Housing

Taking it Easy

Still just taking it easy while I try to recuperate, yesterday was ok until after dinner. In the mean time all I want to do is feel better and it’s been a pretty long week. Hopefully that will happen before too long.

I did play a little EQ2 in the afternoon, I started my thuuga quest on both the mystic and the illusionist. Got as far as the Fens of Nathsar quest that sends you out looking for named before I called it.

You may have also noticed that I have added a small 2 line advertisement to the “relic gems” page of this site at the top. It’s not flashy or too intrusive (I hope) and the ad pays for 6 years of this site. If for s0me reason you do find it intrusive and annoying, let me know and I’ll see what I can do. I’ve never wanted to have google ads or anything of the sort on MmoQuests, and I’ve declined more then my fair share of requests in the past. This one was different in the way it was presented to me as more of a ‘sponsorship’ then a full blown ad. I don’t want people to feel as though I’ll be covering the site with ads now, or that it is something common for me. I’ve enjoyed running my site ad-free for the last four years, but of course there is a cost (and bills) to be paid. This is just a tiny method for me to be able to continue. Edit: That ad is only staying up for 6 months, as well.

Moving on!

I did explore around more of Wizard 101 last night, my little life / storm wizard inched her way to level 19 and part way to 20. I managed to earn a few more house items (pictured above) including a palm tree and a scroll that I placed on my desk.

One thing I love about wizard 101 is their subscription plan. I don’t get a chance to play that often so I declined getting the $10/m subscription. What I can do is purchase crowns and then use those to unlock the zones for my account that I need, when I need them. Since it could potentially be months before I need a new zone this works out better for me personally in the long run. If you do end up spending a lot of time in Wizard 101, then I can certainly see how adding a subscription is a better idea, especially if you go with their family plan and you play with your children or even if you just want to have two accounts.

I’m still saving up for my first house, drooling over all of the items out there both merchant sold and dropped. I’ve been having fun adding to my collection and I don’t have the slightest idea what sort of home I want to own. Since I only have two worlds open to me right now (and I’m not even sure where the housing turtles are) my choices are limited. I may just hang tight until I can buy one of the REALLY big homes, or just buy a smaller one. I’m still trying to decide.

This weekend is one I’ll be spending inside (sighs) again. I hope everyone has a great Mother’s Day tomorrow – and before I forget if you’re playing Free Realms and are interested in cool items you can claim then don’t forget to take a peek over at Free Realms Insider who have all sorts of awesome codes that you can enter for free goodies. This weekend they’ll be giving away codes for roses in celebration of Mother’s Day, and there are all sorts of other neat items that you can claim.

A Little Relaxing

After a 7 hour visit to first my local clinic and then the emergency ward of the hospital (in which they decided they have no idea what is wrong with me and sent me back home with the same persistent condition I went in with) I was in no real mood to game last night, so I ducked into EQ2 for a quick CoA (Crypt of Agony) run and then decided to tuck myself into bed with the laptop and watch some Harry Potter while I played around in Wizard 101.

I’ve been exceptionally excited about the Castle and Lands update, of course being a great fan of housing, an even bigger fan of going out and discovering items to place. I also love the new quest helper that was added, so I am not wandering all over the place clueless. There are a few bugs with it (ie: I’ll be looking for Triton Way and if I’m in Unicorn Ally the arrow cursor ends up dragging me off to the middle of no where for a bit) but if you know where Triton Way is you can start heading in that direction and ignore the arrow and it will eventually right itself as you get closer to your destination. Not that big of a deal.

As I was saying, yesterday I decided to do a little exploring through wizard city and see if I couldn’t come up with any house items. I had a few older quests on me that I’d all but neglected – one of them was to kill the – er, brain not working. Kraken? I believe, the purple guy that everyone seems to camp, constantly. I had the quest on me to spawn him but the instant I was ported downstairs about 20 other players were already there.

So I hung around in the center of the game board for a bit waiting for a chance to get my update. I hate being ‘that’ person but I just wanted to kill him once for my quest and move on my way. Eventually hanging around paid off and I was ported to the playing field. Completing the quest rewarded me my first house item, though I can’t remember exactly which one it was, I believe it was the blue rug pictured above.

My second house item came from the Harvest Lord, there was an open book on the floor of his room that I was able to collect, and then the stack of books came from yet another instanced encounter in wizard city. I can’t afford a really nice home yet (I’m about 3,000 short of the 8,000 home) but I imagine I’ll get one eventually.

My little life wizard also managed to make it to level 18, almost 19. Which reminds me I’m supposed to go see my trainer and I completely forgot.

It was a nice quiet night and I went to bed fairly early after that. I find that Wizard 101 is a little more relaxed even then Free Realms, though I enjoy both games a great deal. It’s nice to take a night off and do something quiet from time to time.

Safe travels, and see you in Norrath!

Station Marketplace to get new HOUSE items!

So far I’ve managed to stave off the lure of the station marketplace. There’s only a few items I glance at here and there and really wouldn’t mind owning. I was thinking of buying $20 worth just so I had a little coin – the cowboy hat comes to mind for my hair-less characters (since it looks great with fur but makes you bald other wise). 

Then they rolled out the house item on the right hand side – and what’s more it comes in an 8 piece SET. Which looks absolutely amazing. You can check out the pieces over on SOE’s web site. Now, if ever there was something that would draw me to purchase station cash, house items are the way to go. 

I’m torn! On one side I really want the house items, because – they’re house items! I love decorating! They look amazing! On the other hand I REALLY wish they were QUESTED items and not something that people can only own if they fork out a bunch of cash. I can see this becoming a VERY expensive hobby to get all of the items that may come out in the marketplace. Which of course is the point, and I understand that but dang. I dislike how all of the ‘best’ fluff items are now things we have to purchase and the items are not something that people can obtain through any other means. I get that it’s not essential to the game, but I still feel like there’s a lot of ‘double dipping’ going on having both a $15/m subscription and all of these items in the marketplace.

Plundered House Items – PartI

While you’re adventuring through the newest TSO instances, be on the look out for furniture that you can steal and take home with you. There are a number of house items that can be collected by adventurers and brought home, something that I find absolutely amazing. 

You may want to set up a rule for your group before you even enter the zone, as only some of these house items seem to respawn (the rug in Befallen is an example of one that does not seem to respawn).

In each of the Loping Plains instances, one of three paintings can be found with the same title – “Mysterious Painting” 

The one of the woman can be found in Evernight Abbey, from a clickable coffin. Keep your eyes open for the other two in the other instances. 

The paintings look fantastic, the details are wonderful and there’s a lot of character in them. I only have two of the collection so far, but hopefully I’ll be able to get my hands on the rest before too long and add them to my museum (which is still a work in progress). 

Keep in mind that you CAN find these on the broker. They’re treasured house items, tradeable, and are worth 250 status points each. There are a lot more items besides these three paintings, including tapestries, rugs, bushes, chandelier, and even a chair. I’ll post pictures of those next.