November 8th. EQ2 ships!

[Dis]

Originally posted by Sir Ralph
More review stuff.

- You aren't a homeless beggar like in EQ1. You actually do have a home. Mine is a room in an inn at this time, which came for free and costs 5 silver per real time week. Later I can buy an apartment, a whole house or even a mansion. There's a thing called "status" in the game, and the better your living place is, the higher your status gets. You can buy furniture and other stuff for your apartment, and you can invite other people into it. Seen in other MMORPGs, but I missed it a bit in EQ1.
- Money isn't worthless trash anymore. The platinum inflation from EQ1, where the good weapons and armor cost tens or hundred thousands platinum does not longer exist. Now the multiplicator between the coins is not 10 but 100. In EQ1 one gold could barely feed me one real time day. In EQ2, all I earned in 5 days sums up to about 1 gold, and I succeeded to equip myself with the finest equipment available for my level for it (and eat, of course ). I like this very much. It disgusted me in EQ1, that I went three steps out of Kaladim as level 3 grunt, luckily hit a skunk and violà, had my first platinum earned.
- Some zones are huge and it's easy to get lost and be killed by a roamer. Better stay on the roads if you're solo
- Mobs don't hunt you down to the bitter end anymore, so you haven't run for the zone if you can't best them. They have some kind of home area, and when you leave it, they stop running after you and you're safe. No more "TRAIN TO ZONE!!!" shouts.

what do you mean money was worthless?

Are you saying it was too easy to come by?

I find money hard to come by in EQ2 (never played EQ1).

I wonder what happens if I don't have the 5 silver to pay my room rent. I probably will lose my room .

I wonder if I have to have that on my person or in the bank (or a combination of)

It seems like when I go to a merchant, I can't buy an item from them with money I have in the bank. What's the deal with the money in the bank?

[Harovan]

Originally posted by Dissident
what do you mean money was worthless?

I meant that the buying power of the coins was not well thought in EQ1. Gold, silver and copper was practically worthless, a decent level 20 equipment cost at least 1000 platinum and items for later levels cost tens or even hundred thousands platinum.

Are you saying it was too easy to come by?

Definitely. When I was new to EQ1 (I was a late comer and started with zero), I had over 60 platinum to buy equipment when I hit level 10, but I still was wearing mostly leather or even cloth, because the good equipment simply cost too much in the stores. In EQ2 I had earned at most a total of 50 silver by this point, and had a comparatively good equipment. This shows, that along with the currency reform the price system has been overhauled nicely.

EQ1 had too many opportunities to make a quick buck early, like skunks and goblins in Butcherblock. You felt filthy rich (owning some nice plat) and still could buy nothing. Now I feel rich with 20 silver in my pocket and I actually can buy something decent for it.

I find money hard to come by in EQ2 (never played EQ1).

Yes it is, and that is a blessing. Nothing is worse than worthless money.

I wonder what happens if I don't have the 5 silver to pay my room rent. I probably will lose my room .

You won't lose it, just be unable to enter until you pay. And you have a whole real time week time to earn it. I'm level 14 now and easily earn about 10 silver per hour, and I don't have even paid my first rate yet (due on Friday ).

I wonder if I have to have that on my person or in the bank (or a combination of)

I don't know exactly, but I suppose you have to carry it on your person.

It seems like when I go to a merchant, I can't buy an item from them with money I have in the bank. What's the deal with the money in the bank?

Money has a weight and if you carry to much coin it can bog you down. This was especially evident in EQ1. I had a mage with only 55 strength, and as I let her carry the 325 platinum to do the Journeyman Boots quest, she already was overburdened. Now imagine she has to carry the ~10000 platinum to buy the cheapest horse. (thankfully, in the bazaar where horses were sold, weight was dysfunctioned)

But the weight/strength system has been rebalanced too. In EQ1 one strength point let you carry 1 pound, and you started with an average of 80 strength. In EQ2, one strength point lets you carry 5 pounds, but you start with merely 15 or 20.

[Jon Miller]

I just reached level 10 last night

and I am poor too

JM

[Harovan]

I gained only half a level last night, and spent about 2 hours figuring how the heck the new tradeskill system works. I couldn't find a ****ing forge, brew barrel or stove in the whole Qeynos, even though my manual states, that they can be found "everywhere in the world". It took quite a while to realize, that it takes to join some freemason-like society to be allowed to enter an obscure cellar, where plenty of production places are located.

It's interesting, but confusing. Tradeskilling is similar to combat now, just that your influence is limited. But you can be hurt during it. I even died once, trying to craft a simple tin edge. Go figure.

[Harovan]

What's also interesting about tradeskills, is that the 2-way outcome from EQ1 (succeed or failed) has been widened. There are 4 separate product quality classes you can achieve, from crude to pristine. So along with complete failure, a production cycle can have 5 possible outcomes. If I consider, that complicated products will have to go through several cycles from raw material through intermediate goods to the ready product, and that only pristine ingredients are able to give you a pristine result, it makes me believe, that top tradeskilled equipment will be very rare and you'll be able to make quite a buck if you can master it.

[Jon Miller]

I have only been hurt once, there are skills you can use to make sure you come out ok

Jon Miller

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by Sir Ralph
It's interesting, but confusing. Tradeskilling is similar to combat now, just that your influence is limited. But you can be hurt during it. I even died once, trying to craft a simple tin edge. Go figure.

So you are so unskilled you smacked yourself in the head with a hammer whilst trying to hit metal?

[Harovan]

Seems so. But JM's advice was gold, I hadn't noticed these skills yet. Now crafting is yet more similar to combat. I tradeskilled some more today, getting me to level 7 artisan, made mostly pristine stuff using the skills and didn't get hurt even once.

[Dis]

*sigh*

It seems like my computer just can't handle this game.

Funny though. I have no problem running games like Doom3, but I can't run this game.

I got my guy up to level 9. but I'm becoming frustrated. It's especially bad in the large areas like south Qeynos. The newbey areas such as graystone yard wasn't bad. And the Newbie island ran great.

I lowered every single graphical option to the minimum, and I even turned off zone alarm (and of course all my other programs), but this game will not run.

I exceed all the recommended requirements except one. RAM. This game is a RAM hog. I may decide to put it down for a while until I get more RAM. But it's funny when I start up the game it runs decent, but after playing a while, it gets worse and worse. And yes I have updated my video drivers and all that.

[Harovan]

A quick harddisk would also do wonder. I noticed, lots of trouble is caused by the disk not keeping up loading stuff.

By the way, oh joy, I found the fix for my problem (not being able to connect to US servers) in the forums, and created a character on Lucan D`Lere too.

[DrSpike]

Why would you want to play with Americans?

[Harovan]

I played with them EQ1 for quite a while and they never even suspected who I am, especially since I succeeded to dodge artfully the question why I am always logging off when the evening fun is just beginning. It was quite a shock for them, when I outed myself not only as European, but even as filthy Kraut.

I don't like localized games for several reasons. First and foremost it is the ability to post in international forums and call things by their original name, and not translate a translation back, which is wrong in most cases. Second, but not less important, the quality of the localization of EQ2 is godawful and even worse than the localization of Civ II, which means a lot. You can not imagine the frustration, if you are told to kill a certain mob in a quest, but this mob can nowhere be found, because the name in the quest was translated, but the name of the real monster was not. Same with ingredients of tradeskill recipes. As it stands, the localization of EQ2 is at most at 30 or 40% at the moment, the rest is still in English. And third, people tend to shout stupid things out of character and it is better to read this idiocy in a foreign language than in your own. And fourth, you have the freedom to choose a time of less server load. When I am logging on on a Sunday morning at 10 o'clock, I have a heavenly empty server to do quests undisturbed.

[Jon Miller]

Originally posted by Dissident
*sigh*

It seems like my computer just can't handle this game.

Funny though. I have no problem running games like Doom3, but I can't run this game.

I got my guy up to level 9. but I'm becoming frustrated. It's especially bad in the large areas like south Qeynos. The newbey areas such as graystone yard wasn't bad. And the Newbie island ran great.

I lowered every single graphical option to the minimum, and I even turned off zone alarm (and of course all my other programs), but this game will not run.

I exceed all the recommended requirements except one. RAM. This game is a RAM hog. I may decide to put it down for a while until I get more RAM. But it's funny when I start up the game it runs decent, but after playing a while, it gets worse and worse. And yes I have updated my video drivers and all that.

Sounds like you have a memory leak. The easiest way to solve this is to format your harddrive and install everything anew. Another way to fix this is to study up on all programs you have running and try to find the memory leak that way.

Jon Miller

[Jon Miller]

By the way, if you can turn something off to fix your memory leak, it woudl be found in processes, not programs.

Jon Miller

[Harovan]

According to the forums there's a bug in the game too, which under certain circumstances makes the game the slower, the more you change your zone. Must be a memory leak too, and since it isn't happening always, but only sometimes, it is hard for the developers to find.