February 2008

One step closer…

stargrace February 29, 2008 3Comments

I’m one step closer to being able to complete my house. Yesterday I hit level 31 crafter, which was a huge deal to me. It meant that I could go about learning new recipes once I’d completed the continental quests (the thestran one sent me to Konarthi Point, which is a quaint fishing village on the far east side of the continent, to study a ship there and uh.. make clubs from wood) it also meant I could learn beams, panels, and bricks (and shingles if I get the 2,000 faction required for kojan) for housing. The only down side to this is that at this level I can only make those one at a time. I need 200 limestone bricks, 60 panels, and 30 beams. In a few more levels I’ll be able to make these 5 at a time- or if I’m really lucky I can buy / farm a manual that will let me craft these 10 at a time. Now that would be a blessing. I’ve got about half of the supplies I’ll need, but my harvesting is too low to obtain them myself. A guild mate has been generous enough to donate spare supplies, and the rest I’ll buy from broker (about 2g a stack, and a stack in VG is 20) which is still cheaper then the 18g a stack the finished product is going for right now.

Most people (I’ve learned) don’t bother with a T4 house (which is what I’m creating) but I’m not sure how long it will take me to get to T5, and I’d really like a house now. Impatient? Yes, slightly.

Yesterday was also a good day for crafting in the fact that I found two silver masterwork sigils. I need 8 (well, now 6) to buy one single recipe for my tier. There are four or five upgrade recipes each level to purchase. It’s going to take me quite a long time in order to get any of them, unless I happen to be lucky enough that I find a gold sigil, which allows you to buy any one recipe, you don’t need 8. Most people save those for T5 though. When you’re one tier above the recipe, it costs 6 sigils, two tiers above, it costs 4. I’d really love my jewelry upgrade as well as my weapons of course. Luckily enough the stone focus upgrade is tradeable, and cheap on the broker.

As far as adventuring goes, I’m completely lost. I’d like to find some (a lot) of quests that I can solo or duo with my adventure team, but Vanguard does a very poor job of leading you around. I did a few quests for TK, but the rest require a group (and it’s so crowded there it makes everything four times as long and difficult to complete) so if anyone has some suggestions on where to go to quest through the rest of the 20’s (I managed to hit 27 last night, Growlius landed himself 26) I’d love some help in figuring it out.

GU4 is do out on March the 4th. I’ve got mixed feelings about this one. The helmets are a good thing, loosing face choices is bad (I spent an hour choosing how my characters would look, to reduce that no matter what the new options would be would bother me I’m fairly certain) the node changes I’m happy about, dust changes also happy about. The new flying mounts will give people something to do- happy about that as well. Uping the sigil drop rate slightly I’m indifferent about, not sure it’ll make that much of an effect depending on how often they’ll drop compared to now. In any case, it should be interesting to see what happens as a result of this update, it’s a big one.

Humbling…

stargrace February 28, 2008 6Comments

It’s always humbling when you see something like the screen shot above, Save Haven’s newest members are Borgio, and Mayadhros, both wonderful people. Borgio of course is no stranger to me (nor the blogger community) and I’m tickled pink to have him in the guild. Mayadhros I’d never heard of before, so when I saw their post and the fact that they named my site as their reference, it was exceptionally humbling to me. They’re also a wonderful person from what I’ve found out so far, we spent a little bit of time chattering in vent and in game, plus I gave both newcomers some bags to get started with. Those 4 slots just are not enough for new players. The guild is doing well, we still have our sloop race on the 1st of march, and a guild meeting on the 2nd. Unfortunately most of the players are PST which means they’re all logging in by the time I’m headed to bed. Ah wells, such is the way of a day time gamer such as myself. Still a great bunch of people though.

I ended up exploring a bit while I worked on a crafting quest. I had to go to the Wailing Wind Asylum which is located on the side of a cliff on Kojan, filled with demended escaped prisoners. Very cool area. It’s fairly low level so I’d never been there in my adventure travels, but I wouldn’t mind going in more depth some time. I managed to get level 29 and almost 30 in crafting, the levels are going by nicely and I’m expecting it to slow down any time now. I’m also 10% away from level 27 adventurer. Diplomacy is at a stand still for now, I’ll probably start working on that once I’ve got crafting out of the way. In two levels I can start making bricks for my house, which I am VERY excited about. The bricks and the beams / panels are all that I have left to do, then I’ll be finished my first two story home. Of course I’ll have to decorate and post screen shots of it.

Learning brick styles and other goodness

stargrace February 27, 2008 2Comments

Yesterday Growlius and I finally finished our Hunter’s League quests. The breast piece that I’m sporting in the screen shot. Yes, I realize that my gloves (as well as my boots) are bright green, and are not exceptionally flattering to this blood mage. I suppose it happens. I’ll change them eventually, maybe. The quest took forever, there were too many groups after the same mobs we needed. I’m glad it’s done, but it leaves me with no idea where to quest next. There are the shadowhound and unicorn mount quests that should be looked at eventually, as well as continuing CIS, but all of that requires a group.

I also hit 26 on Satia, which was great. I managed to do a lot of crafting and hit almost 28 mineralogist. Today, I’ve been busy learning brick styles, cornerstones, and shingles for those Kojan houses that don’t use thatch roofs. In a few more levels I’ll be able to learn all that for the next tier of homes (which is the one my house is). I also had to learn beams, and panels per continent. Each house is different, thus each house component is also different. It’s nice to be able to make items that will be useful to me though. A guild mate has already volunteered to make some furniture for me as well.

Faalcon made me a wonderful piece of star iron gear which was nice, and also upgraded a few pieces of my crafting gear. Have I mentioned yet today how wonderful my guild mates are? He also made me a full set of harvesting tools (and some gear) which I’m thankful for. I sent along some coin in return, I don’t have a whole lot, but I try to help where I can.

I also made my first flawless (orange, or also called heroic) piece of gear yesterday, a focus. I need another level before I can wear it, for now it’s for sale (though stone focus’ are not exactly rare, so I don’t know that it will sell). I can make a lot of different hammers as well, which is fun. One handed and two handed. Being a mino is enjoyable. In fact, every craft class is.

Still no word yet on when the next GU is, apparently it was pushed back to early March. If it gets more things changed and fixed then I’m all for it. We’ll just have to see how it goes.

Things I wish I’d Known Earlier

stargrace February 26, 2008 0Comment

There are of course in every game, those things I’d wish I’d known before I started playing too much. I’ve made a post about that before concerning Vanguard, and the list now grows, though this is more or less an idea of what a new player to Vanguard should do. Number one, turn off regionsay if you’re at all easily offended by certain topics of conversation or pure idiocy. It’s no different then ‘barrens chat’ as the saying goes. The conversations can at times be exceptionally crude, and I turned off those channels almost immediately. There are alternatives, far better.

/autojoin set craft,dip

That’s the command to autojoin the craft channel, as well as the diplomacy channel- at least on Seradon it is. The craft channel is by far home to some of the nicest people I’ve met, who answer questions not only about crafting, but other spheres so long as you’re not rude and ignorant about it. Silius himself visits the channel often to get the players opinions on thing and to talk about upcoming changes. At any time of day there are people giving away spare crafter gear that they don’t need, offering their craft services, answering questions and the like. Suffice to say, were it not for this community (which is quite large) I’d not be having nearly as much fun in Vanguard. After time you start to learn who are the ‘regulars’, I’ve never come across a more helpful bunch.

The diplomacy channel is much the same, though a little more subdued. People give away spare diplomacy gear, answer questions about parle’s, and other numerous things. It’s a great (though slightly smaller) community and you can easily figure out the regulars as well. Those two channels plus guild are more then enough for me to feel as though I’m not alone in game, and thus I keep regionsay off, unless I’m LFG (which I rarely am, I group almost exclusively with my guild).

I’d also highly suggest getting a guild. There are numerous active ones on Seradon, some larger then others. My guild’s been recruiting fairly steady, at one or two people every second day. Some play more frequently (like myself) and others log on a time or two as they try to find their place in Telon. There’s a guild recruitment tab, but I’ve found it some what annoying in trying to find a place called home. I’d rather go to the  vgplayers.com site and search the server specific forums to find an active guild that suits my needs, or at least post there mentioning that I’m looking for a guild.

There are so many commands and things one can learn by simply joining the channels mentioned above and lurking (which is what I do most of the time unless I’m congratulating someone or need a question asked). For example, today Satia hit 25 mineralogist (woot!) which means she can now join a crafting society, something of which I’d never even know about were it not for these channels. Vanguard does a very poor job of leading a player around. That means you need that community to find your way through the world. You need to rely on experienced players to figure out what you should (or can) do next (like the unicorn and shadowhound mounts which are new to me). It’s not a bad method of learning at all, I quite enjoy it.

Anyhow, so I’ve hit 25 and I’m going to join a society. Well, two to be precise. There are three in New Targonor in Thestra, and there are three in Ahgram in Qalia. You can actually do the first two quests of each society, and get the experience as well as the item rewards (red craft gear, always a great thing to have) before having to settle down to one society per continent (Kojan again left out here, blast that unfinished continent). In New Targonor there’s the Imperial Trade Organization, Arcane Camarilla, and the New Targonor Trading Company. Each one has a different reward, and based on your crafter build you’ll want to choose one to join in the end.

Ahgram’s societies are the Society of Invention, the Merchant’s Guild, and Cabal. Again you can do the first two quests of each society, and then settle down to one after that so you can obtain the red gear and the experience. There’s a great bunch of information on these that you can find here. Just another small intricate part of why I like Vanguard. Lots of busy work. I’m not just grinding workorders to get my levels, I’m doing plenty of crafting quests, and delving into my character more and more by customizing these smaller portions of them. The same can be said with diplomacy, as at level 31 you chose to work for a ‘house’ in New Targonor and can rise in ranks and obtain useful gear / titles and the like from them.

I may still be fumbling my way around Telon, but I’m having lots of fun doing it. Yesterday I also managed to finish my Hunter’s League pants with Growlius, next we’re slowly working on the breast piece (I say slowly, because we need 80 uncommon drops between us, and the area is always full of other groups attempting the same thing, which is a huge annoying pain. SoE really needs to change the number of mobs that can drop your pieces, or have them drop for an entire group rather then each person individually).