I am on the next phase of the URT: Undead Envoy quest line.  The quest is named “Soul and Brain Power.”  The objective is to run over to Veshka’s Monastery, kill a few of Veshka’s followers, and aquire a brain and torso from their bodies.  I also needed to go to the graveyard behind the monastery and absorb the spirit of a Wandering Spirit that can be found there.  Veshka’s Monastery can be found along the road east of Misthaven.

I easily found the monastery and killed a few of Veshka’s followers that were milling around outside. I quickly obtained the brain and torso.  I then ran around the back of the building and found the graveyard.  It is full of aggressive undead.  I spotted the Wandering Spirit and watched what he was doing.  The Spirit will slowly wander around the graveyard, which made this part of the quest much easier.  I killed several of the undead to clear out a corner of the graveyard.  I then waited for the spirit to wander past.  I used the URT Spirit Absorber when he came into range and it was done in an instant.  So far things are going great.

Quest completed, I ran back to Misthaven to turn in the quest to Helave Velore.  Just one problem.  She doesn’t think I have completed the quest.  My quest journal shows all objectives complete.  The quest tracker shows everything complete.  Why won’t this bitch acknowledge it?  I tried putting all the items in the bank and then logging out.  I put the items back into my bags upon re-entering the game but that didn’t work when I tried to turn them in again.

This is frustrating beyond belief.  How long has this game been out?  As a casual player, I don’t have the time or inclination to be put through crap like this.  I want to have fun playing a game, not cursing at my screen and writing articles like this one.  Right now, I can’t see paying to play this game when my free time is up.  Why should I when everything I try to do is broken?

I needed five broken hand bones from my undead friends, so off I went to the nearby hilltop to kill a few of them.  As I mentioned before, due to the problems with this quest, once two hand bones drop, you won’t get another one until you run to town and put them in the bank.  A hand bone dropped on each of the first two undead that I killed.  I killed several more to see if the quest had been fixed.  It wasn’t, so I ran to town, dropped them in the bank, and ran back.  I did this until I had the required ten that the quest called for.  What a pain.

Helave Verelore, the NPC that I need to turn this quest into, is located in Misthaven.  Since it is a long run to get there, I flew a griffon north until I reached Misthaven and turned in the quest.  She then gave me the quest “Soul and Brain Power,” which is the next task in this URT quest line.  It seems she needs a good brain and strong torso for this undead envoy they are building, so I must go to a monastery and kill some minions there in order to aquire what she needs.  I am also to use a device to absorb the essence of a spirit that wanders the graveyard there.

I dinged level 20 after completing the Harvesting the Parts quest.  The druid spells I received were:

• Thunderclap 1: 810 to 855 arcane damage
• Venomous Thorns 3
• Sooth 3: 578 heal and 1206 heal over 16 seconds
• Tranquility 1: Invulnerability for 20 seconds
• Okeli’s Shield 1: Reduces damage taken by 100% for two hits or 30 seconds
• Ire 3

I have so many quests in my journal that I don’t know which ones to go after.  Many are lower level quests that I never got around to.  I am assuming that the URT quests are more important because they give nice equipment upgrades for the level.

They want me to prove myself to my new clan, so I am sent to find a Vulmane named Gnakel, who is under the influence of a Bloodhowler.  I am to slay him and wash my hands in his blood.  Gnakel is under guard at the campfire near the center of town.  It was an easy fight, which is good, because his guards didn’t help me.  My reward from this quest was 60 copper and 1459 experience points.

Next up was the Okhnom’s Supplies quest.  My suggestion is to save this quest until you have finished all of the other Dahknarg quests.  You’ll need the levels and it leads you to your next city and quest hub which is Halgarad.  I had to take some supplies to Shalen who is out on the road some ways east of the gnoll cave.  I found her standing next to a large boulder cowering in fear.  Turns out there is a band of bloodhowlers up ahead and she is too scared to go on.  She wants me to kill a bunch of them and then go find a guy named Armol Furth who should be further up the road.

The bloodhowler’s are 3-dot mobs, so they are a little tougher than the standard ones.  You can pull singles if you are careful.  I knocked off the required amount and then went past their camp in search for Furth.

I found Furth a good ways up the road.  He had fallen on tough times because the bloodhowler’s invaded him, tore up his wagon and stole his supplies.  He wants me to go slay the bloodhowler’s that did this and get back his supplies.  I found them just up the road from him in a camp on the right-hand side of the road.  The very first gnoll that I pulled dropped the supplies.

After recovering the stolen supplies, I was tasked with taking them on to the city of Halgarad.

–Wolfen

I first played Vanguard when it was still in beta.  The game was so rough and unfinished that I could immediately tell that it would not be anywhere near finished before it launched to the public. History shows that I couldn’t have been more correct.  The game ran so poorly and had such a great number of game-breaking bugs that it is a wonder that it is still available on the market today.  I quickly cancelled my account with the thought of never turning to the world of Telon.

Time moves on and it has now been about a year since Vanguard launched.  I began to hear some good things about a game that couldn’t pay anyone to give it a good review when it was new.  Intrigued (and because I had the Station Pass), I decided to check it out again and see what all the talk was about.  Turns out that a near miracle has been performed.

The game runs about 200% better than it did at launch.  Where it was barely playable then, it now runs acceptably well on my computer (AMD X2 6000+, 3GB, Nvidia 8800GT).  Make no mistake, however, that Sony still needs to do a ton of enhancements to the game engine in order for it to run as it should.  The game still hitches and there is still a delay when you move from one land chunk to another.  The developers say they have found a fix for that and it should be coming soon, so keep an eye out for it.  I still can’t come close to running it on maximum settings. I keep it at the High setting and customize things from there.

The game world is incredibly huge.  The sheer landmass of this game can be a bit overwhelming and this started to become a problem with most players.  If you wanted to adventure with friends, chances are that you would have to run for half an hour or more to get where they were.  But, Sony listened, and this is another area that they improved upon.  The riftway system was expanded, allowing immediate travel to most major areas, which allowed people to group up much more quickly.

The game world is also a sight to behold.  In my experience, it is beyond a doubt the most beautiful looking game world I have ever played in.  Granted, it takes a high-end computer to get the most out of it, but I’m always in awe of the graphics.  I am constantly stopping to take a screenshot of the scenery for use as my desktop wallpaper.

The game play is where Vanguard gets a mixed review from me.  The character animations really need some work.  They are jerky and not fluid at all and it breaks the immersion factor.  Sometimes game textures will not render correctly, making things look strange and out of place.  When I first used my Wolfshape spell, I thought that I was turning into a cool looking white wolf.  Instead, the texture wasn’t showing and the next time I used that spell I was the normal shade of brown.  I also found an infamous old Everquest bug that seems to have found its way here. It seems fish have no problem swimming onto land and attacking you.

As a Druid, my combat usually starts with rooting the creature I want to kill.  For some reason, even though I am standing a good distance away, the creature will sometimes hit me with its fist or weapon.  I am not sure what causes this.  Is the game client not catching up fast enough to accurately show me what is happening?  Sometimes I will root a moving target.  I get the text message that it is rooted but the creature still walks up to me and starts whacking on my head.  My in-game network meter always shows green, so I don’t know what the problem is.

I have only played a Druid, so I can’t speak to how well the other classes play.  I do know that I hear nothing but great things about all the classes and I think it is almost unanimous that all the classes are designed very well.  Each class steps out of the standard mold and offers something unique that you may not have seen before.  That said, there are some problems that need ironed out and a few classes are slated to see revamps.

As for the Druid, it can hardly be compared to the Everquest druid of old.  Yes, I can heal a little bit, and yes, I have some damage over time spells, but what makes it interesting is that some spells can do two different things. Some spells have a direct damage component mixed with an additional damage over time feature.  Doing two different types of damage at once is nice.

What makes the druid most unique is how the class uses what is called Phenomena points.  Certain spells can use these points instead of using mana.  The neatest one I have seen so far is called Starfall.  If I have enough phenomena points available, the spell calls a star down from the sky and smites my enemy.  This does massive amounts of direct damage.  I can easily kill same-level creatures in one shot with this spell and it doesn’t use a drop of mana.  The number of phenomena points is limited and they regenerate back over time, so you can’t chain cast these things, but it sure makes you feel powerful at a low level.

Questing is a very large part of Vanguard.  My quest book has never been empty and there is always something interesting to do.  Sure, many quests are of the “go kill X number of Y,” but there are also many that have neat stories attached to them.  Also, as a new player starting out, I like how the quests move you from area to area.  I am only level 17 and I have already travelled a very long way from my starting spot.  It helps keep me interested in the game because I am always seeing new things.

Vanguard has always had a reputation of being a group-oriented game.  This may be true at higher levels (I don’t know), but I have been able to solo every step of the way with my druid so far. In fact, it has been almost too easy to solo.  As I said above, some of the mechanics of the druid class really make me feel powerful, and that is a great draw for me.  I am told that the druid is one of the least played classes and I was shocked to hear that.  I haven’t played a more fun class in ages.  I think it may suffer from the druid’s reputation from Everquest and that keeps people away.

Despite its flaws, Vanguard has come a very long way.  I wish things would get fixed more quickly, but Sony has decided to put only a small development team on it.  Be that as it may, they have worked wonders on what was once a completely awful game.  I can now honestly say that Vanguard is worth a try.  If you played it at launch and hated it, come back and see what has changed.  You might be surprised at what you find.  The game is far from perfect, but it’s not a complete stinker anymore, either.

–Wolfen

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.

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

]]> http://www.mmonotebook.com/2008/04/09/vanguard-gremlins-and-orcs/feed/ 0 http://www.mmonotebook.com/2008/04/07/a-return-to-vanguard-saga-of-heroes/ http://www.mmonotebook.com/2008/04/07/a-return-to-vanguard-saga-of-heroes/#comments Mon, 07 Apr 2008 19:44:32 +0000 Wolfen http://www.mmonotebook.com/?p=70 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

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

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