Everquest Europe...

[talen_sun]

Well,

I'm in the beta test, anyone else who peruses the boards coming over to play on that too??

Just wondering, please don't shout at me...

 

[Belsameth]

I did apply. no word yet either way tho

 

[old.Trine Aquavit]

EQ Europe.

I've taken a look but, frankly, unless you're French or German and can't/don't want to speak English it's a waste of time. Current European EQ players won't want to start from scratch (particularly when you need to buy a new copy of the game) and few people will choose to start playing EQ (a 4 year old game) when there's the likes of SWG, AC2, etc. on the horizon. The last new non-split server EQ had was a Euro server (Kane Bayle) and that one is their least populated.

EQ is a great game. It beats DAOC for PvE content without breaking a sweat. But there's nothing in EQ Europe to attract the volume of playes needed to support the game. If they had done this with EQ 2 years ago it might have worked, but with this sort of timing they're screwed.

I pity the few new people who pick up the UBI version of Everquest Gold Edition and find that they can't play on the US servers. MMORPGs aren't much fun when you take the first M out.

 

[talen_sun]

Well, having never played EQ (DAoC my first MMORPG) it'll be a nice way to find out on what I missed....

Doesn't mean I can't play DAoC or SW:G, and I'm also waiting for WoW too, so.. It's something else to keep me occupied, on these dark lonely nights through winter...

Also.. it's fwee, saving me a tenner from EB or Game!!

 

[Belsameth]

my point too.
can try a game I wanted to try anyway. and not pay a dime.
(yes, I've been accepted as well) also have the Neocron Beta lying around somewhere, which should provide some fun.

 

[old.Trine Aquavit]

Hmmm, fair enuff. Though you aint going to see much of EQ in that short a time - the game needs serious investment.

One thing worth trying, though, is getting drunk.

Drinking too much alchohol in the game eventually makes your character drunk - your view sways from side to side and stuff you type come out garbled

Drink enough and you raise your 'Alchohol Tolerance' skill. Those with a high tolerance can drink before a battle, which raises their strength (but lowers their wisdom and intelligence). There's actually a guild on one server which only accepts trolls and ogres with an alcohol tolerance over 150

Ah, makes me all nostalgic

 

[old.Revz]

You can actually play normal EQ on the proper VI run servers free for a month if you want to try it. Go to www.everquest.com and download the basic version (this is the game that everyone bought 4 years ago) and you get a free months subscription with it. Totally free, no strings attached.

The only problem is you will need to shell out for 3 expansions (soon to be 4 on the 28th October) if you want to get the most out of it. Of course there is a serious time commitment required, much more so than DAoC. If you know what you are letting yourself in for it is great I am currently playing and having a great time. It really isn't for everyone though so try before you buy.

Bear in mind mostly that the games graphics are 4 years old in the free version. When you get the Luclin expansion it overhauls all of the models and and textures for the entire game which makes it better (but still not as good as DAoC).

 

[CliffyG]

How did the shadows of luclin improve on it? I stopped playing just before it came out.

 

[old.Trine Aquavit]

Revz,

How are the SoL graphics these days? I bought SoL when it was released and it suffered from serious framerate problems (you needed 512mb to use all the textures - I have 640 and it was still sluggish). Also, have they implemented the new interface & the bazaar yet?

S'pose I could find out for meself, but I'm lazy

 

[Adelle]

Hey, thanks a bunch for that link Revz!

 

[old.Revz]

Luclin did a couple of things :

• High poly character models for each race
• New high res textures for every single zone in the world
• Much higher poly zones generally in Luclin
• New spell/particle engine
• New UI (this is incredible)

And probably a few other things that I forget. It doesn't completely alter the game and the graphics are still worse than DAoC but it helps a lot. In particular the new UI, which is totally player customisable based on an XML like interface, is utterly brilliant. If you want to see what I mean have a look here :

http://www.eqgui.com/

There are literally hundreds of them to download and you can mix and match whatever you want or create your own. In general the EQ UI > DAoC UI anyway because it had matured over the 3 years to fix annoying things like proper macros, automatic stacking and so on. With the new UI stuff it is streets head of DAoC. Amusingly they did steal the in game manual from DAoC though

 

[old.Revz]

Originally posted by old.Trine Aquavit
Revz,

How are the SoL graphics these days? I bought SoL when it was released and it suffered from serious framerate problems (you needed 512mb to use all the textures - I have 640 and it was still sluggish). Also, have they implemented the new interface & the bazaar yet?

S'pose I could find out for meself, but I'm lazy

Everyone lags in the bazaar horribly When I went in last night there were 250+ traders with nearly 6k items up for sale so with that many people in a small zone most of which is in your view at any one time the frame rate dives.

Having said that I run fine in most other places with minimal tweaking. I have a fair few of the old models on because they are much lower poly and I was generally more used to them from before anyway. With that said I use the new troll and ogre models without any problems whatsoever, you can choose exactly which ones you want to see and I like these two the most (although trolls lose some of their cuteness and don't sit like teddy bears anymore ). A picture of me can be found :

http://www.servantsofthelake.org/images/uploads/EQ/ribak.jpg

If you can remember what trolls used to look like to compare. The custom UI I now use can be seen :

http://www.servantsofthelake.org/images/uploads/EQ/giant.jpg

 

[Slyman]

Im in the beta, got the mail today so I shall take a look as DAOC is my first mmorpg.

 

[old.Trine Aquavit]

Well, I took a look at EQ tonight (after a 4 hour download - arghhh, need broadband!) and the new UI looks pretty funky. This is a very good thing as the old one was pretty shite (plenty of features, but hard to use). I think I might give it a more thorough test this weekend.

For those that are considering taking a look, I would recommend having a good look at the manual, which is now on-line and a damn sight better and more up to date than the manuals I've picked up with the various expansions.

EQ is definitely worth a look if you enjoy DAOC. It is, RvR aside, the game that inspired DAOC.

Two things did come back to haunt me, though. The first was memories of the appalling down-time. Just scribing a couple of spells was enough, and then seeing how slowly mana and health regenerated, even at level one . The second was how annoying it is to communicate with the NPCs for quests - typing the stuff in brackets in a question or statement the parser will understand :\

Worth a look, though.

 

[wolvon fury]

I got the E-mail, But i think i put my profile details rong, so i fear the CD may not arrive,

Man, i might go try EQ again, i couldent stand the old HUD,

That new one is sweet

 

[Khalen]

I'm in it as well..

 

[old.Stang]

Woot, iam in to

 

[old.Biffsmash]

I recently bought EQ and Shadows of Luclin and quite frankly, I dont ever want to touch anything with the name Everquest in it EVER AGAIN!

On a more serious note, it's sloooow, slow to scribe spells, slow to get anywhere, and it just looks too old...

Someone's bound to like it though

 

[old.Revz]

Originally posted by old.Biffsmash
I recently bought EQ and Shadows of Luclin and quite frankly, I dont ever want to touch anything with the name Everquest in it EVER AGAIN!

On a more serious note, it's sloooow, slow to scribe spells, slow to get anywhere, and it just looks too old...

Someone's bound to like it though

As I said it isn't for everyone being as the game is much more of a challenge compared to DAoC. Horses for courses and suchlike.

However I would be willing to bet you that I could get anywhere in EQ faster than you could get from Lyonesse to Benowyc despite that fact that the EQ world must be physically 10 times the size of Albion if not more.

 

[old.Biffsmash]

Yeah I had heard the speed for bards? etc is a lot faster, and, if I could get over the fact that it's so dated, I would love to give it a go. I love the idea of Dark Elves, and the exellent customisation of your characters look The generation of my character exited me, but unfortunately its just too dated, once I loaded into that first little room with the guard in, my eyes started to burn

And yes I agree, a lot of people like the game, and it is or was a good game. I just ran into it a little too late

 

[Nishar Sunee]

I've just cancelled my EQ account after 2 yrs of playing it, and to be quite honest you are not missing a damned thing by never having played EQ, i truely wish DAoC had come out a long long time ago so's i dint have to waste my time with EQ

 

[Irgil]

im in too, but dont think ill play it much

 

[SevenSins]

Hello all,

I've been accepted for one, mainly though for the reason it kills some time for me till the beginning of the PvP servers as the normal servers are no fun for me anymore at the moment.

Was interessed iif any friends (apart from Stang) were accepted into it aswell, could be more fun with a few friends beta-testing this "renewed" game. Mainly for the contact and info sharing
( It's probably not a total new game though, just a "milk the cow" scheme from Ubi to milk some more money out of the game by releasing it in the EU while they have EU servers on the US version, but like I stated above, I'll try it in order to kill time for me waiting for the PvP Servers ^^ )

-The SevenSins

 

[old.Trine Aquavit]

Well, I attempted to try and get back into EQ but the whole thing was just a bit too painful. It's a shame, because under the unfriendly interface (yes, it's still unfriendly) I know there is a great PvE game.

Unfortunately, everything seems to be a struggle in EQ. It reminded me why DAOC was such a pleasure to play.

I really hope Verant learn some lessons from the competition when they design and implement EQ2.

 

[Flimgoblin]

Originally posted by old.Revz


As I said it isn't for everyone being as the game is much more of a challenge compared to DAoC. Horses for courses and suchlike.

However I would be willing to bet you that I could get anywhere in EQ faster than you could get from Lyonesse to Benowyc despite that fact that the EQ world must be physically 10 times the size of Albion if not more.

Guess if you count 'challenge' as
'how many days can _you_ camp non-stop?' or
'can you sit regenning your mana for this long without going insane?' or
'How long can you go without eating/sleeping/showering?'

but anyway I'm digressing...

second part... don't you have to run about 4 zones to get back to where you die normally? unless you have some wizard to bind you or something... didn't play it long enough to get to that stage

EQ is probably your thing if you want lots and lots and lots of PvE , 60 levels of it... unfortunately (from what I hear) a lot of it is like Trees/Pygmys PvE... at least it was when Kunark first came out they may have added in more than one zone to kill from 50-60 since then

I expect it's possible to go exploring, kill other things (much like you can go to the pennines or dartmoor) but hard to convince anyone to go?

 

[Flimgoblin]

Originally posted by old.Trine Aquavit

I really hope Verant learn some lessons from the competition when they design and implement EQ2.

Can't remember where I saw it but there's apparently a lot of stuff in EQ2 that is very very reminiscent of another MMORPG which involves arthurian legends...

 

[kayless]

Im in too, gonna see what all the fuss was about

 

[old.Revz]

Originally posted by Fingoniel
Guess if you count 'challenge' as
'how many days can _you_ camp non-stop?' or
'can you sit regenning your mana for this long without going insane?' or
'How long can you go without eating/sleeping/showering?'

but anyway I'm digressing...

second part... don't you have to run about 4 zones to get back to where you die normally? unless you have some wizard to bind you or something... didn't play it long enough to get to that stage

EQ is probably your thing if you want lots and lots and lots of PvE , 60 levels of it... unfortunately (from what I hear) a lot of it is like Trees/Pygmys PvE... at least it was when Kunark first came out they may have added in more than one zone to kill from 50-60 since then

I expect it's possible to go exploring, kill other things (much like you can go to the pennines or dartmoor) but hard to convince anyone to go?

At the risk of getting into this old argument again with what would arguably be "DAoC fans" you shouldn't criticise what are different aspects of the same sort of game. People playing DAoC are, for the most part, happy that there is an easy to achieve cap on how good your character can be. This means that those who play a lot can eventually be caught up with by those who play casually. For the casual crowd this is great. For the people (like me) who enjoy seeing their large time and effort pay off it isn't so great. We get there faster but ultimately the guy who hasn't invested half as much will catch up with you and cheapen the effort it took.

That doesn't mean I'm right and you are wrong.

That doesn't mean you are right and I'm wrong.

We both enjoy different things so when Sickofit pops in here to call me a lame power-gamer or something he is just whipping out a complex version of the "how sad are you" argument whereby people assume the quality of your "real life" is inversely proportional to how well you do in game. At the end of the day it doesn't matter. We pay money to be entertained and these sort of games are extremely good value for money.

I just find EQ more to my tastes than DAoC. From what you said I gather you don't like aspects of EQ that keep the casual player down and require a lot of hard work/time. That is what I like about the game. It is a hell of a challenge for me restarting after so long doing other things (I originally played EQ after it went retail nearly 4 years ago) but that is what I want to do.

All the other things you are asking are just bits of the game you don't like used for emphasis. Personally the risk involved in possibly losing everything if you die in some unreachable place makes the encounters more exciting. Yes you grumble when you have to do a tricky CR but it adds to the tension when you are deep in a dungeon with no backup.

For me DAoC was like EQ-lite. It had all of the stuff you enjoy but none of the risk, difficulty or content. Without risk or challenge you eventually get disillusioned with it all. Without content you run out of things to do.

Some people like PKing people, some like doing quests and killing big monsters. Some like the security of a game with no risk and the knowledge they can eventually catch up with the guys who play 6 hours a day. Play what you enjoy?

 

[Belsameth]

I'm in as well.
how bout we start a DAoC guild there?

 

[Flimgoblin]

Originally posted by old.Revz


At the risk of getting into this old argument again with what would arguably be "DAoC fans" you shouldn't criticise what are different aspects of the same sort of game. People playing DAoC are, for the most part, happy that there is an easy to achieve cap on how good your character can be. This means that those who play a lot can eventually be caught up with by those who play casually. For the casual crowd this is great. For the people (like me) who enjoy seeing their large time and effort pay off it isn't so great. We get there faster but ultimately the guy who hasn't invested half as much will catch up with you and cheapen the effort it took.

Actually I'd dispute that it takes less effort for the casual gamer to get there.. I imagine if you take the person who plays 12 hrs a day solidly for a month or so to get to 50 and the person who plays 2 hours a night after work... by the time they reach 50 they'll have clocked up far more time in /played than the powergamer I'd hardly call that cheapening....

In EQ you can't get certain things unless you're willing to spend 12 hours online sitting in a zone waiting for that one monster to pop ... (I get most of my bias from tweety.bowlofmice.com btw )

That doesn't mean I'm right and you are wrong.

That doesn't mean you are right and I'm wrong.

We both enjoy different things so when Sickofit pops in here to call me a lame power-gamer or something he is just whipping out a complex version of the "how sad are you" argument whereby people assume the quality of your "real life" is inversely proportional to how well you do in game. At the end of the day it doesn't matter. We pay money to be entertained and these sort of games are extremely good value for money.

Agree with you here tis good entertainment is ye olde MMORPG

I just find EQ more to my tastes than DAoC. From what you said I gather you don't like aspects of EQ that keep the casual player down and require a lot of hard work/time. That is what I like about the game. It is a hell of a challenge for me restarting after so long doing other things (I originally played EQ after it went retail nearly 4 years ago) but that is what I want to do.

indeed, I don't like having to spend a huge amount of time in one block to get anywhere - rather hard if you can't login for more than 4 hours at a time without losing a large chunk of sleep

All the other things you are asking are just bits of the game you don't like used for emphasis. Personally the risk involved in possibly losing everything if you die in some unreachable place makes the encounters more exciting. Yes you grumble when you have to do a tricky CR but it adds to the tension when you are deep in a dungeon with no backup.

Actually I like risky places - I find the most fun place in Albion to xp is the Pennine Mountains - where you have nasty quick-spawning archer monsters, along with the odd Midgard invasion force
What I object to about everquest is the mindless camping (see my membership of the "Tanglers are teh boring!!!111" club)

CR?

For me DAoC was like EQ-lite. It had all of the stuff you enjoy but none of the risk, difficulty or content. Without risk or challenge you eventually get disillusioned with it all. Without content you run out of things to do.

There is risk in daoc.. just depends what you go for. There's no 'lose a weeks work' from a death admittedly, at worst you lose an hours work. A good thing in my opinion heck of a lot better than the mud I used to play on where one death could cost you a month of playing. That's pretty annoying even when it's not due to linkdeath or some other circumstance outside your control.

Agreed, content is fairly sparse in DAoC - but how long has everquest been around compared to camelot? things will improve. There is almost enough content to get to level 50 without a huge amount of tedious time camping the same monsters... there's still a drag there though, you'll have to bite the bullet and camp your brains out if you want to make it in the end..

Some people like PKing people, some like doing quests and killing big monsters. Some like the security of a game with no risk and the knowledge they can eventually catch up with the guys who play 6 hours a day. Play what you enjoy?

And RvRing, questing into the frontier and killing Legion/Golestandt is fun, you're quite right. And I'd like to be able to play the whole game over time, and not be limited to just the first few "casual levels"...

Quite right about 'play what you enjoy' - I'm not stopping anyone from playing everquest

I'm just responding with my opinion to your belittling of DAoC. I'd call killing a dragon a challenge, getting to realm rank 10 is quite a challenge (noone's done it yet). To say there are no challenges in Dark Age of Camelot is pretty far off the mark in my opinion.