PlayNotes Mixed

Lord of the Rings Online

I feel a bit guilty, but after thinking of my last post, and that I’ve basically been stuck in the same area of Middle Earth in LOTRO since 2009.   How is that even possible?  I’ve gotten stuck in plenty of Action/RPGs, but an MMO?   So, I have not bought the expansion till I see if I can get out of Mirkwood, or at least advance through it.

Secret World

I’m also stuck in Secret World with those security cameras, which has been depressing.  I’m wondering tonight though, if the reason I kept failing had to do with my recent connection problems.  My computer guru spouse fixed the connection problems as far as I can see, so maybe I’ll give it another try.  I will be so relieved to move on.

World of Warcraft

In WOW,  I ended up doing what I always do and have a newly established family guild on my new server.   I’m continuing to run my Paladin ahead of the rest of my characters to earn money for guild tabs, and guild repair monies, plus everyone’s riding training up through Northrend.

I’ve gone back to rotating my BWR characters who are in their 100s, but just those.  Everything is so easy for all of them except my Frost Mage, who I have to load with potions to keep alive.  Sheesh.  My new server Mage is going Fire, a spec I’ve never really played much.  Early on when I played the game, for some reason, Fire Mage and Destruction Warlock seemed too similar to me, at least for the lowbies I was running.   So I went Frost.

EverQuest 2

 All  of my characters are finally working in Antonica.   I had a bad moment when I considered sending one to the Frostfang Sea instead of Qeynos just to get a bearskin rug I’d picked up on the Fallen Earth server in that area.  Bad idea!   There must be a bearskin rug somewhere else in Norrath.

I love the fighting moves of my Monk and Bruiser, and have been trying to capture pictures of them in action.   It’s never easy to get a nice shot of your character in a fight because, well, dead doggie.

The Bruiser    Look at those brass knuckles!   Smoke effects, light effects!  The Froglok is on fire.

Monk    Watch out for those legs!

Been busy lately, but hope to be back on schedule for my games next week.

PlayNotes: Rift and EQ2

 Rift

And it’s Rift day!  I didn’t feel like dealing with The Guy On The Stairs, so I did the classic thing:  I jumped down from the area starting platform to the area below and started fighting things.

I’m pretty sure this is where my character would have come out if I’d done the more frustrating route:

Heading left, I soon found myself in my new favorite thing, a Dead End.   I fought my way through rhinos and demons to get there, dang it.  Changing course,  I kept getting further away from my quest goal, which was always above me, with no way to go up.

Luckily Staypoofed and I are serene creatures who can take a moment to contemplate our ill luck:

I’ve been in this area numerous times via Instant Adventures, but of course you’re just on the run constantly trying to get your quest goals and you get no real sense of the layout of the area.   Try try again next time.

Everquest 2

The two games I’ve been playing most are WOW and EQ2.  In EQ I have all but my Froglok Bruiser off the starter island.    I thought it was time to send my main character, my Fury, out adventuring.

Somehow tonight she got from level 11 to 18.

She spent the entire time in wolf form.  It isn’t one of those shape changing classes that has the use of different skills in another form.  The only difference I can see is when you hit the skill to start a ranged attack, she barks at the opponent.

Oddities in games continue.  As it turns out I’m having connection problems once again, so that explains a few things that have happened.  As I came out of Qeynos though tonight, there was this big floating wall of text, and there wasn’t anyone fighting anything, and I wasn’t fighting anything but there it was:

It’s hard to describe the charm of Everquest 2.  I like the world, the quests, even the lovely drawings on the loading screens.  I was carefully picking up every quest I could see, and there are many.  I was thinking tonight if you are a quest lover, this is a great game to play.

I haven’t selected crafts yet for my characters.  I always want characters who can make potions, bags and furniture, three essentials for adventurers everywhere.   Sometimes certain crafts go well with certain classes, but I can’t tell if that’s the case here yet or not.  I’m reading guides before I commit to anything, but I’m filling my bags with materials just in case.

A Week of Adventure

Happy Friday!  Welcome to More Rambling Than Usual!  A one time post.  Because I’m a flibbertigibbet and can’t be repetitious for long.

Rotations

I have played everything except GW2 so far this week, not necessarily in it’s assigned day slot.   I find myself as I’m writing the PlayNotes, kind of becoming involved in each game and character’s story, and sometimes I can’t wait to get back to a particular set of adventures.

I am enjoying playing most things more because of that what happens next element.

One thing that I have learned from this is that for me, MMOs are certainly not “all the same”, each game in my rotation is successful in creating a very unique world.  It doesn’t matter to me if the mechanics or frameworks are similar, each is very distinct and immersive.  I’ve never enjoyed playing more than now, I think.

The only thing I am seeing is I need a nice grid or chart that reminds me what button is for capturing a screen, which removes UI, various basic commands like opening bags, calling pets and mounts, adding toolbars and removing skills.   I take it this is common and it is why people are always tweaking the UI in the game settings to make them all the same in every game if they can so they don’t have to make the switch mentally. 

I don’t do this, because early on I became very interested in how the game is built from the ground up, and I respect the choices made by those who designed the thing, and I’m going to adapt rather than choose these aspects of the game to “make it my own”.

Secret World

Working on the Kingsmouth Code sequence I found myself in an Illuminati tunnel that was very familiar to me from the first go around.  I think I had a post on it whose title included the words “Don’t Gas Me!”    I took the poisonous gassing at each puzzle much better this time.   Dead, dead, dead, ho hum.

I’m really pushing to get Kingsmouth finished so I can move on to Solomon’s Island.  I’m up to level 14 and am working for crazy Edgar at the junkyard who has no concept of personal space and I bet he hasn’t bathed in several years.   Still stuck on that Dawning of Endless Night Tunnel with the motion sensors and Cassandra, another person with no concept of personal space.  I’m going to save that till last.

I’ve decided not to try to work with the old game as well,  after playing SWL, it is all I need, and nothing is so different that I can’t just enjoy the game as it now is.

World of Warcraft

My shining glory character this week is my low level (less than ten) Arms Warrior.  She’s my first Elf who wasn’t a Druid or Mage.  She’s just uber lean and powerful, and is making her own finery.  She has these cool moves, that I don’t notice on my higher level Warriors.

I’m working in the Dolanar area and dang, this new to me server is really high population and for the first time since I’ve been playing, there are a bunch of people around.  This is usually a quiet spot in Azeroth, but I actually had to fight for mobs at one place, particularly against a Hunter who tried to hit and loot out from under me every mob.  Sucker.

I hadn’t started any new characters in WOW in a long time, and didn’t realize that last year they stuck you in a particular specialization for your first ten levels of the game.  They used to just give you a sprinkling of the skills from the three specializations.

Cone of Alt-a-holic shame, I now have ten characters here, and this wasn’t a real problem on any of the others, though I didn’t care much for the Warlock assigned Affliction spec.   I got Frost Mage, which I always use, and Retribution Paladin, always my choice.

The Warrior comes in as Arms, which is what I turn out to have on my other two.  However, though they stick you in that spec, they give you a one handed sword, and Arms can’t use their skills without a two handed sword equipped.   For a level 6 person, I could just buy a claymore from a vendor.

The problem came in for a new Death Knight.   They make you an Unholy, and you have a two handed sword.  I couldn’t change her to Frost, my usual, because you now must have a one hand equipped to play Frost.  Quest rewards two-handed, why no choice?   She, I don’t feel, could just buy a trick one handed sword from a vendor, because she’s fighting all higher level stuff.  Once I was in Stormwind, I could have bought one from auction, but pricing is pretty crazy.   Luckily for me, I was long in the habit of using the Blood spec for adventuring and questing and Frost for dungeons.  Blood can use two handed.  I’m just going to run her through questing till she is offered a one hand or I make enough money to buy one (all these characters are broke).  PITA for no good reason.   At least be thoughtful of the fact that you are making someone play a particular spec, and aren’t giving them the equipment they need to play it.

Everquest 2 Fallen Earth

I felt like I should try to get my level 10 Fury namesake someplace, not just let her flounder.  She didn’t get the nice teleport skill or the turn into a pretty wolf spell at level 10 as did the AB character.
I’m giving it my best power leveling kill everything you come across technique, but it’s crawl crawl goes the xp.

I’m having trouble finding some Young Bears for a quest so I was exploring all over the Antonica area outside the Qeynos gates trying to find them.

Criminy, out from behind an innocuous tower pops a level 16 Dark Shaman guy.

 Naturally, my level 10 Fury tries to make a run for it.   And again with the running backwards thing.  See my health bar go down as I run!  It was down to nearly zilch before miraculously he stopped chasing me.   Bonus: I found I can hit my heals while running backwards!  This is what saved me really, the ability to run and heal.  I hate when you have to be stationary to heal.   Honestly, I’d prefer you could use almost any skill on the move.

This character is on Fallen Earth, the new progression server.   I’d like her in a guild for the advice you can get, and hopefully for grouping.

Thanks to a post from the Ancient Gaming Noob, I knew you could search for a guild that was recruiting and actually talk to a person who could invite you and ask question who was online now.  Whoa.    https://tagn.wordpress.com/2017/07/05/looking-for-nostalgia-in-fallen-gate/

I tried this, but didn’t see anything that seemed a good match.  But it was midnight, and I was tired and feeling tso social, so I decided to wait.

Which brings me to thought on Guilds once more.

I posted a week or so ago on guilds and what I wanted them to be.  I’ve left the Wow guild I was in and via a random invite almost immediately joined another.   My thought now, because I’m such an introspective dolt, is, how can I be a good guild member?  What makes you a valuable addition to a guild?   What do I do well as a guildie, what should I work on?

Being part of a group should be a whole package thing, what do they do for your gameplay, how do you contribute to the gameplay of others.

Sticking points for me:

I can’t stand having a guild name over my head that I don’t like.   Babsie’s Bobbers, no.   Deathly Dreamers, ya, ok.

Discord      Everybody’s got it.    Everyone wants you to be on it.  I honestly don’t want to randomly chat with anyone I don’t know.  I don’t want to talk politics, or anything else that isn’t related to the game world.  I’m almost always playing late, like 9pm to 1am, and zzzz you don’t want to talk to me at that time of the day either.   So everyone who is all proud they’ve got Discord and wants you to chime in:  Gamebreaker.

PlayNotes: LOTRO (plus)

I’m finding my way around in Moria and navigating between the maps and the way the halls are laid out.  Less in the way of dead ends tonight.

Working on Hewers of Stone more, I found the Chamber of Wisdom with relative ease.  I was surprised how far back towards the beginning of Moria you had to go.

Chamber of Wisdom

Mining Records

I confess I keep thinking each quest turn in will send me back to the surface, but no.   Instead a new doorway leads me out into the snow.  Whipping winds, wolves, awooo.  I liked the story behind this quest, a Lost Workshop that might have papers revealing a hidden passageway.

Luckily the sojourn in the snow was short and the cave entrance was nearby.

I liked these caves.  The path was mostly straight, with a couple of places where you had to jump down.  There was just something that appealed in the design.

In The Workshop With The Orcs

Once I had the papers I sought, the doorway out sent me right back to Broin (that adventuring Hobbit) without the interlude of winter.

The next quest is called Chapter 8 The Secret Road.  I love a Secret Road!

World of Warcraft

I spent a tiny bit of time working on my almost level 105 Frost Mage and my level 12 druid (on different servers)   I didn’t get any Wow time on Saturday, so you know how it is, you sneak in.

Galaxies

Working on getting good stock on my Architect vendors.  I’m working to stock everything she can make.  Oddly, things like Guild halls sell pretty well, but while I’m slowly getting a big stock of steel and ores (thanks to my spouse, the most excellent miner in any game), I need other subcomponents that I haven’t stocked at this time.  

Even with that, I needed factory crates of Power Core Units, for which I need Energy Distributors, which are made by Dustbunnie, so a pause while I make a factory run of those…

Everquest 2

My Fury on Antonia Bayle and Fallen Gate is my main.  The AB one was level 9, so I grabbed loads of quests on my way out of town.  Mobs were level 7-8 on one side of the road and 10-11 on the other.

I just love the flavor of this area.

At level 10 I got the 10th Season Adventurer Achievement, plus what seemed like quite a few skills.

One that stood out was one that turns my High Elf into a beautiful white wolf (I’m guessing) but to me she is a dog, and I love dogs!  I’m trying to think if anything has let me be a pup before.  Bears, cats, they’re everywhere.  Puppy!

Talk about unexpected surprises in games that make them so much more fun. 

The ability to Teleport others was also given.  I love being able to port people to other destinations,  I’m pleased to have that one too.

PlayNotes: Sunday Mixed

Rift

I’ve been out of town this weekend so no playtime till now.  Rift is Sunday’s game.
You’ll recall I had two staircases to try and I went for the down one, had two problematic npcs attack, though I found out tonight it is just the second guy on the lower steps who is a problem.

Figure A Guys on the Steps

Hard for you to see, but they’re there.  I decided to take them head on (note going up the other stairs was a dead end platform), just fight the fight.

First guy goes down easy.

Second guy seems to have disappeared.

Down the stairs, there he is at the bottom.  Target him, NO Target.

Go all the way down to make sure the line of sight is fine, he’s inside the steps.

He can hit me, I can’t touch him.

I run around the corner to check out the room and what other exit there may be.

He follows, but he’s in the wall.  Needer, needer, he says.

I do spot the next doorway but there’s another guy standing there and I’m almost dead.  Then Dead.

Soul Walk, come back right in front of Mr Frisky, run back up the stairs to the starting area.  He doesn’t follow.

Not in the mood right now, but next time in, I’ll have to lure him way upstairs as I somehow did last time and kill him off so I can advance.  Tricky.  This is all odd, I’ve never had trouble of any sort in Rift before.

Everquest 2 Fallen Gate

Made level 10 Friday night so I can get my Punt-Yo-Self Mount.  

I can’t stand the Frostfang Sea area, so I ran to New Halas, through the Spidey Cave, to the travel bell, and voila, Qeynos and my own snuggly apartment.  I’m going to enjoy playing much more now that there isn’t ice and snow and whipping chill winds everywhere.  How I do love sunshine.

Everquest 2 Antonia Bayle

I would like to join the Massively casual guild there, but the person’s mailbox is full, so waiting on that tender moment when my mail goes through.

PlayNotes: Mixed

Lord Of the Rings Online

Monday is Lord of the Rings Online Day, and I spent about an hour and a half trying to get from Tharakh Bazan  to the Chambers of Wisdom, Knowledge and Deep Thought or Katatub-zahar, somewhere near the Chamber of The Crossroads in Moria.

I’m working on Chapter 6 Hewers of Stone within Moria.  I got within 230 meters once near the Chambers, but a very solid wall still lay between me and my destination.

I’m just going to relax about the whole thing and find my way.  There are some pretty sights in Moria after all.

Everquest 2

Irresistibly, I spent some time with my next EQ2 Character, a Warden.   Bhagpuss of Inventory Full has joined the new Fallen Gate progression server, and some of the comments on his post helped me decide to make sure my Warden got all of the quests on the Isle of Refuge (I had missed some with the Fury somehow) and also the Collections.  She left at level 10 rather than 8 and is snuggled down in the shared apartment.  I really do love being able to have my characters in a warm safe spot after they’ve been adventuring.  No one likes sleeping in caves or under trees.

World of Warcraft

My Paladin dungeon-ed her way from level 57 to glorious 60.   Man it was an odd day in the dungeons. Super weirdo tanks doing inexplicable things.  In Lower Blackrock (?) the tank kept jumping down to the level below, in various locations, and everyone got killed each time.   This was after starting out the dungeon not moving at all for about 2 minutes, saying nothing. People get twitchy, then (she) shouts WAIT, and eventually gets moving.  So odd.

Then there was the brand new Death Knight who didn’t seem to understand the tank was supposed to attack things….zzzzz….

Secret World Legends

Another day, another dive into some tunnels.  There were the usual laser traps, easily handled.  Next thing you know, I’m back in, but

What do we have but those pesky motion detection cameras and a long hallway.   I’ve done it before, dang it.  Not today.  I even watched two different YouTube videos to see just where they made that first turn to go to the other wall.   Intruder Alert!   Death death death.  Sometimes you’ve just gotta walk away and come back fresh.

Star Wars Galaxies Emu ed.

There is some nice Reptile Meat on Tatooine so my sweetie and I got in some Dewback Hunting.  Hunting in a group is one of my favorite things to do in the game, and there’s no one better to hunt with than my spouse.

PlayNotes: Everquest 2

Tonight I decided to move my characters up till they were able to leave the island.. This happened sooner than I expected, at level 8 for my High Elf Fury character.

The last quest on the island was one I had trouble with on another character called the Source of Evil.  My problem was finding totems.  I expected them to look like this:

But no, they looked like this:

The Flying Finger Of Fate is a Totem?   Ack.

Easy to do once I figured out what I was looking for.   My efforts were rewarded with the appearance of the Dark Blademaster, an npc who was cool looking and had a series of great moves.

After turning in the quest to Sorcerer Oofala  (who was annoying, and I’m sure I’m not the first to think of him as Goofala)  for some reason I was walking backwards for a bit and couldn’t get it to stop.  Awkward.

Nicknamed  (by me) Grexx the Giggler, this guy sounds like Yoda with his toes in a vice.  I do appreciate all the voices for npcs, it adds flavor to the world.

Off to a cave! Not just any cave though, a cave that has a Dark Doorway, and “Fog emanates from the cracks in this door!”   How is that for setting a scene?

No disappointment here, Vith L’Tar has an Oz-Like floating head aiding her in battle as well as a couple of minions.  Classy, Vith.

That’s the ballgame for this island for this girl, she can stay and whack stuff here, or venture off to Qeynos.  Fortune and glory, Qeynos beckons.  A pretty city.

Somehow it reminds me of Amsterdam.

My first quest here is to find an inn in South Qeynos and look at the rooms.  I actually tried looking at all the rooms, you could just tour them.  I didn’t realize I couldn’t just pick the one I liked.  So I fell for the Three Room Style 2.

First Room Nice Corner Kitchen

Second Room Nice Windows

Third Room

As it turns out, this was not meant for a lowly noobulous such as my Elf.   You need gold, status undreamed of with who knows who, and a level 10 guild.  Do you need to lead one, or just be in one?  Not clear, but it seems this large airy suite is not for me.

Just next door is a two room apartment that any grubby little character would love for their own.  It actually is nice, with plenty of pretty windows, and the  two rooms are huge.  The quest meant me to have this one, though it didn’t require me to buy it or anything.

Two Room Apt  First Room

Two Room Apt Second Room

I’ve had homes in the past, one in the dread City Of Hate and another in New Halas.  They were ok, but I didn’t like them enough to keep them.

Much more reasonably priced, The Baubbleshire is now mine all mine, with 28 days rent paid.

I never noticed it before, but I can make my alts Trustees, and it appears they can share the apartment, drop any cute furniture they find here, and, the scalawags can help pay the rent.  In the past my alts were scattered all over the place, this is the first time I’m sending them all to the same location.

How snuggly!  It holds 200 items which seems generous. I can have up to ten houses, so, if we run out of room here, we can be housing locusts and move on to a larger abode.

It’s 2 am is why I’m being particularly obnoxious.   Sleep well!

PlayNotes Issue 5: Everquest 2

I was having the best time with this game, leveling several characters up in rotation, then ESO Morrowind came out, and I found new interest in World of Warcraft characters, and they fell to misadventure.

Back in tonight to work on my Monk and Conjuror, the last two in the lineup.

Although I like my Monk for her catlike grace and smooth martial arts moves, the fights seemed interminable until she got to level 6.  Then it was better. 

It felt like these spiders had to be killed one leg at a time….so slow….

By the time we got to this guy, it was all legchop, handchop, legchop, eeeeyah!

Since she was now at the desired level, I left her among the Sapwills and Defilers because I just couldn’t find some totems, and the area was pretty thick with these.

The Ratonga Conjuror coming into the same area at level two was briefly nicknamed “One Shot Willie” by me because she had no trouble in any fight.   She has a small Earthen Avatar which may be helping her fight.  He’s small and sort of weird and is always right under the Ratonga’s legs.  Except in the picture below.

Heroic Opportunities keeps popping up in fights, and I’m going to read and absorb this:    https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq2/index.php?threads/almost-complete-guide-to-heroic-opportunities.296464/

It is apparently some sort of chain thing a party can use.  Wasn’t there something like that in LOTRO?

So far I really like (because they’re tough fighters) the Conjuror, the Fury and the Warden best.  I’m not sure about the Ranger or the Monk.  I’m going to keep playing them in rotation with the others for now.

At the end of the session I went ahead and killed off my boosted level 95 Wizard, though (sniff) she had a house and everything in the City Of Hate.   I wasn’t going to play her anymore, and that opens a slot to try yet another class.

Maybe another Ratonga.  They are so adorable.   But they make me think of this: