February 2011

Boxing My Way Through North Ro #EQ

stargrace February 23, 2011 1Comment

As I mentioned yesterday, I’ve been boxing in EQ (if you’ve got no idea what this means, it means I’m running two games of EQ, with two separate accounts at the same time). Wilhelm over at The Ancient Gaming Noob suggested that I make a post about boxing for people who may not be used to it or have never done it before. I believe I’ve made a post or two about it in the past, but after 6 years of posts I have no idea where it would be, and a refresher is always good. To start off, I box on one computer, but I do have two monitors. You don’t need two monitors in order to box, in fact for the longest time even with two I just stuck to a single screen because it’s simply what I was used to. I had one major issue with loading up two accounts of EQ and that was when I would be on the main screen, the 2nd instance running would be incredibly lagged in FPS, making things like auto follow simply not work. I’m running a pretty good computer (i7 with 8 gigs of ram, and two crossfired ATI cards etc) but no matter what setting I had whichever screen I was not currently on, would lag.

So I use a program that allows me to run two instances (separate accounts as always) windowed without any issues. It’s not a hack program or anything that goes against the EULA, it just lets me play the game in proper (resizeable) windows. You can get it here, it’s called WinEQ, you may have heard of it before. There’s a newer version called ISBox I believe, but I haven’t looked into it at all. While running the game through WinEQ none of my windows lag, and it keeps my monitor nice and tidy. I typically drag the screens off so I’m playing side by side, but you could even four box if you want, with windows on each corner of your screen and not over lapping.

The next decision I always make is *what* to box, and who will be the “main” I am playing as opposed to the boxed character. In my case right now, the cleric is my box, and my enchanter is my main. Even though for all intents and purposes the cleric is my main when I am not boxing (does that even make sense). I load the enchanter up on my main monitor, the cleric up on the second. The cleric has some hotkeys that makes playing her a little easier, each heal is followed by the sit command because there are no mounts in game at the moment. I have hotkeys to target my characters as well as their pets because I tend to park her outside of group (in EQ you can follow someone then disband the group and still be following them).  An assist key is essential as well.

I always suggest boxing a character that doesn’t require a whole lot of attention. A druid for spot heals and snares, an enchanter for tash / buffs / mez when required / lull (along with a mage or even a rogue), a cleric, etc. What you don’t want unless you’re REALLY into boxing (remember, this guide is for beginners) is two melee classes playing together. Positioning each one every time you have a mob show up is a pain and a waste of time. Casters make fantastic boxes, and like I said ideally something that requires very little attention. A bard + healer type would be fantastic, with the bard being the main and the healer type the box.

The toughest part is finding a camp. Once you’ve found one you can simply park the box and proceed to pull, tabbing (or mousing over) to the 2nd account when you need a heal or other buff. If you join a group be sure to let the others know that you’re boxing because in emergencies you will act differently then your class may other wise. For example while I am boxing a healer and an enchanter, during a mad rush of mobs it would be difficult for me to secure heals plus mez the adds. That’s not to say I haven’t done it before, I have, but if things are REALLY bad your response will be slow because you’re trying to do everything at once.

I know there are programs you can use that will allow you to do everything easier but I’ve never felt a need for any of that. If you can’t box the old fashioned way you probably shouldn’t be boxing.

I’ve boxed in EQ and EQ2 fairly constantly over the last 8 years because I find myself craving that sort of complexity, other times I’m just not in the mood to pay attention to two accounts. It takes a month or two of steady boxing to finally hit a comfort zone and the best advice I can offer is to just stick with it and do it alone first before you start grouping too much. If you have any other questions or comments please feel free to let me know below!

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

Adventures on Fippy Darkpaw – Day 3-4 #EQ

stargrace February 22, 2011 3Comments

I just want to set the record straight for a few people out there who may not really understand what all the hype these days is about the newest EQ progression server. From my perspective, (not saying this is the same for everyone, although I’m sure there are some others who share my opinion) the point of going back to this 12 year old game and re-experiencing the content is NOT because we all want things to be harder. That being said, as soon as we ‘discover’ just how hard it is, we’re not suddenly giving up. The point of this whole experiment (at least for myself) is to experience the COMMUNITY for what it used to be.

An example. I spent this weekend in at least 6 different groups, meeting 30 different people (most of them quite nice). We sat at our respective camps while rangers pulled and warriors tanked, talking about everything under the sun because in EQ you’re not constantly button smashing. You have time to get to know who you’re grouped with in between your pulls. If you really want a true EQ experience you’ll look for a group every chance you get, and when that doesn’t work you’ll start a group yourself. I spent the first part of my weekend in Misty Thicket working on getting the cleric back to level 10 where the druid was sitting. Thanks to numerous Orc groups it wasn’t that long before I reached it. After hitting level 10 Ninga and I decided it was time to see more of the world (and what a very crowded world it is right now) so we headed first to Freeport to bind ourselves there (not wanting to walk across Kithicor forest again due to a death) and from there we headed to the desert of Ro.

We attempted to duo some things while we were LFG – but zombies, madmen, and other nasty critters were only too eager to make the experience a memorable one as they seemed to flank us on all sides. After running a few times down to South Ro we finally got into a group with a druid and a necromancer, and were quickly joined by another monk and a shaman. We set up camp in the desert up against a wall, which is where we saw everyone else (all along the wall) doing similar, then pulling to the camp. Ruins also work great, in EQ you always need a ‘home base’ wandering around from mob to mob is typically a bad idea. It didn’t take long, an hour or two and I managed to inch my way to level 11 which grants me my first ‘real’ hitpoint buff, symbol. I haven’t checked if it takes a reagent yet, but I bet it does. I probably can’t afford it, either.

I’m having so much fun playing EQ again that I’ve decided to keep playing it as my main game. I won’t be playing Rift at release, instead I’ve activated my 2nd EQ account, and I’m going to be boxing an enchanter along with my cleric and I’ve managed to convince Ninga to keep playing (not that I had to convince very hard). If you want to group up please feel free to add Velours to your friends list, and /join twitterchat to see who is around (you can /list # to see the specific people in a channel). Keep in mind you can also join this channel from EQ2 (or Vanguard) by /join eq.fippy.twitterchat.

Today marks the first ‘real’ day of the server – it’s the first day where free accounts are not enabled. I’m expecting the population to decrease but from what I saw on channels there should still be a healthy amount of players. A good number of them said that they would be subscribing and continue to play – at least until the expansion that “killed it all” for them which ranged from a few different ones.

I think if SOE plays its cards right and gave two free weeks every time the server releases a new expansion it could be a very good thing. Speaking of progression last night the server witnessed its first Nagafen kill as well as Lady Vox. That is probably the only down side to playing on a progression server, I’m unsure of whether or not I’ll get to partake in any old school raids until they are also old school on the progression server. I’m going to try, but we’ll just have to see.

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

Adventures on Fippy Darkpaw – Day 2 #EQ

stargrace February 20, 2011 0Comment

Thanks to some very active grouping Sunday morning my druid hit level 10. Experience is pretty fast – as long as you group up. In fact that’s key to the game especially on this progression server where experience is even slower then the original. Level 10 meant Spirit of the Wolf, which is great. Level 7 was thorns and I felt pretty good. Except in the back of my mind I had this nagging itch. See, my druid was spending pretty much ALL of her time healing. Don’t get me wrong, this is something I enjoy a huge amount and something I’m quite good at. If I wanted to REALLY be a healer though I should have rolled a cleric.

This thought nagged at me all morning long, and so finally after reaching 10 on the druid I decided to create my first alt, a halfling cleric by the name of Velours. She’s now level 6 after another romp through Misty Thicket running from wasps and beetles (pictured above, fleeing). After a day of adventuring I managed to gather almost 100 bat wings and turned those into 13 crunchies (I realize the skill ups are poor when it’s trivial at 46, but purchasing frosting was pretty cheap and the combine was easy so I went with it anyhow.

I also got my tailoring to 30, making silk thread and swatches and then tattered gear as well as some padded gear which I am now sporting. I’ve banked pelts for when research finally becomes available (it’s currently removed / bugged) and I even managed to make a small bag in my tailoring attempts yesterday. I expect the numbers of players to go down drastically today since it marks the first day of ‘no more free’ accounts but I’m really hoping to still find it active. We’ll see I suppose.

I saw a lot of great twitter friends / bloggers in the /join twitterchat channel last night, including Vikund from TAGN, Zoltoon from Ark’s Ark, 4robertanderson, and Wiqd.

Before I recreated my cleric as another halfling, I tried out a dark elf. I managed to ding level 2 without ever killing anything by doing a quest located in Neriak 3rd Gate at the Rogue guild. It’s simple and cheap to do and granted me 4% xp each turn in as well as enough silver to cover the cost of the components I was buying off of a vendor. Basically you tell the rogue npc that you are a new rogue, and he gives you a container. You combine 3 snake fangs and 3 snake scales, and turn the combined bag in to him for some silver. The first time through I mentioned an ebon shield, and he gave me that as a reward first. Then sporting my new gear I proceeded to gather coin rewards. I purchased enough snake fangs and scales for about 30 turn ins – ultimately I decided to re-create in the end because I just didn’t want to play a dark elf.

I’m looking forward to getting OUT of Misty Thicket and heading some place new. There are already a LOT of level 50’s on Fippy as well as those in every other level range, so the lower level areas are clearing out a little.

I’ve been having so much fun exploring EQ again that I’ve decided to make it my main game for as long as possible. That means for as long as I can still find groups and the server is still active. Am I crazy for choosing a 12 year old game over anything new and shiny right now? Maybe. But you know what, I’m not going to get the opportunity to go back forever and some of my fondest memories come from this game. Why not enjoy it while I am excited about it and I have the chance.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Adventures on Fippy Darkpaw – Day 1 #EQ

stargrace February 19, 2011 2Comments

Misty Thicket, home to – well. These days? Corpses. Lots and lots of corpses. I don’t even know why there are so many of them but I’m certainly not surprised that there’s an incredible amount of wild life around, I mean look at all the fresh food just falling right in front of them. This is where I found myself today. Starting out as a halfling druid by the name of Pumpkin, I was joined by Ninga from Freeport. I won’t even get into his adventure of getting to Misty Thicket because quite honestly I have no idea how you walk from point A to point B. That’s because when I first started playing EQ, Plane of Knowledge was already in full swing, and along with it all of those nice little rows of stones that told you how to get everywhere your little heart desired.

I started playing EQ in 2002, years behind when it had first released. All of those stories about setting up shop in the tunnels before there was a bazaar? I’ve heard them and never actually experienced them. That’s why I’m playing. Besides the fact that I hear everyone say over and over again “you can never go back” – I don’t believe that. This is my chance to go back. Will it be exactly the same was it once was? No of course not but I’m going to give it my best shot.

It took a little bit of effort to re-familiarize ourselves with the game. Learning boundaries and which yellow mobs were ok (Bixies, wolves, and bears? Good!) and which yellows were not ok. (RUN AWAY FROM THE SPIDER, RUN RUN). That first level was tough. I learned a few things, like the fact that armor quests were actually added later, and while the npc’s are incredibly eager for you to participate and wear something stunning – the quest is actually disabled, so throw out those containers of no trade quest pieces.

I learned (once more) to keep everything with a ‘this item can be used in tradeskills’ tag on it. Those would come in handy later – and in fact they most certainly did. My tailoring is now sitting at a proud 17 and I made myself a set of gear. Stats? We don’t need no stinking stats. Our gear has AC, and THAT means survivability. Even if I don’t have the mana to cast any more then 2 spells.

One good thing about Misty Thicket is there are a lot of bats. Lots of bats means lots of wings, and lots of wings means – you guessed it – lots of batwing crunchies. Pick up some frosting from your local baking goods vendor and stab away in an attempt to mash components together and come up with something edible. I succeeded, a few times. More often then not I failed but the combines are so cheap and simple that it really didn’t make too much of a difference.

Hours flew by and I hardly noticed. 60 people in the zone, which is a fair amount considering there are already level 20-30-40 and yes, by now even level 50 players. Down side? The public channels on Fippy Darkpaw are not currently working, so it can be hard to find people to group up with unless you’re constantly using /ooc. Once the channels are back up you’ll be able to find me on the /join twitterchat channel, or feel free to add Pumpkin to your friends list and say hello. After hours of work Ninga and I managed to claw our way to level 5 which (to me) is an astounding feat.

I can’t wait to see where our next adventures take us. I’m really hoping that we can get in on some raids and if I do you can be sure I’ll record every moment of them. Moment I’m looking forward to the most? When LDoN goes live as one of the future expansions, and people actually DO LDoN’s, because the faction / items they can get from it are upgrades, and required instead of things they can skip over.

Hopefully you all enjoy reading my stories as I do writing about them, there will be many more to come.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.