EverQuest Adventure – 2

Last night when I jumped into game I was greeted by Angelkakes who offered to help me out if there was anything I needed, and so I added my first FV friend to my list. I managed to visit the loyalty merchant and pick up a handful of plat with crowns (I think that’s what the currency is called, I might be wrong) so I didn’t need anything, but it’s always nice to have a few friends around.

I’m still looking for an active guild to join, not so much to participate in anything going on, but to watch guild chatter and have an active group of people to ‘hang but not hang’ with. I imagine that will take me a bit more time.

Continuing my adventure in Crescent Reach I made good use of the temperance (hp buff) spell that was placed on both me and my warder, hanging out in the bear caves it didn’t take too long to blast past level 10, and inch my way towards level 13. I haven’t checked to see what other spells I should pick up yet but that’s next on my list of things to do.

It turns out that I had a level 48 beastlord on FV previously, but I decided to delete that character because she was a Barbarian and I wasn’t very attached to her. The good thing is that she had some gear and bags that I got to transfer over, along with a bit of coin. It’s always good to make use of that sort of thing, bags are something I’m always lacking in EverQuest.

Tonight I plan on picking up the spells I need, checking if there are any skills I need to get (I don’t think so, not at this low level at least) and continuing my adventures in Crescent Reach. I think I can level to 15 there comfortably before heading off to Blightfire Moore. I may go some place else though, I haven’t decided yet. There are a ton of options and I’m certainly in no rush.

I was concerned that my subscription would be up soon and I wouldn’t be able to continue it, but it looks like I have 180 days or so left. I don’t own the latest expansion so I’m going to try to save up so I can pick it up. That probably won’t happen this month, but maybe July. I think you get a new tab for your mounts and I know that would be pretty helpful. Other than that, I know very little about Empire of Kunark. Still, it’s really nice to be back in game, playing for the (small) amount of time that I have. Feel free to say hello if you happen to also be playing on the FV server!

EverQuest Adventures – 1

Did you know that wood elves can be beastlords?

I had no idea!
Of course that meant I had to make one.

I decided to create a character on a completely new server. I’ve already got a full stable of characters over on Drinal, but the server is pretty quiet these days. I know nothing about any of the other servers, but FV (roleplay preferred) has always been pretty popular, and it works the same as a regular server except that the majority of the items on the server that are marked as no-trade can actually be traded. That doesn’t make or break the game for me – nor does the language barriers, so I happily created there.

Stargrace is the name of my wood elf, and I decided to start over in Crescent Reach rather than the original home cities. Why? No real reason. Crescent Reach is ancient these days and can hardly be considered new any more. It’s home to the dragon people, and it was bustling with 40+ people roaming around.

Unfortunately there were some login issues so I was unable to use the /claim command. I had hoped to get a few bags and maybe some defiant gear, but instead I’d have to make due with the /veteran command and move from there. That gave me enough rewards to get a pretty good start.

I was hoping to reach level 8 because that’s when I get my first warder.

It’s a tree.

I love it.

Just as I was about to log out for the night some kind stranger who spoke a language that I didn’t understand gave me and my warder a temperance buff for over three hours (major lowbie hp buff). That’ll certainly come in handy for my next leveling adventure.

I stuck to the spore caves in Crescent Reach, out of the way of the crowds and enough mobs for me to clear without too many issues. I also snagged both a healer mercenary and a melee dps mercenary. I started out by using the healing one because I was not able to tank too much before being squashed, but as I looted a few pieces of defiant gear I swapped over to the melee one so we could kill faster together. All the while I listened to the general ramblings over on … well, general chat. Things are EXPENSIVE on this server. Krono sell for 3+ million platinum each, and I regularly saw gear being sold for 20+ million.

Ouch!

Still, I had a blast playing for the small amount that I managed. I don’t know that I’ll play every night, but I’ll play for a while and we’ll see how far I get. At least this time I settled on a character (and a server) to play.

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

How Much Time do you spend Deciding What to Play?

Honestly, it depends on the day.

There are times when I know exactly what I want to play. I’ve planned it out, I spend the day thinking about it, I wait for my allotted game time to come into action and bam, there I am playing exactly what I wanted to play.

Then there are days where I have the time to play, and I end up playing nothing at all because I don’t have the faintest idea of what I want to play. I debate all of the games in my head, the pros and cons of each, make up lists on what I would want to accomplish, and before I know it two hours has gone by and it’s time for me to get some sleep.

Tonight is one of those nights.

I started out thinking that I would play some EQ. Make a new character on FV and see how far I could get. Then my mind wandered to WoW and pet battles. Then I thought maybe I’d load up Gwent and play a round or two. 22 minutes have passed by out of the 1.5 hours I get an evening to game and I haven’t loaded up a single one. In fact now I’m here making this blog post and post-dating it to tomorrow (yes, I share my 2 hours of allotted gaming with my time to make a blog post). I wonder how much time I’ve spent thinking about playing a video game only to not have played anything at all.

Anyone else suffer from the same?

EQ – Got No Time for That (but oh well)

It never fails, I tell myself that I just don’t have the time to dedicate to a game like EverQuest, and then before I know it I’m logging in and creating a character. Nostalgia, it’s powerful.

I know I don’t have the time to play, but I do have an hour every night after my Son goes to sleep and before I have to get some sleep myself. I typically use that time to make a blog post or two and post date it to the next day, and then with whatever is left over I get some gaming in. Is that enough to play EverQuest?

Well, on a regular server, maybe. On a progression server where experience is greatly decreased, especially in a game like EverQuest, I’m probably crazy to be trying. Yet that’s where I found myself for a portion of my free time.

It’s Memorial Day weekend in the United States, so there’s bonus experience going on. It runs until Tuesday and I’m going to miss it once it ends. I created a magician. A class I’ve never really played before that I know is “easy mode” as far as leveling goes. There are a LOT of magicians out there. I mean, a ton. So many. The ground is littered with magician corpses.

After getting my gnome to level 3 I started thinking to myself that a shadowknight might be fun. That’s something else I tend to do, I’m unable to settle on a single class to play so I get a handful of characters to level 3 and then end up quitting.

I got a shadowknight to level 3 and then thought to myself “what am I doing!” I don’t have time to level a magician up let alone a tank! So of course I did the next logical thing. I went back to the magician. She’s now level 5.

Will I stick with it?

Maybe.

I love EverQuest. I love the excitement that comes with playing on a progression server. I love how busy they are, and watching chat channels fly by. I love the community and the fuzzy feelings I get when I think about that time in my life. I’ll keep playing it for as long as I can but chances are that may not be very long at all. I do plan on enjoying every second of it while I can though.

You can find me on the latest progression server as Stargrace (gnome magician) or if I’ve changed my mind by then (again) you may find me there as Quail (dark elf shadowknight). Either way, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.

Goblin Leader Bites the Dust

Yesterday was another server event, this time we gathered together to take down the notorious Goblin Leader. Not as big of an event as say, a drake, but we still had a pretty good crowd, with 40+ people showing up. There were body drops from the Goblin Leader, as well as items donated from staff and players.

Now, one (small) issue I have with these events is that if someone wins something they don’t particularly want, they can pass, and have a chance at something better. The downside to this of course is that you may not win anything at all or you might get incredibly lucky and have your name drawn again on the uber_item_101 that you wanted. The problem I have is that sometimes the items being rolled on really suck (this is IMO, one man’s junk is another man’s treasure and what have you) and there are still good items waiting to be rolled on, so staff allows us to pass.

I wish there was no option to pass. If you win something, be thankful you won, and accept it – or give it away or trade it away, or decline – but that removes you from future drawings from that event. I think it should be up to players to make a deal or figure out what they want to do with their wins.

See the problem is sometimes the loot REALLY sucks, like, goblin meat. There’s nothing special about it, regular goblins drop it, it’s not used in anything fancy. Of course this is the item that I “won” so I passed it. So did a few other people. It takes time to pass until someone finally shrugs their shoulders and says OK fine I’ll accept it, or auto accepts because they’re not actually present. If you get picked to win something, that should be it. Take it upon yourself to handle how you deal with your win. It’s only logical that (most) people will pass on things that are “useless” if there are “better” things in the draw. I say this because again, one man’s treasure.

Trade it, give it away, destroy it, whatever. It doesn’t matter. When your name is drawn for a raffle item that should be the item you win (or don’t win). So far I’ve won some goblin meat and a canopy bed. Both of which I passed on because there were better items (like a drake set, remember I still don’t have that sort of armour) further down the list.

Anyway. That all being said, the event went pretty smooth and people were happy. The smaller gatherings seem to work out well, the staff and organizers (as always) did a fantastic job. We each got to pick items from a chest afterward (two chests). I got a weapon smithing potion, and a chunk of rift wood. Ogur got a rare piece of iron (43ql) and a chunk of rift wood which he gave to me. We all also got ourselves some Goblin Leader blood which is used to create mining potions.

Afterward I logged Zuca in to check on my sales, and ported her home to help work on the mine tunnel I have ongoing. Moumix was helping me reinforce the tunnel but he hasn’t been around for a month or so, so I’ve slowly been working on it myself. I’ve got most of the tunnel mined two wide, and am working on getting it three wide, and reinforcing the entire length of it. Slow progress, but hey it’s a nice project. I love having a tunnel from Quail Keep to Quail Ridge, saves me a trip through the steppe.

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