February 11, 2018 Sunday Meeting
5pm
EST (UTC/GMT - 5)
Discord: Valar
Guild/meeting_place
Back to News
Transcript work by Varda.
Attending: (6)
Discord: Aranuir, Arien, Ar-Pharazon, Eonwe, Pallando, and Varda
LotRO: Aranuir, Varda
Before-meeting
Meeting begins
Membership:
Web:
Gaming:
General gaming report by Eonwe
Tolkien:
Topic 1: Trying to be secretive, emphasis on the Fellowship.
Topic 2 (during After-meeting): Did Bill the Pony make it back to the Shire eventually?
After-meeting:
Flashgaming Reviews by
Ar-Pharazon
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Before-meeting
(times are in Central from Varda, so add one hour for Eastern)
Eonwe Valar - Yesterday at 4:04 PM
Anyone else here?
Ar-Pharazon-V - Yesterday at 4:05 PM
Aiya!
Pallando-Valar - Yesterday at 4:05 PM
yes, for once!
Eonwe Valar - Yesterday at 4:05 PM
Hehe. Heya :}
Pallando-Valar - Yesterday at 4:05 PM
only been a few years..
Eonwe Valar - Yesterday at 4:05 PM
:}
Varda - Yesterday at 4:05 PM
Eonwe!
Aiya Pallando too
Ar-Pharazon-V - Yesterday at 4:05 PM
Aiya Varda too!
Varda - Yesterday at 4:06 PM
Got caught by the telephone, heh
Aiya Phar
Ar-Pharazon-V - Yesterday at 4:06 PM
Those phone wires can snag you if you're not careful.
Eonwe Valar - Yesterday at 4:06 PM
Good to see you all :}
ArienV - Yesterday at 4:07 PM
yo
Varda - Yesterday at 4:07 PM
Aiya Arien
Ar-Pharazon-V - Yesterday at 4:07 PM
Aiya Arien!
Also, Aiya Pallando if I didn't already!
Aranuir - Yesterday at 4:09 PM
Aiya everyone!
Varda - Yesterday at 4:09 PM
Aiya Aranuir
Ar-Pharazon-V - Yesterday at 4:09 PM
Aiya Aranuir!
ArienV - Yesterday at 4:09 PM
aiya folks
Varda - Yesterday at 4:10 PM
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Elen sila lumenn' omentielvo!
Membership:
That star is shining very brightly today, with so many luminaries present. :smiley:
Any membership news anyone would like to mention?
Fangorn is in the real life room. /wave
Eonwe Valar - Yesterday at 4:12 PM
Heya to Fangorn :}
Varda - Yesterday at 4:12 PM
Hello from Sauron, who's cleaning up the fireplace, rather appropriate.
Aranuir - Yesterday at 4:13 PM
haha
Varda - Yesterday at 4:13 PM
Aranuir and I are both in LotRO
Ar-Pharazon-V - Yesterday at 4:13 PM
Aiya to Fangorn and Sauron!
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Web:
I still have a little technical problem on my newly wiped computer on
properly installing my usual items for doing webwork, but this older
computer is allowing workarounds for now.
I'll keep working at it until something works. :smiley:
Eonwe, did you have any web news?
Eonwe Valar - Yesterday at 4:16 PM
Not at this time, no..
Varda - Yesterday at 4:16 PM
Okie dokie.
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Gaming:
When we're talking about gaming, if any of you have any additional news
for that game, go ahead and type. Slow typers and belated thoughts
welcome.
Eonwe has a Games report for us.
Eonwe Valar - Yesterday at 4:18 PM
World of Warcraft:
This week's bonus event: World Quests.
Next week's will be WotLK Timewalking.
If you need some guidance on how to unlock the Allied races (once you
own the coming expansion), you can find it in the blog Building
Reputation with Allied Races.
https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-us/news/21508135/building-reputation-with-allied-races
See this week's hotfixes. https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-us/news/21365424/hotfixes-february-8
Heroes of the Storm:
Two patches came out this week. The first includes the Lunar Festival
event and new Hero Maiev. The second made some adjustments to Maiev.
https://us.battle.net/heroes/en/blog/21509171/heroes-of-the-storm-patch-notes-february-6-2018-2-6-2018
Our most recent Heroes of the Storm patch featuring Maiev, Voice Chat, and balance updates is now available for play.
https://us.battle.net/heroes/en/blog/21508378/heroes-of-the-storm-patch-notes-february-09-2018-2-9-2018
Our most recent Heroes of the Storm patch is now live containing balance changes to Maiev, The Warden.
Hearthstone:
See this blog for info on Update 10.2 and ranked play. https://playhearthstone.com/en-us/blog/21507224/hearthstone-update-10-2-february-6-ranked-play-update
The tavern is buzzing with all the stuff that’s packed into this
Hearthstone update! There’s a Ranked Play update, a Wild party, card
changes, and a chance to save on packs with a new Mammoth Card Bundle!
We managed to squeeze in some card backs and bug fixes too!
That's it from me.
Varda - Yesterday at 4:21 PM
Thank you, Eonwe
Ar-Pharazon-V - Yesterday at 4:21 PM
(Diablo 3: Season about to end, today I think)
Varda - Yesterday at 4:21 PM
We have players from several games - does anyone else have general news?
Thanks, Phar :smiley:
Latest general Lord of the Rings Online general news is here:
https://www.lotro.com/en/game/articles/lotro-beacon-issue-46
The LOTRO Beacon: Issue 46
Eonwe Valar - Yesterday at 4:22 PM
Ended about 22 minutes ago :}
Varda - Yesterday at 4:23 PM
That's pretty fresh news, Eonwe. :smiley:
Also for LotRO, gamers seen this past week:
Aranuir
Bregalad
Dis
Fangorn
Nar
Thranduil
Varda
Aranuir has been especially busy, kudos!
Has anyone else spotted fellow Valarites in their games this week?
Fangorn in StarCraft 2
Ar-Pharazon-V - Yesterday at 4:24 PM
Fladrif in Hearthstone, I believe.
Varda - Yesterday at 4:25 PM
Eowyn in StarCraft 2
and there are some of our folk on Discord letting us see what games they're currently in right now. : )
Any other gaming news? Eve Online, other?
I expect to be unavailable this upcomng weekend. Fortunately we have others who sling a mean gavel.
Pallando-Valar - Yesterday at 4:27 PM
new patch on tuesday
highsec moon mining, changes to citadel mechanics
Varda - Yesterday at 4:28 PM
If anyone else will be at Con DFW, hi!
Thanks, Pallando!
Ar-Pharazon-V - Yesterday at 4:28 PM
DFW...
can't imagine what that means
Varda - Yesterday at 4:28 PM
Dallas-Ft.Worth
for word slingers
Ar-Pharazon-V - Yesterday at 4:28 PM
Yeah, not in a thousand guesses :stuck_out_tongue:
Pallando-Valar - Yesterday at 4:28 PM
in personal news, I'm about to finish divinity original sin 2 with my party. we're doing the finall bossfight now
Varda - Yesterday at 4:29 PM
Woot! Go go
Crafting experience bonus weekend in LotRO for all of us crafter types.
If anyone has any suggestions to improve the guild, website, or kudos or general comments, now is a good time.
And be thinking of what Tolkien questions you'd like to ask, or Tolkien
Moments to bring up, or just comments on something in his works.
You have ten seconds.... :wink:
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Tolkien:
One of the entertaining and exasperating things
in LotRO is the World Chat. Incredible amount of misinformation about
Middle-earth in there, heh. But it forces one to think.
Ar-Pharazon-V - Yesterday at 4:34 PM
What if the fellowship had telephones?
Varda - Yesterday at 4:35 PM
They might call them Palantiri?
They'd have to be careful of party lines.
Sauron may have full time listeners trying to listen in. Instead of Watching Stones, they'd be Listening Stones.
Ar-Pharazon-V - Yesterday at 4:36 PM
Fellowship with WhatsApp... interesting thought. Not sure if that was where you were going though
Varda - Yesterday at 4:38 PM
Think I vaguely heard the name tossed around.
Trying to be a secretive group was pretty tough for them.
Boromir just had to start it off by blowing his Horn of Gondor. Lucky a whole army didn't set out to ride to him from that.
Gandalf setting off fireworks on Weathertop while trying to reach Frodo ahead of Rivendell. Ok, he had an excuse, but still...
Weathertop blasting them with storms. That had to be pretty visible at a distance.
What other ways did they blow their secrecy?
Ar-Pharazon-V - Yesterday at 4:41 PM
Frodo, every time he put on the Ring
Varda - Yesterday at 4:41 PM
Oh, right!
Eonwe Valar - Yesterday at 4:42 PM
Pippin every time he did just about anything, lol :}
Varda - Yesterday at 4:42 PM
hahaha
Eonwe Valar - Yesterday at 4:43 PM
Drop a pebble, wander off, talk to orcs, talk to trees..
Varda - Yesterday at 4:43 PM
O look. A lake to skip stones or just toss to make a splash. Cool, tentacles.
Ar-Pharazon-V - Yesterday at 4:43 PM
hehe
Varda - Yesterday at 4:43 PM
That was a lot, there, Eonwe. : )
Ar-Pharazon-V - Yesterday at 4:44 PM
Looking into a Palantir...
Varda - Yesterday at 4:44 PM
Let's just drop something down this well in the Black Pit. Doom, doom, doom.
Oh, hi Sauron. You're on this party line?
For that matter, Aragorn learned from Pippin maybe how to be a great decoy for Frodo, like looking into a Palantir.
Eonwe Valar - Yesterday at 4:46 PM
True :}
Pippin wandered off on the shore of Anduin, when everyone broke up to find Frodo.
Of course everyone wandered off, because it was "Give Aragorn a hard time"day, hehe.
Varda - Yesterday at 4:48 PM
hahaha
Even Legolas broke stealth singing by the Nimrodel.
Merry and Pippin broke stealth on purpose to lure the orcs away from
Frodo, when he was slipping away from the Fellowhip. They agreed he
should take it to Mordor, not Minas Tirith.
Huorns in their dark fog traveling along, an unusual form of traveling
secretly. That also gave cover to the ents that were with them.
If those huorns had not had ents along, I wonder how careful them might have been in their mood.
Oops, lost a squad of Rohirrim.
What other stealth-breaking was there? Especially in the Fellowship?
In a way, Glorfindel broke stealth leaving a beryl on the bridge as a
message to Aragorn, but it was still secret. Being a brilliant glowing
light to the Nazgul would have really blown secrecy if he had joined
them in Mordor.
Ar-Pharazon-V - Yesterday at 4:56 PM
As if anyone would have spotted it in the smoke!
Varda - Yesterday at 4:57 PM
Glowing smoke
I wonder how many wraithy type things would have spotted Glorfindel.
The Nazgul, the Watching Stones...
Ar-Pharazon-V - Yesterday at 4:59 PM
He did rather shine out in the spirit realm.
Varda - Yesterday at 4:59 PM
Aye
Sauron might have seen him a long way off.
Ar-Pharazon-V - Yesterday at 4:59 PM
Might have made a nice decoy.
Varda - Yesterday at 4:59 PM
There's that!
Varda - Yesterday at 5:00 PM
That flying Nazgul on the river that was scouting for the orcs, looking
for the Fellowship, would have seen Glorfindel a long way off even
through trees.
Instead they had a young Sinda who shot him down in the dark. Oops.
It's easy to wonder why heavier-duty types weren't called to the
Fellowship, when they were readily available. Stealth was one of them.
Aragorn was a ranger chief, highly practiced in stealth.
Faramir was supposed to come, also a head of rangers.
Hobbits are stealth machines.
The dwarf though...
At least Gimli was short. : )
Ar-Pharazon-V - Yesterday at 5:03 PM
That helps!
Can hide in a shrubbery.
Varda - Yesterday at 5:03 PM
Is that a person with a beard or a rock with moss?
Boromir proved that he was good at traveling in the wild by showing up
in Rivenell when he didn't know where it was and was alone on a horse
(that didnt' survive).
*Rivendell. *didn't
Ar-Pharazon-V - Yesterday at 5:05 PM
I bet Faramir would've kept the horse alive.
Varda - Yesterday at 5:05 PM
Agreed.
Ar-Pharazon-V - Yesterday at 5:06 PM
Would he then have taken it with him from Rivendell, and sent it back at Moria?
Varda - Yesterday at 5:06 PM
Anyone in the Fellowship had to be really hardy, if expected to travel
so far in the wild and into something as inhospitable as Mordor.
They were the Nine Walkers. The horse would probably have remained in
Rivendell, maybe taken home by the next person traveling to Minas
Tirith from Rivendell.
Maybe Bill would have had a replacement pack animal, but a warhorse would not be the best for that.
So, most of the Fellowship had stealth qualifications, or at least could fight if found.
Pippin as the smallest hobbit had a real chance to be a super-stealther. Didn't quite work that way.
Ar-Pharazon-V - Yesterday at 5:10 PM
hehe
Varda - Yesterday at 5:10 PM
But he was the one that really set the Ents marching, and the huorns too.
And he saved Beregond for Bergil to grow up with. : )
He gave Merry someone else to think about instead of his own difficulties when captured by orcs.
It's been an hour. Let's go ahead and call the meeting here. :smiley:
If anyone has something to add, we can add it to the After-meeting. Some need to leave.
hammers don't sneak well
the hammerpad slips just to one side of the impact, with a giggle
thonk! on the table
the chairperson puts the hammerpad back, to save the finish of the table before Aule finds out
proper thonk!
the hammer stalks back to the shelf
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After-meeting!
Free chat about whatever you like. : )
Aranuir - Yesterday at 5:18 PM
I have a question about Bill the pony
Varda - Yesterday at 5:18 PM
Sounds interesting. Fire away.
Aranuir - Yesterday at 5:19 PM
Did he make it back to the Shire eventually? I dont recall ever reading about that
Varda - Yesterday at 5:19 PM
He did make it back to safety.
Ar-Pharazon-V - Yesterday at 5:19 PM
I recall he made it back to Rivendell, or Bree?
Aranuir - Yesterday at 5:19 PM
was that actually in the books?
Varda - Yesterday at 5:19 PM
Gandalf put a spell of protection on him, hoping it would be enough.
Yes
Aranuir - Yesterday at 5:19 PM
very cool
Varda - Yesterday at 5:20 PM
JRRT is not much for loose ends. : )
It was Bree
http://valarguild.org/varda/Tolkien/encyc/articles/b/Billpony.htm
Wow, those are some old articles.
Not in a bad sense, just some of the early ones, meaning we really wanted them done.
Aranuir - Yesterday at 5:23 PM
back to bree; a long trip
Varda - Yesterday at 5:23 PM
Smart pony, great wizard spell. :smiley:
Ar-Pharazon-V - Yesterday at 5:23 PM
Think it went through Rivendell? Follow the familiar path?
Varda - Yesterday at 5:24 PM
Very likely. Might have been a good stop-over, maybe even an escort.
Ar-Pharazon-V - Yesterday at 5:24 PM
I wanna see a short film now about how Bill returned to Bree :wink:
Varda - Yesterday at 5:24 PM
Also the safer path.
Ok, you get to write a fan fic or do a YouTube. : )
Might be easier if you had a pony to work with though. : )
Webcomic?
and aye, I'd like to see that short film too.
Ar-Pharazon-V - Yesterday at 5:26 PM
Can't draw, can't animate, can't act, and my writing falls out when it comes to names and details :wink:
Varda - Yesterday at 5:26 PM
Get the rough draft and I'll help you with names and details? : )
hah, just putting you on the spot. No worries, good buddy.
Maybe the Arathorn stick picture webcomic...
Ar-Pharazon-V - Yesterday at 5:28 PM
hehe
Certainly made a good Nazgul.
Varda - Yesterday at 5:29 PM
Bill Neigh count?
BUTTERBUR: NOw, now Mr. Brabdybuck,
dont go reminding me of that. But there, youve broken my thought. Now
where was I? Nob, stables, ah! that was it! Ive got something that
belongs to you. If you recollect Bill Ferny and the horsetheiving: His
pony pony you bought, well, its here. Come back all itself it did. But
hwere it had been to you know better than me. It was as shaggy as an
Old dg and as lean as a clothes-rai;, but it was alive. Nob's looked
after it.
SAM: What! My Bill! Cried Sam......
Ar-Pharazon-V - Yesterday at 5:31 PM
Doesn't sound like it had an escort from Rivendell.
Varda - Yesterday at 5:31 PM
I copy pasted that from Tolkien Forum.
Agreed.
It was all hero Bill.
http://www.thetolkienforum.com/index.php?threads/bill-the-pony.3869/
The Tolkien Forum
Ar-Pharazon-V - Yesterday at 5:33 PM
Those typos didn't seem like you, indeed :smiley:
Varda - Yesterday at 5:33 PM
Why thank you. : )
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Ar-Pharazon-V - Yesterday at 5:52 PM
Perrrrsonal gaming!
Flashgaming:
3 kongregate games this week! 2 with badges of the day I hadn't earned
yet, and 1 I was paired up with for some silly kongregate-specific
Valentine's event. Long story.
Ar-Pharazon-V - Yesterday at 6:09 PM
https://www.kongregate.com/games/LunaDrift/fishing-girl
was the latter, a game where you throw out your fishing line, find
fish, reel them in, get gold, use gold to buy bigger lures for bigger
fish and new fishing poles for further reach :smiley:
Kongregate
Fishing Girl
Reel in those fish one by one as you attempt to save a boy who#39s trapped on the other side of the ocean.
Earnings from caught fish can be spent on better rods...
Right. Just finnished it, apparently the goal is to get rid of all the
sharks so the guy at the other shore can swim across :wink:
*finished
https://www.kongregate.com/games/FliplineStudios/papas-cupcakeria
is the second game for this week! Part of a series that most people
seem to grow bored with, but I've always liked. Time management game
where you have to manage orders, prepare cupcakes (in this installment,
that is), unlock ingredients and customers, buy upgrades and play
minigames. If you like that sort of thing, give it a go!
Kongregate
Papa's Cupcakeria
Bake the best cupcakes in town all year round in Papa#39s
Cupcakeria! You#39ll need to choose baking cups, add batter,
watch the oven, and decorate your cupcakes...
https://www.kongregate.com/games/JuicyBeast/feed-the-king
is the third! Stack cakes in one of 3 different modes, stack as high as
possible, and then steer the king through the stack to eat all
the cakes.
Kongregate
Feed the King
Cakes are NOT a lie in this game! Stack them up and eat them all! OM NOM NOM
Feed the King (http://www.feedtheking.com) is a fun and simple, yet very addictin...
Between those last 2 games, enjoy the food :wink:
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Blizzard gaming!
Hearthstone: Slowly pushing
into the second half of the level with all classes. This week's brawl
was an old random one, pre-set decks with a lot of Hallucination cards
in them, that allows you to discover a card from your opponent's class.
Makes for an interesting class-mix. Bit of skill, lot of luck, quite
fun :smiley:
Ar-Pharazon-V - Yesterday at 7:00 PM
Heroes of the Storm: Level 251
now! Got an epic loot chest for 250, but not much luck with the
contents. But that's fine, later chest even gave a random legendary
:wink: it's all just a matter of chance anyway
Oh, that's right, Hearthstone gave me a couple of new legendaries too! Nothing that really seems me, though. Still, fun to collect.
back to Storm: New brawl this
week, a 7-lap race, lunar festival themed, with random lunar festival
heroes :smiley: Very different from anything we've had before, but a
lot of fun! To win, get over the finish line within 30 seconds of the
first, and don't be last. Also, there's acceleration tracks, cards with
random abilities like stun-bombs and rockets, and other stuff like that.
If you like that sort of game, go give it a go! Don't even need to win, just play 3 games for the reward chest.
Also, Lunar Festival quests started, got the 2-game quest finished,
working on the 5-game. After that a few more games and then a few wins
and then questline complete with all rewards :smiley:
Starcraft II: Making progress
on the warchest! Unlocked the first 3 tiers of the third phase, and I
think I'm 5 games away from finishing the entire chest.
WoW:
No new pets from the old raids. New raid still the same, trying to progress on heroic Coven. Tough fight!
Pallando-Valar - Yesterday at 7:08 PM
D:OS 2 completed!
...and it bugged out a little bit at the end so I was able to get all three normal ending achievements
Ar-Pharazon-V - Yesterday at 7:08 PM
This week's weekly is 20 world quests, always an easy one, as I get it
naturally doing my daily emissary and other stuff. Still took me 4 days
to get this week, it's getting slower :wink:
Pallando-Valar - Yesterday at 7:09 PM
after 4 months, I now have my sundays back..
Ar-Pharazon-V - Yesterday at 7:09 PM
Grats :smile:
Done with one more rare in Argus, Doomcaster Suprax, the one you need
to summon with 3 people using runes. Sure spawn, but can be a pain to
get a group for. Still, can quit doing that now.
Love is in the Air event is going quite well. Got all the dresses and
suits by using alts for tokens, with only one duplicate before the end.
No luck on the mount yet, but I could bring that down to only 2 chars
to use every day, since the others can't get the mount anyway. I'll
just keep going for that, just in case it does drop.
Other than that, just fishing, I think!
But a lot of fishing.
Got to Best Friend reputation with all the Fisherfriends, getting all their bobber toys and the Ghost Shark pet.
Pallando-Valar - Yesterday at 7:24 PM
aaaaand I'm successfully authing against the eve api and storing the info for my new eve project..
I can learn!
Ar-Pharazon-V - Yesterday at 7:24 PM
And then continued fishing more reputation for Margoss, which is a lot slower, but I am up to Friend now :smiley:
He's the one that sells the mount.
Speaking of mounts, I got the 300 mount achievement! At least I think
that was this week. Logged the paladin by accident (new scrolling
character screen) and got the last 2 mounts needed from her, the
paladin-only ones.
So now I've got one shiny cloud serpent mount as reward :smiley:
Pallando-Valar - Yesterday at 7:29 PM
aaaaand promptly hit a roadblock.
hmm
Ar-Pharazon-V - Yesterday at 7:30 PM
And I think that's my report for the week!
Damn. Just finished the quest in Hearthstone to kill 40 minions from
start to finish without getting a single win I needed for my older
quest... that's unlucky.
Excuse the swearword?
Ar-Pharazon-V - Yesterday at 8:14 PM
Hmm, it's late, and I still have a Starcraft game to play today... I'll set speed to fastest :wink:
Pallando-Valar - Yesterday at 8:17 PM
...do you play on not-fastest normally?
Ar-Pharazon-V - Yesterday at 8:18 PM
Nah. For war chest you just need one victory a day for the 100k
experience of first win, and that can be done in a 15 minute training
match.
Which is automatically on normal.
Pallando-Valar - Yesterday at 8:18 PM
ah
Ar-Pharazon-V - Yesterday at 8:20 PM
Heh, it's not even fastest, training only goes to "faster"... and I
already feel slightly panicky. Been too long since I did this as
multiplayer.
Oh, I only needed 4 more games, not 5. 3 now. And that did shave off a couple of minutes.
Namarie!
Aranuir - Yesterday at 9:03 PM
Namarie! getting late here. until next week!
Varda - Yesterday at 9:17 PM
Back. Going to switch to the gaming computer.
Good night, Aranuir
alting comps :smiley:
On the other comp. Switching to Harbor
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