Mish-Mash Or Mosh?

Mish-mash today, music tomorrow. That's the plan. Might be more mish-mash, though. Or musical mish-mash. Yep, probably that.

But that's a day away. Now, there's this:

EverQuest II - A Difficult Experience

Or rather a difficulty with experience. I continue to trundle oh-so-slowly through the levels on my never-ending journey to the cap. Seriously, it is so slow now. I know it was crazy fast before but this is ridiculous. 

When I finished the Signature Questline I was about half-way through Level 128. After a bunch of post-credits quests, of which there are an unusually large amount, including an entire instance which also counted for a weekly or a daily or something, I have made it all the way to two-thirds of the way through the same level. Nearly.

I checked the xp every time I did a hand-in and it was running somewhere between 1.5%-2% per quest. The instance might have been as much as 4%. At this rate I will run out of all the regular quests before I hit 129. There are loads of dropped quests, where you get the starter from mobs, but even if I was willing to do all of them and able to get the drops, I'm still not sure it would get me to the cap.

I googled it, thinking there would be no end of complaints and plenty of advice but there's nothing much. No-one seems to be having an issue with it, which makes me think I must be doing something wrong.

I did find this extremely detailed guide on how to set yourself up to solo Ballads of Zimara in the most efficient manner but although it contains some useful information on gear and particularly on what adornments to slot, it says absolutely nothing about XP. and how to maximize it. The assumption seems to be that you might have trouble with the content, which has not been the case for me at all.

It's nice that someone went to the trouble of putting all that information together but as a couple of people point out in the comments, BoZ is one of the most welcoming expansions in years for new-and-returning players. You can just play through it with the gear you get at the start and the NPC who gives it to you even tells you how to set everything up for best effect. It's the precise reverse of recent expansions in that the fights are easy but the XP comes slowly. Min-maxing your gear does nothing to help with that.

Fortunately, the gameplay is fun in and of itself so I'm relatively content to keep picking away at it but I have to say that playing for an hour and a half and only getting about 10% of a level is a nostalgia trip I wasn't expecting when I bought the expansion. I'd say I hope they tweak it a bit for the next one but I suspect most players are pretty happy with it as it is so I'm not expecting any U-turns come the end of the year.

More M&Ms, Anyone?

Then again, it's all relative. I'm sure my current leveling speed in EQII will look like hyperdrive compared to what Monsters & Memories players will have to endure. Or enjoy. I mean, it is a self-selecting pool of masochists whose eyes light up at the sight of another opportunity to grind all weekend to get a couple of levels in a game that's not even in Early Access yet.

I feel entitled to snark because I may well be splashing around in that pool myself come June, when M&M stages an "Open Playtest". No information on start and finish dates other than it'll be late in the month but presumably it will be on for at least a few days. There's also likely to be a Stress test before then, if you really can't wait.

I missed the last opportunity to trudge uphill in the sandstorms both ways but I'm going to do my best to give it a try this time. I played it once and liked it and I keep hearing good things about the game. 

Since they'll both be available to play at around the same time. at least for a while, it'll be interesting to compare M&M's merciless recreation of the genre's deep past with the Anashti Sul server's attempt to replicate the way things had progressed about half a decade later. I suspect the slow leveling I'm whining about in BoZ will look like fast-forward in comparison to either of them. Maybe that'll encourage me to get my head down and cap out there. I kinda doubt that'll be how it works but let's hope.

Don't You Have Anything Better To Do?

I was very much more than a little surprised to read today that Peter Jackson is going to make "a new batch" of Lord Of The Rings films. Seriously? Hasn't he had enough yet?

I don't know how many films make a batch but the first is going to  be arriving in 2026. It's called Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum, presumably because they're not confident cinemagoers will remember who Gollum is without a nudge. Andy Serkis is going to star. He's clearly not worried about being typecast as a speciality act. I think I saw him in something recently where he wasn't wearing prosthetics or a motion-capture bodysuit. Can't remember what it was though.

This news does not excite me at all. I saw the first three Lord of the Rings movies on release and I own them on DVD but I've never felt the need to watch them a second time. I also own the Hobbit trilogy and I haven't even watched that once. Plus I managed just one episode of the Amazon series and that was one too many. Are they making any more of those? I hope not.

I imagine another "batch" of movies is going to bring on the old "tide that floats all boats" effect for Lord of the Rings Online, which in turn might mean some bonus income and attention for EG7. Maybe as an EQ/EQII/DCUO player I'll benefit in some abstruse way form the trickle-down effect there - because we all know that's a real thing...

And Finally...

I know I said it was a music post tomorrow but I always like to end these things with a song. Let's see if there's anything appropriate in the slush pile. 

Ah, yes! From the post about Aussie thick-neck rockers I never got around to compiling. It'd be a shame not to share this one.

My Name Is Jim - The Smashed Avocados

Just be glad it's the only one you're getting. For now, anyway.