Just coming back after a long break - whats up with zoning times? Used to take 5 seconds to zone. Now I'm waiting 30 - 60 seconds. Sometimes longer and I just give up, crash the game, and try again. Is this because the game is unpopular now and so zones are always empty and have to be spun up every time I go to them? Or is it possibly my files needing to be deleted/redownloaded?
I would start off by running the Launchpad, then click the Advanced Tools button (crossed hammer/wrench icon) and ask it to Validate files. Make sure you have DirectX 9.0c installed. Yes, your version of Windows may have installed a newer one by now, but EQ2 has to have this specific flavor of DirectX. You can get DX9.0c direct from the Microsoft website, and it won't mess with any other versions of DirectX you may have on your machine. I dump mine in the EQ2 file folder, myself. Are you in Windows 10? One of the recent updates installed some stupid Xbox App that REALLY was slowing my framerate. I had to track down instructions for how to remove the Xbox app entirely. Also, another recent update made it so I needed to go to the manufacturer's website and download and install a new video driver. Another thing to check is that your computer isn't loaded with a bunch of junk files and/or malware. I recommend running through the whole Major Geek's Malware Removal Guide a couple of times a year just as housekeeping. It will guide you to reputable, safe, free tools and ow to use them.
Another detail that affects how "fast" one zones is the speed of one's hard drive, network bandwidth availability and availability of all required files. So if everyone in your residence is streaming movies, video chatting, downloading Ubuntu ISOs, etc, etc, etc your transition from one zone to the next will be delayed. I believe under the LaunchPad cross wrench Advanced Setting menu on left Select Game Version or Validate, i forget which as mine no longer displays, there may be a button that states Download Full Client or some such, which allows one to have EVERY. SINGLE. File. locally on one's hard drive, as opposed to the annoying (and lag producing) Running Dino in the lower right-hand corner. Defragmenting one's hard drive limits where and how long the OS has to look for the file(s) requests by the EQ2 client. (like getting dressed: your pants are under the bed, one sock is in the attic, the other in the basement, shirt on the back porch, one shoe is in the yard, one is in the trashcan; as opposed to having them all in the same dresser/closet. MicroFlaccid is like that, just spraying the files everywhere/anywhere on the hard drive,...) Even better to have all "Game" files/programs on their own dedicated partition. Lastly, and not for the feint-of-heart, if you can install an additional small SSD that matches your "Game" partition and mirror them, there is a NOTICEABLE improvement in load/zone times.
I zone fairly quick and my computer is from 2010ish.. The issue I get, every so often after playing a bit, its random.. I get hung on Loading UI elements for up to like 30 seconds.. or a minute.. I'm running nothing but the basic game, nothing added at all. It can either start on my second or third zoning.. or start several hours into play when dozens of past zoning-loads were fine. I run a tight ship computer wise, clean and mean, no bloat.. So nothing in the background.. no crazy add-ons or other added ui elements.
