tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64272487738236858872024-02-21T02:10:11.172-08:00Le`Bard ConnectionLife, Gaming, Moto...Adurj Le`Bardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07156645450859698240noreply@blogger.comBlogger222125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6427248773823685887.post-44508672805769752362012-12-10T07:53:00.000-08:002012-12-10T07:53:16.342-08:00Donuts n Drifts<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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What a fun weekend! I had a
chance to catch up on loads of movies, gaming and most importantly had a real
blast with the kids. Saturday morning saw the three of us head to the shops
where my daughters proceeded to buy their own choice of Christmas trees and
decorations. I had told them that this year they get to make their own
Christmas trees up, being able to choose everything. The results were surprisingly
good their choice of colours all matched and were actually quite tasteful. The
trees they decorated look fantastic! My house is starting to feel very Christmassy
indeed and we are all getting in the festive mood.</div>
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Gaming wise saw some real
progression in DIRT3 and I’m pleased to say I’m getting offers left right and
center from racing Teams to join their squads. I am having some problems
though. The Gymkana stages are a huge amount of fun, but I have to say I’m
distinctly average at it. I just can’t seem to get the hang of it. Yes, I can
do the donuts and spins and drifts, but not with the precision required and it
does take me a few precious seconds to get a donut or spin started in the
correct zones. When you’re doing a time trial run those seconds are incredibly
important. The highest medal I have achieved so far in those stages is a
Silver. If you know me and driving games, I’m a bit of a perfectionist and my
inability to grasp the intricacies of this particular part of the game is
driving me round the bend! (excuse the pun). Practice makes perfect. I’ll get
there I’m sure. </div>
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Other gaming fun included a load
of EQ2 action with my daughter who’s Fury, Eucalipto is now level 36. We hit
Runnyeye, Kaladim, completed some of ‘The Journey is Half the Fun’ HQ, completed
the Raptor mount quest and after that, did little else except bounce around
Antonica on her new mount which she absolutely adores. The account she is using
is an old one of mine and we hopped in to Legends of Norrath to see what free
LON cards she has got and found out that she had 45 unopened card packs to get
through. It took about 15 minutes to open them all, but she was incredibly happy
when she won one of the new and very rare flaming horse mounts. She also won a
couple of cloaks and a load of paintings. Of course the won paintings started
the conversation on player housing (one of my favourite parts of EQ2) “Dad,
where do I put all these paintings I’ve won?” She is a keen Free Realms player
and is hooked on decorating her house there, spending hours getting things just
right (like I do in EQ2). So she is particularly excited about getting her
hands on a new residence to exert her artistic touch upon. I promised her next
time we play we will get her sorted. She has her eye set on the ‘Vale of
Halfpint Delight’, a Halfling hole on a small island. It’s Prestige Housing, so
will cost me some SC, but it’ll be worth it to see my girl smile.</div>
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Sunday night saw me attempt to
get online for another Call of Cthulhu gaming session but my youngest daughter
decided to be an absolutely nightmare at bedtime and I ended up missing most of
the session that turned out to be one big fight it seems. All exciting stuff
and I’m a bit peeved I missed 90% of it. It sounded like it had been a great
evening.</div>
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Movies wise, I watched Paranormal
Activity 1, which I turned off half way through. It wasn’t too bad but I get
the impression it needs to be watched in the dark without interruption to let
the suspense build (it’s a very slow starter), but my youngest has a cough at
the moment and every time she had a coughing fit in bed I had to pause to go
check she was OK. It kind of killed the moment and suspense.</div>
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I also watched Skyline, an Alien
invasion movie. It was OK. I liked the special effects and the way the story
was dealt with, but the acting was particularly wooden, which surprised me.
Donald Faison (Turk from Scrubs) was in it and he’s great in that. But I guess
comedic acting is different from serious acting and he really wasn’t that good
in it. The biggest problem I had with it was the ending. A nice unexpected
twist, but I really would have liked it to have developed that story dogleg a
bit more, the flick kinda just, ended..it was weird. I think it could have done
with an extra 30 mins or so to develop that line of the plot.</div>
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I also spent some time catching
up with Homeland, TBBT, Modern Family, New Girl and the US Office.</div>
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But, it’s Monday now. Work again.</div>
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Be well.</div>
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} catch(err) {}</script>Adurj Le`Bardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07156645450859698240noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6427248773823685887.post-17657421382045312482012-12-03T06:21:00.000-08:002012-12-03T06:51:01.441-08:00Free WeekendThere are plenty of negatives to it, but I'm a glass half full kinda guy. One of the bonuses of having my marriage break down is the spare time I have all of a sudden been gifted. I'm sharing custody of the kids, and that means every other week I get a free weekend. Totally free. No one to please but me. It's been years since I have had that kinda freedom. So, what did I do with my free weekend?<br />
<br />
Normally such freedom would mean me heading out on my motorbike to enjoy the stunning scenery and mountain ranges in the general locale, but that's not possible since someone knocked me off it a couple of months ago and she still sits on my drive with a hole in the side of her engine waiting for the Insurance company to pull their finger out. There is another reason I didn't do that this weekend, but that's down to me being a wuss. It's bloody cold here. Especially in the mountains. Well, relatively. I have been in the south of Spain for 6 years now and my blood must have thinned enough for me to start feeling the relative cold. It's only about 10 degrees here, which isn't 'too' bad when in the UK, but here, it's nippy. So that kind of confined me to the house aside from a couple of strolls down to the port to grab some take away food. <br />
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In order, my weekend went like this. Friday evening it started with the gathering of munchies, collation of booze and tabletop Call of Cthulhu roleplaying. A really fun session that saw the return of my burly woodkeeper ' Cutter' to the fray. Although he didn't actually get up to much as he is very much more the brawn than brains of the group and it was a particularly cerebral session. He seemed to be in the background a bit as a result, but he'll get his time to shine again soon I am sure! He did get to use some of his legendary tracking skills though up in Derbyshire, where he was hunting what we think may turn out to be a Werewolf. I'm sure there will be some chances for him to get physical though soon, the session was left in a real cliffhanger! That session ended late (I'm an hour in front of the rest of the players), so I logged in to EQ2 for about an hour, then watched some TBBT and went to bed.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>Saturday was an early start and I went and got the food shopping. My ex was in need of a bit of kid free time to clean her house, so I had them for a couple of hours and grabbed some lunch. After dropping them off I locked myself up in the house, did some laundry and cleaning and then it was game time. I kinda hopped between games for the most of the afternoon,but I think I broke my DIRT2 addiction. I have now, finally got to grips with DIRT3. One of the problems with letting DIRT2 go is that it was just so bloody amazing. The feel of the cars and the differing surfaces was very intuitive and it just felt 'right'. In contrast I had found that DIRT3 seemed a little bit too 'unruly'. I know it is supposed to be realistic on advanced level, but I have driven some of these cars in real life and on varying surfaces. The controls seemed just too raw. But, I have since slowly come to terms with them and am now really starting to enjoy the game. The graphics are amazing even at hyper speed and now that I have gotten used to the twitchy controls, I'm starting to appreciate the different nuances of the vehicles too. In addition, it's nice to have a challenge. In DIRT2 I pretty much finish about 5 or 6 seconds ahead of the competition. In DIRT 3 I still can't win every race and some of them I get the distinct feeling I am just about dragging my ass through. I'm getting better though. Sorry DIRT2, but DIRT3 is now commanding my driving game time.<br />
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That evening a short walk down to the port for an Indian takeaway (with a quick added beer with my mate Pete), ended with me back at home, feet up watching 'The Dark Knight Rises'. I really enjoyed it. It did seem a bit long in places and it would have been nice to see a bit more super tough Batman rather than beaten down old crippled Batman, but it was nice to see the challenge of Bane. That's one tough dude! One comment, I loved Banes accent and dialogue. Funny and brilliant at the same time. I recommend a watch if you've not seen it. Oh, I guessed who was going to be 'Robin' in the next film about 2 minutes after the character was introduced. Not too subtle. One comment about Michael Caine's role in the movie. The role is a good one and I have enjoyed him in that character for the last couple of movies. But, it just seemed a little 'over' acted this time round. Still worth a watch though. If I had to give it a percentage it would be about 75 ish.<br />
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Sunday a/m was a late get up. I woke early enough, I was awake about 8 am, but aside from getting out of bed to make myself a cup of lovely Earl Grey rosey lea, I didn't actually 'get up' until about 11.30 am. I caught up with my watching of 'The Office (U.S)' episodes (I was about 4 behind). When I finally dragged myself out of bed and had showered, I plugged in my iphone's music and headed out for a walk. Although cold it was lovely and sunny and it seemed a shame to waste the day. About a 5 mile 'Soundgarden sponsored' walk ended up in the Port and at my old haunt 'The Dolphin' cafe for a coffee (where I go to chill and write my novel). I chillaxed there for about an hour. Whilst I was there something weird happened. I was chatting to the owner who is a very beautiful woman about my age, who although from the UK must have Latin roots as she looks completely Spanish with big brown eyes and olive skin. Whilst we were chatting she kept touching me. It wasn't an 'ongoing' conversation. It carried on whenever she walked past, for a couple of minutes each a time. But every time she came over, she either rubbed or touched my arm, letting her touch 'linger' each time she did so. Both on arrival at my table and when she left. I am SO stupid when it comes to reading signs from the opposite sex, but I'm reckoning she might have been in to me. Which causes me a problem. I'm staunchly moral in how I conduct myself in my life and I'm pretty sure she is married, which means I wouldn't go near her in that sense. So that causes another knock on problem. That's my creating space. It's where I go to sit and watch the sea and the palm trees and relax my mind so it can create and head out on the journey of writing. I really could do without that space coming with any baggage. Perhaps if I ignore it, the situation will go away. Who knows, I may be wrong anyhow. Of course there is another angle to look at this. I only 'think' she is married. I'm not sure why. She doesn't wear a ring but I have been going there for years and there has to be a reason I conclude that she is. But it's not a 100% certainty. If she's not married or seeing anyone, then maybe. Who knows. LoL. Can you tell I'm not that bothered about getting in another relationship? ;)<br />
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That afternoon saw me head back home (another good 3 mile jaunt..went home a bit more direct) and after doing some chores I again powered up the PC and played some EQ2. Once again I didn't really get to experience the new expansions (well I know AoD is old but it's still new to me) as I was helping out some guildies. Didn't really matter, what did matter was the fact we had an absolute riot. So much in fact, before I knew it it was about 8pm and the process of getting everything ready for work the following day was required. So, I hammered that out, then spent the remainder of my evening playing GTA-San Andreas (nice bit of semi-vintage gaming) and catching up on my TBBT, Modern Family and New Girl. I don't even recall the New Girl I watched. The next thing I knew is that the alarm was going off this morning and it was time to get up and shower.<br />
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That was my weekend. Lovely, relaxing and totally about me. My one regret? I haven't yet managed to hook up with Jahf on voice chat. There's no escape! I'll catch you this week dude!<br />
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Oh, and thanks to my Bro for his <a href="http://farbeyondmycapacity.blogspot.com/2012/12/return-of-bard-and-lotro-epic-fail.html" target="_blank">warm welcome back to me to the world of bloggage.</a> <br />
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Be well.<br />
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I was walking past the computer and saw in the chat box "Naadir has logged in". I couldn't hardly contain myself. Naadir is Jahf, an old friend from way back when in EQ2 history and we have stayed strong buddies ever since. He's a sterling fella and I have a great fondness for our friendship. So, after not seeing him for so long online (it's been, well it's been bloody ages!) it was wonderful to be able to chat to him again and catch up. Really made my week that did.<br />
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He's digging out his mic so tonight we can chat away the evening just like old times, putting the world to rights and generally having a right old laugh. That's what I love about EQ2 and online gaming in general, especially MMOs where the community is central to the game. I've tried explaining it to folks who look at me like I have just been crowned the 'King of the Nerds' when I tell them I indulge in a bit of online role playing in a Massively Multiplayer Online game. But what they don't realise is that whilst they are sat on their couch watching Coronation Street, that I am reaching out around the world and making new contacts and feeding existing friendships. That's right you don't have to have physically met someone to be their friend!<br />
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Because of online gaming, I now have good friends who live up the coast in Spain, some who live in Finland, many who live in America, a couple who live in Australia, some in Wales, a lot in the UK, a couple in Italy and Canada and a few in Sweden, a couple in Germany. I'm sure there are some I am forgetting. But do you see my point? Yes, it may be classed as a bit nerdy, but through this conduit I have been able to formulate friendships, with other human beings who I otherwise would have never likely met.<br />
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I wish I could explain to the Nerd Critics that whilst they were down the local public house, chatting to 'Bob' after having given me the "you oughta get out more" speech, that I was crafting lasting and meaningful friendships with folks all over the world, sharing in the intricacies of their lives and sharing in the issues they deal with every day, local idiosyncrasies, cultural differences. The list goes on. Just because I have never met these folks face to face, doesn't mean squat. I do chat with them via live voice apps and sometimes we tlak for hours about all sorts of subjects, not just the games we are playing. We giggle, have a great laugh, we sometimes cry and share in each others torment in our lives, offering support or kind words. These are REAL friendships, and I value them highly.<br />
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I can't wait to speak to Jahf later. I've got some bevvies in, my comfy seat, my computer and mic headphones/mic. I'm all set for an excellent evening in with an excellent friend.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.experienceproject.com/stories/Think-You-Can-Find-A-Friend-On-The-Internet/1611536" target="_blank"><img height="500" id="il_fi" src="http://www.apoetscorner.com/poems/friends/afriendunseen.jpg" style="padding-bottom: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px;" width="399" /></a> </div>
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Be well. </div>
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Quite a lot has happened since my last post way back when on Thursday November 10th 2011.<br />
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My real life has been chaotic, crazy, heartbreaking, joyful, and in some circumstances, very lucky!<br />
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My wife of 13 years left me, but we're still good mates and are sharing custody of the kids. All is happy in that arena now. I also got a new job. A pretty well paid one with quite a lot of responsibility and that seems to be going well too. My youngest daughter hit 4 years old, my oldest will be 11 in January.<br />
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Gaming wise, I am still dabbling in EQ2, but to be honest haven't done anything constructive really in either the Age of Discovery Ex-Pac, or indeed the new one, Chains of Eternity. I have them both, but just seem to dabble in the quests or mentor down helping folks when I log in. A couple of nights a go I took part in my first raid for an age! It was fun to see Volt way down the parse with the healers after a couple of years of top end hiatus. I certainly have a lot of work to do in exploring the last two ex-pacs and getting the old codger up to speed. 18 months ago I was used to seeing him near the top of the parse always. It's nice to have a challenge.<br />
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<a name='more'></a><br />
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As for other games, I have played Dirt 3 (and still love a bit of Dirt 2 too), completed GTA - San Andreas again (I love a bit of vintage gaming..I've been playing Micro Machines too on the PS2 format).<br />
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I have dabbled in SWTOR, which I really did love. the storylines are epic and I still fully intend to finish my two fave toons on there at some point, Voltaan a level 29 Jedi Sentinel, and Shah'lai my 32 Trooper. I kinda lost interest after my playing partner (my estranged wife) quit for a while, but it's still there any I have recently (last week) picked that up again to enjoy some more SW fun.<br />
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Aside from that, I haven't done much apart from watch TV series such as Person of Interest, Homeland, TBBT, New Girl, The Office (US), Pawn Stars to name but a few. And of course my year has been filled with a huge amount of watching Motorbike Racing such as British Superbikes, World Superbikes, MotoGP (and Moto2 + 3), World Endurance champs, MotoX and so on. I've done some Motocrossing, ridden my Kwaka ZX9 pretty much everyday and oh yeah, been knocked off it by a less than diligent car driver (a nice side swipe in to the kerb). My baby currently sits on my driveway awaiting repair.<br />
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I have also started to take part in a table top roleplaying group again, bringing together all the old table toppers I used to play with twenty years ago. Because we are all over the place now, we are using the '<a href="http://www.fantasygrounds.com/" target="_blank">fantasy ground</a>s' system with the Call of Cthulhu ruleset and Skype to carry out the sessions. It's been working really well and my Bro (who is still running his epic blog <a href="http://farbeyondmycapacity.blogspot.co.uk/" target="_blank">here</a>) has been doing a blinding job of running Mask's of Nyarlathotep for us. You can see his reports on the sessions <a href="http://farbeyondmycapacity.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/campaign%20journal?&max-results=5" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
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I'm also still busy writing my novel. It's going well! I reckon I should have a copy to send to publishers early next year at the current rate of writing. <br />
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So, for now, that's about it. More updates to follow and no doubt some interesting EQ2 posts as I try to drag Voltaan up to his 'legend' status once more.<br />
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Yup, as Ferris says, "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it".<br />
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Well, try as I might, I just can't seem to gather the time or enthusiasm to get blogging at the moment. Things haven't stopped for me in life or EQ2 and all is still progressing nicely. It's just that when I find I have time to write, I am spending it writing my book and not my blog. So, I'm not abondoning ole bloggy, just putting her on hold for a while. I'll say "see you soon", although to be honest, I'm not sure how 'soon' that will be.</div>
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Be well.</div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><br />I’ve been playing EQ2 pretty relentlessly when I get spare time. I’ve continued raiding and Volts equipment is not starting to look something like it should be. There’s some pretty large and important gaps though, such as my leg and head pieces. The leg pieces mob goes down at least once a week for us, and yet I still am waiting to be lucky enough to see them drop (always seem to be mage and scout legs when we kill Proto-Exarch Finnrdag) and when it has dropped I have never won the roll. As of yet the only head piece mob I have killed is in the x2 and I’ve only ever seen the fighter head piece drop once. Yes I lost that roll too. Aside from my unlucky rolls on those, I really have been doing quite well with drops. Fully fabled apart from my Legendary BP, with only two armour pieces to upgrade and a charm slot. So I’m pretty pleased. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"></span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-size: small;"><br />I’ve been enjoying raiding too. It’s not just been about the gathering of equipment. It’s been really nice hammering away at tougher content again and working as part of a larger team. I’ve certainly been getting plenty of chances to do that too, as I seem to have been utilised as the Off-Tank quite a bit. I’ve been pretty pleased with how that’s gone. Of course, when you are in a raid with some nice dps, it’s not always easy grabbing aggro on adds when you need to, but I think it’s being going OK. On some mobs where there are just a silly amount of adds, that doesn’t always go to plan, but usually we have at least another brawler with us nowadays and they are nicely picking up the errant beggars who seem to get away from me. Our Monks dps was nice last night, especially seeing as they only returned to raiding with us a few weeks ago. For the first two zones, I was about 10k higher than they were on dps, whilst I was off-tanking too, but in the last zone, they switched our Monk to the caster group and his dps was really really sweet. Out dps’ing me by 35k at one point. It was nice to see. They have obviously found a real sweet spot there and it would be nice to see that continue to make our force all the better.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />Although I have been enjoying the raiding, it has driven home a point to me though. This dawned on me a couple of weeks ago whilst raiding and we were sat around listening to strats and waiting for the pull. I realised that no matter how the strats change or the look of the raid zones or the graphics of the mobs we are fighting, essentially, it’s the same as when I first started to raid in anger back in Kingdom of Sky expansion. Now, as I am approaching 40 years old, I’m allowed to do some reassessments and have the occasional mid-life crisis, and it really did dawn on me that I have been doing this stuff for a long time now and I’ve really not moved forward. In real life my work is going well and I seem to be impressing my bosses and gaining notice from the industry in general, but sometimes progression in your work life isn’t enough. I’m not ready to quit raiding and EQ2 just yet, but I reckon it’s going to be on the horizon in the interest of moving forward and not stagnating.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />In other EQ2 news, I have been playing a bit more with my Bro Merecraft recently, and although not up to our previous quota, as my niece and her sleep patterns settle (awww), we seem to get a bit more time to hunt together. The last few sessions we have had we have been hammering out some of his old HQs. We polished off ‘The Symbol in the Flesh’ in Loping Plains area and also have done the ‘A Thorn of Old’, the Wyrmslayer questline. That one was quite a bit of fun actually. For any who haven’t done this quest it ends with several Dragons that you have to kill. One is a heroic only, Sothis in The Halls of Fate, but the other two are epic x4s. Harla Dar in The Temple of Scale (although this didn’t stop us spending 20 mins looking for him in Sanctum of Scaleborn at my insistance!) and Lord Vyemm in the Labaratory of Lord Vyemm. We really had a lot of fun duo’ing those (with Volt mentored to 82), especially Labs. Most of the mobs were grey to us until we hit the second half of the zone, and then they were only green. None of the mobs gave us any trouble really. To the point of when we were killing Vyemm, we thought we had leashed his buddy the Slavering Alzid (or something like that), and only when Vyemm was dead did we realise the add had been stuck in the wall the whole time pummelling me. It made that little of a dent, we didn’t even notice him. So that kinda gives you an idea how easy it was. It was really weird though. I recall coming through with a whole raid force (this was the first raid zone I ever completed) and needing to hit around 15 – 20 k dps to be successful. It did seem a little strange to be going through mentored and sill duo’ing the mobs and with just two of us hitting more than treble the amount of dps our whole raid used to do. How times move on eh?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /> The other night Merecraft dinged 83 and it dawned on me that for him to be levelling above 80, it meant he would have access to the Sundered Frontier zones.(cannot for the life of me understand why it took me so long to realise). We previously thought he only had up to TSO expansion wise. I was pretty made up about this discovery, because for me SF is a great expansion with a really fun set of quests that lead through the 80’s nicely up to 90th level. It’s my fave expansion after Kunark, so to get the chance to be running through the quest lines again will be great. I have only ever taken two toons through this expansion, and that’s Voltaan and Adurj Le’Bard. Back then I had decided to ditch my many many alts (I had 6 at 80) in favour of concentrating on just one or two. So unlike Kunark which I have done a gazillion times, it will be nice to help out in SF and Stonebrunt.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />I’m still undecided whether to buy the expansion ‘Age of Discovery’ when it comes out or not. I am starting to think about winding my game time down to nothing. SW:ToR is on the horizon and I know my Bro will be well engrossed in that, and if he likes it, he may never return to Norrath. My Bro being in-game was one major contributory factor for me sticking around. Then on top of that there is the déjà vu feeling I mentioned above when raiding, and I’m starting to wonder what I’m actually achieving here, or if I’m just stagnating. No decisions have to be made yet though. I’ve given myself an after Christmas review period, and I’ll see how I feel then. SW:ToR will have been out for a few weeks and I’ll be able to see what effect that has on my time in EQ2. In the mean time, it’s just more of the same old same old.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />For other gaming fun I am still power sliding my way through Dirt2. I’ve now reached level 41 and scarily, 47 hours worth of play time. I’m sure that’s nothing compared to some, but that’s a quite a bit to be spending on a driving game, even though it is one of my fave genres. I really enjoy the differences in Dirt2. The fact that you can switch between races and then tournaments, depending on what style of racing is taking your fancy that day. The fact that you get to use some historic rallying cars is fantastic fun. I remember watching Tony Pond in 1985/6 drive the Group B Metro 6R4 round Trentham Gardens during the Lombard RAC rally (British leg of the World Rally Championship). Being able to race one, then watch the replays was so much fun. Likewise with the Ford Escort RS and the Ford RS200. I really like the definite difference between the types of car. Try a different car in the events of the same ilk and sometimes the difference is startling, but lot’s of fun. For example, try accelerating hard whilst in a turn in your Escort (rear wheel drive) and you’ll be seeing trees and bushes. Try it in one of the Suburus and your gliding round the turn with perfection. Totally different driving styles. I guess that’s why I like it. You truly have to adapt and use all your skills to win in the varying races/classes.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />One thing that seems a bit of a pain is the fact you do seem to be re-visiting the same tracks over and over. Admittedly, there is quite a few of them spread all over the globe, but it doesn’t seem to take too long before you know your way around the varying tracks, forward and reverse. I’d like a bit more variation for the tracks, but to be honest I guess it’s just like any other ‘non-circuit’ racing. The WRC are well used to visiting the same stages every year. Some are changed of course, but the stages do remain fairly similar. So, it’s probably gaming meets real life there. I’m still really really enjoying the game though, and seem to have plenty left to do. Not sure how many hours worth, but there is still a nice chunk of greyed out Tournaments / Races / Challenges to get my teeth in to.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />Finally, a quick mention for MotoGP. Casey Stoner won the MotoGP World Championship yesterday with two races in hand. He won it on his 26th birthday (man I wish I had been doing that at 26!) and at his home race. His performance all year has been legendary, rivalled only with the skill of Jorge Lorenzo really. I guess Pedrosa, Dovi also. But whatever the competition, Caseys year has simply been electrifying. His talent is amazing and to be honest he has the skill to join the top two of all time (including my hero Rossi) and maybe, if time is there for him, to surpass them. So, congratulations to Casey Stoner...and a quick comment. I know you get your nay sayers (and I’m not your biggest fan..a bit too serious for me) but stop trying to justify yourself. He made a comment after the race stating that previously he had received criticism for his 2007 World Championship win and that this one couldn’t be challenged as there were three other people on the same bike, so he won it fair and square. But I don’t see it as that at all. He had the best package. The most important part of the best package is the rider. You won this Championship and the last one in 2007 fair and square. Do not justify it, simply bask in it Casey. You are now one of only four other riders in the history of motorcycle racing to win a World Championship on two different manufacturers motorcycles. First Ducati in 2007, then Honda in 2011. It’s a very exclusive club, and you are now in it! Congratulations Mr Stoner, to you and your team for a well deserved Championship win. Now get MotoGP back as exciting as Moto2 or BSB and we’ll all be winners.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />Finally, finally...condolences to the family and team of British born Dan Wheldon, Indy racer in the US, following a fatal race incident during the last race of the season at the Las Vegas 300. Dan took the win in May of the legendary Indy 500, for the second time. Great racer and if the reports from the paddock over the last few years are anything to go by, a true gent. R.I.P Mr Wheldon. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />Be well.</span><br />
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And it's likely to be a while longer. I have so much going on at the moment in real life, I simply do not have the brain space to think about what I am going to write and although this may come as a surprise to some, I do actually consider my scribings before they are posted. This does not mean I won't be back regularly blogging, it just means I have to get all this RL crap outta the way first.</div>
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I know it's not MMO based, but there is one thing close to my heart I wanted to touch upon quickly before I head off to do more work, and that is this weekends British Superbike Chamionship final three races this weekend at Brands Hatch circuit (awesome place! It's where I cheered Colin Edwards to his second World Superbike Championship win).</div>
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The racing this weekend was spectacular to say the least and after a whole seasons worth of racing across 26 races throughout the UK, the Championship was won by six thousandths of a second! The finish had to be confirmed by timer and a photo finish. There was literally a wheel in it. That's some damn close racing. Sadly the fella I was supporting, John 'Hopper' Hopkins for the Crescent Racing Suzuki Team was the one to lose out in this battle to Tommy Hill. Hill was just as deserving of the Championship as he rode amazingly this year especially when you consider the difficult injuries he has comeback from and not to mention he nearly quit racing back in 2003 (I think) when his funding ran out.</div>
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So, a heart felt set of commiserations for Hopper who did an absolutely stunning job riding at the front for most of the season, especially when he had never ridden at over half of the tracks, and congratulations to Tommy Hill. Both amazing riders and ideally, they both should have won. I know it's not possible, but come on...six thousandths of a second after a whole seasons racing!</div>
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The below video (click through to watch in a better size) is well worth a look. One of the best final laps I have ever seen in motorcycle racing. Hopper is on the blue & white Suzuki #21, and Hill is on the Yamaha R1 in Yellow #33. Amazing stuff. Hats off to these riders. Apologies to any F1 fans out there or even MotoGP fans (yes I am one), but this ferocious battle is what motor racing is all about, not a procession. The size of the cajones on these guys...phenomenal.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYLq5zC33AbQJNXcxrExIY2-Sqy266P4QGtWY9IrETKy9wf4y7tFEhefqwDTbVFQBZijDD2BW7ER8JkI0TdoL4hlBbSaEK5l_YSE-O7GoH9bedNPDyH2L-bqFwmw7qswt4eoNtStcxEevX/s1600/photo+finish.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" kca="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYLq5zC33AbQJNXcxrExIY2-Sqy266P4QGtWY9IrETKy9wf4y7tFEhefqwDTbVFQBZijDD2BW7ER8JkI0TdoL4hlBbSaEK5l_YSE-O7GoH9bedNPDyH2L-bqFwmw7qswt4eoNtStcxEevX/s1600/photo+finish.JPG" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><em>The photo finish! This race decided the whole championship..after 26 races, this is how close it was..</em></td></tr>
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Be well.</div>
Adurj Le`Bardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07156645450859698240noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6427248773823685887.post-78120484295711023822011-09-26T13:01:00.000-07:002011-09-26T13:03:35.620-07:00Age of Discovery<div class="ii gt" id=":xl" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
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<span style="font-size: small;">It’s about time I updated my raiding experience. If you read this
blog you’ll know that I had been (originally) helping out a friend who
needed a raid brawler for Destiny of Velious content. I’d hung up my
raiding shoes but seeing as it was a specific request and seeing as I
knew a lot of the folks, I of course agreed. Things have moved on a
little from that currently. I guess it’s one of those things being part
of a raid syndicate and not a full on raiding guild. Folks move on, the
structure changes. Normally the ‘core’ stay the same, but change is a
definite factor.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Currently, with the old (new) syndicate changing a lot of folks moved back to the old (old – yes I
know it’s confusing) raid syndicate which is now where I’m at and
raiding with a bunch I have known for quite some time. It didn’t take me
long to get the raiding bug back and I’m a little disappointed in
myself and my willpower that it was that easy. I had hoped that I would
be able to ditch that particular addiction and move on, but after a few
raids, I was hooked again. There is one thing that seems wrong though
and that is that my wife Emarald is still absent and won’t be returning
to game. It really doesn’t feel the same raiding without her sending me
tells it’s my turn to make a cup of tea. We also miss her mega heals,
although the raid itself is doing quite well, from what points of
reference I have that is.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Voltaan
is currently about half kitted now in DoV easy mode gear and I know
I’ll never be getting the Hard Mode gear. I think this must be one of
the only expansions with there being Hard Mode content that has still
yet to be broken by any guild on any server. Of course that may not
still be the case, but it certainly was a while ago when I last
checked the rankings. So, I’m not too bothered about the HM stuff. Sure
it would be a challenge if I ever get kitted enough, but being honest,
by then, I’m not sure if I’ll still be playing EQ2 or not. I have in my
opinion, valid reasons for my apprehension to my future with EQ2.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Over
at <a href="http://eq2wire.com/">EQ2Wire</a>, they have posted <a href="http://eq2wire.com/2011/09/23/everquest-ii-age-of-discovery-2-months-to-go/">here</a> a summary of all the official chat
concerning the upcoming expansion, Age of Discovery. Which, to be
honest, after reading the write up seems like a bit of an ironic title.
So to start with, the Age of Discovery, will include, wait for it... no
discovery. There will be no new overland or dungeons for this expansion.
Taken from EQ2Wire and the official SoE release, here’s what to expect.
Before we delve in to it, one must consider SoEs track record for
testing content (GU61 anyone?)</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="color: #333333;">Beastlords</span></b><span style="color: #333333;">
— The most frequently requested feature of EQ1 arrives with the
Beastlord class. The 25th class will wear Brawler equipment but
otherwise have an archetype of Scout. Will have a separate AA tree for
their pet</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="color: #333333;">Mercenaries</span></b><span style="color: #333333;"> — NPCs which can be hired to assist in questing, groups, and raids</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="color: #333333;">Tradeskill Apprentices</span></b><span style="color: #333333;"> — Little is known about these, but they use a new crafting table type and offer unique new recipes.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="color: #333333;">Design Your Own Dungeon</span></b><span style="color: #333333;">
— Based on an updated version of the housing system, players can build
dungeons using existing Zone styles, placing Items and Mobs picked up
from around Norrath. They can then publish their Dungeon for others to
play *using avatar NPCs* (you may not use your own character to run a
DYOD). Rewards include gear for your main character, or items which can
be used to build your own Design Your Own Dungeons.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="color: #333333;">Item Reforging</span></b><span style="color: #333333;"> — Reshuffle some (but not all) of the stats on your items. You’ll also gain an in-game Particle Effect editor.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="color: #333333;">Increase to 350 AAs</span></b></span></li>
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<span style="font-size: small;">I’m
not that bothered about Beastlords. I have already come to terms with
the fact I no longer have time for alts, let alone levelling one to 90
again. Voltaan will remain my main until I finish playing the game. I
simply cannot afford to commit to another character.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">The
Mercs sound like fun, if they get the mechanics right. It worked well
in EQ as far as I am aware. Let’s hope the same gremlins work on the EQ2
version. This could mean that a lot of those folks who like to solo
will now have their options widened. It will mean the same for duo-ing
partners and for smaller raid forces. It remains to be seen how useful
or how effective they will be. If they turn out to be too powerful we
could have issues and in addition, if they are too weak they will be of
no use. I’m sure they will find a happy medium, at some point. My lack
of faith is showing methinks.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Tradeskill
apprentices is a cool idea. Pity SoE didn’t think of it first. Let’s
hope they can make it work for those who like to be all EVE about their
tradeskilling and if they’ll work for you whilst offline as well as out adventuring. I'm sure the answer to this one is out there somewhere, but I've not researched it yet.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">DYOD
should be a lot of fun. The only hope I have for this is that we will
be allowed to take our own toons through content created by other
players. It says above it may be a system where you enter with a
pre-determined avatar (not your toon), even though your toon will reap
the rewards. Not so sure I like that idea. I play my toon for a reason
and for those old table toppers like myself, the back story of a
character is very important and when I play my toon, I’m not just
playing some pixels, I’m putting on a pair of old comfy shoes. I hope
with the DYOD feature I’m not forced away from that.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Item
Reforging sounds interesting. It could mean unique weapons/equipment
for our toons and they are implementing a way we can alter the particle
effects, making it truly unique in looks and effect. Or as my cynical
side would wish me to state, this is a way of getting players to rectify
the mess up with the re-itemisation and to stop all the complaining.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Increasing
the AAs to 350 will be interesting. Why? Well because they have not
given any clue if we will be getting a new AA tree. If not, that means
an extra 50 AA to spread around what we already have. I’m sure some
would benefit from it, and Volt would a little but to be honest, about
40 of those points would be wasted as he already has pretty much most of
what I like to be a jack of all trades (tanky/dps). We’ll have to see
how they deal with this.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">So,
knowing all this and knowing there will be no new overland or
instance/dungeon content (aside from what players will design and
implement under DYOD), I have to ask, is it actually an expansion par-se? Am I willing to pay for it? The amount of content seems a lot less
than some of the old Adventure Packs that were released way back when.
I’m just not sure. I guess the pricing will have a lot to do with it for
me.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">I
know SoE won’t be worried. There are enough out there who have been
waiting an eternity for the Beastlord and for the serious endgamers, the
extra AAs will not be missed. SoE will make their money, just you see.
But for me ( I know a lot are happy with the ‘expansion’ content), I
have to ask, what are they actually getting the for their expansion money? I’m
not so sure that the spent Euros will equate to value for money, and
nowadays most of us don’t have an extra cent to spend. I’m still on the
fence. This may just be a blip in the road for me, but if they charge a
fortune for the expansion, it may be the end. There’s 2 months to go.
We’ll see what happens.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;">Be well</span>
</div>
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</script>Adurj Le`Bardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07156645450859698240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6427248773823685887.post-43686020891548650792011-09-13T12:22:00.000-07:002011-09-13T14:53:48.725-07:00When the music's over, turn off the lights<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;">My
wife is currently looking for other games to play. She recently quit
EQ2 (for about the third or fourth time) and has already reached
saturation point from TV. Until The Vampire Diaries comes back on our
screens, she’ll need something else to get her teeth in to before she
throws the TV out the window.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">She
gave RIFT a go when it came out, as did I, but for some reason it
didn’t gel with us. I’m not sure why, but I’m pretty sure it didn’t have
anything to do with the game. I think it’s kind of a MMO fatigue that gets in to your bones after you have been playing them for a while. By
‘a while’, I mean for about the last ten years on and off for Ema and
I. Any who have had this feeling when playing an MMO will know what I’m
talking about. The way that we log in, then just sit around, chat a
little and before you know it an hour has passed by and you have nothing
to show for it. When things get like this, in my experience the game
pretty much becomes social networking site with folks logging on just to
see their friends and guildies. Not a problem of course, but the focus
is definitely different and you end up paying a premium every month just
to be able to hang with your friends.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">The
lethargy that you get after a while just sits there. It’s usually not
big enough to stop you playing the game, but when you log in it’s
certainly enough to stop you from getting started on anything
substantial. Even when we switched to RIFT for a short while, we
couldn’t become enthused. Like I said, it’s not because of the game. I
think it’s because we have become fed up of starting at the beginning
time after time. We both played a lot of alts over our time in MMOs and have ‘started’ time and time again. RIFT was different, but
not different enough to stimulate us or to grip us in a way that an MMO
hasn’t before.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">I’m
not quite at the stage Ema is as she always plays the game to death. I
don’t mean time wise, as Emas log in times were conservative compared to
others, but when she did log in, only a minute would pass before she
was in a group doing tough content or raiding. My play style is a little
more relaxed and as a result I feel I don’t burn out as quickly as she
does. But it does happen for me. I have quit EQ2 twice before, not found
anything to replace it and come back. Ema is very keen to see this
doesn’t happen again with her. She’s trying to fill the time with
alternative gaming options and real life stuff instead (there’s a
surprising amount of RL stuff out there apparently!) and as such hopes
that she won’t feel the need to log in to EQ2 again. The only thing that
would bring her back I think is absolute boredom and her friends, but
even that isn’t too much of a draw back in to the game as she has
contact with most on Facebook.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">I
have to consider that it wasn’t just the fatigue that pushed Ema to
quit. At the time there was a period of unrest in her normal circles and
she got fed up of being mentioned in drama, when she didn’t cause it or
really have anything to do with it, but she get’s dragged in because
she was popular and someone folks confided in her, taking her listening
as a green light to mention her name in their point of view. Anyhow, it
was a joint reason between the fatigue and the fact she was simply fed
up of seeing her name dragged in to stuff that was closely related to
drama, and she was fed up with how some who she thought were old
‘friends’ and how they treated her and most of all was fed up of
watching her friends and folks she cares about fall out and not get
along. All of this compounded her fatigue with the game and gave her the
‘it’s not really worth it’ vibe.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Ema does have RL stuff she can be getting on with but what can fill her gaming vacuum assuming she still has time? Anything
in depth with a long complicated storyline is not going to cut it.
Gaming time has been cut down already and for some instant
gratification, I suggested our PS3. I recall back in the day when I had
just had my new Playstation2 delivered and several of my friends
including my now wife used to spend evening upon evening trying to beat
each other down in many a competition of Mashed, Mini Micro Machines, or
SSX Tricky. I recon we can have just as much fun with that type of
competitive gaming nowadays. I know we haven’t indulged in that sort of
gaming for a long long time but it doesn’t always have to be sat at a PC
playing a game that really has no end and has been our gaming staple
for the last decade or so. Whatever she decides I know she’ll find
something to fill her time, and that’s the thing. MMOs take up SO much
of your time, there really is a huge gap to fill if you quit. Not just
that particular MMO, but any of them. I’ve mentioned previously my
/played hours on EQ2 caused me to cancel three of my accounts in horror
at the amount of time I have spent playing in total and you can’t just
rip that many hours out of your calendar and expect that you are still
going to be busy. That’s a lot of downtime to fill. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">I
must admit though, I’ve just thought of something that’s got me a
little worried. When my wife has time on her hands, she comes up with
‘ideas’. Those ideas usually involve some sort of physical task or chore
requiring my input. Oh my, I should have thought of this knock on
effect previously. I need to finish this post quickly and convince Ema
that MMOs are the way to go, and that the Devil creates work for idle
hands, (or work for my busy hands, allocated by the idle).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Be well.</span> </span></div>
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</script>Adurj Le`Bardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07156645450859698240noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6427248773823685887.post-85362387359519874262011-09-09T01:58:00.000-07:002011-09-09T01:58:37.451-07:00Alts, I've had a few.<div style="text-align: justify;">Alts. I have a lot. I used to own four Everquest 2 accounts (I now only run one). At its hay day my EQ2 involvement had me running five top tier toons over the four accounts with about six or seven lower tiered toons that I would work on when I had time. I’ve now only got one top tier toon and although my alt list is full on the account, I don’t play any of the other toons on a regular basis. I’ve been thinking about this and what had caused the change in how I approached the game.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">A huge amount of folks play alts. It even has its own name when one becomes obsessed with running lots of toons, Altitus. There are folks who have teams of tradeskill alts, some who have an army of alts they can pick from when two, three, four or more boxing. Folks have raid alts that they swap in and out depending on which zone/encounter they are running. Alts are part of the game for most people.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">My alts were all to do with experiencing the game though different styles of play and because I used to be a roleplayer, there is no shortness of back story and each of my alt toons was created because at that time I had an ‘interest’ in creating a toon of that type. For example, I recall creating Langdale my Ratonga Ranger who I played for a short while, all because when I created him I was in a buoyant mood and feeling a little childish and mischievous. For his short existence I wrote a blog about <a href="http://thelangdaleconnection.wordpress.com/2007/06/07/langdale-and-the-hates-envy-connection/">his adventures</a>. From what I recall he was created following a few drinks at a family BBQ. Voltaan was created out of a roleplay point of view. I was fed up of playing toons with fancy glowing blades and huge amounts of magic going off, so I thought it would be nice to play a toon that in a world of magic and power, just liked to punch things in the face.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I guess everyone creates alts for their own reasons. As I say, I have created them from a RP point of view, and emotional point of view, and of course, as I am sure many have, from a boredom point of view. The one thing that does seem to be fairly consistent is the fact that once bitten, the player is doomed to have a load of alts that they switch in and out depending on mood and play style, pretty much for their entire gaming career in their game of choice. So, why did I quit alts? Why hit the Alt cold turkey?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a name='more'></a><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The first reason is financial. I’m lucky enough to have a good job that pays well. But no matter how much you earn, you always pretty much spend up to your ability to spend. Add in a family and of course at some point you’re going to need to save a few pennies. One of the first things to go for me when the belt has been tightened, are surplus gaming accounts. They are one of the things I find hard to justify. It’s not as if I can say that because of quitting a few accounts that I won’t be able to log in. No, I’ll still be able to enjoy the game; just with less options is all. So getting rid of the extra accounts is not too difficult a thing when you need to watch the funds.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The second reason I quit alts is because of a little bit of shame and shock. One day whilst ‘alt hopping’ and switching some in game cash around, for some reason whilst playing Voltaan I did a /played. To my horror, I was greeted by the message that I had spent over 200 days playing that one toon. As I hopped from alt to alt, I checked their /played time and to be honest, it scared me. Another 90 days on my Dirge, 45 days on my Necro, 60 ish on my Assassin, 25 on my Zerker and many more! I started to add up the numbers, then stopped. The figure did scare me. I looked at my daughters and wondered how I had spent so much time playing, where I had found the time? I try hard to be a good father, but those figures spoke for themselves. At some point time spent on alts could and perhaps should have been spent with my family. This was the catalyst for me. I decided there and then to never run alts again and to cut my play time down.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I did drag out a few of the older toons when Merecraft needed a level specific toon to tank for him in the lower tiers and I didn’t fancy playing Volt (to just mush everything in sight), we actually fancied a challenge. So out came an alt. But the alt went back into its box right after. It wasn’t an ongoing thing. So, now I am alt free. Yes my account has every slot filled, but the only one I play is Voltaan and I’m happy with that. I’m happy that whilst playing with Volt that I will always enjoy the toon. It took quite a few creations and many years of playing to find out that Bruiser was the class that agreed with me and my playstyle the most. Now I’ve found that out I feel I don’t miss alts that much, and I’m certainly content with my choice to spend less time playing the game on toons that aren’t my number one and the extra time that has given me with my family.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Alts are great. They provide an answer to many problems and situations, are fun to play, expand your experience and understanding of the game, allow you to still play with folks when your other classes are not required in a group. They allow you to conquer content you could not normally solo by virtue of ‘boxing’, they can offer a set of multiple personalities to match your mood should you be a roleplayer, they even provide alternative uses for all those nice items you get that the toon you are playing cannot utilise. They serve many a purpose to various folks. But for me, they’ve had to go. Cheerio my faithful army of minions, you can all climb back in your boxes. No. Not you Volt. You can stay right where you are.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Be well.</div>Adurj Le`Bardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07156645450859698240noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6427248773823685887.post-13958425957090081342011-09-07T02:58:00.000-07:002011-09-07T03:01:01.712-07:00The Reluctant Raider<div style="text-align: justify;">Volt went raiding again the other night, DoV content. It really does show you how much work I have to do when I don’t even recall the names of the raid instances we went to (yes I could check, but that would make it look like I knew what I was talking about). One of them was Kraytoks I think and the other Throne of Storms? I CoV’d in to the first one as I was late turning up (thanks Gibraltar border queue!!) and the other I got auto zoned in from Eastern Wastes. The nights raiding went quite well I thought, although obviously I have absolutely no point of reference. Volt came out with two armour pieces, a War Rune and a belt, all nicely equipped and adorned. I was a little frustrated that I couldn’t get any DoV red adorns even though I have enough faction. It’s all down to not having enough of the raid shards just yet. In the mean time he has filled the red slots with the war rune I won and red slot adornments from Sentinel’s Fate. It’s a good job I have a lot of Seals of Arad left.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I’m a little surprised myself that I have got back in to raiding. I swore I wouldn’t do it. I don’t really have the time and had got myself in to such a relaxed zone that the impetus wasn’t there. I just wanted to hang out with my Bro and guildies and have a bit of fun, questing and doing instances. So why did I? Well, if you read my post <a href="http://bardconnection.blogspot.com/2011/08/unrest-not-zone.html">here</a>, you’ll know that my old syndicate went through a bit of a tough time recently and as such a ‘splinter’ syndicate was started and they needed a brawler. So I offered to help until they get a better one (I’m kinda surprised that hasn’t happened already). That’s how I got back in to it. I’m not sure how long this will go on, or how long I will be needed to help out, but at the moment it’s quite good fun truth be told. I have considered that the more kit I get, the less likely they will want to let me go. It’s never fun for a raid force to get someone all equipped and then watch them stroll off in to the sunset. I want to avoid that if at all possible, so it may be that I stay, or that I find them a kick ass Brawler soon.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a name='more'></a><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">One thing I will say about playing Voltaan in anger again in raids, is that it took me a little time to get up to speed with how fast things move in that environment and then on the opposite side of the spectrum, how long it takes sometimes to get to the killing (I’m not a psycho, I assure you). With being one of only three tanks, I was called to offtank most of the fights and it went OK. I was a little bemused that as the least kitted of the tanks I was called to OT, but Volt never shies away from a challenge (obstinate old fool) and his kit wasn’t too bad (143 crit mit). It went really well. A couple of times we wiped on first pull because I was learning the script, but mostly everything went down as it should.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">One thing I should mention is the amount of adds that appear in some of the named fights. They seem to come in waves and with a higher frequency the longer the fight goes on. Now with not much hate transfer, two really hot Ranger dps’ers and a whole bunch of adds, it was a little like when you take the balls on a billiard table then bounce them all off the cushions at once then stand back and watch the chaos. Poor old Volt was running around like a headless chicken trying to gather the mobs up. Consequently he wasn’t doing enough damage to keep them aggroed as most of his damage comes from auto attack especially with group mobs and range was an issue, my AoEs weren’t catching all the mobs. Maybe next time I’ll be able to keep it a little tighter. It was a huge amount of fun, but also a little frustrating. The old raiding Volt would have had no trouble with that. I have to keep reminding myself that I’m just getting up to speed again.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">In other EQ2 news, a quick mention about the recent re-itemisation. Last night my Bro and I were mashing our way through The Crypt of Agony and three times we came across anomalies concerning loot. Firstly, two of the named didn’t drop chests. Nothing at all, not even a small or treasured chest. That may be old school, but I have never encountered that in CoA before. Like I say, maybe that was always there and I’ve just never experienced it. Secondly, a neck piece dropped that was the exact same as another that Merecraft had looted from a completely different location. Not a big deal, just a bit strange. Lastly, a legendary item dropped for Mere and at level 65 it was far superior than the one he had equipped and that was a level 75 item. Anyhow, the main reason to report this is that the re-itemisation is obviously working out very well indeed. Well done.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Whilst I am on the subject, duo’ing CoA was a lot of fun. It’s one of my fave RoK instances and we enjoyed bashing our way through. But, (yes there’s always a but) the easy way with which we sliced through, like a hot knife through butter was a little, well, meh. Volt obviously can solo the zone nowadays, but even mentored down there was absolutely no challenge, and I miss that. It’s one of the reasons I couldn’t get my head around re-itemisation, levels 20-80. The content is so easy, there really is no need to make toons more powerful by implementing re-itemisation that seems to have beefed up items in my experience, not reduced them where appropriate. I don’t know, maybe I’m being an old fuddy-duddy but I’d kind of like the chance that something is going to destroy me and I have to use my skill both as a toon and player to get through. Maybe next time I’ll auto mentor to 5 or 10 levels below the content and see what happens. It’s a shame I haven’t got any level specific toons just to see how that pans out. Although from watching Mere and how he has no issue getting ^^^ mobs down, I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t make much of a difference. Perhaps it is a good job I am doing x4 content again. I’m sure I’ll become accustomed to dirt naps again whilst raiding all too soon.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Be well.</div>Adurj Le`Bardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07156645450859698240noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6427248773823685887.post-59401812839747861252011-09-02T08:25:00.000-07:002011-09-02T08:29:11.328-07:00"10-42"<div style="text-align: justify;">A bit of a departure from the norm today. A few of you will know that I used to be a Police Officer in the UK. I left because I became disillusioned with how modern day policing was developing and being influenced by politics (it’s all about the statistics and not actually helping folks!). I remember pretty much of every minute of my 16 years of service. It was an amazing job with equal amount of job satisfaction, elation and sadness all rolled in to one. One of the very best things about the Police was the camaraderie of the officers. I spent 7 years on a specialist unit as a Police Marksman, where the camaraderie was the strongest, but only just against the normal everyday policing years.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">That is the reason I am writing today. I have not long heard of the sad death of one of my old colleagues (through illness, nothing suspicious). He was a person with an amazing character. Whoever he worked with had a treat in store for them that duty. There really was no one else like Clint. He was a one off. In a kind of eulogy for him, I’m going to run through some of my experiences working alongside the fella. By the end of the post, you’ll see why he was so well loved and respected by his colleagues.</div><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Clinton was an honest man, to say the least. In the six years I worked alongside him I only ever knew him to attend one social event with work colleagues. When asked if he would be attending a meet for drinks or any social event really, you would get the good natured reply of “Pikey (my nick), I see enough of you idiots all day long here at work. If you think I’m going to spend any of my hard earned personal time associating with you bunch of losers, you’re sadly mistaken”. Like I said, honest. And everyone loved him for that. With Clint you knew where you were and his comments were not made with nastiness, but in good humour with a wry grin. But he wasn’t joking completely. Like I said he only ever attended one event, and that was a wedding of his patrol partner. Ironically enough, his funeral was absolutely packed.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The first time I met Clinton was in my first days as a fresh faced bobby. At the start of a duty, you all gather around the ‘parade table’ and get given your duties for the day from the Duty Sergeant, in addition to any useful intelligence or current wanted persons. Back in the day, smoking was allowed in buildings in the UK and more often than not the parade room was awash with cigarette smoke during these meetings. Now being an extremely heavy smoker at the time, Clint had been banished to the local control room during this particular parade as the Sergeant was an anti-smoker. So, it fell to Clint to answer the phone, watch the CCTV cameras and man the local radio channel.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Serg was busy briefing us on the latest in a spate of ram-raids we were getting on higher value clothing stores in the area, when the official Police radio lights up with Clints dulcet tones in somewhat of a panic. “They’re doing it! It’s happening! I’ve just seen ‘em reverse through the fuckin’ window!”. Of course once calmed down we managed to find out that ram-raiders had smashed the front of a Benetton store and were making their way off with lots of brightly coloured clothes in a sports car. It was just how he was. Clint would not have been out of place in the BBC cop show, the Thin Blue Line.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Another time I was crewed with Clint, and we had been seconded to a rather rural area to help monitor a rave party that was going on at a farmhouse in its grounds. In itself, not an issue, but intel had been passed of certain drug activity going on at the site and descriptions told us it was more than likely one of the more influential local dealers making an unexpected appearance (his lackies usually did the ground work). So, we were parked up in a lay-by, off this single file country road simply watching the traffic coming and going, making note of any suspicious activity. It was a warm night and Clint has his car window open and his arm hanging out whilst we were stationary. We’d only been there ten minutes when a van trying to get access through the gate, reversed in to our Police vehicle, and on to Clints arm, trapping it against the door (he was uninjured). As the van drove off, he jumped out of the Police car and started to chase it on foot, mud splashing from his feet as he pounded after the van. With me leaning out of the window I shouted him back, reminding him we would need the car for a pursuit.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">What occurred next was perhaps one of the scariest and at the same time funniest things I have gone through. The van sped off in to the grounds of the farm, and because Clint had to run back to the car before we could pursue (I still wasn’t authorised to drive cop cars back then) we were a little behind. Now Clint was a great driver, very skilled (aside from when he was reversing..you’ll see what I mean later). He needed all his skill as the little car was pushed to its limits trying to catch the van down muddy dirt tracks. The whole time Clint was deathly silent and I thought he may have lost it. As we sped through the final gateway to the field where the rave was and where the van had come to a halt, two ticket guys on the gate both had to leap in to the hedge to avoid the speeding cop car as it slewed through the gate at about 60 mph. We came up to the van and the driver (somewhat bemused – he obviously hadn’t seen us in the dark lane and thought he had hit a gate post or something) was confronted by Clint who whilst waving his arms around at the guy looked like he was raving himself (the music was blaring in the background). The only snippet of the conversation I caught was the driver apologising profusely, only to be rebuffed by Clintons shrill voice, whilst waving his arms around energetically (it really did look like he was raving) “SORRY? SORRY? LOOK AT ME FUCKIN’ CAR DOOR!”.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">During one period of time, Clint had sustained an injury whilst on duty and was confined to the reception of the Police Station to answer public enquiries. Bad move by the bosses there. He’s not the most subtle of folks. Whilst in that capacity, I heard him speak to a member of the public reporting a possible gas leak, “Madam, please look at the badge on my shirt. It’s says Police, not British Gas. Goodbye”. Another time a distraught woman had come in to report her ex-boyfriend circulating to her friends and family, naked and explicit photos that he had taken when they were together. The lady handed Clint an envelope with some examples of the photos and was clearly embarrassed by the whole thing, but understood she was making the correct move to report it. Or so she thought. She hadn’t counted on Clinton. I’ll never forget her official complaint against him after he took a look at a photo of her lower regions whilst wearing panties, only to explain at her hirsute state, “You can see the fuckin’ spiders legs stickin’ out the side!”.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Another time I was with Clint was in a vehicle pursuit around a local town centre. After about 15 minutes of the chase Clint exclaimed rather proudly “He’s gone the wrong way down Frog Lane, I’ll cut him off at the entrance” (there was only one way in and out). He then enthusiastically reversed the car back the way we had come to cut off the felon. However, Clint although a very good driver could not reverse a car properly unless he had the drivers door slightly ajar, which is what he did this time, only to get it slightly wrong and completely ripped off the Police car door on a stationary Jaguar. I couldn’t believe it, especially when I got out to survey the damage and saw the small flags on the bonnet (hood, for my US buds). I must say, I did get a bit of perverse pleasure from radioing in “Control, Quebec Alpha 43. Police RTA, Frog Lane. It appears we have ripped off the drivers door whilst reversing.... into the Mayors Jaguar. 43 out”.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">There are many many more stories concerning my old buddy Clinton. Too many to mention, but I shall always remember them very fondly indeed.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Clint, you were one in a million. Here’s to all the good times *raises glass*.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">QuebecAlpha-43, out.</div>Adurj Le`Bardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07156645450859698240noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6427248773823685887.post-22538603025098358962011-08-31T08:18:00.000-07:002011-08-31T08:18:25.428-07:00GU#61..more info<div style="text-align: justify;">Just a quick one, if you read this blog and not <a href="http://eq2wire.com/2011/08/29/game-update-61-reitemization-pushes-devs-players-to-the-limit/">EQ2 Wire</a>, you need to head over <a href="http://eq2wire.com/2011/08/29/game-update-61-reitemization-pushes-devs-players-to-the-limit/">there</a> or to the official forums (I’m not linking a post there. There are just too many on this subject). Because I hadn’t had so many problems with re-itemisation and things seem to have worked out OK for me and the few I talk to about such things following the GameUpdate #61, I really didn’t understand the gravity of the mess this had caused.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">It seems our worries were well founded prior to the update. Disgraceful. Really.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Be well.</div>Adurj Le`Bardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07156645450859698240noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6427248773823685887.post-90069250755131720142011-08-31T04:15:00.000-07:002011-08-31T04:53:56.574-07:00Unrest (not the zone!)<div style="text-align: justify;">Been a little while since I’ve posted, I have my mother staying for the week and a few days off work seemed in order. Whilst I’ve been off I’ve started to explore DoV content a bit more and it’s not bad, but to be honest, I’m not getting the same interested buzz that I usually do when exploring new content. The quest lines are OK, I’m now running the Eastern Wastes solo timeline and am also looking at picking up the new faction quests that were added in the latest GU61. I’ve also been on my first DoV raid. It was only the x2 in ToFS, but it was quite a bit of fun and I don’t think Volt embarrassed himself too much. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I mentioned GU61 above and that deserves a mention. As usual SoE had some issues with the update, especially the unattuning and unadorning of items following the itemisation revamp. In fact they got it wrong and had to do it twice, which annoyed a lot of folks, especially those who have many alts. Not only did they have to spend an age sorting out their AA and equipment on all their toons, they had to do it again the day after. There was quite a few pee’d off folks, as the second time it was not very well publicised that they were going to do a re-run. As such quite a few didn’t un-equip their stuff and all the adornments popped off.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Luckily I did know about it and didn’t fall foul of the second load of unequips. There was obviously some who were still having problems with this as they had to offer a free option unattune yesterday. I do know that following the ‘failure’ there were a lot of upset folks. A few in my guild had already planned what kit they were sending down to their alts only to find that when they logged in, everything was lovely and unattuned, yet when they switched, everything had attuned itself again. I know some of them are still having trouble with this and are pretty upset about it. As for Volts stuff, all of his equipment he is wearing is fine. His Rune Scraped Turban is now adorned with my red adornment following a quick fix, and to be honest, since the original drama, things seem to have settled down a fair bit.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The other thing in game I have been interesting myself with is the new house rating system. I must say, some of the houses are impressive to the extreme. One thing I will say though, it’s quite apparent who has used the editor and who has not. I use the editor when designing to simply alter the angle of an item. The actual placing is always done free-hand so to speak. But some of them, wow. One had a roof design so complex and perfectly executed that it couldn’t have been done by hand. They looked very impressive, but I really do like the personal touch. To me, it’s like having one of those prefabricated houses put up in like 30 minutes. They look good, but have no soul. I’m yet to finish looking around. I may put Casa Volt up at some point into the limelight, although I do the designing for personal pleasure, not for the plaudits. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">So, on to other ‘news’. There has been some rather unfortunate drama in an old raiding syndicate I used to be affiliated to and it’s had some knock on effects. Some folks have got pissy, some indignant, some just don’t seem to care. But without naming names, I’m going to try and summarise. Oh, before I do, I know some may say, let’s not ‘air’ our dirty laundry in public, but I’m not naming names and this blog has a long history of evaluating the reasoning and psychological interaction of those in game. I look at how folks act both in and out of game quite frequently here. So, on to it. The old raid leader left. Made it quite clear in a post that they were going. They had been the driving force behind this particular raid force for a long time and had done a good job under stressful circumstances. For those who have never been raid leader, it’s not so easy. No one had an issue with this. Of course it would be suitable to wish that person the best, thank them for all their hard work. But, just because one is leaving, does not mean the rest of the raid force has no future.</div><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">For me to address this next bit, I need to address raiding itself. I see that there are three different types of raid force. Those that dabble and just have the ‘fun’ factor. Those that wish to progress, but the raid force is not focussed enough so you get a mixture of “I’m happy being casual” against the “Let’s get harder content done, which means commitment and time..and talented players”. Finally of course you get the raid force that all wishes to be hardcore, meaning they wish to raid without compromise and that means skilful, dedicated players to the ‘nth degree.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">So, I would categorise this particular raid force as a casual one with some serious raiders involved. Now when this current situation occurred, it is only natural as the raid leader left that some would see this as an opportunity to get what they wish from the raid force. A time for change so to speak. So a few folks decided to move forward and start a new Euro timezone raid force. Yes utilising ‘some’ of the players form the old force, but essentially removing those who it was felt fell more on the casual or untalented side, in favour of developing a raid force leaning more towards hardcore than casual. By this I don’t mean ‘full hardcore’, just some of the facets of this. Very talented players, no dead wood or carrying those who don’t perform as the main or can’t because of various valid reasons spend the time developing their toons sufficiently. I know this is an area some wish to address and there are some who are not pleased that there is a member of the force running around without their mythical clicky yet completed. I can kind of see this reasoning. It wouldn’t have been acceptable in SF, let alone DoV raidning.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">This has effectively split the raid force. Understandably, when this news broke some wasted no time in moving forward with their new agenda, and in my opinion there is no issue with that. Time is of the essence if you are trying to get something you wish to come to fruition. If you leave it folks will become involved with other stuff and become committed to that. So, a few went and started a new website and effectively started to build their new raid force from some of those in the existing one. A short time passes then posts start to appear on the old raid webby stating the raid force is not dead and a raid appeared on the calendar. The latest stance with the old raid is “nothing’s changed and we’re carrying on”. This has left a bit of a problem. Because some used this situation and initial apparent folding of the original force as their golden opportunity to get away from some folks who although really nice folks, have an issue playing their toons well. It was an escape heading to further progression, not stagnation as it was seen that to carry on with the old setup would lead to this and not to moving forward. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The plot thickens. The latest summary of where the situation is at from an influential member states pretty much as I have said, that nothing has changed apart from who the raid leader is and possibly the raid days. Now this is where it gets complicated. The reason for this is that the post suggests everyone get on the new webby and raids are posted through there until it is known what is going on. But I pretty sure that there are some that the new holders of the new webby would not wish to move across because they are using this opportunity to progress how they wish with the game and of course there is no problem with that. But it will cause problems. We have older members of the original force who perhaps don’t understand the thinking behind the new venture and the fact is that it is designed to change how those folk raid and how the raid force is built. Effectively it will end up with some quitting raiding altogether with either force as they will have divided loyalties and will not wish to upset either party. Some will hedge their bets and sit on the fence, others will fall back in to the raid force that more suits them.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">This of course assumes that the new and old raid forces will continue. It may be that one of those dies. My personal opinon? I think that those involved need to decide what is going on. For themselves. What do they want? Do they continue with building a new raid force, or do they just meld back with the old force and the issues it had? (discontented members because of different goals and approach to what the raid should be). I know in particular because of personality clashes that there are those involved that will never wish to be in the same zone let alone the same raid. So some seem to think all will move ahead all hunky-dorey as was with a different leader, and there are those who will be very frustrated with that and the ‘no changes’ approach, indeed some have already begun to make changes as I have mentioned.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">It’s all a mess. I really don’t know what will happen or be the result of the situation, but I do know that it’s a shame. There are a lot of great folks in that syndicate and they all seem to be falling foul of the current unrest and divides seem to be getting bigger and more prominent. So, I’ve kind of given you a glimpse in to the current situation. But why? Don’t I risk upsetting people who are involved? Well, of course, but emotion is a fickle thing anyhow and with the written word there is always the risk of upsetting folks, as they may not read the words with the intent with which they were written (one of the problems in the first place! A badly worded post led to the rest of the force thinking ‘well that’s it. It’s over in this guise’). No, I hope I don’t upset anyone but I will never refrain in this blog from assessing the thought processes behind decisions, or how the human condition reacts with each other in such an environment. It’s one of the most interesting aspects of the game to me. How those who play interact with each other, and evaluating that against how they would normally act should they be standing face to face. If you read my blog you know I do this. So, I hope don’t upset anyone, but if I do, I do. Apologies for that, I cannot control their emotions. All those involved know I had immensely enjoyed my time raiding with this syndicate and even if I don’t understand how all deal with a situation, I still very much like and respect a lot of those involved.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">My opinions and thoughts in a nutshell.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The original post should have been more explicit. By not being so, it invited those who were left to make their own assumptions on how things were to move forward. No one should be surprised or offended that someone actually acted on that post and did make a move and tried to move things forward how they wish it to be. It’s worth noting that the written word often gets misunderstood. Explicit indication of what is meant and reiteration is the only way to go if you wish to guarantee 100% understanding. Miscommunication is the conduit to misunderstandings.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Those who decided to create the new force should have started from fresh. Using some of the old folks now has led to an ‘either / or’ decision for those raiders involved now that it has become apparent that the ‘old’ force is not dead and some wish it to continue. Not a bad thing, but there is going to be upset and accusations of poaching. A secondary reasoning for this is that by starting from fresh, they would have been able to build the exact raid force of their choice to their specifications without historical hang ups or expectations.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Now that some have ‘seen the light’ they will not return or will not tolerate raiding with some they feel do not pull their weight or have no idea how to properly play their toons. They have had a glimpse of the light at the end of the tunnel, and I’m not so sure they will go back in to the dark. Don’t be so surprised by this, we all know players have opinions on how skilfully other players command their toons. EQ2 is a place not short of opinion.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Consistency. Without this raids cannot function properly and discontent starts to brew. For example, it is not OK to use abusive language, then tell someone to watch what comes out of their mouth, especially when it is known that during raids a different person has more than once used derogatory terms and attitude to others and appear to have not been pulled up about it. This fuels unrest as those involved can see double standards, even if they were not meant to be there and were the last thing the people involved wished to see. This is how it seems to those involved on one side of the fence and fuels the kind of reaction that happened when the raid leader said they were moving on. The raid splits the second it is given the chance to do so.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">It is a game. A game where you get to interact with others albeit behind a screen, which sadly can lead to all of these kind of misunderstandings and sadly, conflict. It seems such a shame that drama like this can rise up out of a game and real folks end up getting hurt.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I really do hope they get their issues resolved. There is a lot of lovely folks in this circumstance and it’s a shame that such issues can come between people.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Finally, it is very much worth noting that someone I am very close to, someone who knows a lot of these folks is involved. Not one bit of the information here has come from this person and they are the first to energetically defend their friends, even when I ask questions trying to be an objective reporter, so to speak. None of the opinions here are theirs. They are mine. From an outsider looking in from the point of view of interest in how the human condition interacts with itself, through a very narrow social window. In fact I know this person disagrees with me about some of my evaluations. They’ll probably not be happy that I have posted this and voiced my opinion, but for someone who loves studying things like this and the many intricacies behind it, such an opportunity to evaluate cannot be missed. Oh, and I didn’t mention any names.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Be well.</div>Adurj Le`Bardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07156645450859698240noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6427248773823685887.post-3811477249068136992011-08-26T01:49:00.000-07:002011-08-26T01:49:55.774-07:00GU61 - Success or Failure?<div style="text-align: justify;">GU 61 is in place. Yup, you guessed it, there’s been some hiccups. Firstly, the unadorning / unattuning didn’t quite go to plan. There’s been many reports and this includes myself, where items were unattuned and then after switching between toons, or logging in then out, the items became attuned again. This didn’t affect me too much as all of my kit that became free again were placed in to my shared bank straight away and those items remained unnattuned.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I had an additional problem. One of my pieces of equipment (my SF tier 2 raid helm – Rune Scraped Turban) had its red adornment pop off, then it wouldn’t let me reapply it. I even went and bought a new one just in case, but alas that didn’t work either. So I petitioned that problem. I didn’t hear of anyone else having any re-adorn issues.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">There have also been reports of AAs resetting again after folks had painstakingly gone through the new trees and reset to their new spec. That hasn’t happened to me, but I ended up spending about an hour looking at the AA revamp and to be honest I wouldn’t relish doing it again. Stupidly, I didn’t save my new setup in my AA mirror.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">So why’s that? Why would not saving be stupid? Well, because of all the issues, parts of GU61 will be run again today to try and hotfix the issues. The update time will be the same as yesterday which won’t be too bad. What will be a pain is that all of your equipment will become unattuned again with adorns popping off if you are wearing the armour. I haven’t read that they are going to reset AAs again, but I wouldn’t bet against it happening. So, if you are reading this in time before 3pm GMT today, then you still have a chance to go and unequip everything again and save your AA trees. If not you may have some more work to do to get things set up again when you log in later.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Overall, aside from the issues, I’m very pleased with how the re-itemisation went, and especially pleased that they included SF gear in the project. I have basically replaced the three remaining PQ rare armour pieces I have with old SF raid gear. After the revamp the stats are extremely good and probably place tier 2 SF raid gear somewhere between Ry’Gorr stuff and fabled instance drop stuff. I’m extremely happy I’m a hoarder in EQ2. My bank slots all have 44 slot bags in them and there are only a few free places as I always keep the previous few sets of armour / equipment I wore. Being able to go back and review their stats was very useful and I used a few pieces of armour and some jewellery. My crit mit has gone up from 109% to 142%, my crit bonus / crit chance / potency / resists have all rocketed. The only thing I have seen a detrimental difference to is my multi attack. I have lost about 20%.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The best way to see how all this shapes up is of course to run a few instances, but it took so long to reset everything I didn’t have time last night, so I headed to the training dummies to see what difference the changes had made. For my ‘control’ aspect of the test, I always use the group dummies (which creates about 10 level matched heroic dummies), and then kill three of them before ending the combat, to see how my DPS fared. The reason I do it that way is to simulate being in a group. Yes, I won’t have group buffs, but I reckon the time it takes to do those three is akin to a normal group encounter when you have a full group backing you up. My previous DPS high on this test was 42k. I did it twice last night and got 86k and 91k. So if that equates to a similar improvement in instances, then I’m happy with the game update. Yes there are a few teething problems, but then again there always is. They will sort them all eventually I’m sure. I’m not sure however, how long ‘eventually’ will be.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">One of the things to consider, even though they have had the update improvements on test, is how it will affect the rest of the game play. Use Voltaan as an example. If from the re-itemisation like me many have been able to utilise previously won gear that is of a high standard and they generally see almost a 100% increase in their performance, then will this not trivialise many of the existing instances (aside from the already mega tough ones)? I ran through a couple of instances the night before the revamp and to be honest that was kinda easy as it stood. I’m thinking it will be cake now.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">You see that’s one of the problems with such big revamps to a system. The knock on effects will come to light over the coming months, and as usual, hotfixes will follow to sort them. This isn’t a moan, it’s just the accepted way of how things work in EQ2 development. And let’s be honest, despite the hiccups, despite the unknown long term affects of the GU, the game is still an amazing one with so much detailed and fantastic content that even if they messed it up big style, I’d probably still log in to experience Norrath. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Sometimes we expect miracles from SoE because we pay them every month. Reality is somewhat far away from that though. Look at the actual stats. 54,000 items to re-itemise, and that was just a part of the GU. Now I pretty sure the dev team probably only has about 30 - 40 employees, if that, and there is a huge amount of work there for such a small number. Yes, there is the argument that they should employ more staff with our subs to speed things up and to make for better content. But my stance against that is a simple one. Too many cooks spoil the broth. What I mean by this, is quantity does not necessarily equate to quality. SoE have a good team. Yes it takes a little time for them to get it right, but they usually do, and usually with style (eventually). It’s always easy to focus on the bad stuff. But look a little more carefully past the surface and it becomes apparent that ‘there is more to heaven and earth my dear Horatio, than is dreamt of in your philosophy’. Yup, I’m in an optimistic mood today.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Right, now I have to ring Ema and get her to unequip all my stuff again!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Be well.</div>Adurj Le`Bardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07156645450859698240noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6427248773823685887.post-25766593945228372002011-08-24T03:28:00.000-07:002011-08-24T03:28:58.142-07:00Finally. DoV instance cherry = broken<div style="text-align: justify;">Last night was a blast. I’m quite shocked to hear myself say that about an evening spent inside a couple of DoV instances, but I really had a lot of fun. I grouped up with Emarald and Jahf with a view to learning some of the new (to me) DoV instances for both Voltaan and our friends SK, Hagras. We headed off to Forgotten Pools and after to The Ascent, and I was pretty shocked at how easy it was. The first instance Haggy tanked and the second one in Ascent, I had a bash at. Thanks to all who trooped me through.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">For my first time tanking in DoV I’m pretty happy with how it went. There were no deaths, no issues with aggro, aside from Jahfs Brig, but that’s par for the course where decent Brigs are concerned as they have almost no hate reduction and high dps, and to be honest it wasn’t too much of an issue, I usually managed to grab the mob back with one of my many snaps. It was a challenge though as Jahfs Brig was churning out some very nice numbers, in debuff spec no-less! I’m glad he wasn’t in DPS spec. The content of the zones themselves were quite fun too, especially the nameds. There were some funky scripts for the bosses and I personally liked the sticky wall guy [technical term], although everyone else seems to hate him. Overall it was very smooth and there were no issues to be had, aggro management was ok’ish, and my DPS was very good considering the equipment I have. Jahf topped the zone wide with about 60k I think it was, and I came in second with 28k zonewide. Not brilliant numbers for me, but certainly OK and my first run at a DoV zone went well. It seems weird to have been playing the game since the expansion release, yet never having done anything other than some of the solo timeline.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Anyhow, I’ve been getting all excited because my Bro tells me last night before he logged that he has now completed the first four solo type quests for his Warden epic weapon, and it’s time to move on to the heroic stuff. I think tonight we will need to hit Karnor’s Castle for Levik, Chardok to get an update from trash mobs that are pretty deep in the dungeon (past the red gate I think) and finally to Sebilis to grab something off the named in the secret lab. If my Bro is up for it tonight, I think we will quite easily manage to get all three updates done. If they don’t have to be done in order, I think we’ll do Seb first as we have been there so much over the last week that if we get that out the way, we can then spend the rest of the evening enjoying new content (for Merecraft).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I’m looking forward to taking Mere in Chardok. I think we’ll spend an extra ten minutes getting all of the gate keys for him, so he can return whenever he likes and not get blocked at the gates. We may even do a quick run of the small Korucust instance for the AA as it doesn’t take long at all. It should all be great fun whatever we decide to do.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">One thing Ema was talking to me about was trying to have a crazy fun night when Merecraft has his fabled version of his weapon, and try and get him his Mythical update in one night. That’s three raid mobs. Two of which are near the end of a raid instance. It should be fun and I actually think it’s doable in one night, especially if Volt feign deaths his way to some of them then summons the group, although that will probably only work in Veeshan’s Peak. That would mean, Protector’s Realm (item drops off last mob), Temple of Kor’Sha (think item drops from Seldrach or something, again last mob from what I recall) then finally it would be into Veeshan’s Peak to take out that pesky Cinder Wasp Queen. I’ve always wondered about that update. It seems strange to have a final mob of a Myth weapon timeline to be a mob that appears in the middle of an encounter and isn’t the actual focus of the fight. Anyhow, that’s the last one. I reckon it’s doable in a couple of hours, probably actually a lot less considering the steps forward in equipment (if SoE don’t mess up itemisation). Oh, one thing worth noting if you are doing the Myth warden raid version. The item you get off the bosses that you need for the update, needs to be consumed within the zone before zone out, as it’s a no-zone item. If you zone out before using it, you’ll have to run the raid instance again to get your update. One night Myth updates would be cool though. I remember how long it took to get mine!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Be well.</div>Adurj Le`Bardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07156645450859698240noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6427248773823685887.post-27175948909632815602011-08-23T06:31:00.000-07:002011-08-23T06:32:34.374-07:00A Jolly Spiffing Update<div style="text-align: justify;">Lot’s of EQ2 news right now. Let’s start with GU61 which is upcoming <strike>today</strike>, sorry, Thursday. Yup it’s been delayed for a couple of days so the Devs have a chance to make sure they have the itemisation correct. I’m thinking that with 54,000 items to review and change the stats for, there are likely to be some mistakes. Already there are a few rumblings that some items not only have changed stats but have changed archetype also. Hopefully this won’t affect too many folks or any really popular items, but if it does there may be some pretty pissed off folks who log in to find they can no longer use some of their most treasured items. I’m actually thinking that hopefully, there really will be only a few circumstances where this is true. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Additionally all this re-itemisation has a very beneficial side line. That being that all of your attuned stuff, be it on your toon, in your bags, in your bank or in your house vault, will now become un-attuned and if you are wearing the item at the time and it is adorned, your adornment will be removed also. Don’t worry you won’t lose your adorn, it should be placed in your bags. Now what I have done is try and think laterally on this. None of my current equipment on Voltaan needs to have its adornments removed, so I have stripped him naked and placed those items in my bags. What I have done is equip all his old gear that he wore in each slot prior to his upgrade. That means that I will get about 6 red adorns back and multiple silver. They can go in my bank and at least I won’t have to fork out a huge amount should I level another toon that could use them. Also if everything becomes un-attuned, I am not sure I will ever need to adventure again for kit as all my toons never get rid of their previous gear, I just bank it. I think I may be able to open an EQ2Mart for my alts after this update.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">So, what else is coming? Well, for someone who seems to have a fair amount of Arasai critters on my character list there is good news that come level 85 and GU61, Faes and Arasai will be able to complete a quest that grants them the ability to fly. When the update is live it can be picked up from the Goahmari encampment in Great Divide, just like the Griffon quests. I’m quite looking forward to this. It really is about time that our little winged cousins have a chance to get airborne. Now I just want totally customisable wings. Check out the doctored picky of Emarald to see what I mean.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicwyGMI8f4NQY4yj0fXnLzhu_IBRda3XZLmnqiNbFGwSymZiAKGMV-F1kRXmblkJrykzDlkt55h4PVRhcIrFXar1K9Mdhh6JZpW7gGBEyEQNLJfUKyGuC6xUezzdkcPkaGB2gTDZNJ6zqI/s1600/EQ2+arasai+wings.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" qaa="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicwyGMI8f4NQY4yj0fXnLzhu_IBRda3XZLmnqiNbFGwSymZiAKGMV-F1kRXmblkJrykzDlkt55h4PVRhcIrFXar1K9Mdhh6JZpW7gGBEyEQNLJfUKyGuC6xUezzdkcPkaGB2gTDZNJ6zqI/s320/EQ2+arasai+wings.jpg" width="245" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><em>*please hum Dambusters theme*</em><br />
<em>What Ho! Ema joins the Brylcream Boys</em></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">There are a couple of dynamic dungeons coming up too in the next update. These are called ‘dynamic’ as there are apparently up to 14 different mob sets that you can get given when you zone in. This means that each time entering will be a different challenge, although I’m not sure if that includes nameds. Both are in the Desert of Flames expansion and seem to be set around the Silent City area. The zones match your level from 60 to 90 and apparently the mobs do drop some quite nice stuff, although I’m not sure if that was pre-itemisation changes, or after.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The first part of the Beastlords preview quest will be arriving also. There will be no spoilers here, this is just a warning to keep an eye out for it.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">As for DoV content there should be two more questlines appear in Eastern Wastes, which is just what the zone needs. A great looking zone, but without too much substance. Faction quests with the Goahmari Stormfeathers and the Threal’Gorr Orcs will be appearing to beef out the zone and its content a little. Hopefully it will work. For an expansion I dislike, it’s refreshing to find a zone I like, and that the Devs are paying it some attention to make it better.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Overall I’m looking forward to GU61 with some trepidation and not a little bit of hope. If it goes well and as intended I can foresee solidification of an already great game. If it goes wrong (why is my SoE radar telling me it’s going to have issues?), then as usual there will be the normal uproar, the normal feeble responses from SoE and then a resolution to the problem two years later.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">As for my gaming, I have of course been playing EQ2 (as well as a bit of DIRT2). Although my Bro’s playtime is understandably a little restricted in EQ2 currently, he has nevertheless managed to get him to 80th level (GRATS MERE!), has hammered out all of his Reet faction already and has picked up that pesky Epic weapon starter. So things are actually moving a quite a pace. I’m hoping we should be able to get him his epic soon. Perhaps we should start working on it tonight. I hope so. For some sick reason, I really really enjoy doing the old epic quests, even to the point of helping others gives me just as much of a rush. I also prefer to get an epic myth’d ‘properly’ before doing the enervated. Weird huh? But lots of fun. Well, whatever the reasoning behind my unstable thoughts, they are there, and we have an Epic to do! Let’s crack on.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Be well.</div>Adurj Le`Bardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07156645450859698240noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6427248773823685887.post-12548278551914058852011-08-17T03:25:00.000-07:002011-08-17T03:26:11.143-07:00Lord of the Klakrok Drones<div style="text-align: justify;">Apologies for the delay in posts. Work has seen me travelling again. I'm back now, so let's crack on.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I was having a rather interesting conversation the other day with a very good friend of mine about attitude. Specifically about how those who play EQ2 develop theirs and how they conduct themselves during their sessions online. During the conversation we pulled apart the issue of how those who play act and the conclusions were interesting. The subject of EQ2 being only a game was raised and that would it be realistic to attach the thoughts here to such a situation. It was decided in the end, most definitely. Look at your guild. Look at the different people who play. There are pensioners, students, career folks, teachers, and so on. The game itself is actually a nice slice of society and a good indication for being considered as a social experiment. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">So, as I said above, when I say ‘conduct themselves’ I mean basically how those that play interact with the rest of the community. At one stage I mentioned that I saw it having the possibility of being a social experiment and that studying how those who play the game interact with others of varying different social groups within the game can give a valuable insight in to a nice slice of our society, through a very specific window, with some very interesting influencing factors. The main one of course being the removal of actual ‘standing in front of me’ contact during these interactions and something I call ‘The Barrier’, which I’ll explain later.</div><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">How people interact when personal contact is removed, and there is no knowledge of the individual themselves, just an avatar and a ‘forwarded’ back story can vary quite dramatically compared to how that person would perhaps treat the other if they were face to face in real life. Now the back story is important. The back story is what I refer to as the information given to you by that particular person prior to the interaction. This can vary wildly depending on how well you know the person. The back story you have on a long standing guildy will obviously be much more comprehensive compared to the back story of a group member you have just met. The back story with a person regarded as a friend, to the extent of where those actually interact outside of the game (albeit not usually in person but on social networking sites, email etc) can be thick with history and emotional investment also.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The interesting part of this to me is the removal of actual personal interaction. This links with the current actions in game to give us our result and how we can then categorise how that person acts or reacts in that certain situation. Sounds a bit convoluted huh? Well, by this I mean how people interact really does depend on what they are doing at the time in game, the history and back story between the two and most importantly, the removal of face to face interaction (even if voice chat is being used).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">There is another factor (amongst many), influencing how folks interact in game too that I mentioned above. That is what I call ‘The Barrier’. I see this as quite simply the monitor. Your computer screen. It links in nicely with the non-face to face situation and can reinforce the players attitude, depending on what stance they are taking. With this side of the equation we look at how someone acts differently than they normally would due to the barrier and the sense of added protection it can give. The one way mirror if the player so chooses that is placed in front of them during their play sessions can either stimulate their attitude or crystallise the repercussions of such an attitude. With this I mean good and bad can come from it. If you look at the example of the guildy who is having extreme real life issues, if shared, this can cause distress due to the rest of the guildies and their inability to do anything about it. In turn stimulating some sort of action that may not be totally to the satisfaction of those witnessing the event, but at least gives a sense that they are doing ‘something’ to help. The ‘Barrier’ can provide both frustration and protection it seems.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">If someone has a reputation for being a bit of an idiot it may well be that that person uses the barrier to offer perceived protection when spouting their effluence. In circumstances such as this those can utilise the their preconceptions about how they are protected to act in a manner they would normally not do so, even to their friends. To those who are emotionally invested with those close around them can even use this ‘barrier’ to their advantage when they see fit. Erecting it so to speak when the situation so requires. This is perhaps one of the saddest parts about this. It basically makes it easier for those who act in this manner to compartmentalise their behaviour to interacting with a computer game and screen, not actual real people that in reality they care about. Erect the ‘Barrier’ acknowledge its existence and it really can change how some interact with others. Because of the barrier, I have lost count of the amount of times I have seen folks who are supposed to be friends, have issues with each other.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">There are of course many other influencing factors that guides how those react and act within the game scenario, whilst hidden behind their barrier. One of course is that there are nasty folks out there, plain and simple. The anonymity of the screen just makes an already bad person worse. But that’s not what I am interested in. My main focus is fascinated by those who supposedly care about each other in game and in addition out of the game, STILL utilise the ‘Barrier’ at times when it suits them. Even though that person is a friend, add the current action (for example looting a nice big Exquisite chest), add the current emotion (perhaps stressed, relaxed, drunk, etc) add the ‘barrier’ factor giving perceived protection from not only physical hurt but emotional, and then you add the most important factor of all. What that person is REALLY like. I mean deep down inside. Their inner most being. How they would react when repercussion was not a consideration (an impression falsely given by the ‘Barrier’). How they would ‘wish to act in any given situation is usually poles apart from how they do actually act. Include all those factors, especially the barrier and a fair amount of the time, we can get a glimpse in to the real person behind the screen, simply from how they react. The effect is magnified simply by the sense of removal which can be employed when required (again depending on current action etc). In some ways we actually get a better look at the person than if we had met them in real life only where pretence and obfuscation can easily be employed to hide a persons real feelings. And that’s the point, if someone has an edge to their personality, you’re much more likely to s ee it surface in game than if you were in real life. Because in game, you can always head for the /camp command, and as a far as I am aware, there isn’t a workable one of those for real life yet.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I kind of see it as a Lord of the Flies thing. Removal of control and expected behaviour due to a situational anomaly. In the Lord of the Flies, the kids were trapped on an island and without rules their society operates, but has huge issues and reactions all fed by the situation itself and human emotion. For example, fear of the beast drives the boys to kill Simon when he returns to tell them of its ‘real’ nature, mistaking him for the beast itself. It all sounds a bit dramatic, but think of the correlations. In the case of the book and film, the reactions of the kids is deeply affected by the fact they are no longer subject to the law and rules of general society. They have their protection from the emotional and moral questions of crossing those barriers. In EQ2, it really isn’t that much different. The ‘Barrier’ as I keep referring to it as, may as well feel like the removal of laws, regulation and control and as such behaviour can revert to a truer state to that particular individual, simply because of their removed situation and their perceived freedom to act as they please exposing their true nature.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">It’s a funny old thing EQ2, seeing folks true personality out and conversely seeing the false personalities created. Luckily, there are a huge amount of folks out there who play are just themselves and act as they would with others no matter if it is behind a screen or not. Hopefully when playing you surround yourselves with such folks and be able to recognise it when you see it. It’s not so easy though. The Barrier sees to that.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">There is one area I haven’t touched upon, and it reflects quite starkly the musings I have laid out above. It’s the website EQ2 Flames. A more perfect example of how differently folks act behind a screen can possibly not be found. Read the posts, then imagine all those folks in a room together. Would they really be so frank and forward in their opinions? Yeah, some would, but the vast majority would probably not dream of acting as such, when brought from behind their ‘Barrier’.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Be well.</div>Adurj Le`Bardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07156645450859698240noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6427248773823685887.post-58529393950183453092011-08-05T16:28:00.000-07:002011-08-05T18:55:11.627-07:00Construction Complete A picture tells a thousand words...<br />
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<div style="text-align: justify;">Yeah. That didn't work in school either when I submitted a picture of my hamster instead of a thousand word essay...got me detention. Anyhow, pictures..it's finished. If you want to visit, name of 'Voltaan', Gorowyn 6 room on Antonia Bayle server. Whilst you are there have a cocktail in the house itself at Club Tropicana. Go, help yourself. Relax. The drinks are free. Or you could head west along the beach from the Lodge then south to the Wall of Bone. Enjoy.</div><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBWS2Ep8Gzr_aCnKC25SlCWHDpW0a-6cQkVDO7wpKEUVTHRRZJYwOK245NHDJyfXbminNVR57c0LRN785yVWQQRUg3VKf0hRRy2BFn1DbX-oN8U05yAB78ynEBprBmx5NU8g7zhBTb3HQk/s1600/EQ2_003056.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBWS2Ep8Gzr_aCnKC25SlCWHDpW0a-6cQkVDO7wpKEUVTHRRZJYwOK245NHDJyfXbminNVR57c0LRN785yVWQQRUg3VKf0hRRy2BFn1DbX-oN8U05yAB78ynEBprBmx5NU8g7zhBTb3HQk/s320/EQ2_003056.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>From the Lookout Tower</i></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Lake with Othmir Ninja Turtle</i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGQrElQIMNiexsPn6rr2I2G9PPe1lOod8YP35qZK7wXZicOyMjjyUG2r9bOJIuz0AJVS2GABXxd3Cpe_cRlsHwHcdawrN2WOcyQre4BS_y_x7seK-jtvUmgMTIMb7DAScJp-CGyNx5p0Ro/s1600/EQ2_003062.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGQrElQIMNiexsPn6rr2I2G9PPe1lOod8YP35qZK7wXZicOyMjjyUG2r9bOJIuz0AJVS2GABXxd3Cpe_cRlsHwHcdawrN2WOcyQre4BS_y_x7seK-jtvUmgMTIMb7DAScJp-CGyNx5p0Ro/s320/EQ2_003062.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Back Porch, from the lake</i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFVWCYdNMoYq36ycCttg-VQPT2ilLRAgL9TvHDUARXPqvSZFC7qBpbdBFiw6hChE165KM613mOfRVQdSVrW2klCMdBjaYqm_jeChBlq63EQXTzCi_6pF58QsapzE-JO4SmLw2L0NcrzLKq/s1600/EQ2_003066.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFVWCYdNMoYq36ycCttg-VQPT2ilLRAgL9TvHDUARXPqvSZFC7qBpbdBFiw6hChE165KM613mOfRVQdSVrW2klCMdBjaYqm_jeChBlq63EQXTzCi_6pF58QsapzE-JO4SmLw2L0NcrzLKq/s320/EQ2_003066.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Back Porch - Fishing Kit</i></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>East Side of the Lodge</i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4TPHQvjDxEkl_B52xHTTrXuV7VASpWOyFnYGgLyYpfXeOzBope87V8QBYJD5M2AcQNLp_Z_uuprhEJwQs_Qv6CRbvhGEz_y6cEO1DF8WbGM0gq1hdVQS-jQ1qDYCDqvhvSpHuGGL475X_/s1600/EQ2_003070.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4TPHQvjDxEkl_B52xHTTrXuV7VASpWOyFnYGgLyYpfXeOzBope87V8QBYJD5M2AcQNLp_Z_uuprhEJwQs_Qv6CRbvhGEz_y6cEO1DF8WbGM0gq1hdVQS-jQ1qDYCDqvhvSpHuGGL475X_/s320/EQ2_003070.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>North East corner and Front Porch</i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha-wTbV_xM0GU-VvcvxNu5FtvmAiPQGC-hjl0UZWPNdhgFNnV6tx3eHnJCUkkOyslhvHFGJSmkxUgQP8r5fDutRvrrlU06Fwmsj2hEYIWca2kwT3aJQQ0Z63gF2BM6t6Z-YCuawB5RPW6P/s1600/EQ2_003073.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha-wTbV_xM0GU-VvcvxNu5FtvmAiPQGC-hjl0UZWPNdhgFNnV6tx3eHnJCUkkOyslhvHFGJSmkxUgQP8r5fDutRvrrlU06Fwmsj2hEYIWca2kwT3aJQQ0Z63gF2BM6t6Z-YCuawB5RPW6P/s320/EQ2_003073.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Front Porch</i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_iKp8l6MaYySQJC-ScMFCznLJ9Eoi4FI0koItK4JllGwnYAe-8xCgXZYzTk5Muuz6qSICzx4diGSAEbyDXcy0PovK23XpsbQBfg8ITb7gFTc4G9DOjDvhLSlMrH6_LElruZg6CdiXF9eN/s1600/EQ2_003077.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_iKp8l6MaYySQJC-ScMFCznLJ9Eoi4FI0koItK4JllGwnYAe-8xCgXZYzTk5Muuz6qSICzx4diGSAEbyDXcy0PovK23XpsbQBfg8ITb7gFTc4G9DOjDvhLSlMrH6_LElruZg6CdiXF9eN/s320/EQ2_003077.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Front Door</i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj512_oDSOViL3eCWc-rQncsOKkob40jPosM1j6FTvoxg8yG-nefbbsIQnP5bS47b_e9qI0HjBu9BTXX0o5xQMDyNi0YUneU23uxWqsj17kh1AxM34zNjXCaagNmoF-qapmLohHx0V9EWDB/s1600/EQ2_003078.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj512_oDSOViL3eCWc-rQncsOKkob40jPosM1j6FTvoxg8yG-nefbbsIQnP5bS47b_e9qI0HjBu9BTXX0o5xQMDyNi0YUneU23uxWqsj17kh1AxM34zNjXCaagNmoF-qapmLohHx0V9EWDB/s320/EQ2_003078.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>South West Corner - Back Porch from Lake</i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSqAWuKSjB6EzThTy-WgwJVuzOPSleQq-bnWm0I4pEtDTxxvZdVhCx2KsDjb6_5aXcp7apzTHuIdqdPHSipfBwJaA299sQlO2HUqyxRUaiBkVppeAzowdy5oBxyLe9hV9zw2wobOYdzSYw/s1600/EQ2_003081.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSqAWuKSjB6EzThTy-WgwJVuzOPSleQq-bnWm0I4pEtDTxxvZdVhCx2KsDjb6_5aXcp7apzTHuIdqdPHSipfBwJaA299sQlO2HUqyxRUaiBkVppeAzowdy5oBxyLe9hV9zw2wobOYdzSYw/s320/EQ2_003081.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Front Porch with Granpappy Volts Rockin' Chair</i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2H3LUQsFywdER6RsZ9kgqabm5mDd8bqMd_QsRVgGcpoFe4-PQ7QaKBaCJgKsx_vlwadd5esO4C_kRcglKGyxsvF8S1pNmGflUC7tr-57g00X4xp20jnxRiMI_GCC0pOPjualAdhn0yO4a/s1600/EQ2_003084.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2H3LUQsFywdER6RsZ9kgqabm5mDd8bqMd_QsRVgGcpoFe4-PQ7QaKBaCJgKsx_vlwadd5esO4C_kRcglKGyxsvF8S1pNmGflUC7tr-57g00X4xp20jnxRiMI_GCC0pOPjualAdhn0yO4a/s320/EQ2_003084.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Front Door through to Volts wash station.</i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiKyhfkBVNzbySLfjnRlHLd0SvHOZHh0-NJwnxetvSSbpTG52QIrCxKWkTmVmcSwws3gf4izTJoHGwTMlKdwgoPM8Un_0qhzpFttepnz-xOFvVRxSfMX1D_dsd6gYKGS1eU3CKOcRiBAYh/s1600/EQ2_003086.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiKyhfkBVNzbySLfjnRlHLd0SvHOZHh0-NJwnxetvSSbpTG52QIrCxKWkTmVmcSwws3gf4izTJoHGwTMlKdwgoPM8Un_0qhzpFttepnz-xOFvVRxSfMX1D_dsd6gYKGS1eU3CKOcRiBAYh/s320/EQ2_003086.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Weapon Racks and the The Great Tree</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSCxN5WhlMRs_Op15GaWRdd5zixQU_5QXvOFyUVs2cJ6JlbB02zEnosttgVNixXpW6K7WRNWIQU9ND6uVh_4uYZVzM61ZsGTapeTVhKAPgFS1ekRNRbSPu1MHhQ_Qv4o0eXhpRPmlMAo8K/s1600/EQ2_003087.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSCxN5WhlMRs_Op15GaWRdd5zixQU_5QXvOFyUVs2cJ6JlbB02zEnosttgVNixXpW6K7WRNWIQU9ND6uVh_4uYZVzM61ZsGTapeTVhKAPgFS1ekRNRbSPu1MHhQ_Qv4o0eXhpRPmlMAo8K/s320/EQ2_003087.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Volts only luxury</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXSML0dTQKAd5X4MGclmDRvvIQLHghq2yUm-AmLF9z6Jtbu49tjVuif3DFNJ3uVRrns06hQnnyaBel3yFsf9EtYjhWjMxr2WXLhTM1IT60sf8rLAulPTq0udbg9c_zdquXkdLcS5lpOLCw/s1600/EQ2_003091.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXSML0dTQKAd5X4MGclmDRvvIQLHghq2yUm-AmLF9z6Jtbu49tjVuif3DFNJ3uVRrns06hQnnyaBel3yFsf9EtYjhWjMxr2WXLhTM1IT60sf8rLAulPTq0udbg9c_zdquXkdLcS5lpOLCw/s320/EQ2_003091.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>O.K. Maybe the White lion blanket is a bit of a comfort too</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm6CJcg7KSeRx6K5V4L9eeTEhA3ZXbK5ehNwdkryRgf_9lYIBOB0pq6dvd0Siwtzz96nV8tjDwtk7KYYOFsbTakx6tIeuSiMOR9CeHI3sEtOMrvhk-QlA35E7S83Jtk5y0Y-9RHYfqZ3Wu/s1600/EQ2_003092.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm6CJcg7KSeRx6K5V4L9eeTEhA3ZXbK5ehNwdkryRgf_9lYIBOB0pq6dvd0Siwtzz96nV8tjDwtk7KYYOFsbTakx6tIeuSiMOR9CeHI3sEtOMrvhk-QlA35E7S83Jtk5y0Y-9RHYfqZ3Wu/s320/EQ2_003092.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>From Voltaan's Bedroom</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHZv-KgH1XOh7HOjqttRQPb-wXClx8WqaMOsqgj6hqNuXbuVtIqFdI8xrrdM4hQYDZ0DHqb5raOb0YsZu_TOeejtUb-mg_KCakRQUMqgNgb0YnTxFtAvCCxr28SrQSuQzxbldILfhZyz3h/s1600/EQ2_003094.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHZv-KgH1XOh7HOjqttRQPb-wXClx8WqaMOsqgj6hqNuXbuVtIqFdI8xrrdM4hQYDZ0DHqb5raOb0YsZu_TOeejtUb-mg_KCakRQUMqgNgb0YnTxFtAvCCxr28SrQSuQzxbldILfhZyz3h/s320/EQ2_003094.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>I think the word is functional</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj33b1AjFX84zo83iYoZrqieJs3utGdglFEaExoc8wiptSdyUf1uKAWCS01pydKYRMSXZP4AGBOtYDDZP1CIgOXaYhOrxbpvJjaQ5ZEKxC-WliGeP2MxtbTZXLPNo3YVWqAr1lXcDbdOw_B/s1600/EQ2_003100.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj33b1AjFX84zo83iYoZrqieJs3utGdglFEaExoc8wiptSdyUf1uKAWCS01pydKYRMSXZP4AGBOtYDDZP1CIgOXaYhOrxbpvJjaQ5ZEKxC-WliGeP2MxtbTZXLPNo3YVWqAr1lXcDbdOw_B/s320/EQ2_003100.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Kitchen area</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ_5INZArcCUgIRyHcZH5Ux4Sv1ok5ypUcLV6lyEjbyj0__mVmGvVAJlrlOrVmg99ocpS3VXyoARQ5InAOMMIgwBuSyUtIbecEstu6baRYB7isQCsA_KUuOVR6yGHexNAhg_PQ-l-_p3bA/s1600/EQ2_003102.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ_5INZArcCUgIRyHcZH5Ux4Sv1ok5ypUcLV6lyEjbyj0__mVmGvVAJlrlOrVmg99ocpS3VXyoARQ5InAOMMIgwBuSyUtIbecEstu6baRYB7isQCsA_KUuOVR6yGHexNAhg_PQ-l-_p3bA/s320/EQ2_003102.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Desk. Correspondence doesn't write itself you know</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS0oxpTeMlAKL9ig7Fkg4gSaY6gxr9FOwjDJtm3H1WJBlnnPZUuaEkCJdvm-o1GhXefmOP5i9H4vW9J4o5mGX3XVs1PKS2V67zwFQZs-VK1uEpWRryNuZtjgPbABh4gJLoDq70AcgUxqZZ/s1600/EQ2_003104.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS0oxpTeMlAKL9ig7Fkg4gSaY6gxr9FOwjDJtm3H1WJBlnnPZUuaEkCJdvm-o1GhXefmOP5i9H4vW9J4o5mGX3XVs1PKS2V67zwFQZs-VK1uEpWRryNuZtjgPbABh4gJLoDq70AcgUxqZZ/s320/EQ2_003104.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Front Door and Dining Table. One setting. I do have friends. Honest</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBDc5JyYaJIvpnH95xiQtwXCV3bVh2QPw_gnUyUUnz7DikD-QMs1heu83WGBZNVr8yVL7zUGx9ej_nsYtRONbGjFgCE7nizSjC5_W2OT9V8uMgCDnHd9m8DbACTu5FRiN5Gw4wxxWowqW2/s1600/EQ2_003107.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBDc5JyYaJIvpnH95xiQtwXCV3bVh2QPw_gnUyUUnz7DikD-QMs1heu83WGBZNVr8yVL7zUGx9ej_nsYtRONbGjFgCE7nizSjC5_W2OT9V8uMgCDnHd9m8DbACTu5FRiN5Gw4wxxWowqW2/s320/EQ2_003107.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Supplies. Sacks of grain and fish filleting table</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNdrQ9BCxlXYIbtR-8Ke_q2VV7As68cS9VzGKjVzL6NRJBvLa9EnGt650n0tnN5iRH88rIJyLLvBdjqL6kCcCs1-BnHkLNLeat5i8xrPrkVTtspIyCre4qNY-uB6FIqBw0pCh-jTd2pu8q/s1600/EQ2_003109.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNdrQ9BCxlXYIbtR-8Ke_q2VV7As68cS9VzGKjVzL6NRJBvLa9EnGt650n0tnN5iRH88rIJyLLvBdjqL6kCcCs1-BnHkLNLeat5i8xrPrkVTtspIyCre4qNY-uB6FIqBw0pCh-jTd2pu8q/s320/EQ2_003109.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Relaxing Back Porch Comfy Reader</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3IBkZwF-W-pRO4zLOrewAN6HGCB3YZfcUHtGPWT54NTYZIlgf9CuclIcABEtHUKVrNot4d422apcojaSqFwWl0-BnLwm5pfUySpV3bZfX4eyFIgH_H6ThcbMX26ZYvxKDlCQS0pBMJWYY/s1600/EQ2_003111.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3IBkZwF-W-pRO4zLOrewAN6HGCB3YZfcUHtGPWT54NTYZIlgf9CuclIcABEtHUKVrNot4d422apcojaSqFwWl0-BnLwm5pfUySpV3bZfX4eyFIgH_H6ThcbMX26ZYvxKDlCQS0pBMJWYY/s320/EQ2_003111.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Hay. Wheelbarrow. Just need some animals now. It's stuffing for my bed. OK?</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6wqH5My5WA_4aOSvJwsTgU-Rd2yMDAZtwS0RMiaKBbC14Gw27cYb7dtp3A4cuVcghQKwcvOf2Ur8_54PNM4hYUpidpX5GmOE7PhdQBYAq0WHWGXIqIjKHemfXNeNsrxRsUnEb7SrzlqTd/s1600/EQ2_003113.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6wqH5My5WA_4aOSvJwsTgU-Rd2yMDAZtwS0RMiaKBbC14Gw27cYb7dtp3A4cuVcghQKwcvOf2Ur8_54PNM4hYUpidpX5GmOE7PhdQBYAq0WHWGXIqIjKHemfXNeNsrxRsUnEb7SrzlqTd/s320/EQ2_003113.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Forge area. Skins drying. Fish curing. Gnomish Generators. Volts an old man. Central heating is needed!</i></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrFLjjC9guGbB3BtsqbfSsi_GjAe4w32RkNq7skCBi1on7IJAijKwEaVdzikAvviqs_zvAxPhNwXM_1p0VAEMLr9lnD-TJnkk2hzfyfQC8GGIYrZNQ4nJmjncUUGRkWjZ6SPhgKa7L021Q/s1600/EQ2_003115.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrFLjjC9guGbB3BtsqbfSsi_GjAe4w32RkNq7skCBi1on7IJAijKwEaVdzikAvviqs_zvAxPhNwXM_1p0VAEMLr9lnD-TJnkk2hzfyfQC8GGIYrZNQ4nJmjncUUGRkWjZ6SPhgKa7L021Q/s320/EQ2_003115.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Barrels. Forge.</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp_kfQD_WVG1kpoioq1i7zNN2pAhU0RqJXq1AVwPFGzWqOypeIoCUVQkTa4RnPjNcbJRFuMXOEbeLdu1xtvxLxROD9NUjO51kONDdFn_nV87X49O3IVPMqhLI47W39oAYvBBs1KeRtETYL/s1600/EQ2_003118.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp_kfQD_WVG1kpoioq1i7zNN2pAhU0RqJXq1AVwPFGzWqOypeIoCUVQkTa4RnPjNcbJRFuMXOEbeLdu1xtvxLxROD9NUjO51kONDdFn_nV87X49O3IVPMqhLI47W39oAYvBBs1KeRtETYL/s320/EQ2_003118.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Old Man and his weird dress sense</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIVMzB6HT-KjDKbyT8vFpCJx2rWb6LiS_7l2_peDk1ZXq4ERNuOoyejHYFgA55FA-AXUi45GXxrWk1dlyBHYTM3009HIaTfJmqhBujh1p6V84Biwn4eJ9ySyrRxv3rTBKRMsCqYYLGY5dg/s1600/EQ2_003122.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIVMzB6HT-KjDKbyT8vFpCJx2rWb6LiS_7l2_peDk1ZXq4ERNuOoyejHYFgA55FA-AXUi45GXxrWk1dlyBHYTM3009HIaTfJmqhBujh1p6V84Biwn4eJ9ySyrRxv3rTBKRMsCqYYLGY5dg/s320/EQ2_003122.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Fishing for two. See! He has friends.</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJkD5gAGpz10lqn3lgWNYtVTB-Su0DJq2bHgSYdefkcLgPNNsSPhT8bEiJZ_KhCYlQLZnkQ1CvZ9rYpx0EXP6ssBPjmnSz8FnDlDZ1pGuIaIHEFFM7IKAFHm67gQK2xYF15N6YZ8FBKq9o/s1600/EQ2_003124.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJkD5gAGpz10lqn3lgWNYtVTB-Su0DJq2bHgSYdefkcLgPNNsSPhT8bEiJZ_KhCYlQLZnkQ1CvZ9rYpx0EXP6ssBPjmnSz8FnDlDZ1pGuIaIHEFFM7IKAFHm67gQK2xYF15N6YZ8FBKq9o/s320/EQ2_003124.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Main Lodge. Just enough room for one Barbarian.</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipuWyZrQdossSIJtpkhhuOfMEYRQhReMWI5KK2qAZG_CAz3kI_tJm_DbdcWrLU0wrlm4w0AfiRqUihC9MHeQ6L30amZYPyDgWkYoRxyM0Rb-9ADv5oR8fKu8NA1lSi3YIifw8ba_oxovHI/s1600/EQ2_003128.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipuWyZrQdossSIJtpkhhuOfMEYRQhReMWI5KK2qAZG_CAz3kI_tJm_DbdcWrLU0wrlm4w0AfiRqUihC9MHeQ6L30amZYPyDgWkYoRxyM0Rb-9ADv5oR8fKu8NA1lSi3YIifw8ba_oxovHI/s320/EQ2_003128.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Fresh bread and a nice Chicken Pie</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUzaoSRQboByLLQ3keAoBB_sWIy3e7gnbyc5v1ylyBBMc3JGWy_8Gk2hEaK0mZV8vSU2qfaJGDuN99q8gFvEp3Rigv-xLYGGiRIeJb8rin85Hf3ShSXwM1_Q7IcIr9ORxTBKz3ppxN6ghy/s1600/EQ2_003131.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUzaoSRQboByLLQ3keAoBB_sWIy3e7gnbyc5v1ylyBBMc3JGWy_8Gk2hEaK0mZV8vSU2qfaJGDuN99q8gFvEp3Rigv-xLYGGiRIeJb8rin85Hf3ShSXwM1_Q7IcIr9ORxTBKz3ppxN6ghy/s320/EQ2_003131.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Main Lodge</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
That was a bit of a sensory overload huh? Sorry about that. Thanks for looking.<br />
<br />
Be well.Adurj Le`Bardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07156645450859698240noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6427248773823685887.post-44154349206712117662011-08-05T01:26:00.000-07:002011-08-05T05:53:13.418-07:00300!<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Well, I hit 300 AAs the other night. Thanks to my old friends Jahf, Ratty and Tymar and Aleksi, and of course the devastatingly sexah Ema, we powered through Chardok time and time again and in no time whatsoever, it was ding 300. I also hit Karnors Castle thanks to advice from Jahf (think I have mentioned that before) who suggested I mentor down and plough through there. It worked a treat, mebbe even a little quicker than the Chardok exp. Either way both instances were awesome and the company even better. Thanks for your help folks, Volt is now a powerhouse once more!</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">As you know my Bro is not in game at the moment tending to his <a href="http://farbeyondmycapacity.blogspot.com/2011/07/shhhh-dont-wake.html">lovely new addition</a>. I have been spending my time finishing my Hunters Lodge. Yup, it’s now done. All the finishing touches have been made aside from one fence line I have yet to still lay. I must say I’m pretty pleased with it. I only used the editor a couple of times to make sure the sloping roof and adjoining walls worked out ok. They kinda still look a bit weird to my eyes, not sure what I’ll do to fix that but at the moment it is fine. I have tried, like I always do, to make it about the small details of the place. For example, it’s a hunting lodge, so you’ll not see any nice shiny furniture in there. Everything is rough and mostly wooden in keeping with what you would expect to see in a Hunters Lodge. I like the small details whilst decorating and Jahf commented the same thing to me, that often it is the little things that adds to the whole ambience of a house. Anyhow, I’ll add some piccies in a bit. I may even do a video walkthrough. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Ema has been hitting her raiding pretty hard recently and has her kit almost up to scratch. So much so she is looking to gear up her Coercer already. She has only been back raiding for a few weeks. This got me thinking about if I would like to return to the raid scene. In every expansion since DoF I have been part of a raid force and have either dabbled or seriously hit the top tier content. The most concentrated raid periods were during Kingdom of Sky and Sentinels Fate expansions. I really do enjoy it. It’s exciting, fun to hang out with your mates and after many beat downs, it’s always nice to conquer very tough new content, to progress and to witness the knock on effect of getting better kit. It’s quite pleasant to watch yourself become pretty uber. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">But raiding does have its down sides. Anyone who has ever raided in any MMO will know this. From taking up a lot more of your time, to dealing with (sometimes) those who seem to be in the MMOSPG (massively multimedia online special population group – yes, I made this up..but they’re out there..beware!). From the endless waiting around to lost rolls in favour of those who only raid once in a millennia. The pitfalls are many and this got me to thinking. The crummy stuff does crop up a fair bit. You DO spend a huge amount of time waiting round. It’s unavoidable, whilst the raid force prepares and hears strats of how they are going to defeat the new content, whilst those have afks, or switch out toons for particular mobs, there is always some degree of running to stand still. But the feeling when you get that synergy between the raid members and everything flows as it should really is quite a buzz, especially the very first time you defeat new content.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">However, one of the biggest downfalls for me that currently over-rides all the good stuff to be experienced in raiding, and the one that means I really am not going to be getting involved in DoV raiding for the foreseeable future is the extra time and more importantly the extra commitment. You are committed to it if you become part of a raid force. Because that’s exactly what it is. It’s not a raid solo mob, it’s a damn big group with 24 people in it. You can’t just pick and choose where and when you will raid when there are 23 other folks depending on you to do your bit. It’s a commitment to the game and your fellow raiders, and that is why I cannot get back in to raiding just yet. I have so much other stuff going on, I really couldn’t justify allocating more of my time to the game and more regimented time at that.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">When I play currently, I don’t want it to be an issue if I need to go afk for 10 minutes. I don’t want the rush-rush to get kit and become uber again. I don’t need it. I still get to chat to my mates who do raid and I still pick up the odd piece of loots that my old raid syndicate and bunch of mates collect when they have no one who can use it. I guess what I am trying to say is that at the moment old Volt just wants to put his feet up in his new Hunters Lodge, relax and enjoy his retirement, helping out friends and guildies alike, as and when they need it. It’s time for Volt to experience some relaxation EQ2 style. Bring on the Nayad masseuse.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Be well.</span></div>Adurj Le`Bardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07156645450859698240noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6427248773823685887.post-59177938314238422582011-07-29T09:31:00.000-07:002011-07-29T09:35:07.350-07:00Hunter's Lodge<div class="ii gt" id=":186" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><div id=":18y"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">The new housing options are now available on the Marketplace in EQ2. Anyone who knows me will know that I have been getting a little bit excited about the ‘blank canvass’ islands that are going to be available to purchase. I had heard that they were going to be based upon Temple Isle in Tenebrous Tangle, and was pretty made up about that. Even if they had removed all of the temples and ruins, it would still be an awesome place to create some structures. But when my Bro shouted up the other night to let me know he was checking them out and “it’s just a big flat island really with a waterfall”, I was a little perplexed. Where was my Tenebrous Tangle island? Wishing to see this with my own eyes I hopped over to South Freeport to take a gander. And he was right!</span></div><div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">Yup, that’s all it is. A big flat grassy island that looks like it is flat enough for a ball pitch. There is a waterfall too, coming from an island way way above your head in to a tiny pool. That’s your lot. There is nothing more. So, my enthusiasm well and truly deflated I put away my hopes of having a cool island of my own and Mere and I decided to head off and quest some.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">I was disappointed with the islands truth be told. As Mere and I discussed at the time we are absolutely sure there will be some amazing creations on these islands and in just a short space of time we came up with some great ideas. A Country Club & Spa, A Football Pitch, Mini Golf & amusements are just a few. There is a huge amount of potential there for development and perhaps moving out to the other very distant islands you can see. But, it’s not for me. I wanted nooks and crannies, little valleys and tranquil pools. Woods and streams. So, I decided I wasn’t going to move house. I am keeping Voltaans Gorowyn home but am revamping the outside area. Out goes the under construction ‘Fort Brakkarg’ with just the Wall of Bone remaining to protect my little property and in comes the new falling down cottage I am building for Voltaans home. Well, it’s not falling down just yet, but it has got a tree growing in to the construction somewhere! I’ll add piccies of the building site later. It’s going to be a labour of love and will probably take me some time as I dislike using the layout editor for anything further than changing the angle of an item which I have had to do already to get the slope of the roof tiles. Piccies and more after the jump..</span><br />
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</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">As for the adventuring side of the game, as ever Mere and I have been having a blast progressing the RoK questlines and it now seems that we have pretty much tied everything up in Fens of Nathsar and are ready to move fully in to Kunzar Jungle. We’ve already been there a couple of times to get involved with the Kurn’s Tower access quest and to do just enough to not get killed in Jinisk. We needed to complete the Kurn’s access quest to gain a lot more faction with the Bellywhumpers, so that we could then purchase the item needed to return to Rillis with to complete the Bellywhumper quests part of the Fens timeline. Actually i think that’s the first time I have bothered to get those last few Burynai quests. I usually just get bored then move in to Kunzar early.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">Kunzar has a crazy amount of quests. You look at your completed journal for quests in Kylong and Fens and each probably range between 80 and 90 quests completed. I was checking my Kunzar ones the other day on Voltaan and I have 104 completed and I know I haven’t yet done them all. There is just so much to do there. I like Kunzar Jungle. It doesn’t seem as large as Kylong, Fens or Jarsath and I reckon probably is the smallest overland zone in the RoK expansion. But I do like it. It has some fun questlines and interesting areas and storylines. It also has some really fun things, like the title reward ‘Rubble Rabble Rouser’. Useless, but fun! It also has some great outdoor areas such as the City of Mist and some lovely mob surprises walking around, sometime nicely Epic. I do really like the zone and especially like Sebilis as a shared zone.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">It doesn't look like I will be doing too much Kunzar stuff currently though as Merecraft is going to be away from game for a little time with the family. In the mean time I'll be putting the final touches to my Hunter's Lodge. As promised, here are some pics of the construction in progress.</span><br />
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</script>Adurj Le`Bardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07156645450859698240noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6427248773823685887.post-77003456113005896672011-07-25T02:42:00.000-07:002011-07-26T01:16:31.387-07:00Who's a clever little asshat?<div style="text-align: justify;">This weekend saw the completion of the Wizard Spire event in Eastern Wastes and the Dragon Ring event in Great Divide. I didn’t take part in the Dragon Ring event, but I was lucky enough to be about when the Wizard Spire final quest popped at 99.7% completion of the Spires. At the time I was just standing around and Jahf (on his Ranger I think) happened to be stood near me and we ended up grouping in preparation for the final event quest.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I cannot explain how many player characters were there at the Spires in Eastern Wastes, but it sure as hell caused some devilish server/instance lag. At one point the dude you have to speak to (Researcher Kilat I think) was not to be found anywhere, and masses upon masses of PC toons hovering all in the same area waiting for the NPC that would be buried under all of the PCs meant that for about 20 minutes I couldn’t even see him let alone target him. As it happens, when Jahf and I popped off to gather some crystals to help hurry up the progression of the event and all of a sudden it moved forward pretty damn fast and we had to make the hop back to the Spires quickly. Jahf very cleverly warned me to delete the quest originally given to me for those Teleportation coin thingies (tokens) and as we approached the Spires, I automatically got offered Researcher Kilats quest for the final epic battle and a very nice 500 tokens.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">So, Jahf and I were sat under the tent, waxing lyrical about the benefits of pulling in a tent to negate knockback, when we both moved forward as it seemed the many raids present were gathering ready for the start of the event. It wasn’t until we got closer to the crowd that we realised it had already started, but the lag was so so bad, we could only see the combat text “Soandso is stunned!” and so on. It was quite clear the battle was taking place, but absolutely no NPC mobs were to be seen to actually try and hit. It was that way for the whole fight. It was clear a battle was going on around us, but I could not see one mob, just lots of damage being done and heals going on. I was concerned about not getting enough credit to get the quest update to I ran around like a crazed idiot spamming my area effect spells. But still nothing. After the fight had ended my quest thankfully updated, even though I hadn’t hit one mob. Strangest thing though. After the battle to see what the hell happened I switched windows to my ACT which had been bubbling away in the background and it hadn’t even registered the battle. The list was empty. As far as it was concerned I may as well had been sunning myself on Antonica Beaches.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">What Jahf pointed out to me a little later was pretty cool though. One of the GMs (I can’t recall his name, Jahf help me! Think it was Gnil...something or other) had been in chat channels checking that all those present had gotten the quest updates/rewards as they were aware of the laggy bug that was happening when the fight was taking place and they just wished to make sure that no one who was there got left out, which I thought was pretty darn cool of them. Anyhow, I got my update and my many Tokens. Which I promptly spent on two replica Wizard Spires, a couple bags of teleporters and plenty of shards. It was only after I had done this though that I realised that there was a merchant at the Dragon Ring event too and I had perhaps missed out on some cool loots. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I headed over there straight away to find out and to my dismay there was a really cool replica of the Dragon Ring available for 25 tokens. I only had two left! Because both the Spires and the Dragon Ring events had been completed, the only way to get more tokens was from the shiny like collectables found around the event areas as ground spawns. So, I spent the next hour scouring the area and gathering enough until I could buy a replica of the Ring event. Mostly when I was harvesting these collectables, the PCs were gracious and I tried to do the same where if I saw another near a shiny token collectable, I stayed away. Mostly they did the same for me too. However, as always there was this one particularly inspiring individual who had either an excellent connection, amazing reflexes, or a hack of some sort. He would run up to a node and even if I had started harvesting it, my green progression bar would conclude only to be told, ‘There is a lottery for that loot already in progress’. He did this to me numerous times. I was going to report him, but then realised I could not be bothered to waste more of my time on such a well rounded and obviously highly educated individual and just sent him a /tell. “You’re a clever little fukker eh?”, I got a standard “I guess” answer and I just left it. I only needed two more spawns at that point anyhow and as I said, my time is too precious to be spending with those of such higher social standing than me. I could name him, but then again, I can’t be bothered. Those who deal with him will already know of his sterling quality as a human being.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Is it just me or is my English sarcasm taking a real royal outing today?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Right –o, that’s me done for the minute. Thanks to Jahf for the Spire event fun and help whilst there. I’ll be back soon with an update on Mere’s and my progression through Kunark.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Be well.</div>Adurj Le`Bardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07156645450859698240noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6427248773823685887.post-531613882353754092011-07-22T13:49:00.000-07:002011-07-22T13:49:18.519-07:00The Warrior & The Warden I had fun making it. Hope you have fun boring yourselves stupid for 5 minutes !<br />
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Be well.Adurj Le`Bardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07156645450859698240noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6427248773823685887.post-47532071149723936662011-07-21T07:17:00.000-07:002011-07-21T07:31:49.871-07:00A look in to the looking glass<div style="text-align: justify;">Thanks to the guys over at <a href="http://eq2wire.com/2011/07/08/live-blog-eq2-panel-1-freeport-and-beyond/">EQ2Wire</a>, I have a nice list of things that we can expect from the Devs in Eq2 from now until the new expansion has hit and beyond. GU -61 promises to be one of the biggest updates we have had for some time and sees some truly game-play changing items on it’s agenda. I have supplemented the full list below,. My initial thoughts / comments on each section can be found in <span style="color: #990000;">red</span>.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong><u>Game Update 61 – The War of Zek</u></strong></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Dynamic Dungeons</strong></div><div style="text-align: justify;">* New versions of Silent City and Djinn Master’s Prism.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Encounters are randomized when you enter</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Dungeons scale dynamically 60-90</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Test bed for a new flavour of content creation.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #990000;">- Sounds interesting. I’m intrigued by how they will achieve a correct balance to a dungeon when they will be randomised. I guess they will not be totally randomised but probably more like, operating within set parameters.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>The War of Zek</strong></div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Plane of War content</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* New dungeon (normal and hard)</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* New raid (normal and hard)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #990000;">- New stuff is good, as long as it is good</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Itemization Changes</strong></div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Stats revision</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Increase # of stats</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Add auto attack for casters and priests</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* increasing headroom on old stats</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Re-itemize 20-90</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Major AA revamp</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Class focus revision</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #990000;">- WHY WHY WHY??? The rest of the suggestions are great, but there is no need to mess with the level 20 to say 75 itemisation. It just isn’t worth it and messing about with that could have some pretty nasty knock on effects. Leave the re-itemisation alone and concentrate on some of the other decent and required stuff in the above list.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Tradeskill Crafting AAs</strong></div><div style="text-align: justify;">* 3 rows of abilities — 10 points each row. max 25 points for crafting AAs</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Progress, Durability, Double Harvest Chance</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Crafting Stats Progress, Durability, Success Chance</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Increase chance of harvesting a rare</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #990000;">- Me no tradeskilly really, although I can see how this would be like mega useful, so gets a thumbs up from me.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>House Rating System</strong></div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Decorate your house, publish it for others to see</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Leaderboard (48 hour falloff)</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Awards for staying on leaderboard</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Hall of Fame system</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* 5 star rating system</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #990000;">- This is going to be fantastic. Those of you who know me know I love to decorate and create. Already I have some rather special ideas about what I am going to create.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #990000;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Dungeon Finder System</strong></div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Any size group can queue up</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Matchmaker system. you can disband if you want.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Any Dungeon</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Get XP boost for being flexible</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Initially same-server only, cross-server later</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #990000;">- I’m really liking this. I love what they are doing with dungeon design too (see later). This should make PuGs pretty darn easy to get balanced and should see an end to that horrible moment when you realise there’s a Zerker, Pally and Brawler in your group...and you’re an SK. Things should be a lot more balanced with this matchmaker system where PuGs are concerned..</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>GU61 More stuff</strong></div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Fae/Arasai Flying (level 85, must complete a quest)</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* New content in Eastern Wastes</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Beastlord prelude event</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Velious signature line update</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #990000;">- Arasai / Faes get to fly. About time really imho.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #990000;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Game Update 61 is released in August</strong> – <span style="color: #990000;">Very soon really, since latest expansion. Not sure if that’s good, or if SoE rushed things.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Freeport — Lucan Gets Serious</strong></div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Lucan’s Lore — Lucan was kidnapped</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* His captor was killed</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Lucan crushed his usurpers, levied a new army, and now seeks to dominate and control</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Freeport revamp will have a ton of lore related to it</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>All (Evil) Roads Lead to Freeport</strong></div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Evil starter areas lead to Freeport, not Butcherblock Mts</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Multi-level questing hub</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Race and Class specific quest lines</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Instances within the city (hoods, sewers) — some quests will cause NPCs to attack</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Public quests in Commonlands</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Special Guards watching the area around Freeport (leapers and gliders, juggernauts)</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Exploratory content</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Freeport Unification (in progress)</strong></div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Entire Freeport city can be explored without zoning, excluding the suburbs</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #990000;">- I’m really liking all of the Freeport ideas. I generally play evil toons and as such I know the zones well and have a particular fondness for them. Pièce de résistance will be the new quest hub and hopefully smooth running of the now BIG instance. Freeport should be a buzzing city once more! Check out the design differences expected after the revamp...</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDPifHpaO-W_EkM-KW7uuuUlTz6Rze9cG_0gR2PXg6y3OZyRdseM8hekQwe38NjPOR0ICNijPEsYxHxtXL_DukjrBlfk_TQfBemPYwMAH1NETMoBaPYb1DRNR3-6otQ5TEJTfSHXOVqss5/s1600/IMG_3859.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="182" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDPifHpaO-W_EkM-KW7uuuUlTz6Rze9cG_0gR2PXg6y3OZyRdseM8hekQwe38NjPOR0ICNijPEsYxHxtXL_DukjrBlfk_TQfBemPYwMAH1NETMoBaPYb1DRNR3-6otQ5TEJTfSHXOVqss5/s320/IMG_3859.jpg" t$="true" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivMQudNAf7UcRc6Mq_InqDZEw2O9UA2KamTRbjzy6SQ47bMJYu9FA4_jiSz115wBQBNnPNNvRiEmBRtdS5ek1xsDkpvaixV4EeXeaRX9nm2u9vO0Az-owSFn3_8-TlaW5VBYWpGKcUeOGP/s1600/IMG_3861.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivMQudNAf7UcRc6Mq_InqDZEw2O9UA2KamTRbjzy6SQ47bMJYu9FA4_jiSz115wBQBNnPNNvRiEmBRtdS5ek1xsDkpvaixV4EeXeaRX9nm2u9vO0Az-owSFn3_8-TlaW5VBYWpGKcUeOGP/s320/IMG_3861.jpg" t$="true" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>The Age of Discovery expansion</strong></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Chock Full of Features</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* The Age of Discovery focuses on features that open up new ways to play the game.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Game Updates is where the content/zones are.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>ROLL OUT CALENDAR</strong></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">GU61: BYOD (August 2010)</div><div style="text-align: justify;">GU62: Freeport (November 2010)</div><div style="text-align: justify;">GU63: Velious (February 2011)</div><div style="text-align: justify;">GU64: Velious (May 2011)</div><div style="text-align: justify;">GU65: Qeynos (August 2011)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Tradeskill Apprentices</strong></div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Acquire an apprentice via quest at level 30</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Customizable (race, name, gender, clothing)</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Set tasks, the longer the task the greater the reward</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Train your apprentice over time</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Able to make best-in-slot items over time but Heirloom</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Item Reforging and AA Limit Increase</strong></div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Reforge your powerful items and a shift stat bonuses around</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Allow player customization of particle effects on powerful weapons</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Additional the AA limit gets boosted to add more AA choices</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #990000;">- Liking this very much. It’s a discussion I have had previously with Jahf. We both thought this should be approached. Let’s just hope they get the setup right and don’t unbalance everything once again, I’m not holding my breath.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Mercenaries</strong></div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Hired help for small group or soloing situations</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* You pay them gold/platinum</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* They help you destroy stuff</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* They take a small cut of coin and XP gained</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* One mercenary per character</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Choose from any of four combat types</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Healer, tank, melee DPS, ranged DPS</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* But here’s where it gets fun….</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Mercenaries are Varied</strong></div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Just because there’s only 4 merc types doesn’t mean the variety stops there</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Different AI brains</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Different stats</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Different spells</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* A healer you get in Neriak may think differently, have different spells, even different stat emphasis than one * you get in Qeynos.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* And you can assign them behaviors (like pets).</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Mercenaries are Visual.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Races are city-specific.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Customize appearance.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Some are merchant bought.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* They’re your Perma-Pals.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* They level up, you never outgrow them.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #990000;">- So, Mercenaries are an awesome idea. I’m particularly impressed in that they have not just launched Mercs on their own. If you think about the dynamic they are addressing here, it’s solo, vs. group content. But more importantly the gap in between the two. Those situations when you and your duoing partner really could do with being a Quattro rather than a Duo. SoE are aware and have long been so, concerning the fact that most folks solo their way to at least 80 and sometimes 90th level. This was, using the Mercs and in addition, using the Dungeon Finder System above a great great idea. One of the big bugbears of the game (solo play and the lonesome feeling!) has been addressed. No longer are you alone! More options have opened up to fill your nights with pseudo company!</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>World Lore Mercenaries</strong></div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Some mercenaries aren’t available from merchants</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* You might be able to hire Lucan for 1000p per hour</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Hirable for a time</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Characters from Norrath</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Extremely rare spawns</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #990000;">- Ohhh, this could be good. I would love to have someone famous cruising around with me. Imagine that! “Hi, how you doing. Let me introduce you to my friend, Fippy Darkpaw”....”This is my buddy, goes by the name of Mayong...”</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>BEASTLORD</strong></div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Vintage character class with new emerging gameplay</div><div style="text-align: justify;">DISCLAIMER WARNING</div><div style="text-align: justify;">**What you are about to hear about the Beastlord is subject to change!!!**</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Beastlord Lore</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* The Truespirit retreated when the gods did</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Beastlords faded away, unable to bond with spirits</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Beastlords are Scouts</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Leather wearers</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Brawler like weapons</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Melee DPS class, on par with other top-tier DPS</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Beastlords are a Pet Class (Warders)</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Pet class on Steroids</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Should always use a Warder to be effective</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Can collect and use many different types of Warders</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Beastlord Warders (pets)</strong></div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Different Warders have different abilities, hotbars, AA lines</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* More utility, damage, combat</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Use stances to affect what abilities become important</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #990000;">- I’m keeping my opinion closed at the moment on Beastlords. I really do need to have more of a look at them when they go live to get a proper impression of gameplay and how they will fit in with the rest of the EQ2 clan. I left EQ1 just before they were released and never did get to play one.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Design Your Own Dungeon</strong></div><div style="text-align: justify;">– a feature so powerful, it deserves its own presentation</div><div style="text-align: justify;">DISCLAIMER — Mock-up art, this is work in progress</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Be a Builder</strong></div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Dungeon Maps, Creater Spawners, Traps, Decorations you have to go out and quest, raid, tradeskill to get them</div><div style="text-align: justify;">*Come back and build with the enhanced housing system. You teleport into the dungeon and you get an extremely advanced housing interface. Housing will eventually get the new design system.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">*Intuitive UI and experimentation modes</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>So you’ve built it, now publish it!</strong></div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Publish your dungeon</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Watch your NPC minions slaughter real players in real time</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Compete against other Builders on leaderboards for player ratings</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Earn builder tokens redeemable for builder-only items. BYOD items only available for Tokens</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Builders get Reputation</strong></div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Ready to Play? Find your Dungeon</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Shows up in the Dungeon Finder System</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Review leaderboards, screenshots, player ratings</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Play solo, or woith a group. all part of the dungeon finder system</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* When you enter a dungeon, you are collecting adventurer NPCs to run the Dungeon. The NPCs have a limited set of abilities. You cannot play a player-made dungeon as your own character. (groan)</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Tokens to buy loot for your real characters.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* How do you keep from exploiting these zones by making an easy zone with just mobs?</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* When we launch, there will be one game type, Survive through the dungeon and kill boss at the end.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Automated Challenge Rating system to determine rewards for finishing the dungeon. Difficult to exploit. The creator script detects the difficulty of the zone by determining the shortest path in the dungeon.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><strong>DYOD has Fringe Benefits for the rest of the game:</strong></div><div style="text-align: justify;">* House rating system</div><div style="text-align: justify;">* Dungeon Finder for regular dungeons</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #990000;">- Design your own dungeon is so funky. I’m looking forward to this a great deal. It can add an element of uniqueness and obviously lets those who are good at this sort of thing create genuinely fun content. In games such as Company of Heroes, map design has long been a part of the fun. If they can make it work here, there are bound to be some wonderful creations. Think of all the creations that will be based on fun genres/franchises and other fun stuff that we already know. Fancy a Star Ship Enterprise? A copy of the Alien vrs Predator Pyramid? Jabba the Hutts Palace? Sounds like fun anyhow. having said all of that, there is one huge huge thing I have failed to mention. Roleplayers. How amazing will it be to create your own little instances to back up the roleplay story you are running for your guild. The Dungeon where your guild leader has been imprisoned, the Tower where the antidote to the poison that your guild strategist has been given! this has the opportunity to really open things up for those who like to R.P and will add some real substance to the ongoing in guild storylines out there. Great stuff.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div>Be well!<script type="text/javascript">
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</script>Adurj Le`Bardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07156645450859698240noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6427248773823685887.post-19410718882466995572011-07-20T15:24:00.000-07:002011-07-20T15:26:36.682-07:00Been a while huh?So, yeah, been a while. Lot's been going on, but mainly a week off with the family taking it easy and enjoying the Summer here in southern Spain. Plenty of time in coffee shops, walking along the beach front and melting in the heat. Back to work now though and it's amazing how quickly you forget you were off. I've only been back three days and already my break seems as though it was an age ago. Of course one of the good things about having some time off work is the late gaming nights! I have had my fair share this last week and I'll share soon what's been going on.<br />
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Talking of late nights, it's midnight here and an early start tomorrow. Until then, it's about time I caught up on posting some screenies. Enjoy and see you very soon.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV7zO61QVorYAVDPhpAcEa1yIpRyT2A2DvYeDl1uMXtkBze4jZ1g-ogZHhwPNP_ZyLIGZafO2O42kID-xr-Y1wkJQNePybA-8OJSm4BiQOs9gxm2O8ipUx6eEgUYt3zZeDvUOnLBtpsI2l/s1600/EQ2_002953.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV7zO61QVorYAVDPhpAcEa1yIpRyT2A2DvYeDl1uMXtkBze4jZ1g-ogZHhwPNP_ZyLIGZafO2O42kID-xr-Y1wkJQNePybA-8OJSm4BiQOs9gxm2O8ipUx6eEgUYt3zZeDvUOnLBtpsI2l/s320/EQ2_002953.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>We'll start with Voltaans photoshoot for Men's Health</i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP-agPbTRZM09XS9w2TDtEUeoXdq4gxEyl6mv_iV78VQ9YAMtjH-jppOct4YSrFLsempxRLWc0WqDuUPemKVxZjZRah76nCHX5iz6etljw46OBYwX6wif_nDFTePYN6pu-ixYcTkAX3yLn/s1600/EQ2_003025.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP-agPbTRZM09XS9w2TDtEUeoXdq4gxEyl6mv_iV78VQ9YAMtjH-jppOct4YSrFLsempxRLWc0WqDuUPemKVxZjZRah76nCHX5iz6etljw46OBYwX6wif_nDFTePYN6pu-ixYcTkAX3yLn/s320/EQ2_003025.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>My Komodo gets friendly with an Iksar Statue</i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFCh3VTVoLwpamaezBddjpfeAWXJclzMfedLo1fu1R9IKOjZNF9ek8YFRheWjumlvwfufR7viyLKQMEz4ANkVB0VsSP-bfjaufMtszU-uKDWNTRmj19qdCFfHXXOBoex3rwyOe8P6pUhpw/s1600/EQ2_002961.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFCh3VTVoLwpamaezBddjpfeAWXJclzMfedLo1fu1R9IKOjZNF9ek8YFRheWjumlvwfufR7viyLKQMEz4ANkVB0VsSP-bfjaufMtszU-uKDWNTRmj19qdCFfHXXOBoex3rwyOe8P6pUhpw/s320/EQ2_002961.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Voltaan's photoshoot for Urban Protection Monthly</i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGQYg2XJcUxPRJw_GAqhoHN_lgaaHump_Igih-hhmLiDYU5DleGt2LVYqOhx27dy6BnzCMphavPtdID73Q3yjNdYTx0IL1xhV-7qsCPDUkLrlgBOUBFLbAg4nB0w3hE52feaByWGNCbqd8/s1600/EQ2_002969.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGQYg2XJcUxPRJw_GAqhoHN_lgaaHump_Igih-hhmLiDYU5DleGt2LVYqOhx27dy6BnzCMphavPtdID73Q3yjNdYTx0IL1xhV-7qsCPDUkLrlgBOUBFLbAg4nB0w3hE52feaByWGNCbqd8/s320/EQ2_002969.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Velious, first session. Great Divide</i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit_bl_Hvl4Og_Y_avFE78iSbWfCV32pNjQMbvU2toOW6gewD36dyMqQk3tdTDOcj_3KnWFHhEA0sbq88B6DZBCihU1NA6lHynBEuIM9Vjld704sJvni8uwFJveNg4caj9lQqU3pSerw-Qd/s1600/EQ2_002967.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit_bl_Hvl4Og_Y_avFE78iSbWfCV32pNjQMbvU2toOW6gewD36dyMqQk3tdTDOcj_3KnWFHhEA0sbq88B6DZBCihU1NA6lHynBEuIM9Vjld704sJvni8uwFJveNg4caj9lQqU3pSerw-Qd/s320/EQ2_002967.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>A big Tortoise with a village on it's back. Curious.</i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWxInb9HTrOp15SS6-nRW4TEhY6M74IzzDvT8JEtTZNA-d2OCFzUU6ZRQnZwm4S62fI4BwHoK7Vp5qv15qZoLyGlHFdBuHSDezHfCeNCJYU5jv3F6neS4WnWohZECTTGQXj42FN_fAthfH/s1600/EQ2_002974.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWxInb9HTrOp15SS6-nRW4TEhY6M74IzzDvT8JEtTZNA-d2OCFzUU6ZRQnZwm4S62fI4BwHoK7Vp5qv15qZoLyGlHFdBuHSDezHfCeNCJYU5jv3F6neS4WnWohZECTTGQXj42FN_fAthfH/s320/EQ2_002974.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Velious flight</i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8ctVtRD__bai2xNxbp_ub1KxlcVzpdibJaLjA2QiD1PRGUx2H79SxHV5r9QLCr0Rs0b2zPCx7QSVGqj1VtezkGnnip9fVUvoLnIez5q4dNPyCJstmchl-UrlR7qLK1P-tJR1LD8dKqkVw/s1600/EQ2_002975.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8ctVtRD__bai2xNxbp_ub1KxlcVzpdibJaLjA2QiD1PRGUx2H79SxHV5r9QLCr0Rs0b2zPCx7QSVGqj1VtezkGnnip9fVUvoLnIez5q4dNPyCJstmchl-UrlR7qLK1P-tJR1LD8dKqkVw/s320/EQ2_002975.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Eastern Wastes</i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEgSF79LJ7bWMyZrnBl_UWM0ph0EkMpNqjR6bDOTH8sTUT7Zx_ifAEkAyAcybyQ4GCL1uixXh7uNXci_ZE6uvkpUT3HExiLvhxWfYgDIumUThIvUHMHeBMMcGpKbxa6yNw8ylcHgpKG4aN/s1600/EQ2_003004.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEgSF79LJ7bWMyZrnBl_UWM0ph0EkMpNqjR6bDOTH8sTUT7Zx_ifAEkAyAcybyQ4GCL1uixXh7uNXci_ZE6uvkpUT3HExiLvhxWfYgDIumUThIvUHMHeBMMcGpKbxa6yNw8ylcHgpKG4aN/s320/EQ2_003004.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Acolytes of Valor, Deathtoll</i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVu3s1K_37hjox8sjyLGyfUTbEzO-az2u1IPHfDTFygfA7meDbWyF3b8s-5v8Nqc1wa9YvsEvb0EbOgTuwHQVkdcCc2HfBuiSfzwWHUyHdN3u9sy_-wnLMNINpwgYgyOCBHFjv92uwSnQr/s1600/EQ2_002980.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVu3s1K_37hjox8sjyLGyfUTbEzO-az2u1IPHfDTFygfA7meDbWyF3b8s-5v8Nqc1wa9YvsEvb0EbOgTuwHQVkdcCc2HfBuiSfzwWHUyHdN3u9sy_-wnLMNINpwgYgyOCBHFjv92uwSnQr/s320/EQ2_002980.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>To An Ancient Time!</i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsM7i_15Fk3KQMU8U2kjo0uyvzhL6XYVv054SPJ4W3boxBgSF2bdIXT4FWFJaT-yNeW_7oXPJVwB7hAJsZ0jmzwWz-jAx4qHA7E97dNJ1iDSKMockKzNoGNq-0VURkjy787Lq6919jJkUF/s1600/EQ2_003012.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsM7i_15Fk3KQMU8U2kjo0uyvzhL6XYVv054SPJ4W3boxBgSF2bdIXT4FWFJaT-yNeW_7oXPJVwB7hAJsZ0jmzwWz-jAx4qHA7E97dNJ1iDSKMockKzNoGNq-0VURkjy787Lq6919jJkUF/s320/EQ2_003012.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Back to Voltaan's Men's Health photoshoot</i></td></tr>
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Be well.Adurj Le`Bardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07156645450859698240noreply@blogger.com2