Everquest 2 Time Locked Progression Servers

[Thulghor]

Is anyone here trying this out? If so, is it worth actually checking out?

I played Everquest 2 from release to about mid 2005 or so before WoW swept me up. Tried it again in 2011 or so. Too many changes from the early days to really draw me back in. Figured this might be a decent time to check it out and give it another shot. Especially since Everquest Next looks like it will never release.

Pretty apprehensive about paying a subscription fee again, especially if it isn't any good in the long run.

[Pringles]

I played EQ2 for a total of like 5 minutes when it first launch, so if they are recreating that experience, no thanks =P

[maskedmelon]

Do they have the cities segregated again with betrayal quests? Those were awesome ^^

[Swish]

Wasn't there a thread on this already? In any case, I didn't care much for EQ2 in many ways... that "teamwork wheel" or whatever it was really did nothing for me, although I did like the rage when a group member died and the whole group lost a small amount of XP :D

[11bangbang]

ive never played eq2, but im willing to try it out.

[Lamil]

The trade skills in EQ2 were amazing before they dumbed them down. I actually enjoyed making all the different components before combining.. I left when they made you just put all the components into one window and hit combine.

[Thulghor]

Started messing with it today on the Stormhold server. Created a high elf paladin and an ogre guardian (bet you can guess the names). Isle of Refuge, while close, is not what it was starting out originally. It's the same island this time, but hit with some kind of undead plague or something.

It's also kinda weird to see all the non-classic EQ2 races that were released later running around, like Sarnak, Frogloks, fairy people, Freeblood vampires, and those Kerafyrm dragonkin things (Aerakyn?). I'm honestly surprised they never included giants, coldain, or orcs as a playable race.

Still seems reasonably challenging, and the tradeskill system has gone back to an earlier iteration (although it is not quite the original classic system). Amusingly, you can easily kill yourself tradeskilling again.

I actually grouped with some people to do some questing, although just about everyone I ran across is either French or German. Luckily I know a little German, so that wasn't totally bad. Not sure what's up with that.

I also had forgotten just how shitty the engine runs even on modern systems. While I would love to set everything on supermax, it chokes down to 30 FPS or less if I do. Running it on high presets with a few things turned up a bit seems alright though at around 45-60+. My system doesn't suck either. I was kinda hoping they might have optimized the game engine a bit, but it looks like they never did.

Pretty awesome to hear the late Sir Christopher Lee as Lucan D'Lere again though. Forgot how bad ass that was. May he rest in peace.

[Gruktar]

I started playing on the Stormhold server a couple of weeks ago, and I have been enjoying it. I guess the main thing to realize when going into it is that it isn't going to be a p99 style recreation of classic eq2...while they did make some tweaks, most of the class/item/system changes are the same as live. However, expansion related additions like mercenaries, tradeskill helpers, and flying mounts will be released with the appropriate expansion, so it will (hopefully) be a long time before we have to deal with those things on the server.

There are a few issues that detract from the experience, like summoners being ridiculously OP and rare fabled items (which are supposed to be the best) being worse than easy-to-get treasured items because of the itemization changes they made. I think that as more expansions are released these issues will go away though.

I would say the best part is the amount of activity on the server. I am almost at the level cap and have had no problems finding groups for any of the dungeons while leveling up. It's been fun playing through the classic content again after 6 or so years.

[Thulghor]

Yeah, so far it hasn't been too bad. Was disappointed that they weren't able to bring back the various city suburbs.

Apparently I got Isle of Refuge and Queen's Colony/Overlord's Outpost mixed up.

Originally everyone started on Isle of Refuge. I guess they split it at some point:

http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/Isle_of_Refuge

Vs.

http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/Queen's_Colony

http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/Outpost_of_the_Overlord

[maskedmelon]

Yeah, so far it hasn't been too bad. Was disappointed that they weren't able to bring back the various city suburbs.

Apparently I got Isle of Refuge and Queen's Colony/Overlord's Outpost mixed up.

Originally everyone started on Isle of Refuge. I guess they split it at some point:

http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/Isle_of_Refuge

Vs.

http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/Queen's_Colony

http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/Outpost_of_the_Overlord

Originally everyone started in Freeport or Qeynos.....

[maskedmelon]

Started messing with it today on the Stormhold server. Created a high elf paladin and an ogre guardian (bet you can guess the names). Isle of Refuge, while close, is not what it was starting out originally. It's the same island this time, but hit with some kind of undead plague or something.

It's also kinda weird to see all the non-classic EQ2 races that were released later running around, like Sarnak, Frogloks, fairy people, Freeblood vampires, and those Kerafyrm dragonkin things (Aerakyn?).

You can play as a fairy?! D:







Where do I dowoad? Is this a live thing or an emu?

[Thulghor]

Originally everyone started in Freeport or Qeynos.....

Nah, people did Isle of Refuge till like, 5 to maybe 7, then went to Qeynos or Freeport (or you chose if you went neutral). This was back at the beginning, when you picked a sub class (Fighter, Scout, Mage, etc), then picked a branch class at a later level (Crusader, and other), then picked your final class (paladin, shadowknight, guardian...). You didn't worry about class alignment til later, so neutral races with neutral classes could choose to go Freeport or Qeynos right there, based on how you were convinced. Evil races went Freeport, and Good went Qeynos. Later, you could do betrayal quests and switch sides if you wanted to. Friend of mine ended up being something weird, like a troll paladin. Was pretty amusing.

They eventually got rid of this system entirely and went to other newbie zones, and now you just pick your class regularly. Last I played regular live, Qeynos was being attacked by dragons.

Anyhow, you can get the game client here, it's a live thing through DBG:

https://launch.daybreakgames.com/installer/EQ2_setup.exe

More info on the progression servers here:

https://www.everquest2.com/news/time-locked-expansion-server-launch-live

[maskedmelon]

Nah, people did Isle of Refuge till like, 5 to maybe 7, then went to Qeynos or Freeport (or you chose if you went neutral). This was back at the beginning, when you picked a sub class (Fighter, Scout, Mage, etc), then picked a branch class at a later level (Crusader, and other), then picked your final class (paladin, shadowknight, guardian...). You didn't worry about class alignment til later, so neutral races with neutral classes could choose to go Freeport or Qeynos right there, based on how you were convinced. Evil races went Freeport, and Good went Qeynos. Later, you could do betrayal quests and switch sides if you wanted to. Friend of mine ended up being something weird, like a troll paladin. Was pretty amusing.

They eventually got rid of this system entirely and went to other newbie zones, and now you just pick your class regularly. Last I played regular live, Qeynos was being attacked by dragons.

Anyhow, you can get the game client here, it's a live thing through DBG:

https://launch.daybreakgames.com/installer/EQ2_setup.exe

More info on the progression servers here:

https://www.everquest2.com/news/time-locked-expansion-server-launch-live

Hmm, I don't remember the isle of refuge deal, but I'll take your word on it ^^ I played a Dark Elf Brawler turned Monk. Loved the betrayal quest, low end raid content, active crafting, legendary quest items, & dropped skill tier upgrades. I didn't mind the shared xp penalties either. Been a long time though.

[Lamil]

I would play this game if they had gone back to the original trade skills. Sounds interesting but not enough to get me to pay a subscription.

[Swish]

what is the sub cost these days?

[Secrets]

what is the sub cost these days?

$14.99 or one Krono.

[Thulghor]

$14.99 a month for "all access" (whatever that means), or $9.99 a month, but you have to pay for twelve months upfront.

EDIT: Secrets beat me to it. I don't know what a Krono is though.

[stormlord]

This is worth bumping. This STILL interests me. Now, I did try EQ2 ~3 years ago. I didn't like hte mainstream features. Especially hated the map system showing everything. BUT the game still has some flavor. There's a LOT of content.

I wanted to do old content, but it was messy. Nobody would realistically help you in old content. You'd be alone. And since a lot of players haven't played hte old content in a long time, they can't always answer questions. Also players level up so fast there's no necessity to level up the normal way anyway! And you don't know where the old content is either, since you can travel by accident to ANY expansion. So trying to ONLY do old content on live servers was tricky.

They also enabled the old tutorial where you start on a boat. They didn't plan on dong it originally because they didn't think it would work. They gave the job to a guy and said "IF you can't do X in 3 hours then we won't do it." He did it!

If you haven't played it try it. There's some fun to be had in it, especially on the progression server.

[Knuckle]

Sounds like garbage

[stormlord]

They made two progression servers, one for PVE and the other for PVP. They launched on July 21 2015. You need All Access ($14.99/month or $9.99/month for a year subscription). The server is set on the first expansion: Desert of Flames. After every 30 days there'll be a vote to go to the next expansion. 2/3 required. Desert of Flames required 2 votes to pass.

The servers are named Deathtoll and Stormhold.

Also experience gain is slower on the progression servers and there're a few other rollbacks. Viewable here. (https://www.everquest2.com/news/time-locked-expansion-server-faq)

Guys/gals this is hte best time to join! The servers before long will be just like the live ones except a few small things. The players who're voting don't understand what the value of these servers are. These will progress too fast.

Here's a list of all the expansions, their changes and original release date:
(CURRENT) Desert of Flames - 13 September 2005
* Adventure, Tradeskill and Guild Level raised to 60, Guild Level Cap Increased to 60
Kingdom of Sky - 21 February 2006
* Adventure, Tradeskill and Guild Level raised to 70, Alternate Advancement Subclass Window unlocked with a 50 AA cap, Guild Level Cap Increased to 70
Echoes of Faydwer - 14 November 2006
* AA Class Tree Unlocked, AA Cap is Raised to 100, Tinkering, Transmuting, and Adorning Unlocked
Rise of Kunark - 13 November 2007
* Adventure, Tradeskill and Guild Level raised to 80, AA Cap is Raised to 140, Guild Level Cap Increased to 80, Guild Halls
The Shadow Odyssey - 18 November 2008
* AA Shadows Tree Unlocked, AA Cap is Raised to 200
Sentinel's Fate - 16 February 2010
* Adventure, Tradeskill and Guild Level raised to 90, AA Cap is Raised to 250, Guild Level Cap Increased to 90
Destiny of Velious - 22 February 2011
* Adventure, Tradeskill and Guild Level raised to 92, AA Heroic Tree Unlocked, AA Cap is Raised to 300, Flying, Leaping and Gliding Mounts
Age of Discovery - 6 December 2011
* AA Cap is Raised to 320, Mercenaries, Apprentices, Reforging
Chains of Eternity - 13 November 2012
* Adventure, Tradeskill and Guild Level raised to 95, Prestige Window Unlocked, Guild Level Cap Increased to 95
Tears of Veeshan - 12 November 2013
* AA Dragon Tree Unlocked, AA Cap is Raised to 350
Altar of Malice - 11 November 2014
* Adventure, Tradeskill and Guild Level raised to 100, Prestige Class Tree is Unlocked, Guild Level Cap Increased to 100, Legendary, Fabled and Mythical crits

* - I bolded mercenaries because some players like hte fact soloing is more restrictive without them.

[stormlord]

My previous posts in this thread:
Post 1 (http://www.project1999.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2119871&postcount=18)
Post 2 (http://www.project1999.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2119921&postcount=20) (this lists all of the expansions and what they change)

Here's the link to check out the site and start playing (if you're at all interested):
https://www.everquest2.com/game-overview

Oh and as I mention in the previous post there're rollbacks; again viewable here (https://www.everquest2.com/news/time-locked-expansion-server-faq) under "All TLE Servers". Another rollback is there's no dungeon finder on the progression servers. I'm not sure if it stays that way indefinitely or what.

If you're not interested, well it goes without saying.

Here's a lets play video on Stormhold (the PVE progression server):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aW4TyPVjDLM