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EQ2 Advantages
nooblet
Member Posts: 2,274
How will EverQuest II differ from other massively multiplayer games?
At the time of launch, the EverQuest II team will have over five years of massively multiplayer gaming experience to buld upon. Our plans for the combat, quest, and, tradeskill systems - just to name a few - along with our new 3D engine will take massively multiplayer gaming to new heights.
What are "locked" encounters?
EQII is implementing a system of locked combat encounters. This means that once a player/group engages a mob, that mob is locked and no outside player/group may interfere. Players may unlock the encounter at any time to seek help from outside parties, but at a significant penalty to the loot and experience given by the encountered mob.
Will EQII try to remove soloing?
Absolutely not. Specific content is being designed for soloers. This will take the form of specific areas to solo mobs and unique soloing quests. Each class will be able to solo effectively. The system is being designed specifically for those who only have an hour or two to commit at any given time.
Grouping will remain the fastest and most rewarding way to gain experience and loot, however.
How will combat work?
When fighting, you will pick a specific location to attack a MOB. Combat in general will require more in the way of tactics than in EverQuest.
What is "combat speed?"
When players in EQII enter combat, they begin to move more slowly. They will no longer be able to quickly run far distances away from mobs. Among other things, this will help to prevent the tactic of "kiting" in EQII.
Will EQII feature raiding similar to that found in EQLive?
There will be raiding content in EQII, but there will be a hard cap of 24 players max on any given encounter. The goal is to remove the "zergling rush" from the EQLive style of raiding and return such encounters to a system based on player skill.
Will we be able to get drunk?
Of course. And apparently with some stunning visual effects
What is "instancing?"
To put it simply, instancing is the process of creating a unique copy of a standard zone layout so that multiple groups of players may explore the same content simultaneously. Instancing is currently being used in the EQLive expansion Lost Dungeons of Norrath. The exact implementation of instancing in EQII has yet to be revealed, but it will likely be on a much smaller scale than LDoN.
Housing
What types of housing will there be?
There will be two types of housing: free-standing homes and instanced appartment style rooms. Both guilds and individual players will be able to access instanced housing, but obtaining the limited free-standing homes will be tough for all but the highest ranking of guilds.
GOOO GOO EQ2!!!!
Comments
Yes. EQ2 needs more hype...it's far too underappreciated right now.
Agreed. There's alot of things going on with EQ2 i bet half of the forum doesn't know about. I'm really excited with all the areas, the ability to swim under water, fight underwater, this will be a blast to explore the new world of Norrath.
I'm also excited about how they handled grouping. They made all the classes different, yet balanced their skill so many classes will have better chances of getting into a group. Not to mention every class will be solo-able if the worst happens and you can't find a group.
Playing: City of Heroes/ Dark Age of Camelot
Upcoming: EverQuest II
Playing: Vanguard SoH
Played: EQ, Planetside, SWG, WoW, EQ2
well maybe if SoE released more info then people would appreciate it more ;p
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Sleepy ~ZZzzZzz
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Sleepy ~ZZzzZzz
How will EverQuest II differ from other massively multiplayer games?
Modified EQ Combat, Quest, and Skill systems. Yeah ok different but barely.
Graphics. Definitely the biggest difference. Its just a graphical update of EQ. Same engine that was used to develope previous Verant/SONY titles, just higher quality models and a few more video card effects used. This is the only true new thing i see in this list. And technically only the models and textures are new. The engine is old.
Locked Encounters:
FFXI does this already. Not a new feature and not different.
Soloing:
Nothing new here. Lots of games offer zones that are made for soloing and zones for grouping.
Combat:
Just stated more tactics. No features listed.
Combat Speed:
No running away from MOBs when they kick your ass or aggro. This is not a feature, this will piss many people off.
Raiding:
No features listed. Just vague promises it will be slightly different.
Drunk:
This was in EQ. Back in the day the special effects for this were stunning too. Only a feature of the EverQuest line of games.
Instancing:
Used by lots of MMORPGs now. City of Heroes for example. Plus the old EQ. Not a new feature.
Housing:
I think Neocron first introduced this. You started out with your own instanced apartment. You could join a clan and fight to hold bases out in the wastelands. This is nothing new.
I am not trolling EQ2. I want to play it very much. But I would like to know what makes EQ2 different. What makes it stand out and say "YOU CANT FIND THESE GAMEPLAY ELEMENTS ANYWHERE ELSE!"? Any intelligent, non-inflamatory replies would be very much appreciated. I cant seem to find the kind of info I'm looking for anywhere else.
You can like take this thread, replace the word EQ2 with WoW and you get the same thing. Locked encounters, check. Ability to solo, check. Swim/fight under water, check. Instancing, check etc etc.
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Played: AC1, DAoC, E&B, SWG
Tested: AC1, AC2, DAoC, Eve, Planetside, Rubies, Lineage 2
Hmm Wow also has Player Housing? oh wait... no, Personal Ships? no! , Speaking NPCs? No!, Non-confrontational Advancement? NO!
Is the stuff below the same?
16 Races, 100 Levels and 48 Classes Vs. Select from 9 classes
Advanced Character Customization - Customize face, age, skin tone, armor, eye, hair color and body types to create truly unique avatars. vs. I dont see info on that!
And soloing... Anyone can solo in any game, but... you wernt paying attention were you? Here let me show you...
At this point we've decided to design content specifically to allow a limited degree of soloing. This is content that will be available to all classes--not something restricted to only druids, wizards, and necros, for example. Players will have solo quests that may only be completed once per day, and there will be certain areas (which we plan to locate near the entrances of dungeons as a means of fostering grouping) where players can solo for a finite amount of time while earning decent experience.
Basically, if you can only log on for an hour or two on a given night, you will be able to solo and make meaningful progress. However, you will not be able to solo for hours on end; you will need to find a group to advance your character over long play sessions.
Playing: Vanguard SoH
Played: EQ, Planetside, SWG, WoW, EQ2
edit: double post
woops
All the challenge and the thinking can be done with a single group controlling NPCs, any new player added is to cover lack of real challenging content, putting players organisations skills at test rather then the skills related so far with the game.
Raiding is to MMORPGs what been a mechanic is to car racing.
- "Coercing? No no, I assure you, they are willing to bring my bags and pay public transportation just to help me, it is true!''
- "If I understand you well, you are telling me until next time. " - Ren
Not to bash EQ2, as I'm interested to see how it turns out myself. However, it seems people have suddenly forgotten that EQ was to have housing, and correct me if I'm wrong, but it still ain't showed up yet. Lot's of things have been promised by Sony in their games, and more often than not it ends up getting left out, or it's implimented so halfassedly that they might as well have left it out.
So... maybe it wouldn't be that bad of an idea to hold off on the cheerleading until Sony backs up their bull by putting what they promise on the box in the game.
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They panic, so... just hold them down
I could live like this
I'm closing in; hate all around
I could be like this
Hearing them; them in my head
How can they be so sweet... sweet?
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"Do I come to your workplace and tell you how to kill civilians? No, so don't tell me how to do my job" - Sam Fischer.
--OracleP4
CoH: Level 25 Invulnerability/Super Strength Tanker++Level 14 Gravity/Storm Controller
DAoC: Level 42 Paladin
Like: DAoC, CoH, WOW, GW, DnL
Dislike: SoR, EQ, EQ2, SWG, KO, AC2
Don't Care About: Most Everything Else
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"Do I come to your workplace and tell you how to kill civilians? No, so don't tell me how to do my job" - Sam Fischer.
--OracleP4
Like: DAoC, WOW, GW, DnL
Dislike: SoR, EQ, EQ2, SWG, KO, AC2, CoH
Don't Care About: Most Everything Else
I'm not interested in EQ2 either... but you could say many of the same things about WoW. Other than the Blizzard name, what unique thing is it offering?
Well.... FFXI instancing.... other things taken from various other mmorpgs...blah blah..
Ok, now what about gameplay? What you are lacking is the specifics needed to convince people that have no idea about this game that this game is indeed ENTERTAINING.
I don't care if it has property P and D that are both disjoint from all other games. I do care, however, about the SPECIFIC properties: Racial constraints, racial boni, NPC/PC interaction, ambiance etc.
I do not wish to critize your post, but I need something tangible to compel myself to consider anything with EQ in the label (because I was severely disappointed with the first EQ title)
"Oh, what sad times are these when passing ruffians can say 'ni' at will to old ladies. There is a pestilence upon this land. Nothing is sacred."
MP
This is a sequence of characters intended to produce some profound mental effect, but it has failed.
i have never seen the good about having 44 classes to choose from and 16 races
I got Everquest as a Christmas present in Dec, 1999 from a good friend. Four and half years and 2 accounts with 3 level 65 players (druid, warrior and berserker) later I can safely say that I won't play another Sony game, regardless of the hype and here are some reasons why.
SoE disadvantages
1. Dumbing down.
-In the beginnning EQ was a grind. When you made it to level 50 you had really achieved something. Later, as attrition began to take hold they removed the experience restrictions and made it easy to level up in the hopes of attracting more playing customers.
-It took three years for my druid to get to 65 and six weeks for my Berserker to do it.
-Epic quests were dumbed down for this reason (hell, my druid sat on the spires in Timorous Deep camping Faydedar and fighting with other druids for 4 days solid and about 3 hours of restless sleep per day). Later, in the dumbing down process they made it a turn in to spawn her and kill.
-Hell, now you can invite a friend and they can start at mid-level! I am not sure if this means level 30-35 or 40...
2. Balance - Nerf - Balance - Tweak cycle
-Necros ruled the universe in the beginning. Then they were nerfed into one of the worst classes. Paladins sucked in Kunark and became Gods in Planes of Power while Warriors couldn't hold aggro to save their lives (or the lives of the enc/cleric who were getting arse-raped by the 900 quad hitting PoP trash. There was a constant up-down-up-down for classes as you were too powerful, then nerfed way too far the other way, then tweaked back up to semi-respecatability (except monks of course, they got farged and never recovered). Whichever site, Steel Warrior, The Grove, Paladins of Norrath, etc could bitch the loudest would be the class that got tweaked. Warriors, after being promised improvements so someone would want them in a group waited for three years and had to use sit-ins and account cancellations to even get looked at by devs.
-The Berserker class is a joke. They released it unfinished with the excuse they wanted to see which way the players would take the class.
3. Customer Service
-For the first couple years each server had a GM. The GMs were around fairly often and we got to know them by name and they were helpful. Although they wouldn't bend rules or replace items without a good reason they were at least there to be a sounding board and could handle things. To save money, they slowly began getting fired and disappearing until the point that in-game customer service is now outsourced to India. India? Where they can pay a customer service person $1.25 an hour to handle in game complaints?
4. Sell Out
-SoE began a policy of making money from customer service. Originally you could not change servers because "each server has a unique economy" and it will destroy the credibility of the game, we are not for cross server guild recruitment, and being forced to play on your server means players will value their reputation and not engage in griefing type activities... then...
Want a name change for a legitimate reason? Sure, will that be cash, check or charge?
Want to move servers to play with the girl you just started dating, to get away from your shitty rep or to join a guild that will become MEGA_01? Sure, will that be cash, check or charge? We no longer care about server economies, uber guilds or characters getting bad reps.
5- You have a guild of 100 people. Lost Dungeons of Norrath (an expansion, good one) made it so if you had even 40 percent guild turnout you couldn't do a LDoN raid together. They should have been supporting the formation and prosperity of the large guilds, not alienating and discouraging them. Now EQ2 is gonna make it even less than this to try and prevent Zerging?
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What does this have to do with EQ2? Well, same company and most likely same service... There will always be issues of balance and overpowered items, skills, classes, spells, etc. and they will always have to be handled.
Blizzard gets a shot now.
Lots of their experience is working for Sigil now.
I miss The Vision(tm). *sigh*
~*~
neschria
Bludgeoner of Bunnies
...
This is where I draw the line: __________________.
"-Epic quests were dumbed down for this reason (hell, my druid sat on the spires in Timorous Deep camping Faydedar and fighting with other druids for 4 days solid and about 3 hours of restless sleep per day). Later, in the dumbing down process they made it a turn in to spawn her and kill."
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Go to this link to read one guys take on why epics were changed... while it seems his guild takes credit for the concept of instancing (any one say Al Gore?) the situation he cites is very plausable.
http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/board/message?board.id=Newbie&message.id=13050&highlight=cleric+epic+instancing#M13050
I agree with some of Tombs points though... I played way back when EQlive first came out for a couple years... ultimately what made me quit was a ton of weird bugs, like items changing into something else when I zoned, and the awful customer service I received (when I could even get them to answer).
Interesting.
I tend to doubt most stories like that for a lot of reasons. One of them being that they had 150 people in the zone from two guilds and "both" guilds decided they would take their instanced spawns of Ragefire at a later time (one the next day and one two days later)? They couldn't tackle Ragefire with their 50+ each... I could two-box Ragefire with my Warrior and Druid when I left the game ;p . Also, Ragefire was originally like Faydedar and spawned in SolB (lair of nagafen) upon epic quest release and you had to camp it for days and kill the Fire Giants and Nagafen if he showed up. The move to Skyfire Mountains was a dumbing down of the cleric epic quest.
Instancing does not really impress me. It gives a chance for a group or raid to have complete access to certain content without anyone else interfering.
Looking at the Ragefire instance above would you rather have the ultimate dumb down of a DEV-GOD appear and say, "OK, one cookie for you and one for you, when do you want them?"...OR...
Would you rather have a game where both guilds arrive and Ragefire pops and the guilds have to beat the shit out of each other and the last guild standing takes on the dragon? That is how a MMORPG should be, issues settled in PvP first.
Of course you run into the Lineage2 dilemna and have entire valleys controlled by one group (in this case Korean adena farmers) who can say to the entire server "ooh we so onery, ooh we so onery, ooh we so onery, dont come here, we kill you long time..."
Well, I would prefer that, at least it would be fun to try and get together a group and go stick their foreign keyboards up their arses (not meant to be racist, I have no problem with other cultures and PvP isn't personal ;p ).
I like Tombs. We share the same attitude towards PvP and many other issues.
My Question is, will Tombs give EQ2 the benifit of the doubt?
- Malkavian
"When you find youself sinking into Madness, dive" - Malkavian Proverb
- MMORPG.COM Staff -
Forum Stalker
Malkavian@mmorpg.com
"When you find yourself sinking into Madness, dive"
I am going to wait for WoW. I was offered a beta spot in EQ2 as a two account EQ customer and ignored the email (which was a mistake as I got bored with CoH and now have nothing to do except play Warcraft 3
) and now it is too late.
I mainly have a mental block with EQ2. Maybe it will be an awesome game and, if so, I could get over my beefs with SoE, however, the mental part is the problem...
I put a shitload of time into EQ and now there is another game with a better graphics engine and better combat in the "same" world in its future (after Luclin, the moon, has crashed into Norrath). It almost has the feeling of putting 300 days into a character and then saying, "Nah, i want to play a Shadow knight instead and rerolling." Even though it isn't, it feels like starting over. I understand it is a new game and in WoW I am starting from scratch also. But in WoW I won't be a level 1 new character in a broken down Freeport...
EQ has tons of problems and tons of people have quit, myself included. It almost feels like they said, "Ya know, we have so many problems with class balance, mudflation, older graphics and lag, completion of all end game content, huge disparities between casters and melee, tons of good but older content trivialized by expansions and increased player power, etc that we might as well say screw it and start over and try to not make the same mistakes twice (remove quad kiting, zerging, ch chains, fighting over spawns, farming and all the things players developed to "win" in the first one heh)...EQ2."
I just get the feeling I will spend a couple years on this game and then they will discover a new planet (as well as a new graphics engine) and gnomes will make a portal to teleport to it and I will be restarting, again, in EQ3...
World of Warcraft looks good too, just not good enough for my likings. And i heard from beta testers that the combat system is very weak. I know its in beta, just letting you know what i've heard.
-Farseen-
______________________________
Tested: Knight Online, Wish Beta, Ryzom Beta, Planeshift Alpha
Played: UO, EQ, AO, SWG, FFXI, Shadowbane, EVE, Horizons, AC2
Current Testing: Everquest 2 (soon)
- Farseen
Current Game: Panzar