So, how is EQ2 so far?

[Ilienwyn]

Is it good? Was expecting NF in daoc to improve things a bit but don't see much difference. Have been thinking of trying a Shadowknight in EQ2 last couple days (loved playing reaver in daoc despite people not wanting them in groups so much).

So, how is it? You can get groups with any class if you play well? And how is Shadowknight? Similar to reaver at all?

[Alan]

The only bad thing about EQ2 are the patches.

Pre Launch : There will be Euro servers in amsterdam, events, GM's and patches will suit euro time zones

Launch : NO Euro servers, but they marked RunnyEye as a uk-prefered server to allow euro players to use the same server

Post-Launch : Runnyeye is way too busy and is no longer a uk-prefered server, all servers are now the same (bar french/german) and will all be treated in the same band as "USA Servers" however they insisit GM support is avaliable 24/7 and they will run events when the majority of players are on each server.

Future Plans : SoE stated due to Euro interest they are reinvestigating running some servers in amsterdam that will be patched late at night, if this goes ahead you will be able to move your character to these new servers.

Due to this you can expect patches any time between 11.00 and 16.00 uk time, youll get plenty of warnings and as most people are at work then its not a major problem.

Personaly im finding it a REALLY good game, the gameplay is great, the graphics stunning and the content is good, but if you like RvR in camelot then it may be best to stear clear as there is none... not even dueling. I was concerned about the lack of points when you level to spec in something, this is something you get in camelot - but in EQ2 you get no points and no need to train things just happen automaticaly, but at L19 i now have three toolbars of spells (yummy)

For 24.99 with a free month, id recomend anyone try it !!

[Crookshanks]

Well its certainly different to DAOC!

<disclaimer: I have not got a character above level 10 yet - I've had curse of the "restart" syndrome over the last week, so my opinion is from a new starters perspective really. Mind you - what I don't know about that starter island isn't worth knowing >

The graphics are extremely nice. There's a sense of size that DAOC can only dream of. This really hit me when I walked across one of the big planar areas (Antonica) - turned around and headed back to the city - which you can see the spires off from miles away! None of the "pop" effects you get in DAOC (although mobs still "pop" in a similar fashion to DAOC). I had been thinking the backdrops looked mildly cartoony - but having gone and loaded DAOC again I withdraw this view! The character models themselves are outragous - the amount of detail is incredible, I really feel like I'm looking at a proper person from the way they move, act and look.

The combat system isn't quite as rosy imo (although this may be partly due to the fact that I havn't really got to a high enough level yet). Rather than DAOC everything being swing based, in EQ2 all styles are on "cast" timers and reuse timers, independent to your actual "vanilla" swinging (which occurs similar to DAOC - engage mob and hit F6). Consequently - I don't get the feel that I'm as involved - rather than moving into position and wanting to hit say a side shot, in EQ2 you move into position and wait for the side shot to become available (if you've used it recently), then wait while you attempt to swing it. When entering combat - I tend to get the impression that I'm not really getting as involved as DAOC - it feels like I'm just sitting back and watching to some extent.

On the plus side - the magic system doesn't suffer from the same level of interupts at DAOC, so as a caster you can engage a mob in melee and still have a good chance to cast spells - which is refreshing.

Monsters: It seems much harder to run away from a monster in EQ2 than in DAOC. You have a similar "sprint" style key - but for some reason monsters seem to keep up with me (possibly they walk slightly faster than my walking speed?). It certainly helps keep you afraid of mobs while out adventuring alone miles from anywhere! Monsters also have a colour con system - similar to daoc (although EQ2 white == our level, yellow is slightly harder than you). What I don't get as yet is the little triangles they also get in their description tag. A triangle pointing "up" means the mobs looks a little bit harder than what you might expect, and "two-up" means much harder. What this means is that a fight with a blue-con with two-up arrows can be really challenging (blue is one step below your own level, like DAOC), yet I've beaten orange mobs (red-equivalent in DAOC) without the triangles without taking more than 5% health hit. Like I say.. I havn't worked the logic out behind this yet - I'm clearly missing something.

Questing: Well the name does kind of give you a clue - "everquest". I walk about and get bombarded by NPC's trying to give me one quest or another. In a way its good - you don't need to grind on mobs, but I sometimes feel lost in the number of quests I have signed up to do. Finding NPC x, y or z in the big cities is an absolute nightmare too - you can ask guards for directions like in DAOC, but the guards don't seem to know where the NPC is unless they are positioned very close by which seems odd. The cities btw are HUGE, comprised of many zones - which is as a city should be. Being able to walk from one side to the other in under 60 seconds in DAOC was something I always found annoying.

Finally - as yet there is no PvP, and the SoE developers have said "don't buy the game expecting PvP". The way things have been set up however is you have two sides (the good and the evil) which have a sort of cold-war style relationship. It seems to me that the scene is set for a future PvP expansion - we'll just have to wait and see on that front.


To sum up - if you have a decent pc (and 1 gig ram is a must imo) - I'd recommend you get it. If like you you've enjoyed DAOC, but you think its just all got a bit "samey" then EQ2 is a nice change. Maybe catacombs will breathe more life into DAOC.

[Alan]

Too add to the coments above on combat styles.

As a L19 crusader (will be a paladin at 20) I have one qbar full of styles now, while one is recharging there are others to use, each has a different effect - like one procs elemental damage, one style drains a little life, there are also skill-chains (like in FFXI if you played that) if you complete a set of styles in a set order you do extra damage.

Life as a melee character is a little dull for the early levels when you have a small amount of styles, but it makes up for it as you progress from 10+

Ohh and to relate EQ2 to DAOC
Mob cons are grey -> green -> blue -> white -> yellow -> orange -> red

So pretty much like DAOC, the colour for guild, group chat (and all others) can be changed, i currently configured mine just like DAOC to not be confused.

The keyboard is fully configurable so you can map it just like DAOC

The chat windows, by default all messages are in one, however i now have it DAOC style, a top window with all system messages, and a bottom one with just chat

The transition is VERY VERY easy if you spend a little time int he configuration options.

[Crookshanks]

Originally Posted by Tears

The chat windows, by default all messages are in one, however i now have it DAOC style, a top window with all system messages, and a bottom one with just chat

You can change the text colour? I've been trying to do this for a while - I would like personal message not to come in the camaflaged dark green/blue colour that it currently does as I keep missing people saying things. Is the option in the window menu? I poked about but failed to find it - perhaps I'll have another look tonight.

While on the subject - do you find when you relog in occasionally that the chat menu's have forgotton what they are supposed to be displaying, and have all gone back to displaying all messages?

[Alan]

Originally Posted by Crookshanks

You can change the text colour? I've been trying to do this for a while - I would like personal message not to come in the camaflaged dark green/blue colour that it currently does as I keep missing people saying things. Is the option in the window menu? I poked about but failed to find it - perhaps I'll have another look tonight.

While on the subject - do you find when you relog in occasionally that the chat menu's have forgotton what they are supposed to be displaying, and have all gone back to displaying all messages?

Yup occasionaly i have to retick a few boxes but its not too hard GAME TEXT in one and all others in the other box

As for colours - check EQ2 -> Options -> UI Settings : its in there, i think under Game Colours but cant tell without being at home

[Amok]

I can't say enough about how good the combat system is once you get good at it... really helps if you have teamspeak tho.

For those not playing yet, each class gets a heroic ability at level 6. On it's own this does nothing but is used to start chains of moves, a bit like the DAOC style chains.

e.g. as a priest you cash your heroic starter and do a smite to open the 'heroic opportunity' (HO) and follow up with another nuke to finish. The last nuke will do an additional lot of damage (about double normal) and you get a self buff to your primary casting skill. Fighters first HO ends in damage add and aoe taunt.

This really gets interesting in groups tho and this is where voice comms is useful. e.g;
Mage: opens HO
Priest: Casts 'Smite'
(Starter chain now complete)
Mage: Any nuke
Priest: Any heal
effect: Group health and mana heal.

Makes for a really dynamic combat system rather than the spam special attacks or stick and wait combat seen in most MMOs.

This site has a list of a few that have been found out already;

http://www.gnorrath.com/index.htm

[Alan]

In random groups you cant really use TS - but you can stick a macro on your quickbar, best one is something like

/g Starting HO in 5 secs....

As this gives time for people to stop randomly clicking on attack styles.

[Ilienwyn]

How does this thing with good and evul races/classes (?) works out? You start at one side and want to change? So, what happens with races/classes that can start both good and evil?

e.g. Shadowknight is evil so if i start with good I have to change but not if I start with evil why start with good if going for evil though?

[Alan]

Originally Posted by Ilienwyn

How does this thing with good and evul races/classes (?) works out? You start at one side and want to change? So, what happens with races/classes that can start both good and evil?

e.g. Shadowknight is evil so if i start with good I have to change but not if I start with evil why start with good if going for evil though?

Any race can be any profession

You start at level 1 as a fighter, mage, scout, priest
At level 10 you pick a sub clas, eg if a fighter : crusader, warrior, brawler
At level 20 you pick a final sub sub class, eg if a crusader : paladin, shadowknight.

Now some races are forced to be GOOD or EVIL, as an example a Dark Elf MUST be evil.

Some L20 classes are only avaliable to GOOD and some to EVIL for example paladins can only be GOOD.

The way around this is to do the betrayal quest and change your starting city from EVIL to GOOD, this is a very very hard quest and very time consuming, but as the final example my path has been :-

L1 EVIL - Dark Elf - Fighter
L10 EVIL - Dark Elf - Crusader
.... at L15 start the betrayal quest .....
L15 GOOD - Dark Elf - Crusader
L20 GOOD - Dark Elf - Paladin

As I want to be a Dark elf i have to start evil
As I want to be a Paladin i must be GOOD before level 20

[Crookshanks]

Do you know what the upper limit is before you take the betrayal quest? I thought I had read 17, but thinking about it why would this be the case? Why wouldn't it be 20 - ie. the point at which you choose your final subclass? Is there a quest at 17 which starts you down the sub-class path?




ps. Sorry to correct you Mr Tears - but actually at level 1 you start as a commoner. You choose your base class at level 2 (for level 3).

[Ilienwyn]

So, if I start with a race that can be both good and evil you choose right away what you want and you are ok?

[Turamber]

Hmm second time of writing this as the cat walked over the keyboard and wiped it. Anyhoo...

I've got a character on the verge of hitting 20 and becoming a Fury, so I feel that I now know the game and what it's about. Good stuff: The quests and the NPC interaction; graphics and sound.

Bad stuff: Shard's are teh suck, if you die in a difficult to get to place you will suffer a penalty against your stats for 72 real life hours, pretty much forcing you to either play another toon or not play at all. Sharing the xp debt of people who die in your group is, imo, a stupid idea -- the number of times I've had debt because of yahoo group members who run off doing their own thing, or people with bad connection's and lag into mobs is untrue. Little room, as far as I can see at this stage, for skill at all -- something common to most MMOG's but abundantly evident here. Not particularly solo friendly, a great number of mobs are designed to be tackled by groups. And last, but not least, it feels like a grind already.

Doubting that I will extend my subscription past this first month, although who knows when I (eventually) become a Fury and enter some new areas I may feel differently.

[Crookshanks]

Originally Posted by Ilienwyn

So, if I start with a race that can be both good and evil you choose right away what you want and you are ok?

yes - if you choose Half-elf say, at the character creation screen you say if you want to be good (and go to Qeynosthingy) or evil (and go to Freeport). You can reverse this decision around level 14-17 - but then thats it.

[Amok]

If yer shard is in the bottom of a dungeon or something, just go outside, rightclick on the door and do retrive shard