Two Complaints

[Johnhostuk1]

<p>I am a long time EQ1 and EQ2 player, but somehow EQ2 always seems to get boring after a few weeks.  However, other MMORPG's seem to bore me about 5 minutes, so I am sticking with EQ2.</p><p>Overall considering everything EQ2 is a good game, but here is my pet-peves.</p><p>1) I built a new computer and it runs very poorly considering it's specs.  I don't notice these performance issues on other games I own including Crysis.</p><p>My specs:</p><ul><li>AMD X2 6000+</li><li>Nforce 590-SLI Chipset</li><li>Geforce 8600GT (x2 running SLI)</li><li>Creative X-FI Premium</li><li>2GB Corsair DDR2 (running EPP)</li><li>Windows XP Pro SP2</li><li>500GB SATA II </li></ul><p>I have the latest Geforce Drivers, but if there is a better driver I would be happy, basically I get hitching and sometimes lag to the point where my screen freezes for a second.  This is in Balanced setting.  I should be able to run high setting but can't without being very low lag.</p><p>My ping is usually around 80 and my FPS is around 60 except when I get these major lag spikes.  I am running on the Splitpaw server.</p><p>2) Repetative quests.  What I mean is the fetch me 4 rat hides type quests.  I mean no matter how exciting the reason, I just hate these grind type quests.  I would perfer to simply do it like EQ1 where it you can simply find mobs you want to kill and grind them.  But the player is penalized for NOT doing the quests.</p><p>I know scripting takes time but surely there is another way to do questing.  </p>

[Jal]

1) Everquests graphics engine is old and not designed for modern cards features.  The game also doesnt use dual cores.  The hitching and such is a feature a few people have with the 8x00 series of cards if you look at the dev tracker they are currently investigating this, i find turning spell effects to 0 cuts pretty much all of this stuttering out as a workaround.2) All games have these types of quests, they are the stock MMO routine.  Grinding is possible but slow, although personally i find it mind numbing even compared to the quest types you mention.

[skinandbones]

<p>Dear god EQ1 leveling blew monster (cant say the word).  After 7 years of sitting in 1 spot for hours on end to level got tiresome.  Atleast when I came to EQ2 in 04 quests got me to goto other areas.  EQ1 people crowded the area that gave the highest XP, had the most nameds, high chance of spell drops.</p><p>  </p>

[feldon30]

Have you picked up any Heritage Quests yet?

[Johnhostuk1]

<p>I have done heritage quests and lot's of different kinds.  But I was hoping with Kunark the newbie areas would be different, but it's more of the same.  Same old stuff, boring as hell really.</p><p>Personally grinding in EQ1 wasn't always fun, but if you had a good group levels came quick and the social part was great!  </p><p>I suppose the game is funner when your top level in EQ2, but I can't get the motivation together to grind quests to 80.</p>

[StormCinder]

<cite>Johnhostuk1 wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>2) Repetative quests.  What I mean is the fetch me 4 rat hides type quests.  I mean no matter how exciting the reason, I just hate these grind type quests.  I would perfer to simply do it like EQ1 where it you can simply find mobs you want to kill and grind them.  But the player is penalized for NOT doing the quests.</p><p>I know scripting takes time but surely there is another way to do questing.  </p></blockquote><p>Not sure I understand.  You can kill mobs and get combat xp.  You can get a quest to kill mobs and get combat xp + quest xp.  You can get quests that have absolutely no killing involved and get quest xp.  I'm not sure what the penalty is you're referring to?</p><p>I've been playing since Spring '05 and my highest level toon is 58.  I don't know what lvl80 game is like, but this has been the only game I've played in that time. (Other than a few Peggle games).</p><p>SC</p>

[Tyndaleon]

<cite>Johnhostuk1 wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>I am a long time EQ1 and EQ2 player, but somehow EQ2 always seems to get boring after a few weeks.  However, other MMORPG's seem to bore me about 5 minutes, so I am sticking with EQ2.</p><p>Overall considering everything EQ2 is a good game, but here is my pet-peves.</p><p>1) I built a new computer and it runs very poorly considering it's specs.  I don't notice these performance issues on other games I own including Crysis.</p><p>My specs:</p><ul><li>AMD X2 6000+</li><li>Nforce 590-SLI Chipset</li><li>Geforce 8600GT (x2 running SLI)</li><li>Creative X-FI Premium</li><li>2GB Corsair DDR2 (running EPP)</li><li>Windows XP Pro SP2</li><li>500GB SATA II </li></ul><p>I have the latest Geforce Drivers, but if there is a better driver I would be happy, basically I get hitching and sometimes lag to the point where my screen freezes for a second.  This is in Balanced setting.  I should be able to run high setting but can't without being very low lag.</p><p>My ping is usually around 80 and my FPS is around 60 except when I get these major lag spikes.  I am running on the Splitpaw server. </p></blockquote>You're not going to like hearing this, but.....disable SLI, run off of only one of those boards, and see if you have the same issue.  You may well still have, as there are some folks who have issues in general with EQ2 on the Nvidia 8000 series cards, it seems to be somewhat hit or miss.  But as a general rule, EQ2 and SLI typically don't mix well regardless of any other variables in play....so it would be a start at least to disable SLI when you're playing EQ2 and see if there's any difference.  If there is....they're at least looking into the EQ2/Nvidia 8000 series performance issues as of the last few days finally, so we'll see where that leads.

[Kursa]

<p>with the technical specs pushed aside, from your first paragraph, have you ever thought that maybe MMOs isn't your thing?</p><p>You mentioned that you get bored of this game in two weeks but other MMOs bore you in less time.  Maybe you just really don't like this game genre (which is ok not to like).</p><p>Maybe you should look into other types of games you may like more</p>

[Kellin]

<p>Can't really speak to the tech issues.  Everyone has some; the game was designed to take advantage of a chip that was never made.</p><p>As for the repetitive quests, well, there are over 4,000 quests in the game right now.  Unfortunately, you're going to have some repetition in there, simply because there are only a certain number of quest types.   While I'd like to see more puzzle type and scavenger hunt type quests, the sword and sorcery genre tends to lend itself to a lot of mindless violence, which means a lot of rat killing.</p><p>Also, since there are over 4,000 quests, there's really no reason for you to have to do every "kill 10 rats" quest on offer.</p><p>I think you might want to sit down and determine just what it is you're looking for in a game.  It could be that a fantasy MMORPG isn't the best fit for you.</p>

[LygerT]

running anything in the background such as combat tracker? even on fast machines it can bog you down unless you reset the logs.

[Yngwiem]

<p>Have you downloaded the Dual Core patch from AMD??</p><p>This may be your issue. I know I threw EQ1 on, and it ran horribly. It was so choppy it was like I was running it from an old 286 system with 256 memory!! Installed the Dual Core patch.... it ran fine.</p>

[ke'la]

<p>EQ2 was Flat out not designed for multiple Processors, be it Multi-Core procs or SLI. It was designed when the only thing that mattered was Raw CPU speed, where single cores where just getting faster, your best bet is to bind all proccesses other then EQ2 to one core and EQ2 to the other one, that would give EQ2 all the power of that one core, and like another poster said disable SLI when running EQ2. The next thing you can do is disable shadows, then spell effects as those are the 2 biggest hogs, and have the least impact on quality(disable shadows first). </p><p>As for repeatable quest, if you don't like questing, you could find a group and hang out in dungons and grind XP there, in total the XP you get from Grinding in Dungons is about the same(over the same period of time) as doing quests. Though I personally like quests better because alot of them want the same MoBs so you can do 2 or 3 quests at once in the same general area and then when done turn them all in, though One bonus Questing does have over XP Grinding is that Quest XP does not effect, nor is effected by Vitality, as such you will get more XP on kills while quest as you will have Vit longer(it regens at 0.5% an hour no matter what) as you are not burning vit durring the trip back to the quest camps.</p>

[Maalek]

quote:"Personally grinding in EQ1 wasn't always fun, but if you had a good group levels came quick and the social part was great! "I really miss the good old EQ1 camps where you went to a zone like BoT,WoS or MPG and could find a pickupgroup anytime.This running around (and zoning) all the time gets on my nerves,no time to speak to other players.quote:"Repetative quests. What I mean is the fetch me 4 rat hides type quests. I mean no matter how exciting the reason, I just hate these grind type quests."Yeah,got tired also of solo - grinding quests at 73 in RoK.I prefere grinding in a group,thats why I play a MULTI player game.  SOE went much too far with the ability to solo in EQ2,even worse it almost has become a must if you want some achievement xp orequipment updates.

[Jeeshman]

<cite>Tynd@Everfrost wrote:</cite><cite></cite><blockquote>You're not going to like hearing this, but.....disable SLI, run off of only one of those boards, and see if you have the same issue.  You may well still have, as there are some folks who have issues in general with EQ2 on the Nvidia 8000 series cards, it seems to be somewhat hit or miss.  But as a general rule, EQ2 and SLI typically don't mix well regardless of any other variables in play....so it would be a start at least to disable SLI when you're playing EQ2 and see if there's any difference.  If there is....they're at least looking into the EQ2/Nvidia 8000 series performance issues as of the last few days finally, so we'll see where that leads.</blockquote>Tynd is absolutely correct, I'm sad to say.  After engaging in constant hardware updates trying to improve EQ2's performance, I've discovered the following:1.  SLI actually *slows down* EQ2 gameplay.  (I found this out only after I spent serious $$$ on a second 8800 GTX.)2.  The faster the processor, the better EQ2 will perform.  EQ2's graphics are amazingly dependent on the CPU.I was a die-hard AMD fan, but EQ2 forced me to put an end to my fanboy ways and purchase an Intel Core 2 Duo.  You'll see the best performance increase, IMO, if you disable SLI and overclock that 6000+ as much as you can.