Gone Cogging: EQ2

Boy, is Tinkerfest popular this year. I'm used to Norrathian holidays drawing a crowd. EQ2 players are a tolerably cheerful bunch as MMO players go (raiders excepted) and they do like a party.  Throw in something to collect and you'd have to run 'em off with a cattle prod. Even so, this particular Tinkerfest seems exceptionally busy and there aren't even any new quests. I found one that I thought was new but it turns out I did it last year. Bummer.

So what's the big attraction? Well, it's mounts, isn't it? For the first time the gnomes have put their tinkered platforms up for sale and they do look good. Naimi Denmother has pictures of all of them along with details of everything Tinkerfest, old and new.

Kajigger is a technical term

 I do like a nice hovercar but I have a lot of ground mounts and I probably wouldn't use another. The chance of a new one certainly wouldn't drag me back from fragging werewolves in Carpathian Mountains and put me to grovelling for cogs. And smart as the hovercars are, I doubt they'd bring out these crowds.

No, it'll be the Wings. Oh yes, wings. Wings were introduced into the Station Store with some controversy quite a while back. Not nearly as long ago as I'd "remembered", as it happens. Had you asked me (and why wouldn't you?) I'd have said we'd had flying wings for a couple of years. Then perhaps I'd have remembered that we couldn't fly at all until the Destiny of Velious expansion and that didn't arrive until February 2011.

How much???

According to TAGN, which is almost as good a Journal of Record for the Everquest games as Allakhazam and a lot more entertaining, the first wings that actually let you fly appeared just under a year later in January 2012. They cost $20 in the Station Cash Shop then and they still do.

No-one's looking, grab it!

I've always fancied a pair but I'm not crazy enough to spend real money for them. Not twenty dollars of it, anyway. 500 cogs, though, that's a very fair price. A lot fairer than the bottom-floor ask of 50 gold a cog the gougers are asking on the broker. No wonder it's busy. That's how I came to spend more than two hours this morning grubbing up Shiny Tinkerfest Cogs from all over Norrath.

The Blue Batonga

I did try yesterday but it was far too busy. Three ratongas to a cog is no fun. It was still busy this morning. I tried and abandoned Inventor's Outlook in Freeport, Gnomeland Security in Steamfont, the Drednever Crash Site in The Bonemire and Dropship Landing Zone in The Moors of Ykesha. All being picked over in a frenzy by elves, arisai, even ogres. In the end I settled for Indigo Hollow in Neriak on the grounds that most goody-goodies won't or can't go to Neriak. Another advantage is that the Neriak authorities keep their gnomes penned up in a very small corner so the cogs don't roll too far. Makes them very easy to pick up.The cogs, not the gnomes.

I'd listened to two radio plays and a comedy show before I had my 500 cogs. Painless, even enjoyable. I've always found gathering in MMOs relaxing. Then off to buy my wings. I chose the blue ones to go with my blue pirate outfit. Ok, a ratonga with wings is technically a bat but I fly like a bird!

I'm halfway to my second pair already.