December 2023 Channel Update

Hey and welcome to another Channel Update. In these blogs, I want to give you an update on what has been going on in my life and on the website as I strive to create a kickass resource for you.

Personal

I want to start by saying; HAPPY HOLIDAYS! Have an excellent time and thanks for your support in 2023!

• We celebrated Sinterklaas the Dutch version of Santa (Sint Nicholas). It’s always a big thing here in Holland where Sint Nicholas’ arrival is broadcast live on national TV and has a daily 15-minute news bulletin on TV about his adventure/challenges in coming to Holland and setting up the event. There is one jokester helper that has one joke throughout the series and the kids will mimic that each year. So parents, grandparents, and teachers will have to endure that for the month.
• Played some Kirby and the Forgotten Land with my youngest Son.
• Have been watching the Dutch TV version of Survivor with my wife. There was one episode where they needed to vote one person out of the show. There were basically two groups voting against each other, and while one group went all in on 1 person the other group spread out their votes. One person from the second group had an immunity token but gave that last minute to someone else from that group which ended up saving that person from elimination as the first group targeted that person. It was an awesome chess move to see unfold as a lot of different alliances had formed and teams tried to come up with tactics and counters to that island council.
• Watched the Mario Movie with my youngest son. I had seen it in the theaters with my oldest son when it was initially released. I enjoyed watching it both times. Once in English and once in Dutch. The first time I watched it, I had my analysis hat on and this time I could just sit back and enjoy.
• My oldest son is back into Fortnite and World of Tanks but he’s been hopping from game to game. So we didn’t finish our The Hunger Games movie marathon. The new Top Gun movie is dropping on Netflix so I might need to watch the old movie with him before jumping into that one.

Website

Implemented the latest CMS updates to keep the site secure and optimized.

I had some custom work done for MentalMarsV4. There were some elements in the current site that I felt didn’t work well and the new theme also had those shortcomings. Therefore, I had the theme creator do some custom work to enhance the new site. This will let me build a better site for you.

I have been adjusting the theme so it matches the look and feel of this one. So it looks like a reskin but the underlying tech allows me to do more.

The new site will take a while as transferring all the content to the new one will be a big task but I’ll get there.

Borderlands

Borderlands content is slow because one, there isn’t any new content, and two, I’m investing this time into making the new site happen so I can level everything up.

• The Giveaway for Borderlands 3 Ultimate Edition on Switch ended and winners have been contacted.
• The Hunt 2024 has been announced and I got the first details up on the site. I’ll be doing more coverage for this event.
• The Twitch ECHOcast extension has been disabled. I heard it was getting wonky for some people. I’m sad to see it leave as it was a great tool for Streamers and the community to interact with each other. Hopefully, Borderlands 4 will launch with a new version.
• I managed to find the hidden SHiFT Codes in Echoes From the Borderlands Eps.9. There is another one in one of the other episodes, however, I haven’t found that one yet.
• New SHiFT Codes are still added quickly to the site. These occasionally get posted in the middle of the night when I’m asleep but I’ll catch them in early in the morning and directly add them to the site.
• The Borderlands 3 Black Market page received a bit of a makeover. Info is more accessible and to the point.

Immortals of Aveum

Immortals of Aveum has been getting new content that will help the community. I created dedicated pages for a bunch of spells because I believe they have value but this type of content is also something the Borderlands community requested. This lets me experiment with that request and test the waters on what the best way is to implement that on the site.

• Rewrote the Magic Spell Page as a lot of info was still written in a pre-release mindset.
• Created dedicated pages for; Fury Spells, Control Spells, and Immolate (with Demo Videos).
• Added: How-to-Unlock info to the Timeburst & Vortex Fury pages.
• Added: How to unlock Green Caged loot chests guide (with Video)
• Added: Legendary Essence Guide as I’m seeing folks wanting to quickly upgrade their gear in NewGame+.
• Added: Best Gear Guide in Immortals of Aveum
• Added: Overview when you unlock Abilities in Immortals of Aveum.
• Changed the order of the objectives on the Mission Page to make sense for the web as the game list them the other way around.
• New Quick Access links to key resources in the Hub menu
• Added internal linking to relevant pages in various Immortals of Aveum articles/pages
• Enhanced Tag Archive Pages
• Deluxe Items Mini Review
• Additional minor updates

Others HUBs

• Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands:
  • Keeping up with SHiFT Codes and Loot Room updates.
• Redfall:
  • Nothing here. I haven’t been playing the game anymore as the updates to the game are fixes and don’t add new content.
• Battleborn:
  • I have been spell-checking some of my old articles due to Battleborn Reborn. This also gives me a chance to prepare those articles for the new website as I’ll be using a different page builder and some pages contain elements that won’t transfer.