The MMO Notebook

Did I say that Lieutenant Oda was a prick?  Yeah, well, I absolutely meant it.  After insulting my prowess, he then gives me a new quest that frustrated me to no end.  I don’t think I will ever forgive him.

The quest is called the Short Handed Nakai.  It seems that his army is so busy that they allowed some orcs to steal some supply crates.  He wants me to go recover three of the crates.  Sounds easy enough, right?  Well, there is one little problem.  The quest text makes no mention at all as to where I must go to find the crates.  None at all.  This is actually the first quest I have found that does this.

I wasted 2 HOURS of my life looking for those damn crates.  I ran down the road all the way to Lotus Hold and found none.  I searched every inch of Thrakos Island (which is full of orcs) and found none.  I searched and searched with no luck.  I even asked in region chat and had no luck.

I finally had to break down and visit the VG Curse website to find the answer.  I searched the database and a commenter gave me the clue I needed.  If you ever need to do the Short Handed Nakai quest, here is what you need to know:  You will find the orcs and crates by traveling south of the Nakai Dojo.  They will be on and near the beach in that area.

I can’t tell if it is bad game design or if I am just a dumbass.  I think it is the former, while I would imagine that most of you readers would think the latter.

Anyway, I had to return the crates to Commander Kato.  My reward was 2788 experience and 1 silver, 30 copper in coin.  Kato then gives me the Kill The Coward quest.  This is a group quest that requires you to go kill the traitor Hanji Kotoawa.

Here is a picture of me after trying out the Wolf Shape spell.

After completing The Menace Grows, Ju Ming gives me one last task to perform.  This one is called The Head of the Beast.  I am to go find gremlin Augurs and wrest something called a Pulsating Portal Shard from their grubby little claws.  I must obtain enough shards to combine them into an Orb of Calling.  This Orb will summon the Kojuko General who, not surprisingly, needs killed.

As I mentioned in my last post, if you keep going along the coast, you’ll find more and tougher types of gremlins.  So, I ran past the first two camps that I attacked earlier and found the third camp.  This one had the Augurs.  I dispatched some Augurs and found some portal shards, but I didn’t combine them.  This quest is a group quest, so I’ll need to wait until I can find some help before finishing this one.

Speaking of finding a group, in all my time spent in this gremlin area, I only saw one other player the entire time.  Even after SOE merged some servers, the player population is very low.  It may be better at the higher levels, but as a low level player, it is rather disheartening.

Just a few steps away from Ju Ming, there is a fellow named Nao Tak.  He also gives out some quests.  One of them is called Otherwordly Artifacts.  He wants me to kill gremlins and recover 5 inert portal shards and 5 fiendish portal shards.  Gremlin killing seems to be common pasttime around these parts.

I ran around and killed random gremlins until I had enough of the shards.  I returned them to Nao Tak and I received 2431 experience and a measly 60 copper.  Are Ju Ming and Nao Tak related or something? Nao gives one last quest called To Lotus Hold.  I sat that one aside and worked on a few other quests first.

Back at the Nakai Dojo, Lieutenant Oda has some tasks for me.  I get from him the Pride of the Army quest.  I am to patrol the road leading out of the Dojo and look for invading Martok orcs.  I have to visit 4 patrol points and clean out any orcs I find.

The way it worked out is that you simply run down the road and wait for an invisible Martok Ambusher to jump you.  Kill the orc, run down the road some more, and wait to be jumped again.  You do this until you have reached all four patrol points.

I returned to Oda after completing my patrol and I discovered that he didn’t seem to have much confidence in my abilities.

Prick.

–Wolfen

The folks at Sony gave Vanguard a big update while I was away from the game.  I had completely forgotten about it until it came time to buy my new spells.  I dinged level 15 while whacking gremlins, so I went over to the Nakai Dojo to see what was available.

I hit up the Druid spell vendor and that is when I remembered the game update.  There were several spells for the levels I had already gone through as well as some nice ones for my current level.  Some of the highlights for me were:

- Lifestream 1: AOE Heal

- Rampant Roots: AOE Root

- Ire II: Arcane Direct Damage

- Wolf Shape: Turns me into a wolf

- Ant Shape: Turns me into an invisible ant for 3 minutes

- Starfall: 1982-2087 Direct Damage

For soloing, the two that really stand out for me are Ant Shape and Starfall.  Ant Shape is really just a fancy way of granting invisibility.  I turn into a small ant that I can see but enemies can’t see.  Three minutes isn’t very long, but it is nice to know when it will wear off.  It also has a five minute refresh before you can use it again.

The other great spell is Starfall.  With the damage is produces, I am able to one-shot kill orcs with ease.  The one limiting factor to Starfall is that it uses Phenomena points.  You have a set number of points and each time you cast Starfall is subtracts from that total.  Once you use up those points, you must wait for them to refresh.  I believe it takes 1 hour for used points to refresh.

They claim that there were some graphical performance tweaks in the update, but everything seems the same for me.  It runs just like it did in January.  Things still hitch and I still have to use the /flush command every now and then to get performance back.  They claim that a fix for the hitching is on the way.  Let’s hope so.  As a reminder, my PC is an AMD X2 6000+, 3gb RAM, and a Nvidia 8600GT 512mb video card.

So I’m finally back to playing and blogging.  I started up Vanguard from right where I left off, so here is the continuation of my gaming experiences.

I had been running some quests that Ju Ming had given me, so I looked in my quest journal and started from there.  I began with The Gremlin Menace quest.  It seems Ju Ming wants a few gremlins dead, so he tasks me with going out and killing some Kojuko Despoilers and Ravagers.

The gremlins are found along the coast not far from Ju Ming’s house.  The first gremlin camp I encountered had the gremlins I was looking for.  They were guarding a portal that they were using for nefarious reasons.  Naturally, I did my duty and dispatched the required number of gremlins.  The gremlins were numerous but I could easily pull them all solo.

I returned to Ju Ming and told him of my good deeds.  He rewarded me with 1905 experience and 1 silver, 10 copper cash money.  If you ask me, he’s a little stingy with the coin.

The next quest he gives is called The Menace Grows.  This time I am tasked with killing gremlin Disrupters and Razorclaws.  You can find these gremlins by traveling past the first gremlin camp.  The camp is right next to the first.  In fact, if you keep traveling along the coast, you will come across camp after camp of gremlins.  The further you go the tougher the gremlin you find.  Once again, I did my duty and slew many o’ gremlin.

Ju Ming was pleased with my progress, but once again he was stingy with the coin.  I received 1 silver, 20 copper for my efforts.  Experience rewarded: 2341

–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

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

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

My Vanguard: Saga of Heroes adventuring continues with plenty of quests in the log. One of the quest lines is called The Final Tests of Jin. It led me to a man in the hills outside of Tanvu who wants to test me and see if I am ready to become a Lao’Jin Knight. He set me out to kill some neato looking yeti’s and bears. After completing those tasks he gave me a horn and told me to blow on it when I was ready to complete the last of his three tasks. That started some excitement.

I blew on the horn when I was in the Jin Master’s room and that was a mistake. A large creature popped into the small room and started beating me down. Since I am a squishy druid, I didn’t last long. I died, released my spirit, and returned to claim my body.

For the next try, I made sure that I was outside with plenty of room to run around. My root spell didn’t want to stick on him, so I had to run, cast a damage spell, get hit, run some more, heal, run, damage spell, etc. It was still touch and go and I won by the slimmest of margins. I would post a screenshot of it but the fight kept me so busy I didn’t have a chance to take one. So, for the first picture, I give you a shot of Vanguard’s version of a Bind Stone.

After completing the first three steps of the Final Tests of Jin, I was sent off to find four more people who will test my skills further to see if I am worthy of Lao’Jin. Their names are Taien, Kalen, Nyrasir, and a Water Serpent. If I complete their tasks, I will be given the Blessing of Faith. I found three of these people near a pool hidden away in a grotto. The Water Serpent was some distance away and down at the edge of the beach.

All the quests centered around the same theme. I had to go out and kill a certain number of this and a certain number of that. Too many of the quests I have completed so far have followed this formula. A little more imagination could have been used with these quests. But, considering the rush this game was in to get launched, I suppose the designers didn’t have much time for creativity.

Be that as it may, some of the tasks were interesting. The Water Serpent had its eggs stolen by some evil lizards and needed them returned to her. I had to work my way into a cave full of the lizards to liberate the eggs. It was easily done solo, I just needed to be patient and clear the way back into the cave (for the record, every quest I have complete up to this point was done solo).

Another quest involved eliminating some creatures known as Sanctorum. I had to slay some of them and also a creature that roamed around their area. It looked like the cave troll from the Lord of the Rings movies and it was accompanied by two pets. I only saw one pet when I pulled it, so when the second pet showed up I wasn’t prepared and they took me down, but not before I killed big momma. When I revived and went back, the dead creature was still there, so I looted the required item and moved on.

I completed all the tasks and turned in everything. The quest experience rewards were huge and it really made me feel like I was adequately rewarded for all my effort. I do wish that quest rewards would give out more armor pieces. Most of them give experience and cash. Very rarely will I get an armor item I can use. I have many armor slots still empty.

I also have two group quests that I came across the other night. With such a low population on the newbie areas, I’m not sure if I will get them done or not.

I end this post with a screenshot that shows the game map. I think this map needs serious work. It looks like a low quality JPG that was put in as a placeholder and was never fixed. Take a page from World of Warcraft and Lord of the Rings Online and correct this please.

–Wolfen

A large portion of my second night playing Vanguard involved riding a flying reindeer. As part of the holiday festivities, players were given access to Randolph, the red-nosed reindeer. I tracked him down in the city of Tanvu and tested him out. I flew him around for a bit just for the fun of it, but the real reason I got him was because of the Riftways.

Riftways are portals to other areas of the game world. Vanguard’s massive size makes travel long and tedious, so they put in the riftways to help. In order to travel from one riftway to another, you must first unlock them by visiting each one. Normally, that would be a pain, since you would have to travel on foot to each one. Ol’ Randolph helps out by flying over the land and well away from any danger. Even so, it still took a very long time to get from one riftway to another. I can’t say it enough – Vanguard’s landmass is huge. Each riftway is marked on your map, so you don’t have to search for them. I grew weary of riding Randolph after about an hour and a half, so I flew back to Tanvu and let him go. Once in Tanvu, I checked my quest log and got back to work becoming a hero.

I had a few interesting quests. One led me to a house that I needed to search for a missing villager. I looked over both floors of the house but didn’t find any clue. Back upstairs I noticed some poles leaning against a wall. The poles led up to a window. I slowly scaled the poles and emerged onto the roof where I was quickly attacked by two foes. Taken by surprise, it was a touch and go fight for a few seconds, but I was victorious. I soon found the body I was looking for and completed the quest.

Another quest involved a task given to me by a Jin master. He wanted me to find four Essence of Jin and absorb them. This took me around the surrounding area, slaying creatures as I went. The Essence’s were floating “glowies” that were dispersed across the countryside. Most of them never moved, but one of them roamed the beaches and I had to track it down.

One quest that I really liked, even though it was rather easy, wanted to test how well I was following the path of Jin. To test my agility I had to find a mushroom located atop a high boulder. Once I found the boulder, I noticed that it was actually several boulders spaced slightly apart. I had to nimbly jump from one boulder to the next until I reached the mushroom. I tried eating the mushroom, but to no avail.

Other quests involved trading a man crab for fish, saving a Lao’Jin house from Ra’Jin attack, slaying X number of komodo dragons, and slaying X number of boars. On a side note, where is it written that every MMO must have their own version of boar that we must kill? It gave me Lord of the Rings Online flashbacks.

All the quests kept me busy throughout my first couple nights of play. Quest experience is big, so it is well worth doing them, even though the Jin theme begins to wear thin after awhile.

–Wolfen