maandag 29 maart 2010

Once again, back to Hyboria

AgeOfConan 2010-03-28 19-39-07-82
Morenn in front of the guild city.

The last few days i have been getting back into Age of Conan.
Everytime i return to the game i really find it to be a lot of fun, yet i hardly play it, eventhough i have a full year subscription to it.

This time however i am trying to step it up a bit and really get into it.
I have joined a guild, which is something i haven't done in years, last time i was in a guild was back in Star Wars Galaxies.
The guild i joined is called, -The Dark Knights of Death-, i basicly used the "looking for guild" tool and they were the first to invite me so i joined :)
A guild city definatly adds to the gameplay and i do hope that being part of a guild will encourage me to play more often.

I have also picked up on gathering and crafting, i leveled all but one gathering skill up to the max for my level, which is currently lvl 67.
Next i also worked on my gemcutting skills, which is currently maxed to my lvl and i have started to work on architect, which is quite an expensive profession, so i am now broke :)

I also need to work on my gear, which is currently not as good as it could be, i though i had bought some decent crafted gear, but apperantly i made a wrong choice (see pic).
I basicly just choose this gear because it looked different than the standard (boring) gear and didn't really look at stats.

Gear is something that really annoys me, i mean my char has been wearing the same gear for almost all of her 67 levels, it all looks the same level after level, just a variation in color or long sleeves, short sleeves, long skirt or short skirt. I mean i know AoC claimed to have over 1500 armor sets ingame, well so far i have not seen them anywhere, the NPC's seem to have plenty variation but for the player it's just the same old, same old. Major dissapointment!
Needless to say that my barbarian, doesn't look much like a barbarian at all.

For now i am basicly doing a lot of gathering, some of the materials sell pretty well on the trader so i can make some gold to buy better gear and to advance my architect profession.

maandag 22 maart 2010

Dragon Age: (A Rough) Awakening

DAOrigins 2010-03-21 13-04-04-72

First impression of Dragon Age: Awakening, was one of suprise, i imported my character and was very suprised to see her show up without armor and weapons. Turns out non of the previous DLC works with this expension, so my character started fighting in her underwear and without "Starfang" that awesome sword.
DAOrigins 2010-03-20 16-31-21-17
In my opinion a bad choice, afterall this is an expension to the original, so i should have access to all the DLC.

As soon as i started playing, i started having crashing issues, first idea i had was to turn off any/all third party mods, which seem to stop the crashing, so yeah third party mods not (yet) working with the new expension.

I managed to get quite a few hours into the game and am now at the point where i entered "The Fade" and there is no way to keep going, the game just keeps crashing to the desktop, no matter what i try.
So far it has been a nice experience, i did enjoy the story, but i do get a little feeling that there's more EA behind this expansion than BioWare, as in EA pushing BioWare to publish despite some problems and also to me it feels a bit unfinished, especially if you can't use any of the previous DLC.
It just feels like it was rushed out of the door to keep the Dragon Age franchise "hot".

I am hoping for some patches soon, as it seems more people are having these crashing issues, until this expansion i had no issues with Dragon Age besides the loading times getting longer and longer as you play(which i am also experiencing with this expansion), but that was no issue to me as i would ussually take a little time and save and restart the game.
It also seems that EA does not support this game for Windows 7 64-bit, their "advise" install another operating system.... Now i know EA is only the publisher, but that's not the kind of advise you want to hear.

I am just hoping i am seeing things that aren't there and that BioWare is still in full control of their IP's, but then again the recent news about EA's expectations for Star Wars: The Old Republic are not very encouraging.
I am still having some trust in BioWare and will wait for a patch to come out soon that will fix some of the issues. In the mean time i will keep trying to get past the fade, so that i can (hopefully) continue this game.
Anyways, hope that, when you are reading this, you are not having the same problems..

zaterdag 20 maart 2010

You've lost that lovin' feelin'

Somehow i think that, the problems i am having with MMO's nowadays is mostly due to that feeling of being in that first MMO you play.

For me that was Star Wars Galaxies, way back in 2004, before i had mainly played shooters and simracing games. After playing Star Wars Knight of the Old Republic and quite a bit of "forum roleplaying" in the Star Wars universe, i really had an itch for (role)playing inside a universe with actual graphics, at that time SWG was being launched so obviously i was all over it :)
Unfortianatly my PC at that time couldn't handle SWG, so i had to upgrade, which of course i did as soon as i could.
So when that first day came and i logged in a whole new (scary) world/universe opened up for me, a world of adventure, exploration and new encounters and very important: the unknown.

Why is it, i am not finding that in any new MMO?
Is it because essentially nothing is really new, because all MMO's are technicly the same?
It probably is.

It's probably also the reason why so many MMO's fail to meet the hype that's created around them.
Many people are probably like me and with each new MMO we hope this one will capture that feeling we had in our first MMO.
I still have my hopes up for an MMO to show up to give me that feeling again, but i doubt this will ever happen.

For now there isn't much on my horizon, but i do have some hope for Star Wars: The Old Republic, although i doubt it will live up to those expectations, i have no doubt it's gonna be a great game, but i am pretty sure it will not be "the second coming", and no doubt many bloggers/MMO players will be dissapointed.
As for me, well i'll probably play it and enjoy it for what it is, but i doubt it's going to bring back that "feeling".

donderdag 18 maart 2010

Finding bits of lore in Age of Conan

I just love finding bits of lore that happen unexpected.
Recently in Age of Conan i came across one of those, at first i didn't realise it.

I was just riding alongs towards my next quest objective when i noticed someone standing besides the road that i didn't see there before. As she didn't turn up agressive i got curious and decided to move in a little closer.

AgeOfConanDX10 2010-02-23 15-34-01-12

When suddenly she yelled out:
Brothers, look who follows! I have brought you a man to slay! Take his heart that we may lay it smoking on our father's board!

That's when i realised this was the Frost Giant's Daughter, Atali and of course next her brothers showed up and started attacking me, of course they were elites.
Now of course this is not entirely how the real lore went, as in the real story Conan starts following Atali as she runs away and gets ambushed later on.

AgeOfConanDX10 2010-02-23 15-40-50-97

Unfortianatly it was a bit bugged as i managed to kill the first one but the second one i could only hit with ranged attacks and i also got stuck in place, but in the end i did manage to stay alive and kill him, didn't really get anything interresting to loot though.

In the end i definatly enjoyed this little piece of Conan lore, especially because it was so unexpected, i came across this area many times but never saw her there before.

Stardate: 87813.64 Captain's Log: Promotion

GameClient 2010-03-18 02-06-46-21

Finally reached Lieutenant Commander (level 11) today, got my new ship, a very cool looking cruiser.
And of course i immediatly went and did some fleet action mission.

Have to say i definatly enjoy this cruiser a lot more than my starter ship :)
I initianatly wanted to go with science vessels, but figured cruisers would be a lot better suited for doing solo missions.

On a side note i really thought the additional (optinional) mission for my "promotion" called "attend Lieutenant Commander Ceremony" was a fun thing, it wasn't much but it was the thought :)

dinsdag 16 maart 2010

Star Trek Online Lifetime Perks

Just recieved this email from Cryptic, looks like lifetime members will be getting some more goodies.

STO_newsletter_header

STO LIFETIME PERKS

Greetings Lifetime Members!
We just wanted to thank you again for purchasing a Lifetime Subscription from us. As you already know, this entitles you to play the game without paying a monthly fee. But, that’s not where it ends. Later this month we’ll be releasing special perks for you, just to show our appreciation. Here’s some of what we’re working on, exclusive to Lifetime Subscribers:

Exclusive In-Game Chat Channel
Talk shop with other Lifetime Subscribers. Share thoughts and ideas about the game, or anything else.

Front-of-Queue Support
Waiting isn’t fun, and we don’t think you should have to do it. Any time the server is queued, you’ll go to the front of it.

In-Game Title
Visibly show off your support.

In-Game VIP Lounge
Spend time in an exclusive area inside the game. This social area is limited to Lifetime Subscribers only.

A Unique Costume Piece
Show off your lifetime status in style.

We’ll see you in-game, and thank you again!

-The Cryptic Team

maandag 15 maart 2010

Free 2 Play versus Subscription

AOgame 2010-03-15 01-35-02-21

Lately i have been looking a lot at Free2Play games, like Allods Online (which i've been enjoying quite a bit), i have re-installed Runes of Magic & Sword of the New World, signed up for Aika Online and i am still looking for more.

I might not keep playing some of them, but that's why i am trying out/returning to so many games.

The main reason behind it is that i am currently paying for so many subscriptions, yet i play most of them very little.
Right now i feel like i don't have a game that "i wann go home and play" with, i use to have that with Star Wars Galaxies and Tabula Rasa. So right now i am "jumping from" game to game, cause i like to play all of them, yet i feel i don't play them enough.

Currently i am subscribed to Age of Conan, Fallen Earth, World of Warcraft, i have the SOE Station Access so i can play Everquest, Everquest 2, Star Wars Galaxies, Vanguard, Pirates of the Burning Sea. I also have lifetime subs for Lord of the Rings Online and Star Trek Online.
Looking at my gameplay hours on Raptr and Xfire, i have to conclude that i do play those games, but over a long period, it's very little and more and more i am beginning to doubt if it is worth the subscriptions i am paying, i tend to play a game fora few days (sometimes) and really enjoy it but then i move to another game and some games i don't play for several months, yet i am still paying for them.

So i guess the Free2Play model is really starting to sound more and more interresting, although looking at the games you can't really compare the to subs based games (yet), although i think Allods Online is on the right path. I can spend a little money here or there to support the game and if i am not playing, well i am not paying so..

I also really enjoy the lifetime subs, sure they're a lot of money at the start but i think in the long run it will pay off as i never have to pay for a sub and i don't feel as guilty if i don't play them for a long while.

So until i find that one game that i wanne go home for to log in, i guess i'll keep jumping from game to game..

zondag 14 maart 2010

Allods Online: Damn Bag Grinders

AOgame 2010-03-14 22-57-43-67

One of the things that is really destroying my fun, is those "bag grinders".
I call them bag grinders because they're usually grinding mobs to get rare drops to be able to get the bigger bagspace ingame instead of buying it.

Now i really think there should be an ingame way of getting the same stuff that you can buy in the cashshop, if you don't want to buy it, however when i am on a quest for which i need to kill a bunch of mobs and find a couple of high levels grinding those mobs, one shotting them even before i can get a shot in, i am not ok with that.
Especially if there are a level 27 and a level 31 grinding lvl 13 mobs..

I really think the devs need to come up with some other way, as this is making things annoying for those that need to complete quests, let them grind mobs that are not needed in other quests.

Of course this also depends on the (grinding) player, afterall those high levels could be a little nicer and ask those lower levels that are running around in the same areas if they need to kill them for a quest and offer a group, but then again they're probably to scared those lower levels run off with the rare drops :)
Or at least leave a little area untouched so others can get quests done and not kill every mob in sight.

Personally i say, just buy the damn bags, at least you are supporting the game with it and you are not annoying other players. I know it's a free to play game, but hell if no one buys anything it won't be around for long.

Please SOE: fix the Station Launcher

stationlauncher

Lately my Station Launcher has been bugging like crazy.
When i have it running (in the background), a popup would appear in which the launcher said it was updating, it takes forever and this happens several times a day. And the worst part, it minimizes any game i am playing, even non SOE games.
Nothing is more annoying than when you are playing a game your game minimizes...

And the worse part, it never updates, the launcher itself says it's up to date, yet the window keeps popping up.

And today, the launcher suddenly decided to not remember my login/settings, which is not the first time either, it's very annoying to go through all the login and game settings again, true it doesn't happen often, but it is annoying as hell.

Right now i am thinking about removing the launcher all together and go back to launching the games through their own launchers, it's just too annoying.

zaterdag 13 maart 2010

Creating a Cynfull Death Knight

WoW 2010-03-13 09-26-32-83

Finally reached level 55 on my main Cynheiddon, which meant i could finally create a Death Knight, so say hello to Cynfull :)
Have to say i initially liked it a lot, but as soon as the "tutorial"/story ended i felt like, meh.
I really enjoyed the "new" world they created for the Death Knight and ending up in Orgrimmar really felt like an anti climax.

Oh well for now it's back to my main and who knows maybe i'll try the Death Knight out later..

donderdag 11 maart 2010

To Worlds Unknown at a new home

From today To Worlds Unknown will have a new home here at Blogger (Blogspot) on http://www.toworldsunknown.com

If you are reading this through a feed reader it means that everything is working correctly and you can keep reading To Worlds Unknown this way.

I have finsihed moving most of my posts one by one for the most part, still a few months to move, so you might see some wierd things going on with the site feed, but after that it should be "business" as usual.

Unfortianatly moving the posts also meant losing all comments, which is really a shame but there was no way to move from a Nucleus CMS to Blogger in an easy way other than manually (re)posting all posts.

I really got tired of having to actively fight spam and other malicious attempts at my blogging software, so instead i decided to go with Blogger and let them worry about all that and all i have to do is just a little comment moderation :)

maandag 8 maart 2010

3 years of blogging

It completely passed me by, but last month was actually my 3rd year of blogging for this blog :)
so yeah, DING!!

zaterdag 6 maart 2010

Allods Online, doing the right thing.

AOgame 2010-03-06 18-58-17-07

OK, i'll admit it, i was one of those (probably very few) that actually did buy the 20 dollar bags.
Do i think the (very) little extra bag space was worth it,... hell no, it was definatly not, not for the bag space.
However i looked at it in a different way, i was getting a little extra bag space and with that 20 dollars i support a F2P game that i actually enjoy playing.

Of course we all know there was a huge uproar about the pricing and we also know they lowered the cash shop prices.
But yeah, i payed 20 dollars for the bag before they lowered the prices, well guess what?
They actually went back and priced my bag at the current price and put the rest of the gPotatoes (points) back into my account.

So i guess one could say that they are definatly trying to do things right, eventhough they didn't have to, afterall i agreed to the 20 dollar price when i bought it but still they went back and gave me back credit for the "overpricing".

maandag 1 maart 2010

Allods Online, Giving it a second chance and liking it.

AOgame 2010-02-28 20-59-53-32

I have been playing a lot of Allods Online, although i did get pretty close to quiting it.
My first character (Cynfull) is a warrior on the League side and i have level 10 with her.
But the kill stealing was so bad that it really took the fun out of the game, well technically it isn't kill stealing, because as soon as you land the first hit on the mob it's yours no matter what happens.
However as a warrior it's very hard to get a mob everyone is after, as what usually happens i see a mob and before i can reach it some mage comes along and from a distance castes a fireball and takes the mob, even if i still kill it i will not get credit for it.
As a warrior theres really no way to getting to a mob fast unless you are standing right next to it, i do have one ranged attack but that takes 4 seconds to fire.

So i got really close to quit the game, but decided to give it another change, this time i rolled a scout (stalker) on the Empire side (Synfull) and i have to say it's alot more fun to play, as i feel it suits me better, being ranged, and at least i have a chance to get a mob as soon as i see it as my ranged attack is instant, so the kill stealing is no a lot less.

I also feel like the the Empire has had a lot more attention from the Devs, it feels more "done", it definatly felt like i was leveling faster and so far i have to say i really prefer the Empire over the League.
It's save to say they try to put it down as the evil Empire, as one of my first quests was to beat up a couple of POW's, a quest i personally didn't like and i actually felt bad for doing, i don't know it definatly felt wrong (i know, i know it's a game, but still..).
But so far i have not had any more quests on the Empire side that were that extreme and i have generally been having a blast.

I have had a lot of fun running the XAES Dungeon, so far i have done it twice as i found out later that i got a few more quests in there to do as follow up quests for other quests.
And although it's not a raid, as it's set to max party of 6 (we tried as a raid but mobs wouldn't aggro), it has been fun doing it a second time, i even got a nice pair of (blue) dual daggers from it, and i definatly enjoyed my part, just staying in the back of the group and fire those arrows and try to do as much DPS as i can :)

AOgame 2010-02-28 17-24-04-95

So far i never had the urge to do raids, as a matter of fact i always tried to stay away from them, but now i think it might actually be a lot of fun doing raids, i mean not like being a full time raider, but more like a casual raider.
I do sometimes listen to some talk about raids in WoW where people actually "study" the raid and memorize a complete "choreography" to do a dungeon, i admire those people and the efforts they put into it to do it "right" and i do enjoy reading/listening to those stories, but it's not what i would like to do, i just wanna go in there and have fun and either we make it or we don't.

So who knows.. i might actually turn into a casual raider :)

So after all this, yes i will definatly keep playing Allods Online, i really enjoy the world and the setting and although there are quite a lot of those kill ten (or 20) rats quest, i am really enjoying the storyline quests. It's definatly an interresting world.

For the Hor.., i mean for the Empire :)