Tag: everquest

Xanapus on EverQuest

On By Michel McDonaldIn EverQuestLeave a comment

I started playing a game called EverQuest way back in January 2002 because my cousin was addicted to playing it, and I guess he just really wanted me to play it too because at the time we were reconnecting, and I think he just wanted to get me into something he was into. So, for Christmas 2001, he bought me the base game at Fry’s Electronics in Burbank. I came home from my visit, and I didn’t install it immediately. I installed it a couple days after New Year’s Day in 2002 and I believe there was a free trial, so I tried that, and I just didn’t get this game. I don’t know what it was about it, it just didn’t click for me. When the trial was about to end, I came back to give it another try and I actually started to like it, so I paid for a month and figured I would just try it out for a little while, and then the addiction hit and I played this game until 2008, but continued paying for it until 2009.

The reason I quit playing was because I had become so bored with the repetitiveness of the game. I was literally playing this game all day and ignoring everyone around me. I would stop playing just to watch my shows, and to eat food and to go to the occasional movies and whatever. But then I would go right back to playing. The guild I was in was pretty much a raiding guild, so I was expected to be in the game every day at a certain time to support other guild members who needed to do their epic quest or progression or whatever it was they needed to do. I would occasionally get support for myself for my epic quests, so I couldn’t expect anyone to help me unless I was going to help them, and that meant I had to help everyone else with their thing if I wanted their help with my thing.

Around the time when I quit playing, they had introduced new expansions and they were slowing my computer down so much that I wasn’t able to play as much. There was too much lag and in some cases the lag was so huge that the game would crash as soon as I got back into the game. I had to click a button in the character selection screen to send my character back to their hometown just to be able to get back into the game. I don’t see that option anymore, but I don’t think I need that option now anyway.

My character is level 85, but I believe he was level 65 which was the maximum level before I quit, and I think what had happened was they added a feature with a new expansion that allowed me to upgrade my character to level 85 for free, and in fact I had upgraded 3 characters to level 85. I upgraded my wizard, my warrior and my shaman. All 3 of those characters were useful for everything I needed to do in the game, and they were also sometimes useful for helping other people who needed those classes for their quests or just little fun groups.

Here I am 15 years later from the last time I played the game with a brand-new laptop that I received for Christmas. I wondered if this new laptop would run the game, and it does, so I figured I will come back and play for free since that is now an option, but I want to start over with a new character to sort of help me relearn how to play the game since it has been a long time since I played. But I didn’t have any open character slots available, so I started on another server with another Xanapus character, but this time he is a Necromancer.

So, I started playing this Xanapus on December 30th, and he is already level 60. I actually got him to level 60 in 1 month, and now that I have pretty much learned how to play the game again, I decided to go back to my wizard Xanapus and do some of the things I’ve been doing with necromancer Xanapus. They have a quest system now with a quest window and achievements that they didn’t have when I played. They actually introduced it when I quit. I got to level 60, and I also had earned quite a lot of AA points before going back to wizard Xanapus. So, when I’m not playing the wizard, I have my necromancer in the Bazaar selling stuff I had looted as well as food that I had made to get my baking skill up. Basically, I spent way too much platinum on baking, so I don’t have any money for spells, so I have to sell stuff for spell money lol. But I figured I’d rather go back to the wizard anyway because I had so many years invested in that character.

I’m back in the game, but I’m the only one in my guild. There are, I don’t remember how many, but probably around 300 people in my guild, and I seem to be the only active one. There were some officers who still played up until December 2022 before I started playing again. Who knows, maybe I might see them in the game, and we might play together for old times’ sake.

Anyway, I’m having fun again, but also at the same time not ignoring anyone. I can bring the laptop in the living room and play on the couch for a few hours doing quests for achievements and then stop playing and let my necromancer make some coins.

My Necromancer Xanapus character is on The Rathe server, and my Wizard Xanapus character is on the Xegony server. If you are in the game and you see me, say hello.

My Elder Scrolls Online addiction vs. EverQuest

On By Michel McDonaldIn EverQuest, Games, UncategorizedLeave a comment

I have had this game on my PlayStation 4 for probably 5 or more years, and I played it here and there over the years, but I never really got into it because I didn’t really understand the mechanics of the game.

Last month they introduced the 10 year anniversary of Skyrim and I bought it because I had played Elder Scrolls Online, and I wanted to see what Skyrim was like. It’s basically the same thing, but not an MMO.

The introduction of the 10 year anniversary of Skyrim made me decide that I wanted to at least try to play Elder Scrolls Online again to give it a chance, but my problem was I had too many quests going and I was kind of confused about what I was supposed to do. So I thought, let me go to Coldharbour and finish that quest which ended with me killing Molag Bal. Then it started Cadwell’s Silver, then Cadwell’s Gold which are basically the other factions. But I hadn’t finished my factions quests, so I went on a mission to finish that. It was all so confusing to me, but now I get it.

My necromancer character Ilren.

My website’s name Xanapus comes from a game very similar to Elder Scrolls Online called EverQuest, which I played for about 6 years. ESO is similar to EQ, but also very different. Like we had to download maps for EverQuest, Elder Scrolls Online have their own maps already in the game, and they have markers on the maps that tell you where everything is so you don’t have to guess. They also give you more information like what you have completed on that map, and it has a zone guide.

EverQuest didn’t really have a quest diary or journal like this when I was playing. You literally had to print the quests out and write on the paper to check things off on the quest list to keep track of your progress. I literally have a notebook with hundreds of pages in it lol. Elder Scrolls Online keeps track of everything for you, and even tells you what to do next. And they mark things on your compass which gives you the direction of the person you need to speak to or the item you have to loot or the direction of the place you need to go to.

One thing that I really love about Elder Scrolls online is that I can use a game controller. I wanted to use a game controller so bad with EverQuest, but I could never figure it out with game controllers that I bought for PC way back when. They just never worked for me and were a complete waste of money.

I still have EverQuest installed on my computer and I see that they have a quest Journal now. It’s a bit different from Elder Scrolls Online, but at least they have one. The map is pretty much the same as when I last played the game, but I did notice that they have more continents because they have so many more expansion packs than they used to.

Also the thing that really bothers me about EverQuest is that they disable most of your gear if you’re not paying a monthly fee. Elder Scrolls Online has a monthly fee service that allows you to play all of their expansions, but if you don’t pay for it, they don’t disable your gear. In order to play the expansions, you have to pay for them, which I honestly don’t mind. I’d rather not have a monthly fee. I bought 21000 Crowns which are normally $149.99 for $89.99 during their Christmas sale and I used the crowns to buy some expansions.

Another thing about EverQuest is that you had to buy spells, then memorize them to put them into your spell book, then you had to add the spell gems to the spell gems slots. With Elder Scrolls Online, you just buy your spells with skill points and those spells upgrade the more you add skill points to them.

And I love that I’m getting epic gear for rewards and I can upgrade those epic gear items to legendary with crafting if I had the components. In EverQuest you had to do so many quests and crafting for so many hours, days, even weeks or months to get 1 epic and it was a weapon. In ESO all my gear can be epic or legendary, not just my weapons.

Oh another thing is that the quests are always your level, no matter what level you are. In EverQuest if I went back to do a level 4 quest and I’m level 50, I don’t really get a good reward because the reward is a level 4 reward. Which makes it feel like you’ve wasted so much time. No matter what level I am in ESO, the rewards are always worth it, and if they’re not, then I can deconstruct the item to get the materials for crafting.

I’m not trying to mansplain, I’m just really excited about playing this game and I just wanted to talk about it. I don’t have anyone to talk about it because no one I know plays this game.

Play PC Games with an Xbox One controller

On By Michel McDonaldIn EverQuest, Games, MinecraftLeave a comment

XpadderMinecraft

Ok so I’ve been struggling for years with PC games and not being able to play them with a game controller. I think that’s why I love my PlayStation 4 so much, because it has a game controller. I bought a game controller many years ago, I think back when I still had Windows 98, and never could figure out how to get it to work. It didn’t work with any of the games I had, and the program it came with didn’t seem to help.

I played EverQuest with a keyboard for 6 or 7 years and got used to it because I didn’t have much of a choice. I hated that I couldn’t use a game controller, but I learned to live with the arrows for moving my character and pressing the Q button to auto attack, I for inventory, and many more buttons and button combinations.

Last year I bought Minecraft after I bought my Xbox One game controller since I figured it would work since Microsoft now owns Minecraft, but apparently that doesn’t matter since it didn’t work. It actually started to piss me off that I wasn’t able to play a simple game with a simple game controller. It’s like why don’t these things go together like Peanut butter and Jelly, or Macaroni and Cheese for crying out loud? You would think they would automatically just work, right? Microsoft Windows… Microsoft owns Xbox and Minecraft… Hello?

Ok so finally today I searched and found Xpadder. It was $10 and I just happened to have $20 in PayPal, so I used that to buy it. I’m broke and that $10 could’ve been a couple items for groceries, but that lasts 5 minutes, this lasts a lifetime. Then again so does the food, am I right?

So you will notice in the image above that I had to make the up arrow down and the down arrow up, and the reason is simple. If I use the right stick to look up, my screen looks at the ground and if I use the right stick to look down, you get the sky. I also bought the Windows 10 version of Minecraft (before I bought it from Mojang) and it looks at the sky if you use the right stick to look up. I don’t know why it doesn’t work right in one but not the other.

XpadderEQ

Here is Xpadder for EverQuest. I’m not sure if these buttons will work for me yet. The Alt 2-4 are the spell gems and I is inventory, Q for auto attack. Ctrl X I believe is camping and Ctrl S is sit/stand. I forget what C is lol. The left stick moves my character and the right stick actually controls the cursor/mouse. I will change Ctrl X to the space bar for jumping since I probably jump more often than I camp out of the game lol. I tried running around in the Plane of Knowledge, and it was a bit tricky because I’m not used to it, but I can see me starting to play EverQuest again now that I can play it with a game controller. And any time I need to change a button to something else, I can just put EQ in windowed mode and change it, then go back to the game. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

I feel like Xpadder was well worth the $10 I paid. Sometimes I regret things I buy, but I do not regret this at all. It’s wonderful.

Xbox One Game Controller for Windows

On By Michel McDonaldIn EverQuest, GamesLeave a comment

Xbox One Controller for Windows

I’ve been playing computer games on my Windows PC since the late 90’s using keyboard and mouse with pretty much success. I bought a game controller some time in the late 90’s that never really worked right. I’m sure it worked, I just couldn’t figure out how to make it work for the games I was trying to play.

In 2002 I was reunited with my aunt in Simi Valley after more than a decade of no contact, and my cousin introduced me to a new style of gaming that I wasn’t even aware existed. MMORPG which stands for massively multiplayer online role playing game. This was literally the first time I’d ever played a game where there were other people also playing. Mind blowing! That game was called EverQuest. I tried using the game controller for EverQuest, but I could never get it to work.

So recently I bought a game called Terraria from Steam which I already own on my PS4 and PS Vita, but I bought it on my PC because I wanted to see how it is to play on another format. Playing EverQuest with the keyboard and mouse were easy, but playing Terraria with the keyboard and mouse was difficult. I would place blocks in places I didn’t want to place them, and then when I tried to break them with the pick axe, I would end up breaking the pieces I actually wanted to keep.

I received this awesome Xbox One game controller for Windows that I bought on Amazon and got in the mail 2 days later with Amazon Prime shipping. I can actually place blocks in the place I want them to be, and I can remove blocks I want to remove without breaking blocks I want to keep. It’s so weird that I’m super excited to play a game with a game controller lol.

One of my other options was the Steam controller, but I read the reviews of those, which were terrible. I mean just terrible lol. Yes, it bears repeating. Many people said to just use a Xbox One controller. I wondered what about Xbox 360 controller, and many people said Xbox 360 controller works, but Xbox One controller is better. I don’t have the 360 controller to compare it to the Xbox One controller, so I’ll just have to take their word for it. I tried using my PS4 controller, but it didn’t work at all.

The Xbox One game controller for Windows that I bought came with a wire. There is an option to buy a USB , I’m just gonna say dongle. I don’t know if it’s the right word, but it sounds silly so I’m just gonna say dongle. There was an option to buy a USB dongle (LOL) to play wirelessly, but the Xbox One game controller doesn’t have a rechargeable battery, so you literally have to use 2 AA batteries that aren’t even included. LAME! I don’t care about playing wirelessly, and I’m not going to waste hundreds of dollars on batteries, so I can play with the wire.

The Xbox One game controller works with Minecraft as well as other Windows games. I considered if I bought a Steam controller, would it even work with the Xbox for Windows games? So I’m glad I bought the Xbox One controller. I haven’t tried EverQuest yet, but I would be interested to know if it works. I also used to play a game called Lord of the Rings Online, and I don’t know if it works there, but I’m sure it does. I have The Sims 3, and I tried loading that game, but it crashed after I waited literally for 10 minutes for it to load. I don’t have that much time to sit there wasting on a game to load. I have better things to do, like I don’t know, putting tape on my nose and attaching it to my forehead so I have a piggy nose.

I’m not going to switch over to Windows games because it annoys me how PC games crash all the time and how slow they are to play on my slow ass computer, I just wanted to have the option to play games on my computer with a game controller, and now I have the option.

The Elder Scrolls Online for PS4

On By Michel McDonaldIn Games, MMORPGLeave a comment

the-elder-scrolls-online_7v2r

I have wanted to play this game for such a long time, but it was one of those $60+ games that I could never afford. I saw it used at Target for $40, but I thought I would wait and see if it goes on sale, that’s usually when I buy games.

I got lucky because “The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited Premium Edition” was on PlayStation’s Black Friday sale. It’s normally $99, but I only paid $40. It was a good thing I waited.

MMORPG games are my absolute favorite games. It’s a game you can play that practically never ends. There is literally never a time you will find “Game Over.” There is always something to do, like fishing, baking, blacksmithing, brewing etc., and there are hundreds of quests.

I’ve been looking for a game just like EverQuest that I could play on the PS4, but there aren’t any games like it, or so I thought. The Elder Scrolls is exactly what I was looking for.

Here is my character. I’ve only played him for a few days and he’s already level 8. Yes, I named him Xanapus. What did you expect? I am Xanapus all over the internet lol. He is a sorcerer, because I love playing sorcerer’s.

xanapus

The edition that I bought came with 6000 crowns, which is basically what they call the currency that you buy with real money to buy in game items. I bought some costumes and a new mount and a new pet. They gave me a Imperial horse and a crab pet, but I wanted to have an alternative for when I was tired of looking at a crab all day lol.

I am having fun so far. My first night playing, someone came up to me and invited me into a group. I don’t normally do that when I’m on a solo quest because I want to finish my quest when they want me to do what they want to do. But I joined her group and she told me that she was BAKED! LOL I thought that was funny. She was running around the game not knowing where she was going or why. Plus she kept saying “Awww you’re so cute”, which had nothing to do with what she was seeing on the screen, apparently she bought a new pet lol. I’m just like ok, I want to finish my quest now lol.

I’m very happy that I finally got a good deal because I’ve been dying to play this game. It’s a lot of fun and I look forward to seeing what happens next.

PlayStation 4

On By Michel McDonaldIn GamesLeave a comment

Yesterday was a complete shock to me. My partner came in the bedroom as I was browsing my Amazon PS3 wish list to see if the price of the Lego Batman and Sly Copter bundle I wanted was still at $259 or if it had gone up or down. It was at $289. I didn’t expect him to say let’s go buy you a PlayStation.

I begged him not to do it because I honestly didn’t want him to spend that kind of money on me. I mean, it is a lot of money, why should he buy it? What have I done to deserve such a generous man in my life?

I told him that to be able to get the exact bundle I wanted, we would have to do research to make sure the store we go to has it so we don’t waste gas driving all over Bakersfield looking for something that doesn’t exist. He called GameStop and Best Buy and Best Buy had it, but Game Stop didn’t. I mean, 1 location did, but that was very far away from the house.

While we were driving to Best Buy, my partner told me that it doesn’t do you any good to buy the previous model just because it’s cheaper and because it connects with your PSP. In a year when they come out with the PS5, they will probably stop selling the PS3 games and you won’t be able to buy new games. I don’t know if that will happen, but it is a good point, and originally I wanted the PS4, but decided on the PS3 because of the price and the fact that it connects to my PSP. But I would have liked the PS4 instead, so that’s what he bought me.

IMAG0824-1

The PS4 that I got wasn’t a specific bundle. They had 4 games on the box, and I assumed I got all 4 games, but it said 4 games pick one. I couldn’t decide because I don’t normally play the games they offered. The choices were Destiny, FarCry 4, NBA2K14 and Little Big Planet 3. I don’t mind Little Big Planet, but I had a feeling I wouldn’t really get into it, meaning I’d probably fall asleep. I asked a gaymer Facebook group I am in and they couldn’t give me a straight answer, and it wasn’t just because they were all gay gamers lol. Some said Destiny, some said Far Cry 4 and some said Little Big Planet. I watched some gameplay videos on YouTube before I asked for Destiny and Far Cry 4 and they both seemed to be the same style of game, shooter, which I don’t really care for, but I decided on Destiny because it’s like a future space game, which I love.

I was looking at the PlayStation store and found Lego The Hobbit and saw that it was only $39.95. Well, I already had $9 in my PlayStation wallet and they gave me $10 in the box, so it only cost me $20 out-of-pocket. I also bought 2 add-ons and 2 bundles for $1.99 each.

The final game that I got was DC Universe Online. I have played that game on my PC and loved it, so I knew I would love it on my PS4. I actually love it more on my PS4 because of the game controller as opposed to using my mouse and keyboard to play. I created a “flash” type of character and was zipping around the game so fast.

So I finally have my game console, and I am so happy that it is a new one instead of an old one. I love it and I will have fun with it.

Games I am hoping to play on this is the new EverQuest Landmark and the new King’s Quest when that comes out. I read that EQ would be coming to PS4 in 2015 and I also read that King’s Quest is coming back and I saw some of the graphics and they look amazing. I’m not sure if KQ will be computer only or if it will be computer and console, I want to buy it either way.

I have a PS4 Wish List on Amazon with some games I would love to buy and some hardware like a camera. I hope to be able to buy the camera soon so I can use it for exercise.

Reformat Fun Time

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

I just love to reformat my hard drive and start over from scratch.  Okay so that’s a lie, but it is nice to start fresh every now and then when my computer becomes so slow and even using crap cleaner and defragmenting doesn’t help.

The first thing you want to do before reformatting your hard drive is to back up all of your files either onto DVD’s, any cloud service or a back up hard drive.  I chose to use a back up hard drive because I don’t really feel like having to copy all of the files from DVDs or having to download all of my files again.  I won’t have to do anything with a back up hard drive, I’d just leave all the files there because they are easily accessible if I need them.  I’ve already done that, although I had a little issue when moving files around that resulted in panic and using Recuva.  See my last post.

The second step is to reformat my hard drive, but making sure I pick the correct hard drive, you know, the one that has my current operating system, not the back up hard drive, because talk about a nightmare.  UGH!

The UPS tracking says it will arrive tomorrow between 10:45 a.m. and 2:45 p.m. which means I can start reformatting either tonight before I go to bed, or when I wake up early in the morning.  I like to be prepared so I can just pop the DVD in the drive and get the show on the road, because the sooner I install the new operating system, the sooner I can get back to doing the thing I love to do, which is check Facebook and Twitter, despite the fact that I can do that on my Chromebook, Nook HD+ and my phone.  Could someone remind me why I even still use a computer? :p

I’m just kidding, of course I have a computer so I can play EverQuest, blog, money management, print packing slips and labels for my Etsy shop among many other things.  It’s not just about Facebook, although that’s mostly what I use it for.

I was hesitant to get Windows 8.1, but now I’m kind of excited to start over with a new operating system.  This should be fun.

What more is there to say?

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

What more is there to say?

Before I discovered Twitter and Facebook, I used to blog up to 6 times per day.  With Twitter I can sum up my thoughts in 140 characters and with Facebook even more.  That took the fun out of blogging which is why I don’t blog as often as I used to.

I’ve come to the point where I honestly can’t think of anything to say, even in a 140 character tweet.  Yesterday I was bored and said this:

“They say if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all, but something is better than nothing.”

I think this was directed at myself because I don’t say much anymore.

Lately all I do is sit here looking at all the wonderful and sometimes snotty things other people say in their tweets and/or Facebook updates and think to myself, why didn’t I think of that?  Why can’t I think of anything to say anymore?

Today I was bored and said this:

“When you don’t get any mail you think “No news is good news.” But sometimes it’s nice to get SOMETHING, even if it’s just coupons.”

What’s the point of even having social networks anymore?  I become friends with people and never say a word until their birthday and then all I say is Happy Birthday.  I’d love to read more books or play one of my MMORPG games, but I can’t even get into those because I’ve become bored with them.  Is the problem that I’ve just become bored with everything?

I’ve been playing The Sims Freeplay on my phone a lot more than I used to play it, but only because I have something to accomplish and I’m guessing when I accomplish all of my tasks I will get bored with it again.  What I need is something to be excited about.  I remember playing EverQuest for sometimes 16 hours a day every day for 8 years until I became bored with it because everyone in my guild left to either go into another guild or to play the newest game.  I also started playing other games, like Lord of the Rings Online, but I had nobody to play with so I eventually got bored with that and the same thing happened with EverQuest 2 and DC Universe Online.  MMORPG games are more fun when you have people to play with.

Well it seems that I had more to say than I thought, but that seems to be all I can think of for now.

My Nintendo 64 on Ebay

On By Michel McDonaldIn Games1 Comment

Nintendo 64

Today is a sad day for me because I had to put my Nintendo 64 on ebay.  I bought it from someone in 2002 and played it a couple of times, but then I didn’t have time for it because I was too busy playing EverQuest on my computer.  I had a lot of fun playing The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time, and I never even got to finish it, but I sadly got bored with it when I got stuck and couldn’t figure out how to continue.  It has sat in my TV cabinet all these years.

I bought the other 2 games South Park and Turok 2: Seeds of Evil in 2010 I believe.  I played South Park for like 5 minutes, but I didn’t play Turok 2 so I never really enjoyed it.  I did however have a lot of time with the Legend of Zelda Ocarina of time.  I only got to a certain point and then couldn’t get past it and gave up.

So I made some videos of the game play so you can see that the system and games do work.

Turok 2: Seeds of Evil – I have to admit, I have never actually played the game so I had no idea where to go or what to do lol.  http://youtu.be/sm_0yG-m1Ow

South Park: http://youtu.be/elYhbZu3Bls

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time: http://youtu.be/698xbfc4QUE

My original thought was to sell this on ebay so I could save up for a new bike, but I have a feeling I’m going to need the money for groceries this month.  I hope we are going to be okay for food, but just in case, I would like to sell this so we can survive.

EverQuest Fun

On By Michel McDonaldIn EverQuest1 Comment

I have been having a bit of fun in EverQuest over the last couple of days.  I haven’t really had much time to play since we have been so busy trying to install the new floor, so when I do get to play, I don’t really know what to do.

When I got in the game yesterday, I decided to see how many Station Credits I had (you get a specific amount of credits every month as a subscriber) so I could buy something fun and I found a few items.  First thing I bought was an illusion for myself (picture above) which is of a burning Nekhon.  As you can see, it’s a dragon like creature that walks on legs like a minotaur (or bull) but has flaming wings.  I get two icons in my spell icons box, one is the illusion and the other is the added benefits of the illusion which burns creatures that strike me and levitation.  It looks awesome, especially when I’m fighting, but he looks so funny when he runs.

I also bought a couple of other things…

The first thing was a Nightmare Skull.  That is a pet illusion; you cast it and your pet turns into that.  The only problem was I forgot that I don’t have a pet, I have a familiar, he isn’t considered a pet.  A pet fights the monsters (mobs) for and/or with you, but your familiar only gives you added benefits like clarity.  So, I wasted 200 station credits.  I would be better off buying that for my necromancer EvilXanapus.

I still wanted a new pet/familiar so I found the Steamwork Companion.  He is a little floating robot which gives me levitation and when I am fighting a mob, he steps in front of me and takes some of the damage.  He stays around for 5 hours which is the same as my regular familiar, so he keeps me floating for a long time.  I mean, he’s not that useful, but any damage mitigation is good so I don’t mind.  Plus he’s cute to have follow me lol.

The last thing I bought was Shrooms of Sight.  It’s basically drugs lol.  They have had alcohol in the game forever, but this is different.  Although it’s not what I thought it would be.  I thought that I would be seeing some strange stuff going on that nobody else could see, but all it does is it turns the screen different colors for a minute or so.  It’s really actually kinda lame lol.  It was cheap so no harm done.

So here is me in my regular gnome form with my Steamwork companion and my bloodbone protector mercenary.  He fights all of my battles for me.  He isn’t considered a pet because he is a paid mercenary and he goes in the group.  I would love it if he were a floating skull, but I like him as a bloodbone skeleton, especially when I am using the Nekhon illusion.

This picture was taken in the Western Wastes on the Velious continent at the zone to Siren’s Grotto.  I have been going there to fight for Deepwater Ink for alchemy with my Vah Shir Shaman character named Painen Dabum.

As a level 77 wizard I don’t get any exp killing the mobs there, but it’s quick money and I get the alchemy ingredients I need in a timely manner.  And believe me, there is a lot of money to be made there.  I get tons of gems that sell for a couple hundred plat each.  I can fight in there for a couple of hours and make 1000 – 2000 platinum.  I go there for the alchemy ingredients, not the money, but it helps, especially since I have to pay the mercenary 35p every 15 minutes and the potions I make in alchemy cost money to make.  I am making the potions to sell back to the merchants and to get my alchemy skill up.

Although, I would do better with the higher level alchemy potions, but those ingredients are foraged and it’s boring to sit in the Dreadlands with my druid for hours upon hours twiddling my thumbs waiting for the forage button to let me forage more.

But I digress, I am having a lot of fun playing the game again, even though I am playing by myself lol.  I can’t wait to get the burning Nekhon and the floating skull for my necromancer, I think that would be awesome to look at.  It won’t be any time soon because they don’t give me very many station credits every month.  If I really wanted those things, I’ll have to pay them real money for more credits and I just don’t want to spend any more money than I already give them every month.

Can’t wait to play again.