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Much better for solo players now
Slythe
Member UncommonPosts: 952
in Everquest II
I started playing EQ2 again a few weeks ago, and I must say that its a LOT better for solo players now. I know that some people hate the new solo mobs and all that, but for me, someone that doesnt know many people in the game (since my RL friends still play SWG, as do I occasionally) its a big help. I actually solo'd my first armor quest at level 21, before when I used to play in November I could have NEVER solo'd it. New solo mobs pop up everywhere now, and you get decent exp from them too.
Just though I would post this, in case anyone is reading that quit because of the lack of solo play. Now is a good time to come back and check it out.
Comments
Sorry to be the grump but its getting more WOW like every patch. If they keep this up soon you will be able to level faster than you can in WOW.
I do like a little challenge in my games.
i was fine with it until they actually CUT DOWN ON the group mobs to add more solo mobs. when i heard they got rid of numerous ^^ mobs and replaced them with solos (like antonican scarecrows) i nearly punched out my monitor. i'm sorry to the soloers, but theres a lot of people who DO like to group a lot and i think personally that grouping should ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS be much better than soloing.
Schutzbar - Human Warrior - Windrunner Alliance - World of Warcraft
Nihilanth - Kerra Paladin - Blackburrow - EverQuest II
XBL Gamertag - Eagle15GT
no i dont think i ever said that, but i like the basics of the idea although there would be some things to work out.
Schutzbar - Human Warrior - Windrunner Alliance - World of Warcraft
Nihilanth - Kerra Paladin - Blackburrow - EverQuest II
XBL Gamertag - Eagle15GT
That was me, and honestly at this point that seems like the best idea to solve the problem. I am with Nihl on this, I am getting mad at how much they are tearing up the game now for soloers. I want EQ II back the way it was.
- Scaris
"What happened to you, Star Wars Galaxies? You used to look like Leia. Not quite gold bikini Leia (more like bad-British-accent-and-cinnamon-bun-hair Leia), but still Leia nonetheless. Now you look like Chewbacca." - Computer Gaming World
Good for solo'ing? Perhaps, but it seems far far Worse for small groups, and just grouping in general now.
I actually liked how EQ2 was going before these latest changes. Is it just me or does it seem that not only did they get rid of most the herioc creatures but they severly lowered the creatures as well, not level but how they fight. I started an alt the other day to play with my brother, since I was over at his place for the weekend. Got to 10 and completed the class quest in 3 hours and then realized that they had gotten rid of most the heriocs. :-( That was bad enough but what was worse was that it only took me another 2 hours to get to 15. So the 2 of us, a cleric and a crusader went looking for some things to fight at 14 and 15.
Unfortunatly nothing I could find over near antonica was worthwhile. Everywhere I used to go was now indivduals. A group of 6 gnolls, one would think would be herioc , but now they were an individual 15. Took us about 30 seconds to kill all 6. More and more time spent running around looking for something to kill and more and more disappointments. Finally we decided to try hunting higher levels, hoping for something that would challenge us. We didn't find it. The 2 of us at 14 and 15 took out the level 20 giant kodiaks and hulking stalkers with ease. Unfortunatly we only recieved about 1 percent per kill. So, we decided to try and solo some, just to test what we could do... Now, we raised these two up in a matter of hours and they had pretty much no armor, just the generic from the island and one or two quick quests... at 15 I solo'd the level 20 giant kodiak! What is happening to this game?
So we went to Stormhold to group there. It was a lot more popular than normal, but we managed to do decently well with the lower level entrance area. That was of course when we got to fight, which wasn't that often because of the number of trains led to the zone... Trains in EQ2? Yup, Tons of them! While not all of them bothered us, a few of the higher levels did attack us on their way back.
It was okay but not anything great, and while we did manage to get a few others in the group, they ended up leaving not long after, so we decided to try our luck in BB. What a mistake! While hunting the heriocs there was fun and a challenge, the amount of people solo'ing and then running back to zone made it one dissaster after another. The two of us couldn't handle all the adds from the trains so we got a few more people... We were talking a little and I noticed that 2 of them were quite young, I know sometimes I get a few younger people in the group so didn't think much about it at the time. A little while later, after having taken the time to explain, time and time again, how to hunt in a group and not to just attack things on their own I learned that one of them, a wizard, was 9 years old and the other was 13. btw, they loved the new changes to solo'ing.
By the end of a full 10+ hours of playing we had 5 deaths, 12 horrible groups, a minimum of 9 early teenagers or younger and to many trains to count.
We later got on some of our older chars to check them, I chose a 29 mystic, and my brother a 26 swashbuckler to see if they changed the older levels as well... Yup, my mystic could solo 29s that I used to group for nearly non-stop. His swashbuckler took 3 levels up solo with little problem, only a small bit of downtime with eating and drinking.
Whats next for EQ2? A free Trial of the Isle with every Happy Meal?
Anyone know of a decent game with an actually challenge for gameplay and perhaps a slightly more social community?
Fission
I don't understand the mindset at SOE at all. Do they have a clue what most gamers want?
They had years to develop EQ2, with vast knowledge from operating EQdead, albeit they made it worse after taking it over from Brad Mcquade(sp?) and Verant, but nevertheless they had ample opportunity to listen to the playerbase voice their likes and dislikes about gaming and test out various features, though shutting down the original forums because of their inability to moderate them effectively didn't help much in that regard.
Then they release EQ2 which they hyped as being a major improvement over the original version with all the features players supposedly wanted.
Yet since release they have flipflopped from their original concepts and are trying to change the game design to accommodate what most players TRULY want.
"We feel gold selling and websites that promote it damage games like Vanguard and will do everything possible to combat it."
Brad McQuaid
Chairman & CEO, Sigil Games Online, Inc.
Executive Producer, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes
www.vanguardsoh
I understand your points, you all bring up some very good ones. I must say that even though I like the new solo mobs, I agree that they shouldnt have nerfed so many of the heroic mobs. IMO they need to find a balance, somewhere in between how the game is now and how it used to be. We shouldn't HAVE to group just to gain levels, that just screws over the people that dont have a lot of time, dont have a lot of in-game friends, etc. Instead, I think someone needs to make grouping something that you want to do, not forced to because the mobs have an insane amount of HP .
I see it from both sides. Some people liked it how the levels were harder to gain, and most of the mobs were unsoloable, and others like it how it is now. We just need a balance, and hopefully we will get it one day.
Also, this is kind of off-topic but IMO, i really hate it when games "grey out" mobs that are much lower than you. You should still get some xp for them, even if its .00001 a kill. If some guy wanted to farm level 5 creatures while hes level 25, he should be able to do it even though it would take like 5 years to gain a level.
That would promote farming and ruin the game like it did to Lineage 2.
I was talking about farming them for xp, not money. Mobs dont drop money in EQ2 like they do in L2, so i dont see how this would ruin the game. The only things that grey creatures can drop are the worthless items, like meat, gnoll paws, the items that sell for about 10 copper through auctions.
Im not saying that I want to kill level 10 creatures at level 30, Im just saying that we should have the option to kill anything we want for xp. If you are level 30 and you want to kill level 20 stuff, go for it, but its going to be worse than L2's grind, and plus, you wont get any of those good drops that you could get off of a level 30 creature.
Oh and BTW, the thing that ruined L2 was allowing people to delevel and farm the same mobs over and over for money, and not stopping the botters.
If good groups weren't so hard to come by, I might be upset by it too
As it is, I don't think it's even close to being as fast to level in EQ2 as it is in WoW, although I understand the fact that many areas are now too easy for groups and small groups. Explore, find an area that IS good for your group.
Quite frankly, I was sick of doing as many solo quests as I could and then needing to get a group to finish off a few more that ended up getting me twice as much debt as XP 75% of the time. Seriously, decent groups in the high 20s and low 30s come by only about a quarter of the time. The rest of the time you get in a group, you just hope you get the quest mob you wanted and accept the fact that you're going to walk out of the dungeon with 10% debt.
In short, if other players didn't suck so much, I would think this was overkill. As it is in the actual game on the server I'm on though, it was a much needed change.
Amazingly enough, there's only one other game where I met players more incompetent than some of the groups I've seen in this game, and that was WoW beta. The game was easy as cake, and those people still had no idea about pulling, tanking, debuffing, or overnuking. It was like everyone was trying to die first.
Anyway, I like the new changes.
Habit is not to be flung out the window by any man, but coaxed down the stairs one step at a time. - Mark Twain
Enjoy that PvE?
How can it be much better?
When...
- You will never solo as well as a level 1. (You should solo better and feel more achieved with each level, not feel like you can solo less and less, I want dragons to be incredibly hard to solo and give awesome solo rewards, not the basic trash to become harder with every level)
- You will never solo as well as folks who raid, group or tradeskill.
Solo may be more tolerated, much more tolerated at best, it is far from been better, LOL.
- "If I understand you well, you are telling me until next time. " - Ren
I agree. Seems like you could keep the group aspect of the game, but allow characters to avoid grouping by being able to kill lower lvl creatures for gain.
If developers were creative I beleive many solutions could be implemented to keep farming/economic effects to a minimum. For example, If a lvl 30 kills a lvl 1 - they would receive lvl 1 experience, and have say, a 1 out of 30 chance of finding lvl 30 loot. Keep all loot lvl specific (based on the lvl or average of lvl's that killed the creature) so the lower lvl markets do not become saturated, but decrease the chance of receiving it in low lvl mobs.
The only problem would be competition for kills. Shouldn't be much of an issue with zoning however.
I totally agree with your points, however I wasnt saying that soloing is better than grouping. I should have rephrased the name of the thread before I started it, its kind of misleading.
I was just saying that soloing is much better now, compared to how it used to be. Trust me, I try to get into a good group whenever I get the time or the chance.
Interesting points,
I've not played EQ2 for quite sometime now. I "gave up" (still paying subs
) when I became so utterly mad busy that I could not spend longer than 1 hour a time on. Soloing was a joke and by the time I got into a worth while group I had to log, normally with an increased debt 
I think I might need to give it a blast as a solo player again. I love to group and think that really that's the whole point in playing a mmorpg, but then I understand all too well that RL gets in the way far to much to allow that!
Now if SOE could develop something to keep my baby daughter entertained longer then 5 mins while I play it'd all be perfect!
Debt was severly nerfed awhile back, you may want to consider trying grouping again as well. It usually takes me under 5 minutes to find a group with the search tool.
- Scaris
"What happened to you, Star Wars Galaxies? You used to look like Leia. Not quite gold bikini Leia (more like bad-British-accent-and-cinnamon-bun-hair Leia), but still Leia nonetheless. Now you look like Chewbacca." - Computer Gaming World
This game seems to become more solo-friendly with every patch. I think SoE has gone too far if they replace group mobs with solo mobs. Sure, give the soloers some love, but not on the expence of grouping. Am I crazy or isnt grouping the whole point of mmorpgs?
I had high hopes for EQ2, mainly since I really enjoyed EQ1. But if they keep this up, EQ2 will be like WoW when I finally get enough time to start a mmorpg again (after this summer). Im actually looking at Final Fantasy online now and I might end up playing that instead of EQ2.
I agree Ael at 100%.
Making solo better by killing grouping is even worser then the opposite.
All soloers ever ask is solo uberness, and you dont need to shaft the grouping system in order to do so.
I dont think any serious grouper(which I think I am more then a soloer despite my heavy defence of the soloers) will be bothered 1 moment if they lack in solo context unless they earn their solo edges in solo as well, as long as group edges need to be earned in groups.
Of course this require more work from the devs, but I am sure earning the market of the MMORPGs is worth it, no? I doubt any dev will complain I strongly support more jobs for them. Companies leadership can be resistant, but I wonder how resistant they are when they see subscriptions vanish. Hire those extra devs or lose the market! No argument there! (it would take a team of 3 or 4 devs to make an interesting solo system inside the MMORPG with variations of what already exist...unless you design entire new zones for soloers(which they deserve), in which case a few dozens of devs would do the work).
Finally, I think to put the raiding system at the end of the process is a mistake. Some raiders will not earn those group or solo levels, just forget it. However, if you have a paralel raiding system, where they need to raid from the start to the end(see my old noob raiding suggestion in dev corner suggestion for a starting raid system from no levels earned in groups)...you have raiders happier then ever. Many raiders cry everytime you add levels, and they rightly cry. They should not have to go in groups to earn those levels or AAs before they can be good raiders, they should have to go raid this or that before they can be good raiders. From start to the end, raiding deserve far more then be in the end of others systems, and maybe, maybe...will I be raiding a LOT more.
PS: Everytime someone earn something, they could get a rest bonus in the others systems. Also, you could have, outside of those independant systems, a last system that take into account everything you earn in every system where peoples may then see a reason to go raid or group or solo in order to be good in that last select setting. That last setting dont need that much work, it just need a elite prestige and a lot of bragging. In such a system maybe you earn damage output from the raiding system, the hps from the grouping system, the potential developpment(levels) you can earn by the solo system, or something like that...so hardcore players have a system for themselves after they finish all the casual friendly systems as well as prolly a few hardcores stuff in every system should they rather be sticking in a particuliar setting and never exit it...work is the answer to the problem, ghetto shortcuts trying to mixt all gameplay will always fail! That last select setting dont affect the basics 3 systems in anyway, so the casuals are protected from abuse...and I dont even covered an independant tradeskilling or PvP setting...anyway...work is the answer...not shortcuts.
- "If I understand you well, you are telling me until next time. " - Ren
EQ II HAD low level raid mobs once upon a time, I think they have all been nerfed solo now. There werent many though, but I do recall it having some.
- Scaris
"What happened to you, Star Wars Galaxies? You used to look like Leia. Not quite gold bikini Leia (more like bad-British-accent-and-cinnamon-bun-hair Leia), but still Leia nonetheless. Now you look like Chewbacca." - Computer Gaming World
This is dumbing down the raiding in EQ2 in a WoW style, and this is not what soloers ask.
Soloers just want to be the best at soloing, nothing more then that. Soloers dont ask to be able to do what group or raids have.(altought like any human, soloers are easy to seduce and corrupt, and gaining freely group or raid stuff may please them, it is not what they ask and it is not what should be given, it just harm the game)
This is harming raiding and not solving solo problems in the least.
- "If I understand you well, you are telling me until next time. " - Ren
There are low level "raid" encounters, starting around level 10.
You can raid with your low level guild. They allow 1 raid per week.
Ano, you need to go make your own game. I don't think your suggestions or criticisms have anything specific to do with EQ2, they don't seem to apply to EQ2, and they certainly don't fit EQ2, and your comments seem to indicate that you don't even play the game. And your grammar makes all of your posts hard to read.
Haven't seen you post here for awhile either. Perhaps you started posting here again because PvP was "announced"?
Habit is not to be flung out the window by any man, but coaxed down the stairs one step at a time. - Mark Twain
I didn't know that about the low level raiding, thank you Noubourne. I have yet to get guilded so I know there is a whole aspect of the game I am missing yet.
- Scaris
"What happened to you, Star Wars Galaxies? You used to look like Leia. Not quite gold bikini Leia (more like bad-British-accent-and-cinnamon-bun-hair Leia), but still Leia nonetheless. Now you look like Chewbacca." - Computer Gaming World
That's some pretty interesting ideas you got there Ano. The way I understood it you mean that there basically should be 3 different types of "xp" and leveling in one system (solo for example) wont raise your ability in the other areas. Sounds interesting, even though I prefer regular grouping about 90% of my gametime.
But as you state, this would involve some heavy work for the devs and they will surely prefer the "mixed shortcut".
But IMHO EQ2 should focus on grouping and let WoW handle the soloers. Though I understand why they seem a tad desperate to please the soloers, since most players seem to prioritize solobility. It's all about the $$$.
A tad desperate is a huge understatement. SOE is freaking panicking.
At this point they are throwing everything at the wall and praying something sticks, in order to attract some customers to EQ2.
"We feel gold selling and websites that promote it damage games like Vanguard and will do everything possible to combat it."
Brad McQuaid
Chairman & CEO, Sigil Games Online, Inc.
Executive Producer, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes
www.vanguardsoh