Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Debating between EQ2 and LOTRO (or other PvE focused game)
Hello all,
I'm hoping to get some feedback to decide between these two MMOs (and not against suggestions for others fitting my ideals) so I can decide which one to get into. A couple of my friends are also going to get one of these games so we'll be grouping from the start.
First, some brief history:
I've played LOTRO to 40 (when it launched, no expansions) and I played EQ2 within the first year of release to the teen levels. I've played countless other MMOs as well, some to high end, others not.
My favorite style of MMO is sandbox. I played Darkfall for awhile, and EVE for a long while. I don't want to go back to either of these games right now.
What I'm looking for:
I picked out EQ2 and LOTRO because both of them have a lot of content under their belts, multiple expansions, and are more PvE focused than anything else. I'm kind of tired of PvP, Darkfall burned me out, and I spend a lot of time playing FPS competitively. I want something relaxing.
-Lots of things to explore, quests to do, neat things to see.
-Character customization is important. I want to feel like my own avatar, not a copy of multiple others.
-Housing is a must, as well as options for the housing.
-Things to do other than killing monsters.
Basically, the game I go to, I wanted to be presented with a lot of options. A lot of things to see, places to explore, quests to do, while evolving my character more and more. I want the game not to feel like a level grind to the top, because there is a lot to experience along the way. End game is important to me, but not at the sake of everything before it.
Obviously, I'm looking for the ultimate PvE experience, but I'm not foolish enough to think any MMO out there can give it to me. I posted all this to give anyone willing to help insight into what I want, and help me piece together a decision.
Comments
EQ2 has changed a lot since release, but in a good way. It's housing system is the best I've tried, but I haven't tried LoTRO's. It's PVE raids are, IMO, the best out there. Character customization is good when making your character, there's around 10-15 hairstyles a race, eye color, skin color, height, and lots of sliders for the face. At level 20 you get Appearance Slots where you can equip gear in, even if you don't meet the requirements, for appearance only with no stat changes. It has one of the bigger worlds as well. If your wanting to try it, there's a 14 day free trial. If you decide to play, pick the Guk server. The guild I'm in has ~400 active accounts in it.
Playing - EVE, Wurm
Retired - Final Fantasy XI, Anarchy Online, Mabinogi
Waiting - ArcheAge, Salem
Hi there.
I started playing eq2 a week ago and atm i have a lvl24 ranger on spitpaw eu server. What i already see is that this game is huge! Countless zones, many things to do aside killing things (housing, collections, writ-heritage quests, countless instances, the best crafting system ive seen). Im sure theres a tone of things i havent seen because of my low lvl. One more thing id like to say is that i joined a guild 2 days ago and the guys summoned me to the guild hall and i was so surprised.,, Guild hall is just AWESOME. Vendors, teleporters, pets, furnitures and decorations, statues aquired from killing raid bosses from guild runs and so many other things.
He that lives upon Hope dies farting.
I'll just list some bullets
Crafting: EQ2 is much more involved and broader. Crafting in EQ2 is an MMO in itself.
Story Arcs: Lord of the rings quests IMO are much better written
Content and world size: EQ2's dwarfs Lord of the Rings in both cases
Graphics and Art: Lord of the rings looks amazing and doesnt require a beast of a machine. EQ2 looks very claymation and some of the art in the game looks ametuer (nek forest for example). However, EQ2 has a realistic feel to it and a much grittier quality (in a good way)
Casual vs. Hardcore: Lord of the rings is a very casual game. Its much easier to get to endgame and you'll find your able to solo a lot of content with practically any class. EQ2 is vast, theres a lot of content and many things will require a small or large group depending. Getting to endgame takes much much longer
Gear: EQ2 has a ton of gear. There are a lot of ways to change your characters appearance. Sometimes makes it hard to tell a persons class, but this isnt a bad thing. The gear for the most part looks fantastic and fits the game world very nicely
Housing: This is a tough one. Both games offer almost the same choices with housing, except I feel Lord of the rings does it better. They have housing areas instanced, meaning you go to the entrance where housing is and there are seperate instances that hold these houses. Once the house is purchased in said instance, its yours. You can decorate both inside and out and there are numerous architectural types of houses to choose from. EQ2, the building you rent is instanced. Meaning, you'll see many people accessing the same room door as you. The houses cannot be decorated outside, and the designs of the houses (much like most of the art in EQ2) is bland
Mounts: EQ2 has a much wider variety of mounts. I think lord of the rings you can just own a horse. EQ2 you can have carpets, bears, cats. Theres also different horse type mounts (such as guild lvl 40 mounts)
Classes: Hands down, EQ2 has almost too many classes.
Races: EQ2 does things the old school way by giving players vast amount of choices when playing their character. You can be almost anything that exists in a fantasy world.
I pretty much agree with everything said here by VooDoo_Papa. To me its a toss-up. I've stayed with LOTRO because I'm a Tolkien fan -- oh, and a founder, so no monthly fee ;-)
EQ2 offers quantity over quality.
LOTRO offers quality over quantity.
That is the big overall difference between the two games.
You might want to look into the new skirmish system in lotro. Not sure any other game has anything like that.
if you do go to EQ2, look for the most populated server, currently i belive its Antonia bayle(?), its RP server, wich makes the community much nicer in my opinion, most people ive met there dont rp though
im Drunklight! *hic*
Since your open to an alternate opinion, I would recommend the free trial of Fallen Earth. It is by no means a PvP centric game, and is created with tons pve content, and only pvp at your liesure. Its a game with sandboxy elements whereby everything you achieve that is of quality, is better made and achieved by players rather than an npc.
It is a very solo-friendly game that is player-centric in that your not pigeon-holed to one area or class. It can be played casually without fear of competition from other players that you always have to watch your back about, or as you level and get more involved, there will be town contention for guilds and clans, but this does not impact you or your game-play if choose not to be involved.
Crafting: Purely player driven and extremely broad. Housing is in the works, and there is already construction crafting to begin building on that skill. All gear is player-made as are the tools to scavenge and cook, and fabricate your equipment. Equipment and gear is very noticably different in look from item to item.
Mounts: Gain a horse mount from the extended tutorial as you begin and as time passes and you increase yournature skill, craft a thorobraed horse or other types. Craft an ATV, dune buggy, motorcycle, etc. if you prefer those for transportation; again all player-centric.
Story: As much questing and story-driven faction quests than any other mmo that ties directly to how your character is perceived and accepted or is pinned against each of the 6 factions. Do them all or be more of a specialist for a few factions. Very funny, engageing and involved story-lines.
Classes: Class-less system, but you cant be great at everything, but you can be very competent at a few such as melee to dual pistols to rifles,etc. This does not include crafting as you can learn and accomplish the multitude of crafting houses and expertises from resource gathering and fabrication of everything.
Housing: In development that will come with a future patch, and which you can already begin working on your construction skill to create encampments or camping bundles that offer exploration and attribute improvement as you hunt in the vicintiy of one of your camps. Housing will be non-instanced when it arrives. The maps and 4 sectors this game has now is huge and non-instanced, other than the 4 large maps or sectors that you advance through as you level.
Content and World size: Huge and non-instanced. Since it is based on real-world, in future content expansions, there will be greater increaases in areas.
Races: Your a human that can develop varying mutations and of which you can customize your toon as you were able to in Darkfall to differntiate yourself.
Community: Very helpful and 24/7 active GM's. Everyone in a dedicated help channel are always chatting and helping each other.
Striving for Silver Stars since Gold is so effeminate.
Lotro is the best pve based mmo on the market right now.
Playing: Rift, LotRO
Waiting on: GW2, BP
Basically, everything that has been said so far. Some things I'd like to focus on, considering your bullets of what you're looking for:
The housing concept in LotRO is awesome, considering you have special neighbourhoods that people can gather in. The problem with those, however, is that nobody actually USES their neighbourhood. For most people, their house is not much more than an additional quick travel (because you can quickly travel to your house once you buy it). Also, players that do not pay their rent do not LOSE their house, but simply cannot access it until they pay the excess rent. The consequence of these (i.e. of how people use their houses and how not paying for a house works out) is that neighbourhoods are utterly empty. You will not run into anybody in your neighbourhood. Effectively, the neighbourhoods are not much of a selling point for LotRO, other than being beautifully crafted.
A difference between the LotRO and EQ2 housing that is very important to me is that LotRO housing has special 'decoration hooks' where you can attach your decorative items such as paintings, rugs, statues, and whatnot, whereas EQ2 has full free placement of your items, with a limit on the amount of items that is not easily met. The result is that EQ2 offers MUCH more customisation in this respect, because you will always feel the limit of the small amount of item hooks that comes with the LotRO housing system AND the LotRO housing system only allows for placement of particular items in particular places.
Considering things to do other than questing, LotRO definitely wins here. There's MUCH more focus on fun little things you can do on the side, such as Session Play and the bountiful festivals.
Yes, I play both games actively ;-) If I were forced to choose between them, I'd definitely go for LotRO, though, because it is a much more solid, quality experience than EQ2. EQ2, however, allows for MUCH more individualisation of your character and has a MUCH more interesting crafting system.
Thank you all for your replies and input.
We've decided to give EQ2 a shot, first. Primarily because the group of us playing have never played EQ2 past a certain point (myself 17, my friend 30, etc.) and feel that the "freshest" experience is going to come from that. Ultimately it may not be the best choice, but this whole thing is about revamping our desire for MMOs while we wait for TOR, Earthrise, and FF14
I did want to explore the idea of Fallen Earth some more, so hopefully those familiar with it can respond.
The studio that made the game is very small, and happen to be local to me (I'm in NC). I know one of the developers that made the game, and I participated in the alpha and beta test of the product. I admit that I enjoyed the open world and the concept they put forth, but one thing I couldn't stand was the combat. I can't remember exactly what it was about it that turned me off, I think it had something to do with how fast the monsters moved, or that they warped, or there was a habit of being overwhelmed by many of them too easily and unable to get away. Something along those lines turned me away from FE and I didn't explore too far into the game beyond the general QA that I helped them with.
What are your views on the combat in FE?
Final Fantasy XI
www.facebook.com/themarksmovierules
Currently playing:
FFXIV on Behemoth, FFXI on Eden, and Gloria Victis on NA.