For the past few days I have been working on the fabled harvesters cloak while I eagerly await my copy of TSO. It got to the point yesterday that I was so close to finishing it, I decided after doing a few TSO quests (more about that later) that I would finish the new cloak first, and get back to the content later. 

This quest was by far the most difficult crafting related quest that I have ever done. Of course it made the reward all the sweeter, but I think it will be quite some time before I decide to dust off an alt and finish the cloak for them. Thankfully it’s not essential. 

It took me approximately three hours to finish my harvesting in Rivervale yesterday. The dens were exceptionally rare, and if it were not for that Gnomish Divining Rod and the ability to track them - as well as logging in right after the server had been taken down for an hour, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have even finished when I did. 

Whoever designed this cloak had a FANTASTIC sense of humor, and you can tell they are a large part of the crafting community for one specific reason. 

There is a player joke that has been around since the game released. Crafters far and wide complaining that they just about harvested a badger. From behind these little pudgy creatures look like ore nodes. This is especially apparent in the smaller zones like Antonica, and a few of the 1-9 zones. On the craft channels it was (is?) quite common especially on Antonia Bayle, to hear people moaning over the lack of ore nodes and the abundance of badger bottoms.

I quickly put my new cloak on, and transformed into the small rock pictured above. The illusion is great in itself, you roll along the ground and there are some faint sparkles that tumble off of youl. While doing the quest I managed to gather a LOT of rares. It figures that the one time I really want commons and not rares I end up getting 15+ rares in one harvesting session. The guild bank is happy at least. 

I decided to zone home from Mara, after the long (long, LONG) day of harvesting when suddenly - it was ME with the badger bottom!

That’s right, randomly (not every zone) you will turn into a badger when you’re sporting this illusion. Not only a badger, but you will turn into a 35% bigger badger then normal. What a fantastic quest reward. It’s may not be considered ‘essential’ for players out there but if you’re a hard core crafter (such things DO exist!) then you WILL want to get this cloak. The only down side I saw to the quest item itself is that you can’t mount it on your wall like other fancy cloaks. That would be a great option. I’m not sure how often I’ll actually *wear* this cloak with the surplus of other cloaks I have. It boosts harvesting skills, rather then crafting skills. 

Aside from working on the harvesting cloak for the past two days, like I mentioned earlier my copy of TSO finally arrived. Two copies in fact. So my main account and alt account are now sporting dire bear mounts. I’ll talk about that more later. One thing I wanted to get done right away is that the crafting instances require you to have worked up a little bit of faction with the new Far Seas Trading Division. This is different then the old Far Seas faction that we all have. There is a chain of 6 quests in the Moors that starts with a happy little crafter on the landing platform. The quests reward a LOT of coin and the aa was pretty nice as well. It gives you a tour of the Moors. You *may* want to look up this quest on EQ2traders first or on the EQ2Wikia once you’ve gotten it because it requires some supplies and if you carry them with you you’ll be much better off. Or at least take along a form of evac (or be a druid). 

Eyenstein, Albrta, Shadowgeist, Kasul and I all headed off to work on this quest together. Once we completed it Kasul and I told the group we would be unable to do the crafting instances quite yet. It was only fair, Tipa had been waiting to do a Nostalgia run and my late polar bears had prevented any of us from going yet. So tonight after EQ1 Nostalgia, EQ2 Nostalgia will attempt their first group crafting instance. 

Maybe by then the issue with the invisible wood working machines will be solved..

What happens when you add a bunch of alcohol, pie, dancing halflings, 52 players, and one very fine looking community manager to three rooms together? Pillow fights of course!

Last night at 5pm PST one of the (many) birthday bashes took place on Najena. Each server will be having their own party so be sure to check here to see when your server is having theirs. I thing events like these are really important to communities, and it’s not just because we all got some cool prizes to take home. The rooms were decorated wonderfully and there were people (quite literally) everywhere. 

We were even granted a special treat when the famous bard herself, Tipa, stepped up to the piano along with some background singers and sang her rendition of screaming cats happy birthday to Norrath. What a delightful experience!

There were items people could click throughout the room ranging from drinks, to throw pillows, to throw pies. A wishing well sat in the center of the main pool where people could harvest goodies. A word of caution though, you do need to have a fishing skill in order to harvest from this pool. 

Grimwell played out his part well, especially for someone who has to do parties all week on multiple servers. He interacted with the players and switched forms every few minutes, keeping things interesting. Gee, I wonder which illusion the players liked the most? 

Everyone gathered together at the end for a photo opportunity. I spent most of the evening wandering around taking screenshots (just over 50 of them) to remember the occasion by. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and I’m glad Nostalgia had fun too. 

I wanted to hang out a little more, but once Grimwell left I was reminded that I still had 1,000 words to write for NaNoWriMo (22,635 words total now) and then by the time that was done I had time to watch a little tv and then it was bed. 

Less then a week to go until the new EQ2 expansion releases, happy birthday!

Continuing along the Wizard city quests yesterday, I was pretty amazed at how big the world feels. I’ve never been particularly good at remembering where areas are, and I found myself getting lost often, or getting sent to areas I’d never even heard of before. I have one quest that sends me out to located these little tiny men scattered all over Wizard City. I’m stuck on the one in the shopping district. Or maybe it’s Triton, I can’t remember right now. As my life / storm combination progresses, I’ve learned a few things. Number one, I really need to make a deck for playing with friends. I’m not sure if there’s any way to do that or if I should just switch out some cards. My typical deck is perfect when it’s just me. It includes only a few heals, and a lot of attacks. I haven’t had any issue with it now that I hit level 10, things have been going pretty well. Until I group up with a bunch of friends and I’m left searching my deck frantically for a heal to toss out on them. 

Wizard 101 is so very different then every other game I’ve played (for a number of reasons that I’ve hid on here and there) that it’s actually made me change how I think about games in general. Their completely open grouping concept (which is not really grouping at all so much as jumping into battles with up to three other people) means that if you’re looking to get those harder encounters done you will either want to have friends online to play with, or be quite social. It’s very common for people to spam group invites, and for the most part I decline them. I accept of course if they are someone I already know - or if I happen to be doing a battle and they seem to know what they’re doing which was the case yesterday. After I cast a group heal on everyone (it was needed) one of the players expressed their thanks and we finished off the encounter fairly easily. I don’t enjoy being spammed with friend invites just like I don’t enjoy being spammed with group invites in any other game, but I’m more talkative in this game, and when I’m in the zones I know people have paid to gain access to, I’m a little less cautious about who I make my friend because I know they at least have enough of a grasp on the game (or their parents do, either way) to have invested some coin in it. 

Aside from changing my tactics on interacting with other players, I love the way this game makes me think about my next move. When I’m not thinking about my next move I’m thinking about the moves after that. Can I survive a round or two of trying to gain pips so I can pull out some uber card next? Do I let the giant cyclops whump me because I neglected to fill up on health and mana ahead of time? Exactly how long can I play the mini games before I need to blink (there’s one I’m completely addicted to in particular). 

Another amusing point to me is the fact that on more and more blogs these days I’m not reading about WAR, or EQ2 or any other popular mainstream MMO - I’m reading about Wizard 101. Now, that has a large amount to do with my choice in reading, I know. I subscribe to quite a few blogs via google reader and then tend to snoop the comments on the more popular blogs (you all know who you are) and read the blogs of those who have left comments. 

On a completely unrelated note - TODAY is the EQ2 anniversary party on Najena at 8pm EST (That’s 5pm PST). Tipa, consider this your official reminder! I’d like to see as many Nostalgians show up as possible (yes, all five of us) though I completely understand if people have other things to do. I’ll be there as (of course) Stargrace, hopefully I can get a few good screen shots in to write about tomorrow. 

No worries about me missing out on any ‘other’ game time. That’s what the laptop is for.

I was working on an interview for the upcoming issue of Beckett Massive Online Gamer - but due to the fact that there are so many expansions all releasing at around the same time, there wasn’t any room for the article (No worries, there are still two articles for EQ2 in the issue). Not wanting to waste the interview nor the time spent with the designers, BeckettMOG posted it online for readers. 

Link to the interview

Enjoy!

The contestants were a unique bunch. The only ones allowed to partake in the Festival of Discord’s “beauty” pageant, were trolls, ogres, sarnak, ratonga and of course the scaly iksar. Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, after all. A fair number of people showed up, something I was pleased to see. The event itself was hosted by one Ariania, who was having a few computer issues ahead of time. 

The participants were asked to show off their ‘talents’ which ranged from dramatic readings, to a demonstration of their abilities. Kanad and I inched closer to the front in order to get better seats. I had thought that /says worked over a greater distance, but apparently I was wrong. They were also asked some pretty hard questions, like what would they do if they found an injured paladin along a deserted road, and what would they do if they had Antonia Bayle in a room alone for an hour. Answers ranged from serious to just outright amusing. 

I joined the festival channel (shown above) on Najena, so that I could listen to the announcements and the activities. After the beauty pageant was a pumpkin carving contest, and then a trivia event. Once all of those were done it was time for some relaxation with a drink and good food at a local tavern. 

I was handed some food and drink by one kind Ratonga who informed me that their supplies this year were actually provided by SOE, which is fantastic. 

Events like this typically have a snowball effect, inspiring others to host their own player events. So I’m happy to announce that Nostalgia will be putting on a performance in the near future in our guildhall for the good people on Najena (of course visitors are also going to be more then welcome). Our very own Tipa Tanglewood (also known on Najena as Dinah) has agreed to write the script while I work behind the scenes on promoting the event. This is just an idea for now, and will become more fleshed out as time passes. Excited? Yes, I am!

Last night was a lot of fun, and it was a perfect ending after spending the early evening decorating.

A few things to start off with today. First of all, thank you SOE - it’s not odd for me to catch a link from their town crier or see that of a friends blog but when I checked out yesterdays listing on the EQ2players site and saw four of my posts linked, it was a nice little surprise. Since I was having “one of those days” it made me smile. 

Second of all, /waves and hello to Caladwen if she’s reading this! Caladwen sent me a tell yesterday asking to come visit Nostalgia’s guildhall. Of course anyone is more then welcome to stop by (Hey, Rao, that means you eh!) and I chattered with her a little while she ran around. Good thing Buddy didn’t take a bite out of her arm or we’d have a lawsuit on our hands! It was nice to be able to show off every ones stuff, the crafting areas with little bits of personality all over as well as the two new designs we added to the hall yesterday. Remember, this is very much an ongoing work in progress. 

So what was worked on? Well, I finally got the theater stage completed. It’s formed after the one I built for Tipa’s house. Now that we’re able to scale furniture it’s a bit bigger then the one she has, and we’ve decoreated it for Halloween. There’s also a music area, and a bar as well as seating to view the theater. A rug or two in the center of the room and I think it will be complete, maybe some extra seating, I haven’t decided yet. It’s difficult to make sure we won’t run out of house items in the hall. I actually had a dream last night (a sure sign I’m decorating too much) that Tipa called me to tell me we wouldn’t be putting any books at all in the hall because they counted towards the item limit. A huge thank you to Kasul, who built all the twisting stairs used in yesterdays designs. There’s no way I’d have the patience to align those. 

Does anyone know or have an idea of which Bayle that is pictured above? The painting is simply titled “Bayle” but I’m not sure if it’s Kyle Bayle (that’s what my vote was for though) or Antonious or someone else. Kasul went searching through lore archives last night to see if we could figure it out. Ah, what another fantastic aspect to EQ2 (and EQ1 of course). 

Besides decorating I did end up heading to Antonia Bayle to partake in some of the Festival of Discord events, but I’ll be posting about that in a second post. It was a LOT of fun! Remember that the event runs until Saturday, so you still have lots of time to check everything out.

Gnobrin, hanging out in the center of one of the tented areas for the Festival of Discord. I took some time today to wander around the area before events start later on tonight. The opening ceremonies were yesterday, and unfortunately I had a thanksgiving dinner so I could not attend. 

I expected to see a few tents, as I did with the Festival of Unity. 

I did not expect this HUGE fair ground site that I encountered today. Wow. What an amazing time and effort put into this by the players who are hosting this. That’s right, this is a PLAYER run event, where GM’s have graciously come along and aided them in their yearly celebration on one of EQ2’s roleplay servers. Isn’t it amazing to see where creativity will take you?

Again, if you haven’t gone to visit the Festival grounds, I urge you to give it a shot. The roleplay is fantastic, the grounds look amazing, and people put a lot of hard work into running these events. These are the things that make EQ2 home.

I wrote last year about the Festival of Discord, a player run event that takes place on Antonia Bayle. Checking out the eq2players front page, I learned that it’s returning this year. 

You can find a map of the festivities here, as well as a calendar of events. 

Antonia Bayle is one of two roleplay servers, and has an amazing community. I’ve also got a level 30 guild over there (I moved to Najena to be with friends, but still have a small number of characters over there) not that we’ll be purchasing a guild any time soon. 

Discord and it’s counterpart the Festival of Unity, are two amazing player run events that GM’s have gotten involved in over the years, adding decorations and a fair-like set up to the grounds in both Commonlands and Antonica. If you’ve never gone before I would HIGHLY suggest you check it out, I’ve gone to the festival of Unity twice now, and I went to the festival of Discord last year also. The passion and heart that these people put into their events is astounding. With the release of guildhalls even more so, there’s a ball and taverns set up as decorators frantically finish their designs for the public. 

Be sure to check out the offical forums for the festival here, you can get a clear idea of all the work that gets put into this, the guilds involved, and the times / locations of each event every day from October 12th to the 18th. 

Remember what I said about community being key in any mmo? This is why I game. It may not be every ones cup of tea, but for me, it’s everything.

Edit: Happy Turkey day or Columbus day or whatever you’re celebrating today!

We did it.

Yesterday morning Nostalgia was 100% away from level 30, the lowest guild level needed in order to buy a guildhall. Writs (tier8 crafter) were rewarding .5% experience at 15,000 stauts a shot. I figured it would take us a week to grind out that final level, but Nostalgia came together (as I’ve seen the band of folks do before) and by 5:30pm EST we had finished getting the entire level. 

200 writs later..

Honestly, yesterday was probably the best day I’ve ever had in EQ2, minus taking down Chel’Drak for the first time where I also screamed on vent once we’d accomplished it. Hey, it was a big deal way back when. I kept my sanity grinding writs by spamming twitter and the few people who were following that, a huge thank you to Tay and Tipa for the entertainment and putting up with my comments every few minutes while I tried not to just throw the whole computer out the window. 

Getting to level 30 was a big deal for us. We’re a really small guild I’ve said that a lot. Most of us play other games and it’s rare to see any more then 3-4 of us on at once and that’s pretty much the entire guild right there. The guild was formed in May, so we haven’t been around a long time either. We’re not raiders (if anything we’re crafters at heart). I was so very proud of everyone, I just can’t even express the feeling, please believe me when I stress the amount of work that went into this.

Aside from reaching level 30, we had 125p saved up so we could buy the hall + amenities, and we had donations of over 24,000,000 status into escrow. 

We had discussed on the guild forums where the hall would be - Gorowyn so that everyone could get there easily. We also discussed which 5 amenities we’d be purchasing. 5 is really not enough. We have a banker, rush order writs, the recall to guildhall statue, a fuel merchant, and druid rings. We don’t have a broker, or a merchant who we can sell to. We can’t make all of our npc wear the same uniform, or change that uniform. We can rename them all with cute little names though. Our banker is Mini Tipa (halfling, of course) and we have a mini Kasul giving out rush writs. 

The hall itself is huge and beautiful and a vast representation of everything we worked towards. No, it’s not the T3 or even the T2 hall but I take far more pride in what my small guild accomplished together then any other guild I’ve been in, and I’ve been in a lot. 

Now of course, the decorating begins. We wandered around together as a guild and planned out rooms. A crafting room (thank you for the machine donations!), library, and bedrooms for members down below where there’s more freedom for people to ‘do whatever’ with the space (and where I’ll try not to let my decorating sense tingle too much, I wanted everyone to have their own area to call theirs). I’ll be building Nostalgia a stage and music themed area much like the one located in Tipa’s house already. We’re all artisans of some sort, crafters, musicians, writers. 

So, that was my night last night. I didn’t actually do any decorating. I started to build a kitchen and it wasn’t working out so I decided to leave it be for now and I’d go back to it today. 

For anyone wandering around Najena who wants to come visit, please feel free. At the moment the guild is on visitor status, open to the public. I’ve also set our druid rings, writ giver, and fuel merchant to public status for now. We’ll see how it goes. For more Nostalgia fun be sure to check out Tipa’s post about the whole thing too!

For those who may have missed it, I was interviewed about housing in EQ2 (and my specific role in decorating other people’s homes) for Ars Ludica which is an Italian site. They did a wonderful job and asked some fantastic questions even with the language differences. The interview will be coming out in english but for now if you want to read it and check out the screen shots I sent in, you can find it here.