Anyone still playing EQII?

[Spyryt]

Originally Posted by Onte

...The itemization is bland. Sure, there are items you want to camp or quest or items you look foward to using, but if you're a player such as me, one who does not raid, you're wearing player-crafted or sub-par quested gear your entire tenure in the game. Or, if you're lucky, you've gotten a couple drops off a heroic named or two to spice up your kit...

The biggest problem is crafted gear sits so close to its counterpart/mob-dropped items. So instead of there being 5 tiers (Fabled, Legendary, Mastercrafted, Treasured, Crafted) there are really just 3 (Fabled, Legendary/Mastercrafted, Treasured/Crafted), two of which you just sit at the broker and buy immediately upon levelling. This equates to two glaring holes in the game:

1) Two of the five tiers of equipment (and I never counted store-bought as even a tier), throughout the entire level-range of the game, are 95% pointless.

2) When I can sit at the broker every few levels, especially every 10th level, and equip myself with B+ gear instantly, I have very little reason to make groups, dungeon-dive, camp named, etc...all of which have proven to be essential in developing "community" and attachment to the game for players.

This makes most equipment, and the act of getting said equipment, bland.

Originally Posted by Onte

...I have not had a single evening where I have logged on, joined a group and headed down into EQ2's version of Lguk or Seb to camp an incredibly awesome item that'd completely change the performance of any of my characters. I have never had a moment where I have been completely elated to obtain any item since I started the game in Feb '05...

Following up on the above, 1) there is just too much equipment out there and 2) it is too easy to get "really good stuff" (Legendary/Mastercrafted) and not that big of a deal to skip the "great stuff" (Fabled). Due to quick levelling (compared to our original EQ beginnings), why work so hard (camp) or pay so much (on the broker/market) for Fabled when I'm better off just gaining a couple levels and getting the mastercrafted/legendary item for that new level that obsoletes the "great" Fabled item of my current level.

In my opinion, EQ2 needs to:

1) Cut out two of its "tiers". Officially make it Fabled, Legendary and Treasured since that is how the game functionally plays now, anyway. Match crafters to at least two of those tiers and make sure the production of those items is equivalent in "work/difficulty" as they are in the adventuring field.

2) Make sure the difference between each tier, but most importantly between the "good" and "great" tier, is significant in terms of acquisition cost and usefulness

3) Maybe most importantly, increase the lifespan of equipment to be much longer (not "durability", in case that confused anyone, but how long you will use the item before upgrading).

If you get that back in the game, you once again have an item-centric game that will create attachment between the player and their character. Once you have the equipment a functional, defining part of the game, you can enhance that by making sure the great stuff looks great and unique.

[Asmadai]

Originally Posted by Utnayan

Jesus Christ I am tired of you always saying this shit. In no way shape or form did I say WoW is perfect. But they pay a hell of a lot more attention to their game than SOE developers do, know the mechanics up, down, and sideways, and pay attention to detail on a consistent basis. It shows in the final product, otherwise EQ2 would have a fuck of a lot more than 175k and falling, and WoW would not have 6 million plus.

Period.

There is no way you even read his post. Because you do not have one leg to stand on in that argument. Hartsman may be fantastic for EQ2. Too bad the majority of the team doesn't have a clue about the design of their title. It has happened in every game SOE makes. SWG was so bad that they just kept altering key elements of the game so new developers coming in could understand what was going on. It's a fundamental flaw in SOE design where egos get in the way of making a great game, where developers think they are never wrong even when the answers are right in front of their face, and the end ressult is a lackluster product. Which a good majority think EQ2 is.

I have the craziest song by Whitesnake stuck in my head. Damn now what is the name of that song?

[Dahlrek]

Speaking as someone who plays and enjoys EQ2, their process for receiving, handling, and fixing bugs is, from the customer perspective, the worst in the industry. I quit playing back around LU 8 or so due to the sheer mind-bogglingly vast number of unfixed bugs in core game data like player abilities. I picked it up again pre-KoS, and it's much better, but I am still plagued to this day by obvious bugs that I've personally reported multiple times for months. I haven't hit the "quit in frustration" threshold yet, but I get a little closer every day. There's no excuse.

Re: Itemization
A lot of it is fairly bland, but there are some sweet/interesting pieces scattered around. DoF was absolute shit (compounded by the fact that you have to go back to it for 57-60 M1s), but KoS seems to be moving it in the right direction; I love my Manacles of the Dark Sky.

[Khalan]

EQ2 as much as I like it I agree with the posters. It Severly lacks any real progression in itemization. Even within the Raiding Sphere only, you can basically farm trash mobs with 1-2 groups for some of the best items in the game(relic armour, kinda like armour molds from EQ1). You thought WoW had boring procs and effects? EQ2 takes the cake. Flowing Thought is literally the only proc on 90% of the gear, and not a usefull amount mind you. FT1-3 is the norm on most things. Chel’drak the hardest Instanced mob, has a loot table comprising of 90% Flowing thought items(FT1-3), the rest are Generic X% to do X damage on attack procs.

Bosses drop far too much Raid loot at once, resulting in near full fabled raiders in just 2-3 months(Imagine if your entire WoW guild went from all blues to all purples in 2 months)
combined with the Noob ass suck raiders farming Raid Instances for Relic (only 12hour lockout if you don't kill any bosses) and every joe casual and noobsauce soloer has 5-6 pieces of fabled loot..

Finally combine that with the way combat mechanics work, you can basically kill any raid mob in the game with the trash relic armour (Imagine being able to Farm Molten Core Trash mobs for gear that let’s you clear Naxx) = 0 Progression in raiding.

Lack of armour sets and uniformity also plagues the high end, the best equipped characters look like patchwork bums.

EQ2’s raid game has suffered immensely due to aiming it at joe casual, no progression because joe casual can’t be bothered, and most of the new raid zones are completely cleared by the hardcore guilds 1st try in because they are tuned for 24 idiots.

EQ2 has a lot of great things going for it, but itemization/progression (for all players, solo/group and raid) is virtually non existent.


Finally Everyone Re-read what Genjiro Wrote. As someone in one of the top raid guilds worldwide who beta-tests a lot of SoE content, he is 100% spot on with his assessment of how it goes down. Echoes of Faydwer is the final straw for me and my guild. 3 Strikes and your out. The amount of Bugged content we test on and report that goes live anyways is simply mind boggling, it’s as if they take all the feedback we give and then ensure they don’t listen.

It really sucks bad, because I love EQ2 but it’s just 1 dissapointment after another, enough is enough.

[Utnayan]

Originally Posted by Asmadai

I have the craziest song by Whitesnake stuck in my head. Damn now what is the name of that song?

If you just bought an EQ2 expansion... "Don't break my heart again."

[Bolero]

I actually liked that items meant nothing. I was able to focus on the questing, levelling and exploring without worring about my equipment. The class I played, warden, seemed to do just as well naked as with good gear. At least up to level 51 when I quit. I would just wear what I would find or get from quests. I never had to actively search for equipment. I still wore a level 4 necklace at level 51. Maybe items matter at the raid level stuff, but I only did small group and solo stuff and the equipment seemed to be meaningless. Spells on the other hand, do matter greatly and I did buy adept books frequently. I guess the spell books take the place of items for upgrading your character.

Also it seemed like the majority of players were housewives. Maybe it was because I was behind the levelling curve or was it just the server I was on?

[Asmadai]

Originally Posted by Utnayan

If you just bought an EQ2 expansion... "Don't break my heart again."

I know you still have a busy day of shitspewing ahead of you, at many of your different shitspewing forums you frequent, one of which being discussing your HDTV on some HDTV Lover's Message Board (Damn, even I have to call you a huge fucking dork on this one), but please if sometime during some point of this long day of bashing everything on the fucking planet if you can find the time to eat a shotgun. Thanks.

[FulorianC]

Originally Posted by Asmadai

Fulorian - I thought I saw you the other day. Saw a zerker I think it was named Fulorian running around, but figured "no, that can't be Fulorian from EQ1", but I guess it was you after all.

Indeed, that's me. A warrior to the end.

[Utnayan]

Originally Posted by Asmadai

I know you still have a busy day of shitspewing ahead of you, at many of your different shitspewing forums you frequent, one of which being discussing your HDTV on some HDTV Lover's Message Board (Damn, even I have to call you a huge fucking dork on this one), but please if sometime during some point of this long day of bashing everything on the fucking planet if you can find the time to eat a shotgun. Thanks.

You are so obsessed with me you are actually typing my user handle into Google?

Holy shit...

PS: Was that the song?

[Cuppycake]

Originally Posted by Genjiro

Let me just preface this next section and say that Scott Hartsman is one of the coolest guys I've met in the mmo industry

QFT! Scottie > *

Anyway, great post Genjiro. Zuuljin I think that you are correct in your reasoning.

Things I liked about EQ2:
* The crafting. I enjoyed crafting, doing all the subcombines (which are now removed.) It felt like real crafting in a way, and I had a blast making furniture that I could use in my own house.
*The housing. I love player housing. I spent more time in my house decorating it than actually playing the game almost =P
* The player base mentality. The forums are great, people are helpful, accepting, and GENERALLY more mature.
*The roleplaying community. Even on Permafrost I found quite a bit of fellow roleplayers, and the amount of RP events and places on Antonia Bayle and LDL is actually immense. I enjoy that.
*The lore. I enjoy the lore because I played and loved EQ. I like running across familiar places and hearing familiar names. Its a blast.
*The mentor system. Its so nice to be able to mentor down and help lowbies and friends run through quests or dungeons.
*The dungeons. Lots of cool cool small dungeons that aren't instanced and aren't all the same. Really loved Nektropos!

What I did not care for
*My character attachment. Or lack thereof. I never felt drawn back to playing my main character. I felt like I couldn't do much to achieve new gear. I wasn't excited about getting new items for her. I had a hard time RPing her because I just didn't feel her. I can't really explain, but I'm sure you guys know what its like to have a personal attachment towards an MMO character.
*The lack of playerbase at the lower levels. Permafrost is a good server, great people, one of the busiest at release. But across the game on all the servers I've tried out..its hard to get a group at the lower levels. I dont always have a few hours to play, sometimes I want to get a group quickly and bang out some quests. Not possible very often unless you happen to stumble across something. Granted, I was never in a big guild with lots of players. I always played with people from the forums here, or from previous guilds and they usually didn't last long =x
*The fact that everyone I know IRL is playing WoW. Its so much easier and fun to play what friends are playing. This isn't necessarily a fault of EQ2, but its a reason why I stopped playing.
*The UI. Its clunky, ugly, and really makes the game feel unpolished.

Unlike most people, I don't have a problem with the art, animations, or minimum comp specs. However, my friends do. No one I know wants to play that game when they can enjoy the polished feel of WoW and enjoy it on their 3 year old PC's.

Regardless, I'll be back to try out a Fae. Even though there's something about EQ2 that bores me after awhile, there is also something that keeps pulling me back. Maybe I'll settle down to one game or another after I'm done ping ponging from WoW to EQ2 and back again =/

[Ham n Cheese]

EQII was too afraid of having overpowered items like the Fungi Tunic so they just made everything marginal. They make you attune everything you wear anywear so I don't know why we can't have game changing items in the game anymore.

[frott]

I jumped up and simulated fucking my monitor when I finally killed Stormfeather.

Wow has had its moments, but usually they are that last 5-10% where you know you cannot fail on a boss for the first time, its a nice glide into the finish line like the "awwwwwwwww" the announcer does in NBA Jam when leaping in the air to do the huge dunk - I like to believe that it is because I'm an adult now that I didn't simusex my computer when beating an encounter...

[Ham n Cheese]

I agree with a lot of what Cuppy said when I first played. I felt not real attachment ot my character. In EQ1 I had such an attachment to my Iksar Monk it's all I ever made when I played EQ on other servers or at other times, it's just a race/class combo I loved. I loved playing my brawler at first, I thought he looked cool and that his damage was good. Then I started looting items that looked like rust colored plate (lvl 20 AQ don't look to good either). If it wasn't for Vorph my gear would've been a lot worse. I didn't notice much difference in gear much ever, not even weapons (which is the biggest reason I play melee no matter what).

Make getting items fun again. Make them count.

[Kuro]

Low, Mid, and Pre-KoS-High armor is just flat out fugly.
You can feel teir formulas in item construction, if EQ2 devs don't have a wow-esque "point" system for item construction, they have something close to it. I miss items that felt like individual items lol

[Khalan]

People who say EQ2's UI is bad are partially right. The default UI is pretty Ugmo but their are a ton of amazing UI mods and Full UI sets, here is a screenshot of My UI, Profit Reborn. It's pretty awesome.