Self Similar – Page 48 – self similar's personal gaming nonsense blog

Dragon Hunting

Seriously, who doesn’t want to ride around on the back of a dragon? They’re also waaaay cooler than your standard wyverns and gryphons even as the young drakes we get stuck with as mounts. While most of the cooler dragon mounts in the game come as rare drops and/or rewards associated with running heroic instances and raids, there are a few that are relatively easy to obtain on your own if you’re more of a solo player as I tend to be.

“Killing Vyragosa 50 fucking times is an unofficial but all too important part of acquiring a TLPD.”

First off we have a couple of proto-drakes. I really dig the way proto-drakes look – very vicious and rugged and their clumsy, primitive walking and flying animations are quite cool as well. You tend to see a lot less people on proto-drakes than normal drakes – I don’t know if this is rarity, a mattered of popularity, or that the rarer normal drakes and other flying mounts are a bit more difficult to acquire and therefore have an elitist appeal to them, but I like that about them as well.

To start us out what should, in theory, be the easiest of them is the “Time-lost Proto Drake”. A yellow and brown proto-drake with a cyan mouth. To get this mount all you have to do is track down and kill the level 80 rare spawn version of the same creature that flies around The Storm Peaks. The mount has a 100% chance to drop. Easy money? Not so much. The Time-lost Proto Drake is infamously difficult to track down due to its incredibly low spawn rates. Thankfully lot of research has been conducted relating to the TLPD’s flight paths, spawn rates, and the like but even armed with this information expect to spend weeks or even months camping out in the frigid mountains of The Storm Peaks for your chance to own this mount.

“Time lost indeed.”

My own personal quest to acquire this mount took me well over a month, although relatively little of that time was dedicated to 24 hour camping until towards the end. The Time-lost Proto Drake is essentially a rare spawn of a rare spawn – it’s more common variation being the rare blue dragon Vyragosa which I personally killed dozens of times before ever seeing even a hint of the TLPD’s existence. Because of all of the competition on my particular server (your mileage may vary) I found that sticking to one of the 4 confirmed spawn points was the best way to guarantee your chance to see and get first dibs on the creature. You’ll want to use an add-on such as “NPCScan” as well as do some reading at Ponderance’s TLPD Resource site.

The other proto-drake worth mentioning here is the Green Proto-Drake. The Green Proto-Drake has an attractive green and purple coloration with a fiery orange mouth – it’s quite striking, really. Additionally it is much easier to acquire than the TLPD though it can still be a bit painful. Make your way to the Sholazar Basin and visit the Oracles to kick off a fairly painless 8 day reputation grind to get to Revered and then purchase a Mysterious Egg from the Oracles Quartermaster for a few gold. The egg will hatch in your inventory after 3 days (recently lowered from a much more annoying 7 day timer) which will then produce a number of random prizes. Many of these prizes are companions, including the cool and potentially valuable Proto-Drake Whelp, and one, the rarest one of all, of course, is our mount.

“An… eggquisite… purchase.”

You’ll need a little luck to get the Green Proto-drake without purchasing more than a few eggs though if your luck isn’t so great you might end up with a veritable zoo worth of companions before ever getting the mount, but at least it doesn’t take much gold or work even if it does sometimes require a bit of patience. I believe my Green Proto-drake reins dropped after around 5 eggs though I’ve heard stories of it taking people months. My opinion? Worth it!

Finally we have an actual dragon as opposed to a proto-dragon, and an attractive one at that. The Red Drake mount can be acquired for a hefty sum of 1600gp by those who reach Exalted with the Wyrmrest Accord faction. Reaching Exalted reputation will require almost a month’s worth of running a few daily quests though if you don’t mind running dungeons you can also purchase a tabard once you reach Friendly that will give you Wyrmrest reputation gains in level 80 Northrend dungeons, speeding the process along fairly dramatically. Maybe it’s just me but I consider red dragons to be fairly iconic *flashbacks of the old Basic Dungeons & Dragons box set* and despite being relatively easy to obtain this is probably one of the better looking of the available drake mount colorations in my opinion – I prefer this one to the more commonly seen Bronze Drake mount. Normal drakes are also impressively large with massive wingspans compared to proto-drakes and other flying mounts. Everyone should definitely have at least one in their collections.

“I need a Wyrm Rest after grinding for this thing. *rimshot*”

Even though this is the “Northrend Edition” more or less I should give an honorable mention to Outland’s Nether Drake mounts. These bad boys can be obtained by reaching Exalted with Netherwing faction. This takes just over two weeks of running a fairly intense course of dailies and other quests but, time aside, should be a breeze at 80 or 85. You do require epic flight to complete this grind, however, making it fairly costly and unappealing for casual players who might not want to make the investment. I’ve never actually completed this reputation climb myself though it is a near future goal of mine.

Other honorable mentions:

The Bronze Drake is a 100% drop from beating a relatively easy boss in a heroic level 80 instance within a certain time frame. Although it was originally fairly challenging, these days not so much, particularly after Cataclysm. I’d think a group of 85s could farm this mount out very easily. The awesome looking Violet Proto-drake only requires you to complete every holiday achievement, most of which are soloable and quite easy to boot. “Only” however, doesn’t really take into account that we’re talking about taking an entire year to acquire. Still, if you’re patient enough…

That’s it for now. I may make another post in the future regarding the awesome new Elemental variety of drake mounts added to Cataclysm, of which some do indeed fall into the category of being relatively easy to obtain.

Covered Up

I’m down two more Xbox 360 games from my oh so intimidating backlog of games.

First, I finally got around to playing through Gears of War 2. I did so cooperatively and I have to say it was a pretty polished and fun experience. The game still has excellent graphics despite its age and whether or not it does anything for you personally, a unique visual style. As a sequel it felt like “more of the same” of the first game in pretty much every way. Of course, I haven’t played the first game for quite a long time so that impression might be slightly skewed. My only real complaint other than the typical observations about the meathead characters and hole filled plot was that as a cooperative game I’m not sure I appreciate the designers’ decision to constantly try to separate the players by making them take separate paths. I’m pretty sure they were attempting to force you to work together by completing different but related goals to help foster some kind of greater feeling of cooperation but more often than not it just garnered a disappointed “aww, they’re making us split up AGAIN?” response from us. It felt like the game was attempting to keep us apart half the time and exactly what kind of co-op experience is that?!

“Football sure has changed in the future…”

I also dusted off my copy of Tom Clancy’s Rainbow 6: Vegas 2. Damn, that’s a long title.

Immediately Vegas 2 came off as very dated compared to most newer FPSes. It took me a while to get familiar with the controls which work fine for the most part but are definitely different enough from the Halos and Call of Duties of late to screw you up for a bit – I chucked plenty of grenades at my own feet early on. Once I got over that curve I started to appreciate the brutal, tactical nature of the combat over any lack of modern polish. I haven’t talked about it a lot here since I haven’t played much of it lately but I am a big fan of the more realistic, Tactical FPS genre of games so I suppose it started scratching an itch that I haven’t had scratched in a while. Having overcome that I struggled to remember how the hell the story of the first game ended. I knew it ended with a “To be continued…” sort of thing but Vegas 2 definitely doesn’t pick up feeling like a direct continuation. Then again this is a Tom Clancy brand game and I’ve played enough of those by now to not have to worry too much about the story.

While I had a lot of fun ordering my squad mates around, clearing rooms with well-timed flash-bangs and flawless shots through thermal goggles, sniping from afar in the pitch dark, and otherwise being on the enjoyable end of a lot of face pwning, it wasn’t all puppies and rainbows. I actually became quite frustrated with the game more than a few times during the run. Silly stuff, like unevenly placed checkpoints, including a major pet peeve of mine: checkpoints right before scripted events or cut scenes. Probably the most of annoying of these was right before the final major firefight of the game. I must have had to watch that damn thing play out 20 times before finally surviving the fight long enough to make it to the end scene of the game. Most of the checkpoints were placed decently early on but it definitely seemed to go downhill the later into the game I got.

“Rainbow 6 prefers to conduct most of its firefights in crowded city streets.”

Of bugs, the generally fairly well received cover system of Vegas seemed a bit less reliable in Vegas 2 than I recall it being in the first game. I found myself flipping out of cover, leaning out of cover on my own, and generally not behaving as expected a bit more than I was comfortable with. This seldom resulted in any fatalities though so I guess I can’t bash on it too much. I also ran into one part of the game which I had to replay about 5 times due to the cut scene at the end the level not triggering after completing my object of clearing an area despite wasting tons of time trying every trick in the book to avoid having to reload. Arghhhh!

Your squad mates are still hilariously stupid at times. They often fail to do a good job checking corners when entering rooms or taking up good defensive positions when ordered to move to certain places which contrasts sharply to how well they do these things at other times. Probably my favorite example of their stupidity is that when one squad member is injured (which itself is frequently the result of something pretty shockingly dumb occurring) the other will usually make their way their location as if to secure them BUT won’t actually try to save their life without being manually ordered to. This can create some pretty tense situations if you decide to split yourself up from your two squad mates to employee some more creative flanking tactics, as the game encourages you to do from time to time. Dashing around to try to get a clear shot of my downed team mate to issue the “heal” command in time resulted in at least a few deaths of my own during the campaign… oh, and despite how easy it is to heal your squad mates they’re apparently completely incapable of healing you. Why?! Oh, I guess because you’re not alive to explicitly tell them to. Pfft…

“My squadmate decides to investigate an explosion face-first while I intelligently take cover behind a barrel of highly flammable liquid.”

My other biggest complaint about Vegas 2 is probably the difficulty. Yeah, yeah, I know I just praised it for its brutal combat two paragraphs ago, but honestly, damage and ballistic models aside, most of the more difficult sections of the game felt only difficult because of the sheer number of enemies they pack into some of these areas, and most often, the absolutely painful choke-points and scripted scenarios they expose you to along the way. In other words, it oftentimes only felt difficult because the designers’ went out of their way to make it overly difficult in those particular spots. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: a good Tactical FPS doesn’t need a ton of enemies to be fun! If the damage and weapons models are “realistic” enough, 2 enemies in a room is a challenge… and that challenge usually feels much fairer than, say, the scripted hordes of unlimited NPCs games like Call of Duty 4 throw at you. Combining that, however, with having to have your 3 man squad off 50 terrorists in one level encourages you to run through quickly rather than carefully entering and clearing rooms, only adding to potential frustration while minimizing the tactical gameplay the series is supposedly built around.

Despite all of those negatives playing through Vegas 2 did in fact feel fairly satisfying and refreshingly different alongside other FPSes I’ve played through recently. I highly doubt I’d volunteer to play through it again anytime soon but it might indeed inspire me to play through some of my favorite oldies such as SWAT 4.

Ahh, one last thing… when I played the original Vegas I didn’t have an Xbox Live Vision cam so I couldn’t test out the awesome ability to map your own face to your in-game character. Thank god for that! After my several attempts to get it working at all I was greeted by some horrible looking, wax golem-like facsimile of myself. Yes, even more hideous than the real thing. Yikes!

As usual for console games, not my screenshots.

The Tale of Garn Chapter 25

Warning: potential side quest spoilers ahead!

From Garn’s recollections:

Treasure Hunt

I was minding my own outside of the Roxy Inn, packing up my horse and preparing to set out once again when I was approached by a stranger in a grey cloak. He introduced himself as a runner from the Court of Bruma and said that the Countess insisted on seeing me about work. The runner tossed me a small coin pouch and told me it was a stipend to help ease my consideration. Temporarily dumbfounded by this I had little time to ask questions before the runner again made his way back to the road and disappeared into the surrounding hills.

At first I was a bit puzzled by these events: Had my reputation grown enough that a Countess would send for me from afar? Had my reputation grown so much that people were starting to take note of my whereabouts even? Was this a trap? Should I be concerned? The 25 gold coins in the pouch sealed the deal – I had few enemies in Bruma so far, had certainly done a few things there and around there to gain reputation, and I still had little to go on regarding my suspicions of a forgotten past that I should be wary of catching up to me over. This was what I was after, and what my adventuring career had been building up to. I mounted my horse and began to ride towards Bruma.

“This old place again..”

As I walked into Castle Bruma I was greeted by the court’s herald, Tolgan, who had been expecting me and escorted me to the Countess. Countess Narina Carvain seemed absolutely giddy with excitement upon my introduction. The Countess told me that she had been looking for an experienced adventurer for quite some time and began to lay out the entire scenario for me. Apparently the Countess was an avid collector of ancient Akaviri artifacts. Although I didn’t know of their origin, I could see signs of her being a collector by the various displays in her throne room. The Countess told me that she had been in search of a particular item, an amulet called the Draconian Madstone, that she had been able to track to a location known as Pale Pass. Pale Pass, however, was thought to be a legend and no one knew exactly where it was. Some of the Countess’s scouts were able to track down one of the landmarks mentioned in the journal of a Akaviri messanger that was part of her collection which lead her to believe that it might actually exist, however. This was where I came in – her scouts were unable to continue their search due to dangerous monsters and wildlife in the area.

“See how happy I make her?”

This sounded like a simple enough task – she gave me a copy of a simple landmark map that was drawn in the journal as well as precise directions to one of these landmarks. She seemed quite certain that if I could find the other two land marks described in the journal I’d be able to locate the Pale Pass and hopefully find the Draconian Madstone. The beasts roaming these northern mountains weren’t much of a concern either – sure, they could be dangerous, but I’ve dealt with them before without a problem.

“Still better than Oblivion’s animations.”

After a quick trip to a local supplier for some extra furs I saddled up and began to ride away from Bruma. It was a lonely ride up into even higher elevations than city sat at, with snow blowing at my face and poor visibility to watch for predators. As I set camp for the night I began to read some of the journal transcriptions the Countess had given to me. Assuming the accuracy of her scribes, the journal tells of a messenger who was being sent to the invading Akaviri army’s headquarters which was hidden in Pale Pass. The message was a simple one but not delivering it could have dire consequences – the fort would not be supplied as scheduled, and they would have to ration their supplies for longer to hold out. The messenger never made it, besieged by the elements, wolves, and what sounded like Ogres.

“At the foot OF the foot.”

At day break I set off again and soon found the second of the landmarks – an huge and ancient Imperial statue of a knight. I thought it to be quite an odd location for such an elaborate piece of art but who knows what this place was in ancient times. As I admired it I heard my horse, left to graze nearby, in distress. As I dashed to it I discovered a hulking Ogre kneeing over its corpse. Nimbly out maneuvering the creature I slashed my sword deep into its shoulder and again across its midsection. Luckily I wasn’t carrying too much extra on my horse and I was, in theory, close to the final landmark and entry way into the Pale Pass.

Soon I found it – an ornate doorway carved into the very face of the mountains. As I opened the door it was quite clear that I was the first visitor here in a very, very long time. I carefully made my way through the dusty cave – it seemed to be mostly one long passage, though there were outcroppings containing chests and strongboxes and what seemed to be some caved in rooms and passageways leading off in different directions. Most of these chests seem to have been picked of their more precious items by thieves long ago despite the generous smattering of traps scattered throughout the cave system. In one of these outcroppings I discovered the remains of the very messenger whose journal had been so useful in finding this place. Although his skeleton had obviously been picked clean long ago, I did find a copy of the message he was supposed to be delivering. Feeling that this might be worth something to the Countess I pocketed it and continued on my way.

“Now THAT’S dedication!”

After hiking a good 20 minutes I emerged from a door on the other side into what was unmistakably Pale Pass – ancient ruins fill the basin whilst the wildlife, nearly undisturbed for years, thrived as best it could in the harsh climate. I said nearly because the creature at the top of the food chain in this forgotten place soon made itself known – Ogres. The entire area was simply teaming with Ogres and I had to continually check every corner for potential danger. Luckily Ogres are seldom known for their stealth or their cunning so I never gave them the chance to get the better of me. It didn’t take long for me to discover the fort – the ancient Akaviri headquarters. The upper levels of the complex appear to have been almost entirely decimated by a landslide but a quick search through the ruins soon revealed an intact passage into the lower levels of the building.

“Cleanup on aisle 3!”

Below the ruins I found an surprisingly intact fort. There was little in the way of interesting treasures to be found but it may have been kept quite lean in times of war. I didn’t get to explore long before I encountered two things I’d be coming across quite a bit while down there – traps, and undead. Traps were simply everywhere in this place though many of them were too ancient to continue to function now. I theorized that the holdouts at the fort, knowing of their fate, barricaded themselves in. Perhaps they feared an impending attack? Such knowledge is likely forever lost. More mysterious to me, however, was the presence of undead Akaviri soldiers that frequently ambushed me as I moved through the complex series of passages and rooms. How did Akaviri became undead? Perhaps a curse or some sort of necromantic charm used on recruits. In any case this was not my idea of good adventuring – much danger with very little reward. Even the Akaviri armor and weapons which could be priceless to collectors such as the Countess, were so deteriorated as to be worthless.

“Well, the weather hasn’t been so great…”

I continued to make my way through the dark and dusty underhalls of the fort carefully looking for traps and any sign of the Madstone. Not having much luck I eventually came to what appeared to be an officer’s quarters judging by the decor. My search was interrupted by another undead solider, although this one began to speak. It was the Akaviri Commander, and he seemed to be addressing me as the missing messenger. He demanded to know of what his orders were. Instinctively, rather than attempting to fight it I reached into my pocket and presented him with the copy of the message I had found in the cave. Seemingly content with whatever details lay within, the commander collapsed into an unanimated pile of bones and armor and I could hear echos of other undead soldiers doing likewise throughout the fort. While I was happy to be rid of the nuisance I was still no closer to finding the Madstone. Almost as soon as I had completed that thought, however, a large stone slab began to slide away – something had triggered it opening in the officer’s quarters, revealing a small treasure room. The treasure certainly wasn’t the great heaps of spoils of war that I had imagined, not too surprising given the less than successful end to the campaign, but at least the Draconian Madstone did seem to be amongst the items I recovered. I quickly filled my bags and began the long walk back out.

“Sweet, sweet loot!”

The walk back out of the fort, the pass, and finally the mountains, without a horse, was quite miserable, but before long I found myself back in Bruma. Countess Carvain couldn’t believe her eyes when I presented her with the amulet. She was so pleased with its condition that she gave me one of her other, lesser Akaviri artifacts, a magical ring, as a reward. Although the ring didn’t seem to be exceedingly useful to me it was likely worth quite a bit to one of the dealers in the Imperial City. Speaking of which, I had seen my share of these cold mountains for the time being and decided to set out for home, hoping my modest shack hadn’t yet been robbed of its riches in my absence. It could very well be filled with squatters by now…