Remember I said I was obsessed with house items? I meant it. I paid 10p for this LoN painting from a friend…

So A friend of mine got a hold of me and let me know that they had one of the LoN paintings. Wanted to know how much I’d pay for it. I’m by no means a rich person, but I always pay well for unique house items. So I offered them 10p for the painting off the bat. Went into trade mode with them and ta da, the painting above called “The Rune” is the latest to my LoN collection. In fact, the only painting I have. Another friend apparently has “The Muse” which is an image of a very scantly clad woman, and he’s agreed to drop it off in my house (These items give status as well towards the house) so that’ll mean I have two in the collection. Always nice.

Am I a little bit of an obsessed housing person to be paying such amounts for these virtual paintings? Hrms. Maybe. I think everyone has their quirk though. Maybe you collect daggers for your characters to use, or weapons with particle graphics. Maybe you collect sets of armor, or maybe you are like me, and collect house items.

The only thing I don’t really like about this painting is the fact that it is HUGE. It takes up a very large portion of Misako’s five room house on the main floor. A second one will take up another huge section and I have no idea what people in their one room inns would even consider these for since they’d not be able to place them anywhere. You pretty much have to own a house with high vaulted ceilings and plenty of wall space. Of course I can only trade money on my actual server, but if anyone is looking for a few rares (I do not have many) or some money on the Antonia Bayle server, in return for house items, let me know.

In other news! Goudia hit 70, and I’ve applied to a raid guild. We’ll see how it goes. Yes, I’m nervous, but I also really miss raiding. With five level 70’s I’m not eager to work up a 6th. I outfitted Goudia with the rest of her gear, two new shiny weapons and the bow. She’s sitting at 576 int and 512 str self buffed (with no food or drink on) which I love. So what’s left to do? Get them all to 100 aa (Goudia is sitting at only 86 right now) and max out their tradeskills. Bloodpact is also level 69, and almost 70. Forever is close to 70 as well. Gothun is still eating up the levels but not fast enough for his liking. Beeglin asked if I’d like to decorate his house on Lucan D’Lere, which I of course said yes to. A few old friends are trying to convince me to move back there and join a new raiding guild. Normally I’d contemplate it, however. Lucan D’Lere is just a dead server to me. I left it for a reason and I really enjoy Antonia Bayle so much better. The population is huge and I’d really miss the people I’ve gotten to know here. I was surprised and pleased with the offer, but had to say no.

A work in progress of course, but a picture of the nursery, complete with crib (unrest collection finally done!) and a jack-in-the-box. It has the same graphic as the city merchant cube, however it’s slightly larger, and it also plays music if you right click it. The collections are the Estate Mementos (crib) and Cursed Objects (Jack-in-the-box). I paid a few plat to get the last few items I was missing for these two collections, but they were well worth it.

The kitchen and bar area is finally done, I love the way it turned out. Added that second hanging lamp for some colour. There’s another lamp along the counter but the light is picky for some reason and only shows if you get a little closer. The new Xegonite bowls make fantastic sinks.

A comfortable living space just off of the nursery. The shelves are quite bare for now but it’s a work in progress after all. I love the new vale furniture they added to game, gave things a real nice look. The house is of course a huge work in progress, but I’m happy with the way things are going. With these three rooms done I’m below half of my used item limit, which is always a good thing. The majority of the book quests out there don’t use any house space so I can add to the collection and not worry about hitting her limit. I’m unsure of what I want to do for the remainder of the space, but I’m sure it will come to me slowly. I’d like to try to get her an easel but they’re going for a few plat now since they’re no longer in game. We’ll see how it goes!

Working on Misako’s home, slowly. Managed to finish up the bar area close to the entrance

So my first impressions of GU37 went quite well. Of course I spent the majority of the time locked in a crafting instance frantically creating all of the new pretties that are available, but hey I’ll get to the rest eventually. I can’t pin point a favorite item quite yet. In the image above of course is the new (small version) vale bar. I have a hanging potted plant along with one of the new hanging mine lamps. There are some Faydark wooden stools lining it, along with of course my market board. I’m planning on adding another lamp to the other side (closer to the board) so that the lighting is a little more even.

Besides the new house items, they’ve added some very handy commands. My favorite would have to be the new control command. When you’re moving any piece of furniture that would typically sit on the floor, you can hold down control, and using your mouse wheel, scroll the item vertically. What does this mean? Well, remember those hours and hours of building up items so you could place your loft floor just right? The new method allows items to “hang” in the air, without any support. Fantastic idea for building all those lofts, adding stairs, and numerous other creative ideas that I’m sure are incoming. I of course wasted no time in creating a loft in Misako’s home, a living area that I hope to work on eventually. I have been trying to find a method to her home decorating that won’t leave me feeling all flustered. I figure the best way to attempt this is to work one room at a time, forming lists of what I’d like to see crafted for the rooms and then of course slowly adding to those lists.

Close up behind the bar, complete with wine rack, roses, and some azurite chalice

It’s a very slow progress, but I’d like her home to be impressive. At least to me. I’ve been browsing through the Norrathian Homeshow trying to get ideas for the rest of the house. It’s also difficult at times because I do not want to hit my 500 item limit. I’m also trying to work around the 50,000 status I need weekly for up keep, by crafting some of the higher quality items that give a lot of status reduction. There are always a few quests Misako could stand to do as well to help lower the rent (such as the ship in a bottle from Thundering Steppes and the Idol of Everling).

Another change that went in that I love, is the alchemist one. There is a quest in Rivervale that will provide you with the means to change your lower tier dusts into higher level ones. Combine three lower tier dusts and it will produce 1 higher level dust + you’ll get one of the lower dusts back. I’m not sure how this will affect the market but it should be interesting. The T7 dusts (On the AB server at least) sell for anywhere from 10-20g each. They of course are the bi-product from adept3’s. With the ability to combine lower level dusts into higher level ones (thank goodness I bought out the market every chance I could.. I just wish we could batch produce these, it’s going to take forever!) there’s going to be a lesser demand on the original T7 ones. On the plus side, my characters who use potions like they’re going out of style (which is pretty much all of them) are going to find this an incredible thing to produce. I may try my hand at selling some more potions and poisons, and see how it goes. I imagine that alchemists are going to have their hands full trying to combine all these lower level dusts.

I have not checked out the world event yet (apparently located in QH and EFP) but I will today (if I can find the time between crafting!). Apparently the Freeport version of the quest did not reward a house item, or anything in fact. The Qeynos version rewards with a book you can place in your home. The event of course is in preparation for RoK which is only three months away from release now (the game is abuzz with anticipation). As I look around at the server, I’ve noticed a huge influx of people returning to the game. The lower level chats are all filled with people who are giving it another try, who want to be around for RoK, who heard that they’d (SoE) improved on a lot of things. It’s great to see, and I really thing SoE”s been doing fantastic lately. I realize some people are unhappy with the changes to agro (my poor Goudia lost a good bit from her songs that de-agro the group) but in my opinion it is stuff folks will work around and change with and adapt to. We’ll just have to see how it goes. I’m looking to get her to level 60 tonight as well. If I can tear myself away from the crafting and homes!

Even a Ratonga needs a place to live. This is Goudia’s one room in located in Big Bend, Antonia Bayle if anyone ever wants to stop in and say hello. With the implimentation of multiple characters being able to sell from the same account in GU37, I decided it was time to spruce up some homes. The new indium candles are beautiful, and make a great addition to the dining table (food to come next) and the poppies to the left spruce up the simple room.

Even a ratonga is not opposed to gazing at themselves in a mirror, nor would she ever dream of giving up the few books she has (which will hopefully grow with time, and not become too cluttered)

An overview of the room shows a simple seating (and drinking?) area, some more books of course, and her bed area, complete with roses. A girl is still a girl after all, even a troll can appreciate the scent and colour of flowers (though they may end up eating them).

A close up of the seating area, some photos hang proudly and a merchant board, a fine collection of wines.

Close up of the sleeping area, what a little reader our Goudia is! The scent of the poppies wafts out through the room.

So remember as you’re decorating, you do not need huge extravagant ideas in order to make even the 1-room inns look like a comfortable place to live. Give it some personality and make it your own, that’s always the most important part.

Ok. I am in heaven. I just went and read the test notes for GU37… they’re way too long to post the entire thing, so if you’re interested in reading, check here, and in the mean time, here are the portions of it that I personally am so ecstatic about:

BROKER

• You can now sell items on the broker with more than one character!
  • All characters on an account can list items for sale at the same time.
  • Items remain listed as long as you log in with any of your characters at least once every 7 days.

Mystic

• Enhance: Resurrection Efficiency: Improved power reduction from 8% to 12% per rank.
• Spirit Dance: Increased resurrection amount from 15% to 40%. Improved reuse speed from 2 minutes to 90 seconds. Increased radius to 30m.
• Enhance: Cures, Fading Spirit, Ancient Balm: All ward amounts have been increased by 20%.
• Immunization: Improved reuse speed from 3 to 2 minutes.
• Weapon Mastery: Also increases effectiveness of Summoned Spirit Companion (single down arrow instead of double down arrow).

TRADESKILLS

• Crafted deity altars are no longer flagged “Lore”.
• Wuoshi’s Molted Scale, Bark of Growth, and Seed of Growth are no longer flagged Lore.
• Imbue type harvests are now known simply as “material” instead of four separate types (”flower”, “stone”, “tooth”, “scale”, simplifying bank space usage logistics. Existing flowers, teeth, and scales will not be renamed but can still be used.
• Crafters now gain tradeskill experience from completing tradeskill writs.
• Crafters who have respec’ed their crafting class and wish to exchange their crafting tool from the Village of Shin quests can now speak to Rai Faela Nurwin near the Village of Shin brokers.
• The following tinker-made items are now tradable: gnomish flotation device, spring-loaded gnomish stilts, goggles of the bats, gnomish diving goggles, gnomish shades, full spectrum goggles, gnomish anti camo goggles.
• The Dark Bargainers have noticed a business opportunity and moved to fill it! Neriak now has its own tradeskill faction and faction merchant.
• Carpenters have removed the following recipes from their recipe books, as they are identical in appearance to other existing items: Maple Gnome Chair, Gnome thinking chair, Gukta ironwood shelf, Ornate bedside table, Burlap painting, Elegant bone chair, Fir trophy box, Ruckas rug, Bone shelf.
• Tradeskill writs now award Dark Bargainer faction to Neriak citizens.
• Tradeskill faction merchants will now sell in-home crafting stations to crafters whose efforts have sufficiently impressed them.
• Kindling merchants not working inside the tradeskill societies are now stocking a wider inventory of recipe ingredients including cream cheese, cocoa, and sugar.
• The Norrathian Carpenters’ Guild has quietly retired the recipe for the Twisted Oak Table due to lack of demand (existing twisted oak tables will be unaffected).
• The horned leather backpack recipe is now level 63.
• Grandmaster’s Elixir of Second Sight will no longer be removed when you zone.
• The recipe for the teak oval table is now correctly named.
• An intrepid band of single-minded interior decorators has ventured deep into what remains of the Misty Thicket, and returned bringing yet more furnishing ideas to the cities of Norrath.
• Carpenters have discovered Steamfont hot springs heating technology! The carpenter-crafted moonstone pools now look slightly more desirable than the quested versions with similar appearance…
• Jewelers across Norrath have discovered how to make pristine quality handcrafted and mastercrafted rings accept adornments!

UI

• You can now re-purchase your 10 most recently sold items at the same price.
  • No time limit!
  • Even after logging out or zoning!

Misako looks around her new (empty) 5-room in NFP

So Stargrace has a some what impressive 5-room in Qeynos, it was only natural that I’d want one on the evil side as well. Housing is not what it used to be, I remember when the 5-rooms were way out of range of anything anyone would have ever paid, and were considered guild halls by most. Now the status and the items needed to complete them are not as difficult as they once were. Arysh is settled into a 3-room (though her’s is also coming along quite slowly) Dasie has her home set up in a 2-room + loft in EFP, leaving me with plenty of creative ideas for each home. With GU37 introducing a whole lot of even nicer and newer furniture, it’s difficult for me to decide what I want to do with all of it. I admit, I am a housing fanatic, I’ve admitted it for quite some time now. I love decorating. There are a few things that Misako has ‘wish listed’ for her new home, such as a baby crib (collection in unrest) and a few crafting tables, but they’ll have to come with time. I also want to work faction for some display cases (sighs, Stargrace is such a slacker!) and some other pretties. Then there are of course all of the book quests. I love having a unique house tailored to each character. Is that silly? Hrms, maybe.

Last night due to weather / computer issues I did not attend raids, so nothing much to say on that front. Kilanna is away for a few days on business, I hope her trip is going well and am looking forward to her return.

I’ve been helping Geabrial (an alt of a guildie) level up some, which is always fun. Yesterday we decided to try to box Nizara (it did not go so well, though we DID down the first named!) and Unrest (again, we got the 1st named then realized we would have to cut it short for time). It was a lot of work but also challenging and fun at the same time, if that makes any sense. Due to some “issues” in the guild, the leadership has been giving me the third degree for a few days now, which is really a shame because I actually thought we were becoming good friends. I will never understand people. I don’t imagine that I will be in the guild too much longer, which is also a shame. It’s just not a comfortable place to be. When people used to talk to you all of the time, and ask you to log onto vent to chatter, and group up, and then suddenly drop it down to nothing not even a hello any more, it hurts. I apologized for my side in the matter and had figured that all was ok and we could move on or what ever (it was not even that big of an issue.. just two different views more then anything) but such is not the case. Oh wells. I’m not sure what to do about the entire matter yet, so I’m giving it some time to just cool down and make sure that I’m not just acting on impulse.

I spent some time harvesting yesterday, which was great in it’s simplicity alone. It’s been a long time since I spent any amount of time harvesting or really crafting all that much, though I did make quite a bit of things for Misako’s new home. I have rough ideas of what I want, but it will take time. It was also stupidly expensive, and after I had changed all of the walls and floors to my liking I had spent about 5p in total.

Gothun seems to be eating up the levels, though I know he finds it slow still, it’s fun to watch. I got an email in game from someone I had not heard from in a very long time, and it sort of caught me off guard. I’m not sure if it’s in a good way or a bad way yet, I’ll figure that out later. I’m still stunned I think.

This quaint little home in Rivervale may not be so far away to visit in the near future..

Littlebyte, who is co-guild leader of my guild, pointed out this amazing post found on eqtraders, about the new housing items that they’re going to be adding with GU37. The last update is barely out the door yet and already they’re talking about what’s going on with the next one. I love it. I realize a lot of people gripe and complain that there’s so much else that needs to be done and fixed with the game first, however. The game has departments for all of that, and I’m glad to see that the housing / furniture item department is getting some loving. Whether people want to admit it or not, it’s a huge portion of this game, just take a peek over at the Norrathian Homeshow to see how busy.

Apparently from the article there are at least two dozen new house items making their way into the game, taken from the Rivervale zone. The image posted shows some bread pans, muffin tins, comfortable chairs, and two types of stoves. So I’m thinking that they may also include these beds and / or lights in the image above. We’ll have to see, only so many of the items are being released at a time on eqtraders so I’ll have to check back for updates. None the less I was pretty dang pleased to see it.

I was informed about the new furniture during our Deathtoll raid last night. It went very well, not a single death for Dasie and for once Tarinax decided to leave her alone and not swipe at her during the final fight. On an added bonus, we attempted (and defeated) Cruor, who is a huge snake that likes to be mean to people. We did have to use our AoE avoidance signets and blade dance, but since it was our first attempt, it was pretty nice. We had a few issues with the splitting drake still but we didn’t wipe, just trained it off once the MT went down. Did I mention we only had three groups for the majority of it? It was nice. I’m still working with the healers and trying to get everything sorted out where they’re concerned, but it’s not going too badly. I’ve set up a healer channel for us to all use and communicate with one another. Lets me ask who needs heal crit potions and who needs shards and hearts, and just to gripe about things if they’re not going well. It’s not heavily used yet, but over time people will get used to it. I have the regular healers in there each raid. If we need a specific strat, or we need people healing specific people outside of their group, that’s where I tell them.

Of course the day would not be complete with some sort of guild drama. I’ve seen other posts about cliques and guild issues, that’s always going to be present pretty much any time you have a group of people all massed together. Not everyone is going to get along. Doesn’t mean I can’t keep wishing and hoping for it though!

A Friend donated the following very rare paintings to Arysh’ new home in South Qeynos

I will admit, this may seem foolish - but in EQII I have a some what lofty goal of providing each one of my characters with their own home. Not just some one-room inn though, we’re talking at least two rooms, typically three rooms, and for those I play frequently, five room homes. I’ve never bothered in the past because it was difficult enough to reduce the status on one home without actually owning a carpenter of my own. Now I find the carpenter portion is easy, since I have one at hand. It’s the nick nacks that will take time, much the way they do in a real house. It may seem silly, but it’s just one portion of the game that I enjoy quite a bit.

Anyhow.

A friend of mine donated the pictures in game to Arysh’ new 3-room (under construction) home in South Qeynos. You can find them all listed here on the housing site I adore, under the category of “once sold by merchant” .. that’s right, each one of those paintings above is a very rare very collectable house item. I just about had a heart attack when I saw them being placed on my wall. Anyone who does any housing and decorating understands that these are not items to be treated lightly, they’re highly collectable. It is my goal to raise a little awareness about them, hence the article on them today.

On the eq2players forums, people talk quite frequently about bringing back some of the old furniture that used to be in game, changing items, adding new ones. all that stuff. However, I am a firm believer that there should be rare items that don’t exist any more. Items that were removed, changed, limited edition, that sort of stuff. There are quite a few “house obsessed” players in EQII (self proclaimed one right here) and these items make things even more worth while. I’ve talked about this before, the rare book shelf I bought for 2p that’s sitting in Stargrace’ home, as well as the baby dragon. The collectable Lucan D’Lere and Antonia Bayle statues, those items all have a huge amount of value placed on them (depending on server population).

On a completely unrelated topic, today is raid day. Think we’re going to attempt Freethinkers again after our monumental Chel’Drak raid on Tuesday. I still think we lack a lot of dps, and some classes are really not being used to their full potential, but we’re going to work at it (as always). I just hope people don’t get frustrated at all if we end up exactly where we always are with that zone. Though I get bothered by it some times myself as well I must admit.

I had a pleasant time talking to Selici last night, though I was half asleep and pretty much just went straight to bed and completely forgot about saying good night — oopsie. Hopefully they don’t think I’m completely rude. I’ve met a great number of bloggers (and readers) through my site, and I love talking to everyone. Kilanna and I are fairly good friends, even though we’ve never grouped before we chatter away and have plenty in common. Gothun is another pleseant blogger, he came over from his own server to AB and joined the guild I am in. I’ve also talked to Cuppy a time or two as I’ve caught her on AB, running around on her Goth Moth (my name for the new race that came out not too long ago, lets not get into the particulars about how they’re not goth etc etc it’s just a term!). Cordanim has been very busy and has not been around, but he promises me he’ll be back in game before too long. A new house and a new officer at work tends to keep folks away, understandable. I’ve even spoken to Ogrebear before on Kithicor, as I hung out at the broker one time. It was just a brief visit since I really didn’t care for the server, but it was nice none the less. Lets not also forget Delbert, and Fred, who each have characters on AB (though Fred also plays on the PvP servers). Now that I think about it, I’ve talked to pretty much everyone linked off of my blog aside from a few. What can I say, I love this community.

* edit * I got to the end of the post and then realized that I had added manastone to the title… I completed it on Goudia and Misako (healer, so she needed it badly) and completely forgot to actually write about it.. oh wells! Another time..

What house is complete without a wonderful fire place…

The dining area, some apples, good ale, a few paintings

The bathing area… gotta have lots of flowers.. soft lights. Tunarian alter sorta fits..

From the front door, you can look up and spot Dasie’s loft, stairs leading upwards

A better view of the loft. It’s got a row of book shelves, and some comfortable seating

The house still needs a lot of work, it needs books and nick nacks to make it a home (every home is that way) but it’s a good start. There’s a small bedroom area with the bathing section, but I didn’t want to flood with screen shots. Plus I’m contemplating moving her into a 5 room home instead of the 2 room, so who knows. She’s already at 150 or so of her 200 house item limit, and two rooms is not quite enough for what I’d like. Idealy, I’d like each one of my characters to have their own homes with items particular to each one.. it looks like I may be able to do that. I love being able to access a carpenter when I need one, I’ve spent so much money on house items in the past. At least now it’s just the rare collectable stuff that I can buy and not the actual furniture items.. (if that makes sense) Misako needs a house yet, and perhaps Goudia and Yamini, I have not decided.

In game, last night raids were cancelled, I was not exactly heart broken over it. The MT and the MT defiler were having huge connection issues, going LD quite frequently. We were also missing a lot of our core players. For the loot we’d have been attempting to get (LoA or Halls) it would just not have been worth it. We would have had a shadowknight main tank (nothing at all wrong with that) and the guild is not used to that. They’d have to adjust on the spot for the different tanking methods each class uses and so I suggested we just call the raids and give everyone a night off to do as they wish. Which meant I worked on SoD. I finished the Kaladim portion and I’m now on the part where I need to kill a few named in the catacombs, and then after that I’ve got to kill a few named in the castle. . . Someone else want to do that stuff for me? LoL. I actually upgraded Dasie’s weapon yesterday and I’m not so certain if the SoD is an improvement. The fabled version of course will be, but the legendary will depend on whether or not they were flagged as ornate.

Today is Canada day, so I’m off for a few hours and then hiding in the house. I live in the capital of Canada (and no, that’s NOT Toronto.. Toronto is just the capital of Ontario) so there are going to be literally millions of people down town for the festivities. Fire works tonight that I’ll listen to since I don’t want to be in the crowds.

A knights sconce, very pretty new house item added in the last LU

Servers went down this morning but I had a little time to play with the dressing room feature in game and create a few new house items. The one pictured above is one of my favorites I’ve got to admit. There are also some new plants, an actual wine rack, some pillars (for those of us that adore making gardens in our homes and what not) and some other odds and ends. A friend has let me use their carpenter, which I’m ecstatic about since I’ve never managed to level one of my own to 70. You’d figure with all of these alts and crafters I’d have done so by now.

A thank you to Shadowgeist for helping get my site back up and working. I didn’t actually think I’d burst into tears over losing 300 or so posts, but I did. I have back ups now, so if anything goes wrong again I’ll be better prepared.

Raids today… uhms. Not sure what we’re hitting actually. There are some key people missing, so I don’t think we’ll be doing Freethinkers, which is our typical Saturday raid (I think.. maybe we do that Thursdays.. my brain is a bit muddled). I’d love to see Dasie get some of her set gear but it seems a little out of reach for now. Nothing wrong with that, I’m still working her up. I want to get Misako some levels, I’ve got masters and gear stashed aside and I miss playing her, especially since now I’ve respec’d her aa line.

Sword of Destiny…… I had Kandrial (assassin from guild) read ahead a bit on the quest for me.. and decided that I am just not sure I want to do it. It requires a whole lot of named in Castle Mistmoore, and is also flagged as an epic quest. You have to go into the x4 area upstairs. Not looking forward to any of that. The +75 to heals would be *REALLY* nice, but it’s only got 20 more power then my current weapon, and 8 less wisdom. I’ve got a +40 to heals on the weapon to begin with, so I’d basically be doing all of this work for +35 to heals and 10 power. Of course it does lead to the fabled version, but I’ve got no hopes at all of accomplishing that for quite some time. Maybe when RoK comes out and I’ve (and the guild or whomever) got a few more levels to me. We’ll just have to see how it goes. With epics being released in RoK to begin with I’m wondering if there’s any point anyhow, seeing as I’ll have 10 more levels and possibly a new weapon to work on. Who knows, that’s a long ways away.

Gothun seems to be enjoying himself on AB which I’m glad to see. Kilanna and I have been chattering as always. An old friend of mine from Najena and Albrta (also from Najena) and I chattered yesterday, we have a channel in game so we can do the gossip thing from across servers. One of our friends has been away for quite some time, so it was really really nice to see her ducked in for a bit. I had missed her.

I like the changes to aa, for shaman at least. I love it for enchanters. Being able to weild something in Stargrace’ secondary hand will be nice. Not that I’ve filled the slot yet. I haven’t played her much. Dasie’ aa line are staying as they are, no reason to change really. I wish her EoF line gave her more in the lines of healing but I suppose they leave that to the templars. I boxed Stargrace and Dasie in DFC last night and got a few of the bloodstone ores, to make level 37 gear with. I was contemplating making a set for Ishbel (my 37 coercer) but she’s really just a bot that I drag around and get exp by chance with. I always liked the idea of having both a coercer and an illusionist.

Other then that things are fairly quiet in game which is how I like it. Hopefully I’ll get a little more accomplished this next week but I’m not holding my breath! With the site down the traffic has been slow and I’ll have to get some good posts in to make up for it.