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The Trials and Tribulations of Afrit

stargrace July 18, 2010 No Comments

Pictured above, the blood mage just after she hit level 47. Now, the old cap in Vanguard was level 50, and when I think about it that way I’m pretty close, which is great. However the new cap is now 55 in Vanguard and so by that number and the amount of experience it takes I’m quite far away. Not in a rush, but still far. In order to level through 46 I decided to do repeatable quests in Afrit. This is quite a popular area for a number of reasons. The main quests have you collecting these little gems in stacks of 50. Once you gather 50 you combine them into a bag. These bags of gems can be turned in to NPC in Afrit for any number of rewards ranging from gear to jewelery to food and drink. You can even purchase a merchant to summon who will repair your gear and act as a vendor when your bags are full and you don’t want to gate out of your quest area. All very handy items.

The quests are great because once you’ve completed one you’re automatically given the second one in the series, and the locations of each quest are quite close together. On the down side this means the areas are popular – and it’s common to see a level 55 sorcerer (or other aoe class) “helping” a friend by rounding up every single mob in the area and aoe’ing them down. Not a bad thing if they’re the only one at that particular quest area but when others are around it makes sharing quite frustrating (as I found out last night). One of the quest areas also has a great collection of stone mobs that you can quarry for granite and obsidian, something I can never have enough of.

Thanks to Greth (awesome newtfish) I am also now sporting my swamp armor robe. I haven’t managed to upgrade any of the pieces because they require an item called phytotoxinous which is 50g each on the broker and there’s no way I’m going to pay that much – but even the basics were a huge upgrade to me and eventually I will upgrade them fully.

I learned yesterday that there is a diplomacy saga line that I am just incredibly excited to start. I worked on the artisan’s saga some more (the crafter version) and completed two more quests, granting me a toolbelt upgrade and an awesome necklace that allows me to port to New Targonor. Love those clickies!

Now that my crafting level and adventuring level match up again, it’s time to work on more crafting. The cap for diplomacy is still 50, but crafting was also raised to 55 along with adventuring and I’ve a lot of levels to make up. Excited? Yes, I am. Just a little.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Artisan’s Saga: World of The Arcane

stargrace July 17, 2010 3 Comments

Expect a lot more posts about Vanguard over the next little while. With the layoffs at Sony, and three of them confirmed for working on the Vanguard team, I’m not going to pretend that things are all sunshine and glory. However. I have always loved this game, and I have not given it the proper reception it deserves. I’ve played since release, and things are a billion times better then they ever have been. Sadly, without much of a team working on it some things (bugs) have been neglected. With the recent server merge reducing the player base from four servers to two (one US and one EU) population is probably the highest anyone has seen in quite some time. Channels are bustling, and there are people in the quest hubs around the world of Telon. My blood mage hit level 46 – and started obtaining swamp armor. With the bonus xp weekend last week that was two more levels then I thought I’d get. There are a LOT of things I’ve missed in game, and a lot of areas to quest in. Finding information on all of this is a little more difficult then I’d like, but I’ll get there.

Then there’s the crafting. Vanguard crafting is by far the most complex and rewarding I have ever experienced. Since they allow players to do work orders that use none of the players materials aside from fuel, it’s viable to level as a crafter and not an adventurer. There are long complex quest chains, and it can probably be said that crafters in Vanguard make a lot more money then you’ll see from just adventuring alone.

My crafting is level 47, and I’m an artificer. I make homes and jewelery as well as stone weapons and foci. I’ve done a lot (if not all) of the older craft chains in game – I even printed out a PDF of all that were available at the time. However. A few new chains and new items have made their way into game that I was not aware of. One of which I know only as the ‘banished’ series. It’s a complex series with more quests then I know what to do with. I’ve only done the first few so far. For those who start out on the Isle of Dawn, you’ll be given instructions on where to go once you leave the island. For those who did not start on the island, or who are perhaps older characters created before the newbie experience was brought to the game – you’re in luck.

The basic quests begins from: Ashlyn Blackshield at -28945, 28055, 36542 in Citizen’s Forum, New Targonor, New Targonor (Region) (-27,24), Thestra. (taken from Vanguardcrafters.com).

Several quests can lead you to this quest, but none are required in order to obtain the quest.

Players from the Isle of Dawn will likely find one of these quests in the landing regions:

• Artisan’s Saga: Qalian Problems from Qa Riverbank
• Artisan’s Saga: Shadow over Thestra from Veskal’s Exchange
• Artisan’s Saga: The Kojani Threat from The Tomb of Lord Tsang

Players who began in their home city are more likely to find this quest from the Crafting Advisor in their home town:

• Artisan’s Saga: The Banishers

Either way, those quests will eventually lead here, to Artisan’s Saga: World of the Arcane.

I’m now on the 4th quest in the chain which is called: Artisan’s Saga: Mythos Pressure. The rewards are fantastic, I’ll admit right now. Even more so are the recipes I’ve purchased from doing these quests, including a recipe to create blessed harvesting tools that are just amazing. I wish I had of checked where they came from before I purchased them off of the broker for 3g each. The current quest I’m on rewards a toolbelt that is far better then any of the ones I currently am wearing, as well as saddlebags. Not a big deal since they’re a little smaller then the ones I got from completing my mount quest, but since the crafting quest is level 13 (or there abouts) chances are most players don’t own saddlebags that size yet.

I want to keep working on this quest chain and figure out where it leads me as well as what rewards I’ll gain from it – but it’s 2am and my eyeballs are closing. I did also obtain a really neat diplomacy wrist piece from doing the crafter quests, as well as a necklace. Diplomacy is another sphere to Vanguard that I absolutely adore, and I hope to get into more details about it in the future.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.

Kojani Two Story Home Completed!

stargrace July 12, 2010 3 Comments

I finally finished re-building my Kojan two story home and decided to show off some screen shots. Enjoy! Remember, nothing in Vanguard is instanced (unless you want to count the ‘shards’ for raiding). This home required a LOT of materials to build, and I built it myself. I spent a few days harvesting granite and dusky timber in order to craft:

• 220 Kojani housing bricks (thank goodness these are 20 at a time, I own a production manual)
• Kojani skarn cornerstone
• 80 Kojani granite housing shingles (again, a production manual made this easy)
• 100 prime wood beams (5 at a time)
• 50 prime wood panels (5 at a time)

There were also a few portions that I couldn’t craft myself. These included 15 window coverings (outfitter created), and 15 mithril fasteners (blacksmith created) as well as a few vendor sold items (mortar). I’m incredibly proud of the home, so feel free to let me know what you think of the screen shots!

Life in Telon After The Merges

stargrace July 11, 2010 4 Comments

Telon has been quite busy since the merge, which has been good and bad. The channels are bustling, which is good. However, every single item in Telon was re-set as far as discoveries go. If you’re not aware, you can discover not only crafted and looted items, but first time kills on mob encounters. Each time you get a discovery, a screen shot is taken of the event and it’s recorded in an automated blog over on VGplayers. As you can see from the link to my main Faydai – I’ve gotten a lot of discoveries. This is adding an incredible amount of lag to the server. In a few more days it should die down significantly (or so we all hope).

I’ve always loved Vanguard, but rarely were any of my friends playing it which makes for a lonely game. I’ve been playing since release, and get into spurts where I’ll want to play for a week straight and then won’t touch it for a month. My blood mage inched her way to level 45 yesterday, thanks to the double xp bonus that’s in effect. She also made her way through most of that level. I teamed up with a good friend of mine who I’ve known since EverQuest days and together we worked on obtaining Swamp Armor pieces. Swamp armor was ‘end game’ gear for a lot of players (before the cap was raised to 55) and before raiding. It consists of three factions, and each one gives you a set of gear that has different stats. It was a lot of fun, and some of the encounters were really unique. One in specific encounter that I can’t recall the name of except everyone called it “hag” consisted of an encounter that reminded me a lot of WoW – you’re required to tank the mob and at the same time, avoid glowing pentagrams on the floor. A number of these will spawn at a time, and if you’re standing on one you’ll die. In Vanguard encounters like this are rare, where as in WoW all I ever seem to do on named fights is jump all over the place avoiding things.

We also defeated Lord Faladrian, attempting to get my breastplate to drop (well, in my case a robe). We killed him three times and saw every other class EXCEPT mine. Go figure. I’ve always said that if I didn’t have bad luck, I’d simply have no luck at all. By the end of the day I DID manage to finish my pants, gloves, and hat which were all large improvements over what I had before. The down side (well, sort of) is that these pieces can all be upgraded with a crafted component. Of course, this crafted component is now selling on Telon for 50 gold – a HUGE amount of money to me. I barely have one plat. For now I won’t be upgrading the gear.

It was still a lot of fun, and I had a great time getting familiar with the game again. The graphics are amazing, the world is vast, and the crafting is the best I’ve ever experienced. I realize that not everyone feels the same way, but I’m pretty sure I always will.

Happy gaming no matter where you find yourself.

Vanguard Server Merges

stargrace July 5, 2010 No Comments

On the 7th (which is the date I’m writing this, even though I’m posting it to the 5th) the four servers in Vanguard will be merging down to two – US and EU. A lot of people saw this coming, and of course when the announcement went out, cries of ‘the sky is falling the sky is falling’ rolled out over the blogsphere. Some suggested that the game simply be shut down, why draw out the inevitable. Others were looking forward to the merges, suggesting that perhaps the population that’s left over would thrive.

While I don’t write about my time in Vanguard nearly as often as I should, I do play on a weekly basis, and have for quite some time. I’m in an active guild, and my army of alts carries over even into that game. There’s quite a lengthly FAQ about the merges posted on the forums, but I wanted to highlight at some specifics. You can find the entire article here.

Guild Names

• Each Guild has a separate ID and will not be affected by a move. Two guilds with the same name can exist on the server. Should a guild wish to change their name they can petition Customer Service. (I think that’s the first time I’ve ever seen the ability of guilds with the same name to co-exist on the same server. Typically, someone renames).

Housing

• In conjunction with each server merge, housing plot purchase price and current upkeep balance will be returned via mail to the most recently created character on the account owning the house.  The building materials required to construct the house as well as the fixtures and items in the house will be returned to the owner via a housing escrow merchant. (This is probably my only ‘issue’ with server merges. I have a great T5 house, on a fantastic plot. Now I’m going to have to re-purchase it, and re-construct it. I had a LOT of things in my home, and now I’m going to have to make sure I have space to remove them all. I’m not quite sure what happens to the chests filled with crafting bits, but I’m not looking forward to this. I hope I can find a plot that was half as good as my last one. On the plus side, perhaps this time around I’ll have active neighbours).

There’s another great FAQ post over on the forums that you’ll want to check out here. They mention a lot of specific questions that players had, the down side to this is the detailed information about guild halls and guilds. Here are some specifics:

Guild Halls

Q: What will happen in a situation where the original ‘owner’ of a guild hall no longer plays the game?  There are many guild halls that are currently being maintained by the members of the guild, but the original owner of the plot has moved on from the game and cannot be reached.  Can you implement a way for these guild hall plots to be transferred to the current guild leader?

A: There isn’t a way to automate this so the best option would be to contact customer service.

Q: There is a concern that the number of guild halls to be built may exceed the number of plots available.  What will SOE do if a guild that had a Qalian (for example) hall prior to the merge, and thus has Qalian materials, finds that there are no Qalian plots left?  Will there be a process for guilds to exchange their materials (including the diplomacy item) for that of another continent?

A: You’ll have the opportunity to choose the type you want (diplomacy item).  However, you’ll need to re-gather whatever different materials are needed.

Q: In guild halls, will the items be returned to the individual who owns the plot or to the individual who placed the item?  How about chests, and the items within chests?

A: The person who placed the items owns them.

Q: What about the trophies? Where will they go? To escrow of the plot owner or the trophy owner? What if the trophy owner is no longer playing?

A: Trophies will go to the trophy owner.  If they’re no-longer playing, it will sit in their escrow forever.

Q: Will 6 people still be needed to purchase a guild hall plot?  is there any way that this prerequisite can be removed as it will be a challenge for some smaller/casual play guilds to be able to get together six members during the land rush when the server goes live again?  Perhaps it would only be removed for anyone who owned a guild hall prior to a certain date?

A: There will be no change to the number of people needed.

I can see some issues arising from this. While I personally will not be affected (as far as I know) there are a lot of players who have guild leaders who have since left the game, or players who have dropped trophies and no longer play. Trophies were a special claim item from purchasing the collectors edition of the game, and are no longer available. They grant members in your guild three types of buffs, one for each sphere.

Personally, I just hope my characters make it through the merge in one piece, and that I can purchase a housing plot at another great location. We’ll just have to wait and see! Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.