March 2016

More Lodging, More Workers

stargrace March 21, 2016 1Comment

Still working out node management and workers, today I decided to finally purchase a house that could be designated as lodging (granting me the ability to hire an extra worker) and then upgraded it so that I could hire 2 workers total (plus the 1 ‘bonus’ one that I started with). Now I’ve got three workers. I have one working on my raft (it’s almost done, I’m on step 25 out of 28 at the time of this post) one is off collecting potatoes, and the third is off collecting.. chicken meat. For now. I think I’ll probably swap that to some sort of ore collection in the future. In order to do that, I’ll need to link some nodes.

Before I can link any more nodes, I’ll need to earn more contribution points. Right now I have only 1 available, and that’s where management comes in handy, and planning what it is you want to do, and where to spend those points. I’ve also been neglecting my questing because I’ve been focusing on getting the raft done, and AFK fishing in the meantime. I managed to hit beginner10 in fishing which FINALLY allowed me to wear the gear they gave me way back when. Why they felt it necessary to give me gear I wouldn’t be able to wear until I had many hours dedicated to fishing, I’m not sure. I’ve also almost reached gathering10, which will allow me to don the outfit they gave me for that. The problem with these outfits is that when you equip them they bump gear out of the way, and they fill more than one slot, so suddenly you need to have 4 inventory slots free for your regular gear. Yes, inventory is still an issue for me, but not quite as big a deal as one may think.

I know the raft is nothing fancy, and a lot of people even say to just skip it, but I want to get the full experience, and who knows what quests unlock once I complete it.

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

Getting Started on a Raft

stargrace March 20, 2016 2Comments

As I mentioned in a previous post, I was pretty sure I wanted to get going on a raft, but I was so involved in other quests that it was taking me a bit of time to get around to it. I had picked up the quest from the harbor and the first thing I had to do was buy two houses, one for refining, and the second for a shipyard. It was easy enough to click on each house type and figure out which ones would give me what I needed, and I made sure the houses were linked, too. I added more storage, and now I have 6 houses in Velia. One acting as residence (cooking utensils need some place to go after all), two acting as warehouse (storage, I can never have enough), one acting as a tool workshop (I need my fishing rods!), and then the refinery and the shipyard. The refinery lets you make black stone powder from rough stone, and it’s used in quite a few recipes. The shipyard allows you to make a raft or a ferry. Of course I only have the supplies for a raft.

Creating a raft is pretty simple, but it does require an investment of time. You need to process logs (to be more specific you select manage crafting at the house that is a shipyard, and your worker needs to complete each step) – 25 times, each time takes 21m. Then you need to process 3 black stone powder. Once you’ve finished those processes, you’ll have a raft license in your warehouse.

I know the raft is an incredibly slow vehicle, but that makes a lot of sense to me after obtaining my first ground mount which is also pretty dang slow and awkward. I finally got a quest for a donkey this weekend even though I’ve already had my wagon for quite some time.

I also haven’t claimed my explorer’s pack rewards yet. I haven’t made any alts, so I’m trying to hold off in case I decide to play someone else the majority of the time. I know you can trade the items between your family members on the same server, but it seems like a bit of a hassle to me, so for now I’ll just leave the items be. Though I AM eager to get some lighting in a proper house. Any time I use my kitchen utensils I feel like I’m in a dungeon. Of course I bought that residence because of its proximity to the kitchen (easy to go and purchase supplies) so it’s really not that great of a home to begin with.

Thanks to the ongoing St. Patrick’s Day rewards I’m also collecting a small bundle of dye to use in the future, which is neat. Now that I’ve been playing the game steadily for a bit of time it feels like I’m very slowly getting a handle on most of the systems – though to be honest the node system still evades me, I’m not sure how nodes are linked, or how to link them. I’ll need to figure that out better and do more research.

Overall? I’m really enjoying myself. There are still some systems I haven’t explored yet (like amity) but meandering along doing my own thing seems to be working out well. Here’s hoping I can reach level 20 before too long, I’m almost level 18 at the time of this post.

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

Lets Make some Beer

stargrace March 19, 2016 1Comment

I still only have one worker at the moment. It seems to be enough for my immediate needs while I continue to explore my way around and figure out the question to that time aged question of sandbox MMOs “what do I want to do”. After harvesting bunches of potato, and creating me a bunch of fishing rods, my worker was running low on stamina. I had read that beer is the perfect thing to use to recoup stamina, and so I set out to make a batch (or two or three). I had some in my inventory from a quest so I used that first to replenish the worker (who is now almost level 9) and then went to the inn to buy some ingredients.

Beer takes 5 potato, 6 mineral water, 1 sugar, and 2 leavening agents. Then you need to have a cooking utensil placed in your home. You put enough ingredients to create the recipe once, otherwise it will eat your supplies and only give you one item.

Cooking is neat, and I learned a few things about it – like each time you do a combine you have a chance at a byproduct. The byproducts seem random, but they may be tied into the success of cooking, I’m not sure. Each byproduct can be given to an NPC in the next city, but you’ll want to have about 5 of each before you walk all the way there if you’re still hanging out in Velia. It’s quite a ways away.

When you turn in the byproducts you’ll get a variety of rewards ranging from milk (another cooking ingredient), contribution points, experience, etc. I ran to the next city before I realized that you need to have a number of these byproducts on you for turning them in. I turned in what I could, and then sold the rest to vendor because lets face it I just don’t have the inventory space to cart around 4 different types of byproducts from the one time I decided to do some cooking.

I haven’t created any alts yet, but I’m starting to see how they could come in handy. Instead of trying to ‘do it all’ on one character, I could dedicate different characters to different tasks. Then my inventory may not be so full, because I could shift items over to whoever is working on that craft. So far I’ve just been focusing on my main and have had very little desire to create more characters – something that’s pretty odd for me, I have alts in pretty much every game I’ve ever played for any length of time.

Once the beer was done, I replenished the stamina of my worker, and set him back out collecting potatoes. He’ll do that until he’s out of stamina again, I’ve set it to repeat the last task. This’ll give me the ability to make even more beer, and maybe by then I’ll have more than one worker who will be doing tasks for me. I haven’t decided yet, but I do know I’d like to eventually make my raft, and I know it will go faster if I have more workers dedicated to it.

How have you been spending your time in game? Let me know in comments!

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

Deciding Which Package to Buy

stargrace March 17, 2016 1Comment

The time had come, I had used my 7 day guest pass to completion, and it was time to decide whether I wanted to spend $29.99 USD or $49.99 USD on the game – or just bypass it all together. Decisions like this are compounded by the fact that I live in Canada. It’s not a matter of spending $29.99 or even $49.99 – but instead we’re spending $39 and $67 (roughly, I rounded up based on today’s exchange rate). Bigger numbers tend to be harder to swallow, and it was one more thing to take into consideration as I debated which package to purchase.

Looking at the packages, they’re very similar.

• Base game (both packages)
• 1 guest pass (2 guest passes)
• 3 housing decor coupons (5 coupons)
• 3 unknown dye boxes (5 boxes)
• appearance change coupon (both packages)
• 3 partial skill resets (5 partial skill resets)
• Steel toolset package (both packages)
• tier 3 horse (explorer’s package only)
• Horse flute (explorer’s package only)
• Pet of choice (explorer’s package only)

There are only two ways (that I know of) to get a pet in-game. One is the in-game shop (the one that would cost real money), and the second is a reward at around 200 days logged in. Was I willing to wait that long for a pet? Also, I know you can buy horses as well as catch wild ones in-game, but wouldn’t it be nice to have one right away? The big winners for me (besides the pet) are also the housing decor coupons. Those I know I’ll make great use out of. Guest passes are always nice, as well as dye. Having more is better, right?

In the end I decided to support the game, get a few extras, and went with the $49.99 package. Is it worth it? I think for me, personally, yes. I love supporting the games I’m playing. Is it necessary to have any of those extras? I think absolutely not. You can easily get by without a pet, free horse, or the extra items you would receive. I like that none of the extras are ‘pay to win’ or game breaking in any way. They’re just a few little tidbits for people who want to support the game.

If you happen to be playing you can find me on Orwen, Calpheon 02 channel. My family name is Reveurs, so be sure to add me to your friends list. Remember that there’s a bit of a bug in the UI, if you’re adding a family name to friends you actually need to uncheck the ‘use family name’ option. I know, a bit weird, but that’s how it goes (unless of course it has been fixed at the time of this post).

Now it’s time to go play! As always, happy gaming no matter where you find yourself.