Michael Gaines
Michael Gaines's Latest Posts
This Week in Trek Episode 348, “The Worf Place”
Discord: http://discord.thisweekintrek.com
Twitch: http://twitch.tv/starmiketv
Review spreadsheet
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1zWUJXbg-ShYgZLfBWIqCih3G_DgFdujgkZsrDsFllxA/edit?usp=drive_web#gid=1
News
Harlan Ellison: “For a brief time I was here, and for a brief time, I mattered.”—HE, 1934-2018. 6/28
Star Trek Discovery, Sonequa Martin-Green Win Saturn Awards. http://www.startrek.com/article/discovery-martin-green-win-saturn-awards
The president of Bell Media recently purchased Pinewood Studios where Discovery is produced. May start offering tours. CBS would have to agree.
Kirk & Picard 7″ figures from McFarlane Toys delayed from June to Sept. bit.ly/2t81n4W
Ten Forward:
Chris on Twitter: Why do you think there was no communications officer in TNG?
Star Trek in pop culture:
Think Like a Man. (2012) Chris Brown, Gabrielle Union. Something about a relationship being like war.
00:12
Last week in Trek
Episode insight: DS9: The Emissary pt2
Character insight – Admiral Leyton and Erika Benteen
Subspace communications
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
This Week in Trek Episode 339, “Angry Uhura light show”
Discord: http://discord.thisweekintrek.com
Patreon: http://patreon.com/starmike
Twitch: http://twitch.tv/starmiketv
News
CBS All Access Expands To Canada, but without DSC. bit.ly/2qS3Lff
https://trekmovie.com/2018/04/19/see-and-hear-the-2018-hallmark-star-trek-ornaments-in-action/
(there’s no music in the sulu one!)
Original Series t-shirts at amzn.to/2EZVeLC pic.twitter.com/Jdv5UuIEEB
Star Trek Adversaries now on Steam
Ten Forward:
Chris on Twitter: Being assimilated by the Borg, tortured by the Cardassians, living another life in “The Inner Light”, possessed/captured by numerous aliens; when does it become unrealistic on how much Picard or anyone can endure?
Star Trek in pop culture:
The Five-Year Engagement (2012) Jason Segel, Emily Blunt, Chris Pratt
In this clip, he’s trying to propose to her & gets interrupted
Last week in Trek
Episode insight: TAS: BEM
Subspace communications
World Of Warcast Episode 284, “Bun of steel”
Discord: http://discord.worldofwarcast.com
Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/starmike
Twitch: http://twitch.tv/starmiketv
Ren:
Not played much in past couple weeks
Next projects: mechanical pets for hunter, Field Medic, Fisherfriends
Mike:
Started working on Field Medic. No bueno
cjracer20 in Discord suggested premades. Will do that soon™
Did not get into alpha this week yet. Ali couldn’t Monday, and then Wednesday turned into hell.
Been doing follower missions.
Mount and mog runs. Tailoring/enchanting finally at 800.
Went through old pics.
This Week in WoW
Mage Tower currently active on North American realms
Legion Timewalking this week. Pet Battle event next week
General News
Blizzard Balance can now be gifted – send a friend an electronic gift card with a personalized message
Remote Auction House: Blizzard confirmed in a blue message that the reason they closed the RAH is that a “tiny fraction of one percent” of their user base was actually using the RAH and it was not worth their time and effort anymore to keep it updated
Battle for Azeroth
In-Game Communities:
Quoting Wowhead: “This system will allow you to have broader communication options with fellow community members, including multiple text channels, text channel history, simple role management, quick join, voice integration, roster listing and calendar invites. You will be able to be part of multiple communities at the same time, in addition to your current guild.”
Interview at Pax East with lead designer Daniel Stahl and lead encounter designer Morgan Dey about Island Expeditions:
More intelligent AI in NPC encounters
Some AI groups may be aggressive – others may be passive and require you to chase them down
Weather improved and may be a factor
Different mobs may appear at different times of the day
“Fog of War”
Blizzard has confirmed people will still be able to get class mounts after BfA has launched
Tribute to last year’s BlizzCon Costume Contest winner Kazplay – when Horde invades the Stockades, they encounter a human female in a cage with a crumpled costume next to her: Text: “Look, it’s just a costume! See? Feel it! Now will you tell them to let me out of here? It was just a joke! Hogger wasn’t really terrorizing Stormwind!”
Alpha News:
Battle for Lordaeron scenario now playable on Alpha
Heart of Azeroth item levels show ranges with iLevel starting at 265 and going up one point per level from there. Highest they show is at level 300 with an iLevel of 564
Mag’har and Dark Iron Dwarves now playable in Alpha.
Maghar racials:
Ancestral Call – Invoke the spirits of your ancestors granting you their power. Increases a random secondary stat by 102 for 12 seconds.
Open Skies – Increases mounted speed by 10%.
Savage Blood – Reduces the duration of Poisons, Diseases, and Curses by 10%.
Sympathetic Vigor – Increases pet health by 10%.
Dark Iron Dwarves: still no reports on what the Mole Machine racial does
Blood Elf and Human racials seriously nerfed.
From the Discord: Bucket Lists
Expansion Countdown: 116 days to Expansion (3 months, 25 days / 16 weeks and 4 days / 2784 hours)
Congrats to
Alberthe for getting the Forgotten Hippogryph mount
Mightymurloc for the new Kara mount
Txcoolkid for finishing FIeld Medic
Suggests joining a Field Medic premade group, as did Cjracer20
It’s not a shared drop (personal loot) but since there is a lot of competition and in some areas the respawn is fast, you have a greater chance of being able to loot more mobs
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
This Week in Trek Episode 338, “Delete this guy”
Discord: http://discord.thisweekintrek.com
Patreon: http://patreon.com/starmike
Twitch: http://twitch.tv/starmiketv
News
DSC nominated for Peabody Award in the entertainment category to “honor the most powerful, enlightening and invigorating stories in television, radio and digital media. Other nominees: Better Call Saul, The Handmaid’s Tale, and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. TNG won a Peabody award in 1988 for “The Big Goodbye” (Holodeck, Dixon Hill).
DSC Season 2 began filming yesterday!
Jonathan Frakes will direct ep 2 & 10.
Many ask who will play Spock, but he wasn’t the first officer in “The Cage”, that was Number One played by Majel Barrett.
Chief Engineer Denise Reno of the USS Hiawatha, played by Tig Notaro!
Last week Amazon started selling exclusive DS9 shirts. They’ve now done the same with TNG.
Ten Forward:
Chris on Twitter: Which TOS character (Scotty, Uhura, Chekov or Sulu) deserved to have more screen time and backstory better told?
Star Trek in pop culture:
The Middleman (2008) S01E12 The Palindrome Reversal Palindrome
Last week in Trek
Episode insight: VOY: Bride of Chaotica
Character insight – Enabran Tain
This Week in Trek Episode 337, “It’s the only way to be sure”
Discord: http://discord.thisweekintrek.com
Patreon: http://patreon.com/starmike
Twitch: http://twitch.tv/starmiketv
News
Anson Mount is Capt. Pike
New DS9 shirts only at Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=ds9+shirts
Robert Duncan McNeill (Lt Paris) and Robert Picardo (the EMH) both back working on The Orville, S2.
Star Trek: Lost Scenes Hardcover – August 21, 2018. Preorder now. $39.95
@StarmikeT
Ten Forward:
Chris on Twitter: Do u think that Trek 2 saved the Trek movie franchise and sets the bar for all other movies?
Star Trek in pop culture:
From a 2012 NASA video about why it’s hard to go to Mars. https://youtu.be/fturU0u5KJo
Last week in Trek
Episode insight: ENT S3: The Shipment
Character insight – Vice Admiral Nakamura
Subspace communications
World Of Warcast Episode 283, “Booty Bay has the worst doors”
Discord: http://discord.worldofwarcast.com
Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/starmike
Twitch: http://twitch.tv/starmiketv
Ren:
Have a new Highmountain Tauren – enhancement shaman
Got the noblegarden bunny
Working on the four hatchling pet quests — haven’t finished any of them
Mike
Exalted with Army of the Light.
8000 from exalted with Argussian Reach
Tol Dagar BfA dungeon
Odd thing about BfA – some people have quests, I don’t.
Finally finishing up getting followers to 950
Noblegarden fun
Field Medic
This Week in WoW
Pandaria Timewalking this week, Battleground Bonus event next week
Darkmoon Faire
Noblegarden (ends Monday)
March of the Tadpoles (Borean Tundra – ends tonight at midnight)
News: General and Current
April Fool’s patch notes
Remote Auction House is retiring on April 18th.
Realm connections
New round of realm connections is “on the way” to help with low pop servers.
Family Guy: a 30 second Leeroy Jenkins reference.
News: Battle for Azeroth
8 – 14 – 18
Ren’s Ridiculous Fun Facts about the History of Blizzcon Expansions
Collector’s Edition – box set
Limited edition hardcover edition – 2 new WoW novellas by Christie Golden and Robert Brooks
Horde & Alliance Double Sided Mark of Allegiance with stand
Digital soundtrack
Collector’s Edition box set owners will be able to unlock and create unreleased Allied Races in advance
If you bought Digital Deluxe and want Collector’s Edition box, you can get a refund on Digital Deluxe to Battle.net balance
Digital Deluxe edition – mounts, pet
Island Expansions
Expedition table in Boralus Harbor (Alliance) or Zuldazar Harbor (Horde)
3 man – Normal, Heroic, Mythic or PvP – reward of 6,000 Azurite
Azurite: killing mobs, finding treasure, defeating the opposing team, or mining nodes
Drawn on “lessons learned” from past content like scenarios and keystone dungeons. Replayable content.
WoWhead interview with Jeremy “Muffinus” Feasel, Senior Game Designer for WoW
No death knights for allied races – tied to Lich King
Other possible rewards for Island Expeditions, like in the Timeless Isle
When asked whether quest and profession progression will be gated behind dungeons and raids: No real discussion yet on profession progression, although he did say he thought ending final part of certain questlines end in a dungeon was “super cool, as it is the best way to tell the end of the story”.
Felt that artifact weapon system was interesting in the beginning of the expansion but not at the end of it. Lots of choices in the beginning and none in the end.
Discussion about making certain things accountwide — seemed to think things were pretty OK the way they were. Too much accountwide stuff and characters lose identity, but opening areas, flying, etc., seem to be good kept accountwide.
Battle for Azeroth
Mag’har Orcs and Iron Dwarf allied races will be available after completing the Battle for Azeroth war campaign. Zandalari and Kul’Tiras will be unlocked later in the expansion.
BFA alpha lasting longer than in the past. Beta polishes features and features are still being added to alpha.
Six emissaries for each faction – 3 home continent, two neutral (Tortollan and Voice of Azeroth) and a War Faction with quests on the enemy continent.
8.0 prepatch
Likely a few weeks before the expansion
Will introduce the Burning of Teldrassil and Battle for Lordaeron. May be new mounts themed around Night Elves and Forsaken in conjunction with this event.
New details on PvP
New world PvP system called War Mode: players toggle PvP in a capitol city on any server. This will put them in a separate server shard, away from the PvE characters.
War Mode gives extra rewards and Azerite, and also allows access to special world PvP events.
PvP gear system revamp: conquest point system returning in the form of a bar you fill up to earn new gear each week. When you’re finished with a set, you can move up. There will be ways to skip ahead.
Changes to Honor and Prestige: honor levels will be account wide.
Naked and Afraid FInisher: Alcina, night elf mage — 110
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
This Week in Trek Episode 336, “I’m not dead!”
Discord: http://discord.thisweekintrek.com
Patreon: http://patreon.com/starmike
Twitch: http://twitch.tv/starmiketv
News
Dan Curry stuff up for auction at Heritage Auctions https://entertainment.ha.com/c/search-results.zx?N=53+793+794+792+4294948259+4294967090
DSC episode Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad nominated for Hugo award in the the Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form category.
DSC Vinyl soundtrack has now been revealed by Lakeshore Records, coming this summer! 2 record set, 2 per customer. $34.98.
Misc. comments on Twitter about DSC S2.
@StarmikeT
Ten Forward:
Chris on Twitter: You are in charge of your cohosts bachelor party. Which 3 Star Trek characters would you invite to it?
Star Trek in pop culture:
What’s My Line 1974
Last week in Trek
Episode insight: TOS S2: Friday’s Child
Character insight – Hugh
World Of Warcast Episode 282, “Fuego”
Discord: http://discord.worldofwarcast.com
Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/starmike
Twitch: http://twitch.tv/starmiketv
Ren:
Finishing zones, changing to Beastmaster on hunter
The handy parts about thinking about alt priority
Mike:
Island Expeditions
Antorus
Rep
This Week in WoW
World Quest Event – bonus reputation
Darkmoon Faire starts on April 1 – rep bonuses from carousel and top hat stack with World Quest Event
Noblegarden – April 2
Reminders: 2 pets and 1 mount – spring rabbit, noblegarden bunny (added 2017), springstrider mount
News:
New Naked & Afraid Finisher: Settlersrule, Alliance panda windwalker monk, with 5 days 23 hours and 28 minutes, and 24,483 gold.
Next highest in progress: Norgreyclub, dwarf retribution paladin, level 92, closely followed by Alcina, a night elf arcane mage at 91 and Buffysummers, a human windwalker monk at level 90
Pax East – Apr 5-8 at Boston Convention Center – Demo stations for new Island Expedition feature
Family Guy episode April 1 – Warcraft references
Player gets every achievement in game (3,314) – Xirev, a blood elf fire mage
Need to do things like reach prestige 25, collect 300 toys and mounts, and win 5000 pvp pet battles
One achievement ahead of Metatrosha, a human shadow priest (same number of points; Alliance have one extra 10 pointer)
Wowhead interview with Xirev
Single hardest achievement: high rated PvP ones – most others simply “tedious”
Single hardest non-PvP achievement – “Going to Need a Bigger Bag” – obtain all the rare items from Timeless Isle. Involved a lot of realm hopping (56 items)
Time /played: Estimated 850-900 days /played. 434 days /played on mage alone.
20,400 to 21,600 hours
8,760 hours in 1 year (not counting leap years)
Done over 6 years – 6 years has about 122,400 hours (without leap years)
Average of 5.5-6 hours per day, every day, or 38.5 – 42 hours per week
Ren: Did my own /played calculation on all active toons – came out to 6554 hours or 273 days /played. Sounds like a lot, but when averaged over 10 years (didn’t play for 4 years out of the past 14) it comes out to less than 1 hour per day /played
Alpha News
Changes to quest log – looked at first like the quest log limit was going up to 50. Not true – but it seems like some quests no longer count toward the 25 limit – including account wide quests such as many battle pet quests
New Alpha build includes several class talent changes
Alpha Profession changes:
Enchanting: many new ring and weapon enchants, glove enchants for gathering professions
RETURN OF Wands (Scepters). Last available: VANILLA
Engineering: some of the usuals like glasses, explosives, and scopes
RETURN OF Engineered belts. Last available: WRATH OF THE LICH KING
More weapons (guns, maces)
Interesting bits: Slumber Bombs, Electroshock Mount Motivator (+10% mount speed for 10 seconds, stacks up to 5x, “increased motivation may cause your mount to become disoriented”), Deployable Attire Rearranger, Interdemensional Companion Repository (portable stablemaster), and an XA-100 Surface Skimmer (25 sec duration)
Inscription: new codex
New Darkmoon cards, Vantus runes
RETURN OF
Offhand tomes and stat buff scrolls.. LAST AVAILABLE: CATACLYSM
New: Contracts: allows you to choose a faction with which you will gain reputation when you do world quests – requires Friendly rep with target reputation
Scroll of Unlocking – unlock anything that requires 550 lockpicking skill
Jewelcrafting – usual rings and stones
NEW: two staffs – both listed were listed as Mage but the second one (Laribole Staff) also listed Agility as a stat
Leatherworking – usual armor bits and drums
NEW: create fist weapons and bows (bow/crossbow was available in Engineering, 490/525, Cataclysm)
From the Discord:
Seems there is a fashion in listening to our oldest episodes
This Week in Trek Episode 335, “Got anymore of those emotions?”
Discord: http://discord.thisweekintrek.com
Patreon: http://patreon.com/starmike
Twitch: http://twitch.tv/starmiketv
News
https://twitter.com/startrekcbs/status/977685643689017344
From CBS on Twitter: “The backdrop of Season 1 was war. Next season will have a more exploratory and diplomatic tone.”
Season 2 will be 13 episodes.
Filming begins in April.
Shazad Latif is confirmed to be back.
Jonathan Frakes to direct an early DSC S2 episode.
If CBS re-merged with Viacom (Paramount), CBS management would be in charge.
Terry Farrell and Adam Nimoy got married yesterday
@StarmikeT
Ten Forward:
Chris on Twitter: At the dentist office now. Do u think there will be a need for dentists by the 23rd century?
Star Trek in pop culture:
Levar Burton was on Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me last weekend.
Episode insight: TNG S6: Descent part 2
World Of Warcast Episode 281, “Fel sanitation simulator”
Discord: http://discord.worldofwarcast.com
Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/starmike
Twitch: http://twitch.tv/starmiketv
Ren
– Life invasions of all life invasions
– Had to update laptop to make WoW run
– Game goals:
– get Field Medic done
– get toons left behind caught up on Argus and professions
– running up a void elf warlock for the hell of it
– Question to self: do I have too many alts?
– 12 110s with two duplicates (rogue and mage on Alli/Horde)
– no DK or DH
– Question: Is Blizzard both encouraging more alts AND not paying enough attention to making game alt-friendly?
– If I had to pare down my alts, who would make the cut?
Mike
So close to finishing up this rep from Hell.
Thanks to Ali for filling in last week about alpha
Infinite Timereaver mount dropped while doing timewalking. That was fun.
Alpha is still fun, but obviously limited in scope at the moment. There was a 1GB patch.
Maybe I’ll try tanking again.
I have a ton of quests I need to finish up.
The Argus version of the flight whistle should have been available at honored, not revered.
This Week in WoW
Not much – Arena Skirmishes, then World Quest Event next Tuesday
On the horizon: Noblegarden (4/2 – 4/9)
(Mike – I HATE NOBLEGARDEN)
News
Hotfixes:
Mythic Antorus now available for cross-realm groups, though not through LFR. “To join a public group for Mythic Antorus, just open Group Finder (hotkey: i), select ‘Premade Groups’, then ‘Raids-Legion’, then click on “Find A Group”. That returns a list of many public groups that are available to you. Start typing ‘Antorus’ into the search bar at the top, and you’ll be prompted to select a difficulty.”
Battle for Azeroth
New Alpha Build changes:
Achievements to unlock Dark Iron Dwarves and Mag’har Orcs added
Dark Iron racial mount: core hound
Latest build tagged “beta” instead of “alpha” and new invitations out
New “boop” emote
Some new enchanting stuff:
Swift Hearthing: bracer enchant to speed cast time of hearthstone
Gale-Force Striking: weapon enchant to increase weapon attack speed
First Aid confirmed going away – bandages will be under Tailoring and antivenoms/pots will be under Alchemy
New customization options for Blood Elves – three new faces and glowing gold eyes
Azerite bonuses datamined: Set bonuses also going away, being replaced by Azurite empowerment on armor
Several class specific traits, but also several that appear to be multi-class
Traits that increase primary and secondary stats by a set amount
Absorption traits – traits that shield or absorb a set amount of damage
DPS,heal, and tanking traits. DPS obviously increases your DPS, healing traits are self-heals, and tanking traits are damage mitigation:
Examples:
(DPS) Gutripper – Your damaging abilities have a chance to deal 347 Physical damage to the target. Gutripper occurs much more often against targets below 30% health. (Approximately 5 procs per minute).
(DPS) Heed My Call – Your damaging abilities have a chance to deal 154 to your target, and 15 to enemies within 3 yards of that target.
(HEAL) Savior – Your heals on targets below 35% health have a chance to heal for an additional 208. (Approximately 5 procs per minute).
(HEAL) Self Reliance – While no enemies are within 20 yds, you heal for 70 every 3 sec.
(TANK) Gemhide – When dealt damage greater than 10% of your maximum health, gain 31 Avoidance and 138 Dodge for 10 sec.
(TANK) Winds of War – Taking damage grants you 14 Dodge for 3 sec, stacking up to 10 times.
New detail on parrot mount: drops from Skycap’n Kragg, boss in the Freehold dungeon
From the Discord
Naked & Afraid Challenge has its second finisher – TheCowKing (EU) with a feral druid – 4 days 1 hour 1 minute
Current highest still in progress – Settlersrule (101) windwalker monk
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