Stargrace

If I Only Had the Time.. #EQ2 #EQ #Rift #VGD

If only I had the time. That statement haunts me even to the moment that I’m typing it out. I think we live in a glorious age where there are just SO many incredible games to play – and I just don’t have enough time for them all. It’s impossible. What am I up to these days? Well.

EverQuest: My main game at this moment in time, and has been since the progression servers launched. I am no longer playing on a progression server but have returned to my home of Drinal. I have a 90 necromancer and an 89 soon-to-be 90 enchanter. My second account is active (for now) and I’ve been playing a bard who just reached level 80 yesterday. I’ve been exploring House of Thule in all its glory, and working on my 1.0-1.5-2.0 epics. I haven’t explored much of the previous expansion (Underfoot) yet but I’m looking forward to that. EverQuest just has SO much content for players (12 years will do that) and I’ve been having a wonderful time. I’ve been doing crafting as well, and have made a few friends. I’ve stayed in my casual guild so far, but that may change in the future. I’ve been doing anniversary events which are around (along with Fabled spawns) until April 26th. For those who say you can never go back – I say yes you can.

EverQuest II: I’ve done little to nothing since DoV released. I’ve obtained 1 flying mount and done a few public quests for gear on both the troubador and the warden. I did do the chrono portal quests that were released as a tribute to EQ1, but aside from that EQ2 has barely been on my radar. I keep wanting to go back but I can’t find (aside from housing and crafting) what it is I’m looking for when I play. For now I’m still drifting.

Rift: I’ve got a level 21 as my max level character at the moment, along with a handful of crafting alts. I haven’t really touched the game that much, I’m still in the starter area. I have decided to sign up for a 6 month subscription because I know I will be back when time allows and the $10/m deal was just too good to pass up. When I’ll actually have the time, I just don’t know.

Vanguard: Yes, still playing. These days I’m mostly doing diplomacy quests or crafting and not that much adventuring. It’s not a bad thing, it’s a time restraint thing. If I had more time I’d play more. This is still one of my all time favorite games.

The Sims Medieval: Love it. Need more time to play it. My kingdom is doing well. I have a tavern, a market, and I created some sort of spy outpost along with NPC to run them all. I haven’t played anyone but the monarch yet, but I’m excited about switching and seeing what other personalities I can uncover.

If I had the time I’d also be brushing up on the handful of games that I’ve got collecting dust. STO comes to mind, Wizard 101, Guild Wars, Dragon Age II (which I bought and haven’t even installed yet on my PC), Free Realms (both PS3 and PC versions), LotRO (which I have been neglecting badly), Magicka, Minecraft, and Recettear. How can we NOT be amazed by the fantastic games we’ve got available to us.

What is your game of choice at the moment? I expect my game-play to also decrease significantly over the next little while. My birthday is coming up, and with it a new Kindle (replacing my sony pocket e-reader) and a new Ipad 2.0 (replacing my ipod 1st gen), I also picked up a kinect, and have been having fun with their work out programs. PLUS spring has finally started, and I expect to be out and about with my camera and a good book – well, as soon as all this rain lets up of course.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

The Trouble with April Fools #EverQuest #EQ

Yesterday was April Fools, and EverQuest wasn’t about to be left behind. You may remember these cute fluffy bunnies (although they now have updated models) from the Velious era prank – but if you were not around at that time, well. NPC, mobs, and players had the chance to magically transform into these fuzzy critters as they adventured (and hung around in zones) throughout the day yesterday. While it wasn’t a big surprise (EverQuest and EverQuest II are known for pulling ‘pranks’ on this day) it was not exactly met by robust cheers in channels.

See, when a quest npc happens to be transformed into a bunny they no longer respond to player hails. This left a LOT of very angry players. Had those players calmed down for a few minutes and asked, or used /motd, they would have discovered that there is a simple work around to hail the quest mobs. You could /say Dark_bunny (the name of your NPC) proceed (or whatever your quest trigger text is) and they would have answered back appropriately. I didn’t let the trick stop me from completing my Feerrott tasks (and obtaining yet another trophy) and my enchanter also hit level 89 along the way – I had her visit the bunny who was giving out the spell task and made a macro to obtain the quest.

Again, people were incredibly angry. Some threatened to close their accounts, others said that they didn’t pay for this event so they did not want it in game. Honestly, I think that while it was poorly implemented, it wasn’t a bad idea – and with the 205 SOE layoffs casting a shadow on the games we play I was thankful they still did anything at all. For one day things were hectic and I doubt very much that those players calling for firings have ever done their job perfectly 100% of the time either.

This doesn’t exactly excuse the fact that it was poorly implemented and probably could have (should have) been removed early – but I still don’t understand why for this one day players were calling for blood (almost literally, and in some cases they were calling for bunny blood quite literally).

I also spent some time broadcasting Dragons Dragons Dragons last night – thank you those who tuned in! I’ll be doing more livestreams in the future of whatever game I happen to be playing at the time. Hoping to get some Vanguard in there before too long actually.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself! I’ll see you in Norrath.

Livestreaming EverQuest DDD (6pm EST) #EverQuest

Watch live streaming video from mmoquests at livestream.com

Yesterday after some discussion on twitter I decided that I would attempt to Livestream some of my game playing – in specific my exploration in EverQuest. Above you can find a link to one of the broadcasts I did where I camped for my enchanter 1.0 piece in City of Mist and then headed to Plane of Fear. It was a pretty boring camp but thanks to some good friends keeping me company in the Livestream channel I seemed to come up with plenty to talk about.

Today I’ve decided to share one of the anniversary tasks with viewers, Dragons, Dragons, Dragons. This task sends players back in time to defeat the dragons of Norrath, starting with Vox and Nagafen and working your way up. If you’re interested in RSVP’ing so you get a reminder you can check out my livestream channel – there are also two other quick broadcasts I did to test out the equipment. Last night I had intentions of broadcasting some Vanguard, but then I got carried away with crafting in EverQuest so that sort of fell through. I do plan on broadcasting more games that I’m playing although I can’t guarantee that I’ll actually speak during all of them there will at least be some wonderful in-game music to listen to.

I hope this along with my youtube videos gives a little indication of why I love the games I play. They’re simply fun.

Happy gaming no matter where you find yourself! I’ll see you in Norrath (and Telon, and anywhere else I wander).

Thoughts on House of Thule #EQ

If you believe everything you hear on channels, House of Thule has been met with mixed reviews. Personally I really love this expansion but it’s because of a few key components that not everyone appreciates. Number one after having taken a long break from the game I found it very easy to get relatively caught up as long as I was level 80+ due to the mote gear vendor. While not everyone returning will know this – there is a vendor in the Feerrott who sells ‘mote gear’ and basically using a new currency (dream motes) will allow you to purchase gear in tiers. Earning reputation will unlock higher levels of mote gear, and this currency (like all currency) can be purchased from players selling in the bazaar. Or you can earn it from doing tasks and missions. Because it’s the current currency, there’s a lot of it for sale and it’s much cheaper to use mote gear for the first little while then it is to purchase gear from the bazaar. Mote gear was a HUGE upgrade over my fabled planar gear and the gossamer stuff I was wearing so I was only too happy to find this vendor.

Spells in HoT level 86+ rank II are actually obtained by means of a quest much like they were in Gates of Discord with rune turn ins. The system has also been improved slightly. Number one you can pick and choose which spells you want to obtain instead of having to get them in order and number two the items used to obtain these spells are all tradeable between players and you can sell them / buy them in the bazaar (while the spells themselves are no trade). Another method of allowing returning players an easier time of catching up. While I am sad to see that spells are not dropping from mobs in this expansion it IS nice to know that I’m not missing any of them (unless I chose to raid and obtain Rk III spells).

The basics of the expansion are quite simple. There are a number of tasks you must do for progression (T1-T4) and in order to request these tasks you’ll have a number of quests to do for a number of NPC. The quests are quite lengthy but incredibly worth it. You earn not only experience and the ability to request the tasks on your own, but there are also trophies that are rewards (as well as achievements) that can be placed in your home and grant extra buffs to players (if you’ve got your trophies running, they use the tribute system). Last night I finished off the series in House of Thule itself, and gained a trophy that allows me to raise my max str. as well as my actual str. While not incredibly useful to my enchanter it’s just one of many trophies and I look forward to obtaining the rest of them. Plus these trophies are house items – and hey who doesn’t love a good house item.

If it were not for the fact that I am a returning player I am not sure if I’d enjoy the expansion as much as I am. Of course the housing would have me transfixed (how could it not) but the progression may be too ‘easy’ if I were on par with everyone else. As it is I have less then 300 aa (lots of players have over 5,000 now) and since I’ve returned I’ve leveled not only my necromancer to 90, but the enchanter to 87, and a boxed bard to 76. On that same note if everything were incredibly difficult I wouldn’t necessarily have stuck around either, so perhaps this is a good compromise. That’s also not saying that everything is easy, it’s certainly not. Tier 4 is incredibly difficult, and a lot of the missions you request have little quirks that make them even harder. Thankfully I’ve been playing with a few friends who make all of this much easier and a LOT more fun.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself! I’ll see you in Norrath.

Exploring Thurgadin #EQ2

I really love how the developers of EQ2 have designed Thurgadin. It’s one of my favorite zones in looks alone. I spent a few hours wandering around the city, listening to NPC and viewing the wonders that were hidden in nooks and crannies, and every detail is just done with such care. My coercer has her flying mount now (the only character I have who has finished the quest so far) and getting around quest hubs is much easier. I finished the crafting quests in The Great Divide, and have been working on the ones within Thurgadin. I also took the troubador out for a spin, after being much neglected. I decided to splurge and purchased the two portal weapons off of the broker (having already obtained the belt, all three come from the Guk portal) and then did a few Public Quests with her. I stayed away from SG, people have already proven that it’s the least liked of both, and every two hours I said I was LFR and eventually found myself in a group. I didn’t get any neat weapons or the chest piece or any runes, but I did get myself three pieces of legendary gear with +87 to agi and stam, and the three set bonus also granted me another extra 100 agi. The troubador was wearing level 80 gear from The Shadow Odyssey still, and this new gear was an enormous upgrade.

Since I qualified for the Free Blood race in February I decided just for laughs I’d create one, and purchase the home in case one of these days I wanted to decorate it. I honestly have no idea what the inside looks like yet, I haven’t bothered stepping into one. I’d like to continue working on my carpenter on the Antonia Bayle server, so that will probably be the plan for the next little while.

I hope everyone had an enjoyable weekend – how have you been spending your game time? Let me know in comments below! Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself. I’ll see you in New (and Old) Norrath!