Free Realms - TCG - Blacksmiths

In keeping with our Free Realms TCG Stradegy posting yesterday, I bring you another post on a specific type of deck, the cards in it, and what to look for when building a deck (avg gem flip).

Blacksmiths are cool. Sure, they're not a combat job, but would you like a weapon custom built just for you? See your local Blacksmith.

This deck builds on the awesome coolness of the Blacksmith job and includes Sanctuary celebrities like Nirvi and Poe Tatters.

I always try to get the highest average gem flip with my Machine decks, and this one is no exception -- at 2.9 it's pretty good. You might notice that there are no 2-cost creatures included. When you're in search of high flips, you want to use as few 1-gem creatures as possible. The "skip 2's" philosophy says, "I can always play two 1-cost's on turn 2, so what's the big deal?"

How did that Kart Driver get into my Blacksmith deck? Well, the problem is, that card is just too good to sit in my collection. It keeps screaming out at full speed and ending up in my deck anyway.
You'll also find the amazing trick Breakthrough in this deck. What trick has a better effect than "score a card"? I can't think of one. You'll be cool when you play this on defense to win the game!

Smiths 'R' Us Deck

Creatures:
3 x Armorsmith
3 x Assistant Smith
3 x Smoky Blacksmith
3 x Weaponsmith
3 x Kart Driver
2 x Nirvi
2 x Poe Tatters

Resources:
3 x Discovery
3 x From the Trash Bin
3 x Under the Hood

Tricks:
3 x Hammer Strike
3 x Spring Forward
3 x Squeaky Wheel
3 x Breakthrough





Thanks you for viewing my Blog, and check back daily for updates on Free Realms and Everquest.

Free Realms Dungeon Maps !!

Free Realms is huge vast world in which one can get lost of they do not know where everything is. I came across a few maps that were posted online by Tara aka. Lady P. They are maps of where dungeons and trainers are located. Click the maps below to see the larger version.
The top on is of all the trainers in the world, and the bottom map is of all the dungeons.

Enjoy...

Thanks you for viewing my Blog, and check back daily for updates on Free Realms and Everquest.

Free Realms observations

Free Realms is immensely popular right now. The numbers show the popularity is among younger players, but I know a few of us older gamers are logging in and enjoying it. Sort of. The Free aspect is great. I haven't paid a dime yet and still am enjoying the game. With the huge world and tons of quests I'm not finding the time to do everything I want, which is good. Very good. This equates to alot of content for free that the player base can explore in. But, the content gets stale very very quickly. The only really fun thing to do in the game is play the card game, race, and explore the world. Which is fine for a little while, but then it leaves you wanting more...
The fighting is very very redundant due to all the instances being cookie cutters of one another. More variety please. The mining and cooking puzzle games make my eyes bleed after about 5 mins of them. There are soo many more options they could implement in this area. Off the top of my head, a tetrus type game, old school space invaders type games, pac man type games. With the success of old school games, people would eat this up.
So, Im very excited about Free Realms reaching 2 mil. but if they want to keep them for more then 30 days, I think they need to implement more types of these mini games besides the connect 4 puzzles, add variety to the fighting instances, and make the item GUI more intuitive.

That's my rant for today, feel free to comment - agree/disagree...






Thanks you for viewing my Blog, and check back daily for updates on Free Realms and Everquest.

Free Realms Update notes

Free Realms performed an update on all their servers last night and added more quest givers for Members and put in optimization fixes for Video Cards. Hopefully they fix they slide show lag in high popualted areas. It really sloooows the game down for me...


Our latest update has a ton of new stuff. Here are the highlights:

* There are new members only combat, non-combat and collection quests added across the world (see below for details).
* Bristlewood now has its own warpstone
* Added in several new in-world minigames to Seaside
* Pets will stay happy, clean and fed for longer and will also find collection and mining nodes more often
* We've continued to optimize video card performance to allow lower end cards to have higher frames per second in game

Members Only Quests have been added to the following areas:

Merry Vale:
* Ronnie Britesmile is not allowed to play until he finishes his chores. He might give you something cool if you give him a hand!
* If you've already found Mugwopp for Blorple at the Greenwood Camp, he'll have a new task for you.
Briarwood:
* Recruit Agga afraid of getting lost in the hedge maze. Help him piece together a map.
Farnum's Farm:
* Rucks, the farmhand, has thrown down the gauntlet and has a series of challenges for skilled harvesters. Dare you take him on?
Pixie Nursery:
* Blazing Star and Flax thought that if they put a collar on their pet fish, no one would take it from the pond, but it's gone now! Help them find out what happened.
Wuagachug:
* Tugaboom would like a brave fighter to help him solve the rebelling Bixie problem.
Shrouded Glade:
* Cella Cedernook found a baby penguin and need help caring for it. "*Squeel!* It's so cute!"Meanwhile, Emil Jadefish and friend had a little boating accident. They could really use a hand!Tald Daybreaker's friend is lost up in Misty Mountains. Are you brave enough to rescue him?
Sanctuary:
* Auralie wants to invite the queen to her next party, but is too shy to ask. Can you help her deliver the invitation?Feldman wants to be a famous journalist, but need help gathering more information for a story he's working on.
Blackspore Swamp:
* Sirdo "Squirrel Chaser" is embarrassed about his nickname. Would you be willing to help him out so he can overcome his bad reputation?
Seaside:
* Rainchaser has more challenges for you.
* Kendall, the lifeguard, needs someone quick to help him out.
* Mr. Mudd is sickened by the trash on the beach, but has a fun way of cleaning it up.

New combat quests:
If you're a member see if you can help out the following people:
* Spruce Waynehammer's pet, Robin, keeps getting lost in the Bat Caves.
* Susy Cloudrunner by the Briar Patch has a big bear problem.
* Yuri Petaldancer by the rebelling Bixie Hive wants to taste what royal honey is like.
* Blari wants to cure the sickly saplings in Bristlewood Glade, but isn't strong enough to fight off the creatures there.
* Vasher claims he'd like to recover some old explorer bones from Cracked Claw Caverns so he can give them a proper burial.* Buttercup Webbywand's spider was kidnapped by trolls in Grexan's Camp.
* Help Puck Petalpucker near Misty Mountain ace his science project.
* Johnny has an idea for you to try out at the Mushroom Cavern.
* Jimmy Squarefeet's snowman friend has been kidnapped! Seek him out in Snowy Canyon.
* Jenny Greenteeth wants to plant some friendly plants in Treeleaf's Retreat.

Thanks you for viewing my Blog, and check back daily for updates on Free Realms and Everquest.

Free Realms Codes

Free Realms Codes. Today we have a few more codes you can redeem for free items to use on your toon. These came from our friends over at Free Realms Insider.

MPT38B3 - Layered Skirt (for female only toons)
ROBGOBLINBOOTY - Robgoblin T-Shirt

Thanks you for viewing my Blog, and check back daily for updates on Free Realms and Everquest. And try our new search engine dedicated to finding new Free Realms Codes posted anywhere on the Web below.





We also have some game updates to report on the Treasure Vault and Pets from Grimwell over on the Free Realms Community Forums.

Pets:
- Members can now try/buy the ghost cats and dogs located at the Blackspore Pet Adoption Center.
- Players can rent Max the Lazy Dog at the Blackspore Pet Adoption Center.

Treasure Vault:
- The Member’s Only Treasure Vault has received extensive improvements.

Free Realms Party ~ Brenlo and Pex Picts :)

Friday May 15th, 2009 at 8pm EST was the 1 mil. subscriber party. I jumped in and danced with Pex, Brenlo, and some others and took a lot of pictures. They had a boombox blaring some tunes and everyone was dancing and having FUN !!


One all servers the party was in Snowhill under the large Xmas Tree. I logged into multiple servers and they were all packed. I must say, Sony has really made this game alot of fun by going the extra mile for the community. Throwing parties like this really shows they are caring about this game and the players. For now .... hehe.

Here are some pictures I took of the party and Brenlo in his spiffy outfit...



The hotdog outfit is defiantely groovy. I want one !!




And here are some more pictures on Server 3 of the all the players dancing with Brenlo and Pex.







And here is a cool video of the party shot by a player...

Thanks you for viewing my Blog, and check back daily for updates on Free Realms and Everquest.

Free Realms Patch Notes

Here is the patch update from last night.


We are planning a game update tonight starting tonight at 11:30pm PDT. The servers will be unavailable for approximately one and a half hours.
There’s a lot of good stuff in tonight’s update. Here are a few of the highlights:

* Members will now have an increased chance of encountering rich mining nodes
* Member potions and spheres are once again being distributed in-game
* The Marketplace now has a Members Only category
* There are several new items in the Marketplace
* The Briarwood warpstone is once again active
* A pet adoption center has been setup in Blackspore
* Base Ninja health has been increased across all ranks
* Contract: Life and Death Magic and Contract: That'll Teach 'Em are now repeatable quests
* The Changelings in Darvon's Descent are no longer able to keep the artifacts they stole from showing up on the minimap. Players on the quest Stolen Artifacts should have an easier time locating them now.
* The quests “I Love Mushrooms” and “A Thorny Situation” can now be completed
* At the end of a kart race, Portraits, Total Time and Placement now appear properly
* The quest path will now properly update when selecting quests in your Quest Journal
* The lightning bolt bomb powerup is much more zappy than before! It will now blow up enemies from greater distances!
* Quickchat is now available from the Friends list
* Players will now be removed from the acquaintance list once they are added to the Friends list

In addition to the highlights, we’ve stomped out a lot of bugs submitted by our players. Thanks a lot for your help!

Also, posted over at FreeRealmsInsider is that in addition to Blockbuster having Free starter cards, also Best Buy is offering them too. They are the ones that are selling for .99 cents and are only valid with NEW Accounts. Can not be used with an existing account.



It contains 30 day free membership, 250 Station Cash, and 1 Free Magical Potion.
A $7.50 Value for FREE !! Not too shabby.
Thanks you for viewing my Blog, and check back daily for updates on Free Realms and Everquest.

Free Realms Gold & Hunting Guide

Posted on the Free Realms Message Boards is a nice hunting and gold making guide. It consists of going to find a troll mob and killing him over and over again.

Here are the step-by-step details ...

1) Teleport to Lakeshore
2) Turn to face the farm and tree
3) Head between the tree and rock (to the left of the farm)
4) Jump off the cliff
5) Cross the river
6) Look for a big troll named Brugo
7) Battle him and he will usually drop an item worth 500-1200 coins!

Thanks you for viewing my Blog, and check back daily for updates on Free Realms and Everquest.

Free Realms Codes

Here are some more Free Realms codes to redeem either on the login screen or the redeem-a-code in game.


6TNBTGH - Charcoal Bermuda Shorts
ROSESFORMOM -- Mother's Day Bouquet - Available only until May 17th.

To claim your items redeemed, click on the Station Cash button in-game and choose "claim" next to each item.

Enjoy the free items and be sure to check back here for more codes and news for Free Realms!!

Free Realms Codes !! W00T !!

Here are some Free Realms codes from our friends over at FreeRealmsInsider.


You can redeem them at the login screen and then log into your account to collect your prizes.
All for FREE! W00T!

FACEBOOKFANS01 -- ????
FACEBOOKFANS02 -- Froggy Fries - makes you into a Frog when eaten
FACEBOOKFANS03 -- Goat Cheese - makes you into a Goat when eaten
FACEBOOKFANS04 -- Shadowblade
FACEBOOKFANS05 -- Dynamite
FACEBOOKFANS06 -- Checker Charged Helmet
KN78CH2 -- Striped Shoes
JFRE87J -- Doggy Bowling T-Shirt
CMNJGGE -- Spider Snack - eating will make you a Shaggy Spider
N4PF9R3 -- Crystal Hammer

These codes I have redeemed and they worked as of this afternoon at 2:30pm EST.

Go Go Go Go redeem your codes!!

Two New Servers in Free Realms

With the popularity of Sony Free Realms this past week, they had to open up new servers for a total now of 8. Today was the busiest day they have seen yet and had to bring online 2 new servers to keep up with the new users trying the game out.

Way to go Free Realms.

Also, I found out some neat coding tid bits

For their Collision detection they use the Bullets Physics Library.

We're using Bullet collision & dynamics.We use it for our character controller (our own custom one), line of sight checks, and so forth as well as for vehicle physics in the Racing and Demolition Derby instances.Check out the beta here. Go sign up, we are letting people into the beta in waves over the next week or so.

Roy Eltham

Senior Engine Programmer

Sony Online Entertainment

http://www.freerealms.com/