Fist de Yuma - November 2, 2004

Everquest II I opened my mail up last week, and found an invite to the EQII beta test. As it was free, I decided to give it a shot. I found a lot of good things, things I would like to see in AC someday. I saw that EQII is copying some things from AC. First impression is very good. The graphics are outstanding. The world has a live feel to it, even when there are only a few people on. The reason is more than just the graphics. The NPC's move and talk. Out loud they talk. The main thing to making the world feel alive is the NPC's. There is a smaller land mass that you interact in. Overall it might be larger, but you move around in zones. Sometimes a zone is copied, so there are never too many people in one at the same time. If it gets crowded, they make a copy of it, and place the next people in that. Because of the small size, even when there are only a handful of players in a zone, it feels like a lot more. The last patch added a lot of lag into the game. It is beta, but they are getting close to retail. I'm hoping the lag is caused by de-bugging code, as it gets bad in big battles. There are a lot of quests. Many are hide and seek quests and federal express quests. While these can be boring, it gives a tradesman a shot at leveling without having to fight. What I did not like was forced quests. At certain levels, you have to complete a quest to level again. At first these were not to bad, but at the 9th level, I was not too happy. First there were a few hide and seek quests. This means finding people. The hints are not very clear, and one case, deceiving. In some cases I was given a name, and no information as to where they were. Not a zone, a house or anything. I ended up having to ask for help from other players, to even narrow the search down to a zone. There is no radar, so finding someone in a house is problematic. You have to enter the house and look for people. Many times there is an upstairs, so you have to go up and search there as well. I was asked to find a guy, and it said he is in the harbor. There is a zone with a harbor name, but the person was not in that zone. Another quest wanted me to kill five sprites. The place was a Woods. The Woods was not on the map, so I had to move from zone to zone, until I found an exit to the Woods. When I faced the Sprites, I found that this was a battle you could not win if solo. Given that you cannot level until you finish these quests, you are forced to get help. In AC, we are used to mobs. In EQII, a Mob is deadly. I could kill one Sprite, but would have to run from the other two. With no way to recover mana, and using all my mana to kill just one, there was no way to finish off the other two. I did not get credit or xp for the one I did kill, as you have to kill the entire group to get any reward. Each battle, be it against a solo monster, or a group, locks the battle to you or your group. This is one good idea, as it prevents anyone from jumping your battle. After you start, no one can interfere, unless you ask for help. The drawback, of course, is you must defeat the entire group to get any reward. The second drawback is there is no way to help someone until they request it. Drive by heals are not possible. I was able to find a group that was looking to get a healer, and was willing to fight the sprites. I saw another problem with this quest. A second Priest joined us, also needing to kill the Sprites. When the group finished killing the Sprites for her, she said thanks, and dropped out. Now, this group needed her. She used them to finish her quest, and then kissed them off. I stayed, because I understood I would never have finished off that quest without them. When they were done, I finished off the training quest. This group also taught me a lot about death recovery. From what I hear, EQ drops all your gear on death. EQII does not do that. What it does do is give you something like vit. You need to gain xp in order to clear the vit. Part of that penalty can be repaired by recovering the body, or having a Priest resurrect you. Even with the body recovered, it takes a long, long time to recover the vit. The vit is a percentage of your xp to the next level. I'm thinking 10% per death. It might be more. In any case, you will be working off a death penalty for some time after dieing. I had a lot of deaths in that Woods. Several were from an extremely hard quest. Several more were from Named monsters. The Named monsters will kill you in one or two shots. Many times I was dead before I even knew I was being attacked. I also ran into another death penalty. Each death will degrade your armor and weapons. I had one death where all my items, every last bit of it, broke. I ended up having to find a Mender to repair my stuff before I could do anything. The AI seems very smart. One thing I found is the AI targets Priests. Given that a good Priest will keep the party going far longer than without one, this is smart. It is also extremely frustrating for the Priest. I think they are going to have to pull back in this a bit, as I almost always died in every hard battle. There is a fix for it of course. The fighters need to taunt the monsters, so they do not turn on the Healer. So you depend on the other players knowing what they are doing. Towns are without a doubt the best I have ever seen, in any game. Again, the NPC's make it seem so alive, crowded even. That is the one big impression I got. I still think AC is a better game, but AC feels dead in comparison. Another nice touch with EQII is waypoints. This is not always available, but I expect them to add more and more as time goes on. You need to find a place, you click on the name, and a red smoke trail forms to show you the route. This also works with bodies, as I found out. Spells are very limited. I ended up using two spells in solo combat with my Priest, attack and heal. Each spell has a recovery time. The more powerful the spell, the longer it takes to cast, and the longer you must wait before casting it again. There is one general recall spell. It is very slow, so using it to escape combat is not an option. I also created a Mage and a Fighter. I need to level them more to get a feel of higher levels. The main thing about these classes is the inability to heal. This is telling in combat. Kill or run is the name of the game. Both of these have something called a heroic action. These do a lot of damage. It is basically a set of steps you must follow. When you reach the end, the damage is inflicted. As an example; I would start my actions with a kick. It would then call for two wild swings, and ends with a taunt. Using this over and over again, would allow me to defeat monsters I had no right fighting. While cool at first, it quickly became just a standard way to fight. I never found the heroic action for my Priest, but I think there is one. I know there is one for my mage, but I never worked it out. I heard some complaints about then nerfing this somewhat, but I have been playing the Priest exclusively for a few days. Most AC players will feel lost without a portal system. You run around a lot. There a sprint, but it eats up mana. As everyone uses mana, even fighters for their special moves, the use of sprint is limited to non-combat times. Also, pity the mage who needs to run because they have no mana, as they cannot sprint. You better hope there is a zone door close by, or the monster is a slow runner. Even the one portal is restricted. You must wait an hour before using it again. This is real time, so try and use it just before lunch. The lack of a radar I found particularly hard to adapt to. This is especially telling when trying to find an NPC. Where I really missed the radar was after getting ambushed by a monster. If they are running at your back, you just cannot see them. If it is a named monster, you are dead before you can do a thing. Even if you escape from an attack, you have no idea if you're still being chased or not. The only way to find out is to stop, turn around, and get attacked some more. Against a named monster, that is likely the last thing you'll see. So we often end up running for a long time, without any idea if we have broke contact or not. Much of your EQII time will be spent sitting. You must sit to recover health, if not a priest. Everyone has to sit to recover mana. This waiting time varied. Sometimes I only had to sit for a few seconds to get full. Other times I would be sitting for minutes, and it seemed like hours. And as I said, there is no way to recovery mana in combat, and only a Priest can heal. Right now I'm into a very frustrating part. In order to move from 9th to 10th level, I have to complete part II of the training quest. I was given a very big zone, and the names of three people. I'm told to help them defend something. I have no idea where any of these three are. The zone does not have a map, so there is not even a hint. The monsters are mostly group only, and many are hostile. I mostly end up being chased. I logged in frustration this morning, and don't really feel like going back right now. There is a lot I'm leaving out, as I never intended this to be a comprehensive review. Lets just say that despite the problems, I had fun with it. If not for this frustrating quest, that I have to do, I might still be playing it. I'm not totally sure of its staying power. Federal express quests, hide and seek quests and forced grouping will get old very quickly. If not for this live feel of the game, I don't think I would have played it as much as I did. I think EQII is a winner. Those that play anything but AC will love it. AC is the different game on the market, so many AC players will be like me, and get frustrated early. Frustration does not lead to staying power. I have great hopes that the coming upgrade will move AC toward the live feel of EQII. I don't expect it to be as good a feel, but something better than we have. AC's lack of zones, a good thing overall, might prevent the kind of resources used by EQII. As I have said many times, the game play in AC is next to none. EQII will not challenge that. Learning from EQII After dieing a lot in EQII, I got the idea that they did this right, for the most part. I don't like the idea of broken weapons and armor, as that is just harassment, but the rest should be something Turbine studies long and hard. Right now death in AC is a joke. The only time is really has a bad effect is on those rare occasions when the DI's do not cover an item. Most bodies are quickly recovered, and the vit seldom lasts through buffing, if in a good group. We need to bring back fear of death, while not making it so bad that people fear to adventure. Here is how I see Turbine changing death. For one, vit has to be vastly increased. I like EQII's making vit as a percentage to your next level. Lets say we keep the same system we have, but increase vit to 5% of your total level requirement. This would mean a 126+ would need to recovery around 25 million points to clear their vit. Next, remove items dropped. Replace that with clearing half their vit after recovering the body. This kills two birds with one stone. We gain back the pack space we so desperately need, and retain the desire to recovery the body. This would be the easy road, but I think I would make a small change. Instead of the current 5 point vit system, I would replace it with a 1 point system. I would make the death penalty 10% of your stats and skills. So one death would put you down 10%. Two deaths would bring you down 20%. I can see a time when someone is sitting with stats and skills of zero. (Before buffing) Of course, it would be easy for a careless person to get into a hole that is almost impossible to dig out of. For that reason, I would add in an automatic clearing of a vit point every 12 hours, real time. Some told me that this should be capped. I can see that but I would cap it at 75% down, rather than the subjected 50%. Another point was brought up. There has to be a cap on health, as zero health would be a big problem. (I'm sort of harsh, 1hp and wait 12 hours if you have 10 deaths in a row without recovery.) To make one thing clear, vit recovery would be the same as now. The xp would not be lost. You would work off the penalty as you level, with no other change. I also think that this should not extend beyond 126, even after the new expansion. The way stats level out, there it not much growth in ability after this point. Think about this. Death would become a real concern. The prospect of working off millions of xp would be daunting at high levels, while not overwhelming at lower and mid levels. Most of us would gain a pack or two of space from clearing out the death items. I can see this as a real boon for PK. PKL might even go away, as there would no longer be a need for it. Think of the revenge factor here. The 200+ PK bully gets vitaed down to almost nothing by a group of his former victims. It will add some respect back into PK. I'm sure that Turbine has looked at something similar a time or two. We know from their reports that they disagree as to what direction to take many times. They also have a lot on their plate at the moment. So I don't expect to see any changes in death in the immediate future. I just hope that they do think about a system like this, as it would bring a lot of life back to the game. Arggggg I was doing a pincer run with Salvage Mule Three. He is limited, as he is just a driver mule and salvage expert, but for that limit, he is unsurpassed. So, instead of limited, you might say he is focused. That focus is Olthoi, of course. So I don't take him on a Tusk runs, but Pincers are almost easy. As I have said before, I start with the Warrior, then Muts and finish off with EVL and Leg. Total reward is 15.5 mill, which is split with whatever player I'm pushing that week. I had just finished off the Warrior and was running north, towards the Muts. I got a hit on Bandit about one of the two named Tummies. I was not sure which one it was, it had been so long since I had seen either. I was hoping it was the skill guy, but I would also use the drum. Useful item at times. So I charged in. Being that I've put zero xp into magic defense, Olthoi don't toss spells, I knew there was some danger. I did take a lot of damage, but I was killing them so fast I knew there was no real danger. I was sitting at about 40hp when the battle ended. I decided to heal before looting, as you never know what nasty thing might spawn on top of you out there. So, to my shock, I found myself in a portal tunnel. I was confused. Did Turbine make a change to something? Is there some new adventure awaiting you after killing this guy? As I materialized in Tusker town, I realized what had happened. I have my healing kit hot keyed to 3 and my pack hot keyed to 2. A quick ride over the three and two key give me a heal. On key 4, was my quick escape Tusker recall gem. My clumsy fat fingers had hit the 4 while reaching for the 3. I quickly did a LS recall and hit the portal for the run. While running I moved the recall gem to the 6 hot key. (g) I figured I could get back fast, but could I get back fast enough? Fortunately, I got back just in time, as some of the bodies were rotting as I looted. I got another drum. I'll likely give it to Jeff, as he was kind of wanting one after a little adventure we had this morning. I'll have that story next week. Pay Pal It has been a while since I posted a Paypal link. I figured that some of the harsh criticism I get on the boards would go away if I removed it. What I found is, people don't really need an excuse to attack you. They will attack no matter what, and removing the Paypal link did not change that. I have made about 40 bucks this year, and spent that on a mirror that will attach to my eyeglasses. This will allow me to glance to the rear while riding my bike. I have found that my neck gets stiff after 20 miles or so. I also tend to swing out in the direction I turn my head. That is not a good thing, so a mirror that lets me see to the rear without turning my head is critical.