Nomadic Gamer

March 2009

Gaming

Adventures in Oceangreen and Happy Birthday EverQuest!

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The screen shot was from a few days ago, but yesterday was another great time in EverQuest. I didn’t get as much done as I’d have liked, but the day in general went fairly well. Before I talk about that though – 

HAPPY 10th BIRTHDAY EVERQUEST

Today marks the 10th anniversary of EverQuest, and I could not be happier. I think it’s fantastic that the game has come so far, I think the players and game developers and Community and everyone involved all deserve big pieces of cake.

My day yesterday was taken up with a mixture of real life things. Lots of pain (ugh) so I kept myself fairly sedated. I went and saw The Watchmen which was not a bad movie even though I (sheepishly) had never even heard of the graphic novel before. I did some groceries, took some pictures and bought a new book (The Hidden City by Michelle West). 

Last night we worked on SoD progression in Oceangreen which was a lot of fun, here’s the progression according to Zam

Oceangreen:

 

  • Revolves around the faction, Cirtan, Bayle’s Herald.
    • Captain Hiran Solo: Familiarity is Key
      • A quick exploration task of Oceangreen Village.
    • Captain Hiran Group #1: Stop the Contamination
      • Kill the invading undead that spawn around the village (a tracker helps).
    • Captain Hiran Group #2: A Dread Challenger
      • Kill some more invading undead that spawn around the village (a tracker helps), including 2 named at the end.

 

 

  •  
    • Raxtor Darkpaw Group #2: Beat the Blackburrow Boss
      • This mission can get bugged if you do to much DPS to the boss. Stop him exactly at 50% health. If you blow through the 50% mark you may not get the task update.

 

 

  • None of the following tasks are required for completion of the Oceangreen theme (Void progression), however, some are prerequisites to the group missions which are required
    • Raxtor Darkpaw Group #1: Freedom!
      • Free some Darkpaw pups from the Blackburrow Gnolls.
    • Sergeant Bronal Cadran #1: Man the Defenses
      • Quick kill of a Magus a short distance south.
    • Sergeant Bronal Cadran #2: No Cure for Death
      • Kill 15 Bertoxxulous Cultists in Oceangreen Village.
    • Darkpaw Camp Solo: Summary Execution
  • Kill 15 regular gnolls and 5 wrext mal gnolls in Old Blackburrow.

We’re currently on the mission Raxtor Darkpaw – but you have to gain access to Blackburrow first and that was where I called it a night to head to bed and get some reading done first. The mission before that – A Dread Challenger – was quite possibly one of the most annoying missions of the day. Ok, so it was in fact the most annoying. Basically you get sent to protect a villager from the minions of Bertox who are invading, and while you may remember doing that the first itme around this time they come faster and there are more of them – not to mention the fact that one named who spawns during the encounter has these two little non-targetable pets that like to chew through pretty much everyone and thing in their way. Which they did, twice. 

In the end we managed to protect most of the villagers though and completed the mission. The enchanter is still inching her way through the levels and the necromancer has enough to almost keep her level finally when dying. 

I’m excited to see what gets added to the game today as far as anniversary goodies go – I still can’t believe EQ has hit it’s 10th year. It’s so amazing.

Gaming

Ding, Necromancer hits 80!

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Well, I may not be at the level cap yet, but I’m slowly inching my way closer! Last night saw us hanging out at our usual Smith camp, and before I knew it I finally hit level 80 with the necromancer! With not quite 9 days played, I’m really happy about this. Of course, she only has 100aa and still has 5 levels to go before hitting the cap, but this brings me significantly closer. Since I’ve already got the necromancer 2.0 that adds another little accomplishment to the list.

The enchanter is not that far behind, sitting part way into level 78 for now. She’s and older character and just for a comparison she’s got 70 days or so played, with 150aa. I’ve had her since I started playing EQ though, and back before hot zones and before leveling was so much easier.

I spent some time working on my tradeskills as well – I finally managed to raise jewel crafting a few more points. I’m trying to decide which skill I want to raise next. There is an amazing craft quest that I want to do – and it requires at least 250 in all skills and I also want to get the aa for each of those crafts so I imagine that’s what I’ll be working on for the next little while. A huge thank you to the folks I’ve been playing with, without our little team of adventurers I wouldn’t have made it as far as I have. Of course having mercenary NPC available helps out a great deal too, that extra healer (or two) is great. Now we want to work through the SoD progression quests in order to unlock the higher level mercenary. The level 85 ones Journeyman RK5 have approx. 30k power – and that would be REALLY nice. The tank mercenary don’t seem to fair as well and they’re a little more difficult to control, but perhaps being able to unlock the higher tiers of those too would help. We’ll just have to see!

Purchasing spells will be another adventure for me, there’s so many that I’m missing because they’re priced so high in the bazaar. Which reminds me, I have a level 80 rogue pet that I need to purchase from Hills of Shade (I believe that’s the zone) some time! My last solo wander through that zone ended up with some undead taking a huge chomp out of me. Thank goodness I have the veteran reward that allows me to re-gain all of my experience, because I lost a good 8% and was 0% into level 80 when it happened. I decided to just stay safe until I can get a buffer in the mean time.

Hope everyone is having an amazing weekend!

Gaming

Ding, 79 Necromancer (and 78 Enchanter)

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Located within the highest icy peaks of the Serpent’s Spine Mountains is the home of the Krithgor, a species of giants which, unlike other giants in Norrath, are intelligent — some even masters of magic. 

Long ago and much to the chagrin of the other gods, Rallos Zek’s creations — the giants, orcs, ogres, and goblins — invaded the Plane of Earth. Among the giants who did not partake in the war was Beltron, the Krithgor king, who died a short time after the war’s end. The most noble of giants marched into Frostcrypt, the giant burial grounds, to lay their king to rest while the remaining giants stayed in their city, Valdeholm. 

That day in Frostcrypt, Rallos Zek committed an atrocity upon his own creations, setting a curse upon them, an event which marked the origin of the Shades of Zek. Now, the mission of the Shades is to end their creator’s curse. In order to accomplish this, they believe, every living Krithgor giant must be slain. To this day, the curse lives on as the Shades of Frostcrypt do battle with the living and fully functioning Wraithguards and citizens of Valdeholm. – Zam.com

Valdeholm has been my “home away from home” for a little while now. It’s the level 70 hot zone, and the experience has been really nice. There are a few camps that people seem to head to by instinct. One is the pit located right at the beginning of the zone. This is a great spot but the pulls can be a little slow if you’ve got a full group. My little trio (complete with boxed enchanter and cleric) typically heads to the Smith which is just down from the North gate. The north gate is typically camped by people who are looking to farm a particular named who drops a nice augment. My group managed to get one almost right away so we haven’t been after any named.

We’ve gotten a lot of spell drops and I’m hoping that my little bazaar mules will make some coin as people return to check out the anniversary events. I noticed that SOE is holding another contest that I can’t partake in because I don’t live in the US. Shame because I’d really love to enter, too. Anyhow, we’ve been grinding out experience in the hot zone and it’s been a lot of fun. Oh, not to mention the fact that my necromancer is level 79, almost level 80! The enchanter is level 78, and heading towards 79. So yes, the experience has been amazing.

When we were tired of that zone we headed to The Mechamatic Guardian, which is a giant robot who wanders along in Dragonscale hills. Typically when you wander in front of this giant robot, he kicks you. It hurts. It hurts bad. However there are also missions you can obtain and when you run up to his right foot while you’re on one of these missions you’ll get the option to either zone in – or be kicked. Who would choose “please kick me” I have no idea.

The experience in these missions is also pretty good, there’s some rare loot, chance at named, and the zone respawns. We haven’t actually completed the missions yet which is fine by me. Being this close to 80 is exceptionally exciting, I’ve never been so close to the level cap before and certainly not in so short of a time period. The grind from 80-85 I know is quite long but I don’t think I’ll mind it in the least bit. 

I’ve been back playing EverQuest for a month now, and it’s been so much fun. I’m looking forward to seeing what other trouble adventures I can get into – rumour has it that fabled starts on Monday, and every day when I listen to the general channel there are a few more people who have come back to the game to see how things are. It’s fantastic (even if I’m not on my ‘home’ server). I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend no matter where you’re gaming. 

Oh, and on a completely unrelated note – I’ve finally updated my ShutterCal account with pictures for the last few months, I had seriously neglected the site and I’m so glad to be back into the swing of things again. You can see my ShutterCal account here, and you’ll find lots of pictures from my trip to San Diego there as well. Safe travels!

Gaming

Want to buy a Vanguard character?

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Sony Online Entertainment has partnered with Live Gamer to provide Vanguard: Saga of Heroes customers with the same exchange system that our EverQuest II customers on The Bazaar and Vox servers enjoy.  Live Gamer exchange provides the security and transparency needed to trade virtual items with confidence, and with the Live Gamer system, participants will be able to both auction and purchase virtual assets (characters, coin, and items) securely and safely and without the risk of the fraudulent activities that plague 3rd party websites that are not authorized by SOE to provide these services.

Participation in Live Gamer exchange is not mandatory or required, but those wishing to participate in this new service must first register an account with www.livegamer.com.  Once registered, you can then utilize the in-game system to upload virtual assets to your Live Gamer account and auction them to others.  You can also use your Live Gamer account to bid on and purchase virtual assets and to send them to your in-game characters / accounts.

Live Gamer is offering an in-game incentive for trying the system out.  Customers that register with Live Gamer within the first two weeks will receive a jewelry box which when opened will offer a choice between one of three items, each targeted towards one of the three key professions.  For more information about this offer, please visit www.livegamer.com after the service has launched.

We will append this post with availability dates for the new service as soon as possible.

For more information on how to set up your Live Gamer account, please visit this link in our Knowledge Base.

The following thread is available for discussion of the new Vanguard Live Gamer Exchange service.

 

I’ve posted my thoughts on RMT and how it affects SOE’s games in particular before – when Station Cash came out. My opinions over all have not changed a great deal. I don’t mind RMT in games that don’t already have a $15 monthly fee. I agree there’s money to be made out there. It’s the wave of the future (or the past depending on how you look at it) and why not. I feel it crosses a ‘greedy’ line when you have both RMT and monthly subscription fees (depending on the items, I don’t mind fluff stuff at all like the gear from station cash and pets – I am on the fence about potions and the rest), and I feel a little more strongly about the Vanguard changes for a few other reasons which I’ll mention below. 

Number one is that there’s no choice for Vanguard players. All servers will be changing towards this Live Gamer partnership and they’re not going to open a new server for it. For those people who have played since beta it’s a sudden change where they have no say in the matter. This is a reality of gaming, should players really even get that much of a say? I’m not really sure. I do know that people hate being forced into something – give them a choice and they’re MUCH more likely to give your idea a shot. 

Number two is that (my opinion remember! Not fact!) I think this will affect the markets in a big way. On one of the most populated servers (Seradon) it’s already hard to find items for sale on the broker. Once this is implemented, why bother putting anything up for sale at all. You can put it on LiveGamer and then just make real life money from it. Or you can play the market even better and purchase everything off of the broker for plat and then sell that on Live Gamer and make yourself a tidy profit. 

I think SOE is doing this as a guinea pig project. Vanguard already has a dwindled community. They (developers) have been working VERY hard to pull it out of the rough. It’s a fantastic game and I’ve enjoyed playing it for the past 2+ years. There’s very rarely been anything bad I’ve personally said about the game. However even with all that, it has a very small population. 

Which makes it perfect to test out new ideas on. If the loyal community of Vanguard deals with the change well, and it’s popular and makes money, then why not push it towards other more popular games. If it doesn’t work well and it’s a huge flop – well, at least it’s only the four servers of Vanguard and not one of the ‘bigger’ games. Harsh words? Maybe, but I don’t think it’s all that far from the truth.

I’ll continue to play, I don’t echo the thoughts of others about the sky falling, but I doubt the game will have the same over all feeling that it has for me right now. A community of amazing people who work really hard to accomplish their goals. I expect an influx of gold sellers making legit accounts to sell their money and yes I expect people to buy from them. This whole RMT thing wouldn’t be such a big hit were there not some sort of market for it out there. 

These sorts of announcements really don’t come as a surprise any more, and it’ll be interesting to see how it goes. 

Can I buy your stuff?

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