Bat Country (Steamfont) - Current Roster (1/22/2006)

[Surlyboi]

Tyburon's up to 42 now and lurking around Cazic.

[Cheddar]

Whoa, I feel like I hopped into the wayback machine!  Anyone else going to be playing?

[Sauced]

I've got a 30 ranger, Kelavere, running around Oasis.

[Murgos]

Whoa, I feel like I hopped into the wayback machine!  Anyone else going to be playing?

When the new character models go live I will probably come in for a bit.  I figure by then with the expansions I've missed and other updates it should have enough entertainment value in it to be worth checking out.

Not sure when that is though. Late summer?

[Sky]

My Wizard is still lvl 30, but I've been playing some alts, 22 Ranger, 28 SK but mostly my Paladin in Kelethin, who hit 19 last night. I don't normally group, but Crushbone might be fun. I've only got one guy left on Lucan (the one with the pathetic jboots promotion), most of my guys are on Oasis now.

I wish SOE would allow the Pass benefits (extra characters, mostly) for normal subs. I think I've settled on EQ2 as my mmo to mess around with when I'm bored. Now that I FINALLY have an iPod, it's nice to hang out while I listen to tunes. In an odd way I get more music recorded because I've been listening to more music while playing EQ2.

[Sauced]

Are you aware of this, Sky?  Probably are, but if not it's the sort of thing you might enjoy knowing about.

http://eq2i.com/articles/Soloing_Timeline

Having a "/browser www.eq2i.com" is fairly handy as well.

[tazelbain]

Do you guys have another guild?  The only semi-active person in Bat Country is Surly.

[Sauced]

I'm currently in a small casual guild, the horribly named "Order of the Crescent Moon".  They are pretty decent folk, but mostly I just like having people to chat with while soloing.  They are usually doing shit with their 70s, but I think a massive alt roll is coming soon.

[Sky]

Thanks, Sauced. That's cool. I'm pretty set with my Freeport and Qeynos characters (my 28 SK's quest log is bursting), but I noticed my new Pally was down to like 7 quests and one is a looong one (Dwarven Ringmail Tunic, I should get it just in time to have my Steel Vanguard replace it).

Most of my characters are slightly higher crafters than their adventuring level. I've been loading up the ipod and vegging out harvesting/crafting lately.

I also wondered how to access a browser ingame, I'd heard you could do it. You rock, so I stole this award for you:

Do you guys have another guild?  The only semi-active person in Bat Country is Surly.

Signe kicked everyone out and blamed it on Lt Dan 

[Sauced]

God, I finally got rid of the dwarven ringmail tunic over the weekend.  Pretty sure that the look of crafted chain armor is the only thing that really chaps my ass at this point, but now that I have a fancy level 30 guild cloak on I don't have to look at it anymore, for the most part.

Oh, and glad I could be of some help Sky.  Keep Kelavere on your friends list, holla if you want to team up for some HQ or dungeon crawling action.  Right now I'm in love with Zek.  Took my 30 there and within an hour I was 31.5 and finally got my 24 and 25 AA points to make Archer.  And some really great leather armor, god damn useless as it is since I had just bought a new feysteel chain set.  More fodder to sacrifice to Tunare!

Speaking of that, have you tried the Deity stuff yet?

[Sky]

Heh, I actually try not to level too fast. I'm just cruising along with more quests than I can possibly finish...and I consider that a /good/ thing. Also, my SK was maybe 23ish when I resubbed this time, and there weren't AA abilities the last time I played him. Both he and my wizard (and maybe my 17 Guardian) got shafted, there should have been some kind of credit for quests finished (and exploration) prior to adding AA abilities! I can understand maybe the named kills and items, but the other two were definitely tracked per character prior.

The SK AA's are pretty nice, I use the damage shield (lifetap style) like mad, and adding small lifetaps to harm touch and a dot really round out my solo style. But my 22 Ranger has more AAs than my 28 SK and my 30 Wiz has maybe 2 or 3. Boo hiss.

I saw the deity stuff when I was first exploring Kelethin with my Paladin, wasn't sure what it did. I managed to pledge to Mithaniel Marr (figgering I was a pally), thought maybe I should've went Tunare (because I'm a high elf pally). Didn't really see what to do after that so promptly forgot about it for the next 19 levels.

[Sauced]

Well, you can't do the first quest til 25 anyway, so no rush.  Tunare's focus is on increasing healing spells, but it also has a nasty dot vs. undead and a group reactive heal.  Trying to remember what Marr is all about.  I know that Sol Ro has a wicked fire-based DD.

I actually get most of my xp from questing - from 10-16 I had combat xp off.  The thing about Zek is that there are 8 quest givers right off the boat, and most of the quests take place right outside the gates of the encampment.  Right now my plan is to switch between Zek and EL quests, and will probably turn XP off again so I can get all of the quest AA, until I hit 35 and can start Steamfont. 

Keep in mind that you can mentor down and hand in quests for level appropriate xp and AA points.  Just ask some random person in the zone if you can mentor them for a sec while turning in any lower quests.

[tazelbain]

Oasis is empty these days.  Even worse I made a Fae (safe fall is great).  I am level 18 and I haven't found a single group.  Seems the only way to get a group would be to hoof it to SH which I have already played to death.

[Sauced]

Seems like most of the Oasis community currently happens in the tier channels.  Usually several groups in each looking for group mates when I'm on, for dungeon crawling.  But Faydark was fairly empty when I started there, only duo'd a few times.  Seems to be the same with all of the outdoor zones - now that I'm in my 30s, I see more and more people running around.

[tazelbain]

Where is the ant druid ring?  I have a 54lvl warden.  Did some sight-seeing. Snaged Gfey, BB , and common rings.  But I don't remember there being an ant ring. LOL, got 1-shotted a few secs after zoning into Unrest.  Unrest was my favorite zone from EQ1.  It's a shame that it  is an end-game zone now.

[Sauced]

The Ant druid ring is in the NE, east of the KoS Spires on the bottom of the hill.

GU 35 looks good.  Important for me: Low-quality (light mapped?) shadows, and Tie That Binds for Kelethin citizens.

[shiznitz]

The new mounts are wolves/wargs, supposedly.

So after playing EQ2 since launch, I finally did two Labs raids this month with my guild. Raiding in EQ2 is so much more pleasant than EQ1 raiding. The fights don't take 45 minutes.  Took us 5 tries to split Vyemm the first time and 3 tries the second time. First run was 3hrs 12mins and the second run (2 weeks later) was 2hrs 25mins, perfectly reasonable in my mind.

Ventrilo was used and we didn't have that when I was doing EQ1 raiding so maybe that made all the difference.

[Sky]

I wish I had that kind of time to dedicate to playing games again. I might get a couple hours in a row but I'll never know ahead of time. I simply can't get into the raid/boss encounter style gameplay.

I'm currently not around Oasis because I don't have a gpu (it's RMA). My old pc is way too buggy for a no-save-game game like EQ2, crashy. Even crafting is out after I crashed while making a double-rare-ingredient recipe. Ouch.

[Sauced]

So two days ago I took my own advice, and joined a pug in Crushbone.  Had to mentor down (32 at the time), but I was only interested in checking out the zone and playing with other people for a while, so it was worth it. 

The zone itself is fun, with lots of different quest-clickables and mini-bosses.  The first night we never made it too the instance (most of the party was 23-25ish), so we met up again last night.  Were missing some people, so I had a 70 warden from my guild come and mentor down. 

The instance is so awesome.  When you get to the end, you see Emperor D'Vinn (lol) wielding Soulfire and ordering Crush around, and you go through a succession of fights, finally leading to Crush (34^^^, I think.  Maybe 35).  Once you finish him off, D'Vinn curses at you for a minute and then flees into the Acadechism, a 60ish instance if I'm not mistaken.  Apparently a mentored-down 70 is still a massive killing machine against 30ish mobs.

No lewts, tho.    XP is really great in there,  over halfway to 35.  Accidentally out-levelled the soloing content I was working on, but it should be easy now to blaze through Zek and EL.

[shiznitz]

In the past two days I did Den of the Devourer and the Vaults of El'Arad for the first time, both KoS instances in Barren Sky. Vaults is a fantastic zone with some new mob types I hadn't fought before (heroics that knockback, for instance). Vaults took about an hour and Den took a lot less. No epic mobs in either and only an 18 hour timer. Den is for mid-60s (boss 66^^^) and Vaults for upper-60s (boss 70^^^).

I also reached the level cap in an MMO before they raised it again for the first time ever (not counting 7xGM, of course.) In fact I went from deep into 68 to 70 in about 4 hours of playing thanks to +55% exp potions received for being a 3 year vet.

EQ2 has to raise the level cap soon, though. There are people in my guild with 4 level 70s.

[Sauced]

I had a 51 warrior in EQ1 circa Velious, and a 35 Nightshade in Daoc after that.  I might have my highest mmo char ever here in a month, which is just bizarre to me considering I play these stupid things all time.  If I didn't reroll every time I resub things would be different.

[Bandit]

The instance is so awesome.  When you get to the end, you see Emperor D'Vinn (lol) wielding Soulfire and ordering Crush around, and you go through a succession of fights, finally leading to Crush (34^^^, I think.  Maybe 35).  Once you finish him off, D'Vinn curses at you for a minute and then flees into the Acadechism, a 60ish instance if I'm not mistaken.  Apparently a mentored-down 70 is still a massive killing machine against 30ish mobs.

Yeah you fight D'Vinn in the end of Acadechism which is a mid 60's instance.  He drops into stealth numerous times during the fight and will attack random group mates.

In Crushbone Keep, you start to see some of the scripting they are using more and more in encounters.  The recently added "Unrest" is full of these scripts and makes for an extremely interesting zone.  Your screen actually fills with static and a talking skull appears at one point...definitely cool.  After the initial defeat you get mail from the end encounter the next day :P 

[shiznitz]

Acadechism is a great zone. Takes about an hour (done it in 38 minutes with higher level players), great loot, some tricky pulling and a great boss at the end. It is almost a short, on group raid. My zerk was using 3 items from that zone from 62-68 (arms, legs, buckler).

[UD_Delt]

The new mounts are wolves/wargs, supposedly.

So after playing EQ2 since launch, I finally did two Labs raids this month with my guild. Raiding in EQ2 is so much more pleasant than EQ1 raiding. The fights don't take 45 minutes.  Took us 5 tries to split Vyemm the first time and 3 tries the second time. First run was 3hrs 12mins and the second run (2 weeks later) was 2hrs 25mins, perfectly reasonable in my mind.

Ventrilo was used and we didn't have that when I was doing EQ1 raiding so maybe that made all the difference.

That's not bad at all for a first time through Labs. Labs is about the same level of difficulty as Lyceum and both of those are a bit easier than DeathToll which was the toughest T7 zone that came out with KOS.

Once you all are more geared out with some of the labs/lyceum fabled gear you'll be able to do Labs in a little over an hour.

[Bandit]

The new mounts are wolves/wargs, supposedly.

So after playing EQ2 since launch, I finally did two Labs raids this month with my guild. Raiding in EQ2 is so much more pleasant than EQ1 raiding. The fights don't take 45 minutes.  Took us 5 tries to split Vyemm the first time and 3 tries the second time. First run was 3hrs 12mins and the second run (2 weeks later) was 2hrs 25mins, perfectly reasonable in my mind.

Ventrilo was used and we didn't have that when I was doing EQ1 raiding so maybe that made all the difference.

That's not bad at all for a first time through Labs. Labs is about the same level of difficulty as Lyceum and both of those are a bit easier than DeathToll which was the toughest T7 zone that came out with KOS.

Once you all are more geared out with some of the labs/lyceum fabled gear you'll be able to do Labs in a little over an hour.

I can't wait for one-hour Labs runs.  I am currently in a very casual raid guild, only raiding 2x week.  We always have to rely on at least 4 pick-up raiders to fill out our ranks and it takes about 2 and a half  hours :(.  The loot is excellent though, and Labs seems to kick out more loot the Lyceum.   

Having much trouble defeating Gnorbl the Playful in the Lyceum as well, tough task with some pick up raiders...not that I am hardcore, but one screw up and its a group wipe.

[Ironwood]

 First run was 3hrs 12mins and the second run (2 weeks later) was 2hrs 25mins, perfectly reasonable in my mind.

Your mind is fractured.

[Sky]

Agreed. My SK has been parked in front of Harclave's for a month because I haven't had time to run the entire instance in one sitting. Just getting into the lower caves pushed the limit of my time, heh. (Granted for two of those weeks I didn't have a pc)

[Ezdaar]

Whoa, I feel like I hopped into the wayback machine!  Anyone else going to be playing?

When the new character models go live I will probably come in for a bit.  I figure by then with the expansions I've missed and other updates it should have enough entertainment value in it to be worth checking out.

Not sure when that is though. Late summer?

Got a link to info about new character models?

[Murgos]

http://eq2.warcry.com/scripts/news/view_news.phtml?site=68&id=68663

WarCry: Recently, there have been some fairly dramatic changes from the art team, such as the female running animations or the complete overhaul of the horse models. Are there other plans in the works to rework other models or animations?

Scott Hartsman: Yes. We’ve had a character project going for the past year or so. The goal is to reduce the number of distinct times that we need to re-create and re-fit armor whenever it gets created.

Between the US and SOGA models, each piece of wearable armor that we create needs to be fitted 40+ times. This makes wearable production exceptionally painful.

In the current character model system, it is no exaggeration to say that wearable production is a logical impossibility to be done on a reasonable time scale. The most obvious evidence of this is what you’ve seen with the class hats and why they’ve been taking so long to get done. With four new class hats coming out in the next update (Furies, Necromancers, Wardens, and Warlocks), we’re getting there.

We’ll have more details about this project as it gets a little closer to fruition.

Meanwhile, while that longer scale project gets worked on, we continue tweaking mount and character animations, as well as illusion and other-form animations as well. Expect interim improvements there over the next few live updates.

WarCry: What about racial or cultural armors? Is there any chance for kilts or tinkered armor sets?

Scott Hartsman: Once we get beyond the project I just described above, expect our ability to create new wearables to improve significantly.

It's not the first place I saw this information but it was the first one that popped up on google.  It's been in discussion for maybe 6 or 8 months now.

[Sky]

Hmm. Sounds like they're going to simplify models and reduce differentiation, with the converse of getting more armor types (that I'd probably never see because they're high end gear :P). Not sure I like that, models are one of EQ2's strong points (if not, as I always say, stylistically).

[Murgos]

Frankly I loathe the style of EQ2's current models for 90% of the races.  Also, I am a huge fan of having cool looking gear for my peeps which is something that is seriously missing from EQ2.  This update, when it actually appears, promises to make a big stab at fixing these issues.

IMO these are the two most outstanding issues left in the game since it launched.

[Sky]

So long as they don't dumb-down the models was my point. I like most of my 8 guys, but not really much outside them (and I imagine lots of players are invested in the look of their avatards).

One thing that really turned me off LotRO was the basic looking character models, it was like DAoC or something imo. Versus the tons of modelling done on EQ2 models, with fully modeled noses that interacted with specular lighting and self-shadowing. That shit is hot. Then throw in all the bump or normal or whatever mapping they have going on...

I haven't seen Vantaurd in action, but EQ2 smacks the living shit out of the graphics engine of every other mmo and most other games in general.

[Murgos]

EQ's models are technically well executed, it's the art design I don't like.  Slumped shoulders, fat butts, paunchy and thick instead of lean and muscled.

EQ2 is probably the only MMO so far that has lived long enough for its 'future proof' graphics engine to actually get a chance to show itself.  Seriously though that game was near unplayable on the generation of hardware I had when it launched.  I remember getting low single digit FPS in town.

I think they should be able to simultaneously improve the stylistic qualities of the models and make them conform to a more easy to design to skeleton without sacrificing technical quality.

[trias_e]

I might be interested in playing this again if you guys have an active guild of some sort.

Do you?

[tazelbain]

I might be interested in playing this again if you guys have an active guild of some sort.

Do you?

I am sum total of active members of Bat Country on Oasis.