Hmm I just heard my friends going all crazy and their entire guild quitting EQ2 because of the latest patch notes.

They were saying the PvP is killed with the new patch notes since there is no loss in dying :O And that there are aggro meters in PvE which makes it feel cheesy and oversimplified.

Is this all true?

this patch was on the test server for *months*

eq2.wikia.com/wiki/LU51

I dont see any complaints at the EQ2Flames forums about the patch

www.eq2flames.com/

Considering everyone uses agro meters in WoW raids and noone complains about it I don't see how anyone cares about that.

PvP hardly attracts anyone to EQ2. So whatever the changes to pvp will only effect a tiny portion of the playerbase on that particular server.

Plus I agree with the others. Threat meters have been used in WoW and having a UI option shouldnt ever be game breaking.

Hate meter is actually useful . players will get used to it .

My problem with eq2 is population .

Honestly, I could care less. PvP killed MMO's. All the games do now is cater to them. If PvP is dead in EQ2, then the devs get a standing ovation from me. Its about damned time someone stood up to the PvP'rs.

EQ2 was mortally wounded when they added the Legends of Norrath, it was given a death blow with Station Cash, it is dead, SOE just doesn't want to admit it.

Its not dead yet but they're certainly trying. The population on AB is the healthiest but there are still level ranges that are almost dead. 50-60 and 70-80 are painful.

I do not play on the PvP server, so i have no idea what they feel about the changes, but as others have said, PvP is a rather small portion of the EQ2 player base.  So no, it did not kill EQ2. I have not heard any negative reactions about the Hate meters on my server.

As for Station cash and LoN killing EQ2, again, not true. It does not appear to have changed the overall numbers of players.  People that have left, or claim to have left, have done so on principle, not on any ingame issues that have occured. Most people seem to embrace the LoN stuff at this point, and the station cash isn't even talked about ingame.  Most people just don't care. it's a non-issue.

I'm back playing. I played at release and quit in disgust and am back and enjoying it alot more. SOE always seems to be a reactive company instead of a proactive one. At least that is the case since EQ1. Their first trys don't bring in the numbers and they try a bunch of new stuff and tick off the original player base in the process. Most of what you mentioned doesn't seem to be an issue as was already mentioned. The biggest complaint I ever hear about EQ2 and that I put forth myself pre-EoF is that it's not "EQey" enough. They had to back track and bring back the gods, bring back certain starting areas like Neriak that everyone missed and bring back Kunark which was EQ1's greatest expansion. I would still love for them to make Freeport not suck since it was such a cool place in the original game and I'm not fond of the whole world being blasted into islands but overall it is vastly improved since release. You just don't get a second chance to grab huge numbers after a less than exciting release.

I havn't heard any bad things about the patch in the chat at all???

Stationscash upset a lot of players (including me) but this is not anything to be upset about. Maybe for PvP players but PvP have always been EQ2s weakest point and attracted very few players.

Someone talked about Legends of Norrath, but the only upsetting thing about it is that SOE uses resources for that junk, it doesn't really affect the game. If some moron buy a lot of boosters to get a mount or something earlier than he would in the game is actually not affecting gameplay at all.

Originally posted by Moirae

Honestly, I could care less. PvP killed MMO's. All the games do now is cater to them. If PvP is dead in EQ2, then the devs get a standing ovation from me. Its about damned time someone stood up to the PvP'rs.

Wow? Really. I always thought it was quite the opposite as an original UO player. I also think poorly of carebears in most MMOs. Take EVE for instance. Its a dark, cold fucking game. Its supposed to be brutal and harsh, yet year by year carebear complaints continuely nerf and hamper the dynamic pvp game mechanics.

Honestly, you can play ALL KINDS of PVE games. Most EQ2 servers, as I recal from a couple years ago are PVE servers, why the whine?

every one blames every company for killing there game.

Originally posted by Revthought

Originally posted by Moirae

Honestly, I could care less. PvP killed MMO's. All the games do now is cater to them. If PvP is dead in EQ2, then the devs get a standing ovation from me. Its about damned time someone stood up to the PvP'rs.

 

Wow? Really. I always thought it was quite the opposite as an original UO player. I also think poorly of carebears in most MMOs. Take EVE for instance. Its a dark, cold fucking game. Its supposed to be brutal and harsh, yet year by year carebear complaints continuely nerf and hamper the dynamic pvp game mechanics.

 

Honestly, you can play ALL KINDS of PVE games. Most EQ2 servers, as I recal from a couple years ago are PVE servers, why the whine?

Nah I'll have to agree with Moirae on this one, all the new games lately are PvP first and foremost. EQ2 is the only decent game with a huge amount of PvE other then WoW, and WoW STILL has no flippin' housing, is they would just make this feature available I'd play it. :/

Anyway the point is there's an unbalance right now, to much focus on PvP. But give it a year or two and we should start seeing a shift back towards PvE and *gasp* roleplay and sandbox elements like focus on economies, crafting, player cities and all that stuff. I know, I know we'll have this in PvP games too but there are those of us not interested in any world PvP.

*sighs* Honey, people always say that all the time. Just ignore it. They're just moaning because they don't like something. Every other game does it too.

The game is still going strong from what I can tell...despite the idiots that keep saying the cards games and the in game store killed it.

wow I didnt know WoW used threat meters... talk about dumbing everything down :(

Originally posted by Cynthe

Originally posted by Revthought

Originally posted by Moirae

Honestly, I could care less. PvP killed MMO's. All the games do now is cater to them. If PvP is dead in EQ2, then the devs get a standing ovation from me. Its about damned time someone stood up to the PvP'rs.

 

Wow? Really. I always thought it was quite the opposite as an original UO player. I also think poorly of carebears in most MMOs. Take EVE for instance. Its a dark, cold fucking game. Its supposed to be brutal and harsh, yet year by year carebear complaints continuely nerf and hamper the dynamic pvp game mechanics.

 

Honestly, you can play ALL KINDS of PVE games. Most EQ2 servers, as I recal from a couple years ago are PVE servers, why the whine?

 

Nah I'll have to agree with Moirae on this one, all the new games lately are PvP first and foremost. EQ2 is the only decent game with a huge amount of PvE other then WoW, and WoW STILL has no flippin' housing, is they would just make this feature available I'd play it. :/

Anyway the point is there's an unbalance right now, to much focus on PvP. But give it a year or two and we should start seeing a shift back towards PvE and *gasp* roleplay and sandbox elements like focus on economies, crafting, player cities and all that stuff. I know, I know we'll have this in PvP games too but there are those of us not interested in any world PvP.

Sandbox is good. Eve is a great example of this. Player production and "crafting" is very robust and can be difficult to do. Indeed, it often requires a logistics chain that involves hundreds and sometimes thousands of people. The thing about it though is that the production/"crafting"/ industry side of the game is fueled by pvp. People lose ships and modules by the thousands per day. This makes the demand for player made goods skyrocket.

Not only that, but that logistics chain I'm talking about is the source of end-game. You need to control vast regions of lawless space in order to pull out minerals from the astroid belts and from the moons. You need region soveriegnty to build super capitals, manufacture drugs, etc. So to do this corporations (guilds) band together to form alliances--some 10,000 players strong. Said alliances then fight huge wars over null sec. Which feeds back into demand for player owned goods.

The problem with EQ2 crafting (I'm not even touching the original dumbing down of crafting that caused be to leave the game) is that the demand for crafted items is somewhat low. Sure their is demand for food and drink... BUT the best weapons and armor aren't crafted pieces, and you don't "lose" any weapons or armor when you die. Ergo the demand for crafted weapons and armor is bottlenecked.

The same can be said of crafting house furnishings. Only a small number of people actually use player housing, and smaller still are the number who are serious about it. This means there just aren't a lot of people looking to by the sweet bed you crafted.

As for the issue of most games being pvp games, I don't think that's entirely accurate. There are a lot of PVE games out there. In fact, I'd actually argue that *most* new games are pve centered with PvP tacked on.

Its not the first game SOE killed and It won't be the last.

There's no going back after releasing station cash, it was the final blow for EQ series. Now they will try to prolong this last milking procces as much as they can.

Game will slowly fade away until its nothing but some stubborn people that are afraid to leave it because they've invested so much time into it. We'll see the effects over long periods of  time, EQ2 will receive a steady decline. You won't be able to feel it now, but you'll definitely feel it on the next expansion.

Considering MxO has less than 5k subs and only single developer looking out for it, I'd say on a technical standpoint, EQ2 will never die.

SOE kills everything they touch...just gotta accept that fact and either play their consistently-being-dumbed-down MMOs that will never die anytime soon or move along.

I just love how when a major patch comes out with a portion devoted to PvP/PK like adding a new PvP/PK skill or a new PvP/PK weapon. The PvPers/PKer immidiatly cry foul and threaten to quit the game. It happens in every MMO that I have played that has PvP/PK enabled in it. PvPers/PKers always want class balance skill balance and some uber item that allows for some really wicked PVp/PK fights but never suggest to the developers on what they want or how to immplament the ideas into the game without being too Over Powered.

I dont play on the pvp server myself, but the regular server I am on has been very populated lately, think people are realizing that station cash is just for purchasing cosemtic items, and that the quest rewards and faction items and raid drops are better looking and the fear has died down that station cash was going to be some type of thing that would allow people to buy weapons, and items that required you to enjoy the game, gladly that is not the case.

Originally posted by Revthought

 

The same can be said of crafting house furnishings. Only a small number of people actually use player housing, and smaller still are the number who are serious about it. This means there just aren't a lot of people looking to by the sweet bed you crafted.

 

I'm a carpenter and you are underestimating the housing/decorating community by a long shot. I know what to make that sells easily and for a good amount and my character lives quite well. :)

While it's true a lot of the other crafts don't get much love not everyone gets sweet drops or raids. I've never seen a raid and don't plan on ever seeing one so I do in fact support my fellow weapons and armor crafters.. There's a whole casual community that a lot of people don't generally think of that will most probably be the ones supporting the game until it's death bed.

Originally posted by akiira69

I just love how when a major patch comes out with a portion devoted to PvP/PK like adding a new PvP/PK skill or a new PvP/PK weapon. The PvPers/PKer immidiatly cry foul and threaten to quit the game.

Best part of the patch is that it stopped players from zoning out of a zone once engaged in PvP combat.   Seems like the only ones crying are the people who can't run away now.  The threat meter is also a nice touch.  -Invaderzim(Templar) Nagafen.

Originally posted by Cynthe

Originally posted by Revthought

 

The same can be said of crafting house furnishings. Only a small number of people actually use player housing, and smaller still are the number who are serious about it. This means there just aren't a lot of people looking to by the sweet bed you crafted.

 

 

I'm a carpenter and you are underestimating the housing/decorating community by a long shot. I know what to make that sells easily and for a good amount and my character lives quite well. :)

While it's true a lot of the other crafts don't get much love not everyone gets sweet drops or raids. I've never seen a raid and don't plan on ever seeing one so I do in fact support my fellow weapons and armor crafters.. There's a whole casual community that a lot of people don't generally think of that will most probably be the ones supporting the game until it's death bed.

ha I agree, if you think only a small number of people actually use player housing you are seriously missing out.  I consider the player housing in eq2 to be one of the best features of the game.  You want to do something for fun go to town and start visiting houses.  You will be amazed at the effort people have put into them.

I love my house and have bought a ton of stuff to decorate it as well as done collections and hunted down quests for that special rare house item.