West Karana

Since I barely did anything to help with the guild hall, compared with Stargrace, Kasul and Ecor, I feel kinda embarrassed to be the first to blog about it, but there ya go.

If you’d been following Twitter yesterday, you’d have seen the drama as Nostalgia worked crafting writs so the guild could reach level 30 and be allowed to buy the smallest, cheapest guild hall. Even the smallest, cheapest guild hall is pretty expensive and perhaps 5-6x larger than the largest house you can buy. There is nothing small about any guild hall. They really are, large, stupid large, and omg wtf I need a map large.

Due to the heroic efforts of the Nostalgia crafters, the guild dinged 30 JUST before I got home. This was my first time home this week before 6:30; I’ve been trying to catch up with work and coming home later. The guild was parked in front of the guild hall, waiting for me :)

Since Dina doesn’t have good enough faction to purchase her loom, I had to switch to Dora, who has max faction with Freeport’s crafter society, to buy it.

We all donated status and some of us, coin, to pay for and maintain the hall. A couple of folks with too much status came by and donated some, and we now have enough status to keep the hall going for a very long time. Stargrace bought five amenities — NPCs and other features you can add to the guild hall. Five is all we’re allowed, for now. We got the druid who opens portals for you to any druid ring, an attuner that grants you a spell to port back to the guild hall, a fuel merchant, a rush order crafting writ giver, and a banker.

Because we are, after all, largely a guild of crafters, we went for the crafting things first.

I decorated my tailoring area a little; why not? After resizing the loom down to halfling size, I added a wardrobe for storing work in progress, a chair for when I get tired of standing, and a skull with a sword stuck in it resting on a small table because… well, because why not?

This is Buddy, the giant dog who roams our hall, keeping it prowler free. I wasn’t sure if he was really there or just my imagination, so I sat him right behind Stargrace as she was arranging books in the guild library. Her scream woke up people three guild halls away :) She said, “I was arranging the books when I heard some barking, and I thought someone had let their dog in here. Then I turned around and AGH!”.

Good times :)

Earlier, I’d been packing up Dora’s room when that STUPID FRIGGIN ZOMBIE jumped out at me from nowhere, so I’d already gotten my scream in. I need some Zombie Spray to keep those zombies away. Thank God my son wasn’t home to hear.

My guild room looks like front row center at a Spinal Tap concert. It needs a lot of work. I want to get a dungeon-y feel to it. Giant flaming pig heads are an interesting choice for any modern bedroom…

The hall is still pretty barren, but if I know Stargrace, it’s going to be something special in a little bit. You’re all invited to the open house, when we have one :)

In either this latest game update, GU49, or the previous one, SOE added new recipes for tailors so that cloth-wearing classes, the ones whose clothing choices have previously been limited pretty much to all-covering burkas, can have a little more flexibility with their look.

Last night I stood in front of a loom and looked at some of these new options.

Some of the new outfits are ungodly ugly, at least on halflings. But a couple really stuck out. I must point out, though, that the claim in the GU48 patch notes that all outfits would be complete doesn’t seem to be the case. If you could previously only make four pieces of a particular suit, you should now be able to make all of them. This wasn’t the case with the tier 1 Tranquil sets, below. Both were missing boots and bracers, and neither the hat nor the shoulder pieces had a graphic.

Pristine Tranquil Sackcloth armor

Pristine Tranquil Threadbare armor

Both are fairly unique looks. The Sackcloth reminds me of the tier 7 cloth armor out of Castle Mistmoore, while the Threadbare looks almost like a gi.

A note about the screenshots. They were both taken at max quality in Gorowyn, with the multicore fix working. I was getting about 15 fps at max settings — in Gorowyn, long second only to Neriak as a difficult place for my computer. Unfortunately, running at max settings for very long crases EQ2 for me after it runs out of memory. But it’s a huge improvement over what I had before, and for me, is the best improvement that came with the latest patch.

Via Taymar at MMORPG Info (always a fantastic place for information about EQ2 and other games), EQ2’s game update 49 — the last one before the expansion — is live. GU49 introduces guild halls, multicore support, and more. Perhaps another chapter in the Anashti Sul world event?

I THOUGHT they were doing a tailoring update with new colors and patterns, but I can’t remember if that was expansion or pre-expansion.

My tests with the multicore support on my Core 2 Duo-powered laptop showed a significant improvement on Test.

The EverQuest 2 GU48 world quest deals with, from the evil side, anyway, discovering who is responsible for the death of a Qeynosian Seeress who died mysteriously just before she was to make a pronouncement. All the signs point to work by Bertoxxulous’s disciples, but the high priest of the god of disease swears that though they have no love for any follower of the Prime Healer, Rodcet Nife, it wasn’t them. They were framed.

I put my necromancer, Adora, on the case. If this investigation was going to veer into life and death, who better than a necro to get to the (blackened, shrunken) heart of the matter?

Adora hunted for clues all over Norrath. Her investigations finally led her to a small apartment in Neriak, where she listened, hidden, as shadow creatures plotted with mortals about some foul deed. Then Adora was discovered.

While her pet went on a mad rampage and killed every living and unliving thing in the apartment, Adora picked up a curious amulet from the floor, and was immediately gripped in the power of a vision that seemed all too real.

Thousands — millions of void beasts and shadowmen gathered in what can only be the Void, all looking at a mysterious figure addressing them from atop a tall stone…

Though robed and shrouded, the woman on the stone wielded incredible power, and she held Adora’s soul in a grip so powerful she could not struggle nor scream… and then she was suddenly released.

Adora never suspected a necromancer could show fear. But there are some things in the universe more powerful, and more dread, than mere death. Adora realized that she had been left to live for one purpose only — to give up the creed of Brell Serillis and to help reveal to the world the coming of the Queen of Unlife, Anashti Sul.

Adora got a replica of Anashti’s staff as well as the amulet she found (now drained of its connection with The Void) and … a treant pet? Not sure how that fits into the lore, but whatever. The bubbling bowl of poison on the floor was a gift from a grateful Evdonia for helping her clear the good name of the Disciples of Disease.

Today is possibly GU49 and the continuation of the story. One of the very nice things about EQ2 is how each expansion is set up with months of storyline and lore quests — these have been going on since spring, and each one gets more elaborate.