October 2011

Nights of the Dead Returns to EQ2 (And So Do I) #EQ2 #EverQuest2

stargrace October 13, 2011 2Comments

Oh EQ2, what a fickle beast you are. I took a break from the game for a little while, playing Rift and WoW along with some other games (like Glitch and LotRO) which is pretty common for me. Everyone needs a break after all. Now with Nights of the Dead upon us I’ve returned, and the first thing I’ve started doing (aside from the Beastlord prelude quests) is decorating the much neglected guild hall. I’ve spent a couple hundred plat in furniture, even with a level 90 carpenter, mostly for those city festival items that I can only seem to find at particular times of the year. I built a stage with a small private members only room in behind it, along with a large bar (you can barley make out the end of it in the screen shot above) along with a library, and in another section I built a large pool with some chairs for relaxing. Upstairs I’d like to create some sort of forest, and downstairs core members each have their own room to decorate so I’ll have to work on that eventually. Ibeogur has been busy at work re-designing the crafting area. I was uninspired when it came to that section but it DOES need some work, so he decided to take over.

I’m once more faced with the decision of who to play. I have so many EQ2 characters that this is always a daunting task and I still haven’t completely decided. I typically play three ‘main’ characters:

• 90 defiler
• 90 swashbuckler
• 90 bruiser

These days I feel very little motivation to play the swashbuckler because she has max aa and is fairly well geared according to my play style. Her and the defiler also have all of their master spells and have for some time now (one of the few benefits of the level cap remaining at 90 for so long). I could work on achievements, but without earning some form of character progression (a la alternate advancement) it feels pointless. There is supposedly an expansion coming in November, but it feels incredibly odd that there has been so little said about it. I know this expansion is more of a ‘bug fix’ and the implementation of Beastlords then anything else, but EQ1 has had their beta going on for a month now already and also releases in November (forgive me if I’m off with dates here, it happens). On a side note, I’m very excited about the EQ1 expansion.

It seems like quite a lull before awesomeness follows, Skyrim is out in November, the sims 3 pets is out in a few days (I know, not exactly everyone’s cup of tea, but I am excited) SWTOR is out in December and a handful of other much anticipated games. So for now, we wait.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Looking For Dungeons #EQ2 #EverQuest2

stargrace October 7, 2011 4Comments

I made a post about how I thought with tools like looking for dungeon and looking for raid it was easy to phase out the social aspect of MMOs and to never leave our little protective bubbles – but I do also think there’s a very simple solution (two, really) for this situation. One would be to implement Rifts method of allowing free character transfers. That means at least if you group up with someone via the LFD tool you can potentially move to their server and be recruited because you’re such an awesome player and had such a great time with the group in question. Does it happen? Probably rarely – but the potential for that to happen is at least there.

The second would be the method that EQ2 has implemented with their latest LFD tool – don’t allow the tools to work cross server. Now, you may look at that and scratch your head a bit, after all the point of the tool is to get you into a pre-made (basically, made by a computer system at least) group and into the dungeon as fast as possible, but I think by coding it to work on your server only you’re not only allowing for faster groups (faster then they were previous to the tool) but you’re also allowing for people to get to know others from their own server. They can add you to their friends list and next time they may not even use the LFD tool but simply form a group with players they have been with before. Is it flawless? No of course not it’s rare that any systems are but I think it’s a reasonable compromise to both the time it takes to find a group and the lack of social interaction that may go on because of these tools.

I poked around in EQ2 last night, channels were relatively quiet and my LFD tool was populated on all of my characters, even the one 25 guardian I have. It was nice to see. I didn’t see a way for warriors to queue as dps / tank which had me scratching my head a bit, I think perhaps all fighters that queue are placed as tanks? In EQ2 they’re the only class that can have multiple roles, in specific brawlers can act as dps or tanks. Some scouts also have stances and can technically tank but it’s usually a temporary encounter and not an entire zone.

Have you tried the tool out yet? What are your thoughts on it? Let me know in comments below!