Evercrack vs World of Warcrack

World of Warcraft Screenshot


EverQuest II Screenshot

Because I'm so in luv with Starman, I'll pretty much do anything he says. So after hearing Episode 20, he told me to try out the trial version of EQ II to see how their crafting system works. He says it is far more advanced than WoW.

To be honest, I've always wanted to do a hit of Evercrack...ever since I was in college.

So I reluctantly went to the website and downloaded the free trial. I then spent the rest of the night downloading it only to run out of space on my hard drive. WHY I only have 80 gigs on my gaming machine, I DO NOT KNOW! In any case, my new main comp has been delayed due to a newegg/UPS fuckup so I have to deal with this situation for now.

I cleared out some fraps videos and got about 10gigs free...that and all the tauren on troll porn I've been downloading. lol.

OKAY.

So, first major thing I noticed. EQ II has like a billion more races to choose from or so it seemed. They also seemed to have a shit ton more classes. I picked a high elf troubadour.

I log in and it zones you into this island right away. From what I hear, this is kind of the starting ground where you kind of learn how to play before you ship yourself off the island. This seemed familiar to me.

However, as my screen loaded up, everything around me was SUPER SUPER dark. Apparently in EQ II, at night time, you have a limited visibility range. This made for a super disorienting start. I couldn't see where to go. I kept looking for an exclamation mark or something. I didn't know who to talk to, where to go. There's no mini map on the screen.

I quickly msged Starman and was like "I'm lost!" and he was like "how can you be lost? it's an island!" A few quick tips on short commands and I was sort of feeling my way around the game.

One thing I really liked about the game was that the quest givers and NPCs actually have voice automation. But still, it took me about 10x as long in EQ II to find the first quest giver than it did in WoW. It wasn't until it was 7am game-time when the sun was coming up that I was able to find who I needed to talk to. That's another thing, time or days goes by faster in EQ II than in WoW. I think WoW is far more comprable to RL time. EQ II time moves a lot like FFXI where within 30 mins, the sun rises and sets. Not being able to see 20 yards in front of you in the dark sucks though but I like the reality aspect of it.

The graphics were a little hard to get used to as well. I'm used to the much softer tones of WoW. WoW graphics kind of have a more guassian blur to it, whereas EverQuest II has very rigid hard sharp lines. Even the terrain mapping looked a little off in EQ. Like the patterns repeated too often and became noticable or something. Maybe it's only a trial version thing.. I don't know.

But the body, face, and hair customization is a lot more involved in EQ II. You get a lot more choices. Unfortunatley, I'm not sure any of them lead to a good looking character.

Starman kept telling me to pick up all the quests and start clicking on all the items on the ground like the timber, schools of fish, and shrubs. So I did, apparently, you can gather all this random stuff without needing a profession. Probably lesson one of the crafting experiment I'm doing. I didn't get very far. I just know I gathered a bunch of random stuff off the ground. More to learn, I'm sure.

Fighting styles are similar. You get way more spells in the first 4 levels of EQ II though. I got at least 8. And apparently mobs with white text but slightly glowing red agro. I just walked right up to the mob thinking I hadn't reached agro-able mobs yet. That was my first EQ death.

Over all, everything is far less scripted it seemed. There was a lot more of feeling-your-way-around. Once I started to get the hang of things, I felt way more comfortable with the game and a lot more confident about my character than I do when starting a character in WoW. My guess is that there's a ton more autonomy in EQ II than in WoW...not positive though. Even visiting the first vendor was kind of daunting. Half the items in my inventory right now leave me with a blank stare. I have yet to sell or buy anything. First time I've felt like a total noob in a long time. heh. okay, save the jokes. :D

I'll keep feeling it out. I def. want to get a better grasp on the professions and crafting so I can really compare them to WoW. There is much to learn :)

But don't worry, I'm not switching drugs yet!