EverQuest II now free to play

[Killua]

Originally Posted by vinx [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Is there one? and is this free DL? i would check that out

Yes, LOTRO has had a free option for a while:

http://www.lotro.com/free.php?tier=details

They don't limit you on Races or Classes (granted there aren't many to choose from anyway). And you can earn Turbine Points to buy things in the game just by playing. I haven't played it since beta so I can't comment on how the game is now.

[Juugox2]

i havent played eq2 since they added sarnak race i know that had to be few years ago imo i got bored before i even got max lvl and that tells you something imo

[stormlord]

How many gigabytes does EQ2 eat up on the harddrive (or positronic relay device for those ubber rich folk)?

I'm estimating 6gb - 16gb. Looking for some confirmation.

[orchard54]

I've been playing EQ2 since the day it launched. I also played EQ1 from the day it launched, until shortly after EQ2 launched. I played both, but eventually sold my EQ1 account and played EQ2 exclusively.

After 7 years of EQ2, It's hard for me to keep playing the game and enjoying it because everytime they add anything to the game, or apply a patch to fix bugs, it seems they just create more bugs than there was before. A lot of major things never get fixed either and have been broken for 5, 6+ years, and no matter how much players beg for these things to get fixed, it never happens.

Nowadays, SOE is far more concerned with adding fluff items, such as house items and "appearance only armor" to their in-game marketplace, versus spending their time fixing all the current things wrong with the game.

The free to play implementation isn't to bad, you get a lot of content for nothing. You can level up to the max level, and you get access to all the expansions except for the 2 most recent ones (Destiny of Velious, and Age of Discovery, both of wich are still $40 each). The newest expansion, Age of Discovery, only adds features to the game, and no actual content. (Beastlord class, Dungeon Maker (in which you use avatars to play through the dungeons, not your actual character), 20 more AA points to spend (no actual new AA's), and some Tradeskill apprentices (an NPC you place in your house that researches new recipes over a period of time) and Mercenaries you can hire.

Armor grades go from handcrafted, treasured, mastercrafted, legendary, and Fabled being the best grade of armor. Free account players can only wear Mastercrafted at the best. Spells upgrade from apprentice, journeyman, Adept, Expert, Master, Grandmaster. Free players can only upgrade their spells to Adept. You have a coin limit as a free player (you can buy crafting Fuel, which sells back to merchant for same price you buy for) in place of currency. Only a limited number of quests can be in your journal at one time, versus 75 being max with a 15 a mo. subscription, only two bag slots available to use. Other than a few other small things, you can level up to the max level in both player level, and crafting level. (Also, only two classes from each class type is available to play for free. Fighters = Guardian/Berserker, Scout = Assassin/Brigand, Priest = Templar/Inquistor, Mage = Wizard/Warlock.)

But my main complaint about EQ2 lately is just how dumbed down the game has gotten over the years. In comparrison to original EQ1, EQ2 has always been much easier. Over the years EQ2 has gotten easier, and easier, and even easier. They continue to just make the game easier. There's no penalty for dieing, you can get from 1-90 in a month or so easy, playing only a few hours a day (less than a few weeks if you're a hardcore player). Mobs that used to be "group" mobs have been dumbed down to solo mobs all over the world. Not many people group until level 90, because questing from 1 to 90 is FAR more experience than grouping in any dungeon. Which hurts in the long run because at 90 you have a vast majority of players joining up in groups that have no idea how to play thier class in a group situation, let alone a raid.

They recently re-itemized the game. Now every class in the game only depends on two main stats. Every fighter class uses Str/Sta, every scout uses Agi/Sta, Priests = Wis/Sta, and Mages = Int/Sta (the rest of the stats do NOTHING for your class now). This change removes the customization of play and the decisions people made when deciding which peice of gear to wear over another. A good example is -- in the past, Bards (Dirges/Troubadors) would benifit from all stats, and build their character how they really wanted to be. Using some armor that has int and wis on it to increase the power of their spells and resistances, strength and agi to assist in increasing their melee damage and avoidance, and stamina of course for more HP. Now, as a bard (scout type class) the only classes that affect you are Agi/Sta. Therefore, all scout gear only has AGI/STA on it. Making it a super easy decision between two peices of gear, "hmmm, which should I wear? Oh, this peice because it has more Agi and Sta than the previous gear."
--Another downside of the re-itemization update is that thousands of peices of gear were missed, and still have the old crappy weak stats. A lot of this gear is older raid gear, of Legendary and Fabled quality. These items have been reported on many occasions by lots of people, and its been over 6 months and none of them have been fixed. Leading me to believe that SOE does not ever intend on completing their re-itemization and just leaving it half assed. This also is detering people from wanting to do any of the older raids, because the Treasured gear from solo questing is far superior than the Fabled Raid gear that drops. Example - lots of level 40-50 Fabled items from Raid mobs, have the stats of the New re-itemized level 10-20 Treasured gear.

I could go on for a long time about many things wrong with the game.
I love EQ2, and am still addicted as shit to it! I still can't help but continue playing it. I love the graphics, they are absolutely amazing if you can play on high or even Maxed settings. The animations are fantastic, the spell particles are superb, and there's many other things that make it a great, fun game.

I just recently started playing on P1999 server, and I am LOVING the challenge of the old days. Looking around every corner, not having a map, corpse runs, playing smart and using caution, mobs chasing you until you die or zone, these are some of the things i've missed, and am having a blast playing on P99! Taking effort to level up, having to actually write notes on a peice of paper for quest details to remember, locations, and other things, are keeping me excited every day playing here on P99. I've been playing more and more on p99 because of the challenge, but it's just reminding me more and more everyday, just how incredibly stupid easy EQ2 has become over the years.

If you are still reading my long winded post, i'm amazed! Remember, these are just my opinions and observations throughout the years. But one last thing i'd like to add. As silly as it seems, after 7 years of EQ2, I honestly don't recommend EQ2 to any of my friends =\ or to anyone else for that matter looking for a new MMO to try/play. Don't get addicted to this game and play through the abuse that is SOE, like so many do (including myself).

Oh and Stormlord, EQ2 is about 12.5GB big. But there is a streaming client download option. Which works okay, but just takes a minute longer to zone into an area you've never been in before.

[stormlord]

Originally Posted by orchard54 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I've been playing EQ2 since the day it launched. I also played EQ1 from the day it launched, until shortly after EQ2 launched. I played both, but eventually sold my EQ1 account and played EQ2 exclusively.

After 7 years of EQ2, It's hard for me to keep playing the game and enjoying it because everytime they add anything to the game, or apply a patch to fix bugs, it seems they just create more bugs than there was before. A lot of major things never get fixed either and have been broken for 5, 6+ years, and no matter how much players beg for these things to get fixed, it never happens.

Nowadays, SOE is far more concerned with adding fluff items, such as house items and "appearance only armor" to their in-game marketplace, versus spending their time fixing all the current things wrong with the game.

The free to play implementation isn't to bad, you get a lot of content for nothing. You can level up to the max level, and you get access to all the expansions except for the 2 most recent ones (Destiny of Velious, and Age of Discovery, both of wich are still $40 each). The newest expansion, Age of Discovery, only adds features to the game, and no actual content. (Beastlord class, Dungeon Maker (in which you use avatars to play through the dungeons, not your actual character), 20 more AA points to spend (no actual new AA's), and some Tradeskill apprentices (an NPC you place in your house that researches new recipes over a period of time) and Mercenaries you can hire.

Armor grades go from handcrafted, treasured, mastercrafted, legendary, and Fabled being the best grade of armor. Free account players can only wear Mastercrafted at the best. Spells upgrade from apprentice, journeyman, Adept, Expert, Master, Grandmaster. Free players can only upgrade their spells to Adept. You have a coin limit as a free player (you can buy crafting Fuel, which sells back to merchant for same price you buy for) in place of currency. Only a limited number of quests can be in your journal at one time, versus 75 being max with a 15 a mo. subscription, only two bag slots available to use. Other than a few other small things, you can level up to the max level in both player level, and crafting level. (Also, only two classes from each class type is available to play for free. Fighters = Guardian/Berserker, Scout = Assassin/Brigand, Priest = Templar/Inquistor, Mage = Wizard/Warlock.)

But my main complaint about EQ2 lately is just how dumbed down the game has gotten over the years. In comparrison to original EQ1, EQ2 has always been much easier. Over the years EQ2 has gotten easier, and easier, and even easier. They continue to just make the game easier. There's no penalty for dieing, you can get from 1-90 in a month or so easy, playing only a few hours a day (less than a few weeks if you're a hardcore player). Mobs that used to be "group" mobs have been dumbed down to solo mobs all over the world. Not many people group until level 90, because questing from 1 to 90 is FAR more experience than grouping in any dungeon. Which hurts in the long run because at 90 you have a vast majority of players joining up in groups that have no idea how to play thier class in a group situation, let alone a raid.

They recently re-itemized the game. Now every class in the game only depends on two main stats. Every fighter class uses Str/Sta, every scout uses Agi/Sta, Priests = Wis/Sta, and Mages = Int/Sta (the rest of the stats do NOTHING for your class now). This change removes the customization of play and the decisions people made when deciding which peice of gear to wear over another. A good example is -- in the past, Bards (Dirges/Troubadors) would benifit from all stats, and build their character how they really wanted to be. Using some armor that has int and wis on it to increase the power of their spells and resistances, strength and agi to assist in increasing their melee damage and avoidance, and stamina of course for more HP. Now, as a bard (scout type class) the only classes that affect you are Agi/Sta. Therefore, all scout gear only has AGI/STA on it. Making it a super easy decision between two peices of gear, "hmmm, which should I wear? Oh, this peice because it has more Agi and Sta than the previous gear."
--Another downside of the re-itemization update is that thousands of peices of gear were missed, and still have the old crappy weak stats. A lot of this gear is older raid gear, of Legendary and Fabled quality. These items have been reported on many occasions by lots of people, and its been over 6 months and none of them have been fixed. Leading me to believe that SOE does not ever intend on completing their re-itemization and just leaving it half assed. This also is detering people from wanting to do any of the older raids, because the Treasured gear from solo questing is far superior than the Fabled Raid gear that drops. Example - lots of level 40-50 Fabled items from Raid mobs, have the stats of the New re-itemized level 10-20 Treasured gear.

I could go on for a long time about many things wrong with the game.
I love EQ2, and am still addicted as shit to it! I still can't help but continue playing it. I love the graphics, they are absolutely amazing if you can play on high or even Maxed settings. The animations are fantastic, the spell particles are superb, and there's many other things that make it a great, fun game.

I just recently started playing on P1999 server, and I am LOVING the challenge of the old days. Looking around every corner, not having a map, corpse runs, playing smart and using caution, mobs chasing you until you die or zone, these are some of the things i've missed, and am having a blast playing on P99! Taking effort to level up, having to actually write notes on a peice of paper for quest details to remember, locations, and other things, are keeping me excited every day playing here on P99. I've been playing more and more on p99 because of the challenge, but it's just reminding me more and more everyday, just how incredibly stupid easy EQ2 has become over the years.

If you are still reading my long winded post, i'm amazed! Remember, these are just my opinions and observations throughout the years. But one last thing i'd like to add. As silly as it seems, after 7 years of EQ2, I honestly don't recommend EQ2 to any of my friends =\ or to anyone else for that matter looking for a new MMO to try/play. Don't get addicted to this game and play through the abuse that is SOE, like so many do (including myself).

Oh and Stormlord, EQ2 is about 12.5GB big. But there is a streaming client download option. Which works okay, but just takes a minute longer to zone into an area you've never been in before.

I can relate to your post in a million different ways. I too was stuck on EQ1 in much the same way. My history over there reads almost exactly the same. So closely is it that it would put you to sleep. I had the same bitter resentment but inability to leave and of course the desire to be with my friends.

How much would I theoretically have to download to use the streaming client? I think it would be nice to only have to download the first expansion and just stream the rest. That way I would have a compelling reason to gimp myself by playing in old content that has been left by the wayside. Further reason is that... well.. that's one of my goals: To play old content. Hell, the reason I'm here playing on emulated servers is because I want to experience hte things in EQ1 that I missed. I just want a reason that's more tangible than pure nostalgia. I wish they could, when designing their games, delegate more time to progression-type players such that the itemization and mechanics aren't too out of balance with the rest of the game.

Thanks for your post. I will probably try EQ2 at some point anyway since it's part of the EQ family. Even though I do not like Sony and they have hurt me in the past over and over, I still must admit that EQ was my first MMO and that I will always feel attached to it in some way. I'm sure EQ2 has some plusses. It's like having an evil twin, kind of. Or a parasite that sucks your life force but you're unable to remove yourself from it.

And I hear Qeynos might get "revamped" just like freeport. They say (as i've read) that ground zero is in about 1 year. So I have less than 1 year to see Qeynos AS IT IS NOW and appreciate its memory.

Having said all that, knowing it's true, I am keeping my eye on this MMORPG:
http://www.dawntide.net/

It's a sandbox MMO. There're a few things that worry me about it. Things that make me think it'll start in an optimistic fashion but quickly lose its momentum. First, it's PvP. Second, it's a sandbox. Third, it's a small(ish) company. Fourth, it's european (i think). These ingredients, when in combination, produce something hard to sell. Something that marketers quickly avoid at all costs. I do not foresee all of the variables and how this will come together in the end. I have hope. Sadly, I need some small upgrades to my system to really enjoy it. I'll need to address that before fully embracing Dawntide if and when it (hopefully) takes flight.