Just as I got over my stomach flu, I contracted a deep chest cold and cough, so I haven’t been playing anything for a few days. I hope to get back to normal by this weekend.
I’ll leave you with the ultimate rubber band-shooting machine gun that I saw via Endgadget.
–Wolfen
The folks over at TenTonHammer have a good interview up with the folks at Cheyenne Mountain about the upcoming Stargate Worlds MMO. Here’s a quick excerpt about how combat works:
“The combat system is definitely unique among MMORPGs, and we definitely have a combat focus. We had to think of a different way to do combat, simply because we had characters with energy and projectile weapons running around. It wouldn’t be very likely, in our world at least, to have a character get hit over the head with a sword.
That said, we’re definitely not an FPS or a twitch-based game. The game is more along the lines of a typical MMORPG in that you’ll be clicking on your enemy, but the way the combat moves is going to be very unique. You enemies will use cover, and there’ll definitely be different techniques that you’ll need to employ to actually succeed in combat. How you manage your group and the targets you’ve acquired will be a big step in how our combat system works. “
It is a good interview, so go check it out and see what you think.
–Wolfen
Behind Lau Mung, the man who made the hangover cure for the recruit, is a teleporter that had not noticed before. I stepped into it and I was whisked away to the Nakai Dojo. The first person I came across was Commander Kato Chikage. Commander Kato doesn’t like to be bothered, so he sent me to find Lieutenant Mito so that I could prove my worthiness. Just how many times do I have to prove my worthiness in this game?
Mito says I need to prove myself before he will let me take care of some “special situations.” He sends me off to get him a new tiger pelt covering, which apparently takes 10 tiger pelts to make. Killing 10 tigers sound easy enough until you find out that they are not very plentiful. The tigers share spawn points with other creatures and it took a very long time for me to find enough tigers to acquire the 10 pelts. Had this been a busy area, it would have taken many hours to get this done.
After returning the pelts to Mito and completing the “Prove My Worth” quest, he still thinks I am next to useless, so he sends me off to find Lieutenant Oda, who may have something for me to do. Oda gives me the “Cleaning Up” quest that requires me to go out and kill 10 goretusk boars and 10 fleet ostra birds. The boar and birds are found in the same area as the tigers, so I didn’t have far to go in order to find them. Upon completing this quest I received 1 silver, 20 copper, and 2431 experience points.
Oda next gave me the “Pride of the Army” quest. He wants me to visit four different patrol points and slay any orcs I find along the way. He suggests that I take a friend along because the orcs seem to travel in pairs. I saved this quest for another time.
I made level 14 while completing the “Cleaning Up” quest, so I needed to train up my new spells. Nakai Dojo has a building that contains all the class trainers inside, which was very handy indeed. It also has a general goods vendor to sell your loot to. My level 14 Druid spells are: Barkskin 1, Speed of the Wolf (30% run speed increase), Stormcallers Fury II, Nature’s Calm 1, and Soothe II (288-298 heal). Nature’s Calm looks to be useful for my next quest because it keeps a creature from attacking. If the orcs roam in pairs, I can cast Soothe on one and pull the other singly. We shall see.
–Wolfen
Good ol’ Kedge Keep.
I logged in to see this at the character select screen:
I thought it might be some strange fluke, so I logged into the game, but nothing changed.
I played my entire session this way, just for the hell of it. It’s a comical sight to see just my head floating along the countryside. Hey, Vanguard developers, here’s one you can work on.
–Wolfen
My next night in Vanguard found me in the village where I found Pao Min. The first quest I started on is called “How (Not) to impress the Master.” I got it from a “Sick Imperial Recruit” how had a hangover and was needing some help. Right after finding that quest, I got another one from the Master of the village who knew that the recruit was hungover and wanted to teach him a lesson. This gave me the quest named “The Sick Recruit - Gathering the Cure.” I also found a quest called “Martok Outrigger Amulets” that needed me to go out and kill some orcs. Armed with a few quests, off I went to seek adventure.
The Martok Outrigger Amulets quest wanted me to go to Thrakos island just north of the village and seek out an orc camp. I slid down the cliff next to the village and swam over is the island. It didn’t take me long to find the big orc camp.
The orcs come in several varieties, including the Martok Scar, Stormreaver, and Fury.
I worked my way around the camp, killing every orc I came across. There were several orcs under a big tent and more in the two buildings on the dock. It took awhile to get all twenty amulets the quest called for, but the experience was good, so I wasn’t complaining. I had no problem going through the orcs solo. There are a couple of spots where you will get two at a time, but I was able to easily handle them by myself. When I turned in the amulets, I received 2 silver, 20 copper, and 2431 experience points. I also discovered that this quest is repeatable.
The next quest I worked on was “The Sick Recruit.” I needed to find seven elderberries, ten danvu root, and one salt of the sea to make a hangover cure for the recruit. The berries and roots are found just outside the main entrance to the village and are easy to obtain. Just head out the entrance and start looking to your right. You’ll see some tall rock outcroppings and the roots and berries will be found around their base. The salt is found by killing the turtles that are on the beach just across the water from the orc camp. When on the beach, beware of the aggressive crabs found there.
I took the gathered items back to Lau Mung and he created his “cure” for the sick recruit. He warned me to stand back from the recruit after I handed over the cure. It turned out to be a good warning.
–Wolfen
I spent some time in Everquest recently with some old gaming friends. We didn’t have much time available, so we decided to head out to the Loping Plains and get some grinding experience in. Our Wizard was bound at the spot where we usually set up camp, so we all met up in the Plane of Knowledge and then ported out to the Plains.
This is a very safe camping spot, so not much excitement happened. Our group consisted of level 80 gnome warrior, 76 wizard, 80 mage, 80 cleric, and me with a wimpy 68 ranger. We used the pulling technique we have used for years. The warrior would pull, and if he got multiples, the mage would cast Call of the Hero and pull him back to camp aggro free. This helps split the camp and we get easy solo pulls. We popped Lesson of the Devoted, which gives us 30 minutes of double experience, and got to work.
A common critter we encounter is the blue orc, which comes in several different types. There is the standard warrior orc to start with, and then there’s the rogue, shaman, and necromancer orc. The neat thing about these orcs is that they can change form mid-way through a fight. They start out as one type of orc model and then transform into something different in a flash. Here is an example:
So we took out plenty of the orcs along with black horses with flaming hooves called Nightmares. Experience was good, even for the level 80’s in the group. Loot drops are nothing special, but they do sell to vendors for a decent amount. It wasn’t a flashy, brag about it night, but we all made advancements and had a good time making fun of one another. A nice diversion from Vanguard every now and then.
I may be late to the party, but I am finally giving the Skype service a try. Skype, for those who don’t know, is an online phone service that uses your broadband connection to make calls. If you use their application and your computer to call someone else’s compter, the calls are absolutely free. If you want to use your computer to call regular landline and cellphones, the monthly rate is a cheap $3/month. For full phone service that includes your own phone number and unlimited incoming and outgoing calls, the monthly rate is around $8 or so. That’s a great rate for a complete home phone service.
I won’t say much about the service at the moment, but after I use it for awhile, I will put up a review of the service and see how it compares to landline phones. I ordered a Philips VOIP841 cordless Skype phone to use with it. This makes it so that you don’t have to use your computer to make a call. I will be able to walk around the house and make calls when my computer is turned off.
Look for a full review of the Skype service and the Philips Skype phone in about a week or so. I hope to report that paying high landline prices are a thing of the past. We will see.
–Wolfen
My adventures on the Kojan continent continues with more things to do from the quest log. The first of which is to assault a Ra’Jin Stronghold and complete a few missions within. The first quest that led me to the stronghold wanted me to kill six Ra’Jin Senshi warriors. This was done easily enough right outside the stronghold. Later quests wanted me to go inside the stronghold and kill other types of Ra’Jin warriors and also find an abducted woman.
I easily made my way into the stronghold by myself, clearing the way of Ra’Jin as I went. I started to hear the abducted woman call out for help, so I continued deeper into the stronghold. The way grew more difficult and I succumbed to a roamer one time and to an accidental multiple pull another time. It was then that I teamed up with another person playing a rogue and things went smoother.
The rogue is neat because it can “stealth” its way around. I could still see the outline of the rogue, but the enemy could not. This lead to a problem when I was following the rogue around a corner. The rogue, used to not having to worry about aggro, ran past several enemies that can’t be seen until you go around the corner. This, of course, led to my demise yet again. We regrouped, and waited for the abducted woman to appear again. When she appeared, I hailed her, and got quite a surprise. She turned into a mean Ra’Jin warrior that I could not have defeated solo. It was touch and go, but between my nuking as fast as I could and the rogues melee, we defeated him and completed the quest. After that, the rogue and I parted ways, and I went searching for more adventure.
I was sent to a remote Lao’Jin outpost to a man named Toak, who is a Disciple of Shaof. Toak told me that this is a retreat where the inhabitants have given up their bodies to live in harmony with Jin. I am to clear the way so that others can safely get to the retreat. I was given the quests named The Hills Are Alive and Objects For Study.
The Hills Are Alive quest had me go out to the surrounding countryside and kill Enraged Undergrowth’s, which are sort of like a bundle of tree roots that have grown legs and walk around. Objects For Study was similar in that it wanted me to slay a few different types of mobs so that the Lao’Jin could study them and find out why they are evil.
After completing those quests, I was sent off to find a man named Pao Min, located not far from a place called the Magi Hold. Magi Hold, I am told, is the home of imperial enemies. Once I located Pao Min, I decided to call it a night. It was another productive night that ended with me halfway through level 12 and enough money to buy all my spells.
–Wolfen
I’m a bit under the weather, so my postings have slowed because of it. I’ll have some new stuff for you soon.
–Wolfen