Saturday, October 13, 2001

EverQuest - Vorish of Morell-Thule, High Elf Mage lvl 12

Yeah, made it to level 12 today. Spent some time soloing before teaming up with Charcon again in order to get up to lvl 12. Level 12 is pretty important for a magician because we get the "Bind Affinity" spell which allows us to set our "home point" (the spot where we return to after we die or cast the "Gate" spell to return there voluntarily). This makes it much easier to travel long distances because you can set your bind point to a safe spot near your hunting grounds.

At the moment though, I have a splitting headache (where's that bottle of ibuprofen?)...

BTW, bro. Happy Birthday.

Labels: EverQuest

posted by Wuphon's at 5:11 PM

EverQuest - Vorish of Morell-Thule, High Elf Mage lvl 11

Last night was pretty close to power leveling. I started the evening as a level 9 and made it to within 1 bubble of level 12 by the time I logged off. The key to this was being in a group with 2-3 other players over by the Minotaur Caves in the Steamfont Mountains. With 2 druids (one as tank/puller and one as healer) and a magician (me, with a pet to tank with), we pulled fast and furious and all of us gained a level (not much loot though). Jarius (Wood Elf Druid) made level 13, Posydion (Wood Elf Druid) made level 11, and Charcon (Gnome Wizard) made level 9. So with about 3 hours of almost non-stop fighting I figure I bubbled up 5-6 bubbles worth of experience (there are 5 bubbles per level).

Jarius was the experienced one (he's working on his 9th EQ character), Posydion only had a pair of level 10 or so characters and I'm still working on my first, but Jarius said that Posydion and I both 'group' very well. (Which is a good way to make a good name for my character and get myself invited into groups later in the game.)

I feel bad because I'm leaving Charcon in the dust (he used to be a level ahead), so I think I'll take it easy once I hit level 12 and do some traveling/farming (a.k.a. killing easy critters for certain types of loot and money). Maybe it's time to go back to Greater Faydark and show those orcs some payback for all the times they did me in.

Tonight I'm going to do some more soloing until I get my level 12 spells to try and earn some money to buy additional spells.

Labels: EverQuest

posted by Wuphon's at 10:45 AM

Thursday, October 11, 2001

Like Sitting Next to High Voltage

So I wonder if anything is going to happen or not? It's still at that stage of letting things ride, keeping the door open, very occasionally finding a reason to call or e-mail. I'm definitely "aware" of her when she's around (maybe my subconscious is trying to get my attention?).

All of you are probably wondering what the heck I'm talking about, ne? Well, let's just say that I'm trying to decide if I should date a certain someone I know or not. One of the people that I've known almost since I moved down to York from Harrisburg (3 or 4 years), but I was in another relationship the entire time (and it pre-dates her by a few months or more). So there's a good friendship there that I don't want to mess with, but I've always had to really guard myself around her because I was dating someone else. I've also never heard her mention anyone, or even that she's been out on dates (but then, I've been out of that social circle for about 2 years and am just getting back into that circle). So maybe she's not even looking.

You know how most of the time it doesn't matter who's sitting next to you in a situation (like at a party, or on mass transit, or in a classroom)? They just end up as background noise while you pay attention to the task at hand (unless they're being obnoxious). Well, sometimes you end up sitting by someone and it's like they're putting off an electric field that you can't help but notice (and it's even worse when it's not done on purpose).

The effect can be very distracting...

I have no idea what effect I'm having on her, but it's tough because I don't see her that often in normal day-to-day life. But we're getting into a social season in the next few months with all the holidays, so there may be some chances there.

posted by Wuphon's at 9:20 PM

Gasaraki - vol 1 and 2

Finally getting a chance to watch the first two Gasaraki DVDs. This was one of the anime titles that I haven't seen yet but looked very cool from the previes on other DVDs that I own. (Yes, I should post a list sometime of what I own.) It has a very nice haunting song in the preview (which is also used as the opening song) which is really what caught my eye.

The imagery in this series is done with a combination of what looks like traditional cell animation mixed with CGI. Some of the effects are very dense with the amount of information that is going on (on the simulated computer screens or the combat heads-up view). The style of the art is realistic (nothing cartoonish about the characters).

The first episode (On the Ancient Stage of Stone) opens with the quote (ADV's release does not show anything other than english text, so I don't know if this screen was originally in kanji or romanji):

With this path I take
In testament to the very kai I house within
I stamp my foot loudly upon this stage of cold hard stone.

The first thing you see is someone logging into the "GDS Operation System" using the login name "TApilot012". "TA" stands for "Tactical Armour". There's a bunch of other messages that flash up on the screen, but I couldn't make them out even with the zoom feature on the DVD player. This episode drops us right into a raid situation using the TAs (no introductions). We're then flipped back and forth between the raid and another situation taking place at a lake.

The second episode is called Opening Movements and begins with the following:

Forever present
The dark murky abyss below is swept by wind
Babbling waters echo, the introductory dance begins.

Labels: Anime

posted by Wuphon's at 9:07 PM

So where is everyone?

My brother's blog has been really quiet all week and my good friend's blog has been quiet all week too (of course, I've been on a slump lately as well).

Well fortunately for all of us who are bored, ALLY - Not Just Another Blond! and b a r b a r a f l e t c h e r have been posting this week. (No, I don't know them, but I enjoy reading their blogs.)

I'll have to take another picture of myself this weekend now that the beard is growing in a bit more (I think it's about 3 weeks old now). It's showing promise finally, and since my hair stylist knows how to trim beards I don't have to go throught the hassle of finding someone else. I'll be more likely to keep it if I have someone to trim it every 3 weeks (that way it will continue to look nice instead of overgrown). I've only had two friends make any comment so far and both were positive, so do the rest of my friends think it looks okay or are they just sparing my feelings?

I should also work on my archive pages... I like how my brother did his archives (less work, but good for pointing things out in a particular week).

posted by Wuphon's at 8:56 PM

EQ Ding 10

On the EQ front, I made it to level 10 last night (ding!)

Labels: EverQuest

posted by Wuphon's at 8:53 PM

Tuesday, October 09, 2001

EverQuest - Vorish of Morell-Thule, High Elf Mage lvl 8

So how did I get down to Ak'Anon in mostly one piece. Well, it was a chance opportunity that I suddenly found a traveling partner (a little gnome called Charcon, level 8 Wizard) who was pining for his homeland back in the Steamfont Mountains. I had been spending a few hours running errands (killing critters, selling the loot, buying spells, going to the bank) around Kelethin and Felwithe, but two of my level 8 spells can only be purchased in Ak'Anon (the gnome's home city). Well, being new at EQ and knowing that I would have to pass through two good sized zones with unknown dangers, I was very hesitant to make the trip by myself the first time (I had never left Felwithe/Kelethin yet). There's nothing worse than getting killed in an unknown territory and having to try and recover your corpse by yourself.

The biggest problem for a caster under level 12 in traveling abroad is that you can't change your 'bind point' (the location where you return to when you are killed). So if you've traveled a long ways and get killed, you have a very long 'corpse run' with minimal weapons and equipment until you can loot your old equipment off of your corpse in the far away land. It's a strategic decision on your part as to how far you wish to attempt to go before finding a helpful caster to give you a new bind point at your new hunting location. (My preference is to travel to the nearest friendly city to my new hunting location and get bound before going hunting.) It's not that you're really running against time once you get past level 5, because your old corpse (or multiple corpses) will stay for about 24hrs of game time (or a week of real-life). So you have plenty of time to make the recovery, but you still have to make the long trip and then find a safe place to loot your corpse (can be difficult to do in some zones).

Anyway, once Charcon and I met up at the Priest of Discord lift in Kelethin, we goofed around for a minute and then made the trek down through Greater Faydark to the entrance to Lesser Faydark. I had reservations about attempting to pass through Lesser Faydark without stopping to recast and requipe my pet after we zoned, but I was assured that he knew a 'secret' path that would get us through Lesser Faydark without any nasty critters munching on us. So Lesser Faydark passed by very quickly and we were into the Steamfont Mountains within 2 minutes.

My first exposure to the Steamfont Mountains was 'wow! look at all the pretty colors!'. Greater Faydark is always clouded over, or misty, or the trees block out the sun (usually all of the above), so it's a lot of green grass, and brown tree trunks and you get very used to it being that way. Lesser Faydark is just a darker version of Greater Faydark (but I haven't seen much of Lesser Faydark). The Steamfont Mountains area on the other hand, has beautiful sunsets and sunrises and sky colors and geysers and gnomish stuff. It's pretty awe-inspiring for a sheltered High Elf who's spent his entire time in Greater Faydark and Felwithe.

Initially, we searched for a higher level player who would do us the favor of binding at the entrance to Ak'Anon, but after waiting a bit we gave up and started hunting up by the 3 windmills. This actually went pretty well, and we even added a passerby to our group so that we could hunt some larger things (like lesser drakes and elementals). We hunted in the open for about an hour before deciding that the two of us (we had lost our 3rd member earlier when he went link dead or LD) would go into the Minotaur Caves (this was not such a good idea with only two of us). Our first pull resulted in two Minotaur Slavers beating the stuffing out of us (to the death). It's funny, I think my pet was still alive, but the Minotaur's had aggro'd on me and I couldn't manage to get any licks in or back away to protect myself in the tight confines of the tunnel. Charcon's last shout was 'GET OFF HIM YOU FREAKS' (I chuckled when I saw that).

Sigh, another 'LOADING, PLEASE WAIT... You have entered Greater Faydark.' message (I ended up back at the orc lift in Kelethin where my bind point was). Charcon was pretty annoyed, I was more phelgmatic about it. So begins the corpse run... which went pretty quick due to my being able to make both of us invisible for a little while so we could travel safely (took us 30 minutes). Charcon did the dirty deed of dragging our bodies out of the Minotaur Caves and we tucked our tail between our legs and headed back to Ak'Anon to beg a bind.

So now I'm bound in a different city (my third so far) and getting ready to explore this strange underground city of Ak'Anon.

Labels: EverQuest

posted by Wuphon's at 5:31 PM

EverQuest - Steamfont Mountains (Faydwer Continent)

I'm getting ready to explore the Steamfont Mountains and Ak'Anon and I found it to be very different than Greater Faydark (where it's always misty or overcast) or Lesser Faydark (where it's pretty much just dark). The sky colors were overwhelming when I first saw them. (I'll explain later how I managed to get to Ak'Anon in mostly one piece.)

Labels: EverQuest

posted by Wuphon's at 2:11 PM

EverQuest - Greater Faydark (Faydwer Continent)

Just some screen shots that I took last week while wandering around Greater Faydark. Hold your mouse over the thumbnails to see a description, and click on the thumbnails to see a full-screen view.

Labels: EverQuest

posted by Wuphon's at 2:06 PM

EverQuest, Why and How?

So why EverQuest as my latest gaming interest? Actually, it's because PvP mentions it in their storyline every so often (see today's strip for an example). My rationalization for allowing myself lots of hours to play it is that since it's a real-time role playing game with dozens or hundreds of people in the same zone as you it's easy to spend lots of time chatting with the other players (so it's more social than locking myself in a room to play Myst, Master of Orion 2, or Black & White).

So what are the best resources for the aspiring EverQuest player? Well, first you should hunt down a copy of the EverQuest Newbie FAQ (this will answer a lot of questions that you'll have when you first open up that EQ box and finish flipping through the not-so-informative manual). After that you should look at the following web sites:

EverQuest: You're in our world now - Sony/Verant's offical web site
EverQuest Casters Realm - This is the best site with lots of content, especially for the caster classes.
AllaKhazam's Magical Realm - Another very large site devoted to EQ.
PlanetEverQuest - Actually, I've just stumbled across this one, so I can't say much about it.
EQAtlas - The place to get maps of the various zones and an overview guide of each zone.
IGN's EQVault - It's okay, but I found it a little thin on content.
Everlore - Another site that I'm currently exploring.

Labels: EverQuest

posted by Wuphon's at 11:39 AM

First Frost

Gee it was cold last night. We finally had our frist frost of the fall season. I'm sorta excited I guess because it means the seasons are changing, and that makes me happy for some unknown reason.

posted by Wuphon's at 9:44 AM (0 comments)