At first it was exciting, but now...

admriker444 · November 2004

At first, I was enjoying the game. The quests seemed fun and the tutorial was engaging. However, after playing since launch daily, I find that EQ2 isnt that great. No, Im no WoW fanboy. I tried EQ2 and was totally bored with it by the end. This game was supposedly not going to bring anything new to gaming (except voiceovrs) but would improve upon stuff. I would argue they didnt improve upon stuff, and in many ways are less sophisticated than previous games like SWG.

Exploration - doesnt exist, never felt so restricted in all my gaming life. Sure there were a few wide open spaces. But they were boring to look at and had very few features in them. Where is the mysterious gravestones that make you wonder who they belong to. Where are the weird empty homes with blood on the walls and a mysterious note left on a desk. Where is the other weird quirky things I should be finding ? Hell, even in SWG you'd come across weird stuff like that in the wild that made you want to explore further and perhaps stumble across a hidden quest/mystery.

Instancing - SOE solves its dreaded lag problems by making stuff instanced. Problem with that is how can I show off my ubber collections of rare items to other players if my house is somewhere else on the server ? This part I dont like at all. My house should be visible by all so my vendor can be used. Instead I read something about being able to post a note with items for sale or something ??? Nobody I know could figure that out or had done it so Im guessing it wasnt working also. The instacing also really hurts immersion. I feel like Im playing a bunch of separate games. Also comparing to SWG, it sux period. With SWG, I could go from the wilds of Naboo right into Theed. If they used EQ2's style, it wouldnt be that simple. First I'd wait to load upon entering Theed..then I'd load into another zone upon wanting to enter a cantina, blah.

Graphics - extremely overrated. Those screenshots we all saw for months were misleading. I have a decent system, AMD64 3400+, 1.5 gig ram, ATI 9800 256mb card. I think CoH and SWG have better graphics, along with much more detail. I never saw such dead boring areas except maybe in DAoC. Not much detail in wilderness at all. Mobs were very average to look at. I wasnt scared by anything nor impressed. Hate to compare it to SWG again, but rancors scared me, Nightsisters inspired me, a dumb Bear in EQ2 does nothing for me.

Bazaar system - This is a basic thingie that all mmorpg have, except EQ2. I cant believe they wouldnt allow players to post items to sell to other players on the merchant vendors. Again, comparing to other mmorpg even Horizons with its simplistic system allowed me to post 5 items per vendor per town. So whats the point of crafting, making stuff to sell back to a merchant when the items I bought to craft it cost me more ? No improvement here.

Chat system - very unsophisticated. Again, looking at SWG its almost a step backwards with EQ2. I missed many tells because of the way it fades from view and dont like having to type G before each conversation for group chats. Should be a separate chat bar. Pfftt. Chat system should be in bottom center as its the single most important feature in a mmorpg and never fade away.

Crafting - Stinks and broken past lvl 20. How can a company release a game and NOT put in resources for lvl 20 ? Thats like forgetting to put in armor and swords for lvl 20+ warriors. Horizons resource gathering was better in my opinion, more realistic so again I dont see the so-called improvement from past mmorpg.

Combat - solo play is almost nonexistent unless you like grinding twice as slow. Also each toon gets the exact same spells or attacks. There's no choice like in CoH to difference yourself from others. In CoH you might see two Defenders using dark powers but each could be completely different in effectiveness based on choice of powers. Again, not an improvement here.

Character Creation - Overhyped by SOE, promising us toons so unique you could tell someone by their looks instead of their name. Then once everyone saw the CC starter kit and realized it wasnt that good, SOE promised to tweak somethings. Looked the same to me... SWG and CoH has EQ2 beat easily.

Skills - I dont like a game where I cant retry different skills. So once I spent 2 weeks leveling Rogue, I discovered I didnt like it much and should have chosen Predator (apparently better at solo). SOE expects me to start over again ? No thanks.

Sorry, but from this non-WoW fanboy's perspective...EQ2 is average and I really resent the fact that EQ2 makes me long for SWG cause that game stunk lol. I'd say this game is maybe a 3/10 score as they dont improve upon anything in my opinion and in some cases are worse.

Rudnoc · November 2004

admriker444 I would have to agree with you 100%. However eventhough most of your post tells me you have experienced the game pretty thorough, but the graphics and the bear part tells me you never made it past the Island of Refugee and you have your graphics set to extreme high performance rather than balanced or high quality. I thought the graphics looked much better than Horizons and SWG, but I was only in SWG beta 3 so can't say how well it got at release.

Anyway, it is the best graphics I have seen in any MMO to date and of course the moives we saw for the last 6 months are a farce. The movies made it look like plastic while in game my leather armor can't look any more real than my Half-Elf Cleric/Ranger leathers in PnP that still resides in my memories BTW I think it is your video card ...ATI Sucks LOL j/k

Anyway, you will NEVER see better graphics in any game as good or better that what Half-Life 2 has. Never. Man now that is what Asheron's Call needs to use. I say Turbine should totally redo AC and use the HL2 engine. I would wait years for that. Man then all these MMOs can just go blow themselves

However admriker444, the majority of your post couldn't more correct. I guess it is back to the MMO waiting game 2 dudes out in a row. EQ2 and WoW, you both SUCK! Whelp, guess it is time to go back to NwN tell MEO, D&D, WISH or Mourning comes out.

Have a good one Cya in the real ones.....Laters....

NoisyMonkey · November 2004

You are simply.. a dumbass.. almsot everything you posted is totally wrong/proving you did no searching.. windows.. compeltely customizable.. how well yous ee through them.. position.. how tall/wide, what gets put in the window.. I use 1 for combot and one for talking, have them set so text is always visible but everything else vanishes.. basic stuff.. bazaar.. you msut buy something to use it.. a message board.. and you are kind of right.. its basically just a auction like ebay in game.. o and customization.. face is good.. but body is lacking.. as far as everyone having the same skills.. wth? :O maybe if your talking from the same tree.. like monk/bruiser.. but they are still quite different.

Gnarled · November 2004

Originally posted by admriker444

Exploration - doesnt exist, never felt so restricted in all my gaming life. Sure there were a few wide open spaces. But they were boring to look at and had very few features in them. Where is the mysterious gravestones that make you wonder who they belong to. Where are the weird empty homes with blood on the walls and a mysterious note left on a desk. Where is the other weird quirky things I should be finding ? Hell, even in SWG you'd come across weird stuff like that in the wild that made you want to explore further and perhaps stumble across a hidden quest/mystery.
It's pretty clear that you didn't play long enough or high enough to have an opinion on this. Did you get outside Queynos/Freeport ? Did you get past level 20 ? REally, how far did you explore ?
nstancing - SOE solves its dreaded lag problems by making stuff instanced. Problem with that is how can I show off my ubber collections of rare items to other players if my house is somewhere else on the server ? This part I dont like at all. My house should be visible by all so my vendor can be used. Instead I read something about being able to post a note with items for sale or something ??? Nobody I know could figure that out or had done it so Im guessing it wasnt working also. The instacing also really hurts immersion. I feel like Im playing a bunch of separate games. Also comparing to SWG, it sux period. With SWG, I could go from the wilds of Naboo right into Theed. If they used EQ2's style, it wouldnt be that simple. First I'd wait to load upon entering Theed..then I'd load into another zone upon wanting to enter a cantina, blah.
Your house is instanced, but you can invite anyone you want inside. Buildings inside zones have full interiors. Zone load times are 30 seconds or less on a decent system. Zones are for the most part quite large. Travelling is easy.
Graphics - extremely overrated. Those screenshots we all saw for months were misleading. I have a decent system, AMD64 3400+, 1.5 gig ram, ATI 9800 256mb card. I think CoH and SWG have better graphics, along with much more detail. I never saw such dead boring areas except maybe in DAoC. Not much detail in wilderness at all. Mobs were very average to look at. I wasnt scared by anything nor impressed. Hate to compare it to SWG again, but rancors scared me, Nightsisters inspired me, a dumb Bear in EQ2 does nothing for me.
Again, how far did you get in the game ? I have cranked the graphics for closeup screenies on my 3.0G, 1GigRAM, 9800 Pro 128MB, and they look EXACTLY like the better screenshots I have seen. There is no game engine like this out there, period. Even regular play on High settings with decent framerates are beautiful.
Bazaar system - This is a basic thingie that all mmorpg have, except EQ2. I cant believe they wouldnt allow players to post items to sell to other players on the merchant vendors. Again, comparing to other mmorpg even Horizons with its simplistic system allowed me to post 5 items per vendor per town. So whats the point of crafting, making stuff to sell back to a merchant when the items I bought to craft it cost me more ? No improvement here.
I believe they are fostering a social auction system, much like the old Kithicor/EC markets. I dont see a problem with it, most old EQ'ers loved that system.
hat system - very unsophisticated. Again, looking at SWG its almost a step backwards with EQ2. I missed many tells because of the way it fades from view and dont like having to type G before each conversation for group chats. Should be a separate chat bar. Pfftt. Chat system should be in bottom center as its the single most important feature in a mmorpg and never fade away.
There's quite a bit of utility and customization in the UI. I'm pretty sure you didnt bother with it. You can move your chat bar wherever you want, leave it on all the time, set it to /g chat only, open multiples, whatever. Dont blame the game for your lack of knowledge. EQ was well know for extreme UI utility that most people didnt bother with.
Crafting - Stinks and broken past lvl 20. How can a company release a game and NOT put in resources for lvl 20 ? Thats like forgetting to put in armor and swords for lvl 20+ warriors. Horizons resource gathering was better in my opinion, more realistic so again I dont see the so-called improvement from past mmorpg.
Got me there. Needs work. Big Deal.
Combat - solo play is almost nonexistent unless you like grinding twice as slow. Also each toon gets the exact same spells or attacks. There's no choice like in CoH to difference yourself from others. In CoH you might see two Defenders using dark powers but each could be completely different in effectiveness based on choice of powers. Again, not an improvement here.
BS. Did you move past 20 ? Have you looked at the spell lists or animations ? There plenty of variety beginning right after you pick your second spec.
Character Creation - Overhyped by SOE, promising us toons so unique you could tell someone by their looks instead of their name. Then once everyone saw the CC starter kit and realized it wasnt that good, SOE promised to tweak somethings. Looked the same to me... SWG and CoH has EQ2 beat easily.
Unless you have graphics on high, you won't notice it, but there is hugh customization possible with the sliders. 3 sliders for the chin, 3 for the nose, 16 hair schemes, 16 races, etc. I could safely say with tweaked graphics you can differentiate between 2 pc's of the same race and sex if they used the customization properly. I spent 15 minutes messing around with the sliders to get the right look, and enjoyed it immensely.
Skills - I dont like a game where I cant retry different skills. So once I spent 2 weeks leveling Rogue, I discovered I didnt like it much and should have chosen Predator (apparently better at solo). SOE expects me to start over again ? No thanks.
Yup, it costs something to pick a spec. It's called realism. It takes all of a day to level to 10 and respec. I hated AC@ when everyone could respec to whatever they wanted as the nerfbat came and went. Took all the individualism out of it.
Sorry, but from this non-WoW fanboy's perspective...EQ2 is average and I really resent the fact that EQ2 makes me long for SWG cause that game stunk lol. I'd say this game is maybe a 3/10 score as they dont improve upon anything in my opinion and in some cases are worse.
3/10, eh ? Pathetic. Any other opinion you give on this game is useless to me just based on that.

EQII
Requiiem, Coercer
Nektulos

Shobu · November 2004

Originally posted by NoisyMonkey
You are simply.. a dumbass.. almsot everything you posted is totally wrong/proving you did no searching.. windows.. compeltely customizable.. how well yous ee through them.. position.. how tall/wide, what gets put in the window.. I use 1 for combot and one for talking, have them set so text is always visible but everything else vanishes.. basic stuff.. bazaar.. you msut buy something to use it.. a message board.. and you are kind of right.. its basically just a auction like ebay in game.. o and customization.. face is good.. but body is lacking.. as far as everyone having the same skills.. wth? :O maybe if your talking from the same tree.. like monk/bruiser.. but they are still quite different.

Nurse! Could you get the strait-jacket please? I think this one's trying to escape!

anarchyart · November 2004

I think your playing legend of zelda for the nintendo entertainment system, cuz I have played every game ever and im no fanboy of anything except sex and EQ2 has blown me away. Theres tons to explore still (the antonica map is huge with all kinds of danger and mystery) If your not having fun dont play it but you didnt just stop playing it you had to make a huge post here. So now I rebut. EQ2 is the best game out there in every area its so freaking wicked I cant understand why anyone wouldnt like it hell even my girlfriend thinks its cool and she hates all things video

I have an ATI Radeon X800 pro 256mb ( i use nvidia drivers btw ) and this games graphics and gameplay and chat system and UI are all just amazing and years ahead of anything on the market. Im sorry you dont like it but I'm gonna go play now have fun on the EQ2 forums....hmm you dont like the game but your posting on EQ2 forums...I think you have alterior motives but I dont care everyone has to have something to do

EQ2 rocks best MMORPG ever by a landslide. WoWs great but I think for a younger more jobless audience

dsorrent · November 2004

Originally posted by admriker444

Exploration - doesnt exist, never felt so restricted in all my gaming life. Sure there were a few wide open spaces. But they were boring to look at and had very few features in them. Where is the mysterious gravestones that make you wonder who they belong to. Where are the weird empty homes with blood on the walls and a mysterious note left on a desk. Where is the other weird quirky things I should be finding ? Hell, even in SWG you'd come across weird stuff like that in the wild that made you want to explore further and perhaps stumble across a hidden quest/mystery.

Actually, I've come across some things adventuring that act like you say.. for instance, if you start in Qeynos, try going to the Windstalker Village.. there's a book on the book shelf which kick off a quest... There's also a tomb stone nearby which does the same.. My explorations have been limited to Antonica, but I have to say, I have found quite a few interesting quests there..

Originally posted by admriker444

Instancing - SOE solves its dreaded lag problems by making stuff instanced. Problem with that is how can I show off my ubber collections of rare items to other players if my house is somewhere else on the server ? This part I dont like at all. My house should be visible by all so my vendor can be used. Instead I read something about being able to post a note with items for sale or something ??? Nobody I know could figure that out or had done it so Im guessing it wasnt working also. The instacing also really hurts immersion. I feel like Im playing a bunch of separate games. Also comparing to SWG, it sux period. With SWG, I could go from the wilds of Naboo right into Theed. If they used EQ2's style, it wouldnt be that simple. First I'd wait to load upon entering Theed..then I'd load into another zone upon wanting to enter a cantina, blah.

I don't believe any of the city zones are instanced. All of the hunting ones are. This does solve some of the lag issues, but the one thing I like is you solve alot of the camping issues this way too. The only thing that makes this bad is when you are in a group trying to enter a zone and 1/2 the group gets the "Zone Full" message. I think they need to tweak the code which dynamically spawns zones so one gets spawned when it's almost full, not when it's full. Or maybe tweak it to show a percentage of full next to the instance name.

The other thing zones buys is palette changes. Each zone can load a unique set of colors to give each zone a distinct flavor. If I remember SWG correctly, each planet consisted of it's own palette therefore everything looked the same on the planet. Going to another planet though, they zoned so you got a new palette and a whole new look.

Originally posted by admriker444

Bazaar system - This is a basic thingie that all mmorpg have, except EQ2. I cant believe they wouldnt allow players to post items to sell to other players on the merchant vendors. Again, comparing to other mmorpg even Horizons with its simplistic system allowed me to post 5 items per vendor per town. So whats the point of crafting, making stuff to sell back to a merchant when the items I bought to craft it cost me more ? No improvement here.

Huh? This is in the game and works fine. Seek out the "Broker" merchants. You can sell your own items by simply purchasing a "bulletin board" for your room and posting items on it.

Originally posted by admriker444

Chat system - very unsophisticated. Again, looking at SWG its almost a step backwards with EQ2. I missed many tells because of the way it fades from view and dont like having to type G before each conversation for group chats. Should be a separate chat bar. Pfftt. Chat system should be in bottom center as its the single most important feature in a mmorpg and never fade away.

This does need an improvement. I'd like to see a tabbed chat like EVE had. As for missing tells, just open a new chat window and customize it (right click and choose chat options). You can put all /tells to a single window and also alter the opacity so it doesn't fade away.

Originally posted by admriker444

Crafting - Stinks and broken past lvl 20. How can a company release a game and NOT put in resources for lvl 20 ? Thats like forgetting to put in armor and swords for lvl 20+ warriors. Horizons resource gathering was better in my opinion, more realistic so again I dont see the so-called improvement from past mmorpg.

Agreed on the 20+ level stuff, however, the crafting system in this game is the most unique I have seen and definitely the most interactive. I think they did an excellent job with the system, they just need to work on the components of it.

Originally posted by admriker444

Combat - solo play is almost nonexistent unless you like grinding twice as slow. Also each toon gets the exact same spells or attacks. There's no choice like in CoH to difference yourself from others. In CoH you might see two Defenders using dark powers but each could be completely different in effectiveness based on choice of powers. Again, not an improvement here.

Most online games are made to be played with other people. Be it co-operative or PvP. The only thing an online game brings to the table to differ itself from a stand alone game is the people. I think that's why you see more and more of them gearing toward group play over solo play. As for each toon getting the same exact spells or attacks, there's actually a variance in the capabilities of the abilities/attacks depending on a number of things:

1) What level is it (Apprentice I vs. Master III)

2) How good of a quality scroll you scribed it from. Current player testing is showing higher quality scrolls cost less power and some ranged ones have farther range. This ties into the depth of the crafting system too.

Also, you now have traits which differentiate the character. I still have a choice to make with my level 18 Kerran Predator on my trait choice. Some of my choices give me extra abilities (Ultravision), some give you stat bonus's (Agility) and some improve a current skill (Tracking).

So I do think that character variance is in and you'll see more and more differentiation in the higher levels of play.

Originally posted by admriker444

Skills - I dont like a game where I cant retry different skills. So once I spent 2 weeks leveling Rogue, I discovered I didnt like it much and should have chosen Predator (apparently better at solo). SOE expects me to start over again ? No thanks.

I agree they should have incorporated some sort of re-spec. Almost every MMORPG out today has some kind of re-spec in it. It would be nice if they offered something to this extent.

As you can see I commented on some of your post but not all of it, as I really have no input on it. Not to say I agree or disagree with those aspects, just I have no real comment on them.

jd269 · November 2004

Welcome to the light.

The guy simply didn't have fun with the game.. Why should he play it for months to decide whether or not the game is fun with him? Because further down the line the game is fun? Give me a break... Let me ask those people saying "just get past lvl 20".. are you past lvl 20? No you aren't.. we knew it.

aerdt · November 2004

Originally posted by anarchyart
I think your playing legend of zelda for the nintendo entertainment system, cuz I have played every game ever and im no fanboy of anything except sex and EQ2 has blown me away. Theres tons to explore still (the antonica map is huge with all kinds of danger and mystery) If your not having fun dont play it but you didnt just stop playing it you had to make a huge post here. So now I rebut. EQ2 is the best game out there in every area its so freaking wicked I cant understand why anyone wouldnt like it hell even my girlfriend thinks its cool and she hates all things video I have an ATI Radeon X800 pro 256mb ( i use nvidia drivers btw ) and this games graphics and gameplay and chat system and UI are all just amazing and years ahead of anything on the market. Im sorry you dont like it but I'm gonna go play now have fun on the EQ2 forums....hmm you dont like the game but your posting on EQ2 forums...I think you have alterior motives but I dont care everyone has to have something to do EQ2 rocks best MMORPG ever by a landslide. WoWs great but I think for a younger more jobless audience

If you would clarify just a little bit WHY you like the game and what things you like to do in EQ, then you would do me a big favor. A X400 board doesn't make any game better. I have travelled at least 100 times around Antonica and *yawn*, compared to the dozen newbie areas, there is not much to do, then to wait for a group to hunt at BB. Soloing is close to impossible and the typical level grind kicks in.

The younger, jobless audience is present in any MMORPG, we call them "fanboi".

Misti · November 2004

I couldnt agree with you more admriker444. I had really high hopes for EQ2 and thought it would be if not the best, one of the best new mmorpgs, but after playing It I found it to be horrible. I dont think I have ever seen a mmorpg with graphics that drab and boring. The polys are there, but the art, fantasy, detail, and excitement are not.

Neas · November 2004

wow people really do jump on Anyone speaking against EQ2. I just thought it was WoW fanboi hate but actually anyone even old EQ players who speak out about EQ2 are molested.

wow.... lovely community heh.

I think this guy has played solid for quite a while, and he should be praised for that. Me i played it to lvl 4 during beta and was totally unimpressed by the game.

One thing id add for the graphics:

Yes the graphics engine is a brilliant thing and is the BEST in the worl atm. Thats the engine... its brilliant.

Now as a comparison for you guys lets say we have a piece of chalk and an artists brush. The artists brush can be used to create much higher quality product than the piece of chalk. Now a toddler is given the artists brush and an artist is given the chalk. Guess what the artist with the piece of chalk can make something more aesthetically pleasing than a toddler with a proper artists brush.

I.e Yes the engine is great but it hasn't been used properly to create a warm friendly environment to play in, it feels barren and lifeless. So EQ2 artists = toddler.

So ya the graphics engine is great but the graphics aint all that good.

Beta Tested: Lineage 2, Ryzom, City of Heroes, RYL, EverQuest 2 World Of Warcraft European
Truly Loved: World of Warcraft

mapshawk · November 2004

To admriker444:

This is your opinion and i'm glad YOU realized YOU didn't enjoy EQ2 before the end of the free month, different games are made for different people. EQ2 wasn't made for you, i personnaly enjoy it:)

Now good luck finding a MMO that YOU'll enjoy

admriker444 · November 2004

Originally posted by Gnarled

Originally posted by admriker444

Exploration - doesnt exist, never felt so restricted in all my gaming life. Sure there were a few wide open spaces. But they were boring to look at and had very few features in them. Where is the mysterious gravestones that make you wonder who they belong to. Where are the weird empty homes with blood on the walls and a mysterious note left on a desk. Where is the other weird quirky things I should be finding ? Hell, even in SWG you'd come across weird stuff like that in the wild that made you want to explore further and perhaps stumble across a hidden quest/mystery.

It's pretty clear that you didn't play long enough or high enough to have an opinion on this. Did you get outside Queynos/Freeport ? Did you get past level 20 ? REally, how far did you explore ?

I dont think it would have been necessary for me to have played beyond level 20 so the answer is No. Believe me, I tried to like the game but if you're not enjoying things from the beginning, chances are you wont suddenly like things much beyond a certain point. Does the terain suddenly become more lifelike with more than just two trees and a rock around after level 20 ? Does the grind get less repetitive after level 20 ? Does instancing go away after level 20 ?

nstancing - SOE solves its dreaded lag problems by making stuff instanced. Problem with that is how can I show off my ubber collections of rare items to other players if my house is somewhere else on the server ? This part I dont like at all. My house should be visible by all so my vendor can be used. Instead I read something about being able to post a note with items for sale or something ??? Nobody I know could figure that out or had done it so Im guessing it wasnt working also. The instacing also really hurts immersion. I feel like Im playing a bunch of separate games. Also comparing to SWG, it sux period. With SWG, I could go from the wilds of Naboo right into Theed. If they used EQ2's style, it wouldnt be that simple. First I'd wait to load upon entering Theed..then I'd load into another zone upon wanting to enter a cantina, blah.

Your house is instanced, but you can invite anyone you want inside. Buildings inside zones have full interiors. Zone load times are 30 seconds or less on a decent system. Zones are for the most part quite large. Travelling is easy.

Doesnt matter if zone times are 30 seconds or 3 minutes. The point is its a step in the wrong direction to zone everything. I personally DONT find it "fun" when my group of 6 gets split in half upon entering Forest Ruins because the server will only allow X number of players there. I certainly dont believe its an improved upon system when SOE makes SWG where I can go from every location on one planet and not have to "ZONE" inside a location. And its still dumb to instance a house, even if I can invite them inside. I cant show off that ubber shield i looted, etc hanging on my wall in my house out near the water's edge as some hunter stops by to rest and check out my shop. More like regression than progression.

Graphics - extremely overrated. Those screenshots we all saw for months were misleading. I have a decent system, AMD64 3400+, 1.5 gig ram, ATI 9800 256mb card. I think CoH and SWG have better graphics, along with much more detail. I never saw such dead boring areas except maybe in DAoC. Not much detail in wilderness at all. Mobs were very average to look at. I wasnt scared by anything nor impressed. Hate to compare it to SWG again, but rancors scared me, Nightsisters inspired me, a dumb Bear in EQ2 does nothing for me.

Again, how far did you get in the game ? I have cranked the graphics for closeup screenies on my 3.0G, 1GigRAM, 9800 Pro 128MB, and they look EXACTLY like the better screenshots I have seen. There is no game engine like this out there, period. Even regular play on High settings with decent framerates are beautiful.

Sure the polys are nice but thats not what Im talking about. A better graphics card isnt goint to add items in a landscape, only make the existing items look better. That bear isnt going to develop a shaggier mane with red fire streaks in its eyes. The rocks arent going to multiply and become more jagged and forbidding. The trees arent going to spread out and suddenly have cobwebs and more in the branches. Again, much less detail than I would have expected.

Bazaar system - This is a basic thingie that all mmorpg have, except EQ2. I cant believe they wouldnt allow players to post items to sell to other players on the merchant vendors. Again, comparing to other mmorpg even Horizons with its simplistic system allowed me to post 5 items per vendor per town. So whats the point of crafting, making stuff to sell back to a merchant when the items I bought to craft it cost me more ? No improvement here.

I believe they are fostering a social auction system, much like the old Kithicor/EC markets. I dont see a problem with it, most old EQ'ers loved that system.

Well if this game is meant to only appeal to old school EQ gamers it might be in serious trouble. Cause from what I read on their forums, they dont like EQ2

hat system - very unsophisticated. Again, looking at SWG its almost a step backwards with EQ2. I missed many tells because of the way it fades from view and dont like having to type G before each conversation for group chats. Should be a separate chat bar. Pfftt. Chat system should be in bottom center as its the single most important feature in a mmorpg and never fade away.

There's quite a bit of utility and customization in the UI. I'm pretty sure you didnt bother with it. You can move your chat bar wherever you want, leave it on all the time, set it to /g chat only, open multiples, whatever. Dont blame the game for your lack of knowledge. EQ was well know for extreme UI utility that most people didnt bother with.

Not lack of knowledge, lack of wanting to completely change everything because SOE couldnt get it right in the first place.

Crafting - Stinks and broken past lvl 20. How can a company release a game and NOT put in resources for lvl 20 ? Thats like forgetting to put in armor and swords for lvl 20+ warriors. Horizons resource gathering was better in my opinion, more realistic so again I dont see the so-called improvement from past mmorpg.

Got me there. Needs work. Big Deal.

Big deal ??? Thats your response ? I know a lot of crafters who think its a bit more important to them then that.

Combat - solo play is almost nonexistent unless you like grinding twice as slow. Also each toon gets the exact same spells or attacks. There's no choice like in CoH to difference yourself from others. In CoH you might see two Defenders using dark powers but each could be completely different in effectiveness based on choice of powers. Again, not an improvement here.

BS. Did you move past 20 ? Have you looked at the spell lists or animations ? There plenty of variety beginning right after you pick your second spec.

There is no variety between characters of the same profession. On games like CoH, you could have two defenders in the same group and both could be completely different from each other. One could be a controller type with lockdown spells while the other could be a sniper with excellent healing abilities. Not so with EQ2, a rogue is a rogue is a rogue.

Character Creation - Overhyped by SOE, promising us toons so unique you could tell someone by their looks instead of their name. Then once everyone saw the CC starter kit and realized it wasnt that good, SOE promised to tweak somethings. Looked the same to me... SWG and CoH has EQ2 beat easily.

Unless you have graphics on high, you won't notice it, but there is hugh customization possible with the sliders. 3 sliders for the chin, 3 for the nose, 16 hair schemes, 16 races, etc. I could safely say with tweaked graphics you can differentiate between 2 pc's of the same race and sex if they used the customization properly. I spent 15 minutes messing around with the sliders to get the right look, and enjoyed it immensely.

Now I know you're a fanboy. Even the most hardcore fan would acknowledge the CC stinks and CoH and SWG are immensly better. I can do a lot more than adjust my nose length and pointyness of my chin in those games.

xephmaiden · November 2004

Originally posted by admriker444
At first, I was enjoying the game. The quests seemed fun and the tutorial was engaging. However, after playing since launch daily, I find that EQ2 isnt that great. No, Im no WoW fanboy. I tried EQ2 and was totally bored with it by the end. This game was supposedly not going to bring anything new to gaming (except voiceovrs) but would improve upon stuff. I would argue they didnt improve upon stuff, and in many ways are less sophisticated than previous games like SWG.

How far did you get into the game? There's more to EQ2 than the tutorial and newbie island.

Exploration - doesnt exist, never felt so restricted in all my gaming life. Sure there were a few wide open spaces. But they were boring to look at and had very few features in them. Where is the mysterious gravestones that make you wonder who they belong to. Where are the weird empty homes with blood on the walls and a mysterious note left on a desk. Where is the other weird quirky things I should be finding ? Hell, even in SWG you'd come across weird stuff like that in the wild that made you want to explore further and perhaps stumble across a hidden quest/mystery.

How is it you feel restricted? How far have you made it past the newbie areas? There is a lot of room beyond the city gates. And there's a lot of stuff that triggers quests. I was walking through the Down Below (the catacombs under the city for those who haven't played yet) and clicked on a coffin which triggered a quest to find the bones of it's former occupant. In fact, much of the leveling in this game is done through questing.

Instancing - SOE solves its dreaded lag problems by making stuff instanced. Problem with that is how can I show off my ubber collections of rare items to other players if my house is somewhere else on the server ? This part I dont like at all. My house should be visible by all so my vendor can be used. Instead I read something about being able to post a note with items for sale or something ??? Nobody I know could figure that out or had done it so Im guessing it wasnt working also. The instacing also really hurts immersion. I feel like Im playing a bunch of separate games. Also comparing to SWG, it sux period. With SWG, I could go from the wilds of Naboo right into Theed. If they used EQ2's style, it wouldnt be that simple. First I'd wait to load upon entering Theed..then I'd load into another zone upon wanting to enter a cantina, blah.

If it was not for instancing, the lag would be a lot worse. I only wish they would instance the towns, too, because the fighting areas have less lag than in town. When entering an instanced zone, you get a choice of which instance you enter. That way you can still coordinate raids. Houses are not only instanced, but there are several locations. Each zone of the city has an inn that is only 5 silver per week (which I can earn standing on my head). There are better houses, but they cost more and require status points that you get through guilding.

If you want to show off your stuff, then you should wear it. The houses only let you put house furniture in them (you can't even store anything in a chest that can be placed in your house). They are more suited for shops than closet space.

Graphics - extremely overrated. Those screenshots we all saw for months were misleading. I have a decent system, AMD64 3400+, 1.5 gig ram, ATI 9800 256mb card. I think CoH and SWG have better graphics, along with much more detail. I never saw such dead boring areas except maybe in DAoC. Not much detail in wilderness at all. Mobs were very average to look at. I wasnt scared by anything nor impressed. Hate to compare it to SWG again, but rancors scared me, Nightsisters inspired me, a dumb Bear in EQ2 does nothing for me.

I think the graphics are great. All of the screenshots I saw from beta were very accurate to what I see when I play.

Bazaar system - This is a basic thingie that all mmorpg have, except EQ2. I cant believe they wouldnt allow players to post items to sell to other players on the merchant vendors. Again, comparing to other mmorpg even Horizons with its simplistic system allowed me to post 5 items per vendor per town. So whats the point of crafting, making stuff to sell back to a merchant when the items I bought to craft it cost me more ? No improvement here.

There are no vendors. You have to sell your own stuff. People have to go to your house to by stuff from you. You can only sell as much as you can hold in your inventory (which can hold a lot of if you get the right containers). You have to be online and in your house to sell, but you can be afk. All I do is sell when I go to bed or when I go to work. I play when I feel like, then set up shop and leave. I come back later with less stuff and more gold. The best thing about the market system is that when you are selling items, the items, price, and location of your shop is available to half the server. This is because you can go to any broker and have access to everything sold in your city.

Chat system - very unsophisticated. Again, looking at SWG its almost a step backwards with EQ2. I missed many tells because of the way it fades from view and dont like having to type G before each conversation for group chats. Should be a separate chat bar. Pfftt. Chat system should be in bottom center as its the single most important feature in a mmorpg and never fade away.

By simply right clicking on the chat window and selecting "Window Settings", you can choose to keep the chat window open even when your mouse is not currently hovering over it. You really shouldn't complain about interface problems when they are designed to be configured to your liking. Also, there is a little bubble in the bottom left corner of the chat window: you can left-click on this and you get the option to change who you talk to when you hit enter, type, and hit enter again. You can choose to say, group say, guild say, raid say, reply and speak Out Of Character.

Crafting - Stinks and broken past lvl 20. How can a company release a game and NOT put in resources for lvl 20 ? Thats like forgetting to put in armor and swords for lvl 20+ warriors. Horizons resource gathering was better in my opinion, more realistic so again I dont see the so-called improvement from past mmorpg.

There's nothing broken about the crafting system. The reason people can't see lvl 20+ resources is because you have to have 20+ craftsman level to see them (which you must be to use them anyway). What's the point in seeing them if you can't use them yet?

Combat - solo play is almost nonexistent unless you like grinding twice as slow. Also each toon gets the exact same spells or attacks. There's no choice like in CoH to difference yourself from others. In CoH you might see two Defenders using dark powers but each could be completely different in effectiveness based on choice of powers. Again, not an improvement here.

There's really no point in soloing when all you have to do is invite people or just give a shout across the zone that you are looking for a group. You can usually find at least one or two people also looking for a group that will fight with you. There's really not much point in playing solo when you have so many people around who could use some help.

Also, as you level up, you get a lot of spells. Sometimes you have to choose one spell over another (example: at lvl 12, scouts choose between gnoll mastery and orc mastery). You'll have a wide variety by the time you hit 20 (and the variety keeps growing...).

Character Creation - Overhyped by SOE, promising us toons so unique you could tell someone by their looks instead of their name. Then once everyone saw the CC starter kit and realized it wasnt that good, SOE promised to tweak somethings. Looked the same to me... SWG and CoH has EQ2 beat easily.

The faces can be unique, but you have to be close to see them. The name shows from very far away, so there's no point in facial recognition. Once you put a hat on, you look like anyone else with that hat.

Skills - I dont like a game where I cant retry different skills. So once I spent 2 weeks leveling Rogue, I discovered I didnt like it much and should have chosen Predator (apparently better at solo). SOE expects me to start over again ? No thanks.

You have confused skills for classes. All you have to do is find out what you want to be before you choose it in game. There are lots of resources for this on the internet. eq2fantasy.com is the best I've found so far. They have lots of information on races and classes. They also list all the spells of each archetype, class, and subclass.

When I did the scout class quest, I had to do a subquest for each class then choose which path I wanted. Most games make you choose a class and stick with it. Besides that, the name makes it very apparent what types of spells and moves you will get: Rogues steal stuff, and Predators stealthily kill people.

Sorry, but from this non-WoW fanboy's perspective...EQ2 is average and I really resent the fact that EQ2 makes me long for SWG cause that game stunk lol. I'd say this game is maybe a 3/10 score as they dont improve upon anything in my opinion and in some cases are worse.

You sound like you are really angry because you can't find a substitute for SWG. I know how addicting mmorpgs are. I played UO for 4 years off and on, and that game had horrible graphics. I played other games (AC, DAoC), but UO kept pulling me back because I liked its system better. I enjoy EQ2 more than any other role playing game, and not just for the graphics but because it's very involving and the people are friendly. I noticed you did not mention role playing as an issue in EQ2. Did you try to join a guild or form one? The whole point of a massively multiplayer game is to play with other people. They designed the game to accomodate groups of people playing together. If you're having problems with something, you can ask someone else in the game.

Centhan · November 2004

Originally posted by jd269

Welcome to the light.
The guy simply didn't have fun with the game.. Why should he play it for months to decide whether or not the game is fun with him? Because further down the line the game is fun? Give me a break...

This is exactly what I was thinking too. I will never understand the "just wait and see, it will BECOME fun" argument. Call me crazy, but when I purchase a game, I don't want to have to wait 1 or 2 months before I START to have fun.

That's like buying a new car and having the salesperson say "This car is really great, but you cant go over 30mph to test its performance until a month or two down the line after you have broken it in a bit.

Originally posted by Misti

I dont think I have ever seen a mmorpg with graphics that drab and boring. The polys are there, but the art, fantasy, detail, and excitement are not.

Sums up what I think about the "great" graphics perfectly.

admriker444 · November 2004

Originally posted by xephmaiden

Originally posted by admriker444

At first, I was enjoying the game. The quests seemed fun and the tutorial was engaging. However, after playing since launch daily, I find that EQ2 isnt that great. No, Im no WoW fanboy. I tried EQ2 and was totally bored with it by the end. This game was supposedly not going to bring anything new to gaming (except voiceovrs) but would improve upon stuff. I would argue they didnt improve upon stuff, and in many ways are less sophisticated than previous games like SWG.
How far did you get into the game? There's more to EQ2 than the tutorial and newbie island.
Is the grind really going to be any different in different areas ?
Exploration - doesnt exist, never felt so restricted in all my gaming life. Sure there were a few wide open spaces. But they were boring to look at and had very few features in them. Where is the mysterious gravestones that make you wonder who they belong to. Where are the weird empty homes with blood on the walls and a mysterious note left on a desk. Where is the other weird quirky things I should be finding ? Hell, even in SWG you'd come across weird stuff like that in the wild that made you want to explore further and perhaps stumble across a hidden quest/mystery.
How is it you feel restricted? How far have you made it past the newbie areas? There is a lot of room beyond the city gates. And there's a lot of stuff that triggers quests. I was walking through the Down Below (the catacombs under the city for those who haven't played yet) and clicked on a coffin which triggered a quest to find the bones of it's former occupant. In fact, much of the leveling in this game is done through questing.
Going into a Catacomb by Instancing is very restrictive. The fact that I cant smoothly walk inside without having to wait for a loading screen really bothers me. Plus many areas including the catacombs are very tight and small Compared to SWG with its wide open spaces, yuck. I mean the Inn at WoodElf village (whatever it was called) was barely able to have 3 people in it without bumping into each other. I feel restricted when everything is so small and half te players are zoned onto some other small server cause they cant handle more than 30 people in Forest Ruins.
Instancing - SOE solves its dreaded lag problems by making stuff instanced. Problem with that is how can I show off my ubber collections of rare items to other players if my house is somewhere else on the server ? This part I dont like at all. My house should be visible by all so my vendor can be used. Instead I read something about being able to post a note with items for sale or something ??? Nobody I know could figure that out or had done it so Im guessing it wasnt working also. The instacing also really hurts immersion. I feel like Im playing a bunch of separate games. Also comparing to SWG, it sux period. With SWG, I could go from the wilds of Naboo right into Theed. If they used EQ2's style, it wouldnt be that simple. First I'd wait to load upon entering Theed..then I'd load into another zone upon wanting to enter a cantina, blah.
If it was not for instancing, the lag would be a lot worse. I only wish they would instance the towns, too, because the fighting areas have less lag than in town. When entering an instanced zone, you get a choice of which instance you enter. That way you can still coordinate raids. Houses are not only instanced, but there are several locations. Each zone of the city has an inn that is only 5 silver per week (which I can earn standing on my head). There are better houses, but they cost more and require status points that you get through guilding. If you want to show off your stuff, then you should wear it. The houses only let you put house furniture in them (you can't even store anything in a chest that can be placed in your house). They are more suited for shops than closet space.
Poor excuse to me about lag. SWG has far more buildings in their npc towns and are much larger and there isnt any lag for the most part. And maybe you had no trouble finding 5 silver a week but I could barely manage that amount and never kept my house (if you can call it that). As far as housing goes, the whole point is for display purposes along with storage and possibly a vendor that sells items even if off-line. This instanced housing system with no real vendor and cant be seen or placed in the countryside is just plain dumb and a step backwards in a mmorrpg thats supposed to improve on past games.
Graphics - extremely overrated. Those screenshots we all saw for months were misleading. I have a decent system, AMD64 3400+, 1.5 gig ram, ATI 9800 256mb card. I think CoH and SWG have better graphics, along with much more detail. I never saw such dead boring areas except maybe in DAoC. Not much detail in wilderness at all. Mobs were very average to look at. I wasnt scared by anything nor impressed. Hate to compare it to SWG again, but rancors scared me, Nightsisters inspired me, a dumb Bear in EQ2 does nothing for me.
I think the graphics are great. All of the screenshots I saw from beta were very accurate to what I see when I play.
If your system is even less than superpowerful, the graphics look bad. Also, besides the amazing polys, the game lacks detail. Ther walls inside Inns and smith shops are bare. There arent any candles burning on tables nor are there paintings on the walls everywhere. The outside world is also quite barren. I expected to see ferns, rocks, small bushes, trees, everywhere while walking in the woods. All I saw in the 5 areas I wondered around in was plain empty green colored ground with a rock or a tree every few hundred yards at most. Detail is extremely poor so graphics dont matter. Sure its a nice looking tree, but there's only one of them and no birds or cobwebs in the tree for effect.
Bazaar system - This is a basic thingie that all mmorpg have, except EQ2. I cant believe they wouldnt allow players to post items to sell to other players on the merchant vendors. Again, comparing to other mmorpg even Horizons with its simplistic system allowed me to post 5 items per vendor per town. So whats the point of crafting, making stuff to sell back to a merchant when the items I bought to craft it cost me more ? No improvement here.
There are no vendors. You have to sell your own stuff. People have to go to your house to by stuff from you. You can only sell as much as you can hold in your inventory (which can hold a lot of if you get the right containers). You have to be online and in your house to sell, but you can be afk. All I do is sell when I go to bed or when I go to work. I play when I feel like, then set up shop and leave. I come back later with less stuff and more gold. The best thing about the market system is that when you are selling items, the items, price, and location of your shop is available to half the server. This is because you can go to any broker and have access to everything sold in your city.
Again, compared to other games like Horizons and SWG this is a step backwards. Vendors should be in the game period.
Chat system - very unsophisticated. Again, looking at SWG its almost a step backwards with EQ2. I missed many tells because of the way it fades from view and dont like having to type G before each conversation for group chats. Should be a separate chat bar. Pfftt. Chat system should be in bottom center as its the single most important feature in a mmorpg and never fade away.
By simply right clicking on the chat window and selecting "Window Settings", you can choose to keep the chat window open even when your mouse is not currently hovering over it. You really shouldn't complain about interface problems when they are designed to be configured to your liking. Also, there is a little bubble in the bottom left corner of the chat window: you can left-click on this and you get the option to change who you talk to when you hit enter, type, and hit enter again. You can choose to say, group say, guild say, raid say, reply and speak Out Of Character.
I didnt have to do that with other games. There were separate tabs that I just clicked to chat. Might just be me, but I heard others online complain too that the system was too simple. Again, another step backwards.
Combat - solo play is almost nonexistent unless you like grinding twice as slow. Also each toon gets the exact same spells or attacks. There's no choice like in CoH to difference yourself from others. In CoH you might see two Defenders using dark powers but each could be completely different in effectiveness based on choice of powers. Again, not an improvement here.
There's really no point in soloing when all you have to do is invite people or just give a shout across the zone that you are looking for a group. You can usually find at least one or two people also looking for a group that will fight with you. There's really not much point in playing solo when you have so many people around who could use some help.
I beg to differ here. There is a point to solo play...I can do whatever I like, kill whatever I want, rest whenever I need to, keep all the loot for myself, not have to listen to some asshat talk about his beer or girlfriend, etc. Maybe its an EQ thing, but there are many of us who prefer to solo a lot. I do enjoy grouping but only with friends I know. If they arent on, I dont wanna be forced to group and kill what they're hunting that night because solo play is next to impossible.

Character Creation - Overhyped by SOE, promising us toons so unique you could tell someone by their looks instead of their name. Then once everyone saw the CC starter kit and realized it wasnt that good, SOE promised to tweak somethings. Looked the same to me... SWG and CoH has EQ2 beat easily.
The faces can be unique, but you have to be close to see them. The name shows from very far away, so there's no point in facial recognition. Once you put a hat on, you look like anyone else with that hat.
Still, with others like CoH i could make my body much more different. I could be extremely fat or thin, tall or short to the point that is was noticable. Again, a step backwards. I think everyone would agree that EQ2 is inferior to a few games out already despite SOE's promise of unmatched CC so good that a toon could be recognized by appearance
Skills - I dont like a game where I cant retry different skills. So once I spent 2 weeks leveling Rogue, I discovered I didnt like it much and should have chosen Predator (apparently better at solo). SOE expects me to start over again ? No thanks.
You have confused skills for classes. All you have to do is find out what you want to be before you choose it in game. There are lots of resources for this on the internet. eq2fantasy.com is the best I've found so far. They have lots of information on races and classes. They also list all the spells of each archetype, class, and subclass.
So Im supposed to do research, which I did and if it turns out I dont like it touch cookies ??? I read everything I could, asked players in beta, etc but ultimately its impossible to know until you try it for yourself. Everyone raved about how fun a Rogue was. Yet after launch, everyone I knew chose Predator instead because rogue suddenly couldnt solo. Again a step backwards as other mmorpg let you redo skills without rerolling your toon. I should be allowed to try out Mage and switch to Warrior if I decide its not for me and keep my crafting skills and money and equipment along the way.
Finally, SOE itself said this game would be more solo friendly than EQ1 was. Its not solo friendly at all. I understand the need for grouping but I think EQ2 has gone overboard. To make yet another comparison (since EQ2 was suppose to IMPROVE upon past games) CoH has an amazing balance between solo play and grouping. You group in a building, more mobs spawn... solo inside and less mobs. The majority of gamers prefer solo play in my opinion and EQ gamers need to realize this or they'll end up playing alone anyway.

yuuzahn · November 2004

I haven't played EQ2 so I won't make judgements about the gameplay in specifics. However, admriker444 needs to stop whining about the skills. If you pick the wrong class you can't just change. Think about any role playing, would Gandalf ever start backstabing and stealing from Orks? NO. The only game I have seen where you can completely change your CLASS is SWG and still it takes a lot of time to do so.

Howdy, Stranger!

At first it was exciting, but now...

Comments

Howdy, Stranger!

Quick Links

At first it was exciting, but now...

Comments