Stargrace

Beastlord Enters Plane of Disease #EverQuest

Things are going very well in EverQuest lately. My beastlord is now level 57, and has been exploring Plane of Disease which is a hot zone for level 50 and up. There are some quests given out by an NPC outside of the guild lobby, they reward some very nice gear for these levels (shoulders, a belt, and a cloak). I picked up the quest and got a haste belt that was a huge upgrade (though all of the pieces are pretty nice upgrades). I currently have my experience on 50/50 so that half of it goes towards aa. I have over 30 aa so far although there are not many useful things for me to purchase at this level yet. Once I hit 60 a lot more will open up.

I’ll be exploring some old events and zones before too long, and broadcasting them on twitch tv. In case you’re not familiar with my channel, you can find it here. I only have a few broadcasts there so far but it will come with time.

I’ve also been working on my alchemy. My skill is at 150 so far, and I’ve been leveling up the crafting trophy as I go along which reminds me. There is apparently a quest you can do if you’re a crafter, that will allow you to unlock multiple mercenary slots instead of purchasing them in the station cash store. Of course purchasing them in the store is much easier than getting to 300 in every craft and then doing a quest, but for the determined, it works well. PLUS you can repeat this quest 4x allowing you to have 4 mercenary slots. This lets you easily switch from healer to dps to tank mercenary without having to go purchase a completely new one. I’m not quite at 300 in every craft yet, but it’s a dream of mine to be there one day.

I still haven’t done any of the anniversary things yet, but that’s alright. There’s so much to do in EverQuest I don’t feel like I’m missing out this year by leveling up a new character. As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

The Snugg ipad Case Review

I was sent a free Snugg ipad case to review from the fine folks over at The Snugg, and since I’ve been really unsatisfied with the $60 one I purchased from Apple, I decided to try it out. It shipped very quickly (less than a week) and came in a nice clean box with instructions on how to use it, along with a cord for recharging. In specific I decided to review the snugg ipad3 ultra slim bluetooth keyboard case. I know this probably sounds silly, but I didn’t expect the case to actually come with a bluetooth keyboard. I have one of my own and I figured I would have to slip it into the case. This case comes with one along with a USB cable so that you can recharge the battery which lasts for approx. 55 hours of use. I haven’t had to recharge it yet, and I’ve had it about a week.

The case is a hard plastic, which is much sturdier than the previous one I had been using. The ipad snaps into it easily and (go figure) snug (via the picture above).

The case itself props the ipad open like a miniature laptop, you basically just prop it up against three small pegs at the bottom that hold the ipad in place. My only issue with the case is that these pegs don’t actually secure your ipad so if you were to use the case on an unstable surface that tilts, you could drop your ipad out of it very easily. If you’re using it on your lap and tilt the case backwards or forward it would eventually slide out. However, I don’t believe that this sort of case it meant to be used that way, so the chances of that happening are quite slim and would be something you are (hopefully) planning for. Using the case on a flat surface works best, pictured above I have it set up on my desk. I also used it just fine on the couch or coffee table or even in bed beside me.

All of the components to this case are well made which I was pleased about. The USB cord is sturdy, the case has an off and on switch for the bluetooth, and gave separate instructions on how to sync the bluetooth keyboard up to your device.

Over all I was pleased with this case – especially since the price point is lower than the apple triangle cover I had purchased with the ipad. My original case is incredibly flimsy, and gives practically no protection what so ever. As I mentioned above the only downside is that the ipad is not actually secured into the case, it’s propped up but as long as you’re not bouncing around I don’t see it being that much of an issue.

Day Four DAW: Wurm Online #WurmOnline

Another game that is incredibly near and dear to my heart is Wurm Online. A game that combines combat (if you feel like it) with an incredibly large crafting system, AND terraforming. I have such love for the developer team of this game that it is probably borderline stalking.

So my fourth (wait, four? Isn’t there only one for Glitch up there so far? Just hold on, I’ve got two more coming that I’m post-dating) Developer Appreciation Award goes out to the team at Wurm Online.

We’ve had a lot of awesome changes lately, and these are all thanks to the dev team. New graphics, new sounds, new options for terraforming. For the first time since I’ve started playing on Deliverance, we have bison. That’s a pretty big deal. Of course every time a change is implemented there’s a mob of angry gamers looking to rip a new one into those responsible, so I just wanted to say

THANK YOU

for making this game so amazing. Never in any game before have I seen such a robust crafting system. I’ve never had the ability to physically shape the land in an MMO to my specifications and some of the amazing stuff people have created over time is just that – amazing.

Day 3 Daw: Emerald Kingdom

This game hasn’t been released yet, it’s still in alpha testing, but the team working on Emerald Kingdom have been incredibly helpful and vocal with their growing community, and that’s why I’m nominating them as my day 3 Developers Appreciation Award recipients. In specific I want to give a big thank you to Azrael Deling who has been fostering the community since day one.

I love community, it’s what keeps us playing in pretty much every single game when we’re ‘done’ the game. Communication between those who are creating our favorite games and those of us playing helps to keep everyone happy.

Want to learn more about the game? Check out their Emerald Kingdompedia, or the Emerald Kingdom web page. To learn more about the team at Double Cluepon Studios who are making all of this happen, you can check out their page.

Day 2 DAW: EverQuest #EverQuest

14 years old, and still going strong. My second nomination for Developer Appreciation Week (thanks again Scarybooster for running this event) is the good folks who work on EverQuest – no matter what year they worked on it.

I recently started playing EverQuest again, and I’m so glad I did. There are over 600 people on most evenings (on my server, Drinal). The quests and expansions are still going strong and while it’s certainly not the glory days of this game any more the community is there and the developers have a close relationship to them. There have even been some developer changes lately to help bring the game more in line to those released these days, with an offline mode for the auction house, and mail that you can use to send items instead of just text (not that I ever get any mail, if I do it’s usually just spam).

This is a game that a lot of people use to mark how ‘fun’ they have in other games. Even if they don’t feel like they can return any more they’ll re-live the glory days over and over again, measuring each of their newer games against how much fun they had in it. Developers have left lasting impressions on players (not always positive), and honestly that’s what we all hope to do some day.

So thank you, developers of EverQuest. Without this game I would have never met some of the most amazing people I’ve ever known. I wouldn’t have started my blog (way back when, MmoQuests used to be just about EverQuest) and I would have never had so many new and amazing opportunities come my way.