Anyone still playing EQII?

[Zuuljin]

Few things, EQ2 runs fine on newer hardware, and it runs like shit on older hardware. I average 50-60 fps without shadows, and drop to just about 35-40ish when there are alot of players on the screen. With shadows I'm down to about 20ish in populated area's but as low as 10-15 when theres alot of environmental stuff, but other then that, it runs fantastic. This isnt a FPS, so anything above 25-30 is just gravy. They also stated it was built for future machines, to let the engine "grow with the hardware".

As far as the bugs go, I havent encountered any of the raid bugs (I dont raid) and very very very few of the smaller pathing/questing bugs. So while it may suck for alot of you at the high end, its not really effecting those of us down here at the lower end.

Here's a small picture I took, max everything, including shadows. Took it with a few characters on screen, with other crap, so you dont accuse me of overexagerating. =) Specs are c2duo, 7900gt, 2gigs ram:

[Kuro]

Profit Reborn is awesome, but I've noticed a problem with it with certain videocards, namely that water makes the UI scramble like static. Didn't matter what quality setting the water was put on.

[Aldarion_Shard]

I hate how whenever the discussion turns to UI's, someone will post a picture of some god-awful monstrosity of a UI as proof that mods can make it better.

#1 -- The more elements shown on screen, the worse the UI. Simplicity is the goal.

#2 -- there is zero reason to have more than one hotkey bar shown, ever. Shift1-4, Shift4-2, Shift3-3, etc. You can access all 100 hotkey slots without showing *any* on screen.

The best graphics and graphics card in the world dont mean shit if the only thing you can see is your UI. We invest in 300$+ video cards so we can play in these immersive 3D environments and then people design their UIs so that all they can see is 2D sprites

[Khalan]

Originally Posted by Aldarion_Shard

I hate how whenever the discussion turns to UI's, someone will post a picture of some god-awful monstrosity of a UI as proof that mods can make it better.

#1 -- The more elements shown on screen, the worse the UI. Simplicity is the goal.

#2 -- there is zero reason to have more than one hotkey bar shown, ever. Shift1-4, Shift4-2, Shift3-3, etc. You can access all 100 hotkey slots without showing *any* on screen.

The best graphics and graphics card in the world dont mean shit if the only thing you can see is your UI. We invest in 300$+ video cards so we can play in these immersive 3D environments and then people design their UIs so that all they can see is 2D sprites

A) how is my UI an Monstrosity, it barely has anything on screen.

b) I play 6-8 Characters, you honestly want me to memorize 1000+ skills/shift commands + consumables and cool down timers? How do I know when my skills are up again? ESP? That's fucking retarded.

Edit: My hotbar buttons are actually much larger in that pic than normal, they're usually half that size and take up much less space.

[Man0warr]

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.

Please god Blizzard don't tune 25-man raids to casuals, hell go back to 40-mans. I really don't want this to happen to WoW.

Incoming Cad!

[Khalan]

And honestly the default UI can be made to look pretty kick ass I used it for 8 months before swapping, you just gotta not be dumb and learn how to set it properly (without mods)

[Ham n Cheese]

I know all my hotkeys on my characters for the most part, but no way am I going to hide them (you can make them pretty small)... just incase.

[spentmotiff]

Originally Posted by 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.

Someone needs to take this statement, put it in lights and billboard it outside of the EQ2 dev's houses.

This goes past gear, too.

My biggest problem with EQ2 is that were so afraid of giving their player's power (for fear of overpowering them,) they turned everything bland and vanilla. In EQ, you had those levels where the whole game changed due to some ability that you received that made your life easier or changed your class completely from the levels before it.

WoW (wisely) has the same thing.

In my time playing EQ2, I never saw this. I never was excited about hitting level 'x' because that's when I got ability 'y' that added an element to the game that wasn't there before. This was a HUGE carrot that everyone in EQ (and WoW) strove for. Getting feign death for your monk in EQ or Vanish for your rogue in WoW rocked. Suddenly, the game changed and everything was growing stale became new again.

EQ2 needs to get over their fear and give players some power, or at the very least, a good sense of it. Either by gear or by a spell they get a certain level or something.

Carrots ftw.

[Kuro]

Well, some of the AAs originally had that, but nerf sticks rained down upon those, like the ones where once you reached a certain AA threshold you could change your weapon set up (Rogues being able to go "Zomg 1handed weapon is useful now!" and monks being able to get hawt DPS out of bare fists at the cost of stats/hp). The AAs are so, vanilla. From what I've seen, the only people happy with their AAs are Rogues (Swash/Brig), Warriors (Guard/Zerk), Wizards (Who are happy with the AAs, but disgruntled at their DPS/Aggro shunting overall), and Druid (Healers getting AAs that help healing? YOU DON'T SAY!) derivatives.

The end of the line AAs SHOULD have been huge carrots, and for some classes some of them (~1 per class that is lucky enough to have one) are, but for the majority, SOE was apparently so afraid of a cookie-cutter AA template that the majority of final AAs aren't worth the 8 points.

Don't Kill the Messenger, however, is liquid sex.

[Zuuljin]

Blizzards design of balance has always been extreme's balance extreme's. SOE's design of balance is make everything just about equal.

I always remember when I was first learning to play WC3, id think, "Wow, this is a pretty cheap tactic, theres no way I can be beaten!" only to find out that each race had their own "cheap tactic that was unbeatable". The invinible mountain king, vs the crazy demon hunter, or the resurecting behemoth tauren, to the crazy fucking crit happy blademaster. They were all extremely powerful, but balanced each other out.

EQ2's spell system is bleh when upgrades are simply higher dmg/mana ratio to spells you already have. There was one spell in EQ2 for my SK that was pretty badass though, and that was a AE lifetap for 300hp, and did 600 dmg or so for up to 8 mobs (i think, been awhile since I looked it up) and it made me feel alot more powerful vs group mobs. But there definantly needs to be more badass abilities/ items like that.

One thing I noticed WoW had, in my 10 day free trial lol, was that the warrior had thsi cool ability to charge an NPC, which actually made your character have a speed boost, run in and stun the mob. I dont know if theres other abilities like that, but it struck me as different and fun.

[Sneaky]

I played EQ2 for several months (usualy 4-5x a week, several hours a time) with a few breaks then and when and belonging to the "not interested in raiding, but enjoying competative, engaging and challenging gameplay" faction.

When I stoped playing, I had a 65 Dirge, a 65 Bruiser and a 65 Defiler. Additionally the usual array of 5 alts.


I unsubscribed for several reasons:

- boring combat (you could play eyes closed once the fight started, no matter which character - I tried almost all classes, putting alot of time into 3 "very different" ones - by job-description - to make sure I didn't "miss something")
- Game-Performance from sluggish to "grinding to a halt" on settings that didn't make my eyes sore on a PC that still plays most new games just fine on "high"
- The impression that the Devs of the game didn't know what to do with most classes (i.e. no need for crowd control in avrgr groups - even after the great "CC-nerf" to "make chanters valuably by nerfing everyone else")
- Very few ways to improve your effectiveness by "being a better player"
- almost no interesting items for someone only doing PuG and small guildgroups (I don't like raiding, so dunno about that - don't realy care, either)
- too few different armor models (changing textures to make something "new" is so last milenium)


The most important ones for me from all these were the boring combat and lack of ability to "shine". I play plenty of other games that would not realy win a beauty contest, give only momentary rewards (or none other than "You Win") but they still keep me returning again and again to play with and against others.

But EQ2s combat felt so uninspired, bland, 1234561234560123456, unchallenging and unrewarding that it became a chore pretty quick. Group setup almost didnt matter. Almost any player would do anytime, as long as they weren't completly retarded and controlling their chars by banging their heads on the keyboard. You could "single pull" almost anywhere. Not that you would, you often tried to grab a few mobs to AE away. Debuffs almost didn't matter - and while you were ... appreciating the buffs on you, it's doubtful you'd have noticed if half of them would wear off mid fight - unless you maximized your buff windows which easily could take up quarter of the screen in a normal group.

While EQ2 has a "concentration" system for buffs, most classes dont realy have to make a whole lot of choices on which buff to use or who to buff. For normal groups a Bard's buffs, for example, barely made a difference (other than in-combat-regen). So the hardest choice to make was something like "hm, let the tank take 1% less damage or give the group 0.5% more melee damage". And that for a class that was way down the "DPS tiers" and who's players sit 95% of the fight there watching chat while aimlessly pushing some buttons to make the impression -maybe even on themselfs- that they are actually helping.

Even healing wasn't engaging the least. Reactives/Wards up. Count to 25 and recast. Repeat. If that wasnt enough you "weave" your two reactives. If that's not enough you throw in some patchheals every x seconds (its very predictable and doesn't change much as long as the mob's level relative to your tank/whoevertakesdamagetoday doesn't increase/decrease).


Rambling, but whatever, it's late and no critique, however well written will manage that the guys at SOE get that game on the right tracks (for players like me, which I'd guess make up a far larger part of the total "MMO-Gamer-Population" that whatever EQ2 has left). Lost cause. Next.

[Ham n Cheese]

I don't know a MMORPG out there that doesn't have boring combat. WoW is just hitting 1, 4, 5, 6, 2, 2, 2 only faster. EQ1 was just slower (because they didn't waste your time with a new skill every level). It's all the same

[Moontayle]

I always felt the AAs more resembled Talents than actual AAs. With EQ1, AAs became part of the threshhold upon which a character could or could not cut it. Encounters are designed around characters with x amount of AA points located in y skills. I believe the EQ2 devs are trying to avoid that, which is why they resemble Talents. i.e. skills and abilities which enhance your character, make him more complete without tipping that balance.

In some ways I wish I were still playing, just because I found the overall experience more enjoyable. However, WoW is where my wife and friends are, so that's where I am. *sigh*

[Zuuljin]

Gallenite has been mysteriously missing from the boards as of late and he hasnt posted in over 2 months. I think this thread has alot of info in it, so I hope he's reading. Or maybe he can give us an in depth writing of whats currently going on. Hope he's ok though. =(

[Moontayle]

Originally Posted by Zuuljin

Gallenite has been mysteriously missing from the boards as of late and he hasnt posted in over 2 months. I think this thread has alot of info in it, so I hope he's reading. Or maybe he can give us an in depth writing of whats currently going on. Hope he's ok though. =(

He's probably down in Austin at the moment.