So... Has anyone got anything good to say about Velious?

[Writer Cal]

Well.  I thought and thought and thought about it after Beta, and I just can't justify paying full expansion price for half an expansion with a whole lot of things I don't like.  So I've cancelled my pre-order.

Crafting is great as always because Domino rocks.  Othmir are awesome, and I love them.  The zones look great.  Flying mounts are neat.  And I pretty much dislike everything else about it.

It's a shame because I was actually pretty excited and optimistic about Velious when I first started playing around in beta, but then reality sunk in.  Maybe I'll end up getting it months down the road depending on whether or not SOE actually follows up on the promises of adding more.  Maybe not.  Don't know anymore.

[Blackbearder]

Daenee@Antonia Bayle wrote:

Well.  I thought and thought and thought about it after Beta, and I just can't justify paying full expansion price for half an expansion with a whole lot of things I don't like.  So I've cancelled my pre-order.

Crafting is great as always because Domino rocks.  Othmir are awesome, and I love them.  The zones look great.  Flying mounts are neat.  And I pretty much dislike everything else about it.

It's a shame because I was actually pretty excited and optimistic about Velious when I first started playing around in beta, but then reality sunk in.  Maybe I'll end up getting it months down the road depending on whether or not SOE actually follows up on the promises of adding more.  Maybe not.  Don't know anymore.

Sorry to hear about your negative feelings.  Although I agree with some of the overall issues with this expac, i am still psyched about it.  Crafting, new zones (raid / instance), and new gear with adorns.  I like the idea of adorns to make gear.  I think it got a bad rap, but will be sweet ingame.

Don't really care about the flying mount...and AAs are atrocious for most classes.  I REALLY think SOE is running out of ideas for them.  They lack originality. 

GL in whatever you play.  As long as it isn't the WoW spawn, Rift.  I absolutely HATED Rift.

[PlaneCrazy]

Iskandar wrote:

BetaTester wrote:

why did Vanguard flop ?

From what I understand, it's because it was released in a very buggy and unfinished manner and failed to receive the support it needed at launch, as "Capn' Leetsauce" McQuaid had completely run out of money and bailed, eventually leading to SOE buying it all up and plopping it on bare-minimum life support. In general, players (whether they be casual or hardcore) have little patience for noticeably buggy and unfinished content, especially when it persists for an extended period of time.

Despite it's rocky start, Vanguard had a very healthy and a very vibrant community.  One of the best in any game I have played.  The  game was immensly fun and the APW raid zone one of the best ever.  VG provided all this fun for well over 2 years to a lot of us and SOE picked it up for a song... basically they just wrote off some loans they made to Sigil.

It died (and technically, it's still active) because SOE had no interest in expending resources to continue work on it. Maybe 5-6 years ago, a different SOE would have seen an opportunity to expand on a great game world, but it's obvious now that SOE just wanted the sub revenue from the existing VG playerbase to help them in their corporate makeover to more RMT orientated games.

It was extremely frustrating to see promise after promise broken while playing Vanguard because SOE kept cutting back resources.  The devs were constantly pulled off to work on other products and, in fact, some of them are now working on EQ2.  Those that are still around that is.

[Firnbarion]

so to answer the thread opener:

I really really enjoyed the storyline on Othmir Island (the first place you get to after zoning in from Sinking Sands). Except for some explorations to the huge city of the coldain and the eastern wastes I did not have time to do much more. For preparations I was happy to have the Rime Faction on 50 T and for Haddens Earring. Nicely done also, that on Othmir Island after finishing the questline you are fully equiped with a new armor that you need very bad to survive. Sure it was a shock at first to see my health and energy gone - but after questing through the island and seeing that it increased greatly thanks to str and sta on the armor pieces it really rocked. But as said, the mob on the first island - without the new armor (and I did have nice pieces already) - will kill you rather quickly.

Domino outdid herself once more. She really is something from another world. So yes, great expansion also for Crafters. It really all depends on your play style. For those who only want the next 'better' armor and hit the next new boss etc. well... I do not know. But for those who like to take their time, delve into the storyline (which is really something) and getting on like that - it is a great expansion. I love it and I am really looking forward to play it once more on Live Server. Thanks to all the Dev's envolved!

jmtc

F.

[kartikeya]

d1anaw wrote:

Andok wrote:

PlaneCrazy wrote:

Oh, and the beta general discussion forum was full of people who either quit the game or declared they were not going to buy the expansion.  More then just the usual run of the mill venters who threaten it.... most of the posters seemed sincere.

Every major change ever made in EQ2 (and EQ1 as far as I can remember) was accompanied with a throng of players that threatened to quit... and they are always "quitting for real" this time.  They'll even announce the final death of EQ.  The next major change you'll usually see that same group threaten to really really quit this time.  

Personally, I wish they would "really quit this time".  It will leave the game better for everyone else if not for any other reason than we won't have to put up with the constant whining and complaining. I dare any one of the never satisfieds to design, develop, fund and operate their own game. Let's see them put their self imposed superiority and their own money out there and let's see how it works out. Ready, set....go.

I really hope people quit! The game will be totes better with less money!

As for the Vanguard discussion, while, yes, SOE choosing not to keep it on more than life support ultimately killed it, let's all be honest. Vanguard was dead on arrival. Sigil was gone two months after release (was it even two months?) It was early beta release at best, and while it had loads of good ideas and fantastic art, its doom came from horrifically poor management and, well...let's just say the official unofficial forums were quite full of people saying preeetty much what the poster I just quoted said. Any time someone came out with a criticism of the game, they'd get swarmed by a small, very vocal group of fans that went 'you suck, I hope you quit and go back to WoW, n00b'. Hilariously, that's exactly what they did.

[Hamervelder]

BetaTester wrote:

and if hard mode end game is what pays the bills , why did Vanguard flop ?

Vanguard flopped because when it released, it was horribly, fatally flawed and buggy.  During beta, we said repeatedly that the game wasn't ready for release.  In usual SOE fashion, the testers got ignored, and we all saw the results: Vanguard has been dying a miserable death since its release, and has become somewhat of a mockery among MMO players.  That's partially why it befuddles me that SOE would bring in one of Vanguard's devs to handle EQ2 itemization.  As bad as Vanguard was and is, why would you want anyone who worked on that steaming pile to work on another SOE game?

[kartikeya]

It's a bit more complicated than that. I am really really annoyed at SOE right now, but they honestly and truly are not responsible for what happened to Vanguard. That lies right at the feet of Mister Brad McQuaid, he of the 'hired as a consultant and never heard from again' Sigil infamy. I have no doubt that SOE, as the funding distributor, was pushing for them to release the [Removed for Content] game already, but that game was in development for years and years, had a massive budget, and had already been dropped by one distributor already because they were taking so ridiculously long and had absolutely no real product to show for it. There was no reason whatsoever for it not to be ready by the release date other than really, unbelievably abysmal mis-management, and SOE was not managing that project, nor was it originally even remotely connected to them (the original distributor was Microsoft, if I remember right).

Of course, it's worse if you believe that supposed leaked employee story. In that case, there wasn't a definable game until six months prior to release. Given the state it was in? I wouldn't be surprised if that were true, and I feel really sorry for the guys that had to get that into remotely working order in such a ridiculously short time. What they were doing with all that money and all those years of development? Nobody but they know.

Vanguard is pretty much my penultimate example of Everything Not To Do In An MMO. It had the bones of a really fantastic game, and then they not only did everything wrong, but spectacularly so.

[Eugam]

BetaTester wrote:

this stat NGE ain't what the peons are asking for , thats SOE shaving dev resources

and if hard mode end game is what pays the bills , why did Vanguard flop ?

When was Vanguard hardmode ?

It was a flop because it was not even half ready, actually not even ready to 1/3rd. And its lead designer died while the game was in development. If SOE was smart they would rework it, finish it and release it as Vanguard 2. This game has more potential then any game released or releasing in future. Well they own it and butcher it for other games. A lot of EQ2 is copy-paste source from Vanguard already.

The worst enemy of Vanguard was the same as the enemy of EQ2, its community. People cant be happy without struggling for the next big thing. Car or armor, cellphone or epic weapon... doesnt matter. (Un)fortunately no company is able to create a game that is able to withstand such a mindset in the long run. Even WoW needed a reset. Vanguard had at release the perfect gameplay minus some balancing. The loot [Removed for Content] community was it who destroyed it. And half of those [Removed for Content] have been payed shills and RMT agitators i guess.

Yes, there is a lot of good content for everyone in Velious.

I was a bit sad too when they brought those procs back and nerfed the quest armor. DEVs intial setup was better in the grand picture. But how to argue with players who have not the ability to see the game as a whole ?

[Wurm]

Taemien@Lucan DLere wrote:

The interesting thing is despite not liking Velious, these complaining players will still buy/pre-order it.

This invalidates alot of what they say. Either they actually like it enough to purchase it, thus lied. Or are buying something they don't like, which means they have a lack of sense which makes me question their argument there.

Sorry, the arguments:

"I have friends that play.""I've spent so much time with my character."

Don't have the weight they did a few months ago when I brought this up. You can still play with friends by not getting Velious. You can still play your character without getting Velious.

In fact I plan on doing both. I'm considering waiting till the second Velious expansion comes out and get it instead. That way I can feel as if I'm getting my money's worth (by getting both for one). DoV just doesn't seem like its worth 30 bucks. I'm sure its a wonderful expansion, though I can save some dough by waiting.

I play with my friends, I'm the guild leader of a small guild and my toon has been around since launch.

I enjoyed a bit of what I did in beta, my problem was I kept running into broken quest-lines (which I of course reported) over and over and only a few of them were fixed when the beta ended. So I was frustrated about not being to test the part of the content I enjoy the most, questing. But quests always get fixed eventually so I'm not too worried.

So yes I am going to buy the expansion. No I'm not happy with DoV in its current state and I still think SJ is a snake-oil salesman that needs to go.

I did see one thing I really did like in beta, and that was the love Dominio has for the game. For her sake I actually plan on leveling a crafter past my current record of less than level 50 ( ) just to enjoy the content she and her team have added.

[kartikeya]

I'm sorry, while I'm sure you enjoyed it, the uh...I'm going to have to really disagree about the perfect gameplay part. Or we were playing different games. It's possible!

A lot of people really want a return to EQ1 'hard' (where really, hard was mostly a word for 'timesink&#39 because they enjoyed EQ1. For many many people, it was their first real MMO. It was a big thing. It was awesome at the time. It was also massively flawed. If EQ1 were released now (obviously with current-gen graphics), it would fail miserably.

Why? Because people don't have to put up with that tedium to play a good game any more. People can't afford to put up with that tedium to play a good game any more. The only reason anyone put up with that tedium is because EQ1 was literally the only game of its kind around, and so if the devs wouldn't fix or change things like, oh, week long camp-a-thons or hell levels or hybrid experience penalties or corpse decay or deleveling or HEY THEY BROKE BARDS AGAIN, your choices were simply 'deal with it' or 'quit playing this type of game period because there is no competition' . EQ1 vets should've known bad things were in store for Vanguard the moment fans started touting 'The Vision' in unironic or non-mocking tones. These people seemed to have forgotten that was coined along with 'working as intended' as a sarcastic joke about the reason that was touted every time the Verant devs didn't want to change a stupid mechanic. It wasn't in 'The Vision'.

Sometimes I think SOE is still living in 1999, when theirs was the only fully 3D MMO on the market. They really haven't adapted very well to the idea that people can and will leave their games for greener pastures if they don't pony up.

[Brigh]

People seem to forget that EQ Live was NOT the only game around. When I first started trying to decide what to play, it came down to either Asheron's Call or EverQuest. The roll of the dice came up EQ..

[kartikeya]

Asheron's Call released in November 1999, Ruins of Kunark released in spring of 2000, original EQ was March 1999. EQ was in full swing by the time Asheron's Call rolled around, with their first expansion releasing not too terribly long after. I should amend my original statement to say there was no significant competition for quite some time.

It was the best game around for a while. That doesn't mean it wasn't very very flawed, it just means the would-be competition was even worse off. Don't get me wrong, I loved EQ1. Some of my fondest gaming memories will always be of that game (and some other fondest memories are from THIS game). But some folks have some severely rose tinted glasses on.

[Eugam]

kartikeya wrote:

Sometimes I think SOE is still living in 1999, when theirs was the only fully 3D MMO on the market. They really haven't adapted very well to the idea that people can and will leave their games for greener pastures if they don't pony up.

Funny, i thought its the opposite. I dont like EQ1 much, but Vanguard was different.

But this is EQ2 and it was stuff like Ghoulbane that made the game. I loved every bit of it, the heroic parts, the duo/trio parts and the epic parts. I never used the sword but the whole story, interwoven with other storyarcs made the game. Itemization was neccessary but happened on the way. Even camps havent been that worse back then. The whole game was a real adventure.

Nowadays EQ2 is about items for no purpose and raids without any purpose. I cant count how many instances i did since EoF, but one thing is sure. I achieved nothing. There is no purpose. So .. no, SOE isnt stuck in 2004 but gave up their core, the games soul for a cheap itemhevay gameplay without any purpose. There is no adventure left, all was streamlined to be one game among many others on the market.

If the old game would still exist, then fluctuation woulnd be a problem, because EQ2 would be unique among all other mmo. Just as Vanguard if it was complete and under permanent development.

[Wurm]

My first "real" 3D MMO was in 1997 M59 which I played for around a year and then in 2003 SWG.

I left SWG after Jump to Lightspeed (I had already decided I'd rather play EQ2 after playing both since EQ2 came out) so I thankfully missed the NGE.

So I had no idea of the time-sink idea that was inherited from EQ1 until I ran into it for the first time trying to get my first couple of HQ done.

I'm glad that part of EQ2 is gone, and personally think the people who want that type of content re-added should go try the new EQ1 progression server out, they might just find what they are looking for.

[Buffie]

Arduous@The Bazaar wrote:

Valentina@Butcherblock wrote:

Taemien@Lucan DLere wrote:

The interesting thing is despite not liking Velious, these complaining players will still buy/pre-order it.

I won't.  Please try not to speak for everyone.

Same here... I am not buying

No flying mounts for those under 86, planned to buy 3 expacs for that ability. They took the money out of their own pockets, Im not buying.

I suggest talking with your wallets people. Not happy with the new expac? Dont buy it. You friends bought it and you want to stay playing with them? After a month they will get bored of the content and possibly leave the game or play in places more enjoyable that wasnt in the expac.

So a month was wasted trying to keep up with the Joneses  and SOE has their money for a shoddy expac. Best thing is to let your friends play the content, they will come back around sooner than they think and you can still have made your point about the expac.

If we continue to let SOE disrepect the game and pay them for crap were only digging our holes faster and thsi game will go the way SWG went. They are making these huge sweeping changes to the game mechanics, creating more issues and bugs that they will try working on. I forsee this breaking the game like SWG broke. Classes will become unplayable, I hear some classes already pretty much are unplayable solo.

We can defend the game but still leave a clear message that we arent gonan take the abuse any longer, dont buy the expac if you hate the changes.

[Ciara52]

So am I reading correctly that you have to have Rime Factions at 50k?   If that's the case then I will probably go back on what I said about keeping my preorder.  I hated doing all that faction so I didn't ever finish it.

Can I do the quests in Velious for new armor without it?

[Eugam]

Ciara52 wrote:

So am I reading correctly that you have to have Rime Factions at 50k?   If that's the case then I will probably go back on what I said about keeping my preorder.  I hated doing all that faction so I didn't ever finish it.

Can I do the quests in Velious for new armor without it?

Yes, the first set comes from the otter race and the pirates. You ll have to kill a few Rime to do the pirate quests and to get the flying mount. But since i didnt copy to beta i cant tell if the faction from Kurnak even counts. Someone else may answer this. The factions are about their merchands and the adornments. There are Gnolls, otter and...

If Rime faction is good at Velious endgame is another question i cant answer. But you definetely will be able to do the questlines all the way up to goatmen village.

[Noob1974]

The order of rime faction is now longer under Unknown but onder Velious Factions.

As for factions you got that hammer in beta that gave you max faction but it didnt do anything for me.

I finished the complete quest for the Icemare and maxed 50k before.

[Silzin]

From what i could see there wasnt a Rime Faction vender to get anything from, just a hand hull of quests. Also you will need to kill the Rime for quests for a lot of other groups, since the Rime are at war with about everyone else.

[PlaneCrazy]

kartikeya wrote:

d1anaw wrote:

Andok wrote:

PlaneCrazy wrote:

Oh, and the beta general discussion forum was full of people who either quit the game or declared they were not going to buy the expansion.  More then just the usual run of the mill venters who threaten it.... most of the posters seemed sincere.

Every major change ever made in EQ2 (and EQ1 as far as I can remember) was accompanied with a throng of players that threatened to quit... and they are always "quitting for real" this time.  They'll even announce the final death of EQ.  The next major change you'll usually see that same group threaten to really really quit this time.  

Personally, I wish they would "really quit this time".  It will leave the game better for everyone else if not for any other reason than we won't have to put up with the constant whining and complaining. I dare any one of the never satisfieds to design, develop, fund and operate their own game. Let's see them put their self imposed superiority and their own money out there and let's see how it works out. Ready, set....go.

I really hope people quit! The game will be totes better with less money!

As for the Vanguard discussion, while, yes, SOE choosing not to keep it on more than life support ultimately killed it, let's all be honest. Vanguard was dead on arrival. Sigil was gone two months after release (was it even two months?) It was early beta release at best, and while it had loads of good ideas and fantastic art, its doom came from horrifically poor management and, well...let's just say the official unofficial forums were quite full of people saying preeetty much what the poster I just quoted said. Any time someone came out with a criticism of the game, they'd get swarmed by a small, very vocal group of fans that went 'you suck, I hope you quit and go back to WoW, n00b'. Hilariously, that's exactly what they did.

Did you even play the game past the first few months, when everything was rocky?

People jumped on other people in the forums for wanting to change the game from the "vision" is was built around.  It was designed to be the real true EQ2... not the watered down, WoW wannabee that EQ2 actual ended up being.  Don't get me wrong, I still enjoyed EQ2 from day one, but Vanguard had so much more promise then any game out there.  And when the dust settled after the drama of launch and BM's meltdown and all the mass lay-offs,  the reorganized dev team really did a remarkable job making the game stable and opening up new content.  Luckily, the original large dev team did manage to get some of those millions of dollars to use and they had most of the art done for several years of expansions.  Those people who couldn't run the game at high graphic settings refused to upgrade their systems.  Personally, I had no problems running the game and the only real lag I ever had was in raids when their was 2 or 3 other guilds doing the same APW shard.

What emerged after a few months was a smaller leaner Vanguard playerbase and they were, for the most part, mature helpful and skilled players.  It was truly the best MMO community I have ever seen to date.  At least since the first year or two of EQ.  And the game was truly innovative and immersive.  Flying mounts and a flying mount questline that took months to complete.... and that brought players together in large groups to work out strategies against some wickedly hard mobs.  Ships and Galleons that crafters had to work hard to discover and make.  Guild Halls that the whole guild had to participate in to complete and private houses and player cities that were real and not instanced.  It was very rewarding to be able to see your GH from a kilometer away while sailing on an ocean somewhere.  And Diplomacy as a whole new sphere of playing and all the nice rewards and buffs they provided to the guild.  And a gigantic raid zone that was amazing for all tiers of raiders. 

All of the above features worked great and the players were having a blast of fun.  But since SOE refused to allocate resources to make new content, eventually, the majority of the players in VG hit the end of what they could do and many of us were reduced to working on several hard core raid targets that had still not been taken down.  I was at that stage of the game and having tones of fun with Veracity when SOE decided to force feed us a 5 level increase and a poor "expansion", if you will... with all sorts of player changes and gear changes and mob changes.  That's when I decided to call it quits and came back here to see how EQ2 had evolved over the 2.5 years i was gone.

Sorry for the derail OP... but this veering off to Vanguard made me realize a lot of the parallels between how SOE acted with that game and how they are acting here.  Sit back and look at the overall picture and how the the devs have been moved around and you can see that SOE really doesn't give a rat's behind about the integrity of their product's core values or "vision"  They have truly become just a company that is trying to churn out graphical interfaces for online cash shop purchases.  And it's sad to see the Devs take some of the backlash here.  Even SJ doesn't deserve all the hate directed at him... he is after all, only doing what he was hired to do.  The person at the top is the one that drives the company's policy and that person is Smed.  Rest assured, it is him that has been the one constant on this team since day one and the reason many of the great designers have left for other companies or to start their own up.

As to the original question by the OP..... Something good about DoV?

Ya, the flying mounts are fun.

[PlaneCrazy]

Elhonas@Antonia Bayle wrote:

BetaTester wrote:

and if hard mode end game is what pays the bills , why did Vanguard flop ?

Vanguard flopped because when it released, it was horribly, fatally flawed and buggy.  During beta, we said repeatedly that the game wasn't ready for release.  In usual SOE fashion, the testers got ignored, and we all saw the results: Vanguard has been dying a miserable death since its release, and has become somewhat of a mockery among MMO players.  That's partially why it befuddles me that SOE would bring in one of Vanguard's devs to handle EQ2 itemization.  As bad as Vanguard was and is, why would you want anyone who worked on that steaming pile to work on another SOE game?

SOE wasn't involved at all in Vanguards release.  They released when they did because they ran out of money. SOE was one of the creditors with an interest in the game, that is all.  AFTER release and AFTER BM had his meltdown and Sigil folded, SOE acquired all rights to the game and they had to step in and pick up the broken pieces.  They did a pretty decent job of that actually. 

Get your facts straight before spouting commonly held misconceptions.

As for the devs,   most of the devs work on many projects at one time or another.  Many times they are moved around depending on priorities issued by the higher ups.  One of our biggest complaints with Vanguard was that we were very low priority for SOE and our devs were constantly being "loaned" out to other projects, while our bugs and content had to wait. Silius managed to inherit the in-enviable job of Lead Developer for Vanguard, but I willing to bet that he's a lot more happy being off that team.  No fun leading a team that has no resources to do what they need to do.... just ask Rothgar.

[Darkor]

Well i wont buy it for now. This is not even 25 % of the original velious, they shouldnt have named after it. Splitting up the expansionpack into two parts was allready a big mistake. This expansionpack is NOT worth the money and time in its current state. I'll maybe give it a try if Rift fails and SoE decided to add a few devs to the EQ2 team to actually make the game worth it again.

[Iskandar]

Darkor@Nagafen wrote:

This is not even 25 % of the original velious, they shouldnt have named after it.

People keep saying this. While it may not be the perfect expansion, I for one am GLAD that it's not a carbon copy of EQ1 Velious.

For starters, I've done EQ1 Velious -- if I'm gonna buy something new, it needs to be new, not "oh, that's exactly like it was ten years ago in EQ1." But mainly it's because EQ1 Velious is what drove me from EQ1 until Beasties and PoP eventually brought me back.

I played a Ranger back then -- a Wood Elf Ranger. And at the time of EQ1 Velious release, that meant I had a hybrid class experience penalty as well as a racial experience penalty -- part of which reportedly carried over to the group I was in (and whether that carryover was true or not, it still made getting groups a smidge difficult). It also meant that as a level 50 Ranger I had the fighting skills of a level 30ish Warrior wearing chainmail and the magic abilities of a level 30ish Druid who didn't study very well -- there were no unique Ranger-only abilities at that time beyond a higher bow skillcap, duel-wield, and some tracking perks. That was "The Vision."

Yay, I could bow-kite a single Ulthork for 30 minutes... while my Druid and Bard friends could quad-kite them to death in 10. Yay, I finally dinged 54... while my friends are already 60. One day, after spending half an hour kiting an Ulthork around, only to have it resist snare and come pound me to pulp in about six seconds, I just decided I'd had enough of Velious... so I logged out and cancelled. They eventually removed the exp penalties and revamped Rangers into a VERY nice, powerful, and well-rounded class... but at that time, they were one of the laughingstocks of EQ1.

Your experiences may have varied. But this being different than EQ1 Velious is a blessing to me personally.

[Darkor]

Iskandar wrote:

Darkor@Nagafen wrote:

This is not even 25 % of the original velious, they shouldnt have named after it.

People keep saying this. While it may not be the perfect expansion, I for one am GLAD that it's not a carbon copy of EQ1 Velious.

For starters, I've done EQ1 Velious -- if I'm gonna buy something new, it needs to be new, not "oh, that's exactly like it was ten years ago in EQ1." But mainly it's because EQ1 Velious is what drove me from EQ1 until Beasties and PoP eventually brought me back.

I played a Ranger back then -- a Wood Elf Ranger. And at the time of EQ1 Velious release, that meant I had a hybrid class experience penalty as well as a racial experience penalty -- part of which reportedly carried over to the group I was in (and whether that carryover was true or not, it still made getting groups a smidge difficult). It also meant that as a level 50 Ranger I had the fighting skills of a level 30ish Warrior wearing chainmail and the magic abilities of a level 30ish Druid who didn't study very well -- there were no unique Ranger-only abilities at that time beyond a higher bow skillcap, duel-wield, and some tracking perks. That was "The Vision."

Yay, I could bow-kite a single Ulthork for 30 minutes... while my Druid and Bard friends could quad-kite them to death in 10. Yay, I finally dinged 54... while my friends are already 60. One day, after spending half an hour kiting an Ulthork around, only to have it resist snare and come pound me to pulp in about six seconds, I just decided I'd had enough of Velious... so I logged out and cancelled. They eventually removed the exp penalties and revamped Rangers into a VERY nice, powerful, and well-rounded class... but at that time, they were one of the laughingstocks of EQ1.

Your experiences may have varied. But this being different than EQ1 Velious is a blessing to me personally.

I might have worded it poor. I didnt mean 25% of an exact copy of velious, i mean the expansion pack is not even 25 % of the velious expansion pack CONTENT WISE. The zones dont have to be any similar, it just has not enough content for an xpack. This is the pay off for SoE for utterly destroying the Dev team for Eq2. I truly believe the game isnt going anywhere. Less and less dev power for the actual game, more and more dev power for marketplace stuff. This wont have a good end, believe me.

[Barx]

The Rime faction in velious doesn't do much for you -- there's a few quests, but they're not major. They were added a kind of a bonus for folks that got their Rime faction up. I don't recall seeing anything beyond some solo quests in terms of helping the Rime -- nothing endgame or even high-end. The quests are there for some AA if you leveled your Rime faction, if not then no major loss.

[Coniaric]

No interest in buying this expansion in its current state as it is the first "half" of the whole. It's not all bad, but it's not quite mind-blowing either.

Crafting portion was rather decent, as usual. The lore was sketchy as far I could go, but the meaty part of the lore was usually tied up in the raiding and groups and I didn't do much of those. The quests seemed to be the standard fare. Also, like the pervious expansion, the factions were a bit of a grind in some places. The public quests was an interesting addition to the game content, though.

As for the zones, Kael Drakkal seemed to be other half of this expansion content - it was quite a big dungeon along with raid instances - probably on the par to the overland zones. Velketor's Labyrinth was basically a bunch of instances and the Wakening Lands was a pretty small region.

Still, I liked that moment when I turned a corner and found the old Druid port stop - the circular wall with the dragon statue on top - that was a nice memory from the old days.

As said, I will wait for the next expansion or updates that will complete this before I'll consider buying. As of now, it's unfinished.

[Iskandar]

Darkor@Nagafen wrote:

I might have worded it poor. I didnt mean 25% of an exact copy of velious, i mean the expansion pack is not even 25 % of the velious expansion pack CONTENT WISE. The zones dont have to be any similar, it just has not enough content for an xpack. This is the pay off for SoE for utterly destroying the Dev team for Eq2. I truly believe the game isnt going anywhere. Less and less dev power for the actual game, more and more dev power for marketplace stuff. This wont have a good end, believe me.

Sorry, I guess I just had to get an EQ1 rant out of my system -- not that I'm bitter.. much..  

But, in regard to content, it does have more than Sentinel's Fate did -- and it's certainly better done than TSO was imho. There's also plans for additional zones to be added throughout the year (six I think they said? or four? I forget exactly ). While Velious part 1 focuses on the giants and Coldain, Velious part 2 will probably focus exclusively on the dragons and Kerafyrm, with Ages End hanging over our head.

[ShinGoku]

Iskandar wrote:

Darkor@Nagafen wrote:

I might have worded it poor. I didnt mean 25% of an exact copy of velious, i mean the expansion pack is not even 25 % of the velious expansion pack CONTENT WISE. The zones dont have to be any similar, it just has not enough content for an xpack. This is the pay off for SoE for utterly destroying the Dev team for Eq2. I truly believe the game isnt going anywhere. Less and less dev power for the actual game, more and more dev power for marketplace stuff. This wont have a good end, believe me.

Sorry, I guess I just had to get an EQ1 rant out of my system -- not that I'm bitter.. much..  

But, in regard to content, it does have more than Sentinel's Fate did -- and it's certainly better done than TSO was imho. There's also plans for additional zones to be added throughout the year (six I think they said? or four? I forget exactly ). While Velious part 1 focuses on the giants and Coldain, Velious part 2 will probably focus exclusively on the dragons and Kerafyrm, with Ages End hanging over our head.

But!  In the dev chat video I think, they said they don't know if or when they will be doing part 2!

[Nazztee]

I, personally, think there was loads of nice things in this expansion.

Public quests were fun.  no kill stealing, simply helping others that were not grouped with you.

the first ever (iirc) tradeskill heritage quest!  can't wait for it to go live!

the guild hall tapestries were a long awaited addition!

did anyone mention the extention of the gathering obsession? (I didn't read all the pages due to the excessive complaining)

saw a question about collections.  Yes, there are collections.  some spawn around the public quests, there was a red collection in thurgadin too.  I completed a few of the new collections, very nice.

Flying mount quest was interestingly full of lore, saw pleanty of named mobs, saw reminders from EQ1, while experiencing all new landscapes.  No, it doesn't look like EQ1's Velious, but lore wise, the shattering should have prevented that don't you think?  I do not see the pieces of the moon missing velious because folks want the same content that the original offered.

I also thought that the changes to the pet classes seemed nice too, but that was mho.

I've pre-ordered Velious, and am glad I have done so.  Granted, it might have been nice to add some lower level content, but it just makes it that much more rewarding getting up to it.  Great job DEV's!! I really mean it

[SmokeJumper]

SgtPmpkn wrote:

The Lore bits were few and far between until late in the Beta when they added in the Deepwater Circle NPCs, which gave out quests which explained what happened to Velious and to solve some mysteries.  Assuming at this point the DC NPCs are agents of the Duality in Paineel.

Things we know or I've seen while questing:

1.  Othmir - they escaped Cobalt Scar before it was swallowed up by the sea, due to their visionary which you help, and then help his successor.  They are helping the Snowfang Gnolls fight off the agents of the Tower of Frozen Shadow from killing them off.  Also Tserrina, is trying to poison the Lodizal.

2.  Thurgadin - the land has been changed dramatically, cutting up EW from WW at the current time.  The Coldain are fighting with the Rime at the current time, and been sending out scouts to see what is happening to the Ry'Gorr Orcs and the Kromzek Giants from Kael.  The questlines needed some polishing towards the end of beta so didnt get to the of the lines here.

3. Ry'Gorr/Othmir/Geonids in EW:  All are trying to survive from the invasion of the Giants in EW.  The Giants from Kael are forming offensives and tearing down the forests and growth in EW for some reason. (might be explained more in Kael quests).  The Wakening Lands has been ravaged by the Giants and is without much help since Wuoshi took the Bloom of Growth to LFay in EoF.

4.  Kael Drakkel:  Home of the Kromzek Giants.  We know the the Giant King and the Statue of Rallos Zek are raid targets, but didnt have time to get quests done in Contested Kael.  For some reason they are forming an offensive to claim Velious for their own.

5.  Dragons:  Little is known as WW is cut off at the current time.  There is little lore in Thurgadin, as Yelinak is inside, talking about aligning with the Coldain to fight off a threat that the dragons cant do alone.  More to come I'm sure.

6.  Tserrina:  Gninja did alot with the ToFS zones to explain lore, and going through the zones we will know what has happened to her since her imprisonment.

7.  Mayong/Firiona:  Both not mentioned in any quest/lore yet or their involvement in Velious.

There is an overarching Signature Questline, that was mentioned by the Devs in the Beta Forums that is complete but wasnt released due to wanting it to go Live so no one gets a sneak peak.  This hopefully, will tie up loose ends and lead us forward.  But overall that is what I got above from the questlines in beta.

Much of this gets explained in the signature quest line. As usual, the sig line was not included in the beta test so that it would be new to everyone at launch. This is slightly risky from a QA perspective, but is traditional with EQII releases, so we did it that way again here.

But that might be why you didn't get the lore explanations you wanted. (Although I don't think we touch on #7 much at all in DoV. Maybe a teensy bit in the Tserrina stuff.)