Hunting Achievements
stargrace 
Calreth and I spent some time in the Shimmering Citadel hunting the elusive Guardian for our Ro achievement this weekend. Thankfully, it didn’t take that long before he made an appearance!
2009
Weekend Gaming for Me
During the week I have very little choice in what games I play. I need to write about certain ones, or I need to prepare for an article, or I need to familiarize myself with it. Where I used to play video games for fun as a hobby, it turned into work, and thus I have been slightly less inclined to play on the weekends because of this. I am sure that would be true for anyone in my position. One thing I’ve done to ‘entice’ myself on weekends to still find the things I love in games is to make sure there are a few around that I play ‘only for me’ and not for work. Dragon Age, Sims 3, the Lord of the Rings Online, and a few other games I have fit into that category.
I spent pretty much all weekend playing Sims 3, and I had so much fun. The game is so involved compared to the older versions, and I giggled and laughed over their antics. I also went out to EBGames (after some groceries and other chores of course) and picked up the latest expansion, World Adventures. I installed it, and then barely touched it because I was still having so much fun completing the goals in the first game.
While I was at EBGames, I also found a collectors edition copy of the Lord of the Rings Online for $10! Wow, what a deal. This comes with the original game, the Mines of Moria expansion, a map, a small bag with ‘the one ring’ inside, a poster, a soundtrack CD, an art book, and a few other goodies. Even though I already have a LoTRO account, I’m tempted to start this second one up and close down my first one (my highest character is level 19, which I am fairly confident I could reach again). Maybe I can find a friend who would like the first account and they won’t have to purchase the game (or Mirkwood, as I’ve already bought that) and they can just take over the billing, who knows.
In any case, it was a great weekend, with lots of gaming but not the usual games I play. I did get some more EQ2 time in, and worked on a few achievements as well as finishing off the Chronomagic quest from Sunday which was Acadachism. I didn’t get the three final aa that I need, nor did I work on NaNoWriMo at all, which means today I’m well behind. Hoping to take care of that as soon as I post this entry.
Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!
A Day Spent Decorating, and Chronomagic Goodies
I absolutely love the little statue replicas of the boss mobs that you can purchase once you’ve completed the daily chronomagic quest. I spent most of yesterday working on my Norrathian museum, I expanded the library so that the shelves are now floor to ceiling, and since SOE gave all homes an extra room in their last big update, I decided to take that and pannel it with wantia, and then add my replicas to that room.
My favorite (so far, since I don’t own them all) is the one pictured above. Well before any of the mobs had that graphic in later expansions, that is the boss from an instance within Fallen Gate. It’s by far the best ‘boss’ graphic I’ve ever seen, and I LOVE fighting this creature. I realize now it shares a graphic with a TSO boss, but the Fallen Gate version is a lot easier (grins).
The chronomagic quest from yesterday also sent Calreth and I off to the Shard of Fear in order to kill Kyr’Tok, who is pictured above on the right. I love how each one of the replicas are so exceptionally detailed, they really did turn out amazing. Maybe it’s silly that I spent an entire day decorating in game instead of raiding or grinding quests, but I still had a blast. The museum is almost at the point now where all I need to do is place artifacts as I obtain them, rather then having to design entire rooms. The basement still needs to be turned into living quarters for Ellithia, but it’s coming along.
As always if you’re interested in checking out the house (and maybe the very expansive player written library I own) please feel free to head to the North Freeport Mage Tower, bottom floor (LoN magical housing) and look for Ellithia on the door. If you’d like to donate to the museum, please just add me to friends and let me know!
As a side note – if anyone out there has a spare griffon tower house item (it came from the live event that took place to build the towers a few years ago) please let me know! I’d be willing to pay 500p+ for one if I could get one. I used to have one but it was sadly lost in transit as I moved servers. Some how I doubt anyone would really be willing to give theirs up, but it’s an important part of Norrathian history that I’d absolutely love to be able to reclaim.
Safe travels, no matter what game you find yourself in!
Achievements and Good Friends
Some how last night the planets aligned and we had a good number of guild mates on – that pretty much never happens these days. Not only were Wpus, Calreth, and Hamal around but the very elusive Tipa made an appearance! We met up with a friend who is doing the 14-day trial of EQ2, and headed to Wailing Caves, on a Friday night it was packed (and is a small zone to begin with) so we quickly changed our minds and headed to Blackburrow. I needed the named Champion in the zone for my Shattered Lands achievement, so we spent some time camping the basement waiting for him to spawn.
Since we were already inadvertently working on achievements, I decided to continue along those lines for the remainder of the evening. With the help of Calreth and Hamal I managed to finish off my Ro achievements (and received some very ugly armor in a crate) as well as my Kingdom of Sky achievements (a nicer crate of clothes for those ones). I’m slowly moving up through my final three aa, but it’s pretty slow. I’m looking forward to feeling as though I’ve “completed” a character. Then of course it’s time to move on to the next character.
I also managed to pick up a few books that I didn’t own yet for my player written library. I want to work on my housing some this weekend, I really don’t like the tables I’ve used as “desks” in the upstairs portion, I think I can build or create something better there. We’ll just have to see!
Hope everyone has an amazing weekend as always! Happy gaming no matter where you find yourself.
Learning the Fine Art of Combat
In my previous post on Fallen Earth I was asked how combat worked, what I thought of it. Since I’m 100% newb when it comes to the combat of Fallen Earth (and similar games) I’m going to talk about it from that perspective. I’ve never played shooting games (which I’ve stated before) and aiming is (at the moment) uncomfortable for me – but I’m getting the hang of it.
The first thing I really had to learn, and I had to learn fast, was how to switch my weapons around during combat. Control 1 and Control 2 will move between the first two weapons, but you’ll want to look at your weapon screen to find out the hot keys for the rest. I can’t remember them off the top of my head. Some times I’d want to start out with a ranged attack, and then move closer to my target. I had one major problem with this and it’s from years of playing nothing but my fantasy based MMOs. I don’t use WASD to move, I use my number pad. I don’t use my mouse for gaming. In Fallen Earth you must adapt and learn how to move with the WASD (and some times q and e) keys. This will save you a LOT of difficult game play later on. If I were used to those keys I wouldn’t have nearly as many issues as I do now. The game works (as I imagine) any shooter game would work. You move your character with your left hand, and you aim and shoot (or aim and smack if you’re using a melee type weapon) with the mouse. The controls are pretty simple, and if you’re already used to them you’re already ahead of me.
A few other things I had to get used to. While you can click and target a mob, you can’t auto attack per say that I can see. You have skills that you can hit before you’re even in combat, and it will cue them for once your actual attacks start. Hitting the center key on the mouse pad causes you to enter (or exit) combat mode, it brings up the little round circle in the center of the screen that indicates where you’re hitting. Once you’ve got a target, the right and left mouse buttons will cause whatever you have equipped to attack whatever you’ve focused your circle on. Of course mobs (and players) don’t stand still, so you’re constantly moving your character around, moving your aiming around, and trying to coordinate all of that to go off together all at once. Again, I’ve never done any of this until I started playing Fallen Earth, so I don’t have years of expertise to back me up. It’s going to take a lot to get used to. I felt better knowing I wasn’t the only one who had to get used to control, as Wpus who was trying out the game with me decided to accidentally blow up the ATV you’re asked to ride in the tutorial. He’s also shot his mount Old Mare a few times. Thank goodness you can repair those.
The combat is fun, a LOT of fun. I enjoy being able to have so much control over my movement, and aiming. I love attacking from range (and cackling gleefully though I’ll deny it if anyone asks) while I walk up to melee range and then taking out my wooden plank to lay a few smacks. So far things have been simple enough that I feel like I’m being eased into it rather then flung head first. The tutorial gets you pretty familiar with the basics, and the first few quests I’ve picked up have helped out a lot. If you’re not a quest person I would highly suggest you try to be one. I’ve spent three hours (roughly) in game, and I’m level 2. There’s so much to see. I squealed like a child when I realized that the pylons surrounding some junk car could actually be moved and toppled over, and rolled down the street. It’s those things that make me want to play more.
Hopefully that explains the very very basics to combat, at least the things I’ve learned so far. I’ll write more about my adventures as soon as I have a little more free time!