Mystic Worlds

Runes of Magic: Can this be True?

My quests have sent me past the starter zone and quest-hub, on to the first major city.  My Priest leveling stopped at 11 and I’m now working on leveling up my Warrior.  I still haven’t tapped into crafting.  WingedNazgul was kind enough to link to an article from Massive about ROM crafting.  You can read it here.  I’m enjoying the game-play.  The quality of content, quests, graphics and zones are – well, very good.  I keep waiting for the shoe to drop.  I keep wondering if this is just an Age of Conan first-20-levels-are-great façade.  Is this all going to come crashing to a buggy halt beyond the first capitol city?  If not, then this will be a very good game. 

We can’t expect the leveling excellence pumped out by Blizzard or the tightly interwoven back story of games with famous intellectual-property like WAR or LOTRO but so far, this is pretty damned good.  I’m actually so surprised and just waiting to hit the shit parts, that I’m being overly cautious about using the adjectives that come to mind when describing the game-play thus far.

I’m on the crest of another personal achievement in Wizard101 and want to get time in on my Runes of Magic (ROM) Warrior so I’m going to keep this short and highlight a few points over several posts.

Runes of Magic: WOW, EQ2 + LOTRO Pudding

What do you get when you take the most vanilla aspects of World of Warcraft, EverQuest II and Lord of the Rings Online, and roll them into a free-to-play MMO?  You get Runes of Magic.  And God help us, they’ve implemented damned daily quests.  Will the influences of WOW please just die already!  Okay, okay, I’m being melodramatic but it just floors me to see dailies in another MMO.   Dailies just scream, “Grind you fool,” whenever I see them.  But it’s not all bad or doom and gloom, if you’re a more forgiving player and looking for a new fantasy free-to-play (F2P) MMO.

I took a look at Runes of Magic (ROM) for two reasons.  First, I was intrigued by the dual class system.  The last MMO I played with dual specs was Asheron’s Call 2.  GuildWars has dual specs but I have a hard time bundling that with MMOs.  Secondly, was crafting combined with immediate access to player housing.  I’ve only had that in EverQuest II (EQ2).  Those two alone are powerful inducements for me to give a game a look.  ROM is currently in an Open BETA that’s more like a “we’ve launched incomplete but are calling it BETA”.  I say this because characters created at this point and forward will persist through release.  There are no more character wipes planned.  The game is still being balanced, content completed and whole classes being added but you can play now and keep your levels.  I’m not sure about your gear and wealth.

Perfect Storm and Ding 40!

As much as I’d love to believe that there’s another game waiting in the wings with the exhilarating combination of light-hearted fun, white-knuckle encounters, challenging quest chains, engaging storyline, grind-optional content and grind-optional gear, all rolled into casual friendly package like Wizard101, I’d be a happy gamer.  But there isn’t.  W101 isn’t perfect but man it’s hitting my sweet spot these days.

In how many other MMOs have I had this much fun leveling?  How many opportunities have I had to pick out clothes and run around looking like this?  Don’t let the cute looks fool you.  My Balance Wizard kicks ass and doesn’t bother with taking names.  And so does this supposedly, kid-targeted game.

Lots of Little Victories

No one big thing to start the week's blogging. My weekend was a series of little adventures and victories...

Victory #1 - Finally training Targeting

I'm still making head-way in EVE Online but I didn't play much last week.  I just logged in to do skill training.  My training finally moved out of the learning enhancement skills to more tangible benefits like targeting.  Within the next 24 hours I'll be able to select four targets simultaneously which will definitely help speed up salvaging.  It won't speed up my combat to a noticeable degree, however.  Doing level 1 missions in a cruiser vaporizes everything quickly.

Victory #2 - Almost level 40 and got last minion

In Wizard101, I started making a more concentrated effort at gaining a couple of levels versus my casual romp.  I'm desperate to get another training point so that I can purchase Meteor from the Fire School of Magic.  Fire is my tertiary magic.  It was selected to gain a DOT (Fire Elf) and another AOE (Meteor).  The only way to get the training point needed is hit level 40 which will grant me another one or finish the Blue Oysters quest from Explorer Zeke.  Sitting at level 38 I had decided to finish Zeke's quest as fast as possible.  Unfortunately, I ran into a zone that was inaccessible for me.  With no idea what would trigger an unlock, my only choice was to simply continue moving through the content.  *Sheds a tear*  I really want that spell.

While playing on Saturday I realized that I was missing my second and final minion (combat pet) spell card.  A search through the forums revealed that it was achievable by level 38 and I was half way through level 39.  I went back to my trainer in Krokosphinx.  As expected, I had a quest available.  Hmm, not sure why the game content didn't alert me in some way.  I don't get a new skill from that trainer until level 42 so there was no reason for me to go all the way back to that world to see her.  If I hadn't recalled reading that I'd have two pets in a forum post several weeks ago, I wouldn't have realized anything was missing. 

It’s Picturesque to Say the Least

Note: combing through my archives I found a couple of articles that I'd neglected to move from draft to publish.  Doh!  Publishing now even though the are very old.

I teetered between re-subscribing to EVE Online and logging back into Age of Conan to work on my Bear Shaman.  For the moment, Conan won out.  The first thing that struck me when my character materialized in game was, “Damn, this game is beautiful!”  I’d logged back in standing somewhere in Conall’s Valley which instantly reminded me of why I had run off to upgrade my video card to play.  I appreciate pretty – I need NEED good graphics in an MMO.  For me, graphics are an essential part of the immersion.  They don’t have to be realistic.  High quality stylized like World of Warcraft will do just as well, as long as it’s done VERY well.

Less than enthusiastic about running the long jaunts to turn in the pile of quests I had completed (lots of funky issues with the map I’ll QQ about some other day), I was encouraged by my surroundings.  If you’re not able to play AOC on high settings you’re really missing a treat.  As I was ducking behind trees and skimming along the sides of the mountain to avoid engaging the roaming mobs, I marveled at the foliage, landscape, encampments and surrounding animal life that blended together so well.  Yeah, this is why I play MMOs – to see this and feel like this feels.  Now if I could do this with less of the BS, such as zoning, running back and forth for trivial reasons (quests), bugged interface elements such as my map that is now gray and I have no idea where the heck I’m headed, MMO life would be much better.

EVE Online: Lurking 'round Mission Complexes

I don't role-play in MMOs but I do like a role-playing atmosphere.  I like interacting with and running around environments that make the virtual world I inhabit more realistic.  In the relatively small amount of collective time that I've spent in EVE Online, the majority of the structures I've seen are the space stations, inside of which you don't exist as a character.  You're just a faceless bodiless being interacting game’s extensive user interface to manage inventory, conduct commerce, manage skill training, configure & repair ships and carry out industry activities.  As a player who enjoys kicking about as a character, EVE requires that immersion to take place in your head, as if you were reading a book.    For that reason, I really enjoy running across physical environments in the game.

When a mission sends me into an area that has more than just red flashing bad guys, I like to hang around after I've blown them all to bits.  I admit to being fascinated by the idea of man colonizing deep space and how those environments might look.  What will a large scale space station look like?  How different are the residential areas from industrial?  Will it really be the dark monotone metallic vision rendered in many of the current sci-fi movies?  Or will the ergonomic philosophies step in and provide more organic appearances for the emotional comfort of its inhabitants?  Who knows but I’d love to live to see it. 

EVE Online: I am Gallente

EVE Online is essentially a class-less MMO, in traditional terms.  However, if you explore multi-ship combat encounters, you will find that ships and their pilots actually play-out the classic classes you find in typical fantasy MMOs.  You will find ships that act as the tank, repairer (healer) and damage.  You’ll have your rogue and ranger like activities played out by scouts and covert operations.  Not being one to re-roll characters or play multiple alts, I researched and considered my choices very carefully before creating my character.

Players are segmented by race, which manifests itself into factions.  The open skill training system means that anyone can be anything and fly any ship, with the appropriate training.  However, each racial faction has bonuses much like the “racials” implemented in World of Warcraft.  So while any race and be “anything” with enough training, training in EO equates to real world time.  Therefore, if at all possible, it’s prudent to begin your journey with the race that has traits  beneficial to your goals and the role you wish to play as a pilot, which is why I am Gallente.

W101 - Meeting Friends

I really hope that adding people to your Friends List is made less annoying some day.  A ton of people I don't know and don't want on my list, are free to plague me constantly with requests.  While adding the people I want on my list is this huge outside of game coordination plan.  This is the first game I've played where you actually have to be able to select the person and them confirm the addition, before someone can be added to your list.  What about holding the confirmation until the next time they log in or something like Windows Instant Messenger?  I know that would be code heavy so maybe some unique key that I can give someone that would allow them to add me without requiring me to be present?  I don't know but something other than this having to use blogs and emails to coordinate when and where to hook-up just to exchange Friends Lists.

I can understand the confirm part - to a small degree.  I'm sure it's there to protect children but you could have a control to flat-out disable them from exchanging lists if their parents are concerned.  And honestly, I don't think it's protecting anyone.  Kids are running around spamming strangers with Friends List invites all day long anyway. 

Anywho, Winged Nazgul aka Warrender aka Ronan and I, met up in game the other night to exchange lists.  We're not leveling in the same zone but much like when I first hooked up with Capn John, it's just nice to have another adult to IM with occasionally while questing.  Hopefully, we can coordinate a Sunken City run soon.  It's one of the few instances that absolutely can't be soloed.  Maybe at the new level cap it can but even that might not be possible.  Tipa came to help me do it.  Capn John hasn't seen it yet either so we'll need to find a mutually convenient time.

I laughed inside when I saw Ronan.  Having played WAR with him, I know that he's a great in game companion and considerate player.  I've heard him on vent too where he is very unassuming.  I was surprised to see him turn up looking all evil-emo.  I know this game won't be for everyone but it's so cute and refreshingly fun - as in drama free fun.  Kiddie game or not the mostly drama-free part really hit the spot.

EVE Online: When Things go Boom!

Anyone who plays EVE Online knows that they are going to lose ships.  Even if you are intentionally avoiding the dangers of PVP, missions pose the risk of ship loss and there’s no way to avoid combat if another player is bent on initiating combat with you.  Prudent players keep their ships and themselves insured against loss but it still sucks the first few times you loss a ship.  I especially hate losing a ship to something stupid on my part.

For the past few days I’ve been doing my level 1 missions in a Tristan instead of the limousine comfort of my Vexor.  The reason behind the change was twofold.  First was a desire to become more familiar with combat in the ship I was going to use for my introductory foray into Faction Warfare PVP.  Secondly, I wanted more challenge in completing missions.  Doing them in a cruiser I was able to, well, cruise through them which wasn’t always fun in small missions with only a few ships to fight.

Friends List Exchange Meeting - Wed, Jan 21st at 6PM EST

I'm going to try to hook up with Warrender (Winged Nazgul) to exchange friends lists.  if you'd like to exchange too please meet us.

Exchanging Friends List Invites
Wed, Jan 21st at 6PM EST
Wu Server
Ravenwood - Outside the Dorms

My Character is Suri Jadeshade.  If you're going to try to meet us please respond in this thread.  I no longer accept random invites.