2007

Quests? Yes, I’ve got those..

stargrace February 22, 2007 2Comments

Level 17 Blood Mage hanging out in Misthaven’s Crossing

Above is a picture of Grim UI, one I’ve been using for a little while now. I love the bar along the top, hard to see, but it keeps track of some short cuts, like my menu, ping, compass etc. On the far right (at the top still) is my bags and coin, then my mini map. Along the bottom, I have three chat windows, and four hotkeys. The window on the far left has important info that I typically need to see during battle. The next one is regionsay and craft channel, the far right is for combat. My stances are all displayed nicely, as well as my chain reactions, the green square is me and my stats, the one above is my defensive target (whomever I have healing) the one beside that with the red is my offensive target, a spider I think in this case that I’m whacking. Over the last chat box on the far right is my weapons so I can click them for their effects. The blue scroll along the top left is of course buffs I have on me. Debuffs go beside that on the right, the group window is on the far left where it says invite / leave. It’s one of the better UI’s I’ve found so far. I enjoy it a lot. I know a lot of people use Drox, but I didn’t want to have to toggle all the options in that UI.

Anyhow.

I’ve got a new favorite zone. It’s Misthaven’s Crossing, and it’s filled with quests. At first the people won’t talk to you (as me and Raskolnikov found out.. and couldn’t understand why I didn’t get any of the quests) but then you talk to Jarand Drake on the front steps of one of the buildings, and he tells you that before he’ll allow the townspeople to talk, you need to prove you are a friend. He sends you to a mine to kill some Vulshar, and prove your worth. After doing that the rest of the town will talk to you. This is where I started cursing the ability to only have 20 quests ongoing at one time. I’ve got 19 on the go now I think. There is a mixture of group and solo quests, ranging from finding beetle eggs, to slaying vampires. Collecting iron ingots for the townsfolk, and various other odds and ends. Eventually you make your way to a tower, find some supplies for cures, slay two named (who are simple ^^’s at least) and kill a bunch of spiders for their silks.

So I hit 78% into 17 this way, looking forward to 18 and some new spells. At 19 I can start working on the famous cloak quest, which is sort of like a heritage quest in difficulty if you’re used to the EQ2 terms. Also need to complete my key for the Tomb of Tsang. Switching over from the kojan continent was probably one of the better choices Raskolnikov talked me into.

Tharridon’s Quarry and Quartermaster Krendal

stargrace February 21, 2007 2Comments

Mmm a new pretty for the blood mage

Satia hit level 16 yesterday, I did a few small quests with the help of my duo partner and then spent the rest of the time grinding away on some easy spiders I’d found, nestled into a little area filled with stones to harvest. Despite how everyone else feels about grinding and how it’s not very fun, I enjoy it quite a bit. I’ve got a whole lot of time to play though, hours upon hours, and I’ve got no issues whatso ever spending 5-7 of those working on some solo exp grinding. To those who say you can’t work up all three spheres and stay in tune with a lot of the players and their levels, I don’t think that’s true if you’ve got as much time as me. I’m pretty much caught up (or at least within the 2-5 level range) of anyone I’d want to group with, and though my crafting and diplomacy are behind, they’re not horrible and I can still do them all. Helps that I’m not playing the other 6 characters I have, that’s all, and again, just the simple fact that I have a lot of time on my hands.

The weapon above was my new pretty of the day, a quest that Raskolnikov got me started on. It had three portions, the first one to collect crates in a quarry north east of the starter npc. Turned that in easily enough and then the second portion had me kill thurmaturges. These mobs were annoying to find, especially because the area is quite small and you’ve got to battle other people who are roaming around trying to get the same quest done in their groups. An hour or two later and I was on the final part.

Kill Quarrymaster Krendal.

Easier said then done. First of all this guy has a place holder. A Quarry Overseer. He has two adds, one is a healer. He’s also a level 18 ^^^^ is on a 10 minute spawn timer. It took about 5 place holders before we finally managed to get him to spawn. Of course during that time other groups were roaming around, one annoying bard ended up taking agro from our placeholder while he was trying to kill his own 3 mobs and down he went (and then of course all of his mobs transferred onto me and my partner and down we went too). I do like that you can train in this game, it sort of makes the game more real to me. Not that I’m fond of doing it to others, but what’s the point of a game where you can’t physically interact with the world around you in that manor! Just my opinion, even if I did get mad that I died due to his adds.

So 45 minutes go by, and the named finally spawns. Of course, we can’t duo him (I’m with a level 19 monk and keep in mind I’m still level 15.. ) So we get some friends to help, a 20 blood mage, and a 20 cleric. Still took some time, but down the 18 ^^^^ went, and I went back to the npc and ta da, shiny new weapon to weild! There were a few other choices as well, a dagger, a one handed mace, a two handed hammer. I had a lot of fun with the quest. Got my level, and gated home to Tanvu simply because I’ve got no idea where any of the trainers are in New Targonor, and after running around the zone for the better portion of the day I just wanted to be some place familiar. It was a good day.

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.