2008

EverQuest Halloween Events

stargrace October 29, 2008 1 Comment

Halloween may not be a day off of work or school, but that doesn’t stop people from having a lot of fun with the event, including multiple mmo’s. We’ve all heard about the zombie attacks in WoW, and the new haunted house in EQ2, even WAR is getting into the holiday spirit. Not one to be left behind, there is also a whole slew of events going on in EverQuest-PC.

You can read about all of the events here, at the official EQ site, or run through the list posted below.

Ancient Hauntings!

These ghost, ghouls, and scary beings return to us from the hauntings in the past.

Candy and Costumes
Across the starting cities, candy and costume merchants open up their spooky shop to celebrate the season of haunting. Also, seek out Wicked Winnie and a wizened hermit in the Plane of Knowledge for additional sweet fun.

Trick or Treat?
There have been scattered reports across Norrath of spooky happenings in the Kithicor Forest. People are trick or treating around Norrath. Vampires have been spotted roaming in spooky places. The Halflings are hungrier than usual and are craving everything pumpkin! A creepy bone collector is requesting help on collecting several rare bone artifacts. A great storyteller has arrived and is telling some rather frightening fables. Get your admission ticket today and hear them for yourself! For more information seek out Zigand Ribshard in the Plane of Knowledge. He has all the details!

The Trick or Treat Bag: Old Man Draykey will teach you how to trick or treat by showing you the proper greeting method. To practice he gives you a trick or treat bag to go out and get candy.
Bone Collector: Barsin the bone collector boasts that he can create anything out of bones.
Roaming Vampire: A Dressed-Up Halfling is running late for the yearly costume gathering.
Hungry Halfling: Mippie Diggs is hungry and has been craving pumpkin flavored food and drinks.
Story Teller: Cathil the storyteller has been telling frightening fables to scare the locals.

Haunting Tasks

Marta Stalwart in Toxxulia is baking pies to celebrate an old Erudite pie flinging tradition started by an angry wife who scolded her lazy husband by throwing pies at him.
Grom Shives in Nektulos is retelling the tale of the legendary ride of a dark elf warrior who swindled magic from powerful creatures, and managed to evade them in Nektulos as he returned to Neriak.
Silas Lightweaver is trying to put on a light show in Greater Faydark, but faeries from Lesser Faydark are running amuck, casting gaudy spells, and disturbing his performance. Capture them, and release them back into Lesser Faydark where they belong.
Corporal Gravlin is standing guard in Qeynos Hills as travelers from Qeynos attempt journey to Surefall Glade for a celebration. Unfortunately, evil necromancer Pyzjn is causing trouble by raising undead to attack anyone passing through Qeynos Hills.

Kanad and I happened to cross paths with these two spooky people in PoK (Plane of Knowledge) as we were finishing up our adventures. The costumes are a LOT of fun. You can become pretty much any scary creature at all that’s available in EQ, not to mention the fact that there are accessories! Want to wield a broom? A bucket filled to the brim with treats? Then that’s no problem at all. Looking for free treats and goodies to stock pile? There’s a vendor for that too, and what’s more is that they’re all free, no charge. The costumes do have limited charges, and are no rent which means they’ll poof if you log out for too long (they also dissolve on zoning) but the food (although no trade) will stick around later (I filled up my bags, I couldn’t help it, the stats were so nice!).

The events run from October 24th to November 7th, so there’s still lots of time to get involved.

Gaming

Little Big Planet Rambles

stargrace October 29, 2008 7 Comments

Since mother nature decided to dump 15cm of snow on us here in Ottawa between yesterday afternoon and this morning (and we’re not quite done yet) I was happy that I already had my copy of LBP and was not about to head out for anything in particular. Snow in November was becoming rare enough, but 15cm in October? It’s going to be a long winter.

There were issues all day with the online servers for LBP, some times they were up, and other times they were down. I have no doubt that they did not know about how popular their game would be, after hyping about it for 2 years. They were having issues a few days ago – before the game had actually been sold to anyone aside from pre-order.

I spent a lot of time going through zones I’d already played through, trying to get all of the rewards. I managed to get the garden to 100% completed – this means not only discovering all of the stickers, materials, and clothing bits in every zone, but also finishing each one without dying. This feat became a LOT harder to do in the Savannah. There are a few zones that I dislike, anything with moving ghosts that like to stomp on me, as well as crocodiles (and there were lots) and buffalo.

I went through a million tutorials on how to build zones, and I’m thinking that I may actually need to buy some sort of manual on how to do it all because I am going to forget. That, and I can’t actually READ the buttons that pop up that they tell me to use. Time for a new TV.

Randomness: The radio is playing Christmas music. Ugh.

Ok, anyhow. I am still amazed by everything you can DO in this game. I haven’t moved on to the wedding scenes yet, just the first two. I’ve been trying to get 100% in each level. Each time I play through I find something I missed the first time, a hidden room, a ramp, some extra stickers and building materials. A few things to keep in mind – never follow the direction arrows the first time through. There’s typically *always* something behind those.

I’ve seen a few other people’s creations, including a level 1 super mario brother’s level, that was a LOT of fun and very cute. One interesting aspect is that you can vote for other creations, and give them a rating out of 5 stars. Some levels are just plain.. plain. They focus on giving you a trophy of some sort. For example, fastest speed. It’s a zone that launches you by a rocket and you fly through the air (typically dying at the end). You unlock a trophy for flying so fast but that’s all there is to the zone. Another was to gain 1,000,000,000 points – and the entire room was filled with the little bubbles you step on to gain points. Again, not much to the zone.

The co-op is still done very well in zones that have it planned out though. Since the game is still brand new to release, I imagine that over time the selection of player made zones will get better. I would love to create one, and I have an art themed one in mind, but I really need to learn the controls better first. Remember, I haven’t been playing PS3 or video games for my entire life. It’s never too late to learn!

Gaming

Bring On The Alts

stargrace October 28, 2008 1 Comment

I decided to create a bard in Eq1. Why? Well I haven’t really played one before (at least not one above level 10) and I have actually thought the class was pretty awesome for a number of years now. Between my cleric and enchanter and other random alts, I just never really had the time. So yesterday Kanad and I decided to create alts. He created a Drakkin rogue and I created a Drakkin bard. We each decided to get mercenaries, and neither of us was really wearing any gear, so it was a great test to see how they worked out.

The mercenaries have no charge from levels 1-10. After that the charge is very slight, allowing anyone to be able to afford one. At level 13 (which was the level we reached after two hours of playing) the mercenaries cost a grand total of 2p to purchase, and 1g every 15 minutes.

The tank mercenary didn’t do his job very well, being distracted by numerous things it would seem. I sort of figured they wouldn’t exactly be on par with the level 60+ mercs due to the lack of skills available at that level. The healer was fairly good, though they did need a bit of time for meditation and after I hit level 10 they kept trying to rez me when I wasn’t dead but wouldn’t rez me the one time I actually died. I’m not sure what was going on with that.

One interesting point, is that even though the mercenaries did not physically level along with us as we leveled, their spells DID upgrade automatically. We picked up mercenaries at level 3 and used them until level 9, then switched out from level 9 to level 13. We had different cleric buffs on us when they became available to the mercenary, which is a pretty nice feature if you’re reluctant to upgrade. If they’re not tanking and seem to be healing you just fine, then you can hang onto them for a little longer.

Since we got to level 13 with no gear at all, doing no quests, just hiring mercs, it’s time to take a little time and see about some gear. I love how a game 10 years old can still hold my attention like no other yesterday was a LOT of fun and I’m looking forward to leveling the bard some more as well as playing with Nostalgia on Friday night with my druid.

Gaming

Even More Crafting

stargrace October 28, 2008 No Comments

Yesterday I finally managed to buckle down for a little while and get some crafting done. That was the plan at least. What really happened was I managed to get two levels (50-52) and then I ran out of succulent roots. It’s times like these where I wish Nostalgia had a few more levels so that I could buy the harvesters that I could send out every 2 hours to collect materials for me. Succulent roots on the Najena server go for over 75s each – and what’s worse is that I have TWO characters who use these as a main component to their crafting. The tailor as well as the alchemist. Ouch.

But two levels was better then no levels at all, and I was happy with the progress. Screen shot is of me feeling like a giant over at Tipa’s crafting area. Everything is halfling sized and I practically crushed the machine as I tried to thread my needle.

I really need to finish my two crafting epics some time, that would be the sage, as well as the woodworker. The sage I have been procrastinating on because she’s only level 61 which means as of yet she does not have the Bathezid watch faction to even begin the epic. I dislike grinding faction, but I dislike grinding crafting faction even more. It’s a waste of supplies and none of it earns you status with your guild (which would be my preferred alternative).

I do want to get out and do the halloween events again, specifically the trick or treating game to try to win the bandit mask. Ever since I saw Kasul sporting his I’ve wanted one.

The expansion is less then a month away now and I’m feeling pretty excited. One of the only ‘down’ sides that I can see is that as of yet I have no idea who I will be playing! I love all of my characters and I haven’t had a ‘main’ for years now. I had hopped to settle down to one character once TSO came out but alas I don’t think I’m the sort that settles down to one main as much as I envy those who do. I guess only time will tell!

Anyone know of any good places out there to harvest succulent root? (that’s T6, sinking sands era) the best place I’ve found so far is to just continuously clear an island that has a bunch of other spawns, but the roots are far and few between. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Gaming

Little Big Planet – LIVE today!

stargrace October 28, 2008 5 Comments

I received my copy of Little Big Planet a few days ago, even though it was not currently online – it is as of today! I’ve been exploring the basic world and I just have to say, it’s amazing. There’s SO many components to this game and it’s got a little bit for every one. I’ve been playing in a duo team, which has its ups and downs but over all is so much fun. The only down side to being in a team is that some times one person is a little faster or ‘better’ then another, and that may end up being frustrating for those who don’t feel that they’re up to speed.

The co-op is fantastic, and being able to accomplish some goals specifically because you’re in a team is well implemented. I’ve finished off the garden zones, and headed to the Savannah to work on the next areas. There’s so many hidden things everywhere, you’ll be doing zones over and over again and never get bored.

Ok so I sort of jumped into that post a little bit excited and didn’t actually explain the game, let me back track. Basically, you get a character called a sackboy (or sackgirl) and you get to adventure through zones that are a part of the game — or — adventure through other people’s worlds that they’ve created. You collect items, stickers, building materials, costumes, a huge number of things. You can also create your own zones. The creation process is lengthy and amazing, with an infinite amount of choices that you can use. There’s also a tutorial to learn each bit, everything from creating a background, adjusting music and placing it, placing the camera views, placing items, changing items a billion ways – it’s actually exhausting.

Of course, as I type this the online servers have been taken down – figures.

Anyhow. If you own a PS3 and don’t own this game, what are you waiting for? I am so excited about playing in other people’s creations, and creating a few levels of my own!

Let the sticker collecting begin!

EverQuest Halloween Events

Little Big Planet Rambles

Bring On The Alts

Even More Crafting

Little Big Planet – LIVE today!

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