I agree that the bazaar is way too laggy. But there is not one other zone that I have had lag problems in, I never get LD issues, and I have clip plane all the way up, use all new models, I have showgrass on, mipmapping on, every option I can have on I have on and never have a problem and I'm running a P3 933mhz DELL 128mb ATI Radeon 8500, 512mb RAM, 2mb cable connection. I think what has only helped me really is going into my msconfig.sys and in the startup tab unchecking everything except for systray and explorer.

First thing that needs to be done is drastic measures to get the message to SONY. Like beat the living crap out of the team that sits and figures ways of scrweing us as customers.

prices on hardware are not that expensive, but to upgrade the entire engine if it will alienate paying customers who run minimal machines is not a good busines idea, not to mention bad CS, hmm imagine that from Sony.

Anyway, I three box, My lowest end computer is a dual Celeron 450(yes dual processor, is an abit BP6 for those in the know) with maxed out ram 768 pc 133. It has 32 meg geforce mx 400, windows 2k server(I do other things with this system). The game in current form runs fine, some lag here and there, loading zones is slow sometimes, but overall I could play this machine as my primary. It has a 4X agp bus so can upgrade the card some and still play, but the card will outrun the system.

My other two are a 1ghz duron, 512meg 133 and a 1.7 athlon xp 512 ddr ram, both have geforce mx 400 64 meg cards and perform decently, again they can be upgraded video wise with little effort.

the question is WHY? why not spend time working on making the current engine more efficent than spending more time on a new one. This is the age of bloated programming, and code is not efficient.

More efficient processing with the current engine would make the customers happier, IMHO.

one place that needs massive work is the dam bazaar, that is, next to Jagged pine, the worst lag zone in the game no matter what your system power.

The bazaar gets a large chunk of the activity in the game Player wise, a redo of the zone graphics to bring them to the minimum needed would go a long way.

WHY IS JaggedPine So LAGGED??? To many Dam trees!! turn off the wind, trim the trees a bit. Ill be happy to put old grim on a chaingang chainsaw crew to work off the treeline!!!

Dont change the engine, make it more efficient!!


Edited, Sun Oct 19 18:50:44 2003

i love eq but im still running pre luclin models spimply cause my system isnt strong enough to do better, im curious is "tunare" going to be set up for ALL eq gamers or just the ones with p4+ and geforce3/readon9000+if the graaphics engine can be nicers and smoother while still running well enough for some of use that lack the money or time to upgrade then more power to them but if its going to make me hold my farclip plane any further back then im not going to be able to handle it cause i already cant see as far as the mobs im hunting, which kinda sucks for a lvl 60 solo druid. just an opinion but theres alot of us that arent hardware inclined.

60ith Druid of the Tunarean service

how do you check irq's on Win XP ?

Sslith Kintoru <Brell>

Ok I have read stuff about EQ2 (not much, though)
some good (better graphics, more classes) and bad
(item deterioration, lose an item after death) and does anyone know where I can find an OFFICIAL
source of info on EQ2, so I can see if its really
an upgrade or just pretty graphics. Lets hope that
all those new classes (whatever their names are)
dont go the way of that Star Wars MMORPG with the
gay idea of non- combat classes.


Intelligence may be hard to find, but stupididty is everywhere, we cannot escape it.

Time to speculate...

I'd plan on seeing a blend of the EQ2 models and architecture with the what is current in EQ. I doubt the lighting and transform, shadow effects, or clothing and particle aspects will make it in to this next expansion, but the overal look and feel of Everquest will probably change dramatically.

I'm guessing more realistic forrest scenes, less of a cartoonish feel to the landscapes and more subtle lines on the character models. Probably better spell effects and animations to match the spell. No more random red glowies spouting in all directions every time you cast a magic based spell. I suspect better skies too, more realistic clouds. Surely smoother animations, probably on par with the PoP god animations, which...in case you haven't seen them...they generally all kick ***.

Just my $0.02 worth of speculation.

-Drachine 65 Magician -<Drinal>-

then again, I am on of those few who doesn't go nuts over every new graphic update that comes out.

Gameplay first is what I prefer.

To the anonymous poster who said go play another game, let's do a history lesson, shall we.

Latest 'graphical showcase games':
Asheron's Call 2 - Nice graphics, too bad the game is so horrible that people are actually going back to AC1, or whatever other MMORPG they were on before.

SWG - Most people playing it are praying EQ2 does not use most of the features in the game. In fact if it weren't for the Star Wars fanatics out there, this game would be suffering a severe case of 'no one playing'.

DAoC - Nice graphics, nice gameplay, but ridiculously boring after 20 levels unless you RvR 100% of the time. RvR is just a complete wate of time, 10 minutes to get into a fight, 30 seconds of fighting, 10 minutes to get back to the next fight.

Other games we might consider in your 'give it up and play a new game':

Horizons - Looks good, but almost every one of us knows a beta tester or two saying it is rather weak.

WoW - This one is sure to get all the teenies out there, and more power to them, both in age and maturity. Good riddance I say.

UO:X - Too far in the future.

Anarchy Online and Shadowbane - both have their niches of gamers, which long ago left EQ. Those still playing EQ would not touch either of those games at present.

Plain and simple fact is, not everyone likes all these newer games. Most of them have been almost complete failures, with DAoC the only one that is currently out that has gotten good press for the most part.

If you look at Asheron's Call as an example, many people would rather play an older, yet better developed, game that they would a brand new one that is released with 2 years worth of work left to be done before it is worth playing.

So, if you like new games, good for you. If you pl'ed your way thru EQ without experiencing or trying all the quests and such, good for you. But guess what, some people still enjoy this game, so don't tell us what to do.

It's like me telling you to relax and enjoy a game rather than worry about making "8 more level 65 characters with 400AA points". Of course, I wouldn't do that, because I for one wish you the best of luck in finding a game that will make you happy. So, if you hate EQ so much, why are you even reading articles on it. Let go my friend. Move on to something YOU like.

I find it funny that they named this Engine "Tunare." I found it really dissapointing to clear PoGrowth and then have the mystical Goddess Tunare pop and she was Pre-Luclin graphics. She kicked at us with the One-Two frame Animation leg like a Tiger Electronics LCD hand held fighting game.

Well, anyways all joking aside. That screen shot of the Aviak Quarters is Daaaaamn nice. Everquest is 5 years old at the time of this post and it's time they made the graphics up to par of that of other DX 9 games on the market. I have played Acheron's Call series and Dark Age of Camelot and the lack of content of both left me quite dissapointed. I came back to Everquest even though the graphics are aging because the content and flexibility is just there. I still find some things in the game quite impressive and I still get the dropped jaw.(I.e The Cornaiv Encounter and the Gate Keeper in Sol C.) When Luclin came out it was a turning point for the game because the toons looked great and they added so much more content. The graphics update was a PART of the expansion and it will be the same with this expansion IF the "MAY" in the what they stated becomes live.

Every expansion they have added so much that will keep me going for most likely another 5 years. I never had a problem shelling out $20 for an expansion once or twice a year because I know in some way or another the expansion made my game experience better. Lots of people shell out $50 for a dedicated console game (PS2,Xbox,GC) and put it down at the end of 2 weeks because they beat it or rent 1-3 games at $3-4 a piece for a few days and are glad they didn't shell out the $50 for any of them. Just because you can download a Full Version of some latest game (with no replay value of more than 2 weeks) doesn't mean you should apply your ideology with this game.

These people that program the game read the Message boards and feed off your inputs, so don't just flame because you are running a 64 MB video card and want to continue to do so because the title of the game has stayed the same. As software becomes more complex, so should your computer's ability to experience what was intended by the designer. After all we aren't playing "Zorg" anymore. Are you mad that you have to pay to keep talent working on one of your favorite games? They are trying to improve the game for you and give you more content that you would like to see. When they did Luclin, I always wished they would have updated the graphics in old worlds, as well, as this article implies. I know I keep referring to Luclin because I saw the same messages when it was in the works that people have lag already and it shouldn't cost for graphics or expansions and the like. The fact that this game is going strong after 5 years is because they dedicated people to push the game to the limits and in alot of parts, the graphics in an aging graphics engine.

I am in favor of a new graphics engine, especially if it means that the graphics will look like the screenshot and the game runs better. You can't tell me that the Named Dragons in Velious look cool, They don't. They did at one time, but now they don't now.

Some things I would like to see graphics-wise is Capes and Cloaks on the toons. I have done /feedback for them because I just think it would look cool.

Also, Updating graphics in the game has nothing to do with game support and encounters. With that they just need to hire more people for customer service or you can go an Upgrade your account if you feel like you aren't getting enough attention.

I don't think the before and after pictures are accurate as to what they are comparing, but it doesn't matter. Just seeing the level of detail is awesome. This just means that the rest of the game will be eye candy.

The new graphics engine is going to be Less memory intensive, but better overall, so stop worrying. And its not such a big deal to pay for a nice upgrade like that, honestly, its nothing. As for EQ2 and its changes and whatnot sucking, heh, do some research before you post, spend a few weeks on the everquest-2.com site and youll see that most of your concerns are fixed or non existant. Theyve learned from past mistakes and are doing everything right this time around, item decay is out for the most part, theyve rethought it and have given it a new system, so go look in the forums and make some posts of your own if youre concerned about somthing, you may even make an impact on what happens for the game, one of SOE is a freqent visitor there, Moorgard, who usually clears up any misconceptions or concerns.

After having purchased every expansion, some through brute force by SoE IMO, I must say that this will be one expansion I won't buy. Why? For starters I don't want to feel forced to upgrade my video card. For another, what does it look like? For LDoN, I regret purchasing it now becasue while the graphics are cool, I am dissatisifed with level limits, etc. What will the new graphics look like? I run into lag as it is, any more polys running around, and I'm going to bomb out for sure.