Winter around Norrath

It's actually a graphical glitch, but it coincided with the change of weather in real life, so thought these were quite appropriate with the approach of Frostfell.

Antonica:

Nektulos Forest

Back in Everquest II

Interesting year for MMO's, in my humble opinion.  

World of Warcraft did an excellent job with the latest expansion, but something - I don't know what - just kinda fell flat for me.  I stopped playing at the end of September.

Fortunately The Secret World had just ended it's month long challenge and the Samhain event was right around the corner.  So, kept busy with the gang there. But I'm sooooo ready for new content in TSW and it looks like there won't be any until 2017.


For some reason, I decided to go check my EQ2 characters (I haven't played since 2011 and not seriously since 2009!), but logged in anyway.  EQ2 always keeps your houses, and I can dabble with redecorating for hours.  There are some amazing houses and talented people that come up with wonderful ideas - EQ2 Design Gallery,  EQ2 Decorators,  EQ2 Designers,  EQ2 Traders - show many of the creative genius in EQ2.


It was surprising - yes I know time flies...., buuuut, Star was approaching her 10th birthday in December.  She was still level 70 (that's how long ago I played her!), so I thought why not see if I can get her to 100 before she's 10, just for kicks.

Little did I know, I'd get sucked back in - very happily - to my first MMO and the one that has always been the benchmark against which all others have been measured.  The amount and quality of content still amazes me.  There are apparently over 8,000 quests, crafting, achievements, collections, battlegrounds, live events, 'guide' events, a customizable UI (that newer games still can't touch), 26 classes, 21 races, 9 crafting professions (3 secondary), in game games, and so much more!

So did I resub, oh yeah!  Unsubbed from WoW (I'll likely go back at some point - found of those characters too!), but I think EQ2 and TSW will be it for awhile.  Although I did promise that I would go do the past year of SWTOR and spend some time in ESO at some point in 2017.


Since mid-October I've been "organizing" the gang and adding a few new faces - sos I finally have ALL crafting professions (tradeskills) represented.  I found out, I had somehow at some point, purchased extra character slots so have 14 total, so saved some names/races/class combos, but I'm only concentrating on the nine that are crafters too.  Some person in general chat mentioned they had 23 characters! Yikes!! But as they're are achetypes, but each class does play somewhat differently, I may work towards one of each. Maybe!  I actually want to reroll a character on the time-locked (progression) server to experience the game as it unfolded.


Kunark Ascending launched today - the 13th expansion - aimed towards the level 100 characters.  It's received rave reviews in Beta, so hopefully it will be a good thing.

For my gang, back to leveling and crafting.  I have an instant 100 character slot, but as I haven't actually played the 73-100 zones, I'm going to do that first.

It feels awesome to be back in Norrath!

As Seen in Agartha (The Secret World)

Over the years I've posted on our Cabal forum screenshot of the amazing creative outfits the TSW players put together.

So, thought I'd start adding those here as I see them.  Most will be without names, just the wild, crazy, fun and OMG idea the community has for clothing.

The Secret World Museum

The Secret World version of Housing is The Museum of the Occult.

It's in London, but they did add a Lorentzian Fabricator, (purchase from The Curator), to port you directly to your lobby.

Layout map 

Each Wing of the Museum is opened by purchasing the Curator's contracts (there arre different ones see pic)  from the Curator.  Pedestals inside each wing are then upgraded with Pax, AP and a combination of Lore and Kill Count (see Achievements).  First is Classic (green), then Superior (blue) and finally Paragon (purple).  It is pricey to open ALL wings and upgrade as you must spend AP and Pax.   Each Classic pedestal is 75,000 pax, Superior  pedestals are 150,000 pax and Paragon run 300,000 pax.  The AP cost is start at 50-75 for most Classic. Superior tier is 100-125 AP and Paragon are 175-200 AP.  Centerpieces range from 175 to 500.

This is definitely a PAX and AP sink/end-game activity that won't be completed quickly.  Especially with the kill count requirements.  That said it is neat to go in the Museum and actually get to see so many of these monsters up close and the great detail the designers did on them.


There are also a number of tshirts, pets, a run speed, guardian (consumable pets with buffs) available in the Gift Shop.

** Many of the T's were designed by fellow TSW players!**

Each requires a specific achievement regarding setting pedestals and have their own PAX and Black Bullion requirement.

I opened all wings day one - it ran around 6 million pax.  I didn't keep exact count, then went out to grab Lore.  Fortunately TSW has such a great community a couple of shared Google Docs, made locations of ALL the new lore readily available to people


I did add a few pedestals randomly, but found that the one of the Egypt wings was ready to go so completed it first. This is the - The Extraordinary Fauna of Egypt with dear Dr. Klein as the centerpiece.

I did complete all wings to Classic level a couple weeks ago, and now have a mix of Classic, Superior and Paragon levels depending on achievements.  Many have different kill counts (1K for some 10K for others), that may take some time.  That and tracking down specific items required for pedestals upgrades.

The hardest (I think right now), will be the golems.  Getting to classic was easy.  Needing TWO shards for each upgrade (Classic > Superior > Paragon), with the extremely low drop rate on many of the Golem Shards.  It should allow everyone to hit 10K golem achievement, just trying to get the Golem Shards!






** If you are a 10K farmer, the Paranormal Investigations Society aka The Badgers have been 10K killing since launch.  Check out there strategies. http://thebadgers.enjin.com/

WoW's Legion Pre-Expansion 7.0 live

Pre-Expansion is live.

Time to learn how to play again with new abilities, builds and rotations, etc.

Time to reload or stop using the add ons that are broke until they're updated..

Time to explore the changes!

As my bank and bags are a mess - I can't remember the last time I used the default bags - and I need to learn all new everything.  I thought a better use of time today (to avoid the moaning in the chat channels!), take a tour and see how the "View" distance actually looks.

It's pretty amazing, to be able to see so much.  As the game was a bit laggy, I only snapped a few pics.


Looking out over the North Barrens and towards Orgimmar

The Stormwind Park is finally repaired (slow workers).

Blackrock Mountain can now be seen from Stormwind, smoldering in the distance.

You can see all the way to Westfall from Stormwind.

Found this pic too - the original Demonhunter!  Just a remind of what's coming.....

The Secret World's Six Month Reward

The Secret World's new six month reward - a faction uniform.


Dragon Uniform.  Some difference between the male and female style.

Illuminati Uniform.  Very similar.  I forgot to get a back shot of the men's, but I think it's solid.

Templar Uniform. Kind of in the middle as far as differences go between the Dragon and Illuminati.