Everquest 2 - worth starting?
- Thread starter Phoen1x
- Start date
It is annoying.
I think that the loading screens are necessary to enable the level of graphical detail, i'm not a coder but I imagine that it is easier on resources to have the areas split up, and as EQ2 is about a billion times more resource hungry than WoW it probably makes a difference.
I dont really mind that much, its only a few seconds.
I dont really mind that much, its only a few seconds.
No idea how much truth there is in it, but I once read a long time ago that one reason for zoning in MMOs was so that if there was a problem with something they could effectively "take down" just that particular zone while it was resolved, rather than having to take down an entire game/continent.
Still play my 80 guardian on Runnyeye server.
I still hold firm on the fact that the game engine was designed poorly. I know, that its an mmo and it needs to improve over time to sustain interest. But, engine struggles with a lot of new things.
They have added multicore support which i think is far from being used properly. The up coming S.M. 3.0 support seems like an increase in light intensity to me.
The new shadow system takes load off of the cpu and puts it on to the gpu (you gain a few fps) but conjurs up scruffy looking soft shadows and puts tremendous strain on the gpu (My temps skyrocket after 5 minutes of them being on).
That said, the game has truly improved from its early days when it should have been called bugquest 2.
I still play because of the friends i have made and the fact i simply walk away from the game after a few months play and then come back later and enjoy it a little.
I still hold firm on the fact that the game engine was designed poorly. I know, that its an mmo and it needs to improve over time to sustain interest. But, engine struggles with a lot of new things.
They have added multicore support which i think is far from being used properly. The up coming S.M. 3.0 support seems like an increase in light intensity to me.
The new shadow system takes load off of the cpu and puts it on to the gpu (you gain a few fps) but conjurs up scruffy looking soft shadows and puts tremendous strain on the gpu (My temps skyrocket after 5 minutes of them being on).
That said, the game has truly improved from its early days when it should have been called bugquest 2.
I still play because of the friends i have made and the fact i simply walk away from the game after a few months play and then come back later and enjoy it a little.
It wasn't anything of the kind, they just misread where computers were going to go in regards to power and bet on CPU's getting faster and faster as intel said they would. It didn't happen and alas they were left with an engine that was utterly ill-suited to the advances in GPU and mutli-core processing.
Yeah, with a zoned world it gives developers a lot more room to create zone-specific art assets, weather, character models, audio etc. Loading and unloading as a player moves around means the designer can afford to be a bit more ambitious.
It's a preference thing, but for me personally, I've never been troubled by losing 5 seconds every so often, especially when the gain is worth it.
Just started to notice it in the mid 20's so probably quite bad in the 50's plus
Yup, and Darklight Woods if you are Neriak
Yes, although there is now Neriak and Kelethin, and the Sarnak staring city as a neutral town, name escapes me though.
Bah
The XP debt was a bit of a game breaker for me, really didn't like it at all.
I like it, it makes dying *mean* something, so you try and avoid it more. Having a death penalty makes for more skilled players imo.
Yeah, it was in a few MMO's when I first started playing, but with seems to have left out of a lot of the newer ones. I get why they do it, but I'm guilty of trying to take on just a little bit too much sometimes, and if I die then fair enough, but I'd rather not have my derring do penalised
Thats good to hear
It's also only personal debt, not like when you used to gain it from other group members dying.
Shortly after release, I got invited into a group in Antonica. I was all the way over at one end of the zone and the group was all the way over at the other end. During the time it took me to get to them, there'd been around 4 or 5 deaths. When I finally arrived, the group broke up and I was left with a stack of shared xp death, none of it my fault.
A stupid, stupid mechanic that thankfully has gone the way of the dodo. I dont mind xp debt (in fact, I'm a staunch supporter of xp loss AND lvl loss, which would probably have some of you thinking I'm a freak), but shared xp debt was dumb. Punish the individual for playing poorly, sure, but not the group.
