TESO: TU Stumblethrough #6

---

Now that we have the history lesson out of the way, we can return to our questing in Khenarthi's Roost. As I mentioned in the video last time, should you wish to learn more about the lore and history of The Elder Scrolls Online, might I suggest you take a look at ShoddyCast's videos here.

So, back at Khenarthi's Roost, we have some serious undead butt to kick as we explore the area in and around the Temple of the Mourning Springs ...

TESO: TU Stumblethrough #5

---

We've been traipsing around Khenarthi's Roost, dipping our toes in the Questing scene, killing and looting, and having all kinds of fun. If only we could find a dang staff. We continue to use a two-hander despite the fact that we're really not built for a two-hander, physically or otherwise.

At the start of this episode we are visited by a ghost and our presence is requested immediately for an important trip through recent history...

TESO: TU Stumblethrough #4

---

Well, ok, so the last episode was not very exciting. I mean, we made some introductions, took a quick glance at the UI, and then made our way to Khenarthi's Roost, the little starter island off our main Island, Auridon.

In this episode, things get a little more exciting as we begin to explore the southern coast of Khenarthi's Roost...

TESO: TU Stumblethrough #3

---

Whew! Wasn't quite sure how we were gonna make it out of Coldharbour, but we did, thanks to Dumbledore, and, we've managed to get to level 3 in the process.

So, we've found ourselves back in the land of the living having been rescued from the sea by 'friendly hands'. We are now in the city of Vulkhel Guard on the Isle of Auridon. We'll get our bearings, do a little UI exploration, then set out to do some questing in the starting island, Khenarthi's Roost.

TESO: TU Stumblethrough #2

---

So, we made it out of the prison area of Coldharbour. Now, swinging that HUGE two handed sword (which we are NOT built for), we encounter some actual combat whilst we make our way to rescue Professor Dumbledore, er, I mean, 'The Prophet'. Will we ever make it back to the land of the living???

Episode 2

TESO: TU Stumblethrough #1

---

Yes, I'm changing it up again. Insufficient time to write a blog, so I'm going to switch to Game Play videos for a bit and I will get back to Space Engineers. Yeah. Sometime.

First up: The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited (V2.0). This game has gone "Buy-to-Play" so, once you've purchased the game, there are no subscription fees (although that option is available). I'll be creating short posts with embedded videos, but you can also simply subscribe to the Playlist.

I'm calling these "Stumble-throughs", as they are not meant as tutorials nor as demonstrative play-throughs. You will have to look elsewhere for those. These videos will be me, stumbling through the game in my own casual, amiable, way. I am not an expert in any of these, and, as I will be encountering the content for the first time, there will certainly be noobishness, and perhaps even death involved (gasp). But hopefully you won't die of boredom. I will be making light commentary as I go, and occasionally some explanations of UI, crafting, combat, and whatever other game mechanics I feel like talking about at the time. This will NOT include every second of my game play. I will be focused on questing for the most part with some occasional crafting included for interest. Bank visits, inventory management, lengthy travel, etc. will be either missing entirely or compressed (if I can figure out how to do that). Segments will be between about 15 and 30 minutes in length.

So, without further adieu, let's stumble through the first part of the tutorial area...

Episode 1

Space Engineers #4 - Scenarios and Settings

---

So, let's go back and take another look at the available starting scenarios in a little more detail.

Scenarios

• Easy Start 1 - You begin with a platform, 1 large ship, and 3 small ships.
• Easy Start 2 - You begin with a platform/station and several small and large ships. OMG, you absolutely need to check this out. In fact, you'll find a video at the end of the post that provides a brief tour.
• Lone Survivor - A single platform and basic functionality. No ships.
• Crashed Red Ship - A single damaged ship.
• Two Platforms - A multiplayer starting world. Platform and basic functionality only.
• Asteroid (Not shown) - Start in a functional rescue ship with minimal resources and systems.
• Empty World (Not shown) - Nothing but you and the asteroids.

You may want to start out with one of the first two scenarios in Creative mode if only to use now and again to learn how things are put together, fire the imagination, and for experimentation.

Now let's take a quick look at the settings.

Basic Settings

• Name - What you want to name this world.
• Description - Additional verbiage to describe your world. No idea where or if this is displayed.
• Game Mode - Creative/Survival. This determines whether you have infinite resources, no death and instant build time. Creative mode is great for simply building things or testing out how the different systems behave and interact.
• Online Mode - Offline/Private/Friends/Public. Determines whether you need an internet connection and whether you can join multiplayer worlds and who can join your world. Friends/Public refer to Steam friends or any Steam member.
• Max Players - 2 to 16 currently. Maximum number of players that can join your world.
• Environment Hostility - Safe/Normal/Cataclysm/Armageddon (unrealistic). Determines frequency and intensity of 'Meteor Showers'. These can damage or destroy equipment and you.
• Asteroid Amount - Normal/Large/Extreme/Infinite (w/Low, Normal, or High density). Number of (mineable) asteroids in the created world. Adjusting this higher will affect game performance.
• Auto Save - On/Off. Your game will be automatically saved periodically. This currently causes a brief lag spike, so you may want this off. Also turn it off if you want control over your saves (like just before trying out a tricky or dangerous maneuver).

Advanced Settings

• Game Mode - Creative/Survival. Same as in Basic Settings.
• Inventory Size - Realistic /x3/x10. This is measured by volume, not mass. After all, it's outer space, and unless you are under the influence of a gravity generator, mass only affects inertia, not how much you can "carry". I recommend going for x10 unless you are sadistic and want to make a million trips back and forth.
• Assembler Efficiency - Realistic/x3/x10. The amount of time it takes to "assemble" items from refined ore. x3 is sufficient for most purposes. I like observing the process, but not waiting forever for it.
• Refinery Speed - Realistic/x3/x10. The amount of time it takes to refine ore. x10 because you could run out of Uranium just waiting for it to refine more. This is also fun to observe, but not that fun.
• Welding Speed - Realistic/x3/x10. I like to leave this at realistic.
• Grinding Speed - Realistic/x3/x10. I like to leave this at realistic.
• Max Objects - 256. This slider allows you to adjust how many objects are created in the game at start. You can increase this but be aware that it will affect your PC's performance.
• Limit World Size - 10/50/100/Unlimited. Leave it at Unlimited.
• Respawn ship cooldown - Various. Leave it at the default.
• View Distance - 5 - 50 km. Leave this at the default unless you think your PC can handle it.

I'm not going to bother covering the checkboxes as you can go ahead and leave these set at their defaults. The only exception to this is to make sure the "Permanent Death" checkbox is turned OFF unless you want to start over from scratch whenever you die.

For the purposes of this blog, I will be creating a couple of custom worlds (subject to change). They will likely be

1. Easy Start 1 in Survival Mode
2. Easy Start 2 in Creative Mode
3. Asteroid in Survival Mode

I have decided on a mix so that we can review various systems in each of the modes. Creative Mode allows us to goof around with the systems to learn about them, and then Survival mode so that we can do some mining, refining, and assembling (which is basically bypassed in Creative mode).

Well, I said I'd leave you with a short video of the Easy Start 2 Scenario Tour, but I'm running a bit short on time, so I will leave it for the next Space Engineers post.