February 27, 2009

Alice the Camel in Telon

I decided to peek into Telon today, it’s been a little while. Not because I don’t adore the game, I always have (even at launch with a billion bugs) but I just don’t have enough hours in a day to do everything I’d like to do. I’m fairly certain that everyone suffers from this. 

Anyhow, the first thing I always do is log in and gate to my house to make sure it’s still standing (hey, I worked HARD on that T5 house!) and add a little more coin to the upkeep. I’ve owned the house since March of 2008, and was pleased to see it still standing. My Christmas tree is still set up in it in fact. One of these days I’ll actually level my carpenter up and be able to add more furniture to the place. 

My characters in Vanguard are all on the Seradon server:

  • Faydai – 44 Half Elf Bloodmage, 47 Artificer (Mineralogy) 
  • Arysh – 18 Kojani Human Warrior, 17 Blacksmith (Weaponsmith)
  • Minxes – 15 Thestran Human Bard, 14 Artificer (Carpenter)
  • Ysandria – 19 High Elf Psionicist, 5 Outfitter (Tailor)
  • Ishbel – 23 Dark Elf Disciple, 23 Outfitter (Leatherworker)
  • Qutey – 14 Raki Paladin, 10 Blacksmith (Armorer) 
  • Petites – 4 Halfling Cleric

As I logged them each in to check sales I noticed something that must have slipped by me in the notes. Vanguard has appearance slots now! Woohoo. Not that I’ve actually used them (yet) but some of my characters (Ysandria in particular) are wearing some massively disgusting gear. I’m looking forward to finding something pretty (which is some times a challenge) to wear over top of her ‘battle’ gear. 

I also noticed that I had a new item I could claim that I’d never seen before. In this item are gem slots, I assume for some sort of attunement. Something else I’d never heard of before. Since my highest character is (at this moment) only level 44, I decided not to claim it yet. I can’t wear it until 50 anyhow. I don’t have the faintest idea how the gem slots work or where I obtain them from but I’m looking forward to figuring it all out. That’s one of the best parts of Vanguard to me, trying to figure it all out and put it together. I don’t have to know everything about the game in order to play it. Eventually I’ll figure it out.

The game was quite busy this morning when I logged in, at 8am EST there was a pick up raid for Jagund looking for 3 more before they’d be full. Players were talking in channels (as always) and even the craft channel was showing signs of life. All things I love to see, especially at 8am on a Friday. 

There have been other changes in game and content released for players, more polishing going on of course. I found it amazing that within the city of Aghram which typically lags me to no end and I barely manage 5fps, I was hitting 50fps even around corners. My house was giving me 180fps, a number I’d never even seen in game before. 

I decided to take things easy and before jumping right back on my bloodmage, took a peek at my second favorite character, which is my psionicist. Looking through her quest journal (and gear) I realized she had never done any of the URT missions (United Races of Thestra), which reward some pretty nice gear at lower levels. I took her to Renton Keep and called for her trusty camel, and set off to spend the morning working on those. It didn’t take very long to get back into my pattern, and since the quests are now green, it took barely any time to complete them. 

I may level up my level 4 cleric who is still on the Isle of Dawn, I really love that starter area. It’s so beautiful and the quest rewards (and gear) are quite astounding. I’ve never really been into the cleric in Vanguard because when I first started playing they were (quite literally) everywhere, so maybe I’ll free up a character slot and create something new. Ah, yes, alt fever, it never quite goes away!

It’s one of those great lazy Fridays that I enjoy even more then the actual weekend, and it’s RAINING out (see that, rain, not snow!) for the first time in a very long time. Sure, tomorrow it’s supposed to be -4F again (-20C) but hey, I’ll take what I can get. 

I hope everyone has a fantastic Friday, and I’ll see you in Norrath Telon, or where ever I happen to wander these days.

A Night Off

Last night my little trio was supposed to head to Lavastorm and continue on with the DoN progression quests – however I wasn’t really in the mood to work on those (it happens) and so I decided to create two alts (one on each account) and play around on those for a little bit. Ultann and Ninga also came to play on alts, and we had a lot of fun. 

I created a gnome paladin so I could do some tinkering (love crafting, so much) and a halfling ranger so I could do some foraging (and have track available and what not). Ninga created a drakkin bard and twinked him out, Ultann had a low level paladin already waiting, so we set off to the top floor of Crescent Reach and killed bats and rats until we were big enough to kill zombie and skeletons, and then moved off to the bear caves. Hot zones don’t start until level 20, and the first one is Stonebrunt which can be difficult to fight in, so we stayed in CR for the time being. By the time my eyes were threatening to close we had reached level 15, which was pretty nice. I’ll probably spend a little time today shopping for some gear and purchasing spells for the two characters, maybe work up some skills. 

Tonight being Friday (woohoo weekend!) We’ll get back to playing the big’uns and continue with our DoN progression. I’m looking forward to earning a few more aa and excited about unlocking the next round of ‘special’ DoN aa that gives 250 health and mana. 

March is just around the corner, and with it the 10th anniversary for EQ. I’m excited to be playing this year, I have to admit. I’ve never really been around for the fabled events, and I know a little bit more about what will be happening since I asked the EQ team in San Diego. What are they? You’ll just have to log into EQ to see!

I hope everyone has an incredible Friday, no matter your game of choice. See you in Norrath (and more then likely Telon for a while today)!

Nomadic Gamer