Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Fighting one and zero
















/Gu has posted this up a few days back and it just wont stop bothering me. I'm not sure what it is about this but to me this one is just not funny. Maybe I'm just bias because I really do like EQ2 and want it to be successful and well as some of you know like it to be difficult. However, this comic to me is way off and even though he's not making a jest that EQ2 sucks though I believe some preceive it as such.

My opinion on fighting: It should have all shapes and forms, some battles should be fast and smooth, some should be long and encountering, some should have finesse and others encounters could be brawn. I believe even though a con is; for the sake of argument (an Even con). It should have the modifiers on them like (Heroic, epic, solo) but, they should also have hidden abilities that we are unaware of. Unless of course we have fought the foe a few times already. This even con could be any modifier but it could have any number of attributes as some already know that is the way most of the Stats work. I want fast paced fights where you get min XP and longer fights that give Max Xp but I mainly want fights where the encounter can change at a moments notice. I dislike solo fights most the time because I feel MMO's are group and people oriented and they should be, with the possibility to solo. However the solo fights always come with a price as with any fight they should.

Should the dev make all solo fights for the weakest class or should they make them doable by all classes? Well I believe they should make the (doable) by all classes. Will some be able to do it faster and more efficient? I say yes, I believe a ranger/swash should take down a even con faster then a Cleric/Mystic. I don't agree with making everything dumbed down for all classes or you have those of us that like the challenge striped away granted in the recent years it looks as if I'm a die'n breed. Not to say there isn't a challenge in EQ2 you can always challenge yourself like most rangers did recently. Our guild ranger was soloing Heroic Even to yellow cons with little to no troubles. That is when you know it's not a NPC problem, when no other Class could do that there needs to be a fix. Sorry rangers that was a fix and I'll stick by that statement. Though the point I'm tring to make here is if we don't feel challanged we will challange ourself and keep one uping till we reach what we feel is our potential get bored and quit. So I guess essentially there will always be a platu it just has to be as fair and reasonable with every class all with in reason (or there will be an outcry). Now what is the reasoning you might ask? It really is up to the game developer there are many differnt games with differnt mind-sets so this question could take all day, I'll just say for me EQ2 is going in the right direction.

Here it seems as if most are anti SOE or EQ, everyone has a right to their thoughts but I just don't think they are getting the picture here or somewhere the Cartoon lost them along the way. I underdtand the point he's making being that I have a 56 Mystic but overall most fights are quick and furious.

I'll just pick on the first few posts here.

Laneer post: My rebuttal here is um... Yeah have you even touched EQ2? If your out of power it's because A. Your using it in a battle and are still in a battle or B. Your not drinking anything. Even then it takes no more then what? 1 minute, 2 tops. It's not like the EQ1 of my day where it could take 10 min with out KEI.

Eaeinae: I think it's a valid point... ONE WEEK after LU 13 and you haven't relearned your class. I'm sorry but LU13 was the best thing to happen to EQ2 and that is over any other LU to date. My belief is that if the Combat revamp didn't happen EQ2 would be dead. If not totally dead it would be dead to me; PVP or not. Prior to LU 13 the game was waaaay to easy, even though I think Guardians were where they should be... the TOP tank for raiding and not HP buff bitch. I still believe it was better for the game as a whole.

Ifrinn: Um? then MMO's aren't for you not Guild wars, not WOW, .... not any of em for that matter. BTW if it was a grind in EQ2 to get to 15 for you then yeah read above. Getting to 20 in EQ2 seems to be a 5 min jog (if all you do is want to level.) I think people in general that make these type of statements want instant gratification of leveling without any work. Oh.. and thanks for naming Qeynos after me thanks.. I like Quynos better too.

Shadowthorne: Yeah you've not Played EQ2 so STFU.

There is a poll out there saying we misunderstand 78% of most the stuff we read on the internet so if I miss read what you all wrote in the /Gu forums then I apologize in adavance.

EQ2 has it's problems like lag time in KOS becuase of the massive amounts of people in the zones to making PVE death not matter much at all and many more nit picky things. Overall EQ2 is every MMO's goal or as close to the goal I think recent MMO's are trying for. Get everone in to play from the Soloers, the Groupers, the Raiders, the Questers and then some. I think SOE has EQ2 going in the right direction for once and with a little tweak here and there it will boast good player numbers like we've seen recently.

As far as battle taking to long on the /Gu post if your Guardian, or priest forget about DPS and killing things fast. Play these characters for the Groupablity of them. Nothing gets me more irritated then hearing Tanks moan about not having good DPS espesialy when they are the MT.. Um put your shield on take your DPS buff off and put on defense, then take a beating like a good tank should. Oh and STFU or go be a Scout. If your a priest with the same complaint.... maybe next time you should read up about your class before choosing so hastefully.

In general my feelings on most combat in EQ2, it's entirely to fast in 90% of the cases... Especially if you have good Scouts and Mages in your group. I wish some combat areas would become slower with more xp reward, hell throw in a few tricks to counter in the fight here and there not all fights need to be 30 seconds or less.

Monday, February 27, 2006

PVP: Me and Death










Here recently I've been busy and you may have noticed a little slow down on my posting which is me partially becoming lazy, sick, and busy... but mostly busy I swear. Seriously, most nights its a decision either I post here on my blog that seems to carry the occasional lurker. That probably got here by accidentally clicking for Broken Toys, Damned Vulpine or even Nerfbat or Play EQ2... I usually choose to well you get the picture; that and I feel less of a burden to post as often as someone like Aggrome because I don't have L33T writing skills or I just have worthless dribble. For any inconvenience I'm sorry but the regular post will resume as soon as I have the time to well.... Resume it.

Ok anyways on with the show

There I was a lowly Froglok Paly, the very minute NAE! The very second Nagafen was up I logged up. It was as if I was camping for the Cleric Epic one more time, then BAMB! BAMB! BAMB!..LAAAAAAg!! It was as if there were 100's running to the Kerran on newbie Island, Ding Ding Ding 5 seconds later, I believe I was the first to level 2 but I'll never know for sure. Try doing that newbie quest to fight the trainer when 15 are doing it all at the same time(per trainer). Yes that was very funny to watch.

I quickly got to 15 and was out and about looking to PVP and wouldn't you know it a FPer Wizard was taken me down quick... it didn't help a deer was kickin my ass at the same time. Oi! Good times, well by this time I wanted to learn to betray the new style way um... yep 101 quests later I figured it's just not in. I don't tend to read the SOE boards so I went to the Aggrome forums and Jai hooked the info up(thanks again) at the same time I found and realized I'm scrawed till next LU, not good.









So I decided to go with my second optition Half-elf Brigand named Falik- "because when you have to absolutely kill every MOTHER IN THE ROOM, accept no substitutes". This has gone a lot slower both level and quest wise, where as before I knew Qeynos and where all the good quest baring the new ones in the Caves (which totally own) I was able to by pass the initial rush of folks. Re-rolling has set me back some... well in PVP it set me back a lot and the fact I know nothing but the Stein quest in FP and that doesn't help one bit. This has been a difficult road because not only do I want to enjoy the Evil side it's like a new game for me I want to level and go out to PK(player kill). I love the old voice over system I enjoy listening to the sluty Kerran to the street Mafia all the way to the Militia and even some Trolls got some great voices. Though it's not till your around those annoying ones for a while that it starts to drive you nuts. (have you seen a Gnoll before?) So yes I take my time listening to the quest givers and I get into the stories a bit more then I have done in Qeynos because well, I did that over a year ago. Though I still dislike reading the quests especially the ones that seem to take forever to get through so those become Click Click click, but that's a different post all together. I've even enjoyed going back to do green quest because well in PVP your plans for doing difficult quests gets derailed very quickly. So it's great, you go out do green quests and it also seems Qeynos are out Gankin the newbs that just hit level 10 so I tend to get fair PVP then. My outlook's on PVP so far is Great, just freaking Awesome.

Falik or Pagoda will be my new main, not sure how I now feel about betraying at this point because I stopped my Goodie and went all Evil and by the time the Next LU comes there will more then likely be 60's around so it'll be harder to not be ganked in the process. I did see a level 45 Bruiser last night and I find that disturbing but hey what we as humans do with our time is our business I guess. Anyhow Nagafen is my new home and my other alts will more then likely catch dust unless I grp up with my wife to do some PVE.

Death: I'm off that kick now, I'm done, I will no longer bitch about how death is weak because well it's only really weak on PVE. As I figured PVP would make it well... make you not want to die. Call it Pride or whatever you wish, I call it (I don't like losing Beer and Money) and when you lose both that's enough to piss you off for revenge even if you never get it right away your on my shit list... YOU HERE ME KAGA~ I'm still up 10sp but it seriously is a blow when you lose anything of worth and it will only get worse. The minute I lose a master and 15 gp after I get PKed is the minute I commit Hari Kari. No not really but seriously I love it, I get paranoid and Guarded every where I go. Whether I'm going to Commonland or just leaving the Cross roads I'm sneaking around looking over my shoulder because well... I just don't want to die if I can help it and that is what a death penalty should do. So unless SOE weakens it again somehow I'm happy, that mean you (my reader are happy) right?? Ahh my glory days of Sullen zek are coming back to me...

With that it sparks even more controversy on the Station Exchange enabled PVP server or rather it sparks a question. How would you feel when you become ganked would you feel as if someone was really stealing money from you? and those of us Scouts that pick your pockets(not sure if this AAxp will work on PC) would you feel muged as if it was real life? Could you become a victim of a class action law suit for killing robbing and thieving items from another Opposing player? Just something to think about, tell me your thoughts.

** Top Picture taken from EQ2-Daily posted by Randum **

Friday, February 17, 2006

David <3 Goliath... no really!













With all the things going on in the world my old buddy Aggro got stirred up about PA and rightfully so. He eloquently put his thoughts out and I have to say after reading that I aggree* with him. Com'mon David take down Goliath! Maybe it's not that kinda fight but in all seriousness the cartoon they drew was somewhat amusing yet, where Aggro goes I usually dare not touch.

Well ok with that said...I have a fetish about making disturbing in game photos... I have since I got into EQlive and had my first Mistymoore raid.. If you have never been there the vampires (female) when they die they fall forwards with their ass in the air {get the picture}. Well I will start posting some of these from time to time just to make someone perk up because, you know sex and fart jokes will never stop making people laugh. No matter how mature you think you are.

So Aggro since Penny Arcade didn't make you laugh I hope this little parody makes you laugh.

Monday, February 13, 2006

EQ2: XP the little bar that could












Hidden deeply embedded in code is the biggest carrot in all MMO's; that driving factor to become bigger, bader, better....UBER! Able to make you kill Venekor solo beyond the grave, more likely to get you a divorce quicker then a 2$ hooker fling in Vegas, Stronger then the smell of that cat box you let sit there for the last 2 weeks. XP

Experience points is why most play this game weather they admit it or not. I don't think anyone would play a game for long with out that push forward, the feeling of a small yet very gratifying accomplishment. No one knows that rush better then a newbie, when they feel like they are actually doing something in a world so alien to them they are still awed by the massive world they just entered. I believe most get the gratification now from learning to do tedious chores (quests of killing ten rats) and getting the DING** it's the single biggest driving factor... The little bar that could. Then comes loot but that's for another post

With that said shortly there will be a free XP weakend* it begs the question... Why?

I understand the server was down, I'm from Befallen it's been down the most here recently. Do I need some sort of apology for them fixing and helping to make a game better and more communitive by throwing XP at me? Do they feel obligated or is it a tactic to keep people playing? I seriously have a hard enough time with burning up my Double XP as it is and I've played the past 9 days strait. I still have my XP potions in my inventory and they are just sitting there looking back at me taking up space.. I've seriously thought about using them just to open up a few slots. I think a /claim for these type of things is more in order if they feel obligated at giving us free XP every time things like this come up.

I love to level up as much as the next person and like anyone else likes to find the quickest route to my next level if there is a sweet spell calling my name... **God bless Topor** Though most the time I stop to smell the roses, I'm more of an explorer, the harder it is to explore the more I want to go there and loot/XP matters very little to me at that point.

Ok back to XP, why am I bringing all this up? I've got a few question that I feel SOE may never answer but I'm gonna ask them anyhow. How come XP is thrown at us? Why is it not a quest reward of sorts? Why isn't there and option to shut off Double XP for those like me that don't like it? I feel it's an attempt at appeasing those that don't play much and it seems as though Double XP has been broke a lot. It's either to much, not enough, or never goes away and stays stuck at 0.1% I understand there is math involved but lets just make this easy... get rid of it.

I know I may be in the minority here but this is one of those things I feel should be earned every step of the way. I'm all for Quest reward double XP potions, I'm even for letting them be tradable so that a friend can save them up for a buddy he wants to mentor and help him catch up. I'm all for items that can be earned and have charged doses of double XP but, I just don't see why SOE feels as though something gained without earned is respected.

Thursday, February 09, 2006

EQ2: Merger tips











Well I was apart of the first server transition and it went well considering but I still have a few tips for those that will be experiencing these in the next week er so.

Tip #1: Remove all your housing items and Close your apt. I have a few guildys that no longer have their house. If you can afford to not have a house then do nothing. However, If you will not lose much because you upgraded or can part with the lost gold just close your apt or be prepared to not have one and have to wait to get it back.

Tip #2: Remove all shared bank slot items if you don't you will have to rely once again on the mercy of SOE. Most of my guildys didn't have their Shared items when they logged up...
Note: /Restore_lost_shared is a command that works but it's not 100% reliable so once again I'd just remove all shared items before the move.

Tip #3: Have a plan or as Riply put it a Back up plan. My server was down damn near 24 hours and I had to figure out what to do. I usually play FFXI but I figured with the upcoming PVP server I'd stress the limits of being a newb that really had nothing to lose.

My back up plan was to make a brigand to see if I liked him and to see where I can take him at low levels. I level up to 7 and decided to hit the road opening up most of Commonlands /Nektulos /TS /Antonica /SS and POS.. Yes I got around the world by the time I was done I had both Griff quests done (which is 20% both at level 7 and at level 8) and was level 11... Oh yeah I was naked as well think it cost me 48 cp to repair.

Seriously folks don't expect this to be a fast and easy merger you will have that day all to yourself... Maybe you should go outside and re-acquaint yourself with the Resolution of Real Life... I'll tell you what it's kinda neat that God made Trees 3D and the Sky that has a real weather pattern with ever changing colors.. All kidding aside just have fun no matter what your doing... Welcome to bat country

Friday, February 03, 2006

EQ2: rebirth











Well there are days I am back into EQ2 and with every LU there is the chance of a real possible fix to the dumbfounded ways of their porly implemented Death policy. LU 19 is no exception and with good cause it actually made me want to go log up and check it out. I mainly came back to see how the newbie experience changed and my initial evaluation was not pleasant. Though I really do dig the Griff/Carpet jumping! Oi! I've died 2 times from that already but it's so fun..

I finally logged up after a 20min patch which is ok by me because well I always find something else to do. I logged in and created my newbie I randomized him a few times I wanted to get in and check out the Queens refugee camp. I got over to the pick your class section and I feel that was fairly decent. Though the jury is still out on whether or not giving a level 1 newbie armor with out any effort is good to do, I'm not all about a free lunch. I picked swashy I even started out duel wielding and to me that was a jip I didn't even have to earn my first 2 daggers Hell I didn't even have to learn how to equipt them...I then watched their little story line with the books and pictures, I remeber they had something similar just not sure it was that entaled. Although I think CG would of done better then the whole Lord of the Rings esk feel to the start of EQ2. So I finally get onto the Island and uh..... Nothing I have this gold wisp leading me to a NPC in front of the Bell tower. How un-eventful can we get, seriously I felt no since of wanting or having to do anything. I mean shit they still could of had the same guy say " Quickly now grab your weapon from the rack and help defend the fort" SOE didn't really have to give us a whole story line. That was the first last and what seems like the only time I felt like I'm apart of something bigger then myself as a newbie in EQ2 and it no longer exists.

Ok I've established I'm quite bias to the first Island because I felt it was more then adequate enough to do it's job as a tutorial. Now granted this new style I've only touched for about 10 min and it made me sick.. No voice over to any new NPC as far as I can tell and there was no Life to anything I did in the first 5 minutes on this island. I ended up killing these fish type goblins which are in my book the worst idea replace here zombily running to the Guards to die... These dutifully Goblins are graphically insufficient compared to the old goblins and I really didn't feel they were attacking the fort.. Ok enough of that I've nothing good to say about this at this point.. I will do a Real review from the Evil Lord peasants island and it will be more indepth but overall it wasn't a pleasant experance that I was initially accustomed to. I really did want to get off the island and fast....
How much more annoying can it get when every 3rd choice is "How do I get off this island?" I guess the things that made me fall in love with Everquest all over agian are were not good enought to keep em in the game.

Wednesday, February 01, 2006

Things we do











Well I've not been around to update and when I am we've been moving around offices. It's been difficult to sit down and write up anything worth while that most other EQ2 Gaming blogs aren't already blog'n about.

I've been having a kick out of watching all the action for LU 19 some of it's great and other parts just seem to be fodder to get the game in line with the expantion. I also find it quite amusing that a few of our servers are merging. It only bothers me slightly mainly becuase I've been away from EQ2 since early Dec. Other then the slight glance at my Wife's raids or when I pop on the guild to say hi I've not gave it much of a glance back. However, there is a reason for everything to include these merges. I look at it this way they expect good numbers for PVP so why not open up 5 PVP servers world wide and drop 5 worthless servers with low population that will become even lower when people like me up and move our 1 room apt. I will be on PVP I think it's perfect timing because if SOE didn't have PVP coming out this month I would seriously think about dropping my second account with them. I'm not saying everything is bad about EQ2 I just feel burnt out and let down by some of the recent " dumbing down of the game".

That and well... I'm a Mage, Summoner, Conjurer... pick one; these are what I enjoy as a class. I chose Magician on EQ1 because I love to summon things, rabbit in a hat trick... I enjoyed the fact I could summon pets and they grew stronger on their spell levels but each pet had their place in the game. They had to be used wisely and thought about the key roles of what was about to take place. I felt like what I summoned mattered in EQ1 on top of that I felt like a pet class, Unlike EQ2 where pets are set it and forget it.

This is really by no means dumbing down the game it's been there from the beginning of EQ2 I just have trouble with really enjoying a pet class when the pets are more like DOT spells that you can see. I do like the dumbfire pets and the aquafish pets these are a bonus to me I wanted pets like these in EQlive and they really never put them in until AA's. I just have trouble with the normal Earth, Fire, Air pets on EQ2 because all I do is tell them to fight they go in and I then commence to spamming nukes.... very little to no strategy in being a Conj in EQ2.

What I'm getting at is the fact that I get to control my Pet/Avatar in FFXI. Every minute I tell my Avatar's to use their ability's which grown when your grow in levels. I just feel like a pet class and I feel that this is really what is missing from EQ2. I don't care if I get 8 other nukes with a few different pets; If I wanted to be a nuke class I would chose Wiz/Warl. I just want to be able to tell my Fire pet when to nuke and what to nuke, or tell my Air pet when to do his Combat ability's, or when to tell my Earth pet to taunt. These would make me feel like I was a pet controlling class. Because SOE knows we as Conj really don't summon shit anymore... Hell we don't even summon food/water somehow that ended up as a Priest ability... Who ever thought of that?

Those are really some of the drawl backs to me staying into EQ2 in the PVE environment. I will not be able to stick around mainly because of the death penalty but the lack of finesse and structure makes it even more difficult to stick around in PVE. What I did at level 20 I'm doing at level 50 only my spells are stronger... Oh and I get to raid. I will enjoy PVP because it's all about a different type of game and when the new world opens I'll be their to tell you all about it.