Everquest II

[High Sierra]

Since its free to play now (with a fair few limitations but probably not game breaking) I decided with some gaming friends to give this a try.

anyone know of any good community forums/ websites where I can pick up some info on crafting etc?

[filingo]

Since its free to play now (with a fair few limitations but probably not game breaking) I decided with some gaming friends to give this a try.

anyone know of any good community forums/ websites where I can pick up some info on crafting etc?

i would not go for that tbh

[Warpath]

Haven't played the game in ages but used to be a popular forum slightly like SHC for EQ2? http://www.eq2flames.com/ and if you are looking for crafting Vanguard is actually slightly better, although the community is now pretty dead. Might be getting a little dev love soon™ though?

[Hatepeace Lovewar]

Haven't played the game in ages but used to be a popular forum slightly like SHC for EQ2? http://www.eq2flames.com/ and if you are looking for crafting Vanguard is actually slightly better, although the community is now pretty dead. Might be getting a little dev love soon™ though?

My mate irl used to post on there, heard of a guy called Acoloss? Thinks he's some kind of pro :-D.

[orcane]

Haha what the fuck, "gold" subscribers are limited to 4 races? Where does that leave regular subscribers (those who paid 15$/month before the game went "extended" ie. F2P) who are supposed to share gold level-equivalent access?

[epictetus]

Haha what the fuck, "gold" subscribers are limited to 4 races? Where does that leave regular subscribers (those who paid 15$/month before the game went "extended" ie. F2P) who are supposed to share gold level-equivalent access?

Very much this. Seems to me its actually more expensive now than before. I had all races before for maybe 10 dollars a month. Shame too, was slightly tempted to play it again. Not a bad game at all if you dont want PvP (actually my favourite PvE mmo so far).

[High Sierra]

well this is it - we're not doing it to experience the entire game, we're just doing it as something to be done casually on the side every so often.
the pop up advert appears to be just an ad in a browser that comes up if you quit the game - havent seen any other ads yet

being limited to certain races and classes also isnt an issue since the ones that are available appear to cover pretty much your basic PVE questing gang.
well we're trying it out since its not costing us any money atm so I'll check out the links for info.

[orcane]

I can understand it being a good experience for free, however having played the full game (healer on a PvP server just when it launched and every fag played "rogues", FTW) all the races, classes and other restrictions of the free bronze membership are kind of a big deal for me and I would never play EQ2 in this maimed state. I always loved the almost free race-class combinations and faction betrayal feature (without having to switch to some shitty race, WoW style) and suddenly being restricted to just 4 races is not cool. Since I never even remotely got to the endgame things like spell rank-, coin- or item quality restrictions don't bother me, but limited social (chat channel) options and no broker access are kinda stupid but then again they'll have to convince people to pay even if they play for "free", right?

[Mangala Solaris]

Very much this. Seems to me its actually more expensive now than before. I had all races before for maybe 10 dollars a month. Shame too, was slightly tempted to play it again. Not a bad game at all if you dont want PvP (actually my favourite PvE mmo so far).

As a result of the SOE hacks, if you ever had an SOE account for any of their games - that you paid for - you should have 45 free days for each of those games, should you log in before some date in August.

[Warpath]

Can get an all access pass, which works out a bit cheaper if you play more than one of their games? http://www.soe.com/allaccess/

[Winged Nazgul]

There isn't a facepalm big enough to cover this implementation of F2P.

Segregating F2P from regular subscribers. Then punishing regular subscribers that want to play on the F2P server? W. T. F.

[High Sierra]

I can see the issues here.

but I'm coming to this as someone completely new to EQ2 and completely new to SOE as well. (and yes I am aware of the monumental fail that is SOE)

from my point of view, I dont have any negatives to f2p on this - Ive never experienced the game in any other way so it makes no difference to me.
There are gameplay issues - bag limit for example but this is just a case of adapting play to suit.

besides, this is purely a casual thing to pick up and play with some friends at pre arranged times so progress is going to be slow and deliberate rather than OMFGWTFBBQMUSTGETNEXTLEVELTOQUESTFORPRETTYSHINYGLO VEPIXELS

or another way to consider it is as a placeholder until the next good fantasy MMO comes out. (yes I know that this may be never because the WoW and SOE business models for MMo's garner more income for companies so we are likely to be subjected to crappy mmo after crappy mmo which will be agressively marketed to get the pennies in our wallets and the cycle will continue until the gaming majority get a fucking clue and STOP BUYING SHIT GAMES)

((yes I know thats a pipe dream))

(((mind you I could stop crying and go learn about and build my own game instead)))

[Tellenta]

EQ2 was a fun game and there is literally fuckloads of content even if you don't want to raid. The level cut off for me was level 60 when I quit eons ago so don't know much about the later expansions. However if you don't go all hard core and power level you literally have to much content to work through and you can't get through 1/4 of it before you out level it and grey it out (no experience gain). If I recall you can pause leveling if you are a content junky. I quit on that cloud world thingy, though I do have fond memories of trying to kill a dragon with an AOE 'push' and falling off the sky island thingy to my death. Me being the main tank this was a bad thing.

[High Sierra]

EQ2 was a fun game and there is literally fuckloads of content even if you don't want to raid. The level cut off for me was level 60 when I quit eons ago so don't know much about the later expansions. However if you don't go all hard core and power level you literally have to much content to work through and you can't get through 1/4 of it before you out level it and grey it out (no experience gain). If I recall you can pause leveling if you are a content junky. I quit on that cloud world thingy, though I do have fond memories of trying to kill a dragon with an AOE 'push' and falling off the sky island thingy to my death. Me being the main tank this was a bad thing.

main tank failing in ANY mmo is awlays a bad thing. (and quite funny too usually)
my old DAOC/WoW guild had two of the funniest tanks I've ever met. The shit they used to pull on raids was hilarious, most of the time because they were bored.

[Cerzi]

EQ2 extended was probably the biggest F2P fail of them all, which you'd expect from SOE.

If you want F2P Everquest play Project1999, it's actually free, and it's actually good. Plus it now has kunark, too.

[rojomojo915]

main tank failing in ANY mmo is awlays a bad thing. (and quite funny too usually)
my old DAOC/WoW guild had two of the funniest tanks I've ever met. The shit they used to pull on raids was hilarious, most of the time because they were bored.

My guild healers used to play the game 'Lets no heal x and wait until they notice' Usually it was the other healer that they would select and we would end up wiping.

[orcane]

Necro time. This is actually happening soon:

Dear Norrathians,

An exciting time in SOE history has arrived and we are very pleased to be celebrating it with you, some of the most passionate MMOPRG players! As many of you know, SOE has partnered with ProSiebenSat.1 Games to provide and market eight of its games to players in Europe, including EverQuest® II, DC Universe™ Online, Free Realms®, Star Wars®: Clone Wars Adventures™, Magic: The Gathering - Tactics, and PoxNora®, as well as the upcoming PlanetSide® 2 and the next game in the EverQuest® franchise.

Specifically, the above mentioned SOE games will be made available through the ProSiebenSat.1 Games service in more than 40 European territories, including Albania, Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. Other countries may be added at a later date.

Under this new partnership with SOE, ProSiebenSat.1 Games will lead the effort to further enhance the presence of these SOE games in the European market. Expect more players and more focused attention on international players!

The EverQuest® II transition process to the ProSiebenSat.1 Games service will begin within the next 30 to 60 days. Once the transition takes place, you will need to have or create a ProSiebenSat.1 Games account in order to play EverQuest® II. We will be providing an easy way to transfer your existing SOE account and character data to your ProSiebenSat.1 Games account. Look for another email soon with specific instructions for completing the transfer.

If at the time of the transition you have a pre-paid, non-recurring EverQuest® II subscription, your subscription will be automatically transferred over to ProSiebenSat.1 Games so you can continue enjoying any remaining play time left on the account. If at the time of transition you have a pre-paid, recurring SOE subscription, your subscription will be transferred over to ProSiebenSat.1 Games; however, the subscription will not renew at the end of the current billing cycle. Once the billing cycle ends, you will be able to re-subscribe through the ProSiebenSat.1 Games service to continue enjoying the benefits of a similar membership.

European customers who maintain All Access accounts during the transition period will be transferred to ProSiebenSat.1 Games later on in the process. Further information on the transfer of All Access accounts will follow in the near future.

Again, we are very grateful to have such a diverse and passionate community, and want to assure you that SOE will continue expanding the EverQuest® II world. This email is to notify you that the migration of EverQuest® II is close. Please be on the lookout for our next communication which will explain in detail how to transfer your EverQuest® II account to the ProSiebenSat.1 Games service.

Sincerely,
Sony Online Entertainment & ProSiebenSat.1 Games

I wonder how many player they will lose. I haven't really played EQ2 recently, but it has always been one of my "go back for a month to check out new stuff" games. While I do wish I had gotten farther in the game, this deal will keep me from ever logging into any of their games again. Sadly, this also includes Planetside 2 eventually

[pratell]

game was pretty fun, had several level 90's and level 90 of every crafter. owned my own guild hall. scripts were super easy to read, players were a lot better than the WOW crowd. all in all though i felt like WOW's gameplay was a bit more fun, though i loved the big quest lines in EQ2. would love to rip open one of my old bot scripts and play through it single player.