For the latest episode of our Things You Would Change With... series, we set off to Norrath, the world where EverQuest 2 is set in, just as its predecessor, the original EverQuest, is. Sequel to one of the earliest fantasy-based MMO RPG titles that contributed to defining the genre, EQ2 was released in 2004 already, pushing out quite an amount of adventure packs and expansions since then and growing equally popular as the original. Even with switching to a free-to-play business model, it still carries on releasing a major expansion each year.
And just allow us in this context, to mention our F2Pmeter article on EQ2 once again for those who are interested in and haven’t checked it out yet.
Lots of people believe the EverQuest franchise to be the core of traditional fantasy-themed MMO RPGs, as it’s still a power to be reckoned with on the market, still clinging with a lot of the early fantasy RPG themes. Yet, as time went by, we’re now having a look to figure out which aspects are perhaps in need of being tweaked a bit because of not being up to date anymore and not delivering what players nowadays have come to expect from MMO RPGs.
Performance Issues
The performance in EQ2 is game breaking: We’re aware of the fact that we’re always harping on this aspect with each single Things You Would Change With... article, however, we would be just glad to remove this criticism with all the previously done episodes, complaining about the games’ lag if this led to emphasising the severe issue with EQ2. We actually hate to sound that dramatic when calling EQ2’s performance issues "game breaking", but each time we’ve tried play-testing the game when a new expansion came out or for our first look gameplay commentary on the new player zones, it was plain simple a terrible experience due to performance and in all honesty quite a struggle to even play the game for any extended period of time and we can’t ever imagine playing it on a regular basis. Although it’s a common problem, it apparently doesn’t affect everybody, so this is more of a personal gripe that perhaps we’d have more enjoyment from EQ2 if it actually performed well on our rig.
Old-fashioned Visuals
EQ2 appears and plays like a dated MMO RPG: Due to being around for a good 11 years, this alone isn’t such a big problem; however, the game doesn’t stand the comparison to World of Warcraft which is just as old but still looks pretty current and it’s rather a matter of graphical choice and of keeping with the theme than being limited by the original technology. While Blizzard is undertaking efforts to keep their flagship title current with upgrades, SOE/ Daybreak is concentrating on EverQuest Next, leaving EverQuest 2 as it is and considering it a rather nostalgic throwback to early MMO RPG times through their rose tinted glasses of “the glory days”. Textures in EQ 2 look flat and muddy, the environments feel barren and although great graphics don’t define a game it would definitely be a welcomed addition.
Contested Zones
The number of dungeons and contested zones is too low: Due to being a predominantly instance-based game, it typically requires a group to complete a lot of the content if players are trying to tackle it at an appropriate level. As EQ2 is pretty old and the player population is ever decreasing with quite some servers being particularly low on players, in addition to the problem that many players will grind through the content in a rush to get to and level, with many progression Guilds helping players level up quickly, it becomes even harder to get a group together to tackle the dungeons/ zones. More contested areas (not as in PvP contested, but simply non-instanced where people can come to grind) would make it easier for players to try out all the content instead of having to skip it or be forced into these progression Guilds to get over the various level humps they may be faced with.
Level Agnostic Dungeons
We’d like to see more of the not that long ago added Agnostic Dungeons that allow players to group together regardless of their level (ranging from level 20-94) with rewards/ XP being awarded based on the player’s level instead of the dungeon level, basically providing players with a reason to go back through older content as well as with some personal benefit when helping lower level players quest there. As of now, only a small handful of dungeons got adjusted and we’d wish to see this be the case for MORE and finally all of them, since it’s such a cool concept. We’d furthermore like to see the level range increase to level 100, allowing everybody to benefit from the Agnostic Dungeons.
Character Appearance
It’s pretty obvious (and hardly a surprise) that the developers first and foremost focus on new expansions and the addition of new end-game content to EQ2, given that recent projects like Landmark and EQ Next seem to be a worthier thing to commit resources in the form of time and money to. This results in the fact that EQ2 characters are still wearing the same old tired clothing and armour, the same haircuts and styles, so that customising your character may feel a bit stagnant, in particular when other competitors, e.g. The Elder Scrolls Online, sport new features such as armour dying. We’re convinced that the role-playing community makes up quite a good amount of EQ2’s player base, so that we’d love to see the introduction of a fresh new wardrobe for the season.
Server Merges
The number of active players results in a problem for gameplay: As already mentioned earlier, the general decreasing amount of players becomes more and more an issue, with several servers being quite empty in all but the end zones. This is something the developers are obviously aware of and more often than not react with shutting down/ merging servers. The issue is that players have to pay for the service of individual characters being transferred to another server, meaning that they have to individually pay for each single one of their characters in case they want to switch from a dead server to another one. We feel this is a pretty harsh means, considering the fact that users with characters worth transporting have probably played for quite some time and already have multiple alternative characters. You may gather the impression that instead of being a convenience feature, it’s rather a way to squeeze out a little extra money of the devoted fan base that don’t want to give up on the game... and yet so many do. Free server merges please.
So that's what we'd change with EverQuest 2, but more importantly what do you believe should be changed? What would you add to your own personal wish list? Let us know what you think in the comments below!
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