L20 game impressions update
I wanted to follow up on my initial impressions of EQ2 regarding gameplay/hardware/software. Currently my 6 box group is L20 with 14aa's after about 3 days of raf play.
Gameplay: Enough has been stated about endgame so I want to address general gameplay. The game is very boxable regardless of group size. I have only encountered one quest that I couldn't share (1-20) and that includes all quest chain steps. Collection quests are a non factor. Most of them are guaranteed drop, the rare drop type are not really that rare and are relatively painless. Collection quest items are auto looted (no action on your part) and don't take up bag space. You will see an on screen message similar to a raid warning that the mob either did or did not drop what you needed. Yes, they tell you if you didn't find a quest item. :thumbup:
Quest givers are visible from a distance before they ever show up on the minimap. There is a nice glow around the feather over their head that can been seen well, even on low graphics. There are tons of quest starter items available as drops from mobs. These are usually kill quests and are repeatable by getting the drop again after completing the quest. Some quests require looting items from mobs (gnoll language quest is one). Lets say there is a quest item on a mob that you (master character) don't need but a slave does. You will see the loot icon (tiny treasure chest) when you hover over the mob but when you try to loot it you will get a chat message that there isn't any loot on this mob for you. Since mob corpses disappear very quickly, this helps prevent missing important quest loot. When clearing out an area, you really clear it out so an unlooted mob will stand out so you don't miss any loot.
Moving around and following has its ups and downs. The follow is nearly unbreakable, even in combat, and has a very long range. You can use your turn left and right while on follow if you are stuck on an obstacle (it acts like a strafe) to catch up. Yet follow has its limitations such as going up stairs or tight passages with turns. The follow has a somewhat long leash which is awesome in combat because your tank is free to move around a bit while your group/blob stays in place on follow. Speaking of combat, casters need not face the target to cast spells on them. Let me repeat. Casters do not need to face the target to cast spells on them. Melee positioning in combat is a little funky right now so I will skip that. When entering combat with the tank/melee, the tank/melee will leash to the mob and your movement controls will work a little differently but the leashing helps you when used with '/autoattack 1' to autoface the face the mob.
Hardware/Software: EQ2 is not Wow and requires more resources. The fact that I can not find a way to disable the sound on the slaves hurts. Hardware sound doesn't work right now because EAX is broken when used with EQ2 and more than instance. This means that all sound is software rendered and there isn't a toggle in sound options to turn of in game sound just volume sliders to work with. That said, my system is a 3.0ghz Q6600 8gb ram HD4870 1gb video with all instances displayed on one monitor (2 monitor setup though). Six instances of EQ2 brings this system to its knees. Core 0,1, 2 are about 60-70% while #4 stays maxxed. I use Innerspace in conjunction with ISBoxer for EQ2. All the game instances are spread across all cores for load balancing but I might try to adjust that for Core 3. The game is playable with normal 20-30 fps on the master slaves locked at 15 fps. Busy areas ( cities) will drop the main to 10 fps and it feels a little sketchy but is still fine to play. Low fps is where the follow system really shines, I haven't lost a follower at low fps yet.
I think an upgrade to an I7 based system is in order for my boxing needs. My components are good except for the processor bottle neck. My current system will be turned into a HTPC.
Combat/Macros: Utilizing Khatovars macro guide and overlapping keys between characters makes combat easier. The macro system is simple yet powerfull. Implied targeting for hostile/friendly spells makes landing heals or nukes super easy, just use one assist button on the slaves to get the target (not including special assists for CC). Tossing a heal gets the mobs target, firing a nuke lands on your target (if hostile) and just reverse it if you have a friendly targeted. This keeps your mind on your tank control and makes healing a snap.
Enough rambling for now.
