July 20, 2008

This and That

I wasn’t really in a gaming mood tonight – yes, I know, did hell freeze over (would be nice to get out of this heat that’s for sure). I spent the afternoon in EQ1 for the most part. My beastlord reached level 48, and the druid finally hit level 51. Actually she was 2% from 51 and died, but a kind cleric rez’d me for no charge and I wandered off for one more kill to ding 51. Very pleased with that progress. Afterward I headed to MPG (Muramite proving Grounds.. though I probably spelled that wrong) and exp’d some with an old friend of mine.

Anyhow, as I was saying. Tonight I wasn’t exactly in the mood to game, so I settled down for a few hours of DAZ Studio’s, which I’m still learning. There are two important things I need to learn how to do. Well, three I suppose. One would be applying textures. Another would be applying backgrounds, and the third would be lighting which I can’t seem to figure out for my life. Me and computers just simply do not get along. The 300 paged manual that comes with DAZ could probably help if I had any idea where to start. I’ll have to look up some other tutorials for it no doubt.

The screen shot above can be seen in far better quality (and size) here. Just click on the image if it doesn’t bring you to the full view right away. I still have no outfits to render for my characters, but the face shots are coming along nicely. I tried to frame this one after Stargrace in EQ2, who is a wood elf. It didn’t turn out too badly. Thinking of using one of these images I create to make a signature. We’ll see how that goes. I’d really like a dark elf texture, and I do have one but it’s not for V4.2 which means it’s not really going to work for me. I suppose I could colour it by hand in photoshop, but we’ll just have to see. Some times, it’s just nice to take a break.

So That’s Where They All Are!

Ever wonder where everyone hangs out now in EQ1? Noticing that PoK is a little more empty then usual after your return? Well the above image would be the reason. It’s the picture of the guild lobby on the luclin server, busy as always. It’s great to see so many people active in the game. Since things have slowed down (slightly) for me, I’ve decided it was time to rejoin the Nostalgia crew in EQ1 on their Friday night adventures. Since I’ve been gone they’ve been growing by leaps and bounds, and doing some raiding to boot.

I still currently have both of my EQ1 accounts active, so I decided to take the 50 druid and 45 beastlord to Dulak harbor for a little grind sesson. Of course, I got a head of myself and before I’d even made it to a camp Qutey and Nala were little smeared bits of Nostalgians on the ground. Woops.

So I loged the druid out (slightly frustrated, since I spent a lot of time buffing them) and brought out the 70 cleric instead. Since the beastlord has some levels of catching up to do, I simply had the healer follow around and dot the mobs – it worked out far better. My very first kill dropped a defiant plate breastplate which I’ll ship over to my 48 shadowknight, and though I didn’t see another piece for the evening I still had a lot of fun. By the time I called it a night the beastlord had reached level 47, which means a new pet. Her skills started to rise a good bit as well, sorely neglected in my power leveling sessons of the past.

Before this Friday’s Nostalgia meeting I’d like to get Ishbel (that’s the cleric) a shield from a quest in Natimbi, I need two more pieces of turtle meat to drop though. That’s today’s project (in between some real life stuff). If anyone is looking to talk, remember you can add me to Xfire (check it out if you haven’t yet) and it lets you talk in game, no matter the game as well as take video and screen shots.

Other then that, I hope everyone has had a fantastic weekend, no matter the realm you’re gaming in!

Nomadic Gamer