We left Osgard up on Ascension Hall, dithering over which soul to claim as his reward. While Ranger was quite tempting, I wouldn’t be spending many points in that tree, meaning that my pet would be forever limited to being level 5, so it would cease to be of any use pretty quickly. Marksman fits Osgard well, especially once he gets rid of this silly bow and finds himself a decent rifle!
As it turns out, this is not the end of the tutorial area, and the Messenger of the Vigil sends me back to Valor’s Hold for more instructions. Two more tasks await me.
1. I must seek out one of the undead steeds that I’ve previously noticed about the place, cleanse it with a magical bridle, and ride it back.
2. I must gain control of a catapult, and use it against the necromancers and their ettin friend.
Now we’re cooking with gas! These sound like mighty and worthwhile deeds, not to mention fun!
Wheeeeeeee! Unfortunately you don't get to keep this one!
He stands now at the Thontic’s Fountain quest-hub in the village of Ardenburgh, having just gained his second soul, and spent some soulpoints. It’s time to get going again.
As Minsc would say, “Evil, meet sword. Sword, meet evil!!!!”.
4:35 pm GMT, 30th of December
The Defiant have placed machines around the village which are capturing innocent villagers and draining their essence, reducing them to undead. Truly diabolical behaviour, and Osgard has been tasked with destroying those machines. He has also been asked to slay a number of Ardenburgh Horrors, and retrieve the holy Sanctified Spheres that they have stolen. Continue reading The Rift Beta Bonanza – Part 3
This is phase 3 of Rift’s Beta, and for this one we can play either Guardians or Defiant. You can check out the patch notes for phase 3 here. As mentioned, I’m going with Guardians for this liveblog.
10:16 pm GMT, 29th of December
Osgard regains conciousness in a great hall, the Sanctuary of Rebirth. Before him stands a Messenger of the Vigil, an Angelic being that has come down from the heavens to give Osgard his first newbie quest, and grant him his first soul (subclass).
The Sanctuary of Rebirth in Rift.
This is a good spot to take a look at the UI. There’s nothing there that will particularly surprise anyone who has played an MMO before. We’ve got a radar, a hotbar, healthbars, and the little buttons in the bottom left will bring up the more specialised UI elements like the character interface, quest log, collections, and achievements screen. Continue reading The Rift Beta Bonanza – Part 2
While our digestive systems might still be feeling a little grouchy, and looking dubiously at the coming weekend, it is no time for slacking here as phase 3 of Rift’s beta is in full swing! With the NDA dropped, I can finally speak the words that everyone (give or take everybody other than me) has been waiting for. I declare a Beta Bonanza!!!
Hopefully this one will go a little better than the Mortal Online one, where I was so shocked by the full nudity during character creation that by the time I’d recovered from the vapours the beta had rudely ended without warning!!
How these tend to work is as a semi-stream-of-conciousness affair as I play through the beta. Rather than posting hundreds of posts, I just keep updating the existing one until it gets too big or there is a sensible cut-off point.
So, lets do this thing. Osgard the dwarf has stepped forward to volunteer for this mission, so I’ll be playing on the Guardian side on the Wolfsbane server. Before I create him, lets have a quick peek at the races the Defiant faction has to offer. It’s always handy to know who’s going to be trying to kill you.
I’m back home after a fun time with my Dad, a few pounds heavier, and laden with swag. I hope everyone had a great Christmas, and is feeling recovered enough to face the New Year. It was a bit of a hellish journey home, with trains being cancelled to the left and right, but the reward of sleeping in my own bed again was worth the replacement buses and hikes between stations.
The Rift beta NDA has dropped while I’ve been away, so I’ll be posting about that for the next few days, I expect. Though you may well be already sick of hearing about it! The hype is being laid on pretty thick in some quarters.
Over the holiday, my Dad and I finally finished our run through Deep Space 9. It’s always a rather sad moment when you reach the end of a series that amazing, and I’m not sure what the next show we’ll tackle will be. Because I still have DS9 swimming about in my head, and it is pretty appropriate for the start of a new year, here’s sentient hologram Vic Fontaine and Captain Benjamin Sisko with “The Best Is Yet To Come”!
I don’t know whether Vic Fontaine is in Star Trek Online yet, but he’ll certainly be making a personal appearance just as soon as the Foundry goes live! Being an ageless sentient hologram has its benefits, and in fact we know that he’s still going many thousands of years after the events of STO! Comforting to know, as the Universe don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing!
It’s going to be slow posting for a little while, while I visit my Dad for Christmas. His computer is a little primeval, and oddly, he tends to expect me to not spend all my time on it! That’s the oldsters for you!
So I’ll probably not be doing too many gaming posts, and certainly won’t be making any gaming videos, but I might be able to squeeze in a few pictures. Here’s some I took on my journey here, outside a snowy Waterloo station in London, while waiting for my connection to the West Country. I’m always taken aback by how grand our old train stations are, and rather wish we could still build like this.
This entrance commemorates the Great War, and the employees of the train companies who fell during that conflict.
Waterloo Station - Your gateway to Mesopotamia and the Dardanelles
Statue to the left of the Waterloo Entrance signifying War and its costs.
The statue to the right of Waterloo's entrance, representing Peace and all its bounties.
We received the first batch of Velious Winter Rewards today. As well as a nice painting of the original “Scars of Velious” Everquest expansion’s cover art (it was probably my favourite of all the EQ expansions), we got something far more interesting. A butler!!
Good day, Sir (or Madam)! We are pleased to introduce you to the newest member of your household staff; your Coldain Butler. Your new butler can be placed in your house and will speak to his master as well as guests who may come calling. He may also be asked to join you on your adventures, and will follow you outside of your home for the span of an hour. He is very outgoing and will speak to others when hailed, and also likes to talk about his master. We hope you are pleased with this new member of your staff…he is certainly pleased to be in your service.
If there was ever an adventurer in need of a steadying influence and a helping hand, it would be Maltheas. Fortuitous it was, then, the day that Cheeves arrived on his doorstep with impeccable credentials. He had been so impressed by Maltheas’ efforts to help the folks of New Halas that he had decided to seek him out, and offer his service.
Maltheas and his butler, Cheeves. What jolly adventures they are sure to have!
After some experimentation, he appears to be purely cosmetic, though I do very much like the feature that lets him come out of the house and follow you about. He is content to sit back and let Maltheas deal with any uncouth louts that might trouble the merry pair. To my very great joy, he also peacefully coexists with Mr Snowy, Maltheas’ snowman companion. It’s possible he’s taking up the deity pet slot, but Malth hasn’t got to the level where he’d get one of those, so it’s impossible for me to tell. What’s important is that Team Maltheas is now one Coldain bigger!! After years of abuse from the wandering Qeynos NPCs, it’s nice to have one to sing his praises! Let’s hope he does not let it go to his head and remains a humble(ish) servant of Rodcet Nife.
In other Velious-related new, Maltheas recently met some very pleasant Othmir.
Hoorays for the Othmir!!
He’s very glad to have made friends with these fine fellow-rodents, and is looking forward to hearing their tales. In exchange, he will teach them advanced Ratonga pants technology, and all will be richer as a result. We’ll be seeing a lot more of our semi-aquatic allies when we finally make it to Velious.
If you want to meet the Othmir too, they’re part of the Velious prelude quests that are currently available. These quests will vanish when the expansion launches, so don’t leave it too late if you’re interested. You can start the quests with the Duality in Paineel, and the adventures scale to level, so are suitable for young and old, though the very young might find some of the travel a little nerve-wracking.
I was considering doing a full post on the prelude quests, but they’re so lore-heavy that I’m not sure how many would be terribly interested. Everyone, on the other hand, likes pictures of Othmir.
