A Skyrate’s Life is a self-indulgent series of posts reminiscing about my time in the Skyrates roleplaying community, primarily through posting and talking about my remaining RP channel logs.

The first line of this log entry after the {Static} is “Argh, connection failure.” This means that a fair chunk of content is missing again, and we have to work out what’s going on through context. I can’t make sense of the first part, and I was there! Four years ago, admittedly.

I’ve been trying to piece together what happened to the people I used to know. So far, I can see that both Mahmoth and Talon Karrde have logged into the Skyrates forums this month. Zekkass hasn’t been active for years.

I feel really bad about Zekkass. We were working on some fiction together when I just disappeared. I was also working on an in-character engineering project with Copper Cheetah. Just… disappearing without a trace is such an awful thing to do to an RP community, particularly when you’ve worked your way into it and are involved in things. Going through all this Skyrates stuff has made me absurdly angry at myself, not just for screwing up other people’s stories but for denying myself the chance to be a part of all this.

If any of the RP channel veterans see this, for what it’s worth… I’m really sorry for bailing on you.

Enough melancholy recollections. Who’s new in this entry?

Characters:

• Mairi Valentine: Female cat, current owner of the Rotor and Prop tavern. Exceptional roleplayer. Despite having all kinds of IC personal issues, people being shot and a dozen other things going on, she still managed to find some time to welcome me in and integrate me into their little community. Karrde once called her the “heart of the community”. He wasn’t wrong. Member of the Azure League (Blues). Has lots of siblings and almost as many suitors.
• Sirrus: Appears to be new. A bear. Nothing else is known about him!
• Marcus Cunningham: Male fox, airship captain. Member of the Jade Hand (Greens), a group of (not even remotely) neutral traders and profiteers. Often spends more time roleplaying as his crew than as himself.
• Silura: Female red fox, independent. What was the incident that happened last night that she’s apologizing for? I don’t know, damn it!
• Cecil Lancaster: Male squirrel, electromagnetic scientist. Blue faction, of course.
• I can’t find an entry for Moros or Trichechus in the Skyrates Dramatis Personæ, the RP character directory.
• There isn’t an entry for Skylark Quintessa either, but I think this is the same character as Skylark Cunningham. Her profile on the forum seems to match up.
• Ellington: Male ferret. Radio personality, nutcase, drunkard and one of Mairi’s ex-es. A notorious figure. Faction unknown. I have a faint suspicion that he was Red at this time.
• Nero Shade (Sr.): Elderly male squirrel. Rather senile. Enjoys chocolate milk and giving people cheap jewelry.

Notes:

• This is not long after Mairi stuck me behind the bar for the first time. If I remember correctly, she just dropped herself into a comfortable chair and said something along the lines of “Okay, your turn to serve me for a bit!” This theory is reinforced when she says “I’m taking a day off” later on.

• This is a lovely (and rare) example of the R&P when there’s not a major disaster in progress. People are for the most part happy or at least contented. It’s this kind of gathering which allows people to catch their breath between events and explore the more mundane (not to be confused with uninteresting) and human aspects of their characters.

• Mai asked me who else got me? Nope, I don’t understand what the question was either, and I don’t have any idea what the answer means. Everything before the first line has been lost, so your guess is as good as mine. Argh, indeed.

• There’s some complaining about accents in OOC further down. I loved the accents.

• There was a ritual for people who were new to the R&P. Whichever bartender was around would ask three questions to the newcomer: Their name, where they were from and where they were headed. Answering was optional, but it was the way things were done. Sirrus was probably the first person I asked the three questions to, although it’s before the {static}. I also would have been the one to tell him that payment isn’t required although restocking the bar is welcomed. This is referenced when Sirrus leaves.

• I’ve deliberately left all the mistakes in. Removing them would make the log neater, but then it wouldn’t be a true snapshot of what RP was like at this time. Like aggressive editing of documentary footage to change the meaning. Other than replacing the formatting (I only have plain text), I’ve made every effort to leave these logs exactly as they were.

Fer t’day’s log, click ye thro’ belo’ tha jump.

RP 16/07/08 1725

[INT. Rotor and Prop tavern]

{Static}
Alex Webster: ((Argh, connection failure. Anything happen after Mai asked me who else got me?))
Mairi: ((this: Sirrus shakes his head. “I don’t mind tellin’. Ah’ve got my eyes on a Cyclops. Ah consider myself to be an honest workin’ man, but I won’t hessitate to shoot down any varmint what trys to take my cargo.”))
Alex Webster: Heh, was Mah. Wasn’t there the first time.
Mairi: Hmm, cyclops, huh? Heard it looks decent on paper, but doesn’t always deliver in the air. I never flew one, though, and I know a few who stand by it.
Sirrus: Well, ah’m not going to make like I know much of what there is to know about planes, but she looks about right to me fer my purposes.
Markus Jarnhann: I flew a ‘clops.
Markus Jarnhann: Wors’ ride o’ me life
Markus Jarnhann: Sluggish, an’ a ‘uuuuuge targe’.
Mairi: I think I had a Spectre when I was in that price range. Was decent. Didn’t set my heart on fire, but definitely decent.
Mairi: now my brother has a Seahawk, and he’s got nothin’ but good to say about it
Markus Jarnhann: Ye’d be bette’ serve’ wit’ a ‘Hawk. Cargo’s near ‘nough tae same, an’ tae ‘Hawk ‘andles a lo’ bette’.
Mairi: ended up with an Osprey, says he’s not likely to trade out for a while
Markus Jarnhann: Plus tae weapons loadou’ ‘s fa’ s’perio’.
Alex Webster: Hm. I’ve had a couple of pirates try to take me down with a cyclops. Looks like she has guns in every direction, but you fire and you can’t really miss it. And, heh, as a recent Seahawk owner I can definately vouch for that.
Mairi: if you’re going for somethin’ defensive while you’re hauling, from what I hear, seahawk’s the way to go
*Sirrus turns here and there, taking in the opinions of just about every person within earshot. “Well, how’s that Seahawk do in a firefight?”
Markus Jarnhann: tae ‘awk’s tae way tae go, ’til ye ge’ yeself a Vengeance.
Markus Jarnhann: Exceptionally well, she does.
*Mairi chuckles, “you and your Vengeance.. just a big ol’ cannon with wings”
Markus Jarnhann: Goo’ cov’rage, excellen’ weapon range, an’ she ‘andles nicely.
*Moros turns around. “Oy, nuthin wrong with a flyin’ cannon!”
*Markus Jarnhann grins. “Dinnae thin’ she were sayin’ tha’, mate. She were givin’ me ‘ell as she’s wont tae do.”
*Mairi laughs, “yeah, nothin’ wrong with a cannon. But you’re in tinfoil and engines same as me, so you’re not allowed to defend ‘im”
*Sirrus pulls out a small notebook from his breast pocket and flips through it. “Hmm, s’posin’ y’all might be right there about the Seahawk… dunno why ah didn’t look at is before.”
*Moros looks defensive, and then shrugs.
Markus Jarnhann: Poss’bly tae same reason I bough’ tae ‘clops. She’s nea’ lookin’, an’ her cov’rage looks nice, on pape’.
Moros: Back in the good old days, I had me one of them.
Mairi: aw, it’s a good plane, but I can’t say that in front of him ::nodding at Markus::
Moros: But I think you’ll agree m’dear that tinfoil and engines are all the rage?
Alex Webster: Heh. ‘Hawk’s an outstanding ship. Triple engines helps with redundancy, and she can ditch into the sea as well.
Mairi: mhm. true true, shiny and quick
*Markus Jarnhann grins at Mai. “Jus’ ye wai’, m’dear. ‘fore lon’, ye’ll see me in somethin’ ye’ll be ruddy suprise’ ‘bou’.”
Mairi: if it’s a Bismark I’ll shoot you down myself
Alex Webster: Cram a surprising amount of cargo in if you pry out some of the extra hull panels and bits.
Moros: I’ll bet she does a fair impression of th’ dread Cap’n!
*Markus Jarnhann snorts.
Markus Jarnhann: Ye shou’ know me bette’ tha’ tha’, b’now.
*Mairi grins, “Just makin’ sure”
*Marcus Cunningham :: A low rumble runs through the skylandette as the mammoth engines of the Bismarck-Class gunship, the Iron Vulture, pass overhead. Felt in both bottle and bone, the goliath zeppelin turns to rest in her usual berth: Open Air hangar 12.
Markus Jarnhann: Ye’d ne’er catch me in one o’ those paper dragons, ‘les’ I were usin’ i’ fo’ a free fall platform.
Markus Jarnhann: …Speak o t’bleedin’ devil…
Markus Jarnhann: Righ’ on cue… Tae lad’d be goo’, if ‘e werenae drivin’ tae ‘unk o’ cra’.
*Sirrus nods. “It’s lookin’ like I’m going to be makin’ a change to mah flight plan real soon, then.”
*Mairi laughs
Mairi: aw, it’s not so bad
Alex Webster: Picked mine up on Cidade, that’s not far from Jordan anyway.
Mairi: it’s a really nice cruise liner
Keyo: ((Species check on Sirrus?))
*Marcus Cunningham enters the tavern, a smile once again on his muzzle as he strides in, an aluminum briefcase in hand, and the barest sign of a limp in his step. “Afternoon everyone.”
Mairi: ((bear ))
Mairi: Morning Markus
Sirrus: Ain’t no problem, I can find plenty excuse to head that way, s’pecially fer getting a good set of wings.
*Alex Webster inclines his head in the direction of Marcus. “Uh, drink for you?” Webster seems to be enjoying playing bartender.
Mairi: Rum ‘n Pop, Alex
Marcus Cunningham: How’s doin, Mairi? *He smiles to the gentleman behind the bar, then chuckles* Please, thank you
Mairi: start on it soon as you hear the stabilizers and he starts to feel old and predictable, and then you get to tease him for it too
Alex Webster: Right, Okay…
*Alex Webster starts to rummage through the various bottles behind the bar
Marcus Cunningham: Bartender training? *He smirks*
*Markus Jarnhann chuckles slightly, and nods to Marcus from his spot just past Mairi at his table. “…Mornin’.”
Alex Webster: Heh, think I got conscripted by Mairi…
*Marcus Cunningham gives Markus a nod.
Markus Jarnhann: Ye di’, lad.
Markus Jarnhann: An’ I’m thinkin’ she made a righ’ nice choice o’ i’, tae.
Trichechus: ((lemonade soda is lemonade made with club soda.))
*Trichechus walks in and sees Alex playing the role of bartender, but decides to make a lemonade soda
*Sirrus drops a few coins on the counter, and stands. “Thankee kindly for all the advice, folks. I best be shufflin’ off, though, seein’ as I have cargo that’s beggin’ to be sold.”
Trichechus: eh?
Markus Jarnhann: Right’o, an’ goo’ luck tae ye, lad.
Mairi: hope to see ya again, Sirrus! Safe skies
*Alex Webster finds the bottles he’s after, and prepares Marcus’ drink, concentration evident in his expression. He passes it across the counter to Marcus.
Mairi: Alex, I’m thinking you keep this up I’m gonna have you on day shift while Mah’s asleep
*Markus Jarnhann grins.
*Sirrus strolls out of the bar a fair bit more comfortably than when he arrived. “With tea like that, sure’n you see me again”
Alex Webster: Heh, still got a lot to learn about this job…
Marcus Cunningham: Nothing wrong with being predictable, though. It just means that folks here pay attention, and know what I like. That being said… *he reaches into his white coat, and pulls out a hand radio.* *ahem*… “Now.”
*Alex Webster waves at the departing Sirrus with a smile.
Markus Jarnhann: I like tha’ idea, Mai. ::He quirks an eyebrow at Marcus::
*Alex Webster thinks: now?
*Marcus Cunningham :: Scampering in a moment or so afterwards…. is a white ferret in a white uniform, carrying a tray. The tray contains one amateur attempt at Eggs Benedict, along with some of the better sauce some furs would ever taste, which he places before Mairi.
*Mairi laughs
Mairi: ((specific ferret or generic ferret))
Marcus Cunningham: <Lucas> Eat up. Dah boss made dah eggies, I just made dah sauce. *He smirks*
*Alex Webster ‘s eyebrows go into overdrive
*Mairi gets up and gives Lucas a hug and a kiss on the cheek, “You are my very favorite ferret”
*Markus Jarnhann tilts his head as someone puts… Eggs Benedict on his table. He quuuuuirks an eyebrow at Mai, as it’s pretty clear he’s once again missed something.
*Mairi grins and sits down, looking up at Marcus again, “decent try at poached eggs, I’m impressed”
Marcus Cunningham: <Lucas> *The ferret returns the hug* And yous is my favorite cat.
*Marcus Cunningham smirks, scratching the back of his neck, “Well, third times the charm…”
*Mairi laughs again and takes a fork to it, getting eggs, bacon, and muffin on one forkload before dredging it through the hollandaise and taking a bite
Marcus Cunningham: <Lucas> More like sixth, Boss.
Markus Jarnhann: …’Ow quain’…
*Mairi leans back in her chair, eyes closed in a moment of breakfast nirvana
*Mairi grins at Markus, “Quiet, you” as she takes another bite, quite thoroughly enjoying it
Marcus Cunningham: <Lucas> * The ferret gives a nod to Markus * Lucas Shaffer, dah cooka’ dah Vul’cha.
*Skylark Quintessa stumbles downstairs, yawnning and rubbing a paw trough her mussy quills, eyes all bleary.
*Trichechus nods a good morning
*Marcus Cunningham nods, “Morning Sky.”
*Markus Jarnhann nods back to Marcus. “Charme’, mate.” ::He shrugs, and quuuirks an eyebrow at the hedgehog coming down the stairs, before muttering something about countdowns, and explosions.::
*Mairi beams a smile at Lucas, “The hollandaise is magnificent, Lucas. Need to steal more of your secrets. Mine comes out pretty good, but this is pure silken indulgence”
*Skylark Quintessa nods to Trichechus and then jumps and gives a half nod to Marcus “H-hi…” she turns and climbs onto a bar stool and lays her head on the counter, closing her eyes.
Marcus Cunningham: <Lucas> *He thinks, then shakes his head* If I taught yous, then yous wouldn’ need me anymores. T’inka dis as jaab sa’curity.
*Trichechus once again trying to popularize tea in the tavern, hands Skylark a hot mug full of dragon’s well tea.
*Markus Jarnhann quiiiirks the eyebrow furhter. “…Guess nae. An’way!” ::He grins from Lucas to Mai.:: “…Tae fella’s righ’, m’dear. Ye cannae ask ‘im tae give up ‘is secre’s fo’ tha’.”
Trichechus: Grown in the empty crew seats of my Bolo
Alex Webster: … You grow tea in your aircraft?
*Skylark Quintessa lifts her head curiously and then takes a sip.
*Skylark Quintessa makes a face “Needs sugar.”
Mairi: aw, not even if I ask pretty please? ::pouting at Lucas::
*Marcus Cunningham takes his drink and finds a seat at one of the nearby tables.
*Mairi breaks into a grin quickly after, taking another bit of her breakfast
Mairi: ((bite* ))
Marcus Cunningham: <Lucas> *He chuckles* Mai, dere’s a hart’a ice here in dis chest, dough you almos’ cracked it. How dis? I won’ teach you, but if you wanna cooked meal, you call up dah Vul’cha and I’ll come runnin’. Except if it’s chow’dah.
*Mairi chews slowly, savoring her treat before turning to Marcus again, “Thank you, Marcus. This means a lot”
*Trichechus gives Skylark a cookie for good measure.
*Marcus Cunningham smirks, “For all the times and things you’ve done for us, Mai, it’s the least I could do.”
*Mairi grins at Lucas, “What? I didn’t have that offer before?”
*Trichechus starts nibbling on one himself, listening to the conversations in the bar.
Mairi: I figured we were beyond secrets, what with the stripper wedding cake thing and all..
*Markus Jarnhann snorts. “…Seems I’ve misse’ somethin’ on tae … Wut?”
*Markus Jarnhann suddenly looks *quite* confused.
*Mairi starts laughing again and takes another bite of her breakfast, eyes twinkling with amusement
Marcus Cunningham: <Lucas> *He laughs* Now now, I taught I told dem to put dah strippa in AFTA’ dey baked.
*Skylark Quintessa takes the cookie and pushes it around a bit then pushes it away
Skylark Quintessa: No thank you.
*Mairi giggles around her fork before swallowing
*Alex Webster notices that Sirrus had left some coins on the bar. “Eh, I always did have a problem making myself clear.” He collects them up, and puts them behind the bar in the hope that he’d remember to give them back.
*Trichechus smiles, happy that another cookie has been refused, and eats it.
Mairi: Alex, you can put ‘em in the donation jar ::nodding toward the piggy bank with paper wings and a pair of goggles at the far end of the bar::
Mairi: some people like to pay anyway
Marcus Cunningham: <Lucas> Bu’ yeah, yous always got dat offah.
*Marcus Cunningham smirks, opening his briefcase and starting to sort through some documents there-in.
*Mairi grins at Lucas, “haven’t taken up on it as much as I should. I miss your cooking”
*Trichechus stashes a bag of tea in a “secret” cabinet at the corner of the bar.
Alex Webster: Hm? Heh, I never noticed that there. *Mutters* How I failed to notice a pig with goggles and wings…
Markus Jarnhann: Fairly easy, ‘pparan’ly, mate.
*Markus Jarnhann grins.
*Trichechus sticks a gold piece in for good measure.
*Alex Webster transfers the change into the donation… pig.
*Skylark Quintessa blinks, confused.
Mairi: Nero left it the other day, Kincaid and I decided to make it the mascott
Trichechus: hmmm. the mascot of the tavern, a flying pig.
Markus Jarnhann: Senior’s a bi’ o’ a rio’. Junior’s interestin’, in tae borin’ way chaplains ten’ tae be.
Alex Webster: Ah. Should’ve recognised it as a Nero thing, heh.
Marcus Cunningham: <Lucas> *chuckles at Markus, then turns back to Mairi* Well, I don’ wanna dis’toib you two. I’ll be in’dah ki’chin if yah need me. *He turns to look over his shoulder* Boss, headin’ in dah back! *And with that, the white ferret scampers into the kitchen.*
Mairi: thanks Lucas!
*Markus Jarnhann nods to the cook. “…Werenae a disturbance, mate, all tae same.”
*Mairi sops up more hollandaise with muffin, egg, and bacon, taking another long and savoring bite
Mairi: nah, he’s not exactly the most sociable. he’s happier in the kitchen
Markus Jarnhann: Heh, fair ‘nough, jus’ were speakin’ tae trut’.
*Mairi sighs happily, slowly enjoying each bite of her breakfast
*Skylark Quintessa sighs a bit and sips some more of the tea
Marcus Cunningham: <Lucas> *From the Kitchen* “Alright! Who wants what!?”
Markus Jarnhann: Heh, looks like ye di’ alrigh’, Cunning’am. ‘Course, wit’ tha’ slow ride, ye ‘ad plen’y o’time tae ge’ i’ righ’. ::He grins, obviously joking today.::
*Marcus Cunningham smirks, “Thanks. It’s a slow ride, so I get to enjoy the comforts of life.”
*Trichechus yells toward the kitchen, may I have some deviled eggs please?
Trichechus: ((forgot “”))
*Skylark Quintessa pushes the mug of tea away and lays her head back down on the counter and closes her eyes.
Marcus Cunningham: Consider today a day off, Mairi. You’ve earned it.
Mairi: wait, he’s staying? ::blinking in surprise::
*Markus Jarnhann quirks an eyebrow, and looks at Marcus appraisingly. He finally nods a bit. “Ye know, ye’re nae sae bad, mate. A windbag, still, bu’ nae sae bad.”
*Mairi rolls her eyes at Markus, still smiling though
Marcus Cunningham: Well, I have a lot of paperwork to sort out, and that should take, oh….. At least until after dinner.
*Mairi beams another smile at Marcus, “You are a saint sometimes”
*Mairi grins at Markus, “And you’ve lost some room to talk, Mr. Machismo”
*Markus Jarnhann chuckles. “…Ye didnae complain.”
*Marcus Cunningham chuckles, “Sometimes…”
Mairi: complain? was I supposed to get a word in edgewise?
*Mairi keeps up the teasing grin as she scrapes up a bit of sauce with the fork, licking it clean
*Skylark Quintessa lifts her head and sips the last of the tea.
Marcus Cunningham: <Lucas> *from the kitchen* Just Eggs? Dis is’a easy room…
*Markus Jarnhann chuckles, and grins back. “‘ey, someone ‘ad tae keep ‘im fro’ pesterin’ ye.”
*Mairi shouts to the kitchen, “Ha, today maybe”
*Trichechus yells back “ya, only eggs please!”
Mairi: uh huh. you’re so.. considerate?
Markus Jarnhann: Ye know i’!
*Mairi rolls her eyes at Markus and laughs, pushing aside her empty plate with a contented sigh
*Skylark Quintessa gets up and goes outside, making her way over to a tree and sitting under it.

{Static}
Alex Webster: ((Connection failure again! Anything I need to know about after Skylark going outside?))
Trichechus: ((i don’t think so))
Silura: ((Sorry. I just changed characters.))
Trichechus: ((wait… from who?))
Alex Webster: ((noted. Thanks.))
Skylark Quintessa: ((huh? ))
Marcus Cunningham: ((Question Mark))
*Alex Webster Wha?
Alex Webster: ((Blast. OOC that.))
*Skylark Quintessa takes her leaf chain and sighs, looking up at the clouds moving through the sky.
*Silura limps into the tavern and looks around to see who’s in there that the moment, and where they are within the tavern.
*Mairi smiles at Marcus and rocks on the back legs of her chair, balancing with her knee under the table
*Skylark Quintessa is outside the tavern.
*Marcus Cunningham is at a table, with a briefcase open and shuffling through papers. From the back of the kitchen comes a white ferret with a white uniform on, with a plate of deviled eggs * Eggies up! Who wanted dees eggies?
*Markus Jarnhann hrms.
*Alex Webster leans on the bar, and notes that the place looks different from this side.
*Mairi stares up at the ceiling from her tilted chair at Markus’ table, seemingly lost in thought
*Markus Jarnhann watches Mai in relative quiet, also lost in his own thoughts.
*Silura looks at Mairi and starts to make her way towards her and Marcus. There’s a slight smile on her face today, much as there way yesterday. For some reason when Silura smiles it worries some people…
Trichechus: ((i had to refresh, did my eggs come yet?))
Mairi: ((Mairi is sitting at Markus’ table, Marcus is at another))
Mairi: ((yes: Marcus Cunningham is at a table, with a briefcase open and shuffling through papers. From the back of the kitchen comes a white ferret with a white uniform on, with a plate of deviled eggs * Eggies up! Who wanted dees eggies?))
*Trichechus nods. “here”
Marcus Cunningham: ((Thanks Mai!))
Marcus Cunningham: *he puts the plate of deviled eggs by Trichechus* Dere you go. Dem eggies is ready.
Mairi: Lucas, you are my hero
Trichechus: Thanks.
Markus Jarnhann: T’fellow’s quick…
*Skylark Quintessa closes her eyes and yawns, falling asleep.
Silura: “Mairi, I was wondering if you had a moment…”
*Trichechus pulls out a spoon and knife and begins eating his eggs.
Marcus Cunningham: <Lucas> *He gives a smirk* Yah welcome. So, anyone else got somethin’ dey want before I w’oik som treys?
Marcus Cunningham: <Lucas> And you, Mai. Just lemme’ know wha’chu wan’ and you got it.
*Mairi smiles warmly at Lucas in thanks and looks up at Silura, “sure..”
*Mairi sets her chair down and stands
*Silura smiles at Mairi and nods towards one of the currently empty corners of the bar.
*Mairi heads to the nodded at corner table and sits down
*Silura limps after Mairi and then sits down opposite Mai before leaning forwards to speak in a hushed voice. “Listen… About what happened after… That coffee…”
*Mairi shakes her head and puts her hands up, answering in as quiet a voice “No worries, Silura. I’ve been drunk and stupid enough to end up making out with Ennia, you really don’t have to say anything” chuckling softly
*Skylark Quintessa jumps and wakes up, squeaking at a bee flying close.
Silura: “I just wanted to say sorry.”
*Mairi smiles at Silura, “It’s alright. No worries, okay?”
Mairi: I’m just glad you’re okay
Mairi: you seem.. better
*Silura smiles and nods, answering Mairi simply with a “Yes.”
Mairi: good
Mairi: I’m glad
*Skylark Quintessa gets up and goes back inside, going to the bar and sitting there.
Silura: “I think things are really working out now…”
*Markus Jarnhann glances at Silura, and then back to Mai, simply watching the exchange.
Mairi: I’m really happy to hear that, Sil. I worry about you
*Mairi leans over in her chair to give Silura a hug, “I know I’m probably not the most supportive, but I do worry”
*Alex Webster glances at Skylark with a polite smile. “Ah…is there anything I can get you?”
*Skylark Quintessa smiles shyly and shakes her head no “No thank you…”
Alex Webster: Ah, okay. Heh, just let me know…
*Skylark Quintessa nods and looks down at the bar top.
*Alex Webster resumes his leaning on the bar, a polite distance from Skylark, and watches the people…
*Silura returns the hug softly before letting go of Mairi. “Thanks. It’s… Kinda nice to know.”
*Mairi smiles, “good. need me to get you anything from the bar?”
Silura: “I could use a coffee… But I could get that myself.”
*Cecil Lancaster walks downstairs, yawning and stretching.
Mairi: if you want. I might go harass Markus a bit more
*Marcus Cunningham gives Cecil a nod from his table.
Silura: “And… I need to talk to Sean at some point…”
Cecil Lancaster: G’morning, Marcus.
*Cecil Lancaster walks over and sits down next to the fox.
Cecil Lancaster: How are you?
Mairi: hm. yeah, he kinda disappeared. I’ll tell him you want to talk to him
*Silura nods “Thanks Mai.”
*Mairi smiles, “No problem”
Marcus Cunningham: Me? *smiles* I’m doin’ alright. Half my hold is filled with paperwork, though. *he settles the page he’s on, then piles them together and sets them aside.* There we go. So, how’s on your end?
*Mairi gets up and fetches her empty juice glass, bringing it to the bar and leaning at the edge
Mairi: Hey, barkeep.. more orange juice?
*Mairi grins at Alex
Alex Webster: Heh. Yes ma’am, right away ma’am. *Grins back*
Marcus Cunningham: <Lucas> *The ferret shuffles out of the kitchen long enough to get a head count… He chuckles.* Oi, Mai. T’ink four trays’ll be’nuff?
Cecil Lancaster: It’s going. I’ve been lately doing some modifications to my plane.
Cecil Lancaster: Research is progressing well, actually have some prototypes.
*Alex Webster retrieves a bottle of orange juice, and carefully fills the glass before handing it back to Mairi and restowing the bottle.
*Mairi giggles at Alex and turns to Lucas, “hmm.. depends. Trays of what?” asking with a curious glint in her eye
Mairi: thanks, Alex
*Silura slowly stands and slowly makes her way towards the bar.
Trichechus: Alex, could you pass over the bottle?
*Markus Jarnhann reclines against the wall, propping his feet upon the table, as he fishes the ebony object he’d been working on from his pocket. His fingers run over it, as he fishes out the knife he used for carving.
Alex Webster: Yeah, sure. *Passes it over to Trichechus*
Marcus Cunningham: <Lucas> Well, I got de veggies in dah soak, t’inkin two trays’a dah man and cheese, and den I was t’inkin’a last tray’a cold cuts for dah sammitches, and I can get dat from dah Vul’cha.
Marcus Cunningham: Oh excellent to hear, Cecil.
Mairi: hm.. sounds good to me ::smiling at Lucas:: you’ve got it under control
*Mairi takes her juice from the bar and reclaims her seat at Markus’ table, a rarely seen genuinely tranquil smile on her face as she leans back in the chair
Cecil Lancaster: Things going well on the Vulture? You…. holding up?
*Trichechus nods a thanks, and pours himself a cup. “Anyone else want some?”
Marcus Cunningham: <Lucas> Den, lemme barra dah radio and get mah crew down here. *he chuckles* No ki’chin ovahlord’s good wit’out his minions. *Lucas gets on the radio, and starts tuning in the Iron Vulture.*
*Markus Jarnhann sings softly to himself, as he begins carving and whittling away at the block, mostly obscuring int in his big paws. “…Bless me, wit’a; leaf off o’ a tree; on i’, I see; the freedom reign…”
*Marcus Cunningham nods and smiles, “Things on the Vulture are well. Crew’s happy, and the engines start up when I turn the keys. As for me…. I’m doin’ better. Thanks.
*Cecil Lancaster nods.
Cecil Lancaster: I’m glad to hear it.
*Alex Webster looks at his pocket watch.
Alex Webster: Hm. Sorry, but I’m going to have to leave you people. I’ve got an interview with a potential new navigator, and I don’t want to be late. First impressions and all.
Cecil Lancaster: I doubt if I’d handle it nearly that gracefully.
Cecil Lancaster: Speaking of which, I still owe you one for that date you arranged.
*Alex Webster gives a mock salute to mairi, before waving at the others.
*Marcus Cunningham nods, “So how *did* things work out for you with that?”
Alex Webster: Spect I’ll drop back in later on. Bye for now…
Cecil Lancaster: Oh. I thought you’d heard.
*Silura slowly gets herself a coffee and then sits at the bar
Cecil Lancaster: Sluor left.
*Alex Webster hurries out of the bar in the manner of someone who should watch the time more closely.
*Mairi grins and waves at Alex, “Seeya later
Mairi: “
Marcus Cunningham: …. Sorry to hear that.
*Markus Jarnhann seems to be caught up in his own little world, as he continues singing, his knife digging and gouging chunks of wood.
Cecil Lancaster: So am I.
*Mairi leans on her elbows, trying to get a peek at the carving with an impish grin at Markus
Cecil Lancaster: But I’m not going to keep waiting on my knees for her.
*Marcus Cunningham nods, then smirks, “That’s good to hear. So, tell me, how’re things now? Any hopefuls? Should I tune up the Vulture for another night on the sky?”
Cecil Lancaster: Well, I met someone a couple of weeks ago. A wonderful vixen with a sound head on her shoulders. Her name’s Amarra.
Cecil Lancaster: And actually…. that might be just the ticket.
Cecil Lancaster: I’d hate to impose on you *again*, but if the Vulture is up to it…
*Marcus Cunningham smirks, “Well, I’m a busier man these days, but I always will make the time for a friend. When’s good?”
*Markus Jarnhann glances up, snapping out of the daze, as he smirks at Mai, and closes his hands around the objeckt. “…’snae done ye’. I nee’ tae ‘ead ‘ome, an’ do some ‘dditional wor’ o’i’.”
Markus Jarnhann: ((…wow, that k totally wasn’t intended, but it looks cool.))
Marcus Cunningham: ((Dah, dat extrah K is addingk much to your sentence, yes?))
Markus Jarnhann: ((heh. ))
Markus Jarnhann: ((something like that))
*Sirrus strolls back into the tavern, hands in his pockets and a sprig of straw perched in his maw. Slipping back into the seat he occupied earlier, he tried not to interrupt anything already going on.
Markus Jarnhann: ((by the way, is Lucas supposed to be a Cajun, or is it just me misinterpreting his accentt))
Mairi: ((I think brooklyn))
Marcus Cunningham: ((More a heavy brooklyn / traditional gangster))
Markus Jarnhann: ((got it))
*Ellington wanders into the tavern, yawning and heads to the bar to stare blearily at the bottles
Cecil Lancaster: I don’t honestly know. I haven’t talked to her in several days. I’ve been caught up at Islo modding my plane.
*Skylark Quintessa yawns and lifts her head, blinking all bleary eyed.
*Mairi tilts up her chin to try and get a peek, grinning at Markus, “aww… please?”
Bushido: ((you guys and your accents are getting out of hand))
Ellington: ((if Bushi says so, it must be true! No more accents!))
Silura: ((Wha’chu’sayin’bout’our’cents? ))
Bushido: ((they’re annoying))
*Markus Jarnhann shrugs. “…Ye’ll ‘ave tae wai’.”
Markus Jarnhann: ((Says the thirteen year old who makes all things in a day.))
*Mairi giggles, “aww. fine”
Marcus Cunningham: ((What’chu talkin’ bout, Bushido? Don’t make me hafft’a pity dah foo!))
Ellington: someone find me a breakfast scotch
*Skylark Quintessa rubs her eyes and looks around.
Bushido: ((yes but i’ve already hit the annoying cap))
Bushido: ((everything can only be so annoying before it becomes ANNOYING))
Marcus Cunningham: Well, as soon as you can nail down a date, I’ll arrange for a pickup. Dining and a view of the ocean, and I’ll see what events are happening around then.
Silura: ((Something you are very good at demonstrating Bushi))
*Cecil Lancaster nods. “Thank you.”
Markus Jarnhann: ((heh, whatever kiddo.))
*Sirrus waves down the bar, getting the attention of whatever keep was in charge. “Don’t s’pose ah could have me another glass of that fine Iced tea?”
Bushido: ((if you say so))
Bushido: ((i still say accents are being overdone))
Cecil Lancaster: I’m hoping to finish my current research project and get it wrapped up and moved off of Islo before Sluor returns.
Markus Jarnhann: ((there’s two people who use them regularly; with a third backup. I think you fail. :P))
*Skylark Quintessa flattens her ears back and gets up, going into the kitchen.
Phedre Spitfire: ((as is your ooc comment take it to world bushido and clean up our radio))
Mairi: you’re late for breakfast, and I’m getting a day off. besides, you don’t accept things from me anyway, Ell
Bushido: ((well you’re contributing to it))
*Markus Jarnhann snorts at Mai’s comment.
Bushido: ((on a side note, did everyone just become hostile to me or what))
Mairi: though I would consider being in a good enough mood to bring it if you promised to be civil
Ellington: then I request a brunch scotch
Markus Jarnhann: Yeh, mate, I’m sure there’s plen’y o’ scotch behin’ tae bar.
Markus Jarnhann: ((naw man, I’m just giving you a hard time))
Markus Jarnhann: ((you’re mostly a cool little bugger))
Phedre Spitfire: ((we’ve been hostile to you for a long time))
Mairi: you gonna play nice today? If you kill this good mood, I’m out for blood
Phedre Spitfire: ((no just about it))
Bushido: ((mmk than))
Marcus Cunningham: ((Is still Bushido’s friend))
*Skylark Quintessa makes herself a cold sandwhich and sits in the kitchen and nibbles on it.
Ellington: Markus, come find me a drinkable scotch, would you?
*Mairi smirks at Markus, “go fetch, soldier. Didn’t figure he’d take it from me anyway”
Marcus Cunningham: <Lucas> *perks up at the visitor* Oi Sky. Want some mac an’ cheese?
Cecil Lancaster: ((Likes Bushi :)))
*Sirrus slowly finds himself feeling a bit lost in the crowd.
Markus Jarnhann: Mmm, I lef’ a bottle be’in’ tae bar, mate. ‘s tae goo’ stuff. Nicke’ it from Fuseli’s private stores.
*Skylark Quintessa flattens her ears back and shakes her head no
Phedre Spitfire: ((okay then, let me rephrase this. I don’t like you.))
Ellington: ……..Admiral Fuseli, or the Fuselis stores….. aka….. MY stores?
Bushido: ((alright than))
Markus Jarnhann: Admiral Fuseli, mate.
*Mairi notes Sirrus looking lost, “hey, sorry. ‘tender took a break and so am I. you can serve yourself if you like”
Marcus Cunningham: *nods to the hedgie, and continues grating cheese*
Markus Jarnhann: Wouldnae nick fro’ ye stores. ::He chuckles::
*Nero Shade Sr. shuffles in, his cane seems to have bike horn attached to it.
Ellington: good answer. Both might get you shot, but one would get you shot much, much faster *grins a bit, laying down on the bar to start lifting bottles*
Markus Jarnhann: Mos’ly ’cause ye’re more likely tae shoo’ me tha’ ‘e is.
*Skylark Quintessa sighs and puts her sandwhich down and pokes it
*Sirrus considered the unothadox manner of service, but decides to run with it. Given the liberty, though, he wanders behind the counter and prepares himself a particularly large glass of iced tea.
Ellington: very smart man, Markus. *finds a bottle of cheap wine, glares at it and drops it back to the bar, and picks up another bottle to examine it*
Ellington: you! new person! find me a good scotch
*Nero Shade wanders over to the bar and sits at his useal spot.
Cecil Lancaster: I’m trying to decide where to go.
Cecil Lancaster: You’ve been around, Marcus. Know any particularly good places to live?
Nero Shade: [Sr.]*looking at Ellington* What?
Mairi: I can find you the good stuff if you just get your head outta your ass. For one day is all
Marcus Cunningham: Aleut’s beautiful this time of year.
Cecil Lancaster: Hmmmm…. That might work. I’d probably need my own lab. How’s availability of space?
Nero Shade: *To Cecil* Arcadia! Only place to… *thinks* Live.
*Ellington glances over his shoulder at Nero, from his position on top of the bar “oh, hey. didnt see you come in. How are you?”
Markus Jarnhann: Aye, ’tis. ‘snae tae ba’. If ye really nee’, I coul’ pro’ly put ye up on tae ol’ fam’ly ‘omestea’.
Markus Jarnhann: Don’ ge’ used much, these days.
Nero Shade: *To Ell* Good. *pointing to Markus* Have you met him. He is nice.
*Skylark Quintessa gets up and throws the rest of her sammich away and goes back upstairs to her room
*Sirrus returns to his seat, spinning around so that he can lean back against the counter and watch the other folks chatting back and forth. The young rookie wasn’t long off the farm, and this sort of gathering fascinated him.
Marcus Cunningham: It’s pretty open, really.
Cecil Lancaster: Oh, I’m not out on my tail or anything. I’m just not looking forward to Sluor coming back. I’d prefer it, I think, if it was just a notice on her desk when she returned.
Cecil Lancaster: But I appreciate the offer.
Mairi: I’d say Steppe, but I don’t quite see you living there, Cecil
Cecil Lancaster: Oh?
*Markus Jarnhann nods slightly to Cecil, as he covertly slips his carving into his pocket.
*Cecil Lancaster smiles at Markus.
Mairi: dunno how well you’d take to rural life. or how well rural life would take to you…
Ellington: yeah, I know Markus. hes one of my friends *finally slides off the bartop*
*Mairi tries to peek as the object is slipped into a pocket and mock-pouts when she can’t see
Cecil Lancaster: Ahhhhh. Yeah, I don’t know if that would work all that well.
*Nero Shade Nods in his senile way and says “Good.” Then he points at the milk. It seems as if he is going to say somehting, but he doesnt. he just points at it.
Mairi: if you wanted to try, I’d be more than happy to get James to set you to work
Cecil Lancaster: Nah. I’m not changing careers, just scenery.
Marcus Cunningham: ((brb ))
*Ellington follows the pointing finger and tilts his head, then deciding its some form of drink, and pours Nero a glass (the glass being plastic, with a bendy straw) and puts it in front of him
Mairi: chocolate, Ell. you forgot the chocolate
Cecil Lancaster: But thanks for the offer, Mai.
Nero Shade: *Smiles at Mairi* Your so nice! *Looks at Ell expectantly*
*Mairi smiles warmly at Nero
Ellington: errr… chocolate…. vodka?
Bushido: ((ell’s drunk isn’t he))
Mairi: chocolate syrup as in to mix and make chocolate milk

{Static}

Bonus! World Radio Chat, 16/07/08

Note: ‘phil’ is one of the game’s developers.

Chuckler: Folks it’s time for celebration
Chuckler: … I am back in a Lancaster.
*phil celebrates good times
phil: “it’s the semi-annual lanca-star factory-authorized clearance!”
phil: *HUGE ROLLING LOGO*
Alex Webster: Argh, shouting salesmen and poorly designed graphics!
*Alex Webster hides and puts earplugs in.
phil: “see your partycaster/revengenator dealer today to snap up these deals”
phil: “BEFORE THEY ROLL”
phil: *tiny voice* factory-to-dealer-incentives not applicable in all areas.  price is actually 1.34 times as marked.  see dealer for details
Moros: indeed
Xorolundra: It IS time for a celebration!
*Alex Webster rocks back and forth
Chuckler: *tiny voice* kits not included
Alex Webster: terms and conditions apply… terms and conditions…
phil: haha
phil: this would be so easy to mock up
*Rimdar Klall is just browsing, but gets harassed by salesmen anyways
Alex Webster: warranty… buy the extended warranty… but I don’t want… no…
*Alex Webster continues gibbering
Chuckler: rust proofing sir?
Zekkass: Yessiree, I like my new Seahawk.
Turbo Lance: do i still get a free tank of gas?
Rimdar Klall: Do I get gremlin insurance?
Rimdar Klall: Free paint on the plane?
Rimdar Klall: Are the cockpits included or extra?
Alex Webster: Indeed. They wanted me to buy the warranty. Oh-ho, and the rustproofing, and the leather upholstery. But I told them! Told them where to go! Hah.
Chuckler: Why do I need rust proofing? Do these things rust?
Alex Webster: They got the manager. Told me that in a year, the gear would fall off, and the paint would corrode, and the upholstery would be ripped.
Cannonball: My Hades has leather upholstery. Totally worth it.
Batty Den: oh…kay. Just had a couple of weird combats. Facing zero planes,  combat lasted about 2 seconds, won by shooting down zero planes for zero G, and got 3 combat point. I’m happy for the points and all, but still can’t help feeling it’s a bug of some sort.
Burrito Loco: Man
Burrito Loco: Those weren’t even options on mine :(
Cannonball: I rust proof mine with the blood of my enemies.

A Skyrate’s Life is a self-indulgent series of posts reminiscing about my time in the Skyrates roleplaying community, primarily through posting and talking about my remaining RP channel logs.

It’s 15/07/2008, 0200 local time. That’s 2:00 in the morning, of course. This is what the date and time stamp says on my first Skyrates RP channel log. Unfortunately, a lot is missing – not only the beginning of this session due to a connection failure, but my first entrance into the Rotor and Prop, the introductions of Mairi, Mah, Markus, Burrito Loco and indeed Zekkass. Since we’re missing all that exposition, I suppose I’d better write up what I remember.

The Setting: A tavern called the Rotor & Prop, often abbreviated to R&P or RnP. You can read about the tavern over here. Skytopia is a world of floating islands, although it was not always this way. It is populated by various anthropomorphic animals, and is influenced a little bit by TaleSpin. Piracy is a serious problem.

The Characters: If you keep reading, you’ll learn more about the characters as you see them. With that said, here’s a brief introduction to the key players:

• Alex Webster: Me! Male fox, recently graduated from flight school. Competent enough pilot, lacking in experience. Also lacking in experience at: Pretty much everything else.
• Burrito Loco: Elder male donkey. General in the Azure League (blues’) armed forces. AKA “Papa Rito”.
• Markus Jarnhann: Male bear. Colonel in the Crimson Armada (Reds). Mercenary, but decent sort.
• Zekkass: Female fox, not long out of Flight School herself. This is probably her first time in the R&P, but her introduction is lost due to a connection failure.
• Mahmoth: According to his Skybrary entry, he is “a four meter tall, remarkably hirsute, quadrupedal sentient pachyderm of a wandering bent”. The default bartender during the evenings. Will eject or dismantle troublemakers.
• Rimdar Klall: Male squirrel, famous for his musical trading and musical crew.
• I can’t tell you anything else about the other participants that you can’t see for yourself – memory failure, lack of interaction or lost notes and logs.

Notes: Since this is the first entry, let’s talk a little about how and why Skyrates RP worked.

• Skyrates is a long format semi-casual game. Once you take off, it can be an hour or more before you reach land again, and it’s often 10 minutes or more between combat events (which you can optionally deal with, or leave until later). If you’re into the setting (which I was) and wanted to immerse yourself further, there’s the RP channel. I lurked and listened for a while before I jumped in myself.
• What happened in the RP channel was completely de-linked to what your character was doing in the game world. You could have your character flying about, trading and shooting things down while you were in the tavern in-character. This is one of the factors that led to the Skyrates RP community really working.
• You can type normally, which is speech. There are also emote (/me or /em) commands, which colours posts and formats them as “Alex Webster does something” and the OOC (/ooc) command which places text in ((double brackets)) and in a different colour. I can’t tell you WHICH colour, because it seems to be different than I remember now. I went through and added formatting in for emotes and OOC, because apparently I have too much time right now.
• There were no asterisks next to actions ingame. I added those to aid readability here.
• Player names were in their faction colours, so you could tell who belonged to which faction. This information is also lost.
• Every time you open the game, {Static} is printed to every chat channel. If you see this, it means that I opened the game at this point, or lost connection and reconnected. I’ve added it to the end too, to show disconnection.

Let’s also talk a little bit about what happens in this entry, which you’ll find below…

• This isn’t the first time I’ve been in the bar, although it is pretty early on. The R&P is basically on US time, so this is the evening for them (and the very early morning for me).
• Historian’s note: The planes referenced here are in the correct order for the time. I went from the starter plane (CR-4P), to the Phantom, then Seahawk, then Vengeance. I note this here as it wouldn’t make any sense to current Skyrates.
• You’ll see a character named Manik and his coffee mentioned in OOC here. We’ll meet Manik later on. It seems like he stuck around far longer than I did, unfortunately (although the only person to blame for me never coming back is myself).
• This entry is rather long, and nothing very important happens. I’ve included the whole thing, as it’s an introduction to some of the key characters.
• The other reason for not simply omitting this entry is that it still shows Alex when he was at his most awkward and unsure.
• Mahmoth is non-anthropomorphic. That means he’s the size and shape of an actual mammoth. How does he fit behind the bar? He just does. Maybe he uses A Plot Device?

Click through to meet some of the key characters, listen to the veterans go on about the Seahawk, see Rimdar put his foot right in it and discover if you really can survive a sea landing in a CR-4P!

15/07/08 – 0200

{Static}
Burrito Loco: If I decide you’re a threat to the League, you won’t know ’till after you’re dead
*Markus Jarnhann slides into the bar as loco says this last. “…I wouldnae say we parade i’, mate.  We jus’ do wha’ we do.”
Alex Webster: ((Blast! Net connection failed again. I got upto Bouchie’s exit, can someone update me?))
Burrito Loco: ((Zekkass: ((Combat – just a moment, I’ll be right back.))Alex Webster: Erm… Burrito, if I may… If you’re a combat specialist, why didn’t you join the military?Burrito Loco: I am in the military, the Armada is not alone in maintaining an armed presenceZekkass: ((Back. ))Zekkass: It isn’t?Burrito Loco: All three major factions maintain a presence, but only the Armada parades it aroundBurrito Loco: If I decide you’re a threat to the League, you won’t know ’till after you’re deadMarkus Jarnhann slides i))
Markus Jarnhann: ((Markus Jarnhann slides into the bar as loco says this last. “…I wouldnae say we parade i’, mate.  We jus’ do wha’ we do.”))
Alex Webster: ((Thanks :)))
*Markus Jarnhann slips into his chair, at his corner table.  He shrugs.  “…Dinnae le’ Loco scare ye, lass.  ‘E’s a goo’ bloke, mos’ly, fer all tha’ we oft’ fin’ ourseves opp’site o’ one ‘nothe’.”
*Stella walks out of the bar, waving to the rest of the crowd. “I’ve gotta get over to Fuseli. Might stop by later.”
Burrito Loco: Not here to scare anyone
Alex Webster: I understand. Sorry. I just never though of blue as being that … militaristic.
Burrito Loco: We aren’t
Zekkass: ….right, stay on the good side of blue.
*Markus Jarnhann smiles. “Ne’er said ye were.  An’ t’blues are nae mil’taristic, fo’ te mos’ par’.”
*Zekkass blinks, noticing Markus. – “Hello there. Who are you?”
Burrito Loco: Heh, I haven’t had to order a hit in years
*Markus Jarnhann shrugs slightly, and reclines against the wall, propping his feet up on the table.
*Knappekat limps into the tavern and looks around before heading to the bar.
Burrito Loco: They’re nasty business
Alex Webster: Yeah, I can well imagine that they are…
Zekkass: I’d expect they are.
*Mahmoth looks over, nods to Knap.  “Evenin’ Knapling.  What’ll y’have?”
Markus Jarnhann: M’name’s Markus Jarnhann.  I fly fo’ t’Armada, when I’m nae takin’ reg’lar ol’ merc contrac’s.
*Zekkass waves to all unfamiliar faces.
*Markus Jarnhann smiles slightly at the mention of ‘nasty buisness’.
Knappekat: Sparklin’ water, Mah. How goes it?
Zekkass: It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m Zekkass, and I’m still undecided. Leaning towards joining the Armada, though.
*Amber Summers walks into the tavern and takes a seat close to Knappe at the bar.
*Mahmoth picks down a clear bottle of the bubbling, pours out a glass and sets it down.  “Goes’s ever, lad.  Working’n th’trust’f K’dath, windborne most hours’r here, hauling this’n that, but most part, all’s salt.  Y’self?”
*Amber Summers smiles at Mah, “Can I get one of my coffees when you have a chance Mah?”
Mahmoth: ‘Course, Amberling
Knappekat: Eh… not bad. Been turning wrenches a fair bit, on account of Alexa bein’ off duty. Other than that… mostly stayin’ south and raking in the gold.
*Markus Jarnhann nods at Zekass’s comment. ” …If ye’ve any questions, I’m sure tha’ I can answer ‘em.”
Zekkass: Thanks! I do have a few that I was hoping to get answered at some point…I’ll admit, most of what I know about the Armada comes from your reputation.
*Knappekat gives Markus and BL a wave, with a friendly nod to the ones he doesn’t yet know as well, then smiles at Amber.
*Mahmoth reaches back across, pulling down some creamstuff, adding that to a cup of coffee pulled from the Maker, setting that before Amber with a light smile.  “Naught but th’south?  Heard this’n that fr’m th’speech’f K’dath of Uurwerk needing much’f some stuffs.”
*Alex Webster listens in on Markus and Zekkass’ conversation, hoping to learn something.
*Amber Summers nods a thanks to Mah and smiles at Knappe as she sips her coffee. “Did you enjoy your fruit?”
Knappekat: Sure did! I really love str… I mean, we really love strawberries. *the inside of his ears turn a little pinker than usual*
*Captain Mullet jumps through a glass window into the inn with glass shards flying everywhere. Captain Mullet tumble through the mess he made and stands up. After a quick dusting off Captain Mullet looks back “Captain Mullet could of swore that was an open window”
Alex Webster: (To markus and Zekkass) uh, do you mind if I listen in as well? I mean, I intend to just fly about for a while but I’ve considered enlisting eventually, so…
*Amber Summers blushes redder than her fur, “Oh.”
Zekkass: I don’t mind, not at all.
*Zekkass looks at Markus. “Do you?”
*Knappekat looks a bit shifty as he casts about for a non-awkward conversational gambit.
Knappekat: So… uh, you still writing poems?
*Zekkass starts and looks at Captain Mullet. …best not ask. She looks back at Markus and Alex.
Amber Summers: Well, no…. not really…. I’ve been very busy and haven’t had any inspiration in a while.
*Alex Webster looks in surprise at the broken window, until he sees who is responsible. He shakes his head a little and turns back.
*Captain Mullet swaggers to the inn and grabs a Grog
*Knappekat starts a bit at the sound of breaking glass, but upon seeing no immediate excitement in the offing, goes back to his conversation.
*Alex Webster says quietly to Zekkass “I bet he won’t pay for the window…”
*Zekkass murmurs back. “Who is he?”
*Amber Summers sips her coffee quietly.
Knappekat: Huh. So, what about that kit’s book?
Amber Summers: I’m stuck. I don’t have an ending for it.
Knappekat: Where’re you stuck at?
Burrito Loco: ((how one does a rather brutal scene involving very adult themes on a single page of a children’s picture book))
Amber Summers: Well… the girl has gotten into so some trouble, and I don’t know or not to have her save herself, or to have someone help her out.
Alex Webster: I don’t know that much about him. He goes everywhere speaking about himself in third person, causing havoc. He’s a captain, but no-one seems to know how he got the rank or from where.
Amber Summers: that’s the first thing I need to decide. and then figure out how do whatever i chose.
Zekkass: From himself, probably.
Zekkass: ((Burrito Loco, what are you talking about?))
Amber Summers: ((to do*))
Knappekat: Hmm…
Alex Webster: Heh, probably…
Knappekat: I think she should save herself.
Knappekat: Yup. Maybe have to ask for help, but definitely save herself.
Burrito Loco: ((the part Amber is stuck at in the book))
Zekkass: What plane do you fly, Alex?
Amber Summers: ((you’re a jerk BL :P))
Alex Webster: I’m in a Phantom, the “Huntress”. Six .25 cal guns. Worked on the engine a lot, too. Uh, yourself?
Burrito Loco: ((it was funny and you know it))
Burrito Loco: ((;P ))
Zekkass: I recently got myself a Seahawk. I haven’t done much to it yet, but it’s a pleasant flight.
Amber Summers: I just don’t know if she can. I don’t know if it’s in the character to save herself.
Zekkass: And it’s good for pegging pirates, too. Those guns are nice.
Alex Webster: Oh, awesome! I’ve had my eye on a seahawk. Definately getting one of those when I get the cash together!
Knappekat: Oh. Well, you know her better than anyone else, I guess. Just seems to me that it’d be, um, you know. Better? More uplifting?
Alex Webster: ((actually already in a ‘hawk, haven’t got around to writing it IC yet though :P))
Zekkass: Good idea – my ‘Whitehall’ is much nicer than my old Kittyhawk.
Amber Summers: yeah, I guess you’re right. I could possibly change the trouble she’s in too.
Zekkass: ((Fine with me – you know how nice ‘hawks are, then.))
Knappekat: Aww…. don’t do it on my account. You’re the writer.
Burrito Loco: ((screw up by the bootstraps))
Amber Summers: No, not your account, it’s just… if I’m stuck i need to get unstuck.
Amber Summers: She’s gotten lost int his cave, and she’s been seperated from her brother and his friends, and she fell into a hole and can’t get out.
Alex Webster: I hear it can fly even with two of the engines out of action. Could be useful in a heavy fight. Course, worse comes to worse she can ditch into the sea, like the phantom…
Alex Webster: Heh, wouldn’t see too much success taking a kitty into the sea though.
Zekkass: I haven’t had that happen, and here’s a drink to hoping it won’t!
*Zekkass lifts her glass and takes a gulp.
Zekkass: ((Any clue as to what happened to Markus?))
*Alex Webster notices he doesn’t have a drink at all. “Heh, yeah, quite. I’d drink to that, but… I seem to have lost mine. Ah well. I’ll metaphorically drink to it at least, heh.
Alex Webster: ((he seems to have disappeared. Connection failure or RL perhaps.))
*Rimdar Klall walks into the bar, wearing his characteristic flight jacket and a pair of blue jeans. He sees Amber, smiles, and walks over to her.
Zekkass: ((Oh well.))
*Knappekat looks thoughtful. “Well, I guess she’ll need to find a way out of the hole… get a lift up, or find some way to contact someone, or find another way out…”
*Amber Summers looks into her coffee mug thinking about her writers block and does not notice Rim.
Zekkass: Thanks for the sentiment, anyways.
Markus Jarnhann: ((sorry about that.))
Markus Jarnhann: ((had a phone call.))
*Rimdar Klall peers over her, seeing some sort of story or something being written. “Need a refill on that coffee?”
Zekkass: ((Aha, welcome back, Markus!))
Markus Jarnhann: ((gracias. I miss anything?))
Alex Webster: ((Ah, good. Your internet doesn’t randomly drop out all the time like mine does…))
Zekkass: ((I’ll send the entire log, so you can read))
Zekkass: ((Er, wait. I can’t do that….I keep forgetting I’m not on AIM.))
Markus Jarnhann: ((no worries, Ill read up.))
Zekkass: ((Well, Alex and I talked about our planes, I mentioned knowing the Armada only by reputation, and Captain Mullet broke a window.))
Markus Jarnhann: Nae, I dinnae min’ if ye lis’en in, mate. As tae planes… tae ‘aw is nae a ba’ ride. I flew one fo’ a while. Bu’, I pers’nally love me Vengeance.
Knappekat: Oh, hey there, Rimdar. How’s it goin’?
Alex Webster: Ah, yes. Heard good things about the vengence. Heh, bit pricy for me.
Zekkass: I’d need to do a good amount of trading to get that plane.
*Rimdar Klall nods to Knappe. “Things are well. Minor engine trouble, but bullets /do/ tend to fiddle with their inner workings.”
Alex Webster: You an me both, heh. So, uh, Markus… Are you an officer in the Armada? I don’t fully understand how it all works.
Markus Jarnhann: Mmm, ye’d be bes’ served tae collec’ bounties on pirates, lass. Ye’re ‘Hawk is nae really fast ‘nough no’ ‘as a large ‘nough ‘old tae be an ‘ffective trader.
*Zekkass leans in somewhat, setting down her drink. This was information she was looking for, and it was a lot better than asking a Flight school teacher.
Markus Jarnhann: Aye, Alex, I am. I ‘old tae rank o’ Colonel, on top o’ bein’ an ‘ppointe’ Imperial Senate Chamberlain.
Zekkass: Yes, I thought so. Some trading here and there does help with costs, though.
*Knappekat gives Rimdar a friendly nod and slides his stool back. “Here… take my seat, Rim.” He limps over to Markus and Zekk and Alex’s spot.
Knappekat: Someone say something about the Seahawk?
Burrito Loco: ((I just realized I am officially a general according to my Avatar page))
Zekkass: Yes, we did.
Alex Webster: Can you apply for a commission, or is it a case of enlisting and working your way up?
Markus Jarnhann: Jus’ tha’ t’bir’s nae an’ exceptional trader. She excels a’ comba’, though.
Markus Jarnhann: I feel ye shoul’ always fly a bir’ tae it’s strengths.
Knappekat: Ah… yeah, well… that’t true enough. Mine did just fine tradin’ with a bunch of upgrade, though.
Knappekat: Good all-rounder, really. I kinda miss the Deibel III, truth be told.
*Markus Jarnhann hrms slightly. “Ye nee’ tae join firs’. Fro’ there, if ye do goo’ work, an’ ge’ notice’, things’ll fall intae line.”
Zekkass: I’m not against carrying goods when goods are selling well, though.
*Knappekat snags a chair and sits with a grunt.
*Zekkass nods. “Is there anything else we should know?”
*Markus Jarnhann chuckles and nods. “…Aye, t’Hawk was a joy tae fly. An’ I’m no’ sayin’ tha’, either, lass. T’poin’ is no’ tae o’eremphasize ye tradin’, ‘sall.”
*Rimdar Klall sees Amber to be deep in thought, and heads over to the bar.
Alex Webster: Well, that makes sense. I guess it’s good that the officers have all been just pilots once.
Rimdar Klall: ((who’s a-tendin?))
*Mahmoth looks up, nods gently to Rim as he approaches
*Markus Jarnhann nods.
Markus Jarnhann: We all ‘ave tae star’ somewhere, lad.
Rimdar Klall: “Heya, Mahm. Mind if I was to get a scotch? Nothing too old, maybe aged 5 or so years? Two rocks, please.”
Zekkass: Indeed.
Mahmoth: ‘Course, ‘course.
Alex Webster: I think… probably I’d respect an officer more if I knew he’d been just an enlisted pilot once. Thanks for the info. Heh, more than the flight school careers advisor could give me…
*Knappekat chuckles.
Zekkass: Between the drinks and the company, I do believe I will be coming back.
Alex Webster: Uh, question for you, Zekkass. Where did you get your seahawk.
*Mahmoth searches briefly with his trunk, sucking in long breaths of scent, before picking down a bottle of Baernach’s, passing across bottle and glass.
Alex Webster: ((+ 1 question mark to that, please :P))
Zekkass: Cidade.
Zekkass: Not too far, really.
Alex Webster: I don’t suppose you know if there were any more around there?
Zekkass: I’d think they’d have more. They had plenty of upgrades for the plane, and if I’d had more money at the time, I would have decked my Whitehall out.
*Markus Jarnhann chuckles. “….Lad, there’s plen’y o’ ‘awks a’ ‘dade. Ye’ll ‘ave nae problem gettin’ one.”
Alex Webster: Right, good, excellent. Heh, know where I’m headed next. Thanks *grins*
Zekkass: Good luck, then!
*Zekkass finishes her drink. She’d better stop there, and it’s probably time to get going. “I had better get going – Fuseli is waiting, after all.”
*Rimdar Klall takes his drink and glances at the new pilot.
*Knappekat blinks once.
Rimdar Klall: ((we’ve met, right, Alex?))
Alex Webster: Ah, right. Pleasure to meet you, Zekkass! Hope to see you around again.
Knappekat: You doin’ some recruiting, Markus?
Alex Webster: ((Ermm…. I actually can’t remember.))
*Markus Jarnhann smiles. “..’deed. ‘ave a good fligh’, lass. If ye’ve need o’ anythin’, ye tell ‘em Colonel Jarnhann sen’ ye.”
Zekkass: Of course! I will drop by here again.
Alex Webster: ((I recognise your name, but I can’t remember if we’ve met IC.))
*Markus Jarnhann grins at Knappe. “…So ‘twoul’ seem. Were nae me inten’, bu’, I’ll nae complain.”
Rimdar Klall: ((Let’s assume we have. :P I’m a male squirrel, specialize in trading musical goods. you?))
*Zekkass smiles. “Thanks, Colonel.”
*Markus Jarnhann laughs. “…’Tis jus’ Markus.”
Rimdar Klall: “Alex! How’s things? You’re in the market for a new plane?”
*Zekkass stands and heads for the door, grinning. “Bye, all!”
Markus Jarnhann: Nae nee’ tae be formal ‘roun’ ‘ere.
Burrito Loco: Heh
Burrito Loco: Bye
Alex Webster: ((male fox, inexperienced and a little naive, but not lacking in enthusiasm!))
Burrito Loco: My name would get her better service, but I’d hat to burst your bubble
*Knappekat waves to Zekkass, then grins at Markus. “Well, I heard the Armada needed a few good furs.”
Amber Summers: ((omg, i’m back, what did i miss?))
Alex Webster: Heh, Hi Rimdar. Yeah, off to get myself a seahawk, I think. How’s you?
Rimdar Klall: ((I peered over you to ask if you wanted more coffee, assumed you to be in thought, and now am at the bar.))
Burrito Loco: ((wait, no I got my peoples bass ackwards))
Burrito Loco: ((Alex would get leverage with my name, Zeck with yours, right))
Rimdar Klall: “Them’s good planes. Avoid the Mastiff and the… whatchacallit… cyclops, and you’ll be fine.”
Amber Summers: ((so I wasn’t writing anything, and I was already at the bar. :P))
Markus Jarnhann: Aye, we’ll take wha’ we can ge’. Ye thinkin’ ‘bou’ joinin’ up, Knappe?
*Amber Summers starts as she realizes Rim has replaced Knappe, and looks shocked then smiles, “Oh hi there rim.”
Knappekat: Heh… nah… not really.
Alex Webster: Yeah, it’s what I’ve heard. I’ll kinda miss my phantom, though…
Rimdar Klall: ((O, I thought you had writers block about something?))
Amber Summers: ((I did but I wasn’t writing anything at the time, just talking about it))
Rimdar Klall: ((O. :P So you’re at the bar?))
Alex Webster: ((BRB, head hurts, need to find painkillers…))
*Markus Jarnhann chuckles. “…Wish ye woul’. Ye’re a decen’ sor’.”
Amber Summers: ((yes. ))
Rimdar Klall: “Aaah, the phantom. I loved when I had one of those. Totally underrated.”
*Rimdar Klall smiles. “Hey, Amber. How’s things?”
*Knappekat winks. “Well… I’ll keep that in mind… Colonel.” He emphasizes the “colonel” mischievously.
Alex Webster: So, uh, yeah. Thanks Markus. Like I said, haven’t really got any plans just yet, but I might head out to Fuseli at some point.
*Amber Summers smiles, “They’re okay, I suppose.”
Rimdar Klall: “You suppose? Something the matter?’
Amber Summers: Just stuck in my book.
*Markus Jarnhann laughs and shakes his head.
Rimdar Klall: “Your book? You’re quite the writer!”
*Rimdar Klall remembers what happened last time he asked to see her writing, frowns a wee bit for a second, and resumes his normal train of thought.
Markus Jarnhann: Fair ‘nough, lad. We coul’ use ye, eithe’ way.
Amber Summers: I told you about my book, about the tomboy girl who climbs trees.
Knappekat: I just bet you all’d love to recruit a fellow with his own Hades, all kitted out to the nines. *he grins widely*
Rimdar Klall: “Hehe, oh, right. Well, if it’s based off personal experience, why the writer’s block?”
*Markus Jarnhann grins, and nods. “…Le’ me pu’ i’ this way… we’d nae complain.”
*Knappekat smiles and stretches in his chair. “Yup… well… anyhow. How’s things in the shootin’ business?”
Amber Summers: I just can’t figure out what message i want to send in the end
*Markus Jarnhann chuckles.
Markus Jarnhann: ‘sbuisness, really. ‘Sae long as there’s two folk lef’ on this plane’ someone is goin’ tae wan’ someone else dea’.
Rimdar Klall: “Anything I can do to help?”
*Amber Summers frowns, “No not really.”
Knappekat: Yup. an’ if there’s a third one, there’s gonna be a conspiracy.
*Alex Webster leans on the bar. “Uh, Mahmoth, can I get something to drink, please?”
*Rimdar Klall puts his arm around her. “Well, just let me know if there is.”
*Amber Summers looks up at him, a slight glint of awkwardness in her eyes, “Okay. Thank you.”:
*Rimdar Klall smiles, noticing her vague uneasiness. “Of course.” He removes her arm and points to her cup. “The coffee good today?”
*Amber Summers nods.
Mahmoth: ‘Course, lad. Y’preference?
Alex Webster: I think… a midgard lager, please.
*Rimdar Klall considers getting a cup of coffe, then reconsiders, remembering his scotch. He sips it thoughtfully.
Rimdar Klall: “I think I’ll work on this, first.”
Alorwin: ((Mah, give him Manik-brand coffee! :D))
Mahmoth: ((Mah is not a sadist…))
Alorwin: ((No one ever is. ;-;))
Knappekat: ((we’ve had enough trouble over that silliness as it is.))
Amber Summers: ((not true, ell is))
Knappekat: ((right, Alo? ;)))
*Mahmoth nods, flicks his trunk up and across, pulling down something decent and coreborn, pouring out a pint of it and setting it on the bartop.
Rimdar Klall: ((what’s manik do to his coffee?))
Rimdar Klall: ((mahm, who’re you nodding to?))
Burrito Loco: ((some f***ed up ‘nip/coffee hybrid))
Rimdar Klall: ((oh NM, alex))
Alorwin: ((Sadist =/= homicidal maniac))
*Markus Jarnhann cracks his neck, and nods.
Burrito Loco: ((a good sadist would have skinned him alive))
*Rimdar Klall swishes his tail a bit uncomfortably. “Hey, Amber, Listen. About the other night… sorry if I… caught you off guard.”
Alex Webster: Ah, outstanding, thanks.
Alorwin: ((Sadist =/= [not always, at least] killer/maimer))
Amber Summers: Oh… um…. yeah…. that was… unexpected…..
*Rimdar Klall scratches the back of his head with one hand. “Yeah, I think the coffee, and the wine, and being tired got me a little… well, maybe it’s not always best to blurt things out right when you think them, you know?”
*Alex Webster takes a good gulp of the lager, leaning back and relaxing a little. “Aah. ‘S good stuff. Reminds me of home.”
Amber Summers: So… are you saying you don’t feel that way.
Burrito Loco: ((uh oh, I don’t think Rim can win this))
Burrito Loco: ((Run, Rim, run!))
Rimdar Klall: ((danger danger!))
Rimdar Klall: “Well, no, I actually do very much feel that way. But I think I might have sprung that statement a bit early.”
Amber Summers: Well, since you do feel that way I’m glad you told me, I would rather know and deal with it, thaen think you feel someway you don’t… but yes, I think it is a bit too early…. it kinda scares me that you feel this strongly so fast….
Rimdar Klall: “I don’t want to scare you, Amber. Really. I’m a bit mixed up with my feelings myself, and, you’re right. It probably is too fast.” *shrug* “It’s just… you’re a really wonderful fox, and I can’t help my feelings.”
*Knappekat runs a foreclaw over the table surface idly. “Yup… tough world out there.”
Markus Jarnhann: So ’tis. Bu’ tha’s t’nature o’ tae beas’. ‘Ow’s ye leg comin’ ‘long?
Knappekat: Eh, fine. Doc say’s it’s about as good as it’s gonna get, prolly, but at least I can walk and sorta jog. And fly, too.
Amber Summers: I know… it’s just…. this is the first time I’ve ever had someone like me…. and I’m not used to this at all,a nd then for you to say you love me…… i’m meverous that we’re moving to fast, I think maybe we should calm down a bit.
Markus Jarnhann: Bea’s a sharp stick i’ tae eye.
*Knappekat nods.
Rimdar Klall: “I know I can’t change my feelings, Amber. But I do know I can keep from pushing the boundaries of this relationship. I want you to know you don’t have anything to worry about, I’m not going to be trying to rush things. A first relationship can make a lot of unease, and I’ll try to avoid that, OK?”
*Amber Summers nods, “Okay…. I’m sorry I don’t feel the same….”
Rimdar Klall: “No, no, don’t be. Look- just becaue I feel one way, and am confused about the whole thing, at that, doesn’t mean you should. Take everything at its own pace.”
Amber Summers: But i feel guilty….
*Knappekat glances over his shoulder at Rimdar and Amber, and looks back at the table between himself and Markus, pokerfaced.
*Markus Jarnhann listens in on the Rimdar/Amber conversation, and quirks an eyebrow at Knappe, just as he turns to face him again.
Rimdar Klall: “Guilty? Amber, no, don’t. As I said, I can’t control my feelings. If you aren’t ready for /any/ step of a relationship, you just take it at your own pace.”
*Knappekat looks up at Markus and grins. “Girl trouble for the squirrel, sounds like, maybe.”
Markus Jarnhann: So i’ do…
Rimdar Klall: “I try to be a good guy, and if I ever feel like i’m pushing you, it’s not going to give me some stupid bravado or anything. I’m trying to make things /easier/ on you. So just forget what I said before, or keep it in the back of your mind. But don’t let it push you to anything you’re not ready for.”
Amber Summers: You don’t understand, my first relationship was something i dreamt abotu for a long time, and it’s not happenning like it should. I should madly in love too and I’m not…. I just… i don’t know… I need to think…..*she gets up and leaves quietly*
Rimdar Klall: ((aye, but he got himself into this mess :P))
Amber Summers: ((about* ))
Amber Summers: ((and *should be*))
Burrito Loco: ((Rim should have listened to his elder))
Markus Jarnhann: …Oy… ::He shakes his head, and mutters:: poo’ bugge’….
*Rimdar Klall scratches the back of his head again. “Whoopsie.” *he sips his scotch, deep in thought*
*Alex Webster looks sympathetically at Rimdar. “Uh… that didn’t seem to go according to plan?”
*Knappekat whistles under his breath. “Hoo, boy.”
*Mahmoth considers Rim somewhat sympathetically.
Rimdar Klall: “Well, there really wasn’t a plan.”
*Markus Jarnhann shrugs slightly. “…Pull up a sea’, mate.”
*Markus Jarnhann pulls the flask from his hip holster, and sets it on the table.
Rimdar Klall: “I kinda let sleip a few days ago that I was getting… really strong feelings for her. It was probably too early. I was wine-d up and had some coffee in me, as well as sleep deprivation. Not a good mix.”
*Rimdar Klall gets up and moves to markus’ table, looking to see if Alex is coming as well.
*Alex Webster looks a little unsure, but after Rimdar looks his way he shrugs, and follows him over.
Rimdar Klall: “Thanks for the seat, Markus. Got any advice for this foolish squirrel?”
*Knappekat scoots his chair over to make room.
*Rimdar Klall sips his scotch, and looks over at Alex. “You have a girl?”
Alex Webster: Heh, no. No, I am quite single. Not entirely by choice, if I’m honest.
*Knappekat chuckles.
Knappekat: Ah, I remember those heady days…
Rimdar Klall: “It’s a double-edged sword. I mean, sure, women can be great, but this whole “feelings” thing… ugh. I doubt I’ll ever understand them.”
*Markus Jarnhann shrugs slightly. “…Hmm. If I ‘ad goo’ advice, I would likely be in a bette’ position wit’ t’lass I’m chasin’. Bu’, tha’s neithe’ ‘ere, no there. Star’ from tae beginnin’… wha’ brough’ all tha’ on?”
Rimdar Klall: “They say they want communication. Then you open up, and they get scared. I tell ya, if it weren’t for my true love, music, I’d be single, bitter, and grumpy.”
*Markus Jarnhann passes the flask over to Rimdar. grinning slightly.
Rimdar Klall: “Who’s on your mind, Markus?”
Alex Webster: Heh, well. I guess I made all the choices that got me where I am now.
Rimdar Klall: ((declines the flask, raising his own scotch to indicate he’s well-stocked at the moment. he takes a big sip.))
Rimdar Klall: ((/em fail))
*Markus Jarnhann laughs. “Does nae matte’ mate.”
*Alex Webster has his own theory based on observation, but he knows when to keep his mouth shut for once.
*Rimdar Klall shrugs. “Bah. There’s always my other love, scotch. She’s a cruel mistress, to be sure, but she’s always there when I need her.” *he downs the rest, and excuses himself for a quick refill.*
Markus Jarnhann: We’re talkin’ bou’ ye, righ’ now. ::He slides the flask back to his side, his massive white paw covering the heavily accented golden inlay cross. He snatches it up, and takes along pull.::
Knappekat: Well, fella *turns to Alex* if you want a couple bits of advice… learn to tend bar, and be choosy.
*Markus Jarnhann laughs.
Markus Jarnhann: ‘e shoul’ know. ‘e’s go’ ‘imsel’ a decen’ one.
*Knappekat cuts his eyes to one side, and grins a little.
Alex Webster: Heh, noted and logged. Maybe once I’ve had enough of spending ninety percent of my waking hours in the sky, eh…
Rimdar Klall: “Mahm, another scotch?”
*Burrito Loco fades deeper into the woodwork, secluded in a corner and engrossed in a book
*Rimdar Klall assumes himself to have received more scotch one way or another and heads back to the table.
*Markus Jarnhann laughs. “Ye’ll be alrigh’, mate.”
Rimdar Klall: “Blarrgh” *as he sits down* “I don’t even know what to do. I’d chased her down the last couple of times she ran off, but it was more embarrasment then. I think best thing right now’s to leave the girl alone. All in favor?”
*Knappekat makes a non-committal motion with his paw.
Alex Webster: Uh…not that I’m an expert in this, but yeah, can’t be a bad idea to let her think it all through a bit.
*Mahmoth rolls a general shrug, sets the scotch bottle back in its place.
*Rimdar Klall makes a :P face. “Thanks, Knappe.”
Rimdar Klall: *to Alex* “Yeah, time’ll sort everything out. Always does.”
Markus Jarnhann: T’lad’s likelly righ’.
*Rimdar Klall takes a gulp of scotch. “I’m glad I didn’t ask for the nice stuff, I’d hate to waste that on getting drunk.”
Markus Jarnhann: Meh.
Markus Jarnhann: Dinnae ge’ drunk, mate.
Markus Jarnhann: if she comes back, an’ ye’re sloshed…
Markus Jarnhann: ‘twoul’ likely no’ en’ well fo’ ye.
*Alex Webster winces at that scenario
Mahmoth: Truth, seeming.
*Rimdar Klall stares almost accusingly at his drink. “I suppose. This here’s often held sway over me to a grat extent, I should probably want to be ‘with it’ in case she does come back.”
*Knappekat purses his lips.
*Rimdar Klall gives Mahm a “cut me off” signal.
*Mahmoth nods mutely.
*Rimdar Klall looks generally distraught and upset with himself.
*Alex Webster looks a little uncomfortable. He doesn’t know what to say.
Rimdar Klall: “Bah, best not dwell on it. I brought this mess on myself, it’ll clear up. Or not. Either way, time marches on.” *he looks as though he’s cleared his mind of the trouble, and is now smiling*
Rimdar Klall: “Tell me, Alex, of Flight School. How were things there? To be perfectly honest, I never went. But you didn’t hear that from me.”
Alex Webster: Oh, uh… Yeah, flight school was good. I mean, the instructors all know their stuff and its a good place to make contacts too. Has its downside, though. Now I’ve got my full wings, it seems like theres still a lot of stuff I don’t know about, that they didn’t tell me.
Markus Jarnhann: There’s only sae much ye can teach. Tae res’ mus’ be learne’ on one’s own.
Rimdar Klall: “Come to think of it, you didn’t hear what I said at all, mmk?’
*Markus Jarnhann snorts.
Knappekat: Right… experience is the best teacher. I reckon the license is a license to learn, really. Too bad a lot of kids don’t see it that way.
Rimdar Klall: “Experience and The Hard Way were my teachers, and in terms of flying, I think they did a pretty good job.”
Alex Webster: Yeah, I think you’re right. There’s no substitute for going out there and actually doing it. Still, I think the school gave me a pretty good foundation to build on. And a CR-4P of course, heh. Glad I went in the end.
*Markus Jarnhann nods a bit. “Lots o’ folk knock t’Four Papa. She’s a decen’ ride, wit’ decen’ all ‘roun’ capabil’ty.”
Rimdar Klall: “She is?” *scratches his chin* “I suppose, but you’ll be tons happier once you’re in the pilot’s seat of a /real/ plane, Alex.”
Knappekat: Yup. Not tto much plane, just enough.
Knappekat: ((*too ))
Rimdar Klall: “Hahaha, not too much plane. No, it certainly isn’t. You ever want a ride in style, come by my Hades, Alex.”
Knappekat: ‘course, not many folks regret stepping up, either. *grins*
Alex Webster: Certainly beats flapping your arms and jumping off the edge, heh…
Rimdar Klall: “Just flew in from echo, and BOY are my arms tired!”
Rimdar Klall: ((i said that in a rodney dangerfield voice btw))
*Alex Webster bursts out laughing
*Markus Jarnhann facepalms.
*Knappekat blinks.
Knappekat: Flappin’ yer arms doesn’t do a bit of good.
Knappekat: You don’t fall stable at all…
Alex Webster: Uh, I’ve… actually not tried it.
*Markus Jarnhann sighs. “…Bloody ‘ell.”
*Knappekat winks. “Did a little extra “bail-out” practice back in Flight School… pretty fun, once you get the hang of it. Getting the ‘chutes repacked for morning flight review was a pain, though.”
Rimdar Klall: “Bailing a craft is never a fun experience… nooosir.”
Alex Webster: Yeah, I’d imagine not. Haven’t had to do that for real yet. Hope I don’t have to, sea’s not a nice place.
*Markus Jarnhann snorts slightly, at the mention of chutes.
Rimdar Klall: “Make sure to invest in a good radio, it’d be a shame to go down and not have people know it.”
*Alex Webster shudders
Markus Jarnhann: All else fails… save tae las’ bulle’ fo yeself.
Alex Webster: I’ve heard enough stories of pilots who went into the sea without a radio in flight school…
Markus Jarnhann: ((afk for a bit.))
Rimdar Klall: “Markus, while horrible, that’s probably a good idea, I suppose.”
Rimdar Klall: “Seems they tell a lot of stories, what do they actually teach there?” *chuckles*
Alex Webster: They teach you to not ditch without a decent portable radio, heh…
Rimdar Klall: “Aye, I’ve got one built into my seat- the whole shebang just pops off the plane. Got an emergency kit, pistol, food, and some other thingsbuilt in.”
*Alex Webster drains the last of his lager. “At least if you have to bail, you’ll be well prepared. From what I hear, you’d have to have a lot of firepower to knock out a hades, though.”
Knappekat: Yeah, well, some pirates out there have it, and some to spare.
Alex Webster: Yeah. Yeah, I s’pose so.
Knappekat: Don’ worry, though. If they’re gunning for big fish, they don’t generally bother with small fry. If you’re even half-careful, odds are you’ll never see any of ‘em you couldn’t take on.
Rimdar Klall: “Ha, ooh, I’ve never had any pirate problems with my Hades. The Allegro Assai can be a rela fight when she wants. Of course, a lucky shot messed up my starboard engine just today, but no big deal. I think.”
*Knappekat nods. “I’m not sayin’ you’ll never get taken out, mind you. It happens to all of us from time to time.”
Rimdar Klall: “I’ve lost three Phantoms, all due to mistakes. That’d be the ‘Hard Way’ I was talking about.”
*Rimdar Klall finishes his scotch and brings the glass back to the bartop, setting it down, and returning to the table.
Alex Webster: I’ve been pretty lucky so far. Took some pretty critical damage a couple of times, mind you. Had to make a sea landing and patch it together enough to get to the nearest skyland once. Never more glad that I had a sea landing capability than then, I tell you. Couldn’t do that with a CR4.
*Burrito Loco fades out of the woodwork hearing what borders on shop-talk
Rimdar Klall: “That’s definitely true. I think if a CR-4P hits the water, it’s not coming out.”
Alex Webster: Off to Cidade to get myself a seahawk next, methinks… Triple engines, and sea landing again.
Burrito Loco: You can very much get a CR4P out
Burrito Loco: They’re actually amazing pieces of engineeringin their own right
Burrito Loco: Alex, drop my name when you’re there, I go way back with Post
*Alex Webster looks to BL with interest. “Sure, thanks. I will do. But I have to know, how do you get a CR4P full of holes from combat damage out of the sea?”
Burrito Loco: Duct tape, bailing wire and elbow grease
Burrito Loco: See, the stupid things are very simple
Burrito Loco: very, clean and efficiently built too
*Rimdar Klall laughs. “I’d like to see that. You can be sinking quickly on the sea and I’ll hang out in a levi to haul you out, OK?
Burrito Loco: Sure, I’ve done it before
Rimdar Klall: “I’d assume the work would have to be done awful quick.”
Alex Webster: I mean, yeah, the CR4 is simply built and simple to repair, it’s one of the reasons its so popular. But patching it up when you’re half submerged and filling up with water? Not something I’d want to try. And since you can’t get unsubmerged, how do you haul it out of the water? Can you even restart the engine?
Burrito Loco: If the fuel tank isn’t filling with water you’re set
Burrito Loco: See, they’re primarily wood and cloth construction, cheaper that way
Rimdar Klall: “Naaaah, there’s no WAY you can launch one from the water. They don’t have pontoons or anything! They’d sink like a rock.”
Burrito Loco: so, the body will float if it has a choice
Burrito Loco: You’ve gotta jettison *everything* pretty fast though
Rimdar Klall: ((wood?!? :P))
Alex Webster: Maybe the ship would float, but without the pontoons, like Rimdar says, you couldn’t launch!
Burrito Loco: ((well through the WWII era, small craft and trainers were wood and cloth))
Alex Webster: ((The Spitfire was very much like that.))
Burrito Loco: See, you take off the landing gear, they have a smooth enough bottom to fake it
Burrito Loco: and the engines are so small you can manually turn them over
Rimdar Klall: “And how, pray tell, do you remove the landing gear when that whole part is under water already?”
Burrito Loco: with a socket wrench and a good set of lungs
*Alex Webster shudders again. “Cold, in that sea…”
*Rimdar Klall laughs again. “You know, I can’t believe it, but that’s a helluva poker face if you’re lying.”
Burrito Loco: Nope, you can do it
Burrito Loco: Actually, the CR4P is one of a very few non-sea planes that can take off from the water without extensive modifications
Burrito Loco: People belittle it, but the truth is it’s one of the best designed aircraft out there
Burrito Loco: ((I seem to have defeated RP))
Alex Webster: I mean, sure, make no mistake, they fly forever and you can pretty much maintain them with a screwdriver, but you won’t see me changing my phantom to get back in one.
Rimdar Klall: “Then why is it I’ve faced a herd of more than 10 before and sustained little to no damage?”
Alex Webster: I suspect it’s something to do with the whole being made of wood thing…
Burrito Loco: Rimdar, I said best designed not most combat ready
Rimdar Klall: “Ah. Well, I guess I can give it that.”
Rimdar Klall: “But it still can’t hold a candle to a Hades. Mmmmm, man I love my plane.”
Burrito Loco: Mm
Burrito Loco: Dunno
Burrito Loco: If I left you with nothing but a roll of duct tape and socket wrench for a month, that Hades would be lucky to be scrap
Burrito Loco: ((I’ve been dinner’d, brb in ~15))
Alex Webster: ((K. Might be gone when you get back, 0200 here…))
*Alex Webster stretches and stands up. “Eeh, while I’d love to stay and debate the CR4′s merits a little more, I have an appointment with a ship dealer on Cidade. Want to get there before nightfall”
Rimdar Klall: ((where does alex live?))
Rimdar Klall: ((jolly ole england?))
Rimdar Klall: “Best of luck, Alex. See ya.”
Alex Webster: ((Jolly ole England indeed :)))
Alex Webster: Cheers, Rimdar. Good luck to you as well, eh? Talk to you soon.
Rimdar Klall: “Thanks.”
Alex Webster: Good to meet you, Burrito. I’m sure we’ll talk later, too. Thanks for all the info.
Alex Webster: ((for when he gets back.))
*Alex Webster deposits his glass on the bar, nods to Mah, and with a final wave and smile at the other patrons, heads out for the hangars.
*Rimdar Klall stretches, gets up, and moves to the couch.

{Static}

I was a fox called Alex Webster for about 2 months. I recently dug up my old Skyrates RP logs, and it got me thinking about it…

It seems like Skyrates is more or less dead – at least as far as roleplaying goes. You can still log in, the server is still up but it’s… pretty quiet.

It was a tiny semi-experimental persistent-world flash game where you played an anthropomorphic pilot in a world of floating skylands. The game was mostly trading and shooting things down, but the catch was that it took several real-time hours to fly from skyland to skyland. The idea was that you could drop in every few hours, shoot a few things down and set up your next few jumps and then get on with something else.

I haven’t touched this game for years. Literal years, the last time I logged in was 2008. What does this mean to me?

I’m really sad. I mean, I left Skyrates a long time ago, but thinking about it now… I really regret leaving when I did.

I remember seeing a picture of a floating battleship on RPS in October 2007 and following the link back to the Skyrates website. “This looks interesting!” I thought. “It appears to be free. I’ll give it a try”. It was quite an enjoyable little trading and shooting game, although the long-format, persistent nature took a little getting used to. It had quite a unique look and feel to it as well.

I remember finding that it had a very active roleplaying community. To date, it’s the best RP community I’ve ever had the privilege to be a part of. The Rotor & Prop – the bar that the RP channel spent most of its time set in and around – became my character’s home. Before very long, it became the game. I’d still play, but I primarily logged in to roleplay. My character was nothing special, an inexperienced rookie using one of my former aliases (Alex Webster). It was enough for me to bask in the brilliance of the tavern’s other denziens.

I remember Markus Jarnhann, a Colonel in the game’s military faction (the reds). He was my character’s mentor. He taught me to fly and fight, and was at least partially responsible for me buying what amounts to an autocannon on wings. This is the aircraft that prompted the sentence “So, good news! Firing my cannon doesn’t spin me out of control!” He shot people fairly often, but only when they were causing trouble.

I remember Mairi, who was effectively the heart of the roleplaying community at this time. She ran the R&P, eased me gently into the community while at the same time dealing with her character’s own problems. Markus was totally in love with her, but she ended up with someone else – Trystero, I think. Markus, Trys and Talon were all after her, she liked them all but that wasn’t really enough. She spent a lot of time feeling pretty terrible about the whole situation. Meanwhile, a couple of people nearly got killed in various incidents and the bar was temporarily set on fire. Through all this, she STILL managed to send me a smile, let me know how it all works and show all of us newbies how everything looks when there’s not a major disaster.

I remember Mahmoth. No-one messed with him. Once, when the RP channel was dead, he started singing. Mah had an incredible accent! I loved his accent. I once asked him if he wanted to go behind the bar (his customary position), and he replied “Hmn?  Ach, nah, if y’self’s well b’hind’t, all’s salt.” That should give you an idea. Anyway, he’d been sitting on these Mahmothian lyrics for just such an occasion, and his character tapped out the rhythm on various bits of the bar. By the time he was finished, half the bar’s regulars had turned up. It was a brilliant gambit to get all the regulars who were lurking to turn up, and to get the conversation going. Mairi owned the place, but it was his bar, and no-one would dream of (or dare to) question that. He had a habit of appending ‘ling’ to people’s names. “Eyup, th’Ennling” for Ennia. I think he eventually took to calling me “Webling”. That was a mark of respect.

Mahmoth nods. “Seeming’s th’bugger’s t’be a lesson, next time about.”

I have just spent over an hour and a half looking back through my Skyrates chat logs. I have laughed out loud more than once.

I remember that four of us newbies turned up in the RP channel at about the same time. I was there a little earlier than the other three, Zekkass, Josiah and… I think it must’ve been Copper Cheetah. Zekkass and I quickly became a bit of a team, we both drank the same honey ale and flew the same planes for a long time. She joined the reds, the military faction and ended up working with Markus. Copper joined the blues, the science-y faction that Mairi belonged to. With Markus and Zekkass pulling me one way and Copper and Mai the other, I ended up staying neutral through sheer indecision. Markus once remarked that he saw Zek and I as his apprentices, and I suspect that eventually I would have gone red.

I completely forgot about this! Zek and I used to play cards, a game that only existed in the Skyrates universe. It was called Schellen. We had to work out and modify the rules ourselves as we went along. We didn’t have any actual cards of course, so we just played along with the help of notepad and calculator until we ran out of theoretical cards.

I remember Mai and Mah putting me behind the bar for the first time. My character was so proud, and spent as much time tending as possible. It marked my acceptance into this community, both in and out of character. I wasn’t even very good at it – I had a book of cocktail recipes stashed under the counter because people kept asking for stuff I didn’t know how to make – but I was earnest, and always did my best.

I remember the first time Talon Karrde came into the bar. He was one of the R&Ps most famous bartenders – in fact I think he originally owned the place. He disappeared for a long time, but it just so happened that he turned up again while I was active. “Have you met Alex?” Mai said. “He’s your replacement.”

I remember something dramatic and important happening. An assassin turned up and shot one of the major characters, and Markus went after him. I stayed up until about 0500 in the morning to watch it play out. I spent so much time in that RP channel, either participating or idling and watching things happen. Unfortunately, after I finally went to bed my internet connection broke, so I didn’t see what actually happened in the end.

I remember my Logitech G7 breaking – it was double or triple clicking every time I pressed the mouse button – but it would click multiple times in a fraction of a second. This caused flash-based things to break quite badly – they couldn’t parse the mouse clicks that quickly and menus and buttons would stop responding, necessitating a client restart. I stopped playing the game temporarily while I waited for the warranty replacement.

I never went back.

I never made a conscious decision to leave the community. I often regret it. I regret it right now. And with everyone else moved on a long time ago and the Skyrates server next to empty, it’s far too late to do anything about it.

I often wonder what happened to Zekkass, Markus and Mairi. What did they make of my character’s sudden disappearance? I sometimes toyed with the idea of going back and putting together some kind of story about being shot down ditching into the sea, being stranded for months and finally being picked up or repairing my craft. Months became years though, and the likelihood of anyone I knew still being around decreased. And then, there was the fact that I hadn’t even played the game towards the end, I was just there for the setting and that little RP window. Spending all day in there, staying up ridiculous hours – these were not good things. This little flash game was taking all my time up.

Even so, I regret that I couldn’t spend longer with that community (I was there only about two months), and I regret the manner of my leaving. Were you a member of the Skyrates RP community? I would absolutely love to hear from you.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be posting up my Skyrates RP channel logs. They’re incomplete in many places, but I don’t really expect to find a community like this again, and I’d like to show you why I kept these logs all this time. Maybe it’ll be therapeutic or something too…

STO has gone Free to Play for former subscribers, and the rest of the world soonish. What’s it like?

I’ve been playing STO on and off since about half way through the Beta. I was an early adopter, played in the early access bit and have subscribed and unsubscribed about four times now. I feel reasonably qualified to say that it’s really not a bad game, and that actually it does some things very well. With that said, it does some things quite badly, too. First, let’s talk about the three things it gets really, really right.

The first thing that strikes you is that the character customisation is really magnificent, especially if you’re comparing it to WoW or TOR. It doesn’t just put them to shame, it dishonours them in front of their families, challenges them to a duel and then systematically dismantles them leaving them bereft of the smallest accomplishment or worthiness. What’s more, you can completely re-customise your character at any major station and perform the same level of customisation for all of your officers. Unique looking character and bridge crew? Certainly. Distinctive uniform for you and your officers? That’s there, too.

You’ll see your characters quite a bit, while wandering around the stations and planets that form STO’s ‘cities’ and mission backdrops. The best part of the game though involves NOT seeing your character – Spaaace Combaat! The ship-to-ship battles have always been the most consistently playable parts on both factions. Combat is fluid, fun and – most importantly – feels appropriately Star Trek-y. If you’re a veteran of previous Star Trek titles on PC, I think the best way to describe it is as a cross between Bridge Commander and Starfleet Command. The many and varied bridge officer abilities add a tactical aspect – your choice of bridge officer abilities can dramatically alter both your role and effectiveness in combat.

Your choice of ship class also has a significant effect on how you play. The slow, ponderous cruisers sidle up alongside an enemy and pour broadside fire into them. The agile escorts mount absurdly powerful weapons along the front aspect, but have to manoeuvre hard to keep their bow towards the target as long as possible and spread damage out along its weaker shields. The Klingon bird of prey is even more manoeuvrable, but can’t mount as many heavy weapons and is even more fragile. A bird of prey would be at a disadvantage in any fair fight.

A canny BoP captain takes action to ensure he’s never in a fair fight. The BoP is the only ship class that can cloak whilst in combat, meaning you can drop cloak, sneak attack an enemy with a devastating burst of rapid fire cannons, turn hard to stay out of their primary weapon arcs, recloak and come around for another attack. A pair of Birds of Prey working together can take down even superior combatants if they’re competently captained. The space combat game is pretty deep (like space! Eh). I think the best thing I can say is that writing about it makes me want to patch up my STO client and take my Sovereign out for a spin.

The third thing is really important: The foundry. The foundry is Cryptic’s name for their built-in user generated content tools which allow players to author and publish their own missions within the game. You spend all of your levelling time in STO playing through the episodes (STO’s quests or missions). Once you reach the level cap, there aren’t any more missions. You have fleet actions, the 5-man heroic Special Task Force missions aaand… PvP. There are the occasional injections of feature episodes from the developers, but there’s just no way they can continue producing high-quality content at the rate that players consume it.

The foundry is brilliant. It gives players a huge library of user generated missions to play though. Some of them will be poorly written or riddled with errors. Some of them will just be poorly designed, too hard, too easy or openly absurd. But in my experience, there are enough really good missions to keep you entertained in between doing other things in game (and of course doing other things out of the game. When you feel like it, you just drop in and play a couple of foundry missions). Many of these missions are:

1. Better written and designed than anything Cryptic have put together, and Cryptic have assembled some pretty good missions over the past couple of years.
2. Much closer to the feel of Star Trek than many of the official missions. There’s a lot of shooting things in this game – it IS an MMO, after all – but many of the foundry missions involve diplomacy, exploration, investigation, time travel, anomalies… and shooting. Some of the foundry missions are the closest thing we’ll ever get to being in a Star Trek episode – one starring OUR captain and crew!

The foundry gives players a way to tell their own stories, and to explore familiar sci-fi situations. Finally, last time I was active on the forums (a couple of months ago), Cryptic were actually recruiting for I think the first time since the game’s release. They wanted to pick up more mission designers and work on releasing more, better content. Their primary source for new mission designers? The top-rated foundry authors. This is a company that really works hard at integrating and working with the community, and that’s something to support.

What else? Ground combat is… improved. It’s much closer to being fun than it was before. Maybe it’s improved even more since I’ve been away from the game, I don’t know. Regardless, you get to look at your wonderful customised captain and crew! Honestly, I’ve spent more time in the character customisation in STO than I have playing some entire games.

STO has a PvE queue, something which is conspicuously absent from TOR. There are potential reasons for this. It still irritates me to stand around doing nothing but spamming “LF Tank for Hammer Station. Just 1 tank! That’s all we need. There must be a tank out there! Please. We’ve been here for hours.” I understand it now has new and improved endgame PvE content, too, along with splendid new STF armor for both Federation and KDF characters.

The new Duty Officer system is pretty neat. I played with it during the F2P beta, and it’s pretty compelling. It’s main objective is for you to have something to do during downtime, like when you’re travelling across the galaxy. The galaxy’s pretty big, and it takes a while…

Alright, so I’ve reached the point where I’m just saying things that won’t make any sense if you haven’t played the game recently. Computer, activate conclusion Durkonkell sierra two seven.

Conclusion!

I think Cryptic are actually very talented MMO developers. I say this despite the disappointing shambles that was STO on day one (it wasn’t even vaguely ready for release). They have been persistently underfunded (The former executive producer Dan Stahl once remarked that his team was smaller than the team at their local Starbucks) and they’ve still managed to innovate in a couple of really interesting ways. TOR might be ten times more polished, fully voice acted and have more content than I can comprehend, but you still can’t re-customise your character after initial creation. Even WoW has this (although it took blizzard five years to actually implement it in game), and it was a day one feature for STO. The foundry is a significant unique proposition, and it’s likely to be expanded – there’s talk of customisable ship interiors and fleet (STO’s guilds) starbases. I would love to have seen what Cryptic could have done with a TOR, Warcraft or Guild Wars size budget.

It has its flaws still (it really does), but it’s not at all the same game as the one that launched a couple of years ago. If you have even the vaguest interest in Star Trek, you should absolutely check it out when it goes free to play for everyone (17th of this month). If you’re not interested in the Star Trek angle, that’ll probably reduce the game’s appeal and enjoyment for you (half the fun is putting yourself in Captain Kirk’s Picard’s chair), but you may still enjoy the excellent character customisation, ship combat or UGC tools.

Questions? Set course for the comment box below. Engage when ready.

Damn it. Now I want to play this again…

A comprehensive guide to Beastmastery Hunting in 4.3, with an emphasis on PvE

A full expansion on from the last This is Beast Mastery, and so many things have changed! Some things haven’t changed though – we’re still considered to be the lowest of the hunter specs. What is the truth of the situation, though? Is BM raid viable? Are Beast Masters statistically the kindest and most handsome of all hunter specs? Will you find the spec, shot priority and other details past the cut? Yes, yes and yes.

Clicky!

THE SPEC

For Level 85 PvE (dungeons and raiding) I am currently recommending a 31/7/3 – which is the Elitist Jerks standard – or 32/7/2 for 1/2 Improved Mend Pet.

31/7/3 – EJ Sample Build. Click image for link to talent calculator.

32/7/2 – As above, but with Improved Mend Pet to boost pet survivability. Again, click image for talent calculator.

There’s actually very little room for moving points about in Beast Mastery – less than ever before, at least in my experience. In 32/7/2, I drop a point in Imp. Serpent Sting – which yields only a minor DPS loss – in favour of 1/2 Improved Mend Pet on the grounds that no-one will be cleansing our pets if we don’t. If you have healers who are willing to cleanse your pet of deadly things, 31/7/3 is probably the best pure DPS spec.

I lose about 30 DPS by taking Imp. Mend Pet over 2/2 Imp. Serpent Sting. Considering how vitally important the survival of our pets are to our performance as Beast Masters, I think it’s a reasonable trade-off – if your pet gets flattened, it’s a very much higher DPS loss.

If you wish to fine tune, look at Pathing (1-3% extra haste) and Imp. Serpent Sting (damage on application & extra chance for serpent sting ticks to crit). You may find that 1% extra haste is worth more to you than the extra serpent sting crit, or the other way around. Zeherah’s Hunter DPS Analyser is fully operational for 4.3. It is an absolutely invaluable resource – if you’re thinking of trying something out, run it through the Hunter DPS Analyser first.

THE GLYPHS

There are now three types of glyphs: Prime, Major and Minor. Actually, for the most part only the Prime glyphs matter when considering DPS output, with most of the other slots being entirely your choice. Here’s the recommended set:

Prime

• Glyph of Kill Command: Causes your main nuke to cost less focus. This means more Arcane Shots, less frantically regenerating focus and less miscalculating and being unable to blow KC. This is good!
• Glyph of Arcane Shot: 12% boost to Arcane Shot damage. No serpent sting required nowadays, so it’s just a straight DPS increase.
• Glyph of Kill Shot: This is the fun one. If your kill shot does not actually kill the target, you get another one immediately. This means that you get an instant, free double-kill-shot on bosses. You then have to wait for the cooldown as normal, of course, otherwise you’d be able to kill shot raid bosses to death. I would not have a problem with this.

Major

With the exception of the first option, this is personal choice. This is what I have installed:

• Glyph of Bestial Wrath: Reduces BW cooldown by 20 seconds. This is a straight DPS improvement and anyway, why wouldn’t you want more BW? Naturally, this stacks with the BM talent Longevity giving us a Bestial Wrath every 70 seconds. Yup!
• Anything you like.
• Anything you like. Really, there’s lots of things to choose from. Learn several of them and carry vanishing dust, then you can swap around as needed! Oh very well, have some recommendations…
  • Trap Launcher: Reduces cost by 10 focus. Great if you want to fling around Explosive Traps for AoE!
  • Mending: Causes Mend Pet to heal for 60% more. I recommend this one quite a lot. Dead pets do no DPS, hold no aggro etc.
  • Misdirection: Instantly resets misdirection when you cast it on your pet. Misdirection misdirection misdirection misdirection! Infinite pet aggro! This is really excellent if you want to pet tank things, or solo old instances for transmog gear.
  • Pretty much everything else: Potentially useful for PvP, but nothing specifically beast-master-y in there.

Minor

These are all personal choice!

• Revive Pet: Eliminates pushback when casting revive pet. I recommend this – if you lose your pet, getting through the Rev Pet cast in the quickest time possible is important.
• Anything you like! I have Feign Death and Aspect of the Pack.
• If your pet is too big, you can use Glyph of Lesser Proportion to make them a little smaller. Ahahahahahaaa, ‘pet too big’, haahahahah! Heh, those guys at Blizzard, they crack me up. Where’s ‘Glyph of Full Size Pet’ eh? I want full size core-hound bosses, warp stalkers and dinosaurs!

THE GEAR

The days of Beastmasters favouring Ranged Attack Power are over. Partly because our pets now scale with our crit rating making Agility a better option and partly because you can’t easily get RAP any more. There are no AP gems and you can’t reforge for it. Occasionally it will appear on your gear or as a socket bonus, but it’s not really worth pursuing.

Stats

Stats! We love stats. Here they are now!

1. Agility! It is the best. Each point of agility gives us 2 Attack Powers and some crit. It’s not just the best stat for us, it’s best by a long way!
2. Hit, to cap. You need to get 8% hit to avoid missing raid bosses. Every 1% off of the hit cap you are is a 1% loss of DPS for you and your pet. Reforge for this! Hit becomes completely worthless over the cap, so if you’re over reforge hit to other things. You’ll need 961 hit rating to cap this, unless you are blue and from space, in which case it’s 841.
3. Crit / Haste / Mastery / Attack Power. Which is better for you? Play with your reforging in the DPS analyser. Elitist Jerks say that plain Attack Power is better point-for-point that crit or mastery, but when I run the numbers crit and haste come out better! Remember that haste improves your focus regeneration as well, and works in ‘bursts’ – 100 might be a big improvement, but another 100 on top of that might yield only a small benefit. The numbers, you must crunch them.

Gemming

Meta: The meta gem is the Agile Shadowspirit Diamond. It’ll give you 54 Agility and 3% increased crit damage and requires 3 red gems.

Everything else: You should generally gem exclusively for Agility. The agility gem is the Delicate Inferno Ruby, which fortunately is red. Ignore socket bonuses unless the bonus is 20 Agility or more – in that situation stick a correctly coloured “20 Agi + something else” gem in there. Check the DPS calculator for your best secondary stat – it’ll probably be mastery or crit, although you may find that haste works out best due to shots lining up at certain haste-points. If you’re considering going after a socket bonus for straight Attack Power, remember that Agility gives 2 AP per point, so the bonus needs to be in excess of 40 AP for you to break even. Crunch the numbers to make certain!

New-fangled Arcane Reforging

Reforging is a more interesting proposal. If you need to get to the hit cap, reforge for it instead of replacing Agility gems. Crit and haste are both worth less than Agility and Hit (to the cap), so if you reforge those off to get to the hit cap you’ll improve your DPS by a greater amount than swapping a 40 Agility gem out for some hit rating. If you are over the hit-cap, ask the DPS analyser which of the secondary stats to reforge that extra hit into. In 378 or better gear, you will be so far over the hit cap that you’ll probably be able to reforge it all…

Once again: Haste is weird. Point for point, generally mastery or crit is better but adding a little haste can sometimes get an entire extra shot into your rotation by pushing cobra shot cast time down and increasing focus regen a little. It’s hard to calculate accurately and it shifts around in value for different amounts. Additionally, once you have two bits of Tier 13, you’ll probably be wanting to get rid of all your haste as it’s really significantly devalued.

Enchantments

It looks like some of the Wrath era enchantments that give pure Agility are actually better than the newer Cataclysm ones giving Mastery, Haste or Crit. Unfortunately, this means needing Wrath enchanting materials. You’ll need some reputation for the head and shoulder slot.

• Head slot: Easy, Arcanum of the Ramkahen. Requires revered reputation with Ramkahen to purchase. It is BoA, so you can send it to another character on your account without the rep.
• Shoulders: Greater Inscription of Shattered Crystal. You’ll need Therazane exalted for this. It binds on pickup, so you’ll need the reputation on all your characters.
• Cloak: Enchant Cloak – Major Agility (Old mats!)
• Chest: Enchant Chest – Peerless Stats
• Wrist: Enchant Bracer – Agility (unless you are a leatherworker with Draconic Embossment: Agility)
• Gloves: Enchant Gloves – Major Agility (Old mats again)
  
• Legs: Dragonscale Leg Armor (made by leatherworkers and can be bought as an item on the auction house)
• Feet: Enchant Boots – Major Agility is best for pure DPS, although Enchant Boots – Assassin’s Step gives you a minor run speed bonus for dancing around enemy players or boss effects.
• Melee Weapon: Enchant 2H Weapon – Mighty Agility.
• Ranged Weapon: Flintlocke’s Woodchucker seems best, although the Gnomish X-Ray Scope comes pretty close for me if you can’t find one. If you’re desperate for hit rating, there’s the R19 Threatfinder too although you should try and reforge for it first. All three come from Engineering and can usually be purchased from the Auction House.

Actual Gear

It has never been this easy to gear up. Not even in patch 3.3. Here’s a guide to gearing up in the Hour of Twilight era:

1. Run heroics, work on reputation or otherwise acquire gear until your average item level is up to 352.
2. Start running the new heroics. They are quite fun, they are not crushingly hard or long and they drop fantastic loot.
3. Spend your many Justice and Valor points on upgrades and hope like hell that the ranged weapon, staff and shoulders drop for you.
4. Once you’re up to 372 – and you will be very quickly – you can queue up for the raid finder. Complete each boss once per week! The difficulty is lower – it feels like a really large scale heroic – and the loot isn’t as good as ‘proper’ raids, but you’ll cap your valor points and get plenty of upgrades nonetheless. The tier items you gain from the Dragon Soul raid have exactly the same set bonuses as the fully fledged tier items. This will also give you a really good shot at seeing the fall of Deathwing if you’re not in a raiding guild.
5. Run full-difficulty raids with your guild for even better items. Also: a sense of accomplishment and progression.

Don’t equip leather gear, let Kitty druids take the staff as it’s a much bigger upgrade for them than it is for you and run Hour of Twilight as many times as you need to get that rifle (or End Time for the bow), as that’s probably the biggest single upgrade for you. Oh yes, you can’t buy the tier items for this patch with points. You must run the Dragon Soul raid to get those items, but that isn’t really a problem any more.

2-Piece Tier 13 causes Cobra Shots to give double focus, so you’ll probably want to reforge off all your haste at that point.

Good luck, and give Deathwing what-for!

SHOT PRIORITY

A hunter no longer follows a shot rotation – it isn’t really possible any more – but a shot priority. This is the easiest method of breaking down what you should shoot at any given moment. If the shot at the top isn’t available, you move down to the next one. The priority in 4.x is as follows:

1. Kill Shot – Should be fired whenever it’s available in preference to all other shots. Activates when the enemy is below 20% health, and you should get 2 at a time. Costs nothing!
2. Kill Command – You should reserve enough focus for this so that you can hit it as it comes off cooldown every time. Try and avoid having Kill Command off cooldown but not available due to low focus.
3. Serpent Sting – Try to keep this rolling on the target. Don’t fire this at all if serpent sting is still on the target and still rolling. Cobra Shot refreshes this so ideally it shouldn’t fall off.
4. Arcane Shot – This is a focus dump. Fire it when you have focus available but the higher priority shots are on cooldown or unavailable. This does more damage than Cobra Shot but eats focus.
5. Cobra Shot – This shot regenerates focus. It has no cost, but takes time to fire. Fire this when your focus is low so that you’ll have enough to fire the higher-priority shots. You’ll usually need to fire at least 2 of these to have enough focus for the next Kill Command.

Kill Command is on a 6-second cooldown, so for every 6 second ‘cycle’ you have usually have one Kill Command, 1-2 Arcane Shots and 2-3 Cobra Shots. The tactic is to adjust this cycle depending on how much excess focus you have and what your current casting speed is without ever having insufficient focus to fire Kill Command. If you’re new to BM, spend some time firing into the target dummies until you’ve mastered the 6-second cycle.

On high-movement fights, you can use Aspect of the Fox. Fox sacrifices the hefty AP bonus from Hawk in exchange for allowing you to fire Cobra Shot while moving which lets you maintain your normal cycle.

What About AoE?

Oh, gods. You had to ask. I remember in the good old days, when hunters had proper Area of Effect damage! In those days, you knew where you were. Goblins were all neutral, the bridge in Lakeshire was broken and the dam in Loch Modan wasn’t, and we liked it that way!

Eh. AoE, then.

1. Multi Shot. This is better than the old version in that it hits as many targets as you have grouped up in front of you. With really big pulls, it can do absurdly massive DPS! And then you’ll be out of focus and everyone will overtake you because they have a resource system that makes some kind of sense for this type of fight. I get 3 shots before my focus is completely depleted. Effective, but expensive and short-lived. If you blow Bestial Wrath, you will do a bit more damage and get as many as six shots before you have to switch to cobra-shotting on a single target.
2. Explosive Trap. You can drop it at your feet for no cost, or use trap launcher to fling it. Can be very effective over the length of its effect, but requires the enemies to remain in one position to keep getting hit by the damage over time. If the enemies won’t stay in one place or the tank (or overaggroing mage) decides to kite them all over the place, not so much use.
3. Um.

Of course, we are Beast Masters, and that means we get our pets to do all our work for us help us out. Have a look below for some pets that can assist you with extra AoE damage.

We’re not done with pushing buttons quite yet. There’s one most important mechanic we have to consider.

COOLDOWNS / “IWIN BUTTONS” / “RAAWRARRWL!”

As hunters, we focus quite a bit on the ways in which we train and control our pet – how the hunter influences the beast. What many novice Beast Masters fail to appreciate at first are the ways in which the beast influences YOU. The link between a Beast Master and their companion is stronger than it is for other hunters. When you become angry, your pet becomes very angry, you become very, very angry, a red mist drops in front of your vision, your pet becomes incredibly angry and then you wake up ten seconds later and all your enemies (and often some allies) are scattered about the place in small pieces.

It is well known that Beastmastery Hunters and their pets do not feel pity or remorse or fear while in this state and cannot be stopped unless killed.

Descriptions!

I’m talking about Bestial Wrath and The Beast Within of course. There are many cooldowns, though! Observe them below, or move to the section titled ‘Execution’ if you just want to know how to use them for best effect.

Bestial Wrath (+Beast Within):

• Only lasts for 10 seconds, but…
• Makes you immune to fear, stuns and movement impairing effects
• Increases pet damage by 20%, increases your damage by 10% and causes all your shots to cost 50% less focus.
• 70 second cooldown (1.17 minutes) if you have the appropriate talents and glyph. Tip: Have the appropriate talents and glyph.

Focus Fire: Is this a cooldown? Kind of, except you don’t just hit it every time it’s available.

• As your pet savages the enemy, frenzy is built up – 1 stack every 3 seconds to a maximum of 5.
• Each stack of Frenzy gives your pet 6% haste (max. 30%).
• At any time, you can hit Focus Fire which obliterates your pet’s frenzy effect but gives you 3% haste for each stack, up to a maximum of 15%.
• The haste buff lasts for 20 seconds, it takes 15 seconds of pet-attacking-time for 5 stacks to build up and Focus Fire is on a 15 second cooldown.
• Bottom line: We will have 15% extra haste most of the time. See ‘Execution’ below.

Fervor:

• Instantly regenerates 50 focus for you and your pet.
• This can happen once every 2 minutes.

Rapid Fire:

• You fire more rapidly. Surprised?
• In technical terms, you gain 40% haste for 15 seconds, meaning your Cobra Shots will be really flying out.
• Five full minutes before you can do it again though.

Ancient Hysteria: No, this isn’t something that you’ve forgotten to put on your action bars!

• A pet ability found only on Core Hounds.
• The reason that it’s important is because it’s basically Heroism/Bloodlust/Timewarp/whatever you’re calling it today.
• If you don’t have a Shaman or Mage in your group, you can pull out your Core Hound and your group will be very happy!
• 30% haste for 40 seconds, 6 minute cooldown. A group can only benefit from a Heroism style effect once every ten minutes, unless you are all killed.

Call of the Wild:

• This is also a pet ability, although its one that’s available to all ferocity pets via a talent.
• It increases attack power by 10% for you and your pet for 20 seconds.
• Its base cooldown is 5 minutes, but it is affected by Longevity which brings it down to 3.5 minutes.
• Many people leave this on auto-cast. Do not do this! Your pet will blow it on the very first trash mob you encounter, and then it won’t be ready when you need it.
• You really want it to go off at the same time as Bestial Wrath so that you can combine their effects. How can this be accomplished? Move your eyes to the next section!

Execution

For maximum effect, it is sensible to macro together some of your cooldowns and blow them all at once. Why?

1. Because we have enough buttons to press as it is.
2. Because blowing multiple cooldowns at once has a multiplicative effect, not an additive one. That is to say that Bestial Wrath + Trinkets + Call of the Wild has a bigger effect on DPS than BW then Trinket 1 then Trinket 2 then Call of the Wild one after the other.

Want a macro to use? SEE BELOOWWW!

Bestial Wrath: You want to blow Bestial Wrath as many times as possible during a fight. You also want Bestial Wrath to be as effective as possible, which means:

1. Reserving some focus so that you can get as many Kill Commands and Arcane Shots in as possible during the effect of BW. You don’t want to be using Cobra Shot during BW.
2. Delaying using trinkets and other available cooldowns until BW is available.
3. Ensuring your pet is actually on the target before activating
4. Not using Focus Fire during BW – the haste is worth more to your pet under BW than it is to you.

Massive DPS Phase: Send your pet in, wait for it to get on the target, and mash the big red button!

1. Kill Command!
2. (If this is right at the start of a fight, you may as well get serpent sting rolling while it’s cheap)
3. Arcane shot until Kill Command comes back up.
4. Kill Command!
5. Repeat until out of focus.
6. BW is finished by now, so Cobra Shot to refresh your serpent sting and regenerate focus for the next Kill Command. Alternatively, you may wish to hit Fervor now so you can keep Arcane Shotting and get another Kill Command in before you have to switch to Cobra Shots. Beware – this may cause Serpent Sting to fall off unless you first refresh it with a cobra shot.

When BW is about to come off cooldown, start regenerating some focus in preparation. Repeat MASSIVE DPS phase as above, but without the serpent sting – you should only have to apply it once per fight, ideally.

Fear and Stuns: If you know that a boss uses a fear or stun on a cooldown, it may be worth delaying BW so that it overlaps with the effect – you’re immune to most of these things while enraged. Don’t delay it too long though – every second you have BW available but not used is a loss to your average DPS.

Fervor: Some say to use this before a Bestial Wrath rather than using Cobra Shots to regenerate focus. Some say to use it AFTER a Bestial Wrath to keep your burst damage… bursting. I prefer the latter, but if you suddenly realise that BW is available and you haven’t got any focus it’s a useful emergency button.

Focus Fire: Generally, you want to hit this every time you see the glowy button effect and massive symbol in the middle of your screen which indicates your pet is at LUDICROUS SPEED. This means “Your pet is attacking so fast it’s going to injure itself – better transfer that haste to you instead”. Or something. However, if this appears just before or during BW, don’t use it! The extra haste is worth more DPS in the paws / talons / whichever of your pet when you’re under BW. Wait until after BW has faded, then blow it for extra haste during the cobra shots.

Rapid Fire: Elitist Jerks suggest not using this while under BW as most of the haste effect is wasted (you shouldn’t be Cobra Shotting during BW). The DPS analyser tells me I gain a tiny bit of DPS by using them together. Your mileage may vary! It is good to be able to fire very rapid Cobra Shots which is the main advantage of Rapid Fire, but the 40% haste also increases auto-shot speed and focus regeneration. Point is, you might see more benefit using RF afterwards or a bit before a BW when you’re regenning focus like mad, but if you’re likely to forget to use it separately you can still macro it together with everything else without it being a disaster.

Ancient Hysteria: You should generally use this when the raid leader calls for it. It’s best to agree this in advance – Will the raid need it at the start, at 20% health, in phase 3? You only get it once during the fight, so use it when the raid is likely to need it most. In 5-man dungeons, use it on whatever the hardest boss is – often the end one. If you’re doing End Time, have it available for Murozond and then blow it every time time is rewound! (Blizzard have been extra-incompetent – Ancient Hysteria does not reset when time is rewound, unlike EVERY OTHER FORM OF HEROISM).

Remember, you must have a Core Hound for this, and if you have a Shaman or Mage, they’ll usually do this thing instead. (And their version resets properly damn it)

Call of the Wild: Permit me to quote myself:

“…macro it together with your hunter cooldowns. Also, don’t leave it on autocast. Have I mentioned that when you first train this, it defaults to autocast? You should turn autocast off.“

I think we’re done here.

Macro time!

Here’s my Fire for Maximum Effect macro. It’ll show you the cooldown for Bestial Wrath on the button, so pretty much hammer it when it comes off cooldown.

#showtooltip Bestial Wrath
/use 13
/use 14
/use 10
/cast [target=pettarget, exists] Call of the Wild
/cast Bestial Wrath

That will activate your trinkets if they have ‘on use’ effects (slot 13 and 14), your glove slot (10) in case you’re an engineer and have Synapse Springs (good for 480 agility every 1 minute) and fire Call of the Wild / BW for you. If you want it to start Rapid Fire as well, just stick /cast Rapid Fire in there somewhere. Rapid Fire won’t activate if there’s a global cooldown in progress, so you may have to mash the button a couple of times to get everything going.

PETS

We’re Beastmasters, right? What discussion of Beast Mastery can be complete without also considering our animal companions. I want to write a separate, more detailed post about this, but it doesn’t exist yet. Here’s pets in a nutshell, then.

How do pets work nowadays?

Each pet has a unique ability that usually duplicates something another class can do. As Beastmasters, we can use exotic pets who have two unique abilities!

There are three pet classes – Ferocity, Tenacity and Cunning. Click on the name below for recommended pet spec!

• Ferocity is the main line DPS class, and has talents that focus on improving damage done. They generally have abilities that duplicate raid buffs or debuffs.
• Tenacity pets focus on high survivability, and have a broad mix of abilities – some have raid debuffs, some damage reduction and some disarms, snares or slows.
• Cunning pets are traditionally PvP focused, having talents that do extra damage to targets at low health or when the pet’s health is low. They mostly have stuns, snares and slow effects although some have party buffs or debuffs to enemies that increase damage done. Cunning is a viable choice for raids.

Pets inherit all of our Hit, Crit and Haste, and their damage output scales based on our Attack Power. If you stack Agility, the pet will benefit from both the Crit and AP from that.

What is the best pet for DPS?

Ferocity, Tenacity and Cunning pets do exactly the same base DPS now, so the only difference is in talents. For me, ferocity is still coming out ahead, although the numbers are fairly close – depending on the pet. A lot of Cunning pets have PvP focused abilities that snare or slow enemies down, and these are useless in a raid environment. A Dragonhawk on the other hand duplicates the warlock debuff Curse of the Elements, increasing magical damage done to the target by 8%. If your raid lacks a Warlock, that’s significant.

Tenacity is turning up last still. That is to be expected – the tenacity tree is designed around high-durability pet tanking and soloing.

Sooo… What pet should I bring?

If your raid lacks a certain buff or debuff, bringing along the pet that duplicates that missing ability – even Tenacity – will be a DPS increase for your whole raid, even if it means bringing a pet which does less DPS in absolute terms. If not… pretty much bring whatever pet you like (Ferocity or Cunning, naturally).

Remember: Exotic pets have two abilities, and this usually makes them an excellent choice for Beast Mastery hunters.

You mentioned AoE?

Aaaah, yes! Beastmastery’s personal AoE damage is a bit disappointing, and the Tenacity talent Thunderstomp is pretty pathetic now. Fortunately, there are two pets that have some nice AoE damage abilities and they’re exotic! This means only we can bring them! This also means that our AoE damage is balanced AROUND us having them, so it’s probably a good idea to pick one up.

Worm (Tenacity): Has Burrow Attack. The worm burrows underground and then somehow shakes the ground above. This does an absolute ton of AoE damage to every enemy in the radius over the 8 second channel. It’s on a 30 second cooldown.

Chimaera (Cunning): Has Froststorm Breath. It does about half as much damage as Burrow Attack but has no cooldown, so your pet can keep channelling it as long as it has focus. Less DPS short-term, but more on longer pulls (Burrow Attack lasts for 8 seconds, and then does 0 DPS until it cools down. After 16 seconds of Froststorm Breath, average DPS will be the same and after that point, greater). Remember that as a Cunning pet, the Chimaera will do somewhat higher single-target DPS.

Wait a moment I’m a Beastmaster

Here I am talking about numbers and things! I spent hours researching and minutes finding and taming a Spirit Beast, not because it is the most effective pet, but because it was the most unique and beautiful. Semseye spent weeks finding his many and varied Spirit Beasts. We did this because we are Beastmasters.

Find yourself a pet you really like for your primary companion. If you like, find yourself unique and interesting pets for ALL your stable slots! Hit Petopia for a database of every single pet type, model and skin, and then WoWhead to find where they range, how often and how to go about taming one.

BEAST MASTERS AND BATTLEGROUNDS

Again, I’d really like to write a separate article about this at a later point. Here’s just the high points:

What works

• Bestial Wrath: Breaks fear, stuns and warlocks. Does a ton of burst damage, gets you out of all those crowd control things that people try on you and cycles in 70 seconds. Magnificent. If you have a PvP trinket – and you probably should – remember to remove that trinket slot from your BW macro, or you’ll waste it.
• Intimidation: As if your pet isn’t enough of a pain to enemies. Stuns people and stops them from doing… whatever they were doing. Particularly excellent when used against that rogue who just appeared behind you. BW -> Intimidate -> Hunter’s Mark -> Death.
• Speaking of Hunter’s Mark, don’t forget that it allows you to see and track targets even when invisible.
• Pet damage is very high, and their attack speed is very fast which pushes back cast times. Our pets continue attacking even when we’re stunned.
• Exotic pets: Only Beast Masters can bring two different pet abilities to a fight! A Spirit Beast’s heal or Devilsaur’s Monstrous Bite can be the difference between victory or defeat.

What doesn’t work so well

• Squishy Pets. Despite 50% damage mitigation through armor, our pets are disturbingly vulnerable to player damage. You can of course talent pets for higher durability – at the cost of damage output.
• If we lose our pet, we lose Kill Command and almost all of our cooldowns. Revive Pet has a base cast time of 10 seconds. If our pet dies in the middle of a fight and we don’t have Heart of the Phoenix, it’s basically over.
• Less shots, and less effective shots compared to other hunter specs. No silencing shot or wyvern sting. No black arrow, explosive or chimaera shot.

THE FUTURE

Mists of Pandaria will bring us a new talent system, and it’s looking pretty interesting. Beast Mastery hunters with Silencing Shot or Wyvern Sting? This is possible. Beastmasters with Readiness?! This can also happen. Hunters – and particularly BM hunters – will be absolute powerhouses of crowd control in MoP, too. Freeze one, transmorph and scare beast another, wyvern sting a third, kite a fourth and pet tank a fifth. Who needs other classes?

I think that the new talent system just might be the best implementation we’ve ever seen. No cookie-cutter specs where 40 out of your 41 points are non-negotiable. No talents that increase the damage from X by Y%. Actual, meaningful choices and options. I can’t wait!

Have a look at the current MoP hunter talents here.

RESOURCES

• Zeherah’s Hunter DPS Analyzer
• Petopia – A complete guide to hunter pets
• Wowhead – Database, talent calculators and all round resource
• Nooska’s EJ BM thread, if you want detailed discussion of the numbers

Questions or comments? Corrections or improvements? Commentst thou beloweth!

Why me? This server was activated quite late into the Head start, as well! I’ve never even seen it with a population of ‘Standard’ or ‘Heavy’, let alone full.

This is actually the first time I’ve had to queue up through the Stress Test beta, the head start and live. Hopefully the rush will die down a little later on.

Update: Guide is now up! Click here for all your Beast Mastery requirements!

I have been working on a guide to Beast Mastery hunting in 4.3.

I have written so much.

It’s almost complete, but I need to edit it down to at least less than 3 quintillion words, find some pictures to break it up and illustrate things and mess around with the formatting. It should be up this week, and will discuss the following:

• Spec, naturally
• Glyphs
• Gear, gems and reforging. I suppose I’ll have to find somewhere to cram enchants, too.
• The shot priority
• Cooldowns – execution and macros
• Beast Masters and Battlegrounds (maybe – I haven’t PvPed very much this expansion)
• Pets!

Unrelated: If you grouped and quested with a Smuggler called ‘Myra’ on the Handmaidens of Atris server in the TOR Beta stress test weekend, drop me a comment! I’m on Bao Dur now since Handmaidens of Atris turned out to be a German server on live. Also: Not called Myra any more :P

Apologies for: Sometimes when we both talk at once you get a strange echoey effect. We did a test before recording which was fine, but our actual voiceover track has this problem. Hmm.

For thoughts on my TOR beta experience in a traditional writing-with-words format, plot your hyperspace co-ordinates for past the cut below.

Writing! This is how we used to convey our opinions in the old days, before it was possible to transmit our thoughts across time and space. Unfortunately, I talked a bit too much in the video and was quite unable to cram all my opinions into the 15 minutes. Here are some more things we wanted to talk about:

The character creator! Oh, man, we really wanted to talk / complain about this. It is… disappointing. I was hoping for something similar to Star Trek Online which I think still has the best MMO character creator and customisation. Bioware’s character generators in the past have traditionally been decent, but this is very much “World of Warcraft but you can choose one of four body types”. With that said, I actually like the ability to choose your body type, although human female body type 1 is so skinny in looks like she’ll snap off at the knees if someone runs past too quick. ON THE OTHER HAND (aside: the ability to see both sides of an argument isn’t always a good thing), all species share the same four body types, whereas in WoW every race and gender has a unique body mesh and animations.

• While we’re on the subject, I was a little disappointed in how few alien species were available in character creation. One of the key things about the Star Wars universe is how many different, disparate alien races there are. WITH THAT SAID (here we go again), in KOTOR 1 & 2 you could only be human, so progress, I suppose. Once again, I think I’ve been slightly spoiled by STO in this respect.
• Also, you can’t customise your face very much – you use a slider to choose one of about 30 preset faces. Unfortunately, I found that very few of them actually looked any good, so I suspect we’ll see lots of player characters using only 3 or 4 faces, which is the situation we have in WoW.
• There are lots of hair choices, though! That is definitely one of the options for differentiating your character from others.
• No pictures. Bioware haven’t let me back on the servers yet.

Classes! Classes are interesting in TOR. You have four base classes for the Alliance Republic, and four slightly different classes for the Sith Bastards Empire. They are actually asymmetrical in that way, which sounds like an absolute nightmare to balance. At level 10, you choose your advanced class from two choices, and each advanced class has three talent trees, just like a Warcraft class. The word ‘class’ no longer has any meaning to me. The talent trees actually resemble the Wrath era 71-point trees, which a) shows when systems development started and b) is a hopeful sign as I thought the Wrath talent trees offered more choice than the Cataclysm ones.

• THEN AGAIN, the Mists of Pandaria talent system looks like it could potentially be the best of them all. WoW is often thought of as the most conventional MMO, but on the systems side Blizzard are always pushing really hard to be innovative. The random dungeon finder! New talent systems, and of course the Raid Finder. Dual spec! Additional customisation through reforging and glyphs. And of course Transmogrification – letting us choose how our characters look. I expect TOR will incorporate a lot of those refinements eventually, but the systems side looks very much like early wrath-era WoW right now.
• You can respec and change points around between your 3 talent trees, but your choice of advanced class is permanent. If you want to swap from Jedi Guardian to Jedi Sentinel… roll a new Jedi Knight.
• Seriously, even STO has PvE queuing now. Get on it, TOR systems team! I don’t want to stand about spamming “DPS LFG for Evil Place of Doom”, I want to queue up and get on with doing something else.

Crew! TOR isn’t the first MMO to have permanent NPC companions of course. Wow’s hunters and warlocks aside, Guild Wars did it and STO gives you an entire away team. What’s different about the crew in TOR? They are actually characters, with backstories and traditional Bioware affection meters. They also do all your crafting for you. You learn three tradeskills, and then… you tell your crew to do everything. Then your tradeskills level up a bit. It’s slightly confusing. There are bloody loads of skills, though. On my smuggler, I want Cybertech, scavenging, slicing AND underworld trading. I can only have 3 though, which is unfortunate. Maybe I can have another character do my scavenging for me?

I haven’t spoken at all about the sound! The standard of voice acting is actually for the most part very high. I WILL be rolling a female trooper so that I can listen to Jennifer Hale. Even incidental NPCs are generally competently voiced, and there’s enough variety that everyone doesn’t sound the same. I can’t imagine how much expense and effort went into that. The soundtrack makes good use of star-wars-alike music composed for this game, the original Star Wars scores and selections from the excellent Knights of the Old Republic soundtrack. I was most satisfied with the soundtrack, and award it 1.2 x 10^9 out of a possible score of the hyperspace X co-ordinate of Alderaan.

My head start invite has arrived, so I’m off to desperately try and claim my preferred character names. No doubt more opinions and videos will follow at some point in the future. See you in space!

Well! It has been a while, hasn’t it? How are you doing? Good, good. Me? Oh, I’m fine. Got a new car! It’s magnificent!

Oh, yes, well I haven’t been around very much recently. Writing about something is fine when you’re really enthusiastic about it, but when you play on and off it’s a little hard to put the necessary effort in. Also, at some point I decided that if I was going to make a real go of this that I may as well do it right – no posts without header images and so on. I still have a draft post from a couple of months back that is waiting for a header image!

Actually, I’m working with PsySniper now. Remember him, he posted here once or twice as Semseye? We’ve been putting game videos up on YouTube, usually with some talking. We’re trying to find our style at this stage, but that’s definitely an interesting thing to pursue. It’s supposed to tie-in to YBS, except that I haven’t really been posting here very much. I don’t fully understand how writing is harder than planning, shooting, editing and then speaking over the top of a video, but there it is. Strange, eh?

Yeah, I am still playing WoW actually. My hunter’s average item level is up to 372, and I’m blasting my way through the Raid Finder version of the Dragon Soul. I’m really enjoying 4.3 so far – the story, the new 5-mans, transmogrification, the raid finder – the whole package. Best patch ever? Maybe. Ask me in a few months! I’ve also been playing quite a lot of Skyrim – Morrowind is one of my ooh… Top 3 games of all time? Something like that. I really love the Elder Scrolls series, and Skyrim might just be the best one ever. We’ll see about that after the Creation Kit is released and Bethesda finishes patching it up. What else? The Old Republic is out very imminently. Knights of the Old Republic is the game that got me into the RPG genre in the first place, and it’s up there with Morrowind somewhere. I played a little bit of the Beta when they did the stress testing weekend. It’s not really KOTOR, but it is massive, story driven and likely to be updated and added to for a long time. Also: Optional drop-in co-op and group content. I liked it quite a lot, and expect to get into the pre-order head start tomorrow. Psy and I put together an impressions video during the Beta, so have a look at that if you’re interested in OPINIONS.

Anyway, I should really be off. It’s been really good chatting with you, Internet! Drop back in soon, I have a Beast Mastery hunting guide which has been sitting there in a half finished state since the end of Wrath, gotta get that cleaned up and posted. I expect I’ll have some more videos and things too.

Sorry about the whole ‘disappearing for ages’ thing. You know how it is.

Take care. Talk to you soon!

Certainly not everyone in the community is difficult to get on with. Only yesterday I had an excellent heroic pug which dealt with our one wipe with humour and got on with it. The other hunter and I had a long discussion about the relative merits of Beastmastery and Survival (and thank you very much Worgen Huntress for your compliment on my single target damage, that’s exactly what I needed to hear when I’m just getting back on the horse).

Regrettably, this group was in the minority. About 50% of the heroic groups I’ve been in so far have fallen apart, and none of them due to an inability to complete the dungeon. Every single time, it’s some overentitled, rude idiot whining like a ferengi and dropping group because he or she can’t recognise that dungeon groups are made up of other people who have given up their time and have just the same right to expect to run and finish the dungeon.

Example: My first Heroic run of this expansion with Semseye’s balance druid alt Drainia. The tank is pulling his 10 year old son through the dungeon in the hope of getting a certain sword for him. The tank marks CC targets and primary attack targets with different symbols every time, but he communicates and I will forgive any player a lot if they just talk to me. We progress, and I’m really enjoying having to trap things again. Unfortunately we wipe on the first boss – not due to low DPS but because of a general tactics failure. The tank whispers me saying he’s going to kick Drainia because his DPS is too low.

Wait a moment. Drania is doing a clear 2k DPS more than the tank’s son and we’re expected to pull him through but Drania can’t stay? He has as much right to be in this group as they do. I was about to whisper him back indicating that I would not support any vote to kick, but Drania’s player was on the PC next to me and can clearly see what’s going on. He says “Don’t kick me!”, and the tank and his son bail followed swiftly by the healer.

Ladies and gentlemen, if you have trouble accepting that other people deserve to exist, that you are more important than everyone else, do not queue up. If you are incapable of fairly dealing with other people and think it’s acceptable to think only of yourself, it’s likely that you’re not really suited to running dungeons with random people. Work with your group to progress through the instance or don’t bother pugging content. Almost all random groups are capable of pushing through any heroic dungeon with a little consideration and time.

(Double points for all you considerate, tolerant and competant people queueing for randoms, you’re the ones who make pugging occasionally tolerable and I think you deserve special mention. I’ll be writing more about you in the future than about the idiots who seem to exist only to suck the fun out of the game. Much as it irritates me, I want to talk more about the ways in which people are awesome than the ways in which they are not for a while).