Great EQ2 Forum Discussion

Post by **Lyion** » Sun Mar 12, 2006 4:15 pm

As I sit in MMO limbo, I've been reading the forums. This post struck me as interesting.

http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/ ... ge.id=9392

This expansion seems to have had a project leader who is overly EQ1 minded. You, SOE created EQ2 for the audience that left EQ1, you know, that 3.5 million? So why is KoS the way it is? I actually do group a fair bit, but when I am not I like to have a lot of solo content to enjoy, and I am sure most (sane) people do.

- Removal of player crafted legendary items. What purpose did this serve other than to force soloers and duo folks, i.e. the majory, into groups and Raids to get half decent items?

- Most writs are Heroic. Extremely lame and harmful to most of your playerbase

- Heritage Quests crafting only. Excuse me, I purchased EverQUEST, not EverCRAFT. Getting a small guild past 25 is a mindless, tedious grind as it is, then you are going to add Heritage quests the majority of us WONT be able to complete? Get a clue SOE

- Uninstanced zones. Lag, players at each other's throats, kill stealing, hatred among the community. Devs saying 'big enough to support the current amount of players up there'. Yeah and the pope is athiest.

- AA's screw over high level players. You really want us level 60 folk who purchased KoS to get 50 levels of AA with only 10 levels of content ahead of us?

- Increased difficulty of solo mobs. Where are you going to draw the line? Is each successive expansion going to become harder and harder to solo so that the game ends up where EQ1 is now? Unsoloable? Everybody forced into Raid guilds or quit?

- Boring, greytone, overland zones that look like they were built by amateurs who have no experience in building levels and zones and who have no colour coordination whatsoever. This is the most butt ugliest thing I have ever seen introduced into EQ2. What happened to the panoramic beauty and scenery we saw in Desert of Flames? Good god, you re-used Feerrott art and audio for Tenebrous Tangle for crying out loud and it STILL looked like suck. I cannot believe that the same worldbuilders who brought us Desert of Flames brought us KoS, they MUST be different teams. And yes Immersion from visuals IS important to gameplay.

- Still no voiceovers for DoF and KoS NPCs

You know, I have played EQ2 since launch, and I have both defended it and had my own criticisms, but mostly defended it. I used to think 'Oh no, Koster is head of SOE but surely it's just a corporate role right? Surely they wont let HIM touch EQ2 will they?' Apart from the stupid timesinking, EQ2 never really saw any of HIS ideas enter into the game until now. KoS seems like a regurgitation of Koster's ideas on what makes an Mmmorpg 'great'

4/10. Completely has me turned off of EQ2 indefinitely. Don't care what anybody else thinks of my views, my hope is that SOE sees that and takes it to heart. I DON'T want EQ2 becoming EQ1 with higher resolution textures.

Drem · Post by **Drem** » Sun Mar 12, 2006 9:22 pm

sounds like everyone in that thread thinks he's a dumbass. just like i do

Post by **Lyion** » Mon Mar 13, 2006 7:09 am

He made some pretty good points. There are some good discussions in that thread, and some not so good vague generalizations.

I haven't played EQ2 for a bit, so I'm not as qualified to respond as others and certainly not for KOS.

It does appear EQ2 and EQ are coming closer together.

kaharthemad · Post by **kaharthemad** » Mon Mar 13, 2006 7:46 am

I do agree on a few points. for one the AA system is a little asstastic atm. However, so was the AA's in eq1.
The things I dont like here is from my standpoint as a Mystic my AA's are tied around a Pet Dog that has about the same HP's as a Arthetic, 90 year old grandma on a resporator.Along with this problem we see that higher end abilities on the AA lines are tied with specific weapons. This creates a problem because as you progress in levels you cannot change weapons when a better one comes around. You have dual wielding classes such as bards forced to carry a buckler if they want to use a specific line. Thats like asking a Paladin to use a dagger.

As for the scenery well yes the first isle is not the best one out there by farm. Bonemire (Realm of Dusk) has some very creepy ass places. Realm of dawn could use a little work mainly because it looks a little like POF however it still holds some uniqueness to it.

The mobs are not as hard to solo as this guy lets on. As a shaman(Mystic) I have coined the phrase "Killing me Slowly" when I solo due to the low DPS. However I can solo and do a far job. There is quite alot of solo content in game and as long as you dont suffer from cranium rectal inversion you can solo. As far as it goes I do not see the merger of eq1 and eq2 as far as playstyles go. It might happen in the futre but not on this expansion.

For the HQ's this is something I must admit a little ignorance on since I am not aware of the involvement for the wurmslayer. I will look into it more and let you all know.

Harrison · Post by **Harrison** » Mon Mar 13, 2006 10:56 am

I am having a BLAST in EQ2 at the moment.

Tradeskills are entertaining, quests, soloing, grouping, exploring...everything.

There's so much to do at any given time I can't stop having fun. Although I've pretty much given up on my Conjuror (he blows monkey nut) My monk is a veritable killing machine and much more fun to play.

I'll go back to my conjuror sooner or later, but for now I don't want to burn myself out on a boring character.

mofish · Post by **mofish** » Mon Mar 13, 2006 1:33 pm

Sounds like 90% whine to me. Most of the threads on the official boards make me physically ill.

Crafting HQs? Sounds like a great idea for the crafters. Just because this guy doesnt like to craft he hates the idea? I hate crafting too, there are a thousand other quests I can do that require zero crafting.

Heroic writs? BOO HOO.

Uninstanced zones? This is a good thing.

Increased mob difficulty? Again, a good thing.

AA's screw over high level players? Well he can just start a new character then so he isnt 'screwed over' (aka given some new abilities to work on)

Also, Im happy they are finally making raid drops really good. And I dont even raid, yet anyway. While I support the right of crafters to make really good items, Im also a raider at heart and think the very best stuff should always belong to those that put out the most effort to obtain it. Even if I never get it :angel:

Post by **Martrae** » Mon Mar 13, 2006 4:02 pm

I'm pretty happy with the way the game is going. Other than the broker bug there really hasn't been anything game breaking. The classes are mostly balanced, quests are bountiful and imaginative, the Christmas live event was probably the best event I've seen, and the devs 'seem' to really be on top of things. Even the merges have turned out pretty nice, although I can't take 2 steps without tripping over someone.

However, I think they rushed KoS a little bit and broke a few things in the process. Guild chat has some funky bugs going on and there's a couple other little niggling things happening. I do with they'd spend some time and fix some of the long-standing time-consuming bugs instead of always doing the quick and easy stuff, but I do see why they prioritize the way they do.

With 2 expansions and the game barely a year old I do worry that they're pushing out content and raising levels too fast. I really don't want this world to be the vast emptiness that is EQ1.