f13.net

...................... Expansion Day!


This soon after the merge, I'm sure this will break whatever is left of the servers.  I already have bugs and errors galore.

As long as it keeps me from playing the trial, good.  There is still hope for me.

I have a free buddy key that you can have if you promise not to tell anyone where you got it.  It's only 7 days but I don't think it limits you to the Vile Trial Isle.

WHY GOD?!

edit: gimme

What kinds of bugs and errors are you getting?  One of the nicest surprises for me thus far has been not finding anything blantantly broken in game.  Sure crafting is convoluted and confusing as hell, but thus far the only "issues" i have had are zoning ones where occasionally it tries to zone sits for a bit, then kicks me back to the character selection "zone".  I was attributing that one to my box being on the rather low end of the performance scale, and I think there's a memory leak in there somewhere too.

One minor gripe, I fired up the client this morning without realizing everything was down for the expansion; at no point does their launcher program ever tell you the servers arent up; it just tries to login and fails.  So I went to the Network status screen at eq2players, and they had the wonderfully nonsensical message "all of the severs are up except for".... and of course listed ALL of them.  

Btw, is this expansion also suppose to add the part where crafting subcombines are removed?  Or has that been done and just totally doesnt work the way Im expecting?  i.e. I made an elm shield last night and still had to manually make the 4 subcomponents, raw leather strap (2 combines), planed elm lumber (2 combines), and 2 tin studs (4 combines) despite having all the raw materials at each step.  That's 9 combines for a low level junk item, and would have been more had I not previously had some of the chloro resins and washes made.  Yeah tedium!  I've gotten to level 11 crafter (chose scholar) without making one single useful thing beyond food.

Xilren

You're expecting the right thing - It's just not there yet for all level ranges.  The subcombines are gone for the newbie recipes and the KoS recipes.  The parts in the middle will be revamped/released after we get past the expansion launch.

- Scott

Good news.  Thanks for the information (and quick reply!), that makes my future propsects for crafting much better. BTW, while you're revamping, please add useful filters to the recipies beyond name searches. Thanks.  :)

Xilren

Well, I seem to crash a lot when I zone and whenever I go to new places.  The new lag is dreadful at times and, although I wanted to give crafting a try, it's discouraged me.  Everyone seems to be getting a strange guild error msg when they log in... I have no idea what it's trying to tell me.  In a guild group the other day, I feigned and couldn't un-feign, no matter what I tried.  During that same group session, I wasn't able to click on anything at all.  I don't know if it's all lag related or not but it's been rather annoying since the merge.  Nothing, however, is as annoying as going from a low population server to an overly crowded one.  I wouldn't mind a nice, medium population but there are just too many people needing the same mobs/items/whatevers that I need.  There are also twice the jerks... those level 50-60 people who wipe out an entire area for no good reason other than to cause grief.  An over populated server forcing me to camp mobs or areas will tarnish the shiny faster than anything for me.

Great, even Scott H. comes here to entice me.  It's like he knows I place a lot of weight on the corp/dev team personality.  It's actually one of the main reasons I stopped playing EQ, and why I got sick of AO so fast, and why I love EVE too much.  It's also one of the main reasons I love my real-life job.

Just so you know, Scott and everyone in this EQ2 forum, I patched the ToI client last night and spent this morning making a Ratonga necro (since there doesn't seem to be an equivalent to the EQ1 mage, but I have not read any spoiler sites).  Right now I am listening to the music while waiting for the servers to come online.  We shall see soon enough if I like it.

Conjuror is almost exactly an EQ 1 mage.

Ah, I was just thinking of rolling an alt Conjuror too.

Magician was my first EQ1 class. I liked it alright, but eventually didn't like the pre-fight role as an ATM machine, and then having to always sit on my ass watching my book to meditate (later removed) while my pet was off having all the fun. I stopped at 25 (prior to Luclin).

I played a Conj to 7 on Test, which means precisely zilch. But it did seem a bit more involved, where I'd debuff the target, maybe drop some nukes, all timed with the aggro my pet maintained. Plus with the Food and Drink making out-of-combat regen a default much higher than the snoozefest of EQ1, I wasn't ever really sitting watching my pet do stuff.

Murgos (or anyone), what more can ya tell me about Conjurors?

I never played one but I think Stopgap is what 30ish?  I only know from watching other people play them that externally they seem to be very similar to mages.  Pets, nukes and some utility, also they are apparently soloing gods.

Yeah, that shit is a "trivial" change and needs to be made like FUCKING NOW. There is nothing more irritating than trying to log back in after getting bumped and not being told to "stop hammering login, dumbass, the server she is down."

Hartsman, you need to get your patcher/web team on a  PROMINENT set of server status shit pronto. The forums are NOT an acceptable manner of server status messaging. They just aren't.

There is no Conjuror.

http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/board?board.id=29


*shrug* YMMV

Edit:  If you were commenting on my spelling, then; fuck you esse.

No, I was commenting on the four available "Mage" classes as I found them in character creation: Wizard, Warlock, Coercer, Necromancer.  Conjurer wasn't one of the four choices, despite the information found in the linked Conjurer FAQ.  Not only is my mileage varying, I think we are in different cars.  The login servers went down a little while ago, maybe it will work better in an hour or two.

Newblet. Necromancer is the evil summoner class, the Qeynos "necro" is a Conjuror.

Are you saying I can't play a mouse?

You have to do the long and uber-grindy betrayal quest.  I'd suggest just not being a mouse personally, but if your heart is set on it, the option is there.

I am more set on being a conjuror than a mouse.  I don't want to play an erudite, but whatever.

Why would you need Erudite though? The INT isn't going to be that much better.

Whats funny (sad) is that other people think it does matter.  My original char at launch was a high-elf assassin.  Pretty kick ass combo right?  Hah, I got kicked out of groups when they found out what my race was because it was not standard (some percieved level of optimal).  High-elves even have decent agi but no one wanted to hear that. 

My gnome warrior kicked ass.

I know, in EQ1 I was a high elf mage so it's not like I am some sort of min/maxer.  I didn't want to read the FAQ beforehand but looks like I should.  Froglok looks cool.  I'll decide when the character generator starts working again.

EDIT: Yeah, see, that's what I was talking about.  Conjuror sounds cool, and so does Ratonga.  The rat-conj cockblock is bothersome.

Ah ok. Wasn't sure why you mentioned Erudite.

To that, I rolled one last night, and will be deleting it. Just don't like it.

Because no one likes Erudites except min/maxers.  Working from EQ1 fuzzy memory here.

It's not all that uber grindy. The worst part is just the damn 500 gnolls or orcs you've gotta kill. Other than that, it's pretty much cake. I actually liked watching my friend go through the RP aspects of it.

Since you can kill the ultra-low level stuff around the gates for this part it goes by pretty quick.  Even more so if you have a good AOE.  I've seen people run around and aggro every orc they can in the common lands and drop them all at once.  Probably getting 50 or 60 in 5 minutes.

If you guys are discussing how I can have a ratonga conjurer, you will have to explain it a bit better.  But I have worked up a blue frog in the creator, so don't bother if you don't want.  *looks at watch*  Hey, it's 4:20!

4:20 Louis!

I thought race didn't have dick to do with anything in EQ2? Or is that just class selection that it doesn't have anything to do with?

Race ----> City ----> Classes available

Race affects starting stats and starting location, class is effected by starting location so race affects class.  (did I use affect/effect right?)

Since you can change location (betrayal) you can still be any class/race combo eventually.

I think you can get into character selection now, Yeg.  The servers are still offline, though.

Well, I like mine :).  Level 21 atm and it does seem to be a very solo friendly class (which is why I picked it of course).  The pet allows me to take on even and yellow stuff (hadnt tried an orange ungrouped that I can think of) just fine while being able to handle groups of blues and greens and whites (if not too much ^ up mobs).  Course Im still trying to get a good feel for which triple up heroic mobs I can take, but I can at least take some.

Like old eq, has DD spells not as good as a wizard but pretty good, some DoTs, some damage plus slow/roots/stuns, and even a few AOE spells and general utility.  The starting pet is earth (and is an insect for some reason) for tanking and I just got my first fire pet a level or two ago.  Has several spells to change the attack stance of the pet; the one i use the most give my pet a percentage chance to make the target more vulernable to elemental damage.  Have some group buffs for armor and elemental resist and individual buffs for fire shield and grant invisibility.  I also picked up an Illusion: Fire Elemental last night but hadn't used it yet.

I enjoy taking on groups of 3-5 blues solo.  Combat generally goes: me sending in the pet, them aggroing on it, then hitting them with Sleet (enounter targeted aoe for damage plus slow/freeze), followed by me running up and casting Schism (earthquake AOE plus knockdown) and then finishing off the rest with DD/pet.

My biggest issue when soloing is running out of carrying capacity due to low strength; lugging around a few hundred coin just adds up very quickly.

And Im an erudite so nyah!

Xilren

It's up now.  I just got an achievement point and discovered the road that I was standing on when I logged out yesterday.  Yay?

I think we're gonna have to do a little more learning again.

I just went from 87% to .02 of the next level by re-discovering places in TS that I've been to a bajillion times.  I don't know if it's the KoS expansion or what, but all the areas seem to have reset.  Yay?


Why?  The achievement points?

Don't look the XP gift horse in the mouth  8-)

Just flying from rock to rock after using the Spires teles gave me another 18% and 2 level 70 shinies!  I may just pop over there from time to time and grab a shiny if I can and dash away quickly before something with huge gnashy gnashy teeth eats my face.

Servers just went kaboom

FYI, the quickest way to see if the servers are down is to press the "Update Notes" on the Launchpad.

But yeah, that thing should be completely wiped and redone from zero. I hate it. It's almost as annoying as the playonline thing.

Severs back up.

At this moment the patch server is so crushed with traffic that I have an estimated patch time of three hours, that number is going up, not down.  Even the images in the mini-webpage can't be displayed because the servers are under such strain.

As I typed this the estimated time went down to 1h 30min so there is hope of logging in tonight.  I am sure that by then a dupe bug will have been found and all the servers brought down.  I  :heart: patch days.

Maybe SOE should switch to using a BitTorrent-style patching system.

/duck

I got a 2 hour something estimate, but it was 30 minutes actual. Not sure how they balance things on their end, but it worked fine.

And no matter how bad it gets, it is NEVER EVER as bad as WoW. WoW doesn't have huge patch servers per se. They use the P2P distributed torrent thing. It sucks on patch day. I gave up after third month, waiting for a guildie to download and post the link. The thing they did do right was include the entire patch as a single-file download executable. Made it easier to transport it to the various computers I played on.

Looks like I picked a great day to download the trial.

Patcher:
"Est. Time Remaining: 20:04:22"

Servers are still wonky. I can't get back in and I can't even see four of my toons.

Glad it's not just me.

Servers are crashing. The Network Status Page (http://eq2players.station.sony.com/en/network_status.vm) is what looks like 10 minutes out of date (comparing forum post times to when the list gets updated). Oasis just went down a few minutes ago.

Fuck it. Goodnight.

I got the expansion. I also got Sympathy for Mr. Vengance and Hare + Guu. Who knows if I'll try to play today. Or even this week. But there that is.

No.  Affect is a verb, while effect is a noun.  All of those should be forms of affect.

Hey, you asked!

I ama little blue frog named Hiwuck.  I should have changed it to Hiwart since that's what I keep thinking his name is.

The game, it is not bad, but it isn't tickling my sack either.  I think increasing framerate will help.  Still on the isle.  I ran into one of those situations where I am not sure if I am doing something wrong or if the game is broken; specifically i have to get scraps of parchment from spiders.  Why do spiders have parchment?  That isn't the bothersome part, it's not being able to figure out where I am supposed to get that last bit from: the boss spider, one of the little spiders, or laying on the ground?  I am going to give it more time.

Yeah, just cheacked out the Network Status Page and saw the "All Servers are up except for Oasis message (seriously, they put Oasis in nice red letters).

Let's not move servers guys.  I'm sure Oasis will be just fine.  It'll be easiest for everyone if we just go to Oasis.... Fuck everyone who voted for staying with Oasis   :wink:

I'm installing Civ IV, which has been glaring at me from its box since Christmas.  I'm sure I'll be able to stop and get back on Oasis tomorrow night, right?

The betrayal quest is perhaps my favorite part of EQ2.  It is awesome story wise, gives you a feel for both sides, and is fun.  Only issue is with 1 named boss whom you will need help with.  I can help you with him, though.

Kill some little spiders and watch the back of the area where they spawn.  A big ass spider will eventually show.  Proceed with the squishing.

Xilren

But first yes the final parchment does spawn on the ground right infront of the rocks.  It is not always there, sometimes you have to wait.  Read it and the spider pops a few moments later so be ready.

Ah, thanks... if I had any doubts, this is indeed EQ: I saw the spider but after reading your description, apparently it was spawned by a nearby wizard picking up the parchment.  I helped kill it and got zip.  My frog is only a few hours old and I am already camping a parchment spawn... that really takes me back.  What I should have done, obviously, is train a load of spiders onto her.

LoL, in the Enchanted Lands there are "Kill the wildlife" missions. One was kill 50 lvl 31-34 animals for 1.5 gold.

Funny, the Freeport isle quest didn't really have any such thing. It was mostly go here, kill these things, without any real spawn times or waiting. The only "triggered" type of spawns were the final piece, and they were instanced.

Evil has the best toys.

They need to add toadloks for evil.

And Mousonga for good.

Just betray. It's fun.

Betrayal is good.  I'm an Iksar in Castleview Hamlet and it's nice to be somewhat unique, plus sometimes when you hail npcs or just pass them they say stuff like "I'll have nothing to do with a twisted creation of Cazic-Thule like you".  The guards also let out their attack voiceover and dogs "sense I don't belong here".  A lot of players stop dead in their tracks when they see me too, they are either shocked at seeing an Iksar or they might be worried I'm doing a sabotage quest.

Also Freeport sucks worse than any other mmo city I have ever been in.

Didn't play Horizons, I see.

I am getting the impression that I am able to change classes at some point?  If I start up a rat necro, then betray, can I then become a conjurer?

My one little remaining homage to RP is that I've never been to Freeport. Ever. I've never made an Evil character, I've never betrayed, I've never looked at the city maps, nothing. I know absolutely zip about that entire side of the world, like a refugee who picked Qeynos because he liked the sound of the place, and was wary of all things "Overlord" since first setting foot on the beach. I like the idea of being an uninformed citizen of the "opposition", not really disliking what the higher-ups says are the "enemy" because I know some of their citizenry well enough to see past the politics.

I don't think so. The only use of having a class native to that city is buying app II spells, which is to say hardly any at all.

EDIT: Also I saw a Warden vendor in Freeport (East?), so they may be adding all the non-native vendors. Making the above moot.

I was the reverse when I first played EQ2, and I'm glad. I really dislike Freeport and the Commonlands, trying to play my evils on LDL reminds me of this. Qeynos/Antonica makes for such nicer experiences. Also, not only am I benefiting from the enhanced experience of the interim development, but also all the content so far has been new to me.

Part of my Erudite quest is to visit the destroyed knowledge portal. Err...right. In Longshadow Alley in the middle of freeport, with my Qeynosian Erudite. Put that quest on the shelf. Crowded shelf.

Interesting point on class selection. No more Troll paladins? Shadowknights in Qeynos? Doesn't make much sense.

See, I disagree. Having played Qeynos in beta, I hate that city more than death itself.

Freeport, OTOH, not so bad.

When my ex did the betrayal with her dark elf cleric, she RPed it to the hilt. She was leaning toward betraying because of the steps she had to take to become a cleric in freeport. She then ran into a ratonga in the freeport sewers who she thought she was helping. The rat's entire quest was a lie and it ended up trying to kill her in the end. That was the straw that broke the camel's back and finally pushed her to betray.

As for worst MMO cities, I still firmly stand by my assertion that it's Orgrimmar.

The last official thing I read said that yes, you would switch to conjuror.  It never came up before because you were only allowed to betray before level 18 and at that point you were just a generic "summoner".  I don't know if the level restriction on betraying is still there, they mentioned removing it at some point but who knows when they will get around to it.

Org has nothing on Tazoon, IMO.

Or the entirety of Horizons for that matter.

Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy:  Your home planet is ass.  Its gets destroyed very early.  I couldn't even ding level 2 before it destroyed.  And what kinda weapon is a towel?  Motherfucking developers must be on crack.