Category: Gaming

Leveling The Psionicist #Vanguard #VGD

I spent most of my time this weekend on the Isle of Dawn in Vanguard, trying to reach 10/10/10 before leaving. So far I’ve reached 10 adventuring, and 10 diplomacy, now all that’s left is 10 crafting and then I can leave and explore the rest of Telon. Getting this far has taken approx. 15 hours so far, which is quite long considering I know the Isle of Dawn very well (this isn’t the first time I’ve passed through).

The psionicist is a great class and one I’ve enjoyed playing no matter what game I happen to be in. When players were able to buy and sell characters I actually purchased a level 50 psionicist, and then sold it for a profit. I wish now that I had of kept the character, but I suppose it’s probably better to level up one of my own.

The shaman I’ve been leveling up with Hampooj reached level 39 before the weekend began. Only a short hop jump and skip away until we’re both level 40, and then maybe one day, 55. Figuring out where to adventure has been an adventure all in itself. We’ve spent the past two levels at Dragon’s Backbone, which is a quest area I’ve never been to before. I love that there are still places on Telon I’ve never been to, after playing since beta. Most of the quests rewarded coin and not gear which is becoming a bit of an issue, but so far we’re managing.

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

Things are Changing #VGD #Vanguard #VGSOH

One thing I’ve always loved about Vanguard is the ‘if you see it in the distance, you can reach it’ part of the game. I’ve written about it before, and it still holds true to this day.

Now, yesterday was a typical day in-game, except that channels were filled with a lot of upset players. See, to start things off starter villages were condensed. Anyone who was a part of EQ2 when those starter villages were removed understands that to players this is a pretty big deal. Removing content is almost never looked at favorably.

On top of that, many spells were removed (rank 1) so that players have less spells to ‘deal’ with below level 20. A lot of people logged in wondering where their rank 1 X spell had gone, and visiting their vendors showed only rank 2 available. I have two spells on my blood mage that are now missing, although since I’m level 47 it makes little difference.

It meant for most of the night I left my global channels off, because I already deal with complaints all day long and the last thing I wanted to do was deal with more while I’m trying to relax and play a video game (that I quite enjoy, changes and all). I’ve always been the sort of player to ‘roll with the changes’ until I no longer wish to, and then I just quit playing (ie: EQ2). Playing a game that makes me unhappy is pointless, there are countless other games out there that if I’m not happy in one I can move to another.

Anyhow. My artificer managed to finish the genesis quest line, and inch her way to level 51 almost 52 (in crafting, not adventuring). This was a huge achievement for me, I’m closer to the level cap than I’ve ever been, as long as they don’t decide to raise that cap any time soon I should be able to actually hit 55! Sure, it’s not adventuring, but crafting in Vanguard is still a complex process that takes a lot of time.

Next, it will be time to work up my other two crafters so that I have at least one of each (Outfitter, Artificer, Blacksmith). As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Game Updates June 21,2012 #VGD #Vanguard #VGSOH

Today is the first release of a series of content focused releases. As we get closer to F2P we will be releasing level range targeted updates that will attempt to address content flow, reward metrics, and gameplay issues. This first update includes changes to the first ten levels of the game.

Quests

  • The IOD bracelet pieces can now be attained in Tursh, Tanvu, and Cliffs of Ghelgad as quest rewards.
  • Tanvu
    • Revised and polished the flow of quests and content, including quest text.
    • Adjusted quest levels where necessary.
    • Where needed, added simple quests to take you from one quest hub to the next.
    • Revised and/or added quest rewards to the majority of quests in Shang Village and Tanvu.
    • Added quest rewards for Soldier Morale
    • Added quest rewards for Lead By Example
    • Added quest rewards to Shang Treasure
    • Added quest rewards to Report to Officer Yu
    • Added quest rewards to Pathetic Soldiers
    • Added quest to return player to Lt. Xi
    • Added quest rewards to Monks of Shang Village
    • Added quest rewards to Master Fhungusu
    • Added quest rewards to Redemption
    • Added quest rewards to Avenging Oki
    • Added quest rewards to Oki Jewels
    • Added quest rewards to JUU
    • Added quest rewards to Lost Fishing Supplies
    • Added quest rewards to The Unforgotten
    • Added quest rewards to The Unforgotten #2
    • Added quest to point to where the trainers are in Tanvu
    • Added quest rewards to A Jin Divided
    • Added quest rewards to Choosing your Path
    • Added quest rewards to Walking with Ra’Jin
    • Added quest rewards to Ghost Wind Academy
    • Added quest rewards to Ra’Jin Assault.
    • Added quest rewards to Eye of the Beholder
    • Added quest rewards to Final Steps
    • Added quest rewards to Final Test of Jin
    • Added quest rewards to Ra Jin Rooftops
    • Added quest rewards to Parting Gifts
    • Added quest rewards to Ra’Jin Senshi
    • Added quest rewards to Trial of Pure Thoughts
    • Added quest rewards to Trial of Endurance
    • Added quest rewards to Trial of Pure Thoughts
    • Added quest rewards to Trial of Endurance
    • Added quest rewards to Path to Faith
    • Added quest rewards to Parting Gifts
    • Added quest rewards to Faith in JIn
    • Added quest rewards to Beast of Air
    • Added quest rewards for Blessing of the Hunter
    • Added quest rewards for Ring of Vision
    • Added quest rewards for Acrid Hide
    • Added quest rewards for Blessing of Awareness
    • Added quest rewards for Jin Devourers
    • Added quest rewards for Life of Amiran
    • Added quest rewards for Ulvari Influence
    • Added Journal Entries to A Humble New Beginning
    • Added Journal Entries to Mean for Tanvu
    • Created Journal Entry back to Yaol
    • Added Journal Entry to Asa Ji.
    • Added Journal Entry to Final Steps.
    • Added Journal Entry for Trial of Endurance
    • Added Journal Entry for Beast of the Land
    • Added Journal Entry for East of the Sea
    • Added Journal Entry for The Wretched
    • The leap of faith during the quest “Faith in Jin” will now only save you from the fall while you have the quest active. This was to prevent people flying through the area from being teleported undesirably.
    • Fixed a dialogue bug during the quest “Choosing Your Path.”
    • Fixed several logic errors in the quest “Choosing Your Path” that allowed player to gate themselves from completing the quest, collect multiple quest items, among other things.
    • Clarified summary text of the quest “One Hand Clapping.”
    • Decreased the level of Hulking Sandscrapers in the Tanvu bay to level 7.
    • Added a quest “The Ra’Jin Grandmaster” available from Master Shaof in the abandoned hotel.
  • Isle of Dawn
    • The Quest Go to Kiri Tentrees now has a quest object to use your compass to locate Kira Tenree’s.
    • The IOD bracelet pieces can now be attained in Tursh, Tanvu, and Cliffs of Ghelgad as quest rewards.
    • The tools for the quest “Family Tools” are now more visible.
    • Players who kill Mature Gataro instead of using the Repellent will now be told by Veteran Sixfish that they should use the repellent in their bags.
    • The Quest objective to Shut down the power source on the quest “The Trial of the Isle” is now completed after using the monument instead of upon completion of the quest “Thief in the Night”.
    • There are now Travel Journal locations for the quest “A Thief in the Night”.
    • Adventurers who have a Mysterious Device but have not accepted the quest the item gives will be gently reminded to use the item to start a quest.
    • There are two additional food piles that can be poisoned on the quest “Unforgivable”.
    • There is now an additional Flame Imp Portal to be shut down for the quest “Earth Den”.
    • Adventurers who get near Koi Le Trueverse will receive a quest to talk to assist him.
    • A Travel Journal Entry has been added for the quest “Lost Charm”.
    • Players who do not have the Arcane Chicken Prod equipped will be reminded to equip the Chick Prod if they attempt to catch a chicken without their Prod.
    • There is now an additional Quest Objective on the quest Return to Elder Wen Starbrook to talk to Elder Wen Starbrook.
    • Clarified the quest Objectives for the quest “Unwilling Reason”.
    • There are now two additional chests that can be found while on the quest “Reclaimed Treasure”
    • There is now an additional quest objective on the quest “Warn the Priests” to smooth out the questflow.
    • A Travel Journal Location has been added for the quest “Half the Battle”
    • A Travel Journal Location has been added for all of the Shotaru
    • Solo quest progression on the Isle of Dawn now ends with the quest “The Shotaru”, after which players will be given the option to either leave the Isle of Dawn or continue fighting the corruption on Isle of Dawn. All quests after this point are now small group to reflect the difficulty some classes have soloing in the Temple.
    • The Quest rewards have been reworked so that players who choose to leave the Isle of Dawn after “The Shotaru” will have a full set of armor.
    • Adventurers will no longer have to stand in a very small area in order to use the Ember Shard
    • Added a Travel Journal Location for the quest “The Village”
    • Added a Travel Journal Location for the quest “Hobgoblin Patrols”
    • There is a new Quest Listen to Kira Tentree’s after the quest Go to Kira Tentrees.
  • Tursh
    • The quest “Windmill Clues” now has another method to find the notes left by the Riftseekers. Adventurers that are helping Inquisitor Tomas will find the clues a bit more readily now.
    • Jorey Melery’s quest “Healed Horse” is no longer available. The quest was disabled for adjusted quest progression in Tursh.
    • Guard Rakner’s quest “Help Guard Rakner” is no longer available. The quest was disabled for adjusted quest progression in Tursh.
    • Guard Horace’s quest “Rifty Business” is no longer available. The quest was disabled for adjusted quest progression in Tursh.
    • Players working on “Riftseeker Destruction” can now click the portals in Riftseeker’s Torrent to receive their quest updates.
    • Players working on “Open Source Cave” should now be directed to kill Imp Taskmasters for the means to free the poor Brownie Workers in Riftseeker’s Torrent.
    • Players working on the quests “Scout Recovery”, “Cartheon Initiative”, and “Death of the Necromancer” will now find Inquisitor Senn at her post. The other NPC’s associated with the quests are also now available.
    • Guard Manket no longer offers the quest “Thieving Foxes”. Guard Paylan, who’s closer to those dastardly foxes, now offers the quest instead.
  • Cliffs of Ghelgad
    • The quest ‘Thieving Rats” now has a journal entry to find the basket and chest.
    • The quest “Finding the Evidence” now removes from your inventory the items required for the quest.
    • The quest “Harami Initiation” now has a journal entry for the Bandit Camp.
    • The quest “Ksaravi Raiders” now has a journal entry to the Raiders Camp.
    • The quest “Agates for Adventurers” now has a journal entry to the agates.
    • The quest “Brownie Marauders” now has a journal entry to the Brownie Mauraders.
    • The quest “Matu-Makas” now has a journal entry to Matu-Makas.
    • The quest “Seabrid Rescue” now has a journal entry to the seabirds.
    • The quest “Finding a trainer” now reminds the player to equip the bag that was the reward.
    • The quest “Poisoned Bridge” now has a journal entry to Nolnoc.
    • The quest “Diseased Ksaravi Claw” now has a journal entry to Amshta Daedi.
    • The quest “A Road less Traveled” now shows the quest reward.
    • The quest “ Naemsong Needs you” is now a level 8 quest.
    • The quest “Missing Magic” now has a journal entry to Skabaka Arashmas.
    • The quest “The Scrying Stone” has been removed.

Population

  • Tanvu
    • Revised and/or added loot rewards to the majority of boss mobs in Shang Village and Tanvu.
    • Added better loot drops to Sasori Kojin
    • Added better loot drops to Kyoukan Fujaru
    • Added better loot drops to Senshi Master
    • Added better loot drops to Spawn of Kojuko
    • Added better loot drops to Spellbreaker Tauko
    • Added better loot drops to Grandmaster Nahuji
    • Added additional trainers to Shang Village and Tanvu.
    • Consolidated the Tanvu trainers into one area so they are easier to find regardless of character class.
    • Adjusted Wander Radius on Manifestations of Jin
    • Imperial Soldiers in Shang Village can no longer be attacked with offensive abilities.
    • Made the rooftops of the Ra’Jin Fortress more accessible for the quest “Ra’Jin Rooftops.”
    • Decreased the assist aggro radius of Stabled Ostra in the Ra’Jin Fortress.
    • Grandmaster Nahuji has been made a small-group target.
    • Archetype ability trainers have been added at the House of Master Tallon to eliminate  backtracking.
  • Isle of Dawn
    • Tan Fen Greatcloud and Kira Tentree are now closer to where new adventurers start in Isle of Dawn.
    • Gataro Diver and Darkhide Crocodiles should be more plentiful.
    • Adventurers will no longer be able to accidentally attack Kojani Villagers.
    • Kojani Villagers can now be told to run even if they are in combat.
    • Rock Elementals on IOD will no longer absorb arcane spells.
    • Hobgoblin Defenders Block ability has been adjusted to better match the difficulty of a starting area.
    • Zalaz has been tuned to better match the difficulty that players should expect in a starting area.
    • The assist radius in the Ulvari Camp has been tuned to better match the rest of the Isle of Dawn
    • The Shotaru are now all located outside of the Temple
    • Ang Di Lowrock will now talk to players as they first enter the Temple
    • The Pegasus rental NPC as well as Hoangsu Halfmoon are now near the Alter that players respawn.
  • Tursh
    • Halflings (and all other races) are now eligible for all Tursh quests. Rindol Field however is still wary of outsiders for the time being.
    • Field Foxes and Field Wolves can now be skinned in Tursh.
    • Tursh archetype training quests now provide rewards that are in line with the Isle of Dawn rewards from similar quests. Additional training quests are now available in Tursh as well.
    • Terance Larker’s moved a bit closer to Zelser’s tower so adventurers will be able to spot him more easily to help him with his Tursh Fishermen’s Guild problem.
  • Cliffs of Ghelgad
    • Djan Hashgo now reminds you to sell to the merchant if necessary.
    • Trainers have been added to the Bayside Outpost.
    • The Brownie Gull Slayers now spawn above ground.

Misc

  • Changed the ability description of “Turtle Shell” used by Helshorn Lurker’s  to “Increased Armor”.
  • Rochius Pitran’s Journal should no longer show up in the harvesting tutorial harvest loot.

Classes

  • Starting ability progression for all classes has been adjusted
  • Bard song components are now granted automatically as they level up

On A Crooked Little Hill, There Was a Crooked Little House #WurmOnline

I own two deeds on Deliverance, and the second deed has been sorely neglected. When I built it, I was going for a ‘natural’ look, and I didn’t terraform any of the land. That, was a mistake. It meant that the three buildings I created as well as all of my pens were crooked, sloped oddly in various sections of the flooring, and just looked horrible. Each time I went to this deed to do some mining I was struck by how bad it all looked.

I finally made the decision to scrap the whole deed and start from scratch. I took down all three buildings, and while I liked the initial layout, it could use some work. I spent the majority of the day working on flattening the area, and dug up over 500 dirt. 500! That’s how much ‘crooked’ the old deed consisted of.

This deed is a ‘get away’ deed. That means there’s space for a very tiny farm, but I don’t actually expect to use it. Only two small pens that should be easy to cover with enchanted grass for when I’m visiting, and very low upkeep.

One of the most recent changes is that now lamps are filled by guards, and I’ve never had guards before because I didn’t really have a need for them. I do appreciate having a deed lit up at night, so paying an extra silver a month (two silver, one for each deed) so that I don’t have to re-fill them is important to me. Re-filling them every 3-5 days isn’t THAT big of a deal, but it’s a convenience factor. People pay for convenience.

I’m pleased with how the deed is re-forming itself. I have one house completed, and the other two are coming along. Then it’s just a matter of making a lot of slabs and bricks as well as fence bars. Not exactly my favorite things in the world to do, but c’est la vie.

I’ll be sure to post screen shots once it’s completed!

There’s No Place Like Home #WurmOnline

The novelty of Celebration has worn off, and this weekend (thanks to a very generous Moumix) I brought all of my characters back home to Deliverance. I still have Falkenstein Castle, and I intend on keeping it (there’s over 150 days of upkeep paid) but I missed being able to hold sermons and I missed having all of my characters together. My Fo priest has 43 animal husbandry, and working up that skill again so I can see the traits on the 30+ horses I have is a bit of a pain. Not to mention she has 40+ farming, and can cast Fo spells which come in handy.

The population on Deliverance has dwindled slightly due to the new server, our average used to be over 100, some times 120-130, but now we’re holding at around 90. Expected with the new release. I love my deeds on this server, and I love the market place (Puzzle Plaza) and community that I know there. I’ve been making some great sales, enjoy to keep my deeds going. I’ve been happily working my skills up (yesterday I reached 30 jewel crafting) and Moumix and I have started holding sermons again. It’s pretty nice to have 8 characters participating between us (it’s enough for a prayer re-set).

In an amusing story, yesterday I went out walking along the coast to see if there were any ships I could salvage (remember folks, lock and moor your boats!) and along the way I happened to stumble into my own boat, a sailboat I had left far down the coast at the steppes some months ago. Back when I was hunting for hell horses. The amusing thing is that I didn’t even remember leaving it there (at the time) but when I found it suddenly it all came flooding back. It had 17 dmg on it, which (for a boat) is a lot. I sailed it home, and happily picked up the 300 planks I had also found while out and about.

You can never have too many planks.

The evening was finished by heading back to my old Darkpaw Bay deed, and loading up my new knarr (thanks to Moumix) with the materials I had been keeping in Squid’s house. The house is decaying quite heavily due to its low quality, and I wanted to remove the items before other scavengers came. Normally I wouldn’t really care, but there were 400 wemp that I wanted as well as a lot of copper (I still don’t have an easily accessible copper vein). When all is said and done, it’s nice to have everyone on the same deed.

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