OK, so the Ringers came up with a really cool steam powered sloop (which I bought of course – and even renamed it).  Even better, Animatronic made a portrait background for it.  But, since it was an ‘expansive’ background (meaning a group portrait background) it would have been prohibitively expensive for a solo portrait.  It’s also been retired now — but wait!  I have an internet connection, a hard drive with lots of room, and Photoshop!

Still, I need an appropriately steampunk-ish outfit to dress Lillythanne in to make the picture.  I’ve come up with these 4 basic outfits as best bets.

I am partial to the epaulet jacket with the top hat, but top hats are only special occasion clothing, so I added a Shako hat option.

What do you think?

By the way, if you haven’t visited Quid Pro Clothes yet, you really should.  Their site can generate pictures of almost any possible combination of clothes you could come up with.  It would be cool if they could generate larger images too, but you can’t have everything…

So I get jobbed on a Cit run with Sharkiez tonight, and he expresses surprise that I have a Golden Citadel trophy, yet I’m only apprentice/proficient in sword fighting.  I told him that I don’t do rated swordfights, only group fights in SMH’s.  And the honest truth is, I know how to group fight – especially when I’m with a group of other people who can group fight.  Problem is, you get too many master+ swordfighters who try to do a Cit Run swordfight like a fight against another player.  IT DOESN’T WORK!  First of all, your opponent is using a weapon you can’t have.  Second, he’s using an extra color that you don’t use in PvP fights.  Third, they may be ganging up on you – but you’re too busy trying to build your insta.  When in doubt, I always read up on the YPPedia to see what they say about things – according to the YPPedia, insta’s sometimes work, but the real trick is to overwhelm the bot with as many blocks as possible before he can clear them.  Sure, an insta can do that – but only if you get one.  When in doubt, do this – teams of 3, and big sprinkle/small strike as fast as possible.

Save the insta’s for the tournaments…

We finally managed to get together tonight and get a new picture taken for our flag page.  It’s actually not too hard for 2 of them, since they’re related and live near each other.  I, on the other hand, live on the opposite side of the planet – it was just before midnight for me when we did this – it was after noon for them.  Anyway, here it is…

I’m not the largest fan of the Haunted Seas runs – it doesn’t seem to matter what I do, I usually end up with nothing (or junk).  Still, sometimes nothing else is going on, and there are drivers out there who know how to maximize your chances of getting something good. So there I was, hauling treasure and fighting off the goons, and some people were saying how they were hoping to get a sea horse.  Greenies.  Someone pointed out that sea horses were from SMH’s, not HS runs – and someone said that haunted seas runs WERE SMH’s.

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!!!!

Not to be disagreeable, but Haunted Seas runs are not Sea Monster Hunts.  Cursed Isle runs are not Sea Monster Hunts.  On a Sea Monster Hunt (or Atlantis run), your ship does battle with SEA MONSTERS – the Triketos (a narwhal with a trident instead of a spear), the Gorgonyx (a strange squid-like creature), and the Archelon (an armored turtle piloted by goons who board your ship if they get close enough).  On a Haunted Seas run, you battle HAUNTED SHIPS – ghost sloops, ghost war brigs, and ghost war frigates.  On Cursed Isle runs, you battle cutters, sloops, and rafts on your way to attack THE CURSED ISLE.

OK, there are similarities – you get specially colored items, special pets, even special familiars to sit on your shoulder.  Your ship can sink if you fail, and you can get an injury because of it.  You need a bravery badge to participate in one, and they all are listed in the same section of the notice board.

BUT THEY AREN’T ALL SMH’S!

So what have I been up to since the last post of the old Pirate’s Cove and the welcome post of this new one?  Well, I kind of drifted away from the game for a while – but I came back (after deleting and blocking everything from Zynga on facebook).  I decided to create another alt from scratch (Shigeko), in hopes that there would be more Oriental stuff to go with Madame Yu (I’m still waiting for a kimono and geisha wig).  It never happened – or at least hasn’t happened yet.  But she’s there, she has a back story, and she’s the black haired gal in the picture at the top of the page.  The picture happened thanks to the Emerald testing – You could spend all the money you had on all sorts of stuff, knowing that you’d get all your poe back when the server was restarted (of course all the stuff you’d bought would be gone too – nothing’s perfect).  I splurged on a new family picture, and saved a copy of it before it disappeared.

Aloyicious isn’t a royal anymore – his (and Suzysunshine’s) crew changed flags and he’s a mere mortal again.  Lillythanne was a princess for a while, then her crew changed flags too.  Both of these events happened during my break in playing – so I have no one to blame but myself.  Of course, since coming back, Lillyth’s crew left the new flag and reformed their old flag – with Lillyth as queen (which is why she’s wearing the tiara).  The family has also accumulated a fairly large assembly of Karkinoses (Karkinos’ ?  Karkini?  What is the plural for that?)  I finally gave up on winning a familiar and started buying them – I got the tan and magenta parrot seen in the picture, as well as an atlantean ippolito and a navy and grey serpent.  I’m saving up next for a monkey (probably) — we’ll see.

The family ocean?  Yeah, that died, and all the stuff you had – pets, ships, furniture, clothes – disappeared with it.  All you got to remind you of your stuff was a trophy.

I’m back.  Not that I actually went anywhere, but when google decided to stop letting users assign their blogger blogs to their own servers, I ended up without an easy way to edit the old one.  My server finally installed easy install access to wordpress (it used to be pretty tricky to setup – now you just click a button), so I can blog easy again.

So here we go again…