Seasonal Stuff Abound

The EverQuest 2 Halloween seasonal content, Nights of The Dead, is out now. I play mainly on test so I've been messing around with it for a little bit already. This year we get a new quest, some new items, tons of stuff to craft and collect. I have a new house to fill up with items, so that is a fun project to work on. The prelude event, ahead of the next expansion is also in swing, with lots of great items. The quests are easy and quick to finish up to grab what you want. Looks like the next expansion will hit in December or so, I still have not caught up on test with the current expansion but I will eventually.

Lego Worlds!

Sharing some shots of Lego Worlds today. Very cool little game, especially with multiplayer via Steam. Last time I played it had many issues with the multiplayer aspect, but hopefully that will get cleaned up soon. Lots of fun and a very cool looking world. If you want to check it out, you can find it on Steam, looks as if it is 30% off with the summer sale too.

Black Desert Shots

I've been dabbling around with Black desert online. Busy these days but I had to try this one out. Housing, sandbox elements and a really awesome character creator. SO much to learn, especially while playing it on the side. But plenty to do! 

Here And There

What we've been up to lately.... it seems we're heading into Hybornia (AoC). More later this week on that. Just sharing some shots before they start to collect dust and I forget about sharing them.

Eye Candy: Landmark (CB)

Exploring Landmark.

Landmark FINALLY!

I've been waiting a long time for the last character wipe to hit Landmark, that day finally hit last week! I poke in here and there to see updates but haven't really wanted to mess around until things seemed more permanent. I have been so excited for a game like this. When the first alpha came about to purchase the game my old computer had trouble running the game and I ended up getting a new machine just to be able to run Landmark decently. So, finally getting the chance to feel like I can jump in and get my feet wet without losing progress, I thought I'd share my thoughts.

Archeage- A House To Call Home

We have a house!! Small but still a house!

I'm still at it in Archeage. There have been moments where I wondered if this is the game for me though. At heart I am not into [open world] PvP but I do think the other elements of the game are really fun. I like the farming system, housing is more functional that decoration (as in creating) and things such as trade runs are really cool as an alternative of things to do. My son has also been playing, which has made it a lot more fun.

Poking About (ArcheAge, EverQuest 2)

ArcheAge
I wanted to do a first impression of Archeage but things just haven't gone as planned with queues. So, I figured I'd just lump in some thoughts in a post of what I've been messing about with. Throw out some thoughts and show off some pictures.

Holidays, Celebrations and Stuff!

What are you playing?

This week GW2 dropped a new season with the Living Story: Gates of Maguuma. I made sure to pop in and check it out, I definitely wanted to unlock it. So far it looks interesting and I am working my way through the new area, which looks nice, small but a nice change. Yep, a new area added to the game! Is it permanent? It seems to be the case! More of a desert looking zone. Is it worth the wait? Time will tell, I'm still working through it. I probably won't have a chance to check it out more until after the holiday weekend. But so far it has been fun,

I really like the new feel of the zone. The story mission has all our friends and the usual banter. "Stay close, Marjory!" and you know.... "Oh Cashmere, that's my line."  Pretty uninspiring, lets just start with the action and smashing faces. Get out your jumping skills, you're going to need them with the new map! Not the biggest fan of these but I suppose it is a change of pace? Something else to keep me occupied, as I detest jumping, I'm sorry I have to be honest. Really I miss the old Guild Wars, at times like these. Seriously. They took the "We want the option to have our characters jump!" request... and made a joke out of it. Oh you'll jump, you'll jump and jump and jump! There is a new costume in the shop, a neat assassin outfit, and the last costume which was Cantha themed, is still in there. I'd love to grab them soon, they are pretty snazzy.

EQ2 has a producer's letter out for July and August. It looks pretty exciting, always so happy to see this game get updates and new content! It seems we have new status items, I want to log in and check them out. Better hope to have some banked up or start working on status! Some are a bit pricey I hear. Nice to see new stuff added though, the status merchants were getting kind of dusty. Tinkerfest is around the corner, a chance at robot mercs with the story quest (they are pretty sweet looking), and also new holiday themed items which you can see here on EQ2 Trader's Corner. Looks to be a refreshing couple of months for EQ2!

The first EQ has a double XP weekend this weekend, woot! Dire and I returned last week, something for him and I to do together, so that will be awesome! We'll be soaking up the AA points in no time! It starts tomorrow!

While I don't play Wildstar I am pretty impressed with the amount of content they have already dropped in their first patch: Strain Ultradrop, after the first month of release! Keep up the good work guys, very impressive. Now if they can keep this pace up, there is going to be some real competition for a lot of games out there, stringing players along with tidbits through huge content droughts. *Looking at you World of Warcraft*.... I just wasn't drawn in because of the combat style enough to want to play, but I do have much respect for a company that tries to keep their players, as well as wanting to keep them interested and excited. I read that they had planned to roll with a heavy workload in order to keep up a swift release of content. It is good to see someone turn on the heat!

Champions Online has some goodies coming over the weekend, a patch today with some nice quest rewards, which last until July 8th. A free travel power, which is interesting for anyone who wants to look and feel patriotic. Plus, it's free. Subscribers also get a new costume item unlock from the vendor. Two special missions from today till the eighth.

Second Life is celebrating it's 11th Birthday: SL11B! It is still going strong. Check out a list of community booths, these always have some great freebies for the clebrations! I missed SL10B but I got some really awesome stuff for SL9B. I need to log in since my account was reinstated and taken off hold, yay! I just never have time anymore. You can also find a community website with information on events and times here. If you haven't ever checked out Second Life, a great time to take a look with some direction to check out events. The community is highly creative, some amazing talent out there!

Summerfest has returned to Rift, according to the forums. Yesterday when I logged in I didn't see anything and the website hasn't updated us, but it seems to be in swing currently. Lots of things to gab with this event, a great time to pop in and join in on the celebration!

And in WoW we have the Midsummer Festival. Nothing new this year. Get out your alts for the xp buff! Last week we were returning with the free seven days, this week we're back playing, Nelf and I that is. Also, I read another batch of WoD beta invites were going out today. Oh please pick me! The only beta I was in was the WoTLK, which was very, very exciting. I mostly want to look around, I want to see Garrisons, new models and the new areas. Good luck if you're trying for beta! More on our return in my next post.

Have a great holiday weekend to those here in the US of A! Happy Independence Day! 

EverQuest Next: Landmark- Alpha Starting

This year we have a lot of new games coming out. A lot of early release access as well, more than I've seen in a long while, especially if you think of all the Kickstarters. Today the ALPHA starts for EverQuest Next: Landmark. So, if you picked up the founders pack, or if you grab it, you'll be able to play shortly. Though I do think if you purchase it today you might not get in until tomorrow. For me, I just can't see dropping down a ton of money for Alpha on a game I really don't have much to go on. I've watched videos and such, but it all still feels very vague, I still have a lot of questions and I still think the core game isn't being presented. Plus, there is a strict NDA on it, I can't share my thoughts here if I were to play it. All is well, I can hold off, if it is truly awesome, I'm sure I'll get it.

I'm not one for playing for the hell of it, I want to invest my time into a game I can come back to (a reason I will not play Vanguard in the last six months, other than to take shots and video). My time is valuable to me, I don't always have a lot of it to waste. Which comes down to matter of opinion on how time spent is considered pointless or not, that's just my personal vice. I don't want to pay to have my character wiped and test bugs. I'm not that bored. But many people are. You might claim that isn't the case, but it is, you have to be pretty bored with MMO games to go and pay to play an alpha game. But I don't blame those people, I was thinking of doing the same thing. Then I caught myself and SOE hit me hard with the closing of Vanguard, so I decided not to for many reasons. There are many great games out there currently that I could be playing, and I am doing just that. I'm not saying don't play, I'm just stating why I am holding off.

John Smedly has offered a full refund if anyone is unhappy with the game. On twitter or something, who knows where these days, I can't keep up. I think Massively has the details all in one place.That's a bold move, the refund. They must be pretty sure that it will impress. And I am sure it will be good. I wish them all the best on this endeavor! I'd like to hear more about EQN though. How progress is being made and so on, but I think Landmark will flood that away to some extent and that is a tad worrisome. If people are happy with Landmark, why rush anything with EQN? I don't mean literally rush, but say more focus goes into Landmark than we really had thought? Not a bad thing but two games split off of one title, one of them is bound to suffer. I'm speaking on track records here.

SOE is also adding weekly content to EQ and EQ2. This is interesting though, will it be high end focused or for all levels? I'd like to see it spread out, as I play many different level characters all through the brackets. Nice of them to finally pick up the ball and focus on their flagship again. I think they will continue to focus more on the EQ games as long as EQN and Landmark are doing well. If EQN bombs, I see these things fading away. I do hope to see this being a hit within both games,  as both games could really benefit from new content. I have a soft spot for both EQ games. They hold a special place in my heart, I will always want them to do well and keep on chugging.

If you are in the Alpha, I do admit I am a little envious :) My first thought at the announcement was I MUST HAVE IT. Then the MMO hulk in me subsided and I thought how I really don't think I would play enough to justify it. Maybe when closed beta hits I will give it a try. I do have a lot to think on, right now I want to see how SOE continues, I'm still not quite over how Vanguard as a whole has been handled. As a customer I want to be your number one no matter what game I play, not because I play your newest shiniest game, because I've been around a lot longer than that...

EverQuest Next Thoughts

So now that I've had time to process what we've seen thus far of EverQuest Next, I figured I'd just briefly give my initial impression. We really don't have much information yet. I'm still left with many questions, wondering a lot of things. I'm also pretty excited by what we've seen.

First off, the game looks great, gorgeous characters and armor, what we have seen is impressive but the first thing that came to mind was that they looked so 'Disney'. Very, very cartoonish, not a bad thing but not exactly what I was expecting. Overall they look lovely, the details on the armor were fantastic. When I saw the armor on the characters shown, I really was impressed, it is truly awesome. I was wondering what other types of armor we will be able to obtain! Would I play one of these? Yeah, I like them.

A world which you can break apart, where you can dig and one you can destroy. While this is really interesting, the first thing that came to mind was griefing! It could be annoying if someone really wanted to use it to bother another player. We'll have to see how this works and what limitations are included before anyone can really say. I also like this, think of all the neat things that could go along with this mechanic. Hunting for treasure?!

Love the music, I mean could you really find anyone better to do a killer MMORPG soundtrack? Looking forward to hearing more music from the game.

No split factions, as in no good/evil split between the sides. This is a good thing, good for a robust and healthy community (not sure how servers will work). When you split a community in half, it really makes the game feel smaller. I can't play with ALL my friends in WoW because they are on different sides, unless I change characters, but even so it is always an issue. I hate it. I detest it.

I'm very much wanting to see combat. Thus far what has been explained seems very similar to Guild Wars. And then the progression path. No levels? That is a hard one to adjust to, I really hope they can pull it off. TSW really turned me off with this, so we'll see. I don't like levels sometimes but you really need to feel as if you're progressing. Call it whatever you want but a player needs to really feel this part of the game.

Collecting classes? Not sure how I feel about that. When I pick up a game I usually want to play a certain class, usually it is one that suits me. Thus I don't want to play as something else to unlock it, I'd probably get a bit bored and lose interest if I can't be what I want to be. Neat idea, might be better for maybe expanding classes, then again that also depends on just how long it takes to obtain the play style you might be after.

Direction. EverQuest 2 got the addition of SOEmote not too long ago. Which basically causes your character to emote your facial expressions. Which is neat but I hardly see anyone when I play, much less look closely at their faces. Not really interesting to me, even if I group I'm not zooming in to see some dude's character's face to see what he may be feeling. Fun? Sure. Very frivolous and I wonder if it was more of a test in EQ2 for EQN. I would rather pick an emote (like SWTOR) and have it cycle through expressions. Yes, I like fluffy useless things but this crosses the line in my opinion. I want to see features that add to the world that I play in, spice up my character, not resources being spent on something most people won't bother using.

I think EQN will be a big contender for a new hit. But it also depends on how well it is updated and if the development team stays on the ball. I have hopes for it to do well and really shine. I just hope in trying to achieve this we don't forget the foundation that EverQuest started out with. I know a lot of people have been (mainly older EverQuest players) hoping for old style raids but I think this game is a very different game. Personally I hope this game pulls us away from the constant 'instance' game, as I thought Guild Wars would. If you're going all out, trying to break the mold, go big, take chances, really change things. Most of what I hope to see carried over is lore, a general feel of EverQuest, and the wonderful feeling these communities have always had.

Those are my initial impressions, I really hope we hear more, get a window on the release date and get to see the rest of the race and class line up- Soon! Until then I suppose we have enough to spark our imaginations as we wait. I wait patiently, I'll wait as long as I have to, I was born into the genre with EverQuest, so this is something that really hits home to me. I will always be an EverQuest girl  <3 i="">

Dungeon Maker (EQ2)

This week I've been working on finishing up my house in EQ2, I've still got two rooms left to finish. However, I did manage to complete my first player made dungeon! Since they were released I've wanted to make my own dungeon, I just never seemed to get around to it.

The tools are very easy to use, you also get some items to place about the dungeon but I went and sunk a small fortune of plat into mine, just to get the look I wanted. I also picked up some different monsters to throw into it. This is a wonderful tool for those who like to play dungeon master, there are even a few extras in the cash shop. I only grabbed the text for the screen addition but I do want to pick up the storytelling tool also-Which allows you to make a storytelling NPC that isn't combat oriented.

You can also run your own dungeon, I wasn't sure if you could. I'm pretty sure when the dungeon maker went live you could not, so that was a nice surprise. I wanted to run through it and make sure it was decent, which I think it was. Great aspect for endless content, sharing it and playing with friends would be a lot of fun too!

One of the cons is that the fast/easy/massive token runs with the entrance and exit next to each other get rated highest, which is a bit crummy. I've tried a few in the past and it isn't fun, then again I've never been on a mad rush to collect the tokens so maybe that would cause me to have a different outlook. But I do hate seeing some really fantastic dungeons have 0 likes and these 'throw' fifty mobs in one room for mass tokens' dungeons have quite a lot. But, what can you do?

I wanted my dungeon to have some humor, a variety of mobs, and a feeling of change around each corner, a real fun place to explore. I also did not want it to take ages to run. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, I even managed to complete the daily objective in there, which wasn't my intent when creating it!

Below are some pics of it, if you do play EQ2 and want to check it out I'm on Crushbone, the instance is called Stellar. I've never been great with names, and I tend to use Stellar for a lot of things... So, it ended up as that, lol. I'd love to make another with a different theme, one more uniform, but I'll probably wait a bit as it takes a lot of time and effort! Enjoy the pics :)

The final act, last boss.

Exit 'treasure room'.

Did I step into the shard of love?

Weirdos lurking in the corner... Hey, get a room you two!

Tomb raiders.

Frozen hallway.

Realm of the giants, everything is scaled up to make the player feel smaller. I left the room very much as it was, I wanted some of the original dungeon's beauty to show. 

Dead guys walking around, thought it would be funny to give them names from 'The Walking Dead.

Candy corner!

Clockwork station.

One of my favorite rooms, the Dr's office, ha!

Lots of creepy stuff going on in here!

Entrance. Which is mostly the same, I did add a lot of fish to the water which added up to a lot of plat! But it was aworth it, I had a lot of fun!

Virtual Workshop

Before and After: Item ingame and in progress while building the model. 

Today I thought I'd share some of my new creations. I've been trying to perfect my shapes and get more polish out of my creations, some days are better than others. I'm having fun, creating some things that I would actually, and do, wear! That's part of the fun, enjoying what you create :)

I put up an open 'workshop' on my land. Do I really need a virtual workshop you're probably asking, Yes and no. But- With one I don't have as much of a problem setting things down and accidentally picking up the grass instead, lol. I can also have a less messy looking place as I set things beside each other to swap out parts from one creation to another or get a clean shot of it to work. All in all the places looks less messy and building is a tad easier, I'm not texturing the trees by accident!

Right now I am working on an extensive project. It is one Twig keeps asking me to create, the idea is from another video game. She has been asking and asking for one, so we'll see if I can pull it off. If all goes well I will post it, it will take me a day or two I think, if I can even get it out of my head into 3D form. I hope so because she obviously thinks I am better than I really am, lol. It is just bigger than anything else I've worked on and thus it will take more time, being a more complicated item with a special pose I'll need to focus on.

Just a short post showing some pics of some of the things I've been working on. Hope everyone has a great weekend. I have another post about Rift and WoW I want to write, just need to sit down and focus on it!

Another shot of this chair I created, I finally got an animation put into it. 

A summer floaty!

A white top hat with goggles, I love hats!!

GOGGLES! I love these and wear them everywhere, I might spruce them up next week with some attachments. 

Fresh mesh uploaded, goggles and hat. 

My lovely model, easier than trying to build on my own head!

The finished result.

Some wings.

Shimmery wings with a pack attached. 

Mah workshop! I even made a cute cork board with cool pics and schematics. The perfect touch!

Hatter hat, in black.

I love this hat in pink!!

Crafting (SL)

Just hanging out with some friends, relaxing in a pond I created on my land.

I've been back in Second Life more lately. I have been toying with my new land, mostly building though. I really, really enjoy it. It is truly crafting in a gaming setting, to the ultimate. I made this, I mean I really made this! It is a very cool thing indeed, if you're into creating items.

You can create items within the game, using uploaded or textures bought from other residents. You can manipulate shapes and link them, it is a great way to start and get a feel for building, then moving onto sculpties (sculpted image maps which take shape within a prim). You can also upload your own mesh models created within a 3D modeling program. I've been messing with mesh again and creating things with it here and there. Sometimes I need a specific shape and this is helpful to be able to create it. I'm by no means an expert but it is quite fun.



I suppose the thing about Second Life is that you do whatever you want all the time, no pressure, no rush, it is so laid back compared to the other games I play. Be anything you want, look any way you want, without even having to switch characters. The only beef I have is the inventory system which is basically stored within files, it is clunky and messy. With almost 60k items and growing, it is getting to the point where I really need to clean house. I am avoiding this like the plague, lol. The inevitable day will come.

I'm pretty much a recluse these days. Staying on my lovely piece of land, creating. However, I want to get out and explore some new sims soon. The wonderful part about exploring is that there is so much to see, so many new sims all the time to check out, as well as many old favorites to visit again.

Dire doesn't play, he doesn't understand my draw to the game and creating, he says he isn't creative thus he just can't understand it. I will admit the game does have a rather odd reputation, but if you know why you are there playing, who is to question that? I play for me, if you don't like how I choose to spend my time, I'm sorry. You just keep to yourself or like minded players. There is something for everyone. Not everyone who plays is some perverted deviant! You know you thought it! You don't have to be creative to enjoy the game, you can enjoy the variety of things created by others, role play, make friends, shop, race, endless things. However you just have to find your niche.

It has a strong pull to my creative side. I do it in my free time, I enjoy it when I feel like it, no pressure, I learn new things in the process. I still have a lot to learn, one day perhaps my creations will take on more polish than they possess now.

Today I thought I'd share some of my creations. Below are a few I've been busy working on. Enjoy!

Jet Pack with male hover animation.

Jet Pack with female animation.

Jet pack with....FIRE!

Pack up close, the green and red have a moving 'particle' effect scripted, which was fun to add.

A mesh baby dragon, not too crazy about this one.

One of my houses I built, a room inside. This was fun to decorate. 

An Asian home I built, I need a big house with room to stand on the roof to built... But I tire of my own creations. 

Inside of house, the roof is see through from inside to create a lighter feel

A mesh chair and hat I created. Two of the first mesh items I've worked on for a long time.

A mesh steampunk top hat and goggles I created. 

Goggles I created, they change color when you touch this item. A menu pops up, fun and kind of nifty.