The slacker returns...

It's been a while since I've last posted here. Frankly I haven't been playing any MMO recently, except for small periods of time whenever a given MMO released either a new content update or an event is going on (like Halloween on Rift). I've been a bit tired of MMO and decided I should take some time off it.

But did this pulled me out of gaming?

 No... I end up going through single player games in Steam, like Witcher, Borderlands, Deadlight, some Heroes of Might and Magic or many others (my backlog is HUGE). Even end up playing DOTA 2 (and i hated Mobas, specially League of Legends, due to it's rather unpleasant community).

Recently I acquired through Steam, Defiance game. And now, yesterday I found out that the newest Lord of the Rings Online expansion, Helm's Deep, is out. While I never got much into LOTRO, again, this pulled me some interests and I might dig it up a bit. That and continue playing Defiance, which doesn't seem to be a bad game. Sort of Borderlands online.

Also the tenth Everquest 2 Expansion is out, Tears of Veeshan. I already skipped the previous one, Chains of Eternity, and although I considered give it a try on this new one, there's something holding me back. Well for one, is the really bad F2P system it has. And I'm not really in the mood to fork out 35 euros to an expansion and still have to pay the subscription.

The Secret World issue #8 is out which brings some new content stuff. The augmentation system, which from what I've read it's something related to upgrade your skills, and scenario system which I really don't know what it is yet. Just wondering, do I need to buy this issue to access the augmentation system? Probably will find out quickly today.

I could go own, with the stuff that's been out lately, since I last posted regularly, but I rather try each MMO again and post out the differences. Could be interesting to see how they progressed since I last played them.

In the meanwhile, Steam is at my top choice for gaming. Huge selection of games, and if you are smart enough you can get tons of games for a bargain. Also I leave you this link here from another blog of mine if you happen to have interest with Steam.

Absence of posting, here's why

In the last month and a bit I've I haven't been posting much or nothing at all. To be honest I haven't stop playing MMO games, but I haven't been playing the usual games, like Rift or TSW. Actually I've found myself again, giving a try to Eve Online (yep I said again).

So it went like this. I have an account for Eve since 2009 I think. The thing is I only played it for like 2 month. Not that the game is bad, on the contrary. I want a sandbox MMO and Eve is probably the best option at the moment. I just, back then, didn't had the interest for it as now I do have. And back then I think I was still playing World of Warcraft. 

But recently I re-activate that account, and started a new character. This time, however, I took the miner/crafter path. Why's that? Well, as most will know, one can maintain an Eve account with in-game currency trading it for the PLEX. PLEX is like a monthly sub that players can put up for sale, in exchange of in-game currency. And being miner/crafter is probably the safest (and maybe easy) way to do that. Of course going low security systems would net more profit, but also brings a lot more risks. But, being miner, will mean you have many hours of endless mining grind, which can also turn out to be quite boring for some. 

So for a full month I've created a character, that went that path. Although I was still far from goal, of getting a PLEX sub, I did about half what's needed to get one. So if I'm correct most can get a PLEX sub after 2 months subscription. Of course, this won't be sustainable in the beginning, so my safest bet would be subscribe the game for like 6 month, and get as much ISK (Eve currency) as possible. Afterwards, I assume it can be affordable to keep up using PLEX. I did a lot of mining and crafting, but to be honest, the first month I think it's more profitable to just mine and sell, than to craft stuff. Eventually you will find blueprints (recipes) that are affordable to produce, and generate more profit. But if going this path, initial month the best bet is mining.

Also, is known, that elder Eve players, manage to have multiple accounts running, just using PLEX. That being said, and due to a nice sale at Greenmangaming, I end up getting my second Eve account, getting this package. 

The price was 75% cheaper, plus with a coupon code, it went down to 4 euros. And I created a 21 days trial account, plus that, it gave me a total of 51 days playtime. Curiously, although I got that pack, I end up first trying exploration, but the return profit was very low, so I end up going to combat. Although I didn't played much on the account lately, the overall profit, was lower compared to the miner character I created previously. There was however an added bonus item on that pack. The Prototype Cerebral Accelerator can be sold to other players for about half the price of a PLEX. So I end making some money on that account, not thanks to combat but mostly to the prototype.

By comparison I think mining will be more profitable for starters but will also be the most boring to do. Eventually one will want to combat otherwise will not last long playing the game. But if you don't mind enduring sessions of mining, it should not take long until someone get PLEX subscriptions running on their accounts.

My sub is now off, but I plan to get back to my miner and re-start working on my PLEX goal.

The Secret World, small newbie guide

Today, I was teaching a friend of mine, who just start playing the game, a few early "tricks" to get started. Some were a bit less obvious than others, and some I guess aren't that known (maybe). 

The earliest tip I can give, and I already mentioned this before, is right after the weapons tutorial quest, where we choose one weapon, but we can't pick a second one, is to get outside the quest and then get back in to grab the second weapon (you won't make the tutorial a second time). I think this is handy. 

Also, as soon as you get the tutorial done, and you are out of Agartha, and into Solomon Island, Kingsmouth Town, is to check your store (shortcut key ',' - that's a comma), go to the claims tab and see what you can claim. I'm not 100% sure if anyone can claim new weapons off the bat, but if anyone can, you can ignore my first tip.

I advise to pick up a starting deck (build), and follow it up. Sure, I know many people say they aren't as great as for end game, but for a new player, who's learning the game for the first time, following it, wont make the experience much more daunting. Furthermore, as you complete these decks you will be awarded with different cosmetics sets, seen here:

Dragon

Illuminati

Templar

Personally, I also grab any quest I find (as long as I won't overwrite any quest of the same type I'm doing at the moment - you can only have a single quest of each type at a time) and do them. I never repeat any, but it's possible to repeat them averagely once a day (well most of the quests are repeatable).

I wouldn't bother much with crafting, except one thing, disassemble anything you find. I disassemble every single item (except consumables - not even sure one can deconstruct them), and stack the materials. Low grade materials aren't that great for anything, but you can always upgrade them, by stack of 5. Each stack of 5 will give one of the next higher grade. If you don't know, shortcut for crafting window is 'y'. Drag the item in and just disassemble it. My bank/inventory is full of all sorts of materials for crafting.

The '/reset' command, can be the quick travel tool for you. That  command will instantly kill you, and you can resurrect in the nearest anima well, or another one, as long as you have unlocked it (aka get close enough to it, once at least). Whenever I need to travel to somewhere far in map, instead of running to it, risking being attacked by multiple creatures, I just use that command and pick the nearest anima well. Two things to be aware though, 1) be sure you know what anima well you want to go, because once dead you can't check the map and 2) when you are at the selected anima well, be sure to use and don't run to your body! There is however a small down side. When you use this command, your gear will take damage, so just assume this is the fee to pay for the "quick travel".

The first instance (since all the new players want to try it), "The Polaris", is at the first map, "Kingsmouth Town", but it's advisable to try only after your gear and weapons are of quality three average. The dungeon itself is not hard except the last boss, Ur-Draug, which requires a bit of dps and a bit of playing hide and seek. Oh, and tank keep it turn away from group. Whenever you see a fog coming up, just run around the pillars out of sight of the boss. Just be sure to kill it fast, because you will be running out of pillars. The rest of the bosses is just a matter of dps and watch over the circles on ground to avoid them. In resume, quality level of gear average three, mind the circles on ground, and on last boss, play hide and seek of fog phase. Any experienced player from other MMO's won't have much issues doing this instance.

Have always a note book, for the investigations quests, it will be handy. Unless you cheat and follow guides.

The token vendor in Kingsmouth is here:

Overall, these are some of the initial tips I can give for starting up TSW. I might have repeat some, or I might have missed others, but overall, these few tips, will help you out a bit on the initial stages of the game.

Firefall Open Beta

Another game that is almost out is Firefall. Personally I haven't seen much of this title except a few videos, so I can't say much. The good news for me is that, instead of the regular open beta, that goes for a week or two and then everything gets wiped, on this beta is that, at least the xp done and what players spend in the game shop, will carry over to the live release (that's what I've read over the forums). I hate spending time on a beta and have all my effort wiped over, so I guess this is one good thing.

Main features of the game, resumed:

- Team based Action Shooter.

- Open world, persistent game.

- F2P game with micro-transactions/cash shop.

- Influence from Starship Troopers, Planetside, Tribes.

- Game is physics and skill based (more closely to Tera and more recent MMO's then WoW).

- PVP and PVE

- Game will be accessible to all, yet challenging.

I think I'm finally gonna give it a go, and see how it fares.

The Secret World Issue #7 A Dream to a Kill

The latest issue for The Secret World, A Dream to a Kill, is now live on servers. Members should be able to get it right now, while the rest should be getting it in 3 days, on 12th July.

This update features, brings a new chapter on the game story in Transylvania, and sets up the story further in to connect with the future release of Tokyo. You will be able to be a secret agent and find out what is going on. Featured also is the ability to use the snowmobile vehicle, and also a new auxiliary weapon, the flame thrower.

Here's a preview of it:

On personal note, I'm still a bit away from getting to do this with my Dragon character :(

I still have the previous update to play!

Micro transactions in WoW and Ingame Store?

Recently a friend told me he heard somewhere, Blizzard was going to introduce to WoW an in-game store. At first I was a bit skeptic because I thought it wasn't much necessary for a P2P game. But also because Blizzard had for a long time, a browser store for the game, it just wasn't inside the game. Then again this isn't much exceptional, but it's interesting because this could open the doors for some micro transactions for the game.

Update: After looking around I found also this about ingame store.

Now I strongly believe WoW won't be hitting F2P soon, if ever, but after I've read this at Gamespot, I just don't know anymore. Is this the beginning of WoW F2P or is it yet another cash grab for Blizzard?

And it's on!

Rift is now officially Free to Play! Time to get my account and see what good does the F2P of Rift.

I have to be honest, I haven't read much about it, so I'm a bit clueless, but from what I've seen, it seems to be decent. There seems to be a system similar to the one in Guild Wars 2 or the Perfect World games, Star Trek Online, Neverwinter and Champions Online, where one can trade in game currency for shop currency, but I haven't seen it, except over here.

Hopefully the game will feature a good F2P as did Aion or Lineage 2 or even the Perfect World games, and not posing virtual barriers to F2P players like what you can find on Everquest 2 or Age of Conan.

I'll post something about it later. Now let me patch up the game.

Update:

Look at the queue! Reminds me of World of Warcraft vanilla.