May 30, 2010

Guilds, Insecurities and Alone-Time

I have to warn you: this blog post talks about feelings...but since they are my feelings about RoM, I think it counts.  :)
I left my guild, Medieval.
When I first joined Medi over a year ago, I wondered about all those players who hopped from one guild to another. I thought to myself, "I would never leave my guild. I am loyal."
Then about two weeks ago, a different voice came up in my head. It said, "You should leave your guild." The other voice countered, "You can't leave Medi. It's YOUR guild. You are loyal."
This back and forth in my head went on for many days. I actually started avoiding playing Spiral because I didn't want to be in Medi guild chat. When I did log on, I tried to keep my mouth shut about some of the changes that were going on, but anyone who knows me, knows that I'm not good at that.
The issues weren't that big, weren't really intense issues, but I just kept getting this feeling that Medi was moving in a direction that I didn't want to go. The voices kept arguing in my head.

Then on Friday night, the second voice changed its mind. It said, "You need to leave this guild. It's time."
I trust myself. It's taken a long time to get that way because I still feel that I am somewhat impulsive in ways that I shouldn't be. But it felt right to think about leaving Medi, even though it hurt. It felt like I was graduating high school or leaving a bad boyfriend. We'd had some good times, but it was time to move on. I wanted to look back fondly on that time in Medi, not be regretful and angry.
So with a heavy heart, I clicked on "Leave Guild". It asked if I was sure. Oh, the hesitation! But I clicked "Yes" and heaved a big sigh.
I left Spiral crafting in Varanas and went to my sister's for the weekend. Had a blast with her but on the hour-long drive home, I couldn't stop thinking about what I was going to say to my guild leader -- former guild leader -- and to my two best friends in Medi, D & T. I wrote letters in my head as I drove.
When I arrived back at the game, I realized what a silly thing it was to leave Spiral AFK. My guildies -- former guildies -- had been pm-ing me all day, thinking I was ignoring them! I went to the mailbox, read 3 lovely letters from my leader, D and T, and then responded as honestly as I could.

My time with Medi was fun, exciting, heart-warming and educational all at once. Everyone has said that I can come back anytime...but for now, I know I need to be away for a bit.
I don't really want to go into it too much more, cuz I already feel this post is waaaaaay too maudlin, but I wanted to write it anyway to hopefully spark thoughts in peoples' minds: what does your guild mean to you? Are they family? Are they co-workers? Is it just a place to go for features such as libraries and sieges?
Think about it. RoM is more than a game, it's a community. What role are you playing in this world?

May 27, 2010

How to Kill a Mob

During downtime yesterday, I decided to write a post about getting back to basics, the very essence of Taborea...how to kill something! You simply cannot succeed in this game without knowing how to end the lives of all the psychotic creatures in this game who surely have a grudge against you in particular.
A lovely and naive Winternight Ice Fairy offered to be my model for these demonstrations.

KNIGHT: Take ginormous 2H sword and apply it forcefully to the dotted line. This effectively separates her pretty head from her slender neck. Lower levels may have to apply the sword more than once, but as you improve, one heavy-handed slice should work just fine.
WARRIOR: Lift huge 2H axe and chop viciously at the 3 most vulnerable parts on the mob's body: the jugular, the femoral artery, and the heart. Laugh insanely as she dies.
ROGUE: Using your 2 sharpest daggers, proceed to stab, stab, stab, stab, stab, stab, stabby stab stab until mob bleeds to death. If this becomes boring, repeat on the back side of the mob.

MAGE: Calling upon the power of fire, conjure one or more fireballs to your fingertips and aim in the general direction of the mob. Summon the power of wind to fix the mob in place using a lightning strike. Re-apply fire until mob is charred beyond recognition.
SCOUT: Raise bow. Take aim at center of mob's left eye. Fire. Look around to see if anyone noticed your immense skill. Yawn. Repeat as necessary.
WARDEN: Tell your Oak Walker that the mob hates trees and that the mob routinely wastes paper by writing self-absorbed journal entries about her unrequited love for the barista at the local Starbucks. Watch your surprisingly vicious Oak Walker dismember the mob.

PRIESTS/DRUIDS: Offer a prayer to your chosen deity as mobs attack. Find the knight/warrior/rogue/innocent bystander who has been recruited to protect you. Take aim at his head and never lose focus. Cast all your healing spells at your savior, keeping close watch on his HP. Drink mana potions until you feel like barfing blue. Shoot more healing spells at tank until mobs are all dead and you are safe. Resurrect any fools who didn't do their jobs.

I hope these brief instructions were helpful to any players who were struggling with the general gameplay of RoM. Fight hard and have fun!
(As always, I intend no offense to any class, race or player!)

May 26, 2010

OAM

The UN-infamous, widely-recognized, renowned and enthusiastic PhatCat is running a contest for Osha server called the Osha Adventurer of the Month. He is using his own money to give a prize to a nominated player that demonstrates "exemplary performance in the many facets of the RoM".
I think this is a wonderful idea and fully support it. I haven't decided who I would like to nominate yet, but I am seriously thinking about it.
Details are on the Rom Forum HERE.

May 22, 2010

My New Fave Mob

OMG, look at the size of its butt!
Is there some twisted developer who is reading my blog and creating mobs with tremendous junk in their trunks just to make me laugh?
I literally SNORTED when I saw this guy! I just shake my head and stare. What would possess someone to draw something like this?
Oh, nevermind. I know. He likes big butts and he cannot lie!

Seriously, it was good to have a laugh in game since siege was a disaster and crashed multiple times. Siege really ticks me off, especially since when it works it's so damn fun!
So I was glad to chuckle away at this fine fellow and remind myself why I love this game.

May 20, 2010

Evil Dragon Robe

Went through Kalin's the other day. Not a bad run. Only died once! On the last boss, a purple robe dropped. Everyone passed on it and I ended up having it fall into my backpack. Sweet! 
I hummed and ha'd over it for a while. It was only level 50 but it was purple. I was currently wearing a level 55 blue. I examined the stats and did some figuring and decided that the loss in Physical Defense would be made up by the addition of bonus HP stats and possibly a set bonus.
Besides that, it's really pretty...although I'm sure that won't save my butt in a fight! ("Excuse me, Mr. Zuhridon Investigator. Don't you think my gown is to DIE for?")
So I plussed it up to +7 (the highest I've ever gone!) and Tiered it to 4 with some nice stats. Spent quite a few of my horded jewels, puris and charges on it but it turned out okay. Lost a bit of mana since the other robe had more Int & Wis on it but gained quite a bit of HP. I'm almost at 10k now...woot!
Went to the AH and took a look at some of the other pieces in the set that are for sale. They average around 1.5 million or more. The pieces on the AH weren't all that great -- low dura, dirty -- so I'm either going to wait for better pieces to go on sale or just keep running Kalin's and hope for more drops.
I'm sure I'll get something better than this eventually but it's a start. It's hard to find purples and I need to be better geared to even go to the instances to have a chance to get the good purples, so this robe is my stepping stone. Like my ballroom gown for the state-wide beauty pageant...but not the one I'm gonna wear to Ms. America!

May 18, 2010

Chapter III Expansion

I was so super excited to update RoM today and enter Chapter III. I was wiggling with impatience as I waited for the upload to finish.
First image: an amazing new sign-in screen that made me smile hugely.
First message: "Congratulations! You can now use Item-Set skills!" Hmmmm...that's all well and good but wtf are they? No one seems to know although I did eventually find a submenu in the Functions menu. And later some higher levels were posting up their purple gear with Skill Set functions on the bottom of their descriptions. I guess it's something I'll have to discover later.

I just love seeing different stuff. Whenever I switched zones, I was excited to see the new loading screens coming up: steely-eyed rogues, lion-kings, rhino-warriors. Each one gave me a thrill! (I'm easy it seems.) Where would those guys be? Would I be fighting lions in armor? Or would they be my allies?

First stop: mailbox to collect some nice income from selling Tier 5 stones and other goodies. Noticed right away that the Music Festival is on, which I think I remember from last year. I don't remember a strange dude with a tuba instead of a head, but that's probably cuz it gave me nightmares! :)

Second stop: the new area, Southern Janost Forest.
I took two or three steps inside and...CRASH!! Critical error has ocurred. Whoops. Guess all is not well with Chapter III.
Logged back in and everything seemed to go smoothly from there. Galloped into SJF and saw some familiar beasties from Thunderhoof...Pangos, Boshis, Gulos and Centaurs.
Reached the first city, Shador, which is quite lovely. Big trees, potted plants, knights riding Hippogriffs, elegant statues and very intricate pale purple and yellow stone architecture. Did a few quests there and moved on.
Visited the next city over, Kandor, a neat little fishing village made of planks and straw. There were a few more quests there that I could complete, including dailies near there, but other than that, the rest of the zone seems too high for me right now. Or else I haven't completed the quest chains that unlock new quests yet.

My first thoughts on this expansion: pretty good. Interesting new zone, beautiful scenery, some new mobs (bird-lizards, armadillo-people) and intriguing possibilities with the new Item-Set skill.
Now if they've fixed the crashing of guild siege, I'll be a super-happy camper!

May 17, 2010

Talomo Sneak Run

Finally got in on a sneak run to Talomo in Treasure Trove tonight. I think the group was just contacting every rogue that was online, and I was actually afk when they asked me, but I came back to the game just in time to join the group.

One of the other rogues was super nice and helped me sneak through the INSANITY of mobs to get to the spot where Talamo shows up. I could not believe how many bad guys there were in there. It was nuts. Not only regular mobs with set walking patterns, but also roaming bats and invisible assassins to boot! My heart was beating like a rabbit's.

I actually did die once on the way there. A bat came around a corner and flew right on top of me and I didn't hit Vanish in time to escape. The other group members said it's better to go slower and be careful than to die again, not just because of the time issue but also because of death debt and dura loss.
They also told me to take off my good gear while I snuck so that if I did die, I wouldn't get dura loss on it. Smart.

But we hit a snag when we reached the Talamo spot...our Rogue/Priest was afk! Can't fight a boss without a healer and R/Ps are very hard to find. Not a very common class combo. So we waited and waited...
After about 20 minutes, we found a little level 51 R/P to help us. But she had never been in TT before. (I felt for her!) When she died sneaking in and decided to quit the group, we understood.

It was getting closer and closer to seige time and things were not looking good for us. We all shouted out to our guilds, LFG channel, alliances, everyone...and finally a super awesome lvl 57 R/P came on board and snuck as fast as he could to get to us. He arrived 10 minutes before seige started and we began the EPIC battle!

It took 3 minutes.

They were so geared and so powerful, they took him down like he was made of butter. I don't think I helped in the least little bit. I was just trying to stay alive from the random jabs Talomo was tossing my way...for 2500 HP! But we were successful and that's all that matters. Didn't get any rewards really, no "Memory", no good gear, but I did complete one quest and also gained some valuable knowledge.
And now I don't have to say I'm a TT virgin anymore!

May 13, 2010

Hoofyness

Centaurs"

So this is a pair of centaurs in Thunderhoof Hills. They were just hanging outside a little village, standing near a fire. I can't help but make up stories about them! It's some weird quirk of mine that I want to invent backgrounds for NPCs.
All I know is that their names are Rob and Janine and they've been married for 5 years but now they are having troubles cuz Rob won't stop glancing over at Andrea's glossy tail and Janine feels insecure about her hindquarters since she dropped their first colt, Brian, 2 years ago.
But seriously, wouldn't it be cool to have a centaur toon? Wouldn't need a mount. Could have kicking attacks called something like Lightning Hooves or Shatter Kick. Maybe even be allowed to let another toon ride you. That would be wicked sweet.

May 11, 2010

Finally Finished It!

It's finally done!
I've written a Guide to Using the Arcane Transmutor. It took ages to finish and it was way harder to do than I thought. I mean to me using the AT is easy now. But to try to explain it from scratch was difficult. I thought it would take me a day or two to write it, and it actually took me weeks to get it right! I've hosted it on an external website so that I could put in a lot of screenshots. That way it's easier to follow along with the guide while you're transmuting in-game.
Hopefully someone finds it helpful. I've posted it up on the ROM forums in a few links to try to get the word out. I know there are a lot of other guides out there but it seemed to me that most of them were incomplete or confusing, like not very linear. I tried my best to make it easy to work your way through the process to get to the ultimate goal, creating great gear!
I'm glad it's done. I've been fussing over it for a while now and I feel a great sense of accomplishment now that it's done and published and basically out of my hands. (Except if folks find mistakes...heaven forbid!)

May 6, 2010

Burning Up!

Just had a few minutes to play yesterday so I popped into Malatina's Survival Game. It's a 10 minute game where you kill dudes, dig up tiles and either get treasure chests or more dudes to kill. It scales with your level, so I've been playing it since I was level 30 or so. Right now it's really easy cuz I don't think it levels past 50 and I'm 57/55.
It's a cool game and sometimes I get neat prizes or at least things that I can sell on the AH. It only costs 30 Phirius tokens too which is well worth it if I come out with some Phirius potions or a blue recipe.
Anyway, yesterday I was in there and there was a bit of a glitch. Something set me on fire, not sure what it was, and I never went out! I just kept burning and burning. Fortunately for me, I didn't continue receiving damage from it, but I did stay on fire until I left the game. Kinda fun to play like that. I felt very devilish!
Other than that brief flaming adventure, all I had time to do was a quick set of dailies and stab Crafty to death for some lowbies.
Ooh, by the way, one of my fabulous guildies made a new website for our guild. Check it out: Medieval Guild

May 3, 2010

Secret Place #3

I'd like a semi-sweet Reisling with an appealing peachy fruit bouquet and bright, lemony acidity.

May 1, 2010

We're All Real

I hooked up my Vent the other day. It was very strange, I must say. I did it cuz most of my guildies were using it, especially during seige. I felt left out! And of course it's very helpful to be able to communicate without typing.
But it was the oddest feeling to hear real voices attached to characters. I guess I kinda got some preconception about people cuz of their toon and to hear a voice that's so incongruous is a bit startling.
I don't remember which of my guildies read my blog, so I hope I don't offend anyone but saying this...but I was kinda amused at how American most of them sounded! It's cute. I mean my guild leader has kinda got a southern accent. She says Hoto like Hoe-Toe whereas I say it more like Hoe-Doe.
It really made me think about Canadian accents. You can tell a tourist cuz they pronounce Toronto like Tor-on-toe. We pronounced it Tor-on-noe. Or even To-rawnna. No hard T at all. It's interesting to notice your own accent.
And one of my favorite guildies had a surprisingly mature and easy-going voice. Like so chill, you know? It was so different from his in-game persona. In game I feel like he's a bit nuts and hyper.
And then there's the girls that are actually guys. So startling! I'm like, "Who is that?" I'm in the game looking at a female mage with pretty blonde hair and I'm listening to some dude saying, "Let's take this gate!" Surreal.
I'm not sure if I'll ever hook up my microphone to vent. I have one and I think I could figure it out but I kinda feel shy about people hearing the "real" me. I know at first our old guild leader thought I was a guy. That was one of my earliest posts here on the blog. I wonder how many others think that? But if they heard my real voice, would it change what they think of me? I guess I haven't really changed my opinions about my guildies now that I've heard them so I shouldn't fret about that.
Still, I think I want to keep a little bit of my real self to myself. For now.