Interesting Tidbits

Oh.... Exciting!

So, while I'm sitting around waiting on SL to unscrew itself and load up my massive inventory, refer to my last post, heh) I thought I'd mention a few interesting topics out there today.

SW:TOR is going F2P. Honestly, it's about time and now maybe I'll log in and mess around at my own leisure from time to time. I think TSW-Well maybe GW2, we'll see- will be the last MMO I purchase at release for a long time. Don't quote me on that, lol. But, I am going to try to bide my time and wait for them all to go F2P, seriously. I'm sure TSW will also, just give it some time. I end up paying massive amounts for games that I play for a week and then they go F2P. I need to stop being so impulsive. Nothing wrong with F2P either. I love being able to pop in and poke my head into these games whenever I feel up to it.

Long gone will be the days where EverQuest gear is ... hrmm shall we say antique, or static looking. It seems it's just going to have a little more variety. The Heroes Forge will allow players to have much wider customization options to how they look. It's stated to utilize in-game armor and cash shop stuff too. I look forward to hearing more about this. Before you frown and snub your nose at this- Keep in mind that this is a 13 year old game and stuff like this is really not something we see often in older games. Better late than never.

Hugh, over at the (MMO Melting) Pot, as a really good article about PvP flagging and Pet battles. I think he's spot on about the two types of players who go after each of these objectives, they don't mesh in most situations. To me it's just silly but that's WoW. Always forcing us to change and adapt to the developer's every whim, which happens about as often as the weather changes. When the game first released they had zones which were contested and flagged you, which were later changed, guess the developers felt we needed more change? That'll really make those Carebears cry!

Zentia shuts it's doors this month. I really, really loved this game. However, the world was so sparsely populated I always felt like the inevitable was nipping at my heels. The (Zentia) website hasn't been updated since March and that always worried me too. Looks rather dead. I am very sad to hear this, I think it was a wonderful game, great for pet collectors, adventurers, it had so many neat events every day too, and I spent a lot of time playing on and off. Such a really great game, it had a lot of fun things to do and it was really different. Very sad indeed. I just noticed an email in my box a bit ago and Syp, over at Massively has an article on it also.

And TSW has some new stuff out, they've made it to the one month mark. I might pop in as I have a week or so left on my account I think. I won't be re-subbing though, just don't have the time (for another game) or the patience right now (to deal with poor performance), ah impulsive decisions. Nice though for those playing, new content on a regular basis is awesome!

Building For Fun

When I first started playing Second Life I didn't really have much of a feeling of where to go, or places I returned to often, such as land or my own shop. Thus I really fell in love with attachable objects, to this day I still adore them. What is an attachable object? It's basically an item that functions when it is worn (added to your character). Like a chair, a cup you can hold, or perhaps a guitar, all kinds of things, anything you want actually.

Of course you can see a cup or a guitar as a perfect item to attach to a character to hold but what about a chair? Why would you want to attach a chair to your arse when you could just find one to sit in? The thing about Second Life is that you can't just put things down wherever you want, some sims allow it while others don't, then there is the prim count, sometimes you just don't have enough room. So it is really cool to be able to use a chair, or something, wherever you want, whenever you want. Just something fun and handy to have. Plus it is just so much fun to make stuff like this!

This week I've been working on a few fun little toys to wear, such as chairs, computers, even a dance machine, lol. Fun stuff to attach that allow you to use them anywhere. So, I thought I'd share a few of my creations today, as I'm currently fighting a bug with several viewers that is crashing me constantly. The only one it isn't crashing is the one I can't build with, just too many hassles. Really at the point of pulling my hair out, throwing the monitor out the window or just logging out, until I feel like working on a fix when I'm not so aggravated. From what I've been told by some peeps, and read, I simply need to sit and let my (massive) inventory load for a good long while. That's what I get for being lazy and not taking better care of sorting it, I'm up to about 57k items... Anyhow, onward with the pics.

Stepping out for a bit? AFK sign. 

Back.

Front.

Angelic AFK cross.

Chair with laptop. 

Cot with laptop.

Front of cot. 

Meditation Lily Pad.

Dance machine. Wear it and dance anywhere. Just something I had a lot of fun with and it really turned out cute!

Weekend Recap

Tinkerfest is here!

Over the weekend I managed to finish up the new quests from the Qeynos Rises update, in EQ2. I really enjoyed these quests, I even felt a bit sad when they were over. I wanted to keep on playing though the story, which I really liked a lot. The story made me feel part of the world, part of Qeynos because I was so drawn into the stories, and I really liked that. I didn't finish the Freeport line but I managed to get through a fair amount, to get a feel for that side, and I have to say those were just as good but with more of a darker feel. Qeynos is a bit more welcoming to me lately, always optimistic, while Freeport has a lot of sinister stories. Both are really great cities filled with a lot of fantastic lore. Just depends on what you want I suppose.

Tinkerfest is here, yay! It did get off to a late start, oops, someone forgot to flip a 'switch'. Good quests, lots of really great rewards, tons of housing items from merchants and quests. I've grabbed two pairs of wings, which act as flying mounts, very cool items from a holiday event. They cost 500 cogs, the best way to go about gathering these is to make a macro, so much easier and less redundant. A great post on what to do to create one here.

Other than that, I've been questing my heart out and having a blast. I'm really enjoying EQ2 again. I need to get some work done on some textures for Second Life today and I'm dragging my feet. I made my first sale in the Market Place this week. It's slow but I'm adding things and hopefully one of these days it will pick up a bit.

Sharing some pics!

Gone camping!

Questing in Antonica.

Guardian.

Queen Antonia Bayle.

All tied up.

A couple of my favorite NPC's from the new Qeynos questline- Murrar Shar and Field Marshal Vishra. 

Circle of The Ten. 

Baron Ironforge's office.

New wings from Tinkerfest, the darker set.

Our lovely guild hall, I didn't design this but someone else broke out and built this lovely large scale chessboard. Awesome!

EQ2 gives you wings...  Makes me want a REDBULL. 

Tinkerfest cheer!

Lighter, blue, set of wings from Tinkerfest.

Under the moon. Gave my Merc some snazzy new appearance weps from Tinkerfest.

Taking a rest?

Hanging out in the shop.

EQ2 Stuffz

Mercenary, I'm paying you by the hour... If I say we swim, we swim!

I've been working through the new Qeynos quests in EQ2 and enjoying it quite a bit. I'm sometimes pretty bad about reading quests and the dialogue, in a lot of games, but I've really been pulled into these stories. They're quite good and I find myself wanting to find out what happens and sticking to these quests. Lots of neat house items, tons of paintings and I even gained a sweet breastplate. I'm still working on my AA points, I'm still a few off but getting closer to where I can level again.

Tinkerfest starts tomorrow, EQ2 traders has a great write up on it, lots of really neat additions like the wings (mount) you can obtain with 500 tokens, you know what I'll be working on next week! Tinkerfest was a lot of fun last year, some really cool appearance stuff, a neat pet and lots of recipes. Tons of housing items!

If you haven't checked out the marketplace there is free statue of Antonia Bayle. Grab some while you can, you can get as many as you like for free. I grabbed a few for future projects, I just need to place them about. Oh and speaking of free stuff, EQ2 has another FB 'Quest' this one has some nice rewards, I think there is a mount included in this round. Add them, bug your friends, or something, ya know... like asking your readers to, lol. More details here.

If you want an interesting read there is a post with the debate of legacy models vs SOGA models, on the forums which gets a comment from the game's producer who says one set of models could be removed in the future. I personally think that is a horrible idea on an aging games where people are really tied to their characters and how they look. As you can see from my screenshots I use both. I love the SOGA models for males and Legacy for females. I love to mix and match them up. I think anything short of a new set of models would be a disaster. Check out the thread here. EQ2 wire has the direct quote from Holly 'Windstalker' Longdale here, think it is around page seven on the thread. What do you think? Should players be forced to give up one set after so many years? Should we get new models or should we stick with two sets?

That's it for today, have a great weekend!

Eye Candy

I often do videos showing off female avatars, especially in Second Life, today I thought I'd show off a male. I made a short video, just something fun, showing off a few dances and just how detailed you can make your avatar in Second Life. I adore this one, it's just so cute, thus I thought I'd share him in this video. Plus, I get to share one of my skyboxes, the 'room he's dancing in is one of my own creations, I especially love the walls and floor, this is one of my favorites!

Also sharing a bundle of screenshots. Hope you enjoy the video or at least get a chuckle out of some of the dance moves, heh. Shots are from SL and EQ2. And... view in HD please! SL runs okay alone, with the right viewer, but with fraps the FPS can go down the drain, still not as bad as some of my previous SL videos though. Next time I'll try another viewer for better FPS.

Took a break from building to tweak out this avatar, new clothes are always fun! love the detail in the jacket and added some glasses and a cig to complete the look.

Some shops I built for out sim, finished them up today. We're going to call this area little Tokyo and rent out these buildings. 

A new house I finished up, my Town House.

Swinging...  Never too old to swing.

Questing in EQ2, one of the first quest lines sends you down under into the sewers.

Meeting the Queen (Antonia Bayle). There was a forum discussion and she was called fat. Maybe she's addicted to Batwing Crunchies? I think she looks fine. She did get a tad bigger though. 

Questing, was checking out the elvish SOGA models and it turned out to be a nice shot.

On the high seas. Ahh smell that salty air and feel the cool ocean breeze? Use your imagination!

Kyle Bayle.

Blessed by the gods of Norrath.

That's all folks!

Plans

Plans? I'll probably wing it. Ha!

World of Warcraft's MoP expansion has a release date now- 9.25.12. I'm sure I'll be picking it up, I still have time to pass with the annual pass. It will have a month left on it and I've been a bit excited about some of the new stuff in this expansion. Now if it isn't that great I suppose it could be a very long time until I played WoW again, once that pass ends. Things are looking good though, lots of fun activities and that's what I'm about. I'm not much into more than that these days, as far as WoW goes. I'll probably piddle around with a little panda but mostly my hunter main. Hunter changes are looking mighty good.

Guild Wars 2 hits a bit sooner. I'm sure I'll get this but I don't know if I should go for it right at release, maybe. I'm still pondering on it. I like the first game and I think this one will be great, plus the lack of a subscription, that is pretty tempting! So, I may end up grabbing it, I still have some time to wait and think.

I really jumped in with TSW and buying it. Probably at a bad time. It's a good game, I'll give it some more time tonight, I've neglected it badly the last few days. I think it has a great feeling to it but I have to say this again, performance is quite crappy. Highly unlikely, at this point, I'll go past the free month :(

Out of all of my games EQ2 is sucking up the most time. I'm getting a lot done because I have a merc, tons of stuff to catch up on, lots of questing, making lots of monies just from questing and selling items too. Plus, fun stuff with the new Qeynos Rises update. It should keep me busy for some time.

SL I've needed a 'building break' on. Twig is out of town still so I'm just giving it a rest for a few days. I have a few projects I need to finish up there but I'll get to them soon. Plus, there are a few freebies I want to go after, I'll let the list accumulate for a few days before I go hunting around, lol.

Still waiting to hear when Vanguard is going to release the F2P version. I just want to see all the changes and the cash shop, how it all looks once it's ready to go. Still wondering if they'll add mercs to this game. I think it could happen. Probably will happen. If EQ has them then Vanguard probably will too. But, I'm getting ahead of things here.

I guess my plans for this year are a bit sporadic, I'll just see how I feel as these release dates get close. Dire might like GW2. Not sure though. He's installed EQ2 this week, now getting him to sit down to play and pull away from D3 is another story.

Qeynos Rises (EQ2) Game Update 64

Today Game Update 64: Qeynos Rises was released in EQ2. Qeynos gets an overhaul to match the one in Freeport. Seems like yesterday I was just logging into check out the Freeport revamp, but then again I took a significant break from the game.

I betrayed from Freeport before the revamp, with my main, so I played through the last update (FP) it with my new Beastlord. I decided to stick to Qeynos with my Inquisitor so I could have a chance to soak up the new atmosphere in Qeynos with her and check out the new quests, instead of playing through with yet another alt.

At first glance Qeynos appears much the same. The layout is still entirely familiar and, well, exactly the same, except for the fact that it is now two zones, combined down from four. Which is nice not having to do all of the zoning, I'd prefer one big zone but this is better than nothing. I'd say that Freeport got a revamp on a more massive scale, but Qeynos still looks nice, those who don't like much change to old zones will appreciate this revamp more. I think Freeport was really needing a makeover it was pretty dank looking to start with, as far as capitol cities go. There are updated textures and the larger buildings, such as the palace, have been redone. It still looks pretty much the same with some updates in textures, familiar but a little more gloss to it. Queen Antonia Bayle also got a make over.

We have some npc's moved around and added here and there. The broker now has a banker friend beside her, he's a welcome addition, in my opinion. There are also many new quests to play around with. New points and racial skills to check out, pretty nifty if you ask me. You get one point to spend for every nine levels you gain.

Zam has a great guide on what quests have been added, if you want to check them out you can find them here. There are a couple of housing goodies for simply checking out an inn room, they are pretty neat too, similar to the quest Freeport offers. If you prefer the look of Qeynos over Freeport betraying should be a cake walk with a mercenary. I've done it twice without mercs, as a low level scout and as a high level cleric. It wasn't bad back then so it should be a walk in the park these days. Just remember, if you're F2P, if you try to betray to a locked class your character will be locked until you  purchase the class or you grab a subscription, though many classes are now neutral. There are a few that are not still!

What you can look forward to in this update:

• New revamped areas combined from 4 to 2 zones with amazing designs with Qeynos Palace overlooking the city.
• Class Focus Effects have been consolidated and will now be available starting at level 9 and then every 9 levels in the Character Development window.
• Massive PvP Update with new PvP stats derived from PvE stats, PvP gear that is useful in PvE combat, revised achievements, infamy, bounty, and a new token earning system.
• Level-agnostic gameplay in Battlegrounds making it more fun, rewarding, and accessible for everyone. Players level 30 to 89 can play together as well as levels 90 to 92.
• Earn bonus tokens to spend on new items in Battlegrounds with kill streaks, rewards for breaking streaks, capturing the flag, and more.
• Battlegrounds tokens can be spent on new gear starting at level 10.
• Fighters receive a new stance called "Recklessness," allowing them to do significant damage while sacrificing their ability to withstand damage.

I haven't had a whole lot of time to check everything out but I did a few quests and looked around to see the new look of the place and took a few pics while I was at it. EQ2 really keeps up with content and keeping things current, I have a lot of respect for the developers who are always trying to raise the bar, it's truly a wonderful game. It's one game that has really aged well and keeps getting better as it ages. That's the great thing about older MMORPGs, they offer such a robust amount of content, in most cases anyhow.

I'll pop back in later to play around more, lots to do! Don't forget about the new Public Quest outside of Qeynos, another thing on my list to go see. For now I have to go get ready for a barbecue. See you in Norrath! Check out the official site here. Showing off a few pics and the official video:

Revamped palace in Qeynos.

Guards get shiny new mounts! Gorgeous!

The clock in Qeynos seems smaller to me... 

Freeblood racial quest chain. The story is pretty good so far.

Questioning citizens about the revamp, seems they noticed that not much has changed, lol. 

Old Qeynos wall textures, you still see this on some of the buildings. Perhaps it is still a texture on the citizen's home from the previous picture, lol.