2007

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.

Pocket Lint, and all of it’s Wonderful Uses

stargrace February 15, 2007 3Comments

Wow, I wonder what could be made from this! Perhaps a dust bunny, or two!

Qutey brushed a strand of her coarse hair out of her eyes, the straw-like quality it had was becoming ever so annoying as she trekked through the region doing various odds and ends for whomever required her services. The goblin sighed. It was not exactly how she had envisioned her career as a pick pocket. Not that she really had pictured any sort of career from her talents – if they could be called that. The sun was setting, and she was ending yet another task that was required of her. All this to prove herself in the eyes of someone else who just simply didn’t matter that much.

She trudged up the kill, and glanced to the sky, asking for patience.

“Are you Qutey?” a raspy voice asked from her side.

“Err..” She stuttered, knowing very well she’d not given out her name. One of the first rules, after all.

“The Ancestral Spirits talk of you, whispering of great things you will do..” the voice hissed, and spittle flew from the strangers lips. They glanced at her as though they had very little faith in the Ancestral Spirits, and that perhaps they’d been mistaken of this goblin woman who stood hunched over absentmindedly brushing away invisible strands of hair.

“Well.. thanks.. I guess…” Qutey trailed off, unsure of what to say. This person was obviously a lunatic. Her mother had taught her better though, and she kept silent about what she personally thought of the stranger and their odd prophesies.

Finally the one she’d been waiting for arrived, a bunch of notes and papers trailing after them. He eyed Qutey, and got right to business.

“The Legend of Grakkor..” he murmered, eyes glazing over some what. “Tell me girl, what do you know of it.. ” Qutey tried to think back, it had been a while since she’d had any sort of history lessons. She shrugged, letting the newcomer know she knew very little to nothing at all about this legend.

“Ah, foolish child,” he coughed and started shuffling through his bags. “Do they not teach any more these days,” he continued to mummer under his breath, pulling papers out and tossing them towards Qutey so that she was forced to catch them or they’d fall to the ground in the mud. “Read those,” he said with a flicker of annoyance in his voice. “Then you will learn of the Legend of Grakkor, and why it is so important to the clan Martok.” He said no more, and left Qutey standing there wondering after him. She looked at the booklets in her hands and winced. It was going to be a long night.

(( Ok, so the little Rp blurb actually had very little to do with why Qutey likes to pick pocket lint off of people, but it was amusing none the less. I’ve been having a lot of fun with the rogue, she’s now sitting at level 8, with 22 diplomacy. No crafting quite yet. The starter zone is still one of the better ones I’ve seen besides Tanvu. The lore is interesting, the quests are fun, and she’s died a handful of times but it hasn’t bothered me. Game is unfortunately coming down for an emergency patch so I can’t play her too much more right now. ))

The Latest Addition – Qutey Patootie, Rogue of Martok

stargrace February 15, 2007 3Comments

Isn’t she a little Qutey?

I finally managed to grind my necromancer to 10. It was.. not fun. I really was not enjoying the dark elf starter city at all. So I decided I’d start a few more classes and find the one that stood out to me. Granted, maybe I’m just not the sort of person who ever has that happen. In WoW (as you can see by the character sheets listed under quick links) I had an abundance of characters, same with EQ2. So why would Vanguard be any different — even if I was trying to change my alt-ness ways. I made a druid and quickly grew bored of her, fun, but it was just like playing any other nuker. It was very different to be wearing cloth as a druid instead of leather, and to be nuking instead of healing. Almost every game I’ve played has the druid as a healer. The unique take on this was fun. I’ll probably pick that character up again once I’m bored of my latest trial.

Meet Qutey Patootie, above. A goblish rogue who skulks around stabbing at things. Sneak and hide remind me very very much of my rogue back in EQ1, where you had to work the skills up or you were detected. There’s a few small bugs. Number one being — when you are sneaking and hiding, there is no real indication as to whether or not the mobs actually see you. Their names remain red, agro to you. When you sneak a little closer to them — if they have the chance to see you (especially if you come up at them from the front) little question marks will fly about their head as though they’ve heard something, and they will look directly at you, or if you’re close, they’ll charge you and break your stealth. So there’s some indication. But if you’re just wandering around, they all still look aggressive.

After reading this post on weaknesses and how to exploit them, I found myself teamed up with a monk. Low and behold, monks have a move that I can exploit with one of my level 2 skills. That was fun. I did notice one other small bug, as I was fighting, on a random encounter it said I had done a legendary attack.. and at level 5 — which was astounding to me — I hit the mob for 700 damage roughly at first, and then finished it off for another 600 damage.. at level 5?! That just did not seem right to me, I couldn’t understand it. Not that I was about to complain!

The goblin starter city is a lot of fun. The quests there pay far more then the ones in any other starting zone I’ve been to paid. Maybe to entice those who find the race ugly? I was getting on average 70-80 copper per level 5-6 quest. My necromancer didn’t get paid that amount until level 8-9 quests. So Qutey is sitting comfortably at 6 silver and some change. I’m finding the rogue a lot of fun, and perhaps this will be one of those characters I actually level to some degree. Martok (the starting point) is wide and open, with lots of places to explore, having stealth makes this a whole lot easier. Hopefully as I develop the character some, I’ll get around to writing some rp stories about the gal. We’ll have to see how it goes.

Now that’s a Skeleton – and Views on the Dark Elf Starter City

stargrace February 14, 2007 6Comments

My little level 9 necromancer, standing beside a giant skeleton for one of her quests. Now, I have a level 10 blood mage and a few other characters. I have started in a lot of new zones, and the dark elf one by far just.. sucks.

I’m level 9 and the only quests I have left are mainly diplomacy (she’s only sitting at a skill of 27 right now), and the adventuring ones she has are a lot bigger then her. I’ve tried to group up for them but no one seems interested. I’m looking forward to being slightly higher level so I can at least join my friends who are off adventuring all over. Anyhow.

The majority of the dark elf quests also do not have locations that show up on your map. They’ll say ‘in a canyon close to here’, and then you get to wander around and find out it’s not actually close to there at all. Or they’ll say ‘go find so and so, he’s east of this outpost’. It’s late though and you log off, the next morning you go back to the quest, you’re no where near the original outpost and the quest has no way to show you where that is, thus you are not even sure where the second outpost that you need to head to is.

I’d also say there’s a lack of quests. For my blood mage she ended up finding two npc’s who had no less then 10 level 8-10 quests on them, she got her levels easily and painlessly. The necromancer is struggling along, the quests are difficult, and there are not very many. Not in comparison to the other classes I’ve played at least. I was going to scrap the necro all together and remake a different race just to get out of their starter city, but decided I’d stick it out until 10 and see if it got any easier.

My blood mage was also a hell of a lot easier to level solo then the necro, while I applaud Vanguard’s idea to make the healer classes more ‘fun’ and unique, there’s no reason why a healer should be able to heal better then anyone else in the game – and dps – and tank. Which is exactly what a lot of healers are doing. It’s a wonderful way to keep people interested, but why bother being anything else, when you can be a healer and just simply do it all.

Ok, enough of that rant. On a completely different note — I finally understand crafting. That’s right, you heard it here first! After struggling with it since release, I sat down and spent a few hours working on it yesterday. I did refining and finishing work orders, started with the easy ones and worked up slightly to moderate. I didn’t bother with anything harder then that for the time being. The experience started going very slowly, but I still had fun. I made more coin then I ever had adventuring, and bought myself some new gear upgrades and 10-slot bags with it. Also got the necromancer to level 6 artificer. It was fun. So I’m finally at least comfortable in the game. Here’s hoping they’re going to be fixing bugs. There’s plenty of lore and story lines if you look for them, especially with diplomacy. It’s easy to get into a role play mode and create an elaborate background for yourself simply following those. For example the dark elves are testing the blood of their race to see if they’re worthy and all this stuff. There’s been an outlaw I’ve been helping because his wife was not found worthy or what have you, but now she’s dead and he’d like to come back to the city, so the guards said he could — if — he defeated some bird thing that’s way up on a cliff (where I would have to fight level 10 ^^^ just to get to him). So yeah, there are certainly a lot of stories around. I still hate the starter zone though.