Progress Report: Lounging around in Landmark

Hello everyone and welcome back to another exciting weekly recap of your favourite… hmm no… all round OK. NO, the blog you put up with.

To be honest haven’t really had much variety during the week. I’ve been doing dailies in Hearthstone and building my decks further. I was playing the warlock a lot more this week but realiese now I don’t really like it. The card advantage you can get is good but I’m not that great at captilizing on it just yet and certain rush decks just annihalate you if you don’t get the right cards. Might go back to shaman some more.

I Now have a 2 star restaurant in Cook Serve Delicious which starts upping the challenge a lot more. Coordinating that menu dishes can is much more multitasking now but manageable most of the time. It just involves creating a menu where you can change-up the timing. I enjoy the ones you prep and then cook as they give you that extra time.

I ended up trying the Challenge set forth by Doone, the american challenge menu and did very well; a combo of 50 which put me in the lead. Of course I bragged in Twitter to very soon after the master chef himself beat me, and quite convincingly. It’s all recorded on his twitch channel too for the world to see (20 mins in). The number to beat is now a huge 77, which is out of reach at my current restaurant level… but I will have revenge in the next challenge

Now the rest of your regular broadcast will involve me praising Landmark so STAY TUNED!

I’ve spent an insane amount of hours already in Landmark, more than I’d care to admit. I’ve been exploring, digging, progressing and building and even in this stage of Alpha there is enough there to keep me busy for a little while to go.

After spending an entire night digging out Tungsten and Gold I able to craft my Virdian Pick. that might seem like a large amount of grind to get a simple pick upgrade but if you think about it, in a game like this it’s equivalent to maybe getting to the next tier of raid gear. It puts onto a new path of progression and unlocks things for you so one night of work really doesn’t seem like much.

While doing this your also gaining a tonne of resources to use in your building as well. From last nights digging escapades I ended up with around 100k stone which should enable me to finish up the building project.

While exploring around for nodes and gathering materials I saw some amazing building projects out there. I’ve been avidly following the forums and reddits for amazing build projects, some of which are truly inspiring but there is something so much more impressive about seeing them in person, up close. You don’t get to feel the sheer size and scale of some of the builds and with knowledge of the tools you understand just how creative these people are.

A lot of them put my little build project to shame but I’m still happy with what I’ve done. Figuring out the tools has taken some time, how to scale and create the right angles and shapes. Much of the more interesting components and pieces seem to involve combining build tools and thinking outside the box in how to create specific shapes.

The best thing I’ve learned is cutting or making a large-scale pieces and then taking a cross-section to paste multiple times. Corner pieces and parts that combine have a habit of meshing together in weird ways or creating odd angles so taking the cross-section enables smooth sheer corners. I recently crafted the smooth to as well so I think I might just spend a night making a collection of columns.. you know.. cause I can now.

Anyway, here’s what I’m working at right now.

It all started off with the Airship I wanted to build. I’m not exactly happy with it just yet; the wood types feel off, I think it needs to be deeper and it needs a lot more detail work. It’s also a bit blockier than i would have liked as I started it right after that last wipe before getting the building tools… oh well. It’s three levels right now, the bottom i think being the living quarters for me, the captain. Top level is for the passengers as well as the steering platform

Middle level I believe is going to be the engine room as well as maybe the cannons and such

That was all i was going to work at to start off with but then I thought why not make the claim into some sort of Airship Landing area

I dug out a bit of the mountain side which is going to be the bar/crafting area maybe then having some stairs down towards sleeping quarters or something else.. not sure yet.

I have a small ticket office along the main path leading to a treetop overhang

which then has a bunch of buildings up the top that I’m not really sure what are going to be just yet

It’s been a lot of fun building it all so far and just seeing what the tools can do. I love squeezing out the creative juices too, it’s a good break from the usual mindless killing of the usual multiplayer game.

Eventually if I dig out enough Iron ore and other metals I have another funny build plan in mind but that’s a long way away yet.

For now I think I’m reasonably happen to be progressed this far, the higher tier picks an axes might be a more long-term play but I’m happen enough with the resources I can get now. Wood and stone seem to be your basics with a lot of options for textures and now I can also use marble which seems cleaner and much more defined than stone.

I am thinking about getting my own crafting stations. My friend Grish has the basics above me and there are a couple on my shard that seem to have some of the higher level ones but it seems good to have for myself. There isn’t that much you can build just yet and I have most of the main tools but later on I’m guessing there will be a lot of props to craft and having a crafting table handy would save a lot of time. I also might get to meet some of the neighbours which would be good.

Now for the week to come I think I might just take a break from Landmark. I’ve done a lot of what I wanted to do which is test out the mechanics, the progression and building enough that I’ve got a good impression. I’m definitely not finished with it at all but I don’t want to burn out on this early stage. I think I’ll continue to build a little, doing some detail work here and there as well as filling the area out with furniture and other items. Just no more 5 hour nights.

I might keep going with my star trek Online progress. I want to get more of those pretty ships. I’m also thinking about getting more into Starbound now that its had some big updates and the major wipes being done with. Stop on by the server if you after some multiplayer stupidity with me. Other than that..only time will tell.

Have a great week everyone and may your ore be plentiful and that bastard burled wood rain from the sky