AprilPvd shares her retirement experience. Send an email to ctrlaltwow@gmail.com telling us how you manage life in retirement. Discord: https://discord.gg/5dtHtHCu
Discord: https://discord.gg/5dtHtHCu
AprilPvd in VR:
No No Man’s Sky
I feel guilty that I have not played No Man’s Sky in several weeks. But what can I do? I am loving pal world so much.
Palworld 1.0
Tuesday
I only played another hour after putting out last weeks episode. I had gone into the flat screen VR discord to check the Powell world discussion. I realize that I had downloaded the latest UEVR file. It's really weird because it comes in a zipped folder that you don't unzip but what I didn't know is it unzips it into another directory. it's like an automatic thing. But when I downloaded what was supposed to be a first person injector file, I didn't remove the old one or some people just rename the newer one which is what I should've done. So what I was doing was when I thought I was using a newer version I was only using the old version. Then I figured it out. Maybe if I had started out in first person, it would've worked for me, but I had gotten so used to the controls for third person that my muscle memory was off so much. The only good thing was that the shooting part using the crossbow was perfect in first person, but the other controls didn't work as well. I ended up wasting a lot of of pal spheres because I was hitting the wrong button. So I actually went back to the old third person set up. I may just switch between the two. Use the first person when I need to hunt or fight and then the third person for the rest of the time.
Wednesday
One of the things I like the most about video games is it gets you thinking. Especially if it’s a good design. I love it when you have to figure out things instead of just looking stuff up and going through the routines that everybody else does. Of course, some of the hints and the YouTube videos are good, but I like to figure out a lot of things myself. And just running around and getting materials together to make something is a lot of fun and that’s what I did Wednesday. I wanted to try the epic sword because I was having problems with my crossbow and shooting. But then I decided to also make an epic crossbow because I had patterns for both that I had picked up. there are these places you stumble upon and they’re interesting. They have like a Forestfield in front of them and once you open it, there’s something you have to do to get access to whatever is inside. The first one was I had to fight some pal that was outside. Two of them I had to solve a kind of puzzle to get a circuit connected without crossing over another line. They’re all very challenging, but not too hard and when you go in, you get some sort of blueprint. I got a blueprint for a necklace that will give me some defense in Health, but it requires some components that I don’t have enough of. I got a blueprint for the epic crossbow and the epic sword. For a while I’m still trying to build this second base. I’m also trying to get enough materials for the two weapons. Like I mentioned I also wanted to try to use the first person UEVR injector mod to shoot. Well, I have to say I wasn’t successful at figuring out how to go back to that mod now that I’m in the third person mod again, but I didn’t want to waste time trying to figure it out so I just went with the third person mod which I am very comfortable, and I kinda like seeing my character and I had gotten nearly used to the muscle memory of the controls. So while I’m running back-and-forth between my two bases and trying to get because I needed ingots to make both of these in fact, the sword I think needed something like 52 which is a lot. At the same time I’ve realize that while I’m in the game, Weather, I’m at the base or not I still have to pay attention to both bases. I watched one YouTube video that talked about combining your base so that they’re side-by-side so you have the advantage of more room but you can. You’ll still have them together because I went back to my original base at one point and found that my pals they were starving because their food basket was empty. So I still have to pay attention when I’m in the game to both basis. But I had so much fun. And while I’m running around trying to find more or and also I want to keep capturing pals because I want to level up to get to the next technology slot that I need to make to level my base up. Keep in mind I’m still in third person and riding my big purple horse. That is so absolutely beautiful to ride with The at this. I mean she’s actually a deer not a horse and I found that I can shoot while I’m riding her and I found out that I was doing the shooting a little bit wrong. That if I squeeze my left trigger it actually aims and then I move my right hand so that I can aim and it made it so much better so I don’t need first person at all. I managed to get enough of the materials to make both the sword in the crossbow, but here’s the crazy part they were taking so long even with my pal doing some of the work so I ended up bringing In a another character to help me. What are the tips that I was given in one of the YouTube videos was to change the settings so that you don’t have to hold the button to keep working at any of the workbenches. It works really well, but with the VR mod I don’t seem to be able to make that setting stick. It does work on the flat screen a character and have her join me in the game go to the workbench and work with my pal to build a sword and the crossbow.
The other thing that happened today was I had two raids on both of my bases or rather one raid at each base and I had two different outcomes and I learned a lot about raids the first thing that I had a raid that was at my original base which already had all the walls up and I’ve had raids there a couple of times and it’s safe but this time I did go out and look at the Raiders and I thought about fighting them, but it was cool. It was OK. I was safe. The biggest thing is that I didn’t pay the 1000 goal to stop them from invading now the second maid was at my second base which at the time I didn’t have any walls up but the minute I did get the notice that they were coming I started putting up the walls I had to pop over to my other base and get some stone and come back to be able to make the walls, but I did it and even though I didn’t complete the walls, they were still helpful because they made the group come in at a certain place and I was able to fight them off. I was a little bit concerned because I’m brilliant was on my base making the crossbow I think and I was worried that she might get attacked and I would be something would happen to her or I would lose the progress I’ve made on making the crossbow. I mean, it took a really long time, but between her people that she had her pals that she had out and my pals, and my New found a shooting techniques I was able to repel them and it wasn’t even that big. What happened was I killed them all and the rain was stopped the interesting thing about the first one with the walls where I just let you know let them try to attack they do two waves so it lasts a little longer and this time just by fighting them off it stopped you know I didn’t have to wait for the second wave so that was kind of nice and it’s an interesting Dynamic plus when you kill those guys you get something they drop things so it’s really a fun dynamic another time, though I asked, I went to an area. I was doing some exploring on Apple Pvd just so you know get some more of the travel points and just to look for more pals to capture and she ended up in the middle of a fight with the syndicate and turned out, the syndicate was attacking a traveling merchant, and I started attacking what I thought was the syndicate, but I ended up hitting the merchant and then the PFD ID guys came in which is like the military on the island and started shooting me and they ended up killing me but I managed to get back to my body. I hope I don’t get any negative points for that but you know I had a good day. I got a lot of things done and I did try to take down this the second boss that our tower that I have to do now and it killed me. I just have to get better at figuring out what I’m doing, but I’m loving this game and I’m having a blast and yeah it’s fun.
I found out something new about my dedicated server, but I didn’t realize that it’s still runs even when I’m not logged in. I stopped playing around 3 o’clock and then I went back around 7 o’clock last night Wednesday night and when I got back into the game all of my pets were hungry. Some were sick some depressed it was sad mainly because there was no food now when I first logged back in, I went around, trying to make food for the mall to try to feed them all because my idea was let me feed them and it was crazy because I couldn’t work fast enough and I was at my original base which has the most I think at 10 pals and so I’m dashing back-and-forth between the two cooking things but then I realized they’re so sad and depressed. They’re not even cooking like they normally would be and so I’m cooking and throwing stuff into their food things, but I mean that one of them had ulcers and I felt so guilty at the same time I like to think about was that what is going on at the other base as well so what I ended up doing was putting them all back into the power box because when when you’re out fighting with your Bell and one of them dies if you put them back in the power box, they will come back to life so I thought maybe that’s what I should do because I just could not cook enough food fast enough I mean I was scrambling and I felt so bad about it. Eventually, I did go back to the other base and try to do the same thing and then I thought OK let me just pull out one of these guys just pull them out and see if I can heal them because I know I have medicine, but I couldn’t figure out a way to heal them and I felt merely guilty about how hurt these pals were. I mean their names were in red. They were whatever I put anything in the food chest that came right over an eight so I decided to log off and try to figure out you know what to do. Well I learned one thing don’t leave the server running on that. I’m playing prior to that you know I would just log off every time this is my first time leaving it running and then I decided to just look up stuff and figure out what I needed to do to heal them and I had the medicine because I have the pal. There’s a certain bitch you can make that can make medicine and I thought that I had to put them in my party to feed cause sometimes that’s what you have to do to teach them, but it turns out that I have to go over to them and choose feed and then select the medication so I’m gonna do that today Thursday and I’m also thinking about setting up a dedicated server on my laptop just so I can go back-and-forth and see how that works out because this is so much fun but that was very, very stressful to have those pets look so those pals look so hurt and have that that redness all over my screen because they were hungry and depressed and sick, but I learned something which it’s good.
Thursday
To be able to work out in VR in my own home and the workout went very well and one of the things that I do as I get on the elliptical with Holofit and it has a routine that makes me have to go find these things in this particular one was like a Raiders of the lost Ark thing and I had to chase down and find the rock and get it off of Montana Jones and it was a lot of fun and it motivated me to try even harder there are different things you have to go through and the reward is an outfit that’s like his so I had a good time with that. To have this elliptical. I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned before that. It is a Nordic track free strider trainer FS5I and it’s a Jim quality elliptical so even though I’ve had it for like since 2017 it’s in good shape because it’s really designed for a whole bunch of people to use it at one time and a day and so I’m really lucky to have it.
I watched a really good YouTube video on how to design your base and now I have to try it, but that does mean that I am going to have to destroy my base which I’m a little nervous about but it’s OK. I mean it is just a game. I logged in on AprilPvd and put all of her pals in the pal box with the exception of the dire wolf. Then I logged in Aprillian because she had a quest that she had to show this guy and New Settlement. The guy was. But first, she took some other things which is so crazy. I always get caught up with doing other things. She was at the beach base and the Powell expedition thingy was up so she said all her pals on an expedition and came back with some stuff so I’m gonna have to do that on April Pvd when she logs in. It takes 30 minutes so she can work on redesigning the bases while that happens. The guy showed me how to put foundation under the pal box which is what I want. The building part is one of the best things about the game. but when I actually logged in, I move some stuff around. I tried to like extend the base of my base and just make it one complete platform so that’ll be flat. You know the problem is that I’m by the beach and so the beach kind of goes on goes downhill towards the water so at first, I was really trying very hard to make it all one platform, but that didn’t work and so I was like moving things around. There was some issues with trying to get it to go as far as I wanted to to the edge it’s kinda hard to explain, but then they just became some building issues and also at the same time, some of my pals got stuck because they couldn’t get up the platform so I had to work on figuring out how to do the stairs properly and then I had this big idea of taking out the middle part and then trying to rework it it turned out that taking out the middle part just made everything perfect. So now there’s a beach in between my base is where the pals live and where I’m making my home my little castle and it worked out really nice. I have a lot more work to do, but I did a lot of destroying and running around and it took like two hours to get this whole thing figured out and the craziest part was that when I sometimes when I was destroying stuff to re-create, I would get bogged down because I would be all everything that you destroyed goes into your inventory so I had to then build a chest just to put stuff in and but it turned out good. I love my new layout. I love making things I even made a bathroom in my new castle part so I have a part where the pals are living, I have a part where they’re working and where the fields are and then I have a whole different section. I’m gonna be making my little building home tight place so I’m having so much fun. i’m putting up columns. I’m making a whole section where I’m gonna have my bed and my living quarters and this game is everything I wanted. Take some time away from leveling but it’s really motivating me to level because in order to get certain things that I wanna get, I have to push myself to Level as well. I also started using the skill training machine. There’s so many intricacies. And then the expedition ends and I open up the little box thing that the expedition window and I get a whole bunch of stuff that I needed to upgrade other stuff that I didn’t know where to get them from so it was perfect and I love the building stuff in this game. It’s really cool.
Friday
I was pleasantly pleased at all the hard work I had done and I’m very happy with the layout. I did have some passing problems with some of my pals, so I ended up making some more steps to enable them to get up to the higher level of the platform that I created, and that worked out really well I’m so pleased that I learned that technique of how to make a step how to make the steps go lower cause sometimes it doesn’t look like the steps are high enough, but I’m really loving the new layout that I made for my base now the only problem is now I have to get back to my other base and totally destroy that one. The only thing that’s stopping me is that I still have some mats there so I have to figure out just get myself going and get to the point where I will take everything out of that base and just you know put it in my inventory then I have to teleport back to this base and then put it back where it needs to go and go back and do the same thing. There’s a lot of stuff there. There’s there’s a few pieces of equipment that I made there that I have not made in my newer base so that’s gonna take some working out and I think I can do it. Because once I do that, then I can create a second base next to my base now and totally expand what I can do and of course I’m just scratching the tip of the iceberg of all the things that are possible to do in Powell world.
Then I got a crazy idea. What if I started a server on my laptop you know I’ve been doing most of my VR playing on the gaming PC, which is a very high-end it was when I got it a couple years ago or last year and the reason I got the gaming PC was for No Man’s Sky, which is very demanding but power world is not as demanding and I said let me try it on the laptop and see if I could have another dedicated server that I could try different things on it and I did it. I went through the steps and I made a server on my laptop. The only thing is I do have to go back-and-forth to change the settings as I get in and out of you using the VR on the gaming PC I guess I could use VR on the laptop. I haven’t tried that lately. There’s some issue sometimes with the resolution and it can be kind of dragging cause I’m also recording and streaming on the laptop, but I got it to work and I started a whole new dedicated server, a whole New World and so I now have another server with another group of characters and that was really a lot of fun and the best part is that I started my first base just the way I wanted totally flat and it’s coming out perfectly. This time I started out with Aprillian as the main character and leveled her up until she could get to the point where she could put down a power box and I use the technique of making a platform and then putting it on I just didn’t think you could make a platform without having put them down a power box but I’m so glad that this video showed me that it will give you a warning that you’re not inside your base, but it was possible and it came out perfectly and I’m loving it. One of the main reasons I wanted to do. This was in case I get some of my people who are following me on the podcast or whoever are recording with my other podcast who wanted to join me on the game and that way we would have a better start plus I wanted a fresh start. I don’t know how often I’ll be playing this one as opposed to my main one, but it was kind of neat to know that I could have a second dedicated server. I don’t know if I could switch back-and-forth. I don’t know if I could actually have started a second one on my regular gaming PC, but I’ll look into it but we had a good time setting up and you know it’s the same thing that when I did World of Warcraft once you start over, you have a little bit of a foresight of the things that you could do and you could do it better and it came out really nice so I spent Friday afternoon working on that. I love this game. Have I said that before
Saturday
Of course, I worked out today and it was great. I did some parts. Of the August challenge on the elliptical for Holofit. But then I got busy doing other things like cleaning the carpet and giving my dog a bath. Then I had to go to a retirement party for a coworker. So no PW for me.
Sunday
So Sunday when I started playing, I realized one thing that’s different at this base and I have to figure out the mechanics is that they’re not taking the food from the fireplace and putting it into the storage box where they eat out of. So I gotta figure that out. I also had one guy who could not climb up to get to the food so I maneuver some stuff around to make it easier for him especially now that I’ve learned how to move the stairs down. I did have to destroy move some stuff around. I had to destroy a chest and the feed box because I couldn’t put the stairs where I wanted it to be because of the feed box being in the way but it’s OK. I’ve gotten used to that I used to be very nervous about taking things apart and putting them back but now I’m getting really comfortable with it, especially since people will or the other pals will just join in and help build stuff. As I mentioned before there are multiple levels to this game. There is the leveling part which you know the basic thing you have in an MMORPG and that’s getting my character up to level but there’s also leveling the pets or the pals and leveling your base and they are interlock in a way because some of the ways to level the base is by creating new workstations or these starting stuff like I have to my next level to get to I will need to make a generator and a a power spare making assembly line, but in order to open up those blueprints, I have to be at a higher level so it’s just an interesting combination of trying to figure out where I wanna go and how fast I wanna go and then of course there’s the other thing for me as a person who likes being in VR and that’s the building housebuilding aspect of the game. Friday when I was on with Aprillian, I had done a little bit of extra building. I worked on the columns, but one of the things I wanted to do was move my bathroom, which I had made on the first floor of my house, but I wanted to put it upstairs where my next to my bedroom and so the problem was though Apple Pvd had the plans for the bathroom and washed and the sink and it’s so silly because you can’t use it it’s just purely for decoration, but I really got into working on that and I finished that up and it’s amazing because I have 10 pals on my base once I put them down once I put the objects down, they immediately come in and start working on it so then I actually left my first. I went to the expedition portal and I sent a bunch of my pals into the expedition which takes a half an hour and when they’re done, I get a whole bunch of things that helped me build stuff so once that was done, then I went out to work on leveling myself up and one of the ways you can do that is by capturing other pets there’s a guy in one of the New Settlement that will give you XP and stuff for leveling up the number of pets that you have so at the time Apple Pvd had 45 pets and she went to talk to him and when she would get to 50 pets, he would also give her a special book that could teach electrician electrification to increase the skills of one of her pets so I went to do that and then I decided to go while I was doing that also went out to get some more pets and I ended up in a fight with a there’s these things that these bounty hunters want you to capture their just guys standing by the road and I don’t know why but I kinda like capturing the guys and so I throw balls at them and I captured this one guy who was epic. His name is Lazlo and I got a special bonus for capturing him and then I also got to have him in my party and he fights really well and they also the people that I capture also work really hard on my base so it really helps me out right now I’m probably when I figure out how to level up my pals and get them to do the things I want them to do. I probably won’t be so into having these guys. to be honest, I am skipping over a lot of the things that I’m doing in this game because there is so much to it and if I was to do a point by point this podcast would be so long I have been discovering so many things about the game and one of the things I discovered was that there are dungeons. I did not know they were dungeons. I know they were towers, but there are these caves and I went to go into this cave and it said do you wanna join the dungeon now? At first I got kind of nervous and I’m like I don’t really wanna go into a dungeon, but then I said what’s the worst that can happen. I’ll go in. Maybe I’ll die, but I went into this one dungeon and the mobs that were in there were level one mobs. The best thing was there was lots of things to gather. There’s this cavern mushroom that I know I need to make some stuff and there were chest, and there was so much Stuff in this dungeon that I kicked myself because I went in with almost a full inventory so as I ran around and discovered things, I decided that oh I’ll have to come back to this dungeon once I empty out my inventory because there’s no way I can pass up all of this stuff. I actually spent some time trying to go through my inventory and dump stuff and some of the things I try to get rid of was there were these things I had that I could teach my pets on my pals different things like how to do stuff better and also to like me better so I actually ended up giving up a lot of that stuff to Lazlo. so I picked up as much as I could I mean, that was just so much stuff and especially money. I needed money because I was going back to the vendor in New Settlement to buy. I bought some bone because I need a bone to make this ring, that would give me a certain advantage and so I’m running around and then I just decided I’m heading back. I’m gonna go back to my base get rid of all the stuff I have and then I’m gonna come back to the dungeon and just do some more stuff but of course best leg plans. I left the dungeon went back to my base and I ended up just running around building stuff and one of the things you can do is increase the abilities of your pals on your base with different with the pal trainer. That’s just so much and I just spent the rest of the afternoon on my base. I never got back to that dungeon, I’m hopefully gonna get back to it later, but I’m definitely gonna get back to it, but I just went back and worked on my base. I got the stuff from the expedition and there was I just had a blast. I’m just setting up so many new things I made I made more of storage containers. I brought over the egg hatcher because I saw another video on YouTube about how you can hatch your pet, after spending some time upgrading my base I put in a or manufacturing place so that I can get or because I need Angus to make a lot of things I went back out to find some more pets. I’m getting really good at the hunting pets I did try some fishing for a little bit, but I’m not really good at fishing. I was just having fun chasing down pets, but I found a dragon egg and I’m excited to see what hatches out of that.
Monday
If you’ve been watching my videos or looking at the screenshots in the show note, you may have noticed a difference in my head strap. The quest three is a remarkable device and it has the option of upgrading it from the built-in or the the strap that it comes with. This means that you can personalize the head strap to your particular needs, and there is a plethora of head straps out there now I have gone through so many different ones. Two years ago I purchased the BOBOVR M3 Pro and I talked about the fact that I was pressing into my skull so I changed to another brand, but it didn’t have the option of buying extra batteries. So then I bought the BOBOVR S3 Pro which had a fan and it was a little bit too heavy for me so I “downgraded“to the BOBOVR E3 Pro. Which I actually liked and I actually bought two additional backup batteries for a total of three, but then BoboVR came out with another head strap called BOBOVR M3 Pro+ which had the ability to customize the way it’s set on your head. You had two wheels of control and it gave a tighter fit. Which was very important for me with when I do my exercising because if it comes loose, it affects my performance now if you’re watching a video or if you look in the show notes which you can find at ctrlaltwow.com which forward from ctrlaltwow.blogspot.com. You’ll notice that on the left I am wearing the new one the bobo VR M3 Pro, plus and on the right I’m wearing the older model, which was the bobo DRE3 pro which has the strap up the middle, which makes me look like I have a mohawk but anyways, I really like the new one. I ended up buying a second backup battery because it’s lighter. The battery only lasts an hour so I ordered in a second battery and I know this might seem to seem to be a lot of ways, but it’s important to have a really good fit for your headset and something that I wear anywhere from 2 to 6 hours at a time it’s important that it fits well so I’m happy with this new bobo VR headset. I just don’t know what I’m gonna do with all the others.
Of course, since it was Monday, I did do my workout and the headset/strap. I keep calling a headset, but it’s a head strap did great with the boxing with all the movements. The best part is when I’m down on the floor doing my situps I don’t have to worry about it coming loose like I did with the other head straps so that was really great
The whole time I’m working out and then you know I’d take my shower and I have breakfast and I check around the apartment to make sure everything’s nice and neat. My whole mind is totally on playing pal world so finally I got to play and it was great. I actually logged in with Aprillian because I wanted to have her get some levels and the best part about the everybody being in the same guild is that everyone has access to the base that April Pvd has upgraded. now the main thing I wanted to do with Aprillian was to get her into that dungeon that April PVV had ran the mobs in there were low-level and she could get some stuff plus it was fun running that dungeon so Aprillian went in the dungeon after she made sure that all of the pals at the base were taken care of, and she discovered some things about the interface for some of the cooking, and I think the flower things was that I hadn’t checked the boxes that said allow the pals to carry so there’s a special box that you can do that, but then she went into the dungeon and it was not the same dungeon that April Pvd had gone and it was a little bit different but while she was in there, she was able to get some pets and she got a bunch of supplies, including some or and that’s the biggest thing everything that I need to make needs in it so she was able to do that and she got some levels and then she went back to the base and helped upgrade some things she had the blueprint for the wall scones that April Pvd doesn’t have and she put in a desk and yeah, she just did some stuff and while she was in the dungeon, she got a blueprint for a rare crossbow that was an upgrade to the one that she had and the one that she has she had gotten from April Pvd, because April Pvd had the schematics for it so the way I’m doing it as I’m not using all of my technology points for each character. In fact Aprillian has about 62 technology points that she’s gonna use when she gets a little bit higher and she also got a book that gave her some technology points, but she put it in the chest so that April Pvd could use it cause she’s run out of technology points, but when she went to manufacture the crossbow, she had enough materials to make two so I brought in Aprillian I mean, April and she actually did the work and I also gave her a potion that Aprillian had found that would increase her work speed because I have been bringing in April to do work on the base because on the flatscreen I can just press one key and that tune will just keep working so it’s just a convenient way to get something done faster.
I did some more dungeons on AprilPvd because I wanted to get her to 27 so she could make the sphere assembly line which is one of the objectives to leveling up the base. The more you love your base the more pals you can have working there. Then she also got to one of the special travel points that opened up the map for so that was good.
Tuesday
The algorithm is showing me more YouTube videos about pal world, and some of it I have to avoid because it’s spoilers. There’s a lot to the game that I don’t wanna know about yet. The Pal alliance tower. on Tuesday I decided to try the second tower boss again Lily and Lyle. They had killed me multiple times and I had upgraded my gear. I got a metal armor to that protect you from eat and I also had upgraded some of my pals and infuse them with some extra energy from the power souls that statue that you use and so I felt like I was better prepared, and that I could actually take them out I had done a couple of other dungeons on level 15 one now April Pvd was level 27 at this time and I did it I beat the boss and now I’m excited because I can go into the expedition and do the second level of sending my pals and exquisite expeditions. There’s so much to this game and I’m loving pal world so much that’s gonna be it for this week. I will have a whole bunch of new stuff to talk about next week, including setting up a dedicated server for the Podcast this is April Pvd. You can email me at ctrlaltwow@gmail.com and you can follow us on Instagram Ctrl Alt WoW and if you check the show notes at Ctrl Alt WoW which forward from control out weilderblogspot.com you’ll find all the images from the video that’s also on YouTube and yeah, like comment and subscribe and have fun in VR.
AprilPvd
https://www.twitch.tv/ctrlaltwow
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