dude the game really is worth coming back too it surprised me. I been playing some really modern MMOs and i logged in EQ once or twice in the past 4 years and every time i did i was like ' I'll never be able to play again it's just too .' but i logged and just started trying to figure out what i had and what was going on. fixing all my keybinds and my UI. i got it damn near as functional as any of the other MMOs. (my UI is a work of art) what gets ya is the whole bazaar mechanic of the game. offline traders is way better don't get me wrong. The char/environment graphics are of course a little worse but you get used to it that's really no big deal at all. the combat and jump animations are as simple as you can get....that's kinda lame. (it's not just the animation i think it's part of the games collision engine). Also pathing bugs like no other game, even when they try their best, pathing seems to be a nightmare for the devs to deal with. I wounder what opinions would be to a revamp of the bazaar to an AH and figure out a way to get the jump animations...better... lol You know, i don't think those kinda of updates would ruin the integrity of the game. I'm sure the issue comes down to the barriers in executing some of those updates and the funding (aka motivation) to do it. But, would some of you older players get all pissed if they came in and switched the bazaar to a AH, or updated some of the physics engines?
I definitely agree about AH and not needing another acct to sell or having to sell when you're not playing which is usually when no one else is around to buy.
For anyone wondering, AH = Auction House. It's the type of system that WoW and most other MMOs use for selling items to players nowadays. Typically the system lets you go to an "auction house" NPC in any major city in the world to post items for sale, search the listings for items being sold by other playres, and buy those items if you desire. Items can be posted either for "Bidding" (truly auction-style selling where the item goes to the highest bidder) or for "Buyout" (you name a price and people have to pay exactly that price in order to get the item), or for some combination of both (a 48-hour auction with a minimum bid of 1000 currency and a buyout price of 5000 currency). When you buy an item from the Auction House, it's typically mailed to your character, and you run over to the mailbox/postal courier/whatever to pick it up. Basically, it's in-universe eBay.
Vanguard has a system like that and it is very nice. You go to a NPC in most major cities and list your items to sell. It works offline because your items are held in abeyance . If they don't sell in a certain amount of time and you don't reclaim them, they poof, if they do sell they are sent to a mailbox close to the market NPC, this will vanish too if you don't pick them up in a certain amount of time. So you can list items with your character and keep on playing. No need to stand on a box or whatever. EQ could implement a couple things from VG, this and Housing are two.
EQ already does have housing, though I agree that some aspects of how Vanguard does it are more immersive (housing neighborhoods in the actual game world rather than in instanced villages for instance - though I also realize VG was designed from the beginning with this in mind, whereas EQ would have quite a few hurdles to overcome to back-implement something like this). Though I would definitely like to see more variety in the housing neighborhoods. Something with a delightful Kelethin/GFay-ish theme would suit me well I think. :3 Also, as far as EQ/Vanguard housing comparisons go, I should add that I like the higher level of interactivity that I find in EQ's housing items. (For instance, housepets that can be right clicked and told to roam, play dead, etc.)
i HATE auciton houses for various reasons. people already complain in EQ that we're limited to 100 items due to only having 10 bags with 10slots each...AH systems have far far lower limits to how many items they can hold per person, plus unlesst theres a major server merge and you're offline for 6 months or more prior, you wont ever lose your stuff if you forget to pick it up before going on vacation etc etc. the only items in eq that ever disappear if you wait to long toget back to them are labelled temporary, you want everything in teh AH to become temporary? iew. the item limit thing is also iew especially the way stacks are limited rather than unlimited. also being able to name your trader and choose a race choose its gear dye its armor not only allows for some sort of advertising and gimmicking which is fun to some people, but it adds to the immersion of the game itself. i see absolutely nothingwrong with our bazaar system except that you cant have offline trader and play same acct (but i understand why, subscriptions) and you cant set up some kind of welcome message like if you want a set of these or a different race cultural send me message, or will give bulk discount etc... i think you can in buyer mode but not in trader mode which kinda sucks. every other mmo or non-mm rpg ive played has had these horrible auction houses and i absolutely despised them. many oldschool eq players dont even like our bazaar and would rather go back to teh EC tunnels or whatever and sit there shouting out waht htey have and heckling with customers etc /shrug. except for the few that left and came back and thevery new that came from those AH places, the people of eq dont want AH style trading bc its too impersonal and too limited due to the server or wahtever having to keep stock of items and thus both delete after a period of time and limit number of active transactions available etc. an AH would be a downgrade for EQ
