Dolby's Journal Entry 1

***Dolby*** · #1 10-16-2004, 08:02 PM

A citizen of Qeynos and a crusader for truth and all that is good. I’ve hunted a great deal just out side the gates of the greatest city in Norrath. This land is known as Antonica and when you first gaze upon it you will marvel at its beauty. I must say that this is my most favorite zone at the moment despite the lag problems it has. There can be well over 200 people in the zone and you could still be alone because of the size of it.

Antonica caters to a large range of levels with its Garden Snakes and Rats to its Kodiaks, Gnolls and Skeletons. As a 16th season Crusader I’m hunting various Bears, Kodiaks, Wolfs, and skeletons near the gnoll slayers camp on the far side of Antonica. I usually take the griffon to this area as it saves a lot of travel time.

You will find griffon towers in various areas of Antoinca and this is where you can hop on one and fly to any other griffon tower in the zone. Right now since its beta there are a little buggy and you need to be careful because some times the griffon will drop you off about 20feet from the landing platform and that fall kills you. I have never been killed by this but I’ve seen it happen to others many times. I guess I’m just lucky.

Just around the Gnoll Slayer camp are many Wolfs and Kodiaks that can be soloed by myself. There have been some people whining that crusaders can’t solo in Antonica but I haven’t had any trouble yet being able to kill White & Yellow cons just fine. When I have more time I group up with others in the area because there are groups of skeletons just down the road. When you have a good group you can do encounters and these are groups of mobs that if you attack one of them they all come because they are not meant to be pulled one by one. You get some nice experience bonuses and better loot drops when you do these encounters.

Past those seketons is a large tomb of some sort and in it is a passageway to Stormhold. I haven’t explored this zone too much but went in last night and found that I really needed a group to explore further. The zone reminded me of Befallen off of West Common lands in Everquest Live. I defiantly want to get a group together and explore further into this zone.

I then ran back to the griffon tower and looked up the mountain that is to the east. I saw a path way I didn’t notice before leading up. After a good trek up I found the passageway to The Thundering Steppes. I explored a little in this zone and again it looked to be a little over my head. This zone looked similar to Antonica but was rockier and had a large crater hole near the entrance. The bottom of the crater hole was covered in a heavy mist so I could not see what was down there. Judging by the other creatures around the top what ever was down there wasn’t something I wanted to mess with just yet.

I came back down from Thundering Steppes and headed North to crab beach. Now like the name says there are many crabs crawling the beach but that’s not why I went there. Just off that beach into the forest are really cool looking tree like creatures called Thorn Briars. These are really cool to see in action and great fun to kill along with some crabs.

I then used my Call of Qeynos spell I received from my citizenship quest and was brought back to my home town Nettilville(sp?). I sold some of the items I found from the various creatures I killed that day and repaired my armor since I died earlier that day.

A good group of guild mates from Everquest Live have gotten into the Everquest II beta and soon I hope to share some of my grouping experiences with them here.

Here is a small video I compiled:
A small taste of Antonica (13.5mb / WMV)

I'm not much of a writer so I hope this journal was ok. I express myself with video, graphics and code mostly.

Serpentis · #2 10-16-2004, 08:13 PM

I must say, that was probably one of the best in-game video's I have seen yet. Gotta love the Griffon ride, looked really cool. There seems to be allot of flashiness to combat....hmmm, it still looked very good. Thanks Dolby, appreciate your time putting that together.

Zual · #3 10-16-2004, 08:33 PM

I enjoyed that music very much... and it looked sweet.. thanks for the video..

PS the Dancing was GREAT!!!

Henrik112 · #4 10-16-2004, 10:55 PM

verry nice video ya have made there dolby couldent have made it better myself :-)

TroyT · #5 10-17-2004, 12:30 AM

I liked the video.

Shaeleene · #6 10-17-2004, 12:57 AM

OMG that was way cool...i enjoyed the video very much

Grezz · #7 10-17-2004, 07:37 AM

That was amazing, I almost fell outta my chair at the dance scene

Esperant · #8 10-17-2004, 08:09 PM

Cool stuff

...

and my jealousy grows!

Stilletto · #9 10-17-2004, 09:14 PM

Dood awesome movie
best one ive seen of battles and the griffon thing is very cool.. thanks for info on how they werk.. was wondering if they were just for high ranking guild members or very expensive mounts!! nice to see they just a form of in zone transport. oo and the ship was nice to see in action too.
Thanks!!!!

**Kuvasie** · #10 10-18-2004, 12:56 AM

This is terrific! The ending made me laugh =)

Kuv

#11 10-18-2004, 05:42 AM

Awesome Video and music was very, very well done!

#12 10-18-2004, 09:45 AM

Great Job on the Video....Thanks

Mitra · #13 10-18-2004, 10:23 AM

Nice video, really like that one.

COFFEE · #14 10-18-2004, 01:21 PM

WOW...Great Job ,not only on the ScreenShots and Video(the video WAS excellent,was that someone falling to their death off the cliff in the lighthouse scene?),but on the Description,you underestimate your ability with words.
GREAT JOB!
(now here's hoping even more that I win one of those beta slots~hope-hope-hope~

***Dolby*** · #15 10-18-2004, 01:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by COFFEE

was that someone falling to their death off the cliff in the lighthouse scene.

Hehe, yes it was. When I was filming I didnt notice it. Only when I was editing I saw it and decided to put it in.

Serpentis · #16 10-18-2004, 02:23 PM

LOL, I had to go watch it again...I thought it was just some guy running down the hill...but now that I see he wasn't in that much control there towards the end before he disapeared outa view. Heh....thought they were implimenting parachutes too???? ahh well, maybe next patch.

Xiepher · #17 10-18-2004, 03:37 PM

I want this darn game even more after watching that great movie you made Dolby! ^_^ Now I really hope I luck out and get into beta somehow.

hemotem · #18 10-19-2004, 12:38 PM

Man that vid was one of the best I hope to see more of them I relay liked how the music and the action were well...well done. this is just one of the best ones I have seen Thank you for such a great job.

Shaeleene · #19 10-20-2004, 08:19 AM

ROFL i thought it was a guy running down the hill from the lighthouse also....so i watched it again and seen that it was actually him falling to his death....I still can't get over the video, it was so awesome....do some more if you get a chance please, i really enjoy watching them

Serpentis · #20 10-21-2004, 07:39 PM

I dunno man, somethin about this movie, with the music... seems like you should be some sort of animation director bud. My kids have prolly watched this video atleast 100 times. They want me to DL it and put it on a CD for them to watch. Geeeesh!! I have to admit though, I have seen it a dozen times now myself. DAMN fine job of putting it together.