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Month: June 2016

Introduction- ROASTEDGOAT

  By ,

Hi There;20160606121407_1

I Saw the early Alpha Release of The Skies appear on Steam about a month ago, and have been playing a few hours a week ever since I signed up.

Get “The Skies” on STEAM

My character is ROASTEDGOAT. If you are a player too, you may have seen me wandering around the Kimary, Crater and Lighthouse worlds over the past few weeks.

20160606121501_1What attracted me to play the Skies is for starters, it was FREE to play if you choose not to pay to win (P2W) and purchase all the micro transaction upgrades and freemium items.

Offical Facebook page

The game itself is styled as some sort of a mutated version of Fallout 3, with quite a few nice differences.

The fact that the game is in alpha mode, is both a blessing and a joy- while there are *PLENTY* of irritating bugs, it is nice to see the game evolve, and become more polished as time has gone on.

So far, i have managed to grind my character up to LEVEL 10.

That, has taken quite some time and annoyance.

I made a major basic mistake when I started the game- I didn’t upgrade the statpoints of my character’s Intelligence or technology abilities. (see screenshot below)

Because the game was pretty new back then (only days old) there just was not that many easy to find tutorials on how to start your build. maybe I should just junk this character and start again, but that would just be me having a tantrum and being a bad sport to my mind.

Anyway, the stat points are pretty important, and you have to think about how best to distribute them.

I’ll do a full article on the skies character statpoint matrix eventually, but i’ll just cover the basic flaw in my own build first in this piece.

INTELLIGENCE:

Upgrading your character intelligence improves a number of things relating to:

  • Amount of XP you accumulate per quest (Oratory)
  • Amount of minor Statpoints you can accumulate per level (VERY IMPORTANT)- MAJOR STATPOINT LEVEL.
    • I CANT STRESS HOW IMPORTANT IT IS TO UPGRADE THE INTELLIGENCE STATPOINTS EARLY IN THE GAME TO GET THE MAXIMUM MINOR STATPINTS TO DISTRIBUTE PER MAJOR LEVEL UP YOU ACHIEVE!
  • Cost of items, and price you can receive for items when trading within the game (Trade)

TECHNOLOGY:

  • Necessary to upgrade at least beyond LEVEL 5 so you can manufacture your own ammo later in the game- the Automatic Weapons really chew through ammo at an amazing rate- you wouldn’t realise this from using the bump, striker and shotguns like the sawnoff and hello.
  • You also need science stats so you can upgrade your weapons- without the right level, you can’t install a lot of the cool upgrades to the weapons which change their accuracy, power and usability considerably.

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Cafe Merkama- Ethiopian Ballarat

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Cafe Merkama is an odd little place on the main restaurant strip of Ballarat that is half shop, half cafe, and all authentic Ethiopian!060520161896

Cuisine from such a far flung part of the world is not what you would expect in Ballarat, but, netherless, its there, and has been for a number of years now.

Not just that, but its very popular too!- When I walk past this, its quite rare for me not to see anybody chowing down on delicious Ethiopian curries, Egyptian fool (a bean salad thing) and various other treats, and sopping up the juices with home made sour, fluffy injeera bread- a regional specialty of Ethiopia which is like a fluffy, stretchy, fermented sourdough pancake flatbread that is made from teff flour.

We have visited and dined a couple times now, and by far, the best dish is the chicken red curry. I found the other dishes not being spicy enough for my liking and a bit bland. Its a nice restaurant if you want something different, and exotic, out of the norm however.

060520161895Merkama is also BYO, so you can bring a couple beers or wine to your meal.

The injeera bread is definitely something special though, and it is big, fluffy, delicious and sour, just like it should be.

Also a standout is the friendly proprietor, a former refugee, who has spent time living in inhospitable third world places like refugee camps, and Tasmania, before coming to settle in Ballarat.

The name of the Cafe, Merkama, is reportedly the same as that of his young daughter.

The service from this man is excellent, and he is a gracious, and effervescent host, always friendly.

However, the young man who we often get stuck with, whom we presume is his son, is a surly, grumpy and rude by with the manners of a spoilt dictator.

Its all Food, man, just F*n food- just order some and leave me alone, stop asking stupid questions about what its like or tastes like.

The little brat needs a firm kick to the backside. His father’s business would probably perform better if he was not around, and really, if he was not family, i’m sure he would have been sacked long ago.

Anyway, apart from the rude little brat behind the counter who throws plates of food at you when he serves, Merkama is worth a visit for some red curry and injeera.

There are other things on the menu, but talk to the father, not the brat if you want to know more.

Story on cafe Merkama and its owner in the Ballarat courier – 2014

Tin Roof Cafe & Pizza- MacArthur Street- Soldiers Hill- Ballarat

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This little place just opened up a couple weeks ago just down the road from my usual neighborhood, and I decided to give it a go on its opening day.070520161899

The cafe’s fresh fitout is quite nice, and well thought out, with an emphasis on being light and airy.

That said, it isn’t anything original and unique, which screams “This is where da crew from Soldiers Hill hang out, alright”  and there are no low_riders parked on the curb…..

Ok, enough references to cypress hill. the band. Lets get back to the cafe. and all its copy-cat, me too potted plastic succulent table number markers.

070520161902The concept here seems to be cafe + pizza parlour + Souvlaki. Ok, that’s original. trying everything I suppose to see what the residents of the b-rat’s most famous and oldest neighbourhood want I suppose?

Upon entering, i was most dazzled by the horde of staff milling about- about a 2-1 ratio for the 6 odd customers that were settling in over lunch. Enthusiastic, young new starters, obviously, and hopefully getting paid for their likely “Trial day” I hope!

Anyway, the girls were friendly and cheerful, and I couldn’t fault the service, they certainly were keen, chatty and attentive, as was the probable owner, an older lady.070520161901

We ordered a couple coffees and a “soldiers hill special” pizza.

The pizza took a while to come out, and was tasty enough, but for $20 I was a little unastounded.

To be honest, it was probably the presentation that ruined it for me- the cheap looking shredded ham, highly visible on top of the pizza reminded me of a home modified Mccain or Pappa Guiseppe supermarket pizza, like the sort I might cook when feeling lazy, adding extra cheese and quality ingredients on top.

Maybe i’m being harsh though- the actual pizza is in the pic above- zoom in and take a look, judge for yourself.

Being an establishment that seemed like it was pitching for the more gourmet end of town, I was naturally nonplussed- I had imagined a kind of “pizza pie”, or wood fired deliciousness like I had had at other similarly priced Italian restaurants before.

That said, the pizza was pretty good, just not any better than I could make myself, which was what I was dearly hoping for. I spoke to the chef about, how it tasted a lot better than it looked, sensitively, of course,and he angrily rebuffed my feedback, suggesting I buy a “gourmet” line pizza off the menu next time, not a traditional. Maybe he was right, the other pizzas might be better.

070520161900

The silly hipster plastic pot plant of a succulent. Looks nice till you peer closely… then its just tacky.

Comment below if you give these guys a try. With an arrogant chef that doesn’t take feedback though, I’m not sure how long, he, or the business will last if the business model relied off late night pizzas.

One thing i do have regrets about though, was not trying the souvlaki they had on offer instead.

One of the excitable serving girls was having lunch next to us, and had chosen a big, tasty lamb souvlaki. We could SEE how big,  good, and fresh it looked, and could smell how delicious it was, even from the ten paces away to her table. We waved her over, and had a chat to her- she confirmed how ridiculously tasty it was.

Either way, the only competition is a little fish and chips place down the road on Doveton north, which I have tried, and their souvlaki was pretty average.

I’d say its a pretty safe bet that if you want a Souvlaki in solders hill, the Tin Roof might be a good place to go. It’s pizza, however, isn’t likely to be serious competition to THE FORGE on armstrong.

The coffee was ok, and i’ll come back here because its nice and close to where I regularly loiter in this neighborhood.

UPDATE! – I visited Tin Roof again a little while back, and tried out a souvlaki, and have just uploaded the pictures- you can read more about it here and see what the verdict is.

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