My impressions of EQ2 vs Hz

[Magfuddle]

I have indulged in playing EQ2 over the last 4 days since its local release in Australia.

Let me tell you what I think ... actually before I do ...my kids think its great (I couldnt get the kids aged, 13 and 16, interested in the grind of Horizons)

... okay now, my thoughts.

no PvP ... fantastic !

Class selection ... once you select an adventure class, thats it ... you are committed except for subclasses .... no multiclassing.

Crafting ... OMG !! ... if you think Hz is complex with components, EQ2 is uber-complex. Many more components required for basic crafting and basic crafting skills only lead to the ability to produce basic components ... usable items come later. And the Eq2 crafting system is horribly bugged at the moment ... some really basic components are not yet available and some are disabled.

eg.

crafting my first spell in Hz ... dig sand, make brick, make shard, make spell with formula provided by trainer.

crafting my first spell in EQ2 ... buy formula book from merchant (first spell not available as default) ... check components ... requires 4 components ...
1) ink ... refined three times fromharvested component andconsuming basic components three times from merchant, (each refinement stage requires at least the consumption of two basic components as well as the primary material)
2) paper ... refined from three basic components, one harvested, two from merchant
3) quill ... refined twice from harvested component consuming merchant components
4) incense .. basic merchant component

Three different crafting machines required in an instanced crafting room.

Adventuring ... if you like lots of questing ... EQ2 has a whole lot more than Hz. No long walks between places, well at least in the starter zones.

Solo vs Grouping ... soloing is possible, but in the starter zone some quests are impossible without a balanced group of tank, ranged and healers.

Player community ... ARGH !!! EQ2 is not kind to those who want to RP ... the starting areas of the supposed "RP preferred" servers (only 2 world-wide so far)are full, of lamers and spammers ... there is a shout channel option in chat where a zone-wide broadcast message can be made FFS !! .... need some help grouping for a quest? ...just broadcast a shout message (as /shout or /ooc) ... geeze ! I'd expect a slightly better community environment outside the starter zones, maybe.

Vaults .... each player inventory has only five slots - an item takes up a slot. Multi-slot bags can be obtained (with effort) to turn a single slot into a multi-slot ... 6 items per slot = max 30 items. The "vault" is a bank with 8 slots, and 4 additional slots for transferring items between toons on the same account. If you think you've got it tough in Hz imagine the limitations of the EQ2 inventory/vault system.

If you loved the multiplayer Neverwinter Nights you'll love Eq2 (except if you must have PvP)

Graphics - comparible

Lag - comparible - EQ2 is definitely NOT lag free

Ok at risk of beingopinionated ... I wont be dropping Hz for EQ2 ... my first impressions of the EQ2 community are not good.

I accept my opinion is based on about12 hours of gaming time and in "newbie zones" but I know I definitely prefer what I have in Hz.

[Digita]

Well, what i find very hard to get used to after being spoiled by Horizons is the User Interface. The in game map is huge, you can't annotate it, you can't shrink it down. The transparency is minimalist compared to HZ. No tabbed chat windows, so if you want to separate out Combat chat, Group Chat, system/world, and tells, you have windows cluttering everywhere. No online friends' list, certain windows cannot be moved, etc...

However, the questing... HUGE and varied. If you talk to most NPC's in with a Hail instead of double-clicking, you get quests. The end of those quests usually lead you to items. I was able to get much better armor (with stats) and weapons (with stats) instead of items purchased from NPCs without stat boosters, by completing quests. Also, the bag problem, quest and you can get all the bags you want as a reward, just doing the right quests.

Multiclassing is out, it's a Sub-class tree system instead. The same thing happens with craft. Crafting is WAY too complicated.

Also, since the city is divided into zones, the zones are like teleporting, and after several "ports" you get all laggy, just like in HZ.

Combat is more of a thrill tho, since every ability/spell is power based, and your power is finite. You have to space out your actions... and defintely no chain healing ;-D

So, pluses and minuses, just like in anything else.

[Blue Hasia]

this is just a repost of what i wrote onanother board of my thoughts on eq2
lets start talking about how EQ2 SUCKS here.. and I have played it so I know what im talking about. eq2

the eq2 HUD sucks so bad that I wanted to throw my moniter through my window.
also the severs are full of freaking whiners
looking for group, wnat to group, im a helpless deeb and need some to hold my hand. well not that last one but i have never seen so many whiiners and the worse part is eq2 is set so that you here every ones world tells EVERY!!! sdo its non-stop WHINING

and lets not get started on the fact that the world is not whole you have to have a loading screen for every few hundered feet to every couple hundered of meters[img]/Web//emoticons/emotion-12.gif[/img]

another thing that sucks is there is a stuped frame on the top and bottem of the window that blocks part of the view [img]/Web//emoticons/emotion-12.gif[/img]

I LOVE HORIZON I promes to never to complian about the little things that bug me in hz after seeing how lame eq2 is
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in eq2 you cant tell how strong a foe is and when you die you have to make it back to the spot were you died and retrieve your soul if you want to gain it back... if one died that means they might not come back to that area cause they will die again !

and no not yet no pvp


also eq2 forums boards crash 3 times a day


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in eq2 when you play as evil you do evil quest like slaughter bad guys and you even must kill the ones that begged for mercy, I let the one that beg free and I failed the quest[img]/Web//emoticons/emotion-12.gif[/img]
also there was this other quest were you are a messenger to remind some one they owe some one else money and you tell them "if you dont cough up the do the butcher will be paying you a vist tommorrow"...well something like that




well just my thoughts on EC2, i already cancled my acount for it

o ya another thing in EC2 DRAGONS ARE SLAVES in that game[8o|][8o|][8o|][8o|][8o|]
you can buy a dragon for your house an dkeep them tied up in your house as a pet and it makes me so mad hearing the poeple in the game say they dont feed them, kich them, abuse them[8o|][8o|][8o|]GRRRRR

[Magfuddle]

oh by the way ... I LOVE the idea of a gnome having a pet dragon ... where you can abuse it by not feeding it properly !

*ducks for cover*

[Digita]

Well, i think in EQ2 they give TOO Much info on your foe. You mouse over the mob bar once you have highlighted him, and it tells you if it should be taken on solo or group. If that isn't enough info, there are Up arrows that warn that he is much more difficult than his lvl, and Down arrows if he is easier than he appears. They even color code the name/arrows in RED if hard, blue if sorta hard, green if just right, and white if too easy.

Makes dying much harder if you pay attention to the color of the mob window and the color and number of arrows over his name.


So, what part of not enough info do you say EQ2 gives over HZ. In HZ, you get the name, and the level/rating. In EQ2 you get the name, lvl, and a WHOLE bunch of other stuff to make it easy for people to find the right things to hunt. In my opinion, too much info.

[Kulamata]

100 Armorer in Hz, found the EQII crafting convoluted. In Hz crafting corresponds to actual crafting more or less. Mine, smelt, make.Intuitive. Not at all the case in EQII.

So far, the zones I've encountered are pretty small, and the game has a constricted feeling, very different from Hz's wide open spaces.

What the interface copied from Hz is pretty good. Map is much poorer, and not player markable. At least the compass works from the beginning, and does not need to be "trained" as in EQ I.

Many quests, polished feel, so far it lacks the raw imagination, humorand quirkiness of Hz. Seemed to me to feel as if designed by a committee.

No Lag for me, but hard freeze type crashes, about 1 per 4 hours of play, comparable to Hz. No lag window, so I don't know if tex mem is filling up or not.

I supposeI will time share with Hz, mainly because of friends and guild members, but it is not more attractive than Hz.

[Vahrokh]

Lol I have been almost convinced to give EQ2 a look just out of curiosity, but if dragons are treated like that... they can keep it and put it in their ****beep.

[Syrith_Ice]

I played EQ2 in beta it was ok but nothing special.

[Auril]

i could not agree more. I liked that the variaty of monsters to kill was bigger from start then in Horizons. However the community is awful. Also, the tabless windows are a pain, but i liked how you could separate the chat/message text easily. I miss that you cannot change your resolution while ingam.
Lag is just as here. If not worse. Or so i found that. The quests are stale, i agree with that, and i think would be more fun if it would be groupquests instead of usual.
Crafting is HARD! The components are hard to get, and i like that, however, it doesnt feel as flexible as Horizons. It is a lot more "stale".
Adventuring, well, could be better. Somehow, i dont like the spirit loss. I lost my spirit 3 times, and couldnt recover it, the penality isnt too good.
I like item decay though, that is a neat thing, making it more real, and making demand on crafters (later).
I am also bothered by the zones. I think i am too spoiled with horizons "open spaces" (as someone put it above me). I like that kind of games, that is why i liked Morrowind too!
And one more thing that speaks for Horizons. All my guildies are here :) And I wouldnt wanna leave them behind for any game! Also, i just got my plot (hugs plot in Tavu).

All in all. In prespective of playing EQ2 I grew a new respect for Horizons!

Sincerely
Auril

[Cadfael]

Imho Eq2 and Hz do not aim the same kind of player. I think that Eq2 is much close to WoW

Horizon versus Saga of Ryzom may be more valid. I do not want to start a thread like this here as I respect to much the Horizon community, but I hope you understand my point.

A fedup retired disciple

[Ystalin]

o ya another thing in EC2 DRAGONS ARE SLAVES in that game[img]/Web//emoticons/emotion-39.gif[/img][img]/Web//emoticons/emotion-39.gif[/img][img]/Web//emoticons/emotion-39.gif[/img][img]/Web//emoticons/emotion-39.gif[/img][img]/Web//emoticons/emotion-39.gif[/img]
you can buy a dragon for your house an dkeep them tied up in your house as a pet and it makes me so mad hearing the poeple in the game say they dont feed them, kich them, abuse them[img]/Web//emoticons/emotion-39.gif[/img][img]/Web//emoticons/emotion-39.gif[/img][img]/Web//emoticons/emotion-39.gif[/img]GRRRRR

*Roars in Rage* [8o|][8o|][8o|]

[Blue Hasia]

the dragon abuse was the #1 reason why i cancled my acount even before my free trial ended

not to menching the UI was made by some one very EVIL!!!! i guess when you played the best UI in the world (HZ's) nothing else can compare[:D]

[Amerelium]

...I detest zones. I won't look at another MMORPG until Dark and Light, which is 6 months away at least, and sports a 40000 square kilometer gameworld...

[Galem]

EQ2 has zones? Like EQ1? hahaha

Zones are bad, scared of monter run into invisible wall to get away.

Load, load, load.

Glad I didn't think of trying EQ2, but wasn't interested by who is running it anyway.

Kiddie game.

[Lil Budy Wizer]

I got to 15 warrior and 10 outfitter then decided it really wasn't for me. When I switched to outfitter it seemed basic components needed for refining that I could make easily before the switch became much harder. With the only way for players to sell being to leave their characters logged on buying those basic components was going to be impossible. You can buy those components, but the level of quality you can attain refining depends upon the quality of the components and the stuff you can buy of merchants is only second level. The recipes only drop off grouped mobs which didn't seem bad at first. I could kill green groups of three or four creatures to get the books. As I levelled though thelevel spread between what is green and my level doesn't increase but the spread between my level and what I can kill does. That means to get the books solo I would have to kill mobs that give no xps.

Antonica was just a flat out bad design. Camp after camp of grouped creatures with no one at them. Everyone is instead running around killing the local wildlife because that is the only thing not grouped. Killing monsters, killing animals, might make no differance to many, but makes a big differance to me. If I want to kill deer I'll grab my rifle and step out my back door. At least give me some humour, stick a keg by a campfire and let me kill that off instead. The result was just wasted space. Too many people on too few creatures and no one on the majority of creatures. I had already spent eight hours that day with a group, I just wanted a little time alone and not alone killing deer. I don't mind groups for getting the most uber loot or taking on the most exciting encounters, but just for basic kill a little time gameplay it sucks. Overall I found that the best way to level is just stand in one spot waiting for creatures to pop and kill them over and over. After Horizons where you constantly move, or use to, it just sucked. I think in all of Antonica there was one lone gnoll not in a group of a level I could kill. The grouped creatures just stand there all day never moving one small little bit.

[Sparky]

EQ2 graphics and lag comparable to Horizons? What, you mean like a Ferrari is comparable to a Yugo?

[aceracer24]

Ok some of your a going a bit far by cancelling your account because of dragon abuse i a freakin game....I realize how some of you pride your dragons and dragons in HZ is by far one of the biggest seelers. But come on...EQ2 and HZ are intended to capture 2 differant types of plaers. Not ot mention the typical MMO of the day was based on many D&D type senarios...you KILLED dragons. Sorry but thats what happens. If you cancel cause of bad lag or some other problems I can understand but only cause of the dragon abuse?? come on folks thats just dumb.

Funny the review thats given...the lag problmes and such mentioned in EQ2. For one...when EQ2 was released not ALL servers where started. They intentionaly staggered the servers...so everyone that had a copy of EQ2 started on the exact same servers. There are a TON of players trying EQ2 right now so ya of course it's going to be laggy. As for crafting and other "bad" things in EQ2...remember...it's new. Like all other MMO's "especially HZ" just cause beta players said this isn't good or that isn't good, does not mean the devs are listening. Who knows the reason for this but seems to happen with every MMO our there. EQ2 will get better with age as will HZ.

Most people are bocking at EQ2 right now (current HZ players) cause they have gotten comfy with HZ. Why not though.....HZ even with the small community...is a great community. It's hard to be used to one thing then start fresh in a whole new world. Even with all the bugs in game right now..most have gotten used to them or figured it won't get fixed might as well enjoy what i can. I am sure most the other MMO's out there have the same feel twords WoW and EQ2. They have current friends in HZ that they won't/don't want to leave.

HZ has some stuff going for it that EQ2 and WoW don't...them games where designed with a differant type of gamer in mind. It's an MMO just like HZ but it's not a very fair comparison IMHO. I still entend to play EQ2 and see for myself. I am glad i ordered my compy online and have to wait a bit to get my retail. It gives Sony time to fix the current issues before I get into the game so I can pass my own judgment. I suggest those that thought about trying EQ2 give it a shot. Worst that will happen is you will have wasted money on the game. But you took the same chance with HZ...and grew to love it. Nothing says the same thing won't happen with EQ2.

Don't get me wrong, I to love HZ even with it's bugs. I have many friends and will miss them if I play EQ2 and end up liking it. But I can make many friends in EQ2 as well. This isn't intended to be a protect Eq2 post...just an unbiased view at both games. Both offer many things both have weaknesses and str's....

edit: sorry for the many misspelled words hehe. To many to bother fixing :) <---lazy

[Blue Hasia]

Ok some of your a going a bit far by cancelling your account because of dragon abuse i a freakin game....I realize how some of you pride your dragons and dragons in HZ


i left for more than just that resoan
as stated in my post

UI is made by an evil person
severs are full of whiners
to maky load screens
I feel crampped in that game i need wide open space...and skys for my wings :)
and many many more

[Andrew Zozulya]

Everyone who even dare to say that EQ2 crafting is more bored as in Hz one is very wrong. And limiting of inventory is not a problem as far as from crafting an evenly lvled spell you will get 8% of lvl. This is more better as in Hz one. Trading/market tought is very screwed atm. Players should be online and sit in his home only to be able to sell goodsthrough broker (+20% fee there). Up to gathering : some problems with overcrowed regions and wrong gains right now there( one week after release). But 50% of gathering is more easy and amusant as in Horizons ones. All in one Crafting in EQ2 more pleasant by them self.
Adventuring: I've never seen so much quests due my year in Hrizons as due my first week in EQ2. And those was only tier I quests ( there atm 5 tiers of content). Rewading is much more satisfying as in Horizons ever was/is/will be ( if AE not bought Adventuring reward to right lvl of awardness ). Mobs are grouped not by stupid aggro range. They leave not only loot but chests with lvl related reward too ( btw. Most chests are trapped :)). No only map is unscalable ( this is very wrong maded map also) but the regions are very huge - slightly more and more populated as in Horizons. Etcpp...

Interface : hands down : Horizons had better interface ( Thank you again, Tango!).

I'm glad that im in EQ2 now after almost year in Hz. But i still miss my friends there. For those who will come - look for Jediwind on Valor.

[Senkeleron Fell]

EQ2 graphics and lag comparable to Horizons? What, you mean like a Ferrari is comparable to a Yugo?

No, like a Yugo is comparable to a Yugo...

Sounds like the great hope of MMORPGers everywhere has fallen flat on its face, promising more than it could deliver, kind of like every other one ever. WOW will be the same way.

Promises and expectation too high, reality too low...