With other commitments and such, I didn't get a chance to get on AC2 last night. I attempted to make up for that this morning for a couple of hours.
I have started working on Mrtonk and getting him up to a respectable level. Yesterday, I left him at the SE Portal drop from the Kehan Ringway. He needed to get the Lost Wish Vault completed.
I headed over the the Vault and here was no one around. I did manage to take out a few critters and level to 13 on the way. I applied the Glyph and portalled into the Vault. Of the 3 Starter Vaults, this is the first one to use the floating incline format. The first 2 are based upon massive underground structure with square walls and doors. The floating incline structure climbs up and around with platforms every so often. It is actually an extremely innovative design that I have not really seen anywhere else.
I was climbing and taking out Drudges until I got near the end. There I met up with another player. He was a shield and sword Lugie working his way through. We fellowed up and headed fot the Boss dungeon. The dungeon was the same design. He kept the Boss busy while I whittled him down from afar with my spear. It only took a few seconds and we portalled out for the reward.
There we parted ways and I headed to Arwic to get the buffs from the inital run through the Ringways. There are 3 Ringways that a new player can run through and touch the oblisks for buffs. They all help considerably when starting out.
Once I got buffed, I headed to Cragstone and then to Molwirth to get near the Drudge Dungeon. No one was there either and I did need to level a bit so I hunted around the area until I needed to log. This dungeon does require a group as the Drudges are tougher and there are groups of them.
After this dungeon, I have the Mad Crone Dungeon to hit. That will be about it until level 19.
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
AC2 - It keeps improving
The AC2 world keeps gettign better. That's not to say that it has fully arrived. The Crash issues still exist. There are still problems with maximum players in game concurrently, but the game is playable.
I decided to add another Missile character to my stable yesterday. I created a character called MrTonk. He is a Tumerok focused on missile skills.
AC2 does a pretty good job at leading a new character through the beginning levels. Everyone does the Rescue the Shelter Quest. Then you need to talk to the Explorer and run through the 3 portals and get your starting buffs. Everyone needs to get to Arwic and get the Crafting quest. Then it is off to Kehan and the Miller Quest. She then sends you to Millstone for the Drudge quest. You hit the portals from Millstone and head west to take out the Drudges and Green Wasps.
Along the way you should have gotten the Edge Beetle Quest and completed it. You need to have the Green Wasp Elixir and use it on the Drudge Quest.
Also, most importantly, you should have crafted yourself a skinning knife and butchered every critter you kill for Resources. The Drudge quest requires that you craft a Drudge Killer Weapon and that requires 25 Bone Resources. You not only need to craft it but you need to use it on the special Drudge.
Along with butchering every kill, you need to loot every kill. That is where you pick up the needed Elixirs, weapons, potions and armor to help keep you alive. You can purchase some of these items, however, getting 1 gold per item at the beginning will not get you rich and these items are limited. Consignment is way too expensive for a starting player.
After you complete the Drudge quest, you should be about level 10. You should have acquired an Esper Glyph and be ready for the first Vault. The Esper, Arwic and Lost Wish Vaults are each about the same difficulty. Only the Boss at the end of each it a bit tough. If you feel ready, you can give it a try. The only loss risk is a little vitae and the need to acquire another Glyph. I generally pick Esper first as it is the closest one after the Drudge Quest.
I decided to add another Missile character to my stable yesterday. I created a character called MrTonk. He is a Tumerok focused on missile skills.
AC2 does a pretty good job at leading a new character through the beginning levels. Everyone does the Rescue the Shelter Quest. Then you need to talk to the Explorer and run through the 3 portals and get your starting buffs. Everyone needs to get to Arwic and get the Crafting quest. Then it is off to Kehan and the Miller Quest. She then sends you to Millstone for the Drudge quest. You hit the portals from Millstone and head west to take out the Drudges and Green Wasps.
Along the way you should have gotten the Edge Beetle Quest and completed it. You need to have the Green Wasp Elixir and use it on the Drudge Quest.
Also, most importantly, you should have crafted yourself a skinning knife and butchered every critter you kill for Resources. The Drudge quest requires that you craft a Drudge Killer Weapon and that requires 25 Bone Resources. You not only need to craft it but you need to use it on the special Drudge.
Along with butchering every kill, you need to loot every kill. That is where you pick up the needed Elixirs, weapons, potions and armor to help keep you alive. You can purchase some of these items, however, getting 1 gold per item at the beginning will not get you rich and these items are limited. Consignment is way too expensive for a starting player.
After you complete the Drudge quest, you should be about level 10. You should have acquired an Esper Glyph and be ready for the first Vault. The Esper, Arwic and Lost Wish Vaults are each about the same difficulty. Only the Boss at the end of each it a bit tough. If you feel ready, you can give it a try. The only loss risk is a little vitae and the need to acquire another Glyph. I generally pick Esper first as it is the closest one after the Drudge Quest.
Monday, January 7, 2013
AC2 - No lack of Drama
OK, for the better part of the last 3 days of last week AC2 was down while the Developers worked on nailing down the stability bugs that had infected the game.
The players couldn't play. Not a big deal as IT IS BETA!!!. This is a status that the gimme players just cannot get their grubby little hands around. This is why it is a Beta. 7 years on the shelf while operating systems and hardware change and improve around the application. The entire world of Servers exist today that were only being dreamed about 7 years ago.
Turbine did bring up the game but limited the number of active connections at startup. Of course that created a whole new set of whining as people tried to log in and were unsuccessful. When I hit that wall, I just went and played some AC and watched a little TV and read a book. No sense in sitting in front of the computer and trying for hours on end to get in.
Saturday morning came and at 4:30AM there was no issue with getting into the game. I enjoyed it for some time and had to put up with some crashed. I had some errands to run and shut down for most of the morning. Saturday afternoon I got back in and completed the quests to get my little Drudge, Nonackk, his crafting. He still needs a lot of work on getting his skills up but at least now he is level 19 and is mean with a nail in a board.
Early Sunday morning I got back into the game. I worked with Sledgebow on getting his level up some. I got involved in a BloodShreth Incursion and we ran all over the place wiping out everything. I finally helped take down the 10th Shreth to complete the quest, levelled to 24 and CRASHED...
By the time I got back into the game, I was back at level 23 and still needed to kill 2 shreths. The fellow was long gone and there is no way I can take out a Blood Shreth solo. My timer ran out and now I have to wait 6 days to do it again. Oh well, there are plenty of other quests to complete.
I did solo the Slavetakers Head. I had to complete the Ranger Quests to get set up for the Illuminated Manuscript Quest. I am now well into Level 24.
I do have to rant for a few seconds. When Turbine opened up AC2 for the Beta they were very clear. IF YOU HAVE AN AC ACCOUNT, YOU ARE INVITED TO THE AC2 BETA. This is not a difficult concept. I have 2 active AC accounts, so I downloaded the AC2 Client and started playing. There are many people that wanted to play AC2. They were not committed to AC. They went and downloaded AC and set up an account in AC. This made them now eligible to partake of the AC2 BETA. They downloaded AC2 and then started to play. Still no problem. As AC2 is a BETA, it goes up and down at erratic times. The number of concurrent players are limited. There is only 1 world. There is no PVP or KVK play. There are some issues that were not resolved after the expansion 7.5 years ago. It still needs polish.
If you go to the forums, the amount and intensity of the whining is unbelieveable. These players keep insisting that they paid for AC2 and they are not getting the service they demand. They want the whole game changed to meet their vision. They want things dumbed down to match WOW.
Right now, the Developers want the game to run smooth. Crashes are top on their priority list to resolve. The world must be stable. There should not be any rollbacks. All the other desires are just eye candy right now. The demand to get the Hero functions enabled are extremely asinine. If you have level 45 players, great. Now level up another character of another race and class and try them out. No one cares if you get to 150 first.
I expect that the Priorities run something like this:
1. Get the world stable - no crashes and no need to reboot every few hours.
2. Get a second world operational - make sure that multiple worlds function well.
3. Put together a list of broken quests and functions and prioritize them.
4. Fix Number 3.
5. Now we can look at exiting BETA. Determine the model used by the game.
6. Build a list of enhancements and targets and lay out the project list.
I do not know what the future holds for AC2. Heck, last week I got a total shock at work for what the future holds there. Nothing I would have guessed. The people involved in AC and AC2 are very talented and committed to the future of these Franchises and I evpect only good things in the future.
The players couldn't play. Not a big deal as IT IS BETA!!!. This is a status that the gimme players just cannot get their grubby little hands around. This is why it is a Beta. 7 years on the shelf while operating systems and hardware change and improve around the application. The entire world of Servers exist today that were only being dreamed about 7 years ago.
Turbine did bring up the game but limited the number of active connections at startup. Of course that created a whole new set of whining as people tried to log in and were unsuccessful. When I hit that wall, I just went and played some AC and watched a little TV and read a book. No sense in sitting in front of the computer and trying for hours on end to get in.
Saturday morning came and at 4:30AM there was no issue with getting into the game. I enjoyed it for some time and had to put up with some crashed. I had some errands to run and shut down for most of the morning. Saturday afternoon I got back in and completed the quests to get my little Drudge, Nonackk, his crafting. He still needs a lot of work on getting his skills up but at least now he is level 19 and is mean with a nail in a board.
Early Sunday morning I got back into the game. I worked with Sledgebow on getting his level up some. I got involved in a BloodShreth Incursion and we ran all over the place wiping out everything. I finally helped take down the 10th Shreth to complete the quest, levelled to 24 and CRASHED...
By the time I got back into the game, I was back at level 23 and still needed to kill 2 shreths. The fellow was long gone and there is no way I can take out a Blood Shreth solo. My timer ran out and now I have to wait 6 days to do it again. Oh well, there are plenty of other quests to complete.
I did solo the Slavetakers Head. I had to complete the Ranger Quests to get set up for the Illuminated Manuscript Quest. I am now well into Level 24.
I do have to rant for a few seconds. When Turbine opened up AC2 for the Beta they were very clear. IF YOU HAVE AN AC ACCOUNT, YOU ARE INVITED TO THE AC2 BETA. This is not a difficult concept. I have 2 active AC accounts, so I downloaded the AC2 Client and started playing. There are many people that wanted to play AC2. They were not committed to AC. They went and downloaded AC and set up an account in AC. This made them now eligible to partake of the AC2 BETA. They downloaded AC2 and then started to play. Still no problem. As AC2 is a BETA, it goes up and down at erratic times. The number of concurrent players are limited. There is only 1 world. There is no PVP or KVK play. There are some issues that were not resolved after the expansion 7.5 years ago. It still needs polish.
If you go to the forums, the amount and intensity of the whining is unbelieveable. These players keep insisting that they paid for AC2 and they are not getting the service they demand. They want the whole game changed to meet their vision. They want things dumbed down to match WOW.
Right now, the Developers want the game to run smooth. Crashes are top on their priority list to resolve. The world must be stable. There should not be any rollbacks. All the other desires are just eye candy right now. The demand to get the Hero functions enabled are extremely asinine. If you have level 45 players, great. Now level up another character of another race and class and try them out. No one cares if you get to 150 first.
I expect that the Priorities run something like this:
1. Get the world stable - no crashes and no need to reboot every few hours.
2. Get a second world operational - make sure that multiple worlds function well.
3. Put together a list of broken quests and functions and prioritize them.
4. Fix Number 3.
5. Now we can look at exiting BETA. Determine the model used by the game.
6. Build a list of enhancements and targets and lay out the project list.
I do not know what the future holds for AC2. Heck, last week I got a total shock at work for what the future holds there. Nothing I would have guessed. The people involved in AC and AC2 are very talented and committed to the future of these Franchises and I evpect only good things in the future.
Thursday, January 3, 2013
AC2 - It's Back!!!!
I just cannot say enough good things about the Turbine and the AC2 Staff. Once they opened up AC2 to the world, some nasty little bugs started to arrive and camp in the Servers. They caused crashes and rollbacks and otherwise just general grief to the Server and its population.
Of course, they waited to do this until many of the Turbine Staff was on Christmas Vacation. Severlin maintained the system as operational throughout all of these issues. He did take some grief from a few players as he could not waive his majic wand and make the issues disappear. Still players were able to play and the fact that there were a number of over-40 level players attest to that.
Late New Year's day, some help arrived in the form of developers and they started to tear apart the information about what had happened over the course of the last 2 weeks. As a result, they decided to dive into the Servers and pin down and eradicate these issues. They worked extremely hard on Wednesday and by 2:30AM Thursday morning, they had the Servers up and running with the changes in place.
Currently, we do not know what the issues were that caused the problems, but I am hoping that Turbine shares this information with the community. I have had complete confidence from the beginning that these issues would be resolved. It was very smart to present the return of AC2 as a Beta. A lot of things change over 7 years and once you add users to the mix, anything can and will happen.
Anyhoo, as AC2 was down last night, I went back to working on my main character, Tannras, on Whithywhistle. He is a level 32 Hunter currently fighting around the Collesus North of the Shire. There are so many new quests there that did not exist the last time I took a character through the area. Somehow, in my questing and looting, I had acquired a couple of level 30 lockboxes. I also had a set of keys and opened the boxes. Each one contained a level 30 one hand blue weapon. They fit me exactly. Along with a blue bow that I crafted, I am fixed for several levels.
This morning I fired up my Drudge, Nonackk, to work on completing his crafting quest. I took the Prosper portals to the SE one and headed west to see the guy about the nails. I found him and advanced the quest. It seems that now he also wants some items from the Corn King. I have a lead on him that he may be North of the West Prosper Portal. I certainly hope so.
Nonackk is currently 18 and I need to get him to 19 and do the Drudge Citidel, get his mount, and get up to 21 for Prosper Vault. I also need to get his crafting in weapons and armor up to where it needs to be. So many tasks for a poor little Drudge.
Of course, they waited to do this until many of the Turbine Staff was on Christmas Vacation. Severlin maintained the system as operational throughout all of these issues. He did take some grief from a few players as he could not waive his majic wand and make the issues disappear. Still players were able to play and the fact that there were a number of over-40 level players attest to that.
Late New Year's day, some help arrived in the form of developers and they started to tear apart the information about what had happened over the course of the last 2 weeks. As a result, they decided to dive into the Servers and pin down and eradicate these issues. They worked extremely hard on Wednesday and by 2:30AM Thursday morning, they had the Servers up and running with the changes in place.
Currently, we do not know what the issues were that caused the problems, but I am hoping that Turbine shares this information with the community. I have had complete confidence from the beginning that these issues would be resolved. It was very smart to present the return of AC2 as a Beta. A lot of things change over 7 years and once you add users to the mix, anything can and will happen.
Anyhoo, as AC2 was down last night, I went back to working on my main character, Tannras, on Whithywhistle. He is a level 32 Hunter currently fighting around the Collesus North of the Shire. There are so many new quests there that did not exist the last time I took a character through the area. Somehow, in my questing and looting, I had acquired a couple of level 30 lockboxes. I also had a set of keys and opened the boxes. Each one contained a level 30 one hand blue weapon. They fit me exactly. Along with a blue bow that I crafted, I am fixed for several levels.
This morning I fired up my Drudge, Nonackk, to work on completing his crafting quest. I took the Prosper portals to the SE one and headed west to see the guy about the nails. I found him and advanced the quest. It seems that now he also wants some items from the Corn King. I have a lead on him that he may be North of the West Prosper Portal. I certainly hope so.
Nonackk is currently 18 and I need to get him to 19 and do the Drudge Citidel, get his mount, and get up to 21 for Prosper Vault. I also need to get his crafting in weapons and armor up to where it needs to be. So many tasks for a poor little Drudge.
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
AC2 - Getting Fixed
I just came off of 4 days of time at home where I could play AC2. Between the crashes and wait time, I actually did get a chunk of time in on AC and LOTRO.
By the way, the open tapping and extended looting in LOTRO for all levels is a great addition. In case you accidently hit on a target that someone else has started on, you still get credit and loot along with the initial person.
If you fill up your bags in the field, the extended temp storage kicks in and gives you 50 slots for an extra hour of hunting. Very nice.
Getting back to AC2. I logged in and had good times and crash times but I was able to accomplish some goals.
My main Drudge, Nonackk, needed crafting. For all other races, it is automatic. for Nonackk, I had to go to Shoushi and talk to the dozen or so NPC Drudges and get quests. One quest was for Armor, one for Weapons and one for Spellbinding. Each quest had me retrieve and create a bunch of items to satisfy the needs. The off things I needed to create through some practice recipes were not too difficult. I collected the materials and crafted several of each. I also needed various raw materials which I located. The most difficult part of the quest was the Carenzi Parts. I needed Hearts, Fur, and Tails.
If you have ever hunted Carenzi, they are tough. They hit hard and live and travel in packs of 2-3. You draw 1 and you get 3. I brought out Sledgebow for this task. He is level 23 and can deal with them. This was good as I had to take out a lot of Carenzi to get the parts.
For the Armor quest, when I turned in the items, I got the recipes. For the Weapon Quest, I received orders to find a guy and talk him out of some nails. Likewise for the Spellbinding. I needed some corn silk.
I will need to acquire these items when I can log back in. Nonackk is fun to play and he hits hard.
I thought I was high enough to do the Illuminated Drudge Quest. I and another guy gave it a shot. We almost made it but I died and he followed shortly after. We got back to the dungeon and joined another palyer and it became easy. It seens that when I died, I failed the quest and did not pick it up again. I could not get the manuscript. Will have do try that one again.
On New Years Day, around 4:10PM, Sev shut down AC2 to go over the Audits they had and try to fix the issues. At 3:55 today, it is still down. They are closing in on the issues and I expect that the system will be so much better when they turn it over again.
By the way, the open tapping and extended looting in LOTRO for all levels is a great addition. In case you accidently hit on a target that someone else has started on, you still get credit and loot along with the initial person.
If you fill up your bags in the field, the extended temp storage kicks in and gives you 50 slots for an extra hour of hunting. Very nice.
Getting back to AC2. I logged in and had good times and crash times but I was able to accomplish some goals.
My main Drudge, Nonackk, needed crafting. For all other races, it is automatic. for Nonackk, I had to go to Shoushi and talk to the dozen or so NPC Drudges and get quests. One quest was for Armor, one for Weapons and one for Spellbinding. Each quest had me retrieve and create a bunch of items to satisfy the needs. The off things I needed to create through some practice recipes were not too difficult. I collected the materials and crafted several of each. I also needed various raw materials which I located. The most difficult part of the quest was the Carenzi Parts. I needed Hearts, Fur, and Tails.
If you have ever hunted Carenzi, they are tough. They hit hard and live and travel in packs of 2-3. You draw 1 and you get 3. I brought out Sledgebow for this task. He is level 23 and can deal with them. This was good as I had to take out a lot of Carenzi to get the parts.
For the Armor quest, when I turned in the items, I got the recipes. For the Weapon Quest, I received orders to find a guy and talk him out of some nails. Likewise for the Spellbinding. I needed some corn silk.
I will need to acquire these items when I can log back in. Nonackk is fun to play and he hits hard.
I thought I was high enough to do the Illuminated Drudge Quest. I and another guy gave it a shot. We almost made it but I died and he followed shortly after. We got back to the dungeon and joined another palyer and it became easy. It seens that when I died, I failed the quest and did not pick it up again. I could not get the manuscript. Will have do try that one again.
On New Years Day, around 4:10PM, Sev shut down AC2 to go over the Audits they had and try to fix the issues. At 3:55 today, it is still down. They are closing in on the issues and I expect that the system will be so much better when they turn it over again.
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