2008

Playing My Way

 

(( In an effort to make this game actually fun for myself, I’ve decided to give up playing like everyone else plays, and play my own way. Having a lot more fun with it, and I’ll see how it goes now that I’m not trying to impress anyone, but just have good ‘ol gaming fun the Stargrace method. I rerolled on a roleplay server – Avelorn. If any one is keen on playing with me you’re more then welcome, just drop me a line. )) 

 

I remember what they said about me when I tried to get work as a swords woman. It ranked along the lines of ‘too small’ and ‘she’d collapse as soon as she lifted one!’ behind the snickers and grimaces. My own parents stood in the background, my father nervously wringing his hat in his hands. He’d hoped to sell me off to some fancy man no doubt, but I had squashed those thoughts pretty quickly one evening when I returned to him after meeting one of his ‘prospects’ and slapped the gentleman’s beard in his hands. He was lucky it was only the beard he lost. 

The problem was one every child experiences. High hopes by adoring parents while my own cries went unheeded. So I rebelled in the best way I knew how. I didn’t even really WANT to lift some ugly sword over my head and swing it, and the crowd gathered was probably right, I WOULD collapse beneath that massive thing, my frail body mushed into the ground. 

I had a secret though. A talent that none of them knew about. I kept it that way on purpose, secluded from prying eyes. I knew the instant my family found out about it that would be the end of my freedom, and oh how I valued that little bit of freedom I had. 

I barely listened to the rest of the meeting. I didn’t care what the outcome would be because I didn’t plan on being around for them to decide. My bags were packed and I was eager to begin my journey on my own. My family had 6 other girls, there is no way they’d even miss me. If anything they’d be thankful to have one less mouth to feed, and when I didn’t contact them they’d assume I was eaten by a harpy or some other creature. Childish dreams at the time, I know. ‘What could possibly go wrong’ was the answer to every worry I had tucked away. Anything for the freedom to make my own decisions. My life, my friends, my career. Whichever path I ventured down I was sure it would be better then being sold off to some stranger. With the dark elves moving further in each day of course I had a little caution – but very little. Time would decide the rest for me.

A little Weekend WAR

I haven’t played much WAR, for a few reasons. Most have to do with the game itself. Casualties of War (guild I joined on Averheim) is great – but it’s HUGE and easy to get lost in a crowd. Way too easy in fact. While it’s nice to have so many talented people wandering around, it’s difficult to find a little niche to fit in to. So I decided to play with a friend for a bit who I’ve played multiple games with, and forget about the fact that if you’re not playing this game with a whole crowd of folks it’ll hurt later.

I didn’t enjoy the elves in order at all. The graphics were annoying, the quests were ok but not exciting – so I decided to roll an Ironbreaker on a different server, dwarf of course. I was disappointed to see that Destruction females have 0 tank choices. How kind that the decision to be a tank rests in having a penis (be that in game or in real life). Call me weird, I’m a woman in life and I’d rather play a woman in a game. Go figure. Greenskins have no male / female option, unless I was bugged some how. Anyway I decided I really wanted to be a tank and why not be a dwarf. My friend decided to play a Rune Priest (I think that’s what they’re called) and together we wandered around chapter one. We did our first public quest (and each of us died a few times) the first time I ended up crashing right as the heroic spawned. Great! I figured this might be due to my new graphic card, which had been running pretty swell up to that point. 

Logged back in, everything was alright except I had died at one point or another. 

The dwarf starter quests were a lot of fun. I mean, a LOT of fun. I had way more fun killing snotlings and tipping over barrels and numerous other things then I did when I was running through the elves or even Chaos. Not sure why, it could have been the friend I was playing with. We’ve gamed together so much in the past that it just felt natural, I had time to read quests (though not quite enough to figure out where we were going before he headed off) and it was a smoother transition. 

As of right now my WAR account is cancelled, and I’m still playing on the freebie days. I just can’t find anything that’s going to make me want to keep playing after the free days go by especially since I am not one to want to pvp or rvr 100% of my gameplay. I’d love a small group of people to play with constantly, 5-6 I can handle, 100+ is a little much. We’ll see how it goes.

On a side note: Very glad to see the hide UI command fixed (it toggles it now instead of you having to constantly hold down the buttons). Having the curse client is probably the best suggestion I can give to anyone playing, being able to install your UI mods at the touch of a button and update them is great. 

The gold selling spam was slightly annoying, but I’ve got selective reading and can tune that out pretty quickly. Plus, no one would be sending me tells, since I don’t know anyone on the servers.

Leveling! Err – Maybe not

I didn’t play nearly as much as I wanted to yesterday, mostly due to a very sore mouth and a few extra strength tylanol but I did get some time in. I wanted to try to get Stargrace to level 80 before the expansion comes out in November, but I’ve said a few times now I just can’t stomach the RoK quest grind any more. I decided since I was only 40% away from leveling, I’d try to put up with it just long enough to at least hit level 78. I headed off to Jarsath Wastes to complete the quests I’ve had for about three months now that have just sat there. 

I did manage to die three times, and with a little help got to 90% experience before I just decided to call it quits. I just really dislike the grind THAT much. I figure now I’ll either do one of two things. Forget about Stargrace until the expansion comes out and try to level her to 80 with the new content (some of it should be mid 70’s range I hope) or go through old world content and level at the pace of a snail. I haven’t decided which. Or I’ll just level someone else and work on her gradually like I have been. The 100% experience bonus made no different to my level 77 character because the experience you gain from kills is so insignificant. 

I did get a LOT of crafting levels though. My tailor went from 21-30 in an hour thanks to vitality and the bonus experience. My alchemist went from 41-47. I’m hoping to get her to 50 today, but I’m out of vitality and things are crawling a little more. Plus I’m not certain if I want to be so eager to hit T6 which is the dreaded harvest tier that uses supplies from Sinking Sands. 

Hope everyone else is having an awesome weekend!

New Video Card? SWEET!

I’ve never owned top of the line computer bits, though I’ve also never really had any reason to complain. I’ve used my 7600 GeForce for a few years now without issues. I ran EQ2 on balanced (minus flora and fauna because I just disliked the way I could never see anything laying on the ground) and was quite happy with the graphic performance. 

With a little extra money kicking around I decided it was time to start getting some upgrades. Even though I could use a new processor and motherboard, I think those can wait until February – today it was time for a new video card. 

I didn’t go all out like a lot of people would have. I wanted an upgrade but not something that was super expensive. So, when all was said and done I went from my trusty 7600 to the 8800. 

Instillation went smooth, and I loaded up EQ2 right away switching my settings to the highest possible ones. Of course I still had some lag, the change for dual core isn’t in quite yet – and the highest possible settings really are that. I know people who have the best of the best and still can’t play on those settings. So I tweaked things some, and set them to the 2nd highest settings. Turned down the fauna so I could actually see the ground, made it so I don’t see 10 spells per person and will only see two, and turned down shadows slightly.

It still made a HUGE difference. I can see all the nice little texture details now that I had missed before unless I played on the highest settings. I typically leave my lights off due to lag – and have no issues at all with them now. It’s great.  I logged over to Vanguard and noticed a great improvement in frame rate, but didn’t turn my settings up any higher because the game is pretty enough on balanced. The screenshot above is on my new settings, and I can tell the difference from my previous screenshots easily.

So that’s how my weekend has gone thus far. Gotta love getting new toys to play with!

Nomadic Gamer