2008

Trip Down Memory Lane

stargrace February 2, 2008 1Comment

Out of all the characters I’ve deleted over time, and yes I’ve deleted a few, I’ve managed to keep my very first EverQuestII character, which is the templar. She may have betrayed a few times, but I’ve still managed to keep her around. I found it amusing when I was cleaning out quests from her journal to spot the above quest still burried in there. A heritage quest I picked up in 2005. I have one other quest a few days older then that one, another heritage quest, lost legends. Just as an indication of how much I must have disliked those quests (and how rarely I ended up playing the templar in the end).

After browsing through the active quests, I took a peek at when I completed my very first quests. It was surprising to see that it took me two days to get from level 1-7. I completed my first quest on the isle of refuge – 11/10/2004. Ah good times.

When I first picked up EQII I had no intentions of playing. I was happy in EQ1 doing whatever it was I was doing at the time. Mild raiding and playing with my best friend, who had a troll beastlord. I had a cleric, enchanter (oh how I miss the EQ1 enchanter) and a rogue (SoS was awesome). I haven’t actually checked in to EQ1 in quite some time, but I was thinking of re-installing the game. I haven’t played / bought the last few expansions and have no intentions of it, but it would be nice to see the old places agian.

One thing I really miss about EQ1 vs. EQ2 is the way in EQ2 you can “out grow” zones and areas. They turn grey, making them worthless to re-visit unless you’re an obsessive quester. I realize it was probably to help prevent farming – after all who wants level 80’s killing your level 20 mobs for the loot and gear, but I dislike the method of trivializing areas.

In EQ1 nothing turns grey, so even if you’re max level you can still farm items, names, and areas. You can go back and re-visit them time and time again. You could argue that it’s do-able with the mentor system here in EQ2, but not really to the same extent. I remember killing things in so many old world zones in EQ1 thanks to my bestlord friend, zones I’d have never visited or even known about without his help. I imagine that EQ2 is almost the same way. Most of my ‘new’ characters now start in Gorowyn and quickly level to 20. This means they out level the Commonlands, Antonia, portions of Stormhold, Wailing Caves, Oakmyst Forest, The Forest Ruins, Sunkin City, and various others before even exploring them what so ever. They trivialize. Unless I mentor, or spend time doing gray quests, there’s no reason at all for me to ever set foot in those areas. As more expansions are added and the world grows, it also shrinks.

Anyhow, it was an interesting walk down memory lane. What’s the oldest quest anyone else has in their journals? What was the date you completed your very first EQ2 quest? Feel free to share!

Traveling Through Stormhold

stargrace January 30, 2008 7Comments

I love Stormhold. I think it’s one of those older zones that isn’t used for far too much any more. I remember when it used to be absolutely filled with people doing their dungeon crawls. It doesn’t seem quite so big any more, one or two groups is enough to feel crowded if they’re moving from named to named. There are still quite a few quests that use this zone, as well as a heroic one that rewards in a legendary bow. Remember when the scions used to be epic? Someone would spawn one by clicking the lion heads in the main entrance and BAM suddenly you’ve got an epic on your head chewing you apart. Those were good times. I remember almost at the very start of the game, when you used to be able to group with someone far higher level then you and have them ‘grey out’ zones. My friend managed to agro a scion and he dragged it through the zone on purpose, having it aoe on other travelers. They didn’t look too kindly on him (not that I can blame them) but it was still fun. I died from the aoe’s too, not that I minded, even if I did have to run back for my shard (ah, shards, good times).

Over time, pretty much any ‘difficult’ aspect of the game is toned down. That’s just one example, there are many. Crafting is another that’s been constantly tweaked and changed and adjusted over time to suit the wants of the players (some, players, not all). Speaking of which, Lader clued me in on this post, talking about new crafting cloaks, which yes, I did squeel about. They look like they have nice graphics. I’m all for nice graphics. The mannequins also seem pretty interesting, looking forward to getting a few of those in time. You’ll need 30,000 status with your crafting faction to purchase the recipe, and I know I’m a few away from that, but I’m sure Calreth won’t mind crafting me a few if I’m that impatient.

** Edit** There are crafting EPICS being put into game?! Now that I had no idea about. I knew about regular epic weapons, sure.. but tradeskill ones? Is that what those new cloaks are, epics? Woot!

In game I’ve been restless (again, big surprise I’m sure) and floundering about from character to character, not really sure which I’d rather play more. That was the purpose of closing one of my accounts, to be able to focus slightly. It’s not working.

In real life, we’re having a nice day full of ice and rain and wind. Be careful on the streets you people in Ottawa, it’s slippery.

Lazy Afternoon Projects

stargrace January 29, 2008 7Comments

I love making signatures, they’re a lot of fun. I don’t even have forums that I belong to really aside from the Eq2players one, but I still love creating signatures for my characters. So today while enjoying a nice lazy afternoon (the weather outside is horrid, it’s freezing rain and ice and all that other gross winter stuff that we happen to get here in Ottawa) I decided to create a signature for Ishbel.

I had a lot of fun making it, the tattoo on her neck is the symbol for Innoruuk which I managed to find on the EQ2 wikia, along with brief summaries of each deity. The signature itself is made up of four screen shots, plus three separate text layers. The backgrouns is one screen shot, and has not been manipulated in any way. It’s one of the windows inside of the mage tower in South Qeynos, which is ironic since Ishbel is Freeport aligned. The image of herself I used from a shot in the crafting instance earlier today, touched up her eyes (Ishbel has a strike of red that cuts through her left eye) and her hair, added the tatoo and lightened things up a little from the original. Wanted to keep it fairly simple, so I didn’t add a fancy boarder, the text is kept to a minimum as well. It probably took me two hours from start to finish when all was said and done, but that’s also taking into consideration the amount of time I spent rescuing the cat from pillow attacks (don’t ask) in the living room.

Her hair is a little more blurry then I’d have liked, especially that strand on the left side, but I can’t be bothered to fix it right now, maybe a project for another time when I decide to make another signature, it’s been a while since I’ve made any. I suppose I could stand to make a few more paper dolls as well for the EQ2player profiles. A few of mine are missing (though Ishbel does have one here). Nice to see profiles haven’t been updated in quite some time, it says she’s level 73, she’s actually 77.

In game today things are quiet. I’ve been harvesting (how exciting is that hmms?) for crafting supplies. Late last night I hit 30 carpenter, so it won’t be too long before I’ve caught up to the 35 carpenter on the closed account. As far as crafters go, that leaves me with:

1. 80 Sage
2. 80 Jeweler
3. 80 Provisioner
4. 63 Alchemist
5. 60 Weaponsmith
6. 30 Carpenter
7. N/A Armorer

I haven’t started the armorer quite yet, that’ll be Ysandria’s profession once I get around to starting it. On another good note, the guild hit level 29 last night as I grinded some alchemy writs (woot!). A huge congratulations to Torrent Knights, since there are only 5 members (if that) to the guild, and no one has mains in the guild pretty much, I’m glad we’ve managed to come that far. I’d still like to at least hit 30 for that extra row of bank slots, as well as being able to buy some fancy new clothes from the status merchants, but we’ll get it when we get it.

Epics come out next week (supposedly) and everyone is mighty excited, can’t say I blame them. I won’t be getting mine any time soon, but I’m not sorry about that, the mad rush of folks working on them I’m sure would be enough to make me pause and wait anyhow.

Oh, and Tipa, if you’re reading this, fix your site! We’re (the readers) getting restless waiting for it to come back online, hope you got my email about it!

Home to Freeport (again)

stargrace January 28, 2008 4Comments

Yamini just wasn’t suited to Qeynos. Every day she heard “have you ever seen a gnoll before?!” she had to resist the urge of throttling the little twerp who irked her. So it was that I decided to move her back to the comforts of Freeport, where she could lurk in alleys and steal pie from window sills all she wanted. It’s not like she hasn’t already betrayed before, numerous times in fact. Yamini is my second character that I ever made on EQ2, and she’s only level 53 with 37aa. I made her shortly after Dasie my templar, who’s also a halfling, go figure.

She did the old school betrayal quest at level 14 where she was cast from Qeynos and lost her shard (ah, the good ‘ol days) and became an assassin, then not too long ago she went back to Qeynos, embracing the ways of the ranger, until yesterday where she’d had enough and went back to an assassin. A friend asked me if there were any characters aside from the new monk who I had not betrayed, and I had to answer honestly- no, I’ve betrayed them all. Tipa asked the question of how many had only been betrayed once, which was a clearer answer, two have betrayed once. The druid I have, and dasie, who only made the trek to inquisitor once before I’d decided the class was simply not for me.

I like the versatility of being able to betray back and forth even though I absolutely hate having to work the faction up afterwards. It wasn’t so bad this time around, I choose to wander through Neriak and do the quests there instead of my usual sneaking into Qeynos method. It would have gone by a lot faster were it not for the sudden influx I saw of people who were also moving onto greener pastures in Freeport. At least 4 people also sported “the exiled” as titles to their name, a permanent fixture until you finish pledging your allegiance to your new home town.

Once I’d finished getting her all settled I made for Freeport, did the citizenship quest over there, and bought her a (mostly) empty house to stuff her potions and poisons in. Oh yes, of course she’s a crafter. 53 assassin, but 62 alchemist. It comes in handy to use her own crafted poisons with all the adept3’s I make and dusts I have kicking around for use. Not to mention it can be quite profitable when I actually get into a crafting mood (which I have not, lately).

I spent quite a few plat upgrading her skills, buying the new home, and getting settled. Browsing through her quest journal I noticed she’d completed 6 heritage quests, but not missing mask, which is typically an essential HQ for all my characters, as I love popping into dark elf form. So once servers come back up I imagine that’s what I’ll set off to accomplish, not to mention the guild is quite close to level 29, and I’d love to see us push for 30. We’ll see how it goes. Cordanim mentioned he was going to be doing some crafting, so hopefully he’ll be pounding out a few writs as well *nudge nudge*.

Other then that, and making fun of some roleplaying tactics, I had a blast talking to Tipa about her WoW rp days. They sounded amusing to say the least. I wish I had known her when I was playing the game.

I’ve Said it Before, but Thank You.

stargrace January 27, 2008 1Comment

I know I’ve mentioned it from time to time, but probably not enough. I write because I enjoy doing it, and there’s no better reason for me. So when I get a comment or a mail in game from a reader, it always brightens my day exceptionally. I don’t expect to hear from anyone, but to those who read, thank you. I’ve met so many wonderful people, from both the blogger community and the readers. Everyone likes to know that they’re doing good, everyone likes to be praised, even if they don’t outright seek it.

So again thank you, to writers and readers alike. It’s nice to have a little space on the web to be able to vent frustrations or share joys about a game that plenty of us have in common, and form communities from it. EverQuest is all about our own epic stories after all, and I’m thankful for having such a wonderful bunch of people around to share mine with.

Oy. Enough with the sappy stuff now eh?