So who bought EQ2? First Impressions?

[Darkmyst]

Originally posted by doharg
It's like buying a Voltswagon because the Porsche dealer couldn't deliver till tomorrow.

Many would tell you, myself included, that the best Porsche ever made was the Volkswagon Kharmenghia

[Ahnkosis]

Ok, I'll ask the questions then...how long does it take to get through the tutorial? Are you forced to play the tutorial? Can you skip it? How are the quests? Are the npc's voices cool or lame? Is there lore? Is the lore (if any) decently written?

Answers, please!

[Jitx]

Greetings:

Thank you for contacting the Sony Online Entertainment Customer Service department.

Thank you for your recent pre-order or order of EverQuest II:
Collector?s Edition.

We experienced an unfortunate delay with U.S. Customs in clearing importation of recent shipments of the "tin" in which it is packaged. As a result we will not begin shipping the orders for these units until late this week.

We offer you our apology. At this time we would like to offer you the ability to cancel your Station Store pre-order or order. No refund is necessary as your product has not been shipped and you have not been charged for the purchase.

[Ahnkosis]

WTF and that's to orders in America? That sounds like some bullshit they'd pull with customs...fucking terrorists.

[dak]

How are the quests?
Worse then WoW.

Are the npc's voices cool or lame?
Lame.

Is there lore?
Yes.

Is the lore (if any) decently written?
No.

Answered...

[Ahnkosis]

Ok, on to more questions:

Are the combat mechanics better than EQ1? Do you hit autoattack and play PS2/WoW while exping? Can you still alt-tab out of it?

Is the game easy to accomplish things? Does it take forever and a day to find a group? Is there solo content available? Is soloing even a viable option of playing? How is the heroic deed system?

I guess I should pose it like this:

I am an EQ player that dabbled into the high end game at the beginning of PoP expansion. I quit when my guild was about to kill Terris Thule (when most uber guilds were onto Elementals+) at level 62. I stayed away until Ldon was released, when I came back and made a Ranger on a different server...I played said ranger off and on until he was level 54...I still play said ranger occasionally.

If I still derive even a limited amount of fun from EQ1, would I have any fun in EQ2?

[Morb]

How about you don't answer the questions unless you played for more than an hour, retards. Thanks.

[Sorran]

Originally posted by Ahnkosis
Ok, I'll ask the questions then...how long does it take to get through the tutorial? Are you forced to play the tutorial? Can you skip it? How are the quests? Are the npc's voices cool or lame? Is there lore? Is the lore (if any) decently written?

Answers, please!

In all honesty Ahhkosis, you are going to get extremely biased answers about EQ2 here. There's simply too many people that, for whatever reason, don't like SOE. The game hasn't been released here in Aus yet (another day or two, damnit!), so I can't answer all your questions, but I can answer some. The tutorial is pretty quick and yes you can skip it. Some people love the NPC voices, others don't - whatever your preference is, you can set your Options in-game accordingly. There is a lot of Lore - whether or not you consider it decently written is largely subjective.

So far, the launch has been extremely smooth - I think I've seen a grand total of 2 posts about servers being down on the official boards, and they were back up within minutes. The servers are loading up nicely, and 4 extra ones have been added so far. Tonight and tomorrow will be more of a test, as the bulk of the US players will have their copies by then. There's been no reports of game stopping bugs (sure there are some issues, of course), and people have been playing for 8 and 10 hour stretches without crashing, lagging or running into any other serious problems.

Combat mechanics are more complex than EQ1 - yes there is auto attack but all classes have a large range of extra attacks and abilities they can use (obviously at lower levels, the list of options is smaller - you get at least 1 new ability or spell every level). Solo combat is EQ2 is pretty straight forward, but group combat can be a lot more complex when you are fighting groups of monsters at a time. For example, most dungeons in EQ2 have encounters of mobs, rather than single pulls - there is no way to split the mobs in these encounters, you are forced to deal with them as a group. Experienced and skilled groups are rewarded with a pretty significant rate of xp, and groups that emply Heroic Opportunities effectively can really tear stuff up and have fun doing so. Downtime between battles is very low (regen is % based, instead of fixed numbers) - no more than a minute and a half or so even from near death/oom. Using Food and Drink can reduce this even further.

There is solo content, mostly in outdoor zones, and all classes are capable of soloing - some classes are more effective than others. However, and this is important, EQ2 is designed from the ground up to reward grouping more than soloing. The intent is to make grouping very easy (the usual LFG tools are there) by making any group that has at least one of each Archetype (Fighter, Scout, Priest and Mage) capable of functioning well (assuming some level of player competency).

I think there's a lot to like in EQ2 and I think people who enjoyed EQlive but weren't necessarily interested in constant high end gaming might find EQ2 very well suited to their tastes.

I strongly suggest you simply pick up a copy and make up your own mind though.

Cheers,

Sorran.

[Ahnkosis]

Damn, you paint a picture of pretty much exactly what I wanted out of EQ, but didn't get...damnit. I'll have to try WoW and then I guess go pick up a copy of EQ2 and find out which one I'm gonna devote a few spare hours to here and there, Thanks Sorran!

[Nevergone]

Originally posted by Sorran
...The tutorial is pretty quick and yes you can skip it...

...Combat mechanics are more complex than EQ1 - yes there is auto attack but all classes have a large range of extra attacks and abilities they can use (obviously at lower levels, the list of options is smaller - you get at least 1 new ability or spell every level)

...Downtime between battles is very low (regen is % based, instead of fixed numbers) - no more than a minute and a half or so even from near death/oom. Using Food and Drink can reduce this even further.

...There is solo content, mostly in outdoor zones, and all classes are capable of soloing - some classes are more effective than others. However, and this is important, EQ2 is designed from the group up to reward grouping more than soloing. The intent is to make grouping very easy (the usual LFG tools are there) by making any group that has at least one of each Archetype (Fighter, Scout, Priest and Mage) capable of functioning well (assuming some level of player competency).

Alrighty, now that I've trimmed the fat off of your post - I'll give you my counter points.

1. There are actually two tutorials that characters go through. The first places your character on a boat where you learn basic targeting, combat, and NPC interaction. You can skip this. However, the Isle of Refuge (otherwise known as the world's longest tutorial) is unavoidable for every player. Honestly, I rather enjoyed the island the first couple times I adventured through it. SoE did a very nice job of using flora and lighting, combined with great music, to really set a magical 'Disneyesque' kind of mood. Unfortunately, once you've seen Beauty and the Beast ten times, it starts to become a little less entertaining. At that point though, you should be able to get to your chosen city in under an hour, but it still feels like a gameplay hurdle that you're forced to leap over before you actually get to play the game.

2. Combat mechanics are more complex then EQ1? Are you sure? Encounters give you so much information in the target window, the game practically draws the players a diagram. While it's true that most characters recieve at least one skill every level, quite a few of the skills are useless or not as useful as previous abilities, or are simply upgrades that operate on the same timer as older spells and abilities.

Granted, the foundation is there for some expansive skill systems, but the content hasn't been developed for it. The only saving grace for combat in my opinion is the HO system; it changed very near the end of beta, there could be some hope there.

3. Downtime was originally hard-capped at seventy seconds, meaning that it would take seventy seconds to go from 1%hp to 100%hp. Honestly I thought that was the perfect 'pace'. We were all still worried about respawns while traversing a dangerous area, and it kept your ass blissfully planted in front of the monitor, waiting for the next fight which was only a few breaths away. This changed over the course of beta to a much slower pace. I clocked two and a half minutes of regeneration time to go from 1% to 100%hp on my illusionist - with the food and drink bonus. Granted, if this is hardcapped, it's nothing compared to the ridiculous downtime in EQ1, but still, it's not as enthralling, to say the least - especially when other games such as AO, CoH, WoW offer faster paced gameplay with an emphasis on actually doing something instead of watching your character sit on his ass.

4. I don't really understand how anyone can claim to have a fun and rewarding solo experience while playing EQ2. The game is designed against soloing, it's a computerized Pavlov's dog, conditioning people into exclusively grouping. The amount of experience characters are rewarded with when they decide to solo is minimal (read: did my xp bar move - at all - in the last three kills?). For those that insist on being soloers, I suggest steering clear of the entire mage archtype, nearly every subclass was woefully underpowered untill the end of beta, I doubt things changed post release. The best soloers seemed to be priests and scouts. I saw assasins dealing out damage as though they were imbued with the power of Allah, with wizards in the background as group cheerleaders. Speaking of groups; SoE would love to be able to claim that a functional group consists of one of each of the four archtypes and then two of anything else. This however is not true. One of those two extra slots should always go to a second healer for the group, it out performs any of the three remaining archtypes in spades. The benefit of extra healing > extra dps, tankage, control. That in my opinion, is wrong.



To make a long post short, I don't think anything I've posted is going to change anyone's mind. I fully expect people to go out and spend their money on EQ2. I will of course reserve the right to laugh and throw crucifix-shaped dildos at you for being a fool.

[frott]

I sorta like how they balanced multiple tanker types in a group via tanking abilities getting tossed about.

WoW is sorta going through the same taunt fits that were just obnoxious in EQ. Warriors have gone from CoH level 900 mobs on them with no sweat to EQ early PoP "not desirable to exp with" in a heartbeat.

The system is nice, but needs tweaking.

EQ2's fight mechanics seem stiff and repetitive as hell. You just have to play it to see the diffs.

As far as EQ2 v. WoW, they've got their own merits, but if WoW doesn't scream out to you as having a far, far, far, far more robust backbone you're missing something.

One downside is that WoW currently seems like it will quickly be screaming for an expansion. It's so much fun that you can sorta burn through it rapidly.... and given Blizz'z track record on expansions.....................

On the other hand, EQ2 screams that it's going to have expansions to fix shit. And we all cringe and remember how fun that is.

[Phlean]

1. There are actually two tutorials that characters go through. The first places your character on a boat where you learn basic targeting, combat, and NPC interaction. You can skip this. However, the Isle of Refuge (otherwise known as the world's longest tutorial) is unavoidable for every player. Honestly, I rather enjoyed the island the first couple times I adventured through it. SoE did a very nice job of using flora and lighting, combined with great music, to really set a magical 'Disneyesque' kind of mood. Unfortunately, once you've seen Beauty and the Beast ten times, it starts to become a little less entertaining. At that point though, you should be able to get to your chosen city in under an hour, but it still feels like a gameplay hurdle that you're forced to leap over before you actually get to play the game.

A few weeks ago you was able to get off IoR after hitting lvl 3, not sure if its still the same, dont get my copy till next week hopefully damn customs heh. Its not instantly but it takes all of what 10 minutes to hit lvl 3.

2. Combat mechanics are more complex then EQ1? Are you sure? Encounters give you so much information in the target window, the game practically draws the players a diagram. While it's true that most characters recieve at least one skill every level, quite a few of the skills are useless or not as useful as previous abilities, or are simply upgrades that operate on the same timer as older spells and abilities.

Granted, the foundation is there for some expansive skill systems, but the content hasn't been developed for it. The only saving grace for combat in my opinion is the HO system; it changed very near the end of beta, there could be some hope there.

Isnt that the same way WoW works? I've had limited play time with WoW but it seems that I get a new ability spell every level or so, or I just upgrade an exsisting spell and/or ability that I currently have.

Downtime for EQ2 does seem like it takes forever compared to WoW, but personally I dont think its all that bad(could be better tho). The whole solo thing is totally subjective, I find soloing totally boring regardless if I'm playing WoW or EQ2 The fact that EQ2 imo seems to cater/force grouping is cool w/me. I dont like playing games that has lots of players to only go off by myself and be a loner.

[Visions]

well the reason there is less downtime in WoW is because there is no danger or difficulty. WoW is a good game though think I just burnt myself out on it but I'll be playing at launch.. probably not again before launch though. I havent played in a couple weeks but supposedly this new patch made the game much harder.

I've only put in about 6 hours on eq2 mostly just exploring and learning my way around so no saying whether it is more challenging or not yet. No crashes,server problems or anything like that yet.

I'll give my reveiw on the game in like 2 weeks when I get some play time in.

[Pasteton]

been playing since yesterday, so far its been pretty smooth and stable, theres still a bug which has carried over from beta regarding encounters resetting in the middle of the fight (even if u fight them right near their spawn). Crashed once in about 5 hours playing. on permafrost tho commonlands and antonica have been down for about 1 hour now, this is the first major instsability issue thats occurred so far.

[ex-genj]

I disagree, I think there's a lot out there for end game currently* and I don't think there will be a large amount of 2-months-to-60-sit-around-in-AH stuff.

* currently meaning "one month after release"