What do you think of EverQuest II?

[Blackguard]

I've been reading these forums for quite a while now, and many people here are great at giving constructive criticism. So, I have a couple questions I'd like to ask, and don't be afraid about what you say, because you can't really hurt my feelings (and even if you did, these aren't my forums so I can't do anything about it ).

• What do you like about EverQuest II?
• What don't you like about EverQuest II?
• What would you like to see the most in EverQuest II?

[Cheddar]

What do you like about EverQuest II?  As a rogue I felt like a rogue; it was nice.  I like the faction change quest also.  Unlike others I actually enjoyed the graphics and classes involved.  Oh and the collectables.  Collections were a major part of my enjoyment while I played.

What don't you like about EverQuest II?  Lack of PvP, hard to level, needing a group to accomplish many objectives (this was when I was playing earlier this year), and the craziness that was crafting.  It was so close to being good, but missed the mark by a margin. 

What would you like to see the most in EverQuest II?  BALANCED PvP.  By balanced I mean logical rulesets so noobs are not constantly ganked and chased away.  Maybe some sort of level restriction (cannot kill someone 10 levels below you, or some sort of penalty if one does).  I think WoW has a wonderful method of interaction with the opposing faction with one primary weakness;  level disparities mean that at times you can do nothing in an area you need to be due to some Godly person ganking for fun. 

Would I come back?  Sorry, but your company has shown some serious ethical issues with the playerbase at every juncture.  I honestly do not know if SOE can recover from some of the things they have done elsewhere (as far as my case- they are currently on the same level as EA, whom most of us are boycotting).



edit.  Made the questions bold so things blended better.  Also added an addendum.

[Strazos]

Likes: I personally kind of liked the graphics, parts of the AQ quests, the classes. The Stealth mechanics rocked, and I had fun experimenting with them in extremely dangerous areas.

Dislikes: Some of the zones seemed pointlessly large and empty. The (near?) lack of quest XP - really slowed down progression. With my 29 Brigand, i was soloing in EL, did some quests for about 2 hours, and at 100% vitality to start, after doing the quests and killing a lot of orange mobs, had no noticable change in my XP. I guess it has changed, maybe not...but the debt could be excessively punitive. Something else that may have changed is that when I was playing, the "thing" to do at my level was grind shit in Varsoon's - this would literally put me to sleep.

Not really sure what could be changed to make me come back, as I pretty much refuse to play MMOs by myself nowadays - I cannot stand most of the playerbase. 

[Flashman]

What I like

- The game moves much faster than launch or even 6 months ago. Getting rid of gated quests, the increase in xp/quest xp, getting rid of some of those ridiculous spawn times. The fun is in fighting the thing...not waiting 3 hours for it to spawn.

- The increase in the number of quests. Always good. Keep 'em coming.

- Solo content. So much more here than at launch.

- The PvP changes

What I don't like

- Sameness. There needs to be more choices in armor, in weapons. Even if its just graphics and not stats. Everyone is still looking the same. Even some sort of armor dye would be welcome. Heck, you have more horse choices than armor styles. I think this is also a problem in skills within classes. Would be nice have some sort of trees available within each class.

- Need more solo content.

- Storyline. Something we were bouncing around over at AggroMe. What is the overarching story in the game? No one really seems to know (even over there   ) And even if we did know...it doesn't seem to affect anything. The Freeport/Queynos storyline hasn't really been emphasized at all. Although I guess with the new PvP servers that will change.

What would you like to see the most in EverQuest II?

- The first thing I'd say is keep doing what you're doing. The game is much better than 6 months ago and orders of magnitude better than launch.

- More solo content. More quests. Less forced grouping, less spawn timing. Fun is fighting, quests and content..not waiting.

- Get the Arena going. You've got a potentially great thing set up there and its deserted.

[Surlyboi]

What I like:

The betrayal quest was one of the best RP experiences I've ever had in an MMO, there were, of course a few bits of it that were too much, "go here and kill this X number of times" but otherwise, I found it quite enjoyable.

The exploration aspects now that the gated areas have been removed. (Even after getting my ass kicked with the quickness in lavastorm.)

The armor quests

The new SOGA models

What I don't like:

Still not enough truly engaging solo content.

Not enough of an overall thrust or story arc for the whole world. The gods are still missing and that's about it.

Goddamn bears that aggro everything.

Not enough differentiation in characters. Every ranger past a certain level looks like every other ranger. The same goes for all the other classes as well.

Monks that actually look like monks after their AQ but then look like rogues or rangers or any other toon after they outgrow thier AQ gear.

What would you like to see the most in EverQuest II?

More diversity. You've got an engine that can bring even new high-end machines to their knees. Use it for something other than per pixel reflections. We need more art, more weapons, more armor, hell possibly even ways of changing the way characters look. Scars, eye patches, silly hats, the list goes on.

[jpark]

I've been reading these forums for quite a while now, and many people here are great at giving constructive criticism. So, I have a couple questions I'd like to ask, and don't be afraid about what you say, because you can't really hurt my feelings (and even if you did, these aren't my forums so I can't do anything about it ).

What do you like about EverQuest II?

1.  The idea of an armored healer (e.g. Templar).
2.  The attempt to make adult oriented content and a "realistic" world.
3.  A character that takes a long time to build (but content is thin so it feels like grinding)
4   The community (which follows from #3 - you cannot hide behind alts)

What don't you like about EverQuest II?

Discussed in another thread:  lack of art/ racial armors; lack of talent trees; lack of meaningful/noticable character creation options, neat quests

What would you like to see the most in EverQuest II?

1.  Quests that give options in how they are solved with consequences for reward types, faction, other quests.
2.  Racial armors (and more art in general)
3.  Talent trees (but no respec option or heavy penalties for changing)
4.  Better class differentiation
5.  Noticable and meaningful character creation options (scars, eye patch, missing eye etc.)
6.  Straight from WoW (again):  a world that behaves outside the player where some predators go after their prey and some factions clash and fight in dungeons or in the field -  leaving it to the player to decide if he will participate.

[shiznitz]

I have played EQ2 since release so I am happy with the game for the most part. I have only seen very little of DoF so this comment might just be ignorance, however EQ2 needs more non-realistic zone designs. Antonica and the Commonlands are so "normal" they really hurt my desire to start a new character. Nektulos Forest is decent. Thundering Steppes, not so much. The higher level zones - Feerott, Everfrost, Lavastorm are all quite cool and exemplify what the brand "Everquest" means to me in terms of zone design, but the newbie zones are really a drag to experience more than a few times and they do not impress new players I am guessing.

I was relieved when took my first carpet ride to Maj'Dul because that was quite spectacular.

On the positive, combat and advancement rates are excellent right now.

[jpark]

Antonica and the Commonlands are so "normal" they really hurt my desire to start a new character. Nektulos Forest is decent. Thundering Steppes, not so much. The higher level zones - Feerott, Everfrost, Lavastorm are all quite cool and exemplify what the brand "Everquest" means to me in terms of zone design, but the newbie zones are really a drag to experience more than a few times and they do not impress new players I am guessing.

I quite like this point.

[Numtini]

I never really thought much about it, but that's exactly what's wrong with the zones. They're just too normal.

[Numtini]

EQ2 is the best game I never play.

I think it's far superior in every way to 2 of the 3 other games I'm playing right now (WOW, Eve, and COX). And since release I think it's improved in almost every way you've changed it.

Why don't I play? Emotional demotivators. I don't feel that I'm respected as a player and the game just has too many things that irritate me or depress me.

Here's a list:

1) Server consolidation. I don't care what your metrics are telling you, but there is a population problem and it's a major demotivator. I watched my guild die because nobody new was coming into the game and people were regularly leaving. Qeynos looks like a scene from 28 Days Later and Freeport was even worse. I pop over to WOW and there are people everwhere. It feels like success and community. Everyone knows WOW won, stop pretending they didn't and improve the game experience for the customers you have instead of chasing the ones you don't.

2) More and Better Trained CSRs: I listened to the same character spamming that Jews needed to be fed into gas chambers n------ needed to be lynched, and women needed to be raped, oh and praising Adolf Hitler for 6 hours across two days without him being stopped. There's just not excuse for that. And an ignore command doesn't get rid of everyone arguing with him, over him, or just saying "WTF" At the same time, your CSRs manage to close every thread for GLBT guild recruitment.

3) Make EQ2players free and the same for any other addons. I don't care how much revenue this brings in, it sticks in my throat every time I play EQ2. It's one of those things that just says "I am being milked by this company." When I click on a button to find something out about someone and it tells me I have to pay to do so, it doesn't make me say "gee I'll pay" it makes me say "God I hate this company."

And there's nothing you can do at this point, but even though I was playing EQ2 not SWG on the station access account, the NGE made me quit entirely. It just showed a complete and utter lack of respect for players and seeing that EQ2 is clearly not a success makes me feel that the same is likely to happen to it at some point. It speaks to the same basic issue as EQ2players. It just feels like you're trying to squeeze every possible cent out of me as a player.

BTW I'm not boycotting or anything like that. It's just that when I add it up, thinking about EQ2 makes me sad. And that's really not a way I want to spend my leisure time.

[shiznitz]

Good point on EQ2 Players. It is a competitve offering unmatched by other games out there and SOE has it behind lock and key

[Margalis]

I am dling the free trial right now, so in a couple hours (or days, who knows) I will have a pretty good newbie player experience writeup.

[Numtini]

Good point on EQ2 Players. It is a competitve offering unmatched by other games out there and SOE has it behind lock and key

It's also even more the denial than how good it could be. Denying access is worse than not offering it in the first place. It's very much the "ok, I'm a minority, I think this game is far better than World of Night Elves," but they take away any sort of counter-cultural pride players could have in the game with stuff like that.

And it's not logical, but it very much is something affects people.

[Margalis]

Some of my first impressions.

Graphically, this game is somewhere between WoW and FFXI. It's clearly superior to WoW, but clearly inferior to FFXI. FFXI just has much better art design, better animation, better looking enemies. For some reason the world feels flat to me compared to FFXI...I can't say why that is exactly, just a bunch of small things that add up. (No shadows for one thing? Or do I just have those turned off?)

Combat isn't bad. I mean, it's pretty standard auto-attack with some specials, but it does at least feel like I am fighting. (One of my big problems with WoW is that it didn't really feel like I was fighting)

The voices are ok but I can read faster than they speak so I skip a lot of them. To me that's a lot of cost with little benefit.

The choosing your class thing - THANK GOD that is going away. I really don't know WTF to choose from the description. "Priests heal and stuff, but they can take a beating too!" So what are the differences between the final classes? Do *all* priests take a beating? Do *all* scouts use bows?

Let me also say that the FFXI job system spoiled me immensely. Switching jobs is so much better than rolling a new character, in so many different ways.

Character creation: changing your eyebrow height and such...does it really matter? The character models themselves are not particularly good looking. (Again, better than WoW, worse than FFXI) I chose a female lizard person. (Iska?)

Overall my first impressions are about on par with my first impressions of WoW. So far I haven't grouped or done anything like that though. Number of quests and quest variety seems about the same really.

The zone design is better than WoW overall.

Basically to me it's pretty simple.

In all things graphical, animation, world, zone design: FFXI > EQ2 > WoW

In gameplay pacing, fun factor at newb levels: EQ2 = WoW > FFXI

So at this point I'm liking it a bit better than WoW.

Modify: Turned graphics from "good perf" to "balanced", looks a lot better now including shadows.

[Signe]

I like EQ2, too.  I haven't tried it since I got my new fancy shmancy graphics card but I will eventually.  Righ was fiddling in the tutorial last night but, unfortunately, I wasn't looking over his shoulder.  I like the fact that there is housing, no death penalty and eleventy one bajillion quests.  We beta tested the game and know the tutorial anyway... I consider it the best tutorial I've ever seen, actually.

I thought the graphics were really very good, even though they did, as other's have said, give the world a wee bit of an ordinary look.  I don't mind that at all... I like the softer colour palette, myself.  I'm looking forward to seeing it with all my settings cranked up.  My absotively posilutely favourite thing are the collections.  They might be a minor thing in the game but I love that sort of stuff.  There's always a treasure hunt going on!

I've read the lore and, to be honest, I don't know what to do with it.  When I play the game, I don't feel as if I'm part of the story.  I just sort of do stuff.  While that might be fun, as there is a lot to do in EQ2, I like a good story arc and want to participate in them.  I didn't really feel connected to the story but then, I didn't play very long and maybe it just takes a bit of time.

I think the changes made and those planned will make the game better.  I'm sad that the lower level games seems so under-populated and that might have a bit to do with whether or not I play for a long period of time.  The fact that there is a lot of new content to make soloing pretty much a breeze, it a good thing and helps a lot.  Whatever a development team can do to make their game palatable to all sorts of game styles is always good.  I'm not one of those people who insist everyone play a game just like I do.  As long as I can find other's to group with when I need to, I'm good to go.

[Murgos]

Housing - The apartments and such are great, lots of items and cool things to stack around.  I even spent an afternoon the last time I played looking through other peoples houses.  You could do even more here, I feel.  Houses with yards or courtyards and gardens and landscaping could be interesting, different themes (oriental, mid-east, etc...).  I really like putting your old items and souvenirs up on the walls.  Some more fantasy housing features would be cool, let me put up magic windows that allow me to look out of strange vistas, doorways that open into private Glenn's or valleys maybe.  More interactive objects would be cool too.

I would like to see more variety in appearance.  I don't like that every one of a certain class archtype looks pretty much indistinguishable, everyone is going to wear the best stuff they can and that is generally a pretty limited selection.  Also what ends up happening is that people end up mis-matched.  This would be a good opportunity to have your crafting system shine.  Craftable items should (IMO) work like you choose an appearance and then choose level of the item and then add in special effects.  So the crafter could choose which type of say chain mail base graphic to use, and then maybe a color scheme (and of course higher level crafters have more options, and maybe rare designs or embellishments like scroll work?) and then set the level for it up to a max based on their level and then imbue special effects.  So a high level crafter can make great looking armor even if it's only for a level 20ish character and since it's a high level crafter design they would still be getting crafter experience but this also wouldn't unbalance the newbies because it is still level appropriate armor.  Voila, diversity in appearance, improved crafter love and still really the same functionality.  Oh and put more eye candy special effects in glowies and the like are always fun, but get creative with it too.

I like the idea of a more coherent meta-plot, let there be some grand reason other than accumulation of wealth for my toons existence.  There is a lot more that could probably be done with the Freeport/Qeynos rivalry, and if done right could help breathe some new life into the ghost town that is Freeport.

More color.  Seriously, mud brown really isn't getting the job done.  More fantasy areas, you can build ANYTHING in computer land, lets stretch those imaginations a bit.  Some surrealism would be nice.

I would like to be able to achieve things solo, let me feel like my character is a bad ass and that when I get together with friends we can really do some damage.  Quest arcs similar to the betrayal quests or class choice quests that get you out and about are fun, do more of them.  Don't have so much aggo nuisance random spawn crap on the trails and paths between major areas of interest.  If I want to fight owl-bears I will go to where they are, I don't need 40 of them chasing me across nektulous everytime I head somewhere.  The occasional one is fine, it makes travel interesting, being continuously chased around is rather tedious though.

And my biggest gripe, character art.  Put all the toons on a diet and make them work out (even better add more sliders for the bodies at creation and even a way to adjust them later).  They are some of the flabbiest, stoop shouldered, sallow eyed, flat footed looking art work I have ever seen.  You really don't have to make major changes here, just trim the edges a bit here and there around the waist and hips, pad out the shoulders, straighten the posture a bit and lose some of the baby fat on the faces.

If you can do something to add more individuality here it would be much appreciated, stuff that you can add AFTER character creation but really isn't caught up in the stat game would be great.  Jewelry that is visible maybe? Clothing options that are visible in armor such as surcoats?  More hoods, belts, boots, gloves, funny hats, etc...  Make-up?  Tattoos?  Scars?  It's called self expression and it's a fairly important concept in the human social structure.  Semi-persistant and purely decorative.

edit:  Also people like quests because there is a guaranteed reward, raids are fun if you get something or the first once or twice you do it otherwise they SUCK.  Please consider having more rewards dropped during raids.  If you make them more like huge multi-person quests where everyone gets a little something for all that time and effort I think you will win a lot of friends.

[UD_Delt]

How bout a slightly different view? Most of the feedback so far is spot on but mainly from the new and mid-level perspective. I'm currently active in a raiding guild. At the moment I'm not raiding much due to only being level 58 but I am aware of most of what goes on just by listening in on teamspeak.

What do you like?
The raid setup is pretty damned good. There are a number of raid zones that can be completed in less than an hour as well as a couple of 3-4 hour raid zones.

Experience rate is good. The changes to increase vitality have helped a lot and the majority of our guild is now level 60.

The veteran rewards were a nice addition as well. If possible I would love to see the field repair kits become a craftable item. Most of those 3-4 hour raids require 2-3 sets of gear at the moment.

What don't you like?
The numbers restrictions on the large raid zones - On the nights we do a series of the shorter raids its not an issue  because we can swap players in and out as we move from zone to zone so everyone has an opportunity to participate. But on the nights we do the longer raids we typically end up with up to 10 people sitting out who wanted to raid that night because of the restrictions on raid size. I understand the limitiation in order to keep the encounters challenging and I'm not sure what a good answer would be but it really is disappointing to have to leave that many people behind on a regular basis.

Equipment & Skills - It's easier to gear up at level 50+ than it is at any other time. This is a combination of a few different factors. The first is that more people are harvesting tier 6 so there are more rares coming in that way. There are more people raiding T6 so there are more rares and high end gear coming in there as well. There also seems to be more solo named mobs in T6 zones than at any other time in the game which also have a chance at dropping rares. The changes to the low and mid level dungeons was a good start but I think the harvest rates in the lower zones need to be increased as well given there are less overall harvesters. A single person who harvests and solo hunts will be hard pressed to find enough rares to have more than a few legendary+ items. Vs. a 50+ player who solo's and harvests will most likely have full legendary+ gear by the time they are 53 or 54. Depending on the direction you want to go either T6 should be tuned down or T2-T5 should be tuned up.

End game content - Once you hit 60 there's really not much to do other than raid. There's a few long quest strings (Ring of Fate, Peacock Club) but once you finish those the joke is that you've pretty much won the game. Add that into the issue of raid limits and we are starting to slowly lose players again who are waiting on the next adv pack/expansion.

Tradeskills need more content - We're again reaching a point where there really is not much of a market for tradeskilling. It would be nice if each class was given at least 1-2 consumable items that were in demand (ie... Food/Drink, Totems, Potions, and Poisons). This is where field repair kits would be a great addition. I would prefer to see seperate Armor Repair Kits and Weapon Repair kits so as to give both classes something to do. It would also be helpful to add in faster combines for lower level items.

Repeatable quest timers - The Tears Grifter quests and the Truth/Blade/Coin faction quests are fairly good as is. The tears grifter type quests would actually be a great idea to add similar type quests to each city. However, the overall length to beat the quest should be increased and the timer should be removed. It's fairly annoying while working faction only to be forced into a 15 minute break between each of the quests.

What would you like to see the most in EverQuest II?
Mostly I'd like to see you continue doing what you've been doing. The responsiveness to getting bugs fixed and things that just don't worked changed has been great. The revamps that have been done so far have also been very successful.

I'd ask for AA's to be added but from what I've heard that's already in the mix.

The only other thing that would be a good addition is to add voice chat directly into the game. I prefer to play full screen and it can be tedious to have to switch back and forth to windowed mode every time I need to change channels in teamspeak.

[tazelbain]

I was tying to imagine what SOE/EQ2 could possibly do to get me to overcome my trust issues and disdain for the grind, but not completely rewrite your game.

The only thing I could think of was: fun, completive PvP available from day one. Think GW arenas, not CoV.  So when I am tired of leveling, I have something to do besides hit the cancel button.  Later when my leveling blues go away, I can get back on treadmill.  I thought the idea about collecting fighters to battle in the arena sounded like it had much potential so long as the collecting doesn't overpower the competitiveness. 

I could go in much more detail about particular systems, if this is a direction you are seriously concidering.

[Signe]

Oh, I should also mention again, since it ended up in that HATE thread,  how much I dislike the crafting mini-game. 

[Sky]

What do you like about EverQuest II?

I was hooked by the Isle of Refuge. I even grouped a bit (beyond the mandatory grouping for the orc quest...mandatory grouping BAD, unless you're on a Plane raid or fighting a dragon). I liked teh shiney, great graphics. I enjoyed the EQ feel of the game, because I actually liked EQ at one point, before it became all about the unholy trinity of classes and raiding crap. The VOs add a lot. The little touches are huge with me - the quest triggered by the little statue under the bay on the Isle was cool. Unfortunately, I didn't get far enough into the game to make this list very long...

I really, really wanted to like the game, because it's got a pretty nice atmosphere, but the group-orientation destroys it utterly for me. Utterly. I'm not sure you can undo this core game mechanic, no matter how much solo content you claim to add.

To me, pvp is a non-issue. I've never seen much good pvp in roleplaying games, I'll stick to games that do pvp well like Planetside for my fix.

What don't you like about EverQuest II?

First off, the 20 levels of mediocrity. My first go-around at launch was trying to recreate my old EQ character, a necromancer. I had a goddamned beetle as a pet. Lame. As I've said before, I've given it two whirls and neither time did I have enough fun to make level 20 (second time with a 'shadowknight'). The second time was a bit more enjoyable due to the armor quests for crusaders (or whatever they were called, been a while).

Secondly, I primarily play solo. As in 99% of the time, because my EQ friend isn't playing EQ2. I like to be able to sit down and play for a few hours without the hassle of finding people to play with. You've said this is better now, but the same thing was said when I resubbed the second time. Twice bitten... Another thing...solo does not mean small groups, it does not mean duo, it means solo. Soloing does not mean killing an_orc_warrior in the middle of the commonlands while dodging any mob that looks remotely interesting because of the artificial toughness that makes it a group-only mob. I'm not sure whether I can ever play a game that does that. EQ had tough mobs, and tough situations, but smart players could often surmount the challenges. EQ2 removes that possibility, and often greys that give no exp (and drop no loot? I forget) will easily beat my character. It's insulting to me as a solo gamer.

Hartman tried to address my concern, which I'll quote here:

Grouping should add to the gameplay experience, not have solo detract from it.

And I'll reiterate that as long as you have mobs that /con 'no solo players need apply', you've missed the boat. EQ was very group-oriented, later expansions too much so imo, but at the early game it was very group-friendly while not punishing solo players. Until you stop punishing solo players, don't expect us to thank you for adding content. The point is that you have exclusive content, and you don't need to. Not having 'no solo players need apply' style mobs throughout the entire game didn't hurt the group-friendly gameplay of EQ. And then dungeons...the very best part of EQ, denied to solo players. Except a few 'yard trash' mobs up front, of course. Don't expect people to get the second-class citizen treatment and stick around long.

The rest of my comments would be about the generic art, the homogenous look of avatars, the over-use of the bland commonlands. The early robe graphics are laughably bad. With that graphics engine, they should be very cool, but the style is lacking. What heroic fantasy painter painted bland stuff like that? Sure, high level gear should look really cool, but that doesn't mean newbies shouldn't look cool, too. Everyone should look cool in different ways, or someone has dropped the ball. A finaly graphical gripe - can Iksar pick something besides Yellow-bellied yet? Sheesh.

A bit wider scope on the level-bias, though that was rough in lower levels in EQ, too. Meaning stuff goes grey very quick and you're forcibly removed from a hunting ground, even if you enjoyed it's atmosphere. A bit looser in range from red to green would be nice, to provide more hunting opportunities.

I guess overall EQ2 tries to direct the player experience a bit too harshly, in my experience. It should be more about choices and less about being forced into a small number of options dependent on your playstyle. No game has done this to the extent EQ2 has.

I've got my Station Pass active, because I'm playing SWG and intend to get in some Planetside (SOE's best mmo). I'll reinstall EQ2 at some point, but I don't see how I'll ever play it regularly until solo players are considered equal citizens of Norrath.

[shiznitz]

Sky, are you saying that there should be no group mobs in the game, only solo and raid mobs? So if people want to group they should just mow down solo mobs like wheat before a scythe? EQ2 has a excellent balance between solo and group encounters right now. The mix is as close to perfect as I can envision.

[UD_Delt]

A bit wider scope on the level-bias, though that was rough in lower levels in EQ, too. Meaning stuff goes grey very quick and you're forcibly removed from a hunting ground, even if you enjoyed it's atmosphere. A bit looser in range from red to green would be nice, to provide more hunting opportunities.

This was modified a couple of patches ago. The level range for greens is now 10 (used to be 4-5)  levels below you. There are still the group oriented mobs (^^^mobs) however most classes should be able to beat them once they get into the 8-10 levels below you range.

As far as being able to solo dungeons and in general access all content while solo it is very much not possible (I would be on the opposite side of the coin where I think it's a good thing). There are some various areas of a number of dungeons that are soloable such as in Silent City (groups of level 53-55 mobs) including soloable nameds but to get to the further in areas will require groups and in some cases full raids (group x 4).

[jpark]

Good post Sky.  I am not generally a solo player - but the game should accomodate both play styles.  Especially since grouping often takes time - something we don't always have when we log on.  Your comments about gear, avatars and zones - bang on again.

[Sky]

Sky, are you saying that there should be no group mobs in the game, only solo and raid mobs? So if people want to group they should just mow down solo mobs like wheat before a scythe? EQ2 has a excellent balance between solo and group encounters right now. The mix is as close to perfect as I can envision.

Groups can mow through solo content, but the reverse is not true. The entire idea of 'solo mobs' rankles. Were all mobs in EQ solo mobs or raid mobs?

Yes, I'm saying there should be no 'group-only' mobs. The encounters can be set up so that it's mostly for groups to tackle, but enterprising solo players (those nasty necromancers and monks, dern them!) can also tackle them.

As far as being able to solo dungeons and in general access all content while solo it is very much not possible (I would be on the opposite side of the coin where I think it's a good thing). There are some various areas of a number of dungeons that are soloable such as in Silent City (groups of level 53-55 mobs) including soloable nameds but to get to the further in areas will require groups and in some cases full raids (group x 4).

Right. I'm in agreeance - the game is made for people like you, not people like me. I'm telling the SOE guy that, in so many words :)

I miss the days of Guk and Unrest, I guess. It's no joke that EQ2 isn't a sequel. It's a big step backwards in many ways. That's not nostalgia talking, UO is my nostalgia game ;)

I understand the limitiation in order to keep the encounters challenging and I'm not sure what a good answer would be but it really is disappointing to have to leave that many people behind on a regular basis.

Again, more of the directed gameplay hurting the player experience. This is why I'm a huge proponent of dungeon instancing and scalable encounters. I should reiterate my entire multi-tiered instancing solution for the EQ2 guys, who might not have heard me ramble about it before, because it satisfies every playstyle - and that's the only acceptable solution in my opinion. I don't normal espouse design (I don't exist in the dev forum here), because I feel that's the job of the professional devs, not me. But I feel very strongly about my multi-tired instancing idea, it could 'fix' a lot of 'problems'.

[UD_Delt]

Yes, I'm saying there should be no 'group-only' mobs. The encounters can be set up so that it's mostly for groups to tackle, but enterprising solo players (those nasty necromancers and monks, dern them!) can also tackle them.

I guess given this I would take back what I said. There are no mobs in game that require a group in order for you to engage them. There are plenty of mobs (raid targets and even the "trash" mobs leading to a raid target) that would however completely and utterly own any solo player in the game. Same as in EQ1, I'm guessing not many people were able to solo the gods and end-game mobs although I never got that far in EQ1 to say that for sure.

There are certain dungeons that are entirely soloable by level 59-60 wizards for example. They are one of the best classes at soloing very tough mobs. I've seen Wizards solo nearly everything in both Living Tombs and the front part of Silent City including ^^^heroic mobs. My experience on the other hand is as a Swashbuckler. I can take on anything ^^Heroic but triple ups outpace me too much to kill them before I'm dead. I could probably kite them with ranged but spending 5 minutes to kill a mob doesn't appeal to me. But it COULD be done.

Edit: Fixed quote. I also should mention that the reverse is not always true. There are groupx2 mobs and such that will not drop loot or experience if killed by a full raid force (groupx4).

[HaemishM]

• What do you like about EverQuest II?
• What don't you like about EverQuest II?
• What would you like to see the most in EverQuest II?

1) The terrain was purty.
2) The models were plastic-looking. It ran like monkey ass on any computer I tried it on at the time. The classes were boring. The combat was super-boring. Heroic opportunities read better on paper than they played in the game; they didn't make the combat more interactive, just sillier. The soloing content meant skipping around things that weren't solo-friendly. Zoning in this day and age is gauche and annoying. The Down Below was confusing, frustrating and really lacked any sense of being laid out for anything other than confusion.

In short, it felt way too similar to the gameplay I'd already gotten bored of in EQ1.

But mostly, I've stated my problems with the game before. Those were beta impressions, but nothing I've seen has made me change my opinion of the problem, which was the core gameplay.
3) Twitch combat?! 

[Sky]

Same as in EQ1, I'm guessing not many people were able to solo the gods and end-game mobs although I never got that far in EQ1 to say that for sure.

I'm not talking gods, planes or dragons. I'm talking about the mobs 16 paces in from the head end of that dungeon in commonlands where the solo mobs end and group mobs start. I don't even remember the details, it was some generic mob, but beyond my ability to defeat, and it was grey. I'm not /that/ bad of a player.

So, in short, the solo class is Wizard? I'm assuming this means wizard with upgraded spells...that kinda bugged me, too. But that's another rant, I guess. The game really is made for guilds with good crafters. The mere thought of all the crap I'd have to go through with my crusader (after doing it with my wannabenecro) to upgrade all my skills was enough to make me say 'screw it'. I'm all for trades, but the sheer ingredient list for a single damned skill was a bit over the top, imo. I used a spreadsheet, or in my parlance, deathknell.

[Soln]

What do you like about EverQuest II?
--the terrain, models, starter island, general quest content, HEROIC OPPORTUNITIES (great idea IMO)

What don't you like about EverQuest II?
--the UI (no mods, originally didn't even have chat tabs), the combat system, locked combat, the lack of apparent career paths for a lot of profs like Ranger, chained combat -- the fact that I can't solo 1 green: 5 others have to come with it.  Generally, you have too much group oriented combat, and that's not where's it at anymore.  

What would you like to see the most in EverQuest II?
--more forgiving quest content, and less treadmill:  it's a real drag to have entire zones suddenly turn green or grey for you if you are an Explorer or just starting out.  You should've had better hooks to get people to the next zone other than the treadmill.  I always regretted trying anything in Stormhold because I instantly got excluded one morning from the undead instance in the starter zone when I levelled.  I would end up "finishing" entire zones without being able to sample some of the content it seemed.  But frankly I just got bored after mid-20's -- there didn't seem to be any endgame or anything to aspire to, other than more zones with content I'd miss and more levels.  There's not a lot of sense of drama or narrative for a player's advancement -- you just go to the next zone, because that's where you go to level.  Thanks.

[Sky]

chained combat -- the fact that I can't solo 1 green: 5 others have to come with it.

Oh yeah, that too!

[UD_Delt]

chained combat -- the fact that I can't solo 1 green: 5 others have to come with it.

Oh yeah, that too!

This only happens if you attack a group of mobs. If you attack a single non-chained mob you will only get that single mob. If you attack a group of chained mobs then you'll get the group. If the mobs are of similar type usually each individual mob in a group of chained mobs is much weaker.

Ie... If you are fighting Orcs and pull a single it will usually be a single up (^) mob or a no arrow mob. If you pull a group of 2 orcs they will both be single down arrow mobs. 3 or more will usually be double or triple down arrow mobs.

As long as the group is not heroic you should have no difficulty killing them whether they are grouped or solo (assuming your in that level range).

[Sky]

Thanks, Cpt Obvious. I have played the game to almost level 20 twice 

I disagree with your assessment, however. I'd been regularly wtfpwned by chained mobs, even chained greys (because I had to kill orc pawns for a quest, and there were chains of 5 or so). Duos with (v), I could do, but I don't recall it being without difficulty.

Part of it was probably being a soloer who didn't have the connections to get upgraded spells and skills, yet another facet of play where soloers are punitized. Again, I understand the reasoning behind it, but it does underscore my premise that SOE should not be advertising the game as solo-friendly.

A few quest additions can't counterbalance the overwhelming grouping bias in the core game code.

[UD_Delt]

I'll aggree with you that upgrades do make a HUGE difference. If you are soloing and using mostly Apprentice 1 spells then you are going to have a lot of trouble. With all apprentice 4 spells things become doable. With all Adept 3/Master 1 things become easy. You can survive up to about level 10 with apprentice 1. 10-20 you can get by on a mix of app 2's with important spells at app 4 (it will really help to upgrade a key spell or two to adept 3 though). 30+ you should have all spells apprentice 4 with your main spells at Adept 3.

Same goes with quality of gear. From Handcrafted -> Treasured -> Legendary -> Fabled. Although I think gear makes less of a difference than upgrading your skills.

If you have an interest in trying again with a new char and aren't tied to your existing server pop over to Grobb. I can help you out with at least player crafted stuff. I have all trade skills up to at least level 38 so I can fully support any char up to that level.

[Signe]

Well, Righ wanted to give the game a try so I re-subbed, too.  He couldn't do the nublet orc quest alone, could he?  (Don't tell him but I really re-subbed for the candy canes and xmas pressies!) 

[shiznitz]

On the spell upgrades, you are overstating things a bit. My 46 zerker has mostly legendary armor and weapons but only adept 1s for spells and he solos just fine - anything white and under - although power regen can be an issue after a half dozen fights.

[Sky]

I'll aggree with you that upgrades do make a HUGE difference. If you are soloing and using mostly Apprentice 1 spells then you are going to have a lot of trouble. With all apprentice 4 spells things become doable. With all Adept 3/Master 1 things become easy. You can survive up to about level 10 with apprentice 1. 10-20 you can get by on a mix of app 2's with important spells at app 4 (it will really help to upgrade a key spell or two to adept 3 though). 30+ you should have all spells apprentice 4 with your main spells at Adept 3.

Same goes with quality of gear. From Handcrafted -> Treasured -> Legendary -> Fabled. Although I think gear makes less of a difference than upgrading your skills.

If you have an interest in trying again with a new char and aren't tied to your existing server pop over to Grobb. I can help you out with at least player crafted stuff. I have all trade skills up to at least level 38 so I can fully support any char up to that level.

Well, I installed last night (as I mentioned, I have an active Station Pass for SWG/PS right now), so I'll roll up a newbler. With the announcement of class and tutorial changes, I kinda wanted to hold off until January to get started, though.

With my "necro" (aka the beetle master), I was doing the crafting thing (with goddamned spreadsheet for ingredients and all) and made the Adept 3 stuff, I do recall a change that made that harder to do. With the not-SK I didn't bother going through the huge hassle, I simply don't have the time to dick around in a tradeskill instance for a week (my playtime is very limited). There was a huge power increase with the beetle master's upgraded spells. BLAM! Made me feel wimpy with my not-SK.

Gear - heh. I've got what they gave me in quest rewards - that's it.

Signe...that tree is crapping presents! Best tree evar!