2011

Bring On The Festivals #EQ2

stargrace August 2, 2011 4Comments

There are two amazing festivals going on right now in game. One is Tinkerfest, where you can help gnomes around Norrath with various tasks as well as harvest shiny cogs for crafting and purchased goods. There’s a shiny collection (found where ever you find gnomes) many fireworks and other goodies. If you haven’t checked it out yet I highly suggest you head to Steamfont Mountains. On top of Tinkerfest, it’s also the first week of August, which means another city festival. This month the festival is in Kelethin, you’ll find some sky races, as well as numerous NPCs eager to take your city tokens. There’s appearance gear and a lot of housing items, some of it unique to Kelethin (such as floor tiles). I had a good 300 city tokens stored up from leveling my crafters to 90, so I went a little crazy and purchased as much as I could. A few paintings for my Norrathian Museum, and a bunch of floor tiles for a future project (yet unnamed). Player housing is a way for me to relax in game without the pressures of leveling / questing / raiding, and it’s something I’ve said time and time again that more games need. These little ‘extras’ for when we don’t feel like character progression in the traditional sense.

Pictured above is my “door” to the Norrathian Museum. The amusing part is that I’ve technically got 1066 items in the home, but only 407 of those count towards the item count because player-written books (and a few other items, like L&L books etc) don’t count towards your total. That’s a lot of books in my house. In fact I’ve gotten to the point now where I actually lag a little upon entering the library, something I have NEVER had an issue with in the past. I knew it was about time though.

When you’re not progressing your character through traditional means (leveling, aa, questing, raiding) how do you like to spend your time in game? Are you forever hunting after that elusive shiny to add to your collection? Do you like to sit back and relax crafting? Or are you like many of us out there, glued to the layout editor, working on your humble abode? Let me know below in comments!

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

Crazy Bonus Experience Weekend

stargrace August 1, 2011 9Comments

This weekend was by far one of the most productive weekends I’ve ever had in game. To start things off it’s a long weekend here in Canada (thank you Civic Holiday) and I had no plans besides a BBQ on Sunday and some groceries, which meant 90% of the rest of my time was spent gaming, something that’s nice to do every so often especially when there’s bonus experience. Here’s a general “wrap up” of everything I managed to accomplish:

• Swashbuckler – reached 300 aa (my first character to ever do so)
• Inquisitor – went from 130 aa to 293
• Shadowknight – reached 300 aa
• Bruiser – went from 120 aa to 220
• Mystic – went from 70aa to 150 aa and also dinged 83
• Troubador, coercer, and illusionist all picked up a handful of aa (10-30)
• Coercer – dinged 90 sage (from 65) and now I have all 9 crafters at 90

It was pretty great. Guild mates also managed to earn levels, aa, and achievements this weekend as they soaked up the bonus experience. I dare say it was actually the quietest I’ve ever seen guild because we were all concentrating on the matter at hand, but there were a lot of people around.

How did you spend your bonus experience weekend? Did you manage to get everything done that you wanted? Perhaps you spent it at tinkerfest (more about that coming in another post) – and don’t forget today starts the Kelethin city festival!

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

Moving from a Tier 1 to a Tier 2 Hall #EQ2

stargrace July 27, 2011 0Comment

Yesterday I decided that Torrent Knights really did need a T2 hall (we don’t really NEED one, but I wanted one) and I set out to purchase a Freeport guild hall for everyone to enjoy. The hall cost 250p and thankfully our amenity traveled with us as well as escrow, so I didn’t need to pay more money. I’ve started decorating it (slowly) and managed to set up our main entrance, where we can display the trophies we’ve accumulated over time. I also set up the crafting area, since that’s the portion of the hall most used. We used to own one some time ago but when the guild became stagnant I decided I couldn’t afford the upkeep, and I downgraded us.

Anyhow. The guild is nearing the level 60 mark by leaps and bounds, we’re already 1/3rd of the way into 59, which is fantastic. I have been doing writs on my weaponsmith as I level her up and it’s nice to see the bar moving slightly, even if it’s not a great amount. We were welcomed with another new player yesterday, and hopefully they find it as welcoming as everyone else has so far.

This weekend SOE is offering bonus xp for players – it counts towards aa, adventure, and crafting. I have no doubt in my mind that Antonia Bayle will be bursting at the seams, and I’m probably going to try to level the last two crafters I need at 90 which are my sage and my weaponsmith (the weaponsmith will probably hit 90 today, she’s level 70 at the moment). Aside from that I have no great plans, relaxing and spending my time where ever I find myself. I know it’s a bit silly to be thinking of the weekend when it’s only Wednesday, but hey we all need something to look forward to.

As the guild becomes decorated I’ll be sure to post more pictures and maybe a video or two, we’ll just have to see. In the mean time, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.

With Brells Blessing #EQ2

stargrace July 26, 2011 0Comment

EQ2 is one of the few popular games I know of that don’t treat their crafters as second class citizens. What I mean is they have a large number of quests dedicated to them and their professions, and DoV brought about the first crafting Heritage Quest. I had already completed my coldain prayer shawl on my tailor but I’ve had grand ideas of obtaining the item on each one of my crafters over time. Yesterday I finally earned enough faction with the Forgemasters of Thurgadin to finish off the shawl on my woodworker, pictured above receiving Brells Blessing. I love this chain of quests for a number of reasons, but most of all because of the timed portion at the end. If you miss a reaction or fail to counter it – you die, and you have to start all over. It’s some of the most intense crafting I’ve ever had to do, and I had a blast with it both times.

Torrent Knights is growing by leaps and bounds. What was once a small guild of four or five people has expended to ten regulars and some times even more. I still consider TK to be a ‘social’ guild more then anything else (meaning we talk a lot but don’t necessarily group up or do guild events unless we happen to be in a particular mood) but it’s neat to see people around. Last night thanks to a slew of Heritage Quests completed by Belghast as well as some raids run by Ibeogur and Nocturnous, we dinged 59. One more will extend our bank tabs an extra row, and 11 more will allow us to purchase a T3 hall – which is something I’m considering just to decorate, but I’m not sure if I want to. It’s a huge investment, 1,000 plat and the weekly cost would jump up significantly. I may just upgrade us to a T3 hall.

On that same note, we also managed to earn a few more guild hall trophies last night to put into our display! We now own 14 of them, which is pretty nice for a guild that isn’t really a guild. Last night we picked up Venekor, Chel’Drak and the Clockwork Menace by beating the raid zones. It was a lot of fun, and I’m excited about trying more raids as time goes on.

I hope everyone else had a fantastic start to the week, no matter where you found yourself. Happy gaming! I’ll see you in Norrath.

500 People LFRaid #EQ2

stargrace July 25, 2011 0Comment

What happens when you play on the busiest server and there’s a live event that takes place on Saturday? Well, the screen shot above is just one of four instances of Eastern Wastes that opened up on Saturday afternoon as Antonia Bayle completed the Wizard Spire Reconstruction event. There were over three full raids in Easter Wastes 1 and 2, with over two full raids in 3 and 4. Each raid consisting of 24 people, plus numerous others who were outside of raid (my group included). Why was this event such a big deal? A number of reasons. I think it has less to do with the fact that we finally have a means of steady transportation to these zones and more to do with the rewards offered. If you took part in the final epic battle you were rewarded with 500 tokens (remember, 50 buys you a velium shard which is used for ry’gorr armor) that could be spent at merchants for fluff armor, mounts, and house items, you were also rewarded with a pocket teleporter in order to get to Easter Wastes at the click of a .. clicky, and you were given a title – and nine plat. Not too shabby.

I had no issues completing the Eastern Wastes battle, but there were problems with the Dragon Ring event that took place later that day in Great Divide. See, zones typically top off at 50 people for Great Divide due to the Public Quests and issues with lag. There are means around this by simply inviting others outside of the zone to your group. They can then zone over so you’re both in the same instance. Great Divide wasn’t exactly made to withstand 500 people all gathered, and when the final Dragon Ring event spawned – no one could see it. The battle couldn’t really take place because everyone was being killed by the epic encounter that was invisible, and lag was so atrocious there was no point in getting anything done. A developer ended up coming over to Antonia Bayle to progress the quest for players who were unable to get their updates. By that time I had moved on to something else so I decided to forgo the Great Divide update.

Still, it was fun, even if this was the … fourth? Time we’ve rebuilt the transportation system in Norrath. First there were griffon towers in Nektulos Forest and Thundering Stepps, then there were Wizard Spires numerous times, and again and so on.

Tinkerfest begins on July 29th which is an event that I know a lot of players are looking forward to. I am unsure of what the quests will involve, but there’s always some really neat crafted house items for players to obtain. These live events have been a lot of fun, even if they haven’t ran perfectly. I hope everyone had an amazing weekend, no matter where you found yourself! As always happy gaming, and I’ll see you in Norrath.