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DING! Telegram for Kropotkin!
On 11 September whilst sorting through
the filter spam mail that my ISP so
kindly sets aside I spotted an email
from Sony Station. The subject of this
email focused my attention for it said
‘EverQuest II Beta Invitation’.
I couldn’t believe it! I’d
actually managed to get onto the EQII
beta!
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I quickly logged on to the EQ beta
site and tried to register my key only
to find it didn’t work. ‘Oh
no!’, I thought, ‘Was the
email a cruel hoax?’ I rushed to
the EQII open forums and saw that I
wasn’t the only person having problems.
It turns out that although invitations
were sent out to people in Europe the
keys were not active. We had to wait
for the folks at SOE to wake up on the
west coast of US and activate them.
Once they became active the mad rush
of thousands of European beta testers
trying to download 3.2 Gb of data began.
Some were lucky and managed to get the
whole client in 10 hours, others, like
me had to wait considerably longer!
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| How to create a village
idiot
Once it did arrive I set about creating
a character. As a seasoned EQ1 (as the
original game is known to EQ2 players)
player I had already decided to recreate
my old paladin character (Keldarsin)
into EQ2. However seeing as the version
of EQ2 I was playing was only a beta
I thought it best to actually create
a character I had no intention of keeping
as he would be deleted at the end of
the beta.
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| Seeing as a two of my Call of Duty clan
members had also managed to get onto the
beta and they had both settled in Freeport,
the ‘evil’ city of EQ2 I decided
to create an Iksar Priest. Iksar are essentially
lizard-men creatures that are of evil
alignment. Character creation focuses
on the outer features of the character.
With body shape, face and hairstyle or
indeed fin-style as I found with my Iksar
character. Once again with the knowledge
that this character was doomed to oblivion
at the end of the beta I made him look
the most ridiculous creature imaginable.
This proved to be quite easy with my only
rival being my friend Croberts who created
this bizarre looking troll! Interestingly
there were no stats to be set which is
the tradition for MMO’s. This was
but a hint at what was to come with regard
to character development in EQ2. I named
this character Kropotkin.
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I think I’m getting
seasick
Once the character has been created
the game begins with the option of the
player going through the tutorial or
going straight to the ‘Island of
Refuge’, more about which later.
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| Being a brand new player I went for
the tutorial. This takes place on a ship
that you are a passenger on acting as
a refugee. I say refugee as the world
of EQ2 is set 500 years after the world
of EQ1 and things haven’t gone too
well. The gods have fallen silent and
the wizard and druid spires have stopped
working. Not only that but climate change
has caused many seas to become impassable
and a war has broken out on the continent
of Antonica whilst other lands such as
Kunark and Velious have vanished. To top
it all the moon of Luclin has exploded
leaving a broken ball floating in the
sky where so many people once lived.
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| Oh no, tell me I don’t
have to kill a rat!!! PLEASE NOT THAT!
My time on the ship consisted of me
getting used to the interface. It’s
done in a similar fashion to Halo of
all games with characters asking you
to do some things such as move, look
around and such to ensure you understand
how to interact with the games interface.
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| Once I was finally asked to kill something
it turned out to be the rats that had
infested the ship. I could not help but
chuckle at this as this is also the first
thing you attack on the original EQ1 and
even until you reach level 70 you still
find yourself attacking rats although
these happen to be super-rats by the time
you reach those levels.
Anyway, back on the ship and I eventually
kill the rats. Once I had done this
I was given the task of finding a hat
for a dwarf. This had me looking around
the ship for a casket that contained
the hat. This was an attempt at explaining
how players can forage for items in
the game.
Finally I was given the task of killing
a goblin that had escaped from its cage
soon after an attack on the ship from
a flying beast. After chasing the little
blighter around the deck I cornered
him and took him down much to my delight.
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Branching conversations
you say? Speech bubbles you say? Where
have I seen that before???
Soon after this little bit of excitement
I chatted to the captain. One of the things
that has been spoken of a great deal about
EQ2 is the voice dialogue in the game.
It has been said that all of the Non-player-characters
(NPC’s) all speak to the player with
voice samples rather than text. This is
true to a degree although the beta program
has only been slowly introducing this.
It’s a nice addition and certainly
engages the player more than reading reams
of text.
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| The way in which players interact with
NPC’s is also somewhat familiar to
Star Wars Galaxies with a series of choices
appearing before the player when the ‘hail’
the character. The NPC also utters their
speech in large bubbles, again like SWG.
All of this confirmed my preconceptions
that EQ2 appears to be a hybrid between
EQ1 and SWG. My only problem with this
is that it may jar EQ1 players a bit as
they are used to the ‘keyword’
form of conversation with NPC’s eg:
NPC: Greetings adventurer! Could
you aid me in fighting some [orcs] near
my farm?
Player: orcs
NPC: There are many of them!
I shall pay you a [reward] if you vanquish
them though!
Player: reward
NPC: The reward will be 200
platinum pieces. Do you [accept] this
challenge?
Player: accept
Hardly intuitive really so I found
the EQ2 system a God send!
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Quit looking at me!
Another thing that struck me as I stumbled
about on the ship was how other characters
looked at me by glancing my way and
tilting their heads to look at other
things of interest. This is a change
from the original game with characters
staring into the distance. Again this
is another feature of the game that
draws the player further into the world.
It’s most notable when shorter
characters are looking at other much
taller players. They tilt their heads
up to meet their faces. It’s a
nice touch.
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Island of Refuge, here
I come!
With the tutorial seemingly over I
got off of the ship and ‘zoned’
into the Island of Refuge. Like the
original game, EQ2 is made up of a series
of zones. These zones are loaded up
as the player enters them. Monsters
cannot enter neighbouring zones which
can result in the ‘RUN TO THE ZONE!’
call emanating from players in a group
when things start to go wrong. A familiar
tactic to old EQ1 players that may however
disorientate other players as the concept
of zones can make for a disjointed gameplay
experience. Especially to SWG players
which has no real definitive ‘zones’
as such.
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| Anyway, as I entered the island I’m
accosted by a guard who asks me what profession
I am. I’m given the choice of five
base classes. These were fighter, priest,
scout, mage and artisan. From these the
character grows into more advanced classes
as they progress. Seeing as Kropotkin
was going to be a cleric I chose priest.
I was then dispatched to meet with the
local priestess on the island to help
her out with some goblin trouble.
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| Priest LFG!!! PST!...Oh
come on! Someone needs a healer surely!
By the time I reached the island I
thought the tutorial was over. I was
soon to be proved wrong. The island
serves as a ramping up exercise for
players who are about to enter a very
hostile world. Quests are handed out
to players via NPC’s on the island
which increase in difficulty eventually
forcing the player to get into a group
to complete the quests. These quests
normally require the player to kill
and collect items from creatures. dotted
about the island. Rewards of completing
these quests vary from money through
to new weapons and armour.
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| I actually found the island to be a
very well thought out training camp for
new players as it introduces them to group
player dynamics and the concept of ‘aggroing’.
This is where creatures will attack you
on sight. The way in which EQ2 indicates
that this is a risk is by highlighting
the creatures name with a red outline.
Creatures names are also in coloured text
which are coded depending on how much
of a threat they are to the player. This
is the same system that has been with
EQ1 since day one and will be familiar
to many when they encounter it. One interesting
addition to this system is the ‘solo/group’
classification. When a player clicks on
a mob the word ‘Solo’ or ‘Group’
appears under their name. This indicates
whether or not the monster can be killed
with no assistance from others i.e. solo
or requires a group of 3-4 people. Ignoring
this can result in the player buy the
proverbial farm which leads me on to the
consequences of dying...
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Wot no bind?
In the early part of the players time
on the island levelling comes very fast.
Within 30 minutes of being on the island
most players reach level 4 or 5. The
experience garnered from the quests
is generally disproportionate to the
level of experience earned. This is
typical for most MMO’s and EQ2
is no different. However things rapidly
slow down when you reach level 8.
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| Experience is also the major currency
people focus on for it is the key way
in which progress is measured in a game
that has no end! This currency is also
deducted when you die or if anyone in
your group dies. This is known as ‘Experience
Debt’ and can only be recovered by
either returning to your point of death
and recovering your soul or reclaiming
experience by gaining more of it. It must
be noted that any debt must be paid back
before level progression can recommence.
The one major difference I found between
this death system and the original game
is that it is far less deliberating.
In EQ1 death is a largely catastrophic
event. All of the players possessions
are left on their corpse and they lose
a large proportion of their experience
which can result in a drop in level
if they have only just attained their
new level. Players also had to be bound
in cities to control where they appear
upon their death. in EQ2 there are a
series of bound points in a zone a player
is in negating the ‘corpse rescue’
trek so loathed and dreaded by EQ1 players.
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| Freeport bound
Eventually my character began to outgrow
the quests on the island. The most difficult
is involves the killing of an orc pirate
which takes place in a closed off dungeon/zone
in a similar fashion to Lost Dungeons
of Norrath in EQ1 and the Corvette mission
in SWG. This means that the only people
in the zone are the players in the group
negating the risk of other players ‘training’
creatures onto unsuspecting groups.
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| Once I reached level 6 and had managed
to acquire enough money, armour and weaponry
and then went to the harbour and booked
passage to the city of Freeport. This
is the home city of my paladin character
on EQ1 so I was hoping to find it somewhat
familiar. How wrong I was!
Upon arrival I was offered a room in
a local inn. Costing 5 silver pieces
a week to maintain I was offered a mirror
a chandelier and a table to furnish
it with. This was only done once I completed
some minor quests which required me
to seek out certain parts of the outer
town suburb of Freeport I found myself
in for I was not in Freeport at all
as I had not yet achieved citizenship.
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Citizenship guarantees
a raise in level cap!
Citizenship must be earned in Freeport.
To earn it the player must collect 5
token that are dropped by creatures
in zones that neighbour the slum district
the player finds themselves in. Once
these tokens are collected they are
taken to the guard that stands near
the city gates. He then send you to
a closed zone, on your own, where you
must kill four characters of increasing
difficulty. Once they are killed, which
is no mean feat, you gain citizenship!
not only that but the level cap of 8
is lifted up to the maximum of 50 and
you can finally say you have arrived
on EQ2.
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| Quest after quest after
quest
EverQuest 2 certainly lives up to its
name. Almost ever NPC you talk to has
some kind of quest to perform upon completion
will result in experience and cash rewards.
This gives a focus to the player and
they are all detailed in a journal within
the game.
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| Quests also form a key part of the levelling
of players. Once my character reached
level 9 I was told to seek out a priest
in central Freeport. When I located him
he told me that I needed to carry out
a series of tasks, on my own, so that
I could progress in my chosen profession.
These tasks varied from finding a poisonous
plant one of the city vendors were selling
through to being flogged to prove my devotion
to the cause of healing! Once I had completed
this quest I was offered the role of cleric
which I accepted and that is how Kropotkin
now stands as I type this preview.
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Modem friendly gameplay
Just like every other MMO EQ2 is narrowband
friendly, even in this broadband age
we are in many still use 56 kbps modems
to access the Internet. This is best
demonstrated by the combat system. Again
very similar to the original game it
requires the player to initiate combat
and then cast spells or carry out special
moves during the combat. This is the
symptom of turn based combat unlike
first person shooters like Call of Duty
or Planetside which require the tracking
of bullets to as they fly towards their
intended target. This reduces the amount
of data that needs to be flung about
and thus making it modem friendly.
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| Auto assist can only
be a good thing
An interesting gameplay feature found
in EQ2 is the ‘auto assist’
function. This allows players to target
the main melee combat member of the
group and then initiate attacks upon
the mob that they are attacking. This
is a a real boon for spell casters such
as clerics and mages as it negates the
risk casting a heal on a mob or attacking
the wrong creature that is not the focus
of the groups attention.
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Summary
I have spoken about a great deal here
but I’ve only scratched the surface
of the game. I haven’t really touched
upon how crafting works in the game
as I have not delved into that side
of things myself. I do know that more
powerful spells can be made by other
players which appears to be the generator
of most peoples income.
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| With regards to money I found myself
trying to get by with a few dozen silver
pieces which is quite a shock of a multi-million
platinum EQ1 player. What is important
to note is that there are NPC merchants
that will by items from players. This
is different to SWG which is entirely
player dependent and very similar to EQ1
which is not! That is not to say there
is no player run economy it’s just
not so important as it is in SWG.
So far I’m having fun in EQ2 and
the improvements the developers have
made are many fold over the past few
weeks. Some people have asked me: ‘Is
the game in a releasable state?’.
I’d say right now, no. There are
still significant bugs in the code that
can cause entire zones to crash but
the number of these show-stoppers are
dwindling and I’d give it another
4-6 weeks before it is ready to be unleashed
onto the unsuspecting gaming public.
If you really want to get this game
then I recommend pre-ordering it as
you get a character creation tool and
the right to claim a set of journeyman
boots that allow the player to run faster.
This is a good thing! Especially on
the plains of Commandlands. This lions
can run real fast...
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