EQ2

[ArchAngel777]

I am looking to play EQ2. I have downloaded the trial and am really impressed by the gameplay. I have a few questions to ask and if anyone can answer them, that would be great. If you don't have anything valid to say, then please stay out of this thread. johnqq, this applies mostly to you and possibly Pontifex.

1. What is the highest level in the game?

2. Are there any anandtech guilds out there? If so, I am interested in joining someone from the AT family if possible.

3. The expansion pack, is it needed right away? Or does it seem to be more high end content? Should I be fine with the origional for the first 40 levels or so?

4. Does anyone know if there is a tweak guide written on EQ2 to have the most eye candy for the performance cost? My GeForce 7800 GTX cannot handle all the options on maximum at more than 10 frames per second, kinda sad. Only running 1280 X 768 too.

5. Is the quest information in audio as well? The trial version is really immersive because the people you do quests from actually speak to you in audio. I love to read, but listening to a quest objective is more immersive, in my opinion.

6. How is the game for solo play? I am not interested in being a loner, but I am curious if it is even possible to solo mobs as you get past the level ten mark.

7. What is the population per server? 2500? 3000?

8. Any other helpful information you can give me? I don't want to hear how this game sucks, unless it is well thought out and expressed in a respectful manner. Otherwise, your post will be skipped.

Thanks in advance guys,

Arch Angel

 

[Schadenfroh]

1. What is the highest level in the game?

They just raised it to 60 with the expansion pack.

Are there any anandtech guilds out there? If so, I am interested in joining someone from the AT family if possible.

No Anandtech Guilds, but there are probably a few AT members willing to take another ATOTer into their guild. Most here are either WoW fanboys, sony haters, or MMO haters.

The expansion pack, is it needed right away? Or does it seem to be more high end content? Should I be fine with the origional for the first 40 levels or so?

From what i have read, it is mostly for the high levels, you should be fine lvl 1 - 40 without it, unless you want to PvP in the arena.

Does anyone know if there is a tweak guide written on EQ2 to have the most eye candy for the performance cost? My GeForce 7800 GTX cannot handle all the options on maximum at more than 10 frames per second, kinda sad. Only running 1280 X 768 too.

http://www.nvnews.net/articles/everquest_2_graphics/index.shtml explains a few things. But, i suggest turning off shadows, it helped me a good deal.

Is the quest information in audio as well? The trial version is really immersive because the people you do quests from actually speak to you in audio. I love to read, but listening to a quest objective is more immersive, in my opinion.

People speak to you and give you quests with voice overs most of the time. However, i have noticed it to be only around 65% of the time. Many quests still lack voice overs.

6. How is the game for solo play? I am not interested in being a loner, but I am curious if it is even possible to solo mobs as you get past the level ten mark.

I had no problems soloing before the combat revamp, i have not played since the combat update, however so i cannot comment on this.

7. What is the population per server? 2500? 3000?

No clue

8. Any other helpful information you can give me? I don't want to hear how this game sucks, unless it is well thought out and expressed in a respectful manner. Otherwise, your post will be skipped.

I loved EQ2 for the few months that i played it. My friends talked me into coming back to playing WoW with them and i ended my EQ2 subscription, being unable to convert them over to EQ2. But, i have no idea about how the game works with the new combat updates in the past few live updates.

 

[ArchAngel777]

Thanks for the great reply.

 

[Feneant2]

I don't have much more to say than this fellow. I think though if you join now, when you want to pick a server, the top 2-3 are not available. For a while, everyone was joining Antonia Bayle so we were getting like 9 out of 10 new players, so I believe they stopped it.

For the performance, I can't help. I just cancelled my account as my laptop could not get over 9-10 fps and their tech support would not help. They have the worst tech support around so I hope you never need assistance. (laptop was a 3.2 PIV, 1 gig ram, 9700 mobility, but it was no longer good enough)

 

[Looney]

3. The expansion pack, is it needed right away? Or does it seem to be more high end content? Should I be fine with the origional for the first 40 levels or so?

No, the content is only for 50+.

4. Does anyone know if there is a tweak guide written on EQ2 to have the most eye candy for the performance cost? My GeForce 7800 GTX cannot handle all the options on maximum at more than 10 frames per second, kinda sad. Only running 1280 X 768 too.

How much ram do you have? If you can get 2GB, then you can play at VERY HIGH quite easily. I play at VERY HIGH on my laptop with 2GB ram (although when i raided, i had to turn down to balance)... which only has a 6800 Ultra Go.

5. Is the quest information in audio as well? The trial version is really immersive because the people you do quests from actually speak to you in audio. I love to read, but listening to a quest objective is more immersive, in my opinion.

Yep, about 95% of all text ingame comes with voice.

6. How is the game for solo play? I am not interested in being a loner, but I am curious if it is even possible to solo mobs as you get past the level ten mark.

Soloing to 20 in any class is easy. After that, you CAN solo... which means you can kill solo mobs by yourself. But for xp, it sucks... sucks hard.

7. What is the population per server? 2500? 3000?

No idea. They don't reveal the numbers. Best to get in a guild.

8. Any other helpful information you can give me? I don't want to hear how this game sucks, unless it is well thought out and expressed in a respectful manner. Otherwise, your post will be skipped.

MMOGs are always a best value IMO. If you can even get one month of play out of it, it would mean you probably played over 100 hours. I got bored of it post 50, so i quit at like 52. But it was fun while it lasted. I played with RL friends, so that made the game a little more fun.

 

[r6ashih]

If it is anything like eq1 you need to get into a raiding guild to see any of the end game content. You wont be able to get into those guilds untill you are max level. I had the most fun/frustration while raiding in eq1. Everything else is just a grind.

 

[skace]

Read up on classes, how they split and where you want to be. Make sure you understand what 1 class is good at so that you don't get trapped in a class you hate. Do not go on assumptions. IE: I expected Wizard to be the best DD class in the game when coming from EQ1 to EQ2, but it turns out Warlocks are the best DD class. Enchanters are another misconception, they are very different than they used to be, you need to know which type of enchanter you want to be before you even pick your race.

Also, get a good understanding of the enemy con system. Enemies come in groups if they highlight in groups. There are elites and epic mobs. If you are soloing, you need to know which mobs you can take and where the greatest number of them is. Make sure you make some friends your own level very quickly if you plan to do dungeons. You will want some people that you can play with on a regular basis.

 

[Malladine]

4. Does anyone know if there is a tweak guide written on EQ2 to have the most eye candy for the performance cost? My GeForce 7800 GTX cannot handle all the options on maximum at more than 10 frames per second, kinda sad. Only running 1280 X 768 too.

HardOCP has provided EQ2 benchmarks with all their gpu reviews for the last several months. You might want to check there.

5. Is the quest information in audio as well? The trial version is really immersive because the people you do quests from actually speak to you in audio. I love to read, but listening to a quest objective is more immersive, in my opinion.

Some are some aren't, i've found.

6. How is the game for solo play? I am not interested in being a loner, but I am curious if it is even possible to solo mobs as you get past the level ten mark.

It's possible but very difficult as you get higher in level. Almost impossible i'd say. Having a guild helps a LOT - especially if you plan on crafting. Crafting in EQ2 -> WoW is like night and day. The EQ2 crafting system is the deepest i've ever found, by a gajillion miles. After putting 6+ hrs into it i'm a lvl 12 scholar and I finally feel comfortable with the system. The learning curve is intimidating to say the least but once you learn it is quite rewarding

8. Any other helpful information you can give me? I don't want to hear how this game sucks, unless it is well thought out and expressed in a respectful manner. Otherwise, your post will be skipped.

Like above, find a guild to help you out with crafting dependancies (see eq2.stratics.com crafting guide II for interdependancies). An example would be jewelers (a lvl 20 sub class) are needed by weaponsmiths (another lvl 20 sub class) to make pommels, chains, studs and more. The is important because once you reach lvl 20 you can choose only one artisan sub class. The list is also on stratics.

Waypoints are handy and can be found on the map screen (M) in the bottom left corner. It's a glowing line leading you to wherever. You can also "find npc" using any guard in town.

That's all I can think of right now but i'll prolly be back later with more

Here's a couple more websites if you're into online resources for MMOs: gamepressure for maps and eq2guru.com or allakhazam for more detailed quest/item info (though gamepressre has some of that)

Oh another handy tip is the fact that you can queue skills/spells even if they're on a cooldown. I've queued two or three before, it's pretty handy. I'll queue up a heroic opportunity, a heal, 2nd stage of the heroic opportunity, stuff like that.

 

[Malladine]

"things I wish i'd known" thread at eq2 official forums

 

[ArchAngel777]

Originally posted by: Malladine
"things I wish i'd known" thread at eq2 official forums

Cool, thanks for the help guys... I plan on picking it up tonight.

 

[Malladine]

Don't think another thread needs to be started on this so here I am.

Ok, we quit EQ2.
UO lasted 2 years,
EQ1 lasted 10 months,
DAoC lasted 4 months,
WoW lasted 3 months,
EQ2 lasted 2 weeks.

Interesting progression.

EQ2 is just so bland. Esp. right after playing WoW. My wife said "it's like all the player characters are ghosts, they barely stand out from the environment at all"

The fact that her system barely ran it didn't help, (and mine lagged when spell effects went off) but the game mechanics were just abysmal. Here's a group of orcs right? Tons of them in fact. But whoa, there's a heroic ^^^ don't go near him. Kill that group of Heroics WITHOUT the arrows, that's much easier. Course, the ^^^ doesn't look any different most of the time.

Take a quest, it's blue, and the stuff you have to kill (if it's not another go here talk to this guy go there talk to her go here talk to him go there hand this in go there talk to her blah blah BLAH - remember every zone in the game has a load time) is friggin grey with maybe a couple of greens.

Or you're wandering through a dungeon area and it's going alright until you hit some heroics 3 levels lower, a group of them no less (oh sorry, I mean an "encounter"), and die in 10 seconds.

On that note, grouping is 100% required unless your tolerance for mundane activities and tedium is saintly.

And crafting...my god. It was rewarding to finally make ANYTHING useable. It's like an hour of work to make a couple of items to just sell to the vendor or give to the guild. Forget about buying recipe books at the broker. Everyone there apparently has alts they buy items for with mains, meaning the prices are 10 times higher than the total amount of money we have ever had, combined.

Oh, and camping is most definately encouraged. Named spawns with consistent drops at the same locations...come on, EQ1!?!

We reached level 21.

 

[skace]

Originally posted by: Malladine
EQ2 is just so bland. Esp. right after playing WoW. My wife said "it's like all the player characters are ghosts, they barely stand out from the environment at all"

I played it with 4 friends all from EQ1 and all of them thought the environments were extremely bland also. Every piece of equipment you get looks like someone dragged it through the mud and then gave it to you. Very extreme opposite of WoW.

I made it to 26 before quitting. That seems to be the sweet spot. I had done like 90% of the quests for commonlands and 65% for Nektulos and I was all quested out.

 

[ArchAngel777]

Originally posted by: skace

Originally posted by: Malladine
EQ2 is just so bland. Esp. right after playing WoW. My wife said "it's like all the player characters are ghosts, they barely stand out from the environment at all"

I played it with 4 friends all from EQ1 and all of them thought the environments were extremely bland also. Every piece of equipment you get looks like someone dragged it through the mud and then gave it to you. Very extreme opposite of WoW.

I made it to 26 before quitting. That seems to be the sweet spot. I had done like 90% of the quests for commonlands and 65% for Nektulos and I was all quested out.

Thanks for the information. I have been playing it for a few days now and I am really pleased with the game. I came from WoW and couldn't be happier to get away from all those campy graphics. Most of the equipment in WoW isn't to my likes, the look of it that is. I like EQ2 mainly due to the gear and weapons. I havn't seen anything retarded like the Quel'Serrar blade, or Krol blade... The only decent looking weapons in WoW, in my opinion were the Assassin Swords and Arcanite Reaper. Everything else was ridiculous, almost as bad as FF7+ Gun blade? I am expecting to see that next...

Ok, so WoW was fun (key word, was) but it didn't take long before I got bored of it. I did however, level up two 60's... To my shame? Possibly.

But I am playing EQ2 with a different goal... Not to be the best, but to enjoy it for all it is worth. Rarely do I play games from a relaxed vantage point... Normally I am gun hoe on getting 60 and then getting the best loot I can for that level etc... But with EQ2, I am doing the questions, enjoying the voiceovers, enjoy the armor and the complexity to the system. I like EQ2 and for all the MMO's I have played, it is the most fun initially. I cannot comment on end game or even mid game, but when I get that far I will know.

CoH - was fun for the first level, meaning character creation was the only blast, IMO.

Horizon's - What a joke. 80% of the people were Dragons.

DAOC - Great for its time, sucks now, IMO.

Shadowbane - Uhhh... The game didn't even work for me. Not to mention it looks like someone pasted Jpegs for the characters on the 3D world.

WoW - Blast, was fun, but too much like FFO for me...

FFO - WoW, japanise weirdo anime at best... Dumb.

Eve Online - I think Text games offer more.

That is about all the games I have played for MMO's... I never played the first EQ, so that might have been well liked by me as well. However, I heard that much of it was camping, so perhaps not. BTW, those are my opinions of the games (obvious) so if you like them, that is cool with me. I didn't find them appealing to my tastes at all.

 

[Yreka]

I dunno, I am having alot of fun with EQ2. There is alot of stuff to keep me occupied, between quests, tradeskills, and my Gf has me hooked on the damn collection quests, guild writs - increasing guild level, getting status points, fixing up your house*might have to turn in the mancard on that one*, etc. It definately feels more immersive than EQ1, just because there is so much to do.

As for performance, I start on the one setting above balanced, then I turn flora and HDR off and shadows down, and turn the rendering distance up. I use 8SAA and 16X Af in the driver since I cant find the settings for those in game. This gives me around 20-40 fps normally, but I click down to performance on raids etc. System is an OPT175 @ 2.5G, 7800GT SLI @ 1280x1024 2gm ram.

We tried WOW for our free month and didnt care for it too much. While some people feel EQ2 graphics are bland, we felt WOW was too cartoony and over the top. We also had a hard time choosing a character/class, none really seemed to stand out or grab us. The game in itself felt overly simplistic. Quests felt like, whats the point?, no real direction. Again, its hard to gauge the game in a month of play, our highest chars were like 20 I believe. Im sure it gets much much better, but it was hard to justify continuing sub fees on a game neither of us enjoyed. On the other hand, EQ2 seemed to grab us right away, with the quests to get off the isle, gain your citizenship, classes, etc.

Not to bash WoW, its obviosly a great game it just wasn't for us. I am not arrogant enough to assume it "sucks", just because I didn't like it. Different players want different things. Its obvious by the player numbers what most people prefer. I am just glad their are alternatives for people that want to play something else.

 

[skace]

For what it's worth, I'll give my viewpoint on each game.

Originally posted by: ArchAngel777
CoH - was fun for the first level, meaning character creation was the only blast, IMO.

CoH deffinitely had some awesome character creation. The only other thing worth attaining was the level 16 movement additions. I was so happy when I got flying.

Shadowbane - Uhhh... The game didn't even work for me. Not to mention it looks like someone pasted Jpegs for the characters on the 3D world.

Shadowbane had it's moments when the PvP was really cool. The times where you were actually defending your city from an invading army or small group warfare near a high level spawn of monsters. Unfortunately, it was the filler stuff that occured between these encounters that drove me and a ton of other people away from the game after only a month or so.

WoW - Blast, was fun, but too much like FFO for me...

WoW had some of the best questing ever in an MMORPG. The game kept you constantly doing new things and made it feel like you were progressing. Unfortunately, it was the raid schedules that killed the game for me. Waiting for all the PST people to log on and then being up until 3am did not fly and made me eventually quit.

FFO - WoW, japanise weirdo anime at best... Dumb.

I got as far as 31/15 THF/NIN but sadly it was the language barrier that killed the game for me. You simply couldn't tell what Japaneese people were thinking and it alienated you. I met some really cool people, but they were the minority. The game really lost it's appeal when I hit the level 30-40 playgrounds and only 1 other member of my group spoke english.

Eve Online - I think Text games offer more.

This game needs to be played with people you know well and can trust. Even though you can solo a lot, you have to have people you can fall back on. I'm totally impressed with the economy right now, but the rest of the game isn't that impressive.

Edit: Oh and you really missed out on EQ1. It's simply a unique experience that EQ2 fails to capture.