zzilba wrote:
Unfortunately, in the face of the juggarnaut that is WoW, comparions and parallels are distinctly unfair - apples and oranges. So, I'm not going to do that. But I will point out a few things that really inhibit my experience as a player in what I believe is the best MMO on the market.
As a former WoW player I do compare it though to WoW, and favourably, there's a lot that people complain about in EQ2 that is taken forgranted as something you live with in WoW and I'm just not sure why. One example is the naked toons thing, in WoW sometimes I'd log in and until I logged out everyone is naked and remains naked, that bug has been there for a year or maybe longer, so in terms of polish I'd actually rate EQ2 highly.
zzilba wrote:
I'm level 55 on LDL. The population *feels* incredibly sparse, and i have gone days without running into another player. The most I have seen simultaneously is 5 players. Now, let me point out that the keyword used here is *Feels* not *is.* The world of Norrath is enormous and diversity in levels contribute greatly to spontaneous run-in's with other
Its true, its often to see an adventurer here and there in the pre-80 zones but rarely a crowd, I guess for SOE to fix this though they either need to merge/make servers have larger populations which I think will have problems at the busy spots, or alter the game to funnel players in specific zones. They do the latter a bit but maybe they should do it on some of the pre-80 zones? Dunno here, I like the free roaming nature of the game so I wouldn't want to lose this.
I'm fairly happy with the current state of things, more people around when I'm soloing just is competition, although its nice to team up for the odd elite or area now and then, a better LFG tool though would be good, the current one just doesn't seem to get used for some reason.
zzilba wrote:
I understand that there will be a sector of players who will want to meet my comments with the obligatory inflammatory remarks, but regardless, a lack of thriving population impacts the game on many levels; Accessibility to large scale encounters - many of mine turned gray due to lack of players to participate with; The economy is greatly diminished. Selling and purchasing from a broker, even the most rare items and necessary skills will only set me back a couple of gold, but I'm lucky to make that through consignments due the the little demand. Heroic mobs seem excessive when venturing alone; They're everywhere and often present an unfathomable obstacle between a solitary player and a quest objective. In a discussion the other day, someone had said to another individual who was disappointed in the visibility of other players and the large amounts of Heroic mobs that he could not solo that "Everquest 2 was never intended to be a solo game." Thats truly fair enough; Then the experience should not feel isolated. Some people are quite contented with an undeniably small community where everyone knows everyone else via the chat channel - But the cons far outweigh the pros when considering a goal driven environment, even for the most casual player.
A couple of things there, firstly on the consignments and making money from tradeskilling etc at low levels, basically the money you get from quests is pretty low until you hit Maj'Dul and 50+ areas, at 80 you are earning 60g or so from a daily mission, or at least the Tupta ones I'm rather fond of give this sort of reward.
Couple that with the way tradeskills work for levelling and there is a glut of stuff out there with only the very best gear in demand, so as a new player you are in a good position if you want to buy average sort of gear off the broker and in a great position if you want to sell anything truly rare and in demand (level 40-50 rares can go for 1-2 plat easy, more then enough money to buy average quality gear for every slot). But the downside is always going to be if you want to buy say a full set of mastercrafted at level 50 your going to need to spend ~20 plat, a ridiculously high amount for a player that level.
Personally I stuck with the bargain basement equipment until I hit level 70, if you really want that full set of mastercrafted plate early your best off harvesting days on end to get it.
Secondly on heroic mobs I've found a lot of the time some very impossible looking mobs are possible but its just a question of really getting the most out of your class and/or having the best gear, on my rangers for example I can kill most mobs in the game by just standing toe to toe and going through the combat arts after an initial bow pull. But for a heroic mob using snares, buffs, roots and stuns just right can really take down some very hard mobs, its the same deal for a guardian I play.
So I think right now there is a big wide range of content at each level in this way, unlike say in WoW where I could handle anything that was worth killing, a solo player cannot handle everything that is their level in EQ2, but the upside I think is that for those times you are overpowered (if you've just picked up mastercrafted gear or you have a ton of AA for the level) then there is something challenging you can still do.
That's my take on it though, there are downers sometimes in EQ2 for me though, one of them recently was in Loping plains and fortunately isn't something I see in later levels. Basically its a great atmospheric zone to adventure in, but (at least for me) its got the crummiest mob spacing in the game, basically they took an area and put mobs in randomly all over the zone, you cannot walk 10 foot without aggroing a mob or three.
While I loved the zone, at the same time it did cheese me off just with the endless mob pulls I made every time I tried to travel somewhere which felt grindy after a while, maybe its meant for groups (although there is a sub zone there with elites only that does cater for groups perfectly), but I much prefer the zones where the mobs are hanging around like they have a purpose (and not bandits wandering past lurking crocodiles that seem to be good friends!).
While it is easier to handle I do much prefer the logical placement of mobs every time, in one way Loping plains also had some of the best here too with lookouts for camps that really were able to intercept you when you tried to sneak in, although the downer here was a bear/Blood thing/whatever would probably be aggro'd at the same time 