Maine Tech Geeks

So, it's been a while since I posted on the continued development of Chromata, my erstwhile Erudite conjuror in Everquest 2 (on the Unrest server, so if you're there, send me a tell). Much has transpired since the last post on his progress, and this will hopefully serve to fill you in on the details...

Chromata is now level 23, on the threshold of level 24, which is a good level in the early development of a conjuror. At this level, I get an upgrade to my earth pet (which is incredibly important to me, as I am primarily a solo player). As a side note, I spend a decent amount of time on the broker (the way you access the items being sold by other players on your server), looking for deals on spells, rare spell components, and equipment for Chro. I was very lucky to scoop up a Master I copy of the previously-mentioned earth pet upgrade spell, for a fraction of what it's really worth, at least to me. Being a solo player, my pet is basically my only line of defense between me and the mobs, so the stronger the pet is, the longer I live and the more I can accomplish. To have a Master I pet should allow me to complete quests, take on mobs, and generally advance more easily than if I didn't. It was the first Master spell I'd ever owned (I've since purchased a couple of lesser utility spell Masters, but this one is SO much more important than they are), and I cannot wait to conjure up my first master Tellurian soldier. There are a lot of quests I've been waiting to complete until I had this bad boy, so things could get very interesting...

Also at this level, conjurors get a spell called Aqueous Stalkers, which is a swarm of water-based creatures which can be called at the same time the conjuror has their main pet up, and will assist in fighting the current mob. They apparently disappear after the fight is over (if they survive the fight), and have a reuse timer that doesn't allow them to be used in every single battle. Also at 24, all classes get the ability to upgrade one of 4 spells to Master II status, and my choice is going to be the Aqueous Stalkers spell.

On top of those two great developments, I scored several rare spell components last night from the broker. Being at Craig's house (I'm staying with him because I'm in town for work), I logged on only briefly to make sure my wares stayed on the broker. In EQ2, if you log on once during every 24-hour period, your wares (which stay for sale even when you're not online) will stay for sale. If you don't log in 24 hours after you last logged off, the wares will be removed from the broker (at least to my understanding they will). Anyway, I logged on just to make sure everything stayed for sale, and checked the broker. At my tier of spells (Tier 3), I need Palladium clusters to make Adept III spells. Adept III spells are one level below Master I, and quite valuable. Consequently, palladium clusters (a rare Tier 3 harvest) sell for somewhere between 30-45 gold at any given time on my server right now. To my extreme surprise, last night there were 2 palladium for 9 gold and 2 for 12 gold! I immediately scooped them up and tossed them into my bank. So not only do I have those great spells I've already mentioned, I now have the ability to upgrade 4 more to Adept III at extremely low prices! Go me!

As you can see from the preceding paragraphs, I'm quite excited about the direction for now, but I have also had a great time getting here. So far, I've completed on the order of 150 quests with Chro, and continue to pick away at as many as I can. I really like the feeling of killing things for experience, yet also advancing the cause of some quest or another. It's just like a bonus to the experience and loot I'd get from grinding these mobs in the first place. I've also spent a lot of time trying to explore all of the areas I currently have access to, looking in all the nooks and crannies, fighting different mobs, talking to the NPCs, and generally trying to soak in the EQ2 experience. This has been a great time, coming back to the game, finding my old class such fun to play, and being so successful. My old character (a level 28 conjuror) took me nearly 3 months to get where he was. I'm level 24 in under 2 weeks, of admittedly fairly heavy play. Compared to my earlier conjuror persona, I'm flying along, and that's without heavy experience grinding. I generally engage mobs that I need for some quest, and leave the others alone, unless they look like they'd be a big challenge.

Anyway, that's all for now. I'll drop by again in the very near future and update you on how the transition to 24 went, and if the upgrade lived up to all the hype I've assigned to it.

Until then,

Jon

Posted by Jon at 04:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

As I promised, here is the first update on the progress of Chromata, the Erudite conjuror on the Unrest server. When I last posted, Chromata was still in Queen's Colony, working through the beginner quests, and polishing up some harvesting and tradeskills. After a bit of work on those, Chromata decided to 'leave the nest', and hopped the ship to Qeynos, and took up residence in Starcrest Commune, the starting village for the Erudites. He then spent many happy hours roaming through the outlying villages and Qeynos proper, gathering quests and figuring out the lay of the land once more. Back in November of '04, this was one of the most enjoyable times for Lanthazar (the High Elf conjuror I started way back then), going through all of the areas, getting all of the newbie 'Fed-Ex' type quests, and the simple kill quests involving the Caves, Oakmyst Forest and the Forest Ruins zones.

Alas, I found many fewer of these type of quests than I did way back then, and that made me a bit sad. It's my understanding that there are many more solo-type quests out in the land of Antonica, which most likely take the place of these simpler quests, but I do miss all of the interaction with all of the NPC's in the different zones. It's almost as if (at least right now) the village and city areas are of less importance than the outlying areas, which may be justified, but to me and what I remember, it makes these areas a bit more empty and quiet. Now, instead of being an area to explore and talk to all of the NPC's to find out what quest they might have, they're now just zones to stop in, do some banking, check the broker and head back out again. Oh well, those times are gone, and they're not coming back, so we'll move on...

Chromata also dabbled in the tradeskilling arts in Qeynos, and was very impressed with the tradeskill delegate and the quest line that introduced all of the different tradeskills. It was a great thing to be told an item to make, and be rewarded with tradeskill experience, a bit of coin and the appropriate level artisan manual (which provides tradeskill recipes). It was a nice way to figure things out, especially for me, since the last time I dealt with tradeskills, subcombines were still in place, and making even the smallest item took multiple combines and a lot of time. Now everything is based on one combine, and while it reduces the interdependency on other crafters, it make the overall experience much more enjoyable. I chose to follow the path of scholar, with the eventual goal of Sage. I've discovered that many of the Adept level spells that were available on the brokers (for sale by players) are nowhere to be found. This could be for a couple of reasons: 1) I hear rumblings that the new transmuting skill (which I admittedly know nothing about) has taken a lot of these items off the market, possibly as raw materials, or 2) it's a pretty safe bet that a very large chunk of the game's population have advanced beyond those levels, and the market that I remember (with the majority of people playing at or around the level I was) is moved far above me, into the 50's through level 70. Whatever the reason, I'll probably have to be self-sufficient in the spells category, so I'm preparing for that situation.

Not be labeled a coward, or considered afraid because he never left town, Chro stuck his head out into Antonica for a bit this afternoon, to take advantage of a couple of pastimes that Lanthazar enjoyed so long ago (at least in MMO terms): harvesting and scarecrow killing. I spent a while just killing scarecrows and reminiscing about the days when scarecrows were a highly contested spawn, and realizing that Chro was the only one out there doing it. As with everything else in the game, things have changed out in Antonica. The land is the same, but some of the creature (or mob, in EQ speak) placement is different. Places I remember as dangerous were quiet and vice-versa. As for harvesting, I did roam out into the area near the Keep of the Ardent Needle and did some harvesting for components I'll need in spell creation. One change in the game that I applaude is the increased appearance of rare harvests in the game. I believe (in 28 levels of harvesting through 3 different 'tiers' of experience) Lanthazar found exactly 2 rare harvests. Chro, on the other hand, in just 13 levels and 2 tiers of harvesting, has found at least 5. It gives me hope that I'll be able to find the components I need to make the important spells that will be invaluable as I continue my soloing career.

As we speak, Chro is camped outside Starcrest Commune tradeskill society, waiting for my return. On the docket: use some of those harvested materials to upgrade my spells, thus making me more effective as a fighting force. Unfortunately, I have to be up early tomorrow, so camped he'll have to stay until tomorrow evening.

On the whole, I'm truly enjoying my return to EQ2. I'm pleased with many of the changes, but saddened by others. The experience is more than enough to keep me playing, so if you're interested, stay tuned for more of Chromata's exploits.

Until next time,

Jon

Posted by Jon at 09:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

In a previous post, I mentioned that I played MMORPG's off and on over the past 6+ years (mostly off, with some occasionally intense periods of on), but for the past couple of years I'd been able to avoid their siren song. Well, as the title of this post indicates, EQ2 has gotten its hooks in me again. I gave this game up in January '05, basically so I wouldn't feel compelled to play it all the the time. I had gotten into a decent guild, and was really enjoying playing with the folks in it. The problem with that was, I felt that I had to be playing EQ2 in every spare moment I had, neglecting everything else I enjoyed (spending time with my wife and friends, participating in fantasy sports, watching sports on TV, everything), just to make sure that I 'kept up' with everyone else. Eventually, rational thought prevailed, and I gave up the addiction, so I could enjoy all facets of my life again.

This isn't an isolated or unique occurrence in my life, either. I've battled mild addiction to MMO's ever since August of 1999, when I bought my first computer and discovered the online joy of EQ1. I would spend hours every night, and nearly full days every weekend playing. I then quit after about 4 months, because my future wife moved in, and I wanted to spend more time with her. I dabbled in Dark Age of Camelot (DAoC), Asheron's Call (1 and 2), and Star Wars Galaxies. EQ1 got its mitts on me once more, this time for a 9 month stint, but I was able to function more normally, keeping my wife happy and even doing things away from the game.The funny thing was, I never really got that high in the game itself. For anyone versed in the game, I never went on a raid, never completed an epic quest, never stayed in a guild more than a few weeks, or even saw level 60 (my main, a gnome magician named Duftin Fizzlefoot, made it to the pretty unimpressive level of 56). I just didn't spend the contiguous time required to achieve the loftiest of lofty goals in that game.

I've also had a cup of coffee with the current king of the hill, Worlds of Warcraft (or WoW, to nearly everyone). I put a decent amount of time into the game during the Beta Stress Tests, and even purchased the retail version. My highest character in that game was maybe 17-18, which is sad, because achieving the maximum level (right now anyway) of 60 is quite easy, with any amount of time investment. That game has been gathering dust in a box in my attic for over a year now, and to be honest, I don't feel any compulsion to go back to it.

Back to EQ2. Here we are, almost two years after I initially left the game, and I'm picking it up again. I'm doing it for several reasons. 1) I suffer from a hopeless case of adult ADD, and start many things and finish few of them, so this is probably just another in a long line of starts and no finish (I could put together a list of the things I've had great intentions of following through with, only to move on after a few weeks, but that's another post entirely); 2) I've been following the game peripherally over the past couple of years, and I understand that it's evolved quite nicely, to the point that it supports all types of gaming styles, from hardcore raiding, to full-time soloing (my personal favorite), to anything in between; and 3) I thought it might be cool, if I keep up with it, to post here about my progress in the game. I saw a blog dedicated to one person's exploits with their character in WoW and I really enjoyed it, and I fancy the thought that I might be able to do the same here in EQ2 with my new character.

Another interesting factor in my decision to come back is that Sony just released an expansion to the game (its third, called Echoes of Faydwer), and it sounds great. All of the press that it's been getting probably was a big factor in planting the seed of resubscribing. An unforeseen (but fortuitous) bonus to the release of EoF is that the retail box contains the whole game, and all of the expansions, for less than 1/2 the price of me buying each digital download separately. So, for $40, I receive 3 expansions priced at $30 apiece, saving me a whopping $60 on the purchase. In addition, I received a $10 Best Buy gift card, just for buying a PC game this week.

So, anyway, after loading up the expansions from the DVDs and waiting for the patcher to patch all of the necessary files, I jumped back into Norrath again. I created a new Erudite conjuror (Chromata), on the Unrest server, and have been thoroughly enjoying the revamped newbie experience. When I left the game, the newbie experience included going to the Isle of Refuge after a short boat ride that served as a small tutorial to some of the game's systems. Now (at least for a character starting in Qeynos, I found myself in Queen's Colony, a revamped Isle of Refuge, but a lot had changed. New NPCs, new quests, new dynamics to the game functionality, it was almost as if I was playing a new game. I've completed all of the newbie quests I can find, and am now training up some of my tradeskills before heading out into the 'real world' of Qeynos.

It's getting late, and my eyes are starting to hurt from a few hours of playing, so I'll wrap it up here for now. Stay tuned for further adventures of Chromata (and me) as we jump back into the world of EQ2 with both feet.

Jon

Posted by Jon at 10:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I've been spending quite a bit of my free time doing some thinking about (and research on) the future podcast for our site in the past couple of days. One of the things I stumbled onto is a free Java program called Freemind. This program claims to be a 'mindmapping' program (whatever that means, I'm guessing that part of it is better explained on it's main page), and I'm really enjoying it as a way to dump all of the random ideas, harebrained schemes, and mental doodlings I have throughout the day into something that I can look back on later. It's really great for organizing, expanding on, and generally taking note of everything you think about, in a format that's easily manipulated and kept. I actually stumbled upon it when a site I was looking at made reference to it, as a great tool for creating podcast scripts or show notes. I'm sure that we'll use it in the same way, once we get this thing off the ground...

Another random mental pursuit this week involved research into Bluetooth technology. I've gotten it into my head of late that I'd like a wireless headset to use around my basement room (where all of my glorious technology resides), so I'm able to listen to podcasts and talk via Skype without being chained in front of the laptop. So a significant amount of time has been spent this week poking around the Net, to figure out how Bluetooth works, what I would need to get a setup like I discussed working, and (if possible) buy the components such that I wouldn't have to buy two headsets if I ever do get a Bluetooth enabled phone. Hopefully I can get something that does the trick in both cases. I've learned a lot about the technology so far, like about the profiles, and how both the transmitter and receiver have to have the same profiles to work together, budgetary costs to implement this system, as well as some cursory feelers into Bluetooth print servers, data transfer and keyboards and mice. It's all been quite educational, but I've decided (at least for the time being) to hold off on the purchase, until after the holidays pass. This should provide me with the opportunity to further examine the options and come up with the best solution for my needs. Rest assured, thought, that this tech will make an appearance in my home before long. :)

I made a couple of purchases this evening, related to the upcoming launch of our podcast. Because I don't know much about audio editing, how to produce a podcast, where to get those cool audio 'bumpers' and sound effects I hear in other podcasts, I went to Amazon.com this evening and bought four (yes, 4!) used copies of podcasting how-to books. They all seemed to have different approaches on how to plan, record, produce and distribute a podcast, so hopefully between the 4 of them, I'll come up with enough know-how to piece together something that someone might want to listen to. At least now I don't have to keep driving down to my local Barnes & Noble and thumbing through books in their stacks because I'm too cheap to buy the books at full price. One thing I've learned is that used books read just as well as new ones (except in extreme circumstances, of course). Maybe, once we actually get around to recording a podcast, you'll be able to experience just what I've learned (or haven't learned, as the case may be).

The other purchase I made today was the iRiver T10 MP3 player (512MB version). It only cost me $47 with shipping, and will perform two functions for our podcast: (1) I plan on using it to record segments for the podcast while not at home (possibly interviews, spur of the moment discussions, etc.); and (2) I'd like to get it set up to be a secondary storage device during the recording of our podcasts. I've seen a diagram in one of the podcasting books I leafed through that had the iRiver wired in as a backup recorder, so that if anything happened to the main recorder (in our case, my laptop) the file wouldn't be lost. I'm actually quite excited about the voice recorder function, as I have an interesting idea for a regular podcast segment that will involve using the iRiver, but we'll see how it goes..

I'll sign off for now, but never fear, I'll be back again soon. By the way, for any of you wondering if Craig really does exist and isn't a figment of my imagination...I'm with you on that, actually. The line between him being real and just something I made up during a alcohol-fueled bender is becoming blurred. Seriously, though, it's my sincere hope that he'll one day grace this blog with his presence, and impart some of his vast wisdom upon us all. Until then...well, you're stuck with me. :)

Jon

Posted by Jon at 09:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Being a complete video game geek (when I have the chance to play), I've been watching the developments of the past few months with great interest. As anyone who follows the video game scene knows, the Playstation 3 launches next Friday (the 17th), with the Nintendo Wii very shortly thereafter (the 19th). The amount of hype following both of these consoles is absolutely incredible, with fanboys (and fangirls) whipped into a frenzied froth of excitement. It will be very interesting to see how this 'battle' develops, because the PS3 is definitely going for the hardcore gamer, boasting next-gen graphics, an onboard Blu-Ray DVD drive, and a hefty price tag ($599 for the full package). The Wii, on the other hand, is angling for the casual gamer, with its revolutionary control scheme (the Wii-mote and nunchuk controllers), and games specifically designed to take advantage of this control scheme (the console is bundled with Wii Sports, but the one I'm most interested in is the latest Legend of Zelda installment, The Twilight Princess). The Wii is not going for next-gen capabilities, basically being a revamped Game Cube, but is hoping to bring the interactive fun into more households. Their price point, consequently, is significantly lower, at $249.99. To further muddy the waters, the Xbox 360 (already being available for a year) seems to be doing well, and the Xbox Live service is revolutionary in the industry.

On the topic of online services, the Wii has announced a robust online presence, the crown jewel of which being the Virtual Console. This service will allow users to download old games from Nintendo's extensive NES, SNES and N64 library (as well as some Sega titles as well), on a fee-per-title basis. This could be a feature that will be extremely successful for Nintendo, as it plays on the nostalgia that many of us have for the old Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Castlevania and other titles from the company's earlier days. The PS3, on the other hand, has not been completely clear on how their online service will work, and it almost feels like an afterthought. There is discussion throughout the Net that many of the titles available at the launch of PS3 will not have online support because the developers didn't receive the online dev kits in time to include them in the release. This could be a huge issue, because it has been shown that online play is an important driving force in the video game industry these days.

In the interest of full disclosure, I don't have a pre-order for either system, nor do I have any plans to camp out for either console. I am, however, a Nintendo fan from way back, and have never owned a Playstation 2 (I did have a PS1, complete with mod chip). My inclination would be to go for the Wii, but I admit the PS3 intrigues me. I do own an HD plasma television, and the 360 games look incredible on it. However, the cost of the system and the games appear to be too prohibitive for me to seriously consider it at this time. With the Virtual Console, the new control scheme, and the Nintendo name behind it, it looks like 'Wii for the win,' at least in my house.

In other news, Craig and I both appear to be coming out of the black tunnels that have been our jobs lately, so hopefully more work will be done on the site (which I haven't even looked at in a couple of weeks, how sad is that!) in the near future. I'm sad that progress has stalled on the site, but that's completely on my head. My lack of technical knowledge on how to manipulate the modules, and ineffectiveness behind the scenes has kept me from doing what I've wanted to, as far as the site is concerned. I have lots of ideas on what I want to see and do with it, but I'm a bit lost on how to truly implement it. That will change as time goes on, but I'll just have to push on for now with what little experience I have, and hope for the best.

At some pointin the future, I'd like to share with everyone the work I've done with baseball statistics (and to some extent, basketball statistics) in trying to be more successful in fantasy leagues, That in itself is not especially geeky, as we define geek for this site, but my work with Excel, and soon Access, makes it qualify (I think). One of my other huge passions is sports, so don't be surprised if I talk about it from time to time.

Anyway, I have to be off, but I'll drop in again soon with more!

Jon

Posted by Jon at 07:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I'm back! Not that anyone is truly reading this blog at this point, but for my own benefit I have to announce the fact that I've returned to post some further babbling and useless drivel. Things have been incredibly busy for me this past week (I'm currently writing this entry sitting in a hotel room, traveling for work), so the energy that normally would have been devoted to this blog and futile attempts to improve the skeleton of a website has been instead funneled toward work. I know, I know, I really need to rethink my priorities (who lets work get in the way of things, anyway?), but for the time being I'll continue to do my best at my job. One, it pays the bills, and two, I don't like to let anyone down whom I've made a commitment, and I'm committed to producing quality work for my employer.

Well, with that out of the way, I can move on to more interesting topics. Last weekend, sandwiched around a trip to Vermont to indulge my sports side and participate in a fantasy basketball draft, I finished watching BSG Season 2.5 and the first four episodes of Season 3. I am more and more impressed with the series as I watch it. The internal conflict of the characters is very well written and acted, and the overall story arcs are entertaining and engrossing. I particularly enjoyed the episode in Season 2.5 that was filmed on Caprica, from the Cylons' point of view. It was fascinating to see some of their internal politics, and witness more evidence that the Cylons, even though they are machines and supposedly logical and unfeeling, are struggling with what it means to be human. One of the keys to making characters that resonate with the viewer (or reader, when it comes to books) is that they have to be flawed. People tend not to associate with 'perfect' characters, because they seem infallible, and as we all know, people are far from perfect. The more flaws or problems a character has to deal with, the better it seems, and the main characters in BSG seem to have problems in spades.

So, to recap, I love BSG and I'm finally caught up with the rest of the world, so i'll now be able to appreciate this show as it's released, just like everyone else. Another show I'm really getting into is Heroes, on NBC. For anyone who doesn't know, it's a show with a very liberal helping of X-Men, apparently dealing with latent abilities that are surfacing in several people throughout the population. They've tied all of these characters together with a great apocalyptic theme, and the requisite evil force, which in itself has a great twist (being the relative of one of the main characters of the show). If you haven't caught this show yet, I highly recommend it. Be sure to watch for the character Hiro; to be honest, it's hard to miss him, as he steals every scene he's involved in. If you are behind in episodes, I believe they're available online at the NBC website.

Anyway, that's all for now. I'll be back as soon as I can with more mindless drivel and incoherent babbling...

Jon

Posted by Jon at 08:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)