VG – Page 39 – A Pixel Nomad

Exploring Around Telon and Three Rivers

It’s been a long time since I’ve played my Blood Mage, and although not a whole lot has changed with the class itself, I was still rusty. Make that very rusty. Especially since she’s only wearing level 10 or so crafted gear. I decided to head to Thestra (which is fairly populated might I add) and headed to Three Rivers, which was filled with low level quests for me to do (that also rewarded some pretty good coin and some lower level gear that was better then what I was wearing). I had fun wandering around. Came across one quest where I had to capture a few halflings and dwarves in bags, then dump them into the river. Unfortunately afterwards the quest giver wanted me to dive back in and find their corpses, and bring them back to him in a bag. Gross.

His ‘assistant’ also wanted some sap, citrine, sapphire, and ruby (being the ultra rare one) that rewarded me with a face piece (great since I didn’t have one). I have just over a gold and a half now, so the money isn’t exactly flying in (I know I could make a lot more from crafting, or selling my harvested items) but for now it’s not bad. Plus I’m getting the hang of my character again. Not exactly a lot of experience, but that wasn’t what I was after. I have to find out where to turn in one of my old missives, an npc named Victor Branson, who’s apparently at Renton Keep – but I’ve been to Renton before in the past, and couldn’t find him. Did a search on google and didn’t get any more information, so when I get back on the 27th I’ll try to hunt him down.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays and all that good stuff, no presents yet for me today as my Mom’s holding our family get together tomorrow. I called her this morning and she said we wouldn’t be postponing Christmas any more after today (snickers) at least my cat got to open her presents. She went crazy with them too, it was fun to watch (took some pictures that I’ll post up when I get back). Other then that, hope everyone stays safe. I’m off to pick up my brother and head home to my folks place. Much /hugs.

Questing in Telon – Day4

A friend of mine from EQ2 decided to give Telon another whirl with me, playing a disciple. They started out at level 5 while I was level 9, and I suggested forming a brotherhood so that we didn’t out level one another (as I have far more time to play then the average person). In the brotherhood however I was sucking up a lot of their exp (which is the whole point of it) so we dropped it for now to resume it another time. We leveled easily for two or three hours, doing random quests all around the Tanvu area, and found ourselves sitting at level 11 before too long, with little effort.

Since I’ve done all of the quests before (quite a few times) there was nothing surprising about them – but that’s how I enjoy the 1-10 grind, not having to spend hours and hours searching for everything. There’s plenty of time for that later.

Again the quality of the game play has shot up 10x since beta (if not more) and I’m sitting constantly from 20-60 FPS which is a huge improvement. I’m sure that with a better computer I’d see an upgrade in quality as well.

Satia (the 23 blood mage) managed to ding level 12 tailor – that’s right, at level 10 I noticed there were a handful of new recipes, but that she could not scribe them. They required doing a quest at level 11 (why level 10 recipes are out of reach until you hit level 11 I’ve no idea, that’s just the way it works) so at level 11 I went off to Martok and learned how to be a tailor. Created four items fairly painlessly (quests asked for C quality at least, which is not too hard) and then I settled into grinding some gear for my new psi. Her name is Faralithe, and it was nice to make her an entire set of gear with little trouble. Granted, I also got very little exp for making the grade A gear because it’s so far below my levels. One thing I dislike with crafting in Vanguard (and there is very little I dislike) is that you can’t tell when a recipe has turned grey to you, you basically have to remember when you got the recipe, and guess.

Bags still give me experience, and I made Faralithe a bunch of those as well. Even managed to get 100% pristine on two, thus making 16 slot grade A bags instead of 14 slot grade A bags. As far as I know bags are the only thing that work this way (but I could be wrong, remember, still new to the whole crafting bit).

Popped into EQ2 for a few minutes to check broker and banks, saw some guild drama going on, and decided to call it for now. Still having much fun in Telon (hey, it’s still free) even if I’m just enjoying it because it’s all new and fresh, hey, if it keeps me playing, what’s it matter.

A huge Happy Holidays to everyone out there as well, I’ve got a Christmas / Birthday dinner tonight, then two days of freedom before I head to my parents place boxing day to spend a few days there. Lots of family coming down, so even though we’re technically celebrating Christmas a day late, I’m excited. I hope everyone has a fantastic time, and be safe.

Adventures through Telon – Day3

Today went much much smoother then the previous two days of playing – even with the four hour down time (which occurs again today, at least things are getting fixed). I did CTD (crash to desktop) once randomly while crafting in some lag, but for the most part everything ran smoothly. I grabbed Randolph the reindeer and decided to pick up those rift points. There are a lot of them. I finished off the Kojan ones, and the Qalia ones, I still have the third continent to go adventure through. I grabbed them on Satia (the 23 blood mage) and it took about two hours. I haven’t decided if I’m going to get them on my alts as well while Randolph is around for use.

I also spent quite a bit of time crafting, and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. Since EQII’s gone the rout of “KISS” I’ve taken little to no pride in any crafting, anyone can do it now, and it doesn’t take any skill or finesse. However, I find Vanguard crafting really complicated. That can be good and bad. My blood mage had no gear on her, so I made her a full set of level 6 gear, grade A. I was exceptionally happy. She also managed to level from 3 to 9, almost 10. At level 8 she was able to learn a recipe to make bags, which are a huge plus in my book, not to mention a little source of income, as bags (on my server at least) are REALLY expensive. We’re talking 50s for a 14 slot bag. I’ve been pricing mine at 25s, because they don’t require a whole lot to make, and they’re pretty simple.

I’ll have to stock up on some for myself / my alts / any friends who want any (if you want some made just let me know MrrX!) but it’s been really fun so far. Granted, I feel a little under geared, as my level 23 is wearing level 6 gear, but hey it’s better then running around naked.

One thing I noticed is that they’ve changed the death penalty slightly. You used to have to buy crystals to bind your gear to yourself, so that when you die, the gear comes with you and you don’t just end up running back to your corpse naked. While I love having to do corpse retrievals, doing them with no gear was not fun. Now it seems they’ve implemented the same system most mmo’s have, which is a BoE (bind on equip) and so when you die, your gear will still be on you. Of course you’ll still want to go get your corpse, for experience loss reasons and all those items you had in your inventory (or you can summon your corpse, for a loss of experience etc).

I’m very glad that the game doesn’t seem too dumbed down. Yes, there’s another 4 hour patch today. Fine by me. They’ve made significant progress from what I can see. I love how smooth things run. I was getting around 56 FPS flying Randolph around above the land, 25 FPS in the cities, which is a huge improvement from the 3 FPS I got at release. I really did have a blast harvesting and crafting last night. I’ve decided since Satia is already my outfitter and has reaping and skinning as her crafts, I’ve picked up Armorer on Arysh, with mining and Quarrying, and I’ll pick a third one for Ishbel (maybe, I haven’t decided). It’s nice to be able to make my own gear and make some lowbie gear at that.

Anyhow, if you’re in VG let me know so I can get some brotherhoods or adventure groups going! I’ve got my level 23 blood mage, but also have a level 9 warrior I’m quite partial to. With the bonus experience covering all three spheres, it’s going nicely.

Screen Shot Issue?

Wondering if anyone else playing Vanguard is having an issue with their screen shots. I’ve taken quite a few now, but only have a handful of them actually saving as screen shots it seems.. I know for sure I took at least 10 this morning, and yet when I look in the folder, only two are there….. anyone else experiencing this? It’s annoying.

Wandering around Telon – Day2

If you’re looking for a miracle in the way that Vanguard has progressed, you’re going to be sorely disappointed. I spent most of yesterday playing (and attempting to play) – and while there has been buckets of progress, well. It’s still far away from being even reasonably acceptable (in my opinion). I had one hard crash to desktop as I flew Randolph around Telon, which was far better then the typical crashes I had when Vanguard released. So. Here’s what I noticed – and please remember, Vanguard is experiencing a heavier amount of traffic with all of the new players returning to check things out, and they also just implemented a patch that broke a lot of stuff (which is what today’s patch of 6 hours is supposed to fix).

1. Graphics. Yes, it does run slightly smoother on my machine, but I still hitch, still lag, I still have graphic glitches. I still have to /flush and /flush all. Yesterday trees (small shrub height) refused to render their branches and just looked like twigs. Tips and pop ups would be a mesh of graphic goo and I’d be unable to read them until I flushed. My character’s armor had a huge hole in the back of her shirt every time she ran. Just little stuff like that. As far as computers go, I know I don’t have the best top of the line, I run a intel core 2 cpu 6400 with 2.1GHz, 2 gigs of ram, and I have a NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT, I play at 1680 x 1050. Now, I don’t actually know what any of that means because I’m honestly not a computer person. I just know how to run directX diagnostic tools.

2. Quests. I’m not sure if it’s server lag, or the npc’s are not responding to me or what, but twice yesterday I had to delete and go get newbie quests because the npc’s were unresponsive when I tried to turn them in / progress them. That’s a new one for me, I’ve never had npc’s just not update my quest when I spoke to them.

I’m of course going to continue playing. I do enjoy the game, despite the flaws it still has. Why? Well, because right now it’s free. I’m not sinking any money into it, just spare time that I’d have no matter what. I don’t mind sending off bug reports or trying out things in the mean time. I still think the game is by far one of the most beautiful games I’ve ever seen. I still enjoy the “hardness” of it. I love the spheres of adventuring / crafting / diplomacy. I think it’s wonderful in all those regards. I still don’t think it will ever cater to a huge crowd of players (there are only four servers right now) but I do think they can tap into a niche of players and keep them playing.

3. Customer service. They’re under staffed right now, which is why things are moving slow — but. SoE’s customer service has always been very good to me, and in Vanguard it’s no different. Before I left the game previously, I deleted my level 23 blood mage. I petitioned early yesterday to see about getting her returned to me, and a TSR responded and said it would take some time, but that they’d to it. I was grateful of course. The problem is, once she was returned, it’s as though she’s not really there. She can’t petition herself. She can’t send mail. She can’t add anyone to her friends list, nor can anyone add her. Slightly annoying. So I relogged over to another character to send off another petition. It took roughly 12 hours to have the first one answered. I know they’re experiencing a lot of traffic though, and they’re still helpful.

So if you’ve got the free month active, why not install it and give things a whirl anyhow. I’m playing on the Seradon server, and actually bumped (almost literally) into MrrX who was giving things a second glance as well. He was asking how to take screen shots and I replied in a tell (not knowing it was him). Talk about a small world. I have the utmost respect for those players who’ve stuck through with VG through all of it’s bugs and issues for the past year. Here’s hoping a few more people are swayed that way. Even if it’s just to get station access and peek in every so often.

Since the game is down for 6 hours today, I’ll post tomorrow about more experiences. Hopefully this patch will fix my blood mage, and whatever else they broke.