Coming back... Once again.Follow

Hello everyone,

So, I have been off and on with numerous mmo's the last year or two. The most exclusive being World of Warcraft. Most recently, I have been giving Aion a bit of attention. However, the most lasting impression I have always remembered, was that of my experience in EQ2. More specifically, with the necromancer class (my favorite of any game). Anyway, I was in a guild called "Foundation" on Najena last I can remember. I do not remember my account information and am considering starting over. There have been at least one or two new expansions since I last played and I noticed an all-in-one EQ2 package is set to go on sale in October (this is when I would come back)... Not sure if any of you from Foundation still actively play or not, but I would love to play with all you again or any other folks from Zam! Any information about what has changed in the game within the last year or so would be great! I know it will be a long haul to the top once again, however, I almost enjoy leveling more than anything else (the progression of a character's growth). I will just have to take it all in stride and I am sure allot may have changed to keep things moving forward for me.

Hi, I was part of Foundation too, but the majority of the players are now in the guild Forgotten Abyss. Although Foundation still exists, it's just for alts now, a shame but unavoidable unfortunately.

The game has changed extensively over the last year, plenty of things have been added or changed. About all the changes are for the better though, apart from a seemingly increasing lag problem again these days.

The climb to the top isn't as long as it used to be, if you started now, you might have a fair chance to get to lvl 80 before the next expansion raised the cap to 85 (I think anyway).

The houses are bigger, there are more AA points to gather, there are more zones to explore, they added achievements (you get a score, depending on all the things you've done ingame, number of mobs you killed, zones you explored, quests you've done, sometimes you even get an item as reward for it although not many times, other times a title), they added daily quests (not so fun, but they have to be done to get to the good stuff unfortunately, no worries till you reach endlevel though), things got a bit more expensive over the years but money comes pretty quick too at a certain point (spells are ridiculously expensive at a low lvl, due to them being used for transmuting, but you don't really need to update all spells anyway).

If you come back, send a tell, I'll try and help if I'm online!

Raiding is fun... or maybe I should say it can be fun... I've been in a couple of guilds that focused on raiding and for the most part I enjoyed that aspect of the game. However, my problem with raiding is two fold.

First I'm a casual player so I'm really not into the hard core aspect that seems built in to most raid guilds.

I'm talking about the "We raid Mon, Wed, Fri & Sat nights and you MUST attend at least 3 out of the 4 weekly events to remain a member" sort of thing.

And second, most raid guilds set up a points system (commonly called DKP) where players bid for all the [good] gear that gets dropped during raids. These point systems are always weighted towards the players who attend more often so the casual players end up getting shut out of the auctions for everything except the stuff no one else wants!

As a casual player, I prefer an NBG system and most raiding guilds ignore NBG in favor of DKP.

But with or without 2 & 4 group raids, there is SO much to do in EQ2, I believe you could level from 0-80 with every available char slot and never participate in a raid! OK maybe not never but you get the idea...

BTW - regarding starting over - I recently started a pair of new characters on a new server and even though I chose to create classes I have played before I have been having a ball! The changes in the game have served to streamline the process such that there is little to no grind to get in the way of having fun! My new fury is about the same level as my old fury and my new warden is coming up fast... in either case I may never log in to my original characters again!




Edited, Sep 27th 2009 9:37am by OldBlueDragon

Nope, if you start an account you'll need to buy a new key, at least. What you can do is call SOE Customer service and see if they can find your account for you.

There's a couple of big game updates since March, it could take a bit I suppose.

If you're on Najena, just send a tell, I'll try and give you a brief update!

Although I may not be on much for the next two weeks unfortunately.

Yeah, it turned out to be only about 3-4 hours last night. I noticed allot of changes to the game right off the bat too. The in-game voice chat could have been there when I last played but I don't quite remember that. Regardless, it was refreshing playing again. It turns out I had a 60 Necro (my second Necro. I had one to 74 before) and a 20ish Monk. Despite this, I still think I am going to start a brand new Necromancer (it would be my third lol) or Conjurer. I rolled a new Necro just for kicks last night as I did not have much time to play and noticed they changed the pets appearance (or at least the starting one).

I also would like to get some suggestions and feedback from you guys on graphic settings. The computer I am using, is a capable gaming computer, but it is about a year and a half old now. It runs most other games maxxed at playable frames, but def. not the case with EQ2. For the most part, I can run the game at a high quality setting without too much trouble (25-70 FPS), but it fluctuates allot. I played around a bit with it, and set it at the balanced setting and noticed a higher FPS range (30-90 FPS). However, once again it seemed to fluctuate allot as I was running around... At one point on the balance setting, it dropped to single digit for a second, then bounced right back up to 90 something FPS... So, I do not know if that reflects my computer and / or the network connection, etc?

My computer's Hardware:

CPU: 2.9 Ghtz Quad (I see there is now an option for multi-core)
GPU: Nvidia GTX (800 something Video memory)
RAM: I have 4GB in the machine, but am running Windows XP, so only 3GB is recognized.

Any suggestions, would be greatly appreciated! Also, my characters were on the antonia bayle server.

Thanks for the Info. I do remember hearing that about the graphic engine EQ2 runs on. I also noticed some spells cause lag for me (Can't think of the name of the one I encountered while playing last night, it was a fury's lightning thing). The thing that confuses me about that, is wouldn't that suggest something to do with my ram? I should have more than sufficient amount of ram for use with the game ( I have 4G installed, but only 3G shows (32bit OS). The game itself set the graphics to high or very high initially for me... So, not sure if the random drops in FPS are just a result of my own computer? Could other things be a factor? I would just like to optimize the settings so I can get the best results while playing!

Thanks for the help Hubert. Only problem is, I was booted from the game a few minutes ago due to a "Fatal Error" and it mentioned something about memory... I have no idea what the deal is with that, as I should have sufficient memory to run this game. I give up...

Vista and XP, from what Ive read online...

Most the advice to correct the problem, was to update drivers, etc.

I guess I am not the only one to have experienced such an error, and others with as good or better PCs, have received it also. I played around with the virtual memory settings, putting both at 4096... I played for about an hour or so and did not get it again, but I have my doubts that the problem is fixed. Its a shame really... The graphics are so nice in this game, but I get such dramatic FPS ever thirty seconds or so (sometimes a gradual decline or rise). Regardless, I really do love this game and intend to stick it out and try and figure things out. Thanks for all the great info you guys have given me!

Oh, I am here to stay! Much of the reasons I periodically left the game before, were hardware-related issues. I now basically understand a little more about the engine the game runs on, and how everything works. I am truly amazed at the constant changes this game has undergone. It show's their commitment to their player base.

Once again, I appreciate all the thoughts and comments.

Uf-dah, lemee tell ya!

The fatal error crash has been very common for people since the GU53 patch, but all indicators are that the Oct. 1 hot-fix repaired whatever was at fault. Never let bugs you see right after a GU convince you to stop playing ... they always seem to work them out within a week or so.

That's the best course of action imo, there are plenty of quests to do, especially in Jarsath Wastes where you most likely are questing now. I didn't finish a fair number of the quests there before I even hit 80, lots of good rewards too.