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!!!!!
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
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.
Thursday, October 25, 2012
LOTRO - Riders of Rohan
WOW!!! What else can I say about this expansion?
Turbine seems to have put everything together extremely well from a technical point. The patch loaded with few issues and the worlds stayed operational as they should have.
I know they had a few issues that they had to address, but such is the nature of the beast. I still see a few things like the screen going to 'loading' and the results being that you aren't where you thought you were but nothing serious.
I grabbed Tannras and headed for the bridge into Rohan. I was a little conceerned that I might have trouble with the new content, but the Boars and scruffy characters fell quickly to my quarrels.
I headed into Langhold to see what kind of quests were available. There were some opportunities to be had by the people of the town, but the real quests were located inside the Great Hall. The Thane and his wife had some activities for me to accomplish and off I went.
Between thinning out the population of Salamanders and Wolds, I was pretty busy. As I am more of a traveller by nature, I left some of the quests behind and headed down the road to see what the region had to offer. The road was fairly safe and I travelled as far south as I could. There were a few areas that were a bit dangerous but I was careful and did not have any trouble.
I stopped in at Mansig's Encampment and talked to several officers there and picked up a number of quests to complete. I then found myself at Parth Galen and also grabbed a bunch of quests from these soldiers.
One of the major enhancements to the game is the Temporary Loot Container. It allows me to acquire up to 50 different pieces of loot without filling my bags within an hour. As one tends to hunt similar enemies together, it is easy to acquire 10-20 of 1 item. Once you are done with hunting, the loot can be transferred into your bags and sold, crafted, or sent to your vault.
I would love to see this enhancement added to all players at all levels and not just restricted to Rohan.
The other major enhancement to the game is the War Horse. In order to acquire this horse, you need to run through an extensive set of quests in the correct order. It takes a little while but the result is well worth the effort.
Using the War Horse, on the other hand, is a bit complicated. It will take practice to get good riding him into battle. It is a different game. You can also pickup Legendary Bridles in Light, Medium and Heavy. They go into your Legendary Slots and will level independant of your weapons.
I am really looking forward to how these horses work in the future.
The next set of objectives is to follow the major quest line and that really starts in Harwick. You meet the Thane and are pretty much an outcast. You have to work hard to become welcome or you get kicked out of town.
Once you complete the need to become welcome, you start a huge chain that moves you through the Wold.
Turbine seems to have put everything together extremely well from a technical point. The patch loaded with few issues and the worlds stayed operational as they should have.
I know they had a few issues that they had to address, but such is the nature of the beast. I still see a few things like the screen going to 'loading' and the results being that you aren't where you thought you were but nothing serious.
I grabbed Tannras and headed for the bridge into Rohan. I was a little conceerned that I might have trouble with the new content, but the Boars and scruffy characters fell quickly to my quarrels.
I headed into Langhold to see what kind of quests were available. There were some opportunities to be had by the people of the town, but the real quests were located inside the Great Hall. The Thane and his wife had some activities for me to accomplish and off I went.
Between thinning out the population of Salamanders and Wolds, I was pretty busy. As I am more of a traveller by nature, I left some of the quests behind and headed down the road to see what the region had to offer. The road was fairly safe and I travelled as far south as I could. There were a few areas that were a bit dangerous but I was careful and did not have any trouble.
I stopped in at Mansig's Encampment and talked to several officers there and picked up a number of quests to complete. I then found myself at Parth Galen and also grabbed a bunch of quests from these soldiers.
One of the major enhancements to the game is the Temporary Loot Container. It allows me to acquire up to 50 different pieces of loot without filling my bags within an hour. As one tends to hunt similar enemies together, it is easy to acquire 10-20 of 1 item. Once you are done with hunting, the loot can be transferred into your bags and sold, crafted, or sent to your vault.
I would love to see this enhancement added to all players at all levels and not just restricted to Rohan.
The other major enhancement to the game is the War Horse. In order to acquire this horse, you need to run through an extensive set of quests in the correct order. It takes a little while but the result is well worth the effort.
Using the War Horse, on the other hand, is a bit complicated. It will take practice to get good riding him into battle. It is a different game. You can also pickup Legendary Bridles in Light, Medium and Heavy. They go into your Legendary Slots and will level independant of your weapons.
I am really looking forward to how these horses work in the future.
The next set of objectives is to follow the major quest line and that really starts in Harwick. You meet the Thane and are pretty much an outcast. You have to work hard to become welcome or you get kicked out of town.
Once you complete the need to become welcome, you start a huge chain that moves you through the Wold.
Monday, October 8, 2012
August 2012 Patch - A few days after
Now that I have a few days in on the August Patch, I guess I know a bit more about how it will work in reality.
Stipend
For a player with 1 account, the stipend may work very well. One of the issues is that every account has 10 characters per world. If you play 1 world, getting your characters a stipend once a week may not be to hard. If you play multiple worlds, the effort increases for every world.
Now, if you have multiple accounts, well, you can see where I am going with this. This could require a huge amount of time every month to get all of your characters stipends.
Value of the stipends.
A few of the stipends are for special use.
Resetting Attributes and Skills are something one wouldn't use often.
An Augumentation Gem every 3 weeks. Now this might be useful for a trade skill character or a buffbot to get their length of buffing up to 2 hours.
Once a character can survive the 125 Eaters, that route is still the quickest.
Experience - This can be useful along with the normal levelling of a 150+ character. For a lower level character, it returns some XP but it is still limited.
Moving a Monarchy Hometown to Arwic. This certainly is worth considering. Arwic has become a needed center for Salvage and now Stipends. It doesn't offer a lot to lower level characters.
Stipend
For a player with 1 account, the stipend may work very well. One of the issues is that every account has 10 characters per world. If you play 1 world, getting your characters a stipend once a week may not be to hard. If you play multiple worlds, the effort increases for every world.
Now, if you have multiple accounts, well, you can see where I am going with this. This could require a huge amount of time every month to get all of your characters stipends.
Value of the stipends.
A few of the stipends are for special use.
Resetting Attributes and Skills are something one wouldn't use often.
An Augumentation Gem every 3 weeks. Now this might be useful for a trade skill character or a buffbot to get their length of buffing up to 2 hours.
Once a character can survive the 125 Eaters, that route is still the quickest.
Experience - This can be useful along with the normal levelling of a 150+ character. For a lower level character, it returns some XP but it is still limited.
Moving a Monarchy Hometown to Arwic. This certainly is worth considering. Arwic has become a needed center for Salvage and now Stipends. It doesn't offer a lot to lower level characters.
Visit to Withywindle - LOTRO
While I am waiting on the Riders of Rohan expansion to arrive, I decided it was time to explore a new world in LOTRO.
As a result, I chose Withywindle as a new location and started to create my players there. When Turbine added the Shared Storage, it was one of the best additions to the game. There are so many crafting items that every character picks up that can be used by another character and shared storage is the ideal location to keep those items and pass them between those that acquire and those that use them.
I decided that I wanted to create the bare minimum of characters and still cover all of the crafts. This resulted in the creation of 4 characters. Along the lines of the restrictions, I wanted to make them common so I chose to make them all Hunters. As an added bonus, I was able to create each Hunter into their own Race. I wound up with an Elf, Dwarf, Hobbit, and Human. They each have their pluses and minuses but they play solo well and level fairly quick.
As being a Hunter and an Elf are just a natural fit, he became my base character. I gave him Woodworking and Forester Craft Skills and set him loose. With him being a few levels ahead of all of the other characters, he can make the missile weapons and soon the melee weapons and tan all of the hides for armor.
Quickly, I have moved him up to level 28 along with his craft skills. He has purchased a home and is the all around leader for the other characters.
I did not neglect my other 3 characters. I set a goal of getting them to level 20 and that has been accomplished. They now all have Riding skills and are about ready to tackle the Lone-Lands. I have outfitted them with level 20 bows and still need to equip them with level 20 melee weapons and armor. They also need to make sure their crafting skills have reached Expert and above in order to acquire and use the higher level raw materials.
Turbine has improved the capability of a craftsman in gaining higher level skills without having to be capable of hunting in those higher level areas, however, unless you also hunt and become Kindred with the various peoples, you do not get access to the best crafting recipes.
I watched a video this weekend of 2 Turbine players explaining the Rohan expansion and it was very interesting. They did battle against some roving War-Bands and went on tours inside some main halls. I am certainly looking forward to its arrival.
As a result, I chose Withywindle as a new location and started to create my players there. When Turbine added the Shared Storage, it was one of the best additions to the game. There are so many crafting items that every character picks up that can be used by another character and shared storage is the ideal location to keep those items and pass them between those that acquire and those that use them.
I decided that I wanted to create the bare minimum of characters and still cover all of the crafts. This resulted in the creation of 4 characters. Along the lines of the restrictions, I wanted to make them common so I chose to make them all Hunters. As an added bonus, I was able to create each Hunter into their own Race. I wound up with an Elf, Dwarf, Hobbit, and Human. They each have their pluses and minuses but they play solo well and level fairly quick.
As being a Hunter and an Elf are just a natural fit, he became my base character. I gave him Woodworking and Forester Craft Skills and set him loose. With him being a few levels ahead of all of the other characters, he can make the missile weapons and soon the melee weapons and tan all of the hides for armor.
Quickly, I have moved him up to level 28 along with his craft skills. He has purchased a home and is the all around leader for the other characters.
I did not neglect my other 3 characters. I set a goal of getting them to level 20 and that has been accomplished. They now all have Riding skills and are about ready to tackle the Lone-Lands. I have outfitted them with level 20 bows and still need to equip them with level 20 melee weapons and armor. They also need to make sure their crafting skills have reached Expert and above in order to acquire and use the higher level raw materials.
Turbine has improved the capability of a craftsman in gaining higher level skills without having to be capable of hunting in those higher level areas, however, unless you also hunt and become Kindred with the various peoples, you do not get access to the best crafting recipes.
I watched a video this weekend of 2 Turbine players explaining the Rohan expansion and it was very interesting. They did battle against some roving War-Bands and went on tours inside some main halls. I am certainly looking forward to its arrival.
Friday, August 17, 2012
The August 2012 Patch
Well, this week saw the August 2012 Patch. I am still getting over the results of the planning and implementation of these changes.
Probably the most significant addition is the release of 'Stipends'. These are available once a week to all players simply by talking to an NPC in Arwic. He hands you a document which is bound to you and one can accumulate them until you wish to use them.
The NPC standing next to him then gives rewards in exchange for 1 or more stipends.
They include such things as:
Augmentation Gem
All level 7 Creature Spells
All Level 7 Item Spells
All Level 7 Life Spells
All Level 7 War and Void Spells
1 Level of Experience
Attribute Reset
Skill Reset
Mastery Reset
Lumenience Award
10 Promissory Notes (No idea what they are for)
As a result you can get all Level 7 Spells, get an Augmentation, reset your player, and gain levels without ever leaving Arwic.
There are some good and bad thoughts on this new feature.
For a craftsman/buffing mage, you can possibly get your augs and XP without ever having to enter combat.
For 150 Level+ characters, you get a nice boost towards 275 that will help speed you along.
You no longer need to search and search for missing Level 7 Spells.
I guess one needs to see how they play out over the next several months.
Exployer Society
The whole Lucky Gold/Red Letter world has also been turned upside down.
I believe the existing quests were pretty much ignored due to the Pathwarden Armor and Facility Hub coming into existance and removing the need for starting armor/weapons for new characters.
The old letters can be turned for a little XP. They appear to be worthless to the new quests that require level 40 characters (at least).
Two of the quest towns have been removed from the list. Each of the dungeons that contain a town stamp have been greatly increased in toughness.
The weapon rewards are so much better and require a 325 wield capability.
The Armor and jewelry look pretty good also.
The downside is that all of these items are bonded and require the character to acquire the Town Stamps themselves. The Lucky Letters are not bound and can be acquired and given from anyone.
My limited testing so far has indicated that they are a bit more difficult to acquire. They will probably become somewhat of a patron acquired item given to vassals.
Forged Weapons
The Forged Weapons appear to have also been updated. Those weapons require Pyreal Bars and have options.
Their dungeons have also been updated.
I have not gotten one of those weapons for a while. Will need to check them out.
There are many more changes in this patch, however, they appear to be along the lines of new and updated content.
One of the changes to the game is the slow improvement in the importance of Arwic. By putting the building in with the Feb Patch and the Golems for exchanges, Arwic became an often visited town.
With the addition of the Weekly Stipend, it is so much more important.
I expect to see much of the Monarchies setting up their Alliance Hometown as Arwic as a result of these changes.
I need to get out and start playing my characters after the patch. The XP Quests are interesting and I have already run through the Frozen Fury Quest a couple of times.
I want to get enough gold letters to outfit a couple of characters in the new armor/weapons/jewelry.
Lots of things to do over the next few weeks.
Probably the most significant addition is the release of 'Stipends'. These are available once a week to all players simply by talking to an NPC in Arwic. He hands you a document which is bound to you and one can accumulate them until you wish to use them.
The NPC standing next to him then gives rewards in exchange for 1 or more stipends.
They include such things as:
Augmentation Gem
All level 7 Creature Spells
All Level 7 Item Spells
All Level 7 Life Spells
All Level 7 War and Void Spells
1 Level of Experience
Attribute Reset
Skill Reset
Mastery Reset
Lumenience Award
10 Promissory Notes (No idea what they are for)
As a result you can get all Level 7 Spells, get an Augmentation, reset your player, and gain levels without ever leaving Arwic.
There are some good and bad thoughts on this new feature.
For a craftsman/buffing mage, you can possibly get your augs and XP without ever having to enter combat.
For 150 Level+ characters, you get a nice boost towards 275 that will help speed you along.
You no longer need to search and search for missing Level 7 Spells.
I guess one needs to see how they play out over the next several months.
Exployer Society
The whole Lucky Gold/Red Letter world has also been turned upside down.
I believe the existing quests were pretty much ignored due to the Pathwarden Armor and Facility Hub coming into existance and removing the need for starting armor/weapons for new characters.
The old letters can be turned for a little XP. They appear to be worthless to the new quests that require level 40 characters (at least).
Two of the quest towns have been removed from the list. Each of the dungeons that contain a town stamp have been greatly increased in toughness.
The weapon rewards are so much better and require a 325 wield capability.
The Armor and jewelry look pretty good also.
The downside is that all of these items are bonded and require the character to acquire the Town Stamps themselves. The Lucky Letters are not bound and can be acquired and given from anyone.
My limited testing so far has indicated that they are a bit more difficult to acquire. They will probably become somewhat of a patron acquired item given to vassals.
Forged Weapons
The Forged Weapons appear to have also been updated. Those weapons require Pyreal Bars and have options.
Their dungeons have also been updated.
I have not gotten one of those weapons for a while. Will need to check them out.
There are many more changes in this patch, however, they appear to be along the lines of new and updated content.
One of the changes to the game is the slow improvement in the importance of Arwic. By putting the building in with the Feb Patch and the Golems for exchanges, Arwic became an often visited town.
With the addition of the Weekly Stipend, it is so much more important.
I expect to see much of the Monarchies setting up their Alliance Hometown as Arwic as a result of these changes.
I need to get out and start playing my characters after the patch. The XP Quests are interesting and I have already run through the Frozen Fury Quest a couple of times.
I want to get enough gold letters to outfit a couple of characters in the new armor/weapons/jewelry.
Lots of things to do over the next few weeks.
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