September 2008

Now THAT was fun

Once upon a time, way back when, in the days when Vanguard first released I decided I would try a paladin. I actually enjoyed it – my first tank ever. I can’t remember why I deleted, it was probably something silly like I needed to cut down the number of alts I had. I never leveled very far and it was well before the paladin revamp took place and I still loved it. In fact I loved it so much I wrote about it on this site, here

I was feeling restless late last night, even after doing a little art work. It was around 10pm and I simply was not tired. Every so often I have to remind myself I’m not 60 years old, and stay up past midnight (I’m up around 5:30-6am every single day) so that’s what I did last night.

I didn’t want to out level Kanad, and I wasn’t in the mood for diplomacy nor was I in the mood to craft. So I decided to create another character (of course) and have free reign of the Isle of Dawn. 

I quickly lost track of time and my little raki paladin went from level 1-9 before I’d blinked. I looked at the clock and noticed it was 2am and I was getting cranky and tired (especially since I’d been dying in that blasted temple a few times). I can not for the life of me seem to figure out what the heck to do in order to pass a certain wall of flame that stands in front of me and the next portions of my quests. I’m sure one of the quests I have on me must be the access one. Probably the one that requires me to kill a handful of named in locations I have no idea about and collect little bits of poems from them.

I walked towards the temple ‘elevator’ wary – I’d read Tipa’s post on this beast. I DID get stuck – but only when I had the buff from the Pegasus on, so I quickly learned to click that off before ever stepping foot onto the floating mass of air. I’d seen these elevators before, in a 30’s zone and I hate them. They’re hard to maneuver around and just plain annoying. Not that the elevator did me any good since I couldn’t get past the barrier of flames on the bottom floor.

I had so much fun though it surprised me. I have a quest for a cloak that I really want to complete. A class specific cloak with a nifty little graphic on it. It’s my goal to hit level 10 in all three spheres before leaving the island and I’m thinking that the paladin may be a better fit to play with Kanad (he’s a shaman, healer) and maybe we should form up a brother hood so that neither of us out levels the other. An idea to contemplate at least. 

At 6:30am yesterday it was the quietest I’d seen the new starter zone, with 35 people in it. Every single other time I’ve been there lately there have been no less then 40, and probably a great deal more. It’s fantastic to see. 

Now if only I could find my way to the named I need..

Beware

Keeping out of trouble on a typical Friday by doing more artwork.. the full version can be seen on my deviantART site if you’re interested.. the smaller version doesn’t do it justice. It started out as an image of Silhouette (coercer) but I couldn’t figure out what I wanted to do with it so instead it came out as this. Can’t complain I suppose.

EverQuestII (The Shadow Odyssey) Beta Sign Up Begins!

If you weren’t lucky enough to go to the fan faire and automatically get a beta invite there, but you want to see what the newest expansion is going to be all about (and want to help work out the kinks of course) be sure to check out the EQ2 beta sign up

Remember the conditions to the sign up, you have to have an active Eq2 account with a character over level 50 on it, and of course you have to follow the NDA.

PvP vs. PvE – and Me

(( Hmpfs, seems like I’m not the only one with PvP and PvE on their minds, hehe. Made my post before I’d wandered over to Gestalt Mind.. great write up!) 

I’m glad these days that there’s such a selection of games out there. It means I have lots to read. I like the idea of sticking with what I’m playing (which currently is EQ2 and VG) and living vicariously through whoever I happen to be reading about and their adventures. I don’t care too much about the technical bits, nor the drama associated with any of the games but I do care about what people are thinking, how they’re exploring, their thoughts and ideas, opinions. I suppose it all goes hand in hand in one neat little package. 

I am obviously not a big personal fan of PvP – and not because I suck at it. I’ve played PvP in WoW before, as well as EQ2. I got the mad ‘zomg die die n00bsauce!’ rush and it was a lot of fun. At the end of that initial rush though I started feeling sort of bad. Lets say I was out questing, and I really wanted to finish the quest. It frustrated me that some random_person_101 would come along and squash me while I was trying to finish the quest. Then you have the campers, griefers, and all that sort of ‘fun’. Then there’s the ‘you have to travel in numbers or you’re going to die instantly’ factor that I experienced. I do play solo a lot of the time. Some times I just want to wander around and do nothing (or diplomacy, or craft) and not have any combat at all. 

I also started thinking about the fact that the people I was ‘killing’ (even in a video game) are just that, people. Maybe they had a bad day at work. Maybe they’re escaping their real lives in order to block out some abusive real life issue, maybe they’re jerks because of random_reason_101. 

It made me want to PvP even less, because I’d lose that ‘bloodthirst’ that I needed in order to accomplish it to begin with. Now, grouping together to take on an encounter of badies (who are computer generated and there for not ‘real’) I have no issue with. Raiding, I love. I love coming together for a common goal. I love winning (who doesn’t) or even losing with the right people, but when it comes to PvP it’s all about ‘us’ versus ‘them’ where the us and the them are all real people behind the computers and for some reason it just doesn’t sit very well with me. I can’t really explain it any better then that. 

When I played WoW I only played on PvP servers – because lets face it as much as people may say it caters to both sides, WoW is a PvP oriented game. I did my fair share there, too. Carebear player? Maybe I am, but to each their own honestly. I enjoy the housing, the quests, crafting, and in Vanguard the diplomacy and affecting the world in little ways. I don’t enjoy knowing that maybe by me smushing some other player in a game, they’re going to be upset (and it happens, I know it’s overreacting, but it happens) and take out their bad mood on some other player and thus the chain goes. Of course the typical remarks follow like they need to take a break and they need to get a life, etc etc. But lets face it, there are some pretty poor losers out there.

I know I know, it’s just a game. Those are just some of the things that run through my mind though, and an explanation on why I personally don’t enjoy PvP. Does it come as any surprise that I don’t enjoy FPS either? Probably not (not that anyone aside from myself even cares why I do or don’t play PvP). 

Just some mindless ramblings on a Friday afternoon.. (oh yeah, I don’t like afternoons either. I’m an early morning / late night type of gal).

QoTW: The Far, Far away Pelican

What pirates home is complete without a ship in a bottle – or two? If you were not around to quest for the iksar ship in a bottle (came out during a live event) then don’t worry there’s still hope! Did you know that the island of Mara has an alternative access quest? I’m not sure why it never went as a requirement, it should have (when the adventure pack was first released) for some added flavour I think. 

If you’re fond of house items you’ll be fond of this quest. It starts in Thundering Stepps, walk along the docks up along the back behind the building there and you’ll see Quint Cerlius M.E. amongst some crates. Click on each one and he’ll warn you to leave them alone. Once you’ve clicked on them all, talk to him and he’ll offer you a quest. 

He sends you off to the feerrott to look for the ship, and on the left hand side of the docks in the water you’ll come across a little row boat. 

You’ll board the ship – and even though the pirates are labeled as heroic, you should have no issues taking them down solo. You need to kill all of the pirates that roam the ship – and then take out the named that spawns at the end. Talk to the captain at the end and you’ll get the wonderful house item pictured above. For a complete detailed walk through be sure to check out eq2wikia here

It does have a little bit of rent reduction on it, so if you’re looking for knick nacks that are going to help in your rent, add this one to the list! I’m still hoping that some day SOE adds a status reduction to heritage quests that people have mounted to their walls. 

I was tired of the little garden entrance I had to my place, so I created a new sales area. I still don’t like it that much but it will do for now. I’m waiting for GU49 before I do too much more decorating, being able to resize things smaller or lager will be very handy. I’d like to level my monk a little as well, but I think I’ll wait until the experience gets a boost. I’m also looking forward to having my higher level characters tag along with friends and earn extra achievement experience as they mentor. 

In the mean time, I’m trying to grind out writs for Nostalgia (gotta get that guild hall!) eagerly awaiting Beckett MOG Issue #15 (where there should be an article from Tipa and a few from myself), and waiting on GU49!

Nomadic Gamer