A little while back SOE added the ability for players to save and load house layouts, and adjust those files by hand to create some awesome effects in their homes. While players can typically ‘raise’ and ‘lower’ an item by holding shift + scroll wheel, and re-size and item by holding control + scroll wheel (I may have those backwards) you can’t normally ‘flip’ an item, or rotate, pitch, and roll it. With the ability to adjust the layout files by hand also came the ability to adjust all of these specifications. Unfortunately, it’s also quite complicated when you’re looking at the actual ‘code’ – a whole bunch of numbers that players would have to play around with in order to get the desired effect they wanted.For people like me who A) Read a lot of numbers backwards and B) Are simply daunted by something that complicated, it meant that layouts were something I’d be leaving alone for now.

Along came Jesdyr’s EQ2LayoutEditor, a program that would allow players to load the layouts that they had saved, adjust them in a far more comprehensive method, save them, and then load the saved layout in game. This program is amazing. You can find it on the EQ2Designers web page as well as on the EQ2players forums (linked above) and if you’re interested in playing with housing layouts I would HIGHLY suggest you try using this program. There are comprehensive tutorials and your imagination really is the limit with this tool.

Why would anyone want to use it? Well, it’s handy for things like placing a floor tile along a wall to create a better effect. You can place knives into a wooden block for a kitchen, you can turn fences sideways into ladders, or create an entire room on the ceiling if that’s what you wish. I personally used it to move the cloudy sky floor tiles to the walls as well as the ceiling in my green house and I do have plans to use it elsewhere, like turning the steam lord tapestry (water effect) sideways to create a relaxing pool. There are still some times glitches with SOE’s side of things, but if you check the forums there are typically work arounds for them all. For example when I raise the floor tiles to the ceiling they actually appeared to be gone completely, until I zoned out and re-set my house. Loading it and zoning in again fixed the problem and both tiles appeared on the ceiling just fine.

It is definitely a decorators dream, and if you tend to spend most of your time in game imagining your next creation, then I would highly suggest you check it out.

Happy gaming no matter where you find yourself!

I’m still here! Ok so I’ve been neglecting posts on MmoQuests lately, but I’ve been incredibly busy in real life (gasp) – that doesn’t mean I haven’t been in game! Things have been pretty busy there too. When I left off I had just purchased a T1 hall for my latest endeavor, Dragon’s Flight. Decorating it has been a LOT of fun, although it’s only getting done in bits and pieces I feel that this is actually a preferable way to decorate. That way you don’t get burned out. I’ve been working on creating display cases (like the one pictured above) for the trophies I’ve gathered (ok, I didn’t gather them all a lot were donated, thank you Pennie and Shadowgeist) and some sort of ‘central’ area. Kasul has been busy working on the library portion as well as living quarters. The crafting area is complete, and I really like the way it turned out this time around. As for what else, well. I haven’t decided yet. Probably another stage / bar area, and I’d like an aquarium. Once the hall is completed I’ll  be making a video of it and posting that here for people to watch (I’ve been neglecting my videos).

Other then that, well. I’ve been leveling up a lot of characters, and doing some quests. More about that in another post though!

Happy gaming, and I’ll see you in Norrath!

I’ve been working on my Norrathian Museum for a few years now, and one of my favorite features (which is also relatively new) is my library of player-written books. Lots of players collect the lore books that are scattered throughout Norrath, but I really do pride myself on being able to collect books written by other players. It’s just one of those ‘things’ I do in game that makes the game more ‘me’ – does that make sense?

The collection as of today consists of 249 books, written by various authors from all over Norrath. I try to post a random story once a week to this site so I can share some of the pieces of work I’ve collected, and eventually I have high hopes of even posting every single one of them. We’ll see how that goes. Perhaps I’ll start a second smaller site where I can post them all.

The point is – every game needs something that pulls a player in, and some times playing with your friends really isn’t enough to keep you there. It’s with these little tiny unique customization options that developers add to their game that make a game feel like home, and EQ2 has that in spades. Being able to decorate your home to a ‘theme’ of your choosing, whether you’re a druid worshiping nature, or an ancient warlord who thrives on blood, or a necromancer who studies death in all its forms – that is an example of what makes a game a home.

What are some other examples of how games make players feel ‘at home’ within them?

Housing in Wizard 101 is something that I was very excited about when it first came out. I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to afford a home any time soon but they come in two sizes and I knew I didn’t want to buy a small one. If I’m going to own a home why not own the biggest one! So, the day was going fairly well. I wasn’t even thinking about housing (much) and I was questing in Krokokust doing a dungeon – which I ran out of potions on and then died. Ugh! All that work down the drains. I’ve tried this dungeon a few times now and I never make it past the ice lake, or rather I make it slightly past the ice lake where I have to fight some keymaster and then I believe there’s another battle shortly after.

It frustrated me, and I decided to cheer myself up I would finally purchase that castle I had been eyeballing since housing went live. I headed to wizard city, found the nearest housing turtle I could find, and was happy to see that the forested mansion was a mere 15,000 gold – leaving me with 700 gold after the purchase.

Now, Angela doesn’t have a whole lot of house items, I’ve gathered together 20 or so and most of them have the Krokokust theme throughout. It doesn’t exactly go with the new theme of a castle. It will do for now though I suppose!

I even have my very own water fall to listen to, and birds and other creatures wander around. I emptied out my little dorm room which was getting very crowded and set my craft station up in the new house. Which reminds me, I need to harvest more supplies so I can finish that quest off one of these days. So many games and not enough time to play them all!

I set up a little bed room and a study area, planted a palm tree outside and added a flag and torch, but the rest is pretty empty. I even have my own stage, where I can be entertained.

It’s too close to dinner to do any more decorating right this moment, but I’m looking forward to yet another housing project. It doesn’t seem to matter what the game is, if there’s housing, I’m happy!

Yesterday was quiet – not a bad thing. I happily worked on the museum, adding tables to the library as well as chairs and some lighting. I always have issues getting the lighting right, it’s hard to figure out which house items will give what particular light I want. I added a few more books as well, and mailed off some blank ones to players. So far trying to get people to write for me has been like prying teeth but I expected no less on a non-rp server, and I enjoy the challenge. This way my library is also truely unique, I have one of a kind books that are not published anywhere.

Ultann and Wpus headed off to Pawbuster, but since the cat (as precious as she thinks she is) keeps waking me up at 5am every morning, I have been going to bed fairly early, unable to keep my eyes open any more. Honestly, does anyone have a suggestion on how to train a cat NOT to wake someone up? She will (and I kid you not) do anything within her power to wake me, including (but not limited to) screaming, biting, ripping apart books (my room is a disaster in the morning, I’ve had to give her specific books to chew so that she leaves my important ones alone), vaulting from the nightstand onto me (this is so very painful), she will walk up my body and stuff her nose in my eye and I can wake up to the sound of her heavy breathing, and numerous other acts of cat-ness. 5am is too dang early to be up and I’m one of those ‘once I’m up I’m up’ people, after she’s had her fill of attention for an hour she runs off to sleep. Of course, I’m up by then.

Kasul spent the evening questing, and I nodded off at the keyboard so I decided to get some sleep.

Fan Faire starts really soon, so everyone has been preoccupied with getting that off the ground and I’m excited to see what happens this year. I wish I were going, but there’s always next year. Of course as I’ve mentioned before I’ll be following via twitter and every other device I possibly can, I hope everyone has an exceptional time (I’m sure I don’t even need to say that, it’s just a given).

I believe today the guild of three plus one are all home, so maybe we’ll get a chance to do some instances, summer months are a little more difficult to arrange for that sort of thing. Safe travels, and I hope everyone has an amazing Tuesday!