Everything seemed to be going along good with the AC2 Beta when out of the blue came the fools.
About a week ago there was a filthy spammer that got banned. As Turbine pointed out, if you get banned from AC2, you also get banned from AC1 and you can kiss your sub fee goodby. A reasonable stance but difficult to grasp by those that are intellegience challenged.
Night before last a fool apparently got drunk and was spewing all over general chat. He also got into a pissing match with High Warlord and the 2 of them went at it for hours. As a result, the drunk apolizised and High Warlord got banned.
Then last night, High Warlord came back into the game and destroyed general chat with never ending spam and filth. I assume the permanent ban arrived today. He was on the forums and seem to have a difficult time understanding why it happened to him.
The whole issue remains amazing to me. You have to type something. repeatedly. You know it will get you banned. and possibly permanently. All you have to do is pay attention to what, if anything, you type and just play the game. There is a simple thing called courtesy.
We are still fighting issues with the Server crashing every so often. It is really not a big deal. We were told this is Beta and it is active through the holidays when many people are out of the office.
Today, I decided it was time for my level 17 Drudge, NonAckk to learn crafting for his needs. All of the other races have builtin recipes but a Drudge has to prove that he is worthy of crafting. I took him to talk to the drudges in Shoushi. There he picked up some quests and crafting quests to complete. I have some practice recipes to do for both Drudge Armor and Weapons. There is also something for spellbinding but I haven't looked at it yet.
I set up my lifestone at Cavendo and focused on weapons first. I created a crystal map and took off to find the crystal. I had to make a couple of runs in order to craft what I needed for the quest. Then I had to get Stone for the Armor. I satisfied my needs for stone and also needed to acquire some stone to turn in.
Once I get this done, I have to take him over to Omishan and he needs to get some animal parts from some Carenzi. I think I will fellow him up with my Ranger. The Carenzi hit hard and run in small packs. It will be a good experience.
With any luck, I will be able to craft the weapons and armor that he needs. The drops have been good so far but he should be able to make his own.
Friday, December 28, 2012
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
AC2 - A few warts to remove
As AC2 goes into its second week of Beta, a few warts have shown up. These issues are so much more difficult due to the limited knowledge of the internal functions and interfacees and APIs by the current developers.
One hopes that the original developers left great documentation to assist the current staff, but let's be real here. IT Developers hate documentation with a passion. They do it when they have to and in the case of a game terminating, staff size and dedication are not a primary concern.
Severlin has done a remarkable job in removing issues where possible, but new ones seem to arrive to chew up his time. He came into the game Monday evening (Christmas Eve) and explained the current major issue that was causing the Servers to go down. Apparently, an issue in one server caused it to crash and it would then take down the other servers on its way down. The result was a mini rollback and other strange results. They were looking at orderly shutdowns every few hours to prevent the crashing. This bug was proving to be very elusive and difficult to track down. It is Beta, after all. The developers need to use whatever tools they have to squash this and any other bugs. Even if our gameplay is impacted. I am looking forward to playing this game for many years. A little inconvienence now is a small price to pay.
In any event, I had fun playing several of my characters for the limited time I had. The Drudge is an enjoyable character. He whacks away using his board with a nail at anything and everything. He was a bit irritated when he went to get Rashan's Revenge and Rashan got all irritated at him. He treated my guy like he was a Drudge and would not give him the quest.
One hopes that the original developers left great documentation to assist the current staff, but let's be real here. IT Developers hate documentation with a passion. They do it when they have to and in the case of a game terminating, staff size and dedication are not a primary concern.
Severlin has done a remarkable job in removing issues where possible, but new ones seem to arrive to chew up his time. He came into the game Monday evening (Christmas Eve) and explained the current major issue that was causing the Servers to go down. Apparently, an issue in one server caused it to crash and it would then take down the other servers on its way down. The result was a mini rollback and other strange results. They were looking at orderly shutdowns every few hours to prevent the crashing. This bug was proving to be very elusive and difficult to track down. It is Beta, after all. The developers need to use whatever tools they have to squash this and any other bugs. Even if our gameplay is impacted. I am looking forward to playing this game for many years. A little inconvienence now is a small price to pay.
In any event, I had fun playing several of my characters for the limited time I had. The Drudge is an enjoyable character. He whacks away using his board with a nail at anything and everything. He was a bit irritated when he went to get Rashan's Revenge and Rashan got all irritated at him. He treated my guy like he was a Drudge and would not give him the quest.
Monday, December 24, 2012
AC2 - Its getting crowded
Had a great weekend playing mostly AC2. Did get a little time in on AC. Poor AC is kind of vacant now with so many on AC2.
I worked on Sledgebow for the most part. Got him up to level 22 with several quests completed.
I was out hunting and there was a group getting together for a Bloodshreth Incursion. I quickly portaled over to Ikerias and joined the fellow. We took off west to locate a Bloodshreth. They were in hiding. I took way too much damage and hit the lifestone. After I portal recalled, the group decided to regroup at Ikarias and we took a couple of portals and kept looking. We killed one Bloodshreth but it was credited to a level 29 player so it did the fellow no good. We finally located one and got the quest started. We now had to kill 10 Blood Shreths and anything else that got in the way. With our group, nothing had a chance. We laid waste to all critters and soon completed the Incursion.
I got back to hunting and a call went out for the Drudge Citidal Quest. I needed it so I took off and joined the group at the closest Ringway. There were 5 of us and we mounted up and travelled to the dungeon. A little tough fighting outside to get in but our group made quick work of the boss and got that quest checked off.
Then I was on my way to the Prosper Dungeon for the last Osteth Dungeon quest. We had to wait a short while for the additional people to arrive. I got bored and killed come critters while waiting. There was a lessor Bloodstone nearby and I attacked him. I thought he was one of those 700 health Bloodstones. He wasn't. He had about 2,200 health and soon smacked me good. I did a Portal Recall and returned. This time I left him alone. The other members of the fellow arrived and we headed in. A quick trip through the dungeon and the final boss and we were done. That completed my primary quests in Osteth.
I then spent some time just hunting and working on my other characters. I have a Slemp Missile Player that I am working on. Empyreans throw Orbs instead of arrows and should be interesting.
I am also working on my crafting skills. My Skinning, Surveying, and Human Weapon Skills are advancing. It just requires a chunk of time for each one.
There has been a number of times that the servers have crashed over the weekend. Sev explained that they have one server that crashes due to a bug in higher level content and if they do not reboot shortly afterward, all of the other servers will crash with a rollback. They are working hard to resolve this issue.
Such is the nature of a Beta. Especially, after 7 years. Knowing what the bug is and fixing it are 2 different things. Nothing is fresh in anyone's mind and most, if not all, of the developers were not around 7 years ago.
I worked on Sledgebow for the most part. Got him up to level 22 with several quests completed.
I was out hunting and there was a group getting together for a Bloodshreth Incursion. I quickly portaled over to Ikerias and joined the fellow. We took off west to locate a Bloodshreth. They were in hiding. I took way too much damage and hit the lifestone. After I portal recalled, the group decided to regroup at Ikarias and we took a couple of portals and kept looking. We killed one Bloodshreth but it was credited to a level 29 player so it did the fellow no good. We finally located one and got the quest started. We now had to kill 10 Blood Shreths and anything else that got in the way. With our group, nothing had a chance. We laid waste to all critters and soon completed the Incursion.
I got back to hunting and a call went out for the Drudge Citidal Quest. I needed it so I took off and joined the group at the closest Ringway. There were 5 of us and we mounted up and travelled to the dungeon. A little tough fighting outside to get in but our group made quick work of the boss and got that quest checked off.
Then I was on my way to the Prosper Dungeon for the last Osteth Dungeon quest. We had to wait a short while for the additional people to arrive. I got bored and killed come critters while waiting. There was a lessor Bloodstone nearby and I attacked him. I thought he was one of those 700 health Bloodstones. He wasn't. He had about 2,200 health and soon smacked me good. I did a Portal Recall and returned. This time I left him alone. The other members of the fellow arrived and we headed in. A quick trip through the dungeon and the final boss and we were done. That completed my primary quests in Osteth.
I then spent some time just hunting and working on my other characters. I have a Slemp Missile Player that I am working on. Empyreans throw Orbs instead of arrows and should be interesting.
I am also working on my crafting skills. My Skinning, Surveying, and Human Weapon Skills are advancing. It just requires a chunk of time for each one.
There has been a number of times that the servers have crashed over the weekend. Sev explained that they have one server that crashes due to a bug in higher level content and if they do not reboot shortly afterward, all of the other servers will crash with a rollback. They are working hard to resolve this issue.
Such is the nature of a Beta. Especially, after 7 years. Knowing what the bug is and fixing it are 2 different things. Nothing is fresh in anyone's mind and most, if not all, of the developers were not around 7 years ago.
Friday, December 21, 2012
AC2 - The Beta continues
AC2 is just getting better and better. It is actually getting to the point where you cannot log in in the evenings. The message comes back that the Server is Full, Please try later. While that may be a bit irritating if you are trying to get in the game, it does point out that many people are trying and playing the game. It is even more amazing when you realize that the game started out with a thread in the AC Forum that the server was open and available to play if you have an active AC account.
None of the massive advertising that accompanies most Betas with lots of drama leading up to the event.
And to top it off, AC2 is a polished production game that actually works, even though it has been 7 years since it was live.
Granted, there are always improvements that can be implemented and, as players actually level to near the top of the content, Turbine will need to add and activate tougher content. No one really knows much about Knorr yet. It was part of the Legions expansion and was still out of reach for almost all players.
While I am contuning to work on my other characters, I decided to create an Empyrean this morning. One of the things that I have noticed with AC2 is that, although each race has a Melee, Missile, and Magic Skill Tree (except Drudge - Melee only), they use different types of base weapons. Humans use Bows, Lugies use Chucks, Empyrean use globes, Tumeroks use spears. Each one performs a bit different and I want to try them all.
AC2 does a really good job on aiding a player in getting their character started out.
Thank goodness the weekend is almost here.
None of the massive advertising that accompanies most Betas with lots of drama leading up to the event.
And to top it off, AC2 is a polished production game that actually works, even though it has been 7 years since it was live.
Granted, there are always improvements that can be implemented and, as players actually level to near the top of the content, Turbine will need to add and activate tougher content. No one really knows much about Knorr yet. It was part of the Legions expansion and was still out of reach for almost all players.
While I am contuning to work on my other characters, I decided to create an Empyrean this morning. One of the things that I have noticed with AC2 is that, although each race has a Melee, Missile, and Magic Skill Tree (except Drudge - Melee only), they use different types of base weapons. Humans use Bows, Lugies use Chucks, Empyrean use globes, Tumeroks use spears. Each one performs a bit different and I want to try them all.
AC2 does a really good job on aiding a player in getting their character started out.
Thank goodness the weekend is almost here.
Thursday, December 20, 2012
AC2 - Beta Strong
Yesterday, I travelled with Sledgebow to the far Eastern reaches of Ostheth to see about getting a mount. The quest isn't too difficult but I needed to take out a bunch of Empowered Drudges, Shreths, and Mounted Skeletons.
What made this quest time consuming is that it is in a mountainous area and everyone else also wants to get a mount. Most of the time is spent finding the needed critters and backtracking. After working on the quest last night, I stayed there and logged back in this morning.
After about an hour this morning, I completed the tasks, combined the needed items and got the recipes for my mounts.
I portalled back down to Shoushi and crossed the river to hunt. I saw that I was in the area of the Faction Shrines and thought I would do that quest. I ran through the shrine areas and headed north to the river. There I talked to the quest giver and headed back. This time I used my mount and quickly completed touching the 3 shrines.
I then lifestone recalled to Shoushi, portalled to Cavendo, took portals to near the quest giver and turned in the 3 scrolls.
I really need to look at some crafting to at least be able to make level bows. I saw where there are practice recipes you can make that use less ingrediants. I will give them a shot.
I am carrying around to level 19 bows and still have most of the level to use them. I want to cross the water and try a bit harder content. Ah, so many quests, so little time.
What made this quest time consuming is that it is in a mountainous area and everyone else also wants to get a mount. Most of the time is spent finding the needed critters and backtracking. After working on the quest last night, I stayed there and logged back in this morning.
After about an hour this morning, I completed the tasks, combined the needed items and got the recipes for my mounts.
I portalled back down to Shoushi and crossed the river to hunt. I saw that I was in the area of the Faction Shrines and thought I would do that quest. I ran through the shrine areas and headed north to the river. There I talked to the quest giver and headed back. This time I used my mount and quickly completed touching the 3 shrines.
I then lifestone recalled to Shoushi, portalled to Cavendo, took portals to near the quest giver and turned in the 3 scrolls.
I really need to look at some crafting to at least be able to make level bows. I saw where there are practice recipes you can make that use less ingrediants. I will give them a shot.
I am carrying around to level 19 bows and still have most of the level to use them. I want to cross the water and try a bit harder content. Ah, so many quests, so little time.
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
AC - New Patch - AC2 - Lag Work
Another day has passed in the worlds of Asheron's Call. Everyone has to keep in mind that in essence, Asheron's Call 2 is Asheron's Call after a massive disaster, thousands of years in shelters and the whims of time.
AC had its patch yesterday. Along with the patch came the December Gift Boxes. They are always a challenge to locate and a large amount of effort if you have many active characters and/or accounts.
The current story line continues. The developers put in storylines that stretch over many months and require that a character complete them in order to advance to the next month's story. I can understand that many love this process, however, there are warts on the implementation. As the story line is tough, you must do the quest in a fellow. Once the fellows have completed it, they have no desire to redo it. If you get behind or are late starting the line, you are pretty much out of luck. AC still does not have quest scaleability.
In AC2, the big issue of the starting week was the lag. Sunday, Monday and most of Tuesday you had to play in remote areas to have a fighting chance. Tuesday afternoon the developers had a bunch of adjustments ready and shut down the world for about an hour. The lag was pretty much gone when the world returned.
Last night and today the game is very enjoyable and the players are back to looking at the future. The questions now are about creating or using a WIKI, what the business model will be and moving forward.
If you go to the forums, there is a link to a great article that explains the what, when, where, and how of AC2. It makes for great reading and will help everyone understand the history of the game.
And so much for history. AC2 is about the future. It can be tough, the handholding is very limited, the world is dangerous, and everyone is starting fresh at level 1. There are already some players that are up in levels as there always are in these kind of games. They will be levelling for a long time. There is no way to get to the endgame in a few short days.
The developers are actually blessed with a very stable and solid foundation. There are always improvements that can be done to every area, but they have a real need to add on content at the 60+ level areas. They can do this without being pushed as it will be some time before the players arrive.
On the other side of the coin, the engine and game are pretty new to them and there will be a learning curve. They also have the features of LOTRO and DDO to loook at and see how they can be applied to AC2. I expect they will be recruiting some assistance from those teams and the experts of those functions to add to the game.
Somehow, I expect that it is an exciting time to be a Turbine employee with all of the IPs that they are responsible for maintaining and enhancing.
Meanwhile, I will be working diligently on my Human Ranger, Drudge, Lugie Smasher, and Human Mage. They all need to get to Omishan and have fun!!!!!
AC had its patch yesterday. Along with the patch came the December Gift Boxes. They are always a challenge to locate and a large amount of effort if you have many active characters and/or accounts.
The current story line continues. The developers put in storylines that stretch over many months and require that a character complete them in order to advance to the next month's story. I can understand that many love this process, however, there are warts on the implementation. As the story line is tough, you must do the quest in a fellow. Once the fellows have completed it, they have no desire to redo it. If you get behind or are late starting the line, you are pretty much out of luck. AC still does not have quest scaleability.
In AC2, the big issue of the starting week was the lag. Sunday, Monday and most of Tuesday you had to play in remote areas to have a fighting chance. Tuesday afternoon the developers had a bunch of adjustments ready and shut down the world for about an hour. The lag was pretty much gone when the world returned.
Last night and today the game is very enjoyable and the players are back to looking at the future. The questions now are about creating or using a WIKI, what the business model will be and moving forward.
If you go to the forums, there is a link to a great article that explains the what, when, where, and how of AC2. It makes for great reading and will help everyone understand the history of the game.
And so much for history. AC2 is about the future. It can be tough, the handholding is very limited, the world is dangerous, and everyone is starting fresh at level 1. There are already some players that are up in levels as there always are in these kind of games. They will be levelling for a long time. There is no way to get to the endgame in a few short days.
The developers are actually blessed with a very stable and solid foundation. There are always improvements that can be done to every area, but they have a real need to add on content at the 60+ level areas. They can do this without being pushed as it will be some time before the players arrive.
On the other side of the coin, the engine and game are pretty new to them and there will be a learning curve. They also have the features of LOTRO and DDO to loook at and see how they can be applied to AC2. I expect they will be recruiting some assistance from those teams and the experts of those functions to add to the game.
Somehow, I expect that it is an exciting time to be a Turbine employee with all of the IPs that they are responsible for maintaining and enhancing.
Meanwhile, I will be working diligently on my Human Ranger, Drudge, Lugie Smasher, and Human Mage. They all need to get to Omishan and have fun!!!!!
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
LOTRO - Another day of battle
My goal this morning was to hit level 78. Considering the number of hours I have played the expansion, I believe I am moving up pretty fast. It certainly doesn't hurt that I cannot catch up with my rested time.
This morning found me in the middle of a nest of Wolds and other unsavory characters. I needed to thin them out a bit, destroy some cranes, burn down some tents and rescue some stolen horses. All in all, a pretty good sized list.
I got busy and started to wail away on the enemies. There were a couple of bosses thrown in for good measure. I did have a couple of times where I was defeated. Still have to pay attention....
I accomplish all of the tasks given me and headed back to the outpost to turn in. I received a bunch of recognition and XP and then headed for Floodwend to talk to the Thane there. He wants me to join him on a little cleanup. I have to get resupplied and lighten up my packs first. They are getting heavy.
This morning found me in the middle of a nest of Wolds and other unsavory characters. I needed to thin them out a bit, destroy some cranes, burn down some tents and rescue some stolen horses. All in all, a pretty good sized list.
I got busy and started to wail away on the enemies. There were a couple of bosses thrown in for good measure. I did have a couple of times where I was defeated. Still have to pay attention....
I accomplish all of the tasks given me and headed back to the outpost to turn in. I received a bunch of recognition and XP and then headed for Floodwend to talk to the Thane there. He wants me to join him on a little cleanup. I have to get resupplied and lighten up my packs first. They are getting heavy.
AC2 - Let me get back up in my chair!!!!!
I had the start of a 4 day weekend last Friday. I was well into playing some AC and LOTRO when I decided I would look at the AC Forum and see if they had posted the teasers for the December Patch. Everyone looks forward to December as the Gift Boxes spawn across Dereth and are quite a bit of fun to locate.
What do I behond but a thread announcing that, if you have an AC Subscription, you can download and play the AC2 Beta and how to do it.
I have so longed for AC2 to return. I know it had issues, primarily due to Microsoft control, and was to the point when it was closed that it was very enjoyable to play. I quickly downloaded the 2 gig file, installed the game, and was off into a Dereth of the future.
The game was identical to when I last played it over 7 years ago. I still remembered a number of the locations, quests and portals.
First off, I created a Tumerok Drum carrying character. I ran him through the starter quests and realized I was still not a Magic Player. I put him back on the platform and created a Human Missile Character. I levelled him up through the Vault Quests and was having fun with his capabilities.
Next up was a Drudge. They are just a joy to play. A fun loving board with a nail character, he was tough as nails. I even got him through the Citidel Vault.
Friday and most of Saturday the game engine ran great with very little lag. Late Saturday, Sunday, and quite a bit of Monday was frought with lots of lag spikes. I found that off playing in a remote area generally worked OK. Severlin even came on Monday afternoon and explained that they were working hard on locating and resolving the lag issues. It is not an area where I would complain. AC2 is in Beta afterall.
My top character is about level 18 now. I am looking forward to get to the second island. There is so much that I have not even seen on the first island yet but my other characters will explore.
As always, I have a personal wish list for some improvements that are needed in AC2. I have every confidence that they will be addressed.
1. Drudges need to be completed with skill sets and crafting.
2. Lag will get corrected. It just takes a little time.
3. The run animation should be worked on. You see it, you will know what I am talking about...
4. Do not change the game to the EASY MODE. We do not need another simple, easy to level game. Keep this game a challenge and it will keep away all the doods.
I have no idea what the end game is for Turbine and AC/AC2. Right now I am seeing a good increase in the number of AC Accounts due to people coming to play AC2. Perhaps that will also increase the AC populations.
Perhaps, Turbine is looking at making AC2 FTP like LOTRO.
Perhaps, Turbine is looking at a structured path to move from AC to AC2.
Perhaps, Turbine will build a subscription path for AC2.
Lots of Perhaps and only Turbine knows.
Whatever the path, I intend to be there playing AC2 as before.
See you at the Craft Forges.
What do I behond but a thread announcing that, if you have an AC Subscription, you can download and play the AC2 Beta and how to do it.
I have so longed for AC2 to return. I know it had issues, primarily due to Microsoft control, and was to the point when it was closed that it was very enjoyable to play. I quickly downloaded the 2 gig file, installed the game, and was off into a Dereth of the future.
The game was identical to when I last played it over 7 years ago. I still remembered a number of the locations, quests and portals.
First off, I created a Tumerok Drum carrying character. I ran him through the starter quests and realized I was still not a Magic Player. I put him back on the platform and created a Human Missile Character. I levelled him up through the Vault Quests and was having fun with his capabilities.
Next up was a Drudge. They are just a joy to play. A fun loving board with a nail character, he was tough as nails. I even got him through the Citidel Vault.
Friday and most of Saturday the game engine ran great with very little lag. Late Saturday, Sunday, and quite a bit of Monday was frought with lots of lag spikes. I found that off playing in a remote area generally worked OK. Severlin even came on Monday afternoon and explained that they were working hard on locating and resolving the lag issues. It is not an area where I would complain. AC2 is in Beta afterall.
My top character is about level 18 now. I am looking forward to get to the second island. There is so much that I have not even seen on the first island yet but my other characters will explore.
As always, I have a personal wish list for some improvements that are needed in AC2. I have every confidence that they will be addressed.
1. Drudges need to be completed with skill sets and crafting.
2. Lag will get corrected. It just takes a little time.
3. The run animation should be worked on. You see it, you will know what I am talking about...
4. Do not change the game to the EASY MODE. We do not need another simple, easy to level game. Keep this game a challenge and it will keep away all the doods.
I have no idea what the end game is for Turbine and AC/AC2. Right now I am seeing a good increase in the number of AC Accounts due to people coming to play AC2. Perhaps that will also increase the AC populations.
Perhaps, Turbine is looking at making AC2 FTP like LOTRO.
Perhaps, Turbine is looking at a structured path to move from AC to AC2.
Perhaps, Turbine will build a subscription path for AC2.
Lots of Perhaps and only Turbine knows.
Whatever the path, I intend to be there playing AC2 as before.
See you at the Craft Forges.
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