Just a couple questions...

[Yuro]

Hello there. I played EQ2 when it was first released and I must say I really didn't like it. I came from EQ1 and utterly loved the bard class and wanted to move to EQ2 and enjoy the same style class. When I heard reports that the EQ2 bards werent quite the same I didn't bother making one and just made a ranger, which I thought was boring as hell.I quit playing because the game just didn't seem like that much fun and it ran like poo. I've heard a lot of changes have been made to the core game and decided to activate my account again because I have a far better pc now and I'm bored. I wanted to know what some of the major changes were and if the bard class is much fun to play. I have a mahoosive patch to download so thought I'd bug you guys till then! I haven't played since March 2005 so the game must be fairly different and hopefully more enjoyable. My main questions are:1) Does the game run any better nowadays? When I played when it released I had to have the settings so it looked worse than EQ1 and ran about the same.2) Have they changed the bard class to anything similar to the EQ1 bards?3) Any opinions on which server to pick?4) Is the death penalty thing still super lame?Thanks for reading!<div></div>

[Jaimster]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Yuroko wrote:<BR><BR>1) Does the game run any better nowadays? When I played when it released I had to have the settings so it looked worse than EQ1 and ran about the same.<BR><BR>2) Have they changed the bard class to anything similar to the EQ1 bards?<BR><BR>3) Any opinions on which server to pick?<BR><BR>4) Is the death penalty thing still super lame?<BR><BR>Thanks for reading!<BR> <BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P>First, welcome back =)</P> <P>1) On this, I can't really answer the graphics question since I never played EQ1, but the only time my settings have to be on extreme are in an already laggy raid zone (it's a little worse now that everyone and their mother has buff pets from deity quests but crossing my fingers on changing that).</P> <P>2) From everything I've heard from other players and bards is that they are nowhere close to EQ1 bards. They are being looked into (allegedly) but they do need some serious loving.  On the other hand, if you are, in general, expecting the game to be just like EQ1, you are probably going to be disappointed all around.</P> <P>3) I don't know what to tell you about servers. I like mine, but then so would anyone...if you're more into Role Playing I'd go with AB.  If you want PvP servers, choose one of them (I'm afraid I don't have a clue what they are called).</P> <P>4) Is the death penalty still lame? As in, there isn't one? Or did you stop playing back when there were corpse runs.</P> <P>Basically every question you are asking has various highly opinionated and potentially different answers.  The way you have phrased them all seems like you kind of are thinking about coming back to the game because you are bored and don't know what else to do because other games aren't out yet... and you're hoping someone says "Yes! While you were gone they fixed EVERYTHING and made it EQ1"....</P> <P>I'm probably sounding harsh where I don't intend to, but I can't really tell you the above.  A lot of things are much easier than they used to be, and a lot of the classes are Completely different than they used to be... SOE has made several major changes over the course of time that not everyone can agree on as far as whether it's a good or bad change.</P> <P>I love the game and I love my troub (no matter how much I [expletive haxx0red by Raijinn] about the fact that SOE clearly hates bards) but I never had EQ1 as a reference.  I think if you come back and start a new character (maybe in Fae expansion?) that isn't a bard and look at the game as nothing more than one that shares history and lore with EQ1 you might be happier. If you look at it as a continuation of EQ1 and consistently compare it, you probably won't be.</P> <P>I hope you come back and enjoy the game though <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /><BR></P>

[Yuro]

Thank you for the nice reply Jaimster! When I first started EQ2 it was a laggy mess, admittedly my pc wasnt quite up to scratch to play it as I'd liked but it was pretty frustrating to play. The death penalty back then was the old shard thingy and you got a debt if you died or if some muppet you were playing with died cause he was a muppet. That was kinda annoying and made pick up groups a real gamble! By the sounds of things they have fixed this, thankfully. I ended up playing World of Warcraft but got bored once I got to 60 and Guild Wars just isnt that much fun, for me. I wanted to have another go at EQ2 cause I loved EQ and thought EQ2 had some great ideas going for it, if a little poorly implemented. I was hoping a lot of those ideas were tweeked to perfection and some of the bad ideas removed. The classes were too similar for the first 30 levels and made finding your ideal character quite tedious while you level alts to 30 each time to see if you like them.I only have 13 mins of patch time left. I am gonna take your advice and make a troub and look at it as an entirely new game. Thanks so much for responding. Have fun!<div></div>

[Spider]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Yuroko wrote:<BR>Thank you for the nice reply Jaimster! When I first started EQ2 it was a laggy mess, admittedly my pc wasnt quite up to scratch to play it as I'd liked but it was pretty frustrating to play. The death penalty back then was the old shard thingy and you got a debt if you died or if some muppet you were playing with died cause he was a muppet. That was kinda annoying and made pick up groups a real gamble! By the sounds of things they have fixed this, thankfully. I ended up playing World of Warcraft but got bored once I got to 60 and Guild Wars just isnt that much fun, for me. I wanted to have another go at EQ2 cause I loved EQ and thought EQ2 had some great ideas going for it, if a little poorly implemented. I was hoping a lot of those ideas were tweeked to perfection and some of the bad ideas removed. The classes were too similar for the first 30 levels and made finding your ideal character quite tedious while you level alts to 30 each time to see if you like them.<BR><BR>I only have 13 mins of patch time left. I am gonna take your advice and make a troub and look at it as an entirely new game. Thanks so much for responding. Have fun!<BR> <BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P><BR>bards are very different from eq1 bards were more of a bard scout hybrid </P> <P>that said if u play well and like a chanlange and treat your bard like a caster/scout hyrid ( pay attintion ro ur str and ur int  and agi ) you will find it to be a fun and rewarding class  as well as a very chalanging one </P> <P>and if u like pvp come check us out on vox  (fp side ftw ) </P>

[Jaimster]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Yuroko wrote:<BR>Thank you for the nice reply Jaimster! When I first started EQ2 it was a laggy mess, admittedly my pc wasnt quite up to scratch to play it as I'd liked but it was pretty frustrating to play. The death penalty back then was the old shard thingy and you got a debt if you died or if some muppet you were playing with died cause he was a muppet. That was kinda annoying and made pick up groups a real gamble! By the sounds of things they have fixed this, thankfully. I ended up playing World of Warcraft but got bored once I got to 60 and Guild Wars just isnt that much fun, for me. I wanted to have another go at EQ2 cause I loved EQ and thought EQ2 had some great ideas going for it, if a little poorly implemented. I was hoping a lot of those ideas were tweeked to perfection and some of the bad ideas removed. The classes were too similar for the first 30 levels and made finding your ideal character quite tedious while you level alts to 30 each time to see if you like them.<BR><BR>I only have 13 mins of patch time left. I am gonna take your advice and make a troub and look at it as an entirely new game. Thanks so much for responding. Have fun!<BR> <BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE>I understand where you're coming from so much better now <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />  I think you'll like the way they tweaked it now... not everything is perfect but a lot of things that have changed since THAT far back it's like a whole new game <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />  And you now pick your character from level 1 <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />  Have fun!