Well, all I can say is that my game play has suffered for the last few weeks due to the ongoing problems I've had trying to RvR and entering zones in the Catacombs portion. Finally tech support came through and may have resolved what was happening.

It seems the I needed to upgrade the chipset, and add AMD to AGP miniport files. I never would have thought of this even though I'm no noob when it comes to computers. The tech support person said it was like pulling eye teeth from Hewlett Packard to get this information. All I can say is that I'm very grateful to finally be playing in areas I have fun in.

With that note, the gameplay didn't stop even with the problems I had. The past few weeks were typical for me, leveling my champion, making potions, raising money, and chatting with friends.

My champion is coming along quite nicely and seems to be my choice for PvE, though RvR will be the test. I finally made Lv48 with the help of the task dungeons. They can be very boring at times, but are terrific for leveling purposes. I had to stop for awhile though, to farm for aurulite since I needed a bracer that increased my strength cap to 274. That and having a large weapon skill of 46+10 makes him quite handy, not to mention having a very nice sword garnered from doing The Lost Seed quest.

I'm hoping that I'll cap my Valor and Large Weapon skills by Lv50. I think I'll make it though unless I have to respecialize Parry and lower it a bit to get some extra skill points. We'll see as I get closer to Lv50.

The new respec purchase has been a god send for my main character Foremond.
Before the new respec purchase you had to buy a stone from players, which was very expensive. Two platinum to redo a skill the first time is cheaper in my opinion. even a second skill change is cheaper at four platinum. After that I think buying a stone will be cheaper, but if you need to redo skills three times, then you've made some serious mistakes.

I had been wanting for some time to change blunt to blades, for two reasons. Aten's Shield provides a nice weapon that can be used with the blade style, as well as the Sun Belt which creates a sun sword. I also have the Malice artifact which can be used as a sword, but still need a couple of scrolls to activate it. The second reason is RvR combat. Going after Mids with a blunt weapon means no weakness to blunt on the armor versus weak with a slashing weapon. To me that makes a big difference.

The new changes to the guild interface and having the ability to collect dues automatically has been a big help as well. Two percent contribution is a drop in the bucket, but yet adds up fast when you have very active members. Ever since it's been added I've made extensive use of it as a GM.

I've been slowly creeping my way to the 900 skill level as an alchemist. Currently I'm at 816. My main problem is the timer, which I have big issues with. I've played lots of online games that had crafting as well, but they never had timers. It was all dependent on your present skill and the random chance roll. Adding a timer is just a study in frustration and boredom. I've said from the beginning that you play these games to have fun, and there is no fun sitting around watching the timer fill up.

That's the wrap up for now. Have a great time and stay healthy!

Just wanted to let you all know that I am hosting a mirror for Derida's UI. http://larianlequella.com/derida_v1.80_ENG.exe Righclick and save link as. It is probably the best UI out there, bar none! The maps alone make it worth the effort of installing it. The file is about 27MB, so it's a big one. If you want to see screenshots of the UI, just head on over to http://www.derida.de/ and have a look. Happy Gaming.

Since the last blog, I seem to have put things to right for the moment. Considering that I'm not the greatest expert on computers, nor am I a noob either, I felt quite proud of my, "fix the damn game, since Mythic is no help.) repairs, deletions and reloads.

If anyone has been having problems with certain zones not downloading, then look at a couple of files in the main directory. They are error log files and indicate what caused the program to crash or fail to load. I'm not sure why the main file keeps getting corrupted, but seems to have been a big player for me. This is the game.dll file, plus two zones/zones/*.mpk files.

After numerous full installs, patch updates, phone calls to Mythic support, and CSR conversations I finally deleted those files. After starting up the game and letting the update patcher upload those deleted files, I was able to download the zones I was having problems with.

It seems I was just in time as well for the newest patch release, and what a great patch it was for the guilds! No more begging money off members to pay for guild house rent or having to save up for a guild house upgrade. Now dues are automatic, though I think the 2% amount is a bit low. For me 5% to 10% would have been a better figure.

The new social interface screen has been a big help in managing the guild. Sending notes to members, or a reminder to yourself is a great feature. Knowing when characters have been on last is a big help in deciding which ones to drop from the guild. The bulletin feature of who is accomplishing what in the realm is a nice touch as well. There are quite a few features included, but explaining each one is more then I want to do at the moment. Head to Camelot Hearld and read up on what they've done, then ramp up the game and play with the new social button.

The only thing that I've done in the last few days has been leveling up my Champion for a mini ding, and working on my vampiir who finally got to Lv31. I know, with a bit of dedication I probably could have been well over Lv40+, but I get bored easily playing one character. On top of that the family gave me a gift for Father's Day, which was the collectors edition of Guild Wars and I've been splitting my playing time between the two as well.

Well this ends another fun time with DAoC, and until the next write up have fun gaming!

Well, today 1.74 goes live, and Mythic starts with clustering. Since I am a Guinevere player, I guess I won't actually get to experience clustering myself, but I know a great many people are intrigued by it. Go to the Herald and check out the patch notes (I'll copy/paste them here for you too).

The thing I am personally looking forward to is the Badger Hockey game. What can I say, I'm a sucker for role playing and events like that! As a matter of fact, here is a link to a Hib/Guin roleplay event in case you are so inclined to stop by: http://armynabtreanid.com/forums/index.php?s=7b0b7db7ab99395167ac45e62a340575&act=ST&f=18&t=2309

Something that I feel a bit of pride in in these notes is the fact that rangers get a few more Blade and CD styles opened up to them for use. I know that many rangers were very upset that most styles in the blades line were not open to them. Also, the effects on shield blocking went in on thses notes. I am interested in seeing exactly what they mean. There has been some testing on this, but it's not 100% conclusive. We'll see.

Anyways, my entry for the week (I have a busy one ahead of me).

Patch Notes:
http://support.darkageofcamelot.com/kb/article.php?id=772