Tag: Housing

Home Sweet (Hobbit) Home

I finally managed to download and patch all of LotRO, created new characters over on the Landroval server (currently I have a level 15 hunter, a 10 guardian, a 7 lore-master, and a warden) and joined up with a handful of Combat Wombat and friends from twitter. At level 15 you get the ability to purchase a house, and since I had a bunch of gold stored up on my level 44 minstrel on another account I decided to send it over and allow my hunter the ability to purchase a nice fancy home.

The location isn’t the greatest, I had to place trees in my yard to give it a bit more of a natural feel, but it’s close to the stables which makes me pretty happy, and it’s also close to the Kinship house, which has a bunch of crafting tables!

Housing has changed since last I played. Not in the method (it still uses pre-placed hooks that you drop furniture onto) but in the number of hooks, and their placements. My home used to have only a few hooks for furniture, and it looks more natural now, you can place things close to one another. It’s not the free moving housing that I love from EQ2, but it will do.

I’ve picked up some crafting on everyone, and I can’t wait to get started on that. I sent over a bunch of supplies from alts and everyone should be pretty situated now. We’ll see how long this lasts!

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

February 9, 2020 February 10, 2020 By stargrace In No Comment

Experimenting with the Layout Editor

A little while back SOE added the ability for players to save and load house layouts, and adjust those files by hand to create some awesome effects in their homes. While players can typically ‘raise’ and ‘lower’ an item by holding shift + scroll wheel, and re-size and item by holding control + scroll wheel (I may have those backwards) you can’t normally ‘flip’ an item, or rotate, pitch, and roll it. With the ability to adjust the layout files by hand also came the ability to adjust all of these specifications. Unfortunately, it’s also quite complicated when you’re looking at the actual ‘code’ – a whole bunch of numbers that players would have to play around with in order to get the desired effect they wanted.For people like me who A) Read a lot of numbers backwards and B) Are simply daunted by something that complicated, it meant that layouts were something I’d be leaving alone for now.

Along came Jesdyr’s EQ2LayoutEditor, a program that would allow players to load the layouts that they had saved, adjust them in a far more comprehensive method, save them, and then load the saved layout in game. This program is amazing. You can find it on the EQ2Designers web page as well as on the EQ2players forums (linked above) and if you’re interested in playing with housing layouts I would HIGHLY suggest you try using this program. There are comprehensive tutorials and your imagination really is the limit with this tool.

Why would anyone want to use it? Well, it’s handy for things like placing a floor tile along a wall to create a better effect. You can place knives into a wooden block for a kitchen, you can turn fences sideways into ladders, or create an entire room on the ceiling if that’s what you wish. I personally used it to move the cloudy sky floor tiles to the walls as well as the ceiling in my green house and I do have plans to use it elsewhere, like turning the steam lord tapestry (water effect) sideways to create a relaxing pool. There are still some times glitches with SOE’s side of things, but if you check the forums there are typically work arounds for them all. For example when I raise the floor tiles to the ceiling they actually appeared to be gone completely, until I zoned out and re-set my house. Loading it and zoning in again fixed the problem and both tiles appeared on the ceiling just fine.

It is definitely a decorators dream, and if you tend to spend most of your time in game imagining your next creation, then I would highly suggest you check it out.

Happy gaming no matter where you find yourself!

June 25, 2010 December 27, 2019 By stargrace In 2 Comments

Decorating, Decorating.. and yes, More Decorating

I’m still here! Ok so I’ve been neglecting posts on MmoQuests lately, but I’ve been incredibly busy in real life (gasp) – that doesn’t mean I haven’t been in game! Things have been pretty busy there too. When I left off I had just purchased a T1 hall for my latest endeavor, Dragon’s Flight. Decorating it has been a LOT of fun, although it’s only getting done in bits and pieces I feel that this is actually a preferable way to decorate. That way you don’t get burned out. I’ve been working on creating display cases (like the one pictured above) for the trophies I’ve gathered (ok, I didn’t gather them all a lot were donated, thank you Pennie and Shadowgeist) and some sort of ‘central’ area. Kasul has been busy working on the library portion as well as living quarters. The crafting area is complete, and I really like the way it turned out this time around. As for what else, well. I haven’t decided yet. Probably another stage / bar area, and I’d like an aquarium. Once the hall is completed I’ll  be making a video of it and posting that here for people to watch (I’ve been neglecting my videos).

Other then that, well. I’ve been leveling up a lot of characters, and doing some quests. More about that in another post though!

Happy gaming, and I’ll see you in Norrath!

April 1, 2010 December 27, 2019 By stargrace In 1 Comment

Making a Game Feel Like Home

I’ve been working on my Norrathian Museum for a few years now, and one of my favorite features (which is also relatively new) is my library of player-written books. Lots of players collect the lore books that are scattered throughout Norrath, but I really do pride myself on being able to collect books written by other players. It’s just one of those ‘things’ I do in game that makes the game more ‘me’ – does that make sense?

The collection as of today consists of 249 books, written by various authors from all over Norrath. I try to post a random story once a week to this site so I can share some of the pieces of work I’ve collected, and eventually I have high hopes of even posting every single one of them. We’ll see how that goes. Perhaps I’ll start a second smaller site where I can post them all.

The point is – every game needs something that pulls a player in, and some times playing with your friends really isn’t enough to keep you there. It’s with these little tiny unique customization options that developers add to their game that make a game feel like home, and EQ2 has that in spades. Being able to decorate your home to a ‘theme’ of your choosing, whether you’re a druid worshiping nature, or an ancient warlord who thrives on blood, or a necromancer who studies death in all its forms – that is an example of what makes a game a home.

What are some other examples of how games make players feel ‘at home’ within them?

February 11, 2010 December 27, 2019 By stargrace In No Comment

Proud New Home Owner – Angela Ravendust

Housing in Wizard 101 is something that I was very excited about when it first came out. I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to afford a home any time soon but they come in two sizes and I knew I didn’t want to buy a small one. If I’m going to own a home why not own the biggest one! So, the day was going fairly well. I wasn’t even thinking about housing (much) and I was questing in Krokokust doing a dungeon – which I ran out of potions on and then died. Ugh! All that work down the drains. I’ve tried this dungeon a few times now and I never make it past the ice lake, or rather I make it slightly past the ice lake where I have to fight some keymaster and then I believe there’s another battle shortly after.

It frustrated me, and I decided to cheer myself up I would finally purchase that castle I had been eyeballing since housing went live. I headed to wizard city, found the nearest housing turtle I could find, and was happy to see that the forested mansion was a mere 15,000 gold – leaving me with 700 gold after the purchase.

Now, Angela doesn’t have a whole lot of house items, I’ve gathered together 20 or so and most of them have the Krokokust theme throughout. It doesn’t exactly go with the new theme of a castle. It will do for now though I suppose!

I even have my very own water fall to listen to, and birds and other creatures wander around. I emptied out my little dorm room which was getting very crowded and set my craft station up in the new house. Which reminds me, I need to harvest more supplies so I can finish that quest off one of these days. So many games and not enough time to play them all!

I set up a little bed room and a study area, planted a palm tree outside and added a flag and torch, but the rest is pretty empty. I even have my own stage, where I can be entertained.

It’s too close to dinner to do any more decorating right this moment, but I’m looking forward to yet another housing project. It doesn’t seem to matter what the game is, if there’s housing, I’m happy!

July 25, 2009 December 27, 2019 By stargrace In 1 Comment

Work work work

Yesterday was quiet – not a bad thing. I happily worked on the museum, adding tables to the library as well as chairs and some lighting. I always have issues getting the lighting right, it’s hard to figure out which house items will give what particular light I want. I added a few more books as well, and mailed off some blank ones to players. So far trying to get people to write for me has been like prying teeth but I expected no less on a non-rp server, and I enjoy the challenge. This way my library is also truely unique, I have one of a kind books that are not published anywhere.

Ultann and Wpus headed off to Pawbuster, but since the cat (as precious as she thinks she is) keeps waking me up at 5am every morning, I have been going to bed fairly early, unable to keep my eyes open any more. Honestly, does anyone have a suggestion on how to train a cat NOT to wake someone up? She will (and I kid you not) do anything within her power to wake me, including (but not limited to) screaming, biting, ripping apart books (my room is a disaster in the morning, I’ve had to give her specific books to chew so that she leaves my important ones alone), vaulting from the nightstand onto me (this is so very painful), she will walk up my body and stuff her nose in my eye and I can wake up to the sound of her heavy breathing, and numerous other acts of cat-ness. 5am is too dang early to be up and I’m one of those ‘once I’m up I’m up’ people, after she’s had her fill of attention for an hour she runs off to sleep. Of course, I’m up by then.

Kasul spent the evening questing, and I nodded off at the keyboard so I decided to get some sleep.

Fan Faire starts really soon, so everyone has been preoccupied with getting that off the ground and I’m excited to see what happens this year. I wish I were going, but there’s always next year. Of course as I’ve mentioned before I’ll be following via twitter and every other device I possibly can, I hope everyone has an exceptional time (I’m sure I don’t even need to say that, it’s just a given).

I believe today the guild of three plus one are all home, so maybe we’ll get a chance to do some instances, summer months are a little more difficult to arrange for that sort of thing. Safe travels, and I hope everyone has an amazing Tuesday!

June 23, 2009 December 27, 2019 By stargrace In 5 Comments

Norrath Grotto Live Event

If you happen to be a housing buff (or even a quest-o-holic) then there is no doubt that you had heard about the 5 new grotto that (as of yesterday) appear in Norrath the 20th of every month for players to explore and quest in. If for some reason you were unable to partake in the event this month – don’t worry, there will be another one next month, same date. When I started working on these quests I had so many questions shot my way about it that I put all of the information I knew into a player-written book, made 10 copies of it, and sold it on the broker for others who did not want to spend the time to look it up. Surprisingly enough, I sold out. Of course I also advertised the books on the channels too.

The grotto appear in Antonica, Darklight Woods, Greater Faydark, Enchanted Lands, and Nektulos Forest. Each zone has a collection quest associated with it, as well as one regular quest (aside from Darklight Woods, which has two). Each zone has a merchant with 10-15 house items for sale that use the tokens you receive from completing the quests. If you do not collect the purple shiny in the zone, you will only have a 39 minute lock out and you can go back in and complete the zone again for another house item. I am not certain if this is intended. The 2 day 12 hour lock out only sets once you have collected the purple shiny.

I have never seen so many house items at once before that I wanted to have. They were absolutely beautiful. I ran through the quest on three of my characters for this month and decided that would be more then enough for me. I love the work that must have went into an event such as this, and the giggles of pleasure from watching everyone and their new house items. There were sea shells, coral, flowers, vines, trees, grass, illusions, 20 charges of temporary mounts (that lasted a day each, fantastic for those lowbie alts since the quests scaled and were quite simple). There were plushies of every shape and size, and all of it for a very limited time only, until next month. What a fantastic idea.

I don’t think people understand the scale of the content that gets added to EQ2 every single month (or two). We have huge massive updates on a steady basis that give players not only basic bug fixes and updates to things like graphics but incredible zones, house items, gear, and even the more unique like player-written books. I think a lot of us take advantage of the fact that we expect these updates to happen – but they should NOT be expected. We pay our monthly fee and while there are those who may say the developers of the game are obligated due to the fact that this is to keep subscriptions, it’s simply not true. This content is something that is extra, and done amazingly well in EverQuest II.

On that same note, there is also the guide program in EQ, EQ2, VG, and the EQ that’s on the mac (the name escapes me right now). How many other games have a guide program, where a group of volunteers are set to interact with the player base on a daily time frame, giving away goodies, providing role play opportunities, and other games that can reward players. The time and effort that goes into these games is astounding and every once in a while we all need to sit back and appreciate that effort. I know, I know, we pay $15/m and that’s a lot of money and we should be getting everything for free and how dare anything break in the game without us the players the game would be nothing. I’ve heard it all before. I even agree with certain aspects. That doesn’t mean we can’t be thankful and appreciate what we’re getting as a player base. I hear often on 70-79 players ranting about how no one listens to them, and about how they feel ‘screwed over’. I think this opinion is slightly misguided, while individual players may feel as though no one listens to their specific set of unique problems, over all, things are not that bad.

Sorry, I got carried away there and started ranting. You certainly don’t have to agree with me, but if I’ve learned anything over the past five years it’s to be thankful, both in game and out.

The grotto quests are amazing. So amazing that I spent my time in game yesterday doing nothing but that, and decorating the museum I posted about yesterday. It was one of those nice calm relaxing days that are typically so rare. I ended up crawling into bed with a book at 9:30, and watched ‘Pretty Woman’ until I fell asleep. I couldn’t have thought of a more perfect way to spend my Saturday if I tried (except maybe down in San Diego, I’m so jealous of all of you who are headed to Fan Faire)!

Have a fantastic Father’s Day, everyone. I’ll see you in Norrath (and Telon)!

June 21, 2009 December 27, 2019 By stargrace In 4 Comments

Home Sweet Home (Norrathian Museum) WIP

I’ve been working on my ‘Norrathian Museum‘ off and on for quite some time. The screen shots don’t do it justice, so if you’re on the kithicor server please feel free to stop by the Magical Academy Housing in North Freeport. Character name is Ellithia. It’s in the mage tower, bottom floor. I’ve worked really hard on this and I’m exceptionally pleased with how it’s turning out.

Ideally, the library will be filled with a combination of player-written books and ones that I’ve quested for. It’s a little bare right now, but it gives me a goal. If there is anyone who wants to add some of their writing to my library, please don’t hesitate to make a character on Kithicor and mail me with your name, I’ll send you a notebook and some coin in return, then all you need to do is mail it back to me when the story is complete, you can delete the character right after.

It is still a work in progress, but the main floor is completed now, and the majority of the upper floor. I want to add tables and chairs to the library area, as well as a living space downstairs for Ellithia (the owner of the home, my mystic). She has a little bedroom tucked away, didn’t need much space for that, but I’d like a little kitchen, and perhaps a bath, we’ll see.

The garden picture was taken at night so it’s really hard to see, and looks far better in the day light. With the new grotto quest rewards (which I’ll go into more detail about tomorrow) the outdoors in any home will lack for nothing.

A silly way to spend my time? Maybe, but I had an absolute blast decorating.

June 20, 2009 December 27, 2019 By stargrace In 6 Comments

The Difference in Servers

When player-written books first came out, I had grand hopes of putting together a library in my Norrathian Museum (a work in progress) that was filled with player-created books instead of the usual ones that everyone finds (aside from a few select volumes). The books have only been out a few days now, but so far only one other person aside from my guild mates has placed any books for sale on the Kithicor server. Whether this is because people are just shy with sharing their work, or it is because they’re saving it all up for some big boom, I’ve no idea. There are 17 pages of blank books for sale, and 2 written books, both from my guild mates (one pictured above).

Now take a look on the Antonia Bayle server – which I realize also happens to be the most popular server, but it’s got pages and pages of user created books for sale. I would LOVE to be able to fill my library with these books, so if anyone is interested in creating a character on Kithicor and penning a book for me to add to my library, I will pay for the blank notebook.

I would also (no idea if this is feasible, it’s probably not) LOVE to have some unique one of a kind books penned by our resident community team members (I’m looking at you Kiara!) to add to this library. People of note from the game, friends, anyone I can possibly find to add to this library. It’s more or less for sentimental value to me, but I would really appreciate it. If you happen to pen a book, or want to pen a book for me to use in the library, you can find me in game as Ellithia or Arysh – and if you don’t currently see me on, send me some mail and I’ll send you a blank book in return that you can mail back to me. You don’t have to actually level the character, and you’re welcome to delete afterward, but I would really love a user generated library with unique stories.

Last night we attempted Mistmyr Manor for the first time (the first time all together, that is, and the first time over all for me) but Ultann was feeling ill so just before we hit the library we had to call it a night. I picked up a nice cloak for Goudia (she was needing one badly) and a piece (or two) of vampire bane gear for the coercer. Even though the stats are not that great I do love being able to proc against them. Especially since I always put the mystic buff that increases proc chance on my coercer. The joys of boxing!

This weekend should be fairly quiet. I’m crafting a lot of the new hex dolls and bandoliers in order to be able to make some future purchases. I haven’t any masters for sale and I pretty much transmute everything else I get, so this should help out a little bit. Of course, not creating so many alts would also help out. Ah well!

Time to see if the Grotto event is in game yet! Safe travels, and see you in Norrath!

June 20, 2009 December 27, 2019 By stargrace In 1 Comment

Starting out in the Sims 3

That’s right, I happen to be one of THOSE gamers. I’m not a huge fan of blood and guts, shooting and killing. While there have been some comments in the past that say this is because I’m (gasp) a female gamer, I prefer to think it’s because I’m just not into those sorts of things. I don’t believe that they’re the sort of game that appeals only to men or only to women. I enjoy pvp (though I rarely delve into it these days) and I’d rather do something I personally find more creative and constructive with my time then just grind it away battling creatures. I typically do this via: crafting, decorating, and other creative outlets, especially those involving design. I can’t exactly be too creative when I’m doing nothing but smacking mobs – though that is a wonderful pass time too, it’s just not the end all be all of my gaming persona. Anyhow!

I’ve been a long time sim fan. I played sim city, and all of the regular sims growing up. I loved building homes, creating lives. I loved designing my own clothing, creating textures and building elaborate yards – or even simple ones. When Sims 2 came out it was amazing, but I barely got a chance to play it because my youngest brother ‘borrowed’ the cd and that was the last I ever saw of it. I even spent some time playing The Sims Online when that came out, I used to DJ on a radio station going by the name “April Love” – four hours every day. It was a great experience even if the game wasn’t all it could have been. I played just before I started with EQ, and just after I had gotten more then my fill of MUDS. I used to take requests and played a lot of songs for people while they wandered around the Sim world.

Sims 3 is beautiful. They’ve made some changes and so far I’ve had a very enjoyable experience. I started out with a fully furnished home (my choice) for $15,000 or so. You start out with $16,000 so you don’t get a lot left over. Character creation was great, I loved the fact that I didn’t have to be some super skinny woman if I didn’t want to. Ages start as young as babies and go up to elderly. You pick five traits that can be negative or positive and as far as simple creativity goes, I adore it.

Sure, I’m just playing a virtual life, and I’ve already got a real life (hah) so you may wonder why this would even be appealing, but it’s great to pretend, and fantastic to invent and create.

One addition to Sims 3 is the RMT factor, they have an online store where you can purchase more styles of hair, clothing, furniture and other goodies. I checked out the furniture. It reminds me of SOE’s station cash, where it’s $20 for a full house set, and cheaper for bits and pieces. For pre-ordering the game on direct2drive I snagged $10 (1,000) worth of points to put towards future purchases – if I want. I didn’t see anything that interested me quite yet, but we’ll see. My only issue with this is the same issue I have in EQ2, that there’s less of a push to release really awesome looking content for free because you can just charge for all of the neat looking things. Aside from that one small little blip, I’m having a great time taking a break from Norrath and Telon (and whatever other virtual worlds I happen to wander through this week) to spend some quiet time playing the game. So far I’ve enjoyed the little quests they’ve sent me on. My sim (named Stargrace, go figure) is a young adult, working her way for $28/h as a podium polisher, mon-fri 9-3. The first weekend that came around she took some writing and art classes, and cooked some fantastic hot dogs for some fine gentleman that she may (or may not) have her eyes on. The life of a sim is less complicated then real life and I think that’s part of the charm – plus if I remove all the doors to the house in a moment of pure frustration it’s fun to see what happens next. Not, that I would do that. *grins*

June 2, 2009 December 27, 2019 By stargrace In 3 Comments
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