2009

Oasis Rat Race

If you haven’t been paying attention to the EQ2players web site, you may have missed the announcement about Kiara and Amnerys hosting a rat race on each server for players to partake in. By now most of the servers have had their rat race, but last night it was Oasis’ time to shine, and shine we did! It was an amazing time had by all, and I think that although the crowd was small, they were filled with just as much spirit as every other server. There were prizes given out to everyone who took part (or observed!) and goodies for those who came in first, second, third or fourth place. They were mostly house items, some fire works and the orange halloween robes, fantastic prizes for anyone.

I absolutely love anything that brings a server together like this, and of course have to extend a HUGE thank you to Kiara and Amnerys for hosting the event, as well as the guides who stopped by to ensure that everything got off smoothly (because we know how those two can be). I got to meet Squeecha finally, who may or may not have become the object of many a pillow and snow ball fight afterward.

There are still a few servers that are running their Rat Races so if you haven’t managed to stop by one yet, there’s still time (as long as you have the character slots to create a new character that is). If you did manage to partake in one, how did it go? Isn’t it fantastic that we have these sorts of events?

I’ll be posting more pictures as well as an article on the Beckett forums later today, so be on the look out!

Wandering through Telon

Looking down at Renton Keep, working on the United Races of Thestra (URT) quests that reward some pretty good armor at lower levels. I’ve done these quests a lot, and each time I love them more and more – all except the one that we were working on today that involved hunting invisible mushrooms that simply refused to spawn. I was using my disciple which is a monk healer and a character I haven’t played in a VERY long time. If a disciple is not hitting a mob, typically that means they’re not healing. You have to melee in order for your heals to go off. This is difficult for me, as I’ve become accustomed to staying at range as a healer. Being right in the middle of the combat is breaking years of training to remain ranged.

With our duo we managed to defeat level 18 mobs without too much issue as long as they came alone (two dot) and three dots a level or two higher then us were also dealt with fairly easily. We wiped a few times when (usually do to some bad pathing) we found ourselves with a handful of brownies eager to eat us (how odd does that sound) but dying in Vanguard isn’t as heart wrenching as it once was. You do still need to recover your corpse to pick up the extra gear that’s not currently bound to you, and recover some experience, but you don’t have to do it naked any more.

I spent most of my time mentored from 23 to 13, but Hampooj hit level 14 as a Dread Knight, and we had a blast exploring Telon. Now if we could just find those mushrooms.

Festival of Discord (Nov 1st – 7th)

This is actually the third year I’ve attended the Festival of Discord on the Antonia Bayle server. For those who have never heard of the event before, it’s a player run event (coupled with the Festival of Unity which was earlier this year) run by various guilds on the Antonia Bayle server. It’s a week of events that everyone can partake in. There is roleplay pretty much constantly, and it is a LOT of fun. The past two years have involved GMs to some degree, as they have agreed to set up the fair grounds for the event – this year was absolutely amazing in terms of decorations.

My first year

My Second Year

If you’ve never attended before, you’ll want to take a look at the calendar of events as well as the map of locations on the EQ2 players site. You can also find the guild portal page for more information as well as forums for each event. If you’re looking for the central role play ‘hotspot’ of Antonia Bayle you’ll also want to check out The Town Square, and there’s a page for the Festival of Unity too.

I missed the opening ceremonies, but I did manage to log in along with Hamal to check out some of the events tonight – we started with one called ‘Bit by Bit’ which included slowly slicing up a gnome ratonga dwarf piece by piece while a crowd cheered on. The dwarf was named Augur, and it was pretty amusing to watch him call out to the crowd while he was being picked apart.

The second event was the diving event, held over at Lucan’s Mount.

It’s hard to tell, but in the center of fireworks is a gnome, who I believe combusted on the way down due to fright. Obviously the skeletons looking on from the water below are the contestants who went ahead of him, and you can see those who still have to jump way up there at the top. I had a perfect seat right up front.

After the diving came The Wishing Well, which is where bards and those who think they’re bards tell the crowds poems and stories of their choosing. I was starting to fall asleep by then, despite the Fizzlepop and Cookies that Hamal had purchased for me (there are vendors during the festival wandering around peddling their wares) so I decided to call it a night.

If you’re on the Antonia Bayle server I HIGHLY suggest you check out this event, even to simply wander through the crowds – there were more then 100 people in attendance for this while I was there, and it was incredible. If you’re interested in taking part, be sure to /join festival from the Antonia Bayle server, or if you’re interested in listening to the events going on but you’re not actually on Antonia Bayle, you can always /join antonia_bayle.festival and listen from whichever server you reside on. There are some VERY amusing advertisements that play on the channel and that almost makes it worth it right there.

I intend on going to more of the events as the week progresses, so if you happen to be around, send a tell to Stargrace, or you can /who all torrent and see who is on from Torrent Knights – no guarantee that it’s me, but perhaps whoever is on can help you out. I’ve always been really excited about any player run festival in game, and this one happens to be one of the largest, and the best. I’m still stunned over the fact that I’ve written about it on this site for three years now, hehe.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself! I’ll see you in Norrath.

A Casual Weekend

Yesterday was filled with Halloween goodness, so I didn’t really play all that much. I spent the evening giving out candy to frozen trick or treaters who braved the cold to go door to door, eating some great pizza, and playing Torchlight on the laptop since I was not at my own apartment (we don’t hand out candy at the apartment building, and I wanted to be a part of it this year). When I heard that EQ2 was putting on an event that included random void shards dropping all over Norrath until the 2nd of November, I decided to see about farming some, I need a lot still for my illusionist.

After hours of killing in Crushbone Keep with Hamal and Calreth, we decided it would have been far easier to just go and complete the void shard instances in TSO and actually get a shard, rather then hope one dropped from a chest (which it never did).

I did manage to get my bruiser from 15-36 in an hour or so of game play last night, she was the Oasis character I had level locked at 15 to work on achievements, but now that I have the shadowknight on Antonia Bayle, I decided one level locked character was more then enough.

Since I wasn’t sure how much time I would have, I didn’t get into any Vanguard yesterday, but Wpus did and now that the riftways on the Isle of Dawn are working, he left and inched his way to level 12. From all of his accounts he’s having an absolute blast, and I’m so glad to hear it. I’ve really loved the game and every time I hear that someone else is also enjoying it, I get a little tingle inside.

Hopefully everyone has been having an amazing weekend, no matter where you find yourself!

Torchlight, I gave in

I love reading my RSS in the morning, and watching twitter to see what everyone is up to. Everyone has such unique opinions and ideas, and their game play follows that. Most of the time people are talking about games that I don’t currently play, but I can live vicariously through them and play in a certain manor of speaking.

Everyone has been talking about three RPGs lately that are coming out (or have already come out). If you’re into games at all you’ve probably heard of them, Borderlands, Torchlight, and Dragon Age. If you haven’t, then go look them up!

I’m not a huge fan of science fiction (I know, flay me now) and managed to avoid the calling to Borderlands, but after listening to people talk about Torchlight for the past little while, I decided to get it and give it a try.

There are two major reasons for this in my line of thinking. Number one, the price. It’s only $20 and when most games coming out are $50+ that makes a huge difference to me. I’ve also never really been a huge gamer (I know, another gasp was just heard there) so when people compare this game to others out there, it doesn’t really make a difference to me because I’ve never played those other games before.

The game itself is fun, I like the graphics, and it’s something I can sink into easily without having to worry about holding up a group. It’s a genre I enjoy, and I really like the simplicity of it. I didn’t get to play a great deal last night because by the time I finally made the decision to purchase it was getting late, but my archer (I love ranged attacks) is level 3 and I was having a blast. In fact I spent a good 15-20 minutes at a random fishing hole just because.

Game has a pause button too, which is something I can appreciate on those hectic days.

So if you’ve been on the fence about this game, give it a try. There’s a demo out that you can play if you’re not sure whether or not the game is for you, but for $20, you really can not go wrong.

Sorry this blog post follows so many others out there that have already talked about this game in far more depth then I have, but that’s what I was up to last night, so that’s what I wrote about! Enjoy your Halloween – don’t forget clocks go back an hour early Sunday morning, and happy gaming no matter where you find yourself!