lol
Found this:
http://uk.pc.gamespy.com/articles/572/572447p1.html published in 2004 just 3 months after EverQuest 2 was released.
Lots of things have changed since then. I can update you on all the EQ2 stuff.
Round 1:EverQuest 2 no longer starts on Captain Varlos' boat with a dragon attack. You no longer have to start as either a Mage, Priest, Fighter or Scout and can just become whatever class of 24 available you want from the very beginning.
The quest lines are much better and actually make sense (no more messages like "return to the quest guy"). Plus you can start in one of 5 zones: Qeynos (Queen's Colony), Freeport (Outpost of the Overlord), Kelethin (Greater Faydark), Timorous Deep, Neriak (Darklight Wood) and soon to be included in the next update is Halas, the frosty barbarian land, which will have hundreds of new quests available.
Starting in Qeynos and Freeport still sucks though, and all the other zones are much better because they are a part of the game and not segregated off from the rest of the world (ie NOOB ISLANDS)
Round 2:There are now even more character customisation options available. There are now 19 races instead of 16 (I think) and there are 24 classes that you can choose from the very start. The customisations go quite deep, like eye colour, eyebrow height, skin patterns, colour of skin, colour of patterns, jewelry etc. all selectable from selection lists and not like a toggle-til-you-like-it.
Round 3:EverQuest 2 now provides you with a huge amount of customisation options.
Every few levels you get to enable new racial traits, like a special attack, or more health, or a reduction to falling damage, or an enhancement to run speed, or increased power regen or something.
You also get to do some general stat enhancements, like even more health and power, resists to certain damage types, extra strength, agility, stamina, intelligence or wisdom.
Then you also get to choose a Grandmaster (the best) ability at levels 14, 24, 34, 44, 54, 64, 75 and 85. This is known as class training (like Shadowknight training, Warden training, etc.) Grandmaster abilities are always devastatingly powerful or augment your group much more than their Apprentice abilities.
Spells upgrade from Apprentice -> Journeyman -> Adept -> Expert -> Master -> Grandmaster. They always use the same amount of power but increase in potency as you upgrade them.
You can also get alternate advancement points (you can now get 250 of them) which you can spend as you please. These points are spent in trees, that branch off, and have certain requirements. You get alternate advancement points from killing named creatures, completing quests, exploring new areas, or picking up prized items, and also killing raid mobs. I'll post a couple of screenshots of an AA tree.
Round 4:Lots of travel options still. Even more now. Druids can create portals at any time to any place where there is a druid ring in the zone (most of the big zones). Sorcerers can also create portals to spires across the lands, again most of the zones worth going to have these available.
You can get a crazy amount of mounts, and there are lots of in-zone travel options available.
Granted, a lot of the time it seems like you have to run further to get to a mount station to fly somewhere automatically than you do to just run it from A to B...
Unless you're a Dirge... or a Troub. Or a Ranger, or Assassin. Or a Warden. Or you have a cool mount. Or if you can teleport. Whatever!
In the new expansion there are these random flying disk things in conjunction with purple teleporters. That's cool right?
Round 5:Death in EQ2 was HARSH. It was so bad it made me want to an hero IRL.
You used to have to run back to where you died, and pick up your soul shard. This usually involved dodging around the mobs that one-shotted you the last time, but they made it even worse because you had to do it on massively lowered stats and you'd likely just get killed over and over while trying. Then you'd have a big equipment repair bill. It was BAD. If you failed to pick up your soul shard, you would then take a big hit in the form of 'experience debt' that meant even slower progression and generally made the game suck a lot.
Now you just rez, or get someone to rez you, and you have about 60 seconds where your stats are slightly lower, then you're back to normal. A bit of equipment damage too, natch, but that's a given right?
So dying in EQ2 now is more a worry about how it will mess up your K:D ratio than actually how gimped it will make you for the next 2 hours.
Round 6:It's the same as it always was.
EQ2 now supports SM3 instead of SM1 but doesn't currently have the new textures to take advantage of the lighting imported in to the game. EQ2 generally looks awesome but requires a bit of a beast to run at an acceptable frame-rate.
We all know what WoW's graphics look like. EQ2's are more true to life than to a cartoon fantasy.
The SM3 enhancements to EQ2 will go live in a month or so.
Round 7:Crafting is a whole game just on it's own. There is so much to do that I'm not even going to list it here. A lot has changed since the screenshot on that website, it's now much easier to craft but there are also a zillion more recipes available, so it's actually deeper than before. No longer is it a pain in the ass to find a handle made by a woodworker with a blade made by a weaponsmith with the final product being made by a craftsman. Now you just make it. And it's quicker than before. And good XP. And it makes a lot of money later on, especially if you're a Jeweler.
Round 8:EQ2 combat can feel sluggish at times. But there are a lot more combat options available to you in EQ2. You can have 120 hotbar icons, and the majority of them will be your attacks, buffs, stances, etc. YEAH THAT'S LIKE A CRAP LOAD!!! Tell me about it. It can be difficult to know what to click. This is why you can't just power level and hope that you'll be good. You have to know what each button does and when you need to click it. It's engaging and requires concentration but when it all works in a group you feel so gooood!
Round 9:PvP. For starters, it exists in EQ2. Secondly, it's actually really good. I'd have to refer you to the EQ2i.com PVP page for more information because it can be quite technical. There are AWESOME (the best in the game) rewards for the high-end PVP. Low end rewards are also the best available for their tier. It gives you incentive to get better and to fight. In EQ2 you have power in numbers. Sometimes you can take on whole groups if you're twinked (or just a Shadowknight) but most of the time you need a full group to take a full group, and no less.
I'll be back soon, my boss is wondering why I am typing so much.
Round 10:EverQuest 2 has dedicated roleplaying servers. Lots of people do enjoy roleplaying.
You can see that EQ2 appeals to roleplayers when you start questing. The dialogues are lengthy and can branch off in all different directions.
When I played my first character, I read everything.
Now I just accept quests, look on the net for what I have to do (on eq2i.com or eq2.zam.com), kill it really quickly, hand it in then get good loot, AA, Exp etc.
Oh and of course EQ2 is the role playing king, it all started with EQ.. people dressing up as Wood Elves etc., you know.. you've seen the photos.
Round 11:Generally solid gameplay. Maintenance periods always announced ahead on the official
http://www.eq2players.com website, and also on eq2.zam.com. Alerts go out before maintenance.
Lag is not an issue in most zones, but it is a SERIOUS issue in the highly populated PVP areas. The lag can be so bad that you click a combat art button and it doesn't take effect for 3 or 4 seconds usually requiring MAJOR BUTTON MASH for it to work. This is such a bad problem especially for Scouts, and ESPECIALLY for Brigands and Assassins because you need to time certain abilities from different attacking positions for maximum damage.
Not sure what WoW is like but EQ2 can really suffer from lag in the extremely high population zones (many hundreds of players).
Most of the time, not an issue.
Oh and it could be because I play a US server and not a UK one. Nobody plays UK.
Round 12:Factions are interesting in EQ2.
Since a few years ago, there is a third Exile faction. If you are Exile you can be killed by anyone and are treated as hostile by the Qeynosians and the Freeporters. You have no home, no guild hall, no shared bank slots. It's a hard life but people get by and others thrive (Onyx).
Because now you can PVP, you can tell who is good and who is evil.
You can't talk to or trade* with players of opposing factions, but you can /hug and /dance them.
* You can trade with players of opposing factions from the Broker in Haven (Exile) or in Moors of Ykesha (Neutral)Round 13: The broker system is fantastic and has been completely renovated since the games inception.
It actually works now, and it works very well!
It's a great way to make money and actually meet new people.
Contact me if you'd like to find out more information about the broker - it's not something you have the privelege to access as a trial member, unfortunately.
Round 14:I would have said WoW was better at this actually, but they recently renovated the EQ2Players.com website and it is now AWESOME. A lot of stuff was out of date, clunky, and broken on the old EQ2Players.com site.
The forums are extremely active, although I prefer browsing on EQ2Flames.com.
Sony have good contact and affiliation with various sites like EQ2.zam.com and EQ2Wire so you can usually get the best news from those websites. Sony also provide players with a weekly roundup of all the cool stuff that appeared on their official forums - usually worth a look.
Anything else you want to know give me a shout. Maybe a WoW player can tell us all the new stuff in WoW too
