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The main problem with EQII?
Nimrod4154
Member Posts: 864
in Everquest II
I think that the main reason why EQII is not selling as well is that you MUST have a good computer to run it. EQ had good graphics after a few expansions and i ran it perfect on a piece-of-shit-toaster computer. I tryed to run EQII on this computer with a FX5200 and it ran liek Runescape and still lagged. I basically did all I could.
Fortunately, I got a 3Dforce 6800 for Christmas. I am installing the game now and gonna see how it runs. I am still sketchy on how it will work out but hey im gonna give it a try.
Games Played:DoAC, EQ, CoH, Lineage 2, Planetside, Shadowbane, EQ2, EVE, WoW, AO, and Asherons Call 2.
Comments
Well, this issue is rather old and over-talked of, so those who decide to buy the game should by now be aware of the system specs the game should run tolerably on.
The funny thing is the devs are quite proud of their graphics engine "of the future" which they apparently haven't even tried to optimize. A weird approach (="play it later"), but the game looks amazing, albeit tends to be rather slow at times even on high-end systems.
Personally, I got what I expected, so I just can't help getting astonished at the graphics. I have but an FX5900 with 128 Megs of VRAM, mind you. This is probably a bit over the average, but is by no means on top of things.
In fact, the most of the lag I experienced on my older PC was caused by the much-discussed memory issues, so one should have 1GB with a VERY fast HDD (like Seagate Barracuda 7200 rpm or better).
The game runs well on low to mid-range computers on even below average (i.e., "High Performance") settings.
AMD 2000
Nvidia Ti 4200 128M Video Card
1 Gig Ram (nothing special, average ram, $40 per stick now)
Average harddrive, don't remember the speed, but was 80GB and only cost me $90 a year or so ago.
Bottom Line: The game looks good, runs good. If it's not selling well, it's likely because of other reasons.
Reasons I left the game:
Linear game world did not feel immersive (i.e., Newb Isle, then go to Qeynos, then go to Antonica, then go to Thundering Steppes, etc)
No significant starting racial abilities, all characters feel the same. May have different mix of stats and graphics, but a troll is an ogre is a human is a halfling, pretty much.
No racial starting cities. This two-city system of Qeynos and Freeport seems very limited.
Extensive quest dialogue (your character's included) gives the feeling of being in someone else's novel rather than the freedom of being in a gameworld.
Combat button mashing is too fast. Not much time to socialize in this game, so it feels more like an RPG than a MMORPG; heck even somewhat like FPS.
Combat graphics (i.e., flaming sword graphics for newb fighters) give the feeling that spells and abilities are really no different, thereby dimishing the flash and showy-ness of having true magic.
Character classes and advancement. Funny, that all seem the same, for reasons above, but at the same time you have to grind away 20 levels to select your final class. They say this is to give you flavor before you make a decision, but wouldn't it be easier just to give you that choice at first level, then let you reroll painlessly if it was the wrong choice? I think that getting to level 17 and realizing you're locked down the wrong class track is a real bummer.
Quests are too numerous, too accessible, and many of them are too mundane. You feel like you're obligated (if you want fast experience) to go through the same laundry list of tasks with every new character.
Locked encounters ruins immersion. Zone chat arguments about kill-stealing and camp-stealing made for great humor in old EQ.
Shared Group Death Penalty breaks up groups faster than a server crash. Some fool gets himself killed and you pay the price for it.
Meaningless housing system. Exists only as a money sink or an individual "Bazaar" for sellers, nothing more. (They could change this to say that if you rest in your home, the next day you log-in you have an experience or stat bonus for being "well-rested," and the better your accomodations, the more "rested" you are.)
Personally, I don't favor the music, some others do.
Too much zoning, porting (ring the bells on the docks, etc).
Things EQ2 did right (but not enough to save it):
Excellent weapons graphics and all-around "other" graphics.
Good server stability (far as I can tell).
Some dungeon-type layouts ("Qeynos Sewers", "The Ruins" is outdoors but dungeon-like) were well done.
I think billius summed up eq2 and its flaws rather nicely, thoose are the main problems, with the possible of exception of encounter locking.
See I do not think they put it in so people could hold onto their encounters but rather so high lvl people can not boost low lvl people, I remeber in AO were i bosted a few friends with maddening speed by taunting really high lvl mobs, keeping them on me while debuffing them. and they just shot away at em.
I wouldnt mind if they got rid of both locks and the inability to heal or buff outside of group, but I dont see them ever changing that, sadly.
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Originally posted by Jerek_
I wonder if you honestly even believe what you type, or if you live in a made up world of facts.
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Depends what you mean by not selling well.
WoW and some asian games outsold it but it beat most NA/European games in sales and subs.
Some points i find strange that people complain about is too many quests.Now how many times have i seen on this boards people moan about mmorpg not having enough quests now here is on with very many and people still complain hmm.
You can always delete those you are not intrested in simple as that.
Locked encounters.Well many don't like kill stealing.I rather have no kill stealing then have an argument with someone that did.There is no role playing in kill stealing just anti-social behaviour.
Group debt.I have no such problems in my 40s.By this time everyone has learnt how to play the game to some degree.And unlike the non group debt system in old EQ my healers actually don't go afk suddenly and then return to say "sorry you died.the dog was barking".
If you have an ass in group simply boot him out.
What a moron. go play WOW with the rest of your kind!