When I'm not working in the studio or doing other things, I like to play computer games in my free time.
Everquest 2 is one of my favorite games, but sometimes I like to check out the original Everquest as well. The other day I decided to take a trip back to Cabilis.
A view of Cabilis.
Everquest 1 was the first mmorpg (Massively multiplayer online role-playing game) that I played. It was my husband who got me started on playing Everquest, but I had always liked pc and console games. The other day I decided to take a trip back to Cabilis (iksar is one of my favorites, for any of the Everquest games). My favorite character in EQ1 (and EQ2 as well, surprised? Yeah I know..) is an iksar shadowknight. In EQ1, the iksars' hometown is Cabilis.
My main however (also a favorite of mine, but not THE favorite once I created my iksar), was a druid. I loved how she could port everywhere. When I got stuck on bedrest with the first pregnancy (second as well), I was SOOO bored. I was barely allowed to do anything for pretty much the entire pregnancy.
So, hubby set up a desk and computer next to the bed so that, when I was up to it, I could try and play some EQ. I loved how the tank toon could swing a sword like nobody's business... and how my druid could port and go different places to explore. She as well, was quite the tank for her healer class.
Hubby, a gamer as well, prefers his caster classes and I, well I love my tank classes. However, I end up tanking usually no matter what the class I play, so my healers end up tanking most the time (as well as heal when necessary). That's okay, I like to play my classes like that. If, in a group situation, I am the main healer, I will focus on that task. That being said, I remember so many times my druid was called to a group and besides keeping the group alive, she was also expected to dish out massive dps... It got a bit frustrating at times but it actually worked pretty well.
The Horses
For any game, the horse graphics are very important to me. If the horse graphics suck, there is very little chance I will waste my time on the game. If the horses say they are a particular breed, but they all look like draft horses (Elder Scrolls Online), it's not going to persuade me to play the game very often. If the horse graphics in themselves aren't too bad then maybe. But add in to that if it forces you to get on the horse on the wrong side of the horse! (/pet peeve). That being said ESO is actually a pretty good game and the horses could look better, but they aren't that bad. I played ESO during beta though, so mind you, the horses might look a LOT better now (I hope so!!).
RIFT actually has pretty good horse graphics and horse movements as well. The horse movements at least sort of matches the sound (unlike ESO when I tried it before anyways /shiver). What is nice about RIFT is that the mounts are account wide. You don't have to buy a mount for every character.
For EQ2, you could argue that for some mounts (not sure if all), you could buy the "heirloom" mount. From your mount window you would then right click, examine and chose to make the horse a house item. After that you could place it in your shared bank and your other toon picks it up. A little bit of a hassle. I have done that though with the Far Seas Pack Pegasus, since that one besides requiring a decent amount of tokens to buy, also requires high faction. Not all of my toons have the required faction, but that pegasus is really cute!
When I got my first horse in EQ1, the black silken bridle, that horse looked very pretty at the time. When years later I logged back in and compared it to the EQ2 graphics, I was like UM... what is THAT.... but I still liked the game so I play it sometimes anyways.
That being said, even for EQ2 I do notice some things about the horses. The tails (at the tip) are cut off straight. No, not like a normal horse's tail, it's like you took a cylinder and chopped it off.... yeah.
A few things to remember for EQ1:
It installs under DayBreak Games (not Sony - which was the old company). If you are looking for the screenshots folder it is under Everquest folder once you have saved a screenshot (there doesn't appear to be a folder before that). To take a screenshot: press - (minus) on the num-pad. That is the default key, you can change it if you like. It took me a while to figure it out when I logged in at first after a very, very long hiatus. Other players were most helpful though and were able to help figure out why the screenshots weren't working.
You move with movement keys (arrows). WASD keys doesn't work too well, but you can change the movement keys (which reminds me, I really need to remember to do that).
As with a lot of other games, you use the space bar to jump. It can be trricky to get out of the water in Cabilis water ways. I figured out after a while that if I used the arrow key forward (not the W key, duh...) and press the space bar, I got up the ladders etc fairly easily.
In other News from the Studio:
I realized I really need to get working on my new series of drawings, so I will be working on going through my sketches for reference materials etc. If I can get a good amount of work done on that, I'll have to try and get some gaming time!
A print of one of my original horse drawings. Click image or this link for more info and to purchase.
I hope you enjoyed this post, and if you did, I would appreciate if you would help me spread the word about it. Thanks!
Sign up for the newsletter for behind the scenes info, exclusive work in progress pictures and more.
Gunilla Wachtel ~ Conveying the Beautiful Essence of Animals in Art
Artist. Animal lover. Swedish-American.