So, As I download

[Trippy]

Main concern I have at this point is the quest journal.  It seems as if it has x number of quests (IE the text indicates 73 more quests can be in my journal at this point).  I hope this does not mean that I can only have y quests in the game - the help function was not very clear on the matter at all.

That's just active (uncompleted) quests I believe. It used to be you could have an unlimited number of active quests but apparently that was putting too much load on the servers so they put a cap on it right before they went live.

[stray]

Rodeo clowns maybe?  Bulls are in rodeos, bull fighters mess with bulls, errrr, slight stretch but its cool.  Or maybe he is a midget!

She's a Brit. I don't even think "rodeo" is part of her vocabulary.

But then again, that's probably something to be proud of.

I do have a clown character however.



Rambozo the Clown (shameless DK ripoff, I know)

[Murgos]

Main concern I have at this point is the quest journal.  It seems as if it has x number of quests (IE the text indicates 73 more quests can be in my journal at this point).  I hope this does not mean that I can only have y quests in the game - the help function was not very clear on the matter at all.

That's just active (uncompleted) quests I believe. It used to be you could have an unlimited number of active quests but apparently that was putting too much load on the servers so they put a cap on it right before they went live.

Also things like collections don't count toward your max.

[Signe]

I am NOT a Brit.  And I've even been to rodeos!  I actually lived in New Mexico.  I worked at the Taos Ski Valley for two years when I was 18!  I'd also like to add that I AM NOT A BRIT!

[stray]

I am NOT a Brit.  And I've even been to rodeos!  I actually lived in New Mexico.  I worked at the Taos Ski Valley for two years when I was 18!  I'd also like to add that I AM NOT A BRIT!

Heh, it's just that you always say "innit" that makes me say that.

[Murgos]

512 here. That's starting to get low for most games now, so I'll probably be upgrading soon.

EQ 2 really needs more than 512.  Upgrading has made a huge difference.  It's a serious nearly unplayable-->smooth as butter difference.  You won't notice it on newbie isle but the first time you step into the slide show that is Qeynos Harbor at 512 don't say I didn't warn you.

[Signe]

Yes, that comes from living in Britain so long, I suppose.  At least I don't have some sort of fruity accent...  I think I quite sound like I'm from New Jersey now that I've lived here a year.  I learned it mostly from watching The Sopranos.

[stray]

512 here. That's starting to get low for most games now, so I'll probably be upgrading soon.

EQ 2 really needs more than 512.  Upgrading has made a huge difference.  It's a serious nearly unplayable-->smooth as butter difference.  You won't notice it on newbie isle but the first time you step into the slide show that is Qeynos Harbor at 512 don't say I didn't warn you.

Newb island was going pretty good when I was playing with Cheddar, but my machine bogged out later (still on newb island, that is). So I had to reboot. At the times that I was playing, it wasn't crowded at all. I can only imagine how much worse it's going to get.

Another minor setback: I think I may just pass on the Fighter class. I'm probably going to reroll as a Scout ---> Dirge.

[Cheddar]

Cool beans. Lemme know when you reroll, I have an extra scroll for the Goblin Language quest! 

[Strazos]

I think I quite sound like I'm from New Jersey now that I've lived here a year.  I learned it mostly from watching The Sopranos.

I feel so sorry for you.

[Signe]

Don't feel sorry for me, I love pretending I'm a tough bitch from New Jersey.  Of course, when REAL New Jersey people try and talk to me I just cry uncontrollably.  They're kind of scary.

[schild]

Started packing up my computer games tonight, was hoping to find my EQ2 preorder stuff. Wanted my jboots. Blah.

[stray]

OK, I rerolled as a Scout. I'll keep the fighter around for later.

[EDIT] Grr.....Reboot, reboot, reboot.

I'm starting lose faith (again).

[EDIT] Are there any (well) known ATI problems with this game? I keep getting these weird GPU reset errors, which force me to restart. I'm running at High Peformance atm....Which shouldn't be that stressful. I have the latest drivers. Not even BF2 is this finicky.

[*sigh* Another EDIT]  Btw, I get a message to /CLAIM something when I log in. I'm not too sure if this will be my main character, so I don't want to bind something to him just yet. Any idea on what it could be?

[Cheddar]

Yeah day two was one of mixed feelings, a veritable maelstrom of emotions.  Now I know how a woman feels during her "special time" every month.  I began the fine evening by sailing away from the tutorial island.  By sail I I mean "waited for the next zone to load."  By "waited for the next zone to load" I mean I went to smoke, pulled clothes out of the drier, killed and dressed a deer, practice my smoke signals for a bit, wrote a brief thesis on the socioeconomic ramifications of Bangledesh producing irradiated uranium for bulk purchase to minors, and then watched the screen as it finished loading. 

What I am attempting to convey is that it is slow.  I have a fairly decent computer, and even after tweaking settings I am still hitting rough spots (especially on Baubledome or whatever the midget place is called).  On the bright side I seem to do fine in areas where there is actual action; I am going to try and stick with them and the hippy town for now until I can figure out a way to juice my performance some.

Oh and another bad thing before I move on to the good.  What the fuck is up with the sign up process?  As I upgraded my account I was barraged with various Sony offers.  For example they tried to get me to sign up for Station Pass at least twice, and failing that I was offered to sign up for parts of Station Pass for a low 99 cent per thingy.  Kinda made me feel like they would sell me their kids for cheap labor if I ponied up the cash.  Maybe others are used to that when signing up for a game subscription.  Personally it made me feel a little dirty inside.

Now despite these drawbacks I do like things as they stand so far.  Quest system is damn nifty and seems well put together.  Took me a bit to figure out how to get citizenship, but once this was accomplished it opened up a vast array of things to do.  I am now just shy of level 9, has upgraded spells, and have only died once since leaving the tutorial.  I like the way the gumps work.  Definitely a beautiful interface with maximum customizing allowed. 

So for now I give it one thumbs up, with a second thumb hovering on the brink.  A large part of my enjoyment HAS to stem from the fact that I am not reading any information outside of the game manual.  Which by the way is a filthy liar.  Gnomes starting with 15 strength my ass!

[Murgos]

I'm telling you, RAM fixes everything.  Zones load in about 15 seconds now.

[Cheddar]

I'm telling you, RAM fixes everything.  Zones load in about 15 seconds now.

Yeah I was thinking that was the issue.  Problem is I am a jobless bum right now (read: starving student).  Maybe I can pimp out a kidney or something and invest in some more RAM (I currently have 512 leet RAM).  Sorry I did not say anything on TS last night, by the time I realized someone else was in my little room I had already decided to log for the evening.  Figured it would be bad to say "Hey man sup, bye!"  Also I am shy.

[Strazos]

I too am a starving student...but RAM is cheap.

Do it to it, you'll thank yourself later.

[schild]

Yea, I'm running 1.5gigs and a piece of shit GeForceFX 5200 Ultra (128 on board). The game runs near perfectly. RAM is ambrosia.

[stray]

Well, I just bought 1.5...Will see how it goes.

[stray]

Now I know that it wasn't the RAM. I just had the same problem a moment ago. About 30 mins into playing it, my screen turned black, then popped back on with this:



Then it went out of full screen mode and the old ATI error message came up.

"VPU Recover has reset your graphics accelerator as it was no longer responding to graphic driver commands"

It runs everything else fine, so.....Screw this game.

[EDIT] Btw, I have the same card that Schild has lying around here somewhere. Maybe I'll swap this one out later just to see if I get the same VPU/GPU fuckup again (still won't play the game though, since the ATI is much better for everything else). Maybe the problem is tied in to something else, but just shows itself as a graphic error (probably not likely, right?).

[Trippy]

Are you running a relatively recent version of the ATI drivers? Is your card overheating? Which ATI card are you using? Did you try turning the pixel shader effects down/off? The animated rippled water is a pixel shader effect and it looks like it's getting screwed up for some reason.

[stray]

Are you running a relatively recent version of the ATI drivers? Is your card overheating? Which ATI card are you using? Did you try turning the pixel shader effects down/off? The animated rippled water is a pixel shader effect and it looks like it's getting screwed up for some reason.

I'm using the latest drivers, and I don't *think* the card is overheating. How could I determine that anyways? All I know is that not I'm hearing my fans going crazy or anything. My SmartShader options in the Catalyst control panel are set to "None", but I'm not sure what that means really (sorry).

The EQ game settings are set to High Performance, suggested by default. No tweaking or anything, and that's the second to lowest setting available. The Water effects are set almost as low as possible. I'm not sure if that makes a difference anyways....Since it's "able" to look and operate fine for 30 mins to an hour.

[EDIT] A quick Google search and I find that I'm not alone. I guess I'll read through that thread later...

[EDIT] Seems like reverting back to 5.2 drivers has solved some problems with the 9xxx series of cards. Like I said though, I probably won't bother anyways. It works for everything else fine, and I'm not like some of those fiends in that thread that NEED TO PLAY EQ!!!!11111

Wait, here's the real solution:

Maybe im crazy, but ive tried it twice and both times it has allowed me to play the game without incident.  What i did was kept IE running in the background and for some reason it seems to work, maybe its just dumb luck but ive tested it three times, and if i dont have IE running in the background i always crash.  Give it a try, hope it works for you guys like it seems to be working for me.

 

[Murgos]

Sorry to hear it's giving you a hard time stray, me and Cheddar were looking forward to actually being able to have a group.

For what it's worth I'm running a 9800 Pro and put in a multi-hour session yesterday without problem, running the game on 'balanced' settings with cloth effect on, full screen 1280x960.

That it craps out after 30 minutes sounds like a heat issue to me though.  Try cleaning the fan, that dust accumulation can really make a difference.

[Trippy]

I'm using the latest drivers, and I don't *think* the card is overheating. How could I determine that anyways?

Try running this thing, ATI Tray Tools, to see if your card has a temperature monitoring chip on it. You can try taking the side of your case off to see if that helps though for some case designs that might make things worse. If so you'll need to put a portable fan next to the side of your case to blow cooler air over your video card. And like Murgos said make sure your fans (not just your GPU one) are clean and are working and the airflow into your case isn't blocked/restricted where it shouldn't be.

Edit: fixed typo

[stray]

Thanks for the help, but telling from that app, I guess my card doesn't have temp monitoring. The options for looking at temp etc. aren't available to me. I do know that if it was overheating, it isn't because it's dusty and clogged up. I just got this card a few weeks ago, and I just cleaned out my computer when I installed the new RAM yesterday. Telling from the EQ boards, I'm thinking that it's a compatibility problem, with no real clear solution.

Hmm...I may do something about it, I don't know. The game actually has a lot more promise than I previously thought, so it would have been fun.

At least I upgraded my RAM. I probably wouldn't have otherwise.

[stray]

Basically, the solution on those boards seems to be

Roll back to Catalyst 5.2 (not really a good idea if I want to play BF2)
Set to AGP 4x (huh?)
Turn off fast writes
No VPU recovery (doesn't really sound like a good idea)

Anyways, sorry to bore you. I think I'm just going to play CoH.

[Cheddar]

That sucks you are having such issues.  I was a little annoyed yesterday with all the server patches, until I finally got in last night and played for a bit.  For some reason everything seems to run vastly smoother; load times are a lot faster, less lag in the city, ect.  I am very impressed thus far, and actually get the yearning to log in! 

[Signe]

I am very impressed thus far, and actually get the yearning to log in! 

You should have your prostate checked... just in case.

[Cheddar]

I am very impressed thus far, and actually get the yearning to log in! 

You should have your prostate checked... just in case.

Bah!  You should try it out with us Miss Test Center.  Nothing wrong with trying out new things and expanding your horizons!

[Signe]

I beta tested it.  I thought it was kind of crappy.  It made me yawn a lot.

[Viin]

What a crappy downloader.

When I started downloading 3 hours ago it said I had 2 hours to go. Now it says I have 1 hour and 30 minutes left.

Looks like I won't be playing tonight. Damn, I really wanted to ream it good too.

Let me guess, it's making me download the whole goddamn game to play the tutorial / trial area.

(Sorta off topic: Wtf ever happened to the days when programmers tried to make everything small and fast and would rather sacrifice their unborn children to than ship bloated crap?)

[Polysorbate80]

I doubt it's a heat problem; my ATI card (9xxx-something or other) would crash entirely randomly, anywhere from two minutes in to two hours later, with the same error messages.  I tried three or four different driver versions with no luck.

CoH didn't like the card either when I re-subbed (I'd upgraded since last time I played), so I just went and bought a cheap-ass GeForce FX 5500.  No problems in either game after that.

[Wasted]

I played for months with a 9500pro with no problems.

I havent updated my drivers for some time though I think, Driver version 6.14.10.6476