Extreme Makeover: Guild Hall edition

Guild Houses. They were a huge step forward for EQ2. Bringing together guilds in a way never experienced before, where usually the only time they got to hang together was when grouped or raiding. But with the introduction of the halls, all of a sudden guild members were spending a lot more time with each other, even if it is only when standing at the broker or banker. This spiralled into various other forms of interaction. Visit our crafting areas and usually there will be two or three people crafting and chatting away as they did so. Head to the main foyer and quite often you would see guild members killing time by duelling each other, or practicing on the training dummies together. All in all, the advent of Guild Halls brought guilds closer together in my experience.

The reason I bring this up is that my guild Acolytes of Valor, last week purchased their first tier three Guild Hall off Antonica. This idea was bandied about when I was leader of AoV a long time ago about 6 months after the Guild Halls were released. We had enough money and status to get the big Guild Hall, but in a guild vote it was decided to keep to the tier two hall as it was plenty big enough for us and even with the tier two hall there were spaces we hadn’t decorated.

The move to the tier three Guild Hall happened whilst I was away for a couple of days and I arrived back and the decision had been made and we were going ahead with the move. I don’t know the thought processes behind this and I am sure it was the right decision for the guild. I still prefer the smaller hall though. The benefits experienced previously in the tier two hall (as mentioned above, the duelling, etc) brining guildies closer to each other and increasing interaction seems not to be so prevalent in the tier three hall. Simply because it is more spread out. Yes, there may be 15 people in the hall say, but because the hall is so big and spread out the toons hardly see each other, albeit the broker area still remains a hub of activity. I can’t help but wonder if we are taking a step back and losing the ‘forced’ interaction the smaller Guild Hall gave us.

And the introduction of Guild Halls was not all good in my eyes. Of course as previously mentioned there are definite benefits to the Guild Halls, but we have to consider what this did to the other zones in the cities. Almost like ghost towns now, the once thriving Qeynos docks, or East Freeport seem now to have a veritable trickle of toons going through them. Think about if you were a brand new player to the game. With the now defunct Queens Colony and Outpost of the Overlord toons are not generally ‘led’ to the two main cities as they previously were. Meaning the starting areas and small ‘villages’ surrounding the main city zones are not getting used hardly at all. Remember Willow Wood? Yeah, it’s still there of course, but wow, what a difference. I recall before the introduction of Guild Halls the zone being packed with toons either trading, hanging around, visiting their homes, or for many other reasons. I went in there the other day and it was depressing.

This got me to thinking. Obviously guilds have gained a lot from the introduction of their homes, but what about those not pre-disposed to join a guild, or those roleplayers who are loners, not joining a guild par-se but interacting more with the general community. With the introduction of these halls have SoE inadvertently made the game more insular for the community and cliquey? If you are not in a guild you are definitely an outsider and with the halls, when you hang around the other city zones, the opportunity to interact with other toons (again when not grouped or raiding) is a lot smaller than it used to be.

This spawns all sorts of other questions. Does this mean PuGs are harder to get as people are becoming more and more insular, involved with guild only activities? I have heard it quite often in EQ2, especially since the release of the Guild Halls, “No, sorry. I only do guild groups”. I’m not decided yet if this is a good or bad thing. And we have to consider human nature is to become comfortable with your surroundings (in this case guilds/friends list peeps) then to stay there. Has the introduction of the Guild Halls just accelerated this process? Would this have occurred anyway with the propensity to hang in your clique being strong in humans anyhow? I don’t know the answers, but I do know I still visit all the old city zones. Sometimes just to have a look and see what is going on, sometimes for a bit of nostalgia (like my Willow Wood visit) and for quite a few other reasons. Like Parkour!

Remember this post when you play next. Go have a wander round the old city zones. Reacquaint yourself and interact with lost souls who aren’t in a guild.

Be well.

Bio briefing

When you’re standing around at an instance entrance, hanging around when you get there before the rest of the group turn up, or hanging around on the docks, or pretty much anywhere, what do you do to kill the time? I guess in real life I’m a bit of a people watcher and so, when I’m hanging around anywhere in game I tend to ‘inspect’ other toons. I was doing this very thing last night in Lavastorm and noticed the vast array of different ‘Bios’ and style of bios used by players. The highest percentage actually have nothing in their bio going from the 25 or so I looked at yesterday. But those that do have something there, I think have given you a little look in to their personality.

Take mine for example. Usually I will put either, something clever, something funny [something that you think is funny you mean? – Ed], or a bit of dialogue telling a snippet of a story, or describing a brief encounter my toon was in. Have a look at Adurjs old Bio;

Two Blades, No flashing lights or swirly mists. One white, one black. Plain and Simple.
{FSB} Funk Soul Brother

I thought the above was kinda a bit of a dig at the crazy designs SoE are coming up with for weapons now a days, and the fact that sometimes, I like to get back to brass tacks, nothing fancy, just simple and effective. The {FSB} bit is a tip of the cap to my old Quake clan and bunch of old RL/gaming mates. {FSB} still exists on STEAM and I’m proud to be a part of it.

Now take a look at his new Bio which is more in my traditional style;

The boy quietly watched the wiry Dark Elf sitting in the shade, carefully polishing the two cobalt Axe blades he carried. Noticed now, the boy felt compelled to speak easing the tension suffered under his cold gaze. The boy murmured "Your axes Sir? They look nice". Pausing Adurj looked down at the two weapons, turning them slowly in his hands, "Aye, lad. Deaths Song I call 'em. It's said your foe can hear their own death on the wind as they sing". "Are you good?" he asked. Adurjs icy eyes looked over, and he smiled.

OK. So these tell you a little bit about me. They tell you that I think of myself as a bit of a writer with a turn of phrase that likes to create an atmosphere, that I think I’m a little bit clever and funny. It also tells you I like a bit of roleplay perhaps [Also it tells me you’re a pretentious git :) – Ed].

I guess without even speaking to the person you get to know a bit of what they are like from their Bio. The above gives example to this. Another example would be the person who pops their high parses in their Bio, or the person who lists masters they need in there, or even those who have the most ridiculously bizarre content that you can’t even make sense of it. All tell a story. The player who is a bit of a braggart, or indeed proud of their ability, to the player who is focused on bettering their toon and maxing their stats. It’s all there for the telling.

I guess I’m interested by this stuff because I like knowing what makes folks tick and it also kills a bit of time when I’m bored in game. The next time you are grouped with someone and they start to annoy the hell out of you (we all know this happens!) check out their Bio. I bet your bottom dollar if they have bothered to put something in there it will tell you all you need to know.

Be well.

The Law of Sod

Well. I call it ‘sods law’ and many others use a different phrase but it all amounts to the same thing. If there is something that can be a PITA to you, invariably it will be. What on earth am I talking about? The quest, To Speak as a Dragon. You know the one. The travel all round the globe and time after time back down in to the very bottom of Soluseks Eye, not to mention the complete navigational nightmare of Obelisk of Lost Souls (level 2 and below). Yup, that quest.

Well, I completed it the other day in preparation to get my enervated Myth quest sorted out for Adurj as I knew it was a pre- requisite. So today I am killing 15 minutes during lunch hour and happened across this little gem from EQ2 Wire.

As of the launch of Game Update 56: Halas Reborn, any character that completes “To Speak As A Dragon” will receive an heirloom Tablet of Draconic Runes in addition to learning the dragon language.

While this is an important quest and was a very exciting and community-building event in its time, it is not longer necessary for every alt to do the quest individually. At least one character on your account does need to do the quest the “full” way, but all subsequent alts can simply acquire the quest in the normal manner, then study the tablet when they are on the step to learn the runes. In essence: your first character made excellent notes on the runes s/he studied, it allows him/her to teach your alts the runes directly.

Of course, if your alts prefer to finish the quest the long way by collecting all the runes, they can still do so.

Any character who had already completed “To Speak As A Dragon” before this change can obtain a copy of the Tablet of Draconic Runes from Shady Swashbuckler in Nektulos Forest if they wish.

Apologies that this somehow didn’t get into the full update notes, but hopefully this calls it out so everyone will be aware of it now.

So there you go. If you have completed the quest just once on one of your toons on your account, then you can now use the useful little Tablet of Draconic Runes to save you having to run around old Norrath collecting the runes. I wasn’t particularly fed up with the situation as I always quite enjoy navigating Norrath (apart from OoLS) so I did enjoy my journey fest to get the runes. It’s definitely sods law though that I found this out just after I had completed the quest again from start to finish. No matter. I have wasted more hours in my life doing much less productive things than that quest [Like the time you got absolutely sozzled and spent the whole evening stroking your leather jacket, repeating the mantra “It’s sooo smooth”? – Ed].

Be well.

A week off.

Whoa. Holy Moly it’s been a while since I posted. That’s what having a week off work does for you. That and crazy children who sap your time like the desert heat saps your energy. Oh, they do that too. Thing is I really don’t mind as I work such long hours, when I get home when working, I don’t get to see them really apart from on the weekends. So, I had a nice relaxing week with the kids, enjoying breakfast out down the port every day, and sometimes visiting The Straw Donkey for their wonderful pancakes and lashings of syrup. Both my daughters love those. Like crazy. My one daughter who is only a year and a half old polished off a whole adult plate of pancakes a couple of days ago. Man she’s a tank. The woman at The Straw Donkey even came out to the terrace to ask if everything was ok, because my baby girl was shouting at the top of her voice (continually) “More! More!”.

Aside from that we have had a few days down the beach, chilling with family at the Chiringuito (Spanish Beach bar) and messing about in the sea and back at home by the pool. Some pretty valid family face time for sure. All good stuff.

But what about recreation when the kiddies have gone to bed? Well, you’ve guessed it, pretty much spent most of my spare time either playing EQ2, Lotro, watching The Office, Moto racing, re-reading ‘Legend’ by David Gemmell and er, oh yeah, I have had a few chats with me wifey too. Oh, and a beer or two.

EQ2 is getting better for me progression wise. I am finally starting to learn the new expansion. It’s at this stage I wish I hadn’t taken a break for about 5 months spanning the period when the expansion came out. I am consequently still behind and trying to catch up. I’m still at the stage where sometimes when discussing new content I really have no idea what I’m being told. I’ll get there I’m sure. It’s not the speed of advancement that bothers me (although it does a little bit..I like slow but crawl speed is a bit much). It’s the fact that I am missing out on groups and loots and by the time it comes for me to be back up at the top, I will still be behind. Maybe I should get back in to raiding when I get up there to boost my kit quality. Not sure If I’m bothered enough to make that time commitment to raid though.

I wanted to mention a new phenomenon I have not experienced previously to the degree I am now, and that’s the seemingly growing confidence people have in their abilities. Even when they are crap. This last week whilst I was off I have been involved in soooo many groups that have over estimated their ability and as such, usually around 5% exp debt later and only one or two named in to the zone I decide to move on. It comes to something when an 85 Dirge is grouped with a load of 90’s and is only being out-parsed occasionally. It shouldn’t be so. If you think about the levels of the mobs in the 90 instances, they are usually around 87-95th level and as such it should be harder for a level 85 to connect a hit. Luckily I did have a few exceptions, mostly guild groups. Part of the reason for this I’m sure is the amount DPS has increased this expansion. Those who are doing 4 or 5 k dps now are thinking wow, my dps has increased (when they were previously doing a smaller amount) but in reality they should be doing (depending on classes of course) but I would say on average they should be doing about 10k more this expansion at level cap.

I’ve started playing my Mystic again in EQ2 also. Just for a bit of light relief from dirgey or bruiser questing really. He now sit’s at level 76 and is progressing slowly but steadily. Since I made the choice to play him again I have been rolling for him on WoE runs and hopefully by the time he reaches 80 he will have most of his tier 3 armour. I already have two pieces for him.

Huge way to go though. Wifey informed me last night that she only needs two more pieces of armour to get her full tier 5 raid armour which reminded me how far I’ve got left to go. It may or may not happen, but either way as long as I keep enjoying the game, top tier kit is not an issue really.

Finally, I made a pretty momentous decision the other day. I’m going to start writing my book again and with renewed ferocity. I love writing and started a novel some time back. I’ve always written short stories, but this is a full blown novel with plans for sequels. It’s getting started that I find incredibly difficult. Once I have been sitting down for 10 minutes writing I am hooked again, but it’s that initial push I need to get all my papers out and re-read my research notes and so on. It’s a momentous decision because it will mean time and effort. Which more than likely means less time online to play games. But hey, I’m in my late thirties. I’ve got to grow up at some point eh?

Be well.

Rossi shocker!

For the first time in his career Valentino Rossi will miss his home GP at Mugello, Italy following a nasty highside during free practice session 2. Rossi has broken his right tibia (shin bone) following the horrendous crash. It is unknown how long he will be out of action, but the incident will probably see Rossis' championship hopes sadly dashed.

For the latest news and a free video of the crash, visit motogp.com. An interview with the track side doctor on the website reads as follows;

Doctor Macchiagodena of the Clinica Mobile told motogp.com: “It’s an injury more serious than we thought, because it’s an exposed fracture with the bone protruding from the skin. We have reduced the fracture, which fortunately has not affected any blood vessels or nerves.”
“It is serious, it could be a couple of months, but it is too early to say just yet. He remained calm, but having seen the images he could already see it was a nasty fall.”

The VERY best wishes to you Vale and a swift recovery. It looks like it bloody hurt!

Be well.

An Adurj Le`Bard Connection ~ Freeport Parkour

Norrathian Parkour

Yes. I know I still have 6 levels to go to get Adurj to level cap and even then a huge amount of work to do in bringing his equipment up to date and some key questlines he needs to complete, but sometimes I still cannot help myself from logging on and achieving nothing constructive whatsoever. Actually, I guess that statement depends upon what you consider constructive.

Last night I logged on, missed out on a couple of groups by a gnats bollock and then found I had nothing to do apart from further my questing in Sundered Frontier. I did that for an hour or so, then got bored. Still no groups had presented themselves and I must admit I was feeling too lazy to get off my arse and start a group myself. So, what did I do? A bit of crafting, some harvesting or some AA farming I hear you ask? Well, no. I decided my time was best spent travelling around Freeport attempting to get to places one should not get to and hopping, vaulting and launching myself off and over countless ‘street furniture’. A bit of Norrathian Parkour if you like.

If you are unfamiliar with parkour, quite simply it is amazing to watch. A bit irresponsible at times and mostly downright dangerous but nevertheless modern ‘free running’ is a spectacle to behold and no mistake. Check some out here.

I managed to get behind the wall of Lucans destroyed tower, walk the whole outer wall in West Freeport, get on top of the player housing in North & South Freeport and ‘inside’ the roof gardens and also establish that ‘clipping’ doesn’t seem to work when that high up. Walls look solid, but sometimes they just ain’t. So, I managed to fall through the world a whole lot when I got my jumps wrong. All in all I had a real blast. Qeynos is my next Norrathian Parkour target.


“PARKOUR!”

Be well.