EQ

Rift is Fun.. But… #Rift #EQ

stargrace March 5, 2011 2 Comments

Tipa’s post today really hit home for me, it was exactly what I was going to write about (but she does a much better job of it). Rift is fun and pretty but it doesn’t give me enough of that “other stuff” to do. The crafting isn’t complicated enough to make a good hobby of (you can easily farm your supplies as you level and never have to farm extra unless you’re looking to make things to sell), there’s mounts, companions, and collections to hunt but even that still means you’ve got to be out in the specified zone killing mobs. What do I do if I don’t want to kill things. What Rift is lacking (for me personally) is housing and alternate advancement. I realize that none of the games I play (EQ and EQ2 namely) had those things at release either and that there’s time in the future for Rift to add them – but in order to compete with games NOW you should be preparing for those sorts of things. The incredibly linear progression of Rift prevents me from playing it for too long before I get really bored. I quest in Freemarch right now even though I’m level 20 I still have level 15+ quests on me because I spent a lot of time doing Rifts. The quests all take me from one hub to the next, with very little deviation allowed. Sure I could skip quests completely, but I like to finish everything off. I think having only one starting zone makes things feel even more linear, my alts all have to go through those exact same quests, unless I make a Guardian instead of Defiant. Understand that I do love the game, my cleric is level 21 and I’ve sunk 37 hours into it in the last two weeks – but – it’s not a game that I can play full time because eventually I simply get bored of mashing mobs (or Rifts, or players) over and over.

What have I been doing instead? Well. Last night I looked up the hot zones for EQ under the assumption that perhaps Ninga and I would like to eventually hit level 90 (gasp). He’s almost 85 while I’m just moments away from 82 on the necromancer. The problem is the hot zones are either level 70 or level 80. We’re a bit too big for the level 70 ones, and a bit too small for the level 80 ones. With hot zones in place, it makes leveling outside of those zones almost not worth it. We headed to Hills of Shade last night which is off of Loping Plains, and camped outside of a graveyard filled with zombies. A few hours later I had managed to gain 11% experience, which brought me back to my Fippy Darkpaw days. I am currently using a melee DPS merc, while Ninga has a healer merc, and he tanks. It was enjoyable, calm, and I had a lot of fun. I’m about 4% to level, I just couldn’t keep my eyes open any more.

Ok so I did stay up very late working on my house (that one pictured is my neighbour, not mine) building little fences and placing fountains and pictures inside. I love housing, and EQ does a fantastic job with allowing players to customize them. I also like that you can purchase homes with Loyalty points if you want instead of plat. The goal for today is to perhaps find an active guild on Drinal that wouldn’t mind someone who isn’t level 90, if you happen to know of such a guild, don’t hesitate to let me know!

Until then, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Visiting The Planes of Power

stargrace March 3, 2011 No Comments

Yesterday instead of playing on the progression server, Ninga and I decided to go back to Drinal and explore the planes a bit on our higher level characters. See, EverQuest is great and we’re both having a lot of fun but the incredibly slow grind of the progression server can be a bit (a lot) daunting. It’s 4x slower then it was during first release which makes casual gaming almost impossible at this point in time. We’re not giving up, but a brief reprieve was required. We peeked in on Vallon and Tallon Zek, both were down. We checked in on Marr who was not at home (must have heard us coming), Bertox was up but we decided to leave him alone (having already defeated him not that long ago), and so we went to visit Terris Thule at her home in Plane of Nightmare. She was a lot easier then I remembered back in the day, and I managed to get a progression flag, having never killed her on my necromancer before.

It surprised me to see how heavily camped these mobs still are, many years later. There were 100 people sitting in the guild lobby, and while the server is not as active as the progression one I feel confident in saying that EQ is still doing amazingly well. One of these days I’ll have to start decorating the home I purchased there, so far I just placed the house and have a completely empty yard.

Happy gaming no matter where you find yourself!

More Freeport Sewer Adventures #EQ

stargrace March 1, 2011 No Comments

(I know, that screen shot has nothing at all to do with the freeport sewers, but I spent so much time running from drowned citizens that I forgot to take any!)

It was a fairly quiet day in EverQuest – as quiet as they ever are. I managed to hit almost 17 on the cleric which is an enormous feat for myself, and the enchanter inched her way pretty close to 16. At 15 she got quickness, her first haste. Sure it only lasts 5 minutes (that’s one minute longer then charm) but having haste at all is nice. Cleric, Enchanter, and Monk headed to the Freeport Sewers again and I found out why they’re so quiet. The revamped named no longer spawn in the zone because their gear is more over powered then it should be for the current expansion. Fine by me, I’m there for the experience not for the gear.

After an hour of wandering the sewers my monk friend decided that although he plays a very decked out monk on live servers – it wasn’t working for us and our combination on the progression server. He decided that now would be a good time to re-roll as a warrior, and so he promptly made a dwarf. I decided that I’d like an alt even if I don’t play it that much and I decided to make a bard (starting in Freeport, close to Kaladim for leveling purposes). I’ve always wanted to play a bard but have never actually gotten anywhere with one. Since the experience is so much lower then normal I doubt I’ll get anywhere here either, but I did inch my way to level 3. Twisting songs is an art from the past with the /melody command implemented on the progression server. Basically it’s an auto-twister. You make a macro that /melody 1 2 3 and then it will twist songs one two and three in your spell gems. Right now I only have two songs, my group buff and my AoE which I have to make sure I turn off when guards wander by.

Since we’ve already figured out where to level from 1-16 I’m hoping it won’t take quite as long with the new characters but we’ll just have to see. I’ve always loved having alts, it’s just really difficult on a progression server.

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

Different Play Styles for Different Players #EQ #Rift #MMORPG

stargrace February 28, 2011 16 Comments

With both Rift head start ongoing, and the EQ progression server there is one line of thought that I hear more often then not. These are direct quotes taken from each game.

• “Those MORONS who rush to end game”
• “Then there’s those retarded people who just rush through the levels, and yes, I do mean retarded”

What I don’t understand is why we’re all so quick to judge someone else’ play style. We expect other people to understand our own perspective, whether we enjoy soloing our way through the game or we would rather group up – and yet when it comes do casual vs. hardcore we’re all too quick to put our finger on the trigger and start name calling based on someone else’ enjoyment. Some players ENJOY being first. They enjoy the competition, they enjoy the thrill. They don’t care about the pretty walk on the way to the top they see only one goal. You may not agree or even understand this frame of mind but that doesn’t give you the right to look down on someone because of it. Even if they’re of the mind that rushing to the top is the end all be all of a game only to bitch about lack of content when they get there. It’s still a valid play style, and if you expect anyone to respect the way you choose to enjoy the game, you should at least have the common courtesy to do the same for others.

After all, we’re all paying the same monthly fee to enjoy the game. How you choose to spend your time logged in (or not logged in) is completely up to you. What other people choose to do with their subscription is also really none of your concern. Whether or not someone rushes to end game isn’t going to change or affect how YOU play your game. It’s just one more thing to complain about in a long list of MMO gamer grievances.

The point? Next time you want to call someone a name because of some game-related incident take a second look at yourself. You may not like or understand why a player is gaming a particular way but does it really matter? Let them enjoy the ride their way, and you enjoy it yours.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.

Proud Moments of Gear With Stats – #EQ

stargrace February 27, 2011 4 Comments

The cleric is inching her way towards level 16, the enchanter hit 14 (breeze!) and a little into it. I decided it was time to see if I couldn’t get some gear with stats on it. I had tried to do a few quests thanks to Arkenor’s suggestion, but my luck in video games is non existent, and I failed all the quests I attempted. Until this one. It starts in Rivervale, from one Gapeers Johhanis in the cleric guild. He wants you to collect three items for him:

n Erud’s Crossing kill a zombie sailor.
–You have looted a Algae Covered Flesh.–

In Feerrott kill a drowned caravan guard or a Greenblood Zombie.
–You have looted a Swollen Flesh.–

In Freeport Sewers kill a drowned citizen.
–You have looted a Waterlogged Flesh.–

The hardest piece was the one in the Freeport Sewers, the mobs in this place are still yellow at level 15, and (surprisingly) there was pretty much no one in the zone. Until I happened to mention to my guild that there was no one in the zone and then they all went crazy and swarmed. It’s rare to find zones without a huge influx of players these days. A lot of people avoid the Freeport sewers due to the fact that they are the revamped version and not the one most remember.

I do still have my bear-hide boots, but I can use those for buffing, and then switch out to the newer ones. This is my first ‘real’ piece of gear with stats on it that are useful to me. I do have a few dervish cutthroat rings but the stats are not exactly the most helpful for me. I attempted to work on a quest for a new weapon last night but once again faction is my enemy and I couldn’t get very far. Actually I tried to work on two weapons – I turned in 150 orc picks to have the freeport militia still con indifferent to me. Then I got pummeled by the griffin floating by, numerous times and when it wasn’t the griffin it was the blue con bears that the guards decided not to assist with (they only assisted with the grey ones) AND lets not forget that I was encumbered with 30 pick axes at the time and had bound myself right beside the guard. Ah. Death loop how I have not missed you.

I would have been level 16 were it not for my adventures to the bind point. Which makes this single piece of gear even more valuable to me. I have worked REALLY hard on my ‘new’ EQ characters, I have over 3 days played time on them – something that’s unheard of for a character so low. I have no idea how everyone else is leveling up so quickly, but I am just not good at it.

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