Back when i played EQ2 in 2004-2007 i remember being able to see mob name plates at a very comfortable distance. Now i return and the name plates ONLY show up at a far distance when its a quest objective? I am finding myself constantly bumping into aggressive mobs as their name plates will NOT show up until i am within agro range OR if i mouse over them. Is there any possible way to get ALL mobs name plates to show at a far distance as they do if they are a quest objective? Here is a video of what i am talking about to explain more clearly, this is not my video, its something i found when trying to search for how to adjust visibility distance of name plates.
Hey there. I made that video a while back in this thread: https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq2/index.php?threads/mob-and-npc-render-distance.4140/ but still never got an answer, and I'm still having the same issue as you. I also remember the nameplates being visible from much further away many many years ago.
Interesting update: I decided to transfer my game from my HDD to SSD and now aggressive mob name plates start showing up @ 30 meters away (non quest mobs) while non aggressive name plates stay the same 10 meters. Quest mobs name plates still show up @ 30 meters away regardless if the game is on HDD or SSD. Anyone mind explaining this? Could this be a coincident maybe the devs ninja adjusted this at the same time i moved my game to my SSD or is it the SSD and or the speed of the drive the game is on allows farther name plate visibility for non quest aggressive mobs?
I have the exact same problem, and so far this actually keeps my from playing, as I find it extremely annoying. I've found lots of people reporting this problem, but no one posted a solution to my knowledge.
The solution is either put your eq2 folder on an SSD drive and or the devs fix name plates to show up at proper distances when running the game on HDD. Apparently they have some detection software and if you are playing the game on a slower (HDD) drive it will lessen the visibility of name plates (unless its a quest mob) for whatever reason is beyond me. This should be a user options rather then an internal hardware check.
It sounds like very poor programming, if that's the case, as this wasn't a problem at launch. I'll try moving the instalation to my SSD just to test your theory.
Just tried running the game from my SSD, and nothing is changed....SIGH!!! I've tried to raise a ticket as well, but to be honest my expectations are low
I'm under the impression this changed when they implemented the icon for quest mobs. But I kinda like it that we don't spot them from far away. It adds a sense of danger when adventuring and improves immersion, and then it doesn't mean I never cursed when I ran straight into packs of mobs, but then again this is my personal opinion. At least those mobs won't camp you
Well that suck, thats what worked for me. Maybe something else is happening but it sure seems to be hardware related. I would move my files back to my HDD to test but i do not want to go back to the broken name plate issues .
So I need to buy an SSD drive to have nameplates show at a proper distance. That's total insanity when streaming allows nameplates to be seen at the correct distance. So now I must choose between two evils: either stream and have absolute horrible stuttering gameplay or buy an SSD? How the hell does having a slower HDD (which is not slow) matter at all how far away nameplates can be seen. Why is there not an option to have nameplates show at the distance WE want? Again total insanity to not have this incredibly simple option that in no possible way could effect a 'today's system'. Also streaming instead of full version on the computer is magnitudes slower. So again why would nameplates NOT show when having the full version on the HDD. I am at wits end with this problem.
Before you do any of this absurdity (which reading other posts up there, didn't actually help them), why not join Discord chat and poke at one of the devs in there to see if you can get an answer from the horses mouth? https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq2/index.php?threads/introducing-the-eq2-discord-chat.572491/ Right now Chrol, Kander & Radarx are in there. Gninja was on a bit earlier. They seem pretty willing to answer questions put to them.
Thanks Finora and I may but for now I uninstalled, downloaded the setup program, reinstalled to a new folder, and dealing with the streaming. Visited four or five zones now and only have to wait for the frame-stuttering to stop (because of all the background downloading) after a half-an-hour each new zone I visit. So I just enter a zone now and go watch TV show as I collect 'em all. Edit: what seems to be going on is that all Objects in the game (clickables, harvest nodes, NPC's, creatures, everything) has the nametag view distence set to exactly 10 meters [with the exception of quest tracked objects] IF we download all the files for the game. So therefore their repository, IF downloading the entire client, has old outdated files that they forgot change/modify AND inside those old outdated files is a function that was missed when moving over to the newer streaming system. It should be incredibly easy to fix.
