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Quizzical
Member LegendaryPosts: 25,499
in Everquest II
I've been looking into picking up this game, largely because it's been a while since I've played a good crafting game. There are obvious similarities to the crafting systems of both Vanguard and FFXIV, though I'd probably have to try it for myself to gauge how good the crafting is. FFXIV's crafting is good and interesting, while Vanguard's had little to offer besides massive amounts of tedious grinding, but the differences are for reasons too subtle to pick up by reading a wiki and various guides. Still, I have some questions about other things in the game.
1) Is this basically a deserted, single-player game below the level cap these days? Or is it still viable to do grouping content on the way up? If groups are impractical to come by (and I'd regard "spend 20 minutes spamming to get a group" as meaning they're impractical), how much content does this preclude?
2) Are there any non-obvious barriers to playing a lot of alts and passing items between the alts pretty freely? I read of a timer on the mail system, but is it still practical to gather materials on one character, mail them to another character, craft stuff, and mail it to yet another character that uses it?
3) How active is the combat? Does the skill of the player matter a lot, or is success almost purely about level, gear, or other progression of your character? I gather that it's not "action" combat, but there are ways to make slower paced combat interesting--and some games do and some don't.
4) I see stuff about a recommended leveling path that covers a relatively small subset of the zones. Does that mean the rest of the zones are abandoned and broken, or is it just there to pick a path for people who would otherwise be confused while the other zones are still fine?
5) Is the game pretty polished by now, or is it a buggy mess? More than 11 years after launch, they've surely had time to fix whatever was broken years ago if they cared to.
6) It looks like they have an expansion every year or so. Would I constantly have to buy expansions on the way up, or do they give all but the latest expansion away for free?
7) I read that subscribers can split their experience between main level and AA. Some stuff said not to neglect your AA, but other stuff said that you get AA levels included as you gain main levels and made it look like there was no point in not putting all of your experience into your main level. What is going on there?
8) How compatible is the game with playing for relatively modest chunks of time? There's nothing wrong with needing to spend several hours to do something if it can readily be split over numerous play sessions, but having to play for a contiguous two hours at a time to progress is a non-starter for me.
1) Is this basically a deserted, single-player game below the level cap these days? Or is it still viable to do grouping content on the way up? If groups are impractical to come by (and I'd regard "spend 20 minutes spamming to get a group" as meaning they're impractical), how much content does this preclude?
2) Are there any non-obvious barriers to playing a lot of alts and passing items between the alts pretty freely? I read of a timer on the mail system, but is it still practical to gather materials on one character, mail them to another character, craft stuff, and mail it to yet another character that uses it?
3) How active is the combat? Does the skill of the player matter a lot, or is success almost purely about level, gear, or other progression of your character? I gather that it's not "action" combat, but there are ways to make slower paced combat interesting--and some games do and some don't.
4) I see stuff about a recommended leveling path that covers a relatively small subset of the zones. Does that mean the rest of the zones are abandoned and broken, or is it just there to pick a path for people who would otherwise be confused while the other zones are still fine?
5) Is the game pretty polished by now, or is it a buggy mess? More than 11 years after launch, they've surely had time to fix whatever was broken years ago if they cared to.
6) It looks like they have an expansion every year or so. Would I constantly have to buy expansions on the way up, or do they give all but the latest expansion away for free?
7) I read that subscribers can split their experience between main level and AA. Some stuff said not to neglect your AA, but other stuff said that you get AA levels included as you gain main levels and made it look like there was no point in not putting all of your experience into your main level. What is going on there?
8) How compatible is the game with playing for relatively modest chunks of time? There's nothing wrong with needing to spend several hours to do something if it can readily be split over numerous play sessions, but having to play for a contiguous two hours at a time to progress is a non-starter for me.
Comments
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1. - Most of the lower levels are going to be solo. I been playing 11 years so I usually just power level through the old content because it is faster. However, you may find the acoustic dungeons some group play after level 20. I don't use them but I think it is 20-94
The game is top heavy and that content is real challenging until you get the gear to compensate. I don't run it except with my shadowknight (mostly because I play hard hardcore.. die the char is deleted) she is exception to the rule and I intentionally killed her at level 6 just to get past that.
2. - Shared bank can put 6 bags in it. 56 slot now I believe. note: weight limit on character was removed several years ago so lot of players run around with storage chests which is 56 slot.
I have bought char slot for every occupation and one extra slot filled (10) and total slots I have right now is 14. At free you get 4 and sub you get 7 default
3. - That is debatable some what. the game is after all tab target. In the high end game play knowing when to use what skill like aoe blockers and death savers can make gameplay really fun against the bosses and old epic content. Those skils are in the AA tree which you get at level 10 and there are 350 AA total.
4. - The leveling path is there to get you through the content faster and with less chance of encountering group or epic mobs. The old zones are fantastic to run an alts through with new crafted gear that you can make for them or mentored down with higher level characters.
5. - Still has some bugged content but not a game killer. I have at the moment only ran into 3 quests that are bugged out of 1100 I have finished. There are over 6000 quests so I have skipped a lot of content.
6. - Buy the current game and all previous content is included with exception of AoD expansion which was added some new classes and races and mercenaries. You can use the cash shop to buy these as needed.
7. - Being a subscriber is not needed but you are locked in 50/50 for experience and AA. Rest is not true. Subscriber get more coin drop, faster run speed, twice the loyalty points and 500 station cash a month. It is worth it since you can use the SC to buy extra slots and cosmetic stuff you would not normally buy with your money. You can NOT buy expansions with SC. If you are subbed there is a loyalty merchant that sells you plat LOL. 500 plat for 5 tokens. Maybe that was anyone including f2p now?
8. - I play a lot sometimes and maybe a couple hours or even like yesterday under 40 minutes. Can you advance? yes, just not fast.
Crafting is your thing? You will really love it then. Starting at level 5 you can start doing crafting quests. It use to be the crafting was separate but in this last 2 expansions the developers started adventure and crafting as a joint means to level so that may be a turn off? It is level 90 and up that crafting really shines because a some of the end game gear is crafted by end game mob drops and better than fabled gear. The fact you can change stats on gear as you craft, enchant them with healing or damage and change the stats to suit your character class from level 1 up.
Since we are on this topic here is somethings that I like.
After level 5 you can self mentor and go back to 5 and enjoy the level 3 to 5 content you would have missed. You can set your level back every 5 levels so a level 100 can go way back to level 5 and still do content. Are you overpowered? yes and no. If you really want to challenge then use the skills you would get at that tier since the skills are not over written as you level up. By doing this and wearing level appropriate equipment the game becomes rather challenging.
Mercs - like I said before I play different and solo only because people get ahead or just don't care they die and wipe everyone. A merc is good to have until level 100 and the new content is really difficult to do with mercs but old content is just so faceroll easy you never need a merc unless doing x4 raids. Groups are not a problem if you're good with your class and people will want to group with you.
There is a down side to the game. The current team to make it has been reduced to basic maintain crew and people are leaving (including myself maybe) for other games.
I bought BDO but there are things that may keep me away mostly long term stability of the game because I like to commit to long term char builds. I deleted all my chars a year ago in EQ2 and restarted with zero plat so getting 1 to 100 with 5 chars in a year and having 5 others half way means the game has a lot of pull to keep me around.
hope that was helpful
If you are interested in making a MMO maybe visit my page to get a free open source engine.
1) How hard is it to get a group for lower level group content? Are there good tools that make it quick to find people and go? Or is "spend half an hour searching, then give up" likely to be a common outcome?
3) I don't have a problem with tab target, but not all tab target combat is equivalent. Champions Online is tab target and Guild Wars 2 is mostly tab target, but they're far more active than WoW combat, let alone the "it doesn't matter if you physically get up and leave the room during combat" approach of Anarchy Online.
6) So that means that I don't get any expansions unless I buy the latest one, but if I buy the latest one, I get them all?
8) There's a huge and important difference between:
a) Some tasks can be done in half an hour, but many others require multiple hours. This lets you do things when you only have half an hour to play, but still requires some very long play sessions to do other things.
b) Everything or nearly everything in the game can be done without ever having to have a single play session over an hour. Even if short play sessions are all you have, you're still fine.
Your answer on #8 strikes me as compatible with either of those, and (a) would be a big problem for me. Fortunately, I'm not the only one, and the industry seems to have moved mostly to (b).
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I'm not optimistic about the combat being good, but a combination of good crafting with OK combat would be worthwhile. I don't want the FFXIV combination of good crafting (and good nearly everything else, for that matter) with awful combat, though I'll probably have to try it myself to see.
The crafting is not really worth the effort except that eventually you get to special crafts they added as a cheap gimmick to sell a very weak expansion.These crafts involve a npc that trains/learns the recipe for you then you can craft the items which are very good items,i believe they were rated as Fabled gear.
Those special crafts also involve special drops which must be farmed,basically killing named bosses but on rare occasion can get a drop from any mob.
The combat is simple Wow type combat,pretty much the same as all other mmorpg's.
IN reality EQ2 seems like the game Blizzard was copying to make Wow,they must have had some insider information.Difference being EQ2 has always had more to offer including housing and guild halls where you can craft and do other stuff as well.
Some zones,especially if trying to solo them will easily take more than an hour.If your out leveling the content then yes of course it will go faster.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
거북이는 목을 내밀 때 안 움직입니다
buy basic game for $34.99 which includes all pervious expansions I guess. play f2p
or sub and for 14.95 a month for the buffs (10% ground and air speed boost, 15% more coin, double loyalty, 500 SC a month)
added everything is account wide
If you are interested in making a MMO maybe visit my page to get a free open source engine.
However this is NOT mandatory to level the crafting
If you are interested in making a MMO maybe visit my page to get a free open source engine.
If you are interested in making a MMO maybe visit my page to get a free open source engine.
In reference to some comments earlier in a thread, I have no problem with paying for a game, but $10/character slot in a subscription game is awfully steep. You get seven slots if you subscribe, yes, but there are 26 classes. The number of character slots per account used to be capped, too, which is the biggest reason why I didn't try the game when I seriously looked into it several years ago.
A developer quote to the effect that, "We're casual friendly because we have some raids that only take three hours" also spooked me then, though it sounds like I shouldn't worry about that today. Someone who thinks that "only" needing three-hour chunks of time to play makes a game casual friendly is rather disconnected from reality.
Some people advised grouping with guildies, but I've never yet found a game where that was viable. Even if a guild has periodically scheduled guild events, they're not often going to happen to be doing the content I want. If I can't find five people on the entire server who want to do some dungeon when I want to do it, the odds that I'd find five people within a single guild are not good.
IMO the whole idea of Altaholics is just an aged bad design,a sub class system works miles better as all your efforts remain and not spread out over several characters.It actually doesn't even make sense,why can a player only learn one craft or play one set of skills?
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
거북이는 목을 내밀 때 안 움직입니다
Anyway yes low level adventures and high level crafters is what I had but then deleted them and started again (which is sorta fun btw) have various chars in various stages of progression.
For char slots Jesus man just sub and get one every other month.
If you want to raid then you may have to take 3 hour window on raid night. I stopped that 6 years ago cuz to me it is boring as all hell.
Up to you I can only say that if you want to get highly technical with game mechanics I can probably write a full six pages but then I don't want to because the wiki is accurate.
If you are interested in making a MMO maybe visit my page to get a free open source engine.
거북이는 목을 내밀 때 안 움직입니다
You said you had a max level ranger harvesting material and passing it to your crafting characters, and the crafters were level 1 adventure, but the ranger that harvested the materials for them wasn't. I assumed that you crafted stuff and sent it back to the ranger, though I suppose that was an assumption on my part.
As for subscribing to get a new slot every other month, that means 38 months of subscription before I can play how I want. That's a complete non-starter. I'd plan on doing what I've done with other games: try the game first, see if I like it on the first few characters, and then buy more character slots once I have the idea that the game might be good. In Guild Wars 1 and 2 and Champions Online I ended up buying the character slots I wanted. In Vanguard, I concluded the game was awful and quit before running out of slots became an issue.
If you are interested in making a MMO maybe visit my page to get a free open source engine.
거북이는 목을 내밀 때 안 움직입니다
I tried hard to get back into it,but linear questing is just not for me anymore,too boring.I would much rather play FFXI because it makes more sense.Craft all on the same player,sub classes just way better than what EQ2 is doing.
BY time you get level 40 or so you'll be spamming 4-5 hotbars,not very comfortable to game like that.In FFXI we write macros and accomplish what we need in about 2 macro sets.I have played too much of FFXI and now seek a new game that offers a similar "make sense" game design.I actually detest yellow markers over npc heads and i hate hand holding.
EQ2 imo is the best at that type game design but it is simply not my preferred type of mmorpg game design.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
If you are interested in making a MMO maybe visit my page to get a free open source engine.