Originally posted by Tybrus8

And one more thing. I have heard when starting out to set AA exp gain to 50%? that still the way to go? thanks!

It really depends on what you want to get out of the leveling experience. 50% is okay if you want to level reasonably fast while still getting a decent amount of AAs. I found myself adjusting the slider depending on the situation - e.g. I would always move it  to 0% in dungeons. 

If you want to see as many zones as possible move it to 80-90% :D

There is no one way to go. It depends on what you personally want and I think it's quite easy to figure out what happens if you reduce/increase the %age.

Note that you can only adjust the slider if you are a gold member. Otherwise it will be set to 50% and you will not be able to change it.

Returning to Norrath has been on my mind for quite some time.

I left EQ1 in Sep 2002 without rancour and regret. Still hands down my best on-line gaming experience, bar none (on par with MUDs in mid-late 90s). I tried EQ2 in early 2007 but found the experience beautiful but sterile. The original starting zones esp. revamped Commons, were horrid and bland. I made a pilgrimage to Holly Windstalker's grave then quit.

Last year my desktop refused to POST. Recently, I enlisted the support of a friend to diagnose the problem. We both think a major component (motherboard) is dead. Hence, I made the decision to buy an early 2008 MacBook Pro to become a fully paid-up member of the Jobsian cult (typing this post on my iPad2).

Last night, I tried EQMac. 9 and a half years later is an awful long time. The nostalgia wore off almost immediately: abysmal, blocky graphics and bereft of players in classic starter zones. EC, NRo and Oasis empty and lifeless. Paid my respects to the Shady Swashbuckler, made my way to Oasis docks and camped out for the last time.

So why even entertain returning to EQ2? Judging by the posts, it is still alive, full of rich, engrossing and compelling content, and the graphics hold up well today.

I have a couple of VERY overdue professional assignments to get out of the way. Given that my perennial search for Oriental women is /facepalm and /fail until I emigrate to Asia-Pacific, and I've finally laid the ghosts of EQ to rest, this thread has provided me encouragement to resolve my desktop issues to dive back into Norrath to re-ignite that old school community feeling that has been missing for a very long time.

Any advice for servers for GMT probably late Friday evenings and early / late Saturday evenings (unless my Oriental outlook improves)?

I'm looking for a classic experience i.e. no twinking, no PL's, more dungeon crawling, with AAs at 90% or thereabouts.

Cheers!

I would recommend Antonia Bayle.. Sorry havent been on this site for a few days, or i would have answered sooner.

The community seems very social and friendly . . Finding a group at lower levels of actual low level people can be hard though. I was lucky I came back to the game with friends. Currently we are in our 40s (running Cazic Thule). We are finding that more and more people at this level expand out from soloing and start grouping up more and have been meeting new friends. We also have a great guild we are part of, and the guildies alot of times offer to come join us.

Now as for grouping. YOu will get people that will offer to come join you by mentoring down to your level. However the mentor system IMHO is so broken its crazy. They might as well just sit at their level and power level you. If you do go this route you could feasibly put the person on autofollow and let them play the game for you. Mentors get xp for coming down to your level. It allows them finish quests etc etc they might never got around to finishing. However abilities in no way scale down appropriately.

Hope this has helped some.

If you are ever on Antonia Bayle. Look me up my characters name is Oricius

O nice storie there :)

Infact the storie was soo good reading I re activated my account after 5 years of inactivity

however ingame I think all the old friends have wannish out in thin air.

Thanks Cybertrucker.

It would be good to meet up with a group of like-minded players, who want to explore content without being in an ungodly rush to 90th level.

I plan to play Troubadour this time round, and hope that there are enough low-level players on Freeport to support my preferred playing-style (exploration and dungeon-crawling).

It is a toss-up between AB and Freeport - however, reports mention more low-level players on Freeport. Also, I can no longer commit to a NA server due to GMT time-zone. During my EQ days, I played on a NA server and played a mixture of GMT and EST. The latter killed me, as I was often logging off at 03:00 - 04:00 in the morning.

First things first. I need to finish these damn assignments, then enlist my friend's support to properly diagnose which component has died, causing my desktop to fail to POST. So I expect sometime in April.

Cheers!

I just started playing EQ2 and frankly, I've experienced little of the game aspects OP discussed. Perhaps, that's just because I've only recently began my involvement in EQ2. But still, presently at level 6 - not to mention, on the game's supposedly most active server - I've encountered barren, desolate gaming areas.

Unfortunately I expect you'll likely quit shortly after reaching the level cap (if you make it that far).  I leveled in EQ2 recently, to cap, and I must say the game is just boring.  Another Copy of WoW believe it or not.  Each day your instances reset and you run them again... Each day you collect tokens to buy better gear...  Each day you grind out this or that to slightly improve your character... 

From reading your initial post it seems completely based on the fact you're playing with friends.  Take those friends out of the picture and you've lost just about all enjoyment you think EQ2 provides.  I expect if you took your same group into just about any other MMO you would enjoy it just the same.

The one thing I do like about EQ2 is the AA system.  It provides another way to advance your character AND a way to play the game with friends while staying equal to eachother in levels.  Like you said, if you want to play one night and your friend or group is not available... Turn experience off and work on your AA.  By the time I hit 75 (I think thats cap right? or is it higher?) I had less than half of my AA's and that was with my 50% AA bar on 24/7.

Anyway, i'm glad you're enjoying the stay, but I really feel it has everything to do with your friends/group and nothing to do with the game itself.

Originally posted by Painlezz

Another Copy of WoW believe it or not.  Each day your instances reset and you run them again... Each day you collect tokens to buy better gear...  Each day you grind out this or that to slightly improve your character... 

Feel free to have whatever opinion you want about EQ2, but to call it a WoW clone is just being ignorant. EQ2 was released a week before WoW, and carries the questing and instance run formula from its predecessor which was released 9 years before WoW.

Originally posted by evilastro

Originally posted by Painlezz

Another Copy of WoW believe it or not.  Each day your instances reset and you run them again... Each day you collect tokens to buy better gear...  Each day you grind out this or that to slightly improve your character... 

Feel free to have whatever opinion you want about EQ2, but to call it a WoW clone is just being ignorant. EQ2 was released a week before WoW, and carries the questing and instance run formula from its predecessor which was released 9 years before WoW.

That's not really accurate. Original EQ's questing system didn't function much like WoW's nor did it have instances (at least back when I played). EQ2 may have been released slightly before WoW (I played both at release) but EQ2 has borrowed far more from WoW over the years than WoW has from EQ2. Not to mention Blizzard actually succeeds in implementing things well and doesn't leave them half-assed or barely functional.

I really want to like EQ2 and have gone back to it several times over the years but never stuck around for long. SOE is a horribly mismanaged company and they continue to alienate themselves from their fanbase. It's sad to watch them slowly ruin good games and it happens over and over again. I hope EQNext is good but I really don't have much faith in SOE anymore.

Originally posted by Misaligned

That's not really accurate. Original EQ's questing system didn't function much like WoW's nor did it have instances (at least back when I played).

a year before WOW launch

EQ1 players were grinding instances for "adventure points" to buy gear from dungeon merchants with LDON  (2003) 

LDON was EQs 6th expansion and EQs first expansion to have instances

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EverQuest:_Lost_Dungeons_of_Norrath

LDON merchant database - what players could buy from each dungeon theme

http://www.cardplace.com/eq/ldon/list.cgi

I dont remember WOW adding a merchant system for grinding instances until Burning Crusade but I could be wrong

Originally posted by Misaligned

Originally posted by evilastro

Originally posted by Painlezz

Another Copy of WoW believe it or not.  Each day your instances reset and you run them again... Each day you collect tokens to buy better gear...  Each day you grind out this or that to slightly improve your character... 

Feel free to have whatever opinion you want about EQ2, but to call it a WoW clone is just being ignorant. EQ2 was released a week before WoW, and carries the questing and instance run formula from its predecessor which was released 9 years before WoW.

That's not really accurate. Original EQ's questing system didn't function much like WoW's nor did it have instances (at least back when I played). EQ2 may have been released slightly before WoW (I played both at release) but EQ2 has borrowed far more from WoW over the years than WoW has from EQ2. Not to mention Blizzard actually succeeds in implementing things well and doesn't leave them half-assed or barely functional.

 

I really want to like EQ2 and have gone back to it several times over the years but never stuck around for long. SOE is a horribly mismanaged company and they continue to alienate themselves from their fanbase. It's sad to watch them slowly ruin good games and it happens over and over again. I hope EQNext is good but I really don't have much faith in SOE anymore.

As the poster above mentioned, EQ1 did have instance grinding long before WoW was released. And EQ2 launched with the same systems as WoW a week before WoW launched. The only things that could be directly attributed as a copy from WoW instead of its predecessor EQ1 would be Battlegrounds and the relatively new Dungeon Finder (although the EQ2 dungeon finder is a complete fail and you are better off forming groups the old fashioned way).

The biggest thing holding SoE back is their greed, they have yet to learn that you catch more flies with honey than vinegar. The F2P models they use are an abomination, they pick the most boring races and classes to be free, and make everything else premium then wonder why noone sticks around. And anyone that does stick around for a while soon finds out that they are completely gimped because they are limited in both gear and spell advancement.

If they removed gameplay restrictions and instead focused on making money with fluff items these games would be thriving.

Originally posted by evilastro

  The only things that could be directly attributed as a copy from WoW instead of its predecessor EQ1 would be Battlegrounds and the relatively new Dungeon Finder (although the EQ2 dungeon finder is a complete fail and you are better off forming groups the old fashioned way).

Guild Wars launched with Battlegrounds before WOW -- Blizzard didnt add BGs until summer of 2005

Reading this thread has brought back some fond memories of EQ2. While I do not have as much free time as i did when playing eq and eq2 at launch, I will be returning back this week to EQ2. 

Any advice?

Going to sub as oppose to F2P. I used to have so much fun decorating my house with my carpenter.