Archives

I figure I will post all the pictures of things in EQ2 you will never see again.















This one I figure will be nice since Icon's don't read like that anymore... Thank god
















This is the older UI and Me Sage'n it up, yes this will never happen again.














The old UI set up with AC.... Ahh! I miss thee AC. Take a look at that BP, not sure if it exists in another form somewhere but that's the Way Dagerols level 10 BP you get for becoming a Guardian. Now it looks like crap, but hey that's just me. I really love this picture.















Quylein as a would be monk... I soon deleted him and made the always true Quylein. A HIE Mage/Summoner. I hope you enjoyed what EQ2 was almost well over a year ago.

Hats Hats my wonderful Hats

Some people are asking SOE or spouting off saying "I'm a little uneasy when things like collection quests and new hats makes the list of top features" and the likes.

Yes yes! I some what agree that this, it should of been in the game since day one minute one but it's nice that they are finally putting it in. I'm a Hat person, I dislike wearing hats in real life because most hats have no personality. 70% of all Americans wear either a Baseball cap with some logo or a Cowboy hat. Neither of which fits my taste, granted you would never catch me wearing a pointy hat in real life. I just like hat's that have style and taste and on women. Nothing more sexier then a women wearing a styled hat when it's done correctly.(I won't go into that)

I would have to say that "Brand new pieces of armor, such as Profession Hats, Helmets and Pauldrons, will make your character look more distinct." Is a plus for someone like me, in some ways I'm easily amused.

As you can see above my Final Fantasy character has a Wiz or what I call a Wiz cap. I enjoy playing a Mage that looks and feels like a mage. The skull caps that have been on EQ since I started and they have never truly appealed to me. I will say that Velious expantion introduced cool hat's that took a lot of work to get. Once you were done it was a great accomplishment and some were really sweet. Sadly, when SOL came out a lot of armors transitioned away from race/class and was basically the same all around. I enjoyed that barbarians in a leather hat had a bear on their heads, and that the cap was different through the races. It takes a lot of work, but for me the biggest bonus is when it's Class specific. I enjoy looking at a class and saying hey that's a Cleric, that's a White mage, that's a Wizard and that's a Warrior. I shouldn't look at a Cleric and send em a tell "hey wanna be our tank?"... That always makes for an awkward he's never gonna join my group moment.

So for me this will fix tons of concern throughout the whole of EQ2 when it comes to Armor models. This once I'll go with SOE and their marking team and say it's wise to advertise Class specific armors in the expantion. I do wish that they would make it so your robe is just the upper half and that the leggins as a mage show what your wearing and not just the model that belongs to that robe. SOE has a long way to go but I think they will come around.

Death: Getting it Right!

I hear you and can pretty much promise that, given our desire for Vanguard to be a more challenging game, targeted at core gamers, and more difficult than a lot of more recent MMOGs, death will have a very real sting. Without such a sting, the feeling of accomplishment when you kill that mob or overcome that encounter or obtain that rare item is greatly diminished. Human nature dictates that when you have to work hard and long to obtain something, the person is more attached to and proud of his accomplishment. The fact that this has been less true in many more recent MMOGs is all the more reason to make sure Vanguard is a more challenging and difficult game and why we have held fast to ideas like CRs, limited teleportation, no Instancing, etc. We think there are both a lot of old school MMOG players who miss that challenge and feeling of accomplishment, as well as lot of new MMOG players who will find themselves ready for a more difficult and therefore, hopefully, more rewarding and long term experience.-- Aradune Mithara

All I can say is EQ2 Needs to re-think their Death penalty a little bit more... At least give us more debt per death and No Debt refresh when you log out.. I wont let it go Sorry! Everthing in that forum post speaks many truths..

In responce

IN RESPONSE TO THE "RANDOM FACTS" THAT ARE BEING GENERATED ON THE INTERNET

I'm aware of the made up declarations about me that have recently begun to appear on the Internet and in emails as "Chuck Norris facts." I've seen some of them. Some are funny. Some are pretty far out. Being more a student of the Wild West than the wild world of the Internet, I'm not quite sure what to make of it. It's quite surprising. I do know that boys will be boys, and I neither take offense nor take these things too seriously. Who knows, maybe these made up one-liners will prompt young people to seek out the real facts as found in my recent autobiographical book, "Against All Odds?" They may even be interested enough to check out my novels set in the Old West, "The Justice Riders," released this month. I'm very proud of these literary efforts.
~ Chuck Norris

I really do enjoy the fact that he didn't really take offence to the little Chuck Norris facts... Some were quit hilarious and it's always nice to see a famous person actually let things just roll, and maybe laugh at themselves once in a while... I usually find laughing at myself a great stress reliever. On another note I will get back to EQ2 in due time, I have something up my sleve at the moment. However, I'm busy in RL so things will calm down and I'll get to regularly schduled programing.

I found Antonia

I been in search of my own Antonia.. my Queen... my Love.. Sadly I found out why the castle door's in Qeynos are locked and why we the little people aren't aloud in the Queens room to meet her. I know that those who have betrayed have seen her wrath, I now know why she's so pent up about those that don't bow down and obey her....














Yes that's right she's a Weapon sales person in Jeuno in the world of Final Fantasy and she still dresses pretty scantly only more S&M. Whips, chains, and Bastard swords oh my!

Here's a better side shot.















When I found her I tried to dime her out to the guard's but they wouldn't have it. Oh no she's only the lowly weapons sales person... Yeah right! So now I'll never look at her the same, she is a working man like the rest of us. Then she kicked me out of the store...

Chuck Norris

Wow! I came back in what seems to be a bad mood and for that I apologize. It's hard to be happy when you had a nice little break from work. Sadly I'll never get off the EQ2 Death thing until it's fixed, or I quit caring about the game. OK, I figured today I'd lighten up the place with some fun Chuck Norris facts. These are ripped from chucknorrisfacts and some are quite funny.

* There is no theory of evolution, just a list of creatures Chuck Norris allows to live.
* Crop circles are Chuck Norris' way of telling the world that sometimes corn needs to lie the fuck down.
* In an average living room there are 1,242 objects Chuck Norris could use to kill you, including the room itself.

Personal fact: When I was 7 Chuck Norris was my Hero, I had an action figure that always kicked the Karate Kids ass.

Now for some Antonia Bayle facts

* "Oh Deer Me" was a way of letting Antoina's subjects act evil without knowing it
* Search for Antonia was just to throw you off; Her real job is in Jeuno (see tomorrow's Blog)
* Antonia and Lucan created the plague after a wild Frostfell party in 2004
* She has a bounty on Lucans head after what he gave her.... PVP will play a role

Ok their not all that funny but I'm going some where with this... Follow the white rabbit and
Stay tuned to the next blog where I bartered with Aggro me's Detective squad on where Antonia's where abouts.

In who's opinion

I've read around recently and have come to the realization that people don't know what they want when it comes to a MMO. They seem to want their bread buttered on both side then toast it, no wait they toast it and then butter... Or is it..... Ok you get my point. I recently read this and it's the little summary at the end that really tweaked my calm side.

In summary, I think EverQuest 2 started off trying to emulate EQ success by carrying over many of its features and game play elements. The broader and more diverse player base railed against this lack of innovation and narrow focus, and Sony has responded by making EQ2 more accessible, and just plain better. This should serve as a lesson to upcoming games (Vanguard, this means you), that what gamers want has changed since the days of the original EverQuest. Thanks for reading.

I've played EQ from 1999 and EQ2 from the start give er take a week. First of all I can say the moment I logged into EQ2 the only feel that was the same to me was the UI and commands. Their Archetype system to me is flawless and I am sad they are cutting it out to now go back to what was EQ's (success?). There was great innovation and what seemed to be focus but not on the raid scale which is what a lot of people railed against.... The fact this game was really easy and button mashy without any sense of a vast world to be conquered is why people quit... EQII.com a former shadow of what is once was all because there was high hopes it would be similar to EQlive.. If you read through these boards you will learn more why the huge following soon disbanded and stopped playing EQ2 shortly after release. It's because up untill LU 13 EQ2 was a joke and now it looks to be going back to the pre LU13 mentality... Easy come Easy go!

What lesson should Vanguard learn form EQ2? Oh yeah! I got one here's what really not to do make a half assed game release and try to please everyone. You will never be able to please everyone and what's more irritating about EQ2 then it's crappy death penalty is the fact it Hem-haw's. When you make a MMO you do it for the Working man or the basement kid not both... It's Impossible to make a game to please both, EQ2 did prove that when it was group centric with death penalty enough to make most not want to die it rocked. Now it's a Solo game calling itself an MMO for the sake of getting that monthly fee. Yeah there is some Group content and some crap raids but those aren't enough to keep people around like EQ1 did.

You need to go one of two ways with a MMO WOW or EQ1. You have a hard time filling in the blanks of a Group oritntated game if it's easy to solo. You will be stuck without a Healer, DPS, or Tank and it's probly because they are out soloing. That leads to frustration for those that want to group and they get bored and quit. I don't think it shouldn't be soloable at all just that it's not as good as a group.

Look at this little post on Vanguard forums. Read around for yourself a lot of them seem clueless as to what they like in a game. Now I can point out a million things I don't like about EQ2 but the small stuff that pisses me of is easily overlooked when I want to keep playing. Then I read stuff like this

Really, if they combined WoW's gameplay, with EQ2's graphics, music, and stability, and maybe DAoC's or EQ1's end game content, then it would make an amazing MMO.

Wow's Gameplay? EQ1's End game? Ok seriously then you have the balls to say Hear that Sigil?
There is a million ways to go with that but I'll say in all trufullness EQ2's gameplay is similar to WOW; though EQ2 is more fun to watch. The funniest thing about all of these MMO's there game play all initially is pretty much the same. Change what ability's and how they look vs what race/class/job that uses them they all pretty much play the same. They all have Auto attack, magic and some sort of combat ability and pet classes. Every group needs a Tank, Healer.... (that is when you aren't out soloing.) .... It's a never ending cycle of stat boosting by getting levels to get better items to so you can get more items.. (Save for COH)

No I think if people want the semi best of both worlds they should play EQ2. If they want solo they should go to WOW and if they want to Group play Final FantasyXI... at least untill Vanguard comes out. I truely believe it's verily impossiblee to make a game be both Soloable and Group with out making sacrifices on either side but EQ2 is close.

I say if you want to make a good MMO don't do what's already done, do something new. Vanguard looks to be that promise and the world of MMO's is in for a treat when it's finally out.

Quylein: I'm Back!!

After my little Vacation I'm back and with little more info then I left with. As you all may know I'm taking a break from EQII and plunged head strong into Final Fantasy XI. Well I did get to do a few things in EQ2 that I wasn't expecting. It was fun for the most part but mainly tiresome because the tank we had was how do I put this.... Our main guild tank is pretty much fabled out, so as a healer I have little to no job so to add injury to my boredom I didn't get to heal much.

Here's the scoop I went to silent city and we died once on the way there due to channel cleaners that was about as fun as it got. Once we got there we did a few quests and waited in what always seemed to be a dead end area for a rare mob to pop.. Not sure which just know I was there only to help. Well later after I literally feel asleep at my monitor my wife woke me up to go finish up my carpet quest. As much fun as I figured this would be it was just another notched quest finished, with a reward that everyone 50+ pretty much already has done. I Once again didn't feel any gratification, I keep trying to pinpoint it but it still seems to be the fact that risk vs reward just really isn't there.

Later we went to Soleye that was fun at first, our MT was pulling so many Heroic level 48+ mob at one point I though we were goners... You see you can't engage a mob killing you if there are to many of them at once so I had to just spam heal. Now that was fail fun until we sat in the back room once again for a mob to pop for BOF access. We finally got it and the whole ring event was very uneventful. Now if most of us were in our high 40's low 50's it would of been more entertaining sadly it was not. Couple the fact that their is an expantion and the raise to level 60 and the death penalty being less then Mario bro's for Atari it has a more meaningless feel to it. My wife keeps trying to re-engage my interests in EQII and everytime I see more and more DOF zones the more I wish I would of saved my cash. A lot of the zones are repetitive and or seemingly lacking in adventure but, don't take my advice there is just a different feeling when you don't care if you die.

The biggest trouble I have with this whole hand me out EQII has gotten into is where is the actual reward for busting your ass. We got a raid together for the Scepter HQ and ran across a EpicX3 in SS. The raptor, not sure what name is well he went down fairly easy only a few deaths but no retry.. Once he died the loot "OH yeah this has gotta be half way good"... Yup you guessed it a pair of plate leggings with worse stats then the player made vanadium.... and Tada.. a Tradeskill scroll purchased once you got your faction up. OMFG!!

Here we go getting 15 people together which is a feat in and of itself with the degraded EQ2 population and we get shit loot for a Epic X3... It made me think WTF how come at 50 I can go to Runnyeye and get master loots off heroics solo or a small group in CT, yet it's still heroics. But a level 55 Epic X3 doesn't drop even decent non master loot? It's broke I don't like broke and hand me outs all the time make people not appreciate something as much. Com'mon Dev team you care so much about EQ2 why don't you make it so we care too? I've yet to see something in EQ2 where I'm gonna really want it, it's rare and it's a benefit to actually have it. So my question to you is where is the fun, excitement, adventure? Hell if there is no travel you should have plenty of time to think about putting these types of things in. Yeah go figure we want fun, who'd a thunk it right? Easy patches to put in the next few LU's or Expantions

Fun: Make it so you have to use your brain and bonus if there is no way to really follow a spoiler. Spells is a biggy for me being that I'm a mage..** Make it so some of the spells are only questable, .. Say you get nice spell at level 61 maybe make one drop or buyable, but make another quest only(no drop, no sell).

excitement: Make death matter... A few gold is a joke and Debt is laughable. I get my heart pumped when I know there is a huge chance of failure and failure is only felt with a punch in the face, not a mosquito bite. Bring back group Xp debt but only make it so if your group is in the same rural area. Make it so that at level 60 you can lose xp so you still have that I don't wanna die feeling.... Make solo Xp debt suck say around 4%... Think of something...

adventure: Since we all got 40%+ run speeds post 50 and the fucking bells, flying carpets rides, and griffons, why not actually make it difficult and adventurous to travel to some places. This insta shit has got to stop, it makes me feel like I'm in a box not a world. I think even adding some neat cut scenes for the first time doing something may add to the adventure. ** such as you ring a bell on the docks to Willow wood going to Qeynos harbor. You see a harbor man rowing a boat up to you then you board and off you go not everytime, but every so often to get the feel.
** You could make it so boats come in and out of port in the Harbor... for crying out loud it's a Harbor and even if it's static boats it gives a neater feel to the place. There is like one static boat in Freeport, Neat.. Give us more little details.

Yes, I know this is yet another negative EQ2 post and as much as anyone who loves this game I don't want to write them but I do write what I feel. I know there is tons that the Dev team did and there is a lot of good. I would like to point it out sadly, at the moment my mind is only filled with the what needs fixed because it makes the game suck at the present. I also know that if I stop playing EQ2 there are about 15 others that will quit and migrate over to another game... I already got 4 coming to Final Fantasy XI. No, it's not a threat our measly money wouldn't amount to squat however, I know if were doing it others are too... Here's rooting for EQII to become the game it can be.

On the only semi positive note: The Beserker AQ armor is bad ass I just wish they would stop making the armor look like they ripped it off of actual tanks..LOL