I jumped on the EQ F2P launch this weekend.  Here are some observations of my first weekend's experiences on the new Vox server.

I still have the game installed from the 10th anniversary free month.  But, the patcher (LaunchPad 1, I think) wouldn't update to the new version.  I had to download the newest LaunchPad (4) and repatch everything.  The actual patching time was pretty good, even on my outdated PC (I built this machine in 99 in order to be able to play EQ in the first place) on a mediocre DSL connection.  But there's only been a couple of expansions since I last patched the game, so my experience may not be typical.

When I logged in, the zoning took far longer than I remember.  Loading screens pop up, and there's no indication of activity on the network or on the hard drive.  I've sat through the entire loading song 3 times before the network kicks up, the hard drive flickers and I'm in a new zone.  Coming back to EQ from newer games really tests my patience.

New characters at the F2P or Silver levels do not have the option to start anywhere except in Cresent Reach.  I simply skipped this, went to PoK, rebound myself and took the Qeynos book to start playing.

Romping around in North Qeynos, Qeynos Hills, Blackburrow and the Karanas was fun, even though most of these places were essentially deserted.  The Cresent Reach zone was filled with people, and the old machine really had difficulty with the number of people there.  I assume that the choice to stay there is their loss, as the old newbie zones are still amazingly fun.

On Saturday, I got disconnected twice.  I've been playing LotRO (on the same machine) for about 8 months and have never gotten disconnected.   A friend I was playing with also got disconnected at least once.   Then, SoE had to take the Vox server down for 'an emergency patch' -- no details provided.

Finally, when I logged off, the game wants to take you to a webpage trying to upsell you to a gold membership.  This is a painfully slow process, easily 10 minutes after the 30 second timer elapses and the game starts to unload itself.  My browser (firefox) was already running in the background, so it wasn't starting a new program.  What actually took it so long, I'm not sure.  After an hour or so of post gaming browsing, I turned the computer off, and this took easily four or five times the normal time to power off the system.  I suspect that EQ still has major memory leaks and doesn't allocate/deallocate memory in a Window-approved way.

My overall consensus is that Everquest is an amazing game, undermined by a lackluster software implementation and inferior corporate IT practices, particularly change management.  Despite my (and SoE's) technical difficulties, I can still enjoy the experience.

I guess I'm fortunate that I have a newer machine, I didn't have any of the issues you mentioned. What did bother me that camping out of a character prompted that website to load for wanting me to upgrade, which is fine, I feel like a small advertisement on logout is OK for a F2P game of this caliber. However it did not do this on exiting the game, it did this on going back to character select so as you mentioned it kicked me out of the game and loaded up the webpage a big issue for anyone running slower machines as you mentioned. 

I'll play the role of SOE advocate.  The Thursday patch was a huge change and required some serious coding and technical expertise to pull it all off. SOE also swapped out all of the server hardware. The servers are brand-spankin' new.  The transition was seamless. Allow me to type that word once more. Seamless. heh
 

The servers went up on Friday and the game was perfectly playable, in fact most people have no cause to bitch and moan other than they enjoy being malcontents and pain-in-the-asses.

I got disconnect one time when the Stromm server crashed. This on the same day of the patch.  I'd say SOE hit a home run and the folks working there did an awesome job.


Account and password login problems.The process is fiddly and account info can be hard to access. SOE was hacked and the world heard about it. The NYT's and Washington Post ran multiple articles detailing the hacking and subsequent SOE misques. The whole industry is watching SOE. Lawyers and gamers. SOE can't win here.

Originally posted by Mendel

I jumped on the EQ F2P launch this weekend.  Here are some observations of my first weekend's experiences on the new Vox server.

I still have the game installed from the 10th anniversary free month.  But, the patcher (LaunchPad 1, I think) wouldn't update to the new version.  I had to download the newest LaunchPad (4) and repatch everything.  The actual patching time was pretty good, even on my outdated PC (I built this machine in 99 in order to be able to play EQ in the first place) on a mediocre DSL connection.  But there's only been a couple of expansions since I last patched the game, so my experience may not be typical.

When I logged in, the zoning took far longer than I remember.  Loading screens pop up, and there's no indication of activity on the network or on the hard drive.  I've sat through the entire loading song 3 times before the network kicks up, the hard drive flickers and I'm in a new zone.  Coming back to EQ from newer games really tests my patience.

New characters at the F2P or Silver levels do not have the option to start anywhere except in Cresent Reach.  I simply skipped this, went to PoK, rebound myself and took the Qeynos book to start playing.

Romping around in North Qeynos, Qeynos Hills, Blackburrow and the Karanas was fun, even though most of these places were essentially deserted.  The Cresent Reach zone was filled with people, and the old machine really had difficulty with the number of people there.  I assume that the choice to stay there is their loss, as the old newbie zones are still amazingly fun.

On Saturday, I got disconnected twice.  I've been playing LotRO (on the same machine) for about 8 months and have never gotten disconnected.   A friend I was playing with also got disconnected at least once.   Then, SoE had to take the Vox server down for 'an emergency patch' -- no details provided.

Finally, when I logged off, the game wants to take you to a webpage trying to upsell you to a gold membership.  This is a painfully slow process, easily 10 minutes after the 30 second timer elapses and the game starts to unload itself.  My browser (firefox) was already running in the background, so it wasn't starting a new program.  What actually took it so long, I'm not sure.  After an hour or so of post gaming browsing, I turned the computer off, and this took easily four or five times the normal time to power off the system.  I suspect that EQ still has major memory leaks and doesn't allocate/deallocate memory in a Window-approved way.

My overall consensus is that Everquest is an amazing game, undermined by a lackluster software implementation and inferior corporate IT practices, particularly change management.  Despite my (and SoE's) technical difficulties, I can still enjoy the experience.

I had to stop reading after you made it known you are using a Commodore 64 to play the game and then complained about zone loading times with a mediocore DSL connection.  I dont have time for your silly rant.  Sorry.

Originally posted by TyvolusNext

Originally posted by Mendel

<removed for brevity>.

I had to stop reading after you made it known you are using a Commodore 64 to play the game and then complained about zone loading times with a mediocore DSL connection.  I dont have time for your silly rant.  Sorry.

The point is twofold.  Zoning is slower than it was on my initial 19.2 dialup, and zoning is far slower than many of its competitors. (LotRO and PWI in the last year).

And before you complain about my PC, I'd like you to experience all the medical conditions that have drained my finances.  It is what I have and what I can afford for now.

Originally posted by Mendel

Originally posted by TyvolusNext

Originally posted by Mendel

.

I had to stop reading after you made it known you are using a Commodore 64 to play the game and then complained about zone loading times with a mediocore DSL connection.  I dont have time for your silly rant.  Sorry.

The point is twofold.  Zoning is slower than it was on my initial 19.2 dialup, and zoning is far slower than many of its competitors. (LotRO and PWI in the last year).

And before you complain about my PC, I'd like you to experience all the medical conditions that have drained my finances.  It is what I have and what I can afford for now.

Fair enough.  But, then knowing that you have a PC dating back to 1999, for whatever legit reasons that may be -- why would you complain about the game side, when the issues are clearly on your end ? 

My crappy PC didn't contribute to the decision to limit starting cities to Cresent Reach, or the inability of the old patcher to function, nor whatever caused SoE to take a new server down after less than 24 hours of operation.  SoE has a long history of mishandling expansions, new servers and network connectivity.   This major revision really hasn't shown me that they haven't learned from their experiences.

Many players on the official forums have complained of massive lag.  I'm pretty sure I'm worse off than most everyone else, but why is it other games can perform far better and this product can't?  I believe that indicates an inferior implementation compared to their competitors.

Too bad, because I feel that the game mechanics are superior to other games, even after 13 years.  But the old problems haven't been fixed, the product hasn't been improved.

I really hope that SoE's next offering will show me something.

Originally posted by Mendel
Many players on the official forums have complained of massive lag.  I'm pretty sure I'm worse off than most everyone else, but why is it other games can perform far better and this product can't?  I believe that indicates an inferior implementation compared to their competitors.

you say are using a selfbuilt computer from 1999, back when EQ supported Windows 95

a computer thats 13 years old

you say that that youve never been disconnected from LOTRO

yet, you never posted your system specs beyond stating your computer is old

do you even have 1 gig of memory ?

Id be very suprised if WOW could support your computer w better performance than EQ

Originally posted by Mendel

 SoE has a long history of mishandling expansions, new servers and network connectivity.   

No they dont.  In fact, they have a long history of the exact opposite.

SoE has a long history of some things (including engines that provide worse performance than you would expect) but they are actually above the curve with these sort of things.  A one hour downtime on a new server the day of a patch that made massive changes (and did not cause noteworthy downtime in itself) is actually a positive, not a negative.  Most companies this sort of patch is an all day affair.

Originally posted by Mendel

My crappy PC didn't contribute to the decision to limit starting cities to Cresent Reach, or the inability of the old patcher to function, nor whatever caused SoE to take a new server down after less than 24 hours of operation.  SoE has a long history of mishandling expansions, new servers and network connectivity.   This major revision really hasn't shown me that they haven't learned from their experiences.

Many players on the official forums have complained of massive lag.  I'm pretty sure I'm worse off than most everyone else, but why is it other games can perform far better and this product can't?  I believe that indicates an inferior implementation compared to their competitors.

Too bad, because I feel that the game mechanics are superior to other games, even after 13 years.  But the old problems haven't been fixed, the product hasn't been improved.

I really hope that SoE's next offering will show me something.

Vox was taken down due to the server getting overloaded, as the server far exceeded SOE's exectations.  Also their tutorial zone couldn't handle the influx of new players.  But that was fixed within 24 hours, the server has not been down since and the tutorial zones have been working fine since.

If you've played any MMO's during launch or re-launch of some sort, at least MMO's that people actually care to play, you would know the server going down or getting patched to fix bugs is normal.  I really don't know why you are worrying about what other people are reporting, we are talking about your computer and how old and lacking it is.  Don't bring other people into the discussion when you are using such an old computer hardware please. 

The problem is with your computer and yours only, nobody today expects to play any games with a 1999-built computer and have a good time with it.  A lot of things change in 13 years, especially when we are talking about technology.  Things change, whether you go along with it or not, things change.

As for F2P accounts starting in crescent reach only, there's a reason for it.  They've built a golden path, a Heroe's Journey, that works off Crescent Reach zone.  It's an optional quest path people can take, but it's a series of quests and missions that lead a brand new player throughout the game starting from level 1.  Players have given great feedback about it, some people really liked this new implementation that SOE did.  So all F2P accounts start in crescent reach.  This doesn't mean you can't zone into PoK, and then head to another classic racial starting town yourself.  You don't have to stay in Crescent Reach if you don't want to.

I will give it a try to see how it is now. I stopped after 1 or 2 extension after Plane of Power. I just hope there will be enough players to group.

I miss "Camp check" and "/ooc LFG" ^_^

Originally posted by Mardy

As for F2P accounts starting in crescent reach only, there's a reason for it.  They've built a golden path, a Heroe's Journey, that works off Crescent Reach zone.  It's an optional quest path people can take, but it's a series of quests and missions that lead a brand new player throughout the game starting from level 1.  Players have given great feedback about it, some people really liked this new implementation that SOE did.  So all F2P accounts start in crescent reach.  This doesn't mean you can't zone into PoK, and then head to another classic racial starting town yourself.  You don't have to stay in Crescent Reach if you don't want to.

The only real complaint that I have against the Crescent-Reach-as-the-only-starting-city option is that it impacts the Origin AA, which is important to warriors.  I'd much rather have my origin in Qeynos or Freeport -- the PoK book is much closer.  The initial burst of population in the tutorial and CR made it laggy for everyone, not just me.

/feedback SOE regarding options for selecting racial cities [now known as Origin location]. Simple fix - enable Origin resets at level 5. Why level 5? The [Origin] hotkey function is locked until level 5.

A week into the F2P launch, and I'm still hanging in.  But I'm realizing that this isn't the EverQuest that I remember.  Here are some further observations.

• Levels.  The majority of the population on the Vox server is now in their mid-50s.   Few, if any, people are waiting at a level eligible to raid the original dragons, Naggy and Vox.   Leveling is far easier now, which is a two-edged sword.  It is good if you want to play in high-level content.  But it is also bad if you are interested in revisiting favorite zones.  I wanted to go through PoP flagging to replay some of the interesting raids in the higher planes.  Originally, it took me over 3 years (into the Kunark expansion) to get my first character to level 50 (1999-2002)..

• Gear.  Gear is insanely plentiful.  Already my warrior has all stats over 200, and several were already maxxed at 255 before he reached 51 (and was eligible to start AAs for Planar Power).  I do not remember the exact date when my first character got all stats over 200 (buffed), but I'm pretty certain it would have been in mid-2004.

• Mercenaries.  Mercs are encouraging people to bypass important game aspects, such as learning how to play their characters in groups.   I've been trying to group with people ('cause mercs don't have fun), and can tell you almost every time I invite a 6th into the group, I have to ask them to release their merc so I can invite them.  The skill issue is also an issue with merc.  A cleric or wizard have soldier mercs to tank for them when they solo, so they aren't learning Defense.  I've even seen clerics using a healer merc in a group, and nuking themselves.  Sorry, cleric mana is supposed to be for healing group members.

• Classes.  There are very few of select classes.  Enchanters, rangers, bards and monks are in short supply.  There's a fair population of paladins and SKs and even berserkers.  I've seen very few druids, beastlords and necromancers, which surprised me a bit.  This unbalance of classes will make several raids difficult, if not outright impossible for many guilds.

• Tradeskills.  The rush to level has taken away the desire for players to craft items.  It is just now that common items are making their way into the bazaar.  I've yet to see Misty Thicket Picnics or items from other tradeskills.   The Defiant armor and other frequent drops have removed any need for blacksmithed or tailored armor which discourages people from those tradeskills.  There is free food and drink available from the anniversary vendors (which will eventually stop).  The world is populated with day-glow blue and green people with no real distinction between characters, due to the lack of Prismatic Dyes.  And few have enough space to carry stuff, because Hand Made Backpacks are rare.

• Social.  I'm rather pleased with this aspect, actually.  I've had to advise people several times that my group has been pulling thru their 'spot' for 2 hours when they wander in and fight a mob in place.  Many people have wanted to group, and a good number are using the LFG tool.  (Not so much the LFP aspect).  People have been cooperative in 'sharing' camps or not disrupting another person's camps.  I've seen many trains, and frequent apologies.  Maybe the Play Nice Policy of old has finally taken hold.

Originally posted by Mendel

some further observations

thank you for the helpful writeup

- Crafting

 I bet there are more people crafting than you think there are, getting to 60 requires less than an hour of work and if one has some extra coin then making skill 120-160 really isnt all that hard. My shaman skilled up making PoK skinspike potions and is currently at ~162 alchemy.

Baking and Blacksmithing both require a fair amount of special equipment and dedicated pack space but I suspect hardcore crafters are already beyond 240 skill in multiple disciplines. 

-Grouping

Mercs have made it possible for groups to survive bad pulls or afk healers or whatever else people once did to wipe groups. I consider this a good thing.

and can tell you almost every time I invite a 6th into the group, I have to ask them to release their merc so I can invite them. 

Make a macro. 

 /say please drop the merc, the team is full 

VOX has been up for 10 days. For goodness sakes, cut people some slack. They just want to join a group and have some fun.

More on Mercs.

At least two clerics in my guild have already accidentally specialized in evocation, due to their reliance on mercs to level.  Yes, it is easy to reset the specialization, but I'm wondering how many will actually do it.

Hey Mendel,

Sorry to hear about the expenditures. That sucks. Speaking of sucks; so does EQ :P That is, unless you are the tiny niche powergamer to whom SOE targets this game.

Brilliant thinking. Let's target a tiny micro niche audience instead of the multi-million person audience who would like to play EQ if SOE wasn't managing it so poorly.

Imagine a real-estate developer who creates thousands of homes each year but doesn't task anyone to market or sell those homes? Perhaps the company can stay in business (for now) by selling the newest homes to a niche market. But staying in business is a far cry from prospering or maximizing revenue.

I don't know any business or industry on the planet who so squanders its assets. Thirteen years may sound impressive, but I doubt it will make it to 20. And truly successful entities last 100+ years.

/waves Nadia. I think we may disagree here but it's still nice to see an old face :)

I thought about giving it a shot until I checked out their horrible F2P model. Not surprising though.

Further observations at the two week marker.

• Social - Camps.  Many of the glowing things I said after one week appear to have devolved.  There is a long standing tradition in EQ of honoring another person's / group's camp.  This seems to have been pushed to the wayside.  It is becoming more frequent to find a player, their pet and their mercenary simply roaming through a camp, fighting a mob in place,  When your camp only has 3 or 4 spawns, this quickly becomes annoying.  When someone says something to them, they simply ignore you.

• Social - LFG.  After a week where it wasn't uncommon to find 5+ people LFG in your level range, the number of people using the LFG tool appears to have diminished.  Now, I am happy to see a single player LFG when I want to build a group.  I'm still of the belief that 'Mercenaries don't have fun', it is increasingly difficult to find people to play with.  I've had several 6 people groups, but more often, it ends up as 2 people and 2 mercenaries.  While this is okay if a friend and I are farming cash, it does diminish the social aspect of the game, which has traditionally been one of EQ's strongest selling points.

• Mercenaries.  The more I experience these, both mine and other people's, the more I'm convinced that mercenaries are totally overpowered.   My warrior can't pull agro off a mercenary tank, even when I'm procing Puma, doing significant damage, dual wielding two weapons with procs and burning the Charge discipline.   The only times I've pulled agro from a single mercenary tank is when we had a 4 or 5 pull.  The cleric mercenaries are able to keep a group alive without draining past 50 mana as long as no more than 2 characters are taking damage at the same time.

• Content.  I wanted to show a friend the content from the Dragons of Norrath expansion, now that we're above 55th level.  The NPCs are there, and we both got the tasks that build faction in order to start experiencing the DoN main content.  We got some collect 5 silks from Lavaspinner's Lair.  Simple.  But the zone from Lavastorm to Lavaspinner's Lair was blocked by some rocks.   We went around to the main camp and tried to zone into Broodfields.  More rocks.  It appears that on the Vox server, the progression version of the Lavastorm zone was loaded, and all access to the DoN zones was blocked.  I'm Silver and my friend is Gold, and neither of us could get past the obstructions.  This has been /petitioned and /bugged by several people.  According to SoE's advertising, the Free-to-Play is supposed to allow access to all except the most recent expansion.