The Life of Wighar Stamfaste

Sunday April 18th morning, my aunt took her last breath and passed away, she was 53, she was my favourite aunt and she was one of those who in my life gave support and strength even at times when I did not need it.
My aunt and I both have Alpha 1-antitrypsin deficiency, which in some may cause emphysema in their later life and there is also a small risk of liver problems.
This is one of those reasons I immediately stopped smoking and at later stage stopped drinking alcohol at parties.
The way I found out I had this deficiency was thru a blood test where my mother asked the doctor that it be tested for in the same time they were probing to find an answer to why I had panic attacks, this being at the spring the year after I got my first panic attacks, as you might understand I had no real knowledge of what the deficiency was about other than that my aunt had it and she was a heavy smoker when younger and had a more progressed situation.
This means that when she came for a visit we had to clean the house at least the day before to remove and clear out dust as well we could not wear any perfumes or antiperspirants which could be bad for her lungs, those who know people with asthma or acute perfume allergy should recognize the need of keeping a clean environment and the air clean of high/heavy concentration chemicals.
Do I have any reaction to high dust or chemical allergy?, Yes I do have reactions to them but not in that extent, I can get nausea and dizziness from some types of perfume over usage or heavy perfumed fabric softeners.
The usual behavior I have seen when people see others that are allergic showing reactions to these things is often simple ignorance or the assumption that the person(s) is faking it to get attention or that they don’t ‘approve’ of the certain smell they are wearing.
Anyway getting bad memories on the subject of perfumes so I will go on to something different.

Mount & Blade: Warband

Mount & Blade in itself is a rather unique Action RPG even without the Warband stand alone expansion version, I myself have not played the original game but went straight for Warband and I love it and the M&B system seems rather easy to mod and I would not be surprised if there will be an abundance of excellent mods to be played in the coming years, having had some time to play the game and try out to start my own kingdom/faction in the game I found it lacking of a specific own faction/rebel kingdom army so I started fiddling on some new troops using “Morgh’s M&B Warband TXT Tools”.

To make it simple I plainly copied the “Native” (vanilla M&B:W game module) and renamed the copy to Rebelarmy that and then started playing around with the tool to see what I could do with it, as for the moment I have no intention of making it public, that is until I am certain that I can make the modified module legally public without problems, better safe then sorry.

Speaking of modifications to M&B:W, I was daydreaming on what one could do or modify into the game and here is a few ideas.

If your not joining a faction you might simply set up in a factions town and have one of your adventuring heroes establish in the local tavern as a mercenary liaison agent that offers men-for-hire to the local caravans heading from the city or if you are in good favor with the local lord offer your men for favorable rates and as favor improves maybe some of the loot from their campaigns or why stop there you are not a loyal subject so why play nice, have some shady dealings with the underworld providing information to lords of the other factions for a price, do some racketeering (extorting local businesses for “protection” money and such.) of course you must try and set up a regular bribe with the guards or risk be run out of town and fall in disfavor with the local lord and his faction.

‘Why not make the mod yourself?’ you might ask, well I would though I don’t think I could take the pressure, not with my stress tolerance at this time anyway, if I did have the right stress tolerance and knowledge of how to make the mod I would probably be punching code and going thru plans and asking for help from experienced modders that could provide some free on their off-time help with it.

Anyway let’s move on to something a bit different.

Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty to be released on the 27th of July!

I personally want to get into the story and see where the story takes me and what has evolved since the end of the Brood Wars expansion.
When it comes to RTS the story of the game tells if it has a good story that you want to replay the story again, I think they made it rather good in the previous Starcraft and I hope that it will be this time as well.
Multiplayer is as well a good angle but if the story of the game is not interesting enough to entangle the player into the story its just not worth it, but I don’t think it will be like that this time as the game is divided into 3 releases based on the 3 races each getting a game and a separate story that will make the full line, it’s a seriously great idea for those that are taken into the story as long as the story is worth it.

The only thing I believe that could seriously mess up the game would be if Blizzard made the same mistake UBIsoft made with settlers 7 and have a DRM that disgusts the players and potential customers from the game, and only reason I bought Settlers 7 was cause I am a fan of the series and had not seen the notice of the new type of DRM , had I seen it prior to pre-ordering it, I would not order it and wait until one of my friends had gotten it and tried it or actually wait for a cracked version of the game, Yes you read right, I would download the cracked game because of the DRM, because I believe that when you BUY a game and install it you should be able to play it out of the box no matter if you have an internet connection or not.

A DRM to me is like having a Condom you have to call the company and have the phone conversation during the sexual act to have the protection active thru it, and if you suddenly lose contact with the company on the phone, its protection stops working and all stops working, your partner and you become angry cause you have to stop early and cant resume until you manage to get back in contact with the company…
The moment has gone and it is not worth the effort and it will force you to look for a condom that works all the time during the usage of the product so that you can play for as long as you want.
I know a really odd (and disgusting) way of referencing it but you get the idea clearly, I do not like my games to be interrupted as it was when I was playing Settlers 7 the other day and it timed out a check for its DRM server thingy and ended the game, yes it ends the game shutting itself down when it cant get in contact with its “authentication” server.

I have had a dream the last few days where I am sitting on a stump looking out over a sea of flowers that is white and orange with a red middle and in the midst of the flowers sits 2 rather large white cats like the world of warcraft saber mounts sitting next to each other watching a white-purple-ish moon in the night sky with their tails semi tangling together like holding hands on and off, the last I see of this scene is a stream of light, like a star falling… then I wake up and I am back in my bed looking at the roof above my bed wide awake.

I sometimes wonder about my dreams and what they mean if anything..

This is all for now, may the force be with you and see you soon again.

Signed and Done

I payed the invoice last night for another 3 months on the Left 4 Dead 2 Server designated [Stamfaste.se] Left 4 Dead 2 Server #1, I had some donated money that was given to me by hand, though I prefer such be done via paypal as I can keep track of the donations better that way

So why do I do it?, I mean rent game servers that then are payed for with help of donations?
Well the thing is that I enjoy gaming like most and like being able to provide an enjoyable atmosphere for players like my self.
Enjoyable atmosphere?, As in a place where players can enjoy liberty from bad behaved players and cheaters, and can fully enjoy the game without distracting elements.

Query: But you suffer from panic attacks and lowered stress tolerance and should not do anything that increases stress or such things?
Answer: Indeed I should not and I hope that players that are respective and are able to share the burden of administrating the servers, keeping the players on the server following the rules of the game and those In-house rules that we expect players to follow to keep the atmosphere as I mentioned a enjoyable one.

Query: So why donations then if you are so generous and well meaning on your part, why not pay for it in full yourself?
Answer: If I had a job and didn’t have the issues I have, I probably would, but such is not the situation, I hope that I one day can be cured of my stress issues and attacks so that I can get a normal life and can provide more to the online community.
I know that relying on public donations wont expand or keep this up in the long run, but it is my hope that players that enjoy the same values in gaming as I do, consider it a cause worth the investment, after all the money is not used for my own benefit but the players.
If by luck the donations and the ad revenue from the google adsense program goes over that of the total cost of the servers rental period payments, then they will be invested/focused on the next payment period or even on additional servers or new game servers.
So how does this profit me?, my profit out of this might seem strange to some but it is the happiness that people gain from what I wish to provide them, life is to short to simply focus on ones own enjoyment so to go on an old cliche “sharing is caring”, Would I profit financially from this?, from the donations, No as I explained earlier they allready have a use and they would not benefit my own economy, my own economy has sufficient funds to keep me up with a computer to play the games on, a roof over my head and provide me with food and medicine so I don’t see a reason to profit financially from all of this, If i had any specific need that requires additional funds then those that my economy cant handle, I still would not use any of the donations for my own benefit as those donations are for the game servers and not my own usage.

Anyway let’s move on..

Radiation and Biology

So I have this week played BioShock 2 and S.T.A.L.K.E.R Call of pirpyat, I was amazed of how much more improved graphics and feel BioShock 2 has against its predecessor, the new content and additional rework of the special skills makes the game more vibrant and the story makes the game a good qualifier for replay value and a desire for a next installment of the series, dosen’t matter if it be in rapture for a 3rd time as long as the story benefits from it.

If you never played BioShock, BioShock 2 wont be any problem, it will however give you the desire to buy the first game just to get more into the plot of the story

Let’s not forget S.T.A.L.K.E.R CoP (Call of Pripyat), once more you are back in the Zone, now as a Major of USS undercover as a Free Stalker to investigate a failed military operation into the Zone where 5 helicopters did not return.
The graphics have been improved in some aspects as well as many of the functions, and as in Clear Sky the Zone once more suffer from emissions that will kill you if you do not find sufficient cover, investigate the Zone for clues to what happend to the helicopters and what secrets is hidden in the radiation of the Zone.

I believe it is time to end this post here as I can’t think of anything worth of writing.
until next time, have fun and play fair.