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eq2 a seamless world?
j3v1zzle
Member Posts: 9
in Everquest II
So lately I've really been looking at EQ2 as my next MMO but I have a question.. I have heard that EQ2 is not exactly this huge and seamless world that EverQuest 1 or World of Warcraft is and that I hear everything feels more "cluttered" or claustrophobic. Is there any truth to this? If not, what might make people say this?
I have also read up somewhere that in Rise of Kunark the new areas and continent it will be releasing will give that seamless feel with vast and wide open areas, is this true as well?
Comments
Hmm, I play EQ2 quite a bit and dont get that feeling. Its certainly bigger and more wide open than EQ1, I can tell you that much. The last expansion, echoes of faydwer and the new one thats due to come out both have gigantic zones. They talk about in Kunark having completely different areas, but you go between them without having to zone/load. Imagine if several kunark zones in EQ1 were one big zone basically. some of the original EQ2 dungeons area bit small, but besides that its quite wide open. only places I can think of that might be cluttered are the high end outdoor zones that came with the orginal game called lavastorm and everfrost, they are both quite big but the land is split up paths between mountains or rivers of lava.
From the people you talked to, they have any examples of what they think a "cluttered" zone is?
You can try the game out for 7 days here
http://everquest2.station.sony.com/en/promotions/playthefae/
Thats basically playing the latest expansion
After playing Vanguard for so long I would say that EQ2 does indeed feel a bit claustrophobic looking back.
Is there any way to play in the new Neriak city with the trial? And I assume once I register a retail cd-key for EoF, my character will be transferred over from the trial?
You can't play the new neriak city with the trial. Once you register you will be able to keep your characters, characters from the trial will be transferred.
If it makes any difference, moving a freeport character to neriak is quite easy once you own the game, you just have to do a couple of solo quests.
I have played many games and EQ2 will feel less seemless than EQ1, WoW or Vanguard. I love EQ2 for it's realism and raiding, but most zones do feel small compared to other MMOs. The small player base compensates for any "cluttered" or claustrophobic feelings.
EQ2 is not seamless. It had a lot of zoning in Freeport/Qeynos areas (starter zones), but it might have changed now. It was one of the reason i quit playing, because my PC at that time couldn't handle it. Honestly, if you don't have at least 2gb RAM, i wouldn't even bother, but try out the trial first, just in case.
I play on balanced with 1 GB of memory and a 3.2 GHZ processor and a Nividia 6800. I have to go down with the settings for raids, but other than that I am good when playing. 2GB in ram or more would be gravy and if you can buy it, then do so.
UO is the only seemless mmo I've ever really come across. WoW was semi seamless in a sense it had two continents which were both basically seamless outside of instances connected to them and the blimp boats to switch between them.
How does Vanguard fair compared to WoW or EQ2 in this sense?
First of all, there is no such thing as a seamless world. It does not exist in any game. Not even single-player games. Current technology makes it impossible to load an entire world on a home computer. You would literally need a terrabyte of ram to keep all that information.
EQ and EQ2 both use zones. WoW and Vanguard, except for instances, use a zoneless world. So you have expanses of open areas with invisible zones. You still zone in WoW and Vanguard, but you load the next zone as you are traveling through that seam. EQ started out with relatively small zones, but got much larger by Ruins of Kunark and Velious expansions. Smallest zones in EQ2 are some instances and the city zones. Those zones don't split into separate instances like the others, so they made several zones, where now they have portals where you can freely travel from one instance of a zone to another, so you can have several of the same city zone now. I don't know if they'll ever "rezone" FP and Qeynos though now. It's probably not worth the trouble. The new way is quite good and works much better than a bunch of smaller city zones.
The bigger zones though are HUGE. Solusek's Eye is ungodly unbelievable. It takes a half an hour of traveling, without fighting, to get though it. You could spend 8 hours solid fighting every inch in there and never see the end of it. And at the end is the biggest, baddest NPC in the whole game. Nobody can kill him, he is still over 20 levels above the highest NPC. Lord Nagafen, and he's very impressive. The zones in KoS are 3 huge open areas with islands floating all over the place. You just hop from one island to the next looking for whatever trouble you can get into, and there's plenty. Some instances, like nest or vault are short and sweet, while some, like Halls or Temple are endless, and you seem like you'll never hit the bottom.
"Granted thinking for yourself could be considered a timesink of shorter or longer duration depending on how smart..or how dumb you are."
Not sure about Kunark. I actually don't think I'll get that expansion.
Yes and although I like EQ2 and am playing it again after a time away, It's the one thing about the game I would change first. Outdoor zones feel more like dungeons with no ceiling. Lots of pathways that must be followed. There are several outdoor zones in which about half the map is not traversable. Way way too much.
Hmm, I play EQ2 quite a bit and dont get that feeling. Its certainly bigger and more wide open than EQ1, I can tell you that much.
OK that's just wrong. It's certainly bigger than EQ was at this point in it's history but no game is bigger than EQ right now except EVE and that's empty space. Average zone size is bigger certainly, but more wide open? Never in a million years. EQ outdoor zones never had so many walls and unpassable areas.
West Karana in EQ is probably bigger than an entire continent in EQ2.
Are you kidding me? West karana could fit at least twice in the thundering steppes.
Neriak is available to play the fae people, all you have to do is go into the patcher and turn on optional downloads.
EQ2 is far from seamless. There is sooo much zoning in this game, especially in town.