August 15, 2008
I was out and about earlier today, checking out the latest live event quest that came with Game Update 47, when suddenly I saw a very snappy looking Qeynosian strut by on his equally decked out horse. His name was Commander Vincent Angellicor, and he sauntered from the South Qeynos Gates to the Lighthouse, where he proceeded to check in with Karn Rockhopper, and Brieanna Soph, who are heading up the construction of a fortress offshore.
Commander Angellicor checks in with both of them to see how things are going with the construction of the “fortress.” He explains that the Queen is preoccupied with the threats from Kunark, and, more urgently, with the threats from the energy storms.
Karn Rockhopper does admit that there were cracks in the foundation, which led to them using more stone than they had planned. Brieanna Soph says she has adjusted her plans a bit to account for the increased need for stone, but Commander Angellicor tells her not to adjust so much that they don’t create a fortress that is strong enough. She also reports that there is a mysterious stranger that has been watching the progress of construction. He disappears before anyone can get close enough, but he is wearing a Freethinker’s Amulet.
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Now, that “fortress” being discussed is referring to the upcoming launch of guild halls. So what can we speculate about its launch?
Here are a few of my thoughts. Some are probably a wish more than a prediction.
First, I think it’s pretty safe to assume that guild halls will require a guild to be at a certain level (I’m hoping it’s 60!), and also have a certain enormous amount of status. But based on Master Rockhopper’s comments, it looks like guilds will need to contribute some raw materials as well - namely, stone.
The urgency of the construction is very curious. The fortress has to be strong, but it needs to be completed quickly, due to threats from the void incursions. It sounds like these fortresses are meant to be protection in the event that Qeynos itself comes under attack.
Which leads me to my next hope - that Qeynos (and Freeport) are destroyed by the invasion of the Void. This would satisfy two hopes of mine, because I want guild halls to really have a purpose, and I want to see the Void invasion really feel like an invasion. With all the PvP and RvR that’s being injected into our MMO veins, wouldn’t it be refreshing for us PvE carebears to face a little shake up of the status quo? A little sense of danger can go a long way.
How cool would it be if the general population needed to use guild halls as the base of operations for their daily endeavors, like crafting, mending, banking, and brokering…
I don’t know anything about the League of the Freethinkers, so I’m curious as to why they are distant observers of the constuction site. Apparently, if you go to one of the nearby islands near the guild hall, you can occasionally spot this Freethinker spy on a nearby hill. He uses a magic potion to disappear in a cloud of smoke, though, so you won’t have much of an opportunity to engage in pleasantries.
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August 14, 2008
I was putting together the “Fall Goals” for the guild today, and it gave me a nice opportunity to step back and look at the big picture for a moment.
Above: RnH on our first trip to Shard of Hate.
We started up as a guild back in January, about 8 months ago. In that time, we have successfully raided almost all content up to T8. We also worked together to complete several heritage quests and some of the larger questlines, like the class hat quest. Several members have dinged level 80 in adventuring, or tradeskilling (or both!), and many of those have completed their fabled adventuring epics and tradeskill epics. Our guild has reached level 60 now, and this past week, we ventured into our first Tier 8 raid zone - Shard of Hate, to try our luck on scooping up loot from the trash and to play around with Demetrius Crane.
Above: Ah, memories. Guild pose on the pyramid in the “Spirits of the Lost” raid zone, after taking down Venekor.
The part that I think is the coolest, though, is that we did it on a very laid back, casual playstyle. We only raid two nights a week, and raiding isn’t mandatory. Any guild events we do run from 8:30 EST to 11 EST, and I think we’ve gone over that 11 PM time only once. Our motto is, “Focused progress, but not at the expense of a good night’s sleep.” For me, it sunk in last week that we actually have been able to do exactly that.
Above: Celebration after taking down Harla Dar in Temple of Scale.
Funny thing is, that moment has come and gone. I’m always uneasy about the direction of the guild, and I’d love to know if that’s a common feeling among guild leaders, or if it’s just me. I find that leading a guild can be a lot harder than other leadership positions, like coaching or teaching, primarily because it’s impossible to know whether everyone in the guild is “on board,” with your philosophy. When you’re facing a team or a class, you can instantly tell how your words are being received. That’s impossible with a guild, because of the distance between you and everyone else. That can make things very frustrating at times, but it also makes guild accomplishments that much more enjoyable.
Above: RnH taking on Cthulu, one of the Guild Raids. This was one of our first raids, “back in the day.” (about 4 months ago).
We’re definitely not a uber guild, but we’re also not trying to be one. Given our limited playtimes and flaky schedules, I think we’re doing pretty darned good.
Above: The RnH carpet brigade, back in March, taking on Rahotep for the Scepter Heritage Quest.
…and now I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop…..
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August 11, 2008
One feature that often gets overlooked in Everquest 2 is the betrayal system. “Back in the day,” when being good or being evil actually had some semblance of importance, you could choose to betray sides early on in your toon’s existence (I think it was level 17). So, if you played an evil class, you would become the good aligned equivalent, and vice versa.
Above: Shard of Fear. Why the heck am I running *toward* the wall of fire?!
The whole “good vs evil” thing in EQ2 has been watered down a lot in the years that followed, but the betrayal system not only remains in place, but has been revamped to allow you to betray at basically any level. So if you played a templar (the good aligned cleric class), you could switch over and play an inquisitor. If you got tired of playing an evil dirge, you would betray and become a troubador, or good bard. You still might be playing the same basic class (bard, cleric, enchanter, warrior), but there are some noticeable differences between each good and evil pairing. The betrayal system is great, because it offers a chance for someone to freshen up their gaming without having to reroll. It also offers flexibility for those that might be looking to raid with a particular guild that has closed recruiting to their particular class. Maybe the guild of your dreams is no longer seeking mystics (the good aligned shaman), but wants defilers. Betray and you are in!
There is a penalty, of course. When you betray, all your spells and abilities are gone, and you no longer can live in your original city. You are exiled to Haven until you do enough faction work to earn the right to live in your new city of choice. Also, if you have class specific armor, you’ll need to replace it. Honestly, it’s the perfect penalty - not too timesinky, but severe enough to prevent people from making betrayal a nightly ritual.
So why stop there? Why can’t I switch classes within my archetype, so if I am a monk, I could betray and become a guardian? If I’m a fury, I can betray and become a templar. Heck, why stop at archetypes, why can’t someone retrain as an entirely new class? (Lemme interject here and toss out the disclaimer that I’m only thinking about this for a PvE environment. This idea might create huge problems in a PvP game) Obviously, the first argument against it is that the bigger the jump in class, the harder it would be to properly learn that class. True enough, so why not make the process of betrayal contain a series of challenges that force someone to study their class, and only allow them to “graduate” if they have passed the challenges? Much better than slaughtering newbmobs for faction, I’d say.
Above: RnH on a recent Harla Dar kill in Temple of Scale.
You might argue that it would lead to rampant betrayals, and the population would always be lopsided in favor of a certain small number of classes. First, the current betrayal system in EQ2 proves that it would not be rampant. Some do betray, but of the 100 different individuals in my guild, to use a small example, only one has betrayed. As for it leading to population imbalance, the law of supply and demand will always smooth it out. Even if, suddenly, every single healer decides to betray and become a fury, some will settle back into the other classes, simply because it’s no fun to be druid #400 that’s sitting lfg, or fury #15 that’s waiting to get on a raid.
I’ll admit, I have a bit of a bias here, because I believe that leveling is archaic. So the standard argument of “don’t like your class? Reroll and play an alt!” doesn’t fly with me. There is no good reason that someone should have to redo every level, and re-grind all the content, to play another class. If there was one, WoW and all the other MMOGs wouldn’t be making it faster to reach the level cap as their respective games grow long in the tooth, and larger in levels. I’m also on my soapbox because I’m so totally done with the concept of raid limits, especially in EQ2. 24 classes, and 6 are tanks. The math doesn’t work, and it never will.
The only drawbacks I suppose are that A) low level areas would be a lot more sparsely populated, since there might be fewer twinks running around and B) there might be less of a demand for lower level items on the broker. The broker issue could be easily solved, if you reset a newly betrayed player’s skills to zero, and then went with a skill based requirement on items, rather than level based. As for the low level areas possibly losing population, it’s not ideal, but let’s face it, the longer a game is out, the lower the population in low level zones anyway. And more often than not, most are soloing through the low level content anyway, simply because it’s faster and easier.
If I want to switch my class and turn my level capped whatever into a new class, and I pay a fairly steep penalty for it, along with a rigorous retraining and challenging tests (Trainer NPCs actually acting like trainers?! Get out!), how does that affect someone else’s game experience? And I’m asking out of all honesty, because I don’t see any serious issue other than the fact that “that’s not the way it’s done” in MMOGs.
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July 22, 2008
Amirah tells the guild, “Who here is a fan of Erika!” (That’s the name of my EQ2 toon)
My ears perk up and I’m on the edge of my seat, anticipating the wave of spam from everyone online.
There are a few polite replies here and there, trying to help mitigate the sound of crickets. And then…
Amirah tells the guild, “Oops, sorry, that was a typo, I meant Eureka.”
son.of.a.b
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July 21, 2008
I’m probably the only person on the planet who hasn’t seen The Dark Knight. Instead, I spent my Saturday night podcasting with Darren, Scott, and John. The two topics were fun - one was about Warhammer’s cuts with a focus on project management, and the other was about WoW, and whether it’s long in the tooth. Thinking about both topics later, it’s interesting how they fit well together. One thing that stands out between WoW and Warhammer is the stark difference in hype. WoW tends to play it a lot closer to the vest than Warhammer when it comes to specifics, so they haven’t had to do the spin job that Warhammer has of late. Maybe that has helped WoW age so gracefully.
Also, regarding Warhammer’s city cuts, I meant to cite Michael Zenke’s article from over a month ago that expressed concern over the less-than-completeness of four out of six cities. If he noticed it a month ago, you’d have to think it’s been on Mythic’s mind for quite some time. That brings up the issue of whether the cuts should have been made sooner, to focus the resources on the stuff that is fairly complete.
Anyway, the show was fun, and a little more lighthearted than some recent episodes. (Seriously, what *is* the deal with Dr. Horrible?!) Hopefully the comments will stay civil!
Speaking of lighthearted, earlier in the week I did a podcast with Troy for EQual Perspectives, and we invited my old gaming friend Shawn (Orko) to join us on the show. Shawn has a nice way of summing up the big picture, and he knows his gaming. “Back in the day,” I used to lean heavily on him in EQ for raid ideas, and he never failed to deliver. On EQual Perspectives, he gave a great rundown of the inquisitor and templar classes, and also talked about the betrayal system. But most notable was his marketing idea for EQ2 - during a “free play” period like the current Living Legacy promo, why not offer up a new race to play, but make it a temporary offer. So you can create characters of that particular race only during the promotion. New and old players alike will be excited to make a limited time race, and chances are they’ll be more likely to stick with it, since it’s something special that allows them to stand out. There are lots of “one time” game events and item rewards that get removed from game after a certain time, so why not a race? It’s a very interesting idea.
On a total side note, I’m irritated with my lack of EQ2 screenshots. When I played Vanguard, I took thousands of shots, and I sorta got hooked on getting just the right lighting, framing, and subject matter. I certainly am no professional photographer or artist (my brother got all the artistic talent), but I really did enjoy looking over my in game snippets after a night of gaming. Whether it was a panoramic view or combat deep in a dungeon, there were tons of moments where I thought “that would make a great picture.”
I don’t feel that way about EQ2. Part of it is that claustrophobic feel of the zones and dungeons, but a big part of it is the lighting. More often than not, my screenshots look way too dark, and even though I’m using max torches and shadows, it doesn’t seem like it from the pictures I’m taking. Any tips are greatly appreciated, because I am tired of looking over recent screenshots and not being able to use any.
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July 16, 2008
With all the recent discussion about smart project management, it’s very interesting to see how 38 Studios is coming along. A while back, they licensed BigWorld Technology and the Unreal Engine 3, and yesterday, they announced that they had licensed Morpheme, from NaturalMotion. The demo video of Pure, one of the games using the technology, looked pretty neat.
38 Studios seems to be focused on taking advantage of any service or tool that will allow them to save time and focus their resources on all the other tasks that are needed to make an MMO. I just hope, hope, hope that whatever tools they use, whether in house or not, we don’t have to read about how this game is unplayable on anything but the top notch computers that are out when it launches.
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July 14, 2008
It’s safe to say that there is a big malaise hovering over many gamers these days, and it seems to loom even larger over those of us who blog. Of the two big AAA titles released this year, Age of Conan seems to be mired in siege lag and breast damage issues, while Warhammer Online just cut a tithe from their heavily promoted game. Bloggers have become the new Karch Kiraly - you serve us up the MMO of the week, and we’ll spike it right back down, in your face, hard.
Recently on Shut Up We’re Talking, Darren, Michael and Brent were discussing the fact that blogging about games has actually become a game itself. For whatever reason, we bloggers enjoy talking about games almost as much, if not moreso, than the actual act of gaming. We come armed with our proud gaming resume and our wordpress accounts, and when we talk, people listen! (Or so we think) WAR, the blog MMO, is about 100 times better than the real game will be.
Well, as if our summer of discontent is bad enough, along come four drunk guys doing a podcast (which, arguably, is just as bad as blogging) and reading *our* blog entries out loud, in a random assortment of voices. It’s part of Channel Massive’s show segment called “Blog-o-steria,” and it’s basically a combination of Beavis N Butthead plus the Emperor’s New Clothes. They scour the internet looking for the hotbutton MMO blog topic of the week that everyone is blogging about, and they relish in poking fun at our self-importance, our expert analysis, and sometimes, our bad grammar. In a nutshell, it’s hilarious!
I stumbled on this yesterday, while I was reading Virginworlds and saw a blog entry from Mystic Worlds, who took exception to the blanket lumping of all bloggers as part of a reactionary knitting circle. I took a listen and even heard them mention my blog entry about Age of Conan’s gender damage issue. Luckily, they didn’t really lay into me, although whoever it was that blurted out the “Jaye, let me be the first to say….” comment, I want to know what the rest of it was going to be! Finish it, go on!
Anyway, the Blog-o-steria segment is definitely not something I would do, and I’m sort of torn over the fact that I got a big laugh out of something that I totally disapprove of, but I do think that bloggers have more or less been asking for it for a while now. I also realize that I’m wading right into a Blog-o-steria about Blog-o-steria. But then again, hardly anyone reads my blog anyway, so I think we’re safe.
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July 14, 2008
If you’ve ever raided, I’m sure you’ve run into that one person that is an absolute ulcer-inducer. You know the one - they log in late, have all sorts of chaos going on behind them that is distracting them, and go linkdead over and over, at the worst possible times. These are the kind of people that can take a full raid and stand it on its head.
So imagine what it’s like when it’s the raid leader who is the ulcer-inducer!
Yep, I was an absolute nightmare last night. I had been out of town all day at a family get together, and by the time we got home and put the kids to bed, it was about 10 minutes till raid time. I logged in, hustled my butt over to Loping Plains for our Freethinker’s raid, and tried to form up the raid on the fly.
I got there, *almost* on time, we were pretty full (not bad for a casual guild in the middle of summer), and I was itching to zone in. Then I heard Mutz cursing upstairs. His computer was borked, and he was having major video issues when playing the game. Not good.
We finally zoned in, way later than we should have, with some still on the way, and Mutz trying to find a flashlight so he could pry open his computer and troubleshoot. I set everyone up to start the first pull. If you’re not familiar with Freethinkers, it’s set up so that there are 5 werewolves right at the zone in, all close together. But you can throw bones from the left and right sides of the entrance, and if timed right, you can distract some of them and single pull whatever’s left over. We’ve done it before cleanly, so it should have been easy peasy.
First pull, 4 freaking werewolves charged in on us. Messy, messy pull. We killed one and wiped. Second pull, we got one, and then two more came in shortly after. Messy pull part deux. We killed one, wiped, and *bam* I went linkdead. No vent, no EQ2, and I was angrily clicking the repair function on my wireless freaking crappy router. I was about to throw my headset across the room when I heard light footsteps coming down the stairs. From the corner of my eye, I saw my daughter stroll into the room, a half hour after I thought I had put her to bed! I was like the Grinch and she was Cindy Lou Hoo, only I couldn’t appease her with a mere cup of water. She plunked herself down in the chair next to me and began the negotiation process for going to bed, part two. Not. good.
I did a quick afk while we cleaned up from the wipe, and tried to tuck my daughter back in bed as fast as I respectfully could. By this time, I was just praying that we could clear to the update area for a quest that many in the guild had worked on, called the Blackwater Mask. I figured, if we can get that, and try the first named once or twice, it’ll be a miracle.
But we actually settled down and started to get into a groove. We cleared some more trash, jumped on adds quickly, and made it up to the wall that needed to be blown up for the Mask quest. I flopped my way to the barrel behind the first named and got it back down the hall in front of the update room. I ignited it…and….BOOM! A werewolf came charging out of the room. No problem!
Two seconds later, I heard Anda, one of our healers, say, “We have adds!” Then *blam* I got dropped from vent, my screen locked up, and all of a sudden I was reading the blue screen of death telling me that my driver got stuck in an infinite loop. Not. freaking. good.
I came back and we were able to clear the werewolves and get back to the room for the update! Yay us! Time for The Shredder.
We tried a couple of times, and made progress each time, but couldn’t finish him off. And of course, at some point in there, I went linkdead again. So we got down to “do or die” time. We set up, buffed up, gor ready to pull and *bam* there was the named, just a tad bit prematurely pulled! Eff it, let’s do this, I thought, so I called the raid in to assist. Amazingly enough, the fight was actually going well. It was going very well actually. We hit a little roadbump after Faunis and Zyph, our MT and ST died, but I was able to hold it in the corner long enough to get them back in the game. And finally, he died.
We got a paladin master that went to Lydraal, one of the nicest people we have in the guild, and some caster leggings that went to Elementor, who had just endured a ton of deaths as one of our chosen “sacrifices.”
I was totally off my game last night, but when things are going sour, it’s amazing how much you learn about those in the guild. I know who blew smoke up my arse, who was raiding for numero uno, who was a hair trigger away from leaving the raid, and who could buckle down and gracefully deal with challenge.
Cool moment of the day #1 - By the end of the night, we had a full raid, in the doldrums of July.
Cool moment of the day #2 - 10 minutes after Mutz camped, he had ordered a new computer. Real men don’t play with wires and screw around with software updates!
Cool moment of the day #3 - Luper was in our vent channel! She was in one of the group channels with Faeran and a few others, and unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to hop in to say hi, but it was cool nonetheless.
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July 11, 2008
Just a few quick thoughts in reaction to the Warhammer news today:
- Mythic reclaims its title and drops the “EA”….on a day when they announce class cuts and a reduction in capital cities. Is this more like EA trying to symbolically distance itself from the game? Not that this is the best comparison, but in the case of Vanguard, hindsight revealed a much different reason for Sigil and Microsoft to part ways than was originally stated.
- Warhammer Online will now have two capital cities. I shook my head at that one, because just two days ago, during the interview with Scott Hartsman, the one thing he said he most wished he could have changed in EQ2 was to get rid of the two capital cities of Freeport and Qeynos. Logistically, that was impossible, since both cities had too many roots branching into the rest of the game. Now, here’s Warhammer, about to ship with…..two capital cities.
- Warhammer cut four classes, bringing the number down to 20. 20?! People are unhappy that their pre-planned favorite classes are gone, but heck, they might want to consider lowering it by more. EQ2 has 24 classes and 24 man raid caps. Yes, it’s fun to have lots of choices on what to play, but it doesn’t translate well when raiding. (There are 6 tank classes, for example, and no one in their right mind will want a raid force with 1/4 tanks.) In comparison, World of Warcraft has 9.
- Reaction by those vocal in the Warhammer community has been mostly down, obviously, but whether people feel pessimistic, cautiously hopeful, or ready to do “Hulk Smash” on their computer keyboard, everyone seems to have the same thought in the end - “It’s too bad they had to cut, but at least the part of the game that will be released will be polished and of high quality….” In essence, the tone has now become, “Warhammer Online is going to be a great game…or else @#%^@^#!!”
God help the Mythic team. That bar just got forklifted higher, and it’s now cemented firmly in place.
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July 11, 2008
While the rest of the MMO world is waiting with baited breath for the coming of our game savior, Warhammer Online, I have decided to look further down the line, and pin my hopes on whatever 38 Studios is working on. So I was eager to see the sneak peek of the Copernicus project on the Jace Hall show. To call it a sneak peek is an understatement, and it’s going to require hours of slow-mo, screen captures, and fine toothed combs to pull out enough stuff to satisfy me. But I do think there were some big, albeit subtle, revelations.
First, there’s the character concept art on the screensaver behind him. First he’s there, then he’s a Microsoft windows logo. Some sort of shapeshifter class?
There’s also a collection of figures on a nearby shelf. Soon to hit store shelves this Christmas as a tie-in to the game?
It’s possible that the best weapon in the game is “The Bloody Sock.” That’s a no-brainer, but the real question is, does it have particle effects?
On a more serious note, there were two glimpses at some of the in game artwork. One was some sort of building, and another was an image of a wooded area with some nice lighting. Based on the quick flashes, it seemed to be fantasy in appearance, and very beautiful.
All in all, the short segment left me, well, pretty much where I was before I saw it - not knowing much, and really eager to see more. C’mon Comic Con!
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July 10, 2008
I’ve somehow gotten into the nasty habit of doing podcasts. I’m having a blast doing Shut Up We’re Talking with Darren, and it also looks like Troy is starting up EQual Perspectives again. He invited me back to do the show, and it’s been fun to talk about EQ2. But I was in for a real treat this week when Michael Zenke invited me on the Massively podcast. It was supposed to be a panel-style commentary on the weeks news, but Michael decided it was a slow week, and instead invited Scott Hartsman on the show.
My first thought was, “freaking Scott Hartsman?!” He’s worked with the two games that are the bulk of my gaming background - Everquest and Everquest 2. More importantly, he was largely responsible for the vast improvements to EQ2 that steered it away from its rocky launch and onto a path of success. I don’t view myself as someone who has access to those in “the industry” - I’m just a player with a blog, like hundreds of others. So it was a huge treat to be able to talk to him. The show seemed to go by way too fast, and the history buff (and player) in me enjoyed listening to Scott talk about what it was like trying to right the EQ2 ship, especially since there are so many recently released MMOs that are similarly struggling.
The podcast is up over on the Massively site and Virginworlds. Again, I really enjoyed being part of the show, and well worth a listen.
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July 5, 2008
Last week in game for me was full of a bunch of “firsts.” I visited a couple of RoK instances for the first time (I *might* get to see everything in time for the next expansion! Veksar’s release is going to be my bane though.) Also, our guild killed Vyemm for the first time.
The Vyemm raid was cool because we started out with about two and a half groups, and as we zoned in, I knew we didn’t have enough to kill him. We were breezing through named after named, and the pace was great (A sleepy MT = faster pulling, must remember that). We were up to 3 full groups as we closed in on Vyemm’s room, but still didn’t have the raid force to take him on.
About 5 minutes before we prepped for Vyemm, Brinelan (conjuror), Cithel (Guardian), and his wife Dacia (templar) all logged in and asked if there was room on the raid. Heck ya! It was like Han Solo suddenly showing up to knock Darth Vader off course. Soon after, Vyemm died, and we got to go to bed early!
Later in the week, I visited Chelsith, Vault of Eternal Sleep, and Maiden’s Chamber. I liked Chelsith a lot.
This was not the typical crawl, and I was curious enough about the zone that I asked my groupmates about the Yah’lei and what they were worshiping. Turns out, this is the former capital of this Shissar empire, and contained a vast library. Charasis was built over the city, and eventually, the Yah’lei took it over and devoted much of it to the worship of some leviathan creature that they think has replaced Prexus.
The zone was fun but difficult for us. Mutz needed us to kill a bunch of gassy bubbles for his fury epic, and when we first zoned in, we only saw a few, which disheartened us. Little did we know that the bubbles are belched out by the huge pod things surrounding the outside of the zone, and they slowly float right over the pathway that loops around. Eventually they “pop,” or despawn, as they get a certain distance away, but it was tricky trying to time our pulls so that we weren’t standing under them as they floated overhead. By the end of the night, I was thoroughly tired of seeing the waves and waves of bubbles overhead!
There were many nameds up in the zone - some were Yah’lei of various titles and importance, and then there were the leviathan tentacle thingys, which become targetable after you clear all the yah’lei around their pools. We also grabbed a giant goo named “Mucus of the Deep One,” and a huge frog further in, but sadly, we ran out of time to get the boss. Since Mutz only got like 5 of 15 updates, we’ll be back soon.
Vault of Eternal Sleep had some really fun fights as well, especially the boss at the end. In order to reach him, you have to kill the Keeper of Dreams, the Keeper of Nightmares, and the Guardian of Eternity. The Guardian fight was interesting because you had to clear a bunch of juggernauts, and as each one reached 1% health, a nearby tome would become active and start casting a rune on the mob. So someone in the group needs to click on the tome in order to destroy it and allow the group to finish killing the mob. There were several of these in the room, and as soon as the last one dies, the Guardian attacks. So you’re in combat for a while.
After that, you have to go through all the rooms of the nameds and gather up the crystals from the room. Properly placing them on the pedastals allows access to the Praetor of the Phylactery, which was a tricky fight. As we fought him, two skeletons would spawn and march towards him. If they got close enough, they’d heal him and cause the encounter to break. It took us a few tries, but we finally got the fight down and killed the boss, which allowed Cithel, our tank, to get one of his last needed updates for the warrior epic.
In contrast, we didn’t get very far into Maiden’s Chamber - the Sandstorm tripped us up. We didn’t have an ideal group for it though, so next time we should do better.
What strikes me about these three instances is that I don’t really know any backstory to them. Chelsith stood out because it was so unique looking, and I got some background from Mutz and from a trip to the EQII lore forum. But a forum search of each of these spots turned up nothing on Maiden’s Chamber and Vault of Eternal Sleep. I know there are NPCs that give the background, but I just wish the story were somehow *in* the dungeon or instance. So as you’re clearing, you see landmarks and clues that reveal parts of the lore. Also, in Chelsith, there was a Yah’lei that was praying over and over to “The Deep One” - something like that would help to pass along the backstory as well.
I’ve talked about this before, and lore junkies are going to hate me, but I am someone who wants to get into the lore, but can’t do the npc-click-text thing. I need to see it, and I need to have the dungeons and inhabitants bang me over the head with the storyline. I also would love to see the lore be more accessible, so that the basic story can be found within the dungeon itself, rather than from an npc or some book in town.
There’s so much lore in EQII, and I really feel like I’d enjoy the game even more if I could get into some of the larger stories in the game. I’m going to try to roll up my sleeves and revisit some of the EQ and EQII lore sites to see if I can get a better handle on it. I’m trying, really, I am!
Posted by jayernh under Archive | Comments (1)
