How to make a character, completely lost !

[Polvere]

Hello, This will probably take the cake as the most foolish question to grace these forums, but I'm at my wits end ! I've purchased EoF and have completed the full install, including downloading the recent patch. Once this had completed, the red PLAY button was active, which I clicked. Unfortunately, the screen went black, a little yellow outlined mouse cursor appeared ... and then nothing happened. Waited 5 minutes and nothing. I rebooted the machine and checked my quick guide that came with the EoF box, it states that after double clicking the desktop icon, I need to, quote "Click the Create Character button to begin", and only after going through that should then click PLAY. However I cannot find a Create Character button anywhere ! The buttons on my screen are: Chat My Account Support Preferences Update Notes Station Players Adventure Packs Expansion Packs Those are on the left. On the right is a new section, and a "My Characters" section that is blank. Please, what am I missing here ! This is incredibly frustrating ! Thank you for any assistance or tips. PS: Also checked the PDF manual that was installed and this has nothing that I can find to address my confusion.

[Thunderthyze]

<p>Sounds to me like your pc doesn't have the minimum spec required to play the game. Go to "preferences" on the screen you can get to though and confirm that all the options are selected. Also confim you have registered the game using the cd key you will have found in the box.</p><p>Otherwise....give us your spec and maybe we can point out where your setup is deficient.</p><p>FYI The load should come up within 5~20 seconds after the gold arrow cursor appears.</p>

[Rokaab]

<p>I've heard of this problem quite a few times, normally its caused by your graphics card not being upto spec, so I'd really check to see if your card is supported and in particular whether your card can deal with pixel shading.</p><p>You can only create a character once youve pressed the Play button, so youre not doing anything wrong (the create character button doesnt turn up til the next screen - ie. the one youre not getting to)</p>

[Polvere]

Thanks for the fast response Holymoly. My specs are: Pentium 4, 3ghz 1.5 Gb of Ram (duel channel) GeForce FX 5700 (nVidia graphics card) Intel 865GBFL motherboard Audiophile 2496 sound card 30Gb hard drive (about 5Gb still free) Been playing WoW for 2 years with no probs on this machine. Definately entered CD key okay, if I try and re-enter it, it states it is already in use. I checked under Preferences but all it has is options to download the three adventure packs or three optional audio packs. I have not selected any of those options at this time. I'll go check technical see if I can find anything. But at what point should I see the "Create Character" button ? After I click the red PLAY button, or before ?

[Polvere]

Rakk@Butcherblock wrote: <blockquote><p>I've heard of this problem quite a few times, normally its caused by your graphics card not being upto spec, so I'd really check to see if your card is supported and in particular whether your card can deal with pixel shading.</p><p>You can only create a character once youve pressed the Play button, so youre not doing anything wrong (the create character button doesnt turn up til the next screen - ie. the one youre not getting to)</p></blockquote> Thank you very much Rakk, you answered my question which I posted below your response, I didn't see your post until after I had posted mine, sorry about that. I'll go see if my GeForce FX 5700 is supported, perhaps it's too old  <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Elowenrang]

that card should still work.   not terribly well but it should work did you make sure to update to the latest directx?

[Thunderthyze]

<p>Check you are using DirectX 9. I would have thought a 5700 could still play the game, or at least load it, although the choppiness may be unacceptable. The other thing would be to check you are running the latest drivers. </p><p>Anyone else have any ideas?</p><p>With the low amount of free space on your pc you could also try defragging although this is more a "Hail Mary" suggestion than optimism.</p>

[Aurumn]

<p>I'm able to run the game on a 5700. Crowded zones are a pain, but it will run. You just have to bottom out a lot of settings. If I recall correctly that's the oldest supported card though.</p>

[aardda]

Aurumn@Unrest wrote: <blockquote><p>I'm able to run the game on a 5700. Crowded zones are a pain, but it will run. You just have to bottom out a lot of settings. If I recall correctly that's the oldest supported card though.</p></blockquote><p> My old 2nd comp runs it on an old 5600 card.. athelon1.4 too <img src="/smilies/ed515dbff23a0ee3241dcc0a601c9ed6.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> I won't pretend it runs well even with most of the graphics turned down, but it does still run - well enough for me to 2 box with my main comp.</p><p>But as for the OP, i would be willing to bet it is your gfx card - or should i say lack of. Onboard chips don't really compare to dedicated cards especially in the 3d heavy worlds like eq2.</p>

[Rokaab]

<cite>aarddave wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>But as for the OP, i would be willing to bet it is your gfx card - or should i say lack of. Onboard chips don't really compare to dedicated cards especially in the 3d heavy worlds like eq2.</p></blockquote> He did update (about 4th post down) that hes using a NVidia 5700, which is not an onboard graphics chip - not last time I looked anyways <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[aardda]

Rakk@Butcherblock wrote: <blockquote><cite>aarddave wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>But as for the OP, i would be willing to bet it is your gfx card - or should i say lack of. Onboard chips don't really compare to dedicated cards especially in the 3d heavy worlds like eq2.</p></blockquote> He did update (about 4th post down) that hes using a NVidia 5700, which is not an onboard graphics chip - not last time I looked anyways <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></blockquote><p> Ahh, you're right. I saw the Intel 865GBFL thing and completely missed the 5700 originally in use. Playing as many games as i do, i only have horror stories of people trying to use the onboard gfx chip on most if not all intel boards, even on games with far lower specs than eq2. Bad assumption <img src="/smilies/499fd50bc713bfcdf2ab5a23c00c2d62.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p>The 5700 card still should work however and the problem could be related to the intro movie. My card tends to get stuck a bit there, but loads it eventually. Never figured out how to disable it - but then never really looked too hard.</p>

[Gladiia]

I run into the same issue everytime they do an update.  It ends up being my firewall that causes it.  After I get the black screen (which also occurs after pressing play) I have to close the game with ctrl+alt+del because the firewall message is behind the black screen.  Then I 'ok' the message and start the game again. 

[Castonu]

I'm agreeing that this sounds more like a firewall issue than a graphics card problem.

[Finora]

<cite>Polvere19 wrote:</cite><blockquote><p> Hello, This will probably take the cake as the most foolish question to grace these forums, but I'm at my wits end ! I've purchased EoF and have completed the full install, including downloading the recent patch. Once this had completed, the red PLAY button was active, which I clicked. Unfortunately, the screen went black, a little yellow outlined mouse cursor appeared ... and then nothing happened. Waited 5 minutes and nothing. I rebooted the machine and checked my quick guide that came with the EoF box, it states that after double clicking the desktop icon, I need to, quote "Click the Create Character button to begin", and only after going through that should then click PLAY. However I cannot find a Create Character button anywhere ! The buttons on my screen are: Chat My Account Support Preferences Update Notes Station Players Adventure Packs Expansion Packs</p><p><b><span style="color: #cc3333">You should see a great big red play button up top above those, you have to hit that to get to character creation.</span></b></p><p><b><span style="color: #cc3333">After you hit that it will run through the intro movie. Now, I personally can no longer SEE the movie (just a black screen) when I start up the game in full screen. I can hear it, but just black screen. It runs for a little while, so if you are starting up full screen and have your sound off/turned down, this may be your black screen.</span></b></p><p><b><span style="color: #cc3333">If you hit your space bar a few times while the screen is black then it should skip the movie and get to the char creation screen.</span></b></p><p><b><span style="color: #cc3333">Hope this is the only problem=) good luck getting into game.</span></b> </p><p> Those are on the left. On the right is a new section, and a "My Characters" section that is blank. Please, what am I missing here ! This is incredibly frustrating ! Thank you for any assistance or tips. PS: Also checked the PDF manual that was installed and this has nothing that I can find to address my confusion. </p></blockquote>

[Image_Vain]

"Run as Administrator" then click "<span style="color: #cc0000">P L A Y</span>"

[Polvere]

Many thanks to all who responded with ideas to try ! What a very nice community <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> I'll try turning off the movie when I get home and see how it goes - I found a post in technical on how to do this: <a href="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?start=0&topic_id=36452񊄟" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/...452񊄟</a> Cheers !

[Josgar]

Hope you get it fixed <img src="/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Greyshie]

<cite>Gladiia wrote:</cite><blockquote>I run into the same issue everytime they do an update.  It ends up being my firewall that causes it.  After I get the black screen (which also occurs after pressing play) I have to close the game with ctrl+alt+del because the firewall message is behind the black screen.  Then I 'ok' the message and start the game again.  </blockquote>OP if you still don't have it working try the firewall.  I have had that happen a few times and have pounded my desk until I realized I needed to "allow" it. <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[ke'la]

<cite>Greyshield wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Gladiia wrote:</cite><blockquote>I run into the same issue everytime they do an update.  It ends up being my firewall that causes it.  After I get the black screen (which also occurs after pressing play) I have to close the game with ctrl+alt+del because the firewall message is behind the black screen.  Then I 'ok' the message and start the game again.  </blockquote>OP if you still don't have it working try the firewall.  I have had that happen a few times and have pounded my desk until I realized I needed to "allow" it. <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> </blockquote><p> I think it's likly the firewall as the Game client is a Differant Executable from the Patcher as such they both need to be allowed though the firewall.</p><p>Also don't be suprized if it takes a min or 2 even with your firewall disabled, if you don't disable the movie. On my old system with an ATI9700 it took a good Min or two go from Black Screen to the movie where I could click though it... never did get around to disabling it. That movie is a Theater Quality CGI movie(it was accually run as a Trailer in movie theaters) and as such takes a long time to load.</p>

[Caldaini]

His card is fine. The problem is with the intro movie. I've seen the same problem happen on my machine. I fix it by running it in Windowed mode. The intro movie plays fine and skips fine. But if I run the game in full screen,  I get a black screen. You can easily switch it back to full screen after the intro however. On a related note, does anyone know how to skip the intro movie? Perhaps even by replacing it with a dummy file, since I can't find any option to skip it in the settings. There's no need to play it every time you launch the game, you don't really want to see it again. And this will help the OP also.

[Kevlin]

<p>First off I know EQII will play on a FX 5700 as I used it for the first 2 years before I built an SLI rig.</p><p>You might want to go to the eqII directory normally c:sonyeverquestII and look for a file called something like eqII_settings or such.  Click on that and tell the game to start in window mode.  (if your firewall is barfing on your game) you will then see it in your task bar).</p><p>If you load up in full screen mode you have to hit Alt Enter to get to window and vice versa when you finally get in game you hit Alt Enter and it will go to full screen.</p><p> Someone up there posted that you have to hit the "RED" Play button to get into the game that is correct.  If you do that and all you get is a black screen I would do the following to verify DirectX 9.0c is loaded.</p><p>Go to start click on Run and type the following in the box that pops up.</p><p>dxdiag</p><p>It will run through a bunch of things and list all your DirectX settings look for 9.0 in the DX settings and you will be good.  If you don't see this you need to go to <a href="http://www.google.com/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.google.com</a> and type in directX 9.0c it will take you to the Microsoft site to download it.</p><p>If you see DirectX 10 you are okay except I do not think your card will handle it and from what I hear it is not backwards compatible with DX9</p><p>Good luck and you asked in the right place we will have you in Norrath in a Jiffy.</p>

[Isisalthea]

<p>I play in windowed mode and when I hit play, I wait a few seconds and then hit the space bar and the movie goes away.   Another advantage to at least starting in windowed mode is that you can see any error messages you get.  Definately add to your firewall exceptions list though</p><p>Also dont worry the characters on the right side untill you have created one.  The first step is just is hit the big red play button and it should take you directly to create character.  Then once you have a character you get a drop down button beneath the play button that will allow you to go to character select or specific character.  I have found that I don't always get the right side window showing anything, especially if they are doing maintenance on websites</p>