EQ2: Recent Events; Thoughts

A lot has been happening in the world of EQ2, and I’ve been rather lax in commenting on it or in any way otherwise even acknowledging it, but I now feel that there is enough substance to create a sizable post of commentary.

First of all, the biggest change in recent time is that EQ2 is now entirely Free-to-Play (F2P).  This differs from the previous business model of only 1 server being F2P (Freeport; how apt.)  Now, all servers follow a model similar to Freeport.  I won’t go into the specifics, but essentially, you can opt to continue to pay the general subscription fee of $14.99/mo. and receive all available content just as before.  Other options are Silver and Bronze memberships which have similar limitations to them as when EQ2X existed solely on the Freeport server.  You can read all about the matrix and pricing plans at EQ2players.com

So far, the expanded F2P seems to have drawn some former players back into the fold, and perhaps a few genuinely new ones.  Server loads appear to be high, for the most part.  The website was redone in tandem with the announcement, and now displays server population and status.  There is some question as to the actual load threshold that determines what “high” population means, and skepticism about how many players are concurrently logged in.  The developers have not commented definitively on the question, but Smokejumper remarked that it will likely take time for players to try EQ2, that a flood of new players is not the expectation.  However, at least for the first two weeks, it does seem that some servers are experiencing a resurgence in population.

The next big piece of recent news is, of course, the addition of another expansion, Age of Discovery.  AoD is different from any previous expansion in that it is a set of features rather than a set of content, the two biggest being mercenaries and the dungeon maker utility.  The expansion was released simultaneously along with the free game update in which Freeport was given a facelift.

I’m going to talk about mercenaries, first, because I feel that they are far and away the best addition.  Mercenaries are archetypical NPC’s that you can hire (an initial fee, and then a recurring, lesser fee, every half hour) to join you in your quests.  There is essentially one of each type: a healer, a mage, a tank, and utility.  They vary in some cases between city faction, but are generally similar.  In Freeport, you can join with an Inquisitor, a Warlock, a Shadowknight, a Brigand, a Bruiser, or a Dirge.  I’ve only played with the Inquisitor, so far, a ratonga named Stamper Jeralf, who is found in the dockside inn in East Freeport, but he seems suitably powerful and very helpful to have along.  In fact, I’ve been able to take him into Blackburrow, the Wailing Caves, and Fallen Gate, so far, and duo quite well.  Your mercenary levels up with you, and comes with a lesser array of abilities than an actual player would have, but all of the essential abilities are there, and you can inspect them from the mercenary tab of your Persona window.  Every so often, they will gain new abilities, too.  You don’t need to buy them gear, they don’t take any of your gold or loot, and they don’t cost you experience.  You can, however, dress them up in cosmetic gear from your own inventory (which stays in your inventory) and give them basic AI instructions — for instance, who to assist, who to protect, and how to act in general.  Unfortunately, this appears to be completely bugged, as they generally take a very active role in combat regardless of what you tell them to do.  In fact, sometimes this can be frustrating, as they will relentlessly attack NPCs even when you would prefer that they stand back and do nothing.   However, this will presumably be fixed, and in the meantime, having your own personal healer along, or tank, or DPS, is far preferable to spending time alone in a dungeon, or trying to put together a group when you have limited time to play.  So far, I’ve been able to fully explore all three dungeons with just myself and the mercenary, and gain the achievement kill in each one (i.e. the Blackburrow Champion, Emperor Ree, etc.)  It’s been a nice way to gain alternate advancement points, too.  I can level up to, say, level 28, then turn my slider to 100, and clear a place like Fallen Gate, without greying much, if any, of the content.

The next big addition in AoD is the dungeon maker.  This is a system where you can a.) collect dungeon items, avatars, NPCs, and furniture while adventuring in the real world, then b.) use them in 1 of 4 pre-made dungeon maps.  It works similarly to houses in that you can’t actually design your own layout (much to my dismay, and others) but can work within a defined space.  Over time, new dungeon maps will be added, perhaps even as findable items.  You can also add flavor text to the NPCs you place, give them names, and create a shadow of a storyline.  Full scripting abilities are not available, though.  This isn’t a tool like the Neverwinter Nights toolset or the Morrowind toolset.  Your dungeons, once created, can be uploaded or “published” and then other players can run through them. Initially, you could only choose to play as “avatars” — the developers cited balance issues as the reasoning.  However, more recently, it was announced that soon, actual players would be able to run through dungeons.  No details were given on how balance would be addressed, but it seems plausible that the level will be scaled.  Players don’t seem entirely happy with the dungeon maker, and three reasons appear over and over: 1.) the pre-made maps, 2.) the heretofore lack of ability to play as your own PC, and 3.) the limited method of placing objects, which can be tedious.  Once published, a dungeon can be rated, just like houses, and players can scroll through lists of them, and choose to visit.

AoD aside, Freeport was given a revamp, which included basic re-texturing, a new color scheme, the removal of zone lines, and new questlines based on race.  I have not been able to experience much in the way of the quests, yet, but the removal of zonelines makes the city seem much more alive — and larger, of course. The new color scheme, dark gold and brick red, makes the city a bit more grand and less of a dump.

The major inclusion in AoD, however, was the addition of the Beastlord as a new class.  The Beastlord is a scout class, with its own skill trees, combat mechanics, and abilities.  It is far and away the most mechanically interesting and engaging of the classes in EQ2, and it would be interesting to see the same depth applied to other classes, over time.  Not only can the beastlord tame pets, called “warders,” but each family of warder has its own set of abilities, and there are 16 families.  Each warder will gain points that can be applied to its own tree, and the more you use any one family, the more bonuses you receive over time.  Warders gain experience and level up on their own, as well.  Beastlords have a complex combat mechanic that works in tandem with their warder to find or create a weakness, and then exploit it using a number of class-specific skills.  These are in addition to the normal combat arts, and have their own hotbar with a special icon.  Its hard to explain on paper, but essentially you can use two sets of skills at certain times.  Overall, my limited time with the Beastlord showed me that it is a powerful and diverse class, and depending on which warder you use, it could presumably be a tank, a DPS, or a utility role.  Primarily, however, it seems to be a DPS design.

There’s a lot happening in the world of EQ2.  Unfortunately, I still find it lacking the spark that drew me in all those years ago.  Some players have suggested that a “Launch Day server” — where the game retains the mechanics and challenges inherent at original launch, right down to the details, as well as time-matched progression through expansion content — would be very desirable, and while I am not wearing completely rose-colored glasses (I remember some of the more tedious exclusions, such as some basic UI functionality omissions, which made the game truly annoying at times) I have to agree that a large part of what is missing is a feeling of challenge and exploration.  I don’t mean challenge in the sense of ‘What uber raid guild can take down this super retarded-hard mob?’ but rather, the every day challenges like ‘How do I make my way around this expanse of heroic mobs to get to that cave over there?’ or ‘Wow, I wish could run faster [but 130% is kind of stupid.]  Maybe I can finish that quest to get that awesome item I keep hearing gives you an extra 40% speed.’  Yeah.  That kind of challenge.  I know there are other games out there that meet this desire, last I heard Darkfall was one, but other games aren’t really what I want, either.  I’ve invested a lot of time into my characters, and a lot of money.  To throw it all away is inevitable, at game death — but until then, I’d really rather see something of the old school brought back.

That aside, I am interested to see where it goes in the future, not only with the new F2P model, but with development of content and development of new features.

Wow!

I don’t care what anyone says, Solusek’s Eye is still the most visually amazing zone in all of EQ2.  7 years and counting!

 

It’s a TRAVESTY that no one goes here!  I bet that the majority of new players don’t even know it exists!

 

Screenshots: Butcherblock

 

I recently upgraded my video card to a stock Nvidia 560Ti GTX.  Not only is the card whisper quiet and cool, but it runs the game beautifully with the recently added special effects that the EQ2 engine can render.  Enabling depth of field and ambient occlusion really makes some of these scenes stand out.  Really, though, I just enjoy finding out-of-the-way spots (or not-so-out-of-the-way spots seen from a new perspective.)

 

 

 

The Baubleshire

I did a little fooling around with some screenshots I took in-game last night.

In-game, they were taken using high quality GPU shadows, depth of field, ambient occlusion, and flora enabled. My video card was rendering frames with 4x anti-aliasing and 8x anisotropic filtering.

Post-process, these have a contrast of about 35:1 applied, resampled from 1440 to 1070 at 16:10 ratio (bicubic alg.), duped, with a Gaussian filter on the back layer, top layer at 65% opacity, flattened, and cropped by about 5 pixels all around, to remove traces of “the magic.”

It’s a simple process, takes about 30 seconds per picture, and makes everything sparkle like a Mormon’s tween vampires.

The Baubleshire is far and away the best of the Qeynos villages (Castleview Hamlet and South Qeynos come close, I think) and it’s where I decided to make my newly born ratonga swashbuckler build his nest … err, home.  The halflings are surprisingly accepting!

 

 

EQ2’s Downward Spiral

Something’s gotta give.

It started with the (improperly scaled?) mentoring mechanic.  Then came Recruit a “Friend.”  Most people recruited themselves.  After all, why bother to group or attempt to be social, or work towards a common goal, maybe even a challenging one, when you can just whip out the good old RAF bonus and blow through everything?  It got worse during the Shadow Odyssey era, when endgame gear, gear with crazy procs and ridiculous stats, gear appropriate for the endgame, set a new standard and made mentors completely overpowered when they were, say, level 20.  It got even worse when players began to mentor down for the sole purpose of two-boxing their own alts through dungeons, mass pulling everything in sight with the Shadowknight or Berserker, destroying the dungeon for any legitimate groups that might be trying to explore it “at level.” 

Yet, still, it got worse.  The cash shop was introduced and sold potions that would increase experience and achievement point gain.  The potions stacked with RAF and vitality bonuses so that people could blow through content even faster.  Then came the double experience weekends, a rare event … at first.  Players got used to all of these experience bonuses, so much so that a return to the normal curve was seen as SOE’s “fail.”  After all, how dare SOE not award all player 400% experience gain at all time?  How dare they!

When players began to feel the pressure of 200+ achievement point grind replacing the level grind, instead of simply leveling the gain curve, a new slider was introduced to convert experience into achievement.  People began doing all kinds of crazy things to get their AA, and now?  If you aren’t decked out with 140+ “AAs” by level 7, you may as well go slit your wrists and stop playing, by the way most players act. 

Even when it seemed like things couldn’t get any more absurd, they did.  Public “quests” were introduced which trivialized endgame instance gear and further destroyed any desire for people to actually work to obtain something.  Log into the game, and you are immediately assaulted with chat channel messages like “invite pq plz” – ask those same folks if they’d like to run an instance?  “lol wat? better gear is in pqs” is your most likely reply.

In the present day, you can find a powerleveling guide, something many players view like it was the Great Book, itself.  Constant chat channel spam asking for level 90’s to mentor down and “pl” someone.  Tips and tricks for how to best exploit several dungeons.  There are rules for how you should meter out your achievement point gain as you progress, rules as to where you need to go to progress, and why you need to go to X spot — but not Y spot. 

All of this has fostered, if not created in whole, the mentality that anyone who plays in a different manner is a “fail at life” player, the primary example being that everyone should know all the best dungeons inside out, should not ever stop to turn in quests or read dialog, should always pull entire rooms at once, should certainly have the best gear and fully upgraded spells at all times, should carry around no less than 1000 platinum (gained by trading LoN lewts, duh!) and should basically be at level 90 with 300 AA in no more than 7 hours, and of course, ready to raid!

Above all of this, though, is the fact that SOE feels players “want things this way” because the vocal minority who frequent the channels of opinion, a lot of mouth-breathing 13 year-olds by the way they act most of the time, has trained their pet developers (as they see them) to answer their every whim.  Supposedly the average age of EQ2 players is 31 (according to information released by some university who SOE opened their databases to several years back.) Maybe there are a couple people playing who are about 1000 years old, because these “31” year-olds spend most of their time arguing semantics in sarcasm rather than actually playing the game.  When they do play, they powerlevel, so they can get back to what really matters: showing their e-peens on the forums!

When you step back and look at it, all, though.  It’s really, really, really ridiculous.

Do I expect it to change?  No.  This is, apparently, the glorious “future” of this game, and MMOs in general, and it is only one component of an overall change in the way humans think in the modern day.  EZmode everything.  Now now now, rush rush rush.  Forget the Information Age, we live in the Instant Gratification Age.  I can lump MMOs in with smartphones and Facebook apps: vapid, disposable trash that reflects a shallow culture of sociopathy that doesn’t want to work, or wait for, for anything.

Will I keep playing EQ2?  I’m not sure.  The things I want to see: revamped Thunderring Steppes, Feerott, revamped Commonlands and Antonica, more pathways from 1-90 than the same old grind, a better graphical engine, a dungeon finder tool, the ability to /ignore entire accounts when you type /ignore … not to mention a downscaling of the overpowered mentoring mechanic so that people can no longer “powerlevel” – which would take care of just about every single problem mentioned in this post by preventing people from exploiting, well, everything – all of these are either unplanned, or so far off as to be pointless.

Review: Dragon Age II

Dragon Age II is not your older brother’s Dragon Age, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a great, fun game in its own right.

DA2 features a new protagonist, Hawke, the would-be Champion of Kirkwall.  Just as Dragon Age Origins had its own Hero of Ferelden, DA2 has its Champion.  Your choices in the first game have an impact in the second game only on a superficial level.  If you never played the first game, you can import one of three “default” scenarios to flesh out the backstory of Ferelden.

Hawke is fleeing Ferelden at the outset of the game, running from the Blight that has infested it.  This first arc is to take place simultaneously with events in the Origins; the “Hero” of Ferelden has yet to eradicate the Blight from the land, and so Hawke and his family run to Kirkwall, the setting in which DA2 takes place.

Kirkwall is a large metropolis, larger than any of the cities visited in Origins.  Imagine it as the Athkatla of the Free Marches.  (Athkatla was the city in which the near-entirety of Baldur’s Gate II, the game which put Bioware firmly on the RPG map, took place.)  It’s easy to see the similarities, and anyone who’s played BG2 will notice a distinct likeness to the flow of Dragon Age II: open-ended to a point, filled with side-quests, and ultimately leading to a culmination of the plot.

It’s a formula that’s served Bioware well since 2001, and most recently was applied with great success in the Mass Effect series.  In fact, Dragon Age II has more in common with Mass Effect 2, in terms of pacing, plotting, and cinematic storytelling, than it does with its immediate predecessor.

It’s this decided break from convention which makes Dragon Age II refreshing to play, and no doubt appealing to anyone familiar with the Mass Effect games.  Bioware has made a clear choice to make Dragon Age II a more immediately accessible game than Origins.  Origins was perhaps the last homage to the old-school CRPG: closer to the classic Baldur’s Gate franchise and the Infinity Engine games of old, or Neverwinter Nights series and the Aurora Engine, with its in-depth strategy elements and top-down view. Dragon Age II, however, is decidedly more streamlined.

The story in DA2 is told through cinematic cutscenes.  You, as the player controlling the protagonist, make your decisions based on a choice of conversational responses that then play out in the scene.  The conversation “wheel” is a more fluid method of play than the “wall of text” that was utilized in BG, NWN, and DAO.  The wheel creates quick moving conversations that the player can then enjoy, rather than reading the exact response and simply hearing it read aloud.  It worked well in Mass Effect, and it works generally well, here, too.

The other major change made in DA2 is in the combat itself.  While the player may still elect to pause at any time and issue individual commands, gone is the overhead tactical view.  Zooming out is limited in scope, and character movements are much faster and more visceral than in the first game.  Your companions tend to do just fine without input from you, although playing on difficulty settings above the default will require more and more input from the player, making the combat more or less a turn-based, “don’t move until and when I direct you” affair, akin to the old-school style.

The potential challenge in combat makes one of the game’s strong points truly standout: the ability system.  In Dragon Age II, you choose one of three archetypical roles: warrior, mage, or rogue.  This seems rather limited, at first, until you realize that each role has myriad specialization options.  A mage, for example, has access to several general schools of magic, including arcane, spirit, elemental, entropy, primal, and healing.  At level 7, he gains access to 3 more schools, called specializations: spirit healing, blood magic, and force magic.  You can choose to learn one specialized school at level 7 and another at level 14.  Once you unlock any school of magic, you may pick and choose which abilities to learn, making the possibilities to mix-and-match your ultimate class build more or less limitless.  The only restriction to this is that some abilities are pre-requisite to others, and some are locked by level.  Rogues and Warriors each work in the same manner.  The player seeking depth in his game could very easily spend hundreds of hours building different roles, trying different combinations, and playing through the game on multiple difficulty settings, if so desired.

The ability system offers a lot of possibility.  However, for the casual player, Bioware once again kindly offers the “auto-level” option, which quickly builds out character traits based on a defined idea of the archetype.  Also, each of the NPC’s that may potentially join your party has one unique ability tree, as well as an option which may only unlock if the player gains enough friendship or rivalry points with that particular NPC.  For example, Varric, a bard of sorts, might relay your legendary story to others a little bit differently depending on whether you’ve gained his loyalty or his enmity.  The ability trees for the playable NPC’s are generally interesting, and in some cases, almost necessary to fully build out.  They also offer an added layer of diversity to the NPC’s.

Speaking of story, the interesting thing about Dragon Age II’s plot is that although it begins in sync with the Origins tale, it quickly eclipses that and moves to its own timeline, spanning about a decade, and set in three “Acts.”  (An unofficial community term that has been generally embraced.)  Varric, your dwarven ally, recounts the story to a Seeker of the Chantry, the seat of religion in the Free Marches.  As Hawke, your decisions determine the outcome of that story, to a degree.  I have to say “to a degree” because although there are some things you can do that make a definite change to the tale – a certain duel comes to mind – there is also an inevitable end to the tale that will not change regardless of your choices.  At least, insofar as Dragon Age II is concerned – but who knows how future episodes might hinge on them?

Without giving anything away, the storyline is multi-layered, and although it never reaches the heights of adrenaline that were present in Mass Effect 2, it is a solid, fast-moving, and interesting plot, with more than one twist in it.  If it isn’t perfectly original in inception, it is at least a mind-bending moral dilemma, and at best, a cold look at two sides which each seem justified, at times.

Kirkwall itself is a sprawl, and you spend the whole of the game within it, with a few exceptions.  Don’t expect to be traveling to far flung reaches as if you were in a Final Fantasy game, out to save the entire world from imminent doom by a meteor, moon, or evil queen.  No, DA2, for better or worse, keeps you running about Kirkwall like a whore’s messenger.  You may switch between Night or Day, and certain events will only happen during one or the other time.  Generally, you will be attacked by roving gangs of bandits and thieves while adventuring at night, and during the day, will have access to additional NPC’s and plot lines.

Much of the meat of the game is actually contained in side-quests and secondary quests, as well as the companion quests.  All of these are gained conditionally: complete one task, you may see another open up.  The sidequests are generally of little consequence, but the secondary quests flesh out a lot of the peripheral story, and give a broader view of the goings on of Kirkwall, and of your role in them.  Many of the secondary quests will have repercussions in the second or third act of the game, as well, depending on how you previously handled them.

Companion quests are also optional, but these are the crux of the game’s interpersonal relationship engine – otherwise known as romances.  It is by working through these quests that the player can develop friendships, rivalries, and yes, even love, with the companions.  Of those who can be romanced, either sex can initiate the option.  This is a change from the previous game where some companions could be romanced by only one or the other sex, or from Mass Effect where male Commander Shepard is more or less a straight arrow.  Bioware is certainly inclusive in this regard, if nothing else, although some of the romances seem pre-destined for a specific gender, all the same.  In regards to the main plot, only one romance seems to have real weight, and this is made decidedly more interesting depending on which “side” the player takes in the final stages, and at the risk of giving something away, compounded even more if the player chooses a mage as the role of Hawke.

The graphics in Dragon Age II are top notch, technically speaking.  If you are playing on the PC and have a  video card that can render Direct X 11, you can enjoy the full effects high resolution texture pack that was released on launch day.  Even playing the game on a modest setting of “medium” quality, things still look good.  Character models up close look especially good, right down to skin pores.  Unfortunately, the game does suffer from the occasional hiccup, sometimes locking up, freezing for several moments, halting, or even crashing.  While not frequent, they are also not infrequent, making them annoying enough to warrant mention, here.  Also, unfortunately, although some of the environments, such as the Deep Roads, are aesthetically beautiful, Kirkwall itself is rather drab and stale.  Grand, yes, but seemingly lifeless and inhabited by scant few citizens.  Most of the environments you traverse resemble basements and warehouses, generally.  This is a real eye sore considering you do spend all of your time in the city, more or less.  A bit of atmosphere would have gone a long way.

Bioware has rolled out the usual media goodies for release, including a slew of promotional items, tie-ins with Facebook, multiple promo codes for various versions of the game, and of course, their own social networking site which links to the game server to update things like your characters and achievements.  Anyone who has played the Mass Effect games or the original Dragon Age title will understand how the achievements work.  You unlock them for completion of various goals, some of which are simple, and some of which may take several play-throughs.  Some of the goals include completing a romance, earning rivalry or friendship, defeating major monsters like a high dragon or a pride demon, and so forth.

Overall, Dragon Age II, while lacking in some of the more tactical old-school trappings that made the first game a hit with PC gamers, is a solid, fun game that has broadened its horizons to become a more cinematic storytelling experience that will appeal to a larger audience.  It will be interesting to see where Bioware takes the game with the sure-to-be-released downloadable content packs.

Postcards from Stonefield

 

Wait, wait!  Don’t tell me.  You’re thinking: “OMG! More images?  Srsly!?”

Yep.  Seriously.

These are some seriously beautiful images of the Stonefield region.  Stonefield is second region you explore if you play as a Defiant race.  It is characterized by a decidedly Scandinavian climate, glacial rock abutments and valleys, jutting stone – and bones.  Big, big bones.  Everywhere.  However, it isn’t without its own sort of beauty.  The constant rain and overcast skies create mists and a thick haze, at times, and the main stopping point for adventurers making their way across the rocky terrain, is the aptly named Granite Falls.  At night, the sky is star-filled.  However, the plane of Earth is constantly assaulting this region, and its citizens are also suffering from a strange undead blight.

I’ll admit, during preivews, way back in August 2010, I was completely unimpressed with the images of this area.  I now eat crow.

Check out those jagged peaks!  Look at the mist as it leaves the valleys in the morning light!  Check out that storm-filled sky!

 

Images from Telara

 

I’ve been mum about Rift since closed beta began quite some time ago.  With the advent of Head Start this week, though, and the official launch happening in just a few hours, I thought I would post a few of the best images I managed to capture while exploring the world of Telara.

I knew I would play on the Defiant side the moment I first viewed the Rift website in August.  The images below all come from Freemarch, the first Defiant adventuring area.

I’ve been prepping a full run down of the game, my impressions during beta, what I like and what I don’t, but it isn’t quite ready, yet.  In the meantime, enjoy the pictures.

 

Screenshots

It’s been awhile, but it’s time for another installment of screenshots from the ratwarlock’s collection.

VERMIN Hosting ‘Rat Raids for Crazy People’

 

VERMIN – an EverQuest II guild, on the Antonia Bayle server – is hosting “Rat Raids for Crazy People” beginning this Friday, February 4th.

 

From the official notice:

 

Hellowz,

VERMIN is happy to announce what will hopefully become a long-standing tradition on the Antonia Bayle server.

Rat Raids For Crazy People are events that are open to the public, specifically for those individuals who don’t really consider themselves "raiders". Take everything you think you know about raiding, turn it upside-down and shake real hard.

You Class, your Gear, your AA’s, or Experience…none of it matters. Come naked with a spoon for all we care.

Our top priority in a Rat Raid isn’t necessarily to kill the most Named possible in the shortest amount of time. Rather, it’s to laugh at whoever dies the most creatively and conduct ourselves in a manner that makes the least sense. We want to remove the pressures, the anxiety, the ego’s, and the restrictions that most people are likely to associate with raiding.

Instead, we’re replacing it all with nonsensical contests, bizarre behavior, and oodles of experience debt.

Will we walk away with the most lewts? Probably not, but we’re sure to grab some by accident.

Will we have waaaaaay more FUN??!!! Abso-ratly-lutely!

So if you wish to experience things on the CRAZY side, come join us Friday, February 4th, for VERMIN’s first Official Rat Raid For Crazy People! Visit our website for more info.

Thank yewz,

 

And there you have it.  From the rat’s mouth.

The event is open to the public.

You can visit the website: http://vermin.guildportal.com

Also … if you’re on the AB server and would like to join Vermin as a permanent member, you can contact any recruiter in-game or fill out an app on the website.