EQ2

The Good and The Bad of Player Made Dungeons #EQ2 #EverQuest2

stargrace December 30, 2011 5 Comments

Even though there has been a significant decrease in the number of EQ2 posts I make, I do still find myself logging in once or twice a week like some poor addict. It’s hard to go cold turkey when you’ve spent practically every day for the last 7 years playing. So it was that I found myself staring at the dungeon maker tool that came out with Age of Discovery. I had yet to explore my way through any dungeons at all, and a friend suggested that I take a peek at theirs, so I did. Here are some very basic opinions about the new tool, starting with the bad points. Keep in mind these are personal to me and my experiences, and you may not have these issues.

• If you crash and are in a dungeon alone, you get kicked out and have to start over, without any rewards, no matter how far into the dungeon you were.
• There’s no indication at all whether a dungeon is made for solo play or group play unless the publisher mentions it in the title
• Some classes are significantly ‘better’ than other classes if you choose to solo. I was unable to complete this group dungeon as a level 50 guardian, but I did manage to solo it as a level 50 healer (remember, you do these in a pre-created character template, not your own character for now)
• If you’re a defiler there’s a very annoying bug with your crystallized essence spell. Your inventory will be absolutely full of the items unless you remove the spell before you use the character template
• What you actually DO with the dungeon marks you receive at the end is confusing. I would like to see vendors set up some place for everything you can purchase instead of the confusing maze of station cash sections. I saw gear you can purchase but it’s in no order at all and very annoying to search for in the station marketplace. You can also purchase dungeon bits, this was a little less difficult to figure out.
• Pathing and pulling. Unless you’re in a group and are able to handle large encounters, or you are VERY careful about pulling, you’ll probably always end up with entire room pulls. The pathing and agro radius of mobs in dungeons is very poorly done.

Those were my major issues. Had I done the dungeon with a group I may have felt a little different, but I feel that there should be a way for dungeon creators to ‘rank’ them as either solo play or group play. As an adventurer you should assume all dungeons are made for groups unless it is specified in the title by the creator. The mobs are not technically meant to be solo friendly. I suppose this makes sense, as dungeons have been group content in the past, but AoD needs to add solo content as well as group content. Now for the good points.

• Creativity. This specific dungeon I chose to do was great, they had a large selection of player-written books filled with their own stories scattered throughout. I took the time to read them all, and it was just amazing to see the amount of thought put into a creation like this. The dungeon maker decides what mobs will say, and can develop a theme accordingly. I loved it. Of course anyone who reads this site will already know that I’ve been a long time advocate of user generated content.
• Fun. It was a lot of fun because I had no idea what I was going to be up against. In one section of this specific dungeon the encounter I reached consisted of enchanters who mesmerized and stunned me. I had been making my way along easily enough but this encounter was not friendly for a priest template at all. I died after defeating a few of them. I love not knowing what is going to happen next.
• I think the idea behind the dungeon marks is a great idea. I love that you can not only purchase gear with them, but purchase other bits for your own dungeons.
• Promoting group play. I think if you’re playing with a steady group of friends player made dungeons are fantastic. It’s an evening of doing something new, in a zone none of you have been to before. It’s a new dungeon every day, which is nice because you (the developer) help stave off the “we’ve been there before” feeling that players get after they’ve run the same dungeon a million times.

Overall I feel that the player made dungeons are an amazing concept but still have a lot of glitches and bugs that need to be worked out. A lot of how you may ‘feel’ about them also depends on the creator, I saw a lot of dungeons simply titled “solo token grind” which doesn’t leave me feeling that they’ve invested any creativity into them at all. BUT. You do always have the choice to simply not go there.

I’d love to see a LFG tool that also involved the player-made dungeons (to my knowledge EQ2 doesn’t employ a feature like this yet). It would pick a random dungeon, and since you’re using a template it doesn’t matter who gets put together for a group. I think it would be a great way to promote the dungeons randomly without players selecting one, and a fantastic way to promote a grouping feature since it technically does not matter what anyone has for gear or what they play as a class. They can simply select one of the templates.

Have you been using the dungeon maker at all? What are your thoughts about it? What would you like to see changed/added/fixed in the future? Let me know in comments! As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.

The Age of Discovering a New Freeport #EQ2 #EverQuestII

stargrace December 8, 2011 4 Comments

Age of Discovery released yesterday after a late start, and while there were some issues for people, my account was standing and all characters counted for. Nothing was locked (I have a gold membership) and I had access to my regular characters as well as my EQ2X characters. I promptly created a ratonga beastlord and she meandered her way to level 10 by killing solo mobs in Halas, the starter zone was nice an empty as players moved on to ‘better’ leveling grounds. Veteran rewards were broken for the day but I do have a 200% bonus from max level characters which helped out a huge amount.

The new Freeport is looking pretty nice. I don’t find it too confusing because it’s basically all of the Freeport sections combined into one zone. The items in South Freeport are still there in the southern portion, the places in North Freeport in the northern section. I did have a bit of difficulty trying to find the mercenary NPC’s to hire, I think sony could have done a better job with explaining where to find each one. As it was I had to use a guide that ZAM created in order to learn how they work and the commands to even open the mercenary screen. If you use a guard to search for ‘mercenary’ you end up with some NPC up in the citadel tower, and not the hired ones you’re looking for.

I didn’t play with the dungeon creator tool yet, and I still don’t see all that much for level 90 characters to do in game aside from work on the extra 20 aa that were granted. I started working with a tradeskill apprentice, but was called away so that will have to wait until another post.

I love the fact that the game is now free to play, and I really hope that brings fresh blood to the game. Did you purchase AoD? If so how are you finding the new content? What have you spent your time in game working on? Let me know in comments!

Thoughts on EQ2 Going Free to Play, and Age of Discovery #EQ2

stargrace November 11, 2011 3 Comments

By now I’m sure that everyone has heard the news that EQ2 is going free to play, following the success of their Freeport server. While I’ve personally already said that I think the announcement comes at a bad time I do feel that long term this is probably the best thing for the game to do to extend the life until EQ Next releases. I feel it comes at a bad time because it is a lot to take in for loyal long term customers. Not only have there been an incredible amount of class and gear changes this year, there’s also the fact that we’re getting an expansion that doesn’t follow the ‘norm’ of previous expansions. It’s a lot of change all at once. I would have much rather seen the entire game go F2P when the announcement about the Freeport server was first put forth. Alas, the past is what it is, and we can’t go back there (yet).

I do have one character on the current EQ2X server that I paid $35 to copy over, and I’m a bit sat that I copied her now since it didn’t include any of her house items 0r coin. I’ve enjoyed how populated the server has been with people in every level range and I’m really hoping that this change draws in fresh blood even if they’re not paying for a monthly subscription. I think seeing an active populace will entice others to pay for the monthly sub to stick around. We’ll just have to see.

I was a little less enthralled with the announcement of the pricing for next EQ2 expansion, Age of Discovery. It’s mostly because I’ve already got 12 level 90 characters who are also level 90 crafters and this expansion isn’t going to give me much to do on my level 90s. In fact I’m not even sure I’ll get to keep them all when the game goes F2P, I may have to trim the fat. I really have no need for mercenary, I tend to group to get things done and when I want to solo I haven’t had any issues. I’m not a fan of monster missions which is what the DYOD will be (design your own dungeon) and I honestly have no idea where I would spend any extra aa on my main character. Beastlords are always neat but with so many characters I would have to delete someone in order to play one, and everyone and their goat is going to be doing that.

This AoD expansion also does not include any previous expansions, something that has been the norm for some time now. If you’re thinking of giving F2P EQ2 a try you’ll be able to access all content except for DoV (the previous expansion) or AoD. You’ll need to purchase both of them if you want the content from them. On the plus side DoV content is mostly for players 85+ so you won’t need DoV for quite some time, unlike AoD which is aimed for new players and those who haven’t reached the level cap yet. As always I’ll want to poke around the content first before coming to any firm conclusion, these are just opinions off the top of my head without anything to back them up. I may or may not be participating in the beta over the next little while to be able to form some firmer conclusions.

What do you think of all the announcements over this last little while? Or are you too busy playing Skyrim to have really noticed them….

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

The Life of a Crafter #EQ2 #EverQuest2

stargrace October 17, 2011 4 Comments

Last week a patch came that would change the price of Kael gems forever – that’s right, the removal of shards required for Thurgadin and Ry’Gorr armor. I was lucky, I purchased gems that were relatively cheap (at the time at least) and stockpiled them for my alts. I had enough of the two common gems to supply all of my characters with Ry’Gorr helms and gloves, and enough gems left over to gear up a few of the neglected characters. with 12 level 90 alts, that’s a lot of crafting. I don’t quite understand the decision to remove shards as a component, I think it reduces players incentive to do the zones that drop shards. Although they are still required in order to purchase adornments. I know this is probably just preparation for the “features” expansion coming out in November, (can it even be called an expansion?) preparing players for any new content that may be released.

Despite my feelings about SoE’s direction with EQ2 on the adventuring side of things, I still think the crafting side is very well taken care of. I spent most of my weekend working on crafting quests,working faction for Sentinel’s Fate factions (there are four dailies, one for each crafting faction) completing my Sentinel’s Fate crafting epic (a very nice carpenter hammer) and doing my Thurgadin daily so that I can obtain my 3rd shawl some time. I also completed the crafting chains that take players through Butcherblock Mountains and Steamfont Mountains, gathering a nice supply of rares and some cheap crafting books at the same time. I love the idea that players can choose this aspect of the game to play and not have to bother with adventuring in the traditional manor if they so choose. You can complete a crafting version of the leaper and glider mounts, as well as the flying mounts.

There isn’t as much for crafters to do in game as adventurers, but there’s a fair amount none the less. Particular factions to work on with their own crafter related rewards and all sorts of goodies.

Speaking of goodies. If you haven’t done the starter quests in the beginner zones recently, and you’re a fan of housing items – you may want to check them out. A while back rewards were revamped to grant housing items, so I went and completed the Darklight woods quests and came out with a handful of new items. If you’ve already completed the quests on your character it’s too late to get the newer rewards now, but you can always run through with an alt or a higher level character who hasn’t done them yet.

How did everyone else spend their weekend? I actually spent less time in game and more time working on a cross stitch – real life crafting is always a great fall pass time. Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

P.S. Trying to fight an urge I’ve had lately to play LotRO. But I think I’m losing that battle.

Nights of the Dead Returns to EQ2 (And So Do I) #EQ2 #EverQuest2

stargrace October 13, 2011 2 Comments

Oh EQ2, what a fickle beast you are. I took a break from the game for a little while, playing Rift and WoW along with some other games (like Glitch and LotRO) which is pretty common for me. Everyone needs a break after all. Now with Nights of the Dead upon us I’ve returned, and the first thing I’ve started doing (aside from the Beastlord prelude quests) is decorating the much neglected guild hall. I’ve spent a couple hundred plat in furniture, even with a level 90 carpenter, mostly for those city festival items that I can only seem to find at particular times of the year. I built a stage with a small private members only room in behind it, along with a large bar (you can barley make out the end of it in the screen shot above) along with a library, and in another section I built a large pool with some chairs for relaxing. Upstairs I’d like to create some sort of forest, and downstairs core members each have their own room to decorate so I’ll have to work on that eventually. Ibeogur has been busy at work re-designing the crafting area. I was uninspired when it came to that section but it DOES need some work, so he decided to take over.

I’m once more faced with the decision of who to play. I have so many EQ2 characters that this is always a daunting task and I still haven’t completely decided. I typically play three ‘main’ characters:

• 90 defiler
• 90 swashbuckler
• 90 bruiser

These days I feel very little motivation to play the swashbuckler because she has max aa and is fairly well geared according to my play style. Her and the defiler also have all of their master spells and have for some time now (one of the few benefits of the level cap remaining at 90 for so long). I could work on achievements, but without earning some form of character progression (a la alternate advancement) it feels pointless. There is supposedly an expansion coming in November, but it feels incredibly odd that there has been so little said about it. I know this expansion is more of a ‘bug fix’ and the implementation of Beastlords then anything else, but EQ1 has had their beta going on for a month now already and also releases in November (forgive me if I’m off with dates here, it happens). On a side note, I’m very excited about the EQ1 expansion.

It seems like quite a lull before awesomeness follows, Skyrim is out in November, the sims 3 pets is out in a few days (I know, not exactly everyone’s cup of tea, but I am excited) SWTOR is out in December and a handful of other much anticipated games. So for now, we wait.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!