Tradeskill "epic" quest

Have to say its a decent questline, unfortunately I can't complete the craftsman part in Nek. Castle part. When I did the drafting tower I moved so slow casting smoke bombs I am glad it had unlimted charges. However on this quest I can't see further then 5-8' in front of my character at best due to the thick fog. My ping is around 200-300 with my cable connection but my fps is around 5-15 even with every setting turned to the very lowest the game allows. So for my I'm just going to have to wait until we are level 110 to complete this part and then hope there are people still willing to craft the other parts I need.
Already people are starting to charge between 5-30 plat for various parts of their epic both tradeskill and adventure. So congraudations to those that have gotten it. I will try again in a few years and or when I can afford a computer that everything graphically doesn't look like the days before the graphic engine update in Ever Quest 1. Well back I go to doing my 200 tradeskill rush order writs a week to level my guild.

I had to laugh today. Two of my guildies were working on getting the Profits quest done as they were lowbie adventurers. As the were tip-towing past mean looking mobs in the Fens, they received a tell..."Silly Tradeskill Lowbies " from a nearby adventurer. He gathers up all the aggro in front of them and runs off, leaving them a clear path to the quest ding. I thought it was sweet!

A request for Domino:

I read through a lot of this thread, and didn't find where anyone had asked this yet. If they have, add me to the list:

Our overclocked harvesting tools now have the skill and speed increase as permanent buffs (as long as you have them, and equip them once after death). Can we add the harvest skill increases to the Earring's clicky, instead of only active while worn? I really liked the fact that I could be out adventuring, and happen upon a node and grab it without worrying about whether I had the right tools equipped for the skill increase and time savings. Now I will either have to have the earring equipped all the time, equip it for every node I run across while fighting, then unequip it afterwards (very annoying), or go without the skill increase for picking off a node or three here and there.

Obviously for dedicated harvesting sessions, it's not an issue to put your earring on in advance, but for grabbing the odd node here than there, it would be wonderful if that portion could be added to the clicky instead of as a worn stat. Just a small request to add convenience.

Overall, though, Domino, I just love the Earring. I felt an immense feeling of nostalgia when I finally realized where this quest was heading. Thanks for an excellent quest!

Samantha wrote:

Drafling Tower wasn't difficult, you just move through corridors, soon as you see a mob, cast the smoke bomb. Wait for mob to drop. If it doesn't, wait for it to move then move forward and drop another bomb. Wait for it to come back and die. That's got to be one of the easiest gameplay elements ever. If you can master tradeskilling, you can master this guaranteed.

As for Nek, I'm not sure what the fog problem is. There wasn't any fog for me at all. If you turn graphics settings down then you definately wont see any fog. Not sure if it's covered by your particle settings or not, but "extreme performance" should do everything you need.

I must admit I took one look at the rats in Nek and almost ran ! Luckily their aggro range is so small you can just move past them. It's strange at first, but you get used to it...just have to remember that normal mobs aren't like that.

Your ping time has nothing to do with FPS unless your ping is crazy stupid high. My ping is *never* below 300 as I play on AB and am located in the UK and I've never had an issue with lag caused by my internet connection at all.

Sounds like you might have an issue with your graphics card driver, or system. That's not really a fault of the quest.

BTW, the mobs are your level + 20, so when you're level 100 the mobs will be 130. The whole point of the mobs are that you can't win against them, you have to avoid. Adventurers have no advantage over crafters. Perfect.

Seriously, this quest is not difficult. Just leave your preconceptions about adventuring sucking behind, step out into the light and try to enjoy it. You may be suprised !

Just finished this quest on my level 1 Dirge / Level 80 Woodworker (well, almost level 7 Dirge after all the Disco XP that came with the quest).

I have to say, even though it was a lot of work to get my sokokar, get faction with Riliss and BW so I wasn't KoS, then grind 27 writs with BW to get the crafting signature quest, and finally level my harvesting from 1 to 100, in the end it was a lot of fun. Took about 8 hours to get to where I needed to work with the other crafters on the legendary no-trade components.

As a person with 8 level 80 crafters, I spent the first 3 days cursing Domino for forcing us to use the commission system. However, after working in the IFE for a few hours helping people out while getting components for three of my toons (the ones that have done the quest so far), I am grudgingly admitting it was a wonderful experience working with other kind and generous crafters. As long as this collaborative attitude persists, this quest is a home run.

Thanks Domino, for putting this experience together for us, and for having the thick skin to sit and take the criticism that you genuinely don't deserve.

--Corgi
PS. Thanks also to Aurielle, Ojojida, Winky, Chichi, Ozzette, Aayrn and a few other whose names have slipped my mind at 2:30am for sucha wonderful evening.

Just to add my thanks to Domino and the other devs that worked on this for such a great quest. Was well worth grinding out all those portable toilets for the Bathezids faction required
The whole quest was fun, but what really did it for me was the way everyone worked together for the final part. I have played a few MMO's and couldnt see this happening with such success in most others.
After all the server problems we had on Splitpaw on Thursday, it was Friday before most of us got stuck into the quest. Come late Friday afternnon, we had every class Crafting the finalparts in the Danak shipyard. except poor little provisioner. My wife then got her provi through Nek castle and suddenly became a very, very popular person (especially with her sister who managed to get the server disco on the earring )
In the couple of days I have been helping people through the final stages of the quest, I have only come across/heard of 1 person who has tried to charge for helping and I dont think they got many paying customers.

Would love to see more co-operative stuff like this. Even adventurer/crafter co-op quests. A raid of 6 crafters/6 adventurers would be great, with the adventurers protecting the crafters and killing for materials as the crafters create their wares.

Kalyyn@Splitpaw wrote:

How many wormsteel weapons do you see being made?

OOC.
Master Alchemist Aurielle's story (Being just a level 9 wizard, level 10 by the end).
Well, having completed the Sage 'epic' cloak quest with Felishanna, I decided (whilst telling myself at the time that this might be a bad idea!) to try and do it for my pure crafter Alchemist, Aurielle. As a level 9 wizard, I felt that this would be a real trial. Here are my experiences and feedback from that perspective. Warning: wall of text to follow. *grin*
On Friday evening (GMT, 08/02/2008 ), Aurielle was merely a level 9 wizard, who also happened to be a level 80 alchemist. Other than doing the Qeynos Citizenship quest all those years ago, and some trips into Down Below, she had never adventured, and had certainly never left the city of Qeynos. Therefore, she had a long list of pre-requisites to get past.
(1) Gaining Access to Bathezid Watch Writs
The first step was to travel to Kylong Plains and work through the five quests from Assistant Jones on the docks. Apart from the run to the walls of Karnor to release the hawk (which actually passed without incident, but is potentially very risky for the pure crafter), these were easily completed, and Aurielle acquired her sokakar, and at the end of the quest was standing at Kunzar's Edge sokakar post (with Terens Grasp post and the Docks post already bound). Now, it is possible to do this quest as a low-level without a sokakar, but it makes things so very much easier, it really is a good idea to do this, I'd suggest. The rest of this feedback is of course based on having access to it.
The next step was to get to the Fens post. I was advised to run for it and then choose to revive at the graveyard near the Fens zoneline when Aurielle inevitably died, as that area is packed with nasties. Of course it is impossible for a level 9 to run from Kunzar's Edge to the Fens zone alone and not die. Obviously. Well, apparently not, actually! She ran it alone and made it alive. I still can't believe that! (I bet I couldn't do that again hehe). After binding at the Fens post, crossing Kylong was thereafter a triviality of course. At this point I then went to pick up the quest "New Lands New Profits" from Teren's Grasp.
So, time to zone into the Fens. Now, a friendly ((tier 8 ) paladin by the name of Katie kindly came to help me negotiate the Fens part, so I cannot feedback on doing this part alone (though I here some other low levels have done it). The order we chose was:
(a) group up, and kill 1 (one) Fishman. Aurielle just cast on it once, such that when it died it gave her +Bathezid Watch faction. This one kill was enough to make her non-KOS to Sarnak, which made the rest a lot easier.
(b) ran to Bathezid Watch to bind at the sokakar post there. Checked and noted that the Sarnak there refused to give me crafting writs at this time. This was expected, as I had not yet done the "New Lands New Profits" quest.
(c ) completed the "New Lands New Profits" quest by running round with Katie. The first box was trivial as the sarnak around it were now non-KOS. The others were actually not too bad at all; Katie only had to kill about 3 creatures on the entire run.
(d) head back to Teren's Grasp to complete the quest.
(e) finally head back to Bathezid Watch once more (now trivial with the sokakar due to being non-kos to Sarnaks and Iksar). I noted that the Sarnak would now offer me crafting writs!
That was enough for one night. Only one death too, in the Fens, very good for a level 9! Thank you so much Katie.
(2) Harvesting Skills
As a pure crafter, Aurielle had never harvested. However, a Gathering skill of 100 is essential for the cloak quest, so she had to work on this. So, when I came on on Saturday (09/02/2008 ), she had to raise her harvesting skills to 32 in Oakmyst Forest / Forest Ruins, and then moved to the area near Oracle Tower in Antonica to get to 95, and finally then moved into Thunderring Steppes to get her Gathering to 101 (just to be sure). Although everything was deep "red" con to her here, this actually proved very simple.
(3) Bathezid Watch faction
Time for Aurielle to head back to Bathezid Watch, packed with bags of raws and fuels. It took 27 writs (at 750 faction each) to raise Aurielle's Bathezid faction from -39,925 (where it was after killing one fishman) to -19,475. Only after the faction was higher than -20,000 did the "Epic" quest become available.
I have to say, grinding these writs was boring. No, not just boring, it was sleep-inducingly dull, I had to keep leaving the PC to not just fall asleep. But then again, I have never enjoyed crafting writs, so that's just me I guess.
(4) Do the Alchmist "Epic" Cloak Quest line.
Really, the quest line itself was far easier than the pre-requisites! (Especially since I had done the quest before of course with Felishanna). I will mostly only comment on the extra issues encountered as a result of being a pure crafter (low level adventurer).
Getting to Neeta in Rivervale from Qeynos Harbour was easy. I was aggroed just once on one journey, and it was my own fault (and Aurielle outran the creature).
Travelling from Butcherblock docks to the Matron in GFay was more challenging, but frankly not as hard as crossing Kylong Plains had been. Aurielle managed to complete several side-trips to pick up the druid ring blessings in Butcherblock and Greater Faydark, and to open up the Griffon Towers in Butcherblock and the Horses in Greater Faydark, all without getting killed, so if she could do it at level 9 (well, she levelled to 10 on discovery around this point I think it was), then anyone else can.
Even the journey into Steamfont and Loping Plains was not too hard (helped hugely by having done it before with Felishanna however, I would have to admit). You have to watch all those deep "red" con mobs carefully, but is is do-able definitely.
The instances in Drafling Tower and in the Library of Light: Scholars Errand, were certainly no harder than with an adventurer-crafter character, and this is an excellent achievement.
And then, it was back to Qeynos to seek fellow crafters, which given the large number of people seeking items and the general comeraderie in the crafting channel since these quests came out, did not take long at all. Despite my deep suspiscion of anything involving interdependency in crafting (based no being a player since launch when it failed horribly), I am surprised to be saying, that the interdependency-aspect of these quests works extremely well at this point. The fact that it is just one step, and it is a balanced need, I think is why it works. Whether it will continue to do so when the clamour dies down and the newness wears off, in a few months time, we will have to wait and see, but I suspect now that it will work fine even then.
So now, Aurielle (level 10 wizard) is also Master Alchemist Aurielle, sporting her lovely new Alchemist's 'epic' cloak (and that super earring too).
Writs aside, that was really really fun to do as a low level character, and I'd suggest no-one needs to worry about doing this quest as a non-adventurer!
A very well written quest.

EDIT: Darn it emoticons messing up again, always getting ones I want, but also ones I don't want where it takes a date and make it into one as well. Grrr. Corrected using spaces.

I must say I throughly enjoyed the quest though I did kill myself 2 times not paying close attention to what I was doing =). I think that actually made it more fun ...oddly enough. That there was a sense of danger to it if you didn't pay attention.
I haven't finished yet, have been unable to get on and find the last couple of other tradeskill types I need to get gifts, but I have enjoyed this. =) Thanks!

MrWolfie wrote:

not many, but thats more due to the fact that the weapons where designed when the level cap was 50 and even then where of use in a very limited situation, rather than the idea being a bad one.
If you could take a group down and add wurmsteel to an existing weapon to add a proc that worked against any dragon, and the mobs that popped where of a level dependant on the level of weapon being altered, i would guess we would see a lot more use.
With decent rewards a quest like this would be fun, and thats what matters.

BAck to the Epic crafting quest the only thing I would change about it would maybe be the ability to start at lvl 79, but thats not groundbreaking

Adeyia@Antonia Bayle wrote:

Correct, no matter how high your adventure level, the instances will scale so they're all still nasty and red. I was deliberately aiming for that 'Ohhhh @#$%!!' moment for everyone starting the instances. (And to be honest I was expecting more premature flames about 'omg you have to be an adventurer' than I actually got, heh.) The graphics settings suggestions above are good, and the castle shouldn't be too laggy so hopefully you can tweak around the graphics settings a bit without suffering.

For those who are wondering how a tradeskill respec affects the quests, here is the answer:

If you respec your tradeskill, quests 4 on will be removed from your quest journal. You'll keep your title, cloak, and earring (although of course you won't be able to wear the cloak any more, nor the earring till you're 80 again) and when you reach 80 in your new profession you can start straight off from the archetype instance quests Neeta gives. Since the earring is lore you wouldn't get a second one but you'll get your new cloak and title and finish the quests again as normal. And if you respec for some bizarre reason in the middle of the quest series you'll be able to finish whatever step you're on but won't be given the next until you're 80 once again.

I just don't seem to understand it, what good is "Increases success chance" am I the only one who runs 3 rounds of durability, then progress until it's done? I'm pretty sure that I haven't discovered some kinda trick no one else knows.

DominoDev wrote:

first off great quest and props to the art guys for the cloaks.
got disco on nagy on my tailor for earing and cloak disco on my jewler.
but u just raised the bar for crafting status its not 1 guy with 9 crafters at 80 anymore. its 1 guy with 1 char with all 9 titles. now just have to decide wich char i will pick to start on.
thanks again for the great quest and keep up the good work domino u rock.

Nanran wrote:

If you get more good/critical good rounds, you're faster in doing the item. That's what it does

It's definitely one of the best quests in EQ2. So much more fun than the usual "kill/collect 20 thingamabobs". With so many crafters doing the quest right now, it was actually fun trying to get all the updates. Having a raid with three groups of various crafters was ... unique. Unfortunately hardly anybody wanted my champagne. There are too many provisioners on my server .

After reading details about the quest I was a bit discouraged by all the walking around and harvesting. However it sounded much worse than it actually was. It's a good mix that neither made it a 10 minute quest, nor made it a tedious task. Gotta do it with my other crafter, too.

I wish the epic weapon quest was this entertaining and rewarding . I wonder why this didn't get as much publicity as the epic weapons ...

DominoDev wrote:

lol I have hardly got going yet! I like the sound of this quest though and have managed so far to get a level 28 warlock/level 80 alchemist to complete the ts version of the sokokar quest. I am glad that the quest requires time, commitment and expertise. All my high level crafters have done the Shin quest so harvesting is not too bad even if it did need 340 - or whatever the usual T8 requirement is!
Only one thing that I feel would be an improvement from my "haven't done a thing yet" position: how about a really nice recipe for a reward? Don't know what but something stunning would be nice! And please, never again a disappearing recipe like "Bartending for Sadists"!

DominoDev wrote:

OK, so who's going to be the first to collect all 9 of these cloaks on one character ?

Now that's an Epic Quest !!!

DominoDev wrote:

OOC.
You did *really* well with that. When I entered Drafling Tower and almost ran head first into the first bixie before realizing it was a deep-red-con ^^^, I nearly fell out of my chair trying to reverse direction *laughs at the recollection*. Really, anyone giving flames for such a well-designed quest needs to stop playing EQII, as it clearly isnt for them, because this is as good for new content as I've seen. You've done a good job on these!
I wish the adventurer epic quests were as well designed. What I am hearing about the Templar one, involving a contested spawn with very long spawntime at a hard-to-reach location (for an average group) at the bottom of Chardok (not to mention, an update for only one templar per spawn), makes me really angry, we do NOT need server-wide sh*fests a-la-Ragefire-style all over again. The adventurer-quest designer clearly has not learned from past mistakes on that one if this is the truth, because the original EQ1 templar epic quest design was the worst failure in design I've ever seen in any game. Either a fast respawn time in a contested hard-to-reach location or a rare spawn but in an instance would be fine, but not BOTH sigh, that is just a charter that promotes obnoxious behaviour by players.
But that is another subject for another forum on another day - it is only noted here as a contrast to just how well designed, inclusive yet challenging, novel and interesting, the tradeskill 'epic' quest design is.

DominoDev wrote:

Any word yet on when this hotfix is coming? I've put the quest aside until then. Meanwhile, I'm collecting the rares needed for the next part.
Thanks for the great quest.

Finora@Everfrost wrote:

LOL. That's all? This morning my sage was still working off the debt from early Saturday morning. She died a thousand times in the library. Fun quest but I'm so glad a fix is coming out for the sage to revive in the instance and retain her fragments.