eso Archives - Page 6 of 22 - Tales of the Aggronaut

Team Akatosh

February 13, 2016 by Belghast

Psijic Order

Coming back to The Elder Scrolls Online has been this strange homecoming for me, in part because this is one of those games that I was part of something bigger than myself. Everyone has that one world that they would love to see done up as an MMO. It might be something from fiction like the setting of the Dune series, or something from a movie like Stargate…. but everyone I have ever known seems to have that one world that they would love to play in. For me that world was Tamriel, because since Daggerfall I have been a huge fan of the Elder Scrolls series of games. Granted I don’t date back nearly as far as some folks, but it is safe to say that I have spent multiple thousands of hours roaming aimlessly in the various Bethesda games. On February 26th of 2013 I got the email that I had been longing to see since I first began trying to imagine other worlds to make these sort of games from. I am not sure if I was in the literal first wave of invites, but I was there pretty early and that first four hour testing session went by so insanely fast. I was completely hooked, and bursting with so much to talk about…. knowing that I would have to swallow it down because I wanted to do my best to honor not only the NDA but also the testing process. This time I had one of my best friends reputation riding on the line, because not only did he get me in the testing process… but he was also responsible for building a lot of the quests I was experiencing.

During the early days they fired up beta testing servers, and assigned different people to different teams based on specific traits about them. I still for the life of me have no clue what Team Akatosh was, or what demographic we happened to represent. It was pretty early discovered that the Mara team were made up of largely female gamers, and then there was I believe Stendarr that was largely made up of ESO purists. Collectively we became known as the Psijic Order once the tests opened up further and started letting in new people. We were essentially the “first wave” or as some have referred to it the “The 0.016% ” but I don’t even have a clue if that figure is correct or where it even came from. I ground the hell out of this game, and never missed a single test that I can recall… and in every single case until the very end of the testing process… the tests were specific times. I gleefully bug noted every single thing that I saw, and at one point it got back to me that Ashgar and myself were apparently in the top 1% of bug reporters…. something I am admittedly a little proud of. The problem being that I got into testing in February of 2013… and the game launched in April of 2014… which means I feverishly played it as a second job looking for flaws to report for roughly a year before the game actually launched. When it launched… based on the videos on my YouTube channel I streamed at least 45 hours of it. I had simply burnt myself out on the game because I focused on it so seriously.

Brackenleaf’s Briars

The awesome thing about coming back is that I am remembering the way I loved the game roughly three years ago when I first got that beta invite. Things feel fresh and new, and the pace is perfect for me. I can meander around aimlessly but still feel like I accomplished something at the end of the night. What is cool is the fact that the Psijic Order still apparently exists, in both the private area on the official forums, and the guild that we formed on launch. Over the last few days I have caught up with a few of these folks and it has been pretty cool knowing that someone stayed. While at launch we had around 150 people… until the other day there were only one or two of those that still poked their head in every now and then. Since then I have gotten Ammo and Solaria into the game, and they seem to be enjoying it. I have another friend that says he purchased it, since apparently you can now find it for around $20 and I will be meeting up with him to get a guild invite as well. Last night I did a significant amount of house cleaning, namely that I demoted everyone to recruit and removed bank access, largely just as a safety precaution since 90% of the folks are not active. The idea is as folks show up again, I will fix their permissions, but that allows those of us who are there to feel more safe sharing items in the guild bank.

I realize the Aldmeri Dominion quests were the last to go into the game… and that when they were created it was a bit of an all hands on deck crunch time. That said they are some really amazing quests. There is a quest sequence that deals with Brackenleaf a giant living tree…. that looks suspiciously like the Great Deku Tree from Ocarina of Time. The quest sequence involves protecting the tree from an enemy known as “The Outsider” and has some interesting plot points. I have to say…. I have always loved the Bosmer and if I was going to be an elf I think that is absolutely who I would be. I could absolutely live by the Green Pact, and eat nothing by tasty tasty animals. Also really enjoying the interaction with the Bosmer leader of Elder Root and the haughty Altmer that he is forced to deal with. I think the overall quest arc of Grahtwood is going to be pretty great to experience, so looking forward to pushing that forward a bit more. As of last night I dinged Veteran Rank 3, and I have an unknown number of champion points. I decided to go ahead and subscribe, and with that came a 10% experience boost… that was honestly immediately noticeable. Namely it was noticeable on the Veteran Rank progression, and I doubt I would have hit Rank 3 last night were it not for the boost. Essentially I mulled over the whole sub thing for a bit… and decided that the same amount of money could either go to outright buying some expansions… or go to three months of subscription and at the same time give me 4500 in currency to spend elsewhere. For the time being I went with the sub option because it just made more sense.

Old-Lady Suit

February 12, 2016 by Belghast

Best Intentions

I had psyched myself up yesterday to go off and do some raiding last night. Some friends of friends had graciously offered to drag me along with them for the first part of Heroic Hellfire Citadel. I thought to myself that this was an excellent opportunity, that could lead to gear and maybe even a moose at some point, so even though they raid PST, I figured I would make the good college try. The problem being my body is still conspiring against me. This is officially the sickest I have been in years, as we are now going on thirteen days for this crud. Admittedly my wife had something super similar weeks before we went to PAX and while she got over the bulk of it… almost a month later she still has the constant cough. The thing that is killing me at the moment is the sore throat, only exacerbated by the constant body shaking coughing fits and drainage. So by the time the raid was starting around 9:30 my time…. I was already taking NyQuil and planning to slip into bed. I politely begged off as best I could and if any of them are reading today… I sincerely thank them for the opportunity. One which I kinda hope will still be available when I am not feeling like shit.

The problem I am in with Belghast is the fact that my item level is artificially low, because there are four pieces of gear that I simply cannot afford to get rid of. I have the four piece normal Blackrock Foundry set, and every time I try and sim out swapping out of it for higher item level gear… it is a major dps loss. The problem being that I am playing a special snowflake class that will be going away in Legion. Gladiator just works strangely, and it feels like Blizzard inadvertently gave use the most perfect class set ever. The two piece bonus is “Shield Slam has a 8% Chance to Automatically Cast Shield Charge” which is massive, and helps fill in those spots where I could not normally have Shield Charge up for the damage bonuses. The four piece is essentially “Shield Charge increases the damage of Heroic Strike, Slam, and Revenge by an Additional 20%” which is the single best damage booster that I can get right now. So I simply cannot abandon this set bonus, and the only real option right now would be to try and find a Mythic Blackrock group so I could get the Mythic four piece set. Because of the way the Hellfire Dungeon set works… I can also squeeze in the two piece of that set giving me “Bonus Armor Increased by 145” which while not insane… is a decent dps boost since every point of armor translates to 2 attack power for Gladiator spec. So needless to say I am stuck in a corner where my 686 gear score does not exactly equate to my performance… but I don’t really have access to the upgrades that would actually help. I mean as much as I hate to see it go, I totally see why Blizzard is getting rid of this special snowflake spec. It is extremely hard to itemize for and gear for.

Madness and Cheese

So after getting frustrated that there was very little I could do to improve my lot in life on my Warrior, I ended up logging over into Elder Scrolls Online for some nice and peaceful questing. I actually managed to catch Solaria on at the same time, and I spent a little bit of time attempting to help her get started in crafting. The only problem being that during prime time it seems like all of the ore is heavily farmed down. Since I have the insane “see it from a distance” glow effect, I am wondering about dropping down to Betnikh and helping farm up a bunch of ore for her. She decided to go with a Heavy Armor Two-Handed Templar…. which was one of my favorite paths from alpha testing. It feels a little bit like a WoW Retribution Paladin in the burst damage department, and has some really high survival when running around questing. It also greatly simplifies the crafting, since Blacksmith can literally make everything they would need to use from the weapon to the armor. The problem there is Blacksmithing honestly seems to be the most useful profession, and as a result ore is always in high demand. I could in theory just pass over a bunch of bars, but she really needs the skill-ups from refining the bars right now, so I would be better served just going out and farming ore for her.

One of the things I had forgotten about Elder Scrolls Online was just how well written the quests are. I completed a sequence in Grahtwood where I ended up encountering my favorite of all Daedra… Sheogorath the Prince of Madness. You never know if he is going to attack you… or offer you cheese… and then attack you. What makes this sequence so great is the fact that I have tangled with Sheogorath in the past of this game. He remembers my interactions and even seems to comment based on my decisions…. in this completely unrelated quest line. The amount of time that they put into making sure that the dialog trees had little gems like this, is just awesome… and I am still really impressed by them when I find them. All of the content was designed knowing that your single character might be completing all three factions worth of it. There is just something warm and fuzzy about playing this game… and while at one point I was disappointed in it… I think most of that was really just me trying to make it into something that it was not. As a largely solo experience the game is exemplary, and honestly I look forward to trying to scramble enough people together to do a dungeon or two and see if that experience improved as well. Cheese for everyone!

Games I’m Not Playing

July 17, 2015 by Belghast

Too Many Games

Right now I am suffering from a problem, in that there are just too many games that I want to be playing and simply not enough time in any combination of lifetimes to actually play them. Last night I downloaded and installed Skyforge, and gave it a quick spin this morning… and as interesting as it seems I just don’t know when exactly I am going to fit it in. For the first time in years I have been relatively monogamistic in my gaming, and with the dropping of World of Warcraft I pretty much have all of my focus on Final Fantasy XIV. Last night I ran dungeons with the guild and after doing my hunts managed to push my Dragoon to 56. As a result the desire to get that job to 60 is real, because I desperately want to be able to fill more than one roll when it comes to grouping.

By the same token I really would like to give some time to Skyforge so that I can give it a shot for free, before plunking down any money on it. I watched a bit of the MMO Show stream the other day as Jabberant played the game and I have to admit it peaked my interests. Playing this morning it feels like a better version of Neverwinter, because the janky control scheme of that game was always a major detractor. So now I get to juggle competing desires and figure out how to spend my weekend. So this morning I thought I would write about the games that I am wanting to play but just can’t seem to find adequate time to devote to them.

Star Wars the Old Republic

I have this strong desire to go back and experience the storyline that I have not yet. Essentially I have not really played my main in this game, a Jedi Guardian… since launch. Each time I go back I always end up playing alts because I am finding it really hard to get back into the swing of playing a level 50 character. I know there have been numerous expansions since launch, each with their own storyline content… and I am struggling to get back into the swing of doing it. Instead I mostly spend time playing my Light Side Sith Warrior, who has been stuck in the hell hole of Balmorra for at least two years. So one of my gaming regrets is that I have not figured out how to make progress on my main and see the Makeb and beyond storyline. Additionally I have this nasty habit of paying for a month, and then playing one day and never returning to it. I’ve gone through this sequence at least a half dozen times since we left this game. The draw of Final Fantasy XIV is always too strong to keep me playing there for long.

Wildstar

On my second attempt at playing this game I reached a point where I really was enjoying what I was doing. In fact there was a stretch prior to the launch of Heavensward where I was playing this one more than just about any other game. I have an awesome group of friends in this game and I love the Black Dagger Society guild that I am in. I had a blast roaming around the zones and taking down world bosses with them on a few occasions. For whatever reason however I am just not logging in right now. Once again the draw of Final Fantasy XIV is too strong, and maybe I just love our guild there too much. This is on the list of games I absolutely want to keep returning to, but I doubt I will until a bit more of the shiny has warn off from Heavensward. Right now I am in this push to reach a point where I have multiple useful jobs to help people with, and I think until I get there I won’t be happy playing much else.

The Secret World

I am woefully behind in my Secret World content, because the last update I think I played was the whole “Last Train to Cairo” sequence. I know there have been multiple updates since then but I am just not logging in and playing them. There are problems I have with this game that preclude me from really digging into the end game content. However I have loved all of the story mission content that I have played and I keep meaning to poke my head in and do them. I’m a life time subscriber, and I should have tons of goodies waiting on me… but generally speaking what happens is I log in and buy a nifty new outfit… then log right back out. Of all of my gaming regrets this is one of the strongest because I really would like to find a way to play this game in addition to whatever game I am “maining”.

ArcheAge

Just prior to the launch of Heavensward there were several of us on the AggroChat cast that had a brief love affair with this game. I want to find a way to return to playing this game on a regular basis because I don’t feel like I have consumed all of the good that I can get from it. This is the game that I was told once I reached level 30 I would be in forced pvp areas. While we are playing on Tahyang the supposed roleplaying server, I am 38 and have yet to encounter even another enemy player. There is a lot of great PVE content in this game, and we found the dungeons to be among some of the rougher we had experienced since say Dark Age of Camelot. I’ve logged in a few times since the launch of Heavensward, but never for terribly long because I keep feeling like I really should be in FFXIV gearing or helping other people gear. I still have things I want to do here, so I need to figure out a way to play it as well.

Skyforge

I talked about this as the start of the blog post, but I really do want to spend some time getting to know this game. At face value it didn’t seem like it was going to be anything I would be interested in. However after playing a brief few minutes this morning I think I might dig it. It is action combat that still feels like an MMO. Honestly I put Neverwinter in that same category, however there the combat just felt forced and janky. The proof will be in the pudding as to how the Paladin feels once I progress it a bit further. I admit the whole “switch roles at any time” thing is a huge draw for me, after getting used to that in Final Fantasy XIV. I doubt this would ever be a primary MMO for me, but it might be a fun weekend diversion. Ultimately I keep looking for a solid secondary game to have the duality that I did with Final Fantasy XIV and World of Warcraft. I have yet to find the game that seems like the perfect match, but who knows this might be it.

Elder Scrolls Online

The game that I least understand why I am not playing it… is The Elder Scrolls Online. Everything about this game should be squarely in my wheelhouse considering the number of hours that I have spent playing games in the Elder Scrolls universe. I have access to it both on PC and on PS4, and I had this idea that the console client would somehow revitalize my interest in the game. The problem is… it hasn’t at all. I feel like the problem I have with this game is that even though I have people moving around me… I feel like I am ultimately alone. The other players are just a backdrop in part because I never see their names. I think in part I am experiencing Beta regret, because after testing this game for a year there are previous incarnations of the game UI that I just enjoyed more. If I could go back and play THOSE incarnations… I would probably be enjoying myself still. When names over the top of mobs went away… the world felt like it shrunk for me, and the game became more or less a single player experience. I still would love to find a way to make this game that at one point I was so devoted to still feel enjoyable, but I just have not found it.

Last Best Hope

May 29, 2015 by Belghast

Bel Folks Stuff #7 – Late Night with Jaedia

I have been pretty horrible about keeping any semblance of a schedule with the Bel Folks Stuff podcast. Some months I release early in the month, and others I barely squeak out an episode before the month finishes. This month is definitely the later as with other events going on I struggled to find a good time for me to record this bonus podcast. I am extremely thankful that when I found a time my good friend Jaedia was gracious enough to make it work. What makes it even more special is the fact that Jae is recording rather late in the evening. It seems she doesn’t actually sleep, and might be some kind of new fangled android or something? Joking aside we had a lovely conversation about all sorts of random things.

Since both of us have suffered with depression and anxiety for years, we touch a bit on that. We also of course talk about gaming and what we have been up to lately. We also get into the rules of how long you have to live in Wales before you have to start calling yourself “Welsh”. Jae is recently married so we talk a bit about the transition from living together to being “married” that we both went through. Jae at one point had five different blogs so we talk about the depths of her insanity and ability to compartmentalize. We also talk about the happy medium we have found with being a general interest blogger. It was a fun show to record and I hope a fun show to listen to as a result.

[Download Episode Here]

Last Best Hope

Almost since launch folks have been foretelling the Doom of Wildstar, and not for lack of good reason. The game had extremely anemic launch numbers, and as was announced during the latest NC Soft earnings report its box sales had trickled to a slow drip. The current rumor mill of Wildstar going free to play was really spurred on by the announcement of their Mystery Box promotion. So yesterday when they announced that the game would be shifting to a free to play model, this should have surprised no one… not even the most die hard of pro-subscription Wildstar fans. While some Wildstar players are tending to wallow in the doom and gloom that comes with these sort of statements, I tend to view this as a potential new lease on life. For whatever reason gamers appetite for a monthly subscription is next to non-existent. Even World of Warcraft recently introduced the Token system allowing players to convert in game gold for subscription time much in a similar way to Eve Online does. This leaves the last pure bastion of the subscription game being Final Fantasy XIV… and I would not be shocked if we see them implementing some sort of gil to token system eventually.

I am not saying the age of the subscription is over, but I think the age of subscription being the only option just might be. I personally prefer to pay a single monthly fee for “all you can eat” buffet access to the game. Some players prefer to try and play the game for free regardless of the restrictions. Others prefer to purchase features “À la carte” and quite frankly I think in the current gaming economy a game needs to support all three models in order for it to gain permanent traction. Wildstar I feel suffered from the same issues that Elder Scrolls Online did… namely that it launched during an exceptionally tight window of viability. Too many things were being released during too short of a window and it caused the players to flit gleefully between everything that was coming out. I know I personally left Elder Scrolls Online to play Wildstar and left Wildstar to play Warlords of Draenor. Sure I set down permanent roots in Final Fantasy XIV during that time as well… but most players do not do a great job of juggling more than one game at a time.

Free to Play is Not Doom

More games have converted to the Free to Play model than I care to keep track of, and in no case has it really signaled a lasting doom for the community. If anything the opposite is true as a flood of new players come rushing into the community over a few months. When a game releases as free to play it becomes the shiny new thing in the view finder of the player base, and for a period of time everything old is new again. This is likely the phase of doom that most players are dreading, because it means that there will be more than a few “how I mine for fish” folks flooding into your gated community. The thing is… this too shall pass. Not all of these new people will stick around and find footing in the game, and often times the most heinous of players tend to be the most fickle as well. Within six months you will have a more stable population filled with the people who really do intend to set down roots in your community and stick around awhile. Many of those players will probably even convert to subscriptions, but simply didn’t want feeling like that was their only option.

The free to play model is ultimately a good thing for many games because if nothing else it lowers the barrier of entry for new players. This makes it that much easier for you to be able to recruit people into the game to join you. I know with Final Fantasy XIV once they opened the fourteen day trial accounts, it became all that much easier to get my friends to give the game a “second glance”. This also means that probably every player that played at launch is going to fire the game back up and revisit their characters. I personally found the game greatly improved when coming back recently and rerolling as an Exile. I don’t regret my decision to come back, nor do I regret snapping up cheap boxed copies of the game for months of gametime and bonus items. The game is really rather good, and my hope is that with me stepping out of World of Warcraft for awhile I can devote more time to playing it. If you find yourself in a situation where you are surrounded by “doom and gloom” folks, my suggestion is that maybe you find a more friendly place to hang out. Over the long haul this will be a good thing for a game that was so desperately trying to avoid falling into a death spiral.