EQ2 - the biggest mistake

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$$grh$$

n00b
Joined
Sep 3, 2004
Messages
53
[Rant]

I bought and have been playing EQ2 over here in the UK as WoW is not realeased until Feb 05. I figured that if i enjoyed it I wouldn't bother with WoW, after all at least sony had the decency to do a simultaneous release, what valid reason is there for Blizzard to hold back the UK release if the product is good enough for the Americans?

Now, I don't have an Uber rig by any stretch of the imagination, but It does me fine for now, I get decent IQ and framerates for Far Cry, HL2 and Doom3. Yes I have to turn down some of the options but all my console playing friends still drool over the graphics on these three games.

In EQ 2, especially in citites, even with the settings on 'extreme performance' I get points where it is down to 5-10 FPS... I could understand if I was trying to run witheverything maxed out, but the IQ is a F'in disaster on these settings and the FR is still appaling. There are pop ups at about thirty yards away, the character models are akin to HL1, and It's still at the point where I try and avoid going into the cities at all, it's so frustrating.

I'm not a total Noob, Its a clean install, defragged, and a fresh boot each time with all non-essential windows services shut off.

It's fine making an engine that will look great on next generation Hardware, but if it doesn't work on an average rig at release whats the Point?

Thoughts?

[/Rant]
 
Thoughts?
You bet, same boat.. I hate the freakin game for the exact things you mentioned. I gave it 15 days and cut my loses. Waste of money for me.
 
Shit, and you've got a gig of RAM too. I was hoping I could upgrade that and at least get by. The rest of your rig kicks my ass too, apart from GFX card which is the same.

Do think we are entitled to a refund, after all it doesn't do what we paid for.
 
First thing you should do is read this thread while playing EQII in a window, and change the options this fella talks about to the settings he suggests. It did wonders for both the graphics quality and playability for me.

http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/board/message?board.id=tech_support&message.id=3265

In my case, I initially tried to keep all the settings as high as I could within acceptable framerates. Turns out not all are important, and you can get better graphics by even turning less important settings off and jacking up the important ones. I love the fact that EQII gives so many options for tweaking the graphics. Once you make a new .ini file to allow for antialiasing, the game looks absolutely gorgeous.

That being said, I still felt bored with it. I just played my first few levels of WoW and really enjoyed it. I mean that it really felt fun. The graphics are completely different and nowhere near as good as EQII, but I figure that when I upgrade to my next rig and get bored of WoW there will be an expansion for EQII and most of my gripes will *hopefully* be fixed. I look forward to playing EQII in all its glory - but not right now.

WoW isn't tough at all on the computer. I have everything maxed with full in-game AA at a resolution of 1900*1400 and I still get FPS around 70 or more (just estimating). The awesome thing though is that the text size doesn't shrink much when upping the resolution :)

Oh yeah - a gig of RAM is almost mandatory to play EQII.
 
only prob i had with WOW was walking in that big castle in Northwind, thats when i had 256mb pc3200 ram. I added a 512 stick, and now everything runs smooth as gravy, i love WOW, definately game of the year in my book!
 
UrbN said:
only prob i had with WOW was walking in that big castle in Northwind, thats when i had 256mb pc3200 ram. I added a 512 stick, and now everything runs smooth as gravy, i love WOW, definately game of the year in my book!
Click to expand...
I'd pick EQ2 over WOW anyday
 
EQ2 runs like gravy on my A64 3000+ with a 9800 pro and a gig of ram. Very pretty game.

Tsumari
 
Sounds like the problem is between your monitor and the chair. My specs are: 3200XP, 9800Pro, 1gig ram, and i run my game in Balance mode just fine, including in cities.

EDIT: oh, i also run at 1920x1200 resolution.
 
Runs good for me too, AMD64 3200 1 Gig Ram and a 9800 Pro.
Have you tried updating drivers for your system at all?

Dano.
 
Like I said, I'm not a complete NooB:

Cat 4.11 Drivers
Fresh Win Xp Install
services tweaked
Re-boot before launching game

and I get decent frame rates in Far Cry, Doom 3 and HL2. Which suggests to me that it isn't an overall problem with the set up. The only other thing I can think of is I don't have enough RAM.

and if it is a PEBKAC error, what do you suggest Einstein?
 
Running the following....

AMD Athlon 2800+ XP (2.2 Ghz)
1.5 GB Corsair Ram
BFG 6800 Ultra
1280x1024 resolution

Game runs smooth as silk for me with settings just above medium. I turned off a lot of the environmental things to crank model details instead, and it looks better than anything I've seen prior.

My edge is the 6800 Ultra, it pushes polygons like mad.
 
Saw this run on a AMD 3500 + with 1 gig ram, BFG 6800 GTOC. Runs like butter at 1280x1024 balanced.

Don't even try to run it on extreme settings. We noticed how much more beautiful it looked at 1280x1024.

Gorgeous game and much more depth than Wow which I found boring as heck.
 
Umm, EQ2 uses about 300-400MB of memory. If you only got 512 you will be hitting virtual memory all the time. I have a 2.53GHz, 6800GT, and 1GB ram and it plays fairly smooth after I went through that settings guide on the forums.
 
I thought EQ2 looked nice, but in my opinion the world was extremely bland.

The colors were poor, the world didn't have any life to it.

Contrast this with WoW, and the colors are brilliant, you can certainly tell that there are real artists making the game.

Even with the lower-end engine in WoW, it felt much more epic and alive to me than EQ2.

/two cents
 
A gig of ram is a MUST for eq2, it's simply not playable in cities with 512mb(i know i've tried).

That's the main thing that it needs more then anything, ram ram ram.
 
Ricedaddy said:
I thought EQ2 looked nice, but in my opinion the world was extremely bland.

The colors were poor, the world didn't have any life to it.
Click to expand...

You must have been in Freeport, and didn't leave the city, because the zones in EQ2 are fantastic. And as for 'life', it's much more active than in WoW. You have groups of guard patrols patrolling the city, NPCs waving you over, if you go near a grey con NPC (no xp npc because you're too high a lvl), the NPC will cringe, you have cats chasing mice, dogs chasing cats, and dogs following you around in cities.

And variety, MUCH MUCH more variety than in WoW. How many character models are there in WoW? And can you do any customization? Nope. Armor models? What about NPC models? If you take a look at say the human NPC models, there's only a handful that is used over and over again. And environments like sky, water, fire, are absolutely fantastic... best in any game i've seen, period (water is better than the water in Farcry, and people rave about that). But it's not only the environment that can take advantage of these, it's the players too. If a player turns into a fire elemental, the flames from their body are almost Hollywood like. And i haven't even mentioned all the wicked spell effects.
 
I've just now given in and ordered 2x512 PC4000 RAM...

I had been waiting until Q2 '05 to upgrade everything at once, but I figure I can get the RAM now and carry it across to the next Rig.

Does seem to be the problem, plus my crappy HD (ATA of all things) won't be helping if it's accessing the page file alot, which it must be on 1/2 a gig of RAM.

I'll let you know how I get on.

Rob
 
I thought EQ2 looked nice, but in my opinion the world was extremely bland.

The colors were poor, the world didn't have any life to it.

Contrast this with WoW, and the colors are brilliant, you can certainly tell that there are real artists making the game.

Even with the lower-end engine in WoW, it felt much more epic and alive to me than EQ2.
Click to expand...
I'd agree you didn't leave freeport. The world is richly detailed with LOADS more content. I think I saw 5-6 zones that night and was completely blown away by it. Hopefully tonight I'll get to play it on my own new system.

I would agree also that if you are having graphic issues, chances are that you need 1 gig ram minimum. I wouldn't touch extreme settings either.
 
If you ever make it to the ruins of varsoon (25+ lvl dungeon) you'll see some of the most vibrant colors.

BTW I run just above medium with this
3.2 P4
6800 OC Unlocked
1 gb PC3500

Only slow downs I get are just after entering the city and popular dungeons during prime time.
 
Hope you dont plan on upgrading your mobo for a while. DDR-II is already coming out, and its not compatible with normal DDR.
 
$$grh$$ said:
Like I said, I'm not a complete NooB:

Cat 4.11 Drivers
Fresh Win Xp Install
services tweaked
Re-boot before launching game

and I get decent frame rates in Far Cry, Doom 3 and HL2. Which suggests to me that it isn't an overall problem with the set up. The only other thing I can think of is I don't have enough RAM.

and if it is a PEBKAC error, what do you suggest Einstein?
Click to expand...
512 is problem RIGHT THERE.
 
GLSauron said:
Hope you dont plan on upgrading your mobo for a while. DDR-II is already coming out, and its not compatible with normal DDR.
Click to expand...

I figure by May/June next year DDR2 mobo's will be cutting edge and whats currently pretty high end will have dropped to a point that I can afford. Something like:

AMD64 3800
2 x 74 Raptors
1024 x Pc4000
6800gt/x800/850xt
K8N Neo Plat 2

I haven't really decided yet. I figured I was OK with that RAM, because the only boards that seem to be using DDR2 at the moment are the latest P4 boards and I'm going AMD next round I think.

Currently the above comes to around $1750. I just spent just over $250 on RAM leaving $1500. And by Upgrade time I will nowhave around $1000 after buying that memory. Hopefully this will be possible.

My only worry is that there should be dual PCIe slot AMD mobo's out by then, which I would definately look at with a 6800gt for the possible future expansion to Sli.

If these were still cutting edge, I may well be prepared to pay a bit extra to save more in the future, but if they are cutting edge it might be hard to find one that is using DDR RAM.

Who knows. I am enjoying the gameplay in EQ2 enough, and am frustrated by the stuttering enough to buy the RAM now and worry about the consequences later.

And... I figured it was more of a waste to buy cheap memory that I definately wouldn't want in 6 months, than try and get something I could use on the next rig. At worst it will have to go on Ebay.

Rob
 
If you dont have a gig of ram dont bother with EQ2.

Frankly, i wouldnt tbother with it anyway. Ive played the game ~10 hours since i bought it, and have yet to have anywhere near the amount of fun i had in the first hour of WOW. I personally think WOW is a better looking game, simply because the world is so complete. Not to mention it actually RUNS well on normal computers.

However, since you didnt ask about that, go to a few forums. There are several tweak tricks out there that may help.
 
You're doing the right thing in going to a gig of memory. You'll notice a huge difference with that alone.

Also be sure to go to the link Elias posted, and follow the instructions. It makes the game look even more amazing and run smoother.

Elias said:
..................
http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/board/message?board.id=tech_support&message.id=3265 .............
Click to expand...

I have a comparable system to yourself (2.8C, 5900nu), but have a gig of pc4000 memory, and EQ2 never stutters, even in the cities.
 
Wow, what a difference... I hoped it would be better but I can now run at HQ smooth as butter, as long as I follow some of the tweaks in the links you guys left. Amazing, looks better than HL2.

I think there is a memory leak though, I need te reboot every 6 hours or so to stop it slowing to a crawl. Or maybe I should just get a life and play for less than 6 hours at a go.

They should just put 1 gig on the box as min specs, it was unplayable without it.
 
$$grh$$ said:
Wow, what a difference... I hoped it would be better but I can now run at HQ smooth as butter, as long as I follow some of the tweaks in the links you guys left. Amazing, looks better than HL2.

I think there is a memory leak though, I need te reboot every 6 hours or so to stop it slowing to a crawl. Or maybe I should just get a life and play for less than 6 hours at a go.

They should just put 1 gig on the box as min specs, it was unplayable without it.
Click to expand...
Good deal man. Yea, games are starting to use 500MB alone so with windows overhead 1GB is pretty much mandatory now. Hitting virtual memory will always kill performance. I've even seen WoW hit 480MB of used memory.
 
it wasn't the performance for me, it was the repetitive and boring gameplay.

I wan't my $50 back. :(
 
polydiol said:
it wasn't the performance for me, it was the repetitive and boring gameplay.

I wan't my $50 back. :(
Click to expand...
Haven't played too many MMOG's I am guessing.
 
obs said:
Haven't played too many MMOG's I am guessing.
Click to expand...

Heh...that is funny. MMORPG = repetitive game play. Do you think they can come up with 4000+ hours of unique content? Nah...they want you to give them $15/month to see same the same eye candy for 4+ hours a day :D All MMORPG's are the same.

If you don't like it...play RTS or FPS. Should solve the problem.

-tReP
 
I dont know about anyone else, but I love EQ2.

I beta'd WoW in open BETA phase, and had a Tauren Shaman up to lvl 18. At that point, I was struggling to keep interest. I'm not going to deny that WoW may appeal to some people, but the whole time I was playing it felt very juvenile. The graphics may seem nice to some people, but the cartoony feel just added to my displeasure. I ended up deleting it soon after attaining lvl 18.

I picked up EQ2 when it came out and started a character on Lucan D'Lere. A Fighter. Made it up to lvl 18 Crusader. Ended up not being my cup of tea... so I switched servers and began life as a Mage.

I'm now a lvl 24 Wizardess (yes a female ;) i always thought the word "WIZARD" sounded male... but oh well) on Antonia Bayle, and have a terrific group of friends that I play with nightly. We have tons of fun, and are constantly doing something. Be it questing for items, finishing quests, or just going around exploring and getting exp.

I also have to say that the game runs superbly on my computer. Not a bump of lag. Here is my computer that I'm running it on:

Abit IC7-Max3 mobo
P4 3.4@4.12ghz@-42 degrees celcius
ATI RX800XT 256 Graphics
2g Geil Platinum PC4000 Dual Channel DDR500
VapoChill XE Phase Changer

It's Fabu ;)

I can see myself in this game for quite some time. It keeps me coming back to do things with my guild. Not to mention I just have a good time funnin around with everyone in chat :p
 
Im having a helluva alot more fun in WoW then I ever did in EQ2, and the new areas im exploring are just absolutely gorgeous, Blizzards art style is something to behold.

elfmoon.jpg


elfclosebloom.jpg


ancients.jpg
 
See... and that's what I didnt like about it. It may look Fabu to you, but to me it looks cartoony. I can understand why you guys would like it though. What one of you guys wouldnt like a Night Elf with a low cut blouse showing off her cleavage :p.

Me, I'll stick to my lvl 24 Half Elf Wizard on EQ2. I'm very happy there. All the more power to you if you enjoy WoW. Just glad we all find games that are enjoyable from an online community standpoint :)
 
Saloma Teale said:
See... and that's what I didnt like about it. It may look Fabu to you, but to me it looks cartoony. I can understand why you guys would like it though. What one of you guys wouldnt like a Night Elf with a low cut blouse showing off her cleavage :p.

Me, I'll stick to my lvl 24 Half Elf Wizard on EQ2. I'm very happy there. All the more power to you if you enjoy WoW. Just glad we all find games that are enjoyable from an online community standpoint :)
Click to expand...

Yep, choice is good I've shelved my EQ2 to collect dust forever and my WoW CE edition proudly sits next to me. Once again, Blizzard has done it. *applaud*
 
At least EQ2 doesn't utilize the Blizzard Downloader. Apparently I can't download the patch from it because I'm "behind a firewall" when I have no firewall installed and no router. But I'm behind a firewall...
 
Thats true... but then again, us EQ2'ers have SOE to deal with it, and all that ensues. Lol. I'd say we're on common footing. :p
 
kick@ss said:
At least EQ2 doesn't utilize the Blizzard Downloader. Apparently I can't download the patch from it because I'm "behind a firewall" when I have no firewall installed and no router. But I'm behind a firewall...
Click to expand...

Easily fixed her, not that big of deal though I wish they would make it easier like every other MMORPG and NOT have to do this.


Router Config for WoW

Firewall Config for WoW
 
is it just me or does WoW look like Zelda N64 graphics?

is there a 1st person view?
 
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