Stargrace

Owning a Deed #WurmOnline

Pictured above, my new deed in WurmOnline. Well, technically it’s not mine quite yet, I have a 24h wait period before I can obtain it, but it’s on the road to being mine. That fence there is something I helped build, and I was really happy doing so. The property is quite large, on the other side of that fence is an iron mine, on the left hand side a house will be built. Up the path is a forge, an oven, and some food storage bins as well as some holding containers. When I was tired of working on the fence I decided that a little break was in order, and thanks to a trusty new staff that Arkenor gave me, I set out exploring.

You have to be careful in WurmOnline, you don’t want to do things that will anger other people, especially not to their property. I wandered around until I reached some wilds, unowned by anyone. I found some meat that I could haul back to my own deed and turn into casseroles. I found some fur (used to improve beds) and some cheese. I even found some pumpkin seeds but apparently those are quite hard to plant. I’m looking forward to getting a garden going in the future, once I flatten some land. Which of course takes time, and skills.

I’m having an absolute blast in game, which doesn’t surprise me at all because this is exactly the sort of game I enjoy. The graphics are not that bad (if you ignore how everyone looks and just take in the scenery) there’s combat if you want it, and the fear of never knowing what you’re going to run into. Literally. While I was wandering around I came to an area that was infested with trolls. Considering I can’t even take down a young wolf at this point in the game trolls were a creature that I really didn’t want to mess with. In avoiding them I also stumbled smack dab into a lava spider, which are far worse than regular spiders – and those mess me up pretty bad already. I was encumbered due to all the goods I had found along the way, inching my way back to my own deed which seemed hours away (and it was indeed a good hour to walk back), with my health lowering as a young bear got a hold of me. If you’re lucky you can find some spirit guards that will help take care of those wild critters blocking your path, but when you’re spending your time roaming around in underdeveloped land, the chances of that happening are pretty slim.

I’m really excited about my progress in game so far, and can’t wait to share it with everyone in these blog posts. As always, have a wonderful day and happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.

Beastlord Adventures #EQ2 #EverQuestII

My beastlord is almost level 81 now, and yesterday she completed the ‘Goddess Rising’ world event. Sadly, none of the rewards were something that beastlords can use (a shield, and a bow) and the house item has the exact same graphic as the regular covered bow you get from The Shard of Love – but I did have a fantastic time with the story, and the zone was beautiful. I just wish there had of been more to do there. You enter the zone and collect 8 rocks (clickable boulders scattered throughout the zone) and then you kill 4 golems at the entrance until a piece you need drops. It’s a really beautiful zone that deserves a little more attention (imo). Ibeogur and I also ran through the regular shard of love instance and I was incredibly surprised. First of all, gear dropped. Actual PvE legendary gear. The zone has never dropped anything for me before aside from appearance stuff. I had to assume it was a bug. The fabled shield also dropped which I have never seen drop for me before, and I’ve ran this zone a LOT. At the end, the fabled wings dropped. It was a REALLY good run.

The last push from 80-90 is always a difficult one for me. First of all, beastlords don’t get to start their epics until level 90, so I can’t work on that which is something I would normally do early. I’m a bit too small for DoV, it’s best to head to the Great Divide at around 85-86. I haven’t done any of the TSO instances that scale with levels, so that’s probably where I’ll spend the majority of my time, completing the quests for those zones and dragging my mercenary along with me.

Speaking of, I claimed the warboar warder from the Age of Discovery collectors edition yesterday. He is GIGANTIC compared to my little ratonga (I shrunk him down in the screen shot) and plays the role of a tank. Although to be honest, I’m not sure how great a tank he is. I probably need some loyalty points and to actually spend his aa points. He couldn’t keep agro off of my beastlord yesterday, even though she’s wearing level 60 gear and has nothing but journeymen skills. I’m hoping to reach level 85 today, but it’s MUCH slower than it was getting 1-80 (which took less than 10 hours of game play) so we’ll see how it goes. In the mean time, I’m having fun completing the crafting apprentice quests each day, maybe I’ll get one of those reactants as a reward, they’re selling for 900-1400 plat at the moment, and the money sure would be nice.

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Thoughts on Staying Power #MMORPG #EQ2 #SWTOR #WoW

This post may come off a little negative, but that’s not how it’s intended. I’ve been giving a lot of thought lately to why SWTOR didn’t grab me, or rather, it did, but couldn’t keep me. One of the major issues I had wasn’t really an issue at all, but is just how gamers perceive things. There are a lot of ‘things’ that I’m used to having in games, thanks to those who have been around for 5+ years. I realize it’s incredibly unfair to judge a game that releases today against a game that has been around for many years because after all that game has had time to grow – but – as a gamer, we are not interested in how things were 5 years ago, or how they will be 5 years from now. What we are interested in (and I use the term ‘we’ loosely here before someone throws a fit) is what is available NOW. At this exact moment that we are playing. If I can play a game that offers me 5 things that I really want from my video game, as opposed to a game that offers me 9 things that I really want from my video game, which game do you think I’m going to play? It doesn’t matter how old or how new a game is – in order to KEEP me playing, it’s going to have to appeal to those things on my list, and lets face it, the older games have had more time to work out what those ‘things’ are and to add them.

I feel very strongly that in order to actually compete with games that are 5-10 years old, games that are being released today need to take that progress into account. Dusty made a very good point yesterday regarding SWTOR – if you are leveling alts you can’t simply say “well, I leveled in Balmorra last time, so this time I’ll go to planet X instead.” There’s no alternate rout for you to bring your characters, where as (as an example) in EQ2 if you leveled in Thundering steppes last time, you’re more than welcome to head to Nektulos Forest. Or Butcherblock Mountains. Or do dungeons. In WoW you also have the choice of where to spend your time. In Rift? Not so much. SWTOR? Also not so much. Again this is an unfair comparison and I know it is, because the two later games are much newer, and thus haven’t had the time to add new content – but that’s simply how it is. In order to compete with games that are 5-10 years old, you must think of yourself as one of those games. I realize that there’s only so much manpower a company can dedicate to a game, and I also realize that this is pretty much an impossible task – but for us selfish gamers, that’s how we’re thinking. We’re going to constantly compare any new game to those we have played previously. Those older games have already gotten their hands on us, we’ve already got ties to them – new games need a way to get those hands on us in a MUCH faster way, so that we’ll stay.

When it comes down to it, that’s why SWTOR didn’t have the staying power required for me to keep playing. Were the stories amazing? Sure they were, I loved them. I loved having choices for my characters to make. I experienced very few bugs (personally, I know others have a long list of bugs), and datacrons and exploration were fun. The problem is (aside from the story lines and character choices) I can get those things in any other game on my list, plus more sandbox features which is key to me sticking around in any game. I play alts, they need choices that will be different from my mains. Sure, I can choose a different *story* for them, but they’re basically doing the exact same things (as long as we’re the same factions) as my main, minus the class quests. They’re visiting the same zones, collecting the same datacrons, and when I dislike a zone like Balmorra (those lifts.. that map.. OUCH) I have no alternate rout. Now, maybe game companies have given up on trying to retain players and instead are working to build up their first-time sales, which is completely fine if that’s the way they’re trying to operate. Obviously that’s not how I’d prefer things done but hey I’m not a gaming company trying to make money, I’m just a player.

Anyhow, those were just some of my thoughts on player retention. As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Beastlord Leveling #EQ2 #EverQuestII

With help once more from Ibeogur (guild mate) my little level 10 beastlord set out into the wide world of Norrath, and when the dust cleared, she was level 63. Beastlords are interesting, they have two key aspects besides their warders that make them a bit more involved to play. Number one, at level 18 you’ll earn yourself an extra hotbar that you’ve probably never seen before. On it will go (automatically) skills that you can’t use unless you proc a beastlord specific spell. You’ll never forget when this proc goes off because a giant blue and yellow beastlord paw print will mark your screen and sounds will go off. A little annoying if you proc often. Later on as you level you’ll also gain a savagery bar (level 20). As you use the skills that can only be used when you proc, you’ll gain savagery, and then you’ll be able to use other skills that only work if you have a certain level of savagery. It’s less confusing than it sounds. It’s hard to proc savagery when you kill fast though, so I’d consider these to be more ‘grouping’ tools.

Warders are neat. They come in different categories, and you can ‘keep’ one warder of each category. So far I’ve collected Feline, Aquatic, and Avian warders. They each get their own aa tree that you can spend points in, and you’ll have to earn loyalty with each warder. Pictured above is ‘Crabby’. I know, I’m incredibly creative when it comes to naming my warders.

Once I was done with the Beastlord for the day and put all of my items up for sale, I decided it would be a good idea to log in all 9 of my crafters one at a time in order to do their apprentice dailies. I didn’t get anything amazing, but I am researching some nice items. They’ll help for the ranger I’ve got level locked at 35, and any alts I make (although I already have 13, how many more do I possibly need).

I have three enchanters, and I’ve been looking at how to deal with that. All are on the same server, two are coercers. I’m thinking of deleting one of my coercers, but I need to level up another sage, first. One coercer is a 90 sage, the other a 90 carpenter (who has a lot of extra recipes that I don’t want to simply lose). I’m thinking that the warlock would make a great sage, and then I can delete that third enchanter that I really don’t need (all of the enchanters are level 90. I really like the class what can I say).

I’m enjoying myself in EQ2 this round which is nice. It’s a much more casual pace than last time I played, and Antonia Bayle is filled with players. I hope that the Free to Play model is kind to the game, although me and EQ2 have had our rough moments, and I’ve fallen out of ‘love’ with it a few times, it still seems to be the only game out there that can offer me EVERYTHING I want from an MMO. Robust crafting system, sandbox features (housing, achievements, shiny hunting, etc), solo and group content, a UI players can adjust (both in default and if you get a UI mod), a booming community, regular updates (even if the updates are not to my personal liking, at least they happen), guild features, and a few other little tidbits that we take for granted this day in age. While I still have some major issues with a few paths of the game (the reduction of stats down to players only requiring two, for example) doesn’t every game out there have issues?

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Player-made Dungeons, Round Two #EQ2 #EverQuestII

My first attempt at a player made dungeon didn’t go that well. Sure it was fun, but I found it VERY difficult to solo and it threw me off the system completely. Last night I decided to give it another go, this time teaming up with Ibeogur from guild (who I dragged back into game specifically for this experiment). The dungeon went MUCH better, in fact it was just too easy for the two of us. The design was amazing though (the dungeon layout was Chardok) and I still had a lot of fun. I also ended up with roughly the same number of dungeon marks as I did in the first dungeon I attempted.

What I’m confused about is whether there is any other loot in these dungeons aside from the dungeon marks. From what I hear on channels some people actually get dungeon creation components to drop, but I’ve never seen anything like that. Is it only particular types of encounters that will have a chance for these drops? Am I missing something? Must you be in a 5 person group in order for this to happen?

Also, can players of any level team up to complete these together? What I’m wondering is if I can join lower level channels and see if anyone is looking for people to complete these dungeons with, and team up to do them. Obviously I’ve been away from game a bit, so I’m rusty on the mechanics. I was pleased to see the defiler spell that fills your inventory with crystallized essences has been fixed since my last run.

Before heading off to the dungeons Ibeogur and I went to Protector’s Realm and duo’d it (once again) for pocket change. I brought along a bard mercenary just to see how they were in combat, and was quite impressed. Since I play a defiler and Ibeogur plays a berzerker this was a perfect combination group for us. We each ended up with 50-70 plat, and a lot of items to transmute.

My bestlord is still only level 10, but I’m thinking of leveling her up. I have a steady 200% bonus to experience due to max level characters, which is nice, it’s like having vitality running constantly even when it has run out. I also have my ranger still comfortably sitting at level 35, she’s locked to that level while I obtain AA for her. I think I’d like to get her a nice set of gear, at the moment she’s not wearing anything special.

I’m also wondering how you get the new components found to craft the items on the new crafting apprentices. I know a quick google search will answer that for me, I just haven’t gotten around to it. I logged into WoW briefly to complete some Darkmoon Faire quests, and I managed a few achievements for cooking and fishing (finishing up the Ironforge series, finally). I also briefly logged in to SWTOR, but wasn’t really interested in playing, so I logged out.

As always, happy gaming no matter where you find yourself!