Claim Dilemma

Syl, the MMO Gypsy, has a post up today about losing her claim in Landmark, along with advice for both SOE and players on how that might be avoided in the future. Unfortunately, the same thing happened to Scooter last week due to an odd schedule and just general busy-ness. In the meantime, while I have diligently logged on to maintain my claim, my gimped computer makes it a chore to do anything more than mine and pay the piper. My actual claim sits unimproved.

With thanks to Quinterra for the beautiful screenshot.

Syl describes the stickiness of "owning" property in a game that keeps people coming back regularly. While I cannot disagree with her observation, my very fun forays into Dimensions in Rift and Housing in EQ2 did not ultimately keep me in those games. I also found the concept of upkeep a little manipulative. Keeping up my property in the real world is enough of a chore. I would prefer not to transfer that sense of obligation to my virtual one. I realize that seems in conflict with the concept of Landmark in the first place.

Perhaps I am in a rare position. With no developed property, I am only attached to my claim due to the pleasant view on a sentimentally named island. And while I am eager to develop my character through his tools, I worry that changes to the game as they introduce new systems will render much of my current efforts moot anyway.

So my dilemma is:

• Do I continue to pay upkeep on an empty lot, that my lovely bride may or may not be able to stake another claim next to?
• Or do I let it lapse and wait until we both have more time and good equipment, or SOE revises the upkeep to be more forgiving, or both?

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Ready for Adventure!

Dexi (Scooter) and Rowanblaze

You know, I gotta say, if the beta characters of Landmark are any indication of how EQN characters will look (there is every indication that they are) I will be happy to play the game. Even at this rough stage, Landmark just has a look I like.

I haven't made much progress in Landmark due to various "meatspace" activities this weekend, but Scooter and I are rarin' to go. Our characters, Dexi and Rowanblaze, have claims just about as close to each other as we can get. I managed to do some gathering, even with the issues I am facing with my current hardware, so hopefully I can get some crafting done so as to upgrade my stuff and eventually get to building.

As mentioned by Belghast, even if you are caught up in some other game hotness right now, don't forget to pay the upkeep on your claim (assuming you want to keep it). You can pay ahead up to 5 days worth, which is only a few minutes of mining copper. I wish it were longer, but it is what it is.

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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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Flight from Denerim: Impressions of Dragon Age

WARNING: Here there be Dragon Age: Origins spoilers.

I'm stuck with a spell of gaming doldrums. As pointed out by Big Mikey Ocho over at Casual Aggro, The Secret World is in a holding pattern as we await the opening of Tokyo, the first new major zone since the launch of the game almost two years ago. And with their limited resources, our friends at Funcom have decided to focus on said playfield rather than interim holdovers like new scenarios (which I personally think are greatly needed). While I have stuff to do to progress, most of it involves repeating content. My interest the Landmark alpha also waned in the past few weeks leading to the beta reset. After all, any progress I've made has been lost (other than templates I'd saved). Everquest II kind of petered out for me and Scooter, as well. It's too much a step back in terms of game mechanics—though the Lore/History is rich—the same I couldn't get into Pandaria.

Enter Dragon Age. A couple years ago, I picked up both Origins (Ultimate) and DA2 on sale from Amazon. But I'd never gotten around to starting the games, partly because of my subsequent disenchantment with EA/ BioWare. The game can be played offline, but requires an initial internet login to satisfy DRM requirements.

Speaking of which, while I need to check if they have synced up, I was unable to log in to the Dragon Age social stuff from within the game, despite having just changed it with Origin and being logged in to the site through Chrome. So I am not sure whether the game knows I am entitled to the DLC included in the Ultimate edition. Very aggravating, but at least I could get the game started and play through the opening bit.

Anyway, meet Rowan, a "City Elf" Rogue. As you can see, she's a redhead, much like LoneStarBelle and many other characters I've created. I picked the City Elf story because the initial description involved the disruption of an Elven wedding by arrogant bastard humans attempting to exercise some sort of Droit du Signeur. Naturally, in the end, the young nobleman and his companions were dead in a pool of blood at her feet, satisfying my overdeveloped sense of justice. I'm pretty sure Rowan beheaded him.

Rowan is saved from certain execution for her crimes through conscription by Duncan into the Grey Wardens. Yada, yada, battles and tests. I haven't played further than the fall of King Cailan's army, following the betrayal of Loghain Mac Tir, his trusted general.

So far I really like the story, but I am reminded of reviews at the time DA:O was released that this game is more about story than game mechanics. The combat is pretty basic, though control of an entire party (potentially taking over the various characters individually) is pretty cool. The game enables and requires strategy as much as simple combat prowess; which I like, as well.

The game is also very bloody, which may or may not be a turn-off for some people. As you can see in the picture below, my entire party is covered in spatter on a regular basis. I didn't mind it exactly, I found it more amusing than anything.

Unfortunately, DA:O is very much a single player game as far as I can tell; so no joining forces with Scooter to play together. Therefore, my progress through the content will be rather slow, as I will likely only play when she is unavailable. Meanwhile, trying to combat those doldrums, we have decided to give Age of Conan: Unchained (F2P) a go. Aaand Landmark is entering the beta phase, which we'll want to get in on. More on both later.

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Landmark Roof

Whereas Saturday was devoted to The Secret World, I spent a chunk of Sunday doing stuff in EverQuest Next Landmark. Structurally, the house is finished, but I am already thinking about expansion as I work on details. I kinda like pics posts. So much is conveyed visually that I feel like I don't need to provide much explanation. On the other hand . . .

The pic below, from last week, shows an issue I had with the Template system. For some reason, the templates would mirror themselves as I placed them, leading to the above pic. After posting about it on the forums, I ended up doing the final work "by hand." That's OK, there is something very relaxing about laying bricks.

The next pic is from just inside the front wall, not far from where I took the pic above, in fact. After looking at various thatched roofs online, I decided to slope the back, while leaving the front gabled. I think I need some chain to hang the chandelier lower.

Here is the current front of the cottage. It looks rather plain from here, now that I think about it. I am also considering moving the staircase further to the left. I've built the house so close to the edge of my claim that I can't have the stairs coming straight out. I think when I first laid the cornerstones, I intended to have the main entrance on the uphill side of the house. I may yet do that and get rid of the stairs on this side.

However, as you can see from the pic below, the stairs do lead to the workshop area, currently open to the elements. Most of my time in Norrath yesterday was gathering materials for a new pick and the Smoothing Tool. This involved an expedition to Serenity Pingo (Tier 3), though I suppose I could have gone to Liberation to visit Belghast's humble abode.

Late in my session, I started smoothing out the roof, which turned out to be quite a bit of work. I wonder, is there a "de-smoothing" tool to restore the original blocky-ness of a built thing? I smoothed the edges of the chimney, too—ever so slightly. That turned out a lot nicer than the smoothing I tried on the stairs. I'll do the same to the house itself later.

I'll have to see where else I want to go with this claim, or if I just want to stick with refining the house I have. In the back of my head, I am constantly thinking that this is all a very temporary alpha, and I'm not sure how to most effectively spend my time with Landmark.

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Progress

It's hard to do a progress post with a building game. I started this post this morning, then realized I needed some screenshots I didn't have. While I was getting those, I realized I could refine some stuff, which made obsolete some of the shots I'd already taken. Then I realized I could get the materials to make a better forge, and a better pick; and several hours later, the blog post still wasn't written. So some of these pics are out of date. Taking screenies is awkward right now, requiring pressing both Ctrl and F12, which I apparently forgot to do occasionally. I discovered while writing this that I still missed some shots I thought I had taken, like the Legendary-grade Silversteel pick I managed to make.

Early Friday evening, Keke (Scooter) invited Rowanblaze over to her claim to check the work she'd done on it. By the end of the night, she'd already made a bunch of improvements I didn't get shots of, including closing in the underground shelter and installing a door—not to mention getting a pair of andirons and logs for the fireplace.

Meanwhile, Rowan was busy working on his own living quarters. Thanks in part to a reminder from J3w3l of Healing the Masses, I finally made my selection tool, which in turn greatly accelerated my progress.

The house seemed to fly up after I devised "pre-fab" building elements with the Template and copy-paste functions.

I got the idea for support beams from Belghast, and the fireplace from Scooter. There's a staircase now where that table is in the picture.

In no time, I had not only finished the basement, but laid the first floor and a veranda. I still have plenty to do, including building the roof, but I wanted to get some more tools, like the Smoothing Tool. That requires resources.

My gathering took me to Serenity Pingo, where I toured a few castles. There are some seriously talented folks out there in Landmark—uh—Land.

Then it was back to the ol' Homestead. You know how awesome it is to be running through the woodland and suddenly see something you built appear in the distance?

It's still not done. But then, neither am I. . .

~~~

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.

Heaven Evanescent

After a busy week, I finally managed to get some shots of my very humble abode: Heaven Evanescent ("It's home, but who knows for how long.") You can see my low level Stone Forge and Copper Reinforced Saw Table with the homestead in the background.

I haven't made much progress inside. If you're involved with the alpha, what is your method of laying down building material, especially before you get advanced building tools? Right now, I am laying it down voxel by voxel. But it's time consuming and there are other demands on my time and resources. Am I doing it wrong by playing Monet?

I think Bhagpuss and I were tooling around on the same server. But this sign had changed when I got there. It's right near the hub of Serenity Basin (Tier 1), and sits above an open crafting workshop, where I made most of the items I made last night.

Among other things, I made a Bronze Grappling Hook at the Donut Shop. As has been said elsewhere, it's mostly a novelty right now, but I can see how it might be useful later. Meanwhile, I'm just hanging out here on this saguaro.

Since they don't have herbaceous plants to harvest, I get all sorts of strange goodies when chopping down trees. Like that bag of flax.

With my trusty new Bronze Pick in hand, I got to the end of an Iron vein (finally)—only to discover something (silver?) that I couldn't mine. Right now, I just wish there were something (maybe a tooltip) that identifies the resource, so I can skip the mining node if the attempt is pointless.

The other thing that concerns me is the chatter about hiding the veins completely underground—I guess in an effort to make it more "realistic." The problem is the folks pushing that concept don't understand geology. In real life, companies mine where they do because someone analyzed the surrounding geological features and "species" of rock to determine that there is something there worth mining. We don't just blindly start digging in hopes of finding ore. I would encourage Dave and the other devs to take that into consideration when they talk about burying the resource veins. There needs to be some indication that, "Hey maybe I should try digging here."

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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.

Love May Make the World Go 'Round, But Money Greases the Axle.

I was going to talk a little bit today about fundraising schemes and supporting projects you believe in. But I also want to talk about lockboxes late in the post, because it's something that has come up in several venues over the past week or so.

Syp is struggling to find a reason not to ask for a refund on his $60 EQNL Explorer Pack. When Scooter and I discussed purchasing that same level, we both had the feeling of making investment rather than a purchase. A lot of people are very enthusiastic about funding Kickstarters, and that's cool. But I'm very leery of throwing money at an unknown quantity (and yes I consider Richard Garriott, Brad McQuaid and the like to be unknown quantities). While plenty of people don't think a big company like Sony Online Entertainment deserve that sort of support; having played a bit of EQ2 and talked to the folks behind Storybricks, I felt the $60 dollars for EQNL was a decent investment in the game. A show of faith, if you will. Not to mention the opportunity to get in on the ground 5th floor of this new game.

I know that the game isn't perfect, but it does show promise, and most of the features I consider important to an MMO are promised as being on their way. Besides, other folks with more experience at this sort of thing than I are saying it's a little beyond what they'd consider an alpha test anyway. I have certainly been having fun in the limited exposure I've had to the game. I am a little curious about bug reporting, the one critical interface for a test seems to be missing. But I haven't looked that hard for it, so it may be there. Most of the bugs I have encountered so far seem to be macro-level issues that the devs know about before I do.

Yesterday evening, I discussed  with my cohorts on Beyond the Veil the new "Phoenician Mystery Boxes" that are now for sale in TSW's Secret Store. Are they worth it? I personally don't think they are, and it's hard to assess the value of some of the items, as they are not available for purchase. But I am not much of a gambler anyway. Frankly, I have railed against in-game RNG looting in the past for this exact reason. My fellow BtV buddy, Gigabyte, goes gaga over lockboxes. I'd generally rather purchase something I know I will use at a set price.

This morning, Belghast discussed the vagaries of a new offering by Trion, namely that a fancy new Rift mount supposedly available through in-game means, does in fact require the purchase of several of these sorts of mystery boxes, at least in the short term. I have some experience with Rift's housing mystery packs, and have a bunch of cool stuff out of them. But I wasn't looking for anything in particular, just "stuff" to decorate my little dimension with. If I'd wanted something specific, I'd purchase it directly, or go without if that were not possible.

Tobold has done a series of posts recently regarding F2P and Subscription business models, as have I. All over the blogosphere and social networking sites, people are constantly discussing the merits—or demerits—of games that quite simply need to make money to continue operating. The truth is that these companies have bills to pay, not the least of which is the salary and wages of the developers and staff. There is no such thing as a free lunch; and if you're not paying, you might just be the product.

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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.

Planting My Flag

And welcome to Serenity!
— David Georgeson (@DaveGeorgeson) February 5, 2014

This morning, I saw this picture of Iceland shared by @HighFromAbove. I've only been to a couple places with the kind of view you see in the Iceland photo—Angels Landing in Zion's National Park, for example. It reminded me of some of the vistas in EverQuest Next Landmark.

Like this one from my new "Front Porch." Yes, I finally got into a place that had open land to claim. This one is in "Knoll" on Serenity (and it's grassy). I suddenly wonder if there is a "Valley" on Serenity.

I was lucky enough to be awake about the time David Georgeson announced that Serenity had been opened, but unlucky enough to have a client-side problem that I ended up solving through a complete uninstall and new download of the software. Once that was all done, though, I found my little patch of heaven in fairly short order. Wee Mad Aggie was there on Twitter and in the Stalwart chat channel providing moral support.

There's my claim cube from a hilltop within my buffer zone. I'll be honest, I was a bit selfish with the positioning, because I am hoping to be able to shift the claim (through what ever means) enough for Scooter to make a claim nearby, perhaps on the hilltop or more in the valley.

Regardless, I now have my piece of Norrath, and I will share it with my bride, homesteading until the next Voxelocalypse.

~~~

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.

Just Let Me Plant My Flag

I spent most of yesterday not testing or even playing EverQuest Next Landmark, but sitting in a queue that varied in length from moment to moment, both my position in the queue and the estimated wait time. At one point the estimate exceeded 14 hours. Of course it didn't take that long, but on several occasions, the client crashed while I was in the queue or as I was finally loading into the game. I think I spent maybe 30 minutes actually in the game world, and most of that was trying to meet up with Scooter's character, Keke.

It will settle out. We have more servers otw and will be setup but we have enough for now if we can get the server issues fixed
— John Smedley (@j_smedley) February 2, 2014

I would say, "Well, just roll another couple servers out in the meantime." But the new servers would likely have the same issues. Heck, I'd just like a chance to get in and stake a claim. Scooter, meanwhile, actually did spend a significant amount of time in-game because she managed to jump into the queue about two minutes before me. However, the only spot she could lay claim to was a Tunare-forsaken stretch of sand at the edge of one of the maps. She opted against it. I suggested that she simply gather and craft some tools or other items for when the claims issue is alleviated.

The workaround/fix for the claim display glitch (where all the claims you've ever seen are visible on the current map) is to log out and then back in again, but when that involves a multi-hour queue, it's not really a workaround. I'm not really sure why server lag, server stability, and long queues are somehow off the table, other than that the devs are likely already aware of the problems (or caused them in the case of the queues. Of course, it needs to be constructive reporting. Crying about how you couldn't even get in (kinda like I just did) is not helpful.

To be clear - the queues you are seeing have nothing to do with how many servers we have. We are artificially slowly letting people in
— John Smedley (@j_smedley) February 2, 2014

Channeling the natural frustrations inherent in this sort of testing into something constructive is hard to do. I know they are unreasonable, but I have the feelings nonetheless. The key is realizing that they are irrational, especially given that Smed, David Georgeson, and the rest have been very clear on what is and is not available right now in the game. Near as I could figure, Georgeson was at the SOE office for at least 36 hours over the weekend before realizing he was not going to be any more help to the team due to fatigue. The devs are doing their best to make even the alpha period a success.

I, for one, am looking forward to seeing much of the potential of EQNL come to fruition. I haven't played Minecraft, and Trove does not interest me either. 8-bit graphics, simulated or otherwise, simply hold no appeal. Call me spoiled, but I like better graphics pure and simple. EQNL promises to provide the sandbox experience of those other games with something pretty to look at, and that's important to me. But for those people that through nostalgia or some other factor like that style or like old games for that matter, more power to 'em.

I have enjoyed the little bit of housing experience I got in Rift and EQ2, I think I could have a lot of fun with something even more flexible.

Even as I get ready to post this, I am in a queue over one thousand, with an estimated wait over an hour and a half. [EDIT: Just after I posted, they opened the other server and I got right in.] We'll see, early this evening, what we can get done, but it is Secret Monday, and you know what that means. . .

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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:

Hey folks, we've had a VERY good launch so far and we're proud of it, so we are lifting the NDA. You may remove your muzzles now. :)
— David Georgeson (@DaveGeorgeson) February 2, 2014

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.

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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.