Crom! This guy is big!

I met the big guy today, the King of Aquilonia. Conan finally felt all the ability to summon an Atlantian god warranted a little face time. The first thing I noticed when he walked up to me was: Wow! This guy is BIG!
The other thing I noticed while he talked was he never seemed to open his eyes all the way. He kind of had the Rocky thing going like he was about to fall asleep. I guess I was boring him. He gave me a new ring that was marginally better than the one I got 20 levels ago, but what are you going to do? Conan also gave me a task where if I finished it, maybe I'd get to join his elite guards, The Black Dragons. We'll see.
When we were done talking, he just stood there and let me take his picture. I took a couple and noticed he wasn't really paying an attention so....
I relaxed in his chair for a while. A gal could get used to a big chair like this! Just needs some big guys with feather fans on either side.

Crom! I run faster than this thing

Candyace finally hit level 40 this week. The first thing I did was summon my pre-order war rhino and walk it around. It didn't really matter that I was standing around a town and in people's way, I hit a milestone that few had at that point. I was a little concerned when I ran by a stable in town and checked the price of a horse and I saw the price of learning Basic Riding skill was a gold. I had only 50 silver to my name at that point, but the game let me climb on up on the rhino.
Perhaps Basic Riding teaches me some tricks while riding or how to ride a little quicker because I was kind of disappointed after a bit. Running from point A to B is always a chore and usually a mount speeds it along to a point where you don't mind as much, but the rhino runs at about the speed Candyace does on her own. Maybe after I get some more coin, I'll pick up a horse and some riding skill. Wait and see I guess.
Another level 40 milestone is learning the ability to craft. I've been picking up the materials for the past fifteen levels and was looking forward to trying them out. I asked around the guild who planned on doing which job so we could cover all our bases and I decided to be a gem cutter. I had a gem in my inventory that I beat out of an unfortunate in Tarantia's Nobel District and tried it out. It's a pretty easy interface to figure out and it turns out to be a great way to overfill your bag. A trader would be nice in that town so you can store stuff while you craft.
I was told by others that you could only choose one profession in crafting, but I saw the gold ! over the armorsmith so I went over to chat him up. Turns out he wanted to teach me and I promptly filled my quest book up with undeletable quests involving armor. Figures...cotton was the one resource I had a hard time finding in the earlier levels, but I guess I could go back and poke around. After spending an hour or so running around 'picking' cotton, I went back to clear some of these quests. I quickly found out I had little or no cotton. Turns out cotton picking is bugged at the moment. That would have been nice to know earlier.
Quest bugs are still a problem for me. I abandoned one quest because of it when the forums said it was broken. I currently have three quests in one are where I'm at a loss on how to proceed without a Game Master's input. For the past couple of days, I've typed the dreaded /petition and sat back to wait. The queue for a GM is like the one at the DMV, it can move really quickly or never at all. Last night I moved twenty spots in line - out of 59 - before I had to log out for the night. My first night with this problem, I was number 117 in line. I said 'Nuts' to that and logged into my other character to get her off Tortage Island and into the game. More about her later.
Other than these little bumps in the road, I'm still really enjoying the pace of this game. The quests really involve you for the most part where you feel you're actually doing something other than 'Go fetch me x of those so I can make soup...I'll give you a bowl when I finish'. Something is always making me laugh or at least roll my eyes at the cheese.
All in all, I'm still having fun.

Crom! Candyace keeps me up late at night

Early access for Age of Conan started this weekend. After a short delay from the expected launch time, I managed to log into my preferred server with no problems. There started my problem...gone was the weekend. I spent nearly 15 minutes playing with the character generation screen alone. Candyace became a Stygian Herald of Xotli (see the picture) on the Thog server.
I am very impressed with the way the game looks and the music is incredible. Usually, game music grates on the nerves after an hour or so but I really like this one. The battle system keeps your attention and it quickly gets you away from just poking the 1-3 keys to beat something down by making the combo system so very important. The game starts with a single player introduction to walk you thru the how to's and what for's but it continues into the multiplayer aspect thru a destiny story where you can enter the game at 'night' as a single player and continue your story as it was laid out initially. I started an assassin character to see the difference in fighting styles and gameplay only to find the basic story is the same, but the elements are closer to your job. Candyace's story has her apprenticing herself to the local bad sorceress while my assassin does a lot more sneaking around in the shadows and eavesdropping.
Overall, I must be enjoying myself since I put quite a bit of time into it this weekend and finished all but one quest before leaving the island and levelling to level 20. I've hit minimal snags (one broken quest and a desktop error when I exit the program) but I must say I'm impressed.

On another note, one discussion I've been having with friends is the size of the female character's 'northern assets'. When you went to the character creation screen and chose the advanced settings, you can fiddle with nearly every aspect of your character's appearance. If you chose a slight, muscular build the Bosom slider would be at the low end of the scale. If you look closely at the picture, you would see that the low end bosom grants a chest on par with your head. Yeah, I noticed that right away.

Crom! Tis the Riddle of Candyace

Watch for a Candyace in Age of Conan: Hyborion Adventures!
I preordered the game from Best Buy with the freebie War Rhino. I even splurged on the Special Edition to get the ring and drinking cape. Free Drinks! I'm not sure exactly which class I will choose, but it's a toss up between Assassin, Conqueror, and Herald of Xotli. All you can be sure of, she'll be cute and harmless looking.
The game looks a little more involved than other MMORPGs I've played and the M rating may keep the younger hyper types from playing -- leaving more for the older, hyper types I usually associate with. I've already got a bunch of friends waiting to launch with me so it should be a pretty good time.
Game launches on May 20th, maybe I'll see you there.

Hello Candyace

Candyace is usually the name I choose for myself when I play RPG or MMORPG games. I think it's a cute name where you play a female character, usually the smallest or slightest model you can choose and play her where she kicks mass quantities of butt. There's also the added benefit that when I beat you in PvP you just got beaten by a little girl with Candy in the name.

This is my Meez avatar where I waste some odd time playing little flash games. Click on the pic for a visit. If you join, remember my name and you'll get us both some coinz!