Family updates + GVC news & launch party

A lot's been happening to the DeSanggria family these past few days. Following my temporary departure from CARNAGE, I'm happy to announce that I've finally moved to a new Pinoy faction, Ravenloft! Mad props to faction leader sotelo for bringing in the stray. Hehe.

I was able to join the group last night, and it's quite amusing to note that the guys from Ravenloft are likewise fun people to hang out with. I'm looking forward to more funny discussions (and perhaps a raid mission with the group? XD).

In other news, I've finally purchased my first G-Points! An officemate who bought the loot online sold me a couple, and I've already spent them on my first purchase: Pioneer's Kit - Strategy Package!

The only thing I'm quite excited about this package are the 10pcs of Andre's Costume Box! Right after getting the stuff, I immediately opened it and got some pretty cool stuff! Here are the girls wearing some of the accessories and costumes:

Bear-type Cyradis

Schoolmarm angel Verdandi
Mucho thanks to pCM Veya for the Divine Angel Wings! Yay!

Alaena the undead

I also got some stuff which the girls can never wear so I'm resorting to selling the following items:

• Clara Mago hair (lvl 84 female Wizard)
• Shaggy hair (male Musketeer)

I want more Andre's Box!!!

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And I just got this mail from Sir Lyndon...

Great news, Pioneers!

The Office of Pioneering Support is pleased to announce that Granado Espada Game Value Cards (GVCs) are now available! Now you can further optimize your exploits in the New World with the much needed items for your quests, or to simply look good while strolling around the verdant forests and crowded cities.

Please check the list below to know where you can avail of the GVCs.

LUZON

PARK AVE.COM	2481 Park Avenue, Pasay City	831-2703 / 833-5219
G.MICK GAMERS ONLINE	1143 G. Masangkay St., Sta. Cruz, Manila	354-9250 to 51
WARZONE INTERNET CAFÉ	MAIN: 2436 Leon Guinto St., Malate, Manila BRANCH: 749 Victoria St., Intramuros, Manila	523-7088 / 523-8590
PC QUEST	1345 Dapitan St., Sampaloc, Manila	731-3703 to 05 / 742-2078
Pinnacle Technologies	Balaga Luna Bldg. Catmon Malolos Bulacan	044-7912038
VISAYAS
Miranda Traders	N.Bacalso st. Duljo Fatima Cebu City	0920-8142048
MINDANAO
Herrera Brothers	Door 6 Phil Veterans Bldg Monteverde Davao City	082-7009588
Quagmire Computers	105 bonifacio st. Davao City	082-2258788
HD Financial Services	Cagayan de oro city	0917-7060303
PINS
Load Central	Unit 406 4th flr Verde Oro bldg Commonwealth Ave Q.C	932-4303

Please take note that more retailers will be added on the list as soon as it becomes available.

Meanwhile, here is the detailed breakdown of GVC amount and their corresponding game time and G-Point denomination.

Code Types for GVC	G-Points with Game Time	G-Points Only
30 days Unlimited Play GVC (Php 300)	5000	5800
10 Days unlimited Play GVC (Php 100)	1600	1800
5 Days Unlimited Play GVC (Php 50)	650	750

Signed:

Sir Lyndon
Chief
Office of the Pioneering Support

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Do check out the Granado Espada PH site for details on the activities for the launch party!

The Idge Project (part 3) + on going solo

Say hello to Idge Imbrulia...

...her armor I mean.

Neat, huh? I tried putting it on last night and it's quite ok...I'll just have to adjust a few parts of the leg armor and the elbow guard as well. I just realized that I won't be able to flex my arms while wearing the elbow guard because it's made of rubber. But generally speaking, the costume's really good. I just feel kinda silly in front of the mirror while wearing it.

The boots will be done 2 weeks from now. By then it would be the dreaded week of the launch party, but I do hope I can organize a small pictorial of sorts with my friend who's going as Brunie Etienne on the event as well. I just hope this little plan materializes given the time constraints on our part. Hopefully I can post pictures of me wearing the Idge armor...decent ones I mean. Hehe.

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Yesterday, I asked to be booted out of CARNAGE for the meantime in order to visit other factions and feature them on the GE PH website. It feels kinda odd walking along the cities without the usual noisy ramblings in the faction chat.

And while I'm waiting for the invite to move to my next domicile, going solo has never been so quiet and lonely. I'm already looking forward to the next batch of people I'll be interviewing and I'm pretty sure it's going to be fun there as well.

The Idge Project (part 2) + Baron item at last!

Finally, it's here! My Idge costume is 90% done...I only need the boots and then I'm off to war!

I just got the goods last night, but I wasn't able to take a lot of pictures on the finalized suit. All I can say though is that it rocks my socks! And the Castor Sword is just huuuuuuuge. I still can't believe I was able to stuff that uber long sword inside a cab!


As you can see, the swords' length goes beyond the height of my bedroom window. It's even taller than I am! But like all Great Swords, I cannot do away with shortening the length because that's just what they are—ladifarkingda huge ass swords.

It's made of light wood by the way. I still feel uneasy holding it, much less swinging it to my back because I might accidentally whack someone. Nevertheless, I'm not going to wear it on my back coz I might trip over and break my neck.

What I did manage to take pictures of were some of the accessories.


My Idge hat fits nicely, as with the elbow guards for the suit. The gloves though, are made of soft leather, and my palms get all sweaty with the unbreathable cloth. But as cosplayers would say...magtiis ka (bear with it)!. LOL.

I might probably take pictures of the suit when I get home. Stay tuned!

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Just this morning, I took a quick visit to the Mansion Reception Hall to hunt for bots because I wasn't able to get the free gravestone from Mr. Johnny (as what Arcleaumont just informed me). Lookee what I got!

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'Gratz to Welling for being the first-ever GE blogger to be blogspotted by Mistress Hrin!!!

Colony Wars (8/26/07): The last hurrah + complete & utter pwnage

This is still the suicidal colony wars reporter, DeSanggria, filling you in on the news on what happened at this week's faction battles. Today, I'll try to recap the stuff that happened in Cervantes for CARNAGE Faction and Caravaggio for Unholy Faction.

Let's just hope I do this right. XD


The last OBT colony wars prompted me to hole up in Cervantes to see CARNAGE's last stand. With only 1 colony on the map, the guys decided to go in for the kill to become more aggressive than ever.

Anyway, I won't go into details on the war in Cervantes as I'd be posting the nitty gritty stuff on the CARNAGE Faction blog. Let me just comment on a few things though.

For one, the lag was utter crap. I think I wasted quite a lot of warp scrolls moving to and fro maps and then dying along the way because I can't very well skittle to a safe place while Yakisobas rained skills on poor, helpless Cyradis.

The competition to gain colonies was fierce even at the start of the war. Yakisobas were tailing us every step of the way, thwarting our efforts to defend and seize more colonies. Surprisingly though, this "last" war saw through the appearance of new factions on the face of the Granado Espada map. They're not exactly "new" to begin with...I've seen their members in my travails in towns and in dungeons as well.

Again, Veterans tipped the scale of the fights. Elite weapons and special skills made the difference in tearing down defenses and building offense. Nevertheless, CARNAGE got two colonies after the gruelling battle. It wasn't an easy job so these guys deserve one big kudos!

Cervantes Map: CARNAGE's mark

Meanwhile in Caravaggio, I was teamed up with Unholy Faction. It was a good thing Welling was there in i-Hooked as well so I was able to more or less know what was happening in this server while wading in Cervantes.

One of the more shocking discoveries I learned that day was that Luminaire's colonies were wiped off the map due to some hacking incident that disbanded the group. I'm not sure as to how this happened, but feel free to lay down the facts just in case I misconstrued some things.

The thing about this particular war was the lack of Unholy members who were to go against the forces of TheCore, ReBorn and HeavyMachines Factions. The initial plan, as Welling informed me, was to get the former Luminaire colonies while their ally, PasawayProphecy, were to defend their territories.

I had less details on what happened on this battle plan as I spent a considerable amount of time in Cervantes, but when I did manage to get back to Caravaggio, most of the Unholy colonies were under attack. ReBorn was quite on a roll in warring Unholy that the latter's forces were scattered in the defense of Diabolica and Rio Albi territories.

Welling, who was clearly so engrossed in his sole efforts to defend, was definitely not to be disturbed so I just watched behind his shoulder as he single-handedly took down enemies, of course, with the help of a few factionmates. Up until now, I still cannot fathom how he managed to do all that with the lag and all. XD

Anyhoo, Unholy was able to claim the Scorching Plateau colony, adding to their Lago Celeste and El Tierra Blanco territories. Of course, it did not take long before these were attacked as well, thereby foregoing plans to go on an offensive mode.

Colony defense took quite a heavy toll on Unholy. The end of the war saw to their hold on El Tierra Blanco, while the rest withered away to ReBorn's hands.

Caravaggio Map: Unholy's mark

And that's it, folks! Open Beta Colony Wars officially ended yesterday. On August 30, Granado Espada will officially go commercial, and thus, the entire map will be wiped clean of all faction names, as Hrin mentioned previously.

Congratulations, one and all! See you again in war come commercial phase! ^0^V

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By now you've probably read in NineMoons' blog how she completely pwned me in a PvP match. Hehehe. Since we both haven't tried getting into PvP matches, we took it upon ourselves to try it out. Note that NineMoons was 4 levels short of my girls, not to mention that I had a 10% HP boost that time.

We agreed on a best of three match, heading for the first time in the Duel Colloseum. I must say that I did manage to knock Tuon and Aurana out of balance, although she finally knocked me out twice in a row. XD

Nice game! We must arrange a rematch soon. ^.~

Oh and I got quite a few funny remarks from CARNAGE after finding out what NineMoons and I were up to. XD

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Also yesterday, NineMoons and I went on squad mode at the Reception Hall in Dr. Torsche's Mansion primarily to hunt for Catherine's parts. We saw quite a number of bots there, and on mixed feeling of whim and curiosity, we decided to Baron bots.

Squadding up with NineMoons

I must say that hunting bots and baroning them got to my head. It was nice getting baron points off those scums, but my fun was spoiled when they just logged off...right when I was on the verge of my second kill!

Die, die, die botters!!!

I managed to baron two bot families, after which, I decided to pay Mr. Johnny a visit in Los Toldos. Sadly, I wasn't able to claim my grave stone as I didn't have those Soul Crystals with me when I went there.

The visit to Mr. Johnny in Los Toldos.

But as NineMoons would say, we now have a new quest in GE...and that's hunting for bots! :3 Hehehehe.

Gpoints and the impending prospect of splurging

If you've been around the City of Auch Ch. 1 (Cervantes), you'll see a lot of walking advertisement: players strutting around in Bear and Croc suits sporting various hairstyles and accessories, back costumes, gorgeous dresses, Veterans looking dangerous...

God, being one of the firsts to get their hands on Gpoints must be a fine thing.

For quite some time now, I've been thinking about the stuff I'd want to buy from the Item Shop once Gpoints become available here. I've had some careful thought and here's what I've drawn up so far:

Naharurosa - 9,900
Combat Manual Expert (30D) - 6,600
Pioneer's Kit - Strategy Package - 14,300
Battle Smith Costume - 7,700
School Look for Scout - 11,000
School Look for Fighter - 11,000

TOTAL: 60,500 GPOINTS

Okay, buying the initial 30-Day GVC (without game time) will only give me a measly 5,800 points. Even if the Battle Smith and School Uniforms are still unavailable to date, buying that Naharurosa costume for the Elementalist as well as the nifty Andre Costume Box is going to blow a nice hole in my wallet.

And that freaking 60,500 Gpoints will force me to buy a 1-year GVC plan.

Oh my Lord...have mercy on my pocket.

This will only be the first time in history that I will splurge money on virtual items. Go me!

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Oh and I just remembered that today's Colony Wars will be the last one before the impending wipeout of faction names on the GE map prior to the commercial phase this August 30. So to all those participating tonight...

GAMBARIMASU!!!! FIGHT-O!!!!