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Everquest 2 or Vanguard
MertzaSkertz
Member UncommonPosts: 161
in LFGame
I am trying to decide which of the two games to really get into. If anyone has played these games quite a bit and can give me an idea on how large the world is and how much content their is before hitting max level and raiding.
Comments
Both Vanguard and EQII have a large world to explore. However, I enjoyed Vanguard's world a bit more as it was seamless and fun to explore. There is plenty of content and journey in both games, but if you want to see people, I'd avoid Vanguard as it doesn't have a gigantic population. EQII would probably be a better bet for teaming up with people.
EQII has a free-to-play style set up now, though if you elect that route you have severe limitations. Still, it's a good way to see if you enjoy it. Also, Vanguard has a trial as well. I'd try both trials and see if the gameplay suites you. I personally loved Vanguard's graphics and world, but didn't care for the game play. EQII game play was a bit more to my liking, though the graphics were vastly below par compared with Vanguard.
Hope this helps.
ok here we go.. I play both but primarily EQ2 these days..
VG size of world = pretty huge.. 3 massive continents, strung together by "chunks" square blocks./areas making up the land mass. they are not zones perse' but u will "zone" across with loading screen briefly as u cross the sides of a square into the next.. But the land masses are nicely made lots to explore trust me on that..
content wise plenty if you are just starting, you can craft everything as well house bricks beams chairs flooring roof, etc etc all this is needed to make you're own abode btw no escaping it its like building a real house
which is good i guess.. Boats the same takes diff tradeskills to make as u got sails and the main hull etc etc u get the picture..
You will grind a little to get to max level but not always boring grind as the mobs are very challenging at times..
EQ2.. size of world is of course very large content wise due to all the expansions, where vg has none but does start with large land mass areas..
content wise again ooodles of bloody stuff to do, and the crafting pretty much taken on from Vg style of how you craft i suppose, but you dont have to build ur own house from scracth u just rent one in EQ2..
EQ2 has lots to get on with vg does also but eq2 really takes the crown on this one as its been updated and worked on where vg has not for years really.. ( hope thats about to change though )
There is no real grind at all in Eq2 unless you are looking to cover ALL places and do things you never did like you missed parts of the game or sometihng, and you mentor down to lower level to still go do all that, then I guess you could call that grind just to see different things at a fair level/game play wise..
Enjoy either
Let me start by saying that I have played both games extensively. I enjoyed both games, but both have taken different roads over the years.
EQ2, in my opinion, has become a complete fluff fair and a rip off. It is more of the same MMORPG features, despite good graphics and a decent community. WIth the introduction of EQ2X (despite the fact that it did bring some new players to the game), it has turned into a cash shop carnival.
Vanguard has a low population. There's no denying that, but I believe it is currently a better game. Talk is ongoing about future updates but we really don't know more than that.
It is up to you, and I wish you good luck!
-Aarinak
Why is eq2 a rip off ? would that only be true if you indulged in spending on the shop? when lets face it no need is there?
VG is only the better bet I would say if at all anyone could give us some real positiveness on more content and not just the odd code change that might come as an update.. we dont know whats happening so to invest alot of time in the game for him may not be an ideal move yet..
Both are great, but if one is to give examples of what there is to do longterm you must agree with me here eq2 is the photo finish post picure winner here...,
With everquest 2 how many expansions would I have to buy and how much would it cost in total?
someone above mentioned 'loading screens' in VG, that's not actually accurate, its more like a hiccup ingame, like you used to get in SWG, probly the same technology/coding being used there. not b/c of SoE but b/c the founder and director of the original VG was a pill head and cut corners like nobody's business.
so, no loading screen like you get in EQ2.
however, that doesn't mean EQ2 isn't worth playing. just different methods of handling the scale of the world you're in.
both games have more content than you could get through in a year of hardcore gaming tbh. even w/o VGs lack of xpacs, the world is big enough and there are enough oddly placed dungeons, npcs, and wandering elites, that you'll definitely get your money's worth.
also, with VG you don't have to currently buy the game. just download the trial, get through the trial island, which has the best tutorials on the 3 spheres of gameplay in VG, and then just sub.
quite honestly, once im bored with Aion im going to pay the xtra 5bucks and sub to both with the SoE pass. i find both games to have their charms and thoroughly enjoy them both. and since you dont have to buy VG it wouldnt be a bad investment for you either.
good luck in your choice making, just remember, except for the purchase of the game, there's no reason you can't change your mind later on.
"There are at least two kinds of games.
One could be called finite, the other infinite.
A finite game is played for the purpose of winning,
an infinite game for the purpose of continuing play."
Finite and Infinite Games, James Carse
If you need to buy the game just buy the latest out, steam lists it, every latest one you buy gives you all the expansions before it..
there is another one due out in a while but unless you plan on hitting 85+ already I wouldnt be too concerned about it..
If you have a good system then nothing more to add, if you have an older system it can be beneficial to grab some info about the gfx settings tweaking from the menu to make sure you get best out of it/balance wise..
It can take each individual player and pc setup a few goes to settle it down to ones liking, there are some total UI mods if you find you are interested, I use one called profitUI, has a java updater and launcher of game through it etc, a one time download from eqinterface.com
I just started back playing EQ2 with some friends and it really doesn't cost that much. If you already have a station account you pretty much just oay for the subscription and you get access to everything minus the latest expansion. If you do not have a station account, it costs $40 to buy the base game and all expansions. Source
Right now?
Vangaurd.
No doubt.
I played both.
EQ2- More of a population but it's dying fast as of late. people are wayyy more stuck up in EQ2 and will not play with you. The game is older with a lot of Bugs and loading screens. You will not understand there map system because of all the expansions are not integrated very well.
Vanguard- Lower population but much better, everyone will play with you if you use the social panel to find and ask nicely to play with them. Bugs are wayyy less than EQ2 I kid you not !!!.....It's getting a good following.
Both games have bugs but Vanguard is less, and is a better game.
We must be playing different games. Although I like the classes and dungeon system in VG compared to EQ2, VG is by far the buggiest game I have ever played. EQ2 does have its share of bugs, but they are nothing compared to the plethora found in VG.
After playing both quite a bit, the deciding factor for me was EQ2 has a population and gets real updates from a dev team compared to VGs ghost town and having one dev maintaining the entire game for a long while now.
Play both and see which you like.
Vanguard looks better. has a big seemless world to explore, and some really innovative features in crafting, housing,shipbuilding,and diplomacy. There is a lot of depth to the game in that regard. The downside is that it is a game that has been left idling in neutral. It is not being actively updated with new content. What you see is what you get and unless the population picks up dramatically it will probably stay where it is. The community is small but dedicated.
EQ2 is very instanced but it is a big world. There has been a lot of expansions, there is a stunning amount of features. You don't build your own house but it has probably the most extensive housing support of any game in that you can make or find housing items thoughout the game. 20 races that can be any of 24 classes (soon 25) with some starting restrictions. But probably the most positive factor is that the game is still being actively updated with new features and content. The community is also a good bit larger. While some people are not as friendly, over all most are. It is still a much smaller and better quality community than a game like WoW. Raiding can be difficult to break into but that is true of most any game with raiding. If you are going to find elitists in a game you will find them in the raiding endgame.
Over all, Vanguard is probably the better of the two games but EQ2 is still a very good and is more active. Vanguard, leveling wise, is also the more challenging of the two. Death is a bit less forgiving. But I am not sure how the raiding endgame compares between the two. In the end I choose to give EQ2 a go because of the pretty constant content and feature updates.
But take advantage of the free trial for both. Throw yourself into each game for a couple of weeks and then decide.
Don't go with EQ2X as a free trial however. It is not a very good deal if you end up really getting into the game and play it all the way though and start raiding and you cannot move your EQ2X character over to EQ2 if you change your mind. But you can copy your character from EQ2 to EQ2X if you choose to. I would go with the 14 day trial for EQ2 live. http://www.everquest2.com/choose_your_path/ or if you want some extra goodies send me a PM and I will send you a recruit a friend invite which is also 14 days.
All die, so die well.
I happen to be playing both right now. Both have many virtues; of the two, Vanguard offers the more unique experience, while EQ2 is more polished and feature-rich. The best thing to do, as others have suggested, is to try them both and see which one you like.
Also just to warn you off some bad info given earlier, EQ2's population is not fading, particularly; population on some servers, Freeport (the f2p server) and Antonia Bayle in particular, is very strong indeed, and I'm hearing strong word about the population on Nagafen (PvP) and Crushbone as well. Nor is it a "cash shop carnival" - that's f2p-hater silly talk. The cash shop on Live is limited to appearance items, furniture and stuff like that. On Extended it's different, but even there there's noithing ruinously unbalancing in the store. I do agree that Extended is something of a trap if you decide to go all in on EQ2, becuase you're either stuck there or you start over on Live.
As for Vanguard, it was extrordinarily buggy when it launched, but that's been largely cleaned up now, and I don't see how it's any buggier than anything else.
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