A Visit to Oreshek Fortress

Despite the adverse reactions towards the prices at the Allods Online Cash Shop, populations on the game servers still appear to be alive and kicking. Perhaps many are like me, holding on to a glimmer of hope that the powers that be will eventually heed the community’s concerns and bring the Cash Shop prices down to more reasonable values. I’m weathering the storm until the time comes, so to speak, and if it doesn’t happen…well, the good folks at gPotato did claim we can “still enjoy the entire game without ever having to spend a single cent.” We’ll just have to see how true that is.

Anyway, last night was my first venture into Oreshek Fortress since closed beta. This time around, I was an Elven Demonologist — very different from a Warden, which was the archetype I played in close beta. For a lowbie instance, Oreshek’s not exactly a walk in the park. You start getting quests for it at around level 10, but most players will advise on gathering a full group of six with a minimum character level of 11-12 before tackling the place. To guarantee success, it is recommended that the group consists of at least a tank, a couple classes with crowd control abilities, as well as two healers for the fight against Oreshek’s toughest boss, Gudimir Belskiy.

Because I was a Summoner, the role of off-healer automatically went to me. The experience wouldn’t have been as challenging for me if our main healer hadn’t been a level 9, and I had my hands full between DPSing, using my Hellion pet as crowd control, and throwing back-up heals on the main tank, all the while making sure I was keeping my blood bank stocked up. But right then, I also knew I had made the right decision in choosing to play a Summoner. Doing that instance with my group was a wonderful opportunity to discover my character’s niche, and I just loved the versatility as well as the quick thinking involved when playing the class.

Exploding Starships Make Me Laugh

It’s no secret that I’m a Star Trek noob, so my research into the IP continues.

Last week, the executive producer of Star Trek Online said in an interview that they are considering adding a death penalty to the game. While implementing something like this after the game has launched isn’t going to be a popular decision with everybody, I’m inclined to agree that there has to be more of a deterrent against getting your starship blown up than a mere respawn delay. But then, what sort of death penalty would be appropriate? Somehow, the issue came up between me and my Trekkie husband today.

Thinking that maybe they could carry out a system like they used in the shows or movies, I asked: “Hey, sweetie? What happened to the U.S.S. Enterprise whenever it blew up?”

Him: “Well, it depends. For example, Captain Kirk never blew up the Enterprise, at least not in the original series. Every time it took a beating, they would just fix it up again. Picard, on the other hand…”

Well, that conversation got me no where in terms contemplating a fitting death penalty for STO, but it did pique my curiosity and lead me to conduct many online searches into statistics regarding the destruction of the Starship Enterprise. Inappropriate as it may sound, I find the idea of the Enterprise being destroyed absolutely hilarious, and I don’t know why. The Enterprise-D apparently appears to have been the most abused of them all, with at least 11 on-screen demises under its belt. It made me feel a bit better about my own track record, because at least I’ve never blown up my ship 4 times in a single episode!

No real death penalty means I deliberately exploded for this screenshot.