Long Hiatus

Discussion in 'General Gameplay Discussion' started by dngrmse, Mar 25, 2018.

  1. dngrmse Active Member

    Hi everyone!

    I've been away for a while now, and wanted to check on the general state of things with EQII. First up, I noticed the NVIDIA splash screen...

    Does this mean that there is actual hardware acceleration happening?

    There doesn't seem to be a way to ask questions in general chat. Is general chat a premium feature I have to pay for?

    How are server populations? Is the game attracting many new players?

    How playable is this game at higher levels? Solo/Group/Raid?

    Is it worth spending some real money on?
    Soara likes this.
  2. Dude Well-Known Member

    Talking in general chat is a premium feature.
    The servers have a range of populations. Of the servers available to F2P, I think MajDul and HoF have the most and Antonia Bayle has the least.
    New players aren't really a thing.
    The game playability really depends on what you want out of the game. Wander around and enjoy remembering old times? Totally playable. Want to raid after being gone? It's going to take a lot of time, effort, and cash.
  3. Dude Well-Known Member

  4. Merriel Well-Known Member

    Actually, IoR has the least F2P as it is a Member-only server which means to play there you HAVE to retain membership status, so there are NO F2P players on that server.

    I do not play on that server, by choice, not because of membership status as I have been a member since that server was established, with a lapse of membership over a one or two month period before re-establishing membership to 'speak' my piece about how unhappy I was about the direction the game had started taking before they made more changes to my liking. As a matter of principle, I will not create a character on that server, but that is my own personal take on it and not necessarily how others perceive it. To each their own.
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  5. Fyreflyte Well-Known Member

    Soloing and grouping are relatively easy to jump into, even at the highest level. We worked really hard this expansion to ensure that there weren't any gear or ability barriers that would prevent new players (or alts) from being able to participate in the solo content right away. Once you get to level 100, there is a full set of starter gear available for free in the Plane of Magic from Tishan's Lockbox. This gear provides all the stats you'll need to begin questing and leveling up in the most recent expansion. Of course the group content does take a bit of gearing up, mainly by acquiring enough mid-level pieces to fulfill the Resolve requirements of the heroic zones; you can ask around to find out what those specific values are.
    Raiding, as mentioned above, has a bit higher barrier, since you'll need to gear up in several ways to get ready for it. Finding a guild that is grouping and working to gear up members would be fairly crucial at this point in the expansion, if that is your goal.

    As far as spending money goes, that is highly up to your preferred playstyle. Monthly membership will greatly ease leveling, as it will double your experience gain once your AAs are maxed out, as well as awarding double amounts of expansion currency for completing daily and weekly missions (the currency is used to purchase all manner of gear upgrades). Beyond that, there are a number of popular convenience purchases, though many people play happily without them. This might be another area to just ask around and get opinions on what people consider to be of greatest value to them.

    Welcome back, and good luck!
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  6. Finora Well-Known Member

    I read Dude's post as meaning servers that are available to someone who is F2P.

    :p And if you want to be completely precise, Stormhold has the least population over all. Last time I was on there (and it was during Frostfell) there were 3 people including myself online, which is less than Test server during non-big test time.

    For the OP, Halls of Fate and MajDul certainly have a decent population. I don't know about Skyfire, but it usually seems to sit in the medium range on the server status.

    I personally find the game worth paying for, though I'm not particularly happy with the current expansion. I'm still enjoying myself well enough.

    I've seen one or two new folks and a fair number of returning folks. It's an elderly game though and not well known, so it doesn't get a lot of new blood.

    Welcome back!
  7. Dude Well-Known Member

    Yep, that's what I meant. Sorry if it wasn't clear. :oops:
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  8. Lateana Older than Dirt, Playing EQII since 2004

    Thank you Fyreflyte for taking the time to post here. I think y'all did a very good job of making it easier for new folks and alts to jump into the new expansion, but there are still a few significant issues remaining for new folks and alts to move into Heroic and Raid content. Firstly, the spells you get from doing the Epic 2.0 series is perceived as necessary by the player base. It is a very real barrier that appears nearly insurmountable to new players and anyone who wants a viable alt. Secondly, the account wide flags for Raid content aren't really useful when you still have to do all the older content to make an alt desirable in Raids. Many raid guilds do not want to go back and redo all the older content, in order no less, for one or two new players or alts who are supposedly 'flagged' on their account.
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  9. Merriel Well-Known Member

    Fyreflyte, I have to agree, you all did a fantastic job of preventing barriers with gear and such for alts this expansion. Although you all were a bit late releasing the tradeskill sig line and despite some of the annoyances I experienced the first time through it, I must admit I actually did and do enjoy the questline. I've done it on three of my tradeskiller's thus far and have plans to continue it with my others as well. I am very grateful that you all changed the rewards we receive from the tradeskill dailies.

    Despite the fact that I do actually enjoy the tradeskill sig line, I can still see why some tradeskillers chagrin even doing it the first time around, however, because not everyone enjoys adventuring like I do and it is the 'adventuring' aspect of the timeline that makes the timeline so appealing to me, though I still grit my teeth every time I think about how I spent all that time leveling adventuring/ascension skills, yet suddenly my characters find themselves unable to defend themselves, as if they have completely unlearned their combat skills simply because they entered a tradeskill instance. That's akin to me being a licensed surgeon but because I decided to learn how to cross stitch pillow cases, suddenly I've unlearned all my surgical skills. :D

    Sorry Finora and Dude, I guess the intent of the post kind of flew right past me in a blur, hehe. And yes, I do find the game worth paying for, but at times when it starts to turn in a direction I don't like, I do stop paying as one of the ways for me to let the devs know I'm not happy with the direction things are going in, hence the lapse for a month or so a while back. Our pocketbooks speak louder than anything we say in these forums, so I make sure I'm heard loud and clear, though I tend to keep paying a bit longer than I really should, in hopes I am mistaken and that the disliked changes are only temporary.

    I am not happy about all the changes that have occurred, but I know it's not just about me, and that my opinions may differ from others, so if only some of those changes are changes I like, I am willing to compromise and accept the changes I don't like. Such as, you cannot call mercs out in the raid zones for the current expansion. This kind of makes it hard for casual raiders or smaller guilds to be able to successfully run these raid zones, even if only to kill the yard trash. I'm a professed non-raider, so this really doesn't affect me a whole lot, but it would be nice to be able to go in and at least deal with the yard trash every now and then with my friends, when we are feeling up to the challenge.

    I have to agree with Lateana about the long grind for alts being not so much fun. It's one thing to go through the entire process the first time through, and something entirely different to go through it again once you've done it the first time. Yes it is a time sink, which is why they try to 'get us to do it all over again' but I think, for the most part, people would rather just stop playing than to go through the entire process over and over again. Keep the fun parts in, but take out the boring parts (long repetitive faction grinds), and people might be more inclined to do it...and get rid of any delay timers that would make them have to halt for a day or a week or so, else they may never get back to finishing it off (Kerra/Hua Mein faction grinds, waiting for a broken relic to come in the mail a week or so later). Better to keep them playing than have them quit entirely because they don't want to go through the long grind on these alts.
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  10. Fyreflyte Well-Known Member

    Way to hijack this poor guy's thread!
    If you want to write novels, you can always start a thread of your own; I'll still read it ;)
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  11. Cheallaigh Well-Known Member

    lies...

    honestly? it's up to you, you can play free 2 play within the limitations, but if you want to be less overwhelmed and pay for a sub anyhow... make a toon on falen gate and at the least it has less expacs open to make it a little easier.
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  12. Mathafern Well-Known Member

    Responding to the OP:
    The game is old enough performance really isn't an issue.

    If you want to ask questions I'd suggest hooking into the EQ2 channel on discord.

    My personal theory on server pop from highest to lowest: Halls, Majdul, Skyfire, AB. I'm on Skyfire, pop IMO lower than usual but certainly not as bad as AB. I have alts on every server though and Halls seems, IMO, to be the most populous. I have no clue about Thurgadin. I don't see as many new players as I'd like, but there is a steady pulse of returnees.

    The game is very playable at higher levels. This is a good expansion to come back to. Last expansion not so much- and you will need to grind through some of that for your epic 2.0.

    I think it is absolutely worth a subscription.
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  13. Lateana Older than Dirt, Playing EQII since 2004

    I play on Thurgadin and find the population to be quite healthy. You just need to be on when Europeans are not asleep or working.
    Soara likes this.
  14. Soara2 Well-Known Member

    Majdul is advanced imo. Halls of fate has a nice community and skyfire has more help at lower levels and more low level groups if you can stand General chat bickering. I would honestly go ftp but buy the xpac. I spent 6 years as ftp, but I have silver which is not sold anymore. But expansion trumps membership at first. There is a 35 dollar version I usually go for on my family's accounts.