looks like this MMO Sale is only on US & UK pages of  direc2drive. US page has code joker, UK page has code batman. rest of eu has nothing there it seems :(

yes it should work with vista. worked for some years for me before i switched to win 7

Last expansion was a 2nd expansion with same level cap. it was a bit like eof in which the same things happened.  The raids in the 2nd expansion at same cap are harder than in the first one, which usually leads to raidleaders looking more at raidsetups and starting to min/max wherever possible to maybe kill a bit more.

This was even noticable in normal instance groups when  you see players just asking for specific classes even for the simplest instances. But especially for instance groups the problem is mostly the players that create them, i had much better runs with non optimal groupsetups, than in some of those perfect setup groups. (sometimes these perfect groups were that bad that my pally was highest dps in a troub, illu, wiz, group)

I was a guild leader of a casual raid guild for a long time, and especially for this sort of guild i prefer reliable players over the player with the right class. If i know i got a ranger or a necro (or any other class that is not on the most wanted list atm), but the player is doing his job good and he is a regular raider and knows his class then i prefer him over assassin x (who probably cannot even do half of the dps that he should do with his class and equip).

playing on the busiest server has also some disadvantages. the busier servers have most performance issues, like database lag, combat lag... especially in the times after expansions this can get really bad. But also seen posts about performance problems on these servers in between the expansions.

performance causes most problems in raids this and the bigger competition for contested raidmobs is why most high end guilds are on less populated servers.

Hard to say whats worse for a new player, the problems with groups or  problems with performance. But I guess people should just decide for them self what they prefer.

Originally posted by elocke

Normally I would agree with all of you. Enjoy the game as you level yadda yadda yadda. I did that with LOTRO, and still can. I did that with WoW, after having 3 max level characters it's beginning to get old. Was great fun. Then I tried the same with EQ2.

...

I got bored so fast, that leveling became a chore. I like the music, I like the zones, but something was/is missing from this game that I can't seem to put my finger on. I stopped playing my wizard once he got to 60 because I just felt like every level was more of the same, and the quests didn't really introduce me to each zone they just kind of ..threw me at random places with static placed spawns.

i guess it has to do with the order in which you played the games. after playing both eq2 and wow for years i felt exactyl teh same about LOTRO when it launched (and still do)  like you did about eq2. i cannot point out what exactly what caused it but i did not feel like beeing a path of a living world, it was more like following a preset path to me, which became boring fast. (i still have a lifetime sub for it, but never got past lvl 30 there, and i tried it a few times with longer times in between)

most players are in high level areas or in their guildhall. also with new expansion releasing next week a lot people are taking a short break now. next week will be more busy.

anyway runnyeye is a nice server (i am on it too) but its not one of the busiest servers so there might be servers where it is easier to get groups in lower level ranges.

about areas to go to at lvl 20: there is nektulos forest, thundering steppes and butcherblock mountains for that level range. http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/Zones_By_Level shows a list of zones and their intended level range

i was in beta a long time, and i can still remember how much a mess the game was, when i originally got into beta (was more than a year before final launch). progress was really slow they kept revamping things all the time.

Most of teh final version that went live was revamped in the last 6 months before release, which most likely was the cause for the high amount of bugs and problems at launch since there was just not enough time to do everything before release.  In the end also some people form soe were helping to finish as much as possible.

Release date was that early since Sigil had no more money, no idea how the exact deal with SOE was when they took over publishing rights from MS (but i doubt SOE payed too much for it ).

As was said before SOE payed a rather big dev team after they took over Sigil, and over time when they noticed that they cannot keep subscriber numbers high enough to fund that team they started cutting positions. I doubt any other company would have done this much different.

The question is why it took so long to fix things that they lost that many players to start with, and there might be different causes like the game was really a so big mess that it took that long time, or that the devs that worked on it  were not good/experienced enough, or maybe also wrong prioritizing of work resources in management. No Idea whats the truth here. I just doubt any other company would have made a really successful mmo out of vanguard after this release.

Anyway i don't want to defend SOE, but i personally think most problems of vanguard are caused by the mess that happened during beta with nearly all  parts of the game being done twice or even more often, which used up a lot time and money resources that were missing in the end for polishing the game. Which means the management during development failed and the bad launch ruined most chances for the game.

In times before WoW you could maybe have turned the game around, but if you look at all recent releases in the post WoW time then they all have in common, that you need a good release to have a chance to gather a big enough playerbase and stay successful.  Most games with bad/failed releases end up on life support rather fast, there is no longer a real second chance for any mmo.

Originally posted by Zorvan01

I realize that. However, EA doesn't allow things like that. EA shuts shit down without warning or with very little when they decide it's a bust. Earth and Beyond would be a prime example. As well as The Sims Online. So I was only offering an alternative theory as to what they could be trying to accomplish. Doesn't mean you aren't correct in your assumption.

Yes EA has a great record for shutting down MMOS, there was also Motorcity Online. Also the different UO sequels that allways got canceled in developement.

the only successfull mmos that EA has or had  got developed by other companies that were bought by EA.

yes sk got a big boost with tso and are currently one of the preferred tank classes even for raids. guards lost most of their outstanding position till tso, pally and berserker are about in same postilion like they were before.

like always with these fotm classes is that this might change with next expansion and then another tank class might be the preferred one.

Personally i would always take tanking experience over being a special class that is currently the best tank. A good tank knows how to play his class for the best results and thats the only thing that really matters.

if you want to join raids in endgame then its usually best to have a non tank class as main char. in eq2 raids consist of 24 players and you usually need 2 tanks in a raid, and each guild usually tries to keep these tanks static.

From time to time there might be openings for tanks in raids, but thats rare and usually its easier to get into raiding with other chars. generally i think the most wanted classes in raids are chanters (coercer, illusionist), healers and bards(dirge, troubadour)  think then next on list is a mix of different dps classes that changes a bit with time rogues (brigand, swashbuckler) are allways wanted for debuffs, wizards and assassins tend to be highest dps in single target fights, warlocks are highest in multi mob fights, rangers and summoners usually rank a bit lower on the desired lists (good players of these classes with good equip can do nice dps and should be able to get spots, but they are often not the primary classes guilds are looking for if they want to fill dps spots).

for grouping i would say any class should be ok, but bards chanters and healers tend to be the ones finding group spots most easy again.  usually a group consists of a tank one healer one chanter or bard and 3 dps classes. for some hard zones its sometimes better to take 2 healers or both a chanter and a bard.

for melee generally assasins are on top, but swashies are not abd too.  a good swashy that really knows his class can easily beat an unexperienced assasin, even with same quality equip.

the top swashy in our guild allways gave the top assasins a good fight in the dps parses.

anyway in a good raid you want both and also a brigand or 2.

just wanted to say that at least in some eu countries these eula and tos have no legal base since you don't have to sign them before buying the game.
cause of this i also have to sign the extra license clauses for microsoft student licenses before buying the license.
so as far as i know you would have a good chance for legal action in these countries.

Originally posted by Varknyn

Originally posted by Xasapis

NCsoft support suggested you remove your security software? Interesting. 

I'm still waiting on an answer for my own query.

You must be new to PC gaming.

Game of all kinds have been asking this for years, it's extremely common and nothing new.

Anti-virus programs and firewalls can sometimes interfere with installation of programs as well as the operations of certain online games and programs.

If this is "interesting" to you, then you really need to get a clue.

its true that a lot games use the disable anti virus software during game installation in case of errors as one of the standard answers for installation problems.

disabling firewall temporary for a short problem diagnosis if the problem is caused by firewall is also commonly used, but asking you to completely remove firewall or anti virus is not usual. 

if you are connected directly to the Internet (no local router with NAT) this just means that you really want to be infected by some virus/worm... especially if you did not install all windows updates your computer might bge compromised in less than 5 minutes ( http://it.slashdot.org/firehose.pl?id=771909&op=view ), and even with all updates you are never  sure how many security holes are still open that noone officially knows about.

so if you have no router with NAT then best never disable the firewall while connected to the internet (and if you really have to make sure your system is as up to date as possible), or you will soon be a part of a botnet.

as far as i know the only thing that it will have in common with pre nge swg will be that its starwars.

what i heared the game will be class/level based, with a lot story line things. there won't be a complex crafting system and no real player cities, not much freedom in building your own char from different skills. (not sure if all infos i got are still true, especially on crafting and player cities but i still think these are no big priority)

in short i expect a wow like game with more story orientation than wow has (probably lotro would be better comparison).

might still be a good game so i am interested in how it turns out, but it definitely will not offer the freedom of pre nge swg. (but i never expected that from Bioware they were allways good at telling stories in their games and having the game formed by stories limits freedom for what influence players have on the gameworld)

Originally posted by Gameloading

Originally posted by miagisan

because in other games, guild get backstabbed and destroyed, it doesn't affect or shape the game like EVE, which territory control is the game. This itself will change the way null sec is handled and played.

 

Actually there are plenty of mmorpg's with territory control.

Also metalhead, I'd like to see your sources that EVE Online is the 3rd biggest mmorpg in NA/EU.

not an eve player myself, tried it a few times but never really got into it. but what makes this news really huge is that all players in eve are in the same universe, there is not different servers which have an average of 20-30k players on each of them, there is one big universe that has the 200-250k eve players all in it.

so if one of the big alliances in eve dies that means that it has effects on territory control all eve players, and not only on the players of one server like in other mmos. and even in big mmos like wow there are less players per server than in eve.

i never read an official statement saying that the original code was lost. but that doesn't mean that it did not exist.

what i can remember heareing a lot was that there is no way to roll back and tkeep the newer expansions combined with the pre cu/pre nge code. which might be a possible thing sinde the expansion was built based on nge.

as a programmer myself (not in game developement), i am near sure they still have the old code somewhere in a versioning system (every software company uses some version controll, you cannot do bigger projects without it), but i am also near sure that now its too late to make a pre nge server. they would need a seperate dev team for that, and i doubt that there would be enough players on either variant of swg after that to support 2 dev teams.

there is no real indicator anywhwere that about the point if SOE alone is making losses or wins.

Yes its true that SOE lost a lot subscribers since the time when EQ was at population max and SWG just launched, but that doesn't mean they are making losses. i think all games that they developed got them their devcosts back (matrix and vanguard were not developed by soe they were just bought by them after failed launches, so i doubt they payed that much for these 2 games) and i think that you can keep these games that they still have running at a profit without making losses if you use an appropriately sized team.

having 3 games in developemenet is actually a good strategy in my eyes cause without new launches they won't suddenly pull more subscribers out of their hat. the 3 announced games in developement are also not all aimed at same population group Free Realms is aimed at kids/families, agency seems to be more shooter like and dc online is a comic based mm on a major ip. I have no idea how these games will sell yet, so i guess we have to wait their launches before we can say if these will get soe more subscribers or if they will hurt sonys finances in the end.

I also looked up last the financial report from sony's last quarter (dez 31), it shows that the game section was one fo the few sections that made a small profit.  with ps3 probably still sold at a loss (at least analysts on the web think it is) the profit of the software was most likely higher.  which still doesn't give more  than a hint for SOE's performance, but i doubt that you can find a more detailed breakdown of Sony finances anywhere. my personal guess is that soe is still making profit but the profit is lower than at the good old eq years, and they are hoping that the new games will give them a betetr performance soon.

Originally posted by Guillermo197

Originally posted by Davryn

I don't see anything they're offering for Station Cash that would make me want to spend my real cash to get it. I play EQ2 from time to time, and this isn't going to get me to stop hopping on and playing my Fury every once in a while. Unless it gets obnoxious and SOE does a lot of in-game item advertising and such. I don't wanna log in and have some GM message spam every 15 minutes telling me to buy something.

 

It started all innocent with Legends of Norrath and look what it is today. The loot cards aren't just fluff anymore!

You cant turn off the feature to prevent you from constantly downloading LoN crap patches almost every day.

They spam regularly ingame in chat about Legends of Norrath events and loot card stuff.

 

It's just a matter of time till Station Cash will be turned into a fully fledged Item Mall with everything in it!

And you can count on they gonna advertise that ingame!

Cheers

i don't agreee with the item shop and also not happy about the lon loot items, but as far as i can see i there was nothing from lon yet that was really needed to play eq2 (been playing eq2 all the time and never bought any lon card).

the advertising in game for lon can be a pain (luckily they don't do it that muuch on eu servers anymore or at least not at the times that i play), but the patches did not affect me since i usually start the game not through the patcher but instead direct with the Everquest2.exe, this way you can log in without updating lon and you will only get a message when your actual game client needs to patched.

i really hope they don't start selling things that go further than what they do now in the itemshop, but if it stays with xp potions, housepets and some clothes for apearance then i could live with this. (other than beeing angry on them that they actually did this without telling us first).

adding itemshops to existing games is really no good idea, if you really want an itemshop in a game then make a new game for it.

Originally posted by UNATCOII

Well, SoE finally kicked itself with the RMT update yesterday. Having promised that no RMT will touch the non-exchange servers, we had a surprise yesterday -- welcome to F2P with a damn paid subscription icing.

It's no wonder why folks HATE SoE with a passion.

No warning, and an excuse that the ingame survey dictated this move. Ah, it had to be programmed w-a-y more in advanced than one week that survey existed.

Station Trash is the new name for it. Pass it on!

personally i am very unhappy about the adding of the itemshop, and how they did it in a stealth action.

but on otherside i don't agree with  itemshops = RMT, for me RMT involves a waythat players can sell other players things and  earn money (and itemshops usually don't allow that). but that still changes nothing to the fact that this is just another greedy way for soe to earn more money.

i agree with the idead of having itemshops  in F2P games to allow developers to earn some money, and if teh implementation is done in a way that you also can live without spending money. But itemshops in a p2p game is just pure greed.

quests are neither good or bad in my opinnion, its the implementation that can be good or bad.  for most people quests are a basic thing in rpg and so also in mmos.

quests and their perception changed a lot since the start of the mmos, in the begin each game had a few real quests that required a lot effort to be finished. but now most quests are just simple tasks like kill 10 wolves, or bring this item to that NPC, so most quests today require near to 0 thinking and you just have to follow an arrow on your minimap to find the spot where you have to go and then mndless killing of some enemies that in most games pose near to no challenge.

So basically most challenge of quests got lost in the last years and additionally most games went the way of wow where quests are the only viable way to level (yes could still just kill mobs and ignore quests but then you will be a lot slower than when you do quests).

i think these 2 developments combined lead to the point that many older mmo players get bored with questing and see it as grinding quests now.

what i personally would like to see is:

*) a differentiation between real quests and tasks/missions/writs or however you want to call these simple 10 minutes quests that are flooding todays mmos.

*) a dynamic mission system to replace the current boring simple quests, make world more dynamic. maybe at one time the gnolls want to attack the city, so people get tasks to kill the attacking gnolls, destroy the supplies... that event lasts some days and once enough of these missions got completed the gnolls retreat, and then the city has to restock supplies and people get missions to get food by killing animals...

*) additionally there should be big quests that require real effort and thinking, people should not be able to solve these just by following the arrows on their minimap. (yes i know that the spoiler sites will have walkthroughs for these soon enough, but the first people still have to work on these and people that want to solve these themself can still do it later on too). there is not the need for a huge amount of these quests, i think about 100 such quests can be enough for the start of a game, and then add 1-2 every few months. also a big part of these should probably require grouping for at least parts of these quests.