Fam Update - Kielce Edition

Alright so I figure I might as well start reblogging here on this thing. For the first time in a long time I finally have something I want to blog about - well, rant about more so. Well, not a proper rant, more so a little annoying thing - a vent, but I'll get to that in another post.

So since I've came back nearly four months ago I've managed to re-acquaint myself with some of the finer points of gameplay. I still manage to make a potato (an idiot) of myself with my gaping holes of knowledge in regards to updated content. The most recent example of this was - apparently in some versions of BH missions, you can summon others in to join you? I'm still powerfully confused by this.

Shortly after rejoining GE, I was swiftly re-abducted into Halcy. Apparently I had 'just' be finally kicked to make room a matter of days before. Ironic, that. The political climate is quite simple, but much more active than I have seen it in years. There's a massive grudge match between around 8-10 clans. Or rather, there's just a handful of clans (and grumpy(?) leaders) that just LOVE to war everyone, and do so do religiously. Meanwhile the rest of us are stuck with it. Oh well. I've already found places safe to afk in where reds generally do not check.

That tends to be the biggest complaint during clan/faction wars, that it becomes almost impossible to AFK anywhere. With recent bugs rendering even premium areas Pk-able, this is almost true. Especially if you afk in places like Rion Dungeon, Skele Dungeon, Caeb, Bahamar areas, etc.. you know, the popular places to level. Even so, that's an awful lot of map to check, a number of channels, and only a few persistent reds doing the overall damage. Oh well, I'm happy to trade off a 'prime exp' location for one I can AFK for hours in.

Since returning I've finished almost all the quests, recruited all (? or nearly all) of the Kielce rnpcs, and some extras. I'd post a picture but we're talking an extra 15 characters. Marchetti, JD, Olivia, Heiran, Adriana, Cruise, Lhote, Caisse, Veil, Barrol, Cano, Grenma, Ion, Sierra, and Nena have been added. All of them were acquired on a daily basis throughout early January, and the rest added a few days or a week later throughout the end of February with the exception of Nena, who I managed to get just last week. Lhote was acquired through a PTE (Play Time Event ie: AFK in town until you got enough points to get a goodie).

That said, they've all been promoted to Expert or better. With diligent completion of the daily Kielce quests (And extra 5 Vet levels+ in Exp cards daily in rewards) I now have enough Exp Cards to insta-master all of my remaining Experts at their varying levels - yes all 30 of them. Yes I'm a hoarder. Yes, I'm still debating whether to actually do it or not. Hnnggg... but dat Fam Exp!

 Ah well, until later.
~Alze

I Think I Just Ate A Phoenix Feather

So something strange happened today. I patched (twice) and logged into GE. For the first time in.. oh.. I don't even have an idea of how many months I've logged back into the game. I've been long removed from Halcy (dw I still love you guys), I've long forgotten 90% of the command shortcuts, let alone hardly remember where I even was quest-wise. (We won't get into my lack of recollection of what was valuable when I left, let alone what my 'dailies' even were at the time.) I'm not entirely sure what's led me to log back in, but I have.

Perhaps it's like sipping an odd wine to remember why you kicked the habit.

The above is my usual reaction upon logging back in the last 2-3 times I did since my hiatus status. Hasn't happened yet tonight. Between Tera (where I've been most of this past year) becoming overly easy, and a nasty arm cramp keeping me off of MS (don't ask how I'm managing to type, I just can't spam ctrl, a, s, and z repeatedly), I decided to poke my nose back into GE being it obviously:

1 - Hasn't died
2 - Hasn't been shut down
3 - There's still friendlist people online

Some of the clans have changed, some have stayed. I have no idea what the political climate is like, but I can make a good guess. One or several clans is probably dominating x-resource/raid/money-source much to the discontent of the rest of the server. It's usually how it goes.

I'm not sure I could ever get back into GE full-swing again. Actually, I know I cannot. With the way my life has changed over this past year, it isn't possible anymore. For that I'm kind of glad, or I'd be sorely tempted to rejoin in on the 'server-just-up-quick-kill-ALL-the-bosses' raids, as fun as they were last year.

Maybe it'd be fine to just poke around now and again. Just a little. I do, after all, miss my old nicknames.

Until later,
~Alze

Wow, that's a surprise.

So while I have not logged into the game in a very long time, and my general mmorpg playing has taking a sharp slide, I did find it very amusing to come back to this blog to find a very shiny 5-digit number on it. Suprender! 10k views has been achieved.

Da da da-da! *holds up above head*

I always figured this would happen *eventually* just.. not anytime in the near future, let alone be lucky enough to randomly check it on the exact day when this number would appear! Hah! Apparently I haven't quite lost my lucky timing touch yet... 

..on a side note, I'm not terribly sure why people are still clicking. o.O This blog hasn't been truly updated since.. well.. since the start of the year. Funny how that works. Moving, getting married, and moving again will do that to a person. Not to mention all the other crazy events that have happened in my life since then.

Welp, time to patch up and see what's new in the world. Maybe make a few old posts of my fav Orpesia days way-back-when? The midnight boss runs? The conspicuous loot? The epic CW battles? The political intrigue? Scandal? And general sneakery?

Nahhhh.. no-body wants to read that.. maybe after I remember the control buttons and.. how to fix these god-awful in-game resolution settings..

~Alze

That Dusty Shelf

Time to dust this little place off a bit I guess. It's been quite a while.

Real life has settled down, and quite a few major things have come and gone and happened. I've hardly been on GE at all the entire last two months. Maybe a handful of times to poke my nose in for about 2 minutes, look around, and log out again. After a while I determined I might as well just be gone until they finally give some sort of answer about the lost enchantments issue before I consider resuming play.

Which they have. I haven't sent a ticket in yet, but I probably will soon once their service settles down.

Now, admittedly, I haven't been horribly affected by the enchantment wipe. In total I've only lost about four or so enchantments that I actually cared about as everything else useful was equipped on one character or another. Either way the duration the issue has persisted in combination with real-life events made it highly discouraging to continue pressing on in-game until it was fully addressed.

I think currently, I will wait until my mods are restored and then attempt a return into Castilla.

I say an attempt, as I'm not completely sold on playing as much as I used to be. A lot of things have changed since the merge, and things just aren't as they were before. The small group I loved playing with is no more. These were the people I would go and 3-man death wraiths with, and 5-man Cortes when the situation called for it. (Admittedly, or numbers were normally a tad higher than that, but when it got to bare bones a few could be on, we could pull through and still down these.) With the new server, there are new tasks, and with the addition of the mods vanishing, being 'small yet strong' wasn't so much of an option anymore.

Add in other vices/leader being gone due to irl madness (it wasn't just me), and another dear friend getting utterly nuked due to no fault of his own, and other close friends having already long gone.. it's difficult to stay sometimes when so much has changed. I liked our small group in Schiavona. It was like a small family. Little, tight-knit, we had each other's backs.

*Sigh*

I think it's time to log back in, see who is still around, who is where, and start contacting/asking questions. I wouldn't mind logging in to play casually, but long gone are my days of being able to play frequently and be able to be on reliably as specific times. My life has changed too much, and I can no longer do that.

I'm not 'leaving' GE.. not completely.. not yet. I'm okay with being 'on leave' but I'm not comfortable with being 'gone'. However incredibly close that reality might be. At this point, I'm really not sure. On the flipside, I really have missed writing up these blog posts. If anything, maybe I should get back into the swing of things at least for these. Something about the magic of pressing keys and sending thoughts to people around the globe charms me. Maybe this isn't the end, quite yet.

Honestly,
~Alze

Hiatus

So, everything is accumulating into a massive crescendo of IRL busy-ness. As a result, I'm going to be very much AWOL for the upcoming two months. Updates will happen - if/when possible.. depending on free time. Most likely nothing will happen until the weekends, and even then updates are very very iffy. I make no promise of keeping up-to-date until at least.. mid-April.

After that I should be around much more often. Technically I'll still be 'around' in the meantime, but very very much afk. If you happen to see me online, I'm afk or setting up to afk. Honestly, I'll prob be on a time or a few in between now and then, but until that time I can't promise anything.

Stay Lively Castilla (Don't you dare start on Bristia without me!)
~ Alze

Bristia..?! And other news

Go I find myself in the sudden position to have 30 minutes time to burn on my hands. Splendid!

- CS list has been updated and is now functional. A few prices I haven't been able to find lately, but 90% of the prices have been corrected for this week's range. The list will be updated for one more week before being archived.

- Holy buckets questlines batman. @_@ So much questing to be done, there isn't nearly enough time for any of it. With several character recruitment requiring favor point quests, it's taking a while for some of them. Others are.. just being a huge pain. (I'm looking at you, Cruise.)

- Server is a lot more lively. For the first time in over a year I've actually had to turn down some settings due to lag from too many players on a map at one time. The broads are going constantly, and there is a much more sizable variety of items being sold on the MM on any given day than previously.

Oh, and server prices for everything has skyrocketed. It makes Castilla a seller's paradise, but bites for anyone who needs to buy certain gears. Apparently all the vis is coming from Bristia. Won't hear me complaining.

- So many characters, I've been able to recruit several, but their stances (and all the other new stances for pre-existing characters) haven't even been attempted. RL eats most of my time, so the extent of my GE experience thus far as mostly been instances and extensive recruitment quests.. and not much else. Considering how much has been done, its impressive. It's daunting to consider how much else there is I haven't even attempted.

- Sadly, all of my Scenario quests have been completed. That tab is completely empty now once again. Sadness. Oh well - my dismay hasn't been able to last one (we'll ignore the absolute TON of 'related' quests I have.. oy vey). 'cause.. we're getting Bristia.

Yes. Freakin' Bristia.

sGE is updating to Bristia soon.. and.. cripes sakes so are we - very soon. "I see your patch sGE, and raise you a Heiran."

..ok, so that was kind of a cheap shot.

But, we actually are Heyran Heiran, according to the big shiny intro page of theirs along with several other very notable Bristia NPCs.. On that note - I'm excited. Heiran is a pretty awesome character. You have to have a lot done before you can acquire her, but she's a lot of fun.

Frankly, the absolutely massive amount of content that was added to bring us from 8.5 to 10.23.4.. is.. quite ridiculous. It's been weeks since the server was launched, and still much of the player base is still trying to familiarize and adjust to the new features, characters, stances, instances, and other changes. Now there's news of Bristia.. coming 'Soon'.

It's just.. straight up 'content overload'. Given how things have gone thus far with T3 and the rate they go through new content (between first notice and implementation).. My bet? Bristia by March, if not sooner.

Good luck, Castilla, we're going to need it.
~ Alze

Cash Shop Prices and Ratios (Updated)

Below is a link to a simple glance at the current prices of CS items in Castilla, their gold cost, market selling price, and the gold/vis rate value of each item. This list is updated weekly/as time permits. Prices are all based on item costs on the Market Manager alone. Broads and private sellers are not included.

How to Use:
The initial column will list the item name, followed by it's Cash Shop price, amount of gold per individual item (if said item is normally sold in a pack of 5, 10, or 20, etc), the current Market Price according to the Market Manager (in millions), and finally how much gold per million vis each item is currently valued being bought/sold at.

With the Gold/Vis ratio a player can discern whether an item would  be a good sale or purchase, or if they would be better off waiting. For example, in Orpesian markets a decent ratio on average was 15 gold per 1 million vis for items. When selling CS items with a ratio of 15 or higher, the buyer got the best deal as he is spending the least amount of vis per gold. When selling items of 15 or under, the seller is making the most vis per gold invested.

Current Prices and Ratios

Here is a current list of cash shop items for the Castilla Server and their respective prices as of 1-21-13. This will be updated as often as time and circumstances allow.