2021

Let’s Try That Again

stargrace August 1, 2021 0Comment

After many failed dungeon attempts yesterday, I started reading the forums (and you’ll see this echoed in comments from yesterday’s post too) to try to figure out where I was going wrong. Surely there must be something very basic that I was missing to create such a cluster of fail. Turns out, I was. I stumbled across this post that talked about the exact encounter I was having problems with, and it wasn’t just me.

Returning players can’t just take their 120 boosted and call it a day. No, you have to make sure that you reach a potency and a fervor, and a HP, and other thresholds. You need to go do what is commonly called ‘panda quests’ for augments, you need to get the gear out of the crate that is in the starter zone to the latest expansion (and the one prior) and then take the augments out of that gear, and use it in yours.

It was also suggested that I work on crafters first so I could help my characters out – fantastic suggestion, because I only have adept rank spells right now, and I want at LEAST expert. Those cost 10,000 platinum each which is pretty cheap compared to the inflation of today, but well out of my price range. Crafting those spells/skills will be a much better option.

That being said, things DID get better as I learned the ‘new’ way of playing. I did manage to do two Echo Caverns solo adventures, got some upgrades, even dinged my guild level 92! I had a really great time, and I slowly, ever so slowly, started remembering WHY I played EQ2 for so many years. I obtained a few more familiar, I did all of my Overseer quests for the day, and after three days of trying, felt like “hey, maybe I could stick with this for a bit”.

Honestly? It was lovely. I’m looking forward to things a little bit more now.

Gaming

Restless in Life – Restless in Gaming

stargrace July 31, 2021 1Comment

Well, that happened. I was looking at my EQ2 housing and remembering all of the good moments I had in the game – and since I was already subscribed through station access (since I’ve been playing EQ1 for a month or so) I found myself purchasing the latest EQ2 expansion and trying to figure out what I was doing last time I played, back in 2016. Thing is, when you purchase a copy of the latest expansion they also toss in a 120 boost, I assume so you can get right back up to speed playing with friends (or whoever is left) so of course I used it on my main character.

That was a bit of a mistake. They don’t actually explain any of the game systems or mechanics to you, so now I’m 120 with even less of an idea of what to do than before. I haven’t started ascension, and everything I’m reading says the four NPC who handle that should talk to me (but they don’t). I didn’t know about the hidden daily familiar quest in Freeport/Qeynos (why would I, there’s no feather to mark it!) or what familiars were, or how to go about getting one. I knew about Overseer thanks to EQ1, but it works a bit different in EQ2. So far I only have three agents, and three quests available to me. I’m sure that will change with time. I need to be level 10 before I can start doing the daily for THAT, which is also in the starter cities.

I ended up doing the public quest for the tinkerer’s festival again, this time in Antonica. There’s an achievement for doing it 5 times, and it’s one of the most obnoxious PQ I’ve ever done. I did get a familiar for my efforts, so that was nice.

I attempted to head into a solo mission from the latest expansion, but it took me so long to kill anything, after the first two named I gave up and called it a night. No deaths, just incredibly long boring fights. I don’t want to start characters over yet since I’ve got a whole lot of them already sitting at 100 (or 120) but I feel like EQ2 does a very poor job of directing returning players to any direction at all. My inventory is filled with items I’ve gotten in the mail that port me to what I presume are the starters of various expansions – but examining these items doesn’t give me enough of a clue as to what expansion they belong to, or which one is newest. They’re more like “hey so and so wants to talk to you! Click this item to head there” type descriptions. Not useful if you haven’t kept up with the news/lore.

That doesn’t mean I’m not enjoying my (slow) return – I am. I just also find it frustrating, and after two days of trying to break into these systems I still don’t feel like I have any direction on what to do next. I have finally figured out familiars, I have figured out Overseer, I still have no idea what I’m missing ascension wise, and I’m not completely sure what I should be working on or what I missed that was important. I do plan on continuing on, and I’m doing my best to figure things out. I’m just also slightly frustrated.

Gaming

What Was I Thinking..

stargrace July 29, 2021 3Comments

I haven’t played EQ2 for five years. Prior to my son being born I had also taken a few years break here and there, and I haven’t properly played in.. well, a long time.

That being said, even 15 years later, MOST of the posts on this blog are about that game. That game where I met my husband. Where I made amazing connections and some of my very best friends. Even all these years later it’s hard to give up. It’s hard to move on, and to remember that I am not that person any more, and that game has changed too.

I’ve been having an absolute blast playing EverQuest and for some reason today I thought to myself ‘well, wouldn’t it be nice to check out my old houses in EQ2’ and I should have known better. I should have known better because I spent countless hours on those houses setting them up exactly the way I wanted – and I love them so much. My favourite place in all of Norrath is my library where I have over 700 unique player written books. I spent hours buying any new book I found on the broker. Some are silly, some are sad. Written by players who have long since left the game, and some who have left this world.

It feels silly to have such an attachment to this game. It hasn’t been ground breaking for some time. It’s not talked about in any of my circles. Yet here I am. Logged in, watching chat, reminiscing. I’m vaguely contemplating buying the most recent expansion and leveling my characters up – why? I am not even sure. Could be fun! I don’t have the faintest idea about anything any more. I see they’ve added Vah Shir, and that’s pretty neat. Overseer is a thing too, which I’ve been playing in EverQuest.

Anyone else out there still playing? Thoughts?

Cross Stitch Yarn

Halloween Cross Stitch – Update 10

stargrace July 28, 2021 0Comment

I haven’t been able to work on this in some time. The goal was to get it done before Halloween this year so that I could frame it and use it as decoration – and I THINK I’m still on track for that at least, but it will mean dedicating some time to it instead of just putting it aside for other projects.

Gaming

A Few Small Sales

stargrace July 27, 2021 2Comments

Any game will see inflation happen over years, and since EverQuest is, well, quite old, there is a LOT of inflation. Krono are selling for about 2.7 million to 3 million plat on my server, on the FV where inflation is even more prevalent they go for almost double that. I’ve got a trader set up in the Bazaar that I try to leave up when I’m not playing but that’s also when everyone else is not playing, so there’s not a lot of shoppers. Not only that, but the items I have up for sale are outdated and may as well be antiques. I’ve tried to put craft materials up for those who may be doing the 1-300 grind (I’ll talk about the 300-350 grind in another post) but so far the only items I’ve actually sold have been defiant pieces – twink gear.

Group progress has been coming along incredibly well. My shadowknight and enchanter both reached level 106 which opened up the crafted conflagrant gear. This gear is from Ring of Scale, and each piece has about double the stats that my old gear had. Needless to say it was all a HUGE upgrade, and I feel quite god-like doing the content I was doing before in my old gear. I couldn’t afford to upgrade every slot on the enchanter, but I did take the time to gear up the shadowknight properly, being the tank and all.

The shaman is closing in on level 100 – I have the other two characters grinding with a 50/50 (leveling/AA) so that they don’t climb too much faster than the shaman while she catches up. Once she hits 100 I’m going to start Shard’s Landing with her, which is the last actual group content that I had done when I played back in.. 2013. I’m just a bit behind.

On the shadowknight my AA are going to tank-related skills, focusing on Ring of Scale, and a huge portion (150!) of AA is going towards unlocking another gem slot. You can never have too many. On my enchanter I’m doing things a bit different, I really want to get her tradeskills to 350, which means I need to unlock 13 ranks of tradeskill mastery that go up by 5 points each rank. Gross.

I’m having such a good time playing again and I have to admit that MOST of that joy is because of Daybreaks decision to allow auto-grant AA. Without having the AA I needed to get to this point there’s no way it would be as enjoyable. That feature does stop after 105, but it’s a good enough start to not feel completely left behind, at least.

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

Let’s Try That Again

Restless in Life – Restless in Gaming

What Was I Thinking..

Halloween Cross Stitch – Update 10

A Few Small Sales

You Missed

The Search For Hrada-Oki Bivouac

Personal EVE Economic Update (October)

Expensive Month (preparing for fun)

Locked Out (again)