EverQuest

I used to make a lot of comics for EQ1 but haven’t done the same yet with EQ2. Here’s a little comic about my level 13 Fae berzerker traveling to the Bonemire to make the longest flight ever - from the Catotoxic Stain to the Halls of Fate. In my next comic, I won’t use any in-game text balloons. They tend to be in bad places and don’t take well to zooming and cropping and don’t give me the freedom to change what PCs and NPCs are saying. Also, instead of using Photoshop for the whole thing, I used “The GIMP” to prepare the panels and Inkscape for the one text balloon I added, compositing and export of the final product. ...

I was floored when Pilotman told me that Curt Schilling’s in-game avatar was in fact still in the game, on the Thundering Steppes docks. I journeyed out to visit with him and talked with him a bit about politics, giggling goblins and his plans for the future. Dina: Thanks for much for agreeing to speak with me today! It is a great honor to be here. If I may ask, how did you come to live on these docks? ...

On the news that Green Monster Games is continuing to drain people from SOE, I have to wonder just what happened to Curt Schillings’ avatar within EQ2. It was supposed to be put in game somewhere after the ALS promotion ended… My guess? In a dark, secret room somewhere that players never see, Curt Schilling’s avatar is killed over and over by a horde of giggling goblins while the manacled avatars of Blackguard and Moorgard watch helplessly. ...

Overlord Mata Muram, the end boss of the Omens of War expansion, finally fell to us a couple of days ago. And a collective yawn rose from the crowd. Not because the fight isn’t fun – it is; it’s incredibly complex and everyone has to pay attention and be ready to do a number of different things at random times as well as their own jobs. It’s because we waited until it was easy – just as we did with Tunat in Tacvi. ...

I’ve done the D’Vinn’s Throne Room instance (a level 30-35 instance within Crushbone Keep that starts the plot completed in the 60ish instance Acadechism) a couple of times, but didn’t get a chance to get a good picture of Vindicator Crush when he arrives at the call of Emperor D’Vinn. Because I’ve been healing it with my defiler, Etha, and when you’re healing, in EQ2 as in all other MMOs in which I’ve healed, all you see is health bars. ...

The alternate planes of existence haven’t been opened yet in EverQuest 2. In EQ1, there was really no difference in the planes from any other zone, aside from there being a god or goddess lurking about. Some of them erased your levitation buff. Plane of Water (and Kedge Keep) required you had a water-breathing buff of some sort. First time I entered Kedge Keep, I couldn’t draw an easy breath until I left. I felt on the edge of drowning the entire time. It perfectly captured the experience of swimming through an old underwater ruin, holding your breath. ...

Because sometimes I go to a restaurant, or a home, or a dank dungeon, that are without proper lighting fixtures, I now carry my own. That’s the Lumen 1000 Floor Lamp with Variable Bulb strapped to my back. And hello, I’m Reddy Kilowatt. Glad to meet ya. It’s got to be either a lamp or the Staff of the Observers. I just had to have it – for sentimental reasons if nothing else. Way back in 1999, in EQ1, that quest was done for me by the guild United Norrath Coalition when I joined. I was so moved… it was entirely unexpected but so much in character for the great people of UNC. ...

I might as well delete my post on character goals, because I didn’t go through with hardly any of them. But I did it in the name of more fun! I tearfully put Dera (59 inquisitor) to rest. But when I heard someone putting together a group for the Court of Innovation, an instance inside Klakanon, I couldn’t say no. A Tier 6 instance and one I hadn’t really seen in beta? And they need a healer? ...

The mad rush into Faydwer is slowing; most everyone is there now and finding their way around. Everywhere, people are raving about the expansion. And they have a lot to rave about – beautiful art, cloaks, cool dungeons… what people want is more. More single group level 70 instance zones a la Bonemire; more good LFG zones like Palace of the Awakened and Sanctum of the Scaleborn. People want back everything the old Faydwer had. Kedge Keep and Unrest (which is said to be on its way) are on everyone’s wish list. ...

Random observations in the first day of Echoes of Faydwer: “How do you get to the new zones? How do you get a cloak? Who gets ports? What deity should I worship?” I heard these a million times in beta and not surprised to hear them again. They should have given every character a stat-less cloak with a one-time port to Butcherblock. “Do these boats take half an hour like in EQ1?” No, they are almost identical to WoW boat or zeppelin routes. You sail a few seconds, zone, then sail into your destination. ...