2008

I Must Protect the Sultan!

stargrace February 19, 2008 0Comment

Lots of progress made in Vanguard this weekend, and I had a blast doing it. First of all I managed to get level 12 diplomat. I love this sphere of Vanguard, and while at times it seems like brainless grinding, I don’t mind it. I did one of the web quests for Qalia, I have three more to do and they take a huge amount of time. Diplomacy is something (most) people do on their ‘off time’ in between crafting and adventuring, that night where you need a change (or you happen to wander by someone who offers you a diplomacy quest). The chain (if you actually read the parleys, I know a lot of people who do not) was filled with intrigue and murders and backstabbing and plots and all sorts of good stuff. In the end I got a good amount of gear (that can be combined with the items from 3 other web quest chains to form some sort of super armor) and I got a lot of experience as well as some evidence. You need evidence (they’re little scraps of paper, and there’s bunches of types per tier) to turn in to informants. You can get gear from doing this or buff items, or baubles (that can be turned into diplo gear, or are used for player made diplo cards). You need seven hearsay, five rumor, or three evidence before you turn them in. An informant takes them and viola you earn something in return. Diplomacy is also used for guild halls, aside from the tons of raw materials (and the 10p plot you have to buy) you also need close to 1,000 pieces of diplomacy evidence, and 150 baubles. That’s a LOT of parleys. It was one way of integrating the three spheres into game though. You also need diplomacy for APW, which is the one raid dungeon in game. For what exactly, I’m unsure of except zone wide buffs you can stick up. I haven’t learnt much more then that.

Adventure wise, Growlius and I both hit level 21, and we headed to Qalia to work on some Hunters League quests. We had a lot of competition last night which wasn’t so fun, it’s the only down side to doing some quests, the updates do not drop from every mob, and on most occasions only one person gets an update at a time, so you don’t want to do it in a huge group if you don’t have to, other wise you’re killing 5x the amount of stuff you need. Granted you do blow through it faster as well. We’re now sporting very fancy shoulder pieces, which have a fantastic graphic compared to the previous tiers, I’ll stick a screen shot up later.

Crafting, was probably where I made the most progress, and it’s not through actually leveling at all, but from finally figuring out how to create crafting macros. In Vanguard crafting is a series of mouse clicks, it’s not a continuous production like EverQuestII where you have to sit and watch while you craft, you can get up at any point in the craft and go tend to real life (which is nice). It also means a lot of mouse clicking though. Probably at least 40 clicks per combine (and there are sub combines to Vanguard). It can get sore on the wrists. Now, macro’s will not craft for you. That’s not their intention. But they will reduce the amount of clicking you have to do by having a text command for the craft that you can hotkey (or add to your G15 profiler, which is what I do). There are (at my tier of crafting) 5 steps with anywhere from 1-5 sub steps per each step. You also have to place items on your ‘table’ first- the items you’re going to use to craft. I’m restricted to four currently, but the number goes up as you get better at recipes. So I have a macro that will ‘load’ my table for me, instead of having to mouse click each item. I load water, solvent, bandages, that sort of thing. My wrists are so happy. It is also a time saver, it’s quicker to hit a macro to load a table of four items then it is to mouse click each one of those four items. I found fantastic macro’s written up here, and here. I am not typically a macro person, I suck at making them in fact. That’s why this took me so long to figure out. I’m so incredibly happy that I did though. I hit level 18 leatherworker with ease, and hopefully today I’ll be able to get 20 (and maybe even 21, where I can learn how to make barding for mounts, instead of the silly vendor sold saddles). Ideally I’d like my crafting to be 10 levels over my adventure level so that I can make my own gear, but that’s a lofty goal for now.

The GU4 is still highly in debate, I’ve turned off regionsay for the past few days to avoid the mobs of angry people. You can read the notes yourself here and there is a blurb about them here. I’m not ready to call this the end of Vanguard quite yet, we’ll have to see how things pan out. Losing all face customization really hurts though, I doubt I’ll actually wear the helms that they’re implementing. Silius himself (dev) was in the craft channel yesterday afternoon answering questions for people which I thought was great customer service (until the typically quiet and calm craft channel turned into a raging sea of frantic mobsters) and he did hint at some future changes. The largest type of boat is going to be implemented into the game shortly (galleons anyone?) and people questioned what was the point- with flying mounts you don’t need huge deep sea ships. However, Silius hinted at fishing, which will be galleon only – or maybe caravel. Gives people a purpose for all the hard work that goes into those sort of ships. He also mentioned integrating diplomacy into the world more, but wouldn’t explain how. I sent him a tell wondering when (if ever) facial customization will be reinstated (since it was said that over time it would be and I wanted a better idea of ‘how soon’) but got no reply. I assume he was probably swamped though since he did make a broadcast telling people if they had questions to send him tells. All in all, it’s just a matter of time to see what effect the changes will have on the game over all. I’ve copied my character to test (as per request of the devs, who are lacking testers it would appear) there are quite a few characters who are getting revamps in the next update, so it will be interesting to see how it goes, people seem very pleased with the druid revamps.

Now THAT is Customer Service

stargrace February 18, 2008 1Comment

Screen shot is of the Ruins of Trengal Keep, as I’m flying by on a rented griffin. I haven’t ventured inside yet as it’s a group dungeon, but I hear people looking for groups for a series of quests for the area all the time. Apparently the loot is bad but the experience is wonderful. I love the way the air around the ruins is guarded by wyvern who like to smush you out of the air if you get too close.

Vanguard may have a few bugs and graphic glitches, there may be some worry about the games future, but one thing that no one can argue with, is that when it comes to customer service, they are top notch. Honestly, if every game went by the unspoken rule of “we literally can’t afford to upset our customers, so lets put them first” it would do wonders. I’ve dealt with Vanguard’s customer service quite a few times now, and yesterday was no exception. Their petition service is a little crude, just a window that pops up where you type in your issue- and some times it can take a bit of time to hear back from any one (typically within the day though) but I can honestly say I have yet to petition and NOT have my issue resolved.

I’ve petitioned about deleted characters (who were thus restored) I’ve petitioned about broken quests twice now (specifically URT weapon quests, the essences don’t drop and it’s a known issue) and the GM’s have 1. mailed me the pieces I needed, and 2. came to drop them directly into my inventory. Yesterday, I petitioned asking if there was not some chance that a GM could transfer my anniversary bag from one character who I no longer played, to my ‘main’ character. The bag is no trade (of course) and in a few hours time my character was logged into game, and my new main had mail. I went to check it and low and behold, the no trade bag was in the mail (it’s odd, getting no trade items in the mail from yourself when you know you didn’t send anything) thus the petition solved. I was impressed.

How many people think if you claimed your reward in EQII that you could petition and have it switched over to another character? Well, maybe they would do it, but I’d still be skeptical. In Vanguard, I knew they’d move it for me. The GM’s and the services they provide are amazing. Now. I do realize this is probably because 1. They only have 4 servers to deal with as opposed to however many most other mmo’s have, and 2. Their player base is so small right now (it’s not THAT small on my standards, my server is nice and populated, but I can see it being small in comparison to the over all picture) that they just simply can’t afford to give players what they want in regards to a petition. Numerous of my guild mates have petitioned bad quests or lost npc and GM’s have no issues spawning them if they’ve been lost under the world and what not. I realize that those issues should not exist to begin with, but it’s fantastic to know that if such an issue should occur, it will be delt with.

The disciple hit 20, no really new skills but with the URT weapon (which is 2h) she and Growlius are wrecking havoc everywhere. I decided to take a night off from the adventure grind last night (when I hit the 20’s I always run out of areas to quest at and forget where I should go next, I need to find myself a leveling guide) and work on diplomacy. Bought a level 20 mount which was nice, and stuck a few crafted items up on the broker to make some coin. I made my first plat, which is still a HUGE amount of money to me. I know in the states today it’s President’s Day (I believe…) and some folks (but not everyone) have the day off, in Canada it’s Family Day, and most people have the day off as well (but not all). Stores are closed, including grocery and what not, so it’ll be a nice quiet day at home here. I’ll be gone Saturday, Sunday, and Monday to Toronto for that concert, which I am still really looking forward to.

Happy gaming, no matter which world you all play in!

Moving on Up

stargrace February 17, 2008 1Comment

The disciple hit 19 last night, after working on the most annoying quest I’ve ever worked on. Growlius and I were sent to some mines in Misthaven to collect belts from locals, apparently Misthaven had a shortage and if we didn’t agree to this pants everywhere would drop. After killing well over 200 miners, and both of us needing 3 more belts, they suddenly decided to stop dropping. Ok, it wasn’t suddenly at all, nothing is sudden after spending a few hours there diligently working away at the quest. We only needed 15 total. This quest sucked. It’s the first time I’ve actually grown so frustrated with a quest that I finally just gave up. We gated out and maybe we’ll work on it another time. We both got a full level of experience in there, and when you’re only getting .5% a kill that’s just sad.

We also managed to finish the URT chest and leg pieces, so I’m no longer sporting an ugly green breast piece, but a dark purple one. At least it matches my legs. I got a few crafting levels and did some quest in Halgarad that rewarded me with 3 T2 rares. I did this quest on 3 of my crafters, since I could easily gate home and just walk one chunk over. I needed those rares in my first quest for a red item (much like an epic item) which I was ecstatic to get. Sure, it’s a crafting item, but red is red (the only gear higher is purple, much like mythical and there’s only anniversary gifts that are purple).

I couldn’t find the patch notes myself, but apparently people are exceptionally upset over GU4 that’s supposedly up at the end of this month. What I heard over the course of yesterday made me worry for the game. Number one, they’re adding helm graphics. Well, that’s great but very few people are going to walk around wearing helmets. We don’t use them in EQII, they’re not used in WoW, if anything there’s options to turn them off, not mmo’s creating options to turn them on. In direct response to the public getting helmets- they’ve decided to lower the amount of facial combinations you can make. At release, Vanguard boasted one of the most unique character customizations out there, and they had it. Everything from the arch of the eyebrow to the puffiness of the cheeks and the size of the breasts. In order to cut down the work getting helms in was, they’re removing a bunch of the customization. Bad move.

They’re also adding the MUCH anticipated flying mounts. Everyone who’s been playing Vanguard talks about these items, they want them probably more then anything else I have heard about. There are supposedly two being added. One will end in a raid, and the second one is raid only (as in, it can be obtained in a raid only). Now, realize that all my information is second hand from channels and I’m not sure how much actually holds any water, but that just doesn’t sound right. Have they not learned anything from EQII who has both group versions and raid versions of pretty much all their main quest lines now?

Vanguard works like EQ in the fact that content does not trivialize. Sure you won’t get experience any more, there’s a threshold for that, but if you want to go to the ant mine and take down the queen at level 50 (and gank it from a bunch of lowbies who worked really hard to get to that spot) then you’re more then welcome to, and loot the item that comes from the mob, and sell it on the broker or decon the item into a rare resource. Of course plenty of people spend their time farming and hanging out in known named locations specifically for this. So the next update is doing two things. Number one, named (boss) loot will be BoP (bind on pickup) ALL named loot, that is. Secondly, you’ll be unable to decon boss loot.

Hmms. Not exactly a bad change, but it’s the start of a slippery slope. Vanguard’s the closest thing to EQ out there (in game play, not in the way the world looks) and a majority of the people I have come across play VG straight from EQ. If they start changing things too much or continue to head down the slippery slope, they’ll loose those people (and I’ll have to spend even more time then I do now listening about how great EQ was. I KNOW how great it was, I was there!).

They are also changing the way people get dusts. I wasn’t sure of the particulars but it had crafters in a huge huff. Enough so that Silius himself (a crafting dev I imagine, his name is on the mythical craft bags we can claim) stepped into the channel to ask what people were saying. Something about them being mob drop or raid drop only if they were rare I think, instead of being able to decon them (to decon something is just like to transmute, you have the chance to decon for resources, or dust, and have a chance to fail. There’s no skill involved though, and anyone can do it with a vendor sold kit).

Those were the changes I heard most about. Again I haven’t actually seen a list, so I didn’t get to hear about anything GOOD that’s changing to Vanguard. Except the character models are apparently going to be changed in skeleton so that they’re easier to render. When they get that make over VG was promised I’ve no idea.

I’m still having plenty of fun, guild’s going strong, and there’s been absolutely no drama. We have our steady 5-15 people on nightly and I can’t stress enough how great it is to play with them. Even if we’re not a raiding guild. I’m still having a blast, which is important.

Progress is progress is progress.. or something

stargrace February 14, 2008 0Comment

Yesterday I spent most of my game time crafting, which was a nice relaxing way to spend the day. I managed to get from level 1 to 11. I also managed to do a few quests along the way, upgrading some gear which was wonderful. Today I wanted to get the continental quests done, however Vanguard is down for a four hour patch. Apparently they found some ‘bugs’ that needed to get squished asap. Fine by me.

The guild is busy getting ready for the sloop races on the first of march, and I decided I needed a new forum signature for their forums. I don’t spend a whole lot of time chattering but I do every so often. One of the guild members was in an accident and got some hot cinders into his eye so he’s been getting well wishes from everyone. I can’t imagine how painful that would be.

I printed out the complete pdf file of crafter quests (12 pages) and have been glancing through them from time to time to make sure I do the ones that I’m of level to do. Lots of great rewards to be had there. Of course it would help if I didn’t keep getting sidetracked by diplomacy which happens far too often. I’ll be traveling to some outpost, a 15 minute run if that. Find a harvest node, or find a diplomacy quest along the way and suddenly the trip takes an hour and a half and I still haven’t made it there yet. Ah such fun.

Speaking of which I almost stuck up my second buff in Khal today, just before servers came down. With more presence you earn more faction towards the city levers. I had about 80 or so presence with crafters, so it worked out well. It moved me from “newcomer” to “known” which is great. I made a few of the blacksmith diplomacy items as well, which is far nicer then any of the quested gear I’ve gotten thus far. I could use another diplomacy bag (or two, or three) and I have to remember to keep sorting my gear so that I don’t get items that just give stats I already have on the same piece of gear (like the three pairs of pants I had that gave +soldier presence, I kept the highest one and sold the rest).

Other then crafting and diplomacy, game’s been quiet. Hopefully it’s back up and running soon. Everyone enjoy their Valentine’s Day today (I’m still excited about heading to Toronto for mine on the 23rd) and hope it’s filled with love and smooches!

Airborn, and my first civic diplomacy buff!

stargrace February 13, 2008 0Comment

Yes, it’s raining in Kojan, and it’s also night time, or dusk, or something like that, equally dark so that the images are hard to make out. I’m not sure why I always seem to take screen shots in the rain. Anyhow, I needed a quick and easy way to get off of the island my guild hall is located on, and I happened to notice there was a flying mount vendor close by. You can pay 10 silver and ride a flying mount for 10 minutes. I’m flying at 266% run speed which is a nice fast pace to get from one end of the continent to the other (Martok docks, where I could port some place more sane). Flying mounts are amazing. I didn’t enjoy the actual ride of the reindeer they added at Christmas, but the Pegasus is amazing. The ride is smooth and the wings glide and it’s lots of fun to soar in the sky. 10 silver is still a lot of money to me though, so I don’t think I’ll be using this method too often.

The screen shot above is of a diplomacy buff that I actually did, all by myself. I was quite proud, it’s the first city wide buff I’ve ever attempted to do. I was looking for ways to raise my clergy presence since I was stuck in a quest, and I only needed 5 more presence. So I headed to the high elf city (ironic since I play a dark elf) and did some parle battles with the clerics located inside. I found a room of them actually, it was great, made putting the buff up much easier. I can only move the city levers by 1 point right now, so that means I moved the lever 40 points. Yes, it was a lot of parles (40) in order to get there, but I did end up walking away with a whole lot of evidence to turn in for items. Plus I hit level 10 in diplomacy, which was great.

I’ve also managed to pick up a few (three per craft) recipes that crafters get to make diplomacy gear. Another quest required I have 50 presence with arcana (which I did not, 50 is a lot to me at this level still) so I had my artificer make a jade choker, which gives +31 to that presence (and 2 others) and combined with the gear I already had, managed to finish off that quest.

There’s a diplomacy site, but it seems some what out of date, still using skill levels instead of basic levels (when Vanguard first came out diplomacy used skill, like 150, instead of just saying level 3). There’s also no clear walk through like “Diplomacy, 1-50 from A to B” which would be helpful. To tell me where to go to continue raising my diplomacy. As it is now, when I adventure to outposts and the like I just randomly start engaging in parle with people to get my experience. As well as doing the few quest chains I stumble across.

Which reminds me, I finished the Informant’s Valise quest given by Raisoor the Navigator, which gave me a 30 slot diplomacy bag. It’s already completely filled with scraps of paper and diplomacy outfits, but I’d been storing all of that in my 12 slot adventure bags, so I’m exceptionally happy to have it.

The disciple hit level 15 (and part way through) last night playing with Growlius, who hit level 16 dreadknight. Next we’re starting on the URT quests. The guild is busy getting wood and recipes together to make sloops, as we’re having a sloop race on the first of March. I think I’ll just watch that one, I’d probably end up crashing into land knowing me and killing innocent bystanders. Today, working on my crafting, trying to get the leatherworker up during the day before I adventure at night. Crafting is.. slow. Rewarding though.

One thing I’d love to see more mmo’s implement as far as crafting is concerned is work orders. Yes, EQII does have WO’s however. In Vanguard when you do a WO you have a choice to use your own raw supplies, or to use theirs. You always supply the utilities (fuel) but you don’t have to use your own raw materials if you don’t want to. You get a bonus of progress if you do use your own, but this way your harvested materials are used simply for items you’ll actually make / use / sell, and you can make it all the way to 50 without harvesting anything at all (which is also suggested). It’s a great way to level.

Hopefully things are going well with everyone else, too. Tomorrow is Valentine’s day and of course Vanguard has their heart shaped items spread throughout various cities that you can claim for your own home, no quests this year though. Which reminds me, I’ll have to add more parts to my house shortly I think, either that, or at least deposit some more money for rent.

Oh, and completely unrelated, jango rocks. Especially since Pandora started blocking me due to the Canadian IP. I know it’s only a matter of time before this one blocks me too, but in the mean time I’m enjoying it.