f13.net

I'll be playing somethingarather something as I log in. It'll probably be a good character as I never did much in Qeynos in beta (was hardcore freeport). Both Murgos and I have resubbed and will be on the Steamfont server. So by all means, if you want to play really casually with us, go ahead and leave your ingame name here.

And having looked at the leveling curve, the best thing they can do in this game - like all the others - is slice it in half. That said, look forward to seeing you in game - casually.

Is this this the flavor of the moment, and how long will it last. I finally got the werewithal to log into TS and was pleasantly surprised to find lots o people connected. I seem to be well behind the power curve of what other people are in (I am now resubbed to CoH, but only have seen Signe play pretty much. And she plays test).  I need the crack, and want others to share with. 

I plan on playing this for a while on and off (casually, again). I want to play it in a vacuum. Short of talking about it on f13, I plan on looking up NOTHING about the game. Hopefully that will make it..errr....fun?

I am in the same boat though (minus blog entry readings on it).  Hell I'll give it a whirl also.  What is the F13 server and side (alliance/horde are the choices? I really have not been paying attention).  Actually lack of research on a game will be interesting for me as I am an avid reader of anything.  And researcher.  Generally I am on the ball despite my poorly written posts.  For now I shall treat TS the same way I have the boards; Lurk, Lurk, Lurk some more, maybe participate, lurk.  I chat a lot in game though, forgive me.

Alliance/Horde? This is EQ2. There are 2 of us. I'm not even in game yet. But I'm going Good (Qeynos). On Steamfont.

I am fucking tired. I confused EQ2 with the WoW ruleset.  Goddamn I am a Noob.  I am going to pick up the game tomorrow; no researching or any of that before hand or during (this may or may not change as I decide!).  Anyone else up for trying this out without prior knowledge and stuff?  This could be an interesting experiment actually!

Edit/addendum: Actually this could be a good idea.  Can we post something in General Chat or Games forum calling on people to try this?  All people should receive information wise is: Server/any alignment type character that everyone else is trying. 

I've had EQ2 lying around since it launched, but I could never get past character creation. I'm slightly curious to see what the early part of the game is like (which is supposedly "good"). If anything, I'll make a bard.

Ok,  made a Half-Elf Scout (Qeynos) named Schild on Steamfont, up to level 5 on the Isle of Refuge. Things I've noticed since beta:

Wow. Lot more skills and shit. Also, the levels for some of them have changed (I hadn't played since Friends and Family beta).

Game runs incredibly well with some stuff on high and a lot of stuff on medium. The only things I have disabled are water interaction and shadows. Because really, who needs em unless swimming is a sport and shadows are necessary for sneaking. It actually runs nearly as well as WoW for me.

Movement is more fluid. Running backwards doesn't look retarded.

Hair, all of it, is still gay. Should have made a female.

I'm enjoying it, but then the Isle of Refuge always was the best part.

Well, I was planning on making a Half-Elf, but yeah, they're still weird looking. So I'm going from bard to barb. With a little work, they can look pretty slick:

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v231/lonestar627/Misc/EQ2_Barb.jpg)

Humans bleh. Dwarves bleh. Gnomes and Frogloks look OK, but neither are my taste.

Anyways, I haven't really played yet, but I'll probably check it out tomorrow. Name is Altan.

My half-elf zerker is of the mohawked variety with just earrings. I was going for the injun look.

I made a High-Elf Pally named Teucer (Obscure Illiad Char for teh win!!!), he is level 6 and sitting in the catacombs (the down below?) collecting whatsits for the Qeynos citizenship quest.

I had plans for tonight but she cancelled so I will be on after 8 EST once I install my new 2 gigs of RAM that just arrived (I think I was more excited about the RAM than the date anyway  :-P).

Also, as Schild said, the game does run noticably smoother with higher settings than previously.  However 512 MB of RAM is still barely adequate, if you have only 512 expect a lot of disk swapping during play.

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

Anyways, there's an odd resemblance here, don't you think?

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v231/lonestar627/Misc/howard_stern.jpg) (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v231/lonestar627/Misc/gnome1.jpg)

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v231/lonestar627/Misc/gnome2.jpg)
I'm thinking this version looks a little more like Dr. Strangelove

I would join you if I had the time and money.

God damn 24 hour days....not enough time.

EDIT: You should have made a Ranger if you were going to name your toon Teucer.

I might join for 21 days at some point, but damn EQ2 and their ebay thingie.

Yes, you are correct.  However, I played a scout the first time (22 assassin) and I'll be damned if I'm kiting crap around in circles to kill it.

Mostly I picked Teucer because I want to use his patronym, Telamon, to confuse Robert Jordan fanbois and also I assumed that Ajax was probably taken.

The Ebay thingie only applies to 2 servers. It's a very specific thing. Steamfont is not one of them. There is no Ebayed stuff on there.

It's that they are doing it at all. I want to pretend I have high moral fiber until I decide to play again.

I should be starting out tonight.  I am actually pretty excited!  It has been ages since I jumped into a game without researching the holy hell out of it beforehand, studying every nuance of the classes and what not.  Only thing I know really is that there is a /pizza command.  /pizza equals love.

Here that, Murgos? Get that gal over to your house and you can have a pizza date instead.  :wink:

FYI does anyone else with no life want to have some n00b fun tonight?  I plan on loading the game and creating a character by 10pm EST.  Please do not join me if you already have an established character and stuff (I really want the new player experience).  Just toss me a PM and we can figure out who is who or something.

I'll be on at 10:30EST.

And you bitch at me for playing WoW. Yes, yes, I know this is different because you get to play for free. Whatever. Die.

Mother fucker. I went to 3 major stores, and every one was out of stock. I am going to attempt to locate the download.  This does not bode well so far.

I think the launcher/downloader is here:

http://download.station.sony.com/patch/download/eq2/eq2-us.zip

You would still need an old account or new key.  And that download would take forever, even on high-speed.

Took 3 hours and 45 minutes last night. For everything + all the NPC background voices and extra chapters. Wasn't bad.

Screw it. Ill just drink beer and look at porno tonight.  Tomorrow Ill start playing.

Btw, Signe told me you were playing CoH....What lvl are you on Victory? I've got 12 scrapper that needs Super Jump. I probably won't even mess with EQ2 until Sunday or Monday anyways.

14 Blaster currently.  If you see me in game feel free to toss me a /t.  I am working on installing the trial (I was assured by other F13'rs this would at least get me in the noob area.)  Oh I am "Chuck the Clown" on Victory, global is "Bill Collector".

He used to be Bonzo.  I think he's 'into' clowns.  Personally, I find clowns disturbing.

Well, my character's a bullfighter. We should get right along.

Its an arr pee thing.  See Bonzo and Chuckles know each other.  They met while on the Mexican wrestling circuit, and remained friends after moving to RI.  Chuckles is a midget who did some work for Crey, hence his powers (all technology fueled).  Good times.

Yes.  Because clowns and bull fighters are very nearly the exact same thing.  Mostly.  Right?   :roll:

Rodeo clowns maybe?  Bulls are in rodeos, bull fighters mess with bulls, errrr, slight stretch but its cool.  Or maybe he is a midget!  Anyhow back on topic, 11 minutes until I step into the deep end.  I will write up a noob review when I am done.  Hell if this is going to be as much fun as I think, I may just have to do this with other games (Auto Assault I am looking in your direction).  Anyhow wish me luck and feel free to post boobies support!





Edit: stuff 

Midget's are hawt.

(http://www.spacerockheaters.com/musica/bar/imgs/Glenn_Danzig_again.jpg)

Well Stray and I have concluded our first noob adventure.  Interesting experience thus far.  I chose a gnome character with mage as my class.  There is a huge learning curve from what I have seen thus far; hopefully buying the box game tomorrow will alleviate that.  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. 

I will say it is fun thus far!  The whole EQ bay thing seems to have turned people off the game, but personally it does not bother me any.  This is a Massive Multi Player Game, not World.  A very distinct difference, and perhaps my views will change as I progress through things.  At this point I will speculate that my interest will wane around mid point, say level 35-40, barring any unforseen dislikes.  If anyone else would like to try things out with the rest of us just go the Everquest 2 website and download the free trial; costs nothing and gives you a taste of the shiny. 

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.

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.

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v231/lonestar627/Misc/Rambozo.jpg)

Rambozo the Clown (shameless DK (http://www.rambozo.com/index.php?p=discography&album=5&song=4) ripoff, I know)

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

I feel so sorry for you.

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.

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

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?

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!

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.

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

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

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.

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

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:

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v231/lonestar627/Misc/EQ2_ATI_Error.jpg)

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?).

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 (http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/board/message?board.id=tech_support&message.id=92549&view=by_date_ascending&page=1). 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:


 :roll:

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.

Try running this thing, ATI Tray Tools (http://www.guru3d.com/article/atitraytools/189/), 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

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.

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.

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! 

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

(http://www.hartmann.co.uk/images_prod/phs82_01.gif)

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

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

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 :evil: than ship bloated crap?)

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.

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