Originally posted by TabulaRosa Well, I didn't have any technical problems really. The game was great looking, smooth and all around solid for me. I was running a pretty good guild with a good friend. She and I seemed to be trucking along pretty well but there were things which made us crazy. For one, the guild management was crap. They made a lot of changes to make it better but seriously, it was junk. That and outside of having people to raid with there was no reason to even be in a guild. All this meant was that people would drop everything and join a new guild for any ol' reason. "'So and so' guild is having a huge raid? Well I'll just quit and join with them..." Nobody really gave 2 shits about Patron status. That entire system just seemed like such an afterthought in the overall design of the game. There was NO reason for the players to have pride or loyalty to their guild. This type of structure nutured the mega-uber guilds who would have raids every night and kicked the smaller communities in the nuts. I don't like being in a big guild, I don't like running a big guild. I like a good small-med sized group of people I can get to know well and game with regularly and shoot the shit on teamspeak and such. It's hard to get to know the members in a 500 person guild. That said, I never played EQ1 and maybe I wasn't prepared for the whole selfish raid mentality but even though I never played EQ1, others who were important people to running the guild did and even they had problems with how the system worked. This made me not want to play but I continued anyhow for a while. The thing that made me quit was spending 3 nights in row running from one high end zone to another looking for stuff to do. Sometimes with guildies and sometimes not. I realized that the quests were getting stale, it got to the point where when I got a "book" quest which was kill 12, read, kill 12, read, kill 12, read... I would just delete the quest. The Server population also took a HUGE dive about the time the Froglok's were released. I tried to make a Froglok and got him to like 20 something I think but overall I just got bored. I tried crafting several times and while I was impressed at the depth of the system it pissed me off that I could never make anything without either trying to buy stuff from other people or looking on the broker for it. Cripes, I hated that and the whole harvesting thing was enough work as it was. I read about the new expansion with the PvP and junk but honestly I'll never go back.
I read this and I really can't believe you actually played EQ2 for any amont of serious time. First of all, you said there is no point in joining a guild outside of raiding? I think you are confusing WoW with EQ2. Guilds in EQ2 have ALOT of depth and content, OUTSIDE of raiding. Hmm lets see, go out and earn Exp for your guild in order to open up new content like items, quests, new and bigger housing, status symbols, titles, etc. Not sure how you can honestly say guilds in EQ2 have no purpose other then raiding.
Small guilds can be better off as any large guild in EQ2. Get 24 or so active members and there is NOTHING in EQ2 you cant do. From raids to earning guild levels. Name one thing you cant do with a small guild that a large guild can do?
Originally posted by Jd1680a Im just curious for all those who have left EQ2 on explaining why you left EQ2.
I quit EQ2 shortly before the CU went live. I was levelling a troubadour and I wasn't happy about the way the class was being re-invented as a "mage-buffer". I meant to go back to the game after the CU just to see how it had changed, but I got into WoW and I've just stuck with that instead. I might get back into EQ2 at some point, but right now the prospect of having to relearn all my characters' classes (Troub, SK, Guardian, Dirge and Warden) is a huge turn-off.
Played at release..quit, then went back july /august..stayed for a few weeks, did alot of guild work,etc to the degree where i got made a senior officer,etc. From november to then, the game was exactly the same, if anything had changed, it wasnt noticeable.
The key problem was, the best content was gaining xp,so i tried crafting, and did that alot, but i didnt know why i was doing it.for cash? to buy..hmm what? the difference between very expensive weapons to affordable ones isnt worth grinding cash for, id do jsut as well in groups with crap weapons.
I knew what armour i was and am going to wear from lvl 1-50, i knew at 20 id wear the chainweave Gi, i knew at 30 its wear imbued engraved leather, and i knew after that id wear enchanted thicket,etc before i even get to those lvls, cos thats the armour i got to wear at that level, and thats the armour everyone else wears..yep thats right, i look EXACTLY the same as everyone else. I can wear a robe! i hear you cry, im not force to wear this leather stuff...well thats not true is it
Now, the thing i did miss out on was the CU, this mythical, legendary thing that turns this game into the best of the best..same as the SWG CU..whoops..can understand my scepticism then. Does it make combat faster? slower? need to use more specials yeh?..doesnt change the gameplay does it.
Now..adding pvp is a good thing, something else to do besides gain xp, and no im not hung up on xp, i happily played at my current lvl for ages..but why else pve? i already had best stuff for my lvl ( due to guildies crafting it for me or saving cash) and the encounters were not exactly rivetting. PvP gives me another option, to have something else to work for, to test my skills, a reason to find and get better gear, now everyhting has a purpose...
But they release it in another addon, like someone mentioned above, everythign they release, they charge you for, every little web service or dungeon, ive never seen anything like it...
I think thats a fair review, graphically the best MMO ive played, aswell as the animations, just lacks that oomph.
Originally posted by Ravenmgs To put it bluntly, the game is dull, quit with a level 50 paladin and 48 berserker. The game it's self stays in the exact same format from level 10 to 50, and then at level 50 there is nothing about the raids that make the game better then other mmo running on the out dated tired system of camp and zerg. compare
I find this to be a mistake for everyone who is playing a MMOG. People rush up to cap level then look around and say "well theres nothing to do." When I leveled to level 50, I started to do quests, hunt, and craft. I helped out my guild by doing a bunch of HQs and writs, hunted alot to save up for teir 6 armor, I bought the two adventure packs to get more content, with addition with the 460 quests Ive done out of the 2000 in the game before the expansion. Anyone say there isnt enough content in the game isnt looking hard enough. If you want a game that doesnt have content, you should play Horizons and compare it to EQ2.
Really if people were to rush to the cap then quit a weeks later, then every game they go to will be the same thing.
Have played: CoH, DDO EQ2, FFXI, L2, HZ, SoR, and WW2 online
I left because I got tired of the quest grind. A good deal of the quests feel like half-hearted efforts to create 'content' and almost all of them have boring stories that involve nothing more than going somewhere and killing/collecting something for a small bit of cash.
Sure, there is a lot of content, but not a lot of it is quality content.
Wtf..you're telling me you didnt like the 'kill 20 rats' quests?!
Did you even bother to try the 'kill 30 giants' or 'kill 20 undead' quests?..thought not, you havent even experienced 10% of the game yet. Just you wait till you get to the 'Kill 50 goblins' quest..its awesome!
And the upgrades now are amazing, like when before it would take 10 hits to kill a mob, it now takes 20, so the immersion factor has doubled.
All you whiners saying how EQ2 has no content, tell me another game where you can kill this much livestock!
*(The above may be fictional to portray a typical response. Number of rats may be double)
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Mann that is a real tough one to answer, ya see it was not just a combat change it was actually a complete revamping of the PvE elements of the game. IMO it was a very good thing granted it is still a little twitchy but on a whole it was a fantastic thing to do to the game. One of the major PvE elements is that the CON range of your target really means something, so now when that little consider window says it will pimp slap you into next week with two hits it really means it. Also they have re-tooled a good chunk of the over land zones so that there are actual group oriented areas.
These two (out of way more than two) changes in them selves drastically altered the game. It allowed for zones to have a wider range of playability as well as allow for solo and group content within close proximity of one another. Additionally by upping the con range of mobs it meant that higher players can group across higher level ranges and still be mutually beneficial for all involved.
PvP . I could really give a crap about so I will skip it but I must say the occasional round of capture the flag or a drunken death match with a friend is always fun.
These are all things (save for the capture the flag) that were FREE yes my fellow SoE hating loonies the greedy pigs we have all come to loath at SoE did it at no cost to you.
Originally posted by Vegetto Wtf..you're telling me you didnt like the 'kill 20 rats' quests?! Did you even bother to try the 'kill 30 giants' or 'kill 20 undead' quests?..thought not, you havent even experienced 10% of the game yet. Just you wait till you get to the 'Kill 50 goblins' quest..its awesome! And the upgrades now are amazing, like when before it would take 10 hits to kill a mob, it now takes 20, so the immersion factor has doubled. All you whiners saying how EQ2 has no content, tell me another game where you can kill this much livestock!
*(The above may be fictional to portray a typical response. Number of rats may be double)
Heh, okay mr.super saijin. Since, those are called "extermination quests" and are only 1 form of questing in this game, adn you seem to be pro at them (because of your super saijin powers right?) I'll be sure not to tell you about the collection quests, heritage quests, rescue quests, race quests ( like, run run as fast as possible), Race (human, barb etc.), exploration quests, and assassination quests, oh (betrayal quests.) Because, you only like those ones, and just so happen to be close minded enough to try only those and then bitch about your un explored gameplay. KAAAAAAA MEEEEE EEHAAAAAAAA MEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!! HAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!
Wtf..you're telling me you didnt like the 'kill 20 rats' quests?!
Did you even bother to try the 'kill 30 giants' or 'kill 20 undead' quests?..thought not, you havent even experienced 10% of the game yet. Just you wait till you get to the 'Kill 50 goblins' quest..its awesome!
What a clever boy. There are actually a ton of different types of quests. Last night I did the "Intriguing Eye" quest which is a fairly low level quest. You have to find out who stole this certain coin and then you use it to enter a chamber where Fippy Darkpaw the 4th lives . After that, Fippy is involved in the smuggling of illegal hooch and he makes you take a leger around to all the taverns and get the bar owners to sign it and bring it back to him. As a reward you get a sweet tunic that is wearable by all classes. It was a great quest actually.
And the upgrades now are amazing, like when before it would take 10 hits to kill a mob, it now takes 20, so the immersion factor has doubled.
The combat revamp actually is nothing like this. It changed the way in which mobs mitigate damage, and the factors that define it. What it did was made fights that are outside your level range much more difficult or easy, depending on their level as to yours. It made the game much more challening and thought provoking as far as battle is concerned. It rawks.
All you whiners saying how EQ2 has no content, tell me another game where you can kill this much livestock!
Thanks for taking to time to show us how little you know about EQ2.
*(The above may be fictional to portray a typical response. Number of rats may be double)
Just so I know you aren't completely FOS, tell me a quest that you remember that was along the lines of what you would like to see in a game and describe it in some detail.
Those are the best arguments you two can put up about your game? stuff about my name and a quest you once did?
Like i said before, i did alot of heritage and hallmark quests, regardless of story, i found myself killing x number of mobs. The one exception was the longest journey quest, where you must run the length of antonica...then zek, then enchanted lands, etc,etc.
Perhaps playing on AB, you fail to realise other servers, such as my one runnyeye, are dead. U'd be lucky to find a group at primetime, only ever managed to find a few raids. As for the community, well it doesnt have anything on SWG's, little interaction between people and the forums are rarely busy.
Ive started playing ryzom now, thats an example of what a community is, what RP is and what something new is.
The CU would have had to do something pretty special to change this...
"The combat revamp actually is nothing like this. It changed the way in which mobs mitigate damage, and the factors that define it. What it did was made fights that are outside your level range much more difficult or easy, depending on their level as to yours. It made the game much more challening and thought provoking as far as battle is concerned. It rawks"
The key things it would have to do for me would be:
a) make soloing less viable...HL2 is best for soloing...
b) make different armours more viable, like swg's cu did, i.e. theres one good set of armour every 5 lvls or so.
c) merge the dam servers..would be kinda irresponsible of me or anyone else to transfer to AB if we got no intention of RPing..
Collection quests: you collect these objects by finding shining points on the ground (randomly spawned and placed) and 'collecting' them like you would harvest. You then examine them to add them to your collection. Once you've completed one entire collection, you can turn it in to a quest guy for a reward. The reward ranges from a decent piece of armor to just some simple coin. The idea was that you would find these points on the ground while running around the world and it would be something you can do while running regular quests, sort of like a distraction. More often than not though, these quests are missing certain rare items that you can't easily acquire and it starts to turn into a sort of trading card game except the cards don't do anything except fill up slots.
Rescue quests: NPCs stand there and ask for you to help them. You kill the mobs around the NPC and they allow you to buy stuff from them, which is usually always crappy stuff you can get elsewhere. Out of 31 levels and doing every single quest I could complete, this is the only rescue quest I've come across.
Racing quests: There's only 1. You run from place to place then do it again in a new zone. Don't know what the reward is since you have to be around level 50 to complete the last leg of it but it's pretty pointless.
Exploration quests: Incredibly lame. You just go to a certain point and the quest log updates. There's usually nothing of interest to see and nothing to discover or find, the quest log just updates the moment you reach the target area.
Assassination quests: typical kill quest with named mobs, nothing more.
My gripe with the quests is that none of them are really engaging. It feels like you're running petty chores for the NPCs rather than questing and discovering the world and learning more about the lore. Sometimes, the quests are so bad at hinting you to the next step that you almost need to refer to a guide in order to find out what you have to do next. In 31 levels I haven't come across one quest that changes the world in some way or affects the game in some way besides just giving me quest count +1. It's like my actions have no consequence at all.
Originally posted by Ranma13 Extermination quests: kill quests basically.Collection quests: you collect these objects by finding shining points on the ground (randomly spawned and placed) and 'collecting' them like you would harvest. You then examine them to add them to your collection. Once you've completed one entire collection, you can turn it in to a quest guy for a reward. The reward ranges from a decent piece of armor to just some simple coin. The idea was that you would find these points on the ground while running around the world and it would be something you can do while running regular quests, sort of like a distraction. More often than not though, these quests are missing certain rare items that you can't easily acquire and it starts to turn into a sort of trading card game except the cards don't do anything except fill up slots.Rescue quests: NPCs stand there and ask for you to help them. You kill the mobs around the NPC and they allow you to buy stuff from them, which is usually always crappy stuff you can get elsewhere. Out of 31 levels and doing every single quest I could complete, this is the only rescue quest I've come across.Racing quests: There's only 1. You run from place to place then do it again in a new zone. Don't know what the reward is since you have to be around level 50 to complete the last leg of it but it's pretty pointless.Exploration quests: Incredibly lame. You just go to a certain point and the quest log updates. There's usually nothing of interest to see and nothing to discover or find, the quest log just updates the moment you reach the target area.Assassination quests: typical kill quest with named mobs, nothing more.My gripe with the quests is that none of them are really engaging. It feels like you're running petty chores for the NPCs rather than questing and discovering the world and learning more about the lore. Sometimes, the quests are so bad at hinting you to the next step that you almost need to refer to a guide in order to find out what you have to do next. In 31 levels I haven't come across one quest that changes the world in some way or affects the game in some way besides just giving me quest count +1. It's like my actions have no consequence at all.
Woah.. a few days ago i actually contemplated buying EQ2. Thanks to this thread, i never will.
_____________________ I am the flipside of the coin on which the troll and the fanboy are but one side.
Woah.. a few days ago i actually contemplated buying EQ2. Thanks to this thread, i never will.
LOL, no you weren't pirrg. All you do is lurk around and bash EQ2 like you caught it in bed with your wife.
Please enlighten us to the fantastic game you are playing right now. You obviously have very high standards and I would love to know what game you consider worth playing now.
Ya troll
Joined 2004 - I can't believe I've been a MMORPG.com member for 20 years! Get off my lawn!
1 - Crafting: I really liked the crafting system in SWG. Knowing that EQII was based on the same game engine, I expected crafting to be fun and involved like SWG. Boy was I wrong. Crafting in EQII is boring. You can't customize anything, and in order to have the supplies you need, you have to spend hours gathering. Blah.
2 - The built in time sinks: This was one of my biggest gripes. Too many quests force you to sit around and wait for something. And I'm not talking about a couple of minutes. Want to kill the lion for a heritage quest? Well, he spawns every few hours. Forget about going anywhere, or some idiot who doesn't even need him for a quest will kill him just to piss you off. Need gnolls for a quest? Wait an hour for it to switch to nighttime in the game so you can find them. Thank you very much, but I play games ot be entertained, not bored.
3 - Good vs Evil: Where? What was the point of coming up with two cities who are in conflict, and then not letting them battle each other? Speaking of which...
4 - Two cities: Just two? Come on. SWG had tons of towns, and player built cities as well. EQII had two crappy cities, and you had to zone to different parts of them.
5 - Zones zones zones!: I hating all the zoning. SWG, same engine, but very little zoning. What gives? Lag my left buttcheek, this was poor design all the way. Why do I say that? Because the zones STILL LAG.
My whole purpose for playing games is to have fun. EQII seemed more like a job than anything, so I left. I recently came back and tried it as SOE invited me back for a month. Still don't like it. I also don't like the fact that while Blizzard puts out new instances, battlegrounds, and encounters for free, SOE charges you 5 bucks for a new dungeon.
So, for now I am playing WoW in my spare time, while waiting for Hero's Journey and Huxley. (Well, I play lot's of games, but WoW is the only MMORPG at the moment. Or, rather, the only one I can say anything about )
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1 - Crafting: I really liked the crafting system in SWG. Knowing that EQII was based on the same game engine, I expected crafting to be fun and involved like SWG. Boy was I wrong. Crafting in EQII is boring. You can't customize anything, and in order to have the supplies you need, you have to spend hours gathering. Blah.
It IS tedious, but no one is forced to craft.
2 - The built in time sinks: This was one of my biggest gripes. Too many quests force you to sit around and wait for something. And I'm not talking about a couple of minutes. Want to kill the lion for a heritage quest? Well, he spawns every few hours. Forget about going anywhere, or some idiot who doesn't even need him for a quest will kill him just to piss you off. Need gnolls for a quest? Wait an hour for it to switch to nighttime in the game so you can find them. Thank you very much, but I play games ot be entertained, not bored.
Gnolls are everywhere, day or night, and every mob I had to kill for a quest had place holders that you could kill to get them to spawn. Try asking around.
3 - Good vs Evil: Where? What was the point of coming up with two cities who are in conflict, and then not letting them battle each other? Speaking of which...
Have to agree, although PvP was recently implemented, I would love to see good vs. evil PvP on certain servers.
4 - Two cities: Just two? Come on. SWG had tons of towns, and player built cities as well. EQII had two crappy cities, and you had to zone to different parts of them.
Let's face it, Qeynos and Freeport are HUGE. Qeynos Harbor alone is the size of Mos Eisley, and it DOES cut down on lag. My system zones in under 10 seconds usually and the longest one ever was 13 seconds.
5 - Zones zones zones!: I hating all the zoning. SWG, same engine, but very little zoning. What gives? Lag my left buttcheek, this was poor design all the way. Why do I say that? Because the zones STILL LAG.
Sounds like a subpar system. As I said, my longest zone is 13 seconds, and if you lag in any zone you have your settings WAY too high for your system. I have mine on balanced settings with 1 gig stick of dual channel ram and I simply NEVER lag. Try upgrading your system to be high end and you won't be able to play anything else.
My whole purpose for playing games is to have fun. EQII seemed more like a job than anything, so I left. I recently came back and tried it as SOE invited me back for a month. Still don't like it. I also don't like the fact that while Blizzard puts out new instances, battlegrounds, and encounters for free, SOE charges you 5 bucks for a new dungeon.
How recently? I don't remember a free month, there was a 7 days free for returning players about a month ago. I came back about 2 months ago and it rocks. If WoW doesn't bore you silly then it's the game for you. I prefer a challenge over quests and content that are basically inevitable to finish.
So, for now I am playing WoW in my spare time, while waiting for Hero's Journey and Huxley. (Well, I play lot's of games, but WoW is the only MMORPG at the moment. Or, rather, the only one I can say anything about )
Enjoy WoW, when you upgrade your system or want a challenge, see you in EQ2. The combat revamp really solidified it as the game to play for me.
I ran out and bought EQ2 when it was released last year and was amazed at the graphics. The Isle of Trials was alot of fun as well. But I was disappointed when I discovered that they did away with all the race based cities. I mean I was a DE through and through and I wanted my beloved Neriak. Instead of having all the cities we were stuck with just Freeport and Quenyos.
Another thing that I didnt like was the fact that they put emphasis on the rivalry between Freeport and Quenyos. Being a DE from Freeport I was constantly reminded in quests and from NPC's that the good races from Quenyos were our bitter enemies. Yet there was no RvR. When you happened to come across the races from the other city the most you could do was maybe taunt them with a few silly insults. I think if they had RvR the game would've been a hell of alot more interesting.
But what really did it for me was when they came out with this patch back in January that screwed with alot of people's video cards. It caused this strange video stutter that resembled lag. Made the game impossible to play. I waited a couple of weeks for Sony to remedy this goof up but they did nothing. They just claimed that it was our computer causing the problem and not the patch. That pissed me off.
Meh, I left because I was bored =/ I know a lot of people love the tiered class system, and in most cases, I do also. But after playing EQ1, having to go through 20 levels just to get my Shadowknight, and then being stuck in Freeport, sealed the deal for me. This is going to sound strange to most people, i'm sure, but I like playing the 'evil' goodguy's. A Drow Paladin, or in EQ2's case, a Drow Shadowknight. Unfortunately, you can't betray after level 17-18...which means, nope, not allowed to play how I wanted to. I hate freeport and that area.
Again, will sound strange, but I hate the butthead (sorry to sound lame, but...don't want to get into profanity, want to not get banned) NPC's. I prefer having enjoying the NPC's, not waiting to read through the text as fast as possable because the snide attitude of the NPC just sets my teeth on edge. And now, the one character I really wanted to play, has me stuck on the side I hate.
I did look into other classes, but none of them seemed as fun to me. The ranged classes in this game, which tend to be my second bet if there's no Dark Paladin (which most game's don't have) just didn't do anything for me. So sadly...while the game is fun, I can't play a game without a class I enjoy.
Oh, and crafting bites -_- and crafting is my favorite thing to do in an MMO. They really need to make a game that has crafting based on mini-games =/ that way, the skill of the player really does determine how good the crafted item is.
Originally posted by Darktania But what really did it for me was when they came out with this patch back in January that screwed with alot of people's video cards. It caused this strange video stutter that resembled lag. Made the game impossible to play. I waited a couple of weeks for Sony to remedy this goof up but they did nothing. They just claimed that it was our computer causing the problem and not the patch. That pissed me off.
The same thing happened to me, although I wouldn't get video stutter, my system would just crash bang freeze. Suffice it to say I haven't crashed once since returning 2 months ago, and they have optimized textures and graphics; it runs smoother than ever.
I left because of the absence of things I wanted to see and presence of things that simply grated on me.
Things I wanted to see
Underdark - there was talk during development of a vast "Underdark" that could run the span of Antonica, like some vast tunnel complex with underground cities or something.
Multiple continents - CONTINENTS, not islands. I wanted to see a bigger, better Odus, for example, with vast jungles to explore.
Ships - I wanted travel to not be trivial and for treks across a continent to be adventures in themselves.
Racial starting cities - not unlike those in EQ1 before the infamous POP and Luclin expansions ruined it all. Seeing a Barbarian in the Elflands should be a curiosity.
Distinct classes - sorry, but to me all the EQ2 classes play the same. Every other combat move flashes with fire or lightning so that a warrior might just as well be a mage casting spells.
Distinct races - different races need different abilites. If some abilities are major, then they can be offset with major weaknesses. For example, trolls might get regen, but be especially susceptible to fire-based attacks. EQ2 made them all much the same; too bad.
Things that grated
NPC dialogue - sounded too much like New York TV sitcom actors. Perhaps that's who they hired. Very annoying and insulting. Really grated on me after awhile.
Endless text boxes - NPC interaction, for even the most mundane quests, would often involve clicking through as many as a dozen text boxes, some of which described what the NPC was saying, some what my character was saying. (Thought I was supposed to decide what my character says, not the game). Many players, I hear, would simply click through the boxes without reading them in order to get to the point.
Useless lore - much of the in-game lore had little if any impact on the game; so it meant nothing.
"Horrible" Wheel - H.O. Wheel. Warrior blocks, priest heals, and WHOOPEE a fireball is set off! Many players, I have heard, became so bored with the "whack-a-mole" clicking on the senseless H.O. wheel, they simply ignored it later in the game.
Too much zoning - as other posters have said, the major cities with their useless inn rooms are major "zone-fests". A little zoning is okay, but Sony overdid this in EQ2.
Branching classes - a DAOC concept and the most inane game feature I have ever experienced. The idea is that you get a feel for playing a class before you choose a final class (at level 20!). They want you to not suffer the experience of playing a character for 2 or 3 levels before you decide you have chosen the wrong class. Solution: you get to play a character for 20 levels before you decide you have chosen the wrong class. Blecchhh...
Training wheels - too much of the gameplay is forced, contrived and controlled. The newbie citizenship quest might as well be an in-game movie the player sits back and watches; would be more bearable. The formerly locked encounters, shared death experience penalties, zones with level-limited entrance requirements all dimished game play and immersion.
Overall this game was designed using all of the wrong elements. Whatever worked in EQ1 was canned in EQ2. I truly think Sony put too much emphasis in graphics and not enough in gameplay. SWG was sort of like that too, wasn't it? All dolled up but nowhere to go.
I left EQ2 for multiple reasons. 1 - Crafting: I really liked the crafting system in SWG. Knowing that EQII was based on the same game engine, I expected crafting to be fun and involved like SWG. Boy was I wrong. Crafting in EQII is boring. You can't customize anything, and in order to have the supplies you need, you have to spend hours gathering. Blah. It IS tedious, but no one is forced to craft. I like to craft. Crafting is a big part of the game for me. If it sucks, or is boring, it's amark against the game in my book.
2 - The built in time sinks: This was one of my biggest gripes. Too many quests force you to sit around and wait for something. And I'm not talking about a couple of minutes. Want to kill the lion for a heritage quest? Well, he spawns every few hours. Forget about going anywhere, or some idiot who doesn't even need him for a quest will kill him just to piss you off. Need gnolls for a quest? Wait an hour for it to switch to nighttime in the game so you can find them. Thank you very much, but I play games ot be entertained, not bored. Gnolls are everywhere, day or night, and every mob I had to kill for a quest had place holders that you could kill to get them to spawn. Try asking around. The gnolls I refer to are in the woods by the giant sword. The type you need for the quest only spawns at night. There are no placeholders for a lot of mobs, you simply have to wait for them to spawn.. And I did ask around, that's how I know they are on a timer. 3 - Good vs Evil: Where? What was the point of coming up with two cities who are in conflict, and then not letting them battle each other? Speaking of which... Have to agree, although PvP was recently implemented, I would love to see good vs. evil PvP on certain servers. 4 - Two cities: Just two? Come on. SWG had tons of towns, and player built cities as well. EQII had two crappy cities, and you had to zone to different parts of them. Let's face it, Qeynos and Freeport are HUGE. Qeynos Harbor alone is the size of Mos Eisley, and it DOES cut down on lag. My system zones in under 10 seconds usually and the longest one ever was 13 seconds. They are big. I don't care, however, because as big as they are, they are still only two cities. And 50-60 peole ina zone makes it lag. 5 - Zones zones zones!: I hating all the zoning. SWG, same engine, but very little zoning. What gives? Lag my left buttcheek, this was poor design all the way. Why do I say that? Because the zones STILL LAG. Sounds like a subpar system. As I said, my longest zone is 13 seconds, and if you lag in any zone you have your settings WAY too high for your system. I have mine on balanced settings with 1 gig stick of dual channel ram and I simply NEVER lag. Try upgrading your system to be high end and you won't be able to play anything else. Assumptions. My system is not subpar, in fact, it's quite good. I have double the amount of RAM you do, and a BFG 6800 GT 256 meg video card. I don't care that it takes me 5 seconds to load, it still annoys me. My whole purpose for playing games is to have fun. EQII seemed more like a job than anything, so I left. I recently came back and tried it as SOE invited me back for a month. Still don't like it. I also don't like the fact that while Blizzard puts out new instances, battlegrounds, and encounters for free, SOE charges you 5 bucks for a new dungeon. How recently? I don't remember a free month, there was a 7 days free for returning players about a month ago. I came back about 2 months ago and it rocks. If WoW doesn't bore you silly then it's the game for you. I prefer a challenge over quests and content that are basically inevitable to finish. You don't remember the free month because it was only offered to certain people. I got a nice package in the mail with a map and some swag inviting me to check EQII out again for a month. I did, I still didn't like it. This was last month. So, for now I am playing WoW in my spare time, while waiting for Hero's Journey and Huxley. (Well, I play lot's of games, but WoW is the only MMORPG at the moment. Or, rather, the only one I can say anything about ) Enjoy WoW, when you upgrade your system or want a challenge, see you in EQ2. The combat revamp really solidified it as the game to play for me. Good for you. The OP asked for the reasons we left. Those are my reasons. You don't have to agree. I personally find WoW challenging and enjoyable, and EQII a massive waste of my time.
Agent_X7 AKA J Star [/URL] Notice: The views expressed in this post are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of MMORPG.com or its management.
Originally posted by Billius8 Distinct classes - sorry, but to me all the EQ2 classes play the same. Every other combat move flashes with fire or lightning so that a warrior might just as well be a mage casting spells.
That bothered me as well.
Agent_X7 AKA J Star [/URL] Notice: The views expressed in this post are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of MMORPG.com or its management.
Comments
I read this and I really can't believe you actually played EQ2 for any amont of serious time. First of all, you said there is no point in joining a guild outside of raiding? I think you are confusing WoW with EQ2. Guilds in EQ2 have ALOT of depth and content, OUTSIDE of raiding. Hmm lets see, go out and earn Exp for your guild in order to open up new content like items, quests, new and bigger housing, status symbols, titles, etc. Not sure how you can honestly say guilds in EQ2 have no purpose other then raiding.
Small guilds can be better off as any large guild in EQ2. Get 24 or so active members and there is NOTHING in EQ2 you cant do. From raids to earning guild levels. Name one thing you cant do with a small guild that a large guild can do?
Peace
I quit EQ2 shortly before the CU went live. I was levelling a troubadour and I wasn't happy about the way the class was being re-invented as a "mage-buffer". I meant to go back to the game after the CU just to see how it had changed, but I got into WoW and I've just stuck with that instead. I might get back into EQ2 at some point, but right now the prospect of having to relearn all my characters' classes (Troub, SK, Guardian, Dirge and Warden) is a huge turn-off.
Played at release..quit, then went back july /august..stayed for a few weeks, did alot of guild work,etc to the degree where i got made a senior officer,etc. From november to then, the game was exactly the same, if anything had changed, it wasnt noticeable.
The key problem was, the best content was gaining xp,so i tried crafting, and did that alot, but i didnt know why i was doing it.for cash? to buy..hmm what? the difference between very expensive weapons to affordable ones isnt worth grinding cash for, id do jsut as well in groups with crap weapons.
I knew what armour i was and am going to wear from lvl 1-50, i knew at 20 id wear the chainweave Gi, i knew at 30 its wear imbued engraved leather, and i knew after that id wear enchanted thicket,etc before i even get to those lvls, cos thats the armour i got to wear at that level, and thats the armour everyone else wears..yep thats right, i look EXACTLY the same as everyone else. I can wear a robe! i hear you cry, im not force to wear this leather stuff...well thats not true is it
Now, the thing i did miss out on was the CU, this mythical, legendary thing that turns this game into the best of the best..same as the SWG CU..whoops..can understand my scepticism then. Does it make combat faster? slower? need to use more specials yeh?..doesnt change the gameplay does it.
Now..adding pvp is a good thing, something else to do besides gain xp, and no im not hung up on xp, i happily played at my current lvl for ages..but why else pve? i already had best stuff for my lvl ( due to guildies crafting it for me or saving cash) and the encounters were not exactly rivetting. PvP gives me another option, to have something else to work for, to test my skills, a reason to find and get better gear, now everyhting has a purpose...
But they release it in another addon, like someone mentioned above, everythign they release, they charge you for, every little web service or dungeon, ive never seen anything like it...
I think thats a fair review, graphically the best MMO ive played, aswell as the animations, just lacks that oomph.
I find this to be a mistake for everyone who is playing a MMOG. People rush up to cap level then look around and say "well theres nothing to do." When I leveled to level 50, I started to do quests, hunt, and craft. I helped out my guild by doing a bunch of HQs and writs, hunted alot to save up for teir 6 armor, I bought the two adventure packs to get more content, with addition with the 460 quests Ive done out of the 2000 in the game before the expansion. Anyone say there isnt enough content in the game isnt looking hard enough. If you want a game that doesnt have content, you should play Horizons and compare it to EQ2.
Really if people were to rush to the cap then quit a weeks later, then every game they go to will be the same thing.
Have played: CoH, DDO EQ2, FFXI, L2, HZ, SoR, and WW2 online
I left because I got tired of the quest grind. A good deal of the quests feel like half-hearted efforts to create 'content' and almost all of them have boring stories that involve nothing more than going somewhere and killing/collecting something for a small bit of cash.
Sure, there is a lot of content, but not a lot of it is quality content.
Wtf..you're telling me you didnt like the 'kill 20 rats' quests?!
Did you even bother to try the 'kill 30 giants' or 'kill 20 undead' quests?..thought not, you havent even experienced 10% of the game yet. Just you wait till you get to the 'Kill 50 goblins' quest..its awesome!
And the upgrades now are amazing, like when before it would take 10 hits to kill a mob, it now takes 20, so the immersion factor has doubled.
All you whiners saying how EQ2 has no content, tell me another game where you can kill this much livestock!
*(The above may be fictional to portray a typical response. Number of rats may be double)
What did the CU do?
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Mann that is a real tough one to answer, ya see it was not just a combat change it was actually a complete revamping of the PvE elements of the game. IMO it was a very good thing granted it is still a little twitchy but on a whole it was a fantastic thing to do to the game. One of the major PvE elements is that the CON range of your target really means something, so now when that little consider window says it will pimp slap you into next week with two hits it really means it. Also they have re-tooled a good chunk of the over land zones so that there are actual group oriented areas.
These two (out of way more than two) changes in them selves drastically altered the game. It allowed for zones to have a wider range of playability as well as allow for solo and group content within close proximity of one another. Additionally by upping the con range of mobs it meant that higher players can group across higher level ranges and still be mutually beneficial for all involved.
PvP . I could really give a crap about so I will skip it but I must say the occasional round of capture the flag or a drunken death match with a friend is always fun.
These are all things (save for the capture the flag) that were FREE yes my fellow SoE hating loonies the greedy pigs we have all come to loath at SoE did it at no cost to you.
<div><span style="width:120px; height:120px;float:left;overflow: hidden;"><a href="http://www.zowned.com/Opef"><img src="http://www.zowned.com/file/pic/user/Opef_120.jpg"; style="border: 0pt none ; margin: 10px 10px 10px 10px; width: 120px; height: 120px;"></a></span></div>
Heh, okay mr.super saijin. Since, those are called "extermination quests" and are only 1 form of questing in this game, adn you seem to be pro at them (because of your super saijin powers right?) I'll be sure not to tell you about the collection quests, heritage quests, rescue quests, race quests ( like, run run as fast as possible), Race (human, barb etc.), exploration quests, and assassination quests, oh (betrayal quests.) Because, you only like those ones, and just so happen to be close minded enough to try only those and then bitch about your un explored gameplay. KAAAAAAA MEEEEE EEHAAAAAAAA MEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!! HAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!
God I loved that show.
Those are the best arguments you two can put up about your game? stuff about my name and a quest you once did?
Like i said before, i did alot of heritage and hallmark quests, regardless of story, i found myself killing x number of mobs. The one exception was the longest journey quest, where you must run the length of antonica...then zek, then enchanted lands, etc,etc.
Perhaps playing on AB, you fail to realise other servers, such as my one runnyeye, are dead. U'd be lucky to find a group at primetime, only ever managed to find a few raids. As for the community, well it doesnt have anything on SWG's, little interaction between people and the forums are rarely busy.
Ive started playing ryzom now, thats an example of what a community is, what RP is and what something new is.
The CU would have had to do something pretty special to change this...
"The combat revamp actually is nothing like this. It changed the way in which mobs mitigate damage, and the factors that define it. What it did was made fights that are outside your level range much more difficult or easy, depending on their level as to yours. It made the game much more challening and thought provoking as far as battle is concerned. It rawks"
The key things it would have to do for me would be:
a) make soloing less viable...HL2 is best for soloing...
b) make different armours more viable, like swg's cu did, i.e. theres one good set of armour every 5 lvls or so.
c) merge the dam servers..would be kinda irresponsible of me or anyone else to transfer to AB if we got no intention of RPing..
I left because I was infected by the World of Warcraft movment. Luckily I was cured and went back....oh that was a scary time.
Extermination quests: kill quests basically.
Collection quests: you collect these objects by finding shining points on the ground (randomly spawned and placed) and 'collecting' them like you would harvest. You then examine them to add them to your collection. Once you've completed one entire collection, you can turn it in to a quest guy for a reward. The reward ranges from a decent piece of armor to just some simple coin. The idea was that you would find these points on the ground while running around the world and it would be something you can do while running regular quests, sort of like a distraction. More often than not though, these quests are missing certain rare items that you can't easily acquire and it starts to turn into a sort of trading card game except the cards don't do anything except fill up slots.
Rescue quests: NPCs stand there and ask for you to help them. You kill the mobs around the NPC and they allow you to buy stuff from them, which is usually always crappy stuff you can get elsewhere. Out of 31 levels and doing every single quest I could complete, this is the only rescue quest I've come across.
Racing quests: There's only 1. You run from place to place then do it again in a new zone. Don't know what the reward is since you have to be around level 50 to complete the last leg of it but it's pretty pointless.
Exploration quests: Incredibly lame. You just go to a certain point and the quest log updates. There's usually nothing of interest to see and nothing to discover or find, the quest log just updates the moment you reach the target area.
Assassination quests: typical kill quest with named mobs, nothing more.
My gripe with the quests is that none of them are really engaging. It feels like you're running petty chores for the NPCs rather than questing and discovering the world and learning more about the lore. Sometimes, the quests are so bad at hinting you to the next step that you almost need to refer to a guide in order to find out what you have to do next. In 31 levels I haven't come across one quest that changes the world in some way or affects the game in some way besides just giving me quest count +1. It's like my actions have no consequence at all.
Woah.. a few days ago i actually contemplated buying EQ2. Thanks to this thread, i never will.
_____________________
I am the flipside of the coin on which the troll and the fanboy are but one side.
LOL, no you weren't pirrg. All you do is lurk around and bash EQ2 like you caught it in bed with your wife.
Please enlighten us to the fantastic game you are playing right now. You obviously have very high standards and I would love to know what game you consider worth playing now.
Ya troll
Joined 2004 - I can't believe I've been a MMORPG.com member for 20 years! Get off my lawn!
Quote: Woah.. a few days ago i actually contemplated buying EQ2. Thanks to this thread, i never will.
Let me be the first one to say Thank you Pirrg ,we are better off with you playing EVE-Online .
Stay far far away from EQ2 specially the Splitpaw server ..
- Actually, your wrong pirrg - En1gma
I left EQ2 for multiple reasons.
1 - Crafting: I really liked the crafting system in SWG. Knowing that EQII was based on the same game engine, I expected crafting to be fun and involved like SWG. Boy was I wrong. Crafting in EQII is boring. You can't customize anything, and in order to have the supplies you need, you have to spend hours gathering. Blah.
2 - The built in time sinks: This was one of my biggest gripes. Too many quests force you to sit around and wait for something. And I'm not talking about a couple of minutes. Want to kill the lion for a heritage quest? Well, he spawns every few hours. Forget about going anywhere, or some idiot who doesn't even need him for a quest will kill him just to piss you off. Need gnolls for a quest? Wait an hour for it to switch to nighttime in the game so you can find them. Thank you very much, but I play games ot be entertained, not bored.
3 - Good vs Evil: Where? What was the point of coming up with two cities who are in conflict, and then not letting them battle each other? Speaking of which...
4 - Two cities: Just two? Come on. SWG had tons of towns, and player built cities as well. EQII had two crappy cities, and you had to zone to different parts of them.
5 - Zones zones zones!: I hating all the zoning. SWG, same engine, but very little zoning. What gives? Lag my left buttcheek, this was poor design all the way. Why do I say that? Because the zones STILL LAG.
My whole purpose for playing games is to have fun. EQII seemed more like a job than anything, so I left. I recently came back and tried it as SOE invited me back for a month. Still don't like it. I also don't like the fact that while Blizzard puts out new instances, battlegrounds, and encounters for free, SOE charges you 5 bucks for a new dungeon.
So, for now I am playing WoW in my spare time, while waiting for Hero's Journey and Huxley. (Well, I play lot's of games, but WoW is the only MMORPG at the moment. Or, rather, the only one I can say anything about
)
Agent_X7 AKA J Star
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Notice: The views expressed in this post are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of MMORPG.com or its management.
I ran out and bought EQ2 when it was released last year and was amazed at the graphics. The Isle of Trials was alot of fun as well. But I was disappointed when I discovered that they did away with all the race based cities. I mean I was a DE through and through and I wanted my beloved Neriak. Instead of having all the cities we were stuck with just Freeport and Quenyos.
Another thing that I didnt like was the fact that they put emphasis on the rivalry between Freeport and Quenyos. Being a DE from Freeport I was constantly reminded in quests and from NPC's that the good races from Quenyos were our bitter enemies. Yet there was no RvR. When you happened to come across the races from the other city the most you could do was maybe taunt them with a few silly insults. I think if they had RvR the game would've been a hell of alot more interesting.
But what really did it for me was when they came out with this patch back in January that screwed with alot of people's video cards. It caused this strange video stutter that resembled lag. Made the game impossible to play. I waited a couple of weeks for Sony to remedy this goof up but they did nothing. They just claimed that it was our computer causing the problem and not the patch. That pissed me off.
Meh, I left because I was bored =/ I know a lot of people love the tiered class system, and in most cases, I do also. But after playing EQ1, having to go through 20 levels just to get my Shadowknight, and then being stuck in Freeport, sealed the deal for me. This is going to sound strange to most people, i'm sure, but I like playing the 'evil' goodguy's. A Drow Paladin, or in EQ2's case, a Drow Shadowknight. Unfortunately, you can't betray after level 17-18...which means, nope, not allowed to play how I wanted to. I hate freeport and that area.
Again, will sound strange, but I hate the butthead (sorry to sound lame, but...don't want to get into profanity, want to not get banned) NPC's. I prefer having enjoying the NPC's, not waiting to read through the text as fast as possable because the snide attitude of the NPC just sets my teeth on edge. And now, the one character I really wanted to play, has me stuck on the side I hate.
I did look into other classes, but none of them seemed as fun to me. The ranged classes in this game, which tend to be my second bet if there's no Dark Paladin (which most game's don't have) just didn't do anything for me. So sadly...while the game is fun, I can't play a game without a class I enjoy.
Oh, and crafting bites -_- and crafting is my favorite thing to do in an MMO. They really need to make a game that has crafting based on mini-games =/ that way, the skill of the player really does determine how good the crafted item is.
I left because of the absence of things I wanted to see and presence of things that simply grated on me.
Things I wanted to see
Underdark - there was talk during development of a vast "Underdark" that could run the span of Antonica, like some vast tunnel complex with underground cities or something.
Multiple continents - CONTINENTS, not islands. I wanted to see a bigger, better Odus, for example, with vast jungles to explore.
Ships - I wanted travel to not be trivial and for treks across a continent to be adventures in themselves.
Racial starting cities - not unlike those in EQ1 before the infamous POP and Luclin expansions ruined it all. Seeing a Barbarian in the Elflands should be a curiosity.
Distinct classes - sorry, but to me all the EQ2 classes play the same. Every other combat move flashes with fire or lightning so that a warrior might just as well be a mage casting spells.
Distinct races - different races need different abilites. If some abilities are major, then they can be offset with major weaknesses. For example, trolls might get regen, but be especially susceptible to fire-based attacks. EQ2 made them all much the same; too bad.
Things that grated
NPC dialogue - sounded too much like New York TV sitcom actors. Perhaps that's who they hired. Very annoying and insulting. Really grated on me after awhile.
Endless text boxes - NPC interaction, for even the most mundane quests, would often involve clicking through as many as a dozen text boxes, some of which described what the NPC was saying, some what my character was saying. (Thought I was supposed to decide what my character says, not the game). Many players, I hear, would simply click through the boxes without reading them in order to get to the point.
Useless lore - much of the in-game lore had little if any impact on the game; so it meant nothing.
"Horrible" Wheel - H.O. Wheel. Warrior blocks, priest heals, and WHOOPEE a fireball is set off! Many players, I have heard, became so bored with the "whack-a-mole" clicking on the senseless H.O. wheel, they simply ignored it later in the game.
Too much zoning - as other posters have said, the major cities with their useless inn rooms are major "zone-fests". A little zoning is okay, but Sony overdid this in EQ2.
Branching classes - a DAOC concept and the most inane game feature I have ever experienced. The idea is that you get a feel for playing a class before you choose a final class (at level 20!). They want you to not suffer the experience of playing a character for 2 or 3 levels before you decide you have chosen the wrong class. Solution: you get to play a character for 20 levels before you decide you have chosen the wrong class. Blecchhh...
Training wheels - too much of the gameplay is forced, contrived and controlled. The newbie citizenship quest might as well be an in-game movie the player sits back and watches; would be more bearable. The formerly locked encounters, shared death experience penalties, zones with level-limited entrance requirements all dimished game play and immersion.
Overall this game was designed using all of the wrong elements. Whatever worked in EQ1 was canned in EQ2. I truly think Sony put too much emphasis in graphics and not enough in gameplay. SWG was sort of like that too, wasn't it? All dolled up but nowhere to go.
Agent_X7 AKA J Star
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Notice: The views expressed in this post are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of MMORPG.com or its management.
Agent_X7 AKA J Star
[/URL]
Notice: The views expressed in this post are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of MMORPG.com or its management.