EQual Perspectives #9

I have to think Troy and Karen for talking about one of my post on EQual Perspectives.

Gaming Week #2

Well this weekend Half-Life 2 really got most of my attention. I did manage to get through the game and Episode One. I am working on Episode Two and wow the steam engine just looks great. The story line in Half-Life is just compelling. The fact that the game is more then just kill everything to the end is one of the things that keeps me playing. You really have to think your way through the game and solve some problems. I haven’t even started to play Portal yet but my son seems to really be enjoying it.

I plan on finishing Episode Two this coming weekend. I haven’t really decided if I want to get Crysis or Loki. I am thinking about taking a break from the FPS arena for a while and checking out a little RPG action.

I did manage to pull my self away from Half-Life for a little Vanguard and EQ2 but not much. I would like to think all my guildes that helped me finish my Light Bringer quest. I also managed to bang out level 30 and ding 31. Not a whole lot to say about Vanguard we just worked on Wardship faction some more.

I should have more to talk about next week. There is a raid planed in EQ2 Saturday that I am going to try and get in on. I also want to hit level 32 with my illusionist.  Until next time.

Side Notes

pOtshOt has started a nice discussion on Open Beta.

Random Battle also has a nice topic on gold farming.

Vanguard 3.2

Well it is out GU 3.2 it only took 2 months between 3.1 and 3.2 but we got it. I would like to say there are a lot of good things in this patch and I could talk about several of them today. But I like to stick to one thing. So here I go crafting changes. There are a lot of crafting changes in this patch. The most not worth is now you will gain xp for making things. I know crazy idea huh. You see someone at Sigil thought it would be better to have people do work orders so they didn’t have to make items just to level. This would help keep the economy in check somehow.  It didn’t work it makes it hard to find low level items people just don’t really make them. Why waste your time?

Next up is they changed item decon. Now items have a higher chance to get the good crystals and resources from decon. This should really help lower the prices on some things but over all a win win for the poor adventure in Vanguard.

So what does this tell me about crafters in Vanguard? Well a lot of high level crafters have left the game and they are not being replaced by other players. You can really feel it in game. No longer do you see a lot of t5 heroic gear on the broker. Players that where dedicated crafters have moved. I imagine there will be more changes to come.

My personal thought on crafting in games is easy. You need to decide whether or not you have a player made economy or a loot driven economy. SWG had a player made economy everything was player made and nothing was a loot drop. That system worked well in SWG. If you are going to have loot then that is where adventuring gear should stay. At no time should someone be able to go by the best gear in game or an equivalent.  Crafted items can be everything else housing, bags, extra items in game. Nothing is more frustrating than to get the +5 vorpal sword that you had to slay the dragon for and see someone running around with a player made +4 vorpal sword.  No game has been able to balance the two yet but only time will tell if Vanguard can do it. I would say most games leave about 90% of adventuring gear to the loot drop systems.