Tag: EQ

Trip to San Diego – Part III

I’m still processing the trip down to San Diego, mostly because I haven’t had the time (yet) to sit down and just reflect on it. As soon as I landed back home  (pretty much) I was thust head first into writing 6 articles (that are due tomorrow) and I also came down with a horrible cold that’s left me sounding like a frog and sneezing every 10 minutes with a cough. I know I’ll be feeling back to my normal self in no time, but you’ll have to forgive the lack of posts on my site in the mean time. 

Picture is a member of the EverQuest team, showing off his sponge bob pillow. I actually took this particular picture for my Mom who is an avid fan. There’s another picture with a project that he was working on, but I’m saving that for Beckett (I know, what a tease). 

So what exactly did I do for my day in San Diego? It was pretty amazing and surreal for me on a very personal level. I was up at 3am on Tuesday the 3rd of February. Headed to the Ottawa International Airport where I flew from Ottawa at 6am to Detroit. Switched plains in Detroit to Minneapolis and then flew from Minneapolis to San Diego. I landed at around 1pm, grabbed a taxi to my suite which was pretty close to the SOE studio, and waited for a room. By the time I got settled all I wanted to do was let everyone know I was safe and sound, and sleep. So the night ended early for me at 8:30pm PST. Remember, this trip also takes place after two very stressful weeks of getting my passport organized, and was very short notice for me. I still had a blast.

The next day at 9:30am I was met in the lobby by Katie, who is the public relations person for SOE and who I get to annoy on a regular basis. We drove to the SOE studio which is fairly close to where I was staying. The day was absolutely amazing, bright sunshine and no snow. I ogled all of the palm trees that I’ve never seen before. The landscape is completely different from what I’m used to. I’ve seen hills and mountains before when I lived in Germany, but Ottawa is fairly flat and our houses sit on flat streets, not up the sides of hills one under another. I was feeling pretty nervous, but calmed down as the day went on.

I had a brief tour of the SOE buildings, I’d looked at older pictures trying to get a feel for the layout and recognize where I was. My first round of meetings was with the EQ1 team, some absolutely amazing people. I spoke with Alan Couvering, Adam Bell, and Ed Hardin. The passion they demonstrated for their game was just mind boggling. It’s not something I’ll soon forget. Anyone who has read my Beckett articles before knows that I don’t exactly write from an investigative journalism point of view, but I write as a gamer first and try to keep that theme throughout everything I write. Having the opportunity to talk to these people who created the games I love in such a setting was fantastic. 

Afterwards I spoke with the EQ2 team – Bruce Ferguson, Joy Parks, Noel Walling, Tim Heydelaar, Bill Yeats, and Joshua Kriegshauser. Again they displayed the same amount of passion that the EQ1 team had for their game, and the comradery displayed was fantastic. I also spoke with Rich Waters, who is the creative director for the EQ Franchise, and then it was time for lunch.

Lunch was amazing. The community team consisting of Brenlo, Kiara, and Ashlanne (who you may recognize on forums and from Podcasts) were great. We went to a surf shack type place called ‘Hodads’ (I believe that’s the name at least) which was plastered on the inside with old license plates. The atmosphere was very laid back and easy going and the fact that I was eating lunch in San Diego in the sunshine and not home in Ottawa in the freezing temperatures with four feet of snow on the ground did not go unnoticed. We took a little walk down to the beach (not far away) and even had a little time to stop by a comic book store that was along the way back to the van. They were easy to talk to, joked around a lot, and I felt completely at ease. Once lunch was done it was time to get back to work and Lydia joined in the conversation. 

Once it was noticed that I also play Vanguard (and love the game despite the rocky launch and issues that still persist) I was granted an opportunity to talk to the VG team, something I had not planned for. This was probably one of the most fantastic parts of the trip, because it was just so odd for me. If you had of asked me a year ago if I thought I’d be talking (in person) to Silius (Salim Grant, lead designer) I’d have laughed so hard milk would have shot out my nose even if I wasn’t drinking milk. I remember seeing the NPC version of his character in game outside the crafting area in the high elf place. I remember seeing him on Seradon on the craft channel, and I even own (or rather, my bloodmage owns) the craft bag named after him. You can flag me as a fan and I’m perfectly ok with it. I didn’t just speak with him though, I also got to talk to Christian Akesson (VGThor, Lead artist), and Thom Terrazas (Phathom, producer). VG is one of those diamond in the rough games (for me at least) and to watch other people who actually worked on the game talk about it to me was just so inspiring. I can not even put it into words. 

By the end of the day I was exhausted (again) and Katie brought me back to my suite where I crashed for the night at 8:30. I would be flying out at 10:30am, and wanted to be at the airport early so I could go through security and all the rest. 

At 7am I headed back to the airport, where I flew from San Diego to LA (short flight), and then from LA to Detroit, and finally from Detroit back home. It was 11pm EST by the time I finally got home, back to the wind and snow and negative temperatures. 

Another huge thank you to the people from SOE for flying me out and granting me the opportunity, as well as Beckett MOG since I was there to do work for them. My friends were absolutely amazing (and continue to be) and supportive while I ranted about all of the stress I was feeling and my excitement as I went through this whole process. It’s been an incredible rush. 

Now that I’m home and settled, I have three more pieces to write for Beckett and then I can get back to what brought me here in the first place – gaming! See you in Norrath.

Umbral Plains meets Nostalgia

Like the Maiden’s Eye, the Umbral Plains make for one the most treacherous outdoor areas on Luclin. These wide open plains are home to dark assassin shades, many wandering undead Elysian remains, gorangas, netherbians, and giant zelniaks. In the South is the entrance to Vex Thal, which is surrounded by a hoarde of elemental guardians along with Rumblecrush. – Zam.com

Last night Nostalgia headed to Umbral Plains. A zone most remembered as dangerous – and rightly so. The group consisted of two enchanters, a bard, Tipa (ranger extraordinaire), Kanad (well renown shaman), and myself on Qutey (the cutest druid ever). We also had the pleasure of two mercenaries, a tank and a healer (though the healer took a back seat for most of the evening until a few of us died). 

For some reason my computer decided to chose last night of all nights to give me issue. It could have been because I was running curse client (forgot to turn it off) along with xfire, and vent, so I restarted once my video card (or some other part) screamed in protest and crashed me. Then later on in the night it did the same thing. I was already feeling tired so I went and laid down for a little bit before returning. Too much stress lately, but that’s another story. 

We took down a few named in the zone, named I had not seen in a long time. Tawro Icequake lead to The Spirit of Tawro who dropped two very nice weapons (that rotted since the bard was AFK and no one else could use anything), we also took down Bile Spew and a few others. Since I had crashed out I heard there were a few others, and all in all it was a fun night of just hunting named. Next week we’ll get back to leveling.

Have I mentioned that the mercenaries are amazing? Maybe once or twice? 

Well once I logged in game, called my corpse to the guild lobby (noticed that they changed deaths, you no longer lose your items any more when you die? Wow, that is WEIRD) Tipa brought out her healer – and by healer I don’t mean Brita, I mean her mercenary, and it rez’d me for 96% and then buffed me with 2h virtue and other random goodies. 

Sweet. 

Kanad and I stuck around for a little bit once Nostalgia was finished for the night, and I purchased a journeyman healer. They don’t really strike me as being any different then the regular ones. Perhaps faster power regen was the only thing I really noticed. We headed to Plane of Storms and meandered our way through the forest, breaking up a giant camp there for a little bit. He managed to get level 64, and I hit 63 on the druid. The journeyman healer is expensive, at level 62 it cost me 1,300p to purchase, and 26p every 15m of play. Tomorrow I’ll probably turn her in for something a little cheaper. I have no idea if the tanks have a noticeable difference. 

We also learned that you can not make a raid with a mercenary in your group. I figured this was the way they worked when I read the patch notes, but it’s always nice to know for sure. 

NaNoWriMo started today, but (crazy me) I plan on doing my daily mmo updates still on this site as well as participating. If I can’t handle it though I’ll be holding off on the blog posts. We’ll see how it goes. I’m more then likely also going to be switching my host over to wordpress, and dropping the company I’ve been with for 3 years (lots of little annoyances) and just keeping the domain name. We’ll see how that goes. So much to do this weekend!

EverQuest Halloween Events

Halloween may not be a day off of work or school, but that doesn’t stop people from having a lot of fun with the event, including multiple mmo’s. We’ve all heard about the zombie attacks in WoW, and the new haunted house in EQ2, even WAR is getting into the holiday spirit. Not one to be left behind, there is also a whole slew of events going on in EverQuest-PC. 

You can read about all of the events here, at the official EQ site, or run through the list posted below.

Ancient Hauntings! 

These ghost, ghouls, and scary beings return to us from the hauntings in the past. 

Candy and Costumes
Across the starting cities, candy and costume merchants open up their spooky shop to celebrate the season of haunting. Also, seek out Wicked Winnie and a wizened hermit in the Plane of Knowledge for additional sweet fun. 

Trick or Treat?
There have been scattered reports across Norrath of spooky happenings in the Kithicor Forest. People are trick or treating around Norrath. Vampires have been spotted roaming in spooky places. The Halflings are hungrier than usual and are craving everything pumpkin! A creepy bone collector is requesting help on collecting several rare bone artifacts. A great storyteller has arrived and is telling some rather frightening fables. Get your admission ticket today and hear them for yourself! For more information seek out Zigand Ribshard in the Plane of Knowledge. He has all the details! 

  • The Trick or Treat Bag: Old Man Draykey will teach you how to trick or treat by showing you the proper greeting method. To practice he gives you a trick or treat bag to go out and get candy.
  • Bone Collector: Barsin the bone collector boasts that he can create anything out of bones.
  • Roaming Vampire: A Dressed-Up Halfling is running late for the yearly costume gathering.
  • Hungry Halfling: Mippie Diggs is hungry and has been craving pumpkin flavored food and drinks.
  • Story Teller: Cathil the storyteller has been telling frightening fables to scare the locals.

 

Haunting Tasks 

  • Marta Stalwart in Toxxulia is baking pies to celebrate an old Erudite pie flinging tradition started by an angry wife who scolded her lazy husband by throwing pies at him.
  • Grom Shives in Nektulos is retelling the tale of the legendary ride of a dark elf warrior who swindled magic from powerful creatures, and managed to evade them in Nektulos as he returned to Neriak.
  • Silas Lightweaver is trying to put on a light show in Greater Faydark, but faeries from Lesser Faydark are running amuck, casting gaudy spells, and disturbing his performance. Capture them, and release them back into Lesser Faydark where they belong.
  • Corporal Gravlin is standing guard in Qeynos Hills as travelers from Qeynos attempt journey to Surefall Glade for a celebration. Unfortunately, evil necromancer Pyzjn is causing trouble by raising undead to attack anyone passing through Qeynos Hills.
Kanad and I happened to cross paths with these two spooky people in PoK (Plane of Knowledge) as we were finishing up our adventures. The costumes are a LOT of fun. You can become pretty much any scary creature at all that’s available in EQ, not to mention the fact that there are accessories! Want to wield a broom? A bucket filled to the brim with treats? Then that’s no problem at all. Looking for free treats and goodies to stock pile? There’s a vendor for that too, and what’s more is that they’re all free, no charge. The costumes do have limited charges, and are no rent which means they’ll poof if you log out for too long (they also dissolve on zoning) but the food (although no trade) will stick around later (I filled up my bags, I couldn’t help it, the stats were so nice!). 
The events run from October 24th to November 7th, so there’s still lots of time to get involved. 

Bring On The Alts

I decided to create a bard in Eq1. Why? Well I haven’t really played one before (at least not one above level 10) and I have actually thought the class was pretty awesome for a number of years now. Between my cleric and enchanter and other random alts, I just never really had the time. So yesterday Kanad and I decided to create alts. He created a Drakkin rogue and I created a Drakkin bard. We each decided to get mercenaries, and neither of us was really wearing any gear, so it was a great test to see how they worked out. 

The mercenaries have no charge from levels 1-10. After that the charge is very slight, allowing anyone to be able to afford one. At level 13 (which was the level we reached after two hours of playing) the mercenaries cost a grand total of 2p to purchase, and 1g every 15 minutes. 

The tank mercenary didn’t do his job very well, being distracted by numerous things it would seem. I sort of figured they wouldn’t exactly be on par with the level 60+ mercs due to the lack of skills available at that level. The healer was fairly good, though they did need a bit of time for meditation and after I hit level 10 they kept trying to rez me when I wasn’t dead but wouldn’t rez me the one time I actually died. I’m not sure what was going on with that.

One interesting point, is that even though the mercenaries did not physically level along with us as we leveled, their spells DID upgrade automatically. We picked up mercenaries at level 3 and used them until level 9, then switched out from level 9 to level 13. We had different cleric buffs on us when they became available to the mercenary, which is a pretty nice feature if you’re reluctant to upgrade. If they’re not tanking and seem to be healing you just fine, then you can hang onto them for a little longer. 

Since we got to level 13 with no gear at all, doing no quests, just hiring mercs, it’s time to take a little time and see about some gear. I love how a game 10 years old can still hold my attention like no other yesterday was a LOT of fun and I’m looking forward to leveling the bard some more as well as playing with Nostalgia on Friday night with my druid.

Nostalgia Meets Again – BoT

Last night Nostalgia met again, as they have been since last April. Hard to believe so much time has gone by. I had not been going for the past little while, caught up in other things – but decided it was time to rejoin the gang. We had a full group last night, and we’re still hoping maybe a second will start up. It’s not too late, though I completely understand how people don’t want to be starting from scratch or leveling alone. We had a mercenary tank who did exceptionally well – despite breaking mez a few times. A real tank would of course be better, but we’re just so very happy that the adventures are not at a stand still when we can’t fill the group. As Tipa said “It’s hard to explain just how much the mercenaries of the Seeds of Destruction have changed EverQuest. It’s like a whole new game, now.”

Qutey is now sitting at level 62, and part way into it. The experience was not amazing, but none of us expected it to be, BoT is not a hot zone any longer. We got a few drops (and a few drops over and over) as well as some vendor fodder and a few gems that can be cut. 

We all gathered in the voice chat in game, our resident bardling was having some issues with his computer unfortunately so we switched over to vent. It was nice to hear everyone again. We didn’t even have any deaths last night, go-go team awesome! Not to mention I had an absolutely wonderful time. Every time I play, it reminds me why I love the game, why I love the people I’m with. 

I’m thinking of leveling up a bard, just for fun. We’ll see how it goes.

Today I’m headed out for Pho with my brother (it’s the most awesome Vietnamese soup evah) and then after that I’ll be headed into the city (contraire to popular beliefs I don’t actually live IN the city of Ottawa, I sort of live on the outskirts) to watch Feist in concert at the NAC (National Arts Center). I’ve mentioned this a few times now, I know. I can’t help it I’m VERY excited. Concerts give off an aura and feeling as you watch, surrounded by everyone else. It’s just amazing. Plus – I have 3rd row center seats. 

WOOT