exploring

Still So Much To See

One of the reasons I have kept my love affair with EverQuest II for so long is the simple fact that there is SO much to see and do – even after all of this time. When I play other MMOs I mention from time to time that I get bored because I don’t want to always pvp, I don’t want to always craft, I don’t want to always group, or always solo. What I want is to be able to do whatever I feel like doing at that exact moment, and move from there. EQ2 is one of the few games that allows me to do this on a daily basis.

There are days when I want to go quest-crazy, and complete as many quests as I can, and there are a LOT of quests in EQ2. In fact looking at the EQ2 Questlist there are 6184 quests total recorded. Some of those are of course class specific quests, and ones that were removed from game or were only around for a limited time, but they still count. If you’re a fan of shiny collections (and lets face it, who isn’t?!) there are 421 shiny collections in game. I have barely completed 200 on any one of my characters. That’s a lot of shinies to work towards! Then of course there are days I would rather not go near quests at all, typically after one of my binges, hehe.

While no game has involved crafting into the actual game play as much as I would have personally liked, EQ2 comes the closest by adding crafter orientated quests to the game that players can complete without too much difficulty no matter their adventure level. It’s not perfect by any means but it sure comes close. If I feel like grinding out a few crafting levels while watching a movie it’s a perfectly viable option.

There is a fair selection of group and solo content – and if I run out of solo content I can always go back and do the group content that I may have out leveled (thus making it easier for me) and I’ll still get achievement points for doing so. I’m really looking forward to the update that will allow players to mentor to a specific level and thus complete content as level appropriate without having to always have a lowbie in group. It will be nice to complete old raids, be able to farm masters that may not get upgrades (enraging demeanor anyone?) and just pretend to be a lower level for once.

In fact how many times have you started playing a game your friends were on only to have to play alone while they play their mains – or have to constantly play ‘catch up’ before you could actually play together. I think the mentor system that EQ2 has is something that a lot of people over look. The ability to play with your friends no matter what level they may be is something that I really cherish. It doesn’t matter if I have 100 level 80 characters (scary thought) I can at least help out on my main character and not have to re-create a lowbie.

I spent this weekend cleaning up my two EQ2 accounts a little. I deleted three characters (including an 80 sage but we won’t talk about that!) that I had very little interest in playing any more (my 58 swashbuckler, 61 necromancer, and 61 bruiser). It freed up a little space on my second account should an urge ever overcome me again to create another alt (and of course it will) and trimmed down a little so I can actually clearly tell what level 80’s I have. On my main account I have 7 level 80’s as well as my level 74 paladin – a full account in other words. On my second account I only have 1 level 80 (the mystic) but hey I suppose there’s a goal to work the other 6 up. Of course when the next EQ2 expansion comes out I’ll have 10 levels to try to gain on everyone including new gear and new spells, but maybe by then I’ll settle down with a ‘main’ and turn all those into crafters.

Hah. Right.

I hope everyone had an amazing weekend, here’s hoping it’s also a fantastic week!

Aion Beta Weekend – Round II

There’s no way my little screen shots do this game justice, and I realize it’s been said numerous times now but let me state it again – this game is so pretty. There are little nooks and crannies everywhere, and while I realize that how a game look does not mean it’s going to be amazing, it is certainly nice to have something that appeals to me on a very basic visual level.

As if the graphics were not enough there is also the music. The music in Aion is compelling and draws the player into the game. I realize that EQ2 has combat music, but it is nothing like the combat music of Aion. It’s breathtaking, and every time I fight something I want to be on the edge of my seat making sure I don’t miss anything. That doesn’t mean it’s for everyone, but I certainly had a blast. Now if my character would just duck out of her combat pose a little faster.

It was not quite as crowded as I would have thought, and this time around there was a choice of two servers. I created a mage instead of a priest, and felt as involved in the process of character selection as I did the first time. Again, the quests are nothing new and if you’re looking for an innovative game you’re not going to find it in Aion but it does offer polish. Lots, and lots of polish. The world looks beautiful, you can customize the bits you need. Again I’ve said this before but it’s taken the aspect of MMO’s I really dislike (lack of jumping, point and click) and given players options or removing them all together.

While learning about my heritage in game and talking to an old woman I decided to take a break and try to regain some mana. My character promptly pulled a magical carpet out of her bags, levitated it a few feet above the ground, and took a seat. No more sitting on the cold ground looking as though I must have some sort of stick shoved in an uncomfortable location (I’m talking about you, Vanguard).

Since I’m sure there are a large number of sites who will be covering the beta weekend I’m not going to go into much detail about the quests, the combat, and the specifics of the game. I’ve been reading the stories and they’re interesting and make me laugh. I can’t pre-order it here in Canada (that I’ve found at least) so I’m going to continue to follow along the beta weekends and see how it goes, I hope everyone else who has been playing has found it just as enjoyable!

Thuuga Quests, Cazic Thul, Vex Thal and Innoruuk

Yesterday was a fairly good Saturday as far as health concerns go, it’s getting less painful to breathe which is the main part. Hopefully a few more days and I’ll be back good as new. In the mean time I spent a little bit of the early afternoon finishing off my Thuuga quests for both the mystic and illusionist in EQ2. I was really glad to get those out of the way, though I should have finished them weeks (maybe even months) ago. The hardest part was waiting around for the named I needed to show up, and dragging both of my characters all through the Fens of Nathsar since neither of them have done any quests in the zone, didn’t have the sokokar posts, and were agro to all of the factions. Now both characters are sporting their fabled bits, and I’m glad it’s done.

Afterwards Wpus and I decided to head back to EQ for a little while, and I had an absolute blast.

Blackburrow and Cazic Thul were revamped not too long ago (three weeks maybe?) and so we headed to Cazic Thul first to check out the zone. There were 20 people camping but we managed to find ourselves a little niche to hang out in without too much traffic. Wpus brought along a tank mercenary and I dragged along my healer. I only have one of my EQ accounts open so I couldn’t box, but it was still a lot of fun. I managed to get a very awesome pair of shoes for the necromancer, you may remember the original pair.

They have a nice clicky effect on them, and they can also be traded which is nice. The same named also dropped a cleric only primary, which I tucked away for later. Not sure if it will be worth anything on the broker, but one never knows I suppose.

After we decided to head to the Plane of Hate to see of Innoruuk was home – which he was. We had no idea if we’d be able to take him down just the two of us with two mercenary (especially since we had no idea what his ‘thing’ was that he did during fights) and we came SO close to defeating him, it was painful. We managed to get the fake Innoruuk down easily enough and then the real version spawned in the room down below. The problem with mercenary is that they’re not very good at managing their mana, and my healer seemed to drop faster then normal. Innoruuk was down to 14% before we wiped (well, I died, the monk feigned) and we figured we’d just give it another shot. I made my way back to the zone, and JUST before I got to his room (he was at about 20% health) he poofed.

Ack!

Ah well, maybe we will get another chance to take him down.

We were also unaware as to whether or not the fabled events had been completed – all of the celebration decorations are still up in EQ as well as the quests. Asking on channels received no reply at first. We figured they were down, I saw no fabled at all in my brief travels and when we headed to Umbral Plains to farm a few named for alts, there were no fabled there either. We took down Rumblecrush (I think that’s his name) and a few others before deciding to head into Vex Thul for no other reason then I had never been there before.

The courtyard is beautiful. I’d love to own a copy of the statue posted above for my house in EQ2. You can only get so far in the zone (which is not far at all) without a rogue to let you in, so I quickly relogged to Invis (my 73 rogue) and opened the doors. As we checked on various named (Vex has always been heavily camped) we came across not one but TWO fabled.

Odd.

Asking in channels again explained what was going on. Mobs were no longer *spawning* as fabled, but if there happened to be fabled up, they would remain up until the next server re-set. Aww. There had been a few fabled items that I wanted to get last time that I never got. At least I got the fabled gate necklace before it ended.

After our exploration of Vex Thul I decided to call it a night. I had been feeling relatively good all day and didn’t want to jinx myself by staying up too late or anything like that. I gated back home and headed to bed. It was still a fantastic night though and I had a lot of fun.

Don’t forget today is Mother’s Day (like anyone could forget) and I hope all the Mom’s out there have a fantastic day. See you in Norrath!

Tehatamani Harbor – The Return

To this day, I still think Vanguard:SoH is one of the most amazing looking MMO’s out there, with some of the best looking lands. None of my friends play Vanguard any more but I still keep my account active and last night I was wandering around wondering what to do I decided to peek in game. I’ve always loved Vanguard, even though it has very rarely ever been my game of choice. Mostly due to population and friends, and not so much due to bugs. The game has come an enormous way since launch, and I’ve been playing since beta.

When the decision was made to turn all of the servers (there are four)  into RMT servers, well. Some of the player base decided that it was the final straw. I noticed a significant difference in the game yesterday compared to when I would normally dip back in. This could be for any number of reasons, maybe it was just a slow Friday night and everyone was off watching the new Wolverine movie (I saw it earlier in the afternoon, loved it) or maybe the RMT change actually affected the player base. I’m not sure.

The things I noticed about the servers – my guild was exceptionally quiet. I belong to ‘Safe Haven‘ which is an enormous guild on the Seradon server. They are still quite active, but nothing like their former glory. If you happen to be looking for a guild on Seradon, I highly suggest you check them out, you won’t meet a nicer bunch of people. There were five of us on and normally as people log in there would be hellos tossed all around but such was not the case. It was a different atmosphere then I was used to. Also, the general channels in Vanguard have always been teaming with people talking, so even if you never saw another person you knew they were out there. In the 40 minutes or so I spent in game I saw one other person talking in Qalia. Maybe Thestra chat would have been better, always the more popular location for people to hang out and no doubt there’s new content out that way. I didn’t get a chance to check it out but I plan on it.

The /craft channel was still active, less so then your typical Friday night. People were still friendly, as I have found crafters to be in every game I play (more about that later as I make my EQ2 post). It had been a little while since I had done anything more then log into game, check my house, and maybe craft a bit or two, so I decided to flip through my quest journal and figure out where I was at and what quests I had to work towards next.

I found a rift stone close to my house and headed to Tehatamani Harbor, I have written about this place twice before. In my previous posts I talked about how I had to be level 44 to progress the quest chain, and what do you know that’s the exact level I am standing at now. I spent some time killing beetles and snakes, working up faction and getting small amounts of experience, and remembering why I love the game and why I probably always will.

It was a nice quiet night, which is not always a bad thing. If you happen to be on the Seradon server, let me know!

Relaxing in Middle-Earth

For the first time since September, I played last night and had no graphic glitches at all. It was nice. It was really nice. Kasul, Tipa, and I headed to LotRO and spent some time slaying various creatures and progressing the epic line. Now, I’ll admit I didn’t spend that much time actually reading the quests. I normally do, I love reading all the stories and then I get to thinking about who wrote them and what inspired them and it just takes off from there. However; I was dealing with some real life background noise (ie: stress) and just trying to make sure I followed along, kept people healed, and didn’t trip over my own two feet very much. I was so happy that the new video card ran (and ran well) that I could barely do more then walk around in a half daze looking at everything.

I do remember getting quite a few pieces of gear upgrade. I got a new cloak, some gloves and even a really awesome recipe that only has a one time charge of some cloth shoulders. It came from one of the instances we ran, and I’d never seen it before. My tailor (explorer) is happily leveling away, and things are going well in that direction. 

Gozad also started playing on the same server as Nostalgia (our Kinship, now spanning three games officially, though you can find Nostalgians all over the place), not sure if he plans on continuing or not but it’s always nice to have another member. Our Kinship just reached rank 6, and we’re headed towards rank 7. 

I like to unlock the various deeds and see a mass accumulation of titles and little ‘unique’ bits to the game that show off the various feats my character has accomplished. Even if they’re the same titles that everyone else has earned, they are unique to my character and remind me about what I’ve done (or haven’t done) in game. The one Tipa is sporting (on her character Dera) is awesome, and completely fitting for the little hobbit (who I keep wanting to call a halfling due to EverQuest II). It was a wonder we didn’t step on her multiple times throughout the night. Elves may be slim and move with grace, but my Minstrel is wearing some pretty clunky items and I always feel like I’m clunking around instead of floating gracefully.

Monday evening should be the next LotRO meeting unless Kasul has changed his schedule around for that day (one never knows) I managed to reach level 16 and part way through it. We also started working on Book one Chapter five (I believe that’s where we’re at in any case) which has us running all over the place currently. I don’t own a mount (nor do I envision myself owning one any time soon) so it’s a lot of running. A lot. 

Over all? Having a lot of fun with the game. Of course, playing with great friends always makes games 100x better then playing alone.