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My Review of EQ2 - The "Re-balancing" Act of a Closed Community
jeepndesert
Member Posts: 33
The latest two patches made me decide to quit. I wasted two weeks of my life to make it to level 20 so that my paladin character could have a steed. Then, the first patch hit which made my steed only 10% faster than running. So basically, I chose a character to get a steed that offers no real reward. Then, I realized the game is not designed to reward a player who spends two weeks in a grind...it is being constantly "rebalanced" to faver a closed community of ubber peope who probably beta-tested with peasants running around who deserve no reward for their time spent until they renew their subscription after playing 24/7.
I was first annoyed by quests that had me running between zones for 50 copper (about 2500000 copper for a real horse), which are small towns attached to uninspired level 1-20 zones. Before level 20, you start to explore the big city (3 zones), which are annoying to travel across while you hunt for NPCs to complete a quest, and the bigger wilderness of Antonica, which isn't that big, but 2 maps with smaller zones and one larger zone about the size of Antonica...and then, distant islands which I'm sure require a good bit of copper, a high level, and a quest with about 20 steps. You find yourself being mobbed by aggressives in the zones, many that kill you rather quickly in which you learn to avoid.
In the first 20 levels, the world feels like one where there is a fight between the Kerra (humanoid cat), cats in the town (usually one napping on a bookshelf or chasing mice--that incidently you can't kill) and things that bark (wolves and gnolls, humanoid dogs, that dominate Antonica). I would love to run over the game designer's cat.
Some NPCs can be entertaining for the first 5 seconds that you encounter them. After that, you want to kill them to shut them up and never see them again, which you can't. Many of them wear the exact same outfit. Many are inbred. The great voice-over turned out to be the great annoyance. Even in most MUDs you can kill the town shopkeeper and have them return at respawn. In EQ2 you don't want them to respawn. You want to kill them to get rid of their annoying voice-over and to reduce lag in the zone. If you kill the shopkeeper, you can always go find one at another town or buy from a player that happens to never log-off, causing lag, sitting in the boring home where it is best to sell even the furnishings for an extra 20 copper.
So I finally reached that level 20. Now I want to go off and explore crafting. Crafting really isn't a feature of the game, but a waste of time and waste of money for everyone but a few ubber crafters that have been clicking crafting buttons before EQ2 hit the shelves. It is a really boring, time-consuming process, which might not be too bad if you could at least do it half-awake. The patch yesterday made it to where you lost up to 20% or made up 20% for every item crafted. The patch today made it to where you lose nor gain nothing except for the value of the raw resources, that you must collect by hunting for 3 rocks, 3 roots, 3 herbal roots, a badger trap, deer, or bears in a zone, and waiting for them to respawn...with a value of about 5 copper. Of course you can kill gnolls and sell their vials of saliva for 7 copper, complete a quest for anywhere from 20 copper to an item you can wear that is almost as good as an ubber crafted item that you have no hopes of affording, and wait for that drop that may result in a silver coin (100 copper) of loot.
So here I am wasting two days of my life while crafting. The first patch comes through and things are even more difficult and my bank account is draining. I'm bored out of mind clicking buttons, getting frustrated because I can't make pristine items while watching my progress line take two steps forward and one step back so that I can sell something for a loss. Then, the second patch comes through and now I don't lose money, but I can't earn money by limiting my production to leather backpacks. At most, I make 5 copper if I use a resource that I already wasted time to harvest or loot when I could have killed something for 7 copper or more.
There are some interesting aspects. The heroic events, this concept called raids that only ubber characters do, and some annoyances eliminated such as kill stealing and random pvp. The ability to craft neat items and have an assortment of power-ups and things to purchase to help your character (people actually walk around without having everything the best because it is difficult to afford everything). The class system is the only thing done very well, and they finally fixed the tanks to be able to tank significantly better than other classes with the right buffs.
The graphics are quite nice, but even with hardware at the recommended specification and not the minimum, you can plan on turning graphics way down because certain zones have too many objects in too little of a space (I believe the game renders objects off-screen with-in a certain radius...which means you might only see 5 other characters, but it has to render and maintain information about everything within a certain radius--in some zones that means about 100 mobs and even more various non-interactive objects). 1.5GB of RAM and a 256MB graphics card is recommended. 1GB RAM and 128MB graphics card really will not do it unless you don't mind slide-slow graphics in an area with aggressive mobs wandering in every corner or graphic settings at a minimum. Even at minimum, it isn't too bad, but suddenly, some mobs are invisible, even that one killing you that you can't find. Chat will come alive in a group when that invisible mob is attacking.
The concept of a person in your group dying causing exp point debt is interesting, but it probably leads to more conflict of people getting easily mad because they think someone in the group is not doing their job than the reality of really taking on a mob that is a little too difficult, especially when previously killed aggressive mobs respawn, wander, and add that extra punch that kills off the group. I really think they should increase respawn time, but I think respawned aggressives shouldn't be aggressive to whomever killed them last. Exp point debt is no big deal, but there are some overly serious players that will blame everyone except themselves for someone in the group dying.
EQ2 is basically a game designed for a community of 1000 people who like Pizza Hut while they laugh at the millions of people who have wasted their money on the game. The sad part, it is close to being a really cool game, but the game designers insist to be ruled by sales/marketing and ubber players with constant "re-balancing" -- you can only hope of becoming an ubber player by a bug created in a patch that results in finding more platinum than your peasant hands should have. Crafting is an utter waste of time except by the already ubber. Hunting is full of annoyances and a basically dead community that when they do talk, it is to say, "you're a good tank," "you're a good healer," "you suck at being a tank", "you suck at being a healer", the ubber defending every game design, bragging about objects found, and someone asking for help and usually receiving the answer in a tell. Scouts and mages are important to buff and provide extra fire power if the tank and healer need things dead quicker, but their never really the focus of group disputes because they are considered the add-ons to the group. Two people can do well in the group and can even take on difficult mobs if they switch tank roles in the middle of the combat, use only the most efficient skills and spells, are completely buffed, and rely on running the mobs around until the other character restores mana and hit points to continue the fight. Things are either very easy, the group is taking on too much for the equipment brought into the fight, or someone isn't doing their job exactly right. Sometimes it is just best to solo mobs and break up the boredom with a quest and call in a group for a quick kill of a grouped mob.
I liked the idea of analog sound tracks with real wood vibrating the melodies, however, the compositions had too repetitive of a sound or too grand of a composition--it is like every moment is the highlight of the nutcracker suite. The steeds footsteps sounded nice, but it sounded odd in grass. I ended up playing the game with the sound and music turned off.
What did it for me though is the fact that the game is seemingly being re-balanced to make the game less rewarding along the treadmill until you are level 30 to 50. I don't have the time to be level 50 and would like to enjoy the game before then and really would like to kill and permanently kill some annoying voiced-over NPCs. It would be nice if they had more interactivity to the game world objects, be less linear, more rewarding through-out the treadmill, had less lag, had a more relaxed community, and had some RvR that wasn't separated by oceans or at least have it to where a ship could arrive anywhere along the shoreline with humans and ogres on board instead of dogs and cats.
And why do the trout chase you across land? Why does every combat move have to include sparkles like one is shooting a fireball when they are just kicking? Why do dogs cast fireballs under water?
At level 50 the game might begin with raids and an endless chain of expansion packs to purchase, but until then, welcome to world of ever-annoying quests.
Comments
Boy, that's a long post. Maybe work on expressing yourself more succinctly?
I confess I lost interest before halfway, but, in a nutshell, sounds like you were annoyed a hell of a lot, so why you did it escapes me. If it was all to get a pally horsie, well ......
I assume you've not played this type of game before (yes, I expect you to deny that, but I will stick with my assumption anyway). If you had you'd know that in these games things are constantly re-balanced, nerfed, buffed, whatever. Ain't worth having a meltdown. Hell they'll probably buff the pally horse a couple months from now or maybe you just get a better one at a higher level (getting 20 isn't exactly worth a major reward). It's a world and you have a character in it ... things change ... you take the challenges that are thrown at you ... or not
Very nice post, I agree with everything you said.
EQ2 needs more fun, more feature, and to make the community shut the hell up and close down the forums all together besides the market and server sections.
And a little more friendly for the solo, casual, and the newb. Im not saying im a newb but I dont think EQ2 would attract to anyone who has never grinded through a MMORPG before. It needs more "guidance" and rewards to the players to keep them entertained.
PvP would not hurt either.
And fireworks shows and 'events'.
Or an inspirational speech by the quenn? A gathering of Qeynosians to celebrate a holiday? Festivities? Competition?
OMG this post is so funny , am cracking up on my chair , well you see my friend i felt everything u did
that why am not playing anymore soe will not be a money sink . and for those who like eq II well good for you enjoy because i sure didnt .
Yes, definitely needs more fireworks like how everything else sparkles.
It would have been nice if they at least added the UO feature of cow-tipping. UO was pretty fun during beta, but got very annoying when it turned into a PvP fest of pimp-named and pimp-clothed characters and suburban sprawl. RvR is much preferred over PvP.
Even these so called "uber players" you seem so upset with were level 20 once. They encountered a similar series of setbacks that were vastly greater problems in getting to level 50 than "how fast your horse can run".
Monks are still having a lot of trouble with their most basic skills. In fact one of the first characters to hit level 50 on Faydark was a monk. After he hit 50 there was a patch that made his main defence skill work properly as it had not to that point in time. That is just one example of the issues the "uber players" had to put up with in getting to the "end game"
Anyone that knows anything about EQ1 or EQ2 knows that the whole game is geared toward the "end game". If you judge EQ oe EQ2 by what you see sub level 40 then you are genuinely missing the whole point and most of the content of these games.
Dont hate others
just because you dont enjoy it enough to get to the real meat of the game. A lot of my friends hit level 50 in the last couple of weeks and I can tell you they are not "uber players" or the kind of lifeless jerks your trying to paint them as. They are just people who love the game and put in the work.
Also if you have genuinely quit then you have missed out badly because the last patch was HEAVILY weighted in favour of casual players. If you only play for say 3-5 hours per day then you will spend probably all of that time in double experience mode thanks to the vitality system. So you get 8 hours experience for 4 hours play if you maximise your time adventuring and not just standing around.
A lot of the other stuff you listed especially crafting is fairly valid. New crafters may as well not bother in many cases. But the game was not designed for players to do both adventuring and crafting. If you make the mistake I did and try to be both on a casual play time basis you just end up average at both. Im a 35 Ranger and 35 Weaponsmith. I have NEVER made any cash from smithing. In fact I ran it a few levels of each at a time because the 2 or 3 levels of hunting ended up paying the cost of doing the next 3 levels of crafting. I should have just hunted Id be 50 by now EASY.
Id encourage you to keep playing and more importantly get in a good guild. EQ2 is very much about building long term partnerships with other players if you want to succeed. Once you got in a good guild and formed up with some regular hunting buddies your level, you would see another side of the game. Those that are 50 by the time the level cap increases (prolly less than 6 months away) and the new expansions packs etc come out will certainly get the most enjoyment from this game. High level raiding has always been the real strength of EQx as far as enjoyable gameplay goes. You quit now you have indeed, as you say wasted 2 weeks.
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"MMOs, for people that like think chatting is like a skill or something, rotflol"
http://purepwnage.com
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"Far away across the field, the tolling of the iron bell, calls the faithful to their knees. To hear the softly spoken magic spell" Pink Floyd-Dark Side of the Moon
Good Point.
I bought the game the day it went public, but quit when the first month ran out. They kept claiming it was casual friendly, but what was the first thing they did? They nerfed the cons to keep soloers in check.
They have different loot tables for soloer's/small groups. Where in those people get screwed. They're even now only letting "some" real drops in. not many mind you, but a couple.
Games need to be adjusted and balanced. I'll be the first to agree to that. But somewhere in all that, they need to be fun too. I found to many "unfun" things about this game. Clearly IMO anyway. SOE still hasn't learned that lesson.
Dont mind Razorback, he's going to tell you that everything is ok with EQ2 and you just dont know as much as he does.
The game is not weighted for casual players and SoE decided to cater to their hardcore crowd...again.
Dont let anyone tell you to cut your rant short...thats what rants are for. It may never reach the ears of an EQ dev, but perhaps it will help someone else realize that the game isnt worth buying.
EQ2 is a bastardization of what EQ1 was...and pile of lies from the pre-launch marketing machine. They said they would make it more casual player friendly...they didnt. They said they would make it more small guild centered...they didnt.
Its amazing to me how anyone can be apologist for that game. Even joining crappy ass guilds like Ebonwhore, who might help you slightly, put new members at the bottom of the totem pole so going the guild route isnt sure success by any means.
EQ2 = waste of time
That massive post and all there was too it was they stole your horse, you don't know how to make money in the game, you obviously don't understand the crafting system what so ever since my girlfriend got to level 20 crafter in under 2 weeks of moderate effort.
The game is called EverQUEST, so what exactly did you expect? I am still trying to figure out why you bought it considering it obviously has everything you hate in a game. Most of your data on the state of the game is horribly skewed or just plain WRONG. As a matter of fact at some points its just the opposite of what you said.
As for everyone that says EQ II isn't for the casual gamer, right, actually try playing the game instead of just reading the flames. Its obvious to anyone that actually is playing the game just how wrong you are.
- 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
Hmmm. Another fanboi chimes in.
The guy has some legitimate gripes and you flame him. That says a LOT about the people he'll be playing with. Way to go.
Keep killng 90000 orcs to get that "Pwnmaster of Orcs" title that you think is so ubah.
Yes you are supposed to get to lvl 50 in a month playing casually. Congratulations you have won Everquest 2! It was only a grind for you because YOU made it a grind, not the game or it's mechanics. How can anyone say EQ2 isn't newbie friendly, it couldn't be any more dumbed down! There is solo content all the way up to level 50, but soloing in ANY mmorpg has never been the most efficient way to level. Too many people want their levels or xp handed to them with little to no effort. EARN your levels and stop f'ing WHINING about it!
Not in our view. He wants the game to be simple. We don't.
oh yes, complete fanboy, how did you find me out so easily? Yep, I didn't buy the game on launch cause I had serious issues with it, went into the game 6 weeks ago with high doubts I would stay and now I am just an avid fanboy. Its getting really easy around here to just coin out fanboy on someone if they say anything to contrite a flamer or another bitch and moan post.
- 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
Oke Eq2 Fanbois, here is something u all should remember well.. Eq2 sucks... Oke, got that? good, now let me proceed.
I have tried it, but let's get real here.. Those machine hungry, lack of artistic, emotionless graphics should impress me? Or maybe the Mozart type music? Oo, or wait maybe the boring quests, since there is no PvP. Or NO wait maybe the Speed and Transport of the game or just the boringniss of keep killing the same type of creatures? Sure I got into the Hype too.. Spend my euros on the game, hell tought it was even avarage for a while, but wake up!!! It is obvious that you fanbois need to discover pleasure in life.
lol, this is my favorite line of your post. Seriously, even though you have pointed out a lot of the shortcomings of the game, how can anyone POSSIBLY take you seriously or see you as anything but a EQ hater with a line like this? (and the many similar other lines in your post).
btw, the trout follow you on land so you can't exploit by blasting the crap out of it from land without getting hit. Yes, this should have been handled different (ie: cant attack anything in water without being in water), but people still would complain. Tis the nature of humanity. We complain. *shrug*
This post isn't solely directed at Isic, but to many others as well.
So why is it when someone like Faedus comes on to defend the game that he plays, he's automatically labelled a fanboy (or 'fanboi'--God I hate the bastardized internet spellings of some words)? Why is it that there are FAR FEWER people that take objection to posts like the above one? Sure, you might have played the game, and you didn't like it. Does that automatically make it right (or mature, for that matter) to basically call it a heaping pile of trash on a forum where SOME people might actually come to learn objective info on the game? And more importantly, does it really give you the right to basically label someone as idiotic for enjoying a game that you don't?
I've thought about this before, and here is my opinion. Humans, by their very nature, want to feel 'right' in their opinions. The more people that agree with said opinion, the better one feels about it. Now, whenever I see these senseless bashes on a game, they to me only seem to serve one purpose. They bring out all of the other 'game X haters', who then pile dozens of copycat 'hate' posts into the thread. What this does is it not only makes the original 'hater' feel more justified in his dislike of the game, but it does the same for the other bashers as well.
Another intended result of these posts is that said poster knows that it is flamebait, and will thusly attract those who like the game. When those unfortunates then post (God forbid they LIKE the game), it's like a rabbit-to-the-wolves scenario, once again strengthening the bashers' desires to make childish comments about a game that THEY didn't like.
I know posts like this one I'm typing ultimately don't amount to anything, but sometimes I have to just vent about these things. These are GAMES, people. If someone likes one that you don't, why the hell should it matter to you? They're not a dumbass for it. And if EQ2 sucks soooooooo bad, why do so many people play it? Oh, that's right--it's because these boards represent 99.9% of the MMO communtity, I forgot. My bad, EQ2 does suck. /sarcasm
And no, you can't label me a fanboy, either. I've never even played EQ2--I play WoW. But that doesn't keep me from thinking that EQ2 is no doubt a quality game in it's own right.
Well, I've said my piece. Everyone, flame on!
Isic, the last time you tried to slam EQ I questioned you and you continually changed your story. Your post has no grounds other then you trying to speak to EQ II players like 10 year olds, which only made you sound like a 10 year old.
Obviously if the game was boring I wouldn't be playing it, got THAT?
- 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
I don't know whether you'll recall this, but your suggestion is basically how things worked in very early EQ1 (or it might even have been in beta ... it's been a long time and I don't recall precisely). [Also, the converse was true at that time, e.g. you could attack the Orcs in NRo and if you needed to escape just run into the water and they could not follow.]
The problem with that approach was that people would then go in the water and attack, but if they were about to die they would simply leave the water and things could not follow. Of course, mobs remained in their injured state, so people could just heal up a bit and go back in to finish them off. I guess the only way to prevent exploitation is simply to let the mob follow you out of the water. I don't know - I don't have a solution. Maybe someone does.
Personally, I have never understood why people let such trivial things bother them anyway. As you say, people like to complain. I just find it humorous. But then I am just playing to entertain myself, so a little silly entertainment works fine for me.
Good post darquenblade ... if only ...........
I don't know whether you'll recall this, but your suggestion is basically how things worked in very early EQ1 (or it might even have been in beta ... it's been a long time and I don't recall precisely). [Also, the converse was true at that time, e.g. you could attack the Orcs in NRo and if you needed to escape just run into the water and they could not follow.]
The problem with that approach was that people would then go in the water and attack, but if they were about to die they would simply leave the water and things could not follow. Of course, mobs remained in their injured state, so people could just heal up a bit and go back in to finish them off. I guess the only way to prevent exploitation is simply to let the mob follow you out of the water. I don't know - I don't have a solution. Maybe someone does.
Personally, I have never understood why people let such trivial things bother them anyway. As you say, people like to complain. I just find it humorous. But then I am just playing to entertain myself, so a little silly entertainment works fine for me.
Good post darquenblade ... if only ...........
You know, now that you mention it, I think I DO remember that from EQ1. I didn't beta EQ1 so it must have been at the start (I played 1 month after launch). Whats amusing is dude included an EXPLOIT FIX in his rant about EQ2. .....huh?? lol
Oh boo hoo, you are complaining that your 20th level spell ( horse) got nerfed and its unfair? Well think about this that spell was really meant to be an entertainment spell or fluff effect. Is it fair that you get access to a horse at 20th leve that was better then them alot of store bought horses that cost Platinum pieces, while everyone else got basically useless fluff spells?
It was about time paladins got that nerfed, because it was way overpowered. Think it was a problem when more then half the tanks in game were paladins because they had access to a free horse on steriods.