Tag: EQ2

Arysh, the negelected warden, standing in South Qeynos. This weekend I may as well have called the Void weekend, because that’s pretty much all I did, was work on void storm quests. I got 20 notes for my monk (pictured a few posts back), 15 notes for Silhouette, 15 notes for Stargrace, and 15 notes for Arysh. That’s a lot of notes. I wanted a new look but was sad to see they removed the green, blue, and black dresses from the vendor (aside from the green formal wear) so if you didn’t get it last time, it’s no longer sold. They left the leather chain and plate gear though.

I still need to collect a few more notes for the pie and muffins to add to Arysh’ home, hopefully I’ll get that done today.

I almost created another alt. Almost. Instead I decided to delete the 17 mystic I had, I’ve got a 32 defiler and if I need a lowbie healer I’ll just mentor with her (or so I figure). Feeling slightly restless last night I also contemplated betraying Arysh back to a fury – which I have done twice now and vowed never to do it again. I think I’ll just be satisfied with her as a warden. I just dislike the fact that there are a million others out there. Today, I’m looking to work on my epic. We’ll see how that goes. I need more reet faction and I believe I need some items in Sebilis and Chardok but I’d have to look it up again since I’ve forgotten.

Today is a civic holiday in Canada, I hope everyone enjoys their day off! Another one coming the 1st of September.

I’d done the Void Storm quests with a few characters, obtaining what items I thought would look best (mostly the dishes and the ‘black’ gear) but didn’t spend a lot of time with it since it took so long to complete and there was always competition around. There’s still always competition around now, but it’s far easier to complete. I decided to take advantage of the quest this weekend, and completed it on Ysandria, my monk. For the main purpose of obtaining the awesome looking Gi before they removed it in this live event. I realize the look of the Gi is not that unique, a few T8 items have the same graphic, which is why I love it – because my monk is only level 38 and there’s no way she’d be able to get it other wise.

Slightly odd of me to care what my character looks like in game? Not really, pleanty of others share the same ideas. Everyone wants to look ‘cool’ or ‘different’ or ‘completely nuts’ or what have you. I can hardly be blamed.

It wasn’t just the Gi I got this time though. I also got a new dress (which Ysandria will never wear out), a bedside table (not pictured) a bowl filled with water (also not pictured) a very small dresser, a plate of muffins, and a steaming pie. I completed the quest 20 times in order to purchase everything I wanted for this character. The shard that drops will drop for the number of people within your group, so teaming up is not a bad idea. As of yet I haven’t heard this changing. This gives everyone a fair chance to get a little bit of loot for decoration purposes mostly.

The void storms themselves now come to life. Norrath sounds as though it’s in some drastic danger, and I’m curious what will be the ‘cure’ or who will come save Freeport and Qeynos from the beasts that constantly spawn. I realize that this is a lead up to the expansion due for release in November, but in the mean time I hope everyone is having an amazing time with the events going on. No one can say that Norrath does not evolve and change as we play, visible signs appear every so often (especially with those guild halls being built off of the coast of Antonica and Freeport).

I suppose now I better do those void quests with the rest of my characters..

Is she not just the cutest little thing? The halo is the perfect size, even if it is slightly tarnished. It’s only fitting for a templar. The halo comes from an Oathbreaker cloak, from Legends of Norrath (the card game). I don’t personally spend money on the game itself, but I do trade loot cards I find for items I want within their market. I got this item along with all the paintings and books I posted about earlier this week.

This smaller image does not do this picture justice. Be sure to check it out in its full glory either on the EQ2player forums here, or on Coniaric’s deviantART site here.

In the past, I’ve found talented people in the EQ2 community (via forums most of the time) and had a little interview with them here on my site to show readers just what talent we have in game. It’s been a while since I did one, and I thought it was well past time.

Coniaric can be found on the forums posting his deity series, which is nothing short of amazing. The posts are quite spread out, so if you’re looking for a place to find all of his artwork, check out his deviantART site. Coniaric finds his inspiration from the styles of “A. Mucha. He was well known as an excellent Art Nouveau artist. Many artists today are inspired by his work and tried to follow his lines and his styles closely or loosely.” For more information on this art style, just google the name, you’ll come up with all sorts of it.

• How long have you been playing EQ2?

I have been playing EQ2 ever since it first launched back in November 2004. Prior to EQ2, I had started playing the first EverQuest sometimes between Velious and Luclin expansions up to Gates of Discord. After leaving EQ, I tried few different MMOs out there. Final Fantasy XI Online for the duration of a month. City of Heroes, which I still play now and then when the mood strikes me. I also had checked out World of Warcraft which didn’t work out for me. (It lasted for 2-3 days.)

• How did you get into posting artwork related to EQ2 on the forums, what inspired you?

I had always liked to see art being done outside EQ2. I picked the Norrathian Pantheon to work with for several reasons. The gods were the least used among the artwork – other than the screenshots of course – and I thought them intriguing, being a large part of the universe of both EverQuest games and yet not seen very often. If I had wondered, I’m sure there are others out there who thought the same … and so, hence the posts of the artwork on the pantheon. On average, I suppose 20-30 hours per piece. From initial concept sketch to final. Some are quicker, others take time of consideration.

• Do you have any advice for artists just starting out who want to do their own works of EQ2 art

Use references, photographs especially … they help a lot with the lighting, shadows, forms, shapes, and folds of body or clothing. And environments. While Photoshop may appears intimidating with all of the features it has, only few tools are necessary: Brush, Smudge, and Eraser Tools … and try to avoid the use of Dodge/Burn Tool as much as possible. Other than that, just play around and discover things you may had not thought of before. Plan your color palette ahead of time and keep it handy while you work. Oh, and layers, layers, and layers. If you didn’t like something, you can just turn the layer off or delete it while keeping the rest of artwork intact. And organize the layers into folders so it’ll be easier to find again later.

I hope this isn’t too much to process. =)

• If you could be any kitchen appliance, what would you be and why?

A kitchen applicance? Um … a toaster, I suppose …simple, unseeming, aloof, and all at first glance, but warmth within once getting to know who I am.

• Have you ever gotten a bad reaction from your artwork?

No, I have not gotten any negative reactions to my work. I dare to hope I will not get any later on. =) So far, the responses are generally positive.

There you have it. Be sure to stop by the eq2player forums and let Coniaric know what you think of his work. If you know anyone who offers their talents to the EQ2 community and think they should be featured here, drop me a line at stephanie.kitten@gmail.com or leave a comment here. Be it through writing, artwork, video, or some other means. I’d like to keep this going for a little bit, perhaps more frequently then once a year *chuckles* we’ll just have to see.

GU47 was released today – and again, a huge congratulations to SOE for pulling it off. The servers have been up (and stable) for the last four hours and here are my first impressions of things that I interact with on a fairly frequent basis. Other updates you can of course read the proper notes about.

Number one the new in game voice chat is amazing. I played around with it some in group with a friend, and it was nice and clear, simple to use (would have been even more simple were it not for my UI). The only issue I had with it is the bind command. It would not recognize the 0 key on the number pad (or anything on the number pad for that matter). I have it set to the default Left Control key right now, but how many others out there use that to view gear in the changing room? That’s what I thought.

Number two, the live event with the storms. Surprised me, because I wasn’t expecting the actual storm to come to life as I did the ring event. People have been linking the amazingly detailed weapons and while they’re certainly under par as far as stats go, they are amazing for looks. Mannequins rejoice.

Number three, the crafting stuff. Ok, new red shinies in Enchanted Lands, and they reward you with of course another house item. Not so much an item though as a living creature. Get your epics and go hunting for this one, or you can read the spoilers over here at eq2traders.

A new crafting quest was also added, which rewards you with a new version of the formal gear you can purchase with guild levels and faction. It’s purple instead of the typical blue. If you’ve managed to get ally faction with any of the 4 major sections (mage, priest, scout, fighter) be sure to look for new titles (in a few cities) and new outfits (black version of the formal gear). Very nice looking things, and it’s nice to see rewards that are not based only on the level of your guild.

There were also new pieces of crafter gear (for appearance only) added to Gorowyn tradeskill merchants, and Kelethin, which I adore (and Silhouette is sporting proudly).

I have not noticed a significant stat increase to gear and items from 1-59 but then again I wasn’t exactly looking. I checked the broker briefly to look up some items and see if they’d change, they all remained (at level 17 gear) with +2 to stats and very low health and power (compared to the gear of TD which is what people term ‘the only place worthy of leveling up in’ these days).

The work on the guild halls seems to be coming at a steady pace, and leaves enough teasing to keep players wondering what’s next. There’s workers now found outside at the docks of the two major cities, stop by and take a look.

As a side note, those two books I quested for yesterday with Silhouette had their appearance changed, which I am happy for. There are some books that come in a “set” such as the Varsoon collection, and Blood of The Bear collection. Before today they were all different sizes and shapes, not matching at all. They certainly didn’t remind me of a “set”. As I placed the books today, I noticed they are all nicely shaped, blue, matching.

As for the faction bits. I’m not exactly happy about. I liked the amount of work it required to get those titles, and people who do have the titles worked really hard on them. I hate seeing things getting easier over time, though I know it happens as a game ages.

The epic changes didn’t affect any of my characters aside from the coercer, and that was quite minor. All in all, I’m happy with the update, and glad to see people excited about things.