Nomadic Gamer

2009

Gaming

Level 10 (almost) – More Impressions

stargrace 6Comments

On the advice of a few comments from my previous post about initial AoC impressions, I decided to remake a character on the Rp-PvP server (thanks for the suggestion) and I also remade as a Stygian Herald of Xotli. I love helpful comments where the people commenting don’t rip into me for not instantly loving their game but offer me useful and helpful suggestions that may make the game (or trial of it) a little more enjoyable if I’m on the fence. Everyone has their opinion, and everyone is entitled to it – but if you’re going to act rude and insult me as a gamer for having a different opinion and play style, it’s the wrong way to get me playing a game. As a side note, telling me what sort of gamer I am and judging me based on this web site is also the wrong way to go about things. This site is a small glimpse into my play style, thoughts, and opinions. There’s plenty more that doesn’t get mentioned here or that you simply don’t see unless you’re gaming beside me. Sorry for the rant!

Onward!

The beginning was much the same. Find myself on a beach, free a maiden (if she can be called that) dangling from some bonds, lead her to Tortage and then speak with Turach to free myself of my bonds. Head to the Thirsty Dog, and begin the quest line there. Off for a boat ride to an island after speak with some npc and meander around slaying crocodiles and panthers while I search for another npc. The story is quite interesting – or at least it was once I got past the parts that I’d already played through with the first character. 

I do enjoy the combat – but I’m also used to 7 years of playing a caster or healer. That’s not to say I don’t enjoy melee combat on some small level but it’s certainly not my favorite. The way AoC combat swivels (I’m unsure of how else to describe it) is great. I also LOVE the music. It’s scary and as the snow falls outside today and it’s dark and dreary, I felt immersed in the game. It was nice to hear new music, that I hadn’t already heard before. 

The Herald of Xotli is interesting, it can take on the form of creatures and gets some spells along with melee, which suits me just fine. One bug with this class (and it’s a small bug but it’s one none the less) that bothers me every time is that as you shift from your monster form (which only lasts a number of seconds) back to your regular form – your character goes bald. 

Now, I know this is just a graphic glitch and each time you enter or leave an instance it fixes itself (until you use your monster form again) and I apologize if it’s silly – but – I don’t enjoy being a bald character. 

I continued to work through the quest line – and noticed that trial accounts are indeed flagged with one channel. I think this was a poor option, how am I able to judge what a server is like if I can’t even see regular conversation. Instead we have a trial channel – and of course the main discussion for the majority of the day was WoW vs. AoC. It (understandably) went downhill from there. 

Eventually, I managed to level most of the way to 10 – after becoming a minion subject of Mithrelle and bringing her some eyeballs, a lotus flower, and a trinket to prove myself and then heading to another instance to deal with a slave trader. The zones look very nice, I still haven’t gotten the grasp of climbing yet, but that will come. I only had one quest left and  my quest was flagged as level 10. It told me to visit a trainer. Except I wasn’t level 10 yet. I figured, no problem. I’ll go back to the lava instance and kill some things there to gain the last 25% or so I needed. Except since I wasn’t on the quest, the instance wasn’t an option. Nor was the boat that headed to the island near the beginning. The only creatures I could find were level 5 and barely granted me any experience at all. A few panthers, some scorpion, a few men who dotted the hill side. I must be missing something to get that final level. I figured it was as good a place as any to stop for now, so that’s where I stand.

I’m not a blood and guts type of gal. I do enjoy PvP, I do enjoy questing, and yes all those little sides that AoC doesn’t provide (or doesn’t provide right now – ie: crafting) typically make or break a game for me – simply because I have the time to play and devote to all of these other little facets. Much like WAR when I played, I don’t want to spend all of my time doing one thing. I don’t want to just pvp all of the time or just quest all of the time (typically they are linked on a pvp server). This is why the games I do play end up holding me. It’s the option of other things for me to do in game – and not just what someone else thinks I should do, but what I personally feel like doing which is never the same as what everyone else wants to do and that’s a GOOD thing because diversity in games and gaming style help make games what they are today. 

That’s right, I said it. I don’t like the same games as other people and they don’t like the same games I like, and THAT IS OK! It doesn’t make them bad people, or me. It simply makes us different. I wish more people would stop trying to argue why they think their game rocks and other games suck – when some times all it comes down to is a simple matter of opinion and no wrong or right answer. 

I still have a few more days on my trial, and I do plan on playing more. I don’t hate the game, I don’t even dislike it. To take the quote of Dlanger in his comments: 

” If you’re looking for something innovative and different, you won’t find it in AoC. But if you enjoy the lore of Conan at all, or are interested in seeing new places and killing new beasts, then AoC provides plenty of that.”

It won’t draw me away from the games I’m playing as my ‘main’ games (EQ2 / LotRO) but it certainly is fun to give it a try and see first hand what others are talking about.

Gaming

Lets Try Something “New”

stargrace 0Comment

Yesterday was great. It started off with me puttering around in game, getting familiar with my housing projects and wondering where I wanted to go next with them. So many characters with unfinished or out dated homes. Then I tried to remember what characters I have where in game – and for me this is no easy feat. I’ve been playing fairly steady (with breaks might I add) for over five years now. I have two accounts, and one used to have station access so I’ve got 12 characters on it. I’m also spread across four servers (which I would change if a free server transfer was ever implemented again, but with the character transfer service (automated version) being down for close to a year – I don’t see it happening any time soon). 

I actually drew a little chart of what characters I have where on which accounts. It was fun, I’d forgotten about some which is easy to do when you have 19.

Before too long Wpus and Ultann were in game, eager to do something. First stop? Obelisk, the one in Moors that we’ve been doing. We only had one death, it was a really smooth run. I know it can be done with no deaths but remember we’re not raid geared and there’s only three of us doing these things! I was hoping that perhaps the healer shield would drop, but I’m beginning to think every time I enter the zone SOE removes it from the loot table. We did each get 4p though from the ‘coin’ chest in the room with the electric balls, which was great. 

Afterwards I was at a little bit of an impasse. I took a break and eventually ended up creating a fury to play along with Wpus’ new Berserker. At that exact time, Ultann came back from dinner so instead of playing alts I decided we’d do something completely different. Something we’ve never done before – at least not in a very long time.

I decided the trio would head to The Laboratory of Lord Vyemm and attempt to ‘raid’ the zone as three people instead of 24. Sounds like a mission ending in lots of debt, right? Well, probably. We only had an hour to waste, so I knew we wouldn’t be clearing it. I’ve posted before about how much I enjoy pushing the envelope with certain encounters, doing things a different way or just plain exploring. I remember doing labs with full raid forces and wiping to things, it brings back fond memories. I hadn’t been there in a while, and I really dislike the fact that we can out level content in EQ2 and thus it remains barren, so off we went.

We actually didn’t do too badly. I remember when we used to raid it, if the main tank got the trama on him (debilitating strike I believe it’s called) his mitigation would drop and so would he. It was *essential* that we cure it as soon as possible. At level 80,  it still needs to be cured but it’s not as bad as I once remembered it being. Trash fell and before too long we were staring at the first named. It’s the one to the left as you come down that first set of stairs. 

We wiped to him once because he pummeled us all with a frontal AoE on incoming but brushed ourselves off and attempted the droag again. I was hoping some random relic would drop from trash, but we didn’t have that sort of luck. We DID however, manage to kill him! He dropped some scout fabled pants that none of us had alts who could use, I won the roll and later sold them to the vendor for 1p. We continued down to the forge room, and after we cleared it we took on the 2nd named, who was far easier then the first. A nice fabled hammer dropped, with a pretty particle effect. Of no use now but since weapons can have appearance slots (and shields) it was still nice to see it. 

Ultann had to leave shortly after we downed the 2nd named, so we called it a night. I was happy that we’d done something completely different that used to be so difficult. I still wish we couldn’t out level zones so that we’d have more of a reason to go back to older content (ie: going back to do EQ gods) but it satisfied that craving at least in some small way. 

I hope everyone else had an amazing Sunday!

Gaming

Obelisk of Ahkzul, and Vault of Eternal Sleep

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When EQ had it’s 10th anniversary, for the week you could claim free LoN (Legends of Norrath) loot cards in either EQ or EQ2. For the first portion of the week I was claiming them in EQ, and then switched over to EQ2 when the void vision goggles came out, and then the next day it was the awesome parrot that you see sitting on my mystic’s shoulder in the screen shot above (which turned out really nice, I have to admit). I had planned on doing some questing in Lavastorm for the evening – but had a really nice surprise when Ultann decided to re-activate his EQ2 account. So of course I decide that the group is going to jump right into things, and we head to the Moors of Ykesha to attempt the Obelisk of Ahkzul with just the three of us (and me boxing the coercer). It’s only been a month and a half since we started playing EQ fairly regularly rather then EQ2, and we did pretty well. The new threat meter is amazing and everyone loves it. I adore the fact that you can now auto follow on the Z axis. 

I’ve been playing on the highest settings I can put my computer at and still function, which is one below max. The game looks so incredible to me. I did turn down the number of spell particles I see simply because when you have so many turned on encounters start looking like masses of particle effects and nothing more. I can’t see the mobs or where they’re positioned or know if I’m about to die to a giant AoE frontal. 

We died once in the ‘ball room’ but it was just us being rusty. The second attempt was flawless, and we managed to get a chest with 14p in it. Those chests are nice when you do the instance in a group of three. I had my fingers crossed that the final encounter would drop the healer shield I’ve longed for since day one – but alas, my luck in EQ2 is pretty non-existant, and nothing of use dropped. On the plus side, void shards WERE introduced to this zone finally, so we each gained one more to add to the pile by the end. 

Afterwards we decided to head to Vault of Eternal Sleep in Jarsath Wastes to try (for the 101st time) for the praetor’s guard for Wpus, the conjuror. Ever since we found out we can trio this zone, we’ve attempted to get the guard to drop. Every time, we had no drop. The zone is fairly easy to complete, we rarely ever die. The adds spawned, I mez’d them while still attempting to heal (Wpus catches them with root so I have a little leeway) and down the final boss went. 

A master chest!

Now, there are two fabled (maybe more) that can drop here. There are a pair of pants that no one in the group would use – along with the mage item. FINALLY the guard dropped, now we just need to get one for my coercer. Groan.

I started having ISP issues (again) shortly after that, so when I disconnected I called it a night and headed to bed. I had a blast though. It was great to be back in Norrath 2.0 and even better to enjoy the evening with some great friends. I hope everyone else had a fantastic evening, no matter where you spent it!

See you in Norrath!

Gaming

First Impressions – Age of Conan

stargrace 6Comments

I decided to go ahead with the 7-day trial of Age of Conan from MMORPG.com because it came with three free items and I had no idea how long it would be available. Since the game is pretty cheap ($20) if I liked it I could pick it up, and if I didn’t, well. Nothing lost and at least I could say I’ve played it. I haven’t played long enough to make any solid opinions quite yet, but here’s what I think thus far.

First of all, even with the new video card, it took a lot of tweaking to get it looking good at all. Everything was very jagged and looked very one dimensional to start. I couldn’t figure out what it was because a lot of people I know had ranted and raved about the amazing graphics. Perhaps they meant the gore looked good – and that’s not what draws me into a game, so that won’t want to keep me playing. After fiddling around I nudged some settings and have it playing at a relatively good quality. At least it doesn’t look quite so jagged (and no, I don’t have DX10 on my PC, just my laptop). 

I enjoyed the character customization. I like the idea of being able to add scars to a character, after all for the most part these are adventurers. Why would they have flawless skin. Or hey even if they’re a crafter why not be allowed to add soot to their cheek or dust speckles or any other number of little ‘quirks’ that define a character as yours. These add to the story of the character, and they’re a huge part of how players can ‘connect’ to their character. For example, my Ellithia pictured above has bear scars all along her upper right side. How did they get there, what was she doing? So many stories I could come up with for them, from the obvious to the outrageous. I love things like this. 

Questing is – still questing. Except at least it’s (sort of) multiple choice in your responses. It’s nice to (almost) think I have a say in the answers, even if they all lead towards the exact same end goal. I think that the quest journal and markers on the map are the new ‘standard’ for questing, with directions pointing players in the right place, clearly labeled. I’m not sure if this is optional or not, but I enjoy the markers. It’s the same method I’ve seen in WAR, and LotRO. EQ2 has this to a lesser degree, you can’t see markers until you approach the proper area. 

Right now I’m a level 6 Aquilonian Priest of Mitra. I just freed a slave girl and helped her escape to the City of Tortage. Turach helped free me of my slave bonds, and I’m working on a destiny line – s0lo. I enjoy being able to have the option of doing things solo if that’s how I’m playing. It puts me in my own instanced version of the city – AT NIGHT. Sounds like I should make a coffee table book. “Tortage – At NIGHT.” Now, I realize that the opening to a game is hardly basis to decide whether or not the game is a keeper since everyone knows those are the crutial times to try to get players to instantly fall in love with your game, but by this point I’ve at least seen what I like – and what I don’t like. 

What I haven’t seen yet is why this game is any different then any other game out there – aside from the blood and gore (and breasts). I don’t know if I expect to see that by level 6 or not, maybe I’m asking too much. Keep in mind I still know relatively little about the game. I DO enjoy combat a great deal, I like the way I actually feel involved in the fight, dodging and swiviling around, pivoting and all the rest. It looks (and feels) like combat, and I do enjoy that. 

Those are my impressions over all – with so many other games out there that I’m already playing, I doubt this will make it to the line up – but I’m still having a relatively good time with it, and I’m glad I decided to try it out.

Gaming

Unlikely Companions

stargrace 2Comments

The trio stood together in the Wailing Caves, which had been home to Lord Ree for a number of years now. His patrollers stood no match for the conjuror, coercer, and assassin as they made their way through the dark tunnels. The orcs were not the only ones to inhabit this area, it was home to other foul creatures with too much time on their hands. Was it some sort of twisted fate that saw these three adventurers gather together at the exact same time in the exact same place? They were after all, strangers to one another. Whatever had caused the phenomenon, it would be remembered by those who visited the caves that day for some years to come. 

Finally had some time to play EQ2 last night (woohoo) and since I’ve popped in and out of the game the last little while, I was at least (some what) refreshed on what I had planned for my characters. First, was trying to get my (2nd) coercer to level 80. Right now she’s sitting at level 78, and part way into it thanks to a few shard runs last night. It was interesting to see if I had forgotten how to complete the instances, but they seemed to go smooth enough. We completed all of the ones in the Commonlands, gaining three shards. That brings the mystic’s collection (since she already owns three pieces of T1 and two pieces of T2) to a whole 6 – I have a ways to go. The coercer is currently holding on to 19 shards – since she’s not level 80 yet I haven’t bothered to make anything with hers. Who knows what sort of gear she’ll be wearing by then and what I’ll actually want to upgrade (or not).

I decided it would probably be easier (and more fun) to get to level 80 by leveling up an alt and mentoring then it would be by questing. My reasoning is that the coercer receives 50% bonus experience due to the number of level 80’s already on the account. Grinding experience even at the low levels of 1-20 netted me about 10% in two hours. Now – I know that may seem horrible, but the higher up (closer in levels) the alt becomes, the more experience I’ll gain for mentoring. It’s an interesting experiment in any case. Though now that my alt is level 20 I’m contemplating deleting and creating a different class. I know, so indecisive!

I contemplated heading to Lavastorm to complete the new quests there – but – imagined it would be fairly busy, and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to deal with that again right now. 

Short term goals? Getting the (2nd) coercer to 80, working on void shard gear, and crafting (my 2nd carpenter is only level 38 – go figure it’s the coercer, my 1st carpenter who is already 80 is also a coercer. On another server though). 

Long term goals? Working on epics (still haven’t bothered getting the mystic’s completed), upgrading spells, and playing alts (as always).

I hope everyone has a fantastic Saturday, I’ll see you in Norrath!

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