GW2 – Cultural Armor

My mesmer Summer hit level 35, and that meant I could get tier 1 Sylvari cultural armor.

Snapdragon Armor

I think it looks pretty good and the only downside was the fact I blew all my money on this armor. I realized that right after purchasing 4 or 5 of the 6 pieces. Oops!

That’s an issue because eventually at level 40, I’ll want to buy a Master’s Training Manual so I can put 20 points into a trait line and also open Master traits… problem is the manual costs 1 gold and I’m super poor again.

I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it, but I am also willing to fix this problem the old fashioned way – spend money. As in, real world cash to the in-game shop for gems, and sell those gems for in-game gold.

Yeah that’s right, if I don’t have enough gold saved up to buy the Master’s Training Manual, I’ll just “charge it”. I’m not currently playing a subscription MMO and am willing to spend $10 to $15 a month for a game I like, so I’ll just view it as my monthly MMO budget spending. After my very brief experience in RO, I’ll plunk down some moolah to support a game I enjoy playing, even if they are F2P or B2P or whatever. I’ve bought Turbine Points in LoTRO during sales and plan to keep doing so, even though I’m a VIP and accumulate them monthly. I haven’t yet spent any additional money in TSW but that game is definitely worth it to me, and I will browse the cash shop and find something I want to get.

Anyway, while I’m taking Summer through the storyline (currently in the middle of joining The Order of Whispers) and exploring, I’ve decided to do the zone exploration thing on her as well. I went back to The Grove and Lion’s Arch and hit 100% completion. Since I was focused on opening waypoints before, this didn’t take long since I could map travel around, plus I already did this stuff on Aurora (my elementalist) so I don’t have to spend as much time figuring out how to get to vistas. I’ll do the zone completion a little differently on Summer – by backfilling a zone here and there while trying to level and keep up with the storyline.

RO – Trying it Out

Just for some variety and downloaded and tried out Ragnarok Online. I just couldn’t get into it.

I made a female archer, and fiddled around on the character creation screen for a few minutes.

Character Creation

After changing to a redhead with pony tails (one of my favorite looks for some reason, going back to my old main character from Guild Wars!) I was ready to enter the game.

Login Screen

Once in I spent a few minutes clicking various options to see what was available. I noticed an “emotional commands” shortcut and decided that was likely a bad translation. On the other hand, maybe the fact I can “pick my nose” in game means the dialogue was named correctly.

Emotional Commands

I was hit by a sense of déjà vu approximately 14 seconds into the game. I struggled to remember what other game Ragnarok Online reminded me of and after looking at the long list of free MMOs, I found it: Runes of Magic.

My initial quest was to kill 3 of the bouncing pumpkins in a nearby field:

First Quest

And then there were 2 more “speak to the guy just down to road a ways”. Not even a ways, I mean like 5 seconds of running got me there.

I find the graphics and interface to be cartoony, enormously so:

Busy screens

After a mere 25 minutes in-game, I decided to uh… do something else. The basic mechanics are there – classes, movement, quests, combat, level up (I made level 2, haha) – but I was not at all drawn into the game or giant in-your-face popups and balloon dialogues. I suspect this game is actually aimed at a younger crowd, or “eastern” audience with fundamentally different tastes and aesthetic expectations, or perhaps both. For me, there is a subtle (or not so subtle) difference between an obvious fantasy setting (WoW, RIFT, LoTRO) and feeling like you’re inside a cartoon. Not even a cartoon, because from what I understand Champions Online is generally well received. This is more like feeling inside a bad cartoon… or manga to be precise.

I hate to seem so down on a game without really giving it much of a chance, but I wanted to quit and watch TV instead. It could very well have a deep crafting system or interesting skill interactions. Or not. At least I can cross this off my list of games to check out, which still leaves me with a few others at some indeterminate time in the future.

GW2 – Dynamic Event Leveling

I decided to move my mesmer Summer along a bit. At level 27, the next storyline mission was suggested for level 28, so I finished up quests in Brisban Wildlands. Soon enough, I hit level 28 and checked the map – my destination was outside the Ascalon Settlement in the Gendarran Fields, but I hadn’t explored that map much. In fact, I only had the Stoneguard Gate Waypoint in the northwest, from the previous step in my storyline.

I mapped in and started running overland, approaching Nebo Terrace. I detoured to grab the waypoint, and found a dynamic event going on, with several players participating. So I joined in… and was invited to group with 2 other players. I figured what the heck, and accepted the group request. After the event finished, the leader just put a waypoint in chat. I checked the map and saw they had already map traveled away and were running towards another orange circle – how a dynamic event shows up on the map.

Follow the Leader

I joined them and as soon we’d finish one, they were off to another. I followed as best I could – I had to take the long route sometimes because I lacked waypoints, but I ran by to collect the ones I didn’t have, and eventually I was able to map travel with them. We continued like this, racking up experience points like crazy.

We hit a cycle of four dynamic events that seemed to be available fairly often: defend Nebo Terrace, kill Veteran and Champion centaurs in a cave, kill Rock Dogs, and defend Ascalon Settlement. Sometimes there were 2 Veteran centaurs in a warcamp we detoured to defeat, detouring from running to another event.

Champion Battle

It was pretty fun and I think I participated in more Veteran and Champion kills during this time than the whole of my “main” char Aurora (who is level 80). Summer went from level 28 to 31 (halfway to 32) in one evening!

Cave Centaur Champion

I hope to group with those two again, but if they keep cranking away like tonight, they’ll be 5-8 levels higher before the next time I’m on. In that case I’m good with doing the storyline questing along. But I’ll definitely look to join up with other players doing events, it was fun and very efficient.

TSW – Finishing up Kingsmouth

I’ve spent my last few play sessions attempting to wrap up Kingsmouth quests. I thought I was almost done, yet by visiting each of the various quest givers, I’ve found most still have a quest (or two) for me to do!

I’ve been experimenting with decks, and have spent my ability points buying skills so I’ve now unlocked 3 starter decks: Trickster, Cagemaster, and Champion, and as a by-product have also unlocked more clothing options (the uniforms associated with each of those starter decks). I like the look of the Trickster the most so I end up wearing that the majority of the time.

Next up will be unlocking the Maverick deck, and then I’ll just accumulate ability points for purchasing “inner circle” abilities. For one, getting decent weapons to cover all these decks take resources, and two, spreading my ability points all over probably isn’t too wise. However, I do like build variety so have 4 starter ones to choose from and switch between is worth it to me.

Quest wise, I’m finding them still fun and the puzzles challenging and mostly fair. OK, I cheat a little by reading along if I’m stuck, but a lot of guides will avoid direct spoilers and give a hint – for example there was a quest the involved a password to log onto a computer. The hint in-game was “my wife’s name” and the hint on the wiki said “check the bodies on the beach”. Sure enough, I found an id card and then, in a leap that doesn’t exist in many other games, I opened a webpage for the fictional corporation (the Orochi Group) and searched around and found the scientist’s wife’s name. Thumbs up!

I also stepped into the next zone, the Savage Coast. I did a quest or two, and soon found myself facing a bigger fight:

Savage Coast Welcome

I was able to defeat this monster and wrap up a quest before zipping off to New York to continue my storyline.

TSW – Illuminati Tunnels

It’s been a while since I played TSW, and since this is double ability point weekend, I put aside some time. I hope to unlock the Trickster starter deck and get a new costume, and for that I need to earn 14 more ability points, and then buy the two elite skills: Domino Effect, and Probability.

Illuminati Tunnels

Wayness was at the Digger Deeper mission for a while, and I finally tackled it. The mission given by Henry Hawthorne was to locate and explore the Illuminati Tunnels beneath Kingsmouth.

Unlike many other MMOs, in The Secret World, many missions require you to figure out how to start them. Or in this case, how to find them! I mean actually find the starting location, not counting the start as getting the mission from the quest giver.

Some would find this frustrating, but I kind of like it. Especially because I’m behind the initial wave of players, which means there are spoilers available if I choose to go that route. But I always spend a few minutes searching and trying to use the in-game clues to make an honest attempt to figure stuff out.

After carefully following the quest instructions, I did find the start, but didn’t figure out how to open the door, so to speak. I punted and googled for some help – here is a bit of a spoiler on what I found:

The Key I Needed

With that, I entered and found myself facing several more puzzles – no combat at all in the tunnels. I do like this kind of variety in missions!

I eventually made it to a puzzle that immediately reminded me of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade:

Spelling Puzzle

Remember that scene where they had to jump letter to letter across a hidden chasm? But the word had one letter different in the original language? Heh, no jumping across chasms here, but not spelling the answer correctly leads to poison gas release.

Further in, I finally access the Illuminati sanctum. I gotta say, this is decorated exactly how I’d picture a real Illuminati hidden lair would be.

Statue Puzzle

I eventually completed the mission and exited.

If I haven’t mentioned it already, I am really enjoying my time in TSW – I think it’s a great game. Nice mission variety, huge skill system with unique mechanics, etc. I know some people would blanch at the theme parkiness, but I like well done theme parks and so far (granted I’m still in the first area) it has been a fun time for me. Well worth the price.

Juggling MMO’s

Despite my blog name, I’m lousy and dividing up my time evenly. I find that playing 2 MMOs doesn’t result in a 50-50 split, it is more like 80-20. Similarly, trying to split time between 3 doesn’t come out as 33-33-33 (ok… 34-33-33 haha); for me it would likely be 70-20-10 or 60-20-20 at best. 4 MMO’s would probably be 70-10-10-10 rather than anything remotely close to 25% time devoted to each.

Basically, at any given time, there is one dominant MMO that I’m inspired to “get further” in and play more of. Which I suppose is fine, although I’m going to see if I can force a slightly better balance.

GW2 – Lowbie Zone exploration

My adventures in GW2 continue…

I hit level 12 or so while in Caledon Forest, and was at that awkward point of having finished everything earlier, but not quite being strong enough for the remainder. So I explored west into Metrica Province and worked my way to the corner where Rata Sum is. I really enjoy the look/feel of the Asura areas – floating cubes, golems, science with a fantasy twist. Poor Asurans though, for super geniuses they sure do have a lot of golem and machine calamities!

I did full exploration of each zone encountered on Aurora (my Asuran ele), exploring overland and steadily working my way around the map, but I found I wasn’t as enthused for that this time around. I did finish off Caledon Forest, but as for Metrica Province, I only discovered the waypoints (handy for future fast travel), did the hearts (good quest xp, rather than just grinding mobs) and skill challenges (extra skill points). I’m not going to get hung up on the Points of Interest or Scenic Vistas. I’m also trying to do more dynamic events, and have surprised myself by finishing a few on my own, despite being designed for groups.

I’m not going to explore as linearly on Summer (my Sylvari mesmer). Instead, I’m going to skip around, because I’ve spent very little time in Charr regions and quite a bit in the Asura/Sylvari ones. After arriving at Rata Sum, I ran around to discover all the waypoints, then zipped over to Lions Arch, Divinity’s Reach, Hoelbrak, and Black Citadel in order to do the same.

When I continue, I’m going to travel to the Black Citadel and quest out of there.

Super Adventure Box

For now, it is time to play the Super Adventure Box, because it might go away at the end of April!

After finding Moto near the Lion’s Arch Asura Gate, I jumped in and played around for a bit. It’s a fantastic game-within-a-game and great replica of good ol’ platformers from 20 years ago.

Super Adventure Box

Playing this reminded me of playing a Nintendo, from the graphics and music to the level flow. I hope they keep it around after April; it would be a shame to have this much effort by the artists and programmers only playable this month.

GW2 – Free Weekend

It has been a while since I played GW2, so I decided to jump back in and also try out the Mac client.

My main char, Aurora Tian, is somewhere towards the end of the storyline, on a mission named “Starving the Beast” out in Malchor’s Leap. I decided to roll up a new char instead. My two favorite professions from GW1 were ranger and mesmer, and I decided to start a new mesmer. What tipped me that direction was seeing a mesmer leveling guide on reddit, which also linked to some great videos.

I watched the first video and learned a ton. It’s kind of embarrassing actually, you see, I made it all the way to level 80 on my ele without understanding how combos worked. Ouch! I thought 2+ players were involved: one to lay down a combo field, and another to use a finisher skill. I was intrigued to see Mr. Prometheus (from the videos) doing both sides of the combo equation — and giving bonuses to his clones/phantasms! Hm… that sheds a different light on how I play my ele. I supposed I did OK in zerging action because other players were triggering the effects with combo finishers – in those situations I stayed back in water attunement and placed water combo fields. However, it seems that I can find better synergies among my own weapon skills by supplying both the field and finisher skill.

For now, I was eager to play a new char in a starter area. I went with a Sylvari mesmer (I also redid my other char slots and wound up with a Norn ranger, Charr guardian, Human thief. This way, someday way down the road I’ll theoretically be able to see portions of all the racial storylines) and dinked around Caledon Forest for a bit.

The early levels in GW2 are fun because every few minutes you are unlocking new weapon skills and the leveling is fairly fast as well. I grabbed all the weapons mesmers can use and was sure to keep swapping them around in order to unlock more skills, and then visited my Hall of Monuments to transmute all the weapons and armor into fancier looking items.

The game looks pretty good on my Mac Mini. Here is a screenshot of my mesmer standing outside the portal to The Grove:

Mesmer Costume (mac)

and here is a screenshot of the same pose on my PC:

Mesmer Costume (pc)

The similarity is good enough for me! Unfortunately my PC still hits the video problems I had months ago, despite always updating to newest video drivers, so I’m glad I have an alternate computer to play GW2 on. The game plays identically on the Mac/OSX as the PC/Windows. For the tech minded, my gaming notebook has GeForce 285M graphics, while the Mac Mini has Intel HD4000 integrated graphics. That probably matters for people who run insane resolutions or with every setting maxed out, but I’m happy. For my regular graphics demands, the only difference is a bit of text that says “Mac Beta” at the top, to the right of all the icons. You can spot it in this next screenshot where I didn’t hide the UI:

Mac GW2

In the options menu, taking a screenshot is bound to the “Print Screen” key… which doesn’t exist on most Mac keyboards. I have an Apple wired keyboard, which also doesn’t have a Print Screen key. However, there is an F13 key and it works as Print Screen, letting me have the same easy one-key screenshots I have on my PC (at least in GW2).

Actually, I just realized there is one slight difference between the PC and Mac versions of GW2: PC screenshots go into the Documents\Guild Wars 2\Screens folder, while Mac screenshots go onto the desktop (the game client message refers to the D: drive). Basically, no gameplay differences I’ve noticed at all, and the screenshot destination is too trivial to worry about, haha.

I kept going until I unlocked all weapon skills except for spear (I don’t really like the underwater portions of the map as much as the land areas – I get disoriented trying to determine which direction an attack is coming from) and hit level 11 where I earned a trait point. I spent it on Illusionists Celerity, following the leveling guide suggestion. Sometimes I enjoy fiddling with builds and taking a different path than typical (e.g. earth magic on my elementalist) and sometimes I’m good with being lazy and following someone else’s build suggestions (e.g. my mesmer so far).