Tuesday Still (25 Sep) - Wandering Isle is Impressive

Tuesday Still (25 Sep) - Wandering Isle is Impressive

Between the 3am Monday night launch fun (lack of sleep) and the Tuesday evening baseball game (we won!) Mew had to squeeze into the schedule whenever she could. A good bit of that time came after the ballgame and into another after midnight leveling session.

A few hours later, I am even more impressed with how well everything is working. The Panda starting zone is well designed and laid out. It's much larger than the usual starting zones. Despite what had to be a huge demand for creating Pandas, the instance system worked superbly. Mew was never entirely alone as she quested, but the questing areas never seemed overcrowded, either. Single person quests were well balanced with light challenges. The more dangerous quests nearly always had enough other folks around to help out. There were a small number of quests that also provided a helper.

There were no technical problems. Not one. The very few that originally looked like a bugged quest were not - it just took Mew a bit longer to figure it out. There were a few that stumped Mew for awhile that she'll mention below, but every quest worked, and Mew would finish all of the starting zone quests by the end of the evening.

I won't give the secrets of the trickier quests, but I will give tips so that future trainees don't, for example, have to spend way too much time in a pumpkin patch, baffled at why it was so hard to find three lousy pumpkins.

So, #1 - pumpkins, carrots, and turnips. The turnips were easy to find, but it took awhile to figure out that the pumpkins and carrots could only be found in respective caves that were located in the fields.

#2 - Ruk-Ruk is a minor boss in a village that is boiling with mobs like someone kicked the ant hill. This series of quests includes bringing along a pretty potent helper, but after killing way more minions than Mew needed to, we still couldn't seem to spawn Ruk-Ruk. That's because he is not in the village - look for him outside the village where he immediately respwans after each kill.

#3 - Mew was really baffled by this one. She had to rescue three injured soldiers. The injured soldiers were very visible and all sparkly, but Mew couldn't figure out how to save them. Clicking on them didn't do anything, nor did anything else she tried. It was by accident that Mew discovered that if she clicked on one, and then just waited for a few seconds, Mew would then pick up the soldier and drape him across her shoulder in a fireman's carry. Mew could then walk back to the triage area, dump the soldier, and viola! she had her saves.

The quests follow two main threads. Saving Shen-zin Su (a mystical sea turtle, I believe) takes up much of the story. The horde and alliance factions turn up toward the end, and Mew had opportunities to help both.

The completion of Mew's training had an interesting surprising ending which was fun and which I appreciated. I won't reveal it right away in case ya'll want to experience it yourself.

The Panda starting zone is truly in it's own private world. No one but new toons are allowed there. No mailboxes to deliver goodies. No way to leave the place until all tasks are completed. The very last task from the Panda Elders is to select which faction, horde or alliance, they will choose. Even then, the now rookies (no longer trainees) still have a couple more steps to complete even after that choice is made.

At it's true ending, Mew reached level 12. A proud Panda Mage - with responsibilities that will take her to the other side of the world.