Whirly: good to go

Mark and I made two and a half levels questing Friday night, and another Saturday morning. It was fun. We agree, they had some great ideas making Vanguard. It’s just sad it’s half done. There are strange little graphic anomalies that are so 1997ish, I actually fell through the world today. If a door closes behind you, your 3D camera view moves inside your head and you can see the back of your eyeballs. There can be bad lag in the middle of fights. That’s trouble if it’s a toughie and there are heals needed.

The Brotherhood thing is one of the great ideas. We are level 13. So far, we’ve made three levels soloing. It’s coolness can’t be overstated for a small group like ours. It means you can play your main always, you won’t out-level your friends.

I’ve been crafting, doing work orders. The only things I’ve made, for real, are bags. I don’t quite understand all the intricacies of crafting. Where do I put my crafting points? I need to do research to see what others have written about it. I was hoping to make myself some clothing, not yet.

I looked for two days to find the horse seller. It turns out he was on a different island. If it weren’t for the Internet, I’d still be looking, and I’d be pissed.

I continue to solo in Vanguard with my new Druid, it’s purely drudge work, not fun at all. I made it to the first “city” and have started crafting. I remember, sort of, liking the Vanguard crafting system. There’s not many people on the Test server. You’ve got to fend for yourself. I figure if I don’t make myself an outfit, no one will.

I remembered having crafting macros last time I played. I put some time on the web looking for them with no success. It dawned on me, the toons I was using before still exist. That’s where I found the old macros. The system I use is very simple, not automatic at all. They allow me to craft, via the keyboard, with little mousing.

Oddly, while soloing, I’ve picked up three armor parts that Mark’s Disciple can use, a few heavy armor things, but nothing for Druid. That doesn’t seem right.

Mark and I played our Vanguard Test Warrior and Priest for an hour last night. We died a couple of times, my fault. It turns out you can’t expect all the mobs in an area to be the same level. Some are much higher apparently. Some of em will kill you fast if you give them a chance. I guess you should check a mobs level *before* you put an arrow in him. Who knew?

We then spent a little over an hour playing two newly constructed toons, a Druid and Disciple. We quested to level six and called it a night. Before camping we formed a Brotherhood. The way I understand it, we share all experience either of us makes, even when offline. I soloed later to level seven. I checked tonight, Mark was level seven so that works. I wonder how they deal with death penalty.

I’ve been soloing a bit in Vanguard. Mark and I haven’t decided if we are playing our old toons or creating new. If we continued with our 20 Warrior and Cleric, we could pick up where we left off and see new content. If we started new, we could try something wild and crazy. I’m split between a Bard or a Druid for new with Ranger being my third choice. I also think it would be cool to play a Warrior/Paladin duo, though we would be fighting over the heavy armor drops while tossing everything else. I guess we’ll meet up and decide soon.

I haven’t see a single other player on the Vanguard Test server yet. When I do a ‘/who all’ the most I’ve seen has been five players counting myself. I don’t know if ‘/who all’ sees the whole server or not. Vanguard is so unfinished. I walked for half an hour today without seeing any mobs. What a waste. The graphics load is still intense. My video card is a GeForce 6800, which was something at one time, it’s not something now. I’ve delayed getting a new card. Figuring I’d build a new game computer one of these days. Anyway, Vanguard is a bit poky on my computer, graphically.

Another night in Hellfire Peninsula with the boys. Our last WoW fight-night this year. We once again worked outside, quests for experience and uber stuff. I think Mark’s Warrior is making out better, gear wise, than Mike’s Mage and my Priest, but we are doing ok. We are completing the same quests and the Mage and Priest, both being Trolls, are starting to look a lot alike, though my Priest looks better in the new hats we picked up tonight.

Mark and I dinged 59 a couple nights ago and Mike made it tonight. The experience certainly wasn’t as good tonight. Perhaps we received a newbie boost last time.

Mike will be on vacation for three week so Mark and I have been planing what to play while he’s gone. We considered EQ, EQII, Vanguard, CoH, and WoW. None of them were that attractive, but Mark leaned slightly in the Vanguard direction so that’s what we’ll be playing. I spent most of the evening patching and then all night re-patching for the test server. Mark sent me in the info on how to set up for the Test Server so hopefully I can end this patching nightmare soon.

Ok, I’m in. I loaded my 19 Warrior and went for a walk, killing as I went, trying to remember how to play Vanguard. It wasn’t all that tricky. I can’t say I’m excited about playing Vanguard, it’s very much a grind. I’m sure it will be more fun playing with Mark. We got our start wandering in EQ and it looks like this will be a lot like that.

Before that happens, we play one more night of WoW in Hellfire Peninsula with Mike. We don’t normaly work outside quests but the rewards in BC are just too good to resist. The experience kicks butt as well. We hope to revisit old-world instances, which the three of us couldn’t manage before. WoW is getting sweet now.

We entered Burning Crusades, as a group, for the first time. We’ve worked hard for this moment, starting over from scratch, almost two years ago. We could have gone faster by grinding I suppose, but that’s not how we roll. We worked almost exclusively in instances, twice a week, forever.

Just turning in the howdy-do Hellfire Peninsula quests made us a ton of experience, and the three or four beginning quests, around the fort, garnered us a ton more. We are 58 and I don’t know if the new experience modifiers effects us even though we are playing in Burning Crusades. It sure seems like it does, as we made close to a full level in two hours. After completing those few quests, Mark picked up a new shield and pants, his AC is over 7000 now, something only a Warrior would get excited about. We tried out Hellfire Citadel instance. Wow! We were getting 2000 experience per kill. We didn’t go very far though. We decided not to try four elites, there are only three of us after all. I think it’s worth a try at 59. Worst case we die, that’s happened before.

I purchased an Asus Eee pc. How could I not? It’s almost exactly what I’ve been waiting for. I’ve carried a Palm for years, but it’s never been the be all I’ve wanted. The Asus Eee, on the other hand, is a complete computer, in a notebook, affordable size. It comes with Xandros Linux installed. Many people feel the need to install a striped version of Windows XP, I’m fine with Linux. The Eee runs a bit hot, but certainly not in the range of my MacBook Pro.

After I ordered the Eee I found that iPhone service was finally being made available here in Alaska. I expect I’ll be getting an iPhone, which is exactly the same price as the Eee, soon, but two $400 purchases, right before Christmas, is a little above my comfort zone. I’ve yet to completely accept the $60 dollar AT&T monthly charge, I don’t use a cell-phone all that much. I also have a problem with the iPhone smudge factor (finger & ear prints), I’ll find a way past that as well. It just seems that everything I want these days cost $400. I’ve got my eye on a 24 inch flat panel as well.

I recently returned from a week in Denver, Colorado. The most memorable thing I saw was the singing sinks in the Denver Art Museum bathroom - they sing Row, Row, Row your boat. It makes all non-singing sinks pale in comparison. The day after my return to Alaska, I felt like a million dollars, full of energy. I finally realized it was the extra oxygen here at sea level.

I’ve been having trouble re-starting my gaming since returning. I canceled my Tabula Rasa account. Mike and I were working a low level quest, killing some egg breeders, when I realized TR wasn’t for me. We had to shoot at the egg breeders for, what felt like, two minutes. My index finger got tired  - I switched to using my thumb. If
that’s TR’s kind of fun, I don’t need it.

Friday we went to Blackrock Depths. We weren’t playing our best. We blamed it on the week and a half break while I was in Denver. We did kill the guy needed to get the key though. Saturday, we returned. Playing at a higher level, we won in the ring of law and was able to easily reach the shrine of Thurisaan to finish the key quest.

We’ve all dinged 58. Look out Burning Crusade here we come.