EQ – Page 6 – A Pixel Nomad

A Different Type of Progression Server

I love progression servers. What I don’t love is how they immediately become a place for bots and armies of bots. I don’t mind if people box one or two characters, but when you’re botting (ie: using 3rd party programs to play the characters for you and to synchronize casting / attacks) 10+ characters it becomes a bit crazy for other players, especially when you’re on a progression server trying to recapture the essence of how the game was 15 years ago. I know there’s a difference between boxing and botting, and it’s mostly botting that becomes a hindrance, but regardless, Daybreak has decided to try to thwart these issues by releasing a “true box progression server“. They’re not going to prevent you from boxing if you really want to do it, but you will have to use a different setup than normal. You’ll only be able to play on one EverQuest account from your computer.

Other changes will also be implemented on this server including raid instancing, and content that unlocks every 90 days rather than by a vote. Daybreak’s goal is to encourage people to make friends, form groups, and to join guilds – this was all key back when EverQuest was first starting out (back in the days before mercenary and bot armies).

Will I be playing? I’m not sure. I have wanted to game but haven’t been able to settle down lately, which is proving to be an annoyance. I have a lot of ‘stuff’ going on in real life which I’m sure is the reason that I haven’t been doing a lot of gaming and I haven’t managed to settle down with a single game for years now. I miss those days and have even thought about challenging myself to stick with just one MMO for X number of months (single player don’t count) but I doubt very much I could manage.

When does this new progression server release? The server should go live December 9th – and you do have to have an All Access Membership in order to play on Phinigel as it’s being called. I believe my all access goes until July, so who knows, maybe you’ll find me there after all.

Ragefire – Leveling Continues

I haven’t written about it much (well, I haven’t written about anything much this summer to be honest) but I am still playing on the EverQuest progression server, Ragefire. My magician is now level 17, along with my druid. I’ve been camping Dervish out in South Ro along with Kasul playing his shaman. The place is dangerous. There’s a mixture of dark blue mobs mixed with some white, a handful of yellow, and then the reds (usually Orc Warriors, and the odd Sand Giant that wanders by). The zones are still really packed with players, and I use the /pick function as often as I can to swap to quieter instances. There’s a large number of players who are now at the level cap, but I’m not in any rush.

We did have a poll option to see if we’d like Kunark to come out earlier than normal, which I did vote in favour of. I think it offers players a larger range of zones to explore and will help spread the population out even further. Of course one day I’d like to see myself in a raid but because of the population issue I’m not expecting to be able to help out for quite some time. I’ve been contemplating creating (yet another) alt in the meantime, but I suppose I should at least reach 50 on one pair of characters first. I know there are better (ie: faster) camps out there, but I”m content to sit and wait on three spawns in a relatively safe location.

There has been a lot of chatter in all of the channels I join when I log in, but not a lot of that chatter is centered around groups or camp checks. This is one of the biggest differences I’ve seen between playing back when I first started, and playing now. Now it’s only to easy for people to box multiple accounts, or to have already established groups. I suppose it was a bit foolish to think that things would be exactly as they were 10 years ago, but a part of me had hoped.

Between leveling I’m working up my tradeskills. Earning skill points is a slow process, but one I find incredibly valuable. I haven’t been selling anything I’ve created yet, but I do enjoy having a fine selection of foods and drinks to choose from. I did also create myself a set of gear, and while it offers nothing in terms of actual stats, it does offer AC, which is very important.

Playing a magician is quite easy. There’s so many of them around. The only time I really have any concerns is when a roaming mob (or two, or three) has wandered into my camp, and then I get flustered and forgot to watch the health of my pet and before I know it I’ve been taken out by a named I wasn’t even aware of. It’s exciting times, and I’m glad to be a part of it.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

That Summer Burnout

It happens every year around this time. I can’t figure out what I want to play and so I spend the majority of my time bouncing in and out of various games, hoping one will catch my attention for longer than 20 minutes. Then I feel bad when it doesn’t. It could be the amazing weather, stresses from work, watching friends and family all do their thing while I’m across the country, or something else. I have no idea. I just know that normally when I have a bit of free time (and I’m at home) I think nothing of what game to play and I just do it. These days though I’ll log into 4-5 games only to wander around aimlessly and then decide they were not what I wanted to ‘do’ after all.

I managed to resist every sale on steam – even though there are quite a few DLC I’d love to own on my wishlist. I just didn’t think I was gaming enough to justify the cost at the moment. I’m tired of Early Access games. While I understand that crowdfunding and EA games are a fantastic way to get indie developers into game releases, I’ve just been burned and frustrated too many times. The latest is with Windborne, which sat on my wishlist for over a year before developers announced that they just don’t have the funds to continue.

I can understand that. I understand that we live in an age where there are lots of games out there, and to create something that’s going to be profitable is hard. It’s still frustrating as a player and as a potential investor in these games. I miss the day when I could purchase a completely finished game (or at least what I would consider ‘finished’). There are some great Early Access games out there, but the chances of me being interested in them when they finally release are pretty slim.

What have I been playing lately? Well. The list isn’t that long, but like I said I haven’t been doing a lot of gaming.

Wurm Online: In summer my Wurm interest flags a bit, but I’ve still got two active accounts and deeds, and I still check in daily to take care of crops and animals. I know my interest in this one will pick back up after summer, it always does.
FFXIV: I keep trying to be interested in this one, and it’s just not happening. I still have 44 days active on my account but something about the game is just not appealing to me lately.
WoW: I still have time left on my account, but honestly I just haven’t been playing. Garrison grind is a thing, and I just don’t like it. Not even pets are able to keep me entertained these days.
WildStar: I play daily, and I still enjoy it quite a bit but I limit my time so that I don’t get burned out. Since I work for NCSOFT on WildStar it’s also pretty much a given that I’m playing it daily.
EQ/EQ2: As much as I love the Ragefire server, it’s hard to get into if you’re not already in a community or with established friends. I was hoping it would be more like the communities of days gone by, but so far it hasn’t been and that bugs me to some degree. Instead I’ve been playing EQ2, my old haunting grounds. I’ve been clearing out older heritage quests and playing in my guild on my own, we’re level 78, and I’m having quite a bit of fun with that. My defiler is still only level 96, but I’m not really in a rush to reach level 100. I don’t even know what is available to do at level 100.
EVE Online: I don’t play nearly as much as I should / could / want to, but I do have an active subscription for a year, and in the meantime my skills are training up. I know this is a great game to pop into when I can here and there, so I haven’t been concerned about my lack of playtime.
GW2: Still working on my mesmer, on a new account. Right now she’s 49, which is great but I’d still ideally like to reach 80 before the expansion hits, and maybe get another character or two up there on the new account. We’ll see how that goes. It’s hard when I don’t really have any inclination to play.

Hopefully I climb out of this rut I’ve found myself in before too long. I imagine when fall rolls around I’ll be back to my ‘typical’ gaming self, whatever that is. In the meantime, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Ding, 15 on Ragefire

Thanks to the early orc camps I was able to inch my way to level 14 and that made a huge difference to me because that’s when I got my next tier pet, and it conned yellow to me instead of dark blue. Once I picked up the spells I thought I would use (there’s no use in picking up every single spell right now, plus I just don’t have the funds) I headed back to that bandit camp that was giving me such problems before. This time I was able to easily break the camp and settled in to a nice round of killing for the next little while. The magician managed to ding level 15, and 32% in – the druid hit level 15 and 5% in before I called it a day. I need a bit of a break from camping to work tradeskills and of course gather my level 15 spells.

For the mage that means another pet – but I’m not going to pick it up because I’m happy with the current one I have, and all pets this tier will be the same level. I also got a new nuke that does far more damage than the last one. It’s over 100 damage instead of 42. I’m sure it also uses a lot more mana, too. The druid reaching 15 means the first of her port spells, Ring of Karana and Ring of Surefall Glade. I’ll be doing some traveling to pick those up, because who wouldn’t want their port spells. That’s a big plus of being a druid. She also got a new skin like rock spell at 14 that I haven’t picked up yet.

The game is bustling with players. There are over 400 magicians in chat this morning, along with over 400 in my ‘regular’ channels preventing me from joining them. People are all over the starter towns, and yesterday there were 5 instances of Commonlands up. The main one had 90 players and each subsequent instance had 40+. It’s really nice to see the game get so much love. I can’t help but wonder how long it will last.

Why Am I Playing on Ragefire?

I’ve been playing on EverQuest progression servers for a number of years now, but I typically end up going back to my ‘regular’ server sooner or later where I’ve already established a character (or two, or three). The problem with established servers is that EverQuest is still very much a group orientated game even for their later expansions, so unless you’re bringing friends with you it can get a bit lonely. Especially if your main characters include a level 97 bard and a level 100 enchanter. They’re not exactly the optimal classes for boxing with, mercenary tanks are alright but they’re not nearly as good as actual players with thousands of aa. I love EverQuest, and I tend to return a few times a year in order to get my ‘fix’ – especially since I can’t seem to get that fix in EverQuest2 any more, which used to be my go-to comfort game. What I love about it is the fact that my characters actually take a lot of work in order to be any good, and it takes time to get things done. I’ll probably always have a soft spot in my heart for EverQuest, and judging by the swarms of people playing on Lockjaw and Ragefire, I’m not alone.

The druid and magician are each level 13 now. I settled in for a nice evening of camping orcs in Commonlands. I was doing bandits for a bit, but the respawns are incredibly fast, and I didn’t have a stable amount of crowd control in order to feel confident taking care of things quickly. It was just safer if I went to an orc camp and pulled the whole camp of dark blues all at once, rather than trying to break a white / yellow camp with fast respawns. Still, it gave me a chance to collect some belts and turn those in to Freeport for some experience, coin, and faction.

I noticed at the log-in screen that Vox was the latest ‘new’ non progression server, and that server was released three years ago but is still categorized as ‘new’. I almost wish they would release another new non-progression server, for people who may want to start fresh with others but who don’t have the time / patience / desire to start with classic EverQuest. Of course that means people would be level 105 within a week I’m sure, but it’s also a chance for the community to move through the game together, and make friends / new guilds until everyone (once again) gets bored and leaves. I wonder what the population is like on most EverQuest servers. On Drinal (my main server) the general channel has 198 people in it, but talk is pretty light and that includes players from other servers who join the drinal general chat (I see a few ragefire folks on there).

When I got bored of orcs I headed back to Freeport to relax with a little fishing, and to work on my forage skill. Skills seem to crawl by, especially when you’re eager to raise them so it’s a good time to sit back with Netflix or Hulu. I’m saving up the fish I catch to work on baking, fish fillets will get me pretty far. I made my first 100 plat, and I’m sure every bit of it will go towards tradeskills aside from spell purchases. Research doesn’t use the classic method, but uses vendor sold items along with hides that drop from mobs. It’s a lengthy and expensive hobby, but right now it’s making money as people want their spells. I know we have quite a wait before an ‘official’ bazaar opens, and in the meantime there’s the EC tunnel, but I’m looking forward to that one feature.

One thing that has surprised me is the number of people playing who have never played before, or who just don’t remember anything about the game. I’ve heard so many people asking about mailboxes and other features that classic EverQuest just doesn’t have. It also looks like the pressure has lessened on Ragefire a bit now that Lockjaw has opened. No queues this afternoon – the real test will be to see how things are over the weekend.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!