I spent yesterday at the cottage, being eaten alive by mosquitoes. Today after getting some other chores done, I headed to Vanguard with Growlius to continue our questing around Tar Janashir, which we left about a month ago. It took a bit to get situated again. Remembering what keys did what. I thought it wasn’t possible for the sand in Qalia to get any brighter, but I was mistaken. I swear they lightened it further then it was, and it glares like bright snow no matter what my settings are at.

Before all that, I went to check out the MEST, which is the Mekalia Extravaganza of Science and Technology, and disappointing might I add. I was expecting an actual fair of sorts, instead it was a few gnomes standing under some tents. They give you quests for collection items. The rewards are mainly ancient coins, which can be turned in for faction to whatever city you’d like, commonly the faction you’d like a mount from eventually. There are some extra goodies along with a few of the quests, like boxes of fire works and a shrinking device. I guess after seeing EQ2 and WoW fairs, I was expecting a little… more.

Growlius and I got about 50% of a level, so we’re closing in on 40 fairly quickly, which is nice. We headed out after five dot cyclops, and had a blast being tested to remember what it was exactly that each of our classes did.

I’ll talk more about the changes to Vanguard tomorrow, when I’m not falling asleep at the desk.

In EQ2, I managed to take advantage of the double experience bonus that went on over the weekend. I got the monk to level 32, almost 33. She’s almost out of the “wow I’ve already done all this before a million times” phase, which I’m looking forward to.

I also managed (thanks to some coercing from Kasul) to stick around long enough to ding level 50 carpenter. That’s right, FINALLY I feel as though I am getting some where with my carpenter. She can start making the Maj’dul inspired furniture, which is fantastic. Along with plants, pillars, and all the other fun things. I have to do some harvesting for the tier, which is not fun at all. I was pleased with the progress though, that was three levels in a relatively short time tonight.

The guild also dinged level 15 due to all of the writs Kasul and myself managed to complete - which means we can choose a design for the guild cloak. Since there’s only two (and some times three) of us playing in Nostalgia 2.0 on the Najena server, I doubt it will be too hard of a decision to come up with a design that’s agreeable by everyone. The cost is 5p, which I’ll be giving.

Anyhow, more comprehensive posts tomorrow, I just wanted to write something quick before bed tonight. It’s a long weekend here in Canada, being Canada day on the 1st of July. I know next weekend is the 4th of July and Independence day for the states, so I hope everyone is having lots of fun, no matter what realm you find yourself in!

It’s completely Ardwulf’s fault, of course. His posts about Telon and finding his way along (again) made me itch to play the game, and why not, I’ve had station access for months now and have only taken advantage of a game or two here and there. I never disliked Vanguard, I’ve actually always spoken very highly of the game. However, I’m one of those people who constantly flip around from game to game depending on my moods. Bad for people I play with, but good for me.

Due to some other circumstances, I bid fair well to the Nostalgia meetings on Fridays - but will still be around in EQ1 on occasion and far more so in EQ2. I doubt anyone was too heartbroken, there’s plenty of members now and I’d missed the past few weeks of meetings due to real life (and broken computers). I dislike letting people down, and being unable to commit to the one day a week was making me feel very badly.

Anyhow. This weekend is double experience in EQ2, which is great. I plan on getting some craft levels on both the weaponsmith (62 so far) and carpenter (46 and holding steady) as well as the monk (28 and counting). Eyenstein, a friend I’ve known for about 4 years now, managed to get some trooper boots to drop - and since they were lore for him, offered me a fantastic deal. The little bardling is singing in style, now.

In Vanguard, I ran around harvesting with Gozad trying to remember what key does what. While I was away (just over a month) a lot changed. For one, SOE revamped my blood mage class. I have no idea what changes happened and assume I should speak to my trainer, and read some notes. I did find out we can make body bags to carry around our organs in, which is great - except they’re only 20 slot, and my personal bags are 28 slot. You obtain the spell at around level 24 (or so I heard) which makes it fantastic for newer players.

There are also collectibles in Telon - and I don’t have the slightest idea what these are. There’s a special bag that will hold your collectibles, as well as your harvesting tools. Just something I saw linked in the general channel today, I’ll really have to do some research. The living legacy promotion reaches into VG as well, with some free mounts for people and a month of free game play. I don’t mind missing out on this one, the mounts are going to be available to old and new, which is what EQ1/EQ2 should have done from the start.

The market is much like I left it. My house is still standing too, with 13 more weeks of rent paid off. The game itself seemed to run smoother - but that may just have been wishful thinking on my part. In the cities I still chugged around some until items were rendered properly, but I’m coming from a completely new instillation of the game.

There were people chattering away on channels, also good. Seems Telon is fairing pretty well on that at least. I heard lots of requests for groups, even though I spent my time (for now) harvesting. We’ll see how the rest of the weekend goes!

It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been blogging, or why you do it. When you see something posted about yourself some place else with a link back to your site - you get a little excited. It’s no different with me, either. I may not be one of the best writers out there (I know I’m not, that should read) and I know I’m not as popular as a lot of them, either. I don’t have any visions of grandeur nor do I have articles that spawn comments as often as those I read, but when I come across something posted like this on the VGplayer site, I still get excited.

Of course, it was written a little bit ago, and I didn’t notice it until now since I’m a little lax in checking for links back to my site.

Speaking of which - I’ve added a whole lot more links down the mmo blog section. Anyone I link there is someone I actually read on a daily basis (and some times more then once) and a good portion are people I know in game (typically by me stalking them). I love the friendships I’ve made, and I’ve had a lot of fun discovering other people who write about the games that I enjoy so much.

So keep up the good work, everyone.

Some of the views in Telon just take your breath away. This is me in Tar Janashir (Qalia) looking down through a window in a tower where I found my blood mage trainer stashed away. There’s nothing else in the tower aside from the psionicist trainer and a sorcerer trainer, but the view was too fantastic to pass by without grabbing a few screen shots. There’s even a storm moving in further away.

Growlius and I were a little too big for this quest hub last night, but it was still a lot of fun. The area is rated for level 34-40 and so we grabbed a good number of quests and started with the easiest ones. Experience in Vanguard is pretty steady - if you go to quest hubs. If you’re just grinding mobs, it’s going to be very long and drawn out. We’re both excited to be so close to 40. I’d like to get 50 eventually, and at least feel as though I’d completed one sphere of the game. Once my adventure level catches up to my crafting level (45) it’ll be time to work on that again a bit. Aside from signets I don’t get any new recipes (houses I suppose if I want to work faction for Qalia and Thestra) so I haven’t been in a rush to get any more levels.

We were sent out to rescue some people from the Rhajiri camps scattered around Tar Janashir, and pick off some wild creatures in the area as well. We killed scorpions, and these giant oysters and clams (which looked like weird plants, go figure) as well as a number of skeletons and at least five named. Every time we happened across a name we joked BECAUSE THE NAME OF NAMED IS ALL IN CAPS AND MAKES THEM HARD TO MISS.

• Me: “Oh, look, it’s THREA RHAJIRI (linked with the command %to and the caps come too)”
• Growlius: “Wow! How did you ever know they were a named!”

A pair of yellow cloth shoulders dropped but aside from that the loot was sparse. We both still have quite a few quests for this area, we managed to get 40% experience using a 50% bonus potion, instead of the common 100% ones we were using for major quest hubs. I expect the experience to begin slowing down drastically for the next 10 levels, and as long as I can find things to do, I’m fine with that. I imagine tonight we’ll be going back to Tar Janashir to try and finish off the remainder of our quests before moving on. Both of us really want to hit 40 not only because it means we’re in the last leg of leveling, but because we both get a slew of new spells and skills. In vanguard you buy them every 2 levels from a trainer. There are also some ultra rare upgrades of these spells that can be found as mob drops, though I’ve yet to ever see one.

We didn’t encounter a single other person around our quest hub, and a quick /who showed only six people around at all including us. I’m not sure if that’s because there are simply better things to do at level 38/39 or if it’s because it was one of those slow nights. There were (as usual) around 10 people on in guild, each one pretty much doing their own thing. Eventually I still want to work up my carpenter, to make sloops (I used a friends, it was SO much fun) and to add more furniture to my house. House items also sell pretty well in Vanguard, and as more people level up and get coin there’s more of a calling for these things. Would be nice to have a little more pocket change. I’m sitting on 1p currently, which is not so bad considering I gave away everything I owned when I hosted the Safe Haven scavenger hunt a while back. As long as I can afford my spells, that’s all I’m concerned about. Hopefully tonights adventures are just as exciting, with a little more experience.

Last night was one of my two weekly Vanguard nights - and it was a lot of fun. Growlius and I got together at the Seawatch Coast to work on some of our Bounty Hunter quests. We’d also picked up 5-6 other quests that required killing in the area. So the majority of the evening was spent walking up and down the coast killing everything in our path. The guild was moderately busy with 8-10 people on, each doing their own thing. Growlius and I had to remember how to play our classes, as it’s been a little while. Plus with me playing two other mmo’s (EQ1/EQ2) I had to adjust my key commands slightly (alt G does not open the guild window in VG, as a constant reminder to myself). The quests were not too hard, and it’s probably better that way. We had to kill a few white four dots and I had to remember what all my spells did, but I found it was almost like riding a bike (it hasn’t been THAT long since I’ve played) and once I started playing again it all came back.

Vanguard was pretty busy, too. It was nice to see. We ran into a few other groups also working on their Bounty Hunter quests. We decided to use one of our 100% veteran experience rewards, which is what boosted up the experience by so much. By the end of the evening I was 60% into the next level, sitting comfortably at level 38. Which of course meant, new spells!

Most of the 9 spells were just upgrades to previous spells I had, but one converted my endurance (which I don’t use) into power for 30 minutes, which I think is fantastic. It can also be cast on anyone else. So if there’s any other mana using classes who don’t use their endurance at all, this buff is great for them.

After doing all of those BH quests we also walked away with a good amount of upgrades. Necklaces, pants, and a chest piece, all yellow or orange. It was a significant upgrade for me, my chest piece was just some common blue I’d found in previous travels. Since I’m a blood mage it’s important for me to keep up to par with my gear - if I have shoddy gear it means my spells won’t hit the mobs as easily, my heals can be resisted. I need to be able to actually hit the mob to guarantee a heal. Most of the time it’s not an issue, but some times we’re fighting red or purple encounters, and I have to rely on my target heals rather then life draining attacks. Either way.

It was a lot of fun. I’m looking forward to going back next week and maybe doing some crafting in between then and now so I can make some coin. Growlius loaded me up with a lot of harvested goods that he has no use for (and doesn’t want to be bothered to sell) so I’m going to see about turning those into items to sell on the broker. We’ll see how it goes. It’s always nice to have a little extra coin, and after giving all of mine away last time I played with the scavenger hunt - well, yeah.

I’m one of those people who work best with a schedule. That’s one of the reasons why I knew I’d love our Friday night Nostalgia group. I like being able to log in, and know what we’re doing. We don’t spend hours in game wasting the Friday night away doing that (which is the point, I’m sure). I’ve always been a follower more then a leader, so logging in and just being told where to head, is perfect for me too. It’s not a bad thing, it’s just my play style.

So me and a friend talked for a while and decided that since we’ve both got station access, why not pick two days a week to play Vanguard. The game *is* great and I still love it. It just wasn’t quite enough to hold my attention as a “one game only” sort of deal. There are three games I play now with station access, Vanguard, EQ2, and EQ1. So on Monday and Tuesday nights I’ll be playing Faydai, my level 37 blood mage, on the Seradon server in Vanguard. So far it’s just me and Growlius who will be playing, but more are welcome to join of course. We’re not starting from scratch or doing anything unusual aside from setting two specific days to play.

Then on Friday nights I’ve got the Nostalgia group which is coming along fantastic. I hit level 15 on Ishbel (cleric) which was high enough for me to wear the DoN cultural armor I had made. The game is down for 6 hours today, I had hopped to make my necromancer a set of gear as well. I made Lackey some yesterday, though he still has to add the augmentations to it.

At first I was leery about having a schedule for games. In the end though I think it’s exactly what I needed. That doesn’t mean things can’t change, or that everything is planned out, but at least I won’t run around wondering what to do so much of the time. The schedule is flexible enough that I still have four evenings a week to do whatever whim I may have. I typically game from 7-11 nightly, since I don’t watch tv I game. I do pop in a few times during the day (mostly afk, especially in EQ1 where I tend to leave a trader up to sell) but aside from that my days are filled with ‘real life’ whatever that is.

This morning I logged into Vanguard briefly, I don’t have much coin there any more since I gave most of it to guild mates before I took my break - but I didn’t want my house to run out of rent and then lose the T5 house I had built that I am still oh so proud of. Logging into game made me remember why I enjoyed it. I noticed I had mail — oopsie, a guild mate who hadn’t heard that I had switched games (again) sent me 150 dusky timber to build their components for a house. Suppose I’ll get to that later today. I’m hopefully also going to be doing some harvesting, so I can make a little more coin. My house is paid for the next 20 weeks, at least that’s one concern taken care of. Being able to afford my spells (since I get some at 38) would be a nice thing. We’ll see how it goes!

Yesterday was ‘the day’. I had prepared for weeks for this event. 13 people showed up (12 partook in the actual hunt) and hopefully everyone had a blast. I of course was nervous. Very dang nervous. I’d never run a guild event before, let alone one in Vanguard. I had visions of no one even showing up. A huge thank you to those who did. I gave out the list of items I required, as well as a list of questions to be answered. The hunt was two parts, so that everyone could feel included, no matter if they were a crafter, adventurer, or diplomat.

I had everyone form into teams, by a random rolling of dice. They worked out fairly well. Less known members were teamed with officers and guild mates by chance rather then me organizing it that way. The winners (everyone was a winner in the end) walked away with 1 plat each. There was actually a tie, so I gave away more money then I’d have hoped, but my account is closed on the 9th and I’ve honestly no need for it. First place tie was between Herger / Growlius, and Siddiqah / Sevrance. Had I been thinking clearer I’d have had the teams come up with team names real fast. Oh well, future event maybe.

The rest of the teams came in as follows:

• Aedilwulf / Cyrcle
• Lanatra / Esspee
• Gozad / Sky
• Zindan / Joodah

I gave away sloops, armor pieces, horseshoes, money, jewelery, rare and ultra rare crafting supplies, crafting gear, and whatever else I had kicking around. The guild has been fantastic to be a part of, and I’m glad I made so many friendships as I did. Herger did stop and ask me after the event if it meant I was returning to Vanguard, to which I sadly replied no. I just honestly don’t have the time that I think Vanguard requires in order to actually get any where within the game. Plus as amazing as it is, it’s still got so many quirks and bugs, that I just couldn’t warrant paying for it any more.

Anyhow. A good time was had by all, and again a huge thank you to all those who participated. Hopefully my brief time as officer is remembered, and more people will pick up on running guild events (once a month is perfect for folks, so they don’t feel overwhelmed) that can encompass the  entire guild. I really did have a lot of fun (even if by the end I was drained and tired, it was such a long day I ended up going to bed before 10, which is just weird on a Saturday).

Something to keep in mind as you play in any realm, is that we ALL started as new players at one point or another, and if you’ve played one or more mmo’s in the past, you have an advantage over other players who maybe are delving into it for the first time. When I hear the questions some people ask on channels, I often wonder ‘how the heck can they NOT know that!’ - and then I catch myself, and remember how long it took me to get to level 10 when EQ2 released. It took three days.

There’s a few things every new player typically does. Look at their UI, see if there’s a way to arrange it to the way they like it, and I, personally, look for the key bindings, right away. I switch everything over to ‘the eq2′ format. I use tilde for auto attack, and remove it from my hot bar. I look for the screen shot button (you’d think it’s always print screen, but no, in Vanguard it’s F11) and I look for the basics. The inventory window, how to open bags, binding all my bags to one key, looking for lights if any are used, and any other weird keys I may not be used to.

I have very little patience with people, and explaining to someone where these ‘newb’ features are, frustrates me. I take a deep breath and remind myself that not everyone has been playing since release. That to some this is their first mmo (whatever game it may be, there are newbs wandering around everywhere) and that maybe if I could develop a little patience, and explain things a little nicer (WTF how did you get to level 80 and NOT know that you have to turn counter clockwise 12 times and click your heels in order to gate home?!) they may stick around, and in turn help someone else out. Setting an example to a fellow gamer is a huge deal, and sets the pace for the over all feeling of the game.

So when you’re wandering around, and you stumble into that person decked out in ‘green’ gear of shoddy quality. Remember. You were there once too. Even if it wasn’t for long.

Boston Cream cake, it may not look like the fanciest cake out there, but it was delicious.

So, last night I asked to be demoted from officer in my guild. Nothing overly big, but I’m just feeling overwhelmed with the responsibilities. We’ve had approx. 25 new recruits in the last three weeks, and I’ve tagged at least 90% of those people. I feel as though as an officer it’s my job to not only make sure new players feel welcome, but that they’re settled in the guild and game in general. I craft constantly for guild members (for no charge) and it’s slightly frustrating when the first thing a new recruit asks (who I’ve never even heard of before mind you) is for me to make them 300 bricks right off the bat. I admit now, I have a hard time saying no. I understand that no one’s forced me to take on the role to the extent that I have, but I feel as though it’s sort of my duty, if that makes sense.

I do like helping people, I’m not all mean. I do enjoy crafting house items for my fellow guild mates (ones I’ve known for a bit) and helping when I can. However, doing it daily from 6am-10pm is becoming more like a job then a fun game. That’s my reason for stepping down. I don’t mean to belittle the other officers or guild leader, but due to my constant play times, it’s just too much. Hopefully they understand.

Vanguard went down this morning for it’s weekly update, typically it’s Tuesday but last week and this week have been Wednesdays. I’m hoping they fix a few major bugs that are floating around. Since the server came down (well, it actually crashed, an hour before it was supposed to come down) I decided to take a peek into EQ2. I think I scared Calreth half to death when I suddenly showed up in guild. I left over two months ago (not intentionally, I was just going to ‘peek’ into Vanguard and then got swept up in the game) and have missed a few updates. There’s all sorts of crafting recipes now, and a whole lot of house items that I’ve never seen. I think I spend the better part of my EQ2 posts talking about housing and house items, and yet my own carpenter is only level 30. The itch to work on her and level is pretty strong right now. She’s also my 77 coercer, not that far away from 80, though I have no inclination to begin raiding or anything of the sort. The problem is that my characters are (at the moment) split between servers, which is a pain. I had even contemplated deleting some from one server, and starting them anew on the other. That’d be a lot (three years?) of work down the drain though. In the back of my mind I keep hoping SOE offers another free transfer option, or creates some sort of “move all your characters from this account” plan. Rather then the $50 each that I’d have to pay right now.

I noticed that fire place flames are now persistent even when no one has been home. Veteran rewards have been awarded by character and not 3 per like it used to be. There are froglok mannequins that I just laughed out loud about. My jeweler is still missing four pieces to her epic, but I’m not sure how easy that is to complete, no one seemed to be talking on the craft channels when I was on. Then again it was pretty early in the day and I wasn’t exactly looking to see who could help me out.

I’ve always been bad at playing more then one game. I like to dedicate myself to one or another fully. I do have station access though, and it seems a shame to be spending $30 a month playing just one of the listed titles. I’ve mentioned time and time again that I leave EQ2 and typically always come back, maybe it’s that time again.

Telon is huge.

That’s the ever lasting thought in my mind this morning as I play. Last night Growlius and I were doing quests in Cragwind. There happens to be a nice weapon one (which is also the hardest quest I have ever encountered thus far) that was broken. So in went a petition, 5 minutes later along came a GM who updated the quest for us (the first part, don’t get me wrong here they didn’t DO the quest for me). Then they turned both of us into zombie, and went on their way. How.. cute.

The quest requires us to farm 500 metal shards that have a 40% chance or so to drop from Cyclops in Cragwind. The problem is that these mobs are also mixed in with other rock guys who don’t drop the shards. We were up to 30 or so last night after a few hours. Wow, this weapon better be worth it (I already know it’s not, Greystone is better and it’s not that far away level wise).

This morning I hopped onto my psionicist who was restored a few days ago, now that she’s working properly. Did some adventuring around Tsangs Tomb, which I haven’t done in a year. I’ve got to say I still absolutely love the Kojan continent. Once I hit level 16, I was astounded by all of my leveling options. I just never realized how huge Telon is. With the revamp of the riftway system came along rift quests. The rewards are pies that last for an hour, and give you a 10% boost in experience. I have 15+ of these on me now (wish they stacked). They basically send you to areas that are your level range, so that you can figure out where to quest next. Not sure where to go? Stop by a rift, chances are he has a few suggestions.

At level 16, the ones offered to me just off the top of my head (because I’d never heard of most) were Sundering Wastelands, Qa Riverbank, Temple of Dailuk, Three Rivers, Kaon’s Rush, Renton Keep, Veksal’s Exchange, Ksaravi Gulch, and Tauthien Delta. These are just lowbie chunks. I can hardly begin to imagin how large Telon must really be if they offer all these types of areas for every few levels. It’s great. There’s no way leveling up I’d be able to see all of it on one character without either out leveling the content, or turning off my experience, or belonging to an inactive brotherhood. It’s just great to see.

Crafting, well. I’ve been busy with guild orders. Good and bad. I don’t mind crafting for the guild, however, some times I feel as though new members take advantage of the fact that there are high level crafters in their guild. I most certainly do not charge guild mates (aside the cost of materials if they don’t supply them) and making 300 bricks for someone who JUST joined can at times grate on my nerves. Those older members who do craft typically toss a little coin my way, or some supplies in return, which I appreciate and admire. They understand the pain that is ‘vanguard crafting’ (as much as I adore it, it IS still a pain). Recruitment has been steady, we’ve added 3-6 new people every week for the past two months or so. At least there’s sign of growth.