EQ2 Live Update #24 & Fallen Dynasty

[GrobbeeTrull]

Hell, if they did that plus got rid of that stupid auto face whenever you're in combat I might even give the game another shot. I probably won't make it past the first few hours, of course, but I'll send Gallenite a PM for sure.

You can disable it in the UI.

[Andric d'Regor]

while the animations need work they are a lot better if you go into options and choose the highest animation quality settings. The dafaults sure dotn do them any favours.

[Abalieno]

*Performance*, animations and models/customization are fairly important in this game at this point, I think. The first in particular (meaning without the need to turn off every graphic option).

My dislike for the animations goes along with my complete dislike of the model. Some of the "foreign" races are slightly more acceptable, but the humans are really ugly, the skin tones (included those in this small exp pack) are horrible. The way ALL the characters twist they head to look at you is SCAREY.

AT LEAST they should prevent the NPCs to look at you when they are already triggering another animation. It's silly to see a fisherman launching with his pole while his head is turned 90 degrees to look at me. Or someone drinking and pushing the jug right into his ear because he is again looking in my direction.

And btw, the pig race is also ugly because again of how the movement is managed. All the pigs just "walk" normally, then every pig can have a sudden "burst" that makes it shift forward sharply and then it walks again. The pig who has more "bursts" wins.

Basically there is no real "race", you don't see the pigs running and slowly gertting an advantage on the others as they run. Instead they just walk and shift jerkly forward when a "burst" happens.

The idea is fun, but the execution is rather bad (and the winning pig runs right into the lake when it starts to run in circles after the race, plus then running ON the fence as they go back at the start line. You know, polish and details).

Other things I didn't like after a quick glance of the exp (with my level 11 character, mind you):

- Characters twisting their head to look at you. This "emote" should be restricted to happen at 60 degree max, instead of 90. Plus I'd build a system so that this "emote" isn't always on on every character and monster, but flagged and enabled manually when appropriate (in many cases it isn't). Plus also disable it while the character is busy with another action, add a delay so that the head doesn't twist back and forward quickly as it happens in a few cases and then also flag it to happen only in certain cases (or better, let the designers disable it under set circumstances).
- The grass texture of the village area looks like a noisy, computer-generated stereogram instead of "grass". This is often a problem with EQ2 (ugly terrain textures). Transitions between one type of terrain to the other are also ugly.
- Skin tones and textures of the SOGA models.
- Laggy area.
- Farmers walking animation doesn't match their speed and they "slide" on the terrain as on ice.
- One NPC swims at the bottom of a pond. I don't know how he can remain alive (but also don't know if this is justified).

[Iannis]

That creature looks like it's about to kick some mad ass. His pieces may actually detach, and you'll have to fight his legs torso and head all at once.

I loved face turning in EQ2 because of how funny it could act occasionally. Sometimes you'd position yourself weird and keep looking forward and then at the other character..that's when you crank up the quiet riot and bang yo' head. But I don't think I ever saw anything as strange as that right there.

[Abalieno]

It could be a decent feature but it needs polish. As I said it needs to be disabled when the character is involved in another action and it should also have some sort of "cooldown" since often you see those heads twist uncontrollably as there are more than one target.

There are those 1 vs 1 fighters in the expansion doing kung-fu moves at each other all the time. If you go near them they do not stop. But they continue with their head turned sideways looking at you while they are supposed to fight (and the animations between the various moves are often jerky as well. switching states too sharply).

It's just awkward.

[Abalieno]

Btw, with all textures at max detail the 2Gb RAM are starting to feel tight.

This is another reason to engineer the new animation/armor with a strong focus on performance.

[FohMD]

Originally Posted by Zehn - Vhex

Then you're an idiot.

Animations may not be the prime thing most RPG gamers care about, but for pretty much the rest of the gaming community? Yeah. Games looking smooth and polished are very important.

I'd rather not get into a whole "thing" with you, but my point is almost exactly what you said: perfectly smooth animations are not the "prime thing" most RPG players care about. As long as they are half decent, that's what counts. (Maybe that's not the case with EQ2, I don't know)

Think about it another way...would EQ2 get a huge influx of subscribers if they suddenly had really nice animations? Or, would you leave WoW if suddenly the animations were a little choopy?

[Mithandriel]

They definitely downgraded the crafted armor. It does not have any HP/power or resists. Mastercrafted from what I've seen linked has better stats plus HP/Power and resists but is definitely downgraded from previous incarnations.

The only difference in final grade is stats. It looks like the first two levels get +1 to stats then +2 at tailored/forged and then +3 at pristine. This is obviously at the T2 & T3 levels. I'm sure the stats scale as you get to T4+.

The only good thing so far is that stats make more sense for the type of user who will be using the armor. Chain armor has Agi, Sta & Str. Brigandine has Wis. Plate has stats similar to chain. Leather seems to come in two varieties; one for druids with +wis and one for monk/bruisers with agi, sta and str.

I guess they have decided that crafted armor in general was too powerful and made it inferior to quested/treasured armor. With the amount of quests and common armor drops, I don't see any need for crafted armor except as fill in since most of it can be worn immediately for that tier (i.e. T3 armor can be worn at 20) and some of the quested dropped armor may not be useable until later on.

It is kind of disappointing except for the fact that with rares being much less rare and items easier to make, more people will have Mastercrafted armor.

I guess their item heirarchy is like this now:

Vendored
Crafted
Treasured
Mastercrafted
Legendary
Fabled

Crafted used to be on par or better in some cases then treasured and rare crafted armor was on par or better than legendary.

I'm assuming the same was done to crafted weapons as well as woodworker items.

I guess it makes some sense since the time to make items is much less and with no interim items to skill up on there should theoretically be a ton of items available at a much lower price.

I don't agree with "crafting is much cheaper now." At T3, books are ~14 sp each and each stack of fuel is ~94sp. A stack only lasts a couple of levels so you are talking about possibly 7-10 gp to get from 20-29.

Now 10 gp is not a ton of money (especially if you are a higher level) but for someone that is leveling crafting and adventuring together, unless they are able to sell items it could get prohibitively expensive to craft. It actually seems like crafting will no longer be possible as a sole "profession" unless you have a guild to harvest for you and supply you with money.

[Dis]

Starting to get extremely bored with WoW. Between having to either grind the same raid instance for the millionth time, and the same group instance for billionth time, I have finally started to look elsewhere for entertainment.

Purchased HoMM5, but I know this will only be a temp fix. I await the Naxx release, and depending I may have to revisit my Templar from EQ2 (I think I left him at 40?). Anywho fix the graphics, make it a priority, going from WoW to EQ2 imo is a odd step backwards.

Keep up the good work Scott! I always keep an eye on EQ2, Blizz is starting to lose me.

[Denonia2]

going from WoW to EQ2 imo is a odd step backwards.

To me the step more fealt like being released from jail

[Soygen]

The animations in WoW destroy EQ2's, however I like the way EQ2 looks better. I like seeing far into the distance and you can see the points of interest, etc. I just like the overall look of the world better. WoW is definitely more smooth and stylish though.

[Dis]

Originally Posted by Soygen

The animations in WoW destroy EQ2's, however I like the way EQ2 looks better. I like seeing far into the distance and you can see the points of interest, etc. I just like the overall look of the world better. WoW is definitely more smooth and stylish though.

Pretty much have the same feelings. Would be nice to have both in one game ya know?

[Aldarion_Shard]

- Skin tones and textures of the SOGA models.

Found your problem.

Those models are abominations, and are artistically terrible in every respect. Once you turn them off, your eyes will stop bleeding and youll feel better.

WTB an option to prevent other players form seeing our characters as those godawful SOGA models...

[Abalieno]

I don't use SOGA models, but this last exp has those models anyway for the NPCs.

And the western models aren't much better for the exact same reasons (looking ugly, in particular the females, and bad textures). They are just better when it comes to to "fantasy" races.

[GrobbeeTrull]

Well, I run with 3gb on my main box, and 756mb on my 2nd box, and the 3gb box runs smooooth now. I don't know what they did, but a lot of choppiness has gone away for me. I've got a humble GeForce 6800 pci express x16 256 mb... and the 81.98 forceware drivers.

I can pretty much leave everything on except for those god-damned shadows. They eat some FPS in crowded environments, but usually when i'm out boxing, I can play with everything on full. Otherwise the shadows go.

I also don't sit and ponder "Wow, this looks totally unrealistic!" when my characters run and fight - simply because I'm lazy like that. For someone who's graphical tastes aren't as "sophisticated" as the above posters, I like me some EQ2 gameplay a lot better. Because in the end, for me I feel like I've always got something to work towards in EQ2... whereas WoW was the usual "maintenance mode" or "grind faction for recipes!" stuff that I don't particularly enjoy.