Friday, August 31, 2012

GW2 Concerns




Still enjoying Guild Wars 2, how about everyone else? Today I wanted to touch on some of the topics that are not as positive as my last few have been. Last night was the first time Dire and I were not able to group, at all. We kept getting put in different overflow zones. It's always a whole lot more fun when we can play together, we both really look forward to it all day. With the down leveling process I can always join up with him but it doesn't matter if the option to join him isn't there. I really wish the developers would get this fixed.

Mail was down for quite awhile too, finally it is fixed again but the auction system is still not working. No word on it, that I have heard, then again maybe I am not looking in the right places which brings me to my next topic.

The fact that the forums are not up still, bothers me a bit. I've read that the team is using Reddit and twitter for news. My question is this- What is wrong with your own official website for news? If I wasn't a blogger I'd have no clue to check those places. I don't check twitter often enough to keep up with what is going on and Reddit... I really wish these companies would utilize their own forums and websites instead of doing what is 'trendy' at the moment. You know, where people are actually going to go look. [Edit- As I finished this post I see they just added information about heading to Reddit for news.]

Then there's the new wave of bans with an exploit, once again news is on Reddit. I've also read about making public examples of players who exploit, though not sure of the exact details on this. While I very much respect that the company wants to be taken seriously and that they take these actions seriously, I think that this is still between the customers and the company, not for everyone to rubberneck over, like a bad train wreck, take it to your own forums at least... I suppose they have to be up first to be able to do that. Those things concern me.

I hope within the next few weeks the forums will be working, the auction system gets fixed, and the overflow/join party problem is solved. I am glad there isn't a queue, we can at least play, but I just want to spend a little time playing with Dire.

Other than that we're really excited about the game. I'm not picking it apart but I am concerned about those topics. I do have other slight concerns, as the population moves ahead and the lower levels thin out, some of the more fun, yet harder, content doesn't seem like it will be seen by those lagging behind or trying the game a little late. For instance, last night I spawned some giant troll which was a 'boss' type mob, nobody was around though. This was prime time too, I just went on my way, after waiting a bit, to see if anyone would mosey over, nobody ever did. I hope to see some incentive for people to go back, maybe something like Rift's instant adventure mechanic, might help those who are still behind, or in a less popular part of a map, as the game population moves forward.

Another thing I'd like to see is an actual trade window, currently you sell stuff through mail and there is no C.O.D. option, just have to hope you're not getting someone who isn't trustworthy. Thus far Dire has had good luck selling that way, I haven't even bothered. I'd like to see mounts too. Why? Just because I want them. I'd like to travel around on a mount instead of mapping all over. I can do that on foot but a mount would just be more fun.

And how is the digital download sold-out? Last night the option to purchase the game on the official website was removed. Glad we didn't wait a few to think it over, I'd hate to drive all over Houston trying to find a box. Seriously. [Edit-] FB update below:

Ensuring the best possible play experience for our fans is our highest priority. We’ve said before that we would be willing to temporarily disable first-party digital sales if we felt our high player concurrency may compromise player experiences. We have now reached that point.

Effective immediately we have disabled sales via buy.guildwars2.com. To be clear, box and digital sales are still available via our retail partners. We are tracking our concurrency closely while expanding our infrastructure. We’ll re-enable first-party digital sales as soon as we feel that we can do so safely. ~RB2


But as I said, I'm not downing the game, I absolutely love it, we both do. I just have a few concerns I'd like to see addressed. I'm working on crafting finally, I like it a lot and love that you gain experience for it. I'm currently sitting halfway through 18 on my ranger, enjoying the ride. This is the first time in ages that I've loved being surrounded by massive amounts of strangers. It really makes things more fun to have more people around- The more the merrier. Loving our time in GW2, now if only we could meet up every time we log in together, Dire and I. I still need a guild but I hear that there are still many issues with that, maybe things will smooth out within a month. Here's to hoping it is soon! All in all I'm very glad we're playing.
See you in Tyria!







Thursday, August 30, 2012

Post 1000- Postcards from Tyria

Today I noticed the post count was sitting at 999, this makes 1000, w00t! Thought I'd share some pics of GW2 and just blab a little about what was going on in them. My computer is a couple of years old now so they are not the highest quality as far as settings go, I still like to share.

My ranger and pet. Love how you can swap weapons out in GW2 for different types of play, almost feels like a different class, I can 'charge' with a 2h sword. Having lots of fun with trying out everything.

Nightshade and I, we were sharing a few pet locations with each other. We're crazy pet collectors!

Swimming around under Lion's Arch, looking for pets.

Taming a new underwater pet- Jellyfish!

Nightshade showed me this spectacular place where a whale was! It has been a long time since I actually enjoyed being underwater in an MMO. 

Dire and I doing an escort. So much fun with all the people joining in!

Dire and I had a good time last night, we ended up staying in the overflow server due to events going on. I was so glad we ended up in the same one when we logged in!

I was going to complain about my boring brown armor until I remembered dye... Oh I love dye in GW2. You can access it on the fly (H key). I've gotten a few dyes to drop, nothing that good yet, a rusty brown and funky pinkish purple and other weird ones. Using the basic colors here.

This was the biggest and toughest event I've done yet, it was a blast! Tons of people and really glad we got to take part in this! Dire was thrilled. Like a mini raid on the fly. Hope to do many more like this!

Lewt chest at the end! I managed to get a green item (what you'd call a blue in most games, rare), something Dire can use when the mail is working again. Hard seeing green as a rare but it's pulling from the first GW's roots on this.

People milling around sharing and linking loot while wishing the mail was working, lol.

Vista hunting before bed! We managed to hit 12 (Dire) and 15 (me) before logging. I spent waaaay too much time hunting pets yesterday, but it was a lot of fun and now I have a bunch of interesting pets to pick from.




Wednesday, August 29, 2012

GW2- Learning The Ropes


Doh... I just noticed that tell in the window when posting this. /facepalm I am so bad about watching chat.

It's been a busy couple of days, they've seemed to of flown by. Yesterday I was offered a position with EA as a Game Advisor, which was very flattering and exciting. It was a contract position and one I couldn't make a move for, after some thought on it. Bittersweet I suppose, I needed a lot of cheering up after that, GW2 helped some. Plus, I've been very tired too, my son started back to High School again, so I'm trying to keep up with him and his grades too, and then there is that awful time of the day to be awake, five o'clock am, it seems to show up every day... I still need to log into WoW and check out the patch, more on that in my next post hopefully.

Last night Dire and I had a good run in Guild Wars 2, once we finally gained access to the server, we kept getting stuck in different overflow zones, the join part option wasn't working at the time. I'm sure things will calm down soon, at least we got to play right? I'd much rather playing than sitting in a queue, any day of the week!

Nightshade showing me his awesome pets!
We met up finally and spent an hour or two running around working on hearts, vistas and skill points. He really seemed to have a blast, as an engineer. Pun intended. I've stuck with my ranger, I can throw out some healing here and there, with the founts on the ground, I have to remind him to stick close to me when I do.

When Dire first sat down to play he couldn't seem to wrap his head around the fact that you travel around and do the events, that you could do them again as well. He got the hang of it though and was dragging me around, calling for me to keep up, lol. I tend to get trigger happy with the bow and pull extras while he is running off.

Dire and I, he made a scrawny character who's from the streets.

So, today I wanted to sift through some more points I do like, with day three. Weapon swapping, loving it. It is like switching up your class or spec in doing so. Love the fact that I can go smash things with a giant sword or stand and pick things off from afar with the bow. It really keep me interested. I like the class selection and races too, very happy with what I chose.

With the ranger I like the pets also. My friend, Nightshade, plays on the same server (Tarnished Coast) and showed me his plethora of pets, last night, thus I had to go tame several this morning. I enjoyed exploring the other starting areas while looking for pets. I like the fact that you can swap them out on the fly and you don't lose them if you tame another. And my ranger whines if his pet dies, it's so cute. 'I can't lose my pet!' The funniest pet so far has been my pig, he's really fat and round, heh. There seems to be a decent selection for pets.

The music is pretty enjoyable. Love how my character says random little things when I learn or use a skill, gain an achievement, or the pet dying, it's really an endearing touch. I like underwater areas too, no more being scared of drowning, they were made to enjoy. So far the underwater areas have been really neat.

Things that have given me trouble. Cities. I get so lost and run in circles. It's to the point of being embarrassing, well, if I did get embarrassed about those things I guess I would be, I have no sense of direction these days and it just annoys me. Maddening, I tell you. I wish the guards would point you to the EXIT. That is what I've had the most trouble finding, especially in the multi-level cities. I'm getting better.

Very fun stuff here, big bad troll and tons of people all about! Almost like mini-raids!

What else? No first person, not a huge deal but I thought it was odd not to have it. The only thing I'd use it for would be screenshots, I still need to look up how to hide the UI.

I love the fact that I am happy when there are tons of people around. The mechanics allowing us all to gain xp and completion of the events, simply awesome. It is a big change, no competition, just FUN. Everyone working together, it is really different especially when compared to WoW. Call me a Carebear but it really makes me enjoy the game more so without strife and competition. I'm not watching a rotation- I'm reacting to situations. I'm not watching a meter- I'm helping people around me. This was why I fell in love with MMO games, this type of play.

As I leveled my DK in WoW I had to wait on re-spawns because someone else beat me to the mob I needed, or perhaps someone would rush over and AoE the mobs before I could grab one. Things like that do wear you down. Guild Wars 2 hasn't reinvented anything but taken a step forward and I think it's pretty damn classy. I give ANet major props for having the guts to cut out so much crap from the past. Holy trinity? Not missing it. I was a healer for years and years, I am so burnt out on the whole thing. That isn't to say I don't like it, it's just nice to get away from it. I can help heal a little bit and DPS now :)

So, those are my thoughts on day three. I like the game-play and combat- It's just enough to where you have to pay attention but the combat is fast paced enough to be good. Having a fantastic time, great if you like to explore! The game isn't the magic transition people keep hoping to see from each new release, it is good though, it takes a whole lot of great ideas and mechanics and combines them into something really unique. I think this is one Dire and I will be playing for quite some time. It's like a diet Sunkist, no calories- cutting all the bull- but still so sweet, no cruddy aftertaste. Yeah, I drink a lot of that stuff. Or maybe a Sugarfree Redbull, those things are amazing... Anyhow, safe adventures.





Tuesday, August 28, 2012

GW2: Launch Impressions




I had intended to wait on GW2, at least a month, I did plan on picking it up but in due time. Over the past few days I've been reading a lot about the head-start from my fellow bloggers and I really, really liked what I heard. No gear treadmill, fun classes, interesting skills, gorgeous graphics, overflow servers to avoid a queue and last, but not least, no monthly fee. How could I go wrong getting it? So, I picked it up yesterday and got in a day early. Sometimes I get compulsive, yesterday was a very compulsive day. I just couldn't help myself. A day before the big WoW patch and I just HAD to have GW2, heh. I punished myself with heavy amounts of cleaning and many episodes Adventure Time, while it downloaded.

Anyhow, I thought I'd sum up my first impressions. I had followed GW2 for a time then I drifted off and mostly kept up with it from my favorite gaming blogs and videos they and friends shared. I really went in, knowing, well, not much. Dire and I played the first GW game, many years ago, before I started blogging and we really enjoyed it. I figured it would be something I would enjoy- and him too, or I was hoping.

I've so far dabbled with a couple of classes, gotten lost, and tried a few different starting areas. My first choice was the necromancer class, which is really great but I feel for the ranger, hard. So I'm thinking my main is going to be my Sylvari Ranger. I like this race a lot, very neat, nature oriented, fantasy feeling. Leaves for hair! I still want to dabble with my Human Mesmer a bit too, she's sitting there waiting on me, we'll see if I can pull away from the ranger.




So far the launch has been smooth for me. Yesterday and today I've had very little trouble. The game runs well, far better than the last new release I tried (/glares in the direction of TSW), or rather, the last two. About two video cards ago I had a meltdown with Rift beta. With GW2, I have crashed twice, that's it. Had some stuttering in FPS after an update in the wee hours of the morning, but a reboot fixed that. Overall it's been good. Real good.

What I like about the game? Overflow servers, no queues. Though they may be buggy at least we can get into the game. I like that the game feels more cooperative than most MMO games. We all seem to work together, it is nice to see that for a change. People often stop and help as they run by. It's very festive and contagious feeling right now. Scaling down, joining friends lower than you is awesome too.

I love the look and feel of the game, the combat is very fluid too. Music is decent and the voice acting is great. I've even heard Gideon Emery several times now, in the Sylvari starting area, one of my favorite voice actors. I did a double take when I first heard the voice. I just love the Sylvari male voice for the player character too. The game feels so refreshing.




Things I don't like? I'm not really sure yet. I feel I have only seen a glimpse in the time I've played over the last few days. Maybe the questing could get a bit tiresome? Right now I absolutely love all the events. It is what drew me to Rift, when the events were over I often felt bored, not the case here. I just love it. Switching out weapons for skills seems like it could be hit or miss on combat later on, I like it so far though. I think it is fun and works out well, I was very skeptical.

Dire was wary and not happy about the switch, at first, then he watched me play, I saw him eyeing me, standing behind me watching all the fun I was having with my little Sylvari! Next thing I know he made me move out of my chair to try it, then he asked me to install it on his computer today. He rarely does that, so I was a bit surprised. It really appeals to him, more depth than his D3 and less of a grind than WoW, plus it has PvP and he loves that area of game play.



Those are my initial thoughts. I think the launch was pretty smooth. I didn't have as many problems as I have heard others complain about, thankfully. If you'd like to add me, please feel free to- Sablesix.2049. I blame (and thank) all those (evil) bloggers out there for tempting me! Now I am going to join Dire in GW2, he's been waiting for me to finish this post, heh.

See you in Tyria!








Monday, August 27, 2012

Ding!




Ding! I'm finally finished with leveling my DK in WoW. I'm glad, I really enjoy the class and he's a solid choice for farming and soloing old content, as that is my bread and butter these days. I'll be playing him through MoP before my other characters, probably with Dire's DK. It's a milestone for me, I've been so bad at sticking with anything for very long so I really made a point to follow through on this character. I didn't think I would but it turned out more fun than I thought it would be. /flex /happy elf dance /cheers... Ok, I'm done, heh.

I managed to nap a few BoE epics off the auction house for a decent price. I know it is close to the expansion but I look at it as an investment to help me farm up for the expansion, plus I just wanted them. I can't wait for tomorrow, getting my mounts and pets on this character is going to be very cool!

Now that I am 85 with the Death Knight, I do want to farm up some monies in preparation for the expansion and I've been working on my trades as well, hopefully those will be finished by then. I also want to dabble with some of my other games too.



Speaking of, I logged into Allods Online today. I've been wanting to try out the new mercenaries and see just how fast the solo combat felt, I had heard it was boosted. I have never set foot into a dungeon in Allods, so this was exciting for me. I grabbed a mercenary contract (lasts 2 hrs, your group, once used) summoned the NPC and hired a full group; tank, heals and dps. It was pretty awesome, easy and I didn't have to bother with waiting around to do the instance. The mercenaries are pretty tough, the function well and seem to have pretty decent AI. I was impressed.

Solo things seemed a whole lot faster! I was very happy, sometimes soloing in Allods felt like watching paint dry, the combat was just a bit too slow. Easy but s-l-o-w. Now it feels it is at a nice pace, a very good direction. I actually felt like questing and killing things. I am also excited to do more instances.

For now the mercs are cheap but as you level they get more expensive. We'll have to see how that goes, I don't know just how much money you bring in around the higher levels, but 75g a pop, for a merc group sounds a bit high, we'll have to see- if I ever get there.

I'm so tempted by GW2. I wanted to wait a bit, though I do plan on playing it. I've been reading some great posts about it. I'm curious about the necro class, guess I'll have to read up a bit on it. We'll see how long I last! That's it for me today, so tired, first day of High School here in Houston, ugh, early mornings will be the end of me.




Saturday, August 25, 2012

Adventure Log (EQ2, EQ, WoW)

Of- Lanys T'Vyl!


I suppose everyone and their brother will be playing GW2 this weekend. I do plan on getting it but I'm not going to go and jump in when I already have so much I'm working on with my games. I made the mistake with TSW and I want to hold off awhile with GW2, it does look fun and I hope everyone enjoys the early launch! I've already been reading some blog posts about it and it is nice to be able to hear about it even if I'm not playing it, I get to see how people are reacting and what their thoughts are.

Me, I'm excited about the WoW patch next week. It will be like Christmas getting the shared account pets and mounts on my baby DK. He's sitting at 84 now, I hope to have 85 by Monday. The last two levels seem to be the worst, they were going by in slow motion, lol. I have a lot I want to get done before the expansion; trades, working on skills like cooking, fishing and archaeology, and I'm going to get to work on that stuff next week. I really am enjoying the class and plan on leveling him through MoP first. I suppose I've played the hunter and druid classes for years and years so the DK is refreshing to me. I've had an 80 DK, it was my first 80 when WoTLK hit, but she is on another server and I had sold off all her gear... Oh, I wonder why I do what I do sometimes, heh.

Things felt much better when I left Deepholm to head to Uldum. I really love Uldum, it is such beautiful zone and has a lot of fun quests. I'm now finishing up my last level in the Twilight Highlands, not a big fan of this zone. The quests leading up to it slow down leveling and I just want to be done with it, I've already been through this before on both factions.

In EQ2 it seems gold subscribers get three free goblin tickets for the new games in the cash shop. I logged in this morning to use them, getting only coins, but I wasn't expecting much from that. So, if you're a gold subscriber you may want to check for those in the /claim. I am not sure if station access or other members even get anything, such as bronze or silver, but there should be more info on the forums- or it was stated that there would be, sometime this week. I did notice this account has it's three year vet reward, I have an account with five years but I don't play it anymore, I really should check my other accounts. Anyhow, the reward was pretty cool as it was a descendant title. I've always wanted one of these for my Inquisitor.

A descendant title is a list of all the original EverQuest servers. The first EverQuest game's server list, which is very, very awesome. Of course I had to pick Lanys T'Vyl. That is where my heart will always remain in Norrath. Lanys doesn't exist anymore, it was merged with another server, Seventh Hammer, then merged again with  the Tunare server. That is where I started, where I met my Dire. So this title has a lot of meaning to me, one I will wear proudly! I currently play on Firiona Vie but I will always miss Lanys. If Lanys were still a server I'd be playing there, in a way it is, just merged, but it isn't the same.



Speaking of EverQuest. I really have been wanting to play lately, but I want to finish my leveling spree in WoW first. I'm trying to stick with things more these days. I puttered around in EQ for a little bit on my bard, which felt slow as molasses, as far as killing is concerned. I want to work on some AA points and I do enjoy the class, especially when Dire plays. I grabbed the new Nihil illusion, the male version was adorable so I got that one first, I'm sure I'll grab the female soon.

That's about it today, if you haven't checked out my Facebook 'spam', you should! Lots of cool links there when I'm not writing here- or Twitter, Facebook spams it and makes it look like I'm trendy, or spammy, or something... Have a great weekend! Safe adventures!

Some screenshots from my adventures in WoW.

Tomb hunting.

An annoying new friend?

Yeah, '/rude' you too!

Some interesting scenery in Uldum, love this zone!

Yes, another Bud pic, he's so funny!

Questing.

Taking a rest.

More adventuring ahead.

Getting into trouble with Harrison Jones.

Lovely sunset in Uldum.

I love all of the neat things like this in the zone.

I always seem to take pics of my chars up on this statue, lol. My son got me into this habit.

Oh hells no, I am not helping you guys... You're on your own there. Stop scooting closer....Get away from us, go, get back!



Thursday, August 23, 2012

Meanwhile, in Norrath...

Step right up! Buy a ticket and pick a game.
Every week EQ2 has a new item added to the market place, or almost every week, this week's addition would be the Goblin Games Ticket. Basically you buy one, play a mini game and get a chance to win something cool. I figured I'd try all three games available, just to see what it was about, I had SC sitting there anyhow. Are they worth it? Are they fun? How to play these games? Basically you buy a ticket from the marketplace and right click it in the inventory, and use it. Fun? That might be a matter of opinion.

There are three games, one you feed goblins lots of grubs, basically you click on them until they are full, running back to the goblin chief when you run out. There are five and the game is easy, really, there isn't much chance of failure unless you fall asleep. The second I tried was the memory game. If you really have a horrible memory you can always take a screenshot. With this game you have to remember which item was in each (four) square and then find it in a pile of junk and place it where you saw it first. Simple. The last one was another memory game, remembering which totem lit up in what order, not hard at all.

The good thing is that these games let you keep trying until you win, your ticket doesn't poof if you lose. The bad part, these games are on the level of Freerealms, by that I mean they feel as they were aimed for a young audience, not that much fun, done too fast and the rewards would take a lot to save up to really be useful for much of anything. Now, they want you to be able to finish them, I understand that, but I think a different sort of instance would have been more fun. I like the idea, the tickets are not that expensive, only costing 100SC (one USD dollar). Are they worth it? It seems to me you'll either get lucky or you could spend a lot of cash trying for what you want.

If you don't win the great items you have a choice of a potion or two goblin tokens, I ended up with six tokens. If I wasn't doing this for the blog I might have felt like I threw three bucks down the drain. Don't get me wrong- I don't mind funding a game I love, I don't mind one bit, but I am a subscriber, I do spend in the cash shop, I buy each expansion has it hits or pretty close to and honestly I do not like these types of things within my games. I don't like random chances for real life money. So, I don't think I'll play these again, if I do it might be randomly if I have bought some SC and have a 100SC left. They were not enough fun for me to really bother with them again. I had visions of fun carnival type games or something, I don't know.

It is a neat idea, I had thought the games might be more fun, maybe some cool loot drops along the way perhaps? If you don't win the big stuff maybe you could win other fluff items of lesser quality, or something. This was basically Simon says with a chest to loot at the end. I hate to be brutally blunt but that's my honest opinion. I'll share some pics to give some of an idea of what it was like.

Shows all the items you COULD win. 

First instance, feed the hungry goblins.

they go from red to yellow to green once they are fed, click on them to keep feeding.

Chest at the end.

Hrmm, I wonder what goodies could be in there?!

Oh... potion or a couple of tokens. Sad face.

Hows your memory?! I actually didn't look at any of them, lost and had to start over, lol.

Round two! Remember where they are! LOOK this time!

Now go find them and place them.

What totem lit up first? 


On another note, EverQuest has some really cool illusions out this week. I REALLY wish they'd keep up on the website more and forums letting us know what has been added, but it never seems to happen when it comes to EQ. Thought I'd share some pics, they are too cute, makes me want to buy one of each! I probably will once I pick back up on playing more. Oh, they are too cute, did I mention that already!

I've also yet to find many people using the hero's forge appearance gear in-game. You can preview some of the items as well, in PoK, if you're curious. Right beside the soul binder, or you could even check in the Bazaar, I'm sure there are tons in there already! Thought I'd share a pic of one of the plate items for the chest. Kind of bulky but I hear there are more in the works, something recently on the forums. You can find more pics here.

Plate hero's force appearance item.

Nihil male illusion.

Nihil female illusion.


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