So here I am, Cornered the market on fey iron - Well not quite, there's about 10 people selling it cheaper then I am now, each trying to sell for less then the next person. Sometimes by mere copper. I have 2,000 pieces of fey iron - I'll leave it alone for now, Eventually someone will buy it for what I have it market up for. Hopefully before the next expansion pack is released.
Speaking of the next expansion pack, The shadow Odyssey has been announced (See earlier post) While it saddens me that there isn't going to be a level increase (Though, Strongly eq1 gets a 5 level increase) There will still be 60 new achievement points to get. I hope that there is a new AA line put in, and they don't just dump 60 more points on the existing tree's - Templars don't have much to put their points into, and just dumping more points on us won't do us a heck of a lot of good. From what I've seen, many classes would be in the exactly same boat, where just giving us more points to put into the existing tree's wouldn't benefit us any particular way.
I also wonder how their going to limit the AA's, Will 1 to 70 still be limited to 100 AA points, and 71 to 80 able to get the other 100? Or will it be opened up again giving the lower levels far more power.
Either way, I'm hoping that we will eventually see some of the eq1 favourite AA points come in (Come on Mass Group Buff!) Also included with the expansion pack are 20 new zones - Though I am suspecting that the expansion pack will be aimed at higher level players - since there is already a wealth of zones for lower level players (Though we have Kunark - Which is 4 zones + various dungeons for level 80's to play in) Mentioned as well were dungeon missions, Go here collect this, kill XX of those - Reminds me of Lost dungeons of Norrath - An Eq1 expansion (4th Eq expansion if I recall right) I'm wondering if the dungeons will just have a random loot table, or will we follow the time tested method of gaining points for better loot. What ever they do, I hope they keep them in line on difficulty - Chelsith or Coa difficulty instead of the inane Runnyeye the gathering difficulty (A lot of people say this dungeon isn't difficult, but take a dwarf in there and watch the mobs ignore the tank's taunts to run over and smack the dwarf, then run back to the tank) It becomes steadily more difficult when the goblins take out the cleric on most of the pulls, well before the cleric casts, pulls or whatever.
So with Live update 48 SOE has announced that they are removing alignment restrictions from classes - This means that if you really, really want to have a Halfling bruiser or fae shadow knight, Go for it. Can anyone else come up with some truly odd combinations? Class combo's that make you go HMM. (Barbarian Assassin, Ogre Templar....) I'm wondering if they are planning on removing the betrayal quest/function - One of the more unique things in the game - Though if you betray via the quest you can betray to your arch type, So any fighter class if your a fighter, or any priest class if your a priest (Pending alignment currently)
This also raises the question, Are we finally going to see racial/Class items? For example, Only the Fae Shadow knight can wield this sword, while the arasi Templar can only use that symbol. If so, it will add another layer of complexity to the game - As well as bringing about the creation of characters made to take advantage of certain weapon/item combinations.
Also announced in this update - It's going to be easier to get around with Nek forest and thundering steppes finally getting bells back to their respective cities, and Neriak and Kelethin will be getting carpets to the sinking sands (I think)
Lastly SOE is introducing guild points (Think dragon Kill points or DKP) added to guild systems. Now for most this is just a way of assigning points to players deemed better or worse then others, a way of keeping score when people do something good or bad (I always think of demerit points for some reason) I'm not sure if it's being designed to take over the various dkp systems out there, but it's one step closer to making the game very user friendly.
Guild halls for Everquest II was announced during the fan fair - I'm going to attempt to dissect the information given and introduce my own opinions.
First things - 3 types of guild halls were introduced. Halls for level 30, 50 and level 70 Guilds - While it was later admitted that the level 30 guild halls were put into the design as an after thought, the community is still up in arms over the halls - Mostly because of the price and what is being offered. For 100 Platinum, you can have a guild hall in any part of the city, that has 10 rooms and can have a few of the amenities - Special npc's - The level 50 guild hall is 500 platinum, and is attached to south qeynos - It has 25 or so rooms and can have about 12 amenities attached to it. The sprawling level 70 guild halls, which are listed as Gnormous, are on islands outside of Qeynos and Freeport. These are listed at 1,000 platinum and have 40 rooms sprawling around a courtyard.
Right now the outrage is over the price at all levels, and the upkeep that is required.
Personally I don't see the players issues. It is far, far to easy for players to get both money and status in EQ2 today. For example, A level 80 player, when used competently can make roughly 1 plat an hour off just loot drops. If a level 30 guild had 4 to 10 level 80 players it would take roughly 10 to 25 hours to gain the necessary platinum required to buy the first tier guild hall. That's just counting loot drops that are sold to the merchants - I'm not counting rare harvests, Master chests or any of the other goodies that can drop.
If any guild has some sort of raiding force capable of doing tier 1 rok raid zones then money and status gets even easier - Protectors realm. A very easy zone for starting to raid level 80 players. Each Named mob drops a chest that has up to 24 platinum in it. Clearing the entire zone will net you about 4-7 platinum every 3 days. (I think the last raid force that we took through there got 138pp for 45 mins work) Oh yeah, A guild raid force can snag about 250k guild status while inside there (or about 2.5 million personal status each) and that's one dungeon.
Having said all that, People will argue that not everyone raids, Or not everyone has a high level character. Fine. I have a level 27 troubadour, Who has made 3 platinum since creation. Just selling his drops on the broker. I figure, If I put concentrated effort into it, I could have him at 10 platinum by level 40. It's that easy to get. And that's just by loot farming. Those of us who harvest and have trade skill classes have so much more. I personally know a level 50 guild that between it's 70 some odd members probably has in excess of 5k platinum - They don't raid (Much) They just play and harvest and trade skill - You know, Every day stuff.
So I don't see the money or the status issue being a valid point. *Perhaps, As players of this generation of mmo's we're to used to being handed the win. The ease of getting everything we've always wanted for a minimum amount of work.* I have a feeling, if enough complaint is launched on the forums about how difficult it is to gain money and how this will increase gold farming again, people who just don't want to make any sort of concentrated effort to gain something that is considered elite. And don't even get me started about players spending to get their mythicals.
Part 2. Amenities.
Supposedly there is a list of 31 amenities that guilds can get to stuff in their hall. Things like npc's that we see in the regular home towns, but instead personalized to each guild hall, Examples being.
Guild broker - For members of the guild to sell to other members of the guild with out the fear of a broker bot buying up that level 80 rare you just tossed on the broker for a trivial amount.
Guild mender - Just like a regular mender, but with having the guild having the option of covering the repair costs - but wait, the guild would need to have funds to make this work...
Tactician - Allows a guild member to place a flag at a location and have the entire guild teleport to that flag (Great for raids)
Bells to the common lands and antonica
Carpets to the sinking sands
Your very own Druid portal maker
Harvester - 100 random pulls of a level, Type specific.
Personally I don't have anything against the amenities - Except the harvester - Long ago SOE asked some of us for ideals on how to make guild halls worth while - I responded with the suggestion to have the guild halls require harvested items - So that we could add some value to the harvest process instead of having thousands of minerals, and other harvestable sitting on the broker for 2 copper each. Instead, we get a harvest npc which is going to drop the value of harvestable materials down even more, including the price of rares. I'm not very impressed with this one as harvesting is one of the major sources of my income. With a harvest npc available, SOE might as well just take harvesting out of the game, since the market will suddenly become saturated with materials by people who will spend the money for the vendor but are unwilling to give up their time to harvest.
Other then the above two parts I don't have a whole lot of information on guild halls, and I don't suspect there will be a great deal of information released until things are absolutely ready. (I don't blame them with the 5,000 entries on the forums, most complaining about costs and what not)
EverQuest®II The Shadow Odyssey™ - A Story of Heroes…A Journey for Legends.
Expected Release November 18, 2008.
EverQuest II The Shadow Odyssey is the fifth expansion for the critically acclaimed EverQuest II franchise. This all-in-one compilation pack follows the award-winning and best-selling Rise of Kunarkâ„¢ expansion. New players and veterans alike will journey through a massive amount of exquisite content unlike anything ever before seen in EverQuest II. The Shadow Odyssey stretches well beyond the fantasy realm and propels the EverQuest II world into a new era of excitement and adventure.
Embark on a Journey into the Shadows of an Unknown Realm!
Journey through more than 20 new zones, including the new overland zone, Innothule.
Experience nostalgic EverQuest dungeon themes, such as Najena, Mistmoore and The Sebilisian Empire, and adventure through more than 18 goal-based dungeons, such as Ruins of Guk and Befallen.
The Achievement Point level cap will be increased to 200 to offer new achievements for class- specific lines.
A new Dungeon Delving mission system for players to replay content with new and different experiences.
Five new Heritage Quests with unique rewards being added.
A new, mysterious group of erudites with powerful new armor and equipment will barter for void shards earned during your encounters.
Epic tales of the odyssey are told through battles with dozens of new creatures and hundreds of new quests.
Two new deities have been introduced into Norrath, Rodcet Nife and Anashti Sul.
Includes Legends of Norrathâ„¢ strategic online trading card game, digital starter deck and booster pack.
Since I now have a level 70 hunter I've decided to work on my level 38 rogue for a while. I realized that I was tired of just working for money and I wasn't impressed with the idea of achiving exhalted rank with the various factions. Not to mention grinding for the dailies as well. That doesn't mean I will have stopped playing her at all, just going to put her on vacation for a bit.
Back to my poor rogue though. One of the things a rogue can do is pick pockets and open locked boxes. The problem is finding enough boxes to unlock. Worn lockboxes seem to be my mainstay at the moment, but they are green to me which means that at a certain point I'll have them go gray. Going gray will keep me from skilling up farther till either I level up and take on higher level humanoids or start getting more lock boxes at my current level, which is a laugh. The only way now is to pick the pockets of these mobs.
I'm getting closer to being able to use a dagger called Gut Ripper which is a purple 40th level dagger. I've been carrying that dagger since it dropped off a mob months ago. It's a pretty good dagger with high damage output. None of my characters have purple level items unless I grind for them. The thought of doing that gives me an ill feeling.
I've realized that unless I get my stats up to a point where I have a fair chance at PvP combat in the various arenas that I might as well forget doing that. I don't think I can kill fast enough before I'm undead meat myself. Since rogues are based on stealth and backstabbing their victims, unless they have a high dodge and parry rate they are going to have problems killing. At least I think so, then again I probably have a wimpy rogue. I can usually take on no more then two mobs, with three being very hard to acomplish.
Another thought is with my crafting skills. I have leather working and skinning. That works hand in glove so isn't bad. What's bad is not having enough money to work the leather skill, unless I sell what I garner from skinning. That's the same as grinding away for status. These different leathers stack in 20 each, so you get one piece per kill. You see what i mean. The only other alternative is to use my hunter to feed my lower ranking alts so they can get enough mney to work on the skills. What a choice.
Well back to leveling my rogue so he can use that pretty dagger.
Get Up. Check the broker. Buy up any one who is gouging me on my price - Providing it's not to much, Check my other resources. Collect my money - Head out to the Enchanted lands for a tour to see how much more fey iron I can manage to snag. I'm really after fey steel - However I'm to cheap to buy it. (Fey steel is worth about 100 fey iron) So I'll be harvesting for a while. Currently I'm at 1 fey steel for every 600 pieces of fey iron. So no big deal, no matter what happens. I also have some controlling interest in rosewood - A T7 Wood, fairly common, that is selling for a mere 20 some odd silver, I'm actually trying to unload the wood as the price fluctuates on it far, far to much - That and it's fairly easy to get, the broker tends to get flooded with it every weekend.
Since I'm crafting in Tier 8 - I'm saving what lichen root, Redwood and minerals I come across - It's super easy to get and there is a large amount of area for me to harvest in. (That and I'm helping a guild mate betray to an assassin and need 29 more loams for his spells)
Just an ideal - From watching the market - T1 (level 1 to 9) Roots, tin, loam, lead, all go for about 5+ silver, depending on quantity. I've seen it as high as 50 silver when it's scarce.
T2 (10-19) usually runs 1-5 silver - It's easy to get, and most lower levels start their harvesting here - That and there is the largest jump in harvesting skills between 2 and 3 (20 to harvest t2, and 90 to harvest t3 means that there is a glutton of t2 on the market)
T3 (20-29) Tends to be pretty pricy. Carbonite suffers to the same rarity as fey iron, and sells fairly well on the broker, Belladonna roots are also fairly pricy at this tier (20 silverish)
T4 (30-39) This tier runs up and down. Some times it's pricey, other times it's dirt cheap. It's not that easy to harvest with a mere 3 zones that you can find the resources in.Fey iron is in this tier, and is one of the rarest common materials in the game.
T5 (40-49) This tier usually isn't that expensive there's a large amount of places to actually get the items and tends to be a stepping stone into the higher tiers - Granted the usual - Roots required by every trade skill is usually pricy (25 silver)
T6 (50-59) Most hated Tier. Roots are hideously expensive and hard to locate. They're down right scarce. Roots are very expensive (Ranging upwards of 75 silver each) the minerals fluctuate in prices depending on demand
T7 (60-69) Not bad - Expect to pay average prices for most materials unless someone with a lot of money buys up the resources (Like me) and charges higher then market value for them. Average value for these tends to be around 20 sp per item, but will vary per server.
T8 (70-80) Cheap to a level 80 player, Down right expensive to a level 1 player. Everything except minerals are pricy, with price ranges from 10 silver right up to 1 gold per item. It all depends on demand (Kind of like oil) Rarest tend to be very expensive at this stage, particularly for scouts and fighters (Due to an imbalance)
So I've been trying to corner the market on resources as of late - Fey iron that has about 1/3 the chance of being harvested as of the loams often sells for a very high price - making it worth while to both harvest and buy up the stock of those who are pricing low - Right now I have 2,000 pieces of fey iron sitting out for about 80 silver a shot. Or roughly about 12 platinum worth of iron. The only issues I have are that the fey iron [iron] is hard to come by, when you harvest - you have to harvest 2+ hours to get a decent stack, and the people who undercut me by copper, forcing me to either buy their stock or undercut myself. Still though, It's a highly sought after mineral (Tier 4)
So off i go to check my broker, and see if there's any money to be made...
-B-
Over all, LotRO is a better game by far, but it lacks some of the "character" of AoC. Yeah, AoC is supposed to be grittier and all, but why can't the walking and running (and combat?) graphics of LotRO have more sway to them? I like watching my toons move in AoC, in LotRO they seem so stiff. Maybe it's the older, simpler (less bug-infested) design.
LotRO, even without it's expansions, has more depth. The deed system alone is worth it. I also like how there's no real need for changing levels (ie: mentoring or apprenticing) to group. The experience system allows upper levels to help lower levels with quests with no real disadvantage. It seems balanced to me.
And there's not one "uber" build, unless you interested in specific endgame areas like raiding or PVMP, which are worlds unto themselves. AoC seems locked into a niche, where certain builds just don't work well and PVP is mandatory if you want to be successful.
I see the fun in raids and PVP and am glad people enjoy those things, but I have no stomach or time for them. I have had too many bad experiences with the stuff to go out of my way to get good at them.
So back to my point, LotRO could improve a bit if it adopted some of the grit of AoC, but I am not about to give up my lifetime subscription.
