December 30, 2007

Just Watching the Sunset

 

I know I’ve mentioned it before, but the one thing Vanguard does have going for it, that EQ2 does not – is the sense that you’re a part of an entire world, rather then just bits and pieces of zones. Those trees in the background arn’t just some flat landscape, those hills are actually real. So if you were to head out that way, you could walk up them, maybe find some little hut with evil things scattered around or whatever. The game feels like an actual world, and I wish EverQuest had that going for it. I hate zoning to and from everything. Vanguard has no instances. There are ‘dungeon’ type areas, but they’re contested. Typically the overland has a mixture of both heroic and solo content and they’ve done such a wonderful job of things (despite the bugs).

Arysh hit level 16 warrior, after running around Veskal’s Exchange. She did an interesting quest from Orchau Livom who wants to make some turtle soup. You head out and painstakingly pick out only the best of the best as far as turtle shells go. That crossbow I was using must have damaged some of them, since not all turtles dropped a shell, go figure.

You bring them back and she makes a soup, and all proud and happy she asks you to deliver the soup to Veskal – who promptly spits it out and says (literally) “Thanks, but no thanks”. Which is a quest for you to dump the soup out in the river. Off you go (Randolph the Reindeer in tow) and dump the substance, glancing around to make sure no one saw you. Head back to Veskal who doesn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, so he asks you to lie to Orchau and say the soup was delicious.

Which you do, of course, because you’re getting paid quiet well.

In the end everyone wins out, Orchau moves on to other recipes (maybe picking up a good cook book along the way) Veskal doesn’t have to eat the disgusting soup (hey, I TRIED to pick the best shells for that!) and you make out with a good pocket of change in the mean time.

Oh yes. I’m certainly enjoying the break from EQ2. No doubt I’ll be back, but Vanguard (despite the bugs, again) is a lot of fun.

Off to watch Jojnny Depp (drools) in Sweeney Todd!

One day I’ll own one.. Maybe..

 

Screen shot is Satia looking at one of the player made ships (no idea which one it is, or which craft style it is either) that are in Vanguard. Oh, and it’s raining out, though that’s slightly hard to tell in the screen shot. Vanguard has a weather system in place. Storms can roll through areas, including snow. Granted, it’s a little odd to see it snowing in Qualia (which is a desert theme area) but it’s still fun. A lot of people complain about the weather since you can’t toggle it off and apparently there’s some lag issues or something associated with it, but I find it fun and very easy to immerse myself into the world of Telon. When you’re running around on a mount the snow speeds up as though you’re flying through it, and it can practically blind you as you run about. The ship is a great unique aspect to the game that I’m looking forward to owning one day. There are some ‘fleets’ of ships that will be hosting parties on the 31st (New Years Eve) and sailing around to all of the ports as an event (player run) that I think is just plain interesting.

In Vanguard – Satia actually completed one of the United Races of Thestra quests that Ardwulf has been working on, rewards you with yellow gear (level 12-18, but hey, it’s better then the level 6 gear I was wearing). It had quite a few steps to it, but they weren’t especially difficult. Once Randolph poofs I know they’ll be harder. I had a lot of fun working on it, though at times I wanted to smush the other players who were close by quite soundly. Hard to work on quests when everyone else is working on them as well, and they’re reluctant to group up to try to get it done quicker. It was still a lot of fun though, and I’m glad I completed it. It didn’t reward me with much experience at my level, but hey it was just nice to feel like I was making some progress again.

I also managed to get Satia to level 13 tailor, which is the farthest I’ve ever managed to get. She’s been selling bags at a constant rate, and is up to 4g and some change now, makes me feel rich. I made some bags for Lemissa, who’s another friend that’s been playing VG a little. The bags cost me about 5copper to make, mostly just for the small amount of fuel cost, and I’ve been selling them for 20-25silver each on the Kojan market. Word of advice, don’t shop on the Kojan side, while it’s great for sellers, for people who don’t know about the three continents system it can be mighty expensive. Those same bags were going for 7silver on the Thestra side.

I also managed to get Arysh to level 15 warrior, and Faralithe is a level 13 psi now. I’m looking to get Arysh to 16 today for some new skills, and maybe a few more crafting levels since she’s a slacker at level 12 or so. I’d ideally like to see her crafter level above her adventure level, but I’ll have to actually spend some time leveling it. Not to mention I want to get into diplomacy – I have a good (apparently) site address written down in a note book some place but I’ll have to dig it up so I can refresh myself on how to play.