2008

MMO’s.. Playing the Consol way

stargrace March 24, 2008 2Comments

It was only a matter of time, really. Something I’ve noticed more and more as the days count down to other mmo’s being released. Everyone talks about “the good old days” of EQ1. It’s what a lot of gamers base their experiences off of, and how can they not after the length of time and dedication people put into it. I remember camping for three days straight for some mask my rogue wanted, badly. After I got it I was ecstatic. Pretty sure I still have it, too. I remember the community back then, and the friends I met. I look at everyone else reminiscing and I can say “yeah, I remember”.

So what do I attribute the change in gaming to (and yes, I feel as though there is a significant change in things, such as community)? Easy. It feels like everyone now treats mmo’s like the newest consol game. Where you pick it up, test it out for a little while, play it and get as high as you can as fast as you can, and then drop it for another game when it arrives on the shelves. There used to be a stage where you could not “beat” an mmo. Where you always seemed one step away from ‘finishing’ it. I think people feel differently now. You can ‘finish’ the games.

How many people these days talk about ‘when AOC comes out’ or ‘when WAR is released’ or any other mmo that’s going to be on the market in the next little while (those are just the two major ones that come to mind). My group of friends have already split in so many directions as more and more games come out, and people wander off. EQ1 is not the only option any more, not by a long shot. There are people in SWG, EQ, EQ2, WoW, LoTR, EVE, and beta testing for AOC and WAR that I can name right off the top of my head. We’re pulled in so many directions when it comes to gaming choices. How many people these days are only playing ONE mmo exclusively? Only paying one subscription? Sure, there may be a game you only play ‘some times’ or when you’re bored of your ‘main mmo’. But gaming has very much evolved into a form of consol (NOT in the literal sense of the word remember here) where it’s not unheard of for a large number of people to pick up and move on when another comes out.

Is this a bad thing? Well, no. Options for gamers is always a good thing, however, it does make me sad.

With each ‘diversion’ of friends, with each little splitting of a community, you loose a little friendship. A little piece of what we all had back in EQ1. It’s so easy to let go and forget about that guild you hung out with way back when. Sure, you’ll remember them, events you had and the like. It’s not quite the same though. You also meet new people, a good point. The community has still changed those as I’ve grown older. Could it just be age? I suppose so. I hate to appear jagged over events as I am personally only nearing my 6th year if mmos in general, though I played MUDS for three years before that. My dad used to run a BBS and we had a game called ‘hack ‘n slash’ that was a lot of fun. Then I moved on to ‘redemption’, a mud I played for a long time (and also met my fiancee there). From there we both started playing EQ1, then EQ2, WoW, VG. Now there’s talk of WAR and AOC, when those come out.

I could stay playing where I am. The community around me, however, more then likely will not. I don’t think I actually know anyone who will NOT be playing a different mmo in a years time. I guess I just miss the sense of community that I used to know. NOT that the community now is bad, not in any way. No, I’m just saying it’s different, and some times, I miss the way things used to be.

Beautiful Weekend

stargrace March 23, 2008 0Comment

What a surprise Friday night when I get a tell in Vanguard from none other then Cordanim himself! I’ve known him for a few years now (three I think..) so of course it was wonderful to hear from him in game. After figuring out what he wanted to play, I suggested (he’ll call it harassed) he join Safe Haven, and last night I tossed him an invite to the guild before he headed off to decorate Easter eggs with his little ones.

I was actually busy with other things yesterday and didn’t get to spend much time in game, instead enjoying some wonderful crab curry and chocolate cake. The malls were busy since Friday was a holiday, Sunday is a Holiday, and in some places, so is Monday. I watched some more of Inukami (wonderful anime sent to me by Growlius) and pondered what to do in game that wouldn’t take up too much time. Faydai is sitting a little into her level, and I’ll probably manage to get one today.

I decided to set up a brotherhood between a few of my own characters. This requires a third party to do the inviting (as you have to be online to invite) but it also insures a few things. Number one, what a brotherhood does is split all adventure experience (this includes quest experience) between anyone in the brotherhood. It’s a way to insure you don’t out level your friends (or content for that matter) if you like to play a little extra. By putting two of my own characters in it (my bard and my psionicist) they will both essentially level at the same time. Yes, it will be twice as slow, but they’ll both get the experience. Which means if I played my bard to 50, the psionicist would also be level 50 via the brotherhood. This is a good way to stretch the content a little more as well, and not out level everything. I find that I missed a lot of dungeons, and quest areas. In a brotherhood I have twice as long to enjoy everything. At later levels I may consider adding a third character of mine to it (there is a level range involved) and level up three characters that way. A few people consider it ‘cheating’ but I think it’s a way to optimize my characters and playing habbits. Besides, it’s a unique feature that Vanguard specifically offers people to partake in.

So I’ve been playing my bard (who is a lot of fun) decided I don’t quite enjoy the warrior (but I won’t delete her due to her craft levels and a few other things) I’ve got a little necromancer who will probably just sit there for a bit doing nothing, and of course my main. Vanguard is still not without its bugs, and I don’t pretend other wise, but I’m having a lot of fun none the less. Community, is key, as always.

I’ll be hosting a guild event at the end of this month and I’m excited about that. A scavenger hunt of sorts for people of all levels. Monday I’m also going to be starting my forum contests for small prizes for guild mates, to try and motivate them to get into the habit of reading the forums at least on a weekly basis. We post all of our events up there, and it’s important to check them out. It also adds to the ‘family’ feel of the guild. How can you get to know anyone after all without getting involved.

Happy Easter to everyone out there, and safe travels no matter what realm you find yourself playing in today!

Cragwind – LOTS of fun

stargrace March 21, 2008 0Comment

Growlius and I had picked up about 20 quests in Cragwind the day before, and before turning a single one in- we completed them all. I was close to 34 (and new spells) so I dinged easily enough from kills. 10% into my level (and he his) and we were finished all of the quests. So. Now came the decision. Use a 50% exp potion? Or 100%. I thought about saving them for crafting (I’m 45 now) but I don’t really need them. Aside from sigils, I have no new recipes coming to me for 45+ so it doesn’t matter if I level a little slower. I couldn’t pass by an opportunity like this.

We turned in all our quests and low and behold, went from 10% exp, to 95% exp.

Wow. Nice.

The great thing was that almost every single quest we compelted opened up to yet another quest, so our journal is filled again. I imagine tonight we’ll do the same thing. Complete them all (the potion has a 5h in game timer anyhow) and then turn them all in one lump sum to get the levels we need. So I’m now sitting at level 35 (cheers) as is Growlius. Kalaso has been doing some crazy leveling as well, in fact he stayed up all night last night and managed to get level 36. He just created his paladin two weeks ago, so that’s some fairly hefty leveling. Granted, he’s already got a level 50 ranger, and a 32 bard, so I can hardly fault him, he knows exactly where to go to get the levels.

In the screen shot you can see I haven’t turned off those obnoxious dots above the mobs heads yet. I’m slowly getting used to them. I still don’t know why the named need to be ALL IN CAPS though, honestly, if you can’t tell whether or not something is named you may want to switch games. I made bricks to put for sale, as well as a few jewelry pieces. I want to get enough sigils to upgrade stone weapons as well as expendables, as I hear there’s a pretty nice market for those. The crafting npc are still not fixed so as of yet I can’t switch Arysh over to a weapon smith, but I intend on leveling her and the leather worker still.

Borgio and the Mrs. were in game today, eating up the levels. Mayadhros has been slowly sneaking up as well, always great to see. Today is a holiday in Canada (Good Friday) so a few people that I know are home. I haven’t decided if I’m going to level up my bard or her crafting yet. Either way, safe travels whatever realm you find yourself in today!

Tier5 House – Work in Progress

stargrace March 21, 2008 0Comment

In all the excitement lately, I completely forgot to mention that my house is complete, and has been for a few days now. It’s really lacking furniture, but I’m working up a carpenter to remedy that issue. The broker prices are just too dear to be paying. I’ve switched Minxes over to my carpenter, and during the days I’ll be leveling her and playing her some. In this first screen shot is the Thestran T5 granite fireplace, some floor pillows to the left, and a little basket I filled with bread and cheese to the right. The flames didn’t come with the fireplace, I actually had to buy them separately from the housing merchant, go figure. Eventually I’ll add a seating area, with some couches and maybe even make a tv of some sort. Who knows. I haven’t seen everything that can be crafted yet to make a decision.

The bedroom area is also the area I keep my chests (filled with raws rares and dusts right now). I wanted a method of disguising those boxes on the right hand side, so I added a few pillows propped up in order to make them look more like a bench then a bunch of chests shoved together. The bed itself is sunk into the wall slightly to hide the headboard (which Idid not like) and is one of the veteran rewards players got to claim from their accounts. It’s the leth one. Oh, I almost forgot. The best part of Vanguard housing? You can move objects by the X Y Z and also the Pitch, Yaw, and something else. Which basically means there’s endless methods of moving items. You can move anything in any direction. Turn it, spin it, mount it on the wall, etc. That’s how I got my pillows propped up to actually look like pillows rather then just having them laying flat.

The desk was also a veteran reward, although right now its location is sorta meh, upstairs out of the way. There’s my 5th chest on it (just a Qalia style one) and a little jug, as well as some books. Eventually I want to build a library of sorts for it. My house can hold 250 items and 5 chests, so we’ll just have to see how the decorating goes.

Each continent has a significant style difference, the Thestran style here is nothing like the Kojani style pictured above. The Qalian styled homes are even more unique, with a very distinctive Arabian flare. I still love the way housing is set out in Vanguard. It’s as though you own a little piece of the game, rather then some zone some place. It does mean things like buying from a person’s home is not exactly a viable option (after all, how do you figure out which house on a plot is theirs? There’s so many of them) but I enjoy it none the less. I’ve built quite a few homes now for guild mates, and I’ve yet to hear any complaints. The rent for this house is 60s a week, a 10g plot (all plots on Kojan are 10g) so it’s a great deal for me. I’ve got 5 40-slot chests in the house, one housing supplies for each tier.

I’ll post more screen shots as I continue decorating, I have plans of a kitchen in the front entrance beneath the stairs, as well as the sitting area by the fire place, and I’m not sure about upstairs yet. A library for sure and perhaps a second bedroom area. Anyone who knows me understands how much of a fanatic I can be about housing! It’s almost a shame that I can only own one house per account.

Tsang’s Tomb

stargrace March 20, 2008 6Comments

When Vanguard first released last January, this dungeon was pretty much my home- and I still never completed the quests that it involved. I loved it, my first group ran at 4FPS which made it FRUSTRATING to say the least. Now that I’ve got a better computer, and Vanguard itself has done plenty to resolve performance issues, I’m sure I’d enjoy it a lot more. There are chains of quests you do outside of Tsangs first, and then eventually they lead you inside. One small issue with Vanguard is that you can easily out level the content of the game before ever doing those ‘major’ quest lines. The end reward is a pretty nice weapon, one of the best when I first played. Of course now people typically skip this, they move on to HL, URT, CIS (Hunter’s League in Qalia, United Races of Thestra, in Thestra, and Infinium in Qalia). Each one of those chains also rewards you with a very nice weapon. Kojani as a continent is very under used, most people move on to higher content very fast, but when I started.. that was the place to be, for me. I adventured through Tsangs and Blighted woods until level 22, and then moved on to Thestra. To this day I’ve barely done any adventuring in Qalia.

In searching for a new place to level, Growlius and I decided we’d head to Craigwind, which is nestled between huge rocks and dunes. There were at least 20 quests we both picked up, however with adventurers all over the place we were hard pressed to find a little niche to explore and kill at. Not that a bustling population is a bad thing, but slow respawns can be annoying.

I managed to get 70% into my level (33) and I was going to turn in the quests I’d accumulated, but instead figured I’d take a 50% potion, save up all 20 quests, and then turn them all in at the same time.

The carpenter managed to get level 11. I deleted a few alts, and now Minxes will be my carpenter. That leaves me with a leather worker, weapon smith, mineralogist, and carpenter. Four alts is plenty in this game where there are so many spheres to work up and level.

Guild had a meeting last night, but I’ve been some what down with the flue, so I didn’t attend. It didn’t help that it was also starting at 10:30EDT, which is a little too late for me especially when I’m not feeling well. So I went to bed while that went on. I’ll be hosting a scavenger hunt for guildies at the end of this month, that should be a lot of fun. I’m planning prizes like sets of gear / jewelry / houses / diplomacy goodies, and what have you. Nothing too huge, but enough to keep people motivated.

Since last week was GU week, and this week was patch week (while they fix everything they broke with the GU) it’s been… testing, to some. To say the least. One huge issue is that you can’t get the text any more to respec your tradeskill. When they added attribute points as a purchase from crafters, they some how blocked all of their other text, so until that’s fixed it’s quite annoying. Chunks have been up and down most of the week, and latency has been an issue in the evenings. The servers are down right now, and hopefully these are being fixed. It also seems that they at least slowed the dust flow from resource harvesting- to a steady trickle rather then a huge river of dusts. The same can be said for the decon items, which suits me just fine, there were far too many dropping to begin with.

Sales have been slow. Almost non existent actually. I need to find a niche market again when I get back into the swing of crafting. After grinding to 45 and doing my faction as well as housing quests, I’ve taken a small break from it. We’ll see how it goes!