The Secret World - Golden Week March 1-8

 

Things are heating up in the dead of Winter; a new Golden Week is here, running from March 1st through March 8th!  Here’s what to expect:

Gilded Rage

The golden Guardian of Gaia, Samsu Nasiru, walks the earth again.  Gather your best allies and hunt them down to earn your special rewards and tokens!

Doubled Ability Points

Every time you gain an Ability Point during this week, you will be awarded an additional bonus Ability Point!  This effect stacks with Timed AP boosters that are available from the Item Store.  This bonus doesn’t work with AP Injections!

Golden Vendor & Event Bags

The Merchant of Glitz opens for business with a fresh stock of High Roller’s Valises and pets!  High Roller’s Valises purchased from the Item Store grant 1 Lucky Coin when opened!  The Golden Bag of Lady Luck returns for those who want to spread some cheer, and grants 3 Lucky Coins to  the kind soul that opens it.

Glitz and Glam

The golden outfits and unicorn once again have their deep discounts, joined by the Gilded Geist Rider! Remember, this mount is only available during the event!


FUNCOM:  http://www.thesecretworld.com/news/GoldenWeekMAR17EN

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!

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.

Early Access should we buy into this?

I read this article early on Massively - Who benefits from MMO early access? and as I've been having this discussion with other gamers it got me to thinking.

Personally, I'm not against early access to help test a game as it's easy to get tunnel vision and "think" you know what a customer wants, not necessarily be giving them what they truly want/need.  But this pay to try a game that is a year plus still in development, does seem to be a bit of a money grab.

I did pay SOE for early access to Dragons Prophet back in 2013 (justification incoming), I did it as I had high hopes for this game, and the cost for early access included a substantial amount of Station Cash, which is useable in any SOE game, and I do play a few of those.  So it wasn't a totally loss if I didn't like it.  (I do still have intentions of getting past level 20 in DP maybe one day!)

Looking forward to 2015

It's almost a week into 2015 and MMO's well, nothing OMG spectacular on my radar sadly.
I've come to the conclusion most Korean style games are not to my taste, my time in ArcheAge confirmed that.  I don't care for the art style or grindy-ness of the play.

 My sub to ArcheAge (AA) expires in a few weeks and it's going to be shelved.  Many fun aspects of AA, but so many things wrong the scale tips to heavily in the "stop playing this game now" direction.  So this week, I'm giving away all the properties to guildies, emptying mail, closing account and saying goodbye.  Too bad, it seemed to have potential, but honestly I think the peak fun with ArcheAge was Alpha testing over the summer.  What XL/Trion have put out there is just wrong on so many levels.

ArcheAge more screenies

Leomorph with baby Leos.  Wish the ingame Leo pet could be out with the mount.

Chatty Scarecrow in Halcyona.  Supposedly a quest.  Need to check that one.

Funny farm in Arcum Iris

Creative use of an 8x8. How does he get in that coffin though?

Guy stuck in the ground.  He was there for 4 hours having escaped jail, so he said.

Truly stuck.  I haven't managed that one yet.

More player beautification of Marianople.

ArcheAge - You Scripter!

Now that ArcheAge is over a month out, properties are trickling in for unpaid taxes and are slated to be demolished.  The un-landed are searching zones, setting up spreadsheets, timers to make it to demolitions at all hours of the day/night.  People have friends help click, do area raid  invites to screw up the competition's clicking (hint - turn off raid, party, guild, etc, invites while at a demolition).  It can be very unfriendly at times.  PvP zones, guilds will go purple to kill off the competition on a desirable spot.

I've attended some land-grabs just for fun, some with the intent to try and win. (Would have loved the location below on the river in Marianople.) When a property is coming up for demo, people start hovering around hours before the actual demo time - which I don't get - it's not first in line for a Black Friday sale - as your position doesn't signify anything.  If you're there five hours before or five seconds, it's the winning click that counts!

  Big crowd for a place on the river in Marianople (couldn't screenshot the whole group waiting).

As buildable land is a finite resource in ArcheAge (there is much open/unused (no NPCs even!) land just not designated for housing/farming.)  People really want their own slice for a myriad of reasons: some want the house to decorate and call home; others. its all about farming for trade/crafting, or hoping on the rare Thunder-struck tree or Blizzard Bear Cub - everyone thinks they need their little chunk to call their own.

Whomever wins is always accuse of being a bot or scripter, etc., and often is.  Many properties are purchased by the same few names and resold within a short time.  Which feeds people's fury at losing again.  It's okay to lose to the player next to you from XYZ Guild, but not so much to a scripter that isn't even in visual distance and resells the property usually at a huge profit.

 This was a fairly normal group waiting.

When I read that you could be 80m away from a property getting demo'd, I thought that explained why we might not see someone that snags a property and always 'assume' they're a bot/scripter.   (Not saying there aren't alot of bots/hackers, etc., in game!)

Soooo, I had to try it.  How far could away could I be and actually still click to win. I found this 16x16 getting demo'd in Karkasse Ridgelands at 4 a.m. - perfect! If I didn't win, it wouldn't be a total loss - yes another 16 would be great - ever in need of more materials for trade runs - but it was not the ideal location I wanted.  So a perfect test - if I get it great, if not no loss there. 

This toon is only 22, so aside from the concern about getting killed prior to the click-a-thon (for the anti-PvPers - 3 deaths in a month in KR - it's pretty darn safe!), I wanted to see if I could indeed click from here and win.  I'm not sure of the actual distance, but there is one 16x16 and one 8x8 below the hill I'm on.

Did I win?  Darn right!  I out clicked the handful of people there by the time 4:14 rolled around.  I don't think they saw me or if they did, likely assumed I was /afk or something, but not actively involved in the land grab.  

You want to see this screen only the "build" button NOT greyed out.  That's a you didn't win.

When I came down (hoping I wasn't going to get a purple bloodlust attack going), I was accused of being a scripter.  I told the guy I wasn't who was naturally angry he'd lost.  Honestly though, there isn't any reason someone could or should be that far away IMHO (I don't know if I could have been further away as in no line of sight). Maybe highly desirable places in PvP zones - you might want some distance but I think you should be no further away than the adjacent property.

I really wish it would switch to a lottery type system. Put in your 1g (10g whatever), name comes up it's yours. Total RNG, but no cheating, no scripting, no macro's off your keyboard or mouse, no lag-loss, etc.  Straight up RNG, which we are all use to!

ArcheAge - Erecting a Fellowship Plaza

A Citizen's Fellowship Plaza once added to a zone gives the ability to create Fellowship Trade Packs for those that own property in that zone.  The balance of the crafting stations, vendors are open to the public, but the Specialty Bench is only for residents (citizens of that housing province).

It is quite an undertaking, usually by a guild or individual with deep pockets and alot of land!  I'm fortunate on Tahyang, McFly (I assume with friends?) built one in Marianople and the guild Conviction built one in Halcyona where fortunately I do own properties. 

I missed the one going up in Marianople, but did attend (and contributed a couple of stone packs) to the guild Conviction erecting the Fellowship Plaza in Halcyona.

First step buying the plans.  500 Gilda Stars is alot of trade pack runs!

After you have the plans you need:

30 Stone Packs (each pack is 100 stone brick or 300 raw stone)
10 Iron Packs  (each pack is 100 iron ingots or 300 iron ore)
10 Lumber Packs (each pack is 100 lumber or 300 logs)

The packs like all the housing have to be added in order.  So, 30 stone packs have to be placed first.

Stone packs down, iron being added.

 Iron in place and lumber going down

Completed Fellowship Plaza.

Conviction did a nice job placing this in Halcyona.  It's next to their town hall with easy access for everyone in the area.

Making of the first specialty pack.

 Most housing areas have crafting work stations, etc., but the specialty workbench only allows the production of a specific trade pack from that zone. (Ex. Marianople - Marianople Face Cream.)  These trade packs do not fluctuate in terms of price based on turn in as only residents of that zone make them.  So you're almost guaranteed the 130% return on a pack. (The ingame trade pack calculator is your friend for following percentage returns.)

ArchAge Farm Cart - getting stuck

I have a farm cart, which is truly great for trade pack runs, being able to turn in three packs versus one. especially on those long hauls from Hellswamp to Gweonid or Gweonid to Sanddeep (two of my favorite with the best payout!).  The first time we did those on donkey's it took 45 minutes.  The donkey is still pretty quick if you have carrot on a stick and use Songcraft ability "Quick Step", it can keep up with a cart using Eco-Fuel with no problem.

The cost to make one is high depending on your servers going rate for a Thunderstruck log (from a Thunderstruck tree!). On Tehyang it's been running about 300g for a log which is a component of one part of the cart. The RNG Gods have not been in my favor the past month, but I did get my cart built anyway!  If you can scrape the cash together or trade something, it's well worth it, as you can recoup the gold doing trade runs relatively quickly.

 My Leomorph got knocked up into my cart and road there for awhile

The carts aren't very speedy, unless you burn Eco-Fuel. As I do raise geese (the best for eco-fuel production!), I'm not terribly thrifty on using fuel to roll on down the road.  The first few days, (well occasionally I still get stuck), I managed to get my cart stuck in some of the most unusual ways.  You never can tell what it will go over and what will get you stuck!  It's a tad trial and error.

Slow rendering trees are a hazard and can impale your cart.

You can safely go across most plant material in an immature state (including most trees - not bamboo!), as well as fencing - the brown and white, not so sure on the stone/iron and many animals on farms (housing area short cuts can be a major PiA until you get your routes down!)

Collision can be another issue, as trollys and other vehicles can knock you about at times or block your path completely.  We had a guild blocking bridges for awhile to scam bridge tolls from people.

Pushed into the bridge by the trolly in Halycona

Rider's Escape ability is your friend, but as I found out the hard way, make sure you're in a clear, safe area or your cart can be placed in even a worse position!  

 First time using Rider's Escape I was headed down hill, it reset me to this!

To use Rider's Escape you have to be within 20 meters of your stuck cart. So pick a good spot to have it moved to as there is a long cool down on this ability.  (FYI - if you cancel Rider's Escape once you've started it may count it as used, so be careful!.) Your only other choice will be to unload your cart, despawn and respawn it.  Good to travel with friends on those occasions or have helpful guildies around to help you unload/guard your packs.

ArcheAge building a clipper

Building your first boat in ArcheAge is pretty exciting.  Not as exciting as bu8ilding/watching the huge galleon being built, but your first clipper is pretty cool to have!  As I didn't build one in Alpha, I was determined that would be short listed at launch (well after the house and farms were going!).

To build a Harpoon Clipper you need:

1. The plans (50 gilda stars) purchased on Mirage Island (you can find them listed on the auction house for 35-100g)
2. 10 gold, 10 iron bricks and 10 lumber for the dry dock
3. One lumber pack (100 lumber), one iron pack (100 ore) and one fabric pack (100 fabric)  don't make these ahead, you have to add them one at a time in a specific order. Important to place your dry dock close to crafting stations (metal, stone and fabric).  

The dry dock is protected for three days, so you have plenty of time to complete construction.  I found it easier to have everything ready to go and just run the three packs out.  You can have trusted friends/guildmates help carry packs too.

 Early in the game (or for a low level poor character!), the hardest part of getting your clipper is collecting the materials.  Three hundred logs, three hundred iron and depending on if you use wool (3 to 1) or cotton (10 to 1) takes some time or deep pockets or generous friends!  People that really focus or have friends/guilds helping can achieve this relatively quickly.

So, after my house was up and the 16x16 farm pumping out logs, and wool regularly (sheep 16-19 a clip), I set about getting the gilda together for the Harpoon Clipper.  I'd really like the fishing boat, but at 250 gilda stars that will be down the road!  Fortunately with the dailies and the story quest line collecting 50 doesn't take that long.

  First pack of lumber off to the dry dock.

Most people build their ships along the coast or at one of the ports like Ezna in Two Crowns. But, you also get harassed by the various "I'm working on being a pirate" guilds, "red" players, etc., jumping around and blocking your way, so as I'm a chicken and novice boat captain, I decided to be very safe and set up my dry dock in the river outside Marianople.  It took some maneuvering to find a deep enough spot, but I did succeed.  Some people build in the lake in Two Crowns as well.  For my needs, Marianople worked as crafting stations were close and a short swim on the donkey.

As you add each pack, more of the boat is revealed.  It does cost labor points (LP) to build the boat so make sure you aren't running on empty!

Completed boat, launching with fireworks going off!

The boat launched, I jumped on, looked at the commands and promptly despawned it!

My first practice run, was north of Crescent Throne (there is a dock off the royal palace that isn't used much), and I practiced turning, spawning/despawning there.

Sailing a ship in ArcheAge is one of the many fun activities.  XL Games/Trion have done a wonderful job with the weather, water and sea creatures (watch out for sea bugs and giant jelly fish!).

** Be sure to set up your keybinds if you haven't (the same ones you use for the rowboat/glider), for left turn, right turn, back, forward, etc.

ArcheAge - The 2,000 queue week

ArcheAge (AA) launched on September 16th, a Tuesday, after a four day Head Start for pre-order Patron's of the game.

HeadStart and Launch have been less than ideal with numerous bugs, glitches, potential DDOS attacks, etc., along with the endless queues.

Since launch, with the addition of the F2P (Free to Play) players to the already over-populated servers, Trion began adding servers.  Today, Sunday night (almost Midnight EST).  ALL eleven USA servers are in major queues with the original servers - Tahyang, Aranzeb, Naima, Kyrios, Ollo and Salphira - no additional characters can be made of any race at all.

Queue times are hours and I'm not sure how bad F2P people are faring but Patrons, we in queues of 1500-2500 that take upwards of two-three hours (when lucky) to get to the character select.  Europe is rumored to have queues in the 25,000 range. I don't even know what that means!  Queue for a few days?  Servers don't even hold that many people!

The number of angry and irate threads on the AA forum is overwhelming I'd think for Trion to even keep civil; let alone Twitter, Reddit and other social media burning up with AA's launch.

It's understandable not wanting to start with too many servers as AA because of the non-instanced housing will be difficult at best to merge low population servers later, but the frustration many are feeling at NOT being able to play even for a half-hour per day is substantial.

 So, is this a brilliant marketing plan in the "no publicity is bad publicity" way of thinking?  Or a severe "miss-guess" on Trion's part?

I thought it was a major Trion cock-up, but I'm wondering maybe they did know and are taking advantage of all the hype driving more people to want to see what all the talk is about. I know a few people that went ahead and paid a sub this week, hoping it would alleviate the long queues (F2P are queueing for 6-10 hours).  I'd hate to think they did this to their paying client base, but ??

As for me, my latest three hour queue (fourth time today getting bounced for various reasons) is down to 484, and it's getting about log out time for many of the EST players.

So, I just might get to log on today.....

ArcheAge Trade Pack Running

Trade pack runs are a good source of gold, gilda starts and/or rare crafting materials, as they are an intregral part of playing ArcheAge.  The first few trade pack runs are required to get your 16 x 16 Scarecrow Farm (west walkthru), which isn't a requirement, but definitely is a necessity if you craft or want to do trade runs without spending a fortune on the auction house.

Taking a pack to Solzreed turn in on my donkey using 'carrot on a stick' speed buff

If you're going to do trade pack runs, plan you're route once you're past the first required ones.  The different travel options available - AA Map - can save time or increase your return per pack.  Sometimes it's quicker on the donkey or farm wagon; sometimes public transport or an airbus (cross your fingers you didn't just miss one) ride saves time or a quick boat ride up the coast.

The biggest reward is generally the furthest away, overseas definitely, but crossing several zones is can be worth more than delivering a pack one zone away.  But, it also depends on how many other people are delivering packs to the same Trader as what you receive.

During peace time you will notice many people make packs in those zones.  It will be up to you to deliver them right away or store them on your farm for later delivery.

West (Nuia) delivery locations
Solzreed Pennisula (docks)
Gweonid Forest (under airbus)
Marianople (docks)
Two Crown (Ezna dock)
Cinderstone Moor
Sanddeep (dock)

East (Haranya) delivery locations
Solis Headlands (dock)
Mahadevi
Villanelle
Falcorth Plains
Arcus Iris
Ynystere (dock)

** Freedrich Island (3-4 gilda stars) lots of pirates, so beware

 You will only receive gold for continental deliveries, whereas overseas you can chose gold, gild stars or rare materials (need these for crafting) from the resource trader.  Whatever you choose will be delivered in less than 24 hours.

You can check the current return on a delivery to a specific area on the vocation tab under "Trade Info".  There is also an independent website Trade Profit Calculator. (I use the ingame tab under Vocation.)

Two Crown dock. West can only sell to Gold Trader, East can choose.  It's reversed on Haranya.

 What you need for Trade Packs
As the crafting in AA has been simplified as well, many common ingredients are repeated in different combinations for the packs, versus a specific plant or meat product that was required in the past.  So check your tooltip as to what the finished product is for each item.

A couple of examples:

Dried Flowers for example can be processed from a variety of flower/plant material - azalea and roses are often the easiest to grow/harvest in the wild, but there are other options.  Some will give more Dried Flowers, but may take longer to harvest.  That's where you need to decide which is better for you - quick harvest/small reward versus long harvest/more reward.  Processing will cost 5 LP (labor points) regardless.

Medicinal Powder: processing 10 mushrooms will result in 15 Medicinal Powder versus Thistle (23 powder) or Clubhead Fungus (77 powder).  It's a trade off time to grow versus quantity.  If you play every couple of days a longer growing plant may be better than one that's ready in two hours, that you won't need or use for 48 hours.  Again, all processing costs 5 LP (labor points).

You also must have ten of the same material (mushroom, duck meat, whatever), along with Blue Salt Knife (buy a stack they're cheap) to process. So don't grow just one bean! I gather lots of materials when I have excess LP, so stick the odds and ends in the bank to process when I have ten, or sell on the AH.  To process, just click on the product and it will process (costing labor!).  Be careful if you're splitting an unprocessed stack too.  I've hit the wrong key and processed an ingredient that I didn't mean to.

(Mushrooms, trees and pumpkins growing on a 16x16)

These are the finished products you'll work with for the trade packs and crafting.

Trimmed Meat (chicken and beef).  Other meat can work such as turkey/duck, etc. Chicken is the quickest, and also gives you eggs if you feed your chickens.

Orchard Puree (grapes and apples).  Other fruit will work too, but grapes are probably the easiest to get.

Dried Flowers (azalea and roses).  Azalea are the easiest/quickest to grow but there are a variety of others that will become dried flowers.  Lotus/cornflower give more per harvest.  Always read the tooltip, sometimes long and slow works if you won't be on, etc.

Ground Grain (barley/rice/beans/wheat).  Barley and rice are the fastest, beans give more per harvest.  Barley ready in 30-40 min., is pretty quick.

Ground Spices. (iris/mint).  Lots of herbs/plants will grind for spices.  Check the harvest time though! (Lots of choices here just remember you need 10 of the same kind to process!)

Medicinal Powder. (mushrooms).  Mushrooms are the most common, but cultivated ginseng, thistle, clubhead fungus will work.

Chopped Produce. (potato/carrot/cucumber).  Cucumber/potato have the fastest harvest time 8-10 minutes, so good if you're leveling the profession too. Strawberries will become produce too.

The second column ingredients are the specific one.  Many are used in the first column as well - grapes and apples for orchard puree or mushrooms for medicinal powder - others such as milk, require raising a calf to maturity and milking it.

Trade packs require the below components along with a Quality Certificate purchased from a General Merchant at the Specialty Workbench in each zone.   (below info is in your commerce section of your skills window.) AND labor points (LP!)

 All specialty workbenches look the same and can be marked on your map.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

   ZONE                                 ITEM   / QUANTITY       SECOND ITEM / Quantity

	Solzreed Braised Meat	Trimmed Meat	50	Egg	30
		(chicken/beef)
	Solzreed Dried Food	Trimmed Meat	50	Grape	35
		(chicken/beef)
	Gweonid Dyed Feathers	Orchard Puree	15	Goose Down	15
		(grapes/apples)
	Gweonid Apple Pies	Dried Flowers	50	Apples	15
		(azalea/roses)
	Lilyut Hills Milk Soap	Ground Spices	50	Milk	20
		(iris/mint)
	Lilyut Cooking Oil	Dried Flowers	50	Olives	12
		(azalea/roses)
	Dwestone Fine Thread	Ground Grain	50	Goat Wool	30
		(barley/rice/beans)
	Dewstone Distilled Liquor	Medicinal Powder	50	Narcissus	190
		(Mushrooms)
	White Arden Trail Mix	Chopped Produce	50	Milk	15
		(potatoes/carrots)
	White Arden Figgy Pudding	Ground Grain	50	Fig	40
		(barley/rice/beans)
	Marianople Duck Down	Dried Flowers	50	Duck Down	30
		(azalea/roses)
	Marianople Sweeteners	Ground Spices	50	Cherry	8
		(iris/mint)
	Two Crowns Cream	Medicinal Powder	50	Milk	20
		(Mushrooms)
	Two Crowns Pomme Cakes	Ground Grain	50	Pomegranate	10
		(barley/rice/beans)
	Cinderstone Tart Mead	Dried Flowers	50	Lemon	20
		(azalea/roses)
	Cinderstone Sacred Candles	Ground Spices	50	Bay Leaf	40
		(iris/mint)
	Halcyona  Wheat Biscuit	Ground Grain	50	Eggs	35
		(barley/rice/beans)
	Halcyona Yam Pasta	Dried Flowers	50	Yams	90
		(azalea/roses)
	Hellswamp Spicy Meat	Trimmed Meat	50	Banana	12
		(chicken/beef)
	Hellswamp Mushroom Pot Pies	Orchard Puree	15	Mushrooms	100
		(grapes/apples)
	Sanddeep Medicinal Poltice	Medicinal Powder	15	Avacado	45
		(Mushrooms)
	Sanddeep Preserved Meat	Trimmed Meat	50	Rosemary	100
		(chicken/beef)

ArcheAge Launch

Soooo, AA (ArcheAge) officially launched today. 

I will say the HeadStart post about Saturday afternoon was very smooth and fairly queue/bug free.

Tonight, the queue's are back, but that's to be expected.  The downside has been the somewhat controversial release today of the new "starter" packs, that many feel are giving a tad more than the Patron's did.  There's a few threads on the forum about this as well as an un-official poll.

After a dismal first day of HeadStart, including having to completed uninstall AA and Glyph, and reinstall overnight, I wasn't a happy camper.  I border a friends PC that is playing AA too, and ran around to find a place to plunk down my house. Not where I wanted it, but it was put down.  I kind of feel Trion/XL Games, made it too easy to get that initial house.  It didn't feel like an achievement at all.  We all knew it was going to be a land rush on Friday, but with 50-75% of the people crashing, queue nightmares, the land grab wasn't pretty for many of us.

Saturday looked bright as the game patched and loaded, well server issues, DDOS attacks? and queues, I didn't get on until late on Saturday.  After that it's ran fairly smoothly.  Random character selection black screens, that require reloading the game, some lag spikes randomly, but otherwise it's been great!

As for my journey, I did get my character made, an Elf.  We blew through the initial quests to get the small scarecrow farm and donkey trade pack completed and started working on the materials for the 16x16 farm.  (I should say thank you to Trion for being so generous with ingame gold, it made buying many of the low level mats much, much easier.)

Sunday, I was fortunate to get the 16x16 farm quest out of the way as well.  After not finding housing, I didn't think I'd find anywhere to put the 16x16 down, but finally did, out in Karkasse Ridge under the bones of a giant dragon tail.  It's a fairly desolate looking area, but quiet.  I have an alt toon parked out there to manage the farming, so I can work on getting the Elf to 50.

Right now she's 26, (waiting to get back in after a black screen d/c, queue of 600+/52 minutes) we're questing in Two Crowns heading towards Cinderstone.  That should be fun, I've never been in Cinderstone at all and will be my first time in a contested zone, so a new place to explore and quests I haven't touched and likely much PvP death!

Here's a fun blog I found today - Killadrix.com - love his AA Headstart review.