The new EQII

[Steelpul]

I have to hand it to sony, I've never had this much fun in years with an MMO. The test server is a completely different game than EQ II.  I log on and I'm able to pick any class I want to be, instead of having to level to 20 to realise if I enjoy it or not. I love the new newbie island, It's INFORMATIVE! Exactly what everquest II needs. I don't even log into the live servers anymore, and untill the release of the two pvp servers, I wont.Everquest II has reached a new depth in gaming. You actually ENJOY what you are doing now, you don't log in, as a newbie, riddled with a thousand different questions. Things are expalined, NPC's are actually informative of what your goals are, there are combat trainers, death trainers, tradeskill trainers ( to come ) and many other things that make your gaming expiernce an ACTUAL GAME!No more wondering what a skill does, now you know what it does, no more wondering what weapons and skills you can use, you can actually select the skills tab on your options and see what you can use ( Crushing, fists, slashing, etc. etc. ).It just seems like everquest two, with the test server, is a completely new and exciting game.I really like what's happening, and you're NOT dumbing up the game, you're just not making it such of a headache!<div></div>

[Razidd]

<div></div>Agreed.  Even if they are dumbing it down, at least for the most part it's on the newbie island where people need stuff to be dumbed down just so you can get used to the game and the various mechanics it requires users to know in order to play well.  Pretty important as far as I am concerned when it comes to playing any new game.

[Steelpul]

Exactly, it seemed with eq2 live, that wasn't present haha, and it seems that's what they forgot the most. Anyways, better late than never!<div></div>

[MadLordOfMilk]

<div><span><blockquote><hr>Razidd wrote:<div></div>Agreed.  Even if <font color="#ff0000">they are dumbing it down</font>, at least for the most part it's on the newbie island where people need stuff to be dumbed down just so you can get used to the game and the various mechanics it requires users to know in order to play well.  Pretty important as far as I am concerned when it comes to playing any new game.<hr></blockquote>Actually, considering that all of the trainers are completely optional and all that, it's the opposite. You don't get a message every 3 seconds telling you what to do, holding your hand through the first steps of the game <span>:smileyhappy:</span>P.S. Please try to avoid falling into the current trend of everything making the game "dumbed down"... hell, if they added a super hard raid mob that was level 200^^^ epic x8 (literally impossible to do) with a completely empty loot table and who was not only not involved in any quests but a complete undercon, I'm sure someone would complain that this <i>somehow</i> (perchance in Bizzaro world?) makes the game a complete cakewalk for everyone and that they're cancelling their account because now people can somehow use this epic to level faster and get all the "phat l3wtz they farmed t3h raid mobz 4".</span></div>

[Happyfunba]

<div></div><p>I really don't see it as dumbing the game down at all to be honest. I think it's doing what the game should have been doing all along: helping new players to better understand the game without disturbing their emersion while at the same time allowing more knowledgable players the ability to by-pass large chunks of info they may already know.</p><p>I was in favor of the tiered adventure system in the early going but honestly thought it would mean a lot more than it actually did. The re-design of the low level game truly allows players to see exactly what kind of character and role they're going to have in EQ2 within the first 10 levels.</p><p>In retrospect, I think the game would have been received even better by the gaming population had it been set up this way from the outset. At the very least however, the changes now have breathed fresh life into the earlest portions of the game and actually has made EQ2 far more emersive in the process. It can really only be considered dumbed-down now to the effect that no new player should ever feel lost or without a task to fulfill. To me, that sounds like a good thing especially when it comes to game content that most veterans are just going to blow thru anyways.</p>

[Jynx]

<div></div><div>I made a character on test today just to check it out. My family & I cancelled our accounts and I am looking for a bit of hope something better is coming and I found it.</div><div> </div><div> I have been here since beta and my main complaint the 1 thing that made me cancel was the drab look of my character. I have looked at the same armor for 20 levels-I bought upgrades every 10 levels but it looks just like the set I had the 10 before. My monk looks like a druid, and druids look like my monk. After viewing these drab boring armors it got to me after 45 mins I was yawning looking at my character or I would sit at character select trying to decide if I wanted to log and be bored in an hour. I have to like how my character looks or I am not interested. I have been known to take a stat reduction if it looked good in eq1.  I loved everything else about eq2. Today on test I tried 4 different classes and was impressed by what I saw. There is work to be done but it is moving forward. I cannot wait for new armor for levels 30-60.</div><div> </div><div>Not only did the new armors put some hope back into the game but the class selection from day 1 was awesome. I tend to make alts when bored with how I looked to keep me occupied. Only so many times you can go thru the newbie levels, and so many alts you can make until you look like one youve already had. With how it is set up making alts will be fun.</div><div> </div><div>Two thumbs up Dev's, A+ for effort and I am anxious to see how it will all turn out now.</div><div> </div><div> I have to wait for my accounts to fully cancel out due to the all access billing procedure but I am redoing 2 of our accounts due to what I saw today. I finally have hope things will be moving along in a positive note.</div>