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  • News From Online Games – A Couple I Play Anyway

    Posted on by suguay

    So there has been some recent news in the land of WoW and the realm of Eve. Or that should probably be something else. Anyway…

    Starting with Eve Online. I happened to be in a bookstore last week and walked past a paperback novel from Eve. Didn’t know they had novels for the game. Not too surprised since they have them for WoW and Warhammer and others no doubt. Still, I didn’t think too much of it. Until I happened upon an article online about Dust 514. I think that was the name. Anyway this is supposed to be a console game tie-in to Eve. The difference being that Dust takes place planetside. Hmmm. Could be interesting, or not. In any event the article mentioned that hints to this or what it might be about might be gleaned from the pages of the new Eve novel. Ok. I’ll bite. I’m still reading it, give me a break I just got it last night and I had to work today. Sheesh.

    And yet that wasn’t all the news from the universe of Eve Online.

    Seems the powers that be over at CCP have decided to get tough with those who farm resources and sell them to make lots of ISK to sell to other players that don’t want to earn their virtual living. What seems to have happened was that during one of their maintenance periods recently they locked out or banned, I’m not sure which, a bunch of accounts associated with ISK selling and resource farming. This dropped CPU cycles on the server significantly. What this means for us who play, more system resources, maybe a little less lag, and asteroids to mine in mid way through the week. Hooray! I’m a miner. It’s really irritating to log on think you will go do a little mining near by only to find the asteroid belt you just got to completely stripped of anything to mine. So you move to another one to find the same thing. After doing this a few times and even adding a few new asteroid belts to your bookmarks, you give up and go home empty handed, or with an empty cargo hold as tends to really happen. So the banning of the farmers using macros and bots it a great thing. I was in an asteroid belt yesterday with plenty to mine and was able to go back to it again today and still had stuff to mine. Way to go CCP!

    And now to WoW, World of Warcraft. There is news of a new expansion to come. It was rumor before Blizzcon which just ended and has now been made official. They’ve got a website for it and all kinds of stuff. I have at least one friend that is ambivalent about it. He’s not really happy that the level cap is only going to 85, especially if it’s priced as a full expansion. He’s disappointed about some of the stat changes like things like attack power going away and all that. He seems ok with the idea of reforging and he’s kind of ok with the new secondary profession of Archeology, though he thinks it amounts to adding religion to the game. I can’t say I’m really concerned about some of that. I am a hunter in the game. Yes, I know the opinion of hunters. Please, it’s ok. I try not to be one of those hunters. And as you might have guessed, I really can’t give you the stats on my armor or weapons or anything like that. I can tell you I’m a level 74 hunter right now. I have skinning and leatherworking. My skinning is maxed. I carry a gun of some sort and a two handed ax. I change my armor if the piece I made or picked up protects me better. Something made so much easier to determine with one of the last patches. Thank you  Blizzard. So for me to be upset, annoyed or disappointed about some of what my friend is concerned with well I can’t muster it.

    So more about the new expansion, you know you can look it all up probably on the WoW site. Anyway. I’m interested in the Archeology profession. I think that will be interesting. Level 85? I may never reach level 80 at the rate I play. Oh, new races. Worgen for Alliance and Goblins for Horde. I’d play a Goblin. The Worgen might be the only really cool looking race for the Alliance. I can’t wait to see how things turn out as they tear the lands asunder. That should be interesting.

    And that would be the cool stuff I’ve come across lately. I’ve not been playing too much so haven’t had much to report there. It could change though, I’m getting closer to that 80 mark in WoW and with the mining field opening up again in Eve, I could find myself spending more time there.

    See you in the machine.

     

     

    Edited to correct the name of the Eve console game. It did say Dust 451, this has been corrected to read Dust 514. 04-Sep-09

    Originally published at: suguayproductions.com/joomla which has been discontinued.


    Games Land

  • Finally…Entropia…Goodbye

    Posted on by suguay

    I have finally managed to extricate myself for the world of Entropia Universe or Planet Calypso as they have become.

    Yes, it took me long enough. It’s most amazing that when you set out to loose you often find you do just the opposite. It’s happened to me at least twice in recent memory.

    I noticed earlier this week when I launched Entropia that there was an announcement that Version 10 would be deployed on the 17th. It was/is to be a 4GB download and you can get it ahead of time using BitTorrent. Normally, they use FTP for download. It’s painful at best and 4GB is not going to make me happy. This was just the push I needed

    to play until I had little enough left that I wouldn’t feel like I was giving away money.

    It took me at least 4 evenings to spend the game money. I went hunting. I was hunting things that would use a lot of bullets. Problem was they were dropping loot that would fetch a decent return. I even his a HOF, a loot worth more than 50 PED. Then I would loot several items worth 5, 10, 15 PED in a single session. Then I remembered that there were mobs near by that don’t drop loot as often and don’t always drop valuable loot. So I started hunting on them.

    I finally got down to 10 PED worth of bullets and decided I was happy enough with that. On Friday I uninstalled Entropia from my computer. I feel great relief at this. I’ve discussed some of my frustrations with the game and the creator previously so I won’t rehash those here.

    Sometimes it’s just too hard to keep up with multiple games and you have to narrow your field so you can be most effective and advance at a reasonable pace in the ones you are playing.

    And thus, I have finally managed to leave the Entropia Universe and Planet Calypso. To all the citizens left I wish you best of luck and high hopes for version 10.

    See you in the machine.

    Originally published at: suguayproductions.com/joomla which has been discontinued.


    Games Land

  • Running people through…

    Posted on by suguay

    No, it’s not what it sounds like. I has nothing to do with running someone through with a blade. Though, sometimes, in game, it’s tempting, like with the jerk that pulls a crap load of mobs they can’t handle and then runs right for the nearest player quietly slaughtering stuff. Alas, that is for another article. Today we discuss the concept of running people through a dungeon or  instance.

    It’s a fairly common thing for a group of players to recruit a higher level player to help get them through an instance. The higher player, if they are more than ten levels higher than the instance, is pretty much expected to handle most of the killing while the other players handle the looting, they may help with the killing once in a while.

    I’ve been a part of a group that recruited a higher player to get them through a dungeon. In that case, we all helped with the killing and

    we followed the instructions of the higher player so as to not make his job harder. Since I don’t do a lot of dungeons I was careful to follow instructions and it turned out to be a good run. In fact, at the end we all got invites to join a guild at the end.

    I did one that was a run through where I was invited to tag along by the higher player while he ran his friend through the dungeon. The higher player was a bit wild and the place was frustrating. Still it was completed successfully. It wasn’t very satisfying though.

    Recently I was asked to run some people through a dungeon. I tried to beg off but he was persistent so I agreed though somewhat apprehensively. My apprehension comes from several areas. To start with, I paly a dps hunter. Yes, I have a pet, no I didn’t train the beast mastery branch for solo leveling, I trained the marksmanship branch. Though I do mostly solo play. I’m adverse to dying and to high repair bills so I do my best to only pull one mob at a time. I’ve only done about 5 or 6 dungeons to begin with. Oh yeah, I’ve never tanked, with or without my pet.

    So we start the instance and I get nothing but criticism. Some of it, admittedly helped me figure out what I was doing. Then some of it was rude, or at least irritating. They asked for my help. Give me a break. We made it through it and they only died once. This was there fault trust me. I guess, once I got going I must not have sucked that bad since they asked me to help with another dungeon, which I didn’t do.

    I was tired after that first run and I couldn’t keep mental focus. I have a friend that will do several runs in a night and I think he’s nuts. He did remind me that he doesn’t usually tank those he heals and that makes a difference. Still, I marvel at his stamina for doing it. I have another friend that had to give up tanking for a while because the group he was running with made it so stressful it sent his blood preassure sky high. I so understand that now.

    In all it was an interesting experience. I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand a person wants to be nice and help out others. On the other hand, you kind of feel like you’re being taken advantage of. And then there’s the question as to if that’s a form of cheating, although perfectly within the rules of game play. I’m not real sure I will do many more instances where there is a good 30 levels between me and the dugeon instance or the players that are recruiting me, with the possible exception of guild mates. It’s just very weird.

    See you in the machine

    Originally published at: suguayproductions.com/joomla which has been discontinued.


    Games Land

  • Leaving Entropia…or trying to.

    Posted on by suguay

    Over the past year there have been several changes in Entropia Universe or Planet Calypso, which is what I think it’s called now. The name change being only one of the changes. Some of the changes have come with updates and those, as is usually the case even with other games, have been a mix of good and irritating. Some of the changes have come in how the game is handled and in administrative changes. Some of these are possiblly good in the long run, some are as irritating as they are in the game play updates. There have been some cool things occurs, such as Mind Ark getting a banking license in Sweden for the game. After taking all these things into consideration as well as trying to get the email address associated with my account changed, which doesn’t appear to have happened at all, I’ve decided I will give up or leave this game.

    I could just leave the game. I have assets in the game and I could just leave them and not log in again and my account would be wiped in a year. I have a hard time with that. So I’ve decided I will play up all my assets,

    sell stuff and buy more bullets and then just kill stuff and repeat until I’m down to mere pennies in game. This may take longer than I had expected. I started doing this. I’m going along and killing stuff, and getting killed and collecting loot. I sell the loot. I get a bunch of leather and paint and put it up on auction and they don’t sell. Hmmm. What the heck I’ll try making some clothes to use up the stuff and then I can turn it into the trade terminal and use that cash for more bullets. I’ll even then color the clothes to use up some paint. The small challenge with the paint is that some times, if it fails you get cash. That’s ok I’ll buy more bullets.

    So I’ve collected the required materials to make clothes. I might as well then I can use up bullets so I can buy more and use them up. I’ve got all my stuff and I make some pants and a shirt or two. One of the shirts comes back with 50 PED worth of remnants. Yep. And one of the colorings nets another 16 PED. If this keeps up I’ll still be trying to leave the game at in December.  Ah well…guess I’ll just keep trying.

     

    See you in the machine.

    Originally published at: suguayproductions.com/joomla which has been discontinued.


    Games Land

  • My Take on Different Online Games Pt. 6

    Posted on by suguay

    You know, I would say that this is the end of this series and yet knowing how things go it may not be. Aw, let’s call it the final installment of the My Take series of articles and celebrate. I have one more game to offer my opinion of. After getting involved in World of Warcraft and all it has to offer I really figured it was the best game overall based on everything it has to offer. I’ve found one more that may be able to compete with that distinction. It has a couple of things WoW doesn’t or it handles them differently at least. A friend convinced me to try EverQuestII.

    The disadvantage of EverQuest II (EQ2) is that the website is really awful.

    There is not near enough information regarding gameplay and different features of the game and what’s available. If you want information you are encouraged to visit the player forums. Yeah, no. Not without some background as to what they are talking about. So because of the website I was not impressed and told my friend as such. With his encouraging and dangling of bits of stuff about the game I finally decided to give it a try.

    Like many of these games there is a quest system. There are adventuring/fighting quests and there are supply quests and there are crafting quests. This is kind of cool so you get a variety. The crafting quests are a little unique in that as you complete them and earn standing with the crafting guild you also earn status for your guild if you are in one.

    In EQ2 you have two rankings, you have your adventure rank or level and your crafing rank or level. You have gathering skills because, well you have to gather the materials to make things. The interesting bit about this is that you can gather anything, all materials. At the lower levels of crafting you can make just about anything as well. As you advance you will have to choose an area of expertise and then as you advance farther you have to specialize. So you get to try it all before you buy. That’s kind of nice.

    There are a lot of races and classes to choose from. It can make it a challenge when deciding on you character at first. Especially if you’re like me and don’t have an affinity for a certain type of character. There are different versions of the classes depending on which side you are playing on.

    The game has a mail system where you can send items messages and cash to other players and probably to your own other characters, I haven’t tried it yet. There are even mailboxes at the flight towers.

    There is a banking system. This is a little different. You get slots that you can put stuff in or you can put bags or boxes in them and then put more stuff in those. This helps with the expansion of storage. You also get slots that you can share with all your characters. And those slots take bags or boxes as well as stuff. Most materials will stack in amounts of 200 which can also help with the storage space.

    There is a player economy. This is the Broker system. It functions similar to the auction in other games. There are differences though. You only get so many slots and it’s not like you can put your item to sell in the slot. You have to put a bag or a box in the slot and then you are limited to how much you can sell by the number of slots in your bag or box. There are special boxes that if used then your customers don’t get charged the broker fee. And it isn’t a true auction, more like a store. You set the price and they either buy it or they don’t.

    The transportation system so far consists of mounts, griffons and boats. It doesn’t appear that there are any level requirements for the mounts. It is more a matter of being able to afford them. That gets into the money. In EQ2 you have copper, silver, gold and platinum. You also have status points and some things require status points to purchase.

    There is a player created organizations. In EQ2 as in so many games they are called guilds. I have been fortunate enough to be a part of a guild that has some history. It’s been around a few years. I think this is a good thing. It shows a certain amount of maturity on the part of at least some of the members. You want to earn status points for your guild so they can use those towards purchasing some items for the guild like special crafting stations and the like.

    What finally convinced me to try the game was when my friend told me you can own a house in the game. I’m sold. It gives you someplace to put your stuff instead of just in the bank. It is also what finally convinced me to sign up for the regular subscription. You can’t get a home on a trial account. You also can’t use the broker on the trial account. Back to the home. You not only get your home, and these very in size and number of rooms as well as price, you also get some stuff to put in it. It comes with it’s own vault so you can store some stuff in your home vault. One of the things you get is a bulletin board that will let you browse the broker and put stuff for sale as well as pick up you money. I think you have to actually visit a broker to get any goods purchased. When you have enough money and status with the crafting guild you can purchase crafting stations for your home. This excited me about the game. It’s something cool. The other thing that excited me was when I saw some one advertising in game to redecorate someone’s palace. Nice.

    Since the players can have a home, they’ve also given guilds the ability to have somewhere to gather. They have guild halls that you can go to and the guild may have a banker there, a broker, a fuel vendor, and maybe even crafting stations as well as a variety of other things.

    As for the graphics. They are more realistic then some of the games. Certainly more so than some of the games out of the orient look like. Then again, how realistic is a frog like person going to look.

    Getting around is fairly easy. Game play is on the easy to medium side. The crafing is more complicated and you are not guaranteed to make what you set out to make.

    I am currently playing this game fairly actively. Then game is pretty good. The only thing I’ve heard it has but I haven’t seen yet. In world events for the players. Something to add a little spice to it and give more to do. I’m still low level so whol knows how I’ll feel about it when I get farther along.

    Until then…

    See you in the machine.

    Originally published at: suguayproductions.com/joomla which has been discontinued.


    Games Land