February 2007

Plodding along

stargrace February 20, 2007 1Comment

15 Blood Mage, in the Jin’Ka forest

I haven’t stumbled across any dungeons yet in Vanguard, but I know they’re up there. One would be the Tomb of Lord Tsang, which I hear people looking for groups to quite often. There are some quests in the Jin’Ka forest that give you a key for access, so I teamed up with Raskolnikov to take care of some of these quests. We didn’t actually get any completed for me, but he got two done at least. I moved on to Thestra for a few quests, having completed most of the ones in my range. The mobs in the Jin’Ka forest are 18^^^ which means they’re still quite a bit out of my league to solo.

I typically end up turning the general channels off in MMO’s after some time. After all how many of the WoW’ers out there have heard the jokes about Barrens chat. Or the how many of the EQ2’ers out there used to count the minutes until they left Commonlands and Antonica because of the comments that flew around. The regionsay channels in Vanguard (on occasion, there are brief glimpses of hope) are no different. The one thing I hear about every day though are the many many many bugs in the game. Which is probably why I post my complaints here. I’ve heard so many complaints about things I’ve no idea about. Quest chains that are broken, mobs through the world, graphics, etc.

Which is fine, fact of the mater is despite all these issues the game is still popular.

But do people plan on staying? With the new MMO’s on the market how long does Vanguard have in the lime light before the next one comes along with features that blow it away? Something with intense graphics but doesn’t require a top notch system to play. Something with huge character selection with fewer graphic glitches that can appeal to a large audience?

That’s actually the main reason I keep my EQ2 account open. While I do enjoy Vanguard, as do a lot of people I know, I have no clue how long the game is going to run on success. I know a lot of people said they will come back in a few months when the bugs are worked out of it. But it’s not difficult to see some of the reviews out there and wonder these things.

Everyone makes up their own opinions in the end. I’ve heard the good, and the bad, and have my own experiences to go along with it. Truth of the matter is, were it not for half of my friends and guild (over half in fact, the raiding guild I was in dropped from 32 active accounts to 12 once Vanguard came out) moved games, I probably would not have switched over. EQ2 was not boring to me, but the community was something I enjoyed. Now that the community I’m used to has dispersed, what’s the point, I should move on with them. No one wants to play a game completely alone after all. This is one of my huge points for wanting LDL to merge with AB, the other RP server EQ2 has. LDL just has no community any more. I doubt the active population is even above 100 unique accounts. /who all 70 leads you to a list of 20-40 people at prime time. Sighs.

An Evening Stroll

stargrace February 19, 2007 3Comments

Level 14 Blood Mage, Satia – Taking her Evening corpse walk

A huge thank you to Raskolnikov, 18 Monk who is a good friend of mine (both from EQ2 and WoW) who helped me out this weekend with my blood mage. Beside a few random people sending me group and guild invites I don’t know a whole lot of the community yet (which is fine by me). We had a lot of fun smushing things and working together while I learned how to group. Yes, I say learned how to group because Vanguard is unlike any of the other MMO’s I’ve played in that aspect. You basically get to keep two targets at once. One, is your defensive target. This could be you if you’re solo, or it could be your tank, or whomever is getting hit. I have the F keys to target my group members for this target, as well as the Q key to shuffle through the nearest allies incase someone is dying close by.

Then you also have your target that you’re killing. You can also change this target throughout the fight and not lose your defensive target. So where’s the issues come into play? Well you have to remember to constantly change that defensive target if there’s more then just you around. If you’re a blood mage especially, you have to make sure you always have a defensive target (other wise you’ll heal yourself by default) and then you also need a mob targeted — because the majority of your heals come from some sort of siphon effect on the mob. I have two pure heals, one small and one large. The rest are all siphons or heals that require me to have blood points saved up.

I managed to get my blood mage from 10-14 (and almost 15) all yesterday. Kojan is a pretty awful place to quest, as I keep hearing about. The quests run out at about level 20 or so, and even then they’re sparse. So it’s suggested I head to Qualia or Thestra to do my leveling. Soon as I figure out how / where to go to travel around I’ll do that. Level 14 meant a whole lot of new skills and spells, 10 in fact. I rip living organs out of creatures. Brains and hearts so far. Then I use these into symbiotic particles for two new spells, one is a 15 second charm and the other is a 15 minute cure for poisons and diseases. Another interesting concept that I enjoy a lot. Gives the healer class a lot of dynamism.

I also decided to drop outfitting, after getting my reaping and skinning to 120 or so, I decided it wasn’t for me. Mainly because I never make my own gear anyhow (the exception being EQ2 and mastercrafted gear) the only reason I liked the idea was because of bags, which are going for 2-3s on the broker and are just easier to buy.

So I switched to artificing. We’ll see how that goes. I got my lumber jacking and quarrying to 100 so I’m at least on the next tier. I’ll do work orders to grind the levels I need (or so I keep telling myself). The bugs are still everywhere, but the game is still enjoyable at least from my perspective. My EQ2 account is open incase I get the urge to play, I’ve shut down my WoW account for now though, I enjoy that game, a lot, but only in short little bursts before something with a little more depth to it catches my attention.

Which reminds me, I really need to work on some more diplomacy, sitting at 50 and haven’t budged.

Odd? In Vanguard? Of COURSE Not!

stargrace February 18, 2007 1Comment

Of course, every Jute Tent should be made with the faces of little children, right? Well, apparently that’s what my Kojan half elf makes her tents out of. I’m sure they must be the demon spawns of Martok or something, that’s the only explination I can think of. It’s interesting to be paying to play a beta game. That’s basically what Vanguard is. No, this isn’t me knocking it, I do enjoy it after all. There are just so many bugs, that it’s a wonder why people enjoy it. It has the capacity to become a wonderful game – in a few months. So enjoy the rest of the ‘oddity’ screen shots I’ve taken over the past little while. Some are just amusing, others are just nice.

In the one with my level 10 blood mage (who is the female) I’m curious.. where did that guy come from?! I’ve got no male characters on my account at all, and this one followed all of my characters, no matter who I switched to. Interesting bug to say the least, perhaps it was some sort of soul mate?

And then of course there is the great Martok boars. Did you know that they can stagger? Well, of course you knew that. Everyone knows that. However, did you also know that the good goblins and orcs of Martok have taught their farm animals to speak? Yes, that’s right! They have a broad range of vocabulary ranging from "Ha" to various swear words. Don’t believe me? Just keep looking at the screen shots below.

I realize the game is new but come on. These are blatant issues in game. Not to mention the fact that the /flush command is still the most popular one out there aside from perhaps /rope (which summons a group mate to you if they’re stuck in geometry). I can give them credit for an amazing game, but why are we all paying for something that is obviously still in beta stages.

Things I *really* wish I’d known before hand

stargrace February 16, 2007 2Comments

Welcome to Vanguard crafting 101. Where every single day you learn something new (or so it would appear). I bring your attention to the image above. It’s for Kojani Jute leg patern (a let piece, seems simple enough). Here’s what you don’t really see from the start though. On initial glance, it would look like (to me.. am I the only one who saw it this way?) you need 20 pieces of jute bolt. 4 of each of the mentioned types, drifter, charlatan, votary, and mystic.

WRONG

You only need 4 of any ONE of those types. So you could have 4 plain jute bolts, or you could attune some, and use 4 drifter, 4 charlatan, 4 votary, or 4 mystic. Don’t be like me and make 20 pieces of jute bolt thinking all of them go into a single piece of gear! It is funny now that I think about it, but damn what a waste of well, everything. I have all this attuned jute now though I suppose I could actually do something with it.

Something else that they don’t tell you as you’re working along the crafting process. Mystic = Wisdom, Drifter = Constitution, Charlatan = Intelligence, Votary = Vitality. How do you learn them without having to search all over? Simple, trial and error as you purchase these 2s each attunements (yes, you can make 3 at a time though, so it’s not a total waste at least). That, was my afternoon, crafting. I didn’t get any experience for any of the jute bolts I’d worked so hard to make either since they were trivial (which I REALLY wish would SHOW YOU in your dang crafted book.. for now you’re expected to simply remember what you’ve made and trivialized in the past). Still sitting at level 4 outfitter. I’m close to 5 though at least. Now that I’ve vented… back to your regular scheduled blogging.

Now I’m free, free falling..

stargrace February 16, 2007 3Comments

Elissa, doing some Jin trials and falling through the air

Ok, I tried to play the goblin and it just didn’t work out for me. Why? Because I am one of those people who just don’t want to be a green little kid looking creature with a giant man face. Yes, there, I said it. In game looks matter to me. I’m going to be playing for hours possibly, and staring at that character was just very uninspiring. So I remade my rogue, and yes, I know, Kojan again?! A few reasons for this though. A good deal of my friends are playing Kojans, and I really like the starter zone and Tanvu. I also like their racial ability. In a few short hours I’d reached level 8 with Elissa, the new rogue. Mailed her the money I had stashed on the old rogue. I really like the class. I worked diplomacy to a skill of 40 (just enough to be able to do the free mount quest once I hit level 10) and called it a night. I figure I’ll switch out between the rogue, the necromancer, and the blood mage, depending on my moods. I have a warrior that I’ve been mailing plate gear to over time, I haven’t logged her in at all though.

Learned that archery is a hard skill to increase, especially as a rogue. Why would I even bother? Well one of my beginner quests gave me a bow, and while I may not be a ranger (and may instead end up poking out some poor blokes eye) I figured I’d give it a try. Bows don’t auto-attack for you (that I saw at least) so that’s slightly annoying, it was like a combo move that I had to hit every time it refreshed. Managed to find myself about 9 things of pocket lint. I’m working on a sweater I think for the upcoming cold winter.

Learned a new helpful hint when you get stuck some place (as long as you’re in a group). The /rope command saves you from having to use the /stuck yes command (which ports you, typically to the nearest altar or binding stone). Just have your group mate target you and use it, it’ll pull you to them, and free you from whatever plant/tree/bush/rock/outcropping you managed to land yourself in. I imagine there are all sorts of handy hints and tips out there on commands in game that I don’t even know about at all. I remember EQ1 being like that, since they also had the /corpse command, /corpse drag, etc. EQ2 didn’t have any of these short cuts.

Two more important commands for me to remember were /autojoin set and then the channel name, regionsay. For some reason when I joined a channel my EQ2 guild set up on Vanguard, I didn’t remember to autojoin the region channel any more, so I was just in that channel, and wondered for a few days why it was so utterly quiet. Turns out it’s not very quiet at all, /autojoin regionsay, randomchannelhere and you’re set.

Also found a nice site for some VGSoH UI’s, there is of course VGinterface.com, but there is also Vgsohinterface.com – which has a nice selection. I started off by using Drox, it’s one of the most commonly used UI’s mainly because it’s been around the longest. I recently switched over to Grim though. You can find it under the complete sets category. A UI is important to me, makes me feel like I’m playing a game without the crappy WoW screen. Plus I like to see my stats and my coin actually on the screen with me instead of tucked away in my character screen.

Noticed Vanguard doesn’t have any place to let you write a personal bio about yourself. Neither does WoW. So it makes the Rp server slightly lacking. In fact, I’ve rarely come across anyone who Rp’s at all. I figure give it a few months when people are not quite so preoccupied with leveling and crafting, and then we’ll find ourselves some Rp. Though in the regionsay channel yesterday some people were selling the first sloops on the market (small ships), 15g and you get to pick the colours. An entire guild built dedicated to harvesting the materials for these ships. Sounds interesting to say the least.