I Wish EQ2 Would Explain More – Blaugust 6
1,027 words.
EverQuest II would probably rank second on my list of MMORPGs that I wish was easier for me to get into and play more (below Lord of the Rings Online). But they sure don’t make much of effort to accommodate new or returning players.
The longest I’ve ever played EverQuest II is leveling a Warden up into the 40s five years ago. Whenever I return to that character, it’s almost impossible to figure out how to play the game again, because EQ2 follows the “more-is-more” philosophy of giving out hotbar abilities every character level. If you don’t play regularly, it’s pretty hard to comprehend the sheer magnitude of hotbar skills given to you, when to use them, or whether to use them at all.
At some point, I must have used a free level boost on that level 40ish Warden, because he’s now level 100. He’s still wearing the exact same mismatched armor that you can see in that five-year-old blog post up there. The only thing that’s changed is that he’s now wandering around lost and confused in Qeynos, perhaps hanging out by the stables in a desperate attempt to figure out how to get a more normal-looking horse, instead of the leaping raptor he used to ride.
Somewhere in the past couple of years Daybreak gave away free level 95 characters, so I made a level 95 Necromancer. I haven’t done anything with that character. I walked a few paces down the road from where I started, on some kind of island, and logged out.
This year, Daybreak gave away free level 100 characters (again I think?). I rolled an Ogre Coercer because it sounded like a funny concept for a character. Is it a good idea to roll an Ogre Coercer? I have no idea. Here’s how this new guy looked right after I made the character:
I stayed in the game long enough to take a few screenshots, then logged out.
Sunday I thought I would log into that character and see if I could find someplace interesting to go on a glowing flying horse in neon purple armor. EQ2 is, to its credit, one of the few games you can sort-of play with just the right hand on the mouse, which is the only kind of game I can play for any length of time at the moment. Here’s where I was when I logged in:
I had no idea where I was, or how I got there, or what happened to my blindingly washed-out glowing horse. I hope those quests in that other place weren’t important. Before I could begin to find out where the game had placed me, it crashed. Then I started writing this blog post. :)
Am I missing something or does EQ2 lack a “full screen windowed” graphics setting? How is that even possible in 2018? Has Daybreak ever once looked at another MMORPG in the past ten years?
Anyway it turns out my Ogre Coercer was in a place called The Commonlands, near the city of Freeport. I don’t know if I’ve ever been there before. The name “Freeport” is familiar so surely I’ve been there sometime in the past ten years, but I can’t remember anything about it. I think it’s one of the main places or something, and not knowing it is like not knowing about Stormwind in WoW. :)
As far as I can tell, there’s nothing in-game to give me a hint about where to go or what to do with any of these high-level characters. My Coercer’s journal is completely empty. The daily objectives are generic and meaningless. My optimal strategy for playing EverQuest II with these high-level characters is to log in, turn around in a circle, and look for a quest at my level. If I don’t find out, I log out. So far I haven’t found one. (My 95 Necromancer does actually have one quest in his journal that I can follow but I don’t know how to get where it wants me to go hehe.)
I don’t know what else to do. Wandering aimlessly might result in an amusing NPC conversation but for the most part nothing happens. The “content” in EverQuest II is pretty hard to find. I’m sure I can look up exactly where to go to find the starting point for the optimal quest chain at my level, but it’s a bit mind-boggling that they don’t tell you in the game. (EQ2 is not the only game with this problem, to be clear. Even FFXIV suffers from the “we developers figure everyone will look up where to go on Google” syndrome.)
I ended up logging back into a level 17 Conjurer I made at the end of last year. It’s the only character I’m even slightly comfortable playing right now. Still, even at level 17, I’m already overwhelmed by the number of hotbar abilities thrown at me. Unless the benefit is incredibly obvious and something I’d use all the time in every encounter, I don’t put them on my bar.
There’s a lot I like about EverQuest II, it being one of the last “old school” style MMORPGs around, and the massive amounts of content to explore (if you can find it), but there’s also a number of things that rub me the wrong way. Just little nagging quality-of-life things that are “off” that make it hard to get back into the game. (Similar to ESO, actually.) Like the weirdness in alt-tabbing, and the odd way you have to use the left mouse button instead of the right. (Still! In 2018!) I won’t even go into the font situation. Games like WoW have made concerted efforts to modernize, but EQ2 has remained stubbornly “backwards” for as long as I can remember.
Archived Comments
Mailvaltar 2018-08-06T15:14:28Z I haven’t played the game in quite some time, but it wasn’t my main and most beloved MMO for years for nothing. My advice for someone in your position would be: forget all characters you have, make a new one and start at level 1. Play the game from the beginning. I can’t imagine the game has changed so drastically that it’s not possible to get accustomed to it that way. Once you know where everything is (well, not everything, that indeed takes years, but the most important stuff), how everything works etc. you can go back to those high level characters if you like.
Rakuno 2018-08-06T16:01:33Z
The excessive amount of skills and spells was always my big pet peeve with EQ2 as well. When I left, which is more than a couple years ago, I think, I had 7 full hotbars. Granted, two of those were for potions and other non-essential stuff but still 5 full hotbars is a bit too much for me.
I remember it had windowed mode, for sure since that is what I used. But I don’t remember if it had full windowed mode.
Also, I agree with Mailvatar. Creating a level 1 character and learning everything first might be your best option if you intend to stick with the game.
Another random note, Final Fantasy XIV is at least doing slightly better nowadays with trying to help people with content. They have added on the top left of the screen a kind of button telling what the next step on the main quest is. I never clicked it but I assume it will show you where you can get that quest.
When I login it also pops up a window suggesting quests around my level. Again, haven’t used it as I am familiar enough with the game and I just click right away to close it. But it is nice to know the option is there.
Wilhelm Arcturus 2018-08-06T16:44:37Z
I also find EQ2 difficult to return to as well. Every time I try I do a post and point out how the game confused me and then Bhagpuss shows up to tell me how much Daybreak messed up the messaging and directions.
As noted above, I think the overload of skills is part of the problem, as is just figuring out where to go to get back into the swing of things. I inevitably end up in some sub-optimal location.
And I have done the “start again from level 1” thing a few times. That can be fun. But it can also be a lonely trek through the game, and all the more so given that we’re past 100 levels now. And some of the old content hasn’t aged very well. The Faydwer expansion was hailed for reviving the game and getting back to some old EQ lore back when it came out, but it just looks old these days.
I played through the original content, Desert of Flames, Kingdom of Sky, and Faydwer back in the day, but never got past Rise of Kunark, so there is a huge gap in my “where to go, what to do” knowledge that hits me every time I boost a character.
eldaeriel 2018-08-06T17:14:23Z
I havent played for ages now but I seem to remember something called the golden path, with a pirate and/or parrot. It was a levelling route through the zones and I think it was in your journal somewhere.
That may or may not help ;)
UltrViolet 2018-08-06T19:45:52Z I’m actually finding it a bit difficult to follow the quests even down at level 17 hehe, I guess it’s a game where you’re expected to have a wiki open nearby with step-by-step instructions the whole time you’re playing
UltrViolet 2018-08-06T20:42:48Z This is handy: https://massivelyop.com/2016/03/03/everquesting-a-guide-to-everquest-ii-leveling-zones/
Bhagpuss 2018-08-06T21:44:38Z
Ok, I have two things to say before I get into any detail:
Yes, DBG do a very poor job of handholding. I am pretty sure it’s because they expect almost everyone playing to be either a current veteran or someone who got to very high level not that long ago. SOE did used to provide detailed help and guidance back when they were actively trying to get genuine new players to join the game but I think those days ended at least five years ago. As for not telling you where to go and what to do in the game specifically with free boosted characters, that did happen when at the time the free boosts were on offer but that information went away when the offers ended. Similarly, with content proper to a specific expansion the relevant information was available in game when the expansion was new (and still exists) but may require pre-requisites that your boosted character doesn’t have. There is usually an NPC you need to speak to who starts the Signature questline that leads you through the expansion or sometimes you receive a note in your mail. (Have you checked your in game mail?). The more of these posts I read (and they crop up a lot for a variety of older MMOs), the more I am coming around to the opinion that the people making them don’t, in any meaningful sense, want to play the MMO in question, not in the sense that MMOs are played, which is intensively and over a considerable period. To progress beyond the level of making a character, logging in, wandering around, taking a few screenshots and logging out again you have to do a LOT of research. In a brand new MMO you don’t do that because no-one knows much more than you do and you al muddle along together. Any question you have a thousand other players will have and you’ll see it asked and answered so many times in general chat that you’ll be dreaming about them for months.
In an old MMO that doesn’t happen. If you aren’t in a guild or playing with friends you have to go to the wiki and look all that stuff up. Or you can use one of the chat channels and ask there, to a variable response depending on the game and time of day. What you can’t do - and what no-one expects you to do, least of all the developers - is have all the necessary information doled out to you as and when you need it by NPCs and in-game systems. That’s called a Tutorial and you get it if you start a new character but you don’t get another every time the level cap changes.
All MMOs are ferociously complex, most are confusing and very, very few are intuitive and straightforward. I have been refering to 3rd party resources as a matter of course since I found Allakhazam and EQAtlas in the year 2000. In my opinion the expectation that 3rd party sites, add-ons or apps will be used is hard-wired into the genre.
I usually play with the wiki open when I play EQ2. The wiki is superb and absolutely invaluable. This morning I did the Nebulous Newsies quest, which I only did two days ago. It takes about an hour. I used the wiki last time and I used it again today. I wouldn’t even think of doing a quest like that without the wiki open to refer to. In GW2 I use either the wiki or Dulfy whenever I do anything with multiple stages. I used it to get my roller beetle mount a couple of weeks ago. In my opinion modern MMOs are designed with the default expectation that players will use 3rd part resources as the norm and to try and play them as if everything you need will be given to you in game is a recipe for frustration.
On some specifics: The reason your level 100 was outrside the gates of Freeport is that when you made him the free offer you used was a two-week offer It gave you access to the current expansion and allowed you to level to 105. If you didn’t do that when the offer was on you lost access both to the expansion and to the ability to level any further, hence you were placed next to an appropriate faction city (since you are an ogre and therefore evil). There is now no point playing that character if your intent is to level. He can’t level beyond 100 without the expansion.
If you want to level your 95, or if you want a nice easy trip through level 95 content with your 100 (who will be godlike in the gear you have) then follow this timeline:
http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/Shattered_Seas_Timeline
If you want en even easier time, follow this one
http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/Vesspyr_Isles_Timeline
If you want to know your leveling options for any character of any level range this is where you go:
http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/Soloing_Timeline
Skills/spells. EQ2 has a lot of them. That’s the design. If you play your character normally you will come to recognize both the individual icons and the icon types, learn what they all do and understand when to use them. It’s a visual language that you need to understand in order to play the game and it’s acquired by playing the game. The same applies to your AAs and other skills and abilities. There are many of them and some are crucial while others are situational. Until you acquire that knowledge and understanding you will be at a disadvantage, just as you would be in any MMO where you hadn’t come to terms with the mechanics.
That said, for many classes and in many situations, especially if you choose to do older content, you will find the challenge so minimal that it won’t really make much difference if you have little idea what you’re doing. In the gear you have on the Ogre very little in the content you have access to will be able to touch you anyway. Just hit whatever you want whenever it’s not on cooldown.
The windowed fullscreen question, funnily enough, was asked in game yesterday when I was playing. Apparently EQ2 doesn’t have it natively but you can add it with various UI skins available at
http://www.eq2interface.com/
I think Darqui was mentioned. I would admit to not knowing what “windowed fullscreen” is or what it does that the ingame options don’t do. I have never had any issues alt-tabbing from the full windowed option.
Anyway, that’s enough for now. If you want any specific questions answered I’d be happy to try - just ask!
(Usual have to post twice to get commen to go through additional sentence).
UltrViolet 2018-08-06T23:06:12Z
Sorry about the comment, don’t know why you have to post twice. I agree with a lot of this, but I don’t agree it should be a normal part of the genre to have to consult a wiki or ask other people how to play the game, particularly not on the first playthrough. I can understand it with the really early MMORPGs where developers were making up the genre as they went, but EQ2 to me sits in sort of a “late-early or early-middle” MMORPG era and it seems like it should aspire for more than that, especially with over ten years of development work since it came out. It’s not so much a gameplay problem to me as it is a basic software user interface failing. Kind of like forcing a user to type commands into a box instead of clicking a button because that’s how computers used to work. I don’t mind the content being complex, but I’m not a big fan of complexity in finding the content.
I did in fact forget to check my mail, and all my high-level characters have unread mail. :) I pretty much always forget that mail even exists in MMORPGs, which sort of mirrors my real life as I routinely ignore my snail mail and email. Thanks for all the links, I’ll check them out!
It’s happened – back home at last – Mailvaltar 2018-08-13T18:17:44Z […] chronicles of his adventures, which are always fun to read, and others like UltrViolet trying to get into it for the first time. I don’t have an MMO that makes me really feel at home right now anyway, […]
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