[networkku] Re: EQ2 / WoW
- From: Sigmund Lam <slam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: networkku@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 13 Dec 2004 13:20:28 -0500
> How are things going in the EQ2/WoW network camp?
Friday I created a Freeport toon and spent all night exploring Freeport.
I think Freeport looks pretty cool in a distopian way. Everything is dark and
dirty in Freeport. There is virtualy no bright and vivid colors. Everything is
somber grey or dull. Everything except what the NPCs wear. They wear kick ass
armor with spikes and stuff. None of this plain utilitarian armor of Qeynos
with the pink thrills.
The Freeport inn room is larger than the Qeynos one. It is also less of a
square box. I like the Freeport inn room better than the Qeynos Square box.
The inn keeper is a real bastard though but so is everyone else in Freeport.
Talking to the Freeport NPCs there seems to be a lot more lore to discover in
Freeport. Mind you I didn't go around hailing everyone and paying attention to
their stories in Qeynos so maybe that is because I glossed over the lore in
Qeynos. The Troll and Ogre NPCs are hilarious. They act well trollish and
ogrish.
Most of the Freeport quest aren't what I'd call truely evil. I'd say they are
morally bankrupt but not out right evil. Go slay 10 random people because you
can. Or help the SS, I mean Freeport Malitia root out an inserection. Go fetch
a sign for the troll merchant as opposed to watching said merchant get eaten
by troll. Help Merchant A backstab Merchant B. Repeat with Merchant B. Then
again, I guess making truely evil quest might pose a real life legal problem.
The tradeskill instance in Freeport is designed differently too. There are 4
floors with ramps between them. You can jump down too but that will probably
incure fatal damage. In Qeynos there is only 2 floors and each section is
seperated by a bunch of annoying doors. I'm not sure which is more annoying,
openning 2 doors to get to the forge or running down 4 flights of stairs.
During my stay in Freeport I visited 4 newbie zones. Thieve's Way aka the
sewers, Sunken City aka an abandoned part of freeport, Graveyard, The Ruins.
One part I really disliked is all that water. Both Thieve's Way and Snken City
have partly submerged aress which makes looking for mobs and corpses hard
since they are under water. It is certainly fitting with the atmosphere
though.
On Saturday, I spent a lot of time tradeskilling. I had request for jewelry
from several guildies and that kept me very busy. Zamwen also finished my
stack of inks and I was hoping to get Zygwen to lvl 20 weaponsmith to make
Carbonite Spikes so I could make my spell upgrades. I ended up buying
Carbonite Spikes from a PC Merchant. This resulted in us bartering goods. I
got a bag and 11 spikes for 3 pieces of jewelry. He later made me a Carbonite
Stilleto and more spikes in exchange for 10 carbonite pommels, 2 gold
ornaments and some raw components for the dagger. So I ended up making friends
with a Weaponsmith and Zyg nolonger has to do weaponsmithing.
After doing all that jewelcrafting I ran low on raw matterials so I went to
Thundering Steps to harvest some more. Thundering Steps is a neat zone. They
have impact craters here and there from chunks of the moon Luclin that have
fallen on Norrath. I ended up doing some city writs with other guildmemebers
in TS for most of the night. City Writs are how you advance you guild level.
Guild levels open up more options for the guild.
Sunday, I did a bit more crafting. I also tried to sell some of my Swashbuckler
skill upgrades. This caught the interest of a lvl 27 swashbuckler but he
didn't want to pay my overinflated prices. I was charging 3 gps, but if I
really wanted them to move I should have priced them at 1 gp. I ended up
selling him one at 1 gp and showing him how to buy direct from PC merchants as
opposed to paying 20% extra at the broker. Over night I managed to sell a
second copy of that upgrade for 3 gps though so it seems the fish still bite
with overly inflated prices. Well mind you, I was the only one selling those
upgrades. :P
After dinner, we formed a guild group and did a few quest in Crypts of
Betrayal. We got a bit of xp out of it and a dozen or so pieces of loot. The
catacombs under Qeynos are interesting. There are several tiers of catacombs
each one lvl deeper and harder. First there is The Down Below. Then there is
The Vermin's Snye and then Crypts of Betrayal. I find this neat because there
is more depth to the game that meets the eye at first glance. You have to dig
a bit though and explore to find all the zones.
It is nice to see that guildies are willing to help each other out even if the
mobs in question don't give xp because some of the group members are too high.
The guild has been fairly supportive of the tradeskillers too. Talking to some
people from other guilds this isn't so in all guilds. But that's nothing new.
After the trip to CoB I went off to Stormhold to solo 2 writs. At the same
time, I discovered a spot where harvest items for collection quest have a high
probability of spawning. SO I made sure to hang around there. That 'storage
room' also had a well. I had the pleasure of peaking into it and accidentaly
falling in. At the bottom is a pool of water and a tunnel blocked by mobs that
see through sneak. so I had to gate back out. :(
Having finished my 2 writs, I then went off to help Coren with his lvl 20
Armor Quest, Part I. Its the same quest as I completed a lvl ago so I knew
what to do to get his kills. In EQ2 they have something called a dynamic camp.
These are spots in the zone with markers like Gnoll tents, or Decay Foci. If
you kill all the mobs linked to said item before they respawn, a second round
of mobs spawns. Killing the second set can spawn a buff, a named mob group or
unlock a merchant. Coren needed 4 kills of a certain second round mobs. So I
went and wiped out 2 of those camps for him.
Tonight I'll probably get Aneya to level 20 Woodworker if I can. Salorik is in
desperate need of Ash Quills and Tapa Paper and doesn't want to pay top dollar
for it from PC merchants. Besides, I have to make some Ash staves for that
Weaponsmith so that I can ensure I have a steady supply of Weapons and
Weaponsmithed Subcomponents.
Evalin, Aneya & Zygwen of Mistmoore, Everquest 2
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