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.
Thursday, January 3, 2013
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.
Friday, December 28, 2012
AC2 - Spamming Fools
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.
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.
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.
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