So I ran into a player the other day who was asking what to do in the mid-80's and I suggested to work on their Epic. Well anyone who has been around a while knows what that is.. You do the epic just so you can do the enervated just so you can get your special spell. Well this person is on their first character and had no idea what I was talking about, maybe they didn't read forums or scour the Wiki. But I don't feel that should be necessary. For something as important as the end-reward as those class specific spells there should be an in-game *something* to guide them there at the appropriate levels. Maybe an Email like we get from Qho or the world events. Or an automatic quest pop-up. After I had explained the epic quest and told them where to look they were floored because they had no clue and had I not said anything who knows when they would have found out all the back tracking they needed to do after they reached 95 and found out they were missing a key spell. All of the pre-requisites and such. They also asked me about the weapons they got, and I said well you don't do it for the weapon... no one uses those anymore. They look kinda cool though! Well after I said all this I realized it kind of sounds ridiculous, calling something an epic but saying its not worth using and you only do all of it for the spell. These weapons really need to be updated into something usable for the level of quest and even several levels afterwards, AND have something to guide the players to get them so they know they even exist..
Many, myself included have discussed before about the idea of making a new Epic quest much like the lore-intensive one of RoK. I would suggest maybe a player "hears the whispers of an ancient power" as the hint about the Epic. Then the initial Quest Starter in Teneberous Tangle would send them a message asking if they new anything about this strange power he has been hearing whispers of, thus the player AND the NPC are now involved in getting the Epic. I happen to have greatly enjoyed my Mythical Quest and think that such long and rewarding quests are an integral part of the game, Quests is something CoE sorely lacks outside of it's Solo/Duo-Signature Line.
They could always read the quest text and lean of the LORE, becasue it's all written there. My guess is that there is a LOT in the game they might be missing out on starting if they don't take the time to learn about what is freely available.
Which quest Koleg? If you wouldn't happen to be in darklight woods by neriak as a fury at lvl 80 you wouldn't be able to pick up a starter quest from a dead body of a deer... so no epic weapon and no ER later... folks who old to a game knows well that if you want to raid you have to get ER done for effects... newbies don't until somebody like OP tells them about it... What you said you didn't think through at all. And if you referred to eq2 wiki or zam somebody had to start writing guidelines there at the very beginning of times.
I must be an old timer then as I always research my class on forums and guides , etc so never had a problem missing things I needed to do. The kids today need prompts for everything!
Somebody first has to write guides, Regolas. Have you ever written one? It means somebody has to be the first to find a quest and do it. Plus on forums nobody writes spoilers ...
Well the Orignal Epic at release had to be discovered by players, to then write guides. I found about my starter from another player. Perhaps this case someone decided to ask; why? There is nothing wrong with getting help from players. For my previous suggestion would be a "non-player" interaction whereas player interactions imo are more fun.
Still, when the quests originally came out it was known they were being added, so players at least knew they had to be on the look out for something. I don't think having an automatic quest popup is the way to go, but dropping a hint that makes sense from a lore perspective would be neat.
That's what i was saying. I don't need you to tell me my words back to me. I was replying to Koleg who apparenly tried to be smart refering people to guides and websites. Geez!
exactly because everyone at the time knew they existed and what to look out for, how many people even go to kunark now besides maybe to grind some XP out. It's a quest from several expansions ago and not the latest thing that everyones talking about. So if you're new someone either has to tell you or you find out the hard way
I think you have a very valid point and it touches on a sore point I have with the way EQ2 does a lot of it's quests. You can't expect someone to do the quest from the information given in-game. 'Spoiler' sites are an integral part of the game and absolutely essential for accomplishing anything. Even some of the responses mentioned this. The problem is there is no reference in-game to those critical spoiler sites. You dependent on the grapevine to actually learn you need to go to such sites and what those sites are. I THINK they're gradually getting away from that but many many quests still are pretty much undoable from the information in-game. Yes I know someone first had to figure out the information from in-game, but that would have often taken a LOT of work and a WHOLE lot of trial and error. Like combing multiple zones from some oddball clicky they had to get. To expect people to do that would be VERY frusttrating to the average new gamer and a good way to drive newcomers away -- and in any event I doubt very much that anyone responding on this thread has done that. For the guides all it took was one person on any of the servers who found out and was willing to write it up. It's not reasonable to expect every newcomer who isn't well connected to do the same. SoE should do one of two things: 1. Provide ALL the information necessary to do EVERY quest in-game including getting the quest in the first place. This is by far to be preferred but would take a lot of work. 2. Provide prominant links IN-GAME (not in this message board, not in that other board, not buried on their corporate website someplace nobody will ever see) to ZAM and EQ2i which nobody can miss telling people UP FRONT that those sites have information which is absolutely essential for completing many quests.
Yes I have. I wrote the basics of the Withered Lands timeline on eq2 wikia when skyshrine was released. It's hard work I admit. But this isn't a new quest, it's years old. It's not hard to find a guide. If we were talking about a new questline that some people were unsure about then fine, but the epic quests are well documented.
They may be well documented and have guides explaining every step - but how would a person even know to look there if they didn't know the quest even existed in the first place? What I was asking for in my original post was not a step by step hand holding of the quest, but something in the game to let people know that Hey you're able to start this quest now! .. I don't have problems with looking up guides when I get stuck on a quest and I appreciate that people have taken the time to write them. edit: just want to add you can sneeze and get level 80 now, its not even like in eq1 where you spent months for the average person leveling and couldn't avoid learning new things because of the sheer amount of time spent dealing with the community. it would take longer to read the eq2 wiki then to level to the point where you can start an epic. Most people want to get into a new game and just play right away. The wiki stuff comes later, but its so quick to level now that there really has to be some way of knowing the important things you need to do when they come up.
Thar That's what OP and Gilasil tries to say. Geez! The epic quests are not obvious in a game. They need stronger, more reliable reference to pick them up in a game. Plus constant revamps and some references in guides on a websites are outdated. And you know what... we are too dependant on third parties crap that we cannot play a game properly anymore relying on ourselves! That is a problem with some quest starters. The one would never quess where to look without old players or reading guids. Being a newbie how am i even suppose to know that there might be an epic weapon quest in a game? What i like about this game that when you first create a char little question marks pop up with hints and information what is going on. Why not have something like this hinting at epic quests at appropriate level...
Well, firstly, it's not a requirement to do these. Yes, you get a class defining reward from it (for most classes) but it's not going to prevent you from playing. Secondly, almost any class specific guide that you google will reference the epic. For example: Google "eq2 ranger guide" and you can find on the first page www.eq2.zam.com/wiki/Ranger_(EQ2_Subclass) which has links to class specific armor and the epic quests. Changing the class name and you get different ones. Zam is actually very good for that. EQ2 wikia also has the links from the basic class description page. I just checked. So all you have to do is google " eq2 <my class> guide" and spend a few minutes looking at a few sites and you'll find the epic quest info.
How is that a problem? Not everything needs to be handed to us - talk to other players or go searching for things. Explore the game world. We don't need a big glowing path leading us from one quest to the next where all you have to do is follow it and you'll get everything. But people don't want to figure things out anymore.
You seem very angry for some reason. Why do you have to do it before making a char? You can't start it until 80. Like I said in my original post. I must be old school. Growing up (well, I was technicaly an adult) when eq1 came out, people researched their classes to get hints, tips and equipment upgrade info off the web. I still do this, and now there's a much bigger web "pool" to search in. If you care about your class at all, you should be curious about it and want to research it and find tips and tricks. So you google your class and read up, and lo and behold, there's links to your epic quest on almost every basic class description page.
I refered people to read (in-game) quest text and learn the (in-game) LORE. Everything you need in already in the game. Every Epic was at one point unknown and people learned how to get the quest starter and items from in-game functions. This is like saying someone needs an instruction manual to know which end of the pointy stick to poke at monsters. Not only are these types of items commonplace in every MMO ever designed, but once someone had more than a 5 minute conversation with other MMO players undoubtedly there would be an "Epic" reference. Do people need to be told to were armor, upgrade spells, select a Diety, use Stat food, use potions, Adorn gear, get Tinkered devices before they can join a raid? No, of course not. Should people always be looking for a way to improve themselves, of course they should. The ONLY legitimate gap would be that not many people use Epics as a source of damage, but there are still many people that use them as appearance or place them in their guild hall. The information is more than made available.
Erm, no, you don't. The game's quite good - and the newbie areas, especially - at leading you from one quest hub to the next. If you don't want to do quests, and just want to kill stuff, then it's not that hard to figure out what level mobs are in a zone just by looking at them. No guides required.
I find it so odd that asking for a simple in game lore-related mail informing new players that there is an epic available to start at level 80 that they might not otherwise know about until they are max level and find out they need the spell to raid - causes so much anger in this thread. This game already has several other ways of notifying people of important things. It's not like I am asking a step by step guide NPC walking you around to the steps one by one wearing a cheer leaders outfit and pom poms..
