Congrats to the winners of the RFOph Blog Contest

3rd Weekly Cut Off July 23 - July 29
Judging and Announcement of Weekly Winner - July 30

3rd Week

First Place
Ya$$oP
Runner Up
BeastOfPrey
auvryvrae
Fairest
LoLSab

Boss Huntin' Mornin'

Sadly there were few BD parties this morning, probably because most of Accretia is in recharge mode. It is Solar Day, after all. But even for a cold-hearted mechanoid, the excitement of reaching the next level is just too much. I am now at 75% capacity before I get to 48 and I can hardly contain myself. Leveling up means a lot of things to an Accretian. One of them is the readiness to take on a new Pit Boss quest. I wonder what PB the race manager will assign to this humble servant. In the meantime I was assigned to patrol 117 for raiders and got to fight the King Crook and his minions one more time.

(In RFO, pit bosses drop a variety of items such as gems and talics used for upgrading equipment as well as the much coveted Elemental Accessories or Elems as players call them.)

Its Mining Time Again

It took longer than usual but Accretia still managed to win today's 1pm Chip War. It was a busy day for me so all I could do was mine at the Core until 8pm. FrozenCore deserves a break, too.^_^
(When mining manually it is a good idea to find your "sweet spot", an area where a piece of ore is mined in seven seconds or less.)

A Calculated Victory

Much have changed in the way the Chip Wars are fought since I've been gone. The current trend in CWs seems to be the race to destroy the opponents Control Chip first. Although I favor head-on battles where the defending race gives all that they've got to defend their Chip and the assaulting race does everything it can to destroy it, the "first to destroy" system does have some advantages. First, it eliminates the looters on the home Chip and second, more effort is exerted on offense since everyone will be at the enemy's Chip pummeling it to oblivion. This gives meaning to the term FF or Focus Fire since there is no defensive position to worry about. The only problem with this system is the high probability of the third race to go in for a kill-steal in the last few seconds of a Chip's life. Take for example what happened during today's 1pm CW. A huge percentage of Accretians were at the Cora Control Chip (CCC) 10 minutes before the battle started and so were the number of Corites at the Accretia Control Chip (ACC). Everything went smoothly as it always did in the past CWs this month as Cora and Accretia focused their energies on eliminating the other's CC. But when only 10 percent of the CCC's hitpoints we're left, Bellatos came in from the Crag Core going up the hill to where the CCC was. It was no surprise to everyone since Bellatos are known for their infamous kill-stealing since the conflict on Novus began. The Archon ordered all to stop hitting the CCC and proceed to dispose of the incoming threat. Accretians sometimes get carried away when the CCC is about to blow and most of the time this leads to a bitter "Battle Failure". Not today. In a matter of seconds the wave of Bellatos was shattered, some died on the spot while some fled for their insignificant lives. The synthetic war cry of Accretia resonated on that hill as all quickly went back to finish the job. Another CW won, another Chip Bearer scores a touchdown!

(The Chip Wars are currently held three times a day and determine which race is given the right to hold and mine at the Crag core, the resource center of Novus. The objective is to be the first to break an opponent's Control Chip barrier and bring the chip itself to the Crag Core. It is similar to "assault" and "capture the flag" battles found in other games.)

Hell in Novus

The Cauldron. Located in the deepest region of the Sette Desert, it is one of the harshest environments on the planet Novus. Ash constantly falls on searing terrain. One misstep and the lava could melt even the toughest of armors. It is filled with monsters that provide a lot of experience but deal as much damage as they can take. I can remember the days when Accretians ruled this territory. But now all I see are the wretched Cora and their summons. Be careful warriors. For on this blasted land, monsters are the least of your worries.

Return to the Battle Dungeons part 2

This afternoon I was able to hook up with my guild mates for some BD sessions. It's a lot easier to finish these dungeons with a complete party. I would like to take this moment to thank the Mercenaries for accepting this soldier into their battalion.

Return to the Battle Dungeons

The drops from monsters in Novus have dwindled significantly. Back to normal as others would say. When it is no longer efficient to farm for resources I go the battle dungeons to gain battle experience in a controlled environment. The trusty Gatekeeper was busy as usual although there were not many parties and most of them were full. Luckily enough an old guild mate, Spookey was looking for some Heller action. I got the keys and opened the gates for our two-robot party. I haven't been in a BD session in a while but I could say I re-adapted quick enough and upped my xp by a few notches. I think I'll be back for more later today.



(Battle Dungeons or BDs are what players of MMORPGs call "instances". It is an area shared by only the members of one party. BDs are timed mini-maps where a party can kill mobs to gain xp and get reward items upon completion. Each type of BD contains a different set of monsters and objectives.)