VERMIN fun stuff! Update

I have added the first fun stuff! update to the Vermin section. Since some of you may never visit the other sections, I want to also credit the artist, here, since I think it’s a really great manipulation he did!

From our member Dustpaw:

Warlocks and Spells in EQ2

I snipped this from a thread on the SOE forums. What follows was my original response before I realized it derailed the whole thread, so I’m posting it here, instead. Maybe a dev will read it and take note!

Out of the thread “What class has the best / coolest spell effects?” to which many of the posters replied warlocks. Which is true, for the most part … except that … well, read on:

Every class has one or two very cool looking spells, and then a lot of re-used, rehashed, bland, shared effects that many other classes use for different abilities. It’s very dull, and unless you can afford to have 3 or more spell results for every character, at max particle quality and max light settings, the game’s battle tends to either be that you see nothing, or that you get some kind of psychedelic light show.

Spell graphic animations and spell icons have been on my “What I Would Change” list from almost day 1, literally. I think this game is spot-on with the game play but the battle visuals: combat and casting animations, spell graphics, and even the icons which should be unique to each class … all of this really, really could do to be totally reworked.

For example, the majority of warlock spells, which most people will say are among the best, visually, can be summed up as follows:

Blue Lightning Ball with Trail (SK has very similar effect)
Purple Smoke Ball with Trail
Green Smoke Ball with Trail
Bright Green Gas Cloud
Purple Gas Cloud
Purple and Blue Distortion Around Target
Slightly-Less-Green Gas Cloud that Swirls around the Mob
Purple Smoke Trailing Blob Pets
Demon Pet
Giant Rocks That Fly Into Air
Giant Rocks That Fall Down From Air

All of our other effects are shared with Necromancers (Bone Hands, and Purple Skull buffs / debuffs) and even Mystics (Big Green Snake). The ice spikes (Wizard) and icy encasing (Wizard). And I don’t even know why we have a spell that deals cold damage, in the first place. hehe

Our summoning animation is exactly the same as Necro (giant puff of purple smoke with purple guy that rises up into the air), and I can’t tell you how many “What’s the difference between a warlock and necro?” threads I see on here, and even get asked in the game. I wonder if people realize the classes are 180 different. We share elements, and that’s about it. But becuase we have so many overlapping graphics, people think we do a lot of the same thing. I’ve even been asked to give hearts before!

The rest of them are either negligible effects or have no effect at all — such as Netherous Realm, which you only know is going by the noise it makes and the mass of green swirls when it procs of a poison shield.

I’ve become used to the look of the basic spells. The rift animation is definitely my favorite, and I love the bone hands, green snake, and our demon pets. Heck I don’t even mind the blue, purple, and green balls of smoke and the distortion effects.

BUT. When something has the name Void Distortion .. you expect to cast it and see a fucking black hole open up. Not a wimpy puff of green smoke.

Nor does any class want their spell effects to be shared with 5 other classes …

Okay. Anyway.

So yeah, overall, yeah. I love the look of my warlock spells. But to say that they are the best out a mediocre bunch is just … not that exciting.

3 Years of EverQuest 2: Am I Qualified to Call Myself a “Veteran” ?

Suddenly, it dawned on me. Suddenly, as in about 3 minutes ago while I’m listening to Nine Inch Nails’ “Mr. Self-Destruct.” I’m not sure if that’s irony playing a cruel joke on me, or just totally cool. Meh.

So, Three Whole Years. To the day. It will be 3 years on November 13th, since I first laid hand on Norrathian mouse. That sounds kinda hot, actually. Am I a bad ratonga? Ahem. Okay. Enough with the terrible metaphors. I apologize. 3 years since I’ve set virtual tail in Norrath … oh shit. I just can’t help myself, guys!

I don’t really know what the term “veteran” should mean in regards to an MMO. It means, to some people, the idea that I am somehow a better player than people who have invested less time. (I think I’m just a bigger loser with less of a life, actually.) It means, to others, that I am somehow this trove of knowledge. (I’ve still not done nearly half the heritage quests in this game and my total quest count is around 500 I think.) To yet others it means bragging rights: “Oh Look I have this cool title, The ZEALOUS! I am so uber!” (I stop wearing my title as soon as everyone else starts wearing the same one.)

So what does it really mean, being a veteran of an MMO?

Well. Battle. Now, THAT I have seen PLENTY of. Plenty. More than I think most people can stand. More than your average newbie could fathom. My kill count is at 65,000. In real-world terms, that would be like me single-handedly slaying a small city. If that isn’t worthy of heroic-ness, I don’t know what is. Fully 71 days of my life have gone into this game, and most of that has been spent doing my favorite thing to do in a game: dungeon crawl! There’s nothing like the thrill of grouping up and slaughtering your way through a dungeon, reaching the very depths of the Wailing Caves, Fallen Gate, Varsoon, Runnyeye, the Drafling’s Tower, Solusek’s Eye. Pillaging Cazic-Thule, Permafrost. And what about Poet’s Palace? Crushbone Keep? Nektropos Castle? Mistmoore Castle? Blackburrow? Stormhold? The Forbidden City? Nizara?

Have I missed any?

Not to mention the dozens of instances that I’ve tromped through hundreds of times.

All part of the grind.

But is being a veteran just a glorified grind achievement?

What about community? Over the years, I’ve been part of a community that has seen just about all the ups and downs I can imagine any MMO community has seen. I was there for launch when there were 8, 10 instances of Oakmyst Forest. When Antonica had 100 people LFG in every single one of its 7 instances. When there were 50 people crowded into the entrance of the Ruins of Varsoon, every single night, for weeks. When groups competed with one another to make it to the bottom of Runnyeye the fastest. And if you think contested dungeons are tough with 3 groups … how about 8, or 10?

I was there for the crashing fallout of Live Update 13. I saw my class go from used to abused, from no-one-plays-it to flavor-of-the-month back to no-one-plays-it and back to fotm. (We now rest comfortable near the middle, I think — though high end warlocks are exceedingly rare on my server, it seems.

I saw the game’s UI go from nothing, bare bones, into one of the most robust, customizable, option-filled UI’s out there. It’s truly one of the most important yet understated strong points of the game. Little details that have changed over the years, now mostly forgotten.

Can you imagine at one time there was no broker? That you had to be logged in and sitting in your room if you wanted to sell a thing? Can you imagine that monsters didn’t display level information? That every single encounter was a group of 5 or 6 triple heroics, in Antonica? That exploring the Obelisk of Lost Souls was once considered the ultimate achievement? That Solusek Eye was the place that the uberest of the uber spent their nights.

Seems kinda crazy now, doesn’t it?

This game, in many ways, has become better with age. But being a veteran means more than that, too.

There’s nothing quite like the feeling of being able to say: “I was there at the beginning, I’ve seen it all.”

Does it matter if you’ve got the highest magical hit, the best gear, the most discoveries, the highest kills, the most deaths, the most status?

No, not really.

Being a veteran is something more than that. It’s about being part of a community that you have watched grow, and develop, change, crumble, build itself back up. Watching a game change over time, from something nearly completely different to what it was when it began. Looking back on all those forum flame wars with your rival guilds (oh the memories; but I must exempt Vermin; my memories of guild rivarly pre-date my time in Vermin … pre-date my time on Antonia Bayle, even) … all the … DRAMA. Yes. Even that can seem like a good time, in hindsight.

I don’t know if I can call myself a veteran. I’ve contributed posts, articles … been featured on EQ2Players 4 or 5 times for various things I’ve put up on the forums. But I’m not that guy who has amassed 500 days of play time. Who has mastered every raid instance, who raids 7 nights, who has the uber-est phattest monkee lewts, who’s done all the quests, who has 8 level 70 characters. I’ve never been to a fan faire, I don’t have an ear with the devs. I think I can count on one hand the number of dev PM’s I sent out over the years. And I sure as hell don’t know who they are in-game nor have I ever talked to them in the two beta tests I’ve been in. So that isn’t what makes a veteran, either. No inside scoops.

I think I find it ironic that I should make this post on the eve of Veteran’s Day.

Soldiers who fought in wars, who know of battle, real battle. I almost feel kind of trite to claim that I am a veteran of a video game.

Then again — leading guilds, contributing to a community, helping out fellow players … hey even a little spy work and espionage here and there to covertly get the word out … in its own way, these are achievements all their own.

Whatever it is, one thing is obvious: a veteran is more than just the sum of their various statistics.