Yes indeed. I did it. I successfully delivered three potatoes to an NPC in Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen.
Now I get why that looks extremely stupid written down in front of me, but as you may have noticed last week, actually finding three potatoes was not just a chore but an exercise in this MMORPG’s blind devotion to some perceived “good old days” when basic conveniences are the problem with the genre. And even if Visionary Realms is conceding that someday adding a map may not be the kiss of death that some genre fans believe it to be, the fact of the matter is that the maps with a fog of war just wasn’t high enough priority for early access, and as far as I’m immediately familiar isn’t nearly as perceptively vital as adding things for the high-level folks.
But I digress. I cut through this studio’s bullcrap. And guess what? I did so with the help of a map.
Of course this did require me to find the three sodding potatoes from the very jump yet again, which as I pointed out before was frustrating since the nodes for jungle vegetables where these things can be gathered are pretty small. I did manage to work out a way to make the overhead names of enemies and interactibles slightly larger (I think it had something to do with increasing nameplate visual distance), but the fact remains that I was still not really able to suss out where these things proliferate – or even if they do.
With that said, I started to slowly appreciate some recognizable points when I was nearing dangerous enemy territory, and the few fights that I did decide to pick as both a buffer against possible XP loss also ended up seeing me hit level 6, which suddenly made the majority of the monsters in my area somewhat trivial in terms of both level spread and aggression. And even when critters did jump me en masse, I was able to withstand the assault. The Paladin is extremely sturdy.
Unfortunately I started to get a little too lost in the wandering sauce, and by the time I had found enough potatoes to make my way home, I suddenly realized that I hadn’t been marking my position. I was, for all I knew, out in the long distant wilderness, potentially a wrong turn away from another frustrating death.
It was time to call on some communal help.
Where Visionary Realms appears to have ignored the ball, players have tried to pick it back up. There were at least three different player-designed maps that I found as I did a search. They were pretty rudimentary for the most part, but then I didn’t really need anything that was highly detailed; I just needed to figure out where I was and how the hell to get home.
Ultimately I settled on this map that was a part of a significantly bigger player-run database, although I was having a brief bit of trouble reading the coordinates provided by the /loc command. So I elected to brave a bit more wandering enough that I could find something that looked like a landmark to better find my way.
After a brief trip in a generally singular direction, I found a split stone that had a couple of friendly NPCs milling around. After better pinpointing my position, I headed due southeast towards the capital city, let out a long sigh of relief as I saw that big stupid elevator to the top of the tree city, and turned in the quest. Here are your three freaking potatoes. Choke on them, lady.
I mentioned last week that I’m a stubborn son of a sailor and that I was resolved to finish this dumb mission. I did it. And you know what I felt? Exhausted relief that I finally could fling this albatross off my neck.
I didn’t feel any sense of accomplishment or pride. I didn’t feel like I had my eyes opened to The One True Way. I didn’t suddenly believe that I was a master of the domain. I was just happy that other players put together such a helpful resource and that I could, at least mentally, give my mental demons a big hearty middle finger for thinking I’m unworthy of being included in the Big Kids Club that this game seems to want to feed. I will also heartily keep Shalazam on my bookmarks list for when I do continue on with this trip through the game.
Yep. I’m going to use a player database. These existed in the old days too. Don’t act like they didn’t. You all know they did, and if you think they didn’t, you’re completely incorrect or (probably more likely) don’t have long enough memories.
I will continue on with this trip. As I said before, I’m stubborn, and I’ve also got just one more round of this game to push past. Maybe then I’ll feel something like pride or victory. But for now it’s time for us to make one final decision to cap off this bit of both game discovery and self-discovery all wrapped up into one potato-shaped package. One way or the other, I want to do what I can so I can better polish off my feelings about this journey.
As of right now, I’m about halfway to level 7, meaning that most of the quests that are available at the Wild’s End capital city are not going to award any experience. Combined with the fact that a lot of the monsters around me aren’t super tough (bar the ones designed for group fighting), I think that perhaps I can focus once again on pushing my exploration boundaries. On the other hand, the quests that are available to me do award money, which isn’t an easy thing to come by in this game. So let’s decide, shall we?
Loading ...
Polling will wrap on Friday, July 25th, at 1:00 p.m. EDT as always. And I will once again keep this one on the shelf until voting shakes down. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that time away from this game helps me mentally reset the most.
Welcome to Choose My Adventure, the column in which you join Chris each week as he journeys through mystical lands on fantastic adventures – and you get to decide his fate. Which is good because he can often be a pretty indecisive person unless he’s ordering a burger.
