The Cauldron

Well... it finally happened - I got bored of WoW! It's the curse of level 70, after I got Neri to 70, I started on my Horde Mage and now I just have a sense of the game being the same thing again and again... so Mike and I are going to give Vanguard a go.

LOTRO was too obvious a choice and Vanguard looks a bit more adult than WoW, I loved the fact that the world is seamless; you can travel all the time and that you can build houses and boats and neat stuff like that. There are also loads of classes and races to choose from. It has it's issues, but we'll try it over the weekend and then see if we want to make a permanent move from WoW. It would be a shame, the guild is thriving, but it's starting to feel like work to me and I manage staff all week and part of me just wants to kick back and enjoy in my play time.

Nothing is settled yet, but a year is a long time to devote to a game.

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I'm kinda in the same boat.  I started playing Roswynn again and it's good to see The Pod People again.  But the main thing that I've been doing is learning Jewelcrafting in real life.  I kind of got hooked in game.  So I've started learning to do it for real.  I recently made a Byzantine Chain Maille bracelet for my daughter and have materials on order to make more.

It looks just like this except, just like in WOW, I started with copper instead of silver.

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We have some arenas to complete, so don't give up yet! lol

Looks really nice, G, now you have to add some socketed gems to that piece!

D, I looked up Vanguard and it looks interesting...very much like WoW, but with more options to customize your character, more profession variations per race and I especially like the idea of building your own home in game.  I saw that the game is $39.99 online to buy, but does it have a monthly fee like WoW, and is it restricted like WoW to regions so that we wouldn't be able to play together?  It mostly interests me because for all this time, we haven't been able to have a true "Cauldron" guild from both sides of the pond.

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"No, they're not real, but thanks for noticing"! WoW Dwarf Female /silly
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I tried Vanguard - and it is very very buggy. It promises to be a great game when they finally get it smoothed out; some great concepts like building your own ship and no borders or instances... but unless you have an uber high end pc with an excellent graphics card, you may well struggle. My pc hates it - and I have given up playing it - too much lag on the rare off chance that it might decide to load.

So... I got LOTRO and weeee what fun! It's similar enough to WoW to not scare you out of your comfort zone but different enough to be challenging. Plus there are big plans for the future, like building your own houses *hopefully*.  What you don't get is the horde vs alliance pvp, but there is a monster setting where you can play as an orc if you want. I got my Elven Champion to level 9 today quite painlessly. The graphics are a delight too, I spent some fun time in the Shire today admiring all the cute hobbit houses. Just from the start it feels like a breath of fresh air after WoW, the generally more mature players make for smoother gaming and less spam in chat.

From the looks of it you guys can be on our server (Evernight) - it just says English as in the language, not the country, and the forums are not seperated for EU and US as far as I can see so it looks like it's open to all. Oh and it is a monthly payable one as well.

G - that's a beautiful bracelet; good on you for trying something different.

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I'm seriously considering it, but just have to think about it for a bit longer.  I don't know if I can convince Hubby to agree to another massive multiplayer! lol 

I really like the Minstrel class (that sounds really cool!), and that it is a very newly launched game, and at least from reading the books and seeing the movies, the background story is pretty much well known.  I like finding about the history in WoW, but have often wished that there was more flexibility in gaining (dis)honor in  reputations.  Some of those rep grinds are really tough and very boring.

It would be great to finally play with you...is there a need for Ventrilo for these games?

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"No, they're not real, but thanks for noticing"! WoW Dwarf Female /silly
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Thanks D. It really is fun and not very brain intensive. At least while hooking rings together.  There are a lot of designs that you can come up with though.

Krinsel you could alway halt your WOW account and play the other. Then if you want to come back to Wow you can start paying again. They keep your characters just as you left them.  I've done that once or twice. I'm thinking about it too. I'm really gettting burned out on Wow. 

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Krinsel wrote:

Some of those rep grinds are really tough and very boring.

Sadly that's what everyone says about BC. Without fail it tends to be the reason people quote for why so many guilds have died since Feb. It's not much fun to get the majority of guildies through all of that rep grinding and when that's all you can see ahead of you in the game after you hit 70, it's a bit depressing.

And yeah, we will doubtless be using vent at some point. There are dungeons I believe; just not sure what level they start. (I think there is some voice chat program within the game but I haven't experimented yet. ) One of the other nice things about LOTRO is that the group roles are clearly defined; none of this multi-class business. You either are a healer / dps / tank etc or you arent.

I also love how the game sticks close to Tolkien's Lore, for example you can only have horses as mounts, there are no female dwarves and you can't play a wizard because they were a rarity in Middle Earth.

Oh and regarding signing up, when you buy the game you get a registration for 7 free days too - and you can play for those days without having added a credit card number etc. So you can get a sense of whether it's worth it or not.

At the moment we are blissfully guild free - but would be nice to form something if you guys come and join us.

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Doesn't Gimli say that female dwarves are much the same-looking as the males, and have beards as well?  You could probably give your dwarf a female name and no one would be the wiser! lol

If I do get this one (and it is getting more possible that I will...I have to finish paying off Titak for his griffon training loan), I will probably play an elf.  I picked up The Children of Hurin and remembered how much I like that race.  I'll just have to wait until my mother goes home...I'm sure she won't appreciate me starting another video game while she is here!

I really do enjoy WoW, but have found it harder to get myself to sign in these days.  The fishing thing is a boring grind, especially getting the numbers up high enough to fish in the "better" places.  It would be interesting if rep could be gained as a "blessing" by another player...so many blessings by that race in game would earn you rep points within that faction.  Sure there would be insane rep going back between one and the other for a while (or they could limit blessings to a reasonable number, say five per day), but soon that would die down, and rep would be "earned" not only as a "killing factor" but by how much you "help" another group.  It could even be earned by responding for a "looking for group" call in an instance.  I find it extremely rude at times when people try to recruit for an instance which there is very little to gain (except lost time) for the target.  It could also set the looting factors more evenly, as when you have a group leader that keeps the sweet items for themselves, by allowing the players to "dishonor" that leader.

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"No, they're not real, but thanks for noticing"! WoW Dwarf Female /silly
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I took a look at the videos at the site, and it really has my interest.  LoreMaster is another class that looks like fun too. 

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"No, they're not real, but thanks for noticing"! WoW Dwarf Female /silly
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Hmmm... in retrospect I think it is seperate US and EU servers... but there is a way around it. It would mean ordering the game from the UK (like amazon uk or the like) but that would be a work around.

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I'll look into it, as long as I can pay in USD, I should be OK.  I also saw that you can purchase a pre-paid 60 day game card, which might be helpful for billing purposes.

Grunthor and Val, you interested?

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"No, they're not real, but thanks for noticing"! WoW Dwarf Female /silly
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*cries* Is everyone gonna leave before I can even hit 60?!LOL

Yeah, it might be fun. But my main interest is playing with you guys. That's why I have slowed down sooo much in leveling. I just don't like soloing all that much. But I don't like to always ask for someone to come with me, either, if I think they have their own stuff to do.

I really would like to at least get to 70 first though. It would be terribly cool to play with you, too, D!

Titak, what about you and Thor?

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Elwood: It's 106 miles to Chicago, we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark, and we're wearing sunglasses.
Jake: Hit it. ~ The Blues Brothers (1980)

I don't blame you, but like G said, we could probably suspend our accounts temporarily after you hit your big milestone.   Other than me, Kit is the only serious player in our household left...Shoebrush is concentrating more on her writing and drawing (yep, her too...she is actually pretty good!) this summer. 

There is still stuff to do in Outland together, as well as the S&S instances, which I personally really like, but after that, I would be ready for a change.  I got Oblivion and Half-Life as Christmas presents, but the main thing I like is playing with my friends, and I miss the time we had doing things together.  Don't be shy about asking me to come and help you, Val; I get more fun out of hanging out with you than doing some lonely quest on my own.  The Ventrilo is a great way to let off steam while playing heroes for the day! lol

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"No, they're not real, but thanks for noticing"! WoW Dwarf Female /silly
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Roswynn is now 39. Just one more level before she get's her bony pony. She's gathering Troll tusks and necklaces in STV.

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Had a pretty good day today. First I won Gurubashi Arena twice.  Once because no one was there, second, well there's a little story.

There were a ton of people waiting for the arena and I was there to turn in my quest from the last win that I had when there was no competetion. So I know I wasn't going to win at all this time.  So I decided to help my fellow hordies out and gave them all buffs.  So I got killed twice.  The match went on for a long time and I was helping these two level 70's that I'd buffed.  So they group me and tell me to take the chest.  They held off all of the remaining Alliance pukes and I got the chest a second time. WOOT! Being nice to people in game does pay off sometimes. Only 10 more to go and I'll be a Grandmaster.

Second I dinged 40 and got my mount.

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Grats, Ros!! Finally have your Boney Pony, eh?

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Elwood: It's 106 miles to Chicago, we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark, and we're wearing sunglasses.
Jake: Hit it. ~ The Blues Brothers (1980)

Grats! The gurubashi arena is always fun! I guess your getting better at pvp?

Everyone usually yells at me for going for the chest because they say "A lv 70 doesnt need whats in the chest" and half the time they dont know whats in it.

or they say "Lv 70's have nothing better do do with their time than kill low lvs in the arena" ignorant people.

I went there once and there was a lv 70 hunter and a lv 68 druid to worry about. I said as long as the druid didnt attack me she could take the chest. I just wanted the hunter lol. So, the druid got the chest whhile some lowbies were fighting. Then I attacked the hunter but he ran away...We dueled later and I owned him lol

Just sneakier I think. I won it again this am.  This time two 70's were battling each other for it and while they were fighting I took the chest. At least I think they were 70's. From their armor they looked like it. Having the +5 Stamina trinkets is nice X2.

Yes, finally the boney pony. It has a little wiggle in it's stride.  Not as smooth as the living horse mounts LOL.

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Yes D, I'm interesting in LOTRO.  I'm really interested in the music system (as you can probably see by all of the videos that I posted on the Lightcatcher board).  If I order it from Amazon.co.uk what server are you on?

If I do switch over it'll be in August.

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Awesome - we're on Evernight.

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