2008

Questing the Night Away

Last night was another one of my VG / EQ2 split nights, amongst the fire works from Canada day which could be seen from where I was. Though I’ll never really understand why kids decide to shoot them off right outside my window on the street. “Just because” is more then likely their main reason.

Anyhow, in Vanguard, Growlius and I continued on our journey towards level 40. It’s inching by I have to admit but it’s mostly our own fault. We’ve been using exp potions for the past few levels and turning in handfulls of quests all at once. So in the past we’d spend an evening completing 10 quests or so at a hub, and then drink down a potion and turn them in and presto, another level. 100% bonus to experience as well with those, and unlike other games where potions may just cover one sphere (crafting, or adventuring) in Vanguard, each potion covers all three spheres – and quest experience is included which I adore.

In the last GU the quest journal went through a major revamp, one that I’m just getting used to now. It’s colour coded, and you can sort by numerous options – one being ‘by chunk’ which makes it FAR easier to tell what quests you have where. You can also display more then just the title in the list of quests – you can see the chunk it involves, as well as whether it’s group or solo, and even the date you got the quest. Our typical method for clearing these out is by chunk and sort them by level so the green (lower level) quests go first and we clear those out. Last night we cleared out the last green quest and all we’re left with are white – which I’m hoping means our experience will pick up. Ideally, that’s what it will mean.

We spent the night battling undead skeletons and mummies, and raiding an ark beneath the sands of Tar Janashir. I’m getting eager to explore something other then the bright white sands of Qalia – but this seems to be where the content is for these levels. Our goal is to hit 40 by the end of this weekend, but hopefully we’ll be accomplishing that well before.

40 is a level where in Vanguard you get numerous spells (aside from level 50 which is end game right now) and it will also mark us as being on the final stretch. At least in my eyes. After that it’s just 10 more levels and we’ll be ‘capped’ which is something I’m really looking forward to. Maybe I’ll even get to see APW and get key’d for it. I’ve never even given any thought to that.

Screen shot is me flying through Qalia, to a harvesting spot. Filled with dragons that are roaming around it’s not exactly the safest of areas, but it’s one of the best (best = quietest) places to get granite which is still selling for 4-5g a stack. Which reminds me.. I really need to level my carpenter and work on getting some sloops made, I’ve wanted a boat forever!

1 Compassion Road – Eleyn – Splitpaw

I was asked by a friend, to decorate their house on the Splitpaw server, if you want to see it in person you can find it in North Freeport, 1 Compassion Rd. The following screen shots are what I came up with. Hopefully they like it as much as I did! It was a lot of fun to make. It’s rare that I have an unlimited budget when it comes to housing, but that was the case for this house. I literally gave them a list of 300 items, and said get me all these.

Standing in the entrance way, Silverstep (Splitpaw version) decked out in colours for Canada day.

Library in the front entrance room

Everyone needs some place to eat!

And a kitchen!

Other end of the kitchen

Downstairs in the basement, a games area, piano, and aquarium

More of the basement

Close up of the aquarium – soon as I get the quest done I’ll be adding fish to it. For now just use your imagination!

End of the hallway in the basement

Heading upstairs

Bedroom

What bedroom would be complete without a little area to get pretty in!

Close up of the bed, complete with dressing area

Outside on the roof top, a garden

Close up of the garden.

Now, the house is still a work in progress, very much so. But in the mean time I think I’ve done a pretty good job on it. Thank you to Eleyn who let me work on this house and put up with running to and from the broker picking up various knick nacks and do-dads that I needed to fill in the blanks!

One Goal Down!

Last night Kasul and I came up with a cloak design for Nostalgia 2.0 It turned out pretty well I think – and of course the way cloak designs work is that they are unique per guild per server. So no one else has quite this shade of yellow with that symbol in the center. Works for me! Now we’ll be working towards level 20 (short term goal) and onwards to level 30 (long term goal) that will allow us to place edges on the cloak. Along the way of course we’re saving up status for a guild hall, which I’m excited about, even if there are only two ‘regular’ guild mates playing in this guild. We still work really hard.

As I was getting ready to make dinner last night and was mostly AFK in EQ2, I received a random tell from ‘Meddik’ on Najena. It made my day and I just had to mention it here. He/She said that they were a Stargrace groupie, and had been reading my blog for over a year now. I do get tells like that on occasion, and I still never know quite how to react to it. It makes me smile and sort of blush and fluster. I don’t have the most interesting blog out there – I don’t write about the mechanics of the game, or interviews with important people, or anything like that. It’s just my own personal gaming experiences which can be quite drab. So to know that people enjoy my writing is quite a rush. /Waves to Meddik.

I did end up doing more crafting in game – and managed to get the carpenter to level 55. Wow! I’m so very happy with that. Of course now I’ve spent almost 10p on supplies and books just for those five levels, and that would (idealy) mean another 10p to go (or more) for the next 5 levels before I reach T6. Not too keen on that. Again, what’s the point of watching my money in an mmo – I have no real expenses and I already watch coin enough in real life. I’m almost onto the next tier which should bring about even MORE exciting things to craft, and then at level 70 I can start crafting the faction based recipes which include some amazing rugs and jars of skulls and all sorts of interesting goodies. If I keep up this pace it shouldn’t be too long before I’m 80 – hopefully obtaining my carpenter epic, and then doing a complete revamp and crafting my entire house. I’ll be checking the forums plenty to get some ideas, like a fishtank. Popular items for a house to have these days and there’s apparently a quest in Gorowyn that I always skip that rewards you with a fish house item that can be placed as though it’s floating. I’ll have to look into this and see if I can’t find it.

I also popped into Vanguard last night to do some crafting before bed, Ardwulf was there and said hello! It’s been quite some time since I spoke to him. Apparently he’s thinking of joining Safe Haven, which is a wonderful guild on the Seradon server, with a branch on Antonia Bayle in EQ2 as well. Great people. I’d left the guild shortly after I left Vanguard previously, and have not looked into a guild yet since I’ve returned. Anyhow, MaddyCraft hasn’t been updated since GU3 (and we’re on GU5 now just passed) so I deleted the mod and went with default. Which means I actually spent most of the time making my macro’s for crafting with the G15 so that it’s not so much mouse clicking. No, this does NOT mean the process is automated, you can’t since you get complications that will ruin your crafting if you ignore them. It does reduce the amount of mouse clicking though.

As a final note – Happy Canada Day! I hope everyone is out enjoying the sun. Since I live in Ottawa I will be avoiding the 20,000+ people down at the parliament buildings, and watching the fire works from home.

Writs, Writs, and yes, MORE Writs

I had no idea if the bonus experience was still in place or not – but it felt like it was. I had no vitality and managed to hit level 50 last night. Tomorrow is July 1st which means it’s Canada day, and plenty of people are home today and tomorrow because of it. Anyhow, I figured out that one of the main reasons I dislike crafting (or get bored of it) is because what else is there to do as you grind out the experience. Not a whole heck of a lot. Today I found a way to resolve that. I don’t own a lap top, but decided I’d run EQ2 in a half screen size. I have a 24″ widescreen monitor, so it worked out just fine. On one half I had EQ2 running, and on the other half, I decided to watch some shows on broadband. Now, the tv stations in the states won’t allow me to do this because of my Canadian IP, but there are a few Canadian stations that let you watch full episodes. I watched a show called “Gossip Girl” which wasn’t too bad. Anyone who knows me realizes that I am really not much of a tv person, at all, but hey in the name of crafting, why not. It would make it go by faster. I also have a LOT of anime piled up that I haven’t worked through yet, and began on that afterwards.

Three hours later (with a break for lunch and what not) Nostalgia 2.0 dinged level 16 – which is great because we just hit 15 late last night, and I’d completed over 30 guild writs. I went from level 50 to level 54, and 30% into it. I’m debating now whether or not I want to finish that last bit off and try to ding 55. The problem is I’m out of supplies, and sandalwood is going for 50s each piece. I’ve already spent 7p today on supplies and advance books (a few books were nearing the 1p range and I’m a fanatic about owning them all). Not that I don’t have the coin to spend, I suppose it’s not that big of a deal.

The plus side to all of this is that I’m finally able to make house items that I actually like. The new screens that came out a few updates ago, plants, and pretty maj’dul inspired items like I’d mentioned yesterday. The highest I’d gotten my carpenters in the past was roughly level 35 or so. Even Calreth mentioned this morning that he was happy to see I’d made it past ‘the point of no return’.

My typical ‘plan’ is to make 1 of everything for the pristine bonus – and promptly move it into Kasul’s house because he was mentioning it looked bare. Then I grind out writs for the rest of the level. I’ve made it past the 10k status range with the Gorowyn trades faction merchants – also another bonus. Since Silhouette moved from Neriak to Freeport to Gorowyn, getting status hasn’t been easy. She left behind 5k in Freeport faction, and started over from scratch. I’m hoping to get the 30k on one crafter sooner or later (Stargrace is pretty dang close) so that I can buy the recipes for mannequins that I want. Eventually, maybe even the recipes for the respec mirror. We’ll see.

Anyhow, sorry if it seems boring, all I’ve done is grind writs today. Hoping maybe later tonight I’ll play some Vanguard, and inch closer to level 40, we’ll see how it goes!

More Tar Janashir, and EQ2 Crafting

I spent yesterday at the cottage, being eaten alive by mosquitoes. Today after getting some other chores done, I headed to Vanguard with Growlius to continue our questing around Tar Janashir, which we left about a month ago. It took a bit to get situated again. Remembering what keys did what. I thought it wasn’t possible for the sand in Qalia to get any brighter, but I was mistaken. I swear they lightened it further then it was, and it glares like bright snow no matter what my settings are at.

Before all that, I went to check out the MEST, which is the Mekalia Extravaganza of Science and Technology, and disappointing might I add. I was expecting an actual fair of sorts, instead it was a few gnomes standing under some tents. They give you quests for collection items. The rewards are mainly ancient coins, which can be turned in for faction to whatever city you’d like, commonly the faction you’d like a mount from eventually. There are some extra goodies along with a few of the quests, like boxes of fire works and a shrinking device. I guess after seeing EQ2 and WoW fairs, I was expecting a little… more.

Growlius and I got about 50% of a level, so we’re closing in on 40 fairly quickly, which is nice. We headed out after five dot cyclops, and had a blast being tested to remember what it was exactly that each of our classes did.

I’ll talk more about the changes to Vanguard tomorrow, when I’m not falling asleep at the desk.

In EQ2, I managed to take advantage of the double experience bonus that went on over the weekend. I got the monk to level 32, almost 33. She’s almost out of the “wow I’ve already done all this before a million times” phase, which I’m looking forward to.

I also managed (thanks to some coercing from Kasul) to stick around long enough to ding level 50 carpenter. That’s right, FINALLY I feel as though I am getting some where with my carpenter. She can start making the Maj’dul inspired furniture, which is fantastic. Along with plants, pillars, and all the other fun things. I have to do some harvesting for the tier, which is not fun at all. I was pleased with the progress though, that was three levels in a relatively short time tonight.

The guild also dinged level 15 due to all of the writs Kasul and myself managed to complete – which means we can choose a design for the guild cloak. Since there’s only two (and some times three) of us playing in Nostalgia 2.0 on the Najena server, I doubt it will be too hard of a decision to come up with a design that’s agreeable by everyone. The cost is 5p, which I’ll be giving.

Anyhow, more comprehensive posts tomorrow, I just wanted to write something quick before bed tonight. It’s a long weekend here in Canada, being Canada day on the 1st of July. I know next weekend is the 4th of July and Independence day for the states, so I hope everyone is having lots of fun, no matter what realm you find yourself in!

Nomadic Gamer