having never played everquest; is everquest II better ?

Originally Posted By FlickJax (1 JUL 2012 5:47am)

having never played everquest; is everquest II better ?

I'd be more inclined to try EQ2 right now.  I recall trying a 3-day trial or something long long ago, and being impressed with the nice interface back then. 

But it was pretty empty at the time.  IIRC, there was some new mechanic or two that most players hated and it doomed the game to a small player base.  I'm sure someone else can give more details on this, as it's just a vague recollection I have from seeing similar questions asked. 

Like I said, I'd rather try the second one but I don't recall exactly why so many people panned it. 

Also.. I'm pretty sure Asheron's Call has been free-to-play for awhile now too.  That one had some interesting stuff in it back when it was released.. like having to experiment with various spell reagents to discover spells and the big seemless outdoor world was a pretty big deal at the time.   But it looks bad these days.. maybe worse than EQ as I'm not sure how much AC's graphics were updated (or if!).

Originally Posted By FlickJax (1 JUL 2012 5:47am)

having never played everquest; is everquest II better ?

No. But, I'm a diehard EQ lover so I'm pretty biased. I tried EQ2 when it first came out and didn't even finish the first month out. I recently went back and tried the F2P version and wasn't impressed with that as it turned out to be more like a WOW/RIFT clone and you ended up playing on rails from point a to point b to point c etc. etc. I don't like rail games.

I think I remember now why EQ2 was panned. 

At release, I'm pretty sure it actually required more group play than even EQ did.   At least, after you got past the aforementioned "on rails" solo part at the beginning.

For the hell of it (and just because I got decent bandwidth to blow), I tried EQ but I just don't have the nostalgia some of you do.  The interface is terrible.  While I didn't mind the updated graphics too much, but they certainly aren't interesting in any way.  The only thing compelling about the gameplay was some of the small RPG things like having to find spellbooks & learn them as opposed to having that just handed to you while level up.  The itemization has always seemed okay, too, in a similar vein. The old combat system is very clunky by today's standards.

I just dunno if I can even stick with the Freetop version without having a group of people to party up with when needed (which is usually in EQ).  It's time, and primitive MMO conventions, are still things of the past. 

I'll take a look at EQ2 & see what's up with that. 

It's like I'm on a Free-To-Play tour all of a sudden.

I started a BL on FV roleplay server sunday. Got him to lvl 14. Personally the graphics don't bother me. the combat is intersting enough without being action arcade crap- the new content, mercs and revamping really have improved the game a lot. Not sure how long I'll play but I'll try to see how far I get.

Originally Posted By Nefaro (2 JUL 2012 4:44pm)

For the hell of it (and just because I got decent bandwidth to blow), I tried EQ but I just don't have the nostalgia some of you do.  The interface is terrible.  While I didn't mind the updated graphics too much, but they certainly aren't interesting in any way.  The only thing compelling about the gameplay was some of the small RPG things like having to find spellbooks & learn them as opposed to having that just handed to you while level up.  The itemization has always seemed okay, too, in a similar vein. The old combat system is very clunky by today's standards.

 

I just dunno if I can even stick with the Freetop version without having a group of people to party up with when needed (which is usually in EQ).  It's time, and primitive MMO conventions, are still things of the past. 

 

I'll take a look at EQ2 & see what's up with that. 

 

It's like I'm on a Free-To-Play tour all of a sudden.

 

Please elaborate on the "terrible interface" since it is much like every other MMO interface out there. You press a button to "target" your enemy, you press buttons 1 thru 0 which you can "customize" any way you like for your spells and skills and they even give you extra buttons - and + to add a few more perks to the "action bar". You can have up to 10 action bars and quickly go from one to the next with a shift + #.

You can customize the "keybinds" to any way you like them setup. You can press and hold skills or spells until they stick to your mouse pointer and then put them in an action bar slot, simple, easy and hardly terrible.

You can have as much information in the HUD as you want or you can "turn it off". So I really don't see this "terrible interface" you are speaking of but please do elaborate on how it's soooooo different from the rest of the MMO's out there? please.

All the key commands are Ctrl+ or Alt+ except for inventory (i).   The character movement isn't as smooth as many others, but I'm sure that's the way it was way back in the day. 

It actually looks like they've updated the interface windows so it's not as bad as it was originally but there was an option or two that I figured it'd have, but didn't.  The primary functions are there, though, so it's not missing the basics.

I would still probably try playing it further if I was more familiar with their 'free-to-play' system.  I don't expect the whole thing to be free, but I'd also like to know if a bunch of areas will be locked to me unless I pay to open them (and how much).  While I'm not averse to spending here & there, I don't think this oldie is worth spending monthly on unless it's as cheap as a couple-three bucks.

So convince me, and maybe I'll join you and give it a longer try.

I logged on my level 59 Human Druid just for kicks. I was somewhat surprised to see that he has 86,000 platinum. Since a Silver account limits him to 500 platinum per level, he won't be able to receive any money until he gets rid of over 56,000 platinum.

I've never experienced anything like this in an online game before. At least he didn't lose the excess amount.

According to this EQ2 Revisited Review, seems like that one has fixed up the Group-only issues and some other things..

http://www.mmogamer.com/09/01/2009/a-return-to-norrath-everquest-2-review

May as well give that one a shot, too. 

I just D/L'd it.  15GB

Originally Posted By Nefaro (3 JUL 2012 7:57am)

All the key commands are Ctrl+ or Alt+ except for inventory (i).   The character movement isn't as smooth as many others, but I'm sure that's the way it was way back in the day. 

 

It actually looks like they've updated the interface windows so it's not as bad as it was originally but there was an option or two that I figured it'd have, but didn't.  The primary functions are there, though, so it's not missing the basics.

 

I would still probably try playing it further if I was more familiar with their 'free-to-play' system.  I don't expect the whole thing to be free, but I'd also like to know if a bunch of areas will be locked to me unless I pay to open them (and how much).  While I'm not averse to spending here & there, I don't think this oldie is worth spending monthly on unless it's as cheap as a couple-three bucks.

 

So convince me, and maybe I'll join you and give it a longer try.

Well, the restrictions are kinda strict. They limit your AA points to 1000 with the silver membership (one time charge of $5 but if you are a veteran player there is no charge). Every 100 points afterwards costs a dollar unless of course you resub. They limit the number of character inventory slots to 6 bags (silver) but they give you 500 SC points so you can buy back the 2 they took away almost immediately. (I did). You are limited to Rank I spells (something they did long after many of the expansions) but you can purchase Rank II and Rank III upgrades for like a Dollar each. Rank Spells I'm told are for RAIDING groups. So, if you like to raid you'd want to upgrade that. You are limited to 4 characters and 8 classes (silver membership) but if you are a Veteran player that also is bypassed and you get to play all your characters you had when you left. BUT, if you delete one to try to make something else you won't get that slot back until you buy it (sub). The biggest one for me is you CAN'T have a TRADER up in the bazaar. You can trade and barter with your character but you can't setup an automatic trader unless you subscribe. There is also NO SHARED BANK slots, but, this is easily overcome by just making a 2nd account (called 2 boxing) and just trade between those players back n forth. A little bit of a hassle but still a way to twink your twinks.

Now the PERKS: You can box as many free accounts as you can handle and your system can handle. You get a FREE MERC as a veteran. You get a FREE MOUNT as a veteran. You get a complete BUNDLE of ARMOR your level as a veteran. You can literally make your own group with 3 regular characters and 3 mercs and you can tell the mercs who their boss is of the group and you can also tell them how to play as in assist, passive, aggressive, tank, dpser....stuff like that. Every 10 levels from basically level 5 new Defiant gear becomes available that is as good of quality as RAID gear was back in the day, even better. You can buy it from the bazaar or adventure for it but it drops pretty commonly and makes getting gear and upgrading less stressful until you get to level 80.....then the expensive stuff comes back again. You can buy a 20 slot weightless container for $15.00 (yeah a lil expensive but no more than one months fee). The game has lots of NPC's in PoK now to help you along, give you quests you can do SOLO called HOTSPOTS and also "upgrade" more of your gear as Defiant only covers the basic slots. There's even a jewelry vendor that sells upgrades for 1700plat that would have cost in the thousands in the old days and once again more raid gear stats and much better than the old stuff. They make it so much easier of where to go and level up your level. You even get a congratulatory email from them with this info everytime you level. You can play in the LDON Adventures if you 2 box another character and get their Merc. This will give you 4 players in your group (you only need 3 to enter) and yes Mercs count as real players. They play better than most real players. All you have to do is get the 2nd account character inside the zone and then you can have them give you control of their Merc and you can adventure on while it just sits at the zone entrance. I always wanted to solo LDON adventures and now I can. You can only have 1 merc active per individual character but you get a choice of a Tank or Rogue or Cleric or Mage. The tank of course is to keep stuff off you while you heal or cast damaging spells. The rogue is strictly DPS and probably more for a Cleric player, the Cleric is for warriors, rangers, melee types and the Mage is for sort of tanking and some wizard type spells more of a caster DPSer like the rogue is a melee dpser.

Loot drops like rain and the loot I've seen post 50 is in the PLATS not as much gold or silver drops anymore. I've already made upwards of 10k a day when I tried. You get items worth 285plats in the newer expansions.

You can move around a bit more now with the Merc in your group without having to SIT after every battle. I've literally just cast spirit of the jaguar on everyone and we just melee the mobs to death. I remember when I had to use my entire mana bar for one battle. lol Dark Blue Mobs are much easier to solo than they ever were. I even took on The BIG ONE (dark blue boss) and won. Not to say it was an "easy" battle, but at least you don't have to run away from every boss mod you see. I had one battle that had THREE Dark Blues and that was my toughest but my Merc tanked them and kept them off me while I healed it, was an amazing battle and I almost lost as Merc got down to less than 10% life and I had less than 4% mana left at the end. Good thing I'm a Shaman and have that 60% slow spell or we'da been toast.

Of course not saying it's for everyone and those that are graphics whores probably need not apply as it doesn't have state of the art grapics but for me that is trivial if the gameplay is fun an entertaining.

The interface is so customizable I just couldn't see where it is terrible so had to comment. You and I usually agree for the most part Nefaro....hehe except where "graphics" are concerned.

I checked out EQ2.   Nowadays, it seems like EQ with more 'stuff'.   You also don't need to bother with 'Mercs'. 

It runs like ass until you go into Display options, hit the Advanced button, and move the godawful player bubble slider down by half the bar or more.   I dunno why some of these companies don't realize that when their game is set to render everything within ten virtual kilometers, in real-time, that the game will kill FPS even though the graphics aren't anything amazing.   This one is especially bad because it was pumped almost to the maximum, and when I lowered it to half, I still couldn't see where the rendering ended far off in the distance, from the top of a mountain!  Craziness.  Fool-headedness. 

After tweaking that, and playing to level 13 or so, it's just another EQ/WOW game.  I'm probably just sick of the type as I'm still kinda burned out on MMOs but figure I'll try the ones I've never done so before when they go Freetop.

But I'll give the olde EQ another try.   Even though I have no idea what my old login was so that doesn't help.   Looks like I'm roughing it with the unsub'd freebie right now (even though I think I have some Sony cash left from Pirates of the Burning Sea going freetop while I still had an active sub.. or something to that effect.)

Meh.

I think the EQ2 route is the most enjoyably cheap route these days.  Gonna drop my 500 SC on getting Silver there I think.

I'm still playing EQ thus far. Seems most of the reasons I quite MMO's in the first place has been significantly addressed. One is raiding. Raiding is one reason I played but raiding was also the one reason I quite. The time sink required simply is not practical. You couldn't even get into raiding until long boring romps to get needed keys or spells or AA ability. I simply cannot spend anymore 12 hour sessions to do this.

The second reason I quite was end game content. The way AAs were scaled it made much more sense to level rush to 65 and then work on needed AAs a bit, then go to 70 and do the same. AAs were just too slow at lower levels. The problem with this tactic is as you level where you could farm AAs twindled, and the approiate mob for good experience hit 10x harder at 70 then they did at 60 and had 4 times the hitpoints.

Eq addresses this in meaningful ways. For one they threw out the old leveling AA scheme and now AA's scale to your level. So at 51 you can now get an AA as fast as you could at 65. secondly they put in a 500 percent experience bonus for AAs that scales down to 0 percent once you hit 2500 AAs. So you could literally farm 1200 AAs and still enjoy a 250 percent experience bonus.

This is very significant. one of the very best AA farming in game was Acrylia Caverns. Good loot, Good experience and managable mobs from about level 47 through 65. It is now practical to stay at below 65 to farm the bulk of the needed AAs. In one week I now took a new toon to 51 and have 47 AAs already. I'm playing about 1 hour and a half sessions and walking away with at least 4 AAs and 4k in loot drops.

The needed raid gear is solved by the Fiornie Vai server-the Roleplaying server where everything outside of Epic 2.0s is tradable. Sure that raid gear costs a lot of plat, but for a casual gamer it is open to him now. AA farming produces lots of plat. Let the farmer sit for 12 to 16 hours for that. I'll play my BL in AC and have fun, with no rush to level 90- which sadly a lot of players still do dispite these changes. A level 85 with zero AAs is incredabily weak at 85 and unable to solo. A player with a good bank of AAs and poor gear can breeze through solo'ing and be a great addition to any occassional group. At 80 a player can once again stop at Lost Dungeons of Norath and solo those for the first time as well.With the AA leveling and nearly 7500 AAs it is downright silly to level to 90 fast.

And at 18 expansions there's more end content here than any other MMO on the planet, including eq2, which from what I researched has less players now than EQ1.

So I'm sitting at near level 52. I go 90 percent to 10 percent on AA. With the 90 percent to AAs. This should keep me at below 65 for a long while, but my AAs will skyrocket and I'll be spending all that plat doing my first gear upgrade- which BTW with this new defiant line of common drops, isn't too shabby to begin with.

Good post Ghost glad you are enjoying it and seeing how much it has changed from the old days. I too have jumped into that level 60-65 range where I am pouring points into AA and already have a full set of Elegant Defiant gear waiting on me when I reach level 70. Unfortunately for me I am restricted to just 1000 AA points so I have to be very selective and "save" points to be able to put them in what others are telling me are "required" AA point distribution for a Shaman.

 I've also leveled up my enchanter from another account I had from level 48 to 63 (past my damn shaman lol). Mainly for the extra Mercenary and of course big C spell for mana regeneration. At this point I basically have a 6 unit group. Shaman, Enchanter, my pet and the enchanters pet which I can control now that I've put AA points into it and two mercenaries.

I can do Lost Dungeons of Norrath now I'm told (mercs count as group members) but have to two box to do it and it shouldn't be that hard if I'm just careful pulling things. We have everything we need pretty much. One tank, two dpsers(pets) a buffer and half healer (me) and a full healing merc and an enchanter I can use in a pinch to crowd control. 

I've already used my first 100 AA points in increased healing ability and buff duration time. I've reached some level restrictions in healing ability and you can only save 30 AA points at a time so I really have to juggle the AA vs leveling experience slider. From what I read on ZAM one should try to put as many points into offensive and defensive abilities and increased spell power/damage/duration. Many of those are higher level though and of course the higher you go the harder those mobs hit and the more hit points they have. I'm finding level 55 mobs at my level of 62 are pretty easy and quick to kill and the AA exp goes up pretty fast in a range of 7% to 10% a kill sometimes on those a little higher than 55.

One thing though that old feeling of sitting and camping same mobs over n over is coming back and even with the ability to move around you have to travel so far to get to a new zone you can XP in. Plus since I'm two boxing I have to do it twice, find a safe spot to SIT in and camp all over again. lol

One zone I've really liked though is Blackfeather Roost with the Veterans Reward I got of Thone of Heroes I can bind myself right out in front of the zone with both characters and use the Thone of Heroes skill to teleport us back to the Guild Lobby in Plane of Knowledge. It has a cooldown of an hour and 18 minutes but that's not anything to fret about since when I use it I'm uusally done with my session anyways.

There's a bank inside the Guild Lobby and a merchant vendor (LDON npc) so you can unload all your gear and sell the remains all in one spot. PLUS there is no buff timer in the Guild Lobby so you can get buffed and they won't wear off until you go outside. Great place for MGB's and I usually have more than I can use on all the time. I think I have like a base of 6 to 7k hit points and when I'm fully buffed over 20k....helps a lot and many of these last over 2 hours now some over 4.

I'm told after 65 you almost HAVE to have those buffs on at all times because they really ramped up the hitting power of mobs after level 65 and the newer expansions. Other players tell me to stay in Plane of Tranquility and do those planes there as long as I can stand it after level 65 because the mobs hit a lot less harder and easier to kill.

yeah the mobs in the newer expansions are noticably harder. Their regen rates seem almost rediculous. I suppose once has good gear and good AA ability this isn't a problem but until then I'm staying in the older areas. I have a Shadow Knight at 30 and a lower Shaman-which i'm handing the frequent Defiance drops to through the shared bank. The shadow Knight and Shamen have noticable downtime even at 30 compared to my Beastlord. I never stop on the BL. I always have plenty of mana and my mercenary seems to be tied somehow to my own regeneration and never seems low on mana either.

The SK on the other hand has crap DPS--he's using the highest difiant sword and shield he can- but his mana drops quickly-even though I threw all points into it at creation. I understand they come into their own with AAs so I'm suffering through--

One thing if mana seems an issue, or if your weapons aren't the best- in cresent reach as well as in Plane of Knowledge the alchemy vendors sell potions. There's a clarity potion--six different levels of each type- a speed potion, mana and health regens, and instant heal potions. Even a stack of the level 3 potions (20) cost less than 20 plat- and the potions last 30 minutes. This is helping the downtime with the shaman and Shadow Knight a lot- but the Beastlord simply is always up and fighting. I don't get any crowd control ability until I get my archtype AAs (Hobble of spirit-a snare cast for pet) so pulling correctly is important. I think a sk is going to fair better at this latter-but again the DPS is horrible thus far. There's a lot of AAs that will help but getting there to get them is still noticeably slow.

Wether I keep playing i am not sure- but I'm pretty bored with recent games. This blast from the past for the time being is fun. If anyone goes to FV server see if I'm on. My BL is Eyegore, my SK is Mistryder. Ghostryder was taken. I forget what I named the Shaman but I'm not likely to level him for a while. I can at least hand you some extra gear and needed early plat to get you going.

Are you getting your skeleton and shaman wolf pet gear Ghost? The shaman wolf uses hand to hand and the skeleton can use just about any martial weapon. They are about 15pp each and you can find them under summoned in the bazaar. These do some nice damage in the 100's per proc and if you keep their dex up they will proc often. Be sure and check the level requirement of them though because your pet and skeleton have to be the required level of the items you give them.  Also check your stats tab next to your normal inventory page. over on the right this will show your hit point regen during combat and your mana regen during combat, compare these to your beastlords and see what the difference is. If you sit while the stat tab is open you can see your sitting hit point and mana regen also.

I've heard about the new potions one can buy for mana regen and hit point regen and of course sow. I'm fortunately high enough to get those wonderful high level mana regen buffs that regen mana in the hundreds while sitting and in the high 50's while in combat. Of course carrying around my own mana regen caster I'm never without mana anyways and later on you'll get canni as a shaman and you can transfer hit points into mana. I don't care for it but it's useful in a pinch.

Also for me it's almost too funny because I rarely use mana while soloing in Blackfeather Roost. I just get down there with my pets and merc and we duke it out with each mob. Things go down fast enough just doing this. I've always felt I can kill five or more mobs that are light blue and get the same experience as someone killing ONE mob their own level or higher and being out of mana and sometimes hit points. lol Killing higher level mobs to me is a GROUP oriented thing as they should since there's usually 6 of them but the XP generation has always appeared to even out the way I play since you have to split that XP 6 ways when you group. Not to foreget light blue mobs or low level dark blue ones are much easier to take down than those higher up ones. I have had some adds to up to 3 mobs at a time and handled them ok but still a frightful experience when you see your merc going down in hit points pretty fast and you're healing your butt off trying to keep him alive. lol

Meh.

I activated another month of Star Wars TOR today to check out some of the new stuff in the last couple updates.

Then I check my mail.. and guess what?  The bastards had just sent me a Free seven day "check out our new update!" promo the night before.

DOAH!

I'm just quite burned-out on the usual MMO Fantasy fare so it wasn't doing anything for me.  Gotta shoot sump'n!  Back to SW blasters again.

Lol Nefaro you can't win for losin. That's kindo funny you getting that free tryout pass AFTER you already paid for a script. Not makin fun of you of course but ain't that just the way of things?