2013

Housing Quests and An Epic Request #EverQuest

stargrace May 9, 2013 0Comment

With the hand aug finally out of the way, it was time to decide what to work on next. My typical group of EQ players are a bit bogged down lately with work, so most of the time I’m on my own. EQ is a tough game to play alone, for a number of reasons. I spent some time over at the latest EQ fan site, EQResource – they have a fantastic little area of “special quests” listed. One of the sections is all about housing quests, which I have partially worked on but not yet completed. This is on my list of things to do before too long. I also want to complete ‘An Epic Request‘ which allows you to get an ornamentation for your weapon if you’ve completed one (or both) of your epic quests. I’ve always loved the graphic of my enchanter epic, so this is something I certainly want to complete.

Instead of doing any of that, yesterday was spent with me working on obtaining my Master Baker Trophy. In hindsight I really should have obtained all of my trophies well before hitting 300, because the baking test that you have to complete is much easier at lower levels. The higher level ones tend to require a bunch of items that no one sells and you’ll have to go out hunting for. For the Master trophy I had to create the following:

Create 1 Hearty Meat Sauce using tradeskills
Create 1 Sea Green Cookies using tradeskills
Create 1 Wolf Fillet in Cream using tradeskills
Create 1 Pixie Powder Cinnesticks using tradeskills
Create 1 Beer-Battered Darkhollow Basilisk Souffle using tradeskills
Create 1 Grandmaster Baker’s Spoon using tradeskills
Create 1 Blood Raven Stew using tradeskills
Create 1 Hero Sandwich using tradeskills
Create 1 Hobgoblin Surprise using tradeskills
Create 1 Misty Thicket Picnic using tradeskills

As you can see it also requires the Grandmaster item which is the old crafting trophy people used to get with a 5% mod. The new ones grant 15% at their highest evolution. Of course me being me, I accidentally gave my quest piece to my enchanter PET instead of to the quest NPC. The pet stands right in front of me, constantly, and if I’m not paying close attention it is way too easy to do this. So I had to send in a petition and have a friendly GM return the piece to me. Thankfully they did so without any issues at all and I didn’t even have a very long wait.

While I was waiting to complete the trophy I decided to start a new magician. I still yearn for a class that I can play alone when my steady group is otherwise occupied. I’ve heard good things about magicians but I’ve never played one before. I leveled her up in Crescent Reach last night, and I’m level 15 so far. Things should be pretty straight forward until about level 40-50 and then I’ll see how much I enjoy the class.

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Gaming

Price Changes, and Progress on Mystic Cove #WurmOnline

stargrace May 8, 2013 1Comment

Despite a significant lack of posts, I am still playing Wurm Online. A few changes have happened that have left me less-than pleased with the game, but it happens. One of the first major things that has happened is that the price has risen. Wurm used to be $5 EU a month, which is about $6.57 a month. A fantastic price for an indie game. Because of that price I was able to subscribe more than one account, letting me have a main character and a handful of priests at any one time.

Since May 1st, the price has risen 60%, to $8 EU a month. This is $10.51 which is still an O.K. price for a single character – but I’m not going to pay for two or three accounts any longer. I don’t think the game is good enough to warrant such a huge increase in price. Yes, things have changed, there are animations now (that most people have to keep turned off due to incredible lag, that’s what comes with Wurm being a java based game), there’s many more newer graphics, there’s multi-story housing (which is still broken and not completed) and there’s been progress over the years. Personally, here’s my feelings on the matter.

Rolf added ‘traders’ to the game, way back when. These NPC can be farmed monthly for coin. The coin comes from what other players have paid into deeds and gets divided between all of the NPC and there’s other mathematical reasons on how a split is done but the end result is that for 50 silver you can purchase this NPC and “earn” 10-15 silver a month by stocking it with various goods. It takes work, it’s not necessarily “free” money – but with a trader or two or three you can make back what you paid and then some within a few months. Then you never have to purchase a subscription or silver from the shop again. So Rolf gets his upfront cost of 50s but long term it’s just not enough. If everyone who milked traders was forced to come by their cash through the shop directly, Rolf would see a lot more income long term. Why he has sabotaged himself by allowing people to drain traders, I’ve no idea. I don’t blame people for using them, I have one of my own, but I still feel that it is this one major ‘flaw’ that is causing people to avoid the shop and paying for their subscription.

There have been many posts and arguments for and against traders, mine is just one. None of them are “right” per say, because we don’t know exact numbers, but I’m willing to bet far more people drain traders to pay for their character accounts and deeds than Rolf is making in purchases from them in the store. Aside from that initial cost which again is a short term solution.

Anyhow. Due to the price changes I decided to give up one of my deeds, and only keep Mystic Cove. I sold it for 55 silver, which is more than enough to keep Arysh (my second account) in business for a few months. That’s my Vynora priest. I paid for a year subscription just before the price raised on my main character, whether or not I’ll keep that subscription after it passes, I’m not sure. The sale was smooth and I’ve been having fun working on my main deed. Of course I do still have an incredible urge to go out and explore, so I expect before too long I’ll be making my way off-deed to see what trouble I can find.

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Gaming

A Dancing Frog and a Gnome Walk into a House #EverQuest

stargrace May 6, 2013 0Comment

This weekend was spent trying to finish off that many-piece hand aug – and I actually managed to finish it thanks to some help (mostly company) from Oger. The final portion was doing two missions so that we could afford to spend doubloons on the 7 containers that are required for the final combine. I’m really pleased that we finished it, and that the 20+ pieces of the quest are out of my bags. The aug is an upgrade for me, so I expect that I’ll be using it for quite some time. There were a lot of achievements with finishing this item, one for each island you complete, then two for finishing all of the islands and also doing the final combine for the hand.

The remainder of my weekend was spent decorating my humble abode. I had previously owned a house but since I had been away for more than 90 days they evicted me. I received a nice little parcel with my belongings all packed up. So I moved into the guild neighbourhood, picking the best plot of the zone, of course, which is right beside a lake. The old house I owned still had all of its items inside which meant that I really only had to work on making the outside look presentable.

While I was decorating and placing a few paintings – my curious box item (a statue of a frog) came to life with a top hat and a cane and began dancing and singing around me! It was hilarious and so completely unexpected that I couldn’t help but take a few screen shots.

EQ doesn’t have nearly as many quested items as EQ2 and I find that to be the one downfall to the games housing. There are merchants who sell house items, there are crafted house items, many in-game items can be placed, and there is of course the station cash store. There is a small handful of quested house items but it leaves a lot to be desired and I found absolutely no way to get this list without specifically requesting it on the forums. Google search brought up pretty much nothing. I suppose that’s what comes with a 14 year old game. At least there’s some information about it out there.

I also learned that there’s a taxidermy ability that came with VOA that allows you to mount a few mob heads to your wall as house items. These items are technically crafted, so they’re also not listed on any housing item list per say. The best way for me to figure out what sorts are out there was to do a search for ‘mounted‘ in zam. Sadly it doesn’t look like any new ones were added with RoF but hey at least it’s something.

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Gaming

Enter Breeding Grounds #EverQuest

stargrace May 3, 2013 2Comments

Last night was a trip to Breeding Grounds to complete an instance, the mobs were red con to my 95 enchanter, but that didn’t stop Fremder and Nonpoint from taking them down for Oger and myself. The experience was pretty good, without grinding any experience my enchanter is part way through level 95. I still have a ways to go, but it’s moving at least. I’ve also been camping lion skin pelts in North Karana – something I absolutely hate doing. They’re incredibly rare, and used in an awesome quiver that my ranger wants. At 170k it may be quicker to farm the plat than it is to farm these pelts. On the plus side I also farm a lot of grizzly bear tufts along with wolf bits, and these sell for a fair amount in the bazaar. Offline selling has been a blessing, especially since I have two accounts.

Our mission began with Glimkar, we were completing “The Rise of the Ancients” which really went a lot more smooth than I thought it would have, considering our level compared to the level of the encounters. We also got an achievement for not killing any of the little rat mobs that were scattered throughout the zone. A nice bst neck piece dropped for an alt of Fremder, as well as a level 99 spell component. All in all, it was a nice relaxing way to spend an evening.

Unlike the rest of the week where I’ve been working on that hand aug.. Ugh.

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Gaming

Dungeon Delving – The Cloak Tower #Neverwinter

stargrace May 2, 2013 2Comments

My guardian is level 16 – almost 17 at the time of this post. Some fantastic things came with reaching those levels. At 15 I was able to access the foundry, which is dungeon creation. I haven’t begun to even attempt to create a dungeon yet, but they’re coming. I’ve had a lot of fun playing through the few foundry missions I’ve done so far, they have had some great stories. One tip I would give to people is to read the description of the foundry carefully first. They’re very specific as to how many people should be attempting them – I began one that said it was ideal for 2 people and it was a painful experience – but I did manage to complete it. It was also the first time I died.

You go through a few important stages. At 11 you can begin invocations (I think that’s what they’re called, basically its’ prayers). There’s an NPC you visit in the main city near the Northern part, she’s surrounded by a blue circle much like you see at a campfire. You can pray every hour, and earn buffs and astral diamonds from these blessings. The first time you pray every day you’ll earn some seals that you can collect and turn in. You also learn how the broker works, although to be honest I didn’t even bother reading the text on that quest, so far I’ve just sold everything to vendor.

I am also able to queue for dungeons now. The first one being ‘The Cloak Tower’ – and it was a lot of fun, but you have to be alright with ‘typical’ dungeon mechanics. What I mean is if you’re going with a group of strangers expect there to be that ONE person who rolls need on absolutely everything that drops. There’s those who don’t recognize anyone as being the tank and who are constantly rushing forward, etc. If you don’t enjoy PUGs you may not enjoy doing them in Neverwinter. However, I didn’t let that stop me, and just went with it. I didn’t win any gear, but I couldn’t use it for my class anyhow. I did earn a bunch of seals, and I enjoyed the little stats at the end that mentioned how much “stuff” everyone did (healing, dps, etc). I have no idea what the seals are for, or where to spend them. I think I saw an npc standing outside of the actual zone-in entrance, but I’ll have to check tomorrow to be certain.

Anyhow. It was fun, I had fun, and I’m having fun. More details tomorrow! For now I need some sleep. As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Housing Quests and An Epic Request #EverQuest

Price Changes, and Progress on Mystic Cove #WurmOnline

A Dancing Frog and a Gnome Walk into a House #EverQuest

Enter Breeding Grounds #EverQuest

Dungeon Delving – The Cloak Tower #Neverwinter

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