Category: Gaming

Paintings, Mannequins, and Quests, Oh My!

The day was filled with house items, and you can never go wrong with that. I started talking to an old friend of mine from my Lucan D’Lere days, Krai who plays a brigand. We’ve kept in touch despite me switching games, and servers, and I consider her a great friend. She also happens to know of my obsessive house item collecting passion and casually mentioned to me that she had a spare LoN painting that I could have. Of course I squealed and jumped around my living room in joy – she also mentioned she had a female dwarf mannequin that was sitting unused (also from LoN). Since we can both trade from that platform I logged in and she gave me the painting pictured above. What a fantastic image to have in my house. Of course now I need to design some sort of music area to take better advantage of it. Arysh does not have a piano in her house, unlike Stargrace and Petites. I’m not sure if I actually want to add one yet, or just keep with the smaller instruments, we’ll see.

The dwarf mannequin was actually pleasant to at, mostly because it now displays my newest crafting cloak – no, not the master cloak, but the T6 one that I’d quested for today. One thing I didn’t realize is that you don’t actually physically put the item on the mannequin. It doesn’t act as storage in other words. I have a small crafting area set up in the house (the woodworking station can be seen on the left hand side) and decided to display the cloak (which has a symbol of a bow and arrow I believe.. not too keen on it, it makes me feel like a ranger not a woodworker) for people to see if they ever venture into my house.

The items didn’t stop there, either. I had gotten an email from Rao, of Gestalt Mind, explaining the book quest he wrote about a few days prior. Apparently my site is being picky and not allowing some people to comment. I’m trying to figure it out (with no luck) to fix. Anyhow, I logged into game and saw he was online harvesting, and promptly in true Stargrace fashion began chattering away. Once I find an opening it’s hard to get rid of me, be warned *grins*.

I worked on the crafter tier quests, and finally got to the one I’d been wanting from the start – it rewards you with a book for your house. Not just any book, no, this is Bertox’s health guide.

Is it any wonder the liaison was sick to begin with if she was taking tips from that book on the floor covered in slime?

None the less it’s a fantastic house item and if you don’t mind traveling to and from your home city to sinking sands a few times, you’ll have no issues completing it. Lower level adventurers may have a harder time trying to navigate around a few aggressive cats and snakes, but it’s still completely doable.

Besides chattering with friends, and all of the amazing house items I got today, last night I managed to get Petites (the templar) to level 74 from running quests and turning in a few collections that she’d yet to pick up. I’m hoping to be able to reach 75 tonight so that I can move on to the more interesting RoK zones. We’ll see how that goes. It was double exp weekend this weekend in EQ2, but the message failed to say what levels it was for. I’m not sure that my 70+’s are benefiting, as they typically make the bonus exp weekends for lower levels. It sure didn’t feel like she was getting double the amount in any case – I could be wrong. Tomorrow I’ll spend some time wandering around EQ1 and attempt a few quests, next Friday is another meeting of Nostalgia of course, and the goal is to reach close to level 15. Some have already done that in their eagerness, and I feel as though I’ll be left behind – however, arranging this as a weekly event is to prevent that from happening.

I hope everyone had a fantastic weekend, no matter what realm you were in (yes, even real life).

Nostalgia Group – Night One

We were early, a lot of us. Really early. Four hours early even. We gathered around eagerly awaiting adventures. Not really sure what to expect or who would show up. A lot showed up. A lot more then I had thought would. We (thanks to our faithful leader, Tipa) organized and split off into two groups, collecting tasks along the way to complete. It started off slow, killing rats, bats, spiders. Vermin nests. Remembering to sit to meditated and regain power. Playing in first person.

I met a lot of new people, and that was great. We chattered about various things but mostly kept focused on the goal of completing the tutorial. The quests slowly changed from solo easy quests to ones that were more difficult and required a full group. My group consisted of three people, an enchanter, brave warrior, and myeslf (cleric). Cordanim was around at the beginning as his rogue, but had to leave not too far into it. For the group of three we had, we did fantastic. We had no deaths at all, and even though it took some time to take encounters down, we still did great. It of course had its mishaps. My internet decided to wreck havoc on a named encounter as I closed my eyes in real life and hopped I hadn’t just caused the group to wipe. Our brave dwarf and his faithful enchanter pulled through, despite my mishaps (I am so sorry!).

We all hit level 10 within the tutorial, and walked to Plane of Knowledge to set up the fellowship. Another one of those “uhms, what are THOSE” moments for a few people, myself included. It lets you place campfires where people can gate to, apparently. Looking forward to using them in the future.

While the night was exciting and a lot of fun, and I did get to meet lots of new people, it was slightly disappointing in some ways as well. I’d had my heart set on FINALLY getting to group up with the fabled Tipa and play with her (after all, it was just three of us who wanted to give EQ1 another go originally) but it didn’t work out that way due to the numbers interested. Not that it’s a big deal, the more the better of course. It was just one of those “dang.. oh well” moments. I was also slightly concerned that there were so many rules and restrictions we all had to adhere to – but on some reflection (and a full nights sleep) I can understand why the rules are there – mainly because there ARE so many of us. We don’t want to out level, miss content that someone may want to explore, etc. No doubt Tipa has been swamped in details.

Hopefully everyone else had an amazing time as well, and next week will be just as fun. The main goal of the evening was to leave behind the blasted tutorial. While it did better equip us for our adventures in the actual world of Norrath, it was also.. well, very much a tutorial. Next week we’ll work on getting to 15, and traveling the world a little bit. Slowly, bit by bit, more commands and bits of information are coming back to me. I mean, it has been over three years since I’ve played. A lot has slipped through the cracks.

My main impression of the evening was that – if you were looking to play an old MMO to recapture what you had felt when you played the very first time, it probably won’t happen. You’ll always be pitting the past with the future, and over time, things change. It’s much the same as comparing EQ1 to EQ2. You simply can’t, because the two games are (though EQ2 is modeled after EQ1) in the end, very different. Our experiences and personal friendships and bonds, trials and tribulations, are also different over time. We (as human beings) tend to look at the past with rose coloured glasses and remember specific events and happenings in a certain way. It’s difficult to emulate those some time down the road.

However.

That doesn’t mean we can’t all form NEW opinions of the game we once loved. Form new friendships, learn new encounters. Reminisce of course about ‘the good ‘ol days’ with an open mind and heart for the future.

It’s still all about the House Items

Since my foray into EQ1, I decided to get station access activated again. Makes sense now that I’d have access to Vanguard, EQ1, and EQ2. The price is actually worth it, in this case. My WoW account is free for this month, so we’ll see where that goes. I haven’t logged in since Thursday. Hey, I never claimed to be one to settle down in any mmo. I’m slowly getting used to that fact though and not berating myself over it any more. After spending last night in EQ1 (more about that to come in another post) I decided this morning I’d patch my UI, update my maps, and log into EQ2.

Right away I spotted a quest giver next to me in South Qeynos. Closer inspection showed it offered one of the newer quests ‘dispelling the hate‘ which rewarded me with the house item pictured above. A fountain. Perfect for the garden Arysh has in the works. In all the time I’ve played EQ2, the house items are what always seem to get me. I just love them.

There’s idle talk of me leveling up my templar (who’s been 73 forever now) and maybe maybe maybe getting into some raiding with her. I’m not sure if I want to get back into that yet. We’ll see how it goes. Since I’ve limited my play time (by a huge amount) I am reluctant to throw myself into too much right now. Evenings of course are fairly free for me still with no other obligations. I’d also like to finish leveling up my coercer, who’s been sitting at 77 for quite some time. Especially with the revamp to the class incoming in a bit. I read this post that mentioned it gave some sort of house item reward, a book.. so of course now I have to figure out which quest that is and where it came from and how I too can have a new house item. I’ve missed the last couple of events, brew day, valentines, april fools and thus the items that are associated with them. Hopefully I can still pick up a few quests here and there that give items I’d like for my home though. Not to mention the enormous library Arysh has that encompasses a full wall. I want to continue working on that.

As far as ‘playable’ characters, I’ve got the 80 warden (Arysh), 77 coercer (Ishbel), and the 73 templar (Petites). The others (80 troubador, 75 illusionist, 58 necromancer) are sitting on Antonia Bayle still, where they’ll remain unless SOE allows some free transfers. I just can’t afford to move everyone all over the place. It’s difficult, now that I have friends who span across multiple games, multiple servers. How do you pick where to play, and what to do, and who to do it with. If anything, playing various games has taught me to work time management a whole lot.

Shaman Pains

I hit 20 on the shaman two days ago, and promptly started the level 20 water totem quest. I’m almost regretting that now, and wishing that I had held off for a little bit, or at least tried to convince my group to come along with me to do it. The first portion was alright, head to the city on Azuremyst Isle, and talk to the shaman trainer there. Great, no problem. He sends me to talk to a giant water elemental, who’s on Bloodmyst Isle. Well, of course since I left my home land at level 6 to go adventure with a dwarf, I had no clue where that even was. After talking with some friends I found out it’s actually an island north of the city. Alright, swim way out there, and I need the complete opposite side of the island. Of course. It couldn’t just be nice and simple. I use thottbot to look up the quest and get the locations I need, assuming that will make things easier.

The water elemental sends me on a quest to collect 6 pieces vials from other water elementals, up north. You’d think I could just walk there, but no, there are cliffs in the way and I need to walk 10 minutes out of my way up and around in order to get to where I need to go. A few kills later, I’ve collected my 6 vials and I return only to have him tell me he needs special water from a fountain in Auberdine.

Wait a second, Auberdine? Isn’t that the night elf town way out — yes, yes it is. Of course I’ve never been there yet, having hung around Westfall and Lakeshire the past twenty levels or so. I sigh inwardly to myself and begin the walk, picking up flightpaths along the way. I find the location of the fountain I need which is of course surrounded by level 24 elementals that like to quickly add. I’m level 20, and they hurt. I try to fight one, promptly get an add (remember, I’m not twinked) plop down a snare totem and run away. Rinse repeat. This is obviously not going anywhere. So I decide I’m frustrated enough with the game for one night and logged.

Today I think I’ll just run my 49 hunter there (who does have flightpaths) and kill the elementals leaving their corpses on the ground so they don’t respawn so fast, and run my shaman over to the fountain while everything is dead. If that doesn’t work, I’ll have to wait until tomorrow when my group is on again and try to hack our way through the level 24 mobs. Of course, this is not the end of the quest. No, that would be too easy. Once I get this water I travel way back to the elemental who asked for it to begin with – and then I’m not sure what. I didn’t look the rest of the quest up to peek.

Shesh. I understand sending us all over to accomplish these goals, but for a level 20 quest, this one is hard. I’m almost starting to wish I were twinked up a little now. On the plus side, the quest (plus killing random things that got in my way as I traveled) has pushed me almost to level 21, so it was not as though the evening was a total loss. Tonight is my EverQuest Nostalgia night (see post below) so I won’t be playing WoW, but I already let my group know that will be a Friday night deal for me. I failed utterly at convincing any of them to come test the waters, and I’m sure more then a few have chuckled and laughed at this whole nostalgia expedition. Ah well.

Familiar Sights

While a lot has changed in EverQuest over the past three years (give or take) that I’ve been away, there are still a lot of familiar sights. If you weren’t around for the 2005 revamp of the bazaar, well, you’re looking at it now. The bazaar is split into three sections, a red section for selling, a blue section for buying, and the middle section hosts a few vendors and some crafting areas. If you’re an old player you remember (I was not around, but I heard stories) shouting about your wares in the EC tunnel (east commonlands?) and I heard many stories about this. Then a proper bazaar was added, and not much has changed since then. You still have to be online in order to sell.

Most people set up a trader character, and that’s exactly what I did. I have so much stuff on me that I’m just not sure what to do with any more. Old gear from deleted characters, and random bits and pieces. So I began the very long process of cleaning all that out. I deleted a few lower level characters who I knew I’d have no interest in playing. EQ1 is limited to 8 characters per server. I have my 70 rogue, 68 enchanter, and then I also have a 40 shaman, 31 druid who I am partial to. I have my level 3 cleric made for Friday Night Nostalgia, and a level 5 beastlord I am playing with a friend. My seventh character is a twinked out ranger named Starling, who I decided to use as my trader character. I loaded her up with trader satchels from the vendor (These weigh a lot, but there’s no weight boundaries in the bazaar, which make them great for bank space as they only cost 1p each) and then spent some time organizing all the prices.

Lets face it, almost everything I had for sale was exceptionally old, and for 90% of the items I didn’t see anything else for sale. A quick /who proved that EQ is certainly NOT dead, as there were too many people selling to finish the list. I loved seeing that. The channels were pretty active too. I even ran into someone from ‘way back when’, Krakerzz. A troll beastlord who was always very friendly. Turns out he’d recently returned to “da best game” after trying some others. I added him to friends (and his new shaman alt) and told him to keep in touch.

So did anything sell?

Actually, yes. I made 5,000p which is still only pennies according to EQ standards, but hey, it’s a start. I sold a soulscream belt (popular back in the day) and I even sold an opal encrusted stein – those charisma boosters from way back when. I’m sure the majority of my items won’t be good for anything other then guild tribute fodder, but it was fun none the less. Tonight of course is the first gathering of the EQ Nostalgia group, and I’m excited. We’ve set up forums, and if anyone else is keen on checking out the game but maybe can’t make the Friday schedule, PLEASE get in touch and join the guild, come chatter with people who share your love of the game. Hell, maybe you’ve never even played EverQuest before, but you’ve got station access and are looking for a community. You’ll find that here, too. I did some simple preparation like writing down what spells I need for the next five levels (that’s right, you aren’t told what to buy in game, you have to go hunting for spell lists, write them all out (or print them) and keep them close by. EQ is still very much a pen and paper game in a lot of ways) worked up my meditation, and tried to bribe new players to teach me their languages (as a Drakken I speak elder dragon and dragon, hoping the other group members will teach me their languages, as I remember that fairly fondly).

There was a huge patch yesterday that also eliminated a lot of keys and backflagging requirements. My banks were filled with portions of keys for random old zones, so I finally deleted them since they’re no longer needed. I’m debating taking Invis (the rogue with SoS) into a few zones to wander around and look at things I’ve never gotten to see before. Remember, I’ve never really been ‘uber’ in EverQuest, so a lot of this stuff is still new to me. Not to mention my memory is pretty bad, and things are slow coming back. Fingers crossed that I don’t wipe the group (I forget how to turn on HoTT…. is there a command for that??) and that the basic ‘how to play’ feeling returns.