May 2007

Ishbel

stargrace May 26, 2007 3Comments

Newest character to the alt-army, Ishbel, a dark elf coercer

I’m not realy keen on the new race, and I did make a warlock (who I have yet to actually play) but after some contemplating I decided that it would be nice to have my choice of illusionist or coercer depending on what I was needed for or what I was in the mood for. So along came Ishbel, a dark elf coercer who lives in Neriak. Home sweet home. There were over 100 people in the starting zone, and it showed. Crowded, and lots of people fighting for mobs. Didn’t bother me too much though I’m used to just being able to selectively ignore the masses that bother me. I love the starter zone of Darklight woods. There are a lot of quests for the new players and my good characters who start in Qeynos are very envious of both Kelethin and Darklight. I got her to level 11 fairly painlessly, with 40quests completed and 3aa under her belt. She bought a simple 1-room inn in Neriak, and paid her respects to the Queen and various others who deserved it.

I was doubly pleased when Kilanna decided to roll an Arasia on AB, and joined my guild. Gave me someone to ramble to and she seems to be having fun with the little warlock. I hope so at least. I have been slightly occupied the last few days with random tid bits of real life that keep interupting me *grins* so things have been quiet game-wise at least. Last night was a horrible night where I ended up spilling liquid onto my G15 LCD keyboard, directly onto the LCD monitor portion in fact, which fried it. Guess if there was ever a sign to call it an early night, that’s it. Bought another one today, I think I’d be lost without this keyboard. I really love it, just the feel of the keys and the lights is enough to make me happy with it.

The guild hit level 13, we’re slowly leveling ourselves along. Since there are only 10 unique accounts in the guild, and I’d say about 5 of those are active to any degree, it’s a slow grind. The top guild status holders are various alts of mine *chuckles*. I’m trying to get us closer to 15 so we can pick out a guild crest for our cloaks. Hopefully it’ll be a design that everyone is happy with since it costs extra to change the heraldry. I finished off the “By hook or by crook” HQ on both Stargrace and Misako, and then decided to finish off the screaming mace that I’d had forever. There are still plenty of HQ that I’ve yet to do but most require some very annoying camps that I don’t have the patience for lately. Had Wrehn make me some furniture for Misako’s new home in Neriak, I’ve put the majority of her furniture in the corner of one room for the time being, inspiration hasn’t hit me quite yet.

First impressions of Neriak

stargrace May 24, 2007 2Comments

Misako dressed in a role play outfit, sporting her guise of the deceiver, chattering to the Queen

The fact that there are 4 versions of the new starter zone for Arasai up (it’s 9am) and there have been since 1pm yesterday, leaves me little else to believe other then the fact that people are really enjoying their new free content, even if it is just a goth looking fae. I made myself a warlock yesterday and then as I said I’d do, stashed her aside because there are a million little wings all fighting over the same mobs. I did spend a great deal of time wandering around Neriak though with the defiler who quickly made it her new home.

There are a number of smaller quests to complete, there’s the teleporter access quest as well as a quest for a house item from an Arasai close to the outfitters building where the blue flame forge is. There’s the Neriak citizenship quest of course, which starts in the House of the Landlords. You need a sponcer before they’ll let you into the city, and you can obtain one if you run around hailing a few npc and then offing them. Lazy dark elves, what can I say. Use a guard to help you track them down, they’re on a 5 minute timer, so if the guard can’t find them chances are they’ve been killed reciently, keep trying. As I already mentioned yesterday, the moving crates were pure genius. Now I just need to fill Misako’s house with pretties. Stargrace is envious of the 7g a week upkeep that requires no status or guild levels. I’m still under the assumption that it’s going to change.

I was a little sad to see that the instruments didn’t make it in with this update, but I suppose we can’t have it all. There was word of instruments (house items) being added some time ago and there is a stand in Neriak where they’re displayed, with no merchant in sight. Someone else mentioned that these may be player crafted now and not sold at all, but after checking a few carpenters I couldn’t find any sign of them. Oh well, maybe another time.

SO. The monk Qutey is on hold for a little bit until my interest in her piques again. I’d like to work on Misako’s home (as well as stargrace’) and maybe getting a little experience again for Misako. She’s been sitting at 63 for some time now, having lost the little interest I had in her lately with everything else going on.

Yesterday I tried to decide which was worse, the level 10-19 channel filled with stupid questions that were really just things common sense could answer, or the 60-69 drama that ensued shortly afterwards. Guild drama at that. It was actually the first time I’ve heard drama on the AB server to this degree, it happens everywhere but on LDL it was more then just guild drama it was people taking personal attacks at others for RL issues. Kithicor was much the same. Anyhow, more rambling later, for now, it’s time to work on those houses!

Home Sweet (new) Home..Neriak Style

stargrace May 23, 2007 1Comment

Misako gave up the drab inn room in EFP and moved her belongings to Neriak

Wow. That’s the only word I can use to describe the new homes in Neriak. A part of me is wondering if they’re going to “change” them. Right now, you can purchase a 5-room for a little under 2p, and it has a 7g a week upkeep. No guild level required, no guild status required. Compare this to the Freeport and Qeynos homes that require both guild status and guild levels in order to purchase them, and you may have some pissed off people. Especially Qeynosians, because let me tell you, none of the houses on the good side compare to this one at all. The screen shot is from the front door. Stain glass windows don’t seem to let any actual light in, but uhms we’re underground so that’s fine by me. There is an upstairs and a downstairs from the main level, spiral staircases lead to each. There are two sets of staircases leading up in fact. It’s beautiful and makes you feel like you’re living in a castle of some sort.

It’s a shame that only one of my main characters is evil, I can see myself betraying just for these homes. There is a very fast citizen ship quest you have to complete before you can move to Neriak if you’re from outside the city. You need a sponsor, and you can use the guards to find each one of the npc you hail (and then promptly kill) which makes it easier. There are of course also teleports throughout the zone, you have to complete a level 10 quest in order to access them.

I also made my level 1 Arasai Warlock, but after taking note of the 100+ other fae and random evils running around the zone, I quickly relogged. I’ll just sit that character for a bit and work them up when the zone isn’t just a mass congregation of wings.

The new moving crates, are an EQII godsend. That’s the box parked on the floor in front of the door in the screen shot. They really needed these a long time ago, and they work wonderfully. I half expected to unpack my crate and find it filled with items from someone else’ home, alas that was not the case. They did a very nice job with the new homes. I just wish the older ones looked as nice.

Qutey’s Money – PartI

stargrace May 23, 2007 2Comments

When I decided that I was only going to level my character through quest experience, and I’d keep regular combat experience turned off for the duration of my play time, I also decided I’d play a little bit of a money game. I wanted to see exactly how much coin you could make through random drops, quest rewards, and treasured items that would come your way. Now, I realize that it’s a little off key since I did twink the character out, and I did also give her 3p spending funds. But everything she makes on top of that, gets stashed away in her bank. So what are the results so far?

As of today, at level 18 Qutey’s bank holds 1p 50g 78s 1c

None of this is from any masters (she’s not sold any yet) or any crafting, or any rares for crafting. No farming at all. In fact her harvesting is at 0. Now, where does the coin come from? The 1p was really more from luck then anything else. Someone wanted some help creating a guild. Yes, I would have helped for free, but the person offered money from the get-go, 1p to each who helped. Was I wrong for accepting the cash? Not in my opinion, I didn’t force them to pay people to help form the guild, and as I said, I’d have helped even if they were offering nothing. Anyhow, I used two of my characters (they were aware that both were my characters) and helped out, earning a plat for each one who helped. So maybe that 1p shouldn’t even be counted, but well, it was something Qutey earned on her own so to speak, so it’s in the bank.

The other 50g and some change comes from her quest rewards, and random treasured drops from 1-18. She’s gotten quite a few chest items as she’s quested along, and I’ve priced them at a range that means fast sellers, 1g each. Average adepts are going for 2g-4g each – mostly due to tinkering. Treasured items with no stats (there are some attuneable quest rewards like this, they’re no good to wear, but you CAN transmute them) sell for 1g each, junk items that people would never consider actually wearing, all sells for 1g-4g each. Not about to complain at all. The making it manifest quest rewards you with two attuneable leather tunics. One she’s wearing, one she sold for 10g which was a lot of coin for one item. Doing the quest chain from Oakmyst forest from the treants rewarded me with a legendary chest drop, a club that sold for 5g.

So if you take your time, even without any crafting or farming to speak of, you can certainly be well on your way to making coin in this game, even at low levels. This post piqued my interest since I had already started going on about how easy it was to make coin in game before it came out. The people who ramble on about having no coin or how hard it is to make (especially at the end game levels..) have obviously never done the Lesser Faydark quest lines.. you can easily make a 3-4 plat doing those quests alone. A little more if you’re a goodie since the Fae Court won’t talk to those who come from Freeport (Or Neriak I’ll assume). There’s just so many options out there without having to dedicate your life to farming named or running instances. Though that certainly helps. In fact on servers like AB where there is a huge concentration of lower level characters, I’d say the end game players would make more from doing level 20+ quests with attuneable rewards then questing at their actual level.
I’ll update once a week with the coin situation, and see how it goes. For now though even at these low levels, it’s easy to come by.

Questing along..

stargrace May 23, 2007 0Comment

Qutey hit level 18 this morning, and 127 quests completed before I logged out in preparation for the newest GU (game update) today. I find that even with combat experience turned off, she levels quite fast. Not a bad thing, but not exactly a good thing either since I’m trying to complete a number of quests before they turn grey to her. As you can see by the list, she’s really not delved out too far, besides the smaller towns, the sewers and Antonica. There are still a huge number of zones and quests that I’ve skipped along the way already. I’m considering going back for them though, some were just far too frustrating to want to complete.

I do plan on making an evil fae (I know I know that’s not what they’re really called) today. However, I also know there will be a million other people making their evil fae and running around Neriak, so as I’ve stated a few times, I’ll create the character and then play someone else, I’ve got no desire at all to wander around with a bunch of others all trying to kill the same mobs and level at the same time. I’m thinking of moving Misako to Neriak depending on what the city is like and the housing. I do believe that they were supposed to implement a citizenship quest much like the one from Qeynos / Kelethin. I suppose I’ll look into it another time.

Another thing I really like about having my combat experience turned off is that my vitality does not go down at all. So I can quest away and then if at a later time I want to grind off a level, I’ll have the vitality to be able to do that. At level 20 I also have my armor quests, which they’ve downgraded to all be solo quests. I’m looking forward to that as it’s one of the main reasons I made my fae monk. I’ve been collecting “Gi” for my monk to wear. They start with one white one initially, and there is a quest in the Forest Ruins that rewards another white one. I know the level 30 player crafted DFC gear is also a dark red Gi. There’s also the raid set that’s fabled, and very pretty (which I know my little Qutey will never obtain) and a purple set. The armor quests at level 20 is a light yellow if I remember correctly. I really like the look of them (and leather in general) so that’s what I’ll outfit her in. I know it would probably be handier to outfit her in the T3 rare leather armor, but I’ll save that for the slots that AQ’s don’t cover, as well as her weapons.

Only.. 2 more hours of down time to go! *twitches*