Everquest 2 Extended.

[akugami]

This has probably been lost because of the release of Starcraft 2 but it looks like EQ2 is going the F2P route (free to play). At least partially. The subscription servers will still be there but there will be a new server and the game will be billed as Everquest 2 Extended.

I think this is an experiment and they're researching ideas for EQ3 which is currently dubbed Everquest Next. There's next to no information on EQ3 at the moment since its so early in development. I loved EQ1 though I haven't played in a few years and EQ2 wasn't exactly bad but it just didn't draw me in. Hopefully EQ3 is a decent game.

List of service tiers.

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.joystiq.com/media/2010/07/eq2membershiplarge.jpg

 

[lupi]

nooo!!!! this totally kills the value of the complete EQ2 series I bought on steam for like two bucks.

 

[Bateluer]

I loved EQ2 for a long time, but it really went down hill after they implemented Station Exchange and PvP.

I look forward to EQ3 though I won't touch a F2P MMO, they all blow.

 

[simonizor]

Interesting, although some of the restrictions are kind of lame, such as the gold limit per level and the equipment upgrade limits. I might check this out.

 

[waggy]

hmm i still have my EQ expansions. to bad my toon is gone =(

 

[Fanatical Meat]

He's to EQ3 being more like EQ1

 

[akugami]

Nolstagia aside, EQ1 was probably the first truly immersive MMO game. I played UO before EQ1 but UO never drew me in like EQ did. I played an enchanter and felt pride in being able to play one well. The early days of EQ were so much fun when we were all discovering the limits of our abilities and the virtual world we were in. Sadly I don't think anything can capture those moments again.

 

[waggy]

Nolstagia aside, EQ1 was probably the first truly immersive MMO game. I played UO before EQ1 but UO never drew me in like EQ did. I played an enchanter and felt pride in being able to play one well. The early days of EQ were so much fun when we were all discovering the limits of our abilities and the virtual world we were in. Sadly I don't think anything can capture those moments again.

EQ1 for all its faults was fun. though playing all week then having ONE DEATH wipe out the experience really sucked.

to bad they really fucked up EQ2.

when EQ3 comes out yeah i will buy it and give a few months try.

 

[BoberFett]

to bad they really fucked up EQ2.

It's not bad enough to say it's "fucked up." It has it's faults, but it is still fairly enjoyable and my wife loves the player housing. With various expansions they have improved it since release. If there was another game with the same level of housing but better classes & combat we'd try it. As it is, for a person who likes that sort of thing, after SWG was destroyed EQ2 was the only game in town.

 

[Feneant2]

Don't be fooled though, this is nothing more than a 'trial' with no level cap. I haven't played in a while (but I did play over 4 years) so some stuff isn't clear to me since they remade spells after I left, but from what I can see, if you play for free, you will be incredibly weak so no one will take you raiding and it will be harder to even get groups to run instances. You will likely be limited to basically questing and grinding.

Especially in Bronze... to have adept spells only and be restricted in that you can't wear fabled equipment or even legendary? That is the equivalent of wearing common drops or using crafted equipment. And to be limited at 5 gold per level? When I quit I still had over 10000 gold pieces and enough stuff in my inventory to make another 10000 easily.

I thought of giving it a try when I saw 'free to play' but then I realized that it was nothing more than a tease.

 

[zokudu]

What are thoughts on the Silver option $10 one time purchase doesn't seem terrible? I need something to entertain me since I quit WoW and before FFXIV that I can play casually until I *hopefully* go hardcore into FFXIV

 

[Genx87]

They are making an EQ3? Wow, let it die already.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Nolstagia aside, EQ1 was probably the first truly immersive MMO game. I played UO before EQ1 but UO never drew me in like EQ did. I played an enchanter and felt pride in being able to play one well. The early days of EQ were so much fun when we were all discovering the limits of our abilities and the virtual world we were in. Sadly I don't think anything can capture those moments again.

I kind of agree, its like your first love you never really forget her even if she was a pain in the A. Once can still dream.

 

[ixelion]

EQ 2 just isn't worth my time and money anymore, I would definitely get back into it if it was F2P, but the item and spell remove a lot of my incentive for playing.

 

[Feneant2]

What are thoughts on the Silver option $10 one time purchase doesn't seem terrible? I need something to entertain me since I quit WoW and before FFXIV that I can play casually until I *hopefully* go hardcore into FFXIV

Nope... still pretty terrible, sorry It changes nothing to bronze except you have a few more teases but nothing important. Bear in mind a gold piece converts to a platinum so in the beginning when there is little money, it will work but in the long run, even a crafted weapon could cost more than the sum of gold you can carry!

Although in your case though- if you have never played the game, you might still enjoy it as you'll never have known anything else. But for someone who's played before, who had their mythical weapon, tons of money, nice items, etc... it would be nowhere near as fun as the game originally was because we're missing out on what we know is there*. But for a new player, it might work as long as you expect a casual experience!

Honestly, I am disappointed greatly as I'm a huge fan of free to play. But at the same time, they have taken so much away from the experience with their stringent rules. It's obvious they are expecting players to move up to a gold experience and pay the suscription fee. If that was not their intent, they would allow you to use the broker, have all the money you want, equipment and spells you need to succeed but they'd do something like reduce experience gain and restrict classes and races to entice new suscribers.

I mean that's just my own opinion but wouldn't offering a nerfed playing experience be a much better option than offering HALF of a gaming experience?

*Edit: I wanted to elaborate on this actually. I saw you could move a toon from a regular server there for 35$. But then I realized that because of the restrictions, I could not use ANY of my equipment and spells!! It would move what is attuned, sure, but I wouldn't be able to equip anything.

 

[Krakn3Dfx]

I've been playing a little Perfect World with my 9 year old since he's into it, and I realized I'm too old for the grind now. I remember putting hours and hours into Dark Age of Camelot and then WoW when it first came out, but I got up to lvl 5 in PW and I dunno that I'll ever go back.

I still have fond memories of DAoC, but I don't think I could realistically play that anymore either.

 

[Nirreln]

Nolstagia aside, EQ1 was probably the first truly immersive MMO game. I played UO before EQ1 but UO never drew me in like EQ did. I played an enchanter and felt pride in being able to play one well. The early days of EQ were so much fun when we were all discovering the limits of our abilities and the virtual world we were in. Sadly I don't think anything can capture those moments again.

Ahh the lost art of playing a chanter, you can group with out one but after being with a good one you'll ask yourself how you ever did without one, just like a good bard.

 

[lupi]

judging from the options chart, this game would be a worthless pita to play as free. can't recall any of the other mainstream f2p games gimping you so much unless there are ways to increase your characters abilities that just aren't listed yet.

 

[akugami]

Ahh the lost art of playing a chanter, you can group with out one but after being with a good one you'll ask yourself how you ever did without one, just like a good bard.

Kunark was the golden age of the enchanter. I remember heading to Sebilis and it being an off day there was a lack of enough members to form the holy trinity. There were 4 or 5 rangers though. Just for sh!ts and giggles we grouped up to kill the entrance mobs. Found out we could do pretty well, even with the crappy ranger heals. The damage more than made up for it.

Enchanter slows, hastes, crowd control, runes for damage absorption and the odd heals from the rangers to top me off. I as the chanter pulled. No enchanter worth his salt in those days sat in the camp. Rangers took turn drawing agro and tanking. Did the disco camp in Sebilis with that group and wouldn't accept any replacements but rangers. People came down to watch our group cause they either thought we'd wipe or were incredulous we would venture into Sebilis without a cleric, warrior and enchanter in the group. Good times.

To be honest, I think a properly played enchanter in Kunark was too powerful. Having a hasted, dual wielding charmed pet was amazing.

Oh. And some of the charm of EQ1 was the fact that players thought outside the box and did things the developers never intended. Kiting for instance.

 

[brandonb]

I think that was the charm of EQ1... You weren't stuck in your cookie cutter role like most modern games. You had enough options, every class did, to create a certain role in your group based on its make up of classes.

I played a bard and was considered a very good bard by comments made to me from others, and one time I was in Velks with one of those odd ball groups... I think we had 3 bards in our group, a mage, a ranger, and a tank class... I had an idea for us 3 bards to twist the rune damage absorbing song with our instruments, so I'd pull with no weapons (using my songs) and then with my lute strum the 3 rune songs along with the 2 other bards, and the tank never got damaged, even if we had adds... Those rune skin songs absorbed 150 hp every 6 seconds with instruments * 3 bards... Which in that zone, you could easily handle multiples without hitting 450 hp rune skin every 6 seconds.

It was interesting to see how well things like that worked. Just different strategies to get the job done forced by a gimped group. We all sort of laughed and giggled while we were playing... Like "Wow this is so cool." We were rocking the zone while other groups were waiting for the cleric to gain mana.

 

[Gothgar]

More liek evergrind extended amirite

 

[Feneant2]

More liek evergrind extended amirite

1- You should go back to school and finish grade 1.

2- It's obvious you've never even looked into the game.

Everquest 2 is about as far from a grind as you can expect. The experience gain is actually very fast and players who can dedicate 2-3 hours daily to the game can easily get to 80 within a month or two. I've seen people reach level 60 in under a week in fact.

Now that said, if you play on bronze, or even silver, it will take longer to level up but with quests and instances, it should not be a grind.

 

[akugami]

A little bump. Seems Massively.com has an article with a link to a discussion by Sony on EQ Next. Figure if you were interested in this thread you'd be interested in the next EQ installment and no need to create another on EQ. Some concept art is shown as well.

 

[Gibsons]

Kunark was the golden age of the enchanter. I remember heading to Sebilis and it being an off day there was a lack of enough members to form the holy trinity. There were 4 or 5 rangers though. Just for sh!ts and giggles we grouped up to kill the entrance mobs. Found out we could do pretty well, even with the crappy ranger heals. The damage more than made up for it.

Enchanter slows, hastes, crowd control, runes for damage absorption and the odd heals from the rangers to top me off. I as the chanter pulled. No enchanter worth his salt in those days sat in the camp. Rangers took turn drawing agro and tanking. Did the disco camp in Sebilis with that group and wouldn't accept any replacements but rangers. People came down to watch our group cause they either thought we'd wipe or were incredulous we would venture into Sebilis without a cleric, warrior and enchanter in the group. Good times.

To be honest, I think a properly played enchanter in Kunark was too powerful. Having a hasted, dual wielding charmed pet was amazing.

Oh. And some of the charm of EQ1 was the fact that players thought outside the box and did things the developers never intended. Kiting for instance.

fucking chanters

 

[akugami]

fucking chanters

You know you like your chanter mezzing with 3+ mobs in camp, charming with a dual wielding hasted pet, and running out to pull while there are the aforementioned 3+ mobs and a dual wielding hasted pet in camp.


In defense of chanters, they are super powerful but only if you know what you're doing. As EQ went on and I saw more and more shitty chanters. Especially the rise of the buffwhore raiding chanter with end game Velious and Luclin. PoP gave more for enchanters to do (not by a whole lot) but by that time it was too late. People were too used to off-tanking.

As a chanter and as a MMO gamer, I was at my most happy when there was a real challenge. I did the whole raiding thing but end game Velious was a total bore as most of it was a tanking game and no real crowd control going on.


That live "round table" gave me hope in that they said they would draw more from EQ1 than EQ2. I want the challenge back in my MMO's. Not just a grind fest but a game that requires knowledge of my class to be considered good. Make it require skill to get to the high levels. I don't care if it's a 50 level game at release and it takes me 6 months to hit level 30 as long as I enjoy the ride.