February 1, 2007
I can now boast of being one of the few who survived having an entire kitchen fall on their head. Granted, it was just one of those Little Tykes play kitchens that my daughter accidentally knocked over onto me while I was on the floor putting my son’s jacket on. But lemme tell you, they’re a lot heavier than they look!
It’s really hard to top that for the day’s highlight, but seeing the Spider Queen in Veksal’s exchange certainly comes close. If you are working on the quests here, I have a few tips. First, if you need to find the Kaon Portal to exit the cave, follow the red glowing dots. There are actually two portals, but the one by the Spider Queen is not the one to exit. The other portal is just up the bridge and around the corner.
Second, if you are trying to do the Spider Queen quest, called The Cure, don’t be surprised if it doesn’t work properly. One of our group members did it but could not get the turn in to accept it back at the outpost. And meanwhile, the rest of us sat at the Spider Queen’s lair waiting for a repop that never happened. So for now, it looks like the last doable quest in that chain is the one where you have to find an Egg Layer and let it bite you repeatedly until it implants its eggs in your stomach. Yes, disgusting!
Even though it didn’t work correctly, it was a fun quest line, and the spider cave is a really fun crawl. On top of all that, I actually got to set my /assist key to….a cleric. Good times!
Posted by jayernh under Archive,Vanguard Level 10-15 | Comments (0)
January 31, 2007
I did some really fun stuff last night in Thestra, and had so much fun that I think this will be my hangout spot for the near future.
Above: Killing Trolls in the Cave of the Urugog
I did a whirlwind tour of a few areas that are good for levels 9-15, thanks to Faunis. We did several quests near the Vault of Heroes (The Lost Yeti was my favorite, they’re so cool!). The highlight was crawling around the Cave of the Urugog, where I knocked out a couple of quests and picked up several upgrades in the process. Then we met up with Andaraiel and headed over to Veskel’s Exchange, where we bumped into Orkoh and Trismegustus, to go spider killing and reach the Kaon Portal. In a nutshell, it was an awesome night. As you can tell, I think Curse-gaming’s database is awesome too!
Above: Really wishing I had brought that Star of Elendil right about now!
The cool part is that many guildmates are in that area, and I’m planning to set up a caravan for any others that want to get here. It’s interesting, because so often, when the subject of Vanguard comes, you always see the question, “Is it like EQ?” It dawned on me last night that it most certainly is not, but for it to be like Everquest, you’d have to turn the clock back about 7 years.
I thought back to when I first formed Revelry and Honor in Everquest. For many players, the whole concept of guilds was new, as was the idea of a gaming community. There were some guilds that had some pre-planning and organization, but for the most part, it was Everquest where most players cut their teeth on things like DKP, raiding, FCFS, calendars, rotations, etc. Heck, just getting to know the server community you played on was a game within a game, and finding reliable friends to group with took some time. There was a kind of “social learning curve” that was new to everyone, and that took time to master (some still haven’t mastered it!)
During the beta phase of Vanguard, there were dozens and dozens of guilds that had already formed and were organizing for the game! In Revelry and Honor, people have known each other long enough that members are past the social pleasantries, and already focused on organizing groups, doling out upgrades to members, coordinating travel, and sharing information about chunks. I’m guessing that many other guilds have already been doing the same, with great efficiency.
I think the online gaming community as a whole is wiser, more organized, and more jaded when it comes to guilds and server communities. The social grey area of EQ has long since been explored, and you can’t put that geenie back in the bottle. While that means that future games have a harder time delivering that sense of freshness and mystery that EQ did, for me it’s actually more fun to know that on day one, I’m able to tackle the game’s content with friends and guildmates that I know and trust.
Above: Safely out of the spider cave, in front of the Kaon Portal exit.
….Now if only my guild would trust me more on pulling! I swear I won’t bring more than 12!
Posted by jayernh under Archive,Vanguard Level 10-15 | Comments (1)