2011

It’s All About The Details #EQ2

stargrace July 22, 2011 0Comment

It was time for another (yes another) alt. This time I’m leveling up a mystic on my second account, to go along with the shadowknight and necromancer I already have. So far she’s sitting at level 56, and yesterday I spent a bit of time in one of my favorite zones, Obelisk of Lost Souls. This zone has some amazingly disturbing books that players can complete, filled with void-related nursery rhymes and other tales of horror. One of my favorite parts of any zone are the little details that you stumble upon. For example, in Obelisk of Lost Souls you come to a room that’s filled with glass display cases (pictured above) with ancient scrolls kept inside. In one of these cases the scroll is missing, and shattered glass litters the ground. Of course my mind wanders – what happened to the scroll? Was it valuable? Who took it? What did it say? These little details are what keep me transfixed about a game, little stories that the game doesn’t necessarily come out and tell me about, but that I notice none the less.

It has been an incredibly warm week for myself and a lot of my friends (the city of Ottawa reached 117F yesterday, something I’ve never actually experienced before) so I don’t have much to update with. I DID spend a bunch of time yesterday updating my player-written library page here on the site, as you can see I have made it over the 550 book mark! Thanks to some wonderful donations from players. I received over 20 books in the last little while, each of them filled with a fantastic story. Thank you to everyone who donated a book! I’m hoping to extend it past the 600 mark before too long, but that will depend on generous donations and what I can find on the broker.

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

Guilds Just Want to Have Fun #EQ2

stargrace July 21, 2011 1Comment

My swashbuckler finally made it over the 250 aa mark, it’s the first character I’ve managed to do that with, and only one expansion late. That means I’m finally working on the DoV aa (well, I have been for a while but I’m finally working on the later tiers of it). I picked up a few master spells off of the broker and she’s almost completed her collection. I also managed to craft another piece of Ry’Gorr armor (pants!) so she’s nearing “completion” for me. Next I’ll be focusing on the defiler, who is lacking Ry’Gorr and adornments.

Yesterday was a lot of fun, the weekly shard quest was Tower of Frozen Shadow, so we (guild mates of course) headed out to Shadowed Corridors and made short work of the Librarian. Next we hit Umbral Halls, and finally Haunt. We managed to complete all three of the zones, even though we were one person short and I was boxing my swashbuckler / necromancer together. The necromancer won herself a nice new robe, and I made a Ry’Gorr forearm piece. Drahk managed to pick up a few pieces of fighter gear, since he’s a new level 90 shadowknight pretty much everything was an upgrade. It was nice and incredibly rewarding to take down the final boss (the x2) in Haunt. It’s a difficult fight on the best of terms, and since we were so under staffed I was wondering if it was something we could even complete. The best part was that we all had a great time, which is the most important part to me in any situation. Guild groups are always nice and relaxing and if we wipe 10x to one encounter it’s always a learning experience.

Speaking of, the guild is also inching its way through level 58, which I’m pretty excited about. Another row of bank tabs at level 60 and more amenity (although I haven’t spent the last amenity we earned) are always welcomed.

It seems like each time a patch goes by the harder zones of DoV have been downgraded a little, so it shouldn’t be too long before we find ourselves in there. We have tried a little Kael, but I’d like to attempt the Drundar instances. We’ll just have to see.

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

Selling Loot Rights #EQ2

stargrace July 18, 2011 9Comments

There have been a few debates rising up lately from SLR (selling loot rights) – some people are for it (naturally) and others are against it. In EQ2 gear becomes bound to you when you do an instance. You’re able to trade that loot with anyone who was in the instance for 48 hours after it was looted. What players do is leave the item in the chest, change the loot options to leader only (thus allowing you to assign the loot to someone) auction the gear in a channel, invite the winner to the group, summon them to the dungeon, and pass them the loot. I’ve never personally had an issue with this method of obtaining loot, if players wish to spend their money on this sort of thing then why not. I think it helps casuals gain items that they may not have otherwise been able to gain, and it helps bolster community. Most of the public discussions on Antonia Bayle happen in the auction channel. I understand that my thoughts on this are not the same thoughts as the entire community though and the idea of “if you didn’t earn it yourself you have no right to it” also runs strong. To the left hand side is an auction that was taking place last night, myself bidding on a ring (which I eventually won). For some odd reason Conterary felt the need to call me a slut simply because I had out bid him (her?) on this item. I’ve never spoken to them before in my life, have no idea who they are or why they felt the need to call me names based on an auction. I don’t even really understand the whole name calling scenario, or why people resort to this method of insult first. To me name calling is a definite no-no, and it’s one of my biggest pet peeves.

What are your thoughts on selling loot? Do you wish the ability to do so were removed? What if all of the no-trade flags were removed so that gear could simply be placed on broker? Let me know in comments!

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

Updates Galore #EQ2

stargrace July 16, 2011 2Comments

With so many characters at my disposal a great amount of time is spent deciding what I want to do, and who I want to do it on. I bounce between all of my characters on a daily basis, my whims changing on who I want to play (for some pretty silly reasons some times). I have been attempting to focus on two characters while I play the others as I’m bored or restless. So far those two selected are my swashbuckler, and my defiler. I’ve been focusing on getting them both gear, adornments, and aa. Neither of them have hit the 300 mark yet but I’m hoping that it comes to pass (eventually).

Long term I have four characters that I’m some what dedicated towards. That would be the swashbuckler, defiler, coercer, and bruiser. It’s no coincidence that there’s one of each class, either. One day I have high hopes that each of these characters will have 300 aa – but that’s a long time in the future, if ever.

This weekend is incredibly quiet in guild with two of the core members away for various real life functions. I spent this evening out at the National Art Center here in Ottawa, taking in The Lion King broadway musical. It was very well done and I had an amazing time. It was also a huge step forward for me as I suffer from agoraphobia and dislike being in situations that I can’t escape easily from (like balconies in theaters). The set design took my breath away and the story (one we’re no doubt all quite familiar with) was portrayed in such a unique manor.

Back to EQ2 – SOE has disabled the Dragon Ring / Wizard spire event until next week. There were a few bugs with it, number one it was running too quickly and thus progressing too quickly which meant that people who were away for the weekend or unable to participate would miss out on obtaining tokens. In fact as of this morning (and a few hours before) Antonia Bayle was 99% completed. Except the final encounter also did not work, in Eastern Wastes there is an epic x4 that was defeated and yet they remained at 99% completed even afterward. Rumor has it (I have yet to confirm the later portion at least) that the event will change frequency and be once every (3?) few hours instead of every 30 minutes. Thus it will take longer to complete. On that same note, I had heard (but not confirmed personally) that any progress over 50% will be wiped from the slate, and servers will have to work back up to 100% completion again.

While I realize these things happen, I can’t help but wonder what caused the issues. The event was on the test server for a few weeks before running live – the timer issue I can see because apparently it’s as simple as the event running every 30 on the test server and forgetting to switch it when it was moved to the live server. However, the end event not triggering properly is a bit odd. I think that perhaps with Fan Faire looming at the time things were not looked at as carefully as they should have been, it’s a crazy time of year for everyone involved.

I did manage to run the event a few times before it was taken offline. I purchased a replica of the Dragon Rings, as well as some teleporters for my house and a velium shard or two. That was another thing I didn’t quite agree with, every hour a player could earn a shard if they hung around afk in the area and picked up the quest for 25 tokens each time. Hopefully before this goes live again all of the kinks are ironed out.

How is everyone else spending their weekend? Inquiring minds wish to know! Let me know in comments. As always, happy gaming no matter where you find yourself!