Everquest II

M

MemoryInAGarden

2[H]4U
Joined
Oct 26, 2003
Messages
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Has anyone gotten this yet? I'm thinking about taking the plunge...FPS are just getting too boring with the exception of Quake 3. Are the reports of terrible performance true?
 
I've got an Athlon 3200, 1GB RAM, and a 6800GT and even on medium settings the game runs choppy if I'm not in a narrow tunnel or looking at a wall. The character models look really fake like plastic and the world is pretty dull and bland. The world is also split into relatively small zones that are all seperated by large gates with loading screens. Even the towns are split up into small sections that require loading times. The actual gameplay is alright but after falling through the world two times within 1 hour last night I just got sick of it. I'll stick with WoW.

Edit: I forgot to mention that the voice acting for every NPC is cool at first but when you're running through a town and you see the same people saying the same exact line every single time you get near them it just gets annoying.
 
it runs really choppy on the system in my signature (click my profile) on higher settings but i was able to find a decent setting where everything still looks great and there is no choppiness whatsoever. EQ2 is just my type of mmo so I am really enjoying it... however I do think the environments are well done and I still have a lot to explore... it does, however, take a lot of time to load zones if you have your settings set real high but once you have them set so its not choppy you enjoy the game much more. I think there is a lot of great detail in not just the character models but the individual items the wear... and when the settings are up high the game looks just absolutely great.
 
The game engine is intensely demanding. Even the very best system can't run this game at its full settings. I've had to make some visual reductions to keep my framerate decent, but in the cities..wooohooo lag city.

Its a wonderful game from the time i've played it. Definently better then WoW
 
I'm playing it.

Yes, no system "today" will run it at the highest settings, the engine is made to be scalable for future pc's, so they can keep up with the times. That was one of the main negative things people said about EQ after a few years, "it doesn't look as good as >insert next gen mmorpg<" so they planned to make it scalable for future systems.

I find it to be one of the most in-depth mmorpgs i've played in a while. Maybe it's still the "new" factor but i'm having lots of fun.

There's always quests to go , things to do, crafting, etc. The voicework is good for the most part and adds to the immersion of the world, it does get a bit annoying when you pass npc's that say the same line over and over but it's better then text.

There's a lot of work in little details aswell, the models are greatly detailed, espically some armor. When you crouch your characters fingers start moving around like they are sneaking, you can slip on things and your guy can fall, cloth simulation makes clothes move realistically (for the most part).

i'm having a blast. The cities are huge aswell, no small little cities only, but big huge grand ones.
 
I'm loving this game. Just as everyone else said, its very demanding on your system. I had also tried enabling AA by creating a new .inf file, but it actually made it look like crap (dunno how but it looks better w/o it). It had become very laggy so I wouldn't recommend doing that with the current crop of cards. There's no option to enable it in the game BTW.

Some people think it looks a bit drab, but I personally dig it. My home city is Freeport, or the evil home city. It looks like the kind of place where you'd be really worried about getting the plague :) Even so, at night there is a wild looking and super colorful exploding star in the sky, which really makes for a nice contrast. There is alot of variety in the nearby areas too (i.e. graveyard, sewer and open plains).

Coming from FFXI and DAoC, I think this game is way better than both. Combat is fun as hell and there's TONS to do. Dunno about WoW, but I intend to give that game a try in due time as well.
 
As far as hardware requirements go, It's perfectly playable on default settings (moreso if I tune some things down) on my system:

XP 1500+
1GB PC133
Radeon 9600

Granted, I -really- want to upgrade the rig to make it more pleasant - the city's really nasty at times & having 2 groups fighting in the same room gets kinda choppy. With your rig, it should be fine.


As far as transitioning from FPSes and single-player RPGs goes, it'd probably be best if you had a friend to kinda give you an intro to things - the tutorial's nice at explaining the mechanics of the game but doesn't do much to show you how the game is actualy played. Things like standard group mechanics (I was suprised to find out that fighter characters (aka 'tanks') aren't really expected to do damage - they primarily stand there & take damage while everyone else in the party does the 'real' damage) just aren't really covered anywhere.
 
lights.txt


So I could play this on an Althlon XP 2.0GHZ and a Geforce 4 Ti? Or do I need a DX9 card as a requirement. I like the original EQ, but the horrid graphics keep me off it (though I'm not usually all eye-candy, the game looks so bad to me I can't bear it). So even if this looks say like DAoC on my card I could be happy. Oh yea and 512mb of ram.

u=roz1281.gif
 
I'm running it at 1280x1024 with the following system and I'm not having any problems with the video being jerky at all....

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

I also have the game installed to its own 20 G partition to help with defragging and keeping things loading in smoothly.

Overall, runs very well for me even with medium detail settings.
 
Im betting that shiny new BFG helps alot. I hvae xms ram too but its the crappy 333mhz kind.
 
The main thing I can suggest for this game is ram ram ram.

The game really is almost not playable on 512mb.
 
Yeah, I am running it on a ti4200 and it is ok. It is choppy in populated area's, but playable. I don't fight in populated areas so it isn't dangerous, but going through the crowded parts of town is frustrating...
 
I'm running it on system in sig, 1024x768 everything turned up pretty high and it does "OK". Ram is a HUGE help. I can't imagine running it with less than 1gb. I had my page file set to 512mb and had to increase it because I ran out of virtual memory! :eek: This is with NOTHING else running!

That said, the game is AWESOME! Very detailed and in depth. And it's actually FUN. Haven't tried WoW yet, my roommate is going to get it so I'll check it out when he does but I can't see myself switching anytime soon. Just having to much fun.
 
I agree with the ram comment. I played the EQ2 beta with 512 mb, and I was lagging in the city of Qeynos. When I upgraded to 1 gig I was totally surprise how smooth it ran in the city of Qeynos.

Other than that I had to mess around with the graphics settings to run it on High Quality with my 3000 AMD XP, but it did run nicely...
 
1 gig is simpy REQUIRED to run this game. Otherwise, your machines HDD will thrash non-stop and the game just won't be enjoyable. This is honestly the first game that could benefit from 2 Gigs of RAM.

And you do have to make sacrifices in the video settings, otherwise even the very best machines will get pwned by this game.
 
I'm having a blast with EQII, but like the others said, 1 Gig of memory is almost a requirement. The game was running great with a 2.53P4, 9800Pro and 1 Gig of memory. 9800Pro died so I had to stick in back up card, a ti4600 and it still runs fairly well on default settings. It can get a little choppy in the Qeynos with the 4600, but nothing too bad, and still very playable.
 
I doubt my Emachine m6810 will run it at all eh? Looks like Ill stick to world of warcraft. The laptop would of did fine if I had 512 more ram though.
 
I bought FFXI instead. I couldn't find the DVD edition of EQII in town and XI was $20 than EQII. I'm also having a blast with FFXI and it looks pretty damn good as well at 1600x1200 with AA/AF
 
MemoryInAGarden said:
I bought FFXI instead. I couldn't find the DVD edition of EQII in town and XI was $20 than EQII. I'm also having a blast with FFXI and it looks pretty damn good as well at 1600x1200 with AA/AF
Click to expand...
I play FFXI as well, what server are you on?
 
I play EQ2 on a 3Ghz P4, 1GB ram, and an BB ATI x800pro at 1600x1200 at balanced setting and am lag free. However, if I use my 2800+, 1GB ram, and 6800GTOC @ 1280x1024 at balanced settings it can get to be a slideshow at times, which tells me it is a driver issue with nvidia. I can turn up the graphics a bit more on the ati machine but during a big encounter it can stall for about 1 second rarely, not much but it can be a pain when you are trying to target a mob. Overall I am really pleased with the ati playability but the nvidia machine needs some work.

Now on to the game...this is my sole opinion on the matter. I played EQ1 for about 3.5-4 years, was in the EQ2 beta and WoW beta, played them both evenly. EQ2, for ME, is the game I am going to play, WoW has been uninstalled and will not be purchased. There is so much to do in EQ2 quest (some easy, some not so easy) crafting, adventuring....WoW on the other hand was too simplified for me. I am not saying EQ2 isn't simple, but not as easy as WoW.
 
I played tons of CoH before EQ2 and I loved it. EQ2 adds just enough depth and involvement of crafting and such to make the game fun, IMO. I have been playing it with quite a few local friends, and to keep us all in the same playing lvl range I spend time crafting when they aren't around. I think this is a great way for friends to play together and not have to worry about making another character to play when their friends aren't around.
 
No one has mentioned the best part about this game yet, windowed mode actually works! It’s great, especially since I am running dual display, I can browse alakazam (or whatever)
as needed without interrupting gameplay.
 
101998 said:
No one has mentioned the best part about this game yet, windowed mode actually works! It’s great, especially since I am running dual display, I can browse alakazam (or whatever)
as needed without interrupting gameplay.
Click to expand...

Thats absolutely true and it is a great feature :cool: . You can browse Allakhazam even with a single monitor, by minimizing the game. When you're done you just check the 'full screen' option box in the game to remove the Windows bars.

With a computer like that you propably don't have a problem with Ultra high settings, eh?
 
The game's playable on my rig...

Athlon XP 1500+, 1GB PC133, Radeon 9600NP

at 1024x768 w/ fairly low settings. It get's kinda jerky in some spots in the city & larger battles. It feels like it's a CPU/memory bandwidth issue.

Definately going to upgrade - thinking A64-2800+ and 1GB at the after-thanksgiving sales. Might get a new graphics card at Xmas if this doesn't boost it up enough.
 
I run in a window also. I run all my games in a window though, so this is something that I just expect to work.

I'm playing on Antonia, if anyone cares, under the name Tehrage. The guild that some guys and I started, Vicious Circle, has a ventrilo server and we are going to be putting together a website also to serve as another forum of communication. If your intersted just drop me a mail or a PM.
 
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