Everquest II

Could honestly get behind it if it was just a sub and no MTX. I weirdly enjoy EQ2 at launch, despite its many flaws. However having a fully armored toon right at the gate with bags and bags of shit just kills the whole thing.

Yeah be interesting to see what they do with MTX. Hopefully all that shit is disabled.

Video I posted had some quotes from the EQ2 discord from the devs. One of the answers was that MTX will be significantly reduced but will still be around. Stuff like the research system will be gone. We'll see what that means I guess.

Anyone know if they completed the classic quest lines of Bayle and Sir Lucan? Like story wise? As a SK it was like, the thing to get to Lucan and something something soul fire evil something

I looked at a few wikis and nothing really answered it

also classic being like 99% voice acted was cool

the faux animations to attack and defend and mob reactions was cool - at launch I would show it to my friends who were wow converts and swore it was read (example was 1h and shield, sometimes you would slash your sword over the shield to still defend while a mob slashed)

eq2 did so so many things really cool

And so so so SO many things bad

I assume stats on items are still screwed even after 10 passes at this point? Did they ever re-add the Avatar encounters besides Tunare?

Siliconemelons said:

Anyone know if they completed the classic quest lines of Bayle and Sir Lucan? Like story wise? As a SK it was like, the thing to get to Lucan and something something soul fire evil something

I looked at a few wikis and nothing really answered it

also classic being like 99% voice acted was cool

the faux animations to attack and defend and mob reactions was cool - at launch I would show it to my friends who were wow converts and swore it was read (example was 1h and shield, sometimes you would slash your sword over the shield to still defend while a mob slashed)

eq2 did so so many things really cool

And so so so SO many things bad

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EQ2 did a lot of good things and its really unfortunate that is was just overshadowed by the many bad things they did. Also, it was a victim of people just needing some change. EQ's current status and the shear amount of time people had invested into it just led many people to look elsewhere and WoW was not only a superior product at release but a nice (and maybe much needed) change.

I still look back at the good of EQ2 and feel like it had some of my best MMO experiences. Voice acting was cool, I thought tradeskilling was awesome, and I liked their progression in terms of the world but not so much the classes. Some of that was a little unnecessary. Their housing was also second to none in my opinion and that also went well with the neighborhood progression to major city feel.

The core game was just bad which covered all of the aforementioned stuff which really just didn't hold a lot of weight when you think of what you did the majority of your game time. Items, experience, encounters, animations, combat, etc. was just all poorly done. So the stuff you did for a little when you logged on and for then for awhile before you logged off was the best part. The meat of the game was just very bland and poorly executed. Why they never addressed it, I'll never know but the ability bloat just added to the issues so that made the worst part of the game even more intolerable.

Anyway.... I may relive a little nostalgia with this server since the EQ TLP was somewhat disappointing to me but then again, we'll see. A fresh TLP always brings back some of my favorite memories of EQ which are the opening rushes. The first month or so of a server is my favorite time. It's a mess but I enjoy it.

Interesting. I would actually try yet for the 100th time if it was the original 2006 and not a reskin or remix or whatever.
I am pretty sure during beta and launch I spent thousands on a new computer just to play on minimum everything, lol.

I am also positive I was the first person to die on Highkeep server.

Whatever years later, I cannot commit the actual playtime it took to compete. But, it would be fun for nostalgia I guess. (All the other TLE servers weren't really fulfilling to me)

Can we get Schilling back for drama regarding unlocking the froglocks?

First Mythical item drama as well?

!@$ I am sure I will pay for a few months at least.

slippery said:

Supposedly they like found a hard drive with files from roughly LU24 or something so it's like that era of patches, plus fixing some things from over the years. Supposed to be like that era balance and everything. I think at that stage of the game the original subclass quests on the isle are gone, crafting subcombines are gone

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I think that was around when the Nagafen PvP server released? 2006ish? That was peak EQ2 for me

Those were pretty much the best expansions the game had so....nothing of value was lost?

slippery said:

Supposedly they like found a hard drive with files from roughly LU24 or something so it's like that era of patches, plus fixing some things from over the years. Supposed to be like that era balance and everything. I think at that stage of the game the original subclass quests on the isle are gone, crafting subcombines are gone

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Correct, no crafting subcombines, no class quests, many access quests removed (mostly for overland zones). It's definitely not original EQ2, but I also don't see how that's substantially different from the previous TLEs.

2006 was when they released Naga. Oh the fun that server was. My claim to fame was getting them to add the AO PVP title system during beta.

oh that is disappointing I guess.

I don't see the difference then between this and previous TLE?

Jimbolini said:

oh that is disappointing I guess.

I don't see the difference then between this and previous TLE?

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You don't think EQ2 changed any in the ensuing 18 years?

RobXIII said:

The quality drop off from vanilla release to the first 'adventure pack' was nuts. Went from dungeons with themes and actual story, to a one color 4 floor 'dungeon' crafted by one intern using Bryce-3d. The questline had you go in to 4 different named dungeons, all the same actual dungeon with just different named mobs placed randomly. It was baaad, killed any love I had for EQ2 then.

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Echoes of Faydwer improved the quality aspect. By The Shadow Odyssey, it was perfected.
Sentinel's Fate was awesome! But its followup, Destiny of Velious, took a giant nosedive in quality for zone / quest layout.

Dave Georgeson pushed a lot of that executively; I can hardly fault the team from that era. He killed morale of both teams and took valued talent and put them on EQNext, which effectively was a death march. I only have a few second-hand accounts about that fiasco, namely from Dave Mark of Intrinsics AI, and Shawn Lord's various interviews where no one wanted to touch on the subject.

Scott Hartsman, being a technical person and designer himself, can be attributed to TSO era EQ2's highest quality expansions. Rift's launch was a testament to that ability.