The Renaissance

Today was also the day where I was accepted into The Renaissance as a full member :-)

Thing with AO is, being in a good guild is pretty much key. And I do believe I've bumped into a good bunch of people here. Well bumped into... lots and lots of names I remember from "way back when" - and more seem to be joining daily. Recent applicants include Syryx, Maimgara, Najema (and likely more, whom I just don't remember at this time).

Uncle Bazzit

ok, been quite a busy time in RK-4 these past weeks so I've been left with very little time to play, much less write anything somewhat intelligble here (assuming I ever do :P).

Few things've been happening though. Firstly, I managed to win loot of a very nifty Communications Relay in one of the many guild alien raids I've been doing (easy to fit those in, on an otherwise limited game time schedule). Ok, so it's not QL300 - but certainly close enough for comfort ;-)

Thing is tho, in order to actually equip that thing, one needs to complete a quest for that shady character who set up shop in Meetmedere, Uncle Bazzit. Now he is probably also to blame for the zone now being 75% instead of 25% - so am not too terribly fond of his little shop tbh. But nevermind that discussion for now.

Turned out to be quite a fun quest though. Took me to several far corners of Rubi-Ka, and it's certainly a nice change from the Shadowlands scenery. That, and the fact that soloing 4 Real Mean enforcer mobs was something I quite honestly wasn't ever expecting I would be doing - I remember how much they used to scare us back in the days of Broken Shores missioning ;-)

Only real troublesome part I spose was, when I had to enter Old Athen and track down a certain Vanguard leader. Not that he was the problem, but his bullies sure was after my sorry hide (thus pvp enabling me :P) and ended up being chased all over OA by several bored clan agents, fixers and whatnot :P Made it out again safely though, and the rest of the quest was pretty much routine. I guess a "thank you" to Kwautrawn is well in order here though, for travelling from Omni-1 to the far reaches of Belial Forest - bringing me a Lock Pick *blush*. Not used one of those in quite a while, and silly me was dead in my tracks from locked doors :P

Anyhow. Whole thing took around 2-3 hours, and ended well. My Comm Relay is equipped, and I am a few steps closer to finally being able to self cast Beauty of Life. Still gonna need to get to 220 though (halfway to 219 now) I think, before it's in the box.

Spending time with old friends

The past week or so hasn't excactly been filled with those momumental events that one would normally put down in a blog such as this. Been doing a few alien raids on Upana (he is now ALVL 11), been doing some SK missions here and there (bringing him about 1/3rd up in L218). All in all, nothing spectacular, just hanging out playing the game and all.

More importantly though, the time inbetween was spent, playing with some of the old friends I bumped into who are now returning :-) Having played intensely on a highlevel character for so long, one tends to forget how fun the game actually is (perhaps even moreso) on the lower levels of the game. That's when you play the game for the SAKE of actually playing it - having a good time. Am not talking about making tower pvp twinks here... just logging on some old toon - and go with it... se where it takes ya.

It's not that the highlevel game isn't fun and challenging. It's mandatory that an MMO provides with "endless" content for players, for a very long period of time. Now we all know it isn't endless, but there's sure plenty of goals one can set for oneself. So you play the game with purposes at higher levels. Camping this mob for that item, joining that raid for this item, going through this quest... etc etc etc.

And for some reason, it's just not like that. Or rather - it's not how this past week or so has been, when I've been playing on new alts (or old dusty ones) with my friends. Had fun exploring Elysium - a lot of "ooooo" and "aaaaah" and "YIKES!" *g* ;) See, when SL was first released, all us 200s pretty much dashed for the end, and didn't stop till we hit the gates of Pandemonium. Ok, so a bit glorified version of the truth - in reality we were stopped countless times by bugged quests to get there, but nevermind that now ;-) So I actually never spent much time in Elysium. Nor is it really interesting for a high level player to do so - to be honest. Nothing but grey mobs and uninteresting loot.

But as a young level 50 doc or MA or crat - Elysium takes on a whole new perspective. Not because of the zone - but because of one's approach to it. Being with friends who feel the same - and aren't all worked up about "oh oh we must do so and so, and we must go there and kill those thingies that may drop...".

I recommend you try it :-) Forget about twinking for a while (if you're an old time player - believe me... you'll survive WITHOUT being twinked to your teeth) - and just go have some fun. The game IS fun - also on the lower levels. And I, personally, for sure need a break from the 4m SK ahead of me for 220, from time to time ;-)

A lesson in longevity

Wow, seems there's a massive influx of real oldtime players in AO these days :-)

Not only did my oldest friend in AO, Syryx, return today, but I just keep bumping into people from "way back when". Even saw Celliz online today, altho there was no response or recognition to be found.

Now don't get me wrong, I don't mind at all ;-) Am just wondering - since well... it's not like Funcom just released a new expansion or anything, so why now? But then I'm thinking, maybe it's true what any old fart will tell you about AO (myself included) - "In the end, they all come back". Because at this time, I just don't see ANY MMO out there, with the same kind of longevity that AO offers. I mean... I played it for years - and I'm still nowhere near "completing" any of my characters. There's still twinking to be done, still items to be had, still XP (or AXP or SK) out there to be farmed, still skills to be gained.

And in the end, I guess that's the only thing that really makes any game worthwhile in the long run. No matter the fancy features of the competition products.

So what to do about Tara...?

As one of the roughly 200 people present at yesterday's Tara raid, I'm sure I can't be the only one wondering what could be done about the situation there.

It's no secret to anyone, the clans are pretty much dominating the dungeon there these days (evident, if by nothing else than the massive amount of title 4 and 5 people I counted there yesterday - certainly not looking like they were expecting a fight :p).

Nor is it a secret that it was a planned thing, that Omni appeared in large numbers at the raid - filling as much as an estimated 100-120 people into the box room more than 2 hours before Tara popped.

Now... as if the Omni presence alone wasn't bad enough (lagwise) - everything went pretty much south when clans started arriving. I don't know their excact numbers, but a cautious estimate of some 90-110 people probably isn't far off the mark.

Massive LDs and crashes ensued. On both sides fortunately, however sadly for everyone involved. Myself - I stopped counting LDs at 8.

Right, so... the EASY thing to do, is just start bitching and moaning about Funcom's inability to solve these issues. But fact is - even NEW game engines can't deal with this problem - no matter what anyone claims. I've not played WoW, but I do know that in SWG, the problems of large numbers of people gathering in very little space is an issue - and SoE have no solution for it either. There's a lot of technicalities involved, of which I probably know less than one third, but suffice it to say - the problem isn't a 2 minute fix.

So what are the alternatives?

The dungeon used to be capped at 120 people (as I recall). When more than 120 people entered, a new groupselector was spawned. Now, for whatever reason, Funcom removed this cap entirely - and I dunno... the cap was annoying, but removing it completely certainly isn't a very good solution either. Yesterday made that, all too evident.

So if no cap, what then?

Personally, I wouldn't mind seeing the dungeon level locked. Limit it to say... title 5 and 6 characters. Would provide something fun and "useful" for characters in that level range to do and focus on (since pvp is a massive danger for them atm, they're quite squishy when a L220 starts pounding on them :p and yes - I know that the pvp caps are about to change, but let's see how that works out).

Or maybe limit it to title 4 and 5 even. Not only would it be fun, it would certainly be a challenge again to bring down the old bird - and the pvp would require more from everyone than just gathering in a big blob, waiting for the opponent to fall victim to either crowd control or LD.

I don't know.

But some way, somehow, I feel the issue needs to be adressed. It's the oldest dungeon I know of in the game, and it will always hold a special "feel" to me. As I assume it does, to many people who've been with it since the beginning. Both in times when clan was dominating, and in times of Omni domination.

Omni-Tek Award - Exemplar

Well whattayaknow...

Seems all those endless missions to City of Home pulled from Newland finally paid off. Well paid off, other than the obvious - bringing Upana to level 200 back in the day :-)

All in all it left him with roughly 5.000 tokens of appreciation, and as most will know - the maximum reward for quite a while has been the Omni-Tek Award - Flags of Glory and Redemption which is granted at 1.000 tokens. Then the Messenger Merit Board was introduced in patch 14.9 but was, for me anyway, not all that easily accessible. Intense raiding at Hollow Island was needed - and the odds of getting the needed board quite slim.

So anyhow. Logged on this evening, and a PF raid was just about to start. It's Omni week to decide the area, and we ended up in 28. About 65 of us or so - so you can probably imagine the lag. Anyhow, apart from a few people (or one, atleast) running into the laser fences, getting themselves roasted, the raid was pretty uneventful. AXP was quite below average, as there was targetting issues and quite long responsetimes on starting attacks. At the end, I was somewhat disappointed about the amount of AXP gained - but o well. Not like I had anything better to do at the time.

Mood quickly took a turn for the better tho. See I wasn't really expecting any luck on the loot at the end - with so many people being there. But seemed most everyone else was interested in a component for a new NCU belt (I remember looking it up - it DOES look nifty indeed) - so was hardly any competition for the Kyr'Ozch Helmet which was also part of the loot. I won it :-) And as it happens, the helmet can be traded in to the local Omni-Tek Observer for this very very nifty Omni-Tek Award - Exemplar token of gratitude :-)

Not bad, for a casual logon, just expecting to maybe grind a little SK or farm some patterns for symbiants to some of the alts ;-)

Getting back in the saddle

Years of online gaming has taught me a thing or two. And if there's one thing that's becoming more and more clear to me now - it's to never gimp characters or accounts out that you leave behind :-)

Many in the community probably know what I'm talking about. You get fed up with the game, RL prevents you from dedicating time to it - or whatever the reason. So you decide to throw in the towel and leave. This always raises the issue (and about a thousand instances of the all too familiar question; "Can I have ur stuffs plz?") of what is to become of the massive wealth you have accumulated?

Fair being fair - many of us gain items through the help of friends or guildmates, and it would seem fair that the items of value be put back into circulation where they can be of use. But for anything else - I (now) say: "Hang onto it, for crying out loud" :-P

Now, am not being bitter or anything. When I last left Anarchy Online, I was absolutely certain I would never set my foot in there ever again (*g*... but I was... honest). So I pretty much gave away anything of real value - to whomever I felt deserved it. And this was never really an issue, until I (tadaa...) decided to return, a couple of weeks ago. The Alien Invasion expansion had been launched in the meanwhile - tonnes of new nifty equipment to be had - and people pretty much looking at me like I'm some ancient relic just because I'm still walking around in Bellum Badonis armor :P (hey! that was state of the art, a year ago! it was! :p)

But oh well... Nothing to do but just brush it off, and get back in the saddle. Upana is, fortunately, a very capable character - and by just investing time in him, I am fairly sure I can get decent earnings going again - and with a little luck the giggling will stop ;)

Actually already made a nifty catch yesterday. Team of us were SK farming up near Ithaki, and whattayaknow... he was packing a Syndicate Messenger Gun - and even better... I won the roll for it :-) Now I am all for a "need before greed" policy on such loot, but fact is - there was no fixers in the group - and noone had any particular claim for the piece. So all was well - and as expected it quickly sold on the forums - 175m in much needed cash. (ref)

In the true spirit of "easy comes...", I quickly rushed out and picked up a few goodies for Upana. Picked up a Viral Compiler (15m), a Viral Memory Storage Unit (5m - a bargain really), and a few assorted shotties for Divestoor. Poor fella is completely stripped of most of his basic gear - and they nerfed traders to kingdom come, on top of it :P Feels nice to have a bit of pocket change again :-)

Other than that, I bumped into Lucrezia, an old old old friend of mine from back in the day. It's nice to see so many familiar faces in the game still - and the number of people returning after trying out other worlds like SWG, WoW, CoH or whatever they've been up to.

And so it begins...

Better late than never, I suppose.

Some 5 years after my first encounter with online gaming, I realized that there's just too many memories getting lost in the ol' ticker. Maybe it's because I'm getting old, or maybe it's just because it gets hard to keep track of the countless events encountered in the online gaming universe. Or maybe it's both ;)

For whatever the reason, I've decided to start logging what goes on. Mainly doing it for my own sake tbh, so I'll be able to look back. But who knows - maybe it will prove useful for other purposes as well. Might even be interesting for outsiders to follow - I guess only time will tell ;)

Should be fun :)

Upa