Vanguard lore: Qalia

This weeks lore is The Grey Dove,

It's a nice starting to a tradesmen life and has some promise I do sure hope they continue bringing good lore like this. I also hope that this lore ties into the game somehow, maybe even if it's only names.

Read up I'm sure you'll enjoy if you haven't already. See you all next year!(for real this time)

EQ2: Frostfell

I have to say Frostfell is neat I enjoyed the quest to save Frostfell in most cases. There are only some small details that I have had trouble overlooking as I'm sure most noticed.

The city was set up beautifully and yet, it seemed a bit artificial. Someone said it made them feel like they were in a Candy Land nightmare. Now I won't go far as to say it was nightmarish but it did feel a bit Candy Land like, with out all the bright colors everywhere. I've mentioned before that the snowmen and women are around but it's not snowing. I figured they might have snow on the ground w/o snow falling because the EQ2 weather system is very lacking. Sadly they just added more candy canes. Yum! I tried to lick a candy cane and got my tongue stuck, so it is cold but not snowy.

The Quest! Yes I started out not liking this quest but once I finished with the Gibgibblers and read through the book I liked it. Funny they copied the Grinch story but even still it was pretty neat. The book with the story was very cool, the pictures added gave the whole book a child like yet loreish feel. I just wish they would make all books that are readable like that, with pictures and all. After I entered Everfrost with a X-mas hat and unlimited NUKE balls, Boi that was fun. I ran around destroying things very Uber like, that was the best part of don't underestimate the power of a Snowball. I truely have to come back to say I was wrong on frist impresions, EQ2 did a decent job and hope they can continue the Frostfell well into the future.

The Presents! I got a snowglobe of Qeynos which was neat, but that's the only snow around the castle I'll ever see huh? Ok sorry I'll let it go.... There was a vendor that you could buy cheap holiday stuff from which was nice. Candles for the shelf and wall, they are all pretty nice. I then did the Once a day gift and got a few different music boxes. This is the best present to me as a long time EQ player. I've seen 5 so far and they are all Boxes of music my fave is Greater Faydark and the weird one was Freeport. I listened to Freeport and it is nothing like you hear now in EQ2. Defiantly a nice addition to your room... now to get Kelethin.

Happy Frostfell, and Merry Christmas, See you all next year.

Final Fantasy XI: The world

I've always been curious as to how Final Fantasy would be as a MMO. I heard back in 1999 that they were going online but it would take a while. At the time I was figuring it would be like EQ and I was fairly new to MMO's so I was unsure. I was unaware until this week how that world I pondered turned out. All I can say it's beautifully fantastic, the rich grafix and the easy set up got me from the moment I logged into my first cut scene.

It was a hassle to get everything situated and signed up just about the same amount of effort it was for EQ, EQ2 and Wow. There were some aspects of it I enjoyed like the Playonline interface. You don't have to deal with the internet and 1 million links. So far so good, I had to learn a lot of new stuff from stem to stern but the overall experience wasn't to bad. The drawl back is you use the Playonline interface for logging in every time.

I did have some troubles on my second computer while I was loading it. I had a DVD read problem so I had to switch out DVD players to load up the second copy. After all was said and done it took about 45 min's of updating all the patches not to bad in comparison.

I logged up and into the world of Vana'diel I made various different characters just to play around at first; I also wanted to see which town I liked the most. I chose Winhurst because of it's green and tree's in a way a reminder of nature, I truly enjoy nature towns the most. It's close to but not reminiscent of the Night elves town in WOW, Kelethin of EQ1, and Eldar Grove of EQ2. I enjoy those places very much because of the nature of it. San d'Oria wasn't a bad town it was kinda Qeynos esk, very nice Christmas setup at this time of the year and medieval in some area's. Bastok was my least favorite, even though at the beginning it looked to be the best of the 3 I didn't like the bland mine's and the color of the city; it was set up like Kaladim in EQ1 only outdoors. Note: The biggest drawl back to making a character initially is you don't get a choice of server, you have to remake your character till your on the server you wish to be on. (there is a quest for a World Pass to make an Alt around 500 gil to do the quest) The second biggest drawl back is that it cost 49 cent extra a month.

I messed with a few races, although I really enjoyed the Hume race it is usually the last race type I will choose. I picked Elvaan and female because well, I want my wife to play and racially they seemed to be a sexy race, Hume's are much better in that department. The male Elvaan is cool, they have some neat armor looks on high levels. The female on the other hand looked very masculine and to top that off it scored the lowest on my wife's choice due to the funky looking run. I re-rolled a Mithra they are a female only race; I find them to be neat overall, Very flexible and stat's aren't to bad. I like them better then the Kerran that's for sure.














The one race that took me by surprise was the Tarutaru, I seen them around on the internet and thought that my wife and I both wouldn't like them much but as you can see above I choose to be one. I don't like small races much well I just don't like to play dwarfs or gnomes, I do enjoy my Froglok. I think these guys are cute and deceptive, in a PVP world I might look at them and laugh while I was then destroyed by their Firaga... They are a powerful magic people and have some really neat looking mage styles from Blackmage to Whitemage.

So I rolled a Tarutaru and moved into Windurst on Hades server what next? A lot but I'll give you the skinny because this is getting long. It takes a long time to run around town, there is no spirit of wolf or sprint which can be hard since I've been running at Mach1 in EQ2. You will get different travel mechanisms later in the game. The place isn't repetitive which is nice so you can land marker and remember places if not there is a /map in game that is helpful. There are a few auction houses in one city so your not forced into one (hamlet to the city). It also has a system much like EQ1's bind NPC there are crystals that bind you to the area of town you wish to be in. You do get an apartment a lot like EQ2 only it's automatic zone into it, no door to click on. The good is you don't have to be on a click fest, bad news is your the only one in your room ever as far as I know of. heh! not like I ever really had visitors that I know of. You can set furniture around, change your class to whatever is available to you and even grow plants for what looks to be good to Tradeskill culinary with and various other things.

The UI, the best part I love and hate about the game. It's very nice to not have a huge UI system while I play the game. I don't like when I have to look between the lines while I'm fighting. The menu system on FFO's UI is decent, I'm use to EQ2 having tons of options for every detail. However, this one does cover a lot and the one thing I wish they had more of is sticky buttons such as Shift-M for map or more mapable keys for the keyboard. There is a nice macro system much like other MMO's which I'm still growing accustom to but, decent to set up your main fighting/magic ability's. I have to play more to get a better idea of it, though I truly think once I learn the UI it should be easier. (Hell the game was designed with a PS2 controller in mind it can't be that hard)

Fighting was very awkward at first. I'm very use to click kill if we get an add change NPC's click kill. This is the thing I dislike about FFO the most at this point is that aspect, it's harder then it needs to be to change NPC's in battle, your locked onto the initial target and have to ESC out to start other actions...(I need to learn more I'm sure there is an easier way). EQ2 has a smoother concept here though. I really enjoy Mage melee much better in this game, he doesn't pick up a staff and swing it like a girl nor does he pick up a bow and use it like a monk. The spell effects are cool enough but not to over the top where your like WTF I can't see the mob. Thus far Final Fantasy is a very nice game and only time will tell how it pans out for me. (No I didn't quit EQ2 I just needed a break)

The newbie abbreviated

Well I had a nice little post about being a newbie in the lands of Warcraft and Vana'diel but then the power went out and I lost about 6 paragraphs so I'm to tired to retype it all.










First I would like to say World of Warcraft isn't all that bad. There is still a corpse/shard type run that I enjoy. I even got lost a few times back to where I died. The world is nice and I like the fact you get to travel. The PVP aspect of it I've yet to experience however, I'm sure I would enjoy it on a even playing field. I didn't like the UI it seems obtrusive and not very friendly and the fact chat didn't hide itself overall was a disappointment. The character create screen was lacking and it was more or less a easy deal all round. Not something I would be glad to drop 30$ on at this time. Though I would play this if I didn't invest to much time into EQ2, I still have a hard time playing a cartoon. Also with the advent of PVP in EQ2 I really doubt I will outlive my free 10day trial. Mooo! You happy now?










Final Fantasy online: I decided to finally get after all this time and as of this moment I'm glad I did. The fighting seems slowish but hey I'm only a level 1 Red mage at this point. The world is beautiful I can't say that enough, EQ2 is nice but FFO's world seems more lived in. It's a world of travel and that's a bonus. The map's have to be found and/or purchased not just run around or Download some applicator TADA but, I'm not really a map man. The controls are well built for a controller but hard for a keyboard, go figure it's made for PS2 as well.

My chief complaint is the lack of keyboard options on the direction arrows, they are used for camera angles and I've yet to be able to use them for movement. I've spent a better part of 2 hours redefining what I know about current MMO's and struggled like I was a real newb. That isn't necessarily a bad thing but I love to learn and learn I did. The overall UI is MONEY to me, it's open basic and makes the world stand out more. I didn't feel like I was standing behind a counter serving PWNAGE!1111!! Another dislike is the fact once your in the selection UI mode your stuck till you ESC out of it. Not sure how beasts will be when your KOS or if you get KOS, but if I'm fighting and I have to ESC out just to target and /a to fight that might get a little annoying. I also don't like the fact that I can't choose my server without a world pass, what kinda BS is that? You can also find a nice little tid bit about it here.

One thing I would like to touch on really quick is the creation screen. FFO has a EQ1 interface for creating basically. You have 5 races 2 hair styles and about 8 faces per some have female/male so there is a variance. I've realized even though there is limited variance in character creation, it don't seem like there are drones walking around. In EQ2 even though I can make my Highelf creation system with 1000 ways of making him stand out. He still looks like every other Highelf if they have the same hair style and color. I feel that the already rendered faces are more then EQ2's personal choice difference's there that different.

Over all the best newb experience is EQ2, it's engrossing beautiful and eventful. Fights are more realistic due to motion capture and the world is better glossed. However, with all this revamp EQ2 for the newb sensation you would figure that EQ2 would try to sell during the holidays. There wasn't one EQ2 box on the shelf at any store I went to. You can take it one of 2 ways, they are sold out or, they just didn't push the sales to the store. I will take the ladder; it just seems like they are pushing a game that really isn't on the market. WOW had a 60 day free run of the game with retail purchase and FFO has 30 days free for you and 30 days free for a friend. EQ2 had nothing but the DOF expantion... Yippy! Here's hoping for more travel and the return of the Shard.

Vanguard: Lore; Shieldbearer

Shieldbearer is a newer installation of lore which I think was rather neat more then full of info. Quite a few people on the forums look like they went out of their way just to decode..

SPOILERS: here and a few more that were at the forefront of solving the puzzle and has a semi hint on how this guy figured them out. The thread here is the main discussion about the whole thing.

Alefbash Wiki Also has an alphabet if you wish to solve it with out a quick spoiler and with out any tricky code.

I personally like this whole setup and feel the lore is a great way to get into the story even though we're not in the world just yet. ENJOY!

Vanguard: BETA 2!

Well the info comes in today that Vanguard is rolling into BETA 2.

You can find the info Here, Here andHere.

All I can say is Damn to bad I didn't get a shot at Beta 1 however, Beta 2 gives me yet another shot at helping make Targonor a better place.

Moments of Zen: LU 18d

SOE expects "Call of the Tower" to be the next big hit.

EQ2: Conjuration

The little things count to me and at this point I'm on the fence as to where SOE is taking EQ2. In the previous few weeks I've had a lot of negative to say about some changes facing Norath and all I can say is LU18 was a breath of fresh air.

The list is a good one for Summoner's alike, as the way pets looked thus far I've been satisfied on the Conjurer side. I don't much like the 2 changes to the Tellurian avenger and Igneous magi pet's. Not that they have any negative conditation but, it's just um... How do I put this, less to my taste. I don't mind to much, the fire pet is indicative of what it's suppose to be (lvl 20 illustion anyone?) however the Earth pet is funny... Winstalker rumbler FTW!!
I think I'm more excited that my Air pet has got a great new look, this one has "Shocked and Awed!" me. Go see for yourself here...

There are Oh So many more surprises embeded that I truly love, and been waiting for:
-Pet combat now shows under its own chat category (Combat -> Melee Combat -> Your Pet Hits, etc)
- Pet damage bubbles will appear colored to the owner:* Pet hits something: yellow* Pet gets hit: dark red
Ahhh!
Summoner changes:- Call Servant is a new level 15 spell that will teleport a summoned pet to the Summoner. -- Not sure why this one took this long to get but, SWEET MOTHER OF ALL THAT'S GOOD AN PURE!!! Thanks

I will also admit to having tons of fun this weekend with my Conjurer. Got a few HQ's done and blew past 2 levels w/o Vitality all doing quests... Had a blast running around naked die'n just for fun.... The only bonus to having no shard is once I get done exploring quickly I can say "been there done that got the Explore XP"

Correction to previous statement that SOE made HQ's easier: Since I'm on my 4th set of Heritages I've ran into a few stumbling blocks like the Stein of Moggok quest. I have spent 2 separate days doing the bouncers and the other 3 times I've done this it was like Bam BAM BAM!! Done.. So thus far I've not notices HQ's to include the DWB all coveted Bloodtalon are still rare for the taking and seem to be more of a camp.
Oh and Just for Brags I soloed a 40 heroic ^^^ at 44, ahh so much cooler to be a Conjurer.

Vanguard: Lore

We all know that Anna is the Queen, but do you really know any stories behind the in game Queen other then she grew up poor? The real lore behind the Queen Antoina is sparse at best and there is no stories to bring you closer to her. Then SOE cast Heather Gram that then had to voice what would of been her scraggly garbage eating poor speak into a gnarly annoying sound which hasn't poised a Great Queen but hey that's just me.

Well Vanguard has been etching their way into our hearts with great lore and I figured I would choose a piece that speaks to me. I'm only under the assumption that Idara is the equivalent to Firona Vie and Queen Antonia but either way the stories of lore are expansive and most are beautifully written.

I wish there would be a Part 3 to Idara soon, only time will tell how it all turns out. Enjoy your read.

Vanguard The little franchise that will

Over all the huff I feel since that last LU17 I keep getting breaths of fresh air when I head over to Vanguard. Now every one may not agree that there should be harsh death penalty's or a 100% free instanced world every one will agree their interested in this MMO in some fashion.

Questions arise around this game everyday, like will it beat WOW? Will it's oust it's EQ2 sister? Will it live up to the players Hype? My answers would be I would really hope so, it's unlikely it will take on WOW by subscriptions but I think overall it will be a contender for 2nd in numbers in America. I also believe that the hype is well lived by looking at the untouched photo's and the various information you can pick up here and there.

I believe that the revolution is around the corner and with my Beta Application in I sure hope I can live it first hand here shortly. I will give whatever I can on Vanguard till it's release but with the NDA I'm not even sure I can say I got into Beta...lol

Some will probly start to say I'm a Vanboi, to them I say... So be it; more update's to come

Where's the logic?

I posted a quick snippet from Blackguard yesterday and I've yet to find any good logic. If you break the whole (which I really won't) post down it basically reads.
Blackguard: We did it because newbs are dumb and weak and death is a joke.

I have a few problems with his PR statement as did 9 pages worth of banter about this one issue. At the risk of beating a dead horse I have to get some of this off my chest.

Logical mistake #1: must pay some amount of penance to make up for this, but not an unreasonable one since not all deaths are your fault.

I wish this could be expounded... No really. In the world there is death it's every where. If you go to Runnyeye for the any purpose go AFK and Die by train, it's your fault for not afking in a safer environment. If you jump off the side of the Bell tower in Antonica to get your safe fall up and die, is is your fault. If your in a grp with retards that rush a Even Epic X4 and you all die it's still your fault by choosing the group your in. In all 3 cases you learn, and learning is apart of a world; it's what makes it fun. Especially for a newb at least that's what the drawl was for me. Now there maybe .000000000000001% chance that a death isn't your fault. Because I can't account for that anomaly we will just say for the purposes of this blog...IT'S ALWAYS YOUR FAULT

Logical mistake #2: it should not be so trivial as to make you...... Use it as transportation.... Take unreasonable risks because you feel there is no penalty at all.

I think this one was a typo, what he meant to say was. We will be removing evac from all wiz, warlock, and Scouts. To make way for our new way of Transportation, Death by Evac!! Find new ways to exploit this fun new trick. If your tired of your grp die and evac. Sweet aint it? Also you see that Garganual canyon you need to scale down into is surrounded by NPC that can wax your solo ass. That's right just jump all the way down get update and die in the process so you can then again use your free evac. Remember though we may look into this evac and allow it to only be used once every 30min.

There are other small variance's in the argument for shards I seen as inconsequential. Such as "Players new to the genre or game were often susceptible to frustration when attempting to recover their spirit shards, and would sometimes log out when facing such failures"
UM! GOOD, if your frustrated at a easy part of the game that was spelled out to you in the Island and you quit now better for us all. As a player I don't want to deal with you at lvl 30 when your stressing out about how you have no food or water left or who knows what else. Besides why is SOE catering to Newb vs Vet's in this one?

I mean give me a break, we all get frustrated at times. Like anything sometimes you need a break and when you come back you'll figure it out. Call me crazy but that's what I believe a lot of us got hooked on while we played our first MMO(that and the fact there was a real community). Once you die and you learn after a while it becomes a nuisance to get the shard but hey, that was just enough to stop some if not most people from die'n. If you don't learn then go to WOW I'm sure there are some lvl 65's there waiting to camp a no nothing newb.

There were other posters that had great Idea's and one in paticular I liked. It was along the same lines of what I was originally thinking before this whole fiasco of weakening the Death Vs Reward situation at hand.

To keep it nice I agree this would satisfy the boisterous remarks of weakening the game more.

1 to 10 no spirit shard or debt... Mend

10 to 19 spirit shard with a one day absorb timer, minor debt, mend

20 to 29 Spirit shard with a 3 day timer, med debt, mend

30 to 39 Spirit shard with a week timer, med debt, mend going higher

40 to 49 A lot of Debt and expenses of armor high

50 to 59 SWEET GOD there is debt, expenses of armor maxing

60 XP loss(not Debt) The chance of being kicked back to 59. The only change is that you should lvl 60 gain xp to 10% only till next expantion. Expenses of armor at MAX.

This would actually give a level 1 to 60 better Risk V Rewards then currently exists. Though I still believe that the spirit shard should be in there to stop the Ghetto Evac from happening.

If EQ2 don't fix this weakening of the Norathian world soon you will find me in Battlefield 2 that is all.

Death to the newb!!!!

Blackguard States :
Many of you have expressed your concerns with the changes we've made to the death mechanic in Live Update #17. We understand and appreciate your concerns, and would like to let you know what lead us to this decision.What started out as a response to a valid Customer Service concern evolved into more. We called into question the kinds of things that death in EQII really needs to mean and what its purpose it is. We do understand and realize that players want to maintain the feeling of challenge in EverQuest II and are wary of any changes that they perceive make the game easier.We work hard to balance the goals of reducing the barriers for new players while not trivializing the game for experienced ones. With that in mind, a death penalty do a few things.It must be strong enough to communicate that you...... have failed at your current task.... must stop what you're doing for a couple minutes.... must pay some amount of penance to make up for this, but not an unreasonable one since not all deaths are your fault.However, it should not be so trivial as to make you...... use it as transportation.... take unreasonable risks because you feel there is no penalty at all.Our focus is to make the fundamentals of the game easy to understand and experience while keeping the challenge in the deeper portions of the game. With that and the above points in mind, we felt that repair and experience debt alone are likely enough to accomplish our purposes, without the additional complication or potential tedium and frustration wrought from the existence of spirit shards.The unfortunate truth about spirit shards is that death was already without much sting for players who know what they are doing. These same players are smart enough to know that death is, at least, inefficient and is something to be avoided. However, the recovery of spirit shards for an experienced or skilled player was relatively trivial. For less experienced players, however, it is a different story. Players new to the genre or game were often susceptible to frustration when attempting to recover their spirit shards, and would sometimes log out when facing such failures. As you can see, that doesn't seem quite right.From here, we will take a look at how this change plays out and will be tweaking things like the amount of experience debt or durability loss accrued when you die until we have something we feel meets the above goals. Thank you for expressing your concerns in a constructive manner, and I hope you see that in spite of changes like this that simplify certain aspects of the game, we are committed to maintaining a deep and satisfying experience for our dedicated players.

More on this tommorow while I collect my thoughts.