Here’s hoping the situation on AB changes (with the player base, I see nothing wrong on SoE’s end, they’re trying, but the mean-ness of the server, has been disheartening in particular to the issues) and things cool down and calm down now that the crazy rush of the adventure pack has slowed. Someone let me know how that extra experience boost is eh?
Every time poor Stargrace zones into her house, her friendly shiny-finder, Snookie, is sitting in or on the book shelves. Apparently he has some strange affinity for paper. I find it amusing none the less. I had Goudia feed it, and chuckled, as the “shiny” it rewarded me with, was the no-trade no-value lore no-destroy Sword of Destiny quest piece. I petitioned to have it removed, since I couldn’t destroy it and Goudia is past that portion of the quest. I’m still looking for a T8 carpenter on Antonia Bayle to take all these mahogany pieces off of my hands and turn them into pretties, there’s been some fantastic pieces I’ve seen for sale, but they’re also exceptionally expensive right now. With my carpenter sitting at level 30, I’m wondering if I should just bite the bullet and level her continuously. You’d think (and I’ve mentioned this before) that of all the tradeskillers I have (I have one of everything) that the one I use the MOST (carpenter) would be level 70 at least. But no. I’ve typically just bought or quested for my pieces. Oh, and Stargrace looks tiny in the shot since she’s using that billy doll clicky that reduces her by 40%.
What a cute couple eh? That’s Shadowgeist and Goudia sitting on the throne in Fens of Nathsar, after smacking down some goblin guys. Much fun. I think this quest rewarded a legendary item, it wasn’t that much of an upgrade though, so the vendor got to eat it. Ah well. Money is money!
Ok, I know the picture is pretty cruddy, but it’s taken through the living room window at 7:30am so that’s as good as it gets for now. That’s what I woke up to today. When I went to bed last night, that view, was green. This morning we were dumped with 5cm of snow, tomorrow, another 10cm of snow. I suppose winter is officially here. I am ecstatic of course. I’d show it, too, by running out and screaming and throwing snow balls and dancing around like I typically do the first snow of every year (I’m a kid at heart, what can I say) but alas, the cat has learned how to set off my alarm clock in the mornings when she wants to be fed, and I was up off and on all night.
That’s right. If anyone knows of an alarm clock (with lit buttons, and a radio preferred) where the buttons can lock, or are some place other then the top of the clock, let me know eh? What the cat does, is place herself on top of the alarm clock, and then walk around on it (it’s not large, but she’s figured out how to do this as an art form now) and she either 1. sets the clock to some random time, thus giving the potential to be late for that days activities, or she 2. turns on the alarm clock radio, and has it play at all hours of the night (again, randomly). She knows if someone’s up they’ll feed her a daily 1/4th a can of wet food. I’ve tried to break her of the habit, especially when she was trying to rouse me out of bed at 5:30am.. it’s moved to 6:30 am now which I’m comfortable with, at midnight last night, and at 4am the night before, the clock radio suddenly would blare into life, as she’s learned how to turn the dial for that too, some how. Ugh.
Anyhow, in EQ2, quested with Goudia, she hit level 74 and a bit into it. The server issues on Antonia Bayle were lessoned, but the animosity from players was not. I got Stargrace to 72 provisioner and had a lot of fun doing it. She has a lot of recipes she’s never had before. I also got Yamini an alchemist level. I was contemplating leveling her (I’m not ‘bored’ of questing in RoK yet, I’m just a person who loves to play alts) but then remembered she’s stuck in the terrible 50’s and that deterred me right fast. I took Stargrace out and did a few quests with her, moving her almost to 71. Arysh is at 73 still. I’m still having lots of fun in the game (and out) one of my old friends from EQ1 decided to open up an EQ2 account, so he’s been testing the waters on a few new characters. We haven’t gotten much time to play yet since I’ve been off playing in RoK, but that’ll change in time.
Hope this mid-week day finds everyone in high spirits.. I think I’ll go enjoy the snow!
Ever since RoK was released, Antonia Bayle has experienced huge traffic. In my eyes, it’s a blessing. Especially since I transfered here from a fairly dead server a year ago. I love the server, I really do. Understandably, there are issues due to the high traffic. One of them revolve around the amount of items listed on our broker (since they now allow all alts to sell) and the data base handling it. As such, our broker transactions are removed for portions of each day during “peak” play time. For the past four days between 6pm EST and 10pm EST the server is pretty much un-playable. Zone times move from 30 seconds to 20-35 minutes. Log in queues are long, they’re “throttling” the people logging in, which means for some the server says it’s up, and for others it says it’s down as they try to pace it all.
I’ve kept pretty quiet about the whole ordeal. I’ve played EQ1/EQ2/WoW/VG for years now, and this isn’t exactly a surprise to me. What has been a surprise though, is people’s reaction to it. I’ve never been more sad to glance through the Antonia Bayle forums and disappointed at a core player base as I have been over the past little while.
With threads like this, and this and this I can’t help but shake my head sadly. Since when did the server develop this whole ‘us vs. them’ mentality? Since when is it ok to say “we need to get rid of all non-rp’ers because this is a rp-preferred server” – and have people agree with it? Honestly. I’ve never seen so much hostility between players. It’s not anyones fault that Antonia Bayle is a populated server. Take it from someone who knows what a barren server is like, you don’t want it. It’s not fun. I understand that troublemakers most often have the loudest voice, and they’re sure to make it heard, but how on earth can anyone hold that opinion and actually mean it? Role Play means different things to different people. No one player gets to decide what it means for anyone else. There’s all sorts of reasons why we choose this server. Be it a friend, a guild, population, an older crowd (though I use that term loosely after reading the past few posts on the forums) we’re all here to play together. Just because someone doesn’t actively participate in what one person coins as ‘role play’ doesn’t mean they’re any less deserving to be on this particular server then anyone else. After all, we all pay our monthly fees. I don’t walk around spouting thou and thee every which way, but I consider myself a moderate role player. Hard core? No, I’m not, I do attend events though when I’m in the mood to, and I do write my role play stories. Do I think anyone should be removed from the server because we have such a high population? No, of course not. That would be silly, not to mention just rude.
I do think people need to calm down though. It is always being fixed and worked on, and yes, it’s annoying and frustrating I agree. It’s also going to leave a bad taste in all new players mouths. There probably are some temporary solutions out there to appease the crowds that should be looked at before the angry throng of rp’ers and non-rp’ers alike plan a road trip to the SoE building. I miss reading the pages of recruitment posts, the planning of events, and all of the activities that make this a fantastic server to be on. We (as a server, a community) want to WELCOME people to Antonia Bayle, not shun them and scare them away with over bearing rants about how much so-and-so needs to be removed because they don’t conform to our idea of role play.
The whole situation in general has been handled badly on so many fronts. I honestly hope that it clears up in the next few days weeks, and the server can enjoy its high population without the horrible animosity that’s been brought about lately.
I know a lot of people are upset that in the newest expansion your pretty much forced to quest in order to level with any amount of speed at all. There’s been numerous posts about it, outcries, and random bursts of anger. Personally speaking, I love the quests. I’ve seen zones like Darklight Woods, and Greater Faydark, absolutely explode with quests compared to their old world starter zones and there’s no other better way to get upgrades, coin, and experience all at once. I of course share concern with those who are worried about the lack of heroic content, but since I personally am not one to grind away my levels, it’s a very small concern. I don’t agree with forcing people to play one way or another, and wish there was equal content for all playing habits. I also realize that this is probably a very difficult task.
Anyhow.
I spent the weekend questing on the bard. Finished off all of the Kylong plains quests, and maxed out my faction with Teren’s Grasp. Without having to step foot into Karnor’s Castle (which I’ve never been inside yet since I played beta). I worked on some Kunzar Jungle quests with Shadowgeist (who’s shooting past me in levels, think he got 75 last night and is part way to 76? Very nice!) since there was less lag there. Then headed to the Fens to continue on my chain of quests there. I’ve made plenty of coin, lots of upgrades, and am just having a lot of fun completing them. I didn’t have a whole lot of time to play yesterday as the Christmas rush is approaching and I’ve got things to get done (plus I just bought a new book that’s so good!). Goudia did hit 73 though and is 30% away from 74. There’s lots of people who are already high 70’s and 80, but I’m taking my time to enjoy the new expansion. I haven’t done nearly as much tradeskilling as I’d like to do, but I’m sure I’ll get that in there some place too.
The log in issues on Antonia Bayle have been horrible, and I’m hoping it’ll be at an end real soon. We’ll just have to see.
For all you bloggers out there, be sure to /join antonia_bayle.bloggers – a new channel that Cuppy started for the community to get together and chatter, I’m typically in there and spent some time talking some last night, even if it is quiet the rest of the time. Great idea to start one up!
stargrace