March 21, 2008

Cragwind – LOTS of fun

stargrace March 21, 2008 0Comment

Growlius and I had picked up about 20 quests in Cragwind the day before, and before turning a single one in- we completed them all. I was close to 34 (and new spells) so I dinged easily enough from kills. 10% into my level (and he his) and we were finished all of the quests. So. Now came the decision. Use a 50% exp potion? Or 100%. I thought about saving them for crafting (I’m 45 now) but I don’t really need them. Aside from sigils, I have no new recipes coming to me for 45+ so it doesn’t matter if I level a little slower. I couldn’t pass by an opportunity like this.

We turned in all our quests and low and behold, went from 10% exp, to 95% exp.

Wow. Nice.

The great thing was that almost every single quest we compelted opened up to yet another quest, so our journal is filled again. I imagine tonight we’ll do the same thing. Complete them all (the potion has a 5h in game timer anyhow) and then turn them all in one lump sum to get the levels we need. So I’m now sitting at level 35 (cheers) as is Growlius. Kalaso has been doing some crazy leveling as well, in fact he stayed up all night last night and managed to get level 36. He just created his paladin two weeks ago, so that’s some fairly hefty leveling. Granted, he’s already got a level 50 ranger, and a 32 bard, so I can hardly fault him, he knows exactly where to go to get the levels.

In the screen shot you can see I haven’t turned off those obnoxious dots above the mobs heads yet. I’m slowly getting used to them. I still don’t know why the named need to be ALL IN CAPS though, honestly, if you can’t tell whether or not something is named you may want to switch games. I made bricks to put for sale, as well as a few jewelry pieces. I want to get enough sigils to upgrade stone weapons as well as expendables, as I hear there’s a pretty nice market for those. The crafting npc are still not fixed so as of yet I can’t switch Arysh over to a weapon smith, but I intend on leveling her and the leather worker still.

Borgio and the Mrs. were in game today, eating up the levels. Mayadhros has been slowly sneaking up as well, always great to see. Today is a holiday in Canada (Good Friday) so a few people that I know are home. I haven’t decided if I’m going to level up my bard or her crafting yet. Either way, safe travels whatever realm you find yourself in today!

Tier5 House – Work in Progress

stargrace March 21, 2008 0Comment

In all the excitement lately, I completely forgot to mention that my house is complete, and has been for a few days now. It’s really lacking furniture, but I’m working up a carpenter to remedy that issue. The broker prices are just too dear to be paying. I’ve switched Minxes over to my carpenter, and during the days I’ll be leveling her and playing her some. In this first screen shot is the Thestran T5 granite fireplace, some floor pillows to the left, and a little basket I filled with bread and cheese to the right. The flames didn’t come with the fireplace, I actually had to buy them separately from the housing merchant, go figure. Eventually I’ll add a seating area, with some couches and maybe even make a tv of some sort. Who knows. I haven’t seen everything that can be crafted yet to make a decision.

The bedroom area is also the area I keep my chests (filled with raws rares and dusts right now). I wanted a method of disguising those boxes on the right hand side, so I added a few pillows propped up in order to make them look more like a bench then a bunch of chests shoved together. The bed itself is sunk into the wall slightly to hide the headboard (which Idid not like) and is one of the veteran rewards players got to claim from their accounts. It’s the leth one. Oh, I almost forgot. The best part of Vanguard housing? You can move objects by the X Y Z and also the Pitch, Yaw, and something else. Which basically means there’s endless methods of moving items. You can move anything in any direction. Turn it, spin it, mount it on the wall, etc. That’s how I got my pillows propped up to actually look like pillows rather then just having them laying flat.

The desk was also a veteran reward, although right now its location is sorta meh, upstairs out of the way. There’s my 5th chest on it (just a Qalia style one) and a little jug, as well as some books. Eventually I want to build a library of sorts for it. My house can hold 250 items and 5 chests, so we’ll just have to see how the decorating goes.

Each continent has a significant style difference, the Thestran style here is nothing like the Kojani style pictured above. The Qalian styled homes are even more unique, with a very distinctive Arabian flare. I still love the way housing is set out in Vanguard. It’s as though you own a little piece of the game, rather then some zone some place. It does mean things like buying from a person’s home is not exactly a viable option (after all, how do you figure out which house on a plot is theirs? There’s so many of them) but I enjoy it none the less. I’ve built quite a few homes now for guild mates, and I’ve yet to hear any complaints. The rent for this house is 60s a week, a 10g plot (all plots on Kojan are 10g) so it’s a great deal for me. I’ve got 5 40-slot chests in the house, one housing supplies for each tier.

I’ll post more screen shots as I continue decorating, I have plans of a kitchen in the front entrance beneath the stairs, as well as the sitting area by the fire place, and I’m not sure about upstairs yet. A library for sure and perhaps a second bedroom area. Anyone who knows me understands how much of a fanatic I can be about housing! It’s almost a shame that I can only own one house per account.