I’ve completed the last Main Scenario Quests for the base FFXIV game – A Realm Reborn. No spoilers, but I will mention that you need not be intimidated by these quests as you approach them. Once you are level 50, and have the decent gear from quests or merchants, you should have no problem completing them.
After trying Red Mage yesterday, I tried Samurai today.
I had my Bard up to level 50 and so I went to Ul’dah and signed up to be a Samurai. So the first couple of quests are not that bad. After a little training with your master, some guys show up with a grudge and while the low level guys are no problem, it takes a little while to take down the big guy. No big deal as long as you avoid his attacks.
If you have purchased the Stormblood expansion, and you have reached level 50 with any class, you can talk to a Distraught Lass in Ul’dah to become a Red Mage. I just tried it. Very interesting. The first couple of quests are easy. Actually the first quest is just watching your mentor deal with a few bad guys. Then you dress up in Red Mage gear and help him with some other bad guys. Even though the above monster looks scary, you have help and your new skills to wear him down. Just stay to the side and avoid his attacks.
Unlike the Black Mage, which is just a new coat of paint on a Thaumaturge class, the Red Mage is really a new class with a new weapon and some pretty cool skills. The Red Mage is a magic wielding fencer with a Rapier weapon. I’ve just started, so I’m still figuring out which skills to use in a rotation. but one of the coolest skills, Scatter, seems to be an AOE on a pretty fast cool-down. We’ll see.
In other news, the Bard is now level 50, with a sweet new set of Armor and a nice bow from the Market Board for a reasonable price.
Enjoy,
:ww
A long time ago I made a reading lamp using compact fluorescent bulbs.
This is the old one. It still works fine, but it has two issues. It only has one brightness and the Fluorescent bulbs take a few minutes to “warm up” and come to full brightness. This lamp is made with three 75 watt equivalent Compact Florescent bulbs. That may seem light a lot of light, but it’s directed at the ceiling, not directly at the book.
The design is very simple – a panel about 1 by 2 feet held at 45 degrees with the wall and direct the light to the ceiling. This creates enough light to read a book in bed with no glare or harsh light as you read.
Here’s the new version:
This new version is made with LED Halogen replacements from Ranpo Lighting and sockets from MyLampParts.
The lamps are found here.
Since no dimmable LED lamps are available in this form factor, the design allows using 1, 2 or 3 bulbs for three levels of brightness. Two switches are used to turn on 1 and the other 2 of the three lamps.
Also, hot glue works very well for insulation for the soldered connections in the lamp cord. It’s good to use lots of the glue so that it won’t loosen and fall off over time.
:ww
The new AVR – Audio Video Receiver – has arrived. Works great.
The choice is the Denon AVR S930H – All the video support and way more Audio support than I need. My speakers are only 5.1 and this one supports 7.2 or as they are saying these days 5.2.2. But I needed this level of support to get HDR10 / Dolby Vision which my TV supports.
An Oppo UDP 203 4K BluRay Player will probably be added in a couple of months to finish the AV system upgrade.
:ww
[I don’t have pictures from the Antorus fight, but here are some pictures from Dungeons I’ve played in Wow. ] I saw this article in PC Gamer today.
It sounds like he must have been wearing a diaper, but never the less, that’s a lot of work.
In World of Warcraft, players are often willing to go to extremes just to say they’ve done it. Some might spend all their time grinding out hard to get achievements while others will run a raid boss hundreds of times in hopes of getting some rare loot. But Rextroy is of a higher caliber. He beat the first raid boss of Antorus, The Burning Throne all by himself—and it only took him a measly eight hours. His reward? I’m not sure exactly. Bragging rights? I guess?
[…]
You can watch the whole video here. It’s been compressed to about 13 minutes. You may want to watch the first few minutes and then skip to near the end to see him hiding in the pool to avoid the huge AOE attack that is supposed to challenge a Raid group of 10-15 players.
A previous post talked about rodent damage to the kitchen faucet. Now, the Faucet lines are armored with Stainless Mesh. I thought about using two layers, but this mesh is so strong I don’t think that’s necessary. It’s pushed up tight against the counter top and held on with a pair of cable ties at each end. No place for pesky rodents to get their teeth into the faucet lines now.
No way to armor the line to the spray, but that can be replaced. The wisdom on this problem is that the rodent’s only chew lines that actually have water in them. They can probably sense the difference in temperature of the lines. After all, they are just after a drink.
:ww
I think I’ve found the issue. EDID.
The EDID or Extended Display Identification Data is a packet of information sent from a monitor or TV to the source of the video and tells the source what types of video the display can process.
Imagine for a moment that we have a receiver from 2013 – pre 4K – that contains an HDMI switch. Now imagine that one buys almost any TV today – almost all of them support 4K. Now imagine that one purchases something that produces video – BluRay player, XBox Console, Playstation, even a modern set top box. Most of these support 4K video.
So what happens if the EDID from the 4K TV passes unchanged through the NR1504 from 2013 to the video source that can produce 4K? Well the source happily produces 4K video and the NR1504 cannot pass it. Black screen? Apparently.
Was the Marantz 1504 never modifying the EDID? Or did it just start not modifying the EDID? Or did the Linux computer get a new driver that was willing to produce 4K video?
I hooked up an HD monitor to the NR1504 and hooked the Linux box back up to the Media input and voila. Everything works fine, of course.
It seems clear that in this world of ubiquitous 4K sources and displays, the Marantz NR1504 needs to be modifying the EDID or producing one of it’s own to continue to work.
I’ve used the display settings in Linux to use HD only and that works fine with the TV, but when I plugged it back into the NR1504 it still didn’t work. Oh well. Time for a new Receiver that gets 4K. But at least I can use the Linux system by plugging it directly into the TV and setting it to HD.
:ww
The Uber Bird service, widely known as Chocobo Porters, are present in every city and most outposts. I recommend that you sign up at every one you see, so that you can return to them. These bird-rides are like Smart Cars, which we don’t have yet. They are at least as quick as running on your own mount, but you don’t have to steer, or worry about getting hit as you pass the bad guys.
Uber birds are most convenient as a way to return to the nearest major city. As a side benefit you can watch the scenery go by without worrying about hitting any obstacles or other players.
:ww
Windy Weather 