[Grumpy Old Fart]

Braene is correct on the relatively decent graphics performance of EQ2 during raids - as long as you completely re-train your brain from thinking your "uber" PC setup can handle any current game on max settings.

My PC is about a year old (C2Duo e6600, 8800GTX, 2mb Mushkin RAM, Raptor drives, etc.), but any in-game setting above "Balanced" (i.e., fairly decent character models - not blobs - but minimal other effects) or forcing any sort of AA/AF in the nVidia CP is just asking for a slideslow in EQ2 raids. Heck, I can max out every single option in the nVidia CP and in-game in WoW, and still get 120+ FPS (with v-synch off, of course) in AV while taking SP GY with 20 Alliance defenders, 35 Horde players, 10 NPCs, 200 spell effects, etc. This same situation would get .1-4 FPS in EQ2, unfortunately.

My two cents on other EQ2 goodness/badness:

Since it's only been said about fifty times in this thread, I'll re-iterate the "way too many skills" line. I played an Illusionist from 1-70 (over the course of nearly 3 years off and on). Once I got into the "raid" game, I noticed pretty fast that I was barely watching the fight on-screen (other than panning around to watch for adds, as my "CC" role sometimes required). About 95% of my raid time is spent staring at 60 hotkey buttons and spamming whichever one of them is currently usable that seems most productive (feeding power to the tank, DOTs, nukes, group +mana, etc.).

The in-game chat channels is a great idea, and one of *very* few things that keeps me logging into EQ2 as opposed to WoW. WoW just seems so very dead compared to the constant chatter in EQ2. I play these games to socialize, dang it, and playing solo in WoW is basically no different than playing NWN2. Sure, the EQ2 channels (even on the "RP" server) have their fair share of the "u"-speaking retards, but a quick /ignore takes care of that problem. Of course, I played when the "LookingForGroup" channel was auto-join and worldwide in WoW, and I'm sure we all remember how horrid that was. Segregating the channels by levels (1-10, 11-20, etc.) seems to work out pretty well in EQ2, and I think Blizzard should steal this idea.

SoE really, really needs to re-do the entire graphics engine for EQ2. I know this has been said 89,943 times on this forum, but I think this would do more for EQ2's subscriber base than any temporary cash haul from selling an expansion. Besides basic performance issues, they really need to steal the "rounded terrain" thing from WoW. You know how hills/knolls/mountains in WoW all have that "rounded off on top" thing? Well, that looks a million times better than the "this hill has FOUR polygons" amateur crap that EQ2 uses. Character models is part of this, of course, and while re-doing those SoE needs to work harder on the "mangina factor" which is responsible for a huge percentage of subs in these games. There really aren't many "hot" female character models in EQ2, and they really missed out on the animations (human boob bounce in "sigh" animation, NE boob bounce, perky BE boobies, etc.) that any of you - honest - guys playing WoW would admit are sorta cool. Every single female toon in EQ2 has poorly crafted, rock-solid boobies. Very boring.

If every encounter for RoK isn't finished yet (get me in beta, Braene!!!11), I certainly wish they'd make about 5000% more of them that actually have a use for a "crowd control" class such as myself. EQ2 simply isn't designed as a CC game, unfortunately, and for somebody like me who is basically only interested in playing this type of class, the rest of the game is quite tenuous in holding my interest (*VERY* tenuous, if my recent attendance in Mistwalkers is any indication). 95% of the time, it's just easier to AE or burn down the mobs than to use any sort of CC. The fact that a large percentage of EQ2s level 60+ population has never even grouped with an Illusionist/Coercer is a major symptom of this problem. Having recently changed class to Coercer, I'm not complaining about that class' overall usefulness (which is quite high), but there really isn't much in the way of "crowd control" going on, even in non-Epic grouping situations.

Bottom line, for you SoE and Blizzard readers: I play WoW for the extreme polish, the "fun factor" (the classes are extremely well designed and all "fun" in some way, and Battlegrounds/PvP. I play EQ2 for the *VASTLY* more mature playerbase on the RP servers, the chat channels and the large amount of content for an explorer type like me. Since EQ2 is definitely not going to fulfill the PvP/BG consumer in me, you're going to have to keep me around by beating WoW at the rest of that list.


- Gretlein Sweetcookie, 70 Halfling Coercer, Mistwalkers, AB, EQ2