January 2008

First Time Land Owner (woohoo!)

stargrace January 6, 2008 7 Comments

Satia’s first new home, is nestled in the little community of Eastpoint (-20.26). It took me about four hours of flying around (all three continents) to find the perfect spot to build (perfect = cheapest). Plots of land range from 2.5g (which is what this one cost) to 30p (for guild halls). Each continent has a ‘style’ of house that you can build on it. I’ve decided to go with the T4 house, which is a Thestra two story with thatch roof. The Qalia housing is very nice, looks very Arabian, the Kojan houses are very oriental, but they also have no 2.5g plots there.

This is what housing in a game should be like. Never before have I experienced such a wonderful sense of ‘ownership’ as I did when I bought my plot in Vanguard. All those other homes scattered around mine are my neighbors. There’s a crafting area in a cave that can just barely be seen at the bottom left where the white stones are. There’s also a bind point, bank, housing merchant etc just over a huge hill (which I have no idea how to get to once we loose randolph, I think I’ll be swimming it). I also now have three gate spells. One is to my bind point, one is a house recall, and one is a guild headquarters recall.

Once you buy your plot, it’s up to you to decide which sort of house you’d like to start building there. I’ve got the basic frame of mine, and I put down the lotus mortar I needed since it’s vendor sold. Be sure to check your housing guides! There are plenty out there and some of the items you use are vendor sold, you can easily get ripped off if you’re not building the place yourself.

Satia, amid the construction debris. I have no idea when I’ll actually be able to complete this house. If I make it myself, I’ll need to be around level 35 crafter at least in mino – they make the bricks. I can however buy the parts for it on the broker. It looked to be about 60-70g if I were to buy the complete thing on the broker. I’m sitting at about 21g right now, so that’s not too far off in the future if that’s the rout I decide to go. In this type of home I can have a max. of 200 fixtures, and 4 chests. That’s right, a house that lets you actually place items inside of it, in a chest. I’m looking forward to that. Even if the home itself is a little off the beaten path. It’s way NE in Thestra, not exactly close to anything in particular. You won’t see me complaining though.

Satia looking over the plot of land before she buys it. This sign is the indicator that the land is for sale, and they’re hard to find! Most (older) plots are completely sold out. Be careful though, you can lose your house if you don’t pay for the upkeep. I have no idea if the indication of houses is an indication of an active player base but if so, well, it’s going strong. You are only allowed to have ONE house per account per server which makes sense due to the way that housing is set up in this game. I saw a whole lot of 10g houses for sale on Kojan, beautiful lots with purple trees and right close to Martok. You can abandon your house and buy another plot at a later date, but after putting in all that work to build it, why would you.

In order to get my house to 100% construction – I will need:

• Thestran Limestone Housing Brick (x200)
• Thestran Travertine Cornerstone (x1)
• Lotus Mortar (x20)
• Select Wood Panel (x60)
• Select Wood Housing Beam (x30)
• Pyrite Fasteners (x9)
• Thestran Silkbloom Thatch (x25)
• Thestran Select Window Pane (x6)

As a crafter, to learn the recipes not only do you need to be of the appropriate tier, but you also need to make them A quality. Anything lower results in needing x2 of the material. So 400 bricks of B quality, etc. You also need to have 2,000 faction with the artisans that you’re learning from. Not too difficult as I’ve been doing WO’s on Satia in Tursh at least. She’s got a long time to go before I can even contemplate making the house (as well as a lot of harvesting for it).

In the mean time, I was so excited to purchase this, I wish EQ2 housing were more along this line. Actually physically being able to see your home among the others, and building it – literally.

Is That a Pumpkin pie in your Pants?

stargrace January 4, 2008 No Comments

Screen shot above is my FIRST ever rare piece of Jewelry that I crafted – all by myself! Now, I realize it’s not grade A quality – I’m a level or two shy of being able to get pure goodness on those, but none the less I was impressed and happy that I’d figured out how to do it at all. It starts with a base jewelry piece that’s made out of a simple garnet, then I add a tin sheet (care of Arysh, my weaponsmith. Thank goodness, because there were none on the broker, VG is not crafter friendly it would appear) and I added a uh, rare T2 resource. Carnelian I want to say. Combined it all together, and ta da, that’s what I got.

Now Arysh isn’t quite up to snuff making her tin sheets, so they were B quality, and Satia is missing a lot of points in shaping and reforming for some reason (which I haven’t quite gotten the knack of fixing yet) but hey, I did hit level 14, and I spent most of the day working on WO’s and crafting quests. I got a lot of gear upgrades, learned a few things. I know Tush pretty well now, lots of crafting quests there. Some bigger crafters were talking about uh.. unions or something? I think I’m too small for that (thankfully). Crafting is a world in VG all on its own. If you only have one crafter in fact you may find it difficult. For example, while I can make regular jewelry all on my own – to make upgraded I need tin sheets – which I can’t make. I think most crafts work that way, to make the upgraded versions you need a piece from another craft class. Works for me.

Morras Goldfarn who I was working quests for, happened to stop me as I was walking, and ever so bluntly replied, “Is that a pumpkin pie in your pants?!” ….Seriously, I’m not sure if I was squishing while I walked, or there was some sort of .. scent.. issue, but this boy got a thump on the head for even contemplating it. Though I suppose there are worse things to be compared to then pumpkin pie. I didn’t do any adventuring today at all, and I probably won’t for a little while as I get situated with the crafting. I’d like to get all three of my crafters up to T3, which would match my adventure level. I doubt very highly I’ll have the patience for that though. Minxes (the future leatherworker) is still sitting at level 1 after all. I’d also like to learn the other styles of crafting, as Qualia is int / wis and Satia could benefit from that (right now I’ve got her stocked in vit).

Game crashed twice today randomly to desktop, a small annoyance. The regionsay channels are much the same in pretty much any mmo, 90% of the conversations revolve around WoW and the ‘next big mmo’ that everyone is waiting for, spammers, and lately, politics in the states. Needless to say it doesn’t take long before I just turn them (the channels) off and sigh in relief.

If any bloggers out there want some jewelry pieces made, feel free to send mats my way (materials) I can’t guarantee pristine yet on T2 (I can for T1 though) but I can pull off pristine on most things (so far), give me another level or two and I’ll find it much easier I’m sure. I found 12-14 very hard levels, hopefully the next few are easier. I’m still learning and there’s a lot to take in.

Leth Nurae, Quests, and other Goodness

stargrace January 3, 2008 5 Comments

Vanguard is finally down for patching today, where they’re removing Randolph’s ability to fly (pouts) and I believe also reducing the bonus exp they had running during the holidays (double pouts). I’ve come to the conclusion that Vanguard is one of those games where you want to focus on one character at a time – if you plan on working all of the spheres. Other wise, you just end up standing at the same level on all three (or more) characters for far too long. So after some contemplating, I’ve decided to (mostly) stick it out with the blood mage. She’s getting re-geared (slowly) as I do gray quests in the mean time. Who wants to play a character that’s got no gear after all. I switched her crafting around from tailor (which would only be able to make bags and light armor – not useful to all of my characters) to artificing, so that I could make things for all of my characters. I also switched to lumberjack as a harvest and quarrying so I can get some gems.

I spent 30 minutes killing stone golem guys around the Three Rivers area yesterday in Thestra, and managed to harvest FOUR rare T2 gems, which was great. I already had one on me, so I can (eventually) make some pretties with them. I’m only level 12 at the moment, so I find everything difficult to make pristine.  I’ll just do those work orders and try to get a few more levels before I want to risk using my rares.  I’m also working on some crafting quests, or trying to at least. I need better gear, I don’t quite understand the whole.. where to put my points thing, and the other tab that lets you lock some skills and decrease / increase others is a bit muddled to me as well. I’ve read the crafting forums but I haven’t made much sense of it yet. I have decreased carpentry since that’s not the line I’ve chosen to go down, and I know that will move my points around for me. I know my ‘shaping’ skill is hurting me right now, but the Kojan market has absolutely nothing for sale, so I’ll have to check out the other continents and see what I can find. I’ve been working on a crafting quest for Tush that gives me two tools and two pieces of orange gear, so I’m excited about that. I need to look up the quests again and see some other fairly simple crafting quests I can do to earn some gear and tools. I know you can get them with the work orders too, but mine have not been rewarding very many useful items like gear (even though I make sure to get B-A quality on them all, I do dark blues).

I did more of the URT (United Races of Thestra) quests yesterday, getting Satia her shoes and shoulders – the gear is level 18 and she’s level 23, but it’s far superior to what I was wearing. I have the pants quest still on me, and I believe I am missing a few. Or maybe they get unlocked as I work them, I’m not certain. I know there is also a level 18-20 set of gear in Qualia that I can quest for, called hunter’s gear I believe? I’ll have to look into that as well. It probably requires a group for most of it or something. Then there’s also these quests that I see people LFG for all the time, called “TK” which I’ve asked the guild about a little. Looks fun. So I’m going to stick it out with the healer (even though there’s a need for tanks as well) and see where I go with her. In the mean time, safe travels, hope everyone else is having a blast too.

Arysh, Kojani Weaponsmith / Warrior

stargrace January 2, 2008 1 Comment

Arysh was not her father’s typical daughter. She was the youngest of 8, all girls. While the others were dressing up in fancy clothes, and gossiping about scandalous things, she was outside tumbling around in the mud. A disappointment to her family, who had such high expectations of her. At the age of 10 she’d taken to spending most of her days along side the local weaponsmith, watching eagerly, her bright blue eyes devouring the molten metals and learning how to shape and meld it to her wishes. The amount of control it required sent shivers down her spin and she could imagine herself doing nothing else. Of course her family thought other wise.

They tried numerous times to get her interested in the ‘typical’ girl things, to no avail. When she turned 12 she left home – that young, to study with the weaponsmiths of Tanvu. Her family at that point had all but given up on her, and over the years often forgot she even existed.

Arysh however, did not mind. She was a fierce young woman and rarely let anything get her down. With her trusty weapons strapped to her side she had nothing to fear. By the time she reached her 17th birthday she was more then capable of taking care of herself and earned a living selling her wares on the Kojan markets. When she’d reached apprentice level she decided to branch out, and explore the lands of Thestra, and later Qalia, to learn their weapon styles. There was so much to learn and it rarely ever sated her appetite for more. She dreamed of studying with the great Masters, though that was still some time away. It was a quiet life despite her work, and at times she stared up at the stars wishing for something more. Each month she sent a portion of her earnings to her family, to thank them for what they did for her – and to try and help them get over their disappointment. She’d never be what they wanted, but it could always be worse.

Doing the Crafting Thing

stargrace January 2, 2008 No Comments

Trying to take advantage of the 50% bonus in Vanguard before they take it away (I’m dreading that) so I decided to shuffle my crafting around a little bit. Satia was a level 13 tailor, making bags and light armor, but I decided to switch her completely to an artificer, and make jewelry. Stuff that’s useful to all classes, and not just a specific class. She’s now level 10, which is great. I’ve been making necklaces, rings, and earrings that cost me 4silver each to make, and selling them (well) on the broker for 20-25silver each. Nice little profit there and it’s very easy to make. It does require me to harvest gems, but I don’t mind that at all.

As a kojan artificer I could learn all styles of gems (for jewelry) but only actually form pieces from the marques and oval shaped ones. I decided to head to Thestra and learn their two styles as well (which let me use dex and str, the kojan one is con and vit). I headed to New Targonor, managed to find Linnike Velra some how (the starter person of the quest) who told me to talk to three other npc, and make three wooden staffs and then I’d learn their style.

Thank goodness for Randolph. I flew to Bordinor’s Cleft (which is BEAUTIFUL, nestled in the rocky hills as dwarves reside there), spoke with Brondar Northwall, from there traveled to Leth Nurae, and spoke with Tirarre Welsare, and then finally ran to Teln Oshken in Tush. Returned to NT, and recieved my 50 faction with the Thestra Artisans as well as the ability to learn their jewelry style – only one issue.

To actually buy the recipes, you need 100 faction. Easy enough, headed to Stormwatch and completed a couple of single light blue work orders for the faction I needed. Also managed to ding level 10, and picked up the new recipes. Woot.

Crafting is a game all in its own. Sure, now I can make the Thestra stuff, but there’s also Qalia that I have yet to do (which you also need to work 50 faction for to buy their stuff) and I’m level 10, which means at 11 I’ll be doing my tier quest and the continental style of crafting is something you have to learn every time you reach a new tier. So if I want to make the Thestra jewelry for level 11+ (or Qalia for that matter) I’ll have to do a new quest.

There’s also quests for crafting gear, quests for faction, so many wonderful things. For anyone who’s just starting to get into it all, I highly suggest checking out this crafting site here. I wanted to make sure I got the crafting stuff done also before they took away Randolph, who makes it easy for me to travel around (ack, gotta pick up the rest of those rifts on a few characters too!) and I just had a good time making items that were actually useful. I still haven’t figured everything out yet, like where to put points and what to decrease in points, and what gear to focus on, but I am having a good time. Which is the most important, right?