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[EverQuest 2] Now Fully F2P, no more silly splitting of the population!

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    PailryderPailryder Registered User regular
    new patch went live yesterday. In-game Fraps is pretty cool feature.

    http://everquest2.com/en/launchpad/updates_live.vm

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    TrekkieTrekkie Registered User regular
    I paid 5 bux for a couple days to see what has changed. I'm still really surprised no one plays this. I must say though, the butcher block server was a ghost town in the lvl 20 area last night heh.

    Eve Online: Zareph
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    InvisibleInvisible Registered User regular
    Antonia Bayle was the busiest server last time I played. It was a monumentally stupid decision to divide the subscriber and f2p servers. They could have looked at anything, anyone has ever suggested on their official forums and went "no, these people have terrible ideas and should never be listened to. Even if I was on fire and they told me to stop, drop and roll, I'd still get two or three more opinions before doing it."

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    ArthilArthil Registered User regular
    I hear they've been thinking on ditching that silliness, actually. Anyway... I'm apparently the OP, big fucking derp. If you guys want me to update the OP with anything, shoot me a PM.

    PSN: Honishimo Steam UPlay: Arthil
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    GlalGlal AiredaleRegistered User regular
    Invisible wrote:
    Antonia Bayle was the busiest server last time I played. It was a monumentally stupid decision to divide the subscriber and f2p servers. They could have looked at anything, anyone has ever suggested on their official forums and went "no, these people have terrible ideas and should never be listened to. Even if I was on fire and they told me to stop, drop and roll, I'd still get two or three more opinions before doing it."
    Yeah, agreed. Friend of mine got their Station Access and plays on the F2P server, rather than the live one, simply because it has a kicking population and he won't lose access to all his characters if he ever lets it lapse.

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    xYUUBINKYOKUxxYUUBINKYOKUx Registered User regular
    Well after waiting an hour queued for all level 80+ dungeons as my fury I got dropped into a group for Iceshard Keep. Great right? Well after 3 failed pulls I figured out that the bruiser that was our tank was not taunting at all because every pull it came right after me. Now by this point we had actually killed that very first named since he is a pushover and we were trying to clear the trash right at the top of the stairs. So she dropped without saying anything and I guess the dungeon queue keeps looking for people because it replaced her with a conjuror. So now we had no tank and a new person that was upset because there was already a boss dead. Besides this not being a cross server queue its a mess.

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    jackaljackal Fuck Yes. That is an orderly anal warehouse. Registered User regular
    How is the silver experience. I downloaded EQII, but then I read a older review where it said silver and free can't equip anything beyond uncommon or sell on the whatever EQ's version of the auction house is. That seems like it would play out as *hit level cap and then get told, "haha, 15/month, fucker!". Is that accurate?

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    GlalGlal AiredaleRegistered User regular
    Here's what you can and can't do. You can't equip anything above Legendary and Silver can't sell on the AH without tokens.

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    jackaljackal Fuck Yes. That is an orderly anal warehouse. Registered User regular
    The problem is without playing EQ2 in the past it is hard to tell how restrictive the restrictions are. Can you be competitive with the legendary restriction? Is 18 plat a decent amount of money or fuck all? Do you generally have to sell rarely enough that $.15 per token is a problem (which I guess would mean approaching 100 tokens a month because at that point the player may as well go gold)?

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    GlalGlal AiredaleRegistered User regular
    Define competitive. It's a PVE game, unless you're going into PVP (which is shit) or hit cap (which will take you a while) you're not exactly competing with anything.
    You can level through the content with crafted items just fine, it's what I did when I played on EQ2 prime as well.
    18 plat is okay, though mainly because, due to not being able to sell on the auction house, you won't really be rolling in money anyway. For one time purchases off the AC 18 plat is more than enough.

    Really, if you go Silver (and thus get shared slots and more bag slots), the restrictions don't really matter all that much in normal gameplay. The only difference I noticed is that you can't freely sell all the gathered junk and thus can't profit off lazy top levels who'd rather throw money than effort into crafting. Consequently, less money to spend on the AC; luckily that's helped by joining a large guild, people are more than happy to make you stuff if you ask for it (and/or have mats, if they're rare), my characters all have decent sized boxes and bags thanks to that.

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    jackaljackal Fuck Yes. That is an orderly anal warehouse. Registered User regular
    Thanks. That makes me feel better about silver. By competitive I mean will dps or mitigation or hps or whatever be much lower than a gold subscriber

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    ArthilArthil Registered User regular
    edited October 2011
    Edit: Scratch that doesn't look like the RAF thing works for people coming back.

    Arthil on
    PSN: Honishimo Steam UPlay: Arthil
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    sumwarsumwar Registered User regular
    Well i basically just want to give a shout out to the free to play mode in this game. I've been trying to find good F2P games and they all pretty much suck except this. It isn't as good as WOW but I'm so damn sick of wow after spending over 6500 hours in it. I have a lvl 18 warlock and its fun for a F2P game.

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    ArthilArthil Registered User regular
    This game has a way to get its hooks into you far more than WoW ever, -EVER- will.

    WoW ushered you on towards the cap, while in this game there are just so many damn distractions/things to do. I've only gotten one level on my highest character since coming back to it, but that's only because I've been busy doing other stuff than outright leveling.

    PSN: Honishimo Steam UPlay: Arthil
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    GlalGlal AiredaleRegistered User regular
    In my case I stop levelling and start doing other activities every time I start nearing the end of the current tier, simply because (new areas aside) the game's quest gear rewards are too shit to sustain you and hitting a new tier means the daunting task of investing into new crafted gear. It wasn't until I did this last that I realised I had multiple gear slots with items 20 or more levels below my own, because that was the last time a quest gave me an item for them.

    It doesn't help that the EQ2X EXP/AA ratio is a bit whack and you need to go back and do parallel levelling zones to catch up. Running out of sub-40 quests when you're still 37 yourself is a bit pants. I guess some would appreciate having a reason to visit the other zones, but for me it just means running loads of trivialised quests to unlock the chains and boring alts because I'd already seen all the zones.

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    ArthilArthil Registered User regular
    Actually Glal, that is completely changed. Quest gear now completely trumps most Mastercrafted stuff, except perhaps end-game things. They did a complete pass of everything you get from reward/chests/etc. There might be some cases where Mastercrafted would still be nice, but it's no longer mandatory. The reason being is because they made sure the gear has stats that make sense, along with the newer stats they'd implemented, but had thus far only been available on higher level gear.

    PSN: Honishimo Steam UPlay: Arthil
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    GlalGlal AiredaleRegistered User regular
    Is this true to all zones or just specific ones? SOE has a tendency to abandon zones and never touch them ever again (oh Nek, why are you so terrible).

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    ArthilArthil Registered User regular
    Couldn't 100% tell you, in regards to Freeport and Qeynos you can't even start a character there anymore. The upcoming expansion that introduces Beastlords also comes with Freeport being redone.

    But at least for Greater Faydark, Butcherblock and such they seem to be changed. Even stuff from Thundering Steppes seemed good. I'll check what Zek gear looks like, but it seems that they did actually make things nicer.

    PSN: Honishimo Steam UPlay: Arthil
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    InvisibleInvisible Registered User regular
    If you follow the golden path, you'll be fine. The other zones could have been updated, and probably have to some extent, but the golden path was the way to go when I played.

    And do free players not get the AA experience slider?

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    GlalGlal AiredaleRegistered User regular
    Hmm, not sure if convinced, I was doing my usual "make Mastercrafted at start of tier" thing and up to level 35-ish I never replaced a single crafted item with a better quest reward. The only time I remember getting a piece of gear and going "oh, using THAT" was for a weapon in BB, and even that was only replacing one of the white weapons I bought off the auction house half a tier ago. The quest rewards in the newer starting areas are nice, you do the quests and get an entire set. Then you finish that area and welcome to the land of sporadic off-class rewards. :?

    And no, free players can't move the AA slider, you're stuck at 50%. So, you hit the end of the tier 3 levels below the next quest hub and need to go to parallel zones to do those, too. It's a bit of an... odd decision. I get that it's supposed to be enticement to get you to subscribe, but in that case make it something that levels you as quickly as the content you do with the subscription letting you powerlevel either aspect, rather than having it feel inherently broken.

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    ArthilArthil Registered User regular
    Glal, when was the last time you played? This is rather important.

    Since I easily replaced 3-4 pieces of my Monks Mastercrafted gear just off of the final handful of quests I had left in Butcherblock.

    PSN: Honishimo Steam UPlay: Arthil
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    GlalGlal AiredaleRegistered User regular
    edited October 2011
    About a month ago? Also, were said pieces Legendary, and as such, unavailable to free players?

    [edit] Also, the pieces you replaced, were they replaced at the start or the end of a tier?

    Glal on
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    ArthilArthil Registered User regular
    They were the Mastercrafted stuff that was for... between 30-35 or so. The items are Treasured.

    I don't get why you're not willing to just take my word on it, I'm just saying what I've experienced has been improved xP.

    PSN: Honishimo Steam UPlay: Arthil
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    flammiebcflammiebc Registered User regular
    Yeah, the first round of itemization changes actually made MC gear worse than most treasured items in every way (had less stats, less blue modifiers), then they buffed MC gear back to decent levels in a subsequent update after crafters (rightfully) bitched them out. There were some nice bugs too, like having some class armor pieces no longer usable by said class.

    I got a beta invite for the new expansion, but I'm undecided as to whether I'm going to jump for it. Seeing how hilariously broken the scaling at the velious endgame is (raid geared DPS do 600+% more damage than newly geared toons, making tanking aggro impossible), I think I might be done with this game again. But up until that point, it's an enjoyable experience, and since I believe EQ2X is always one expansion behind, you shouldn't have to deal with those problems as SF content had better gear scaling.

    Switch: SW-7753-7176-1119
    PSN: LucidStar_BC
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    Anon the FelonAnon the Felon In bat country.Registered User regular
    Since seeing this thread, I decided to give this a shot again. I had some left over SonyBux anyway.

    So, I've got a Troll Berzerker (go go gadget tank!) named Krunp

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    GlalGlal AiredaleRegistered User regular
    Arthil wrote:
    They were the Mastercrafted stuff that was for... between 30-35 or so. The items are Treasured.
    I don't get why you're not willing to just take my word on it, I'm just saying what I've experienced has been improved xP.
    Because that was my experience about a month, month and a half ago. Unless they've pushed out new itemization since.

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    Anon the FelonAnon the Felon In bat country.Registered User regular
    I'm curious if anyone plays the actual subscription based game here...

    After playing some of the free stuff, I remembered how fun it was and how I had a level 70 paladin sitting on my account. I'd be interested in starting up the real game if anyone can provide some insight.

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    ArthilArthil Registered User regular
    *Raises hand* I'm subbed, cause I laid down for the All Access Pass thing. So I got both the normal game and Gold for EQ2X.

    PSN: Honishimo Steam UPlay: Arthil
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    Anon the FelonAnon the Felon In bat country.Registered User regular
    Do you play often? I don't mind joining a guild and stuff, but I'd like to have one PA buddy to hang out with.

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    ArthilArthil Registered User regular
    Guess you'd have to define often, honestly. I get on whenever I get the urge to, often enough I guess. I'm on Antonia Bayle. Obviously we have no PA guild presence, I don't even really interact much with my own guild.

    PSN: Honishimo Steam UPlay: Arthil
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    Anon the FelonAnon the Felon In bat country.Registered User regular
    Well, I'm on AB as well, as Crusix the Troll Paladin.

    Anyone on the gold game, shoot me a tell or something I'll gladly mentor or just chat.

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    ArchonexArchonex No hard feelings, right? Registered User regular
    So is there any way to make this game less aggressively ugly?

    I downloaded the EQ2 streaming edition, and I don't know if that influences it or something, but damn does this thing look horrible. Usually I can power through it, but when games like CoH are beating a more modern game out on the looks department, it makes me raise an eyebrow.

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    Anon the FelonAnon the Felon In bat country.Registered User regular
    Its your default settings, you need to much around with them because right now it's set for "shit" and should be set for "Holy god".

    That's about the best I can offer you, you might want to "buffer" the client by downloading some more textures.

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    ArchonexArchonex No hard feelings, right? Registered User regular
    edited November 2011
    Its your default settings, you need to much around with them because right now it's set for "shit" and should be set for "Holy god".

    That's about the best I can offer you, you might want to "buffer" the client by downloading some more textures.

    I set everything to ultra. It still looked pretty bad. Also, somehow, it began to chug on my bleeding edge computer whenever I got near certain areas.

    I'm thinking it's either just how the game looks in the early areas (Were they ever revamped as the years went by?), or it's the streaming client.

    Archonex on
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    Anon the FelonAnon the Felon In bat country.Registered User regular
    Probably the streaming client. It's what I'm using but the shitty look went away after I went back and forth between areas a few times.

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    GnomeTankGnomeTank What the what? Portland, OregonRegistered User regular
    Is there only one free server? Is that the one most of you are playing on? If there is more than one, is there sort of an official PA free server?

    Sagroth wrote: »
    Oh c'mon FyreWulff, no one's gonna pay to visit Uranus.
    Steam: Brainling, XBL / PSN: GnomeTank, NintendoID: Brainling, FF14: Zillius Rosh SFV: Brainling
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    ArthilArthil Registered User regular
    Archonex wrote:
    So is there any way to make this game less aggressively ugly?

    I downloaded the EQ2 streaming edition, and I don't know if that influences it or something, but damn does this thing look horrible. Usually I can power through it, but when games like CoH are beating a more modern game out on the looks department, it makes me raise an eyebrow.

    Everquest 2 is not a modern game, in fact it came out the same year City of Heroes did.

    As for the looks, give us some information? Kelethin is still beautiful looking, but if you decided to start in Neriak I can see why you might think it was bland since it's all dark and gloomy. Regarding your machine seeing some slowdown near cities? Get used to it man, the game isn't really all that friendly since the game was made with the thought in mind that it would be the CPU that would become the biggest, baddest part of your machine. Not the GPU.
    GnomeTank wrote:
    Is there only one free server? Is that the one most of you are playing on? If there is more than one, is there sort of an official PA free server?

    There is only one free server, and I don't think most of us are playing on it. I myself have a subscription to the game, although I do also have Gold access to the EQ2X server.

    PSN: Honishimo Steam UPlay: Arthil
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    Anon the FelonAnon the Felon In bat country.Registered User regular
    I don't know, I think EQ2 is a pretty game...It's engine is obviously not optimized, but it is still nice looking. Especially the new items when they got away from photorealism and more into "fantasy for fun".

    I too play on the subscription side of the game now. F2P just kind of got to me without having bag slots and such. I also have a high level character on the subscription side and...well...who likes to be level 1 when you have an unfinished high level!?

    I do think that the subscription side of the game is better then F2P. Simply because in order to really not be angry at EQ2, you have to get to "Gold" status, and if you're going to do that, you might as well get fully unrestricted game play anyway.

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    Sea of ThornsSea of Thorns Registered User regular
    Does Destiny of Velious offer anything substantial to new players/characters? I have Sentinel's Fate and am interested in coming back, but with Age of Discovery supposedly coming soon, I don't want to drop $40 to upgrade if I could just wait a bit and get the new expansion later.

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    ArthilArthil Registered User regular
    Until you hit 85? Not really, no.

    PSN: Honishimo Steam UPlay: Arthil
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