Everquest II

AlekseiFL_sl

shitlord
489
1
Veilous expansion new zones update Sirens Grotto and others is supposed to be either March or April 2013.

Bag Sorting Inventory Features Coming February 26th

Really looking forward to that, all MMO's need to add that shit for 30 slot or more bags with 5-7 bags per character etc, not sure if can use that on your shared bank bags but assume you can, as well as bank bags.

Also 3 new Raids lots of other Shit.

http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/02...ids-guild-ach/

https://www.everquest2.com/news/arti...22013&id=51567

New Raids & Guild Achievements Coming February 26!

Posted On 02/25/13
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The update on February 26th was discussed in Podcast #143, as well as in articles about the PvP Updates and Bag Sorting Abilities. Now, it's time to take a look at two more major features that round out the update: new raid content and guild achievements!

X2 and X4 Raids

Three new raids are being launched on February 26! There are two X2 raids in Wurmbone and one X4 raid on Dreadcutter, the pirate ship. The two X2 raids in Wurmbone's End are called "Nox Incessit," which means "Night Comes." The creatures in these zones are more active once night falls. There are two separate zones; one is easy and one is a challenge, but they are different, which means you could run both versions for different experiences. They each drop different loot from tiers respective to their difficulty level.

The raid on Dreadcutter is an X4 raid featuring 3 bosses. This is a hard mode raid - in fact, the final boss is designed to be the most difficult encounter in game!

For more on the raids, listen to Kyle "Kander" Vallee chat about it in Podcast #143!

Guild Achievements

As announced on the forums by Holly "Windstalker" Longdale, Guild Achievements are coming to EverQuest II! There are currently over 150 achievements that will be tracked, spanning all expansions of the game. Every guild will start with a clean slate, which means none of the achievements will be rewarded retroactively. The achievements will all be based on the same clock, and will be accurate to the second.

The current achievements are raid-based. For a guild to earn an achievement, 2/3 of the group present in the raid must belong to a single guild. Assuming you had six people in a group, that would mean at least four of the six must belong to a single guild in order to get the Guild Achievement. Individual achievements can still be earned in the content.

To track your achievements, there is a new tab in the guild window. The data will also be publicly available in the census, though a guild can choose to opt out from allowing others to see their achievements. This is done in the same window; there is a checkbox in the lower left-hand corner.

The first iteration of this program is Raid Achievements, but there are plans to add more categories in the future!
 

Kreugen

Vyemm Raider
6,599
793
I looked into this very, very briefly. The last time I played was Sentinel's Fate, over two years ago. I enjoyed it well enough except I knew all 8-10 of the people who were running dungeons and if they weren't online in the proper configuration then there was nothing to do because there was fucking NO ONE else doing dungeons. (or if they were, they were so horribly undergeared or pants-on-head-retarded that they had no business being there. Of all the MMOs I have played, EQ2 has by far the highest ratio of paraplegics that use one of those chin joysticks to play)

Raiding was likewise miserable - one top end guild, one family-style shitfest that I belonged to for a few weeks of whatever that Ice Palace raid was called. Pure awful.

So, really my interest ended as soon as I saw that the price for re-entry was 80 fucking dollars. The last expansion is not all inclusive - you also have to buy a $40 expansion that has NO CONTENT - just access to mercenaries, reforging, and player-created dungeons that I assume are only half ass supported now.

Also apparently in the three years since SF's release there's only been one level raise, from 90-95. Meaning all of the content from Destiny of Velious is also useless, leaving just Chains of Eternity to play.

To top it off, the one thing that had me looking into EQ2 to begin with was the addition of a Dungeon Finder. And then as I read about I couldn't help but laugh hysterically at the typically SOE half-ass piece of shit they threw together. Mind you, this was a major feature of their $40 no content "expansion", and not just something they tossed in as a patch.

The EQ2 dungeon finder...
... is not cross realm. There have been no server merges since I last played, and back then I had the entire grouping population on a very short friends list.
... has no gear check. EQ2 dungeons are not one size fits all. They have a progression. A very steep one, in some expansions. Most people won't even do the harder zones in pugs and will only go if some big dick swinging raid-geared players are involved. They are tuned for you to have every possible upgrade from prior dungeons and all your best spells maxed out and so on.
... has not even bothered to add in the all new expansion's dungeons. (they may have patched this at some point but the article I read was only a month old)
... throws any six players together regardless of class. There is no role check.
... immediately zones you into the dungeon and gives you a lockout when you accept the queue, regardless of whether or not the REST of the group accepted
... also does buggy shit like tries to group too many players, thus kicking one out and giving him a lockout

So yeah, I stopped reading at this point. If they put out something so fucking bad as a major feature of a full priced "feature only" expansion and have left it in this state for a year, then its pretty obvious that there is no way the rest of the game could even accidentally be playable.

EQ2 really baffles me - it has a lot of unique things that should add up to a good game. And yet they keep managing to put out dogshit expansions. It also really doesn't help that the playerbase is the absolute bottom of the barrel worst gamers you can find anywhere. These people have smoked themselves into a walking coma. That or instead of using macros and hotkeys they just have 8 bars open on their screen that they click one at a time in between stuffing their lard holes with cheetoes.
 

sakkath

Trakanon Raider
1,664
1,045
The last expansion was really half-arsed. I'm one of those players who comes back for every xpac and really enjoyed all of them to date including SF and DoV but CoE really hurt the game for me, and I unsubbed less than a month after it launched.
Basically, there was no progression at all in the heroic game.

In SF I played in a static 3-man group and had progression via TOFS zones -> Rime zones -> Kael zones -> TOFS x2 -> Drunder zones

In CoE I ran in a static 2 man with 2 mercs and cleared temple/throne/dreadcutter which are the easiest heroics in the xpac but also drop the best gear. There's no reason to run any of the harder heroics (of which there are quite a few), because they drop the exact same loot. We also 2 manned trash in the easiest x4 which gave us enough tokens to fully equip our chars in the heroic token gear leaving us with zero reason to keep playing.

There were also effectively no rare drops in heroic zones (so 4 runs through a zone and you've probably seen every possible item), no dailies, no weeklies, no rare nameds, the open dungeon was incredibly annoying and completely pointless because it dropped the same gear as dreadcutter.

And to top it all off, the best possible gear available to a 6 person heroic group came from solo zones! You had to break your group up and play by yourself to get the best stuff! Insane.

And yeah the dungeon finder is totally half arsed too. It's basically unusable.

It makes me sad. I have a lot of fond memories of EQ2 especially from the KoS era when they first introduced PvP.
 

Erronius

Macho Ma'am
<Gold Donor>
16,460
42,368
Also apparently in the three years since SF's release there's only been one level raise, from 90-95. Meaning all of the content from Destiny of Velious is also useless, leaving just Chains of Eternity to play.
Well from 90 to 92 with GU63, but in practical terms, yeah, essentially it is 90-95 in many ways.

The thing that made me shake my head was that the Gu63 stuff was terrible. The quest progression was terrible, itemization was terrible, even the XP was bad. As in, it was quicker to grind 90-92 in somewhere like Seb than it was to even do the level 90-92 bullshit. I think a lot of people just bought the teleport banner and ignored zones like Withered Lands altogether.

The only reason I played it that far (besides questing) was because I had bought a year sub + expac for like $45, and when they came back and nuked subs via SC I knew it was time to hang it up. I didn't even use like the last 6mo of that sub at all.

Last time I tried logging in I spent like an hour doing everything short of calling them on the phone to get my account to work, and eventually said fuck it and gave up. It isn't remotely worth it. Even their temp account creation to put in a support ticket w/o calling was fucked up; knowing my luck calling them wouldn't even work either.

You and I will prob always disagree on the hotkey/macro issue, but I will say that players aren't bad because they don't macro. I think things like not giving a fuck are probably bigger issues, along with some serious player churn. So many old players quit that they went F2P to get new people, and a lot of them started only because it was free and something different. I don't think but a handful of the serious raid players are even left at this point, anyways.


I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if EQ1 outlives EQ2. If you were to give me the choice of having to play either, I might just go back to EQ1, and I was hypercritical of EQ1 when I left. And even though EQ1 also isn't remotely the game it used to be, I still think I'd prefer to take a chance and try it instead of going back to EQ2. It has the framework of a really good MMO, but the execution is terrible. It's like seeing a mansion and thinking that it would be a great place to live, then stepping inside and seeing that it's been abandoned and there are squatters living inside.

Honestly I enjoyed questing and chronoing level 1-88 or so more than I liked anything SF or beyond.
 

ixian_sl

shitlord
272
0
There are people who think EQ2 has the best raid game. Those people hurt my head.

Re: Dungeon Finder and role checks, there actually is one but it's not strict. That is, they don't require the same setup for every dungeon; for example, when it was first introduced it allowed for some pretty crazy setups for the lower tier DoV zones. But yeah, it's a broken piece of crap.
 

AlekseiFL_sl

shitlord
489
1
http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/i...-26-2013.4708/

Update Notes: Tuesday, February 26, 2013


NEW RAID ZONES
New x2 raid zone Wurmbone's End: Nox Incessit (with normal and challenge versions). Entrance located in Jarsath Wastes.
New x4 raid zone The Dreadcutter: The Pirate Kings. Entrance located in Obol Plains on the dock.


NEW BAG SORTING, SWAPPING AND DUMPING FEATURES
Bag Sorting:
Open up the Bag Options window from the button on each bag to access the filters that you'd like to set for a respective inventory bag. After setting your options, hit the "Sort" button on your Character window. This will send a command up to the server with "/sort_bags name".
.In addition to sorting by "name", you can type the sort_bags command yourself and put "level" to sort by level of the item instead.
.Any option that you set for filtering items will also affect which bag the item goes to upon looting!
.If you'd rather a bag not be sorted, feel free to mark the bag as a "Skip".
Bag Swapping:
If you want to upgrade your equipped bags with one of a bigger (or just different) size, you no longer have to remove all of the items from the bag. Simply drag a bag from inside one of your equipped bags on top of the slot of the equipped bag you'd like to replace.
.The bag icons will change color to show how good of a match they are: Green = Valid upgrade, Yellow = Valid but not upgrade, Red = Invalid
.By player request, this functionality only takes effect on bags in your primary inventory (equipped bags and the items therein).
Bag Dumping:
If you want to empty one bag's contents into another equipped bag, you can now do that! Simply drag the equipped bag icon of the bag you'd like to dump onto the other equipped bag icon to dump the contents into the new bag.
.Like swapping, the bags will highlight depending on their match: Green = Valid for dumping, Red = Not enough space.
.By player request, this functionality only takes effect on bags in your primary inventory (equipped bags and the items therein).

NEW GUILD ACHIEVEMENTS FEATURE
Guilds can now earn achievements! When killing a raid target your guild will be awarded a guild achievement if your raid force consists of at least 2/3rds from the same guild. The achievements can be viewed on the 'Achievements' tab located in the guild window.
Selecting "Hide Achievements from Census" will prevent your achievements from exporting to census.
NOTE: Guild Achievements for the following will be added in a future update:
.Ancient Sentinel (Challenge) in Sleeper's Tomb: Unearthed
.Hand of Vallon in Vallon's Tower
.Generals in Tallon's Stronghold

HOTZONES
The hotzone rotations for dungeons and PVP have been updated!


AMENITIES
All Standards and Markers should now be stackable.


MOUNTS
Glider control change - Glider mounts will automatically enter gliding mode at the apex of a jump, but only if the player has forward momentum in their jump. Otherwise, you can toggle the glide on and off with the jump button.


POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION
Nagafen Server
The PVP Prestige Item Merchants, PVP Reinforced Armor Merchants, and PVP Rage-Fused Armor Merchants in the open world on Nagafen have been removed.

Sleeper's Tomb: Unearthed [Raid]
Players can now earn a new respawn point in the final chamber once a player has entered that area.

Harrow's End [Raid]
Fixed a crash that could occur when a raid force is wiped out by Drinal.


ABILITIES / ALTERNATE ADVANCEMENT / PVP UPDATES
Diety Spells
Blessing: Mischief Maker will now cancel when attacked & engaged in PVP combat if it is cast before PVP combat starts.
Miracle: Tempest will now cancelwhen attacked & engaged in PVP combat if it is cast before PVP combat starts.

Assassin
Enhance: Jugular Slice now adds percent duration per rank instead of flat duration per rank.
Enhance: Paralyzing Strike now adds percent duration per rank instead of flat duration per rank.
Caustic Weaponry damage has been reduced in PVP combat.
Carnage damage has been reduced in PVP combat.
Shadowstep's damage has been reduced in PVP combat.
Assassinate's damage has been reduced in PVP combat.
The heal granted by Draining Mark has been slightly reduced in PVP combat.
Concealment no longer has a chance to clear your target's target in PVP combat.

Bard
Veil of Notes will now be reduced to a maximum duration of 12s when attacked & engaged in PVP combat if it is cast before PVP combat starts.
Bladedance will now be reduced to a maximum duration of 10s when attacked & engaged in PVP combat if it is cast before PVP combat starts.

Beastlord
Feral Primal damage has been reduced in PVP combat.
The on primal use damage portions of Primal Assault, Feral Intensity, and Feral Whirl have been reduced in PVP combat.
The proc damage amount of Truespirit Energy has been reduced in PVP combat.
Feral Intensity's upfront damage has been reduced in PVP combat.
Spinechiller Blood's damage has been increased in PVP combat.
Sharpened Claws upfront damage has been increased in PVP combat.
U'lla's Spinning Bite damage has been increased in PVP combat.
Quick Swipe damage has been increased in PVP combat.
Elnakii's Swipe damage has been increased in PVP combat.
Blindside's damage has been increased in PVP combat.
Bonechiller Venom damage has been increased in PVP combat.

Berserker
Insolent Gibe now only taunts the attacker instead of the target's group in PVP combat.
Rampager's bonus damage to Partisan Cleave has been reduced in PVP combat.
Enhance: Body Check now adds percent duration per rank instead of flat duration per rank.
Dragon's Temper effect now matches the enervated effect and no longer forces a target swap/lock in PVP combat.

Brigand
Highwayman's Advance damage has been reduced in PVP combat.
Poisoned Blades damage has been reduced in PVP combat.

Bruiser
Brutal Inspiration will now be reduced to a maximum duration of 10s when attacked & engaged in PVP combat if it is cast before PVP combat starts.

Cleric
Cleric's Divine Aura now has the same percentage health threshold as Crusader's Divine Aura in PVP combat - 35%.
Divine Guidance will now be reduced to a maximum duration of 4s when attacked & engaged in PVP combat if it is cast before PVP combat starts.
Divine Aura (both Crusader and Cleric versions) will now be reduced to a maximum of 10s when attacked & engaged in PVP combat if it is cast before PVP combat starts.

Conjuror
Planar Wrack damage has been reduced in PVP combat.

Crusader
Divine Aura damage threshold for blocking hits has been reduced from 50% max HP to 35% max HP while in PVP combat.
Aura of the Crusader will now be reduced to a maximum duration of 10s when attacked & engaged in PVP combat if it is cast before PVP combat starts.
Divine Aura (both Crusader and Cleric versions) will now be reduced to a maximum of 10s when attacked & engaged in PVP combat if it is cast before PVP combat starts.

Druid
Tortoise Shell will now be reduced to a maximum duration of 10s when attacked & engaged in PVP combat if it is cast before PVP combat starts.

Guardian
Overall Combat Art damage in PVP has been increased.
Hunker down now grants the Guardian a incoming heal received bonus in PVP combat.
Ruin damage has been increased in PVP combat.
Sever damage has been increased in PVP combat.
Overpower damage has been increased in PVP combat.
Taunting Assault damage has been increased in PVP combat.
Taunting Blow damage has been increased in PVP combat.

Mystic
Full Moon's in-combat runspeed boost has been reduced in PVP combat.
Spirit Tap now lasts for 10 seconds if cast in PVP combat.
Spirit Tap will now be reduced to a maximum duration of 10s when attacked & engaged in PVP combat if it is cast before PVP combat starts.
Immunization will now be reduced to a maximum duration of 10s when attacked & engaged in PVP combat if it is cast before PVP combat starts.

Necromancer
Grave Rot damage has been reduced in PVP combat.
Enhance: Fear now increases Fear's duration by a percentage instead of a flat percent.
Rot Flesh's overtime damage and spell damage increase components have been reduced in PVP combat.
Rot Flesh can now be cured in PVP combat.

Ranger
Blazing Weaponry damage has been reduced in PVP combat.
Hidden Assault's cast time in PVP has reduced to match its PVE casting time.
Thorny Trap now works in PVP combat.

Rogue
The Interrupt success chance on Daring Advance has been reduced to 50%.
Sunder's triggered damage has been reduced in PVP combat.
The 7th and 8th hits of Dance of Metal had their damage slightly reduced in PVP combat.

Shadowknight
Chaotic Blade damage and heal amounts have been reduced in PVP combat.
Malevolent Hatred now heals for less on a successful block in PVP combat.
Focus: Caress Feedback now heals for less on melee damage received in PVP combat.
Tap Veins now heals for slightly less in PVP combat.
Unholy Blessing now heals for slightly more in PVP combat.
Death March will now be reduced to a maximum duration of 30s when attacked & engaged in PVP combat if it is cast before PVP combat starts.

Sorcerer
Sanguine Sacrifice should apply reliably.
Mystical Field will now be reduced to a maximum duration of 15s when attacked & engaged in PVP combat if it is cast before PVP combat starts.

Swashbuckler
Pirate's Spin damage has been reduced in PVP combat.
Seafury Thrust's additional hit damage and physical damage increase components have been reduced in PVP combat.
Seafury Thrust can now be cured in PVP combat.
Advance Warning will now be reduced to a maximum duration of 10s when attacked & engaged in PVP combat if it is cast before PVP combat starts.


Troubador
Bag Pipe Solo now heals for less in PVP combat.

Warden
Cyclone will now be reduced to a maximum duration of 3s when attacked & engaged in PVP combat if it is cast before PVP combat starts.

Warlock
Noxious Influx damage has been reduced in PVP combat.
The Acid Rain proc effect on Death's Grip now matches the enervated effect and no longer forces a target swap/lock in PVP combat.

Warrior
Dragoon Spin damage has been increased in PVP combat.
Executioner's Wrath damage has been increased in PVP combat.

Wizard
Incineration damage has been reduced in PVP combat.


ITEMS
Spiritstone Updates
.Spiritstones now require less experience to level.
.Spiritstones that level in ways other than direct experience gain now require significantly less experience to level.
.Spiritstones from Chains of Eternity now have 50 levels.
.Spiritstones now have a preview slider to show you how they grow!
PvP Specific Item Updates
Toughness and Lethality have been readjusted to give more of a bonus at lower levels.
Toughness and Lethality now have a much higher cap.
Rings, Earrings, and Wrist slot Imperial PVP gear now have set bonuses that activate when in PVP combat.
A set bonus has been added to Imperial PVP armor.
Blue adornment slots have been added to several Imperial PVP gear equipment slots. Check out the adornment merchant in Champion's Respite for new PVP adornments!
Heroic Resistance passive effects now grant Toughness instead of PVP Critical Mitigation.
Vessel of Fyr'Un and Overflowing Vessel of Fyr'Un will now disable when the user engages in PVP combat.
Vindication of Conflict will now drop when attacked & engaged in PVP combat if it was cast before PVP combat starts.
Stupefying Poison now has a slightly reduced PVP stun duration.

General Item Updates
Imperial 2handed weapons now have 3 white slots and 2 blue slots. Any adornments that were already applied to these weapons will be automatically refunded.
Titan's Mettle can now only proc once every 5 seconds.
Legacy harvesting tools once again have a buff duration of 10 days.
Mythical Rallos Zek cloaks are now level 92, they can now be adorned with current CoE adornments.
Chains of Eternity: Current base stat yellow and red adornments are now available for purchase in Obol Plains. Speak to Dulgur Bindmagic in Cardin Ward.
Chains of Eternity: Accessories available from Drinal's Steward are now more versatile. Necklaces are no longer Lore.
Chains of Eternity: Mystery Crates are now available from Drinal's Steward.
Greater Spirits are now dropped 100% of the time in raids for all participants by Drinal, Baroddas and the Eidolon Dragons.
Spirit Totem of the Swamp Elemental now requires level 90 to equip.
Glorified Band of the Mother's Acceptance now has Focused Magnitude as a proc instead of Spellweaver's Magnitude.
Spiked Handler's Insignia is once again usable by all classes.
Overclocked Damage Deflector BU1800 is once again usable by all classes.
Dragon Bone Arrows now have a new icon so you can easily distinguish between them and normal arrows.
The following items are attainable in game once more: Tideripper, Blood Ore Bracers, Ashland Kneespikes, Starfall, Blighted Heart Guard, Hundred Fold Blade, Giant Pick-Axe.
Primal Velium Flecked Gloves now have Spell Weapon DPS.
"Snoogle's Party Keg" can now be traded.


ACHIEVEMENTS
The following Achievements should now update properly:
.Vallon Zek (Normal)
.Vallon Zek (Challenge)
.Flawless: Vallon Zek (Normal)
.Flawless: Vallon Zek (Challenge)
.Shorthanded: Vallon Zek (Normal)
.Shorthanded: Vallon Zek (Challenge)
.Sense of Urgency: Vallon Zek (Normal)
.Sense of Urgency: Vallon Zek (Challenge)
.Hand of Vallon (Normal)
.Shorthanded: Hand of Vallon (Normal)

DUNGEON FINDER
Elements of War, Sleepers: Awakening, and Skyshrine Instances have been added to Dungeon Finder.
 

Muligan

Trakanon Raider
3,212
892
This is the only game since EQ that I have a difficult time resisting when big updates are made. I wish I could get back into their PvP but last time I run around on Naggy it was a complete ghost town. I moved all my players to AB just because of population. Who is the lead developer or whatever now? According to the EQNext thread Smokejumper was moved to another project... The game frustrates me so much because the game really hit a sweet spot for awhile and I'm not sure many of you experienced its high point but, the game really had promise at one time. I don't know. I really may try PvP again but also afraid that its plagued with maxed out gankers and people hiding in instances.

Any insight on the current game before I willingly run into disappointment?
 

AlekseiFL_sl

shitlord
489
1
Some lady named Holly Longdale apparently

https://www.everquest2.com/news/arti...22013&id=51545


Smokejumper Aka Tommy Wisseau Aka Shitnasty needs to stay far away from games.
Smoke I call him Polesmoker is the head fucking idiot in charge of EQ3 NEXT , I wish that was bad joke but sadly its not.

Jeff Butler is the Creative Director of EQ3Next and over SOE.

SmokeJumper is the Exec Producer that is why he moved left as Exec Producer over eq1 and eq2 to head to same job at 3 there Flagship future MMO polesmoker is charge of sighs.
 

Muligan

Trakanon Raider
3,212
892
How's EQ2 doing now since his departure? Game population decent? Read some on the Official EQ2 forums regarding PvP and seems to be disgruntle as usual (population appears to be thin). I have 2-3 maxed characters but would like to start fresh on Nagafen. Thoughts?
 

ixian_sl

shitlord
272
0
I went back semi-recently since I still had some time left on the year long subs I bought with plat last year, but I ended up quitting again about halfway through the long, tedious signature quest you're required to do as part of the new expansion. It is kind of sad to see the developers talk about how they want to do the best story telling in MMOs, and then you do the quests and you get smacked in the face with a bunch of overly long, poorly written quest dialogue -- though admittedly the story does have a kind of cheesy appeal to it. If you don't mind having to juggle so many abilities, I don't see any harm in going back for a bit, but I've never played on Nagafen so I can't tell you what the situation there is like.
 

Silence_sl

shitlord
2,459
4
Smoke I call him Polesmoker is the head fucking idiot in charge of EQ3 NEXT , I wish that was bad joke but sadly its not.

Jeff Butler is the Creative Director of EQ3Next and over SOE.

SmokeJumper is the Exec Producer that is why he moved left as Exec Producer over eq1 and eq2 to head to same job at 3 there Flagship future MMO polesmoker is charge of sighs.
Scary. Polesmoker was easily one of the worst things to happen to EQ2. I predict anything he touches shall turn to dog shit.
 

AlekseiFL_sl

shitlord
489
1
He is the director of development for the entire everquest franchise.
Yes but he stepped down from duo title he had of Exec Producer of everquest 1 and 2, Holly came in for 2, he went to Eq3 Next agree that anything he touches turns to dogshit.

His claim to fame at soe is SOE mote, Just let that fucking sink in for moment, Let me say that again SoE mote for roleplayers rofl.

Under his lack of leadership I mean leadership, eq 2 had some the worst fucking expansions ever.
 

Erronius

Macho Ma'am
<Gold Donor>
16,460
42,368
When you think of how many failures they've had since release, it's pretty damn impressive. Of course it's also impressive that they've manage to keep it going this long too. Just imagine if they'd had their shit in order.

Yeah, the SOEmote thing is probably one thing that speaks to my impression of SOE at the moment. I honestly don't think that they're even remotely grounded in reality. A buddy of mine was lauding them for how much content they put out (lol) but I can't give them credit when so much of the content is just ridiculous at this point. It's amazing that they keep making money on it though.
 

sakkath

Trakanon Raider
1,664
1,045
SOE Mote is actually pretty cool imo. It's very very niche, but cool. I don't mind wierd features like that being added to games. That was one of EQ2s strongest attributes, that it has all of these funky features built in to make it more interesting for casuals. Because ultimately that is what the game is aimed at, and where their profit is coming from: casual players. All of the player/guild housing stuff, built in voice, mercenaries, very detailed minigames, soe mote, dungeon maker... EQ2 has a lot of features and content. The biggest problem for me is that the base of the game has been neglected. Too buggy, too incomplete. They spent god knows how much dev time working on dungeon finder and dungeon maker both of which are heinously incomplete, and as a result of all of that wasted dev time the main game such as the dungeons/raid/questing side of things has suffered immensely.

As for Nagafen, I thought about leaving Naggy as well due to the poor population but I love the world PvP too much. There's still some world PvP to be found but not much. You often run into people at instance entrances and have some group fights, and theres usually a ranger or two scouting around the top level outdoor zones looking for people to gank.

The first week after the xpac launched PvP was great, there were people everywhere, constant battles. But pretty quickly people get to the endgame again which is all instances and world pvp dies down 80%
 

kudos

<Banned>
2,363
695
I looked into this very, very briefly. The last time I played was Sentinel's Fate, over two years ago. I enjoyed it well enough except I knew all 8-10 of the people who were running dungeons and if they weren't online in the proper configuration then there was nothing to do because there was fucking NO ONE else doing dungeons. (or if they were, they were so horribly undergeared or pants-on-head-retarded that they had no business being there. Of all the MMOs I have played, EQ2 has by far the highest ratio of paraplegics that use one of those chin joysticks to play)

Raiding was likewise miserable - one top end guild, one family-style shitfest that I belonged to for a few weeks of whatever that Ice Palace raid was called. Pure awful.

So, really my interest ended as soon as I saw that the price for re-entry was 80 fucking dollars. The last expansion is not all inclusive - you also have to buy a $40 expansion that has NO CONTENT - just access to mercenaries, reforging, and player-created dungeons that I assume are only half ass supported now.

Also apparently in the three years since SF's release there's only been one level raise, from 90-95. Meaning all of the content from Destiny of Velious is also useless, leaving just Chains of Eternity to play.

To top it off, the one thing that had me looking into EQ2 to begin with was the addition of a Dungeon Finder. And then as I read about I couldn't help but laugh hysterically at the typically SOE half-ass piece of shit they threw together. Mind you, this was a major feature of their $40 no content "expansion", and not just something they tossed in as a patch.

The EQ2 dungeon finder...
... is not cross realm. There have been no server merges since I last played, and back then I had the entire grouping population on a very short friends list.
... has no gear check. EQ2 dungeons are not one size fits all. They have a progression. A very steep one, in some expansions. Most people won't even do the harder zones in pugs and will only go if some big dick swinging raid-geared players are involved. They are tuned for you to have every possible upgrade from prior dungeons and all your best spells maxed out and so on.
... has not even bothered to add in the all new expansion's dungeons. (they may have patched this at some point but the article I read was only a month old)
... throws any six players together regardless of class. There is no role check.
... immediately zones you into the dungeon and gives you a lockout when you accept the queue, regardless of whether or not the REST of the group accepted
... also does buggy shit like tries to group too many players, thus kicking one out and giving him a lockout

So yeah, I stopped reading at this point. If they put out something so fucking bad as a major feature of a full priced "feature only" expansion and have left it in this state for a year, then its pretty obvious that there is no way the rest of the game could even accidentally be playable.

EQ2 really baffles me - it has a lot of unique things that should add up to a good game. And yet they keep managing to put out dogshit expansions. It also really doesn't help that the playerbase is the absolute bottom of the barrel worst gamers you can find anywhere. These people have smoked themselves into a walking coma. That or instead of using macros and hotkeys they just have 8 bars open on their screen that they click one at a time in between stuffing their lard holes with cheetoes.
This is why I love your posts Kreugan. I may not agree with you all the time but at least I am amused.