Out of all of the computer games I’ve played I’ve always enjoyed role-playing games the most. I started out with the Gold Box Dungeons & Dragons games for the Commodore 64/Macintosh and Wasteland, graduating to World of Warcraft before finding a home in EverQuest 2. When SOE announced that the release date for the next expansion for EQ2 is February 2010 instead of November 2009, I started looking around for an alternative game to play to stretch my EQ2 content to last another three months. So what is the first game I tried? The game everyone on the podcasts I listen to raves about: Fallout 3.
Over the weekend I started playing Fallout 3 and finished my game session by reaching the town of Megatron and doing a bit of exploring in the town. So far I’m really impressed by the game. I love the character creation in the game. Instead of starting the game in a small village or winding up in an outpost, you are in a delivery room being born. The devs continued with the theme and incorporated the tutorial with your character growing up. An interesting part of the tutorial appears to be a test you take that I think sets your starting personality, or karma, for when you leave the vault. Once you’ve become an adult, the game begins with you escaping from Vault 101.
The game has other mechanics that I like in addition to the character creation and karma system. I loved using the V.A.T.S. system. That is a system that slows the game down and allows you to take aimed shots at parts of your target’s body. Yes you can take head shots and yes, those are bloody. I also like the scrounging you have to do in the game. Don’t let the NPCs in the game rush you. Stay calm and search for what you need. At least in Vault 101, you get more time to scrounge if you just kill the bad guys.
Another feature I like is the Pip-Boy. The Pip-Boy is a combination inventory management/map/quest journal item. Oh yes, it is also a light and a radio. I got a kick out of listening to Enclave Radio. I’ll have to make sure to listen to the radio when I’m out of settlement areas to try to pick up more of the story. I wish I could look at the Pip-Boy map and wander around at the same time, but you can’t have everything.
So did I throw EverQuest 2 to the side in order to play Fallout 3 over the last 3-day weekend? Hardly. I took advantage of the XP bonus weekend in EQ2 to level my sage to level 70, armorer to level 65 and carpenter to level 40. I also raised the amount of AA points on my ranger from 186 to 188. But I did spend two hours playing Fallout 3 and I think I’ll spend a couple of hours every weekend playing the game. If the rest of the game is like the first couple of hours of play, I think I’ll probably go get some of the downloadable content (DLC) like The Pitt.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Sunday, July 5, 2009
What I've Been Listening To: June 28 - July 4, 2009
The evil influence of the Through the Aftermath podcast finally took effect as I have not only started playing Fallout 3 but watch the 1984 British docu-drama Threads this weekend. I'll call it an evil influence because I forgot to search out a new podcast to listen to. But in truth, I can't lay the blame solely at Shawn & Jonathan's feet. Despite listening to ten (!) podcasts this week, I didn't get a chance to listen to some of my favorites, like No Prisoners, No Mercy, Epic Dolls, or Massively Speaking. So many podcasts, so little time!
Here is what I listened to last week.
Old Friends
Virgin Worlds #146 (Host:Brent Darren) - Darren once again fills in for Brent to give us the week's MMO news. The topics included "The Great Firewall of Australia" (not Darren's words, btw), Dungeons & Dragons Online changes (and not just the fact the title is going to become free-to-play), Age of Conan's 1.5 update, Mark Jacob leaving Mythic and the joining of EA's studios Bioware and Mythic, patch notes for Eve Online's update 1.3, Fallen Earth & Runes of Magic. Length: 26 minutes.
Van Hemlock #58 (Hosts: Tim Dale & Jon Shute) - In addition to the usual look at the news, Tim & Jon took a stroll down memory lane with the Twitter question "What old and busted gaming classics would you want to see revived and playable?" The hosts also announced a format change. The topic show format will be scrapped and in its place Tim & Jon will bring Van Hemlock's Operation Cheapseats to the podcast every other week. For Van Hemlock's take on the show, click here. Length: 72 minutes.
Shut Up We're Talking #50 (Hosts: Darren & Karen) - The guest hosts for show 50 were Brent from Virgin Worlds, Michael Zenke from SOE's DC Universe Online, Jonathan Morris from Through the Aftermath and John the Ancient Gaming Noob. The all-star cast produced a great show talking about Brad McQuaid, Mark Jacobs and the whole EA/Mythic/Bioware restructuring, and the effect of micro-transactions on real money transaction services. The show also featured a world-class rant by Jonathan and poetry from Karen. Length: 95 minutes.
The Instance #151 (Hosts: Scott Johnson and Randy Jordan) - In this Randy tested, Scott approved show, the hosts took a long look at the release of patch 3.2 on the Public Test Realms as well as Ghostcrawler's post on death knights, PvP during the Midsummer Fire Festival and Gamer MusiCON 09. Length: 106 minutes.
Through The Aftermath #13 (Hosts: Shawn Schuester & Jonathan Morris) - In episode 13 Shawn and Jonathan discuss the news about Left 4 Dead 2, Fallout 3 and Fallen Earth as well as look at the 1984 British docu-drama Threads. Before listening to this episode, I suggest you go to the YouTube link in the show notes and watch Threads before listening to this podcast. Just a warning; the movie is a bit disturbing, but then again, so is the thought of living through a nuclear war. Length: 64 minutes.
Channel Massive #93 (Hosts: Noah, Jason & Mark) - While Jason touts this episode in the show notes as being about Champions Online, console rumors and dirty old men, that's not the most memorable content for me. No, it's the reaction of the M Team in the Blog-O-Steria segment to the return of Brad McQuaid and how they have honored his near return to the world of MMORPGs. Length: 86 minutes.
Channel Massive #94 (Hosts: Noah, Jason & Mark) - Mark took a performance enhancing substance called Game Fuel at the beginning of the podcast and it had a most amusing affect on him. The Blog-O-Steria segment concentrated on the departure of Mark Jacobs from Mythic and why Paul Barnett is still around. Length: 93 minutes.
Star Wars Galaxies With Yivvits and MrBubble #114 (Hosts: Yivvits & MrBubble) - The hosts talk about their plans for SOE's Fan Faire 2009 as well as more thoughts on how the server transfers were handled and a couple of other ideas for the game. I think Yivvits and MrBubble have some good points on the server transfers and hopefully SOE and other game studios will learn from the mistakes SOE made in SW:G. Length: 86 minutes.
PODDED Podcast Season 2 Episode 9 (Hosts: Dillon Arklight and War Childe) - In this episode the hosts touch on some of the 0.0 warfare that Kirith's corp is involved in as well as player reaction to the first Council of Stellar Management Q&A session and how War Childe managed to aggro a whole alliance into spending the money for a war dec. Length: 73 minutes.
EQ2's-day Broadcast on June 16, 2009 (Hosts: Dellmon and Zanadi) - I'm almost caught up with listening to all the shows I miss because I'm still on the train home when the show is broadcast live. In this episode Dellmon is almost over his addiction to Free Realms and he and Zan talk about GU 52, shinies, and the new books that turn players into authors. Length: 84 minutes.
Here is what I listened to last week.
Old Friends
Virgin Worlds #146 (Host:
Van Hemlock #58 (Hosts: Tim Dale & Jon Shute) - In addition to the usual look at the news, Tim & Jon took a stroll down memory lane with the Twitter question "What old and busted gaming classics would you want to see revived and playable?" The hosts also announced a format change. The topic show format will be scrapped and in its place Tim & Jon will bring Van Hemlock's Operation Cheapseats to the podcast every other week. For Van Hemlock's take on the show, click here. Length: 72 minutes.
Shut Up We're Talking #50 (Hosts: Darren & Karen) - The guest hosts for show 50 were Brent from Virgin Worlds, Michael Zenke from SOE's DC Universe Online, Jonathan Morris from Through the Aftermath and John the Ancient Gaming Noob. The all-star cast produced a great show talking about Brad McQuaid, Mark Jacobs and the whole EA/Mythic/Bioware restructuring, and the effect of micro-transactions on real money transaction services. The show also featured a world-class rant by Jonathan and poetry from Karen. Length: 95 minutes.
The Instance #151 (Hosts: Scott Johnson and Randy Jordan) - In this Randy tested, Scott approved show, the hosts took a long look at the release of patch 3.2 on the Public Test Realms as well as Ghostcrawler's post on death knights, PvP during the Midsummer Fire Festival and Gamer MusiCON 09. Length: 106 minutes.
Through The Aftermath #13 (Hosts: Shawn Schuester & Jonathan Morris) - In episode 13 Shawn and Jonathan discuss the news about Left 4 Dead 2, Fallout 3 and Fallen Earth as well as look at the 1984 British docu-drama Threads. Before listening to this episode, I suggest you go to the YouTube link in the show notes and watch Threads before listening to this podcast. Just a warning; the movie is a bit disturbing, but then again, so is the thought of living through a nuclear war. Length: 64 minutes.
Channel Massive #93 (Hosts: Noah, Jason & Mark) - While Jason touts this episode in the show notes as being about Champions Online, console rumors and dirty old men, that's not the most memorable content for me. No, it's the reaction of the M Team in the Blog-O-Steria segment to the return of Brad McQuaid and how they have honored his near return to the world of MMORPGs. Length: 86 minutes.
Channel Massive #94 (Hosts: Noah, Jason & Mark) - Mark took a performance enhancing substance called Game Fuel at the beginning of the podcast and it had a most amusing affect on him. The Blog-O-Steria segment concentrated on the departure of Mark Jacobs from Mythic and why Paul Barnett is still around. Length: 93 minutes.
Star Wars Galaxies With Yivvits and MrBubble #114 (Hosts: Yivvits & MrBubble) - The hosts talk about their plans for SOE's Fan Faire 2009 as well as more thoughts on how the server transfers were handled and a couple of other ideas for the game. I think Yivvits and MrBubble have some good points on the server transfers and hopefully SOE and other game studios will learn from the mistakes SOE made in SW:G. Length: 86 minutes.
PODDED Podcast Season 2 Episode 9 (Hosts: Dillon Arklight and War Childe) - In this episode the hosts touch on some of the 0.0 warfare that Kirith's corp is involved in as well as player reaction to the first Council of Stellar Management Q&A session and how War Childe managed to aggro a whole alliance into spending the money for a war dec. Length: 73 minutes.
EQ2's-day Broadcast on June 16, 2009 (Hosts: Dellmon and Zanadi) - I'm almost caught up with listening to all the shows I miss because I'm still on the train home when the show is broadcast live. In this episode Dellmon is almost over his addiction to Free Realms and he and Zan talk about GU 52, shinies, and the new books that turn players into authors. Length: 84 minutes.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
The Pressure Is Off
I’ve been giving a little more thought to SOE’s announcement that the next expansion for EverQuest 2 is coming out in February 2010 instead of November 2009. I’ve been reading the forums and some people are arguing that the expansion should still come out in November because players are going to get bored with The Shadow Odyssey and leave the game. Others are arguing that the delay will ease the pressure on players to grind alternate achievement experience and actually play the game the way the developers meant EQ2 to be played again.
I can only speak for myself, but I’m a bit relieved that I have an additional 13 weeks to get the last 14 AA points. With the additional quests added with the recently released GU 52 as well as the upcoming content in GU 53 and GU54, I should have no problem reaching my goal of having a level 80 adventurer/level 80 crafter with 400 secondary tradeskill points in transmuting and 200 AA points. Did I mention my guild hit level 78 over the weekend, so my max level toon might also be in a max level guild? I’ll just have to work on getting the last 5 points in slashing attacks and 53 points in safe fall to have a truly max’d out character.
So with the pressure to hurry up and reach all the goals I’ve been working towards for the last three years greatly reduced, what will I do? Well, I still have a lot I want to do in EQ2. One of the goals I set for myself when I started to play the game was to have maximum level characters in all 9 crafting classes. I currently have 6 master crafters and am busy leveling up my level 65 sage, level 60 armorer and level 32 carpenter. With an extra three months, I think I have an outside chance at getting all three toons up to max level.
Will I start playing any new games? Well, I think playing Runes of Magic has shown me that I don’t think I could start playing another fantasy MMO. EverQuest 2 has just been too good and I’d always be comparing any game with EQ2. But I will start playing single player RPGs again. I bought Fallout 3 and will play it over the upcoming holiday weekend. I’ve been looking at Steam and I spotted a couple of other games who’s demos I may wind up downloading.
Would I play another MMO? Since I’ve already dismissed another fantasy MMO, and quite frankly the superhero MMOs don’t interest me. Going back into Free Realms would be good just to be able to play the mini-games, but there really is only one MMO currently on the market that I am interested in playing. That game is Eve Online. Am I really good enough to play with the big boys, at least on a part-time basis. SOE’s delay in launching Sentinel’s Fate may give me the chance to find out.
I can only speak for myself, but I’m a bit relieved that I have an additional 13 weeks to get the last 14 AA points. With the additional quests added with the recently released GU 52 as well as the upcoming content in GU 53 and GU54, I should have no problem reaching my goal of having a level 80 adventurer/level 80 crafter with 400 secondary tradeskill points in transmuting and 200 AA points. Did I mention my guild hit level 78 over the weekend, so my max level toon might also be in a max level guild? I’ll just have to work on getting the last 5 points in slashing attacks and 53 points in safe fall to have a truly max’d out character.
So with the pressure to hurry up and reach all the goals I’ve been working towards for the last three years greatly reduced, what will I do? Well, I still have a lot I want to do in EQ2. One of the goals I set for myself when I started to play the game was to have maximum level characters in all 9 crafting classes. I currently have 6 master crafters and am busy leveling up my level 65 sage, level 60 armorer and level 32 carpenter. With an extra three months, I think I have an outside chance at getting all three toons up to max level.
Will I start playing any new games? Well, I think playing Runes of Magic has shown me that I don’t think I could start playing another fantasy MMO. EverQuest 2 has just been too good and I’d always be comparing any game with EQ2. But I will start playing single player RPGs again. I bought Fallout 3 and will play it over the upcoming holiday weekend. I’ve been looking at Steam and I spotted a couple of other games who’s demos I may wind up downloading.
Would I play another MMO? Since I’ve already dismissed another fantasy MMO, and quite frankly the superhero MMOs don’t interest me. Going back into Free Realms would be good just to be able to play the mini-games, but there really is only one MMO currently on the market that I am interested in playing. That game is Eve Online. Am I really good enough to play with the big boys, at least on a part-time basis. SOE’s delay in launching Sentinel’s Fate may give me the chance to find out.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Level Locking: Being a Real WoW (or EQ2) Tourist
In The Instance #150, Scott Johnson and Randy Jordan talked about Blizzard’s plans to allow players in World of Warcraft to stop gaining experience so they can remain at a level. In EverQuest 2 we call that level-locking and is a practice I used when I felt I did not have the appropriate number of alternate achievement experience points when I was leveling my ranger. But in WoW, would anyone besides a low-level twink want to level-lock? After all, the game begins in Northwind and level 80, right?
Looking back at my time in WoW, the 4 month journey to 60 (the level cap at the time) was a wonderful time and level 60 was the end of the game for me. I’ve heard that with Wrath of the Lich King, the leveling in the original and Burning Crusade zones is much faster in order to get players up to “the game” faster. To me, that is pushing players past the best part of the game.
If I were to return to World of Warcraft, I would definitely level lock. I would roll a Horde-side hunter and visit all the cities I couldn’t visit on my Alliance paladin. I would go through and do as many of the quests as I could. Well, I’d race through Stranglethorn Vale, but who in their right mind wouldn’t? I’d also see what pets I could train. Would I have to level lock to do this? From everything I’ve heard and read the answer is yes.
In EverQuest 2 we have a small but growing community of players who once their first toon reaches the level cap will then create another character and use level-locking to experience and enjoy all the content they missed the first time through. EQ2 players are actually rewarded for this style of play as the players amass AA points which makes their characters much more powerful and better able to handle the more difficult content in the old world zones than those who just race through the game to level 80.
Would such a play style catch on in WoW? I don’t know. Blizzard just doesn’t give their players the benefits when engaging in that kind of play style that SOE does. Scott and Randy estimated that 5% of WoW players would use level-locking. If only half of those players were engaged in a explorer type play style, that would still be more players than are currently playing EQ2. Maybe that is a small number to WoW players, but that is a rather significant number of players to the rest of the MMO world.
Looking back at my time in WoW, the 4 month journey to 60 (the level cap at the time) was a wonderful time and level 60 was the end of the game for me. I’ve heard that with Wrath of the Lich King, the leveling in the original and Burning Crusade zones is much faster in order to get players up to “the game” faster. To me, that is pushing players past the best part of the game.
If I were to return to World of Warcraft, I would definitely level lock. I would roll a Horde-side hunter and visit all the cities I couldn’t visit on my Alliance paladin. I would go through and do as many of the quests as I could. Well, I’d race through Stranglethorn Vale, but who in their right mind wouldn’t? I’d also see what pets I could train. Would I have to level lock to do this? From everything I’ve heard and read the answer is yes.
In EverQuest 2 we have a small but growing community of players who once their first toon reaches the level cap will then create another character and use level-locking to experience and enjoy all the content they missed the first time through. EQ2 players are actually rewarded for this style of play as the players amass AA points which makes their characters much more powerful and better able to handle the more difficult content in the old world zones than those who just race through the game to level 80.
Would such a play style catch on in WoW? I don’t know. Blizzard just doesn’t give their players the benefits when engaging in that kind of play style that SOE does. Scott and Randy estimated that 5% of WoW players would use level-locking. If only half of those players were engaged in a explorer type play style, that would still be more players than are currently playing EQ2. Maybe that is a small number to WoW players, but that is a rather significant number of players to the rest of the MMO world.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
What I've Been Listening To: June 21-27, 2009
Once again big news came out of Las Vegas, this time because of SOE's Fan Faire 2009. But that news hasn't made the podcasts yet so that is something to look forward to over the next week or two. In the meantime there is a lot of podcast goodness out there. I'm behind in my podcast listening and I listened to 13 1/2 hours of podcasts last week.
If you are looking for a good place to start listening to podcasts about MMORPGs, head on over to the Virgin Worlds Podcast Collective. Brent has done a wonderful job of putting together a stable of podcasts that form up the bulk of the podcasts I listen to each week.
First Time Listen
The Drone Bay #22 (Hosts: Crovan, CrazyKinux & Alsedrech) - After a 7-8 month hiatus, The Drone Bay is coming back. This Eve Online podcast is pretty well-known but I never had a fresh episode with all three hosts to listen to until now. The hosts said that they are reconsidering some things they have done in the past going forward and may begin bringing in experts to help explain some of the new features, like wormholes. The hosts also spent a lot of time apologizing about the length of time they were away.
The hosts themselves said that the good was pretty good until about show 16, so I might go back and listen to the earlier episodes before I try entering Eve. I'm going to give this podcast a listen to in the future just to see where this podcast goes. Length: 40 minutes.
Old Friends
Virgin Worlds #145 (Host:Brent Darren) - Darren Love from The Common Sense Gamer and Shut Up We're Talking podcast hosts VW for the second week in a row and clearly became more comfortable as a solo performer in this episode. Topics included closed beta news, Star Trek and ship combat, Warhammer Online's top 5 priorities, gamers playing more but paying less, Massively.com's beta watch, bridging the East/West divide, and PS3 news. Length: 25 minutes.
Van Hemlock #56 (Hosts: Tim Dale and Jon Shute) - In an episode advertised as their least prepared ever, Tim & Jon showed that even without a great deal of preparation they still are better than most podcasters out there. The Twitter question, what MMO mechanic annoys you the most, turned into the main topic of the podcast. For Van Hemlock's take on the show, click here. Length: 82 minutes.
Van Hemlock #57 (Hosts: Tim Dale and Jon Shute) - The podcast was a news & "what I've played" show with Van Hemlock returning to Planetside in the wake of SOE's announced closing of The Matrix Online. For Van Hemlock's take on the show, click here. Length: 105 minutes.
No Prisoners, No Mercy #36 (Hosts: Sister Julie and Sister Fran) - Wow! Just wow! They work on about 3 shows at the same time and this time produced a gem, no matter what number episode it is. Where to start? How about with their announcement that they will be doing an interview with Warhammer Online's Paul Barnett in a future episode? Maybe the interview the sister's did with Keen from Keen and Graev's Gaming Blog about WAR's Land of the Dead expansion and other things WAR? How about the sisters dragging Keen into a segment of "Mad as Hell?" Or how about the second hour (yes, second hour) of the podcast and the interview with Saylah from Mystic Worlds about Runes of Magic? With the split in the podcast, I was able to listen to the first part on the train ride to work and the second part on the train ride home.
One further thing about the podcast. As regular listeners know, the sisters stop the recording of the podcasts at frequent intervals in order to save their work and not have an epic loss of content. Sister Julie took the opportunity of the breaks during the second hour to insert some old music with a magic theme to it. I may be showing my age once you listen to it, but I found it very enjoyable collection of musical snippets. Length: 118 minutes.
The Instance #150 (Hosts: Scott Johnson & Randy Jordan) - Life (i.e. change) goes on in World of Warcaft as the hosts discuss the changes upcoming in patch 3.2. I listen to the podcast from the perspective of an EverQuest 2 player who reached level 60 in Vanilla WoW and I have to say listening to this podcast does make me feel good. Having copied dual-spec from EQ2, Blizzard is going to introduce the level-locking mechanic in the next patch. If WoW is still copying features from EQ2, then my favorite game can't be that bad. Level-locking makes sense in EQ2, but I don't know about WoW. I think Scott and Randy did a good job during that discussion. And of course, don't forget to listen to the end to hear the content from the regular contributors. Length: 114 minutes.
Channel Massive #92 (Hosts: Noah, Jason & Mark) - Jason returns to the podcast as the M Team discussed FreeRealms and E3. Noah shares some of his experiences from the conference during the one-hour "E3 round table of death." And of course, much discussion about the people protesting the making of Left 4 Dead 2. Length: 116 minutes.
Spouse Aggro #80 (Hosts: Beau and Leala Turkey) - The Turkey's visit an Italian restaurant and talk about Beau's experience in Darkfall and Aion.. The Turkey's had strong views about Darkfall before. I don't think those have changed even though Beau did say some nice things about the game. Oh, and they talked about a movie about LARPers. Length: 47 minutes.
Through the Aftermath #12 (Hosts: Shawn Schuster and Jonathan Morris) - The hosts go through their email in a far-ranging show about the post-apocolypic genre. Length: 85 minutes.
Trying to Catch Up
EQ2's-day Originally Broadcast on June 2, 2009 (Hosts: Dellmon and Zanadi) - Dellmon posted 3 shows in a week and I'm a little behind listening to the show. In this show, Dellmon goes off on Free Realms (he's addicted) and Zanadi discusses the differences between her monk and assassin now that Zanadi's assassin has beaten Dellmon's sorry troubadour to level 80. Length: 83 minutes.
If you are looking for a good place to start listening to podcasts about MMORPGs, head on over to the Virgin Worlds Podcast Collective. Brent has done a wonderful job of putting together a stable of podcasts that form up the bulk of the podcasts I listen to each week.
First Time Listen
The Drone Bay #22 (Hosts: Crovan, CrazyKinux & Alsedrech) - After a 7-8 month hiatus, The Drone Bay is coming back. This Eve Online podcast is pretty well-known but I never had a fresh episode with all three hosts to listen to until now. The hosts said that they are reconsidering some things they have done in the past going forward and may begin bringing in experts to help explain some of the new features, like wormholes. The hosts also spent a lot of time apologizing about the length of time they were away.
The hosts themselves said that the good was pretty good until about show 16, so I might go back and listen to the earlier episodes before I try entering Eve. I'm going to give this podcast a listen to in the future just to see where this podcast goes. Length: 40 minutes.
Old Friends
Virgin Worlds #145 (Host:
Van Hemlock #56 (Hosts: Tim Dale and Jon Shute) - In an episode advertised as their least prepared ever, Tim & Jon showed that even without a great deal of preparation they still are better than most podcasters out there. The Twitter question, what MMO mechanic annoys you the most, turned into the main topic of the podcast. For Van Hemlock's take on the show, click here. Length: 82 minutes.
Van Hemlock #57 (Hosts: Tim Dale and Jon Shute) - The podcast was a news & "what I've played" show with Van Hemlock returning to Planetside in the wake of SOE's announced closing of The Matrix Online. For Van Hemlock's take on the show, click here. Length: 105 minutes.
No Prisoners, No Mercy #36 (Hosts: Sister Julie and Sister Fran) - Wow! Just wow! They work on about 3 shows at the same time and this time produced a gem, no matter what number episode it is. Where to start? How about with their announcement that they will be doing an interview with Warhammer Online's Paul Barnett in a future episode? Maybe the interview the sister's did with Keen from Keen and Graev's Gaming Blog about WAR's Land of the Dead expansion and other things WAR? How about the sisters dragging Keen into a segment of "Mad as Hell?" Or how about the second hour (yes, second hour) of the podcast and the interview with Saylah from Mystic Worlds about Runes of Magic? With the split in the podcast, I was able to listen to the first part on the train ride to work and the second part on the train ride home.
One further thing about the podcast. As regular listeners know, the sisters stop the recording of the podcasts at frequent intervals in order to save their work and not have an epic loss of content. Sister Julie took the opportunity of the breaks during the second hour to insert some old music with a magic theme to it. I may be showing my age once you listen to it, but I found it very enjoyable collection of musical snippets. Length: 118 minutes.
The Instance #150 (Hosts: Scott Johnson & Randy Jordan) - Life (i.e. change) goes on in World of Warcaft as the hosts discuss the changes upcoming in patch 3.2. I listen to the podcast from the perspective of an EverQuest 2 player who reached level 60 in Vanilla WoW and I have to say listening to this podcast does make me feel good. Having copied dual-spec from EQ2, Blizzard is going to introduce the level-locking mechanic in the next patch. If WoW is still copying features from EQ2, then my favorite game can't be that bad. Level-locking makes sense in EQ2, but I don't know about WoW. I think Scott and Randy did a good job during that discussion. And of course, don't forget to listen to the end to hear the content from the regular contributors. Length: 114 minutes.
Channel Massive #92 (Hosts: Noah, Jason & Mark) - Jason returns to the podcast as the M Team discussed FreeRealms and E3. Noah shares some of his experiences from the conference during the one-hour "E3 round table of death." And of course, much discussion about the people protesting the making of Left 4 Dead 2. Length: 116 minutes.
Spouse Aggro #80 (Hosts: Beau and Leala Turkey) - The Turkey's visit an Italian restaurant and talk about Beau's experience in Darkfall and Aion.. The Turkey's had strong views about Darkfall before. I don't think those have changed even though Beau did say some nice things about the game. Oh, and they talked about a movie about LARPers. Length: 47 minutes.
Through the Aftermath #12 (Hosts: Shawn Schuster and Jonathan Morris) - The hosts go through their email in a far-ranging show about the post-apocolypic genre. Length: 85 minutes.
Trying to Catch Up
EQ2's-day Originally Broadcast on June 2, 2009 (Hosts: Dellmon and Zanadi) - Dellmon posted 3 shows in a week and I'm a little behind listening to the show. In this show, Dellmon goes off on Free Realms (he's addicted) and Zanadi discusses the differences between her monk and assassin now that Zanadi's assassin has beaten Dellmon's sorry troubadour to level 80. Length: 83 minutes.
Thoughts on John Smedley's Address at Fan Faire 2009
Last night SOE President John Smedley gave the 3rd annual Community Address at SOE's Fan Faire 2009 in Las Vegas. Tipa's coverage over at West Karana of the news coming out of that speech is very good, although I don't recall anyone saying that "auto-mentoring" was coming to EverQuest 2. I can believe its coming as a way to keep the content required to get mythical weapons non-trivial; I just don't recall hearing it. What I heard was similar to what Feldon is reporting on The EQ2 Wire, that you can self-mentor. I'm giving Feldon's coverage of this issue a bit more credibility only because his post on the subject came before Smedley's presentation and it sounds like he actually either sat in on a panel or personally talked to a dev about the feature.
Now that I've had a little time to think about what I saw, here are my thoughts.
Sentinal's Fate - The next expansion will be the island of Odus and not Velious. I never played EverQuest, so those zones mean nothing to me. I guess that means as long as I don't pay too much attention to the forums, I'll be able to at least start the expansion content with an open mind. Well, at least an open mind about the story line.
A rise in the level cap to 90 - That had to happen. While AA points are nice, I really like to hear the levelling ding. The fact that I think a lot of my guildies will be near or at level 80 when the expansion goes live helps me think good thoughts about the level cap rise also.
Release date of Sentinal's Fate is February 2010 - When I first heard Brenlo say this, I groaned. EQ2 expansions traditionally come out in November. But then I thought about it and started to smile. I've now got 8 months to get those last 15 AA points so I can have a max'ed out character? Before I felt a little rushed about getting to 200 AA points by November, although I was going to be able to do it. Now I can relax. More importantly, all of my guildies who are just now hitting level 80 with 90-120 AA points will have time to improve their toons for the next expansion.
I will say one thing about the delay. With the recent changes made in GU 52 (research assistants, higher conversion rate of combat xp to AA xp for max level characters) and some of the changes I'll write about later in this post, expect the starting content in Sentinal's Fate to be a bit more challenging than in the past. In other words, if you are not raid-geared, you better do some homework (i.e. read the forums; play on test, etc.) or you're going to get pwned!
Auto-mentoring/self-mentoring - This seems like a good thing. The mechanic that Tipa described is actually in the game right now, although I only know of one place it is used. In the heritage quest Casualties of the War of the Fay, any player over level 70 was reduced to level 70 for the final boss fight. The reason is that the quest prize, the Rain Caller bow, is required to get the ranger's mythical weapon.
If I can use the mentoring NPC that Feldon describes to do grey content in order to complete my quest of getting 200 AA points, I will. I hate going back and doing grey quests and I really would like to go back and do them when there is a chance of dying.
I can see this mechanic being abused. Can you imaging higher level characters getting all geared up and then self-mentoring to a lower level to farm named mobs? I can. But that's a thought for another day.
Achievements - When I played Warhammer Online, the Tome of Knowledge didn't really appeal to me, although I thought the map feature was really cool. What Brenlo described sounded more like Blizzard's rip-off of the Tome of Knowledge rather than the actual ToK. For me, putting in an achievement system into EQ2 is *yawn*.
Putting in that type of achievement system into EQ2 should be a lot easier for SOE than putting the system into WoW was for Blizzard since EQ2 was already giving out titles for how many mobs you had killed, completing a certain number of heritage quests, etc. Not only that, but the game also keeps track of certain server and game firsts (I have one game first and about 40 server firsts, all related to crafting) that get you listed on EQ2 Players.
I guess WoW's achievement system is so popular with its player base and is so successful in helping in player retention that every game is going to have some sort of achievement system going into the future. But just remember, EQ2 had the system first. It's just that EQ2 used titles (which is a feature coming soon to WoW!) to reward players instead of something called "achievements". And if you don't want to credit EQ2, then you need to credit Warhammer Online and the Tome of Knowledge.
Halas - I'm not really excited about new cities. I get lost a lot, although seeing parts of the cities for the first time when I'm lost has been interesting. I'm really going to have to visit Halas. With self-mentoring, I'll actually be able to do the newbie quests and experience the city instead of just wander around aimlessly. I like doing new things. And if I still need AA experience when it comes out, you can bet Halas will receive a long visit from my ranger.
Shard of Love - This zone promises to introduce another god into EQ2. Since the Plane of Love never existed in EverQuest, I think everyone will be interested in at least visiting the area at least once.
Now that I've had a little time to think about what I saw, here are my thoughts.
Sentinal's Fate - The next expansion will be the island of Odus and not Velious. I never played EverQuest, so those zones mean nothing to me. I guess that means as long as I don't pay too much attention to the forums, I'll be able to at least start the expansion content with an open mind. Well, at least an open mind about the story line.
A rise in the level cap to 90 - That had to happen. While AA points are nice, I really like to hear the levelling ding. The fact that I think a lot of my guildies will be near or at level 80 when the expansion goes live helps me think good thoughts about the level cap rise also.
Release date of Sentinal's Fate is February 2010 - When I first heard Brenlo say this, I groaned. EQ2 expansions traditionally come out in November. But then I thought about it and started to smile. I've now got 8 months to get those last 15 AA points so I can have a max'ed out character? Before I felt a little rushed about getting to 200 AA points by November, although I was going to be able to do it. Now I can relax. More importantly, all of my guildies who are just now hitting level 80 with 90-120 AA points will have time to improve their toons for the next expansion.
I will say one thing about the delay. With the recent changes made in GU 52 (research assistants, higher conversion rate of combat xp to AA xp for max level characters) and some of the changes I'll write about later in this post, expect the starting content in Sentinal's Fate to be a bit more challenging than in the past. In other words, if you are not raid-geared, you better do some homework (i.e. read the forums; play on test, etc.) or you're going to get pwned!
Auto-mentoring/self-mentoring - This seems like a good thing. The mechanic that Tipa described is actually in the game right now, although I only know of one place it is used. In the heritage quest Casualties of the War of the Fay, any player over level 70 was reduced to level 70 for the final boss fight. The reason is that the quest prize, the Rain Caller bow, is required to get the ranger's mythical weapon.
If I can use the mentoring NPC that Feldon describes to do grey content in order to complete my quest of getting 200 AA points, I will. I hate going back and doing grey quests and I really would like to go back and do them when there is a chance of dying.
I can see this mechanic being abused. Can you imaging higher level characters getting all geared up and then self-mentoring to a lower level to farm named mobs? I can. But that's a thought for another day.
Achievements - When I played Warhammer Online, the Tome of Knowledge didn't really appeal to me, although I thought the map feature was really cool. What Brenlo described sounded more like Blizzard's rip-off of the Tome of Knowledge rather than the actual ToK. For me, putting in an achievement system into EQ2 is *yawn*.
Putting in that type of achievement system into EQ2 should be a lot easier for SOE than putting the system into WoW was for Blizzard since EQ2 was already giving out titles for how many mobs you had killed, completing a certain number of heritage quests, etc. Not only that, but the game also keeps track of certain server and game firsts (I have one game first and about 40 server firsts, all related to crafting) that get you listed on EQ2 Players.
I guess WoW's achievement system is so popular with its player base and is so successful in helping in player retention that every game is going to have some sort of achievement system going into the future. But just remember, EQ2 had the system first. It's just that EQ2 used titles (which is a feature coming soon to WoW!) to reward players instead of something called "achievements". And if you don't want to credit EQ2, then you need to credit Warhammer Online and the Tome of Knowledge.
Halas - I'm not really excited about new cities. I get lost a lot, although seeing parts of the cities for the first time when I'm lost has been interesting. I'm really going to have to visit Halas. With self-mentoring, I'll actually be able to do the newbie quests and experience the city instead of just wander around aimlessly. I like doing new things. And if I still need AA experience when it comes out, you can bet Halas will receive a long visit from my ranger.
Shard of Love - This zone promises to introduce another god into EQ2. Since the Plane of Love never existed in EverQuest, I think everyone will be interested in at least visiting the area at least once.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
EQ2 Video: Jethal Silverwing's I Want That Rock
Fighting for resources happens in MMOs. Whether the game is a free-to-play title like Runes of Magic, an indy sci-fi game like Eve Online, or the giant of them all, World of Warcraft, sooner or later players find themself harvesting resources. Jethal Silverwing of Online Gaming Radio's Jethal Silverwing Show is a master of the EQ & EQ2 parody song and wrote a song based on Twisted Sister's I Wanna Rock about mining that his wife Elquinjena made into a video. The video was shot on location in the Thundering Steppes, a location where I've spent hours harvesting and looking for that elusive rock myself.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Reading Dialog: EQ2's Mushroom Rings
One of the reasons I like to solo quests in MMORPGs is so I can take my time and read the quest text. If you are in a group, there is bound to be at least one person who tries to rush you and gets annoyed when you don’t simply click through the dialog boxes. That’s a shame because the developers spend a lot of time developing stories and some of them are quite good. For example, here is my experience in EverQuest 2 the first time I encountered one of the mushroom rings that was introduced in GU52.
I was wandering though Archer’s Wood in the old lands of Antonica just out of sight of the Claymore monument when I encountered it. A purplish haze in the air over a small circle of mushrooms. With signs of the Timberclaw clan roaming the area, I decided to check the area for traps. I figured that an experienced ranger like me could defeat anything those gnolls could come up with to entrap the unwary. So I edged closer to the mushroom ring and then … darkness.
When I woke up, I found myself in a lush green grotto. I was relieved, because no gnoll trap would have sent me to a place as beautiful as this. But where was I? The only way to answer was to move ahead and explore. As I walked down the path, I passed air spirits until I came upon a rare sight; dryads. I continued on until I met an elder tree spirit surrounded by her attendants.
"Greetings, trotter," said the Elder. "We rarely see your type here."
I blurted out, "What is this place?"
"This is our hidden haven," she replied, "a pocket of safety outside the realms your kind normally inhabits."
The trip through the mushroom ring must have taken more out of me than I thought, because all I could reply with was, "How did I get here?"
The Elder explained, "When the constellations align correctly, which is about once a month by your system of reckoning, it is possible to slip between our realms if you find a place where the realms touch."
"I think I remember a mushroom ring in the forest... that must have been it," I responded, my wits finally coming back to me. "Are there other places like this?"
"No others containing my kind. However, I have heard rumors of another similar weakness between realms that may sometimes occur in the area you would know as Nektulos Forest," she replied.
I then asked the obvious question any wood elf ranger would ask when confronted with a tree spirit elder, "Can I assist in any way?"
I was in luck! "We do actually have a recurring problem at present," she began. "Pollution from your realm is slowly seeping into ours, and aggregating in the lower levels here, where it's making some of us ill. If you could investigate the problem, it would be a help."
"I would be happy to assist," I told the Elder. And with a wave goodby, I followed the path down to the pool at the bottom of the grotto. I found sickened tree spirits surrounding the pool and ugly brown manifestations of pollution both on the shore and in the water. I destroyed all the manifestations I could find and then worried about how to save the pollution-tainted dryads. Maybe if I could collect water from the water spirits of the pool the purity of their being would counteract the filth affecting the tree spirits.
I started to collect drops of water from the water spirits along the edge of the pool, but I could tell it wasn’t enough. So I put on the old fishbone earring that grants me water-breathing and dove under the water to find more water spirits. After collecting what I hoped was enough water, I started back to the dryads. I placed a drop on the forehead of the first tainted tree-spirit and watched as the water purified the dryad. Excited that the solution worked, I quickly went to the rest of the dryads and cured them of the taint. My work done, I quickly walked back up the trail to the Elder to tell her the good news.
"I believe I have cleaned up all the pollution for now," I told the Elder.
"Thank you for your assistance," the dryad Elder told me. "Please accept this small token of appreciation." I reached out and took the elemental token she gave me. Receiving an item from such an august personage was almost as big an honor as having the chance to serve her.
I retraced my steps back to where I woke up and found another small mushroom ring with a purplish haze over it. Now knowing what the ring was for, I stepped into the ring and was transported back to Archer’s Wood. Armed with the knowledge that another such ring existed in Nek, I began a trip to that forest to see where that mushroom ring would take me.
All of the dialog in the story above came from the quest. The clues to find the next mushroom ring came from reading what the Tree spirit Elder told me. For those who are interested, a total of five mushroom rings exist. They are located in:
According to the notes I found, they will appear in the game around the 20th of each month. If anyone knows how to tell when they appear in game without having to make a visit to Archer’s Wood every day, please let me know.
I was wandering though Archer’s Wood in the old lands of Antonica just out of sight of the Claymore monument when I encountered it. A purplish haze in the air over a small circle of mushrooms. With signs of the Timberclaw clan roaming the area, I decided to check the area for traps. I figured that an experienced ranger like me could defeat anything those gnolls could come up with to entrap the unwary. So I edged closer to the mushroom ring and then … darkness.
When I woke up, I found myself in a lush green grotto. I was relieved, because no gnoll trap would have sent me to a place as beautiful as this. But where was I? The only way to answer was to move ahead and explore. As I walked down the path, I passed air spirits until I came upon a rare sight; dryads. I continued on until I met an elder tree spirit surrounded by her attendants.
"Greetings, trotter," said the Elder. "We rarely see your type here."
I blurted out, "What is this place?"
"This is our hidden haven," she replied, "a pocket of safety outside the realms your kind normally inhabits."
The trip through the mushroom ring must have taken more out of me than I thought, because all I could reply with was, "How did I get here?"
The Elder explained, "When the constellations align correctly, which is about once a month by your system of reckoning, it is possible to slip between our realms if you find a place where the realms touch."
"I think I remember a mushroom ring in the forest... that must have been it," I responded, my wits finally coming back to me. "Are there other places like this?"
"No others containing my kind. However, I have heard rumors of another similar weakness between realms that may sometimes occur in the area you would know as Nektulos Forest," she replied.
I then asked the obvious question any wood elf ranger would ask when confronted with a tree spirit elder, "Can I assist in any way?"
I was in luck! "We do actually have a recurring problem at present," she began. "Pollution from your realm is slowly seeping into ours, and aggregating in the lower levels here, where it's making some of us ill. If you could investigate the problem, it would be a help."
"I would be happy to assist," I told the Elder. And with a wave goodby, I followed the path down to the pool at the bottom of the grotto. I found sickened tree spirits surrounding the pool and ugly brown manifestations of pollution both on the shore and in the water. I destroyed all the manifestations I could find and then worried about how to save the pollution-tainted dryads. Maybe if I could collect water from the water spirits of the pool the purity of their being would counteract the filth affecting the tree spirits.
I started to collect drops of water from the water spirits along the edge of the pool, but I could tell it wasn’t enough. So I put on the old fishbone earring that grants me water-breathing and dove under the water to find more water spirits. After collecting what I hoped was enough water, I started back to the dryads. I placed a drop on the forehead of the first tainted tree-spirit and watched as the water purified the dryad. Excited that the solution worked, I quickly went to the rest of the dryads and cured them of the taint. My work done, I quickly walked back up the trail to the Elder to tell her the good news.
"I believe I have cleaned up all the pollution for now," I told the Elder.
"Thank you for your assistance," the dryad Elder told me. "Please accept this small token of appreciation." I reached out and took the elemental token she gave me. Receiving an item from such an august personage was almost as big an honor as having the chance to serve her.
I retraced my steps back to where I woke up and found another small mushroom ring with a purplish haze over it. Now knowing what the ring was for, I stepped into the ring and was transported back to Archer’s Wood. Armed with the knowledge that another such ring existed in Nek, I began a trip to that forest to see where that mushroom ring would take me.
All of the dialog in the story above came from the quest. The clues to find the next mushroom ring came from reading what the Tree spirit Elder told me. For those who are interested, a total of five mushroom rings exist. They are located in:
- Archer's Wood in Antonica
- The broken mage spire in Nektulos Forest
- Near the spire in the Enchanted Lands. Take a right off the docks and if you get to the spire you've gone to far.
- Near the Sullian faries in Darklight Woods.
- Near the nursery in Greater Faydwar.
According to the notes I found, they will appear in the game around the 20th of each month. If anyone knows how to tell when they appear in game without having to make a visit to Archer’s Wood every day, please let me know.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
What I've Been Listening To: June 14-20, 2009
A look at my site traffic shows that people using the search term "eq2 research assistant" are driving high amounts of traffic to the blog. Okay, not Tobold-type traffic, but high traffic for me. And while I haven't played EQ2 as much as I would like, I've still been able to blog and listen to podcasts.
Here is what I listened to last week.
First Time Listen
In-Game Chat, The No Balls Episode - Last week I wrote that I'm not really into podcasts about console games, and I think the In-Game Chat podcast just confirmed that view. The podcast is a weekly (I think) podcast about console games. I really couldn't get into the podcast because unlike the other podcasts I listen to, I didn't hear any talk about MMOs. To be fair, I stopped listening to the podcast after the first hour, so the podcast could have gotten better during the second hour.
The In-Game Chat podcast is a long-running podcast dating back to January 2006 that should have an adult rating due to language. It tends to run long (The No Balls Episode ran almost 2 hours). If you like console games, you might want to at least listen to an episode and come to your own conclusions. But if you are looking for a strictly MMO podcast, this is not a podcast for you.
Old Friends
Virgin Worlds #144 (Host: Not Brent) - Darren Love from Shut Up We're Talking and The Common Sense Gamer is the substitute host for this short edition of the Virgin Worlds podcast. I liked his point that EverQuest 2's research assistant sounds so much like Eve Online's time-based skill system. I've thought that, but Darren plays Eve, so his opinion counts for more.
Shut Up We're Talking #49 (Hosts: Darren and Karen) - The guests for this episode were Marty from Bullet Points Blog and Gary (Ardwulf) from Ardwulf's Lair. The two topics for the podcast were Dungeon & Dragons Online going to a free-to-play model and Gary's analysis of the player numbers on XFire. A very interesting podcast for those interested in the near term future of MMOs.
Van Hemlock #55 (Hosts: Tim Dale and Jon Shute) - Episode 55 is the E3 special, with the news segment dominated by E3 news. After reading all the major announcements, Tim & Jon came to the sad conclusion that the lack of MMORPG news means that MMO's, despite the recent success of Free Realms, are not mainstream.
Channel Massive #90 (Hosts: Noah, Jason & Mark) - Jason is absent as Noah and Mark are joined by Phil, a restro druid from World of Warcraft to speak about the state of WoW and other things.
Channel Massive #91 (Hosts: Noah, Jason & Mark) - Jason is absent for a second show as Mark and Noah talked about Jumpgate, Free Realms, and Age of Conan. The podcast is still funny without Jason, but I can't wait until Jason's vision quest is over.
Spouse Aggro #79 (Hosts: Beau and Leala Turkey) - In this episode the Turkeys go to a Cracker Barrel and examine the question about adults playing MMOs. For me, the subject doesn't matter so much as long as its Beau and Leala talking.
Through the Aftermath #12 (Hosts: Shawn Schuster & Jonathan Morris) - Shawn and Jonathan have their second email show as they try to catch up on their email.
Trying To Catch Up With
PODDED Podcast Season 2 Episode 5 (Hosts: Dillon Arklight and War Childe) - I don't want to jump ahead of the podcasts, so I'm taking them in order. Topics include the upcoming Alliance Tournament, factional warfare, and Dillon's lesson that flying a stealth bomber doesn't mean you can't use TeamSpeak.
Saturday, June 20, 2009
EQ2 Research Assistants: The Reality
I've received a lot of traffic from people visiting my post on how I think EverQuest 2's new research assistant mechanic should have been set up. Now that GU 52 is out, here is how SOE actually implemented the idea from the update notes.
Now, if you have a expert level spell (formerly known as adept III) already scribed, you don't have to go out and buy another expert level spell to get it turned into a master. When you go to the research assistant, you will be presented with a list of spells and combat arts that you are eligible to have researched. That means you cannot start researching a spell when you are a lower level and then have master version waiting for you when you reach that level. Just be careful, because with the new spell names you might select researching a spell for a level below the one you really want. But the positive side is that once you have an expert level spell, go ahead and scribe it, because you can't get your master until you do.
Having actually visited a research assistant and seen exactly how the mechanic works, I still maintain I want one for my house. I don't like the fact that you don't have to give the research assistant the expert level spell in order to get a master, but doing that would have had serious consequences for the game's economy, so I fully understand why they did not make that a requirement.
Am I going to use the research assistant? Of course I am. I may be a bit crazy (and with 6 master craftsmen on my account, some say I'm a lot crazy) but I'm not stupid. I'm actually not going to start getting the tier 8 combat arts masters for my ranger first, however. I'm going to get those CAs from the lower levels that never have upgrades available on the broker. For example, I'm currently researching Primal Reflexes (20 days to gain 27% hate reduction), then will move on to Honed Reflexes (7 days to gain an increase in attack speed of 42 for 1 minute 20 seconds). I have 2 reasons for doing this. The first is that I can get 2 useful master-level CAs in the time it will take me to gain 1 tier 8 master. The second is that during this time I might either see a tier 8 master drop or the prices on the broker might drop far enough so that I can pick one up cheap.
Update: You can stop a research assistant from researching a spell. When you do, you apply 1/3 of the time the research assistant spent researching the first upgrade to the next upgrade you want to research.
Related Post: EQ2 Research Assistants My Way
Research Assistants have moved into many cities in Norrath. These hardworking men and women will do the research to upgrade a spell or combat art from journeyman to adept or from expert to master. They will only assist one character per account at a time and only help those level 20 or higher. Research Assistants can be found in each of the six hoods and villages of Freeport and Qeynos, Neriak, Haven, Gorowyn and Kelethin. You can ask any guard in those areas to point you in the direction of a Research Assistant if you can’t find them.
Now, if you have a expert level spell (formerly known as adept III) already scribed, you don't have to go out and buy another expert level spell to get it turned into a master. When you go to the research assistant, you will be presented with a list of spells and combat arts that you are eligible to have researched. That means you cannot start researching a spell when you are a lower level and then have master version waiting for you when you reach that level. Just be careful, because with the new spell names you might select researching a spell for a level below the one you really want. But the positive side is that once you have an expert level spell, go ahead and scribe it, because you can't get your master until you do.
Having actually visited a research assistant and seen exactly how the mechanic works, I still maintain I want one for my house. I don't like the fact that you don't have to give the research assistant the expert level spell in order to get a master, but doing that would have had serious consequences for the game's economy, so I fully understand why they did not make that a requirement.
Am I going to use the research assistant? Of course I am. I may be a bit crazy (and with 6 master craftsmen on my account, some say I'm a lot crazy) but I'm not stupid. I'm actually not going to start getting the tier 8 combat arts masters for my ranger first, however. I'm going to get those CAs from the lower levels that never have upgrades available on the broker. For example, I'm currently researching Primal Reflexes (20 days to gain 27% hate reduction), then will move on to Honed Reflexes (7 days to gain an increase in attack speed of 42 for 1 minute 20 seconds). I have 2 reasons for doing this. The first is that I can get 2 useful master-level CAs in the time it will take me to gain 1 tier 8 master. The second is that during this time I might either see a tier 8 master drop or the prices on the broker might drop far enough so that I can pick one up cheap.
Update: You can stop a research assistant from researching a spell. When you do, you apply 1/3 of the time the research assistant spent researching the first upgrade to the next upgrade you want to research.
Related Post: EQ2 Research Assistants My Way
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