Good, Bad, and the Ugly

Atomicus

Ive been reading lots of posts stating both good and bad but frequently i also see little to no facts about why it is good or bad. Lets try an experiemnt. Format your posts as follows:

(-Good-) <enter statment>

(-Bad-) <enter statement>

(-Ugly-) <enter statement>

Try to limit your fallacies by using the following reference: Fallacies for Dummies

Talk about anything that relates exclusively to Everquest II only. Whether its the fees, support, or in-game issues. TRY NOT comparing Everquest II to anything else other than SOE games.

Hashman

You want to discuss Everquest 2 only and you mention Everquest in your poll. Not everyone playing Everquest 2, including myself, has played Everquest.

Seasoned forum readers are a bit cautious of these types of posts as it tends to get hijacked by WoW fanbois as they tend to invade all game forums and it will degenerate into another flame fest of WoW vs EQ2 as EQ2 players bring up the bad and ugly points. Also stating "Whether its the fees, support, or in-game issues. TRY NOT comparing Everquest II to anything else other than SOE games." Do you read the post by rentboy under general asking people NOT to reply and its now on 14 pages?

Jodokai

I'll give it a go, never one to be afaid of a flame war

The Good:

• 
  
  Quests: They are everywhere. If you can't find something to do, you have your eyes closed.
• 
  
  Races: There are 16 races to play from. None of them are very original, (except Frog-men which I can't stand), but there are plenty of choices.
• 
  
  Classes: There are a lot of different choices in classes.
• 
  
  Graphics: The graphics are amazing. It has some of the best scenery I've seen in a video game.
• 
  
  Crafting: The crafting is great. I love the fact that you're dependent on other classes to make things. The economy is a little borked right now, but given time I think this will level out more.
• 
  
  Lore: The world is rich with lore. I love exploring and discovering new things and reading new books.
• 
  
  Role-Playing: This might be just my server, but there is tons of RP going on. This really helps me get into the game.
• 
  
  Voice-Overs: I never realized how much I liked this until I played a game without it. This really adds to the flavor of the game.
• 
  
  Cost: for around $22 USD I get to play Star Wars Galaxies, Everquest, Everquest 2, Planetside, and a few other games I've never heard of. Not only that but I get 8 character slots and the adventure packs (adventure packs are large dungeon type adventures that will be added in addition to the regular updates.) for EQ2. That's about $7.25 per game I play, half of what I pay for any other single MMO.

The Bad:

• 
  
  Very high system specs. You need to have a computer built by NASA to run the game on max settings.
• 
  
  Mobs: There aren't enough fantasy type creatures. I'm sick of seeing badgers, wolves, bears, hawks, and beetles. I mean every step you go up, you just fight tougher badgers, wolves, bears, hawks, and beetles.
• 
  
  Video "lag". My video sometimes stutters when there are a lot of people fighting in on area.
• 
  
  Freeport. I really don't like the way the city is set up. It's too hard to get around in. I also think that Freeport is a lot harder to start in than Qeynos (Qeynos is the good city, Freeport the evil city).

The Ugly:

• 
  
  Mobs chasing you: I've had a mob chase me from one end of the map to another. I think the length of time a mob chases you is simply ridiculous.
• 
  
  Fish chasing you. I realize the thought behind it, but seeing a shark chase someone a mile inland really ruins the experiance.

Wickes

I'll just go with Jodokai's list ... close enough.  Except I get a kick out of fish chasing me.  Maybe I am too easily amused but I like to draw them and the octopuses out of the water and see where I can put them   There's just something too amusing about seeing an octopus standing next to a skelly .... now if I could only get them to fight.

As far as EQ1 stopping expansions ... why should they?  There are still 400k people playing it who want to keep playing, so give them stuff to do.  I got burnt on it, but honestly most of my friends are still having fun there.

Hashman

Thanks wickes you've just given me an idea..I can charm any monster (and it temporarily becomes my pet) in game provided it's not too powerful so I should be able to instruct the octopus to attack the skeleton by asking it to guard position

Isic

<-Good->

1, Alot of classes to pick from with unique stats and properties
2, Alot of cool spells
3, Good active combat
4, Alot of Group play encouragements
5, Loads of different items
6, Immense world
7, Voices
8, Many races
9, Cool special effects
10, Alot of help with ur quest from waypointing, to journal and maps
11, Rate of leveling is good. Rate of the money and items is good. *If u all know what I mean with that*

<-Bad->

1, Lack of creativaity in quest. It's ussualy, go find, get someone or something, seek for it, this or that.
2, Lack of artistic talent and feel in created world
3, Limited enabling of soloplay at higher levels
4, Transport is not at its best, *slow horses, and griffons stations with prerecorded routes*
5, Exp debt. The concept is oke, but EQ2 gives alot of debt even if u get ur shard back. Not to mention team debt
6, No PvP
7, The buy and sell and all that goes with it
8, Not so many different types of enemies.

In all this game is avarage. Would be a good game if it wasnt for the lack of creativaty in quests, lack of artistic talent and feel of world.

So goes the good and bad review of a expierenced gamer.

Wickes

---

Originally posted by Hashman

Thanks wickes you've just given me an idea..I can charm any monster (and it temporarily becomes my pet) in game provided it's not too powerful so I should be able to instruct the octopus to attack the skeleton by asking it to guard position

---

We'll be needing a screenie of that

drewd

you guys have some very nice points

Razorback

Jodo's list covers a lot of what I would have said

But heres some more :

GOOD

• Guild status or the "golden handcuffs" as I like to call it. Having hundreds of thousands of status points from doing heritage quests with your guild sure makes you think twice about quitting the guild and losing them all. Thus guilds tend to work issues through rather than have someone leave.
• Status points in general are great since they can save you cash and enable you to buy things people with no status cannot, ie. nice housing.
• Guild levels are good as they give access to stuff un-guilded or low guilded players dont get like crafting benches to make pristine items in your room. This means you can craft while you sell and not have to just stand there like a froot waiting for people to buy things.
• Scouts are the best I have seen in any MMO so far. The mix of skills is so good I cant see myself playing another character, it just suits my playstyle so well I couldnt have designed them better.
• Travel is made extremely easy, maybe too easy. In EQ1 getting from Q to FP at level 10 was like a MAJOR undertaking. In EQ2 its pretty easy thanks to birds, clear paths and smaller zones.
• Crafting has a good basis. It needs work but it is a complex system that could be awesome in the months to come.
• The vitality system is exxcellent. For those that dont know it provides an experience bonus for players who have been "less active". If you have been AFK or offline for a while (no one knows the maths I dont think) when you start hunting or crafting again you get a bonus to your exp for a while. I was recently offline for almost 2 weeks and for the last 2 days my Exp bar says im earning double experience. This is a great system to enable casual players to keep up.

BAD

• Shared EXP debt in groups is BAD. I have listened to all the arguments and for me they dont stack up. Its just a bad idea that should have been labled as such and forgotten.
• Heroic opportunities are still basically useless. The organisation it takes in a full team to make them work does not in any way make them worthwhile to use even when you pull off the good ones. Admittedly they have been improved but if they are really going to be usefull they still need a lot of work.
• I still dont like interdependancy in crafting though I have learned to live with it.
• Crafted items especially for weaponsmiths (Im a 35 smith) have almost no sale value. Good weapons drop so easily it is almost impossible to sell crafted weapons. I have heard a bunch of possible fixes for this but all of them involve upsetting the 80% of players that dont craft and SOE are unlikely to do that in order to placate the 20% of us that do. So far getting to 35 smith has been a money and time sink for me 100%. I would conservatively be behind like hundreds of GP from getting to 35 smithing and it will take at least that much again to get to 50 unless they change something to give my items some value.
• Having to be online to sell things on the market is just inexplicably making things hard for players. I have yet to hear a credible argument about why it has to be this way.
• MOBS not dropping coin was an ok idea when it was framed as "we dont want snakes dropping coins because thats un-realistic", until you see a badger drop a mage robe then whole argument falls flat on its face. Just bring back the coin.

UGLY

• Gnomes are in the game  - I dont like gnomes
• Human females were definately designed by a female this time. None of your scantily clad Lineage 2 soft pron females in EQ2...... damnit
• Zones are too small. The feel of EQ2 is that it is much smaller than EQ1. This may not be the case in terms of square metres but it feels that way and that is half the battle, perception is stronger than truth.

Overall im extremely pleased with EQ2. I will be sticking around for at least one more 3 month renewal when my current one expires in April. The test server notes promise even more goodness to come.

Jodokai

One of the things that I forgot to mention in the "Good" is the speed at which things are changing. There are constant patches, and new zones have already been added.

Something I left out of the bad, is while patches are coming quickly, I think they've neglected the crafting professions. There are still a lot of bugs and lack of info when you examine some crafted items.

Razorback

Good point Jodo... patch pace is very encouraging