General Discussion

We are proud to present you a bonus feature this Sunday.  Our own Laura Genender has returned from a trip to SOE headquarters to bring you a special preview of the new EQ2 expansion: Rise of Kunark.

Yesterday I attended SOE's "Step into Fall" event in San Francisco, where I got to meet and speak with Akil "Lyndro" Hooper, lead designer of EverQuest II and one of the minds behind upcoming expansion Rise of Kunark.

If you're an EverQuest player, the name "Kunark" is familiar; Kunark previously appeared in EverQuest I, both as the first expansion (Ruins of Kunark) and the 4th continent. The EQII Kunark is home to many familiar zones and raid targets, but much of it is changed by the effects of the cataclysm and time.

Read the full preview at this link.

 Sounds fantastic and another great addition  to a game that goes from strength to strength.

I never played eq1, my first MMo was Neocron, but I am looking forward to the new zones. The news on upgrading the char models is also welcome. I am a little dubious about the Epic stuff as there are many guilds that are smaller groups who may struggle to get the 2 group epics and especially the raids but that may alter some of the game dynamics for the better.

Also welcome the news on the future expansion schedule as I think SOE has been true to their original word on committing to regular updates and expansion packs.

Would like some further starting races and some new class types though. I have played since beta and starting with the same classes each time is wearing a little thin.

Good job thou and I cant wait for the pre-order

Whew... I was scared there for a second, thought it said rise of the Kanooks.

"The Kanooks are coming! The Kanooks are coming!".  We worry about that stuff in the states, you know.

I think i'll buy RoK when its released and begin playing EQII again. Aswell picking up Wrath of the Lich King and begin playing wow again and buy Warhammer Online.

Shit, how will I manage :d

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Originally posted by mo0rbid
I think i'll buy RoK when its released and begin playing EQII again. Aswell picking up Wrath of the Lich King and begin playing wow again and buy Warhammer Online.
Shit, how will I manage :d

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Easy, you got 5-6 months for warhammer and the expansion for wow, well thats at least a year off, perhaps more.

RoK2 looks good, looking forward to checking it out.

Everyone is commenting on how EQ2 has came back to be very fun, granted this is true, however; I think that the end game content is only reachable by few players on each server. You need to be lucky to be in a top raid guild to experience the end game and get the better gear and this is limited. So I think most people will get bored of EQ2 soon because of it's linear direction into making the game elitest only attitude. To many players get bored of the normal game and most end raid guilds are so disrespectful to other players because of the ideas that they beat things others can't, having more time and no life will get you better things for sure in this game.

This is why I like LOTRO concept and ideas. There is no real elitest player attitudes and the normal gameplay is fun vs EQ2.

I played EQ2 for 2yrs, got all end game EOF raid gear and seeing how many friends in game who did not have the luck I did with a end game raid guild is disatisfying. Knowing that EQ2 had turned into a gear dependant game like WOW had really turned me away from it and I will never go back to this game. You need to have the required class to be in these guilds, knowing that most classes in this game are worthless compared to others in raiding is also a limited concept SOE has done. All these subclasses essentially ruined the game. It use to be a advancement system you would choose your paths but the problem is lack of balance across the board for most classes. Which makes guilds who do end game raiding take many of the better key classes limiting oppertunity if you play a class that doesn't get used that often or needed over another similar but more useful class.

Many examples can be made of this, like which classes are alike that offer a better role in raiding over the others. Most of the end raid content is limited and doable only with the right setups like having multiple of certain classes, this is a direction in most EOF raid content and ROK will be no exception in limiting other classes from participating in raids. Talk about major imbalance issues go and read the EQ2 players boards for more on these balance issues.

Epic weapons will be a joke as you will no doubt need a very good end raid guild to do. You think having this of top the list on the ROK special features means anything to the average player think again.

ROK = crap

I played right from launch, gave up in a few months, returned after a year to make a few 70s and left eventually.  That was almost year ago, when I started betaing lotro.

EQ2 is much much better than launch.  The crafting is fabulous, the best in the MMO market, the player economy is nice, and the player community is mature.  This is one of the few games I can keep all chat channels on and stay sane.  Try WoW if you want to know what I mean.

The end game is indeed very very elitist.  The raids are undoable without a solid raid clan, and only a few classes are viable.  Among the healers, shamans are in and furies are out ... Go read the raid clan message boards.  Some classes are just not welcome.  The end game raid is as tough as work, you have to be ontime, you have to be 100% attentive, no afk, no bio break till approved, no life once the raid begins.  And 3 to 5 runs a week, for 6-12 months.

Apart from this issue, the game is as good as any others in the market, its beautiful, fully polished, huge variety in class and race.  Immensely enjoyable with lots of place to explore, and lots of things to do, even if you cannot raid.  I disagree with the notion that EQ2 or RoK is crap.  If you do not care for being the best geared guy, and just want to enjoy the path from 1 to 70/80 steadily, its fun.

I can only agree to Bezado, exactly what I experienced. Epics for 80 only... requiring 2 groups... sounds the raid-tasm is going on. I wish anything requiring more than one group would be forbidden in MMOs. I come from a pen and paper background, and thats what shaped my understanding. No solo, no raid and uber crap, but plain, simple, old fashioned band of adventrers.

All this uber stuff for max level chars... it already bugged me that those profession hats were limited for far too high levels. Eq2 never had much diversity in armor, and that hasnt changed in 3+ years at all, alas, only the same 5 armor models with different tints. *shrug* There would be so many possibiities to make armor, helmets and whatnot, and 3 years are enough to add more, but it all the same stale and similar looking trash. Bah. Yeah, limit it to uber high end ppl... But dont wonder when you STAY in the 250k corner forever with that philosophy. What a loss.

One of the biggest problems on EQ2 always was it is stuck in EQ1 ideology too much. All quests and items which are not crap require a lot of planning, preparation and coordination, usually with a lot of ppl. I never seen a game so against anything spontaneous than EQ2. I like the game, but thats really something that always bugged me, and its EXACTLY that which keeps it in this low subscription corner. It had so much potential, but never fully used it, catering "professional" gamers far too much. Its really a pity since games like WOW and LOTRO are far too light-headed for me to catch me. But this idea just log in and start to have fun is an idea the devs of EQ2 never really understood, and nothing I read about RoK tells me its going to change. So the reality is, as Bezado said, some very few will get even more uber and the masses will gape in awe. From afar. But what do I complain. The gap between the rich and average is widening in RL, so why should a spare time fun be different. *shrug*