Rants tag

Rants, ruminations, and rambling remarks from my mad, muddled, meandering mind.
Showing posts with label EQNL. Show all posts
Showing posts with label EQNL. Show all posts

Sunday, March 13, 2016

Playing Catch-Up

My goodness! It's been, like, two and half weeks since I posted. Busy, busy, IRL. The big gaming news of the past little bit seems to be the cancellation of EverQuest Next. I can't say I am too surprised, but it is a disappointment. While I never played the original EQ, and only dabbled in EQII and Landmark (which I also "invested" in), I was looking forward to seeing the StoryBricks concept in a polished game.
But enough about that. What I have been doing for the past couple weeks, besides neglecting the blog, is playing a bunch of SWTOR (no surprise there, either). When Scooter can get involved, we're working on our Team Jedi, currently en route to Hoth. My Baldrvar is delightfully Dark, while Scooter's Vireena is only the Diet Coke of Evil. (Don't tell her I said that.)

SPOILERS (for a 4-year-old storyline)

As an aside, I wish that (1) Sith light armor wasn't so uniformly goofy, and that (2) gear did not change appearance between the Imperial and Rebublic side. I wanted to keep Valerija in a short jacket, but the only one I could find was the one you see in the pic, a level 7-ish piece. There are plenty of medium armor jackets for smugglers that would fit the bill nicely, but they literally change to Agent garb when viewed on the Imp side.

When I'm on my own, I've gotten caught up in my Light-side Sorcerer's story. Valerija came to the realization she was being groomed as more than just an apprentice by Darth Zash. (What, the haircut didn't give it away?) And with the help of Khem Val, the Dashade, she sprang Zash's trap, with unexpected consequences for all of them.

With the first chapter of her Sith career over, Lord Valerija (or is it Lady?) decided it was time to shed the resemblance to her former master (mistress?) and stepped out in a big way.

There are a couple other adaptive armor jackets I would have preferred, but they are out of my price range. This is Theron's jacket, dyed Yellow and Deep Pink. Njessi will probably kill me. I also had a bit of buyer's remorse over the pompadour, but after playing through a few cutscenes, I think it fits my newly independent darkangel.
She may be attempting to reform the Empire with the Light, but Valerija is no pushover. That bubblegum-hued lightsaber cuts just as deeply as any red, green, or blue one.

And she can toss lightning with the best of 'em.

That's not to say Valerija doesn't have a sense of humor. Her motley band of pirates, archaeologists, fallen Jedi and Force-eaters keeps her amused and bemused all at once. But she'd do anything for them, and thus, has gained their undying loyalty. Loyalty that she'll need in the times ahead, as she pursues Darth Thanaton across the galaxy.
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Thursday, March 27, 2014

One Night in Beta

So Landmark alpha is over and closed beta has begun. David Georgeson, in the new intro video, said that closed beta will last quite some time, much longer than alpha. There are also plans to introduce many more features, like dangerous creatures, fall damage (I need that grappling hook), PvP elements, and more. Right now, mostly what has changed is the crafting system, which is now more complex. And seems to require even more resources.

Scooter and I were so busy gathering the resources we needed to create our claims and then stake them, then get enough copper to pay the upkeep for a few days, that I completely forgot to get any screenshots. Which is why the wall of text.

I was a bit miffed at the cost of upkeep (300 copper per day), but it's really only a few minutes of digging. What is somewhat more irksome is the five-day limit. So I can't ever be away from the game more than five days? For who knows how many months? I really hope that changes, and soon. I realize the other side of that argument is that they don't want to have zombie claims just sitting there, but I may just as soon return to my pocket dimension in Rift, if that is going to be how this world plays out. It seems to me that as long as I pump "upkeep" into the claim, I should not be limited if I need to be away from the game for an extended period of time.

The controls are a little wonky again (or still). They just don't seem as responsive, making it hard to move quite the way I'd like. And there is no keymap, so I can't reassign stuff to fit my habitual keystrokes.

It's not all negative. Scooter and I ended up with an awesome pair of claims in the northern part of Serenity Valley (how could I not choose that island), on a mountain with old growth vegetation all around. It may be my imagination, bu the claims seem smaller and the buffers larger this time around. With the initial download and subsequent flurry of resource gathering, there wasn't much time to work on our claims themselves, but I look forward to developing the property in the coming months. I'll have maps and pics in the near future, if you want to visit my piece of the world.
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Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. If you are reading this post through RSS or Atom feed—especially more than a couple hours after publication—I encourage you to visit the actual page, as I often make refinements after the fact. The mobile version also loses some of the original character of the piece due to simplified formatting.

Saturday, February 1, 2014

Hooray For No NDA!!

Did I mention I have the most awesomest wife ever? Prior to last night (Friday, 31 Jan), she had not expressed any particular interest in EverQuest Next Landmark. So. we were texting as I packed to come home from a business trip:

Scooter: Hey, did we miss the EQ Landmark train?
Me: Not that I know of. Interested?
Scooter: I thought so, I know it's in alpha.
Me: I'll look, but least a few days ago, they were still hawking it on their website.
Scooter: $100, $60, and $20 are the levels. So I'm guessing some started today.
Me: Yeah, mostly I want the pickaxe.
Scooter: Well, the $60 would be OK.
Me: Oh yeah? You're really liking EQ2. . .
Scooter: It seems the most reasonable. . .

This was not the first time Scooter has surprised me by suddenly showing interest in a video game. This evening after I had returned home, we made our purchases and downloaded the game. Watching the tutorials and forums that contain multiple reminders that this an alpha test, and the game not nearly complete. I got in and made myself a character and went into "New Norrath." I tried to grab a screenshot but I'm not sure it might be on my computer if it was successful.

Then this happened:

This makes me very happy as a blogger. Today's post from the Aggronaut covers the difficulties NDAs pose to those that want to the praise a game with details to back it up, especially in the face of negative conjecture regarding the game in question.

In my case, Landmark is the first time I've participated in any game alpha test. It's already pretty cool, though admittedly it's not a finished game. It is amazing how many complaints there are from people that just cannot seem to grasp the concept that they are part of a testing community, not just a gaming community.

Heck! I'm using this evening's server downtime to write this post, which you would not have gotten until tomorrow, otherwise. I've only gotten a brief nibble so far, but am very interested in attending the feast, and getting a chance to help cook the sauce. And being able to share my thoughts with you, Dear Reader.
~~~
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. If you are reading this post through RSS or Atom feed—especially more than a couple hours after publication—I encourage you to visit the actual page, as I often make refinements after the fact. The mobile version also loses some of the original character of the piece due to simplified formatting.