Stargrace

New Video Card time – Again

Welp, it finally happened. I was getting fed up with the video card issues I was having, and have been having for quite some time. Almost as soon as I installed my 8800 Nvidia as it were. No, I didn’t have a warranty for it and even if I did I didn’t want another nvidia sent back to me.

My power supply is also quite low, only 450, and I didn’t know if it was a card issue, power supply, or something else. It’s cheaper to get a new power supply then it is to get a new video card (even I know that in my VERY slim knowledge of computer bits) so I took my card out, put in my old 7600 (also by Nvidia) and put the 8800 in a different computer. Booted up EQ2 on the second PC and less then an hour later (the 2nd computer has a higher power supply) the exact same graphic issues I was experiencing on my own pc. Great. Time for a new card.

This time around I’m going with an ATI. I’ve been with Nvidia for my entire gaming career (if you can call it that). I can’t afford to keep buying new cards every single year but since my job involves playing video games I’m not left with a whole lot of options. Newegg.ca offers very nice prices, and I settled on an ATI Radeon HD 4870 – 1gig for $280 Canadian, delivered in 5 business days.

Tomorrow I’ll go out and pick up a new power supply and then once the new card gets here I should be all set. Hopefully. Fingers crossed.

Some times I really dislike computers.

Back to Sverag

I love my necromancer, and one of the reasons would have to be because of swarm pets. I have a lot of them. I can call forth armies of undead to vanquish foes, and block everything from sight – like I’ve shown above. Once I was done playing LotRO it was time to head to EverQuest for a few hours before bed. We headed back to Sverag, Stronghold of Rage to continue working on getting an augment to drop for Aerrem. Because this zone is filled with conflict, well. Some times it breaks. It breaks often in fact. Last time we were there the invading force came and some how we got stuck in the middle of their conflict and then the named that we needed stopped spawning. When we headed to the zone this time the war had already occurred and the undead were in possession.

We stayed for about two hours and then the wars started again, the Drachnid were invading (I believe) so we decided to play it safe and camp out in case we were to ruin some important battle going on. Knowing my luck at least something would agro from across the zone and I’d find myself staring into the eyes of something that wanted to eat me.

I was feeling pretty tired and wanted to read for a bit before bed (which I never actually got around to doing) so I called it a night – once I cleaned out my bags of course. The blasted augment still has not dropped.

Ninga managed to ding level 84, which is fantastic. Minxes hasn’t dinged past level 80 yet, but I’ve been focusing a little bit on her aa, and I haven’t been playing her steady since I switch some times for the druid (who is at level 73 currently). Kameeko is also close to dinging 80, she’s sitting at level 69 right now and about 45% through it I believe. There are some days where I simply don’t feel like boxing, so I haven’t been playing her. Then there are days I want to gain some aa (which all gets put into her crafting currently, because I’m trying to max out all of those) and I should just simply try to level her.

Not sure what’s planned for today, but I hope everyone has a *fantastic* Friday, and stays safe.

Where do the hours go

I have a great talent for taking screen shots – RIGHT – when my character is closing her eyes and blinking in game. I must have taken a good 10 shots of her riding a horse around to various locations and how beautiful everything looked and yet in almost every single shot her eyes are closed which of course draws your eye to that one incident and not the beautiful scenery. I spent almost all day yesterday wandering around Middle Earth with Kasul. He decided to create a warden and I made myself a minstrel (both elves) in the hopes of catching up to Malfi and Tipa some day. With the experience bonus (which I think we are getting?) and working on quests, we managed to get to level 13 without too much trouble.

I love the quest system, the beta journal is nice as well (reminds me of WAR). I love questing, and I absolutely love the way I feel drawn into the story line as I’m working on the quests. When the edges of the screen flash a dull red and it feels like I’m watching a movie (and in some portions, I was) but my character is still right there. Sure, the story doesn’t change no matter who happens to be watching or making their way through it, and sure I realize that this is just one more cut and paste quest – but it’s presented to me in a method that I’m not used to with previous games I’ve played, and (for now at least) I really enjoy it.

I didn’t experience a single bug aside from my graphic card going glitchy which I’ve talked about in the past as happening with LOTS of other games. I dusted out my computer yesterday and it didn’t happen again. If it does that will be the final straw for me and I’ll go out and buy a new graphic card. Even though this one is only a few months old (3-4?) and I’d rather not. Since my job relies on me being able to play these games I’d rather only have so many issues to deal with!

Anyhow. I managed to get my minstrel to level 13, had a blast doing it. Also started crafting! I read up on the Wiki after I started crafting but it’s not really that complicated once you find out what the different vocations are and what they all entail. I decided on explorer for now with the minstrel, so I can make light and medium armor, as well as gather resources for other guild mates.

We actually decided on a schedule for playing, since I also have my group in EQ that I don’t want to neglect – and I would REALLY like to be able to say I stuck with a schedule for once. I keep trying and I fail, utterly. So. It was decided that we’ll play twice a week. One day, and one evening. Since Kasul’s schedule changes we’ll play during the day on one of his days off, and during the evening on a different day. That also allows us to play with Tipa and Malfi too if they happen to be in game (which Tipa was last night, woot).

I do plan on creating an alt (big surprise) but I’m going to limit it to just one (gasps). I’m not sure what I’m going to go with yet, but I’m thinking Lore-Master. Not sure yet. I don’t know what craft they’ll go with yet either, but I’m sure I’ll figure it out. Before I knew it, it was time to head back to EQ to play with Ultann and Ninga. More about how that went in the next post!

LoTRO: Exploring (again)

As I mentioned yesterday, Turbine is offering a few “free” days of game play (Lord of the Rings Online) for people who had accounts previously – and I completely forgot that I actually don’t qualify for it, because I played the 10 day trial and then the 1 month of free game play but had not actually paid for a subscription. Not about to let that hold me back, I subscribed this morning and before too long jumped into game with Kasul to explore what I didn’t get to see the first time around.

Now keep in mind (yes, stressing the point here because apparently some people still don’t get it) that it was not because I disliked the game that I stopped playing. Only so many hours in a day (main factor) only so much money to be dedicated towards subscriptions (secondary factor). The secondary factor has eased up a little, and I’m working on time management still. With friends playing (Kasul, Tipa, Malfi to name a few Nostalgians) I had been wanting to play again for quite some time. It just never seemed to work out.

I had logged out in the midst of a bunch of dwarfs, after picking up their quests – as had Kasul. One kill managed to net me level 5 easily enough, and after we meandered our way through more quests we each dinged level 7. We ended up in Celondim (I believe that’s where it is) where I was introduced to crafting and decided that I really like this game – a lot. Then I realized there’s also housing. I know this is all stuff that I should have already realized, but I don’t typically research games a great deal, I’d rather just play them and explore (like I have been) so if I sound like a complete newb here, well. That’s what I am.

The best part of playing (aside from playing with friends of course) is my new hat. I love this feathered hat. I mean, I adore it so much. It’s completely awesome.

I’m still getting myself acquainted with the interface again, what commands do what, and I picked up my new skills and am getting into the habit of learning which ones to use and when. Nothing has taken very much time to kill, so a lot of my skills go unused. Then again I’m typically also in a fellowship (I think that’s what the groups are called) so with the added person, things die, fast.

I know this introduction is not filled with very much information, but I decided to take a break for lunch and write about the experiences so far. I’ll keep posting as I adventure. I’m having a lot of fun though (as I thought I would) and it’s great to get back into it again and give the game a proper go this time around. There are still other games I’d like to play, but I’ll have to figure out a way to work them into my schedule, and still play EQ too. So many games, and just not enough time for them all! How does everyone else deal with this? Especially when people (friends) are scattered across multiple games all at once.

Another Quiet Night

I didn’t get a whole lot of time to game yesterday, I spent most of it working on an article for MMORPG.com, and the rest of it sending interview questions out to the folks at Wizard101, and a few EQ2 players (brigands and swashbucklers) for upcoming articles for Beckett MOG. When I finally did manage to log into EQ for a little bit before bed, I saw there was a guide event going on. Having been a guide myself for EQ2 I love seeing that things are still active, even if it’s not as active as it would have been in its prime. I think a lot about getting back into it – I miss it. I miss role playing as a guide. But, I don’t think I honestly have the time. So for now thinking about it is all I can do.

I cleaned out my banks which were a disaster, because the bank space is so very limited in EQ I end up spending a few hours every week doing this. Deciding what I should keep and what I should just throw away. Being a pack rat by nature is bad, especially when I try to keep every little bit of craft material that comes my way from multiple expansions because “I never know when it will come in handy” I have two craft supply holders I’ve created as well, just to pass materials off to. After I’d finally sorted out what was going where I headed to Stoneroot for a little bit of experience with Ultann and Ninga. Ultann ended up having to go AFK and after a short stint of smacking Drachnid around I decided that I should probably just call it an early night (again) and sleep. I’m typically a morning person and up fairly early, so going to bed around 2-3am leaves me with only 2-3 hours of sleep for a night.

Hopefully I’ll get a little more gaming in today, I spent a little under an hour patching up LoTRO last night so that it could be ready for today – so far the “free weekend” hasn’t started – or at least my account (which is in good standing) isn’t active yet, so we’ll see how that goes.

Hope everyone has a happy Thursday!