EQ2 beta NDA is over so, what is the word?

[glen]

?

 

[glen]

bump

 

[Apathetic]

bump

 

[Whitecloak]

bump

 

[Malladine]

lol

Wasn't in beta first of all but what I hear seems to be pretty divided. Some love it, pointing to the inventive crafting system, pretty gfx, good selection of spells/skills etc, some think it's ok but needs fixing in the areas of class uniqueness before hitting the lvl 20 sub-class and gfx and others don't like it at all, citing "grinding", dumbed down gameplay, no way of knowing which npcs have quests, etc (thanks WoW :/). Personally I enjoy the idea that the fights and the lvls will last a while. It ain't about gaining lvls for me. At all. It's about having fun, and I don't care how long lvling takes as long as I am having it. Longer, tougher fights and harsher more reasonable death penalties contribute a lot to that! And on the quest issue, I think it's more immersive to actually have to "converse" with npcs to find out about them and if they have any quests for you. My main problem with EQ2 now is the graphics. I'm put off somewhat by the stances in the screenshots. The characters look like they've been taken straight from Studio Max or some other 3d rendering software. If anyone with actual ingame exp can address this i'd appreciate it.

I've read probably a dozen beta impressions from half a dozen websites and have drawn the conclusion that the game will be worth buying at release (after more patches go through, of which there are many and all of them large).

To counter accusations of favoritism, i will say, as I have already said numerous times, that i'll be trying WoW out again during open beta.

 

[Modeps]

the word is, dont waste your money in the mmorpg scene

 

[OMG1Penguin]

As far as the character models are concerned, the character creation disc looked AWESOME on my 6800 vanilla... ran pretty damn smooth at 1600 with no AA... not sure how that will change on a scene full of other players.... on a PE @ 550

 

[Malladine]

Originally posted by: OMG1Penguin
As far as the character models are concerned, the character creation disc looked AWESOME on my 6800 vanilla... ran pretty damn smooth at 1600 with no AA... not sure how that will change on a scene full of other players.... on a PE @ 550

good to know, but...what about the actual models. I mean the basic way they are drawn. I've heard someone say that the males especially look as though they have Down syndrome and I kinda agree.

The animations are smooth eh? And plentiful?

 

[glen]

I think the look of the models is a non-issue for MMORPG.
Did you ever hear folks compain about the character models in UO.

 

[Malladine]

Originally posted by: glen
I think the look of the models is a non-issue for MMORPG.
Did you ever hear folks compain about the character models in UO.

UO had open ended gameplay, never toted the gfx and was released in '97...
As for your first sentence, I agree that they are less important than other elements, but far from a non-issue IMO. Some of the models i've seen in screenshots look terrible. Mostly the dwarves actually, but some elves and humans too.

Maybe it's just me, but I don't want my alter in the fictional world I choose to live in to look retarded.

 

[skace]

Models are pretty moot, I remember playing EQ when the high res models came out and barely anyone used them. It was basically, switch to new models, wave at the camera, screenshot, switch back to old models for the rest of your existence.

The questions that will make or break EQ2 will be how the gameplay holds up in comparison to the original.

IE:
1) Do they plan to continue their old EQ plan of releasing unfinished content and hoping people do not reach it
2) Do they plan to pump out expansion pack after expansion pack and ignore any bugs that may current exist
3) Do they plan to continually nerf every class whenever someone finds a skill that can be used more effectively than they deem acceptable.
4) Will rare spawns consist of mobs that you can't see when camping them for a week straight

etc.

I'll probably get EQ2 just to play it for a month.