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Role Playing (Games)

EQ2 Combining Servers 39

Posted by Zonk from the so-happy-together dept.
Darniaq writes "Scott 'Gallenite' Hartsman, Senior Producer for Everquest 2, has announced the pending combination of ten servers with ten other others. Normally, this sort of announcement would be met with immediate derision, a collectively vindictive sneering about a game that wasn't successful or is dying. However, because of when this combination is coming, and how it is being handled, I have a slightly different view." Additional commentary at Aggro Me.
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EQ2 Combining Servers More

EQ2 Combining Servers

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  • Doesn't matter how you spin it... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by CaseM ( 746707 ) on Tuesday January 31, 2006 @12:13PM (#14607311)
    EQ2 is dying. Frankly, it was DOA.
    • You mean like it has bouncing pixellated boobies?

      That might actually help its sales...

      (ba-dum - rimshot)
    • I'm guessing you haven't played it lately, then. It is far more fun for me than WoW ever was or will be, even though every person I know in RL that plays games like this play WoW, I still feel that EQ2 is worth playing more than WoW.

      It has changed a lot in the last year, CaseM. You should give it a try again.
  • Don't release a game too early. You end up scaring off potential players. I played the game for possibly a month and it didn't take long for me to figure out how badly programmed the game was. Bugs were everywhere in the crafting system.

  • Just to Many bugs. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Meest ( 714734 ) on Tuesday January 31, 2006 @12:28PM (#14607471)
    Its not that it was a bad game. It was amazing! the graphics are great (if your computer can handle them).

    The issue they had was that they rushed the release. They are slow on bug fixes. and they're trying to attract the WoW crowd by making it easier. The problem is that EQ2 already had its core gamers! By making it easier to attract new gamers fromw WoW they in turn have killed of the original EQ2 crowd (ie Me). I don't enjoy everything being handed to me. I don't enjoy solo'ing all the way to 60 (much like WoW its getting to be the easiest way to get to 60 instead of risking pickup groups) I want to be grouping, I want to know that if someone is lvl 60 they actualy KNOW THEIR CLASS AND HOW TO USE IT. You have no idea how many people that are 60 still don't know what their class is used for and how to act in a group.

    They also are SLOW TO FIX BUGS! High end raiding content is suppose to be their crown jewell. But yet when you go to try and kill a mob that has been in the game since launch, (Drakota in The Ferrot) He still has bugged adds! At least the last time I attempted him which was 2 months ago. I had a neighbor that was in a High end raiding guild that was usualy one of the first 2-3 to beat the new content. They had to wait 2-3 weeks to even fix zoning and agroo issues with mobs. So many issues with the game that they are slow to fix, and they never have fixed. I can understand a few bugs on release. I can understand that. But this many and after this long they still aren't fixed...

    I'll give EQ2 one more try on the PvP servers (Although i wish they had a sullon zek ruleset...) and after that I just will have to wait for an MMO to suit my needs. I'm still hoping Vangaurd will live up to its promise... It is a Microsoft game though, so time will only tell.

    • "The issue they had was that they rushed the release. They are slow on bug fixes. and they're trying to attract the WoW crowd by making it easier. The problem is that EQ2 already had its core gamers! By making it easier to attract new gamers fromw WoW they in turn have killed of the original EQ2 crowd (ie Me). I don't enjoy everything being handed to me. I don't enjoy solo'ing all the way to 60 (much like WoW its getting to be the easiest way to get to 60 instead of risking pickup groups) I want to be group
    • Everyone bitches about the graphics, but they always fail to mention that they give you complete and utter control over the engine so you can tailor it precisely to your preferences. Want a smooth framerate? Turn down the eyecandy. Want more detail? Turn up some eyecandy.

      I have a 1.7GHz P4 with a Geforce4 Ti4200, and I was able to get the game looking pretty damn nice with a great framerate, even when in a large group with tons of effects. There's a FANTASTIC guide in the EQ2 forums written by a player
      • That their is great graphics. Like i said. if your computer can handle it. That wasn't even a gripe of mine. I myself have an athlon 2800+ with a Radeon 9600 pro and i run low details. I was just stateing that graphics wise its an amazing game.
    • "You have no idea how many people that are 60 still don't know what their class is used for and how to act in a group."

      Back when I played EQ1, the exact same problem existed. MMORPGs are meant to cater to the lowest common denominator, and to achieve that their game mechanics favor time spent by the player in the game world over skill of the individual player. The time-over-skill value in MMORPGs is the reason why you see horrible high level players. "Hard" MMORPGs aren't hard inthemselves; they just take

    • Slow to fix bugs? They are speed demons compared to Blizzard!

      How many months was WoW live before they had a test server?

      How many times in Blizzard did we see bugs that were known and widely complained about on their test servers go to production, simply because Blizzard didn't want to fix it?

      How often does Blizzard make hotfixes for exploits, but leaves bugs in the game until the next scheduled patch?

      I played EQ2 for about 2 months, tops. The game itself was boring to me, and these newbie character change

  • EQ2 (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Konster ( 252488 ) on Tuesday January 31, 2006 @12:53PM (#14607778)
    I quit WoW and bought this a month ago. It is a good game now, far far better than it was when it first came out. They've gotten rid of the stupid penalty for death (although there remains a small XP debt and item decay for dying, which is very WoW like), revised the combat spells and moves, and now they are getting rid of one of the worst starting zones in the MMO genre and streamlining the character creation process, which was a blithering mess.

    It's not WoW, but then again, it isn't the pile of garbage it was when it was released. It's come a long way, and it's certainly worth $20 for a look at this sleeper of an MMO.
    • I was in WoW closed beta, and was so bored by that game, in beta, that I went with EQ2 at release. I loved it, but eventually finding groups or stable guilds became too tedious and I eventually returned to EQ1.

      Now, a year later, I have done WoW retail - 0-60 in three months and now what? Total boredom with running the same few instances night after night. And so a few weeks ago, I returned to EQ2.

      And I am LOVING the game as it is now. I'm having a blast. I started over so I could get used to the changes

  • Just imagine a beowulf cluster of...

    Oh, nevermind!

  • ...You risk doing one of those "superman saves the day by sucking the tidal wave up on a tornado" bits

    No MMO restricts the number of players because the world if too crowded, they do it because server architecture limits the amount of people on a given server/world. That's just how it is.

    The only reason to combine servers is because it will cost them les to run the whole show on fewer boxes and the servers arent handling the max capacity of people yet.

    Good luck to the poster trying to sell the SoE spin

    • Why not run multiple instances on the same cluster then? I wondered why DAoC wasn't doing that when server populations plummeted after they released Trials of Atlantis (I just checked www.camelotherald.com and it looks like that is what they ARE doing now. Also, the number of people logged in is pathetically low)

      What EQ2 is doing is combining the populations of the servers (how will they resolve naming disputes?) Their explanation makes sense in that respect. You don't have to combine the populations t
      • names conflicts are solved the same way they have always been in SOE games.

        your name has 'x' added to it until it is unique, then your account is flagged so you can rename your character once.


        a better solution would be to, from the beginning, enforce universe unique names rather than server unique games.
        • a better solution would be to, from the beginning, enforce universe unique names rather than server unique games.

          I dunno. Let's say you have a few million subscribers. They all (on average) have a half-dozen alts lying around unused. I think that name space would run out quickly.

      • EQ2 does work by creating multiple instances. What happens is that if one intance of a zone fills up it creates a new one, and then when you enter the area you have to select which one you want to enter. You also have dungeons that create an instance just for your party.
  • It looks like EQ2 is following the same path as AC2. Buggy release, eventual merger of servers despite bug fixes over time, and eventual shut down. Odd that the original AC is still in good shape and showing no signs of a server merge.
  • I played from release up until last September. I haven't really paid attention to what's happened in the past few months.

    The problem is that EQ2 suffers from a few structural defects.

    1) Zone layout - Way back in the mists of time there were supposed to be boats and getting between the islands was supposed to involve a boat ride. As a result of this early design, all of the zones in EQ2 are mostly on separate islands. Then they took the boats out and added magic bells on all of the docks to allow you

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