A Mixed Bag of Thoughts

Been a little while since I posted huh. Never enough time in the day this time of year for me. Crazy busy at work, throw in a bit of illness in the family and me sticking to my new years resolution to spend more time writing my novel and it all means less pen time for old bloggy.

To be honest I haven’t been playing EQ2 that much recently. Yeah, I log in most days, but this last week or so I’ve been on usually only for 30 to 45 minutes really. A quick instance run or some questing in Sinking Sands with Merecraft, then it’s off to do dome more stuff. I don’t think I am going to play with Voltaan much now until the expansion comes out. Yeah I’ll still raid so I don’t let down my fellow raiders and so I don’t lose my spot on the raid force but other than that I’ll probably spend what time I have online on Uddy.

I had a riot with Merecraft in SS. To be honest it has been so long since I’ve actually done the quest lines there I really don’t remember them at all. In fact I think I have only ever done them once and I am sure they have been changed about a bit since then. Although I did spot the bug zapper lady on the ramp upto the desert just like old times. We haven’t started those yet as they are a bit repetitive and there are other quests to complete.

Last night we spent about 45 mins knocking out some more quests and pretty soon we should be ready to head in to Maj Dul and pick up some of the quests there. I think from what I recall that we are going for Coin faction at the moment. Previously I have only ever done blades, so it will be interesting to see if there are many differences in the quests.

One of the things I am enjoying immensely is the fact that the last time I adventured with gusto in SS I was on a crappy computer, graphics were set a minimum and things were pretty bland. This time though with the game running just below extreme it’s like SS is a completely different zone from what I remember. I seriously feel like heading out all over Norrath again in the nooby and lower end stuff just to re-experience all the zones with a fresh new eye. I can’t tell you the difference it makes having a good graphics setup on that game. It quite literally transforms it. Yeah, I still lower my settings when raiding as I get a little fed up of just watching a screen full of constant and crazy disco like particle effects all the time as 24 people bash it out. But, I used to knock my graphics down for instances too but I've been doing some testing recently and even set damn high my FPS doesn’t drop below 40 or so which is easily playable for me in instances. To be honest the FPS doesn’t drop too much when raiding either, but it’s just a pain not being able see anything aside from flashes and bangs, so raiding is still minimum.

I’ve recently been having mixed feelings about Velious. As always I’m looking forward to experiencing the new content but at the same time there is a feeling of 'man, I have to do it all over again’. This feeling is compounded by the fact I have been getting a few rumours popping through and it seems stuff like raid armour is pretty useless in Velious. Now I have no idea what changes have been made, but dammit I have worked hard on my kit. I mean when SF came out, T4 TSO gear was still ok’ish at level 90. Ten levels higher than the previous expansion. This time round the level remains the same but the kit is apparently rubbish. I don’t know for sure but it seems from the rumours there are a lot of changes coming. I just hope they work out and it’s not another GU13.

How good it is, or how quickly I come to terms with the changes will probably determine if I continue to play EQ2 or not. I think I have mentioned before that Velious was the expansion I quit EQ1 on. It’d be a bit spooky if it was the same this time round. It needs to be really good and captivating as I’m already trying to cut down my play time and SoE won’t need to give me many excuses to move on to spending even more time writing. On top of that we are only a couple of months or so off the start of the really nice weather here on the southern coast of Spain and that naturally brings playtime down when I’m sat by the pool with the kids until 9 at night. So yup, the expansion will need to be something special to keep me around. Well. At the moment I still don’t have a replacement for EQ2 and I guess I may keep one account open for those rare occasions I had time to play and catch up with my mates even if I don’t like the expansion.

Right that’s about all I have time for. Work beckons once more. For this week I don’t have too much planned, but this coming Sunday I am running an old RoK raid for Acolytes of Valor, probably Veeshans Peak to get AA off the Dragons not already dead for some in our guild. Should be fun.

Be well.