world. You can see that a few friends and I were in Red (see the R above the heads and the added red cloaks).

Game Hen has had enough whacking at Hobnanigans

Pet Chickens: Here is the chicken pen for chickens that can be bartered. There are six of them.

All the Chickens

Ok; the white chicken is reasonably easy to get. I won a couple of white chicken tokens plus enough Hobnanigans tokens to get that one. Friend Lyn also won a Red Chicken token. I didn't see any of the more "advanced" chicken tokens and clearly, this weekend wasn't enough for me to barter a more advanced chicken as the prices were fairly high.

Hobananigans - Chicken pet barter costs

So, I got a White Chicken. I'm no Loremaster so I'm not used to animals following me around. I can't imagine wanting that while questing, but while flying around town or at festivals... sure, why not. :)

SuperChicken and Danania at home

Cosmetic Egg-quipment: There were a few cosmetics that could be bartered. I'll always get all of the festival outfits and put them in our vault but given the other goodies to be had and my limited token supply, I passed on all of these.

Here are the barter prices.

Hobnanigans - equipment barter costs

Chicken Housing stuff: There was lots of Hobnanigans housing stuff. There was so much I missed taking screenies of page 2. Here are several views of stuff.

Hobnanigans - housing stuff (part 1)

Hobnanigans - housing stuff (part 2)

I went with the most I could afford and got the Small Hobnanigans Field with White Chicken. It looks neat. :) Here is the field sitting at my house. You can gauge the relative size of it by the size of my guard dog sitting behind it. It fits a "Large Yard" space.

Small Hobnanigans Field with White Chicken

Hobnanigans Emotes: The chicken pet and the miniature housing item were good, but what I really liked were the Emotes. I will probably attempt to barter more emotes next time. There were a total of five emotes to be bartered.

I got the "Chicken Drive" Emote. Here is a shot of me whacking chickens at home in Falathlorn. Good times. 

Supergirl tries out the Chicken Drive Emote

Deeds and Titles: There are titles associated with deed reputation level. Top it out to become a Hobnanigans All-star. 

I am definitely looking forward to playing again with friends and making new ones at the next Hobnanigans Games. Keep a look out! 

Treasure Hunt, Bilbo’s Birthday, and CSTM

What a weekend I had! Since it was a change of “normal” pace from deeding away, it didn’t feel like I was as eventful, but looking back at all that happened I had so much fun! The festivals have been rolling in and next up is Fall festival starting now, so exciting!

Today, I will talk about the excitement of the treasure Hunt, Frodo and Bilbo’s Birthday, and visiting the CSTM Live Event.

Treasure Hunt:

Let’s start with the Treasure Hunt. I had written a different post about steeds which I will delay until next weekish. In that post, I mentioned my disillusionment about “random” drop steeds, preferring that they be bartered, even if the cost is outrageous. Then, Treasure Hunt is released, and yay, a bartered goat! Sure, it cost 1000 tokens, but if you really wanted it, the 1000 token mark was very achievable.

The lildanas and I went nuts at the previous treasure hunt in February, 2012. I think it only lasted a day, but we made the most of it. We had gotten everything there was to get, except all the steeds. True, we did take 8 home. I only got one though, the Treasure Laden Goat so I am in it to win it this time. Delion was still silently bragging about having won all three steeds during that February event (Less-math-more-ponies).

Dig, dig, dig. Just keep digging, just keep digging… la la la la la la la la….

Yay for Huge caches! I think we won a steed about 1 out of less than 10 huge caches. I do like that the event restarts almost immediately after the previous one ends. It really keeps things moving!

Wins! Of course, all the steeds show up here on danania.net on the page All the Steeds.

Cave claw masked horse for the win!

Time to take him out flying.

Treasure Laden horse… win! (I still don’t like random winning. However, like most of the “random” wins for me, so much of it is about persistence. You do not even want to know how many hours I treasure hunted between last event and this event. OMG. Thankfully, I really really enjoy the Treasure Hunt.)

Treasure Laden goat! Ok, I had the goat last time, but he was feeling left out of the show. Hey, I think someone is following us… Aegthil is that you?? They’re always after me lucky charms…

The goat is a bit wide for me, so I threaded my leg through the saddle edge. Some might see this as a design flaw, but I am sure that is the way it is intended.

Threanody reports for duty to take over digging. Good luck hobbit! (I ride the Dunedain War-horse in this shot.)

Nimitar doesn’t miss a beat or a festival. If it is there to do, he will be there. He and Danaish wait patiently to be granted more picks to try their luck. (Nimitar rides the Nimble Black Goat).

So many people showed up at the Treasure Hunt! With the lack of things actually going wrong (see Farmer’s Faire and Summer dwarf races), I think this is a success!

Ytanya is excited about her “prospects”. Surely, there is a steed token in there for her?

Danaszar meets a Domesticated Green-back Cave-claw. It is so cute you could just /hug it. If you hug them all, you get a lovely title and complete the deed. Yay deeds!

Of course, the lildanas have their own pet cave-claw at the Angels house. (draigoch-statue-lil-danas-moving-day) We opted not to get another one right now just in case they might fight and leave the yard a mess. Turns out, the neighbors wouldn’t mind so much. We took a walk around and discovered that 76% of our neighbors were deadbeats that were locked out of their own homes, including all of the other kinhouses (one of which has gone into foreclosure and is up for sale). Go on, roam the neighborhood Trained cave-claw!

Finally, the star of the show has arrived. Here is the Harvest Brew Goat, the barter goat of the Treasure Hunt. Ok, this goat only has +62% speed, but it just might be the cutest goat I own (don’t tell the other goats). He is in the top ten goats for sure. Lol! I love the theme, and the stine on a stick out in front of it is a neat touch.

Emotes!

The Treasure Hunt emotes are some of my favorite! There are 6 available during the event, and thankfully they are at least Bound to Account. It would have been great had the Steeds also been Bound to Account, but they are in fact, Bound on Acquire. The 6 are: rich, counterfeit, inspectgem, pan, dowse, coinflip. Thankfully, I got them last time, so I had less things to think about while hunting for my steeds.

I am /rich! No doubt about that. Rich in friends. A sappier Supergirl would say these gold coins are just representation of blessings falling on me. (Aim your /heave over there…)

I check to make sure that the coins in my steed's pack are not /counterfeit (lilhobbits, don't put things in your mouth without washing them, that is a good way to get germy... that, and visiting the Foundation of Stone, very germy place.. Bring sanitizer).

You are getting sleepy…  /dowse. You are now under my control…

Oh Arkandon, don’t you know that these jedi mind tricks don’t work on Supergirl? I am not the droid you are looking for.

Yes, yes… I spy a diamond in the rough. Let me /inspectgem that for you.

Frodo and Bilbo’s Birthday

After Goldenstar, Frodo and Bilbo are two of the most famous hobbits in Middle Earth. If Frodo ran a site like CSTM (http://cstm.mymiddleearth.com/), he would be better known, but I digress.

Since it was Frodo and Bilbo’s birthday, I flew out to Rivendell to wish them well. Frodo snookered me into assisting him deliver a present to Bilbo, who was only like 100 meters away in Elrond’s house. For fun, I will lay out how the conversation went.

Meltera met me there so that we could celebrate birthdays together. Mebbe the Bagginses will have cake. Or pie. I like pie. And chocolate. Dark chocolate. Fudgey dark chocolate. with pie. Mmm... Where were we? Oh, yes.. let's go wish happy birthdays.

Hello Frodo! Happy Birthday! I would have come yesterday, but I had to dig up Treasure Laden steeds; you know how it is.

Frodo replies with asking me to visit Bilbo.

Mae Govannen, and Happy Birthday to you, Bilbo. Here is a present from Frodo.

Bilbo replies by asking me to deliver a present to Frodo. You know, he is standing in the next room? Oh fine, I will deliver it.

Hello again Frodo. Here is a present from Bilbo.

You want me to go tell him thank you… for you? You know, he is just across the hall? Le sigh…

Hiya Bilbo. Frodo says thanks. You are welcome. You have a present for me on your birthday? Hobbits are interestingly odd people. J You should walk across the hall and see Frodo some time. He has a neat ring that he wears on a chain around his neck.

Bilbo gave me the choice of receiving a toy flute or a toy dulcimer. They play a tune that lasts a couple of seconds and… that is it. It has a 30 minute CD. It is the thought that counts, right? J

CSTM Live Event

I got to enjoy the CSTM Live Event on Saturday! It turns out that CSTM was recording their weekly show but added on a streaming video while they were doing it. I usually fly across the spatial abyss into Landroval once a week or so to check fan mail and visit whoever happens to be around (thank you so much to all you who leave messages there J) and found my friends Tomrica and Goldenstar both in Bywater. It was great timing since CSTM was in the middle of their show.

As I headed to Bywater, there was quite a crowd and I found Tomrica waiting for me at the back. The poor thing won’t be able to see with all these trees standing in the way. I got a chuckle out of just how many hobbits there are around here. Yeah… I don’t make it to the Shire enough. Hobbits, hobbits everywhere.

It was a great gathering. It seems that if you get enough of the Lonely Mountain Band together, it is like a bring-your-own-party. I got to meet several lovely hobbits, including the hobbit-gnome Anthemisi and her dancing friend Carica.

Tomrica and Goldenstar pose for photos and autographs at the Green Dragon. These last two shots were taken by Tomrica, who is a most excellent photographer.

The Lonely Mountain Band hobbits ride a team of goats collected from the Treasure Hunt. Tomrica is out front, followed by (L-R) Galspi, Elyita, Carica, & Anthemisi.

How can you not smile seeing a line of hobbits riding goats?? That is so cute. Lol!

Steeds, Deeds, and Aegthil

All the Steeds!

One of the coolest things I have been working on lately is my Stable of Horses.

LOOK. For your convenience, It has its own tab right at the top of this blog. 

http://www.danania.net/p/all-steeds.html

There are links to pictures of all of the steeds in lotro (or currently, at least 74 of the 89 steeds I have in my stable… and counting, I'm working on it).

You will hear more about it next week also because I am trying to make it an uber Horse site that people actually want to visit! :D Friend Ravanel taught me how to make “Pages” on my blog so that opened up lots of possibilities. And friend Tomeoric taught me some basic html so that I could really sharpen its sleek look.

Give me your feedback and thoughts on it!

Deeds!

With less than 20 days to go and Summer festival about to begin, I made a final press to get through as many deeds as possible. “With a little help from my friends”, a la Beatles, I have been chipping away at it.

Some of the things that got knocked off lately…

Annuminas: Glinghant and Haudh Valandil, 75 Challenge mode. Only Ost Elendil Challenge remains.

Thank you Daweirdo, Morthin, Caramelkr, Rileigh, and Mudflapthefirst!

Fornost: All four wings of it, 75 Challenge mode! I went to Fornost as a young elf, but this was my first adventure back since the revamp. Some of it was surprisingly difficult! I guess that is why it is called “Challenge”.

Thank you Belegnost, Caylia, Nydhogg, Baroon, and Amoniel!

This shot looks way too much like the Moors… watching the horde preparing to roll in on top of us while we just hope for the best.

With the final Fornost boss dead, I can look out over the compound of the enemy knowing it was a job well done.

Dar Narbugud: Getting closer. There are 10 trolls in DN; and the slayer deed requires a killing of 60 trolls. Using a double-slayer-accelerator scroll, that is three full runs through DN (yay math). That isn’t terrible, but with one run down, several deeds were completed already. So basically, 40 trolls (or 20 trolls on double time) stand between me and my Wild Mountain Goat and the title “Saviour of Lothlorien”.

Thank you Riders of Rohan and my friends! This was one of the first times in a long time that I scheduled a raid (so it was meaningful that people showed up, hehe). Yay Nimitar, Macmerkin, Nidw, Macswife, Leirandir, Dandur, Vysion, Aradost, Ubermorgan, Morthin, and Minya!

Gate Crasher: After Nimitar and Dandur lead us through a steam-roll of DN, I arm twisted a few to come kill the two troll guardians of Isengard (finally!). I am now Supergirl, the Gatekeeper! Just as a note… don’t take these trolls lightly; I disregarded their ability lay the smack down and got flattened once (my own fault for bad agro management and running from healer and tank, lol).

Yay for the addition of Jastirria, Minlor, Shorimar, and Taisholae!

Lost Temple: Goodness, for a level 65 instance, the last fight against Ferndur is a doozy. Do not underestimate it. We won, but lost the Challenge mode. See the next picture? The Challenge mode = when you are struck with a nasty disease (yellow eye), you stand near the dead bodies on the ground, the disease explodes in a nasty disease cloud, and the bodies revive and assist the boss. You cannot stay in the cloud or you die. The Challenge is won when every single body is revived and killed. Unfortunately, we didn’t dial back the DPS enough to not kill the boss before we could get all the bodies up and moving. Next time.

Thank you Nimitar, Dirtdiver, Sailanarmo, Nitefox, and Eldjarn!

Hidden Deeds: The only hidden deeds (other than the stupid Golden egg) that I had not done were the Carnivore deed and the Emote deeds. Thank you Lalatheriel for all the meats and Daweirdo for the final stew and emotings. I have finished 13 of 16 emotings.

Carnivore hidden deed: This deed was modified within the past year with the removal of one of the meats from the game, and the Stew of Kings has been substituted.

The 16 emote hidden deeds are: bored, beg, rude, bow, cheer, salute, kiss, scold, laugh, cower, angry, flirt, thank, mock, surrender, confused. Rules: They do not count in instances, they cannot be incremented more than 5 times per day (some are less), they must be done TO you.

Solo! There is not much left that I can actually solo at this point. I soloed Nala-Dum and Lumul-nar to finish the deeds, I made progress on the Eldgang reputation (via Nurz skirmish and a Rift run), and am plodding away at Riddles Beneath the Inn (up to 43 of 83 Riddles).

Saruman: It was not in my scope to beat the Tower of Orthanc T2 before Rohan. That would have definitely cut into my festival time. Lol.

Yay to my Riders of Rohan team that lead us to victory against the Tower of Orthanc T1! Yay team: Vysion, Meledie, Clide, Memendil, Hybridd, Macswife, Dandur, Hahmburglar, Norinrad, Taradanag, and Hendred!

My friend Lothirieth posted something amazing…  A win over Saruman T2; one of the very few in the world. Check her out!

http://wanderingthroughmiddleearth.blogspot.com/2012/08/well-colour-me-surprised.html

I think that is what it looks like when a Giant Eagle smiles…

From Danania to Aegthil:

I got an interesting comment in the previous column from someone named Aegthil. http://www.danania.net/2012/08/steed-of-lore-master-farmers-faire-end.html#comment-form

Taken back a bit, I had not replied to it yet, and the next day, I discovered this post…

http://lotrominstrel.blogspot.com/2012/08/i-am-in-love-with-supergirl.html

The title alone says so much. Go read what Aegthil says.

In the words of Sally Carrera, “I create feelings in others that they themselves don’t understand, and blah, blah, blah, blah…”

Welcome to my home, Aegthil. You do know you have Competition, yes?

Here is the podcast in which Mysterixox expresses her adoration that I am Awesome…

http://lotroacademy.com/?p=962

And here is Goldenstar showing her love…

http://cstm.mymiddleearth.com/2012/05/recommended-reading-danania-net/

Are you ready to Bringiton??