Category: Gaming

Khal? Sure, park your boat here

 

Khal was revamped a while ago, to cut down on the lag that was predominate throughout the city. A wonderful job was done with it and the outcome was very aesthetically pleasing. Now as you wander through you can look below to the port and see everyone and their boat (literally) parked, waiting for their captains to return. I still love looking at the player made ships in game, and how they vary from continent to continent.

The continent of Qalia is where a lot of 20+ spend their time, working on various quests. Neamsong Bunker is the home to the first Hunter’s League quests, though if you’re above level 18 or so you’ll want to head to Upside Defense Garrison and grab the quests there instead. Without the bonus experience things seem to crawl by- it’s still rewarding in the end.

The Vulmane Shaman is inching along, level 9 yesterday. Eventually became frustrated by the amount of running one has to do, it can take hours just to get from point A to point B. The 30% run speed is a nice thing to have, but still is not quite fast enough to make the journey that much more enjoyable. Population is still quite high which is nice to see, still not sure that they’re ready to re-release in April. There’s a lot of bugs yet. Like my Vulmane friend who has large shoulders, each time he swings downwards (on either of our screens) his muscles appear to bulge through any harvesting clothing he’s wearing, and flicker. Not exactly a huge issue, but it’s one that should still be addressed none the less. It’ll be nice to see those character revamps. I can’t remember when they were supposed to come along, but I suppose it can’t be rushed.

Today’s goal- make some progress and perhaps hit level 10. Apparently shaman have a quest to choose some sort of spiritual path, wolf, bear or bird. I’ve got little to no information on any of this, but I’m sure I can figure it out.

Vanguard Anniversary Gift

 

Taking a trip into Vanguard proved to be (aside from a lot of fun) profitable, as I managed to claim this new reward from my claim window. You get the choice of 3 bags, one per account (they’re a little stingy with their gifts). One for each of the spheres. Since I can get player made bags easily enough, and I can quest for a diplomacy bag, I opted to get this crafters pouch, to help boost up my stats and give me a permanent buff. I claimed it on the artificer, and I think it was a great choice.

I managed to finish off the URT weapon quest with some help from a GM who kindly dropped all those essences (the quest is broken) into my inventory, and decided to move on to the Hunter’s League quests in Qalia. The first two that rewarded yellow gear (around level 19 I believe?) I completed with little difficulty, having to smush some level 18 cyclops and a few other bad guys that roamed the coast. The next quest I’m on wants some zombie flesh though and they’re four dot which means they’re heroic and I should be in a group to kill them. They’re also level 22, so I didn’t want to risk getting smacked around too badly before giving up until I can find a group.

The guild had some low 20’s groups going on in Qalia as well on Friday night, Sunday was of course the super bowl where everyone was busy shouting at the TV and watching the fantastic commercials (which are blocked out here in Canada, we get to watch the Canadian commercials instead, and none of them are nearly as exciting as the prized American superbowl commercials) of course regionsay was filled with people arguing about why their team should win and bringing up every possible bad play that was ever made by anyone. Interesting, to say the least.

I also started a shaman class, a vulmane at that (they need tails, badly) and with some company got her to level 8. I’ve never played a shaman before (or any other healer aside from bloodmage for that matter), so far it’s a lot of fun. Helps to have someone to play with of course. Formed a brotherhood with both the shaman and my bloodmage, so my characters can’t out level anyone. I like the idea of sharing exp even if it takes a little longer to level up in the end.

Trip Down Memory Lane

 

Out of all the characters I’ve deleted over time, and yes I’ve deleted a few, I’ve managed to keep my very first EverQuestII character, which is the templar. She may have betrayed a few times, but I’ve still managed to keep her around. I found it amusing when I was cleaning out quests from her journal to spot the above quest still burried in there. A heritage quest I picked up in 2005. I have one other quest a few days older then that one, another heritage quest, lost legends. Just as an indication of how much I must have disliked those quests (and how rarely I ended up playing the templar in the end).

After browsing through the active quests, I took a peek at when I completed my very first quests. It was surprising to see that it took me two days to get from level 1-7. I completed my first quest on the isle of refuge – 11/10/2004. Ah good times.

When I first picked up EQII I had no intentions of playing. I was happy in EQ1 doing whatever it was I was doing at the time. Mild raiding and playing with my best friend, who had a troll beastlord. I had a cleric, enchanter (oh how I miss the EQ1 enchanter) and a rogue (SoS was awesome). I haven’t actually checked in to EQ1 in quite some time, but I was thinking of re-installing the game. I haven’t played / bought the last few expansions and have no intentions of it, but it would be nice to see the old places agian.

One thing I really miss about EQ1 vs. EQ2 is the way in EQ2 you can “out grow” zones and areas. They turn grey, making them worthless to re-visit unless you’re an obsessive quester. I realize it was probably to help prevent farming – after all who wants level 80’s killing your level 20 mobs for the loot and gear, but I dislike the method of trivializing areas.

In EQ1 nothing turns grey, so even if you’re max level you can still farm items, names, and areas. You can go back and re-visit them time and time again. You could argue that it’s do-able with the mentor system here in EQ2, but not really to the same extent. I remember killing things in so many old world zones in EQ1 thanks to my bestlord friend, zones I’d have never visited or even known about without his help. I imagine that EQ2 is almost the same way. Most of my ‘new’ characters now start in Gorowyn and quickly level to 20. This means they out level the Commonlands, Antonia, portions of Stormhold, Wailing Caves, Oakmyst Forest, The Forest Ruins, Sunkin City, and various others before even exploring them what so ever. They trivialize. Unless I mentor, or spend time doing gray quests, there’s no reason at all for me to ever set foot in those areas. As more expansions are added and the world grows, it also shrinks.

Anyhow, it was an interesting walk down memory lane. What’s the oldest quest anyone else has in their journals? What was the date you completed your very first EQ2 quest? Feel free to share!

Traveling Through Stormhold

 

I love Stormhold. I think it’s one of those older zones that isn’t used for far too much any more. I remember when it used to be absolutely filled with people doing their dungeon crawls. It doesn’t seem quite so big any more, one or two groups is enough to feel crowded if they’re moving from named to named. There are still quite a few quests that use this zone, as well as a heroic one that rewards in a legendary bow. Remember when the scions used to be epic? Someone would spawn one by clicking the lion heads in the main entrance and BAM suddenly you’ve got an epic on your head chewing you apart. Those were good times. I remember almost at the very start of the game, when you used to be able to group with someone far higher level then you and have them ‘grey out’ zones. My friend managed to agro a scion and he dragged it through the zone on purpose, having it aoe on other travelers. They didn’t look too kindly on him (not that I can blame them) but it was still fun. I died from the aoe’s too, not that I minded, even if I did have to run back for my shard (ah, shards, good times).

Over time, pretty much any ‘difficult’ aspect of the game is toned down. That’s just one example, there are many. Crafting is another that’s been constantly tweaked and changed and adjusted over time to suit the wants of the players (some, players, not all). Speaking of which, Lader clued me in on this post, talking about new crafting cloaks, which yes, I did squeel about. They look like they have nice graphics. I’m all for nice graphics. The mannequins also seem pretty interesting, looking forward to getting a few of those in time. You’ll need 30,000 status with your crafting faction to purchase the recipe, and I know I’m a few away from that, but I’m sure Calreth won’t mind crafting me a few if I’m that impatient.

** Edit** There are crafting EPICS being put into game?! Now that I had no idea about. I knew about regular epic weapons, sure.. but tradeskill ones? Is that what those new cloaks are, epics? Woot!

In game I’ve been restless (again, big surprise I’m sure) and floundering about from character to character, not really sure which I’d rather play more. That was the purpose of closing one of my accounts, to be able to focus slightly. It’s not working.

In real life, we’re having a nice day full of ice and rain and wind. Be careful on the streets you people in Ottawa, it’s slippery.

Lazy Afternoon Projects

 

I love making signatures, they’re a lot of fun. I don’t even have forums that I belong to really aside from the Eq2players one, but I still love creating signatures for my characters. So today while enjoying a nice lazy afternoon (the weather outside is horrid, it’s freezing rain and ice and all that other gross winter stuff that we happen to get here in Ottawa) I decided to create a signature for Ishbel.

I had a lot of fun making it, the tattoo on her neck is the symbol for Innoruuk which I managed to find on the EQ2 wikia, along with brief summaries of each deity. The signature itself is made up of four screen shots, plus three separate text layers. The backgrouns is one screen shot, and has not been manipulated in any way. It’s one of the windows inside of the mage tower in South Qeynos, which is ironic since Ishbel is Freeport aligned. The image of herself I used from a shot in the crafting instance earlier today, touched up her eyes (Ishbel has a strike of red that cuts through her left eye) and her hair, added the tatoo and lightened things up a little from the original. Wanted to keep it fairly simple, so I didn’t add a fancy boarder, the text is kept to a minimum as well. It probably took me two hours from start to finish when all was said and done, but that’s also taking into consideration the amount of time I spent rescuing the cat from pillow attacks (don’t ask) in the living room.

Her hair is a little more blurry then I’d have liked, especially that strand on the left side, but I can’t be bothered to fix it right now, maybe a project for another time when I decide to make another signature, it’s been a while since I’ve made any. I suppose I could stand to make a few more paper dolls as well for the EQ2player profiles. A few of mine are missing (though Ishbel does have one here). Nice to see profiles haven’t been updated in quite some time, it says she’s level 73, she’s actually 77.

In game today things are quiet. I’ve been harvesting (how exciting is that hmms?) for crafting supplies. Late last night I hit 30 carpenter, so it won’t be too long before I’ve caught up to the 35 carpenter on the closed account. As far as crafters go, that leaves me with:

  1. 80 Sage
  2. 80 Jeweler
  3. 80 Provisioner
  4. 63 Alchemist
  5. 60 Weaponsmith
  6. 30 Carpenter
  7. N/A Armorer

I haven’t started the armorer quite yet, that’ll be Ysandria’s profession once I get around to starting it. On another good note, the guild hit level 29 last night as I grinded some alchemy writs (woot!). A huge congratulations to Torrent Knights, since there are only 5 members (if that) to the guild, and no one has mains in the guild pretty much, I’m glad we’ve managed to come that far. I’d still like to at least hit 30 for that extra row of bank slots, as well as being able to buy some fancy new clothes from the status merchants, but we’ll get it when we get it.

Epics come out next week (supposedly) and everyone is mighty excited, can’t say I blame them. I won’t be getting mine any time soon, but I’m not sorry about that, the mad rush of folks working on them I’m sure would be enough to make me pause and wait anyhow.

Oh, and Tipa, if you’re reading this, fix your site! We’re (the readers) getting restless waiting for it to come back online, hope you got my email about it!