Elloes!

[Wintersreach 9]

Heya there! I'm Wintersreach, or just Winter for short, and I'm a 21 year old chick from Sweden. I am currently studying graphical design and communication and spend my spare time rolling dice with my gaming group. Right now the name of the game is pathfinder, but I'm slowly getting introduced to warhammer (and I've today officially finished painting my first mini, yay!). My music of choice is epic scores, cheesy lovesongs and Ayreons peculiar but intriguing prog-rock-operas. 

Other games I often find myself caught up in are turn-based grid strategy games such as Heroes of Might and Magic, Age of Wonders and to some extent the Civ games.

In-game on gw2 I spend most of my time collecting skins (fashion wars aww yeah) or doing map completion, I can never quite get tired of running around Tyria, especially now with the HoT maps. I am also one of OpenCommunitys trainee commanders and I'm looking forward to wrecking some world bosses together with you all! 

See you online! nwn/

Edited February 3, 2016 by Wintersreach

[Declan 17]

Welcome to the OpenCommunity forums, Winter! ^^

[Susimusta 48]

Welcome to the forums indeed! And also happy to have so many new trainees. :3 I'm bit of an old grump when it comes to music, I should probably try something new every once in a while. That prog-rock-opera caught my eye, maybe you have some specific suggestions for me? ^^

[Arvinthir 38]

Hello Winter ^^

Omg, Heroes! That's THE game of my early gaming years! I don't know which one is played nowadays but IV was awesome, as I recall

Also, don't forget to show us your fabulously equipped characters!

[Wintersreach 9]

Thank you all for your welcomes <3

@Susimusta Haha, fangirl wall-o'-text warning.

As to where to start depends a little on how heavy you like your music and what kind of stories you're more into.

Into the Electric Castle is a bit more proggy and it deals with emotions and what it means to be human. The Human Equation is rather proggy as well, and probably the album that pokes its head into the most different genres. The album is about how a man in a coma speaks with his emotions and tries to solve his own inner turmoil. The third album of his that touches on what is means to be human is The Theory of Everything which is a bit about how mental illness can affect the ones around us.

The Final Experiment, 01011001 and The Universal Migrator belong to the same story. The Final Experiment is a bit folky-inspired and is set in the time of King Arthur, The Universal Migrator touches on the death and rebirth of the universe, and 01011001 is kinda the glue that binds the other two together. 

My personal favourite is 01011001 but I think all his albums are great :3 One important thing to note with them is that it's best if you listen to the songs in order (and if you can set them to a couple of seconds overlap to create more seamlessness that's awesome).

@Arvinthir Heroes 3 and 5 are still the most popular ones as far as I know, since the netcode for 6 is bad  But the single player is still nice enough in 6

I'll post up some of my chars as soon as I get home and can take screenshots that do them justice  I do so love to show them off

[Sabina 32]

Welcome to da forums Winter-chan! <3

[Wintersreach 9]

Thank you Sabi-chaan! <33 

[Dew 2]

Hello there Winter, nice to meet ya

[Wintersreach 9]

@Dew Hey nice to meet you too! nwn

[Soaring Spirit 10]

Winter has Arrived!
.
..
...

WELCOME! Soar greets you!

[Wintersreach 9]

Ah yes, how could I expect not to hear it

Greetings Soar!

[Slaywright 36]

AYREON omg _(@_@_)

On 03/02/2016 at 4:57 PM, Wintersreach said:

Into the Electric Castle is a bit more proggy and it deals with emotions and what it means to be human. The Human Equation is rather proggy as well, and probably the album that pokes its head into the most different genres. The album is about how a man in a coma speaks with his emotions and tries to solve his own inner turmoil. The third album of his that touches on what is means to be human is The Theory of Everything which is a bit about how mental illness can affect the ones around us.

The Final Experiment, 01011001 and The Universal Migrator belong to the same story. The Final Experiment is a bit folky-inspired and is set in the time of King Arthur, The Universal Migrator touches on the death and rebirth of the universe, and 01011001 is kinda the glue that binds the other two together. 

My personal favourite is 01011001 but I think all his albums are great :3 One important thing to note with them is that it's best if you listen to the songs in order (and if you can set them to a couple of seconds overlap to create more seamlessness that's awesome).

My own introduction was Into the Electric Castle followed by Human Equation, the first one still probably being my favourite with the latter as a very close second. But all are really good.

And by the way, everything up to Theory of Everything (which by the way is the most impactful in my experience) is part of the same story  Electric Castle is one of the Forever experimenting with people from various eras of Earth's history, Human Equation is another using the device from Universal Migrator to experience the story told by said album. It's all mind bogglingly complex and good

The best starting point might be Human Equation, becuase it gives you a really good rundown of Ayreon's style while being easily approachable. At least is my impression.

Have to stop before I get started, I could go on for hours @_@

Anyway, welcome to the forums

[Wintersreach 9]

12 minutes ago, Slaywright said:

AYREON omg _(@_@_)

My own introduction was Into the Electric Castle followed by Human Equation, the first one still probably being my favourite with the latter as a very close second. But all are really good.

And by the way, everything up to Theory of Everything (which by the way is the most impactful in my experience) is part of the same story  Electric Castle is one of the Forever experimenting with people from various eras of Earth's history, Human Equation is another using the device from Universal Migrator to experience the story told by said album. It's all mind bogglingly complex and good

The best starting point might be Human Equation, becuase it gives you a really good rundown of Ayreon's style while being easily approachable. At least is my impression.

Have to stop before I get started, I could go on for hours @_@

Anyway, welcome to the forums

I was introduced to Ayreon through the Human Equation and then Into the Electric Castle, so it was the other way around for me  I still prefer 01011001 the most though cause I love the mood in it :3

Oh I'm aware they're a part oh the same story, they're just not obviously so, and they touch on a lot of other themes which is why I didn't feel the need to present them in that way since it's not obvious until you've listened to the other albums, and I wanted to kinda leave the wow moment in there  But I particulary love the moment at the end of the Human Equation where he goes "Emotions, I remember" after the machine is shut off. Shiver down my spine every time.

So awesome to find someone else who knows of him! I had the honour of seeing the Gentle Storm live in Amsterdam, and he was such a darling all through the show.

Thank you

[Slaywright 36]

Fair point with the surprise part, I didn't even think of that. Been listening to them so much I just kind of assumed. Oops

7 minutes ago, Wintersreach said:

I had the honour of seeing the Gentle Storm live in Amsterdam, and he was such a darling all through the show.

Ooh, that is awesome! I'm kind of short on options to see any of his stuff live, not sure any's ever come by here as far as I've seen.

[Wintersreach 9]

1 minute ago, Slaywright said:

Ooh, that is awesome! I'm kind of short on options to see any of his stuff live, not sure any's ever come by here as far as I've seen :\

As far as I know he really dislikes travelling, so most concerts are pretty close to the Netherlands. Where do you live? :0

[Slaywright 36]

9 minutes ago, Wintersreach said:

As far as I know he really dislikes travelling, so most concerts are pretty close to the Netherlands. Where do you live? :0

Across the pond in Finland  The water doesn't help there, I'm sure.

[Wintersreach 9]

13 minutes ago, Slaywright said:

Across the pond in Finland  The water doesn't help there, I'm sure.

Probably not no ^^" but I would for certain keep an eye out if he's gonna have a concert in Amsterdam again, cause it was an amazing experience c:

[Slaywright 36]

15 hours ago, Wintersreach said:

Probably not no ^^" but I would for certain keep an eye out if he's gonna have a concert in Amsterdam again, cause it was an amazing experience c:

Sadly that is a bit far for me to just pop by for a gig  But I'll have to keep it in mind if I happen to visit the neighbourhood.

[Lelling 402]

Aaaaaaa

Heroes

AaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAaaaAaaaAaaaaa

Heroes

Heroes of Might and Magic 3 was one of the very first video games I remember playing on Windows 95 (before that we had a DOS computer), and I was always into magic and mythology but that's what really made it for me. It was so goooood

I loved Heroes 4 too, I know a lot of people don't like it but it's like my little damaged baby that everyone else hates =(

And when in need of something to listen to while doing <thing> I find myself listening to soundtracks from pretty much all the Heroes games  

I'm yet to try Heroes 7 because that shniz is expensive & not very well rated so I'm going to wait until a 75% sale on steam  

HEROESSSSSSSS

 

[Wintersreach 9]

1 hour ago, Slaywright said:

Sadly that is a bit far for me to just pop by for a gig  But I'll have to keep it in mind if I happen to visit the neighbourhood.

Yeah I totally understand that! We made it into a week-long trip with the concert as the highlight, and just spent some time being tourists in Amsterdam the rest of the week. It was really nice 

1 hour ago, Lelling said:

Aaaaaaa

Heroes

AaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAaaaAaaaAaaaaa

Heroes

Heroes of Might and Magic 3 was one of the very first video games I remember playing on Windows 95 (before that we had a DOS computer), and I was always into magic and mythology but that's what really made it for me. It was so goooood

I loved Heroes 4 too, I know a lot of people don't like it but it's like my little damaged baby that everyone else hates =(

And when in need of something to listen to while doing <thing> I find myself listening to soundtracks from pretty much all the Heroes games  

I'm yet to try Heroes 7 because that shniz is expensive & not very well rated so I'm going to wait until a 75% sale on steam  

HEROESSSSSSSS

 

I actually started out with Heroes 5 and I fell for it pretty hard, but everyone told me to try out Heroes 3 and so I eventually did. While I like them both 5 does have a special place in my heart :3 I've never actually played 4 however, it sailed completely under the radar for me.

And about 7 hmm, I managed to pick it up at a 75% discount pre-sale after the second beta (cause apparently they didn't have enough people testing) but I waited until after launch to play. Personally compared to the other Heroes games I find it very bland. It's not bad, but it has pretty much the same faults and strengths as the previous games which makes it feel like they didn't really consider what they could make better. Instead they just made another one. With the exceptions of the skill system of course, it is very different now, with a skill "pie" rather than a tree. I found it a bit unintuitive compared to the earlier games, but that's my opinion.

I haven't really tried any faction but necro (Asha uses all!) and I must say I really like their new units. The necro playstyle hasn't changed much though, but that's to be expected really.

When you get hold of it, I'd love to have someone to play a few games against  or if you wanna play 6 I know how to avoid the worst netcode bugs  by the way, which faction is your favourite? 

[Sabina 32]

Now I want to play it too QnQ

[Wintersreach 9]

7 minutes ago, Sabina said:

Now I want to play it too QnQ

There's always a slot for you Sabi-chan <3

[Sabina 32]

2 minutes ago, Wintersreach said:

There's always a slot for you Sabi-chan <3

You will need to teach me what's this game and how it works then :333

[Wintersreach 9]

Just now, Sabina said:

You will need to teach me what's this game and how it works then :333

That is no problem at all :3