Worth the price of admission. . .

[Roland Moonst]

<DIV>I created a character on test just to see what it was like.  It was not easy: it took some time for all the files to get copied, and then SOE decided I need 35 minutes worth of voice.paks added.  And that's at Verizon DSL speeds.  </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>And then I log onto the Isle of Refuge, and there's like one other person on it.  Me and this guy Zarr.  And all he does is ask every 5 minutes if anyone is selling hawk feathers.  And then this guy Pakco ninja-invites me to come along on his adventures because I'm a healer.  We eventually link up with Zarr so that the three of us can do the orc cave.  I honestly think we were about 60% of the population of the zone at that point.  </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>But anyway, I open my map at some point and my ugly orange dot is now a handsome orange pointer.  Not only did I know where I was, but I knew which direction I was facing, which actually saved my life when I was up by the High Chieftain's tree.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>It's too new for me to tell if there are other changes, but I look forward now to exploring and finding them.  </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Oh, and I don't know about crafting AppIV, but I did make a crappy combine and ended up with an AppII.  </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>And I noticed some NPCs were changed a bit; whether or not it's mentioned in the patch notes I don't know, but many NPCs appeared tougher than they were.  Perhaps they give off more experience?  And the frequency of '?' collection marks appears to have changed, but this may be more a function of lower server population than anything else.  Also: it's now possible to trap yourself in Dreak's basement by moving a bed on top of yourself so your avatar looks like a bed-centaur.  Some culinary skills have their blurbs rewritten.  And the girl who collects feathers now sounds exactly like Caretaker Fairlee.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>The map change... that's worth the price of admission, though.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV>

[Lancealittle]

<DIV>I just reread the last patch notes and didn't see it, but didn't they make named mobs tougher? Maybe it was a couple patches ago and it is already on live. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I think they did not want people to be soloing named blue ^^ mobs. </DIV>

[Roland Moonst]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Lancealittle wrote:<BR> <DIV>I just reread the last patch notes and didn't see it, but didn't they make named mobs tougher? Maybe it was a couple patches ago and it is already on live. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I think they did not want people to be soloing named blue ^^ mobs. </DIV><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR> <DIV>It certainly appears that way.  I rolled up a fighter as well, and both characters appear to be struggling here, both in terms of leveling up and in terms of not getting their heads handed to them on a plate.  </FONT></DIV> <DIV></FONT> </DIV> <DIV>I know many people keep asking for more solo content, but basically playing this as the only player character at times for miles around, I can tell you that it's basically a dangerous game.</FONT></DIV> <DIV>I'm getting a first-hand look at what EQ2 would be like as a stand-alone home game like Morrowind or Gothic2. . . and it's a humbling experience.  I want to spend all my time in Dreak's basement crafting upgrades to my spells and abilities just so I can handle greens with two down arrows.   <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />  </FONT></DIV> <DIV></FONT> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV>

[Kwoung]

<blockquote><hr>Roland Moonstar wrote:<DIV>And I noticed some NPCs were changed a bit; whether or not it's mentioned in the patch notes I don't know, but many NPCs appeared tougher than they were. Perhaps they give off more experience? And the frequency of '?' collection marks appears to have changed, but this may be more a function of lower server population than anything else. Also: it's now possible to trap yourself in Dreak's basement by moving a bed on top of yourself so your avatar looks like a bed-centaur. Some culinary skills have their blurbs rewritten. And the girl who collects feathers now sounds exactly like Caretaker Fairlee.</DIV><hr></blockquote>I do not believe the mobs were made tougher, I am under the impression that all Apprentice level abilities were tuned down to make room for the App IV ones. I noticed the same thing on non-named mobs myself, it was taking many casts with App I spels to kill those goo mobs for the mage quest there when in the past it only took a couple casts.

[Magic]

<DIV>I've been playing on the test server for almost two weeks and haven't had any trouble doing it all solo.  My character is a level 15 warrior now, all solo.  I can't really compare it to the live servers because all of my live alts are on the Freeport side and my test alts are on the Qeynos side.  I've never played on the Qeynos side until the test server.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I agree that the map change is worth it.  If only we could zoom in and out and mark on it as we could in EQ1.  We could use maps of the newbie combat zones too.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Everything in the game seems better so far but there is more that can be improved.  Why can't we examine question marks before picking them up?  I'd rather leave it alone if it's something that I don't need.  Or why can't we drop anything that we don't want rather than destroying it?  Con colors need more resolution so that we can visually detect hard greens from easy greens and such.  I don't like one con color representing two mob levels.</DIV>