Tag: EQ2

 

Something to keep in mind as you play in any realm, is that we ALL started as new players at one point or another, and if you’ve played one or more mmo’s in the past, you have an advantage over other players who maybe are delving into it for the first time. When I hear the questions some people ask on channels, I often wonder ‘how the heck can they NOT know that!’ – and then I catch myself, and remember how long it took me to get to level 10 when EQ2 released. It took three days.

There’s a few things every new player typically does. Look at their UI, see if there’s a way to arrange it to the way they like it, and I, personally, look for the key bindings, right away. I switch everything over to ‘the eq2’ format. I use tilde for auto attack, and remove it from my hot bar. I look for the screen shot button (you’d think it’s always print screen, but no, in Vanguard it’s F11) and I look for the basics. The inventory window, how to open bags, binding all my bags to one key, looking for lights if any are used, and any other weird keys I may not be used to.

I have very little patience with people, and explaining to someone where these ‘newb’ features are, frustrates me. I take a deep breath and remind myself that not everyone has been playing since release. That to some this is their first mmo (whatever game it may be, there are newbs wandering around everywhere) and that maybe if I could develop a little patience, and explain things a little nicer (WTF how did you get to level 80 and NOT know that you have to turn counter clockwise 12 times and click your heels in order to gate home?!) they may stick around, and in turn help someone else out. Setting an example to a fellow gamer is a huge deal, and sets the pace for the over all feeling of the game.

So when you’re wandering around, and you stumble into that person decked out in ‘green’ gear of shoddy quality. Remember. You were there once too. Even if it wasn’t for long.

 

Boston Cream cake, it may not look like the fanciest cake out there, but it was delicious.

So, last night I asked to be demoted from officer in my guild. Nothing overly big, but I’m just feeling overwhelmed with the responsibilities. We’ve had approx. 25 new recruits in the last three weeks, and I’ve tagged at least 90% of those people. I feel as though as an officer it’s my job to not only make sure new players feel welcome, but that they’re settled in the guild and game in general. I craft constantly for guild members (for no charge) and it’s slightly frustrating when the first thing a new recruit asks (who I’ve never even heard of before mind you) is for me to make them 300 bricks right off the bat. I admit now, I have a hard time saying no. I understand that no one’s forced me to take on the role to the extent that I have, but I feel as though it’s sort of my duty, if that makes sense.

I do like helping people, I’m not all mean. I do enjoy crafting house items for my fellow guild mates (ones I’ve known for a bit) and helping when I can. However, doing it daily from 6am-10pm is becoming more like a job then a fun game. That’s my reason for stepping down. I don’t mean to belittle the other officers or guild leader, but due to my constant play times, it’s just too much. Hopefully they understand.

Vanguard went down this morning for it’s weekly update, typically it’s Tuesday but last week and this week have been Wednesdays. I’m hoping they fix a few major bugs that are floating around. Since the server came down (well, it actually crashed, an hour before it was supposed to come down) I decided to take a peek into EQ2. I think I scared Calreth half to death when I suddenly showed up in guild. I left over two months ago (not intentionally, I was just going to ‘peek’ into Vanguard and then got swept up in the game) and have missed a few updates. There’s all sorts of crafting recipes now, and a whole lot of house items that I’ve never seen. I think I spend the better part of my EQ2 posts talking about housing and house items, and yet my own carpenter is only level 30. The itch to work on her and level is pretty strong right now. She’s also my 77 coercer, not that far away from 80, though I have no inclination to begin raiding or anything of the sort. The problem is that my characters are (at the moment) split between servers, which is a pain. I had even contemplated deleting some from one server, and starting them anew on the other. That’d be a lot (three years?) of work down the drain though. In the back of my mind I keep hoping SOE offers another free transfer option, or creates some sort of “move all your characters from this account” plan. Rather then the $50 each that I’d have to pay right now.

I noticed that fire place flames are now persistent even when no one has been home. Veteran rewards have been awarded by character and not 3 per like it used to be. There are froglok mannequins that I just laughed out loud about. My jeweler is still missing four pieces to her epic, but I’m not sure how easy that is to complete, no one seemed to be talking on the craft channels when I was on. Then again it was pretty early in the day and I wasn’t exactly looking to see who could help me out.

I’ve always been bad at playing more then one game. I like to dedicate myself to one or another fully. I do have station access though, and it seems a shame to be spending $30 a month playing just one of the listed titles. I’ve mentioned time and time again that I leave EQ2 and typically always come back, maybe it’s that time again.

 

Ignoring the character model there for a minute (they’re getting revamped, eventually) one of the things I absolutely love about Vanguard, is the crafting. Why? Because it’s hard, and not hard to the point of impossible, but hard enough. In WoW everything is an instant combine, you can make batches (so long as you have the materials on you, also just called “mats”) and EQ2 has slowly been moving away from complicated by introducing various new things through the years. How many people remember (and miss) subcombines. Then everyone was given the ability to make everything (when we started, if you were a sage, you had to find an alchemist to make ink, a woodworker to make quills, an alchemist to make the WoRTs (washes oils resins tempers) and so on and so forth). Now it even sets up your entire crafting UI for you, and uses far less power then it ever used to. There’s also no craft below pristine any more, in stead you just get the item back.

Such is not the case with Vanguard crafting. Pictured above is my artificer (level 6 /flex) working away. Literally. It sort of feels like you’re playing the sims when you craft because everyone does little auto-emotes like “Hmmm” Or “ARRRGH!!” and then stomps their foot if a process has gone bad. Quite amusing (though if you’re crafting in long batches it can get tiring). Crafting is basically a management of points – gear – fuels – and tools. Number one, you have an entire tab for it since it’s a sphere. You get crafting clothes (and attributes where you can designate points later). I’m not going to try to explain the entire complex process, but I will try to explain basically what it’s about. It’s all about getting from point D to point A (hopefully) before running out of points. You also get complications showing up along the way – more frequently if 1. Your gear sucks. 2. Your gear needs to be mended (that’s right, you need to repair even crafting gear, not just adventuring gear) and 3. Tools suck 4. Recipes are just too far over your level.

There are 4 processes basically to every item you make. There’s finishing (a complete item that would be ready to wear afterwards) and refining (making those sub components). You use points for everything, and crafting has grades, A of course being the best. Or rather – 100% A. Since you can be into the A zone and not be at the end of it. That’s the green bar along the top left of the crafting UI (says I’m at C grade, I’m doing a work order here and I try to aim for C-D depending on the difficulty). Name of the game is to make the item and not run out of points before the end stage (or else you have to stop the process – and you loose everything.
You load your “table” with items – fuel, raws, and then items to counter complications. Most of the time you have to guess, and you only have a limited amount of table space. So you could have fuel, raws, and then bandages and water. Then a complication comes up that uses something you don’t have on your table, and you’re screwed, you have to craft through it. Which can of course damage the piece you’re working on. In the screen shot, Faralithe is using bandages and stretching to stave off a complication (which is the weird icon on the far right of the crafting UI).

Anyhow. The point was – I love crafting in Vanguard. It’s complex. There are guides for it – there’s crafting quests. There are crafting styles. If I want to go craft in Thestra, I’d have to earn faction with their tradeskillers, and then learn their style of recipes. This is really pronounced in ships as well. If you buy a Kojan sloop it has a different graphic then the Thestra one. Gear has different effects based on where it was crafted. It’s the first time since EQ1 where I’ve actually felt some pride in my work. In EQ1 you had hefty chances to fail at combines completely and loose your materials (though they did start ‘changing’ that with a large amount of aa you could put into your crafts to prevent failing and losing materials). What Vanguard realized early on is that there’s a niche of players out there who LOVE crafting. They take hefty pride in their work, and complicated (now granted, not TOO complicated) is a good thing. It’s a timely sphere to level up but well worth it. It’s also one of the best examples at relationships between crafters and adventurers. There is a huge market of people who don’t want to put in the time it takes to level a craft – which is great, they’ll harvest, and sell to crafters. Who in turn, sell back to adventurers. A nice little path. Now, there is some complaints of course, of people who feel crafters charge too much, that crafters are making far too much coin – but you can still make a good amount from selling your resources alone, especially rare ones.

On a non-crafting related note, I joined “Safe Haven” last night, which is one of those guilds who span across multiple games (they’re also located on Antonia Bayle in EQ2). I applied a few days ago, just looking for a simple home with some quiet chatter from time to time. They’re nice and friendly and plan out guild events, about 11 of us on constantly last night. Most of the people I’ve seen so far range from level 30-40 or so, even though I’m quite a bit smaller it was nice to feel welcome.

Help me, please, and you shall be rewarded

I decided that the blood mage was just not for me. I’ve played healers in pretty much every MMO, and while they’re fun, they’re also just not my thing after some time (hence me moving from Templar -> Fury -> Illusionist in EQ2), and I always have been an alt-o-holic, so I made a little paladin to test the waters a bit, after hearing some good things about the class (I actually hear good things about every class. Except Rogues. Who are broken). Anyone who knows me to any degree, knows I never play tanks. Ever. I have one of almost everything in EQ2, same with EQ1 where I have a 70 rogue, enchanter, and cleric, but never a tank-type class. I’ve tried and have always found that they’re just simply not my thing.

Until Vanguard.

After a few hours I’m already in love with my paladin. It’s nice not to be so squishy. Yes, my dps is a little slow, but I can tank, and heal. In white gear (that’s gear with no stats at all, just ac) I can tank three-dots my level or one above. I’m only level 9, but wow. So much fun. So will I stick it out? Well, we’ll see. I’m certainly excited about the class, and that’s always a huge bonus.

It helps that the high elf areas are exceptionally well done. Very pretty. Lots of quests, though I’m in dire need of a mail box some time. I haven’t been to the city yet, just exploring my way along. I wish day time lasted a bit longer in game, I know they want everything to be equal but it’s night time and raining far too often. In WoW and EQ2 I never had to use a torch of any kind to light my way, in Vanguard when the sun goes down it’s time to bring out that trusty torch or else you’ll be walking into trees and fae and other sorts of things.

Been playing a bit on EQ2 as well. I bought my Illusionist a guild level 60 mount, all armoured. I’ll post some screen shots of it here later.

That’s my templar Dasie to the right.. but what’s wrong with that cloak on the left?!

So Vanguard is not the only game with bugs, seems like EQ2 was hit with one (or two, or three) when they installed the latest patch as well. I noticed as I hung around the broker in NQ that some people’s cloaks have taken on some interesting characteristics. For example in the screen shot here.. the cloak is side ways, and in front of the persons face. Behind me was another cloak, floating directly beside (and side ways) its wearer. Cloaks are rebelling! Watch out!

Vanguard has been especially annoying with their latest set of bugs, people who have been playing will know it well as the appearance bug. The one where you can log in 20 times and each time you look like someone new. Saving and loading a new character template does not fix it. So once my character looked some what similar to my original, I decided to just play like that. Also noticed that in diplomacy, when I switched gear around to get +25 with the nobles for a quest, it didn’t acknowledge the new gear. I logged out and back in and the gear showed up finally. It was reading 3 when it should have been 24. Grumbles.

Still debating with myself on which game to play and which one to get rid of. While Vanguard is “beta in a box”, it’s also new and fresh. My server is thriving (for how long, I’ve no idea). There’s plenty of “spheres” to work on. EQ2’s population may be lacking, but there’s a bunch of new quests. A very small population which is my issue. Three high level characters that I worked very hard on, and some crafters I wouldn’t mind working up. Is it worth it though? I’m really not sure. I’m reluctant to consider paying the $29.99, I could have TWO Eq2 accounts with 12 character slots for that rate, and just box. Sorry to drone on about a topic that everyone else is also commenting on, but it’s a hefty decision. I’ve got a month at least.

So in EQ2 I worked on my tailor. Got her to level 30. Farmed for her with my 70 fury, got some (useless) loam rares, and a root (wuwu!) chattered with one of my good friends on Najena and heard all about her boxing adventures with her husband. It was nice to catch up. On Vanguard, I did diplomacy. How do people get special bags to carry around all of their hearsay and evidence etc? I really need one. By the end of the evening I’d moved to 67 diplomacy (I think.. maybe I’m lower I can’t quite remember) and picked up a few copper in items, turned in a few hearsay items for some gear and sold some of the lower / older stuff. Banks need to be separated per sphere I think. I have my bank currently filled with crafting materials, harvested goods and powders from mobs, from T1-T2. Then I also have all this extra gear now from diplomacy, which takes up a good portion of my 10-slot bags, so I stash it in the bank when I’m not working diplomacy. Then there’s the crafting gear besides all those supplies I have. I can quickly see this becoming an issue. Blood mages got an invis spell, I’m liking that a lot. I also figured out how to extract the twitching muscle I needed in order to make the damage shield symbiotic piece – mob has to be affected by my root spell before I extract. The type of affliction on the mob will determine the sort of body part I get. Makes sense if you’re a blood mage, trust me. Still only level 20, and not planning on leveling any time soon, but it’s been fun to explore the other spheres. Splitting my time between EQ2 and VG hasn’t been that difficult. I just feel like there’s nothing really to do in EQ2, even with the new epic line in, and unrest, and the new L&L’s scattered around.