Casual Update

I've been enjoying Everquest a lot this past week. It seems more laid back than other games I played, not tons of pressure on specs and equipment. Being 90 and raiding casually has been nice too, I'm in it for the experience though not really the loot. I just tag along with Dire and go to have fun. I think I prefer EQ with other people though, more than I do solo. Not that I mind but it always seems more fun with even one more person to play with.

I started on the magician epic 1.5 this week. Dire has been a lot of help and really it is cake at our level, I could probably solo it but he has been a huge help with checking spawns and tracking mobs. The hang up is drop rates and spaws, I'm stuck waiting on drops from mobs that have a horrible respawn rate, two hours or so and then there are only four of them that spawn. Someone is beating me to the punch or perhaps someone kills them as they pass through the zone, in any case it sucks and adding in a horrible RNG with the items dropping, well, it is teh suck. Everquest hates me.

So this has put a damper on me doing much else lately. When Dire isn't on I don't log in much to work on it, I know- lazy, lazy. I suppose I dread the idea of two boxing the ranger so he can track the mobs for me. I still have to work on my brewing skill, not very high but I'm not looking forward to it either, lol. I'm a completionist and if I start on something I always have to finish it, if I don't then it can lead to disinterest. So, I plan on finishing this up before long! It's not hard but I can't help but fume at the time I've wasted on crazy long spawn times and unlucky drop rates. I suppose that is the nature of the beast.

I'm actually learning my way around in the world of Second Life. It is nice to get away from the normal MMO scene and just wander around and play dress up, hah. I can't say that this could ever be my main game, I don't socialize far enough or really have tons of stuff to do. I only log in with goals in mind, if I don't have anything to do, I log off. I do find it enjoyable sometimes plus I have found some gorgeous places.

What is so impressive about this game would be that everything, and I mean everything, is player created. All my clothes, skin, hair, shape, the worlds I explore... they are all created by the players. I really was excited about designing clothing but then I saw that to upload files it is ten linden dollars per item uploaded. It isn't really that much but it can add up quickly (one linden dollar= 0.01USD).

I figured I could decorate a house instead, that idea was deflated when I found out just how little prims you get with a house. What the heck is a prim? The word prim is a shortened version of primitive and refers to the 3D polygonal shapes used by residents to build objects in Second Life. So, now that you know what a prim is, some items can consist of many prims thus filling up your house 'prim limit' very quickly (I think it is around 170 prims per linden house). You could always rent an island from Linden Labs, quite expensive I might add.

Even though some of my hopes have turned out to not be avenues I wish to travel, I still enjoy it as a side distraction. I'm learning quickly and really don't have any problems figuring things out. Resizing and shaping things is a snap, figuring anything out as a veteran MMO is cake really.

The person I am playing with, Twig, she has never really played any games so it is a very high learning curve. The interface is outdated and redundant. Overly complicated for a new player but just annoying and redundant to someone who games avidly in the MMO world where UI's are constantly getting better. Today Twig somehow managed to flip her character's hair onto her back and it was upside down as well. She really couldn't figure out how to fix it. I just logged in and spent about five minutes turning and twising it to fit back on her head. I admit it was annoying but if there is a way to reset an item I haven't found it out just yet.

The thing is, it would have been very hard for her and she probably would have had to abandoned that item until she really figured out just how to do it. You can very easily mess things up if you don't know what you're doing. So it does have a high learning curve and annoying complicated means of doing things. I still find it fun as these are not obstacles for myself. The lag and slow loading is what makes the game consume so much time. It's not horrible anymore as I have gotten use to it and it seems better than it was last time I played.

Anyhow, I'll leave you with a video I made with some screenshots on my adventures. The song is Army of Love by Kerli <3



PS- Rusty Hearts Open Beta started today! Yay!