Comes With Free Fox

My plan for today was to post about my first session in Throne & Liberty, which went live-for-free yesterday. Unfortunately, even though I took advantage of the pre-download option and downloaded the entire game on Sunday, so far it has refused to start due to what feel like endless repatches and updates. 

As I type, it's about thirty per cent of the way through a 60GB+ download, which by my count is at least the third time it's tried to update the entire game. If it doesn't start after this one I may have to uninstall and start over, if I can be bothered. Am I even that interested?

My back-up plan was to say something about the huge, new update for Wuthering Waves. I'm certainly interested in that and I'm pleased to say it patched, installed and verified perfectly, although once again it took several tries as it dealt with various hot-fixes. 

Unfortunately... you knew there was another of those coming, right? - I was quite correct earlier, when I speculated that I'd probably need to catch up to the new content by completing the main story quest before I'd be able to travel to the Black Shores, where the story continues and the new content begins. 

As it so happens, the stage of the MSQ where I dropped off the back of the bus a few weeks back is the part where you meet an emissary from the mysterious Black Shores faction so I'm dead-on for context but it looks like there are a couple more chapters to go before I get to see the Black Shores themselves.

That's not going to be much of a problem because the story is really good. Excellent, even, by the standards of both anime-inspired RPGs and MMOs, which Wuthering Waves feels like, even if it's not. 

It's just as well the writing and voice acting are thoroughly engaging because the story is l...o...n...g. The chapter I did on Monday took me nearly four hours, much of which was talking to people or listening to them talk to each other. There was some traveling and a few fights but really it was like watching anime. Good anime.

With those two plans shelved for the time being, I needed something else to post about today and I was just starting to think about what that might be when I saw this post over at The EverQuest Show. 

It's pretty thorough. I could have just linked to it and left it at that but I thought I could get a post out of going to the official site and working something of my own up out of that. Except, when I tried, all I got was a black screen with white writing. And some pale yellow, for all the difference that made.

I thought that might be my VPN playing up. It seems to mess with images sometimes. It wasn't, though. I switched it off and it made no difference. 

Then I thought it might be Firefox, which is increasingly being treated like some weird, niche, hipster choice as far as most websites are concerned. But no, it wasn't that. I swapped to Chrome and it was just the same.

That left me in the peculiar position of only being able to see the images in the promo, of which there are many, by looking at a fan website. I could at least watch the "sneak peak" video from the official site though. Right? I mean, the big button was right there...

 

Nope. 

And Firefox wouldn't even let me find out why without jumping through another hoop.

 

So I learned more...

Which makes it seem like Darkpaw must have screwed something up although I bet it's really something I've done. Or haven't done. Unless it's just this general degradation of the internet that I keep hearing about, where eventually (Some say as soon as next year.) nothing will work at all.

I opened the video in a new tab just like Firefox wanted and it went to YouTube and here it is, embedded for your viewing pleasure because unlike the EQII website, it seems I have all my ducks lined up nicely when it comes to security configurations. Or, rather, Blogger has them all lined up for me. I mean, why keep a duck and quack yourself?

It's short. I'll say that for it. 

I also think it makes the game look older than most recent promos. Velious is not a pretty setting. It does no-one's artistic skills any favors. 

The original in EverQuest was bleak but the EQII version is worse. The only post-Shattering Velious zones I actually like, visually, are Withered Lands and Cobalt Scar and that's because they actually have something other than ice to look at.

Then there's Odus. That's not a lot better. The expansion looks to be split between the remnants of the two least attractive continents in Norrath. Where Velious is all ice and snow, faded blue and dirty white, Odus has always been red sandstone, yellow earth and brown rock.

Judging by the few seconds of footage there is to go by, Scars of Destruction is mostly made up from those two depressing palettes. Can't say I'm hyped for that.

About the only other details of note that I spotted, apart from the rose-pink lion statue at the start, which is quite pretty, were ants and ulthorks. I was expecting the latter but I can't say I had ants on my expansion bingo card. Or wanted them.

Reading through the descriptive text on the website I see we're also getting a couple of new NPC races - kappa and Mandoko. At least, I'm guessing that's what they are and also that they're new. I can't remember hearing the names before, anyway. 

Also, why do the Mandoko get a capital letter but the kappa don't? I hope that's a cultural thing not a typo.

As for the "bone-chewing vermin", since they're in Dragon Necropolis, I'm guessing they'll be the Chetari. I hope so. We can always use a new subspecies of ratmen. I'll be disappointed if it turns to be the Roekillik but they are already an established presence on Odus so it might well be them again.

Referring back to the EverQuest Show post, since I can't get much from the source, I see there are four new zones (Obviously there will be a shedload of instanced ones, too.). Two of them are old, two new. 

The old ones are Western Wastes and Dragon Necropolis, both once so terrifiying in the original EverQuest they made me come out in a sweat just thinking about them. Power creep meant I eventually had them both on solo farm status but I can' say I remember a lot about either. 

The two new ones are Sodden Archipelago and Blackhook Spiral, both of which look more interesting. I'm assuming they're on Odus since they have trees and jungles.

The features list weirdly includes "Boost your character's level to 130", which made me go check the current cap. It's 130. I guess they just mean you get a Boost consumable as part of the package, something that's been standard for a while. I'll actually use mine this time, seeing as how I haven't managed to get there on my own.

It also includes a couple of things that sound trivial but which I find weirdly exciting. We'll be able to store Petamorph Wands on a "key ring", which is something I've wanted for years. I have a ton of them, they take up loads of space and having to fiddle around in my packs looking for them severely limits my enthusiasm for what is otherwise a very enjoyable cosmetic.

We'll also be able to add auras to weapons to make them sparkle which honestly thrills my inner six-year old girl, a persona that's taking more and more control over my aesthetic choices the older I get.

Apart from that it's business as usual. I'll leave it to the EverQuest Show to go through the rest of the card except to say that the pre-order bonus is an Ice Tundra Fox pet.

If I wasn't going to pre-order before I read that, I sure am now! In fact, I'm off to do it as soon as I finish this, after which I'm going to make my character in Throne and Liberty, which just finished installing - for real this time, I hope - about five minutes ago. Only took about five hours. I hope it's worth it.