Accident or Intent?Follow

The new front end for EQ has prevented use of EQW, the most common tool for running two instances of EQ on the same PC.

It also prevents running 2 instances of EQ reliably just in ordinary windows.

I have to wonder if this is pure accident or whether SoE have intentionally made it harder for people to run 2 instances. It is so much cheaper to have 2 instances running than a whole separate PC rig that I'm sure that it was a very common thing.

However it does encourage a certain insularity. I found it much easier to duo two of my characters rather than find a group. With two characters you can do an awful lot that you can't do with one. I was developing an entire playstyle around a set of duos.

Now I will have to either solo or group again. SoE have repeatedly said that they wish to promote grouping. I wonder if they have acted intentionally to change this dynamic.

Probably I'm just paranoid and it is another example of god-awful programming.

without a doubt its just bad coding on SoE side without proper testing.

things like that can be tested properly via the test server and need to be fixed before they go live. no excuses for this kind of cr4p

also hit the EQW site, they have a zip file that has the fix including a new eqmain.dll that should resolve the issue you are having with EQW and the new logger.

I just assume (like everything else in EQ) that is something to do with EQ2. I think we are testing a lot of the new coding for them.

I am sorry but when I have three top end machines with a variety of video boards, with 2 different operating systems, and they all lock up in PoK, I tend to doubt the quality of the code and testing. When I see others reporting the exact same symptoms on still other good hardware/OS even different from mine, that tends to reinforce my humble conclusions about the quality of code and testing.

I might also suggest that flaunting one's programming credentials on a board like this might lead one only to grief, but then who's to say? :)

Karlowin Fennon Ro

thank god i have 2 low end machines cause i hardly ever have any problems and the few i do generally tend to go away rather quickly

I too have 3 high end machines a 3.2GHz with 2gb of ram, a 3.0Ghz with 1gb of ram and 2.4Ghz with 1gb of ram. Two have ATI Radeon vid cards 9800, 9700, and other has Geforce 6800. The 9700 (with the upgraded drivers) seems to have issues Direct 9X. I never had a problem with EQ till the 9X patch. Since the patch however, I can make a cup of coffee, have dinner, and walk the dog while waiting do a 360 degree turn in PoK. Is SoE to blame. Partially.

Microsoft (as everyone knows who has ever had to deal with their code) has horrible documentation. Trying to get various hardware drivers work with DirectX (any release) has always been worse than hammering a nail using just your finger. It's a freaking painful and bloody experience. Unfortunately, SoE is caught between the hardware companies and Uncle Billy's totalitarian operating system dictatorship.

I'm not making excuses for SoE... I still say the code is good. But, they should have waited to roll out the 9X patch until the driver issues were resolved.

When I realized EQW wasn't working I went to their web site and found the fix. Rather than use someone else's files I backed up eqhost.txt and eqmain.dll on my second machine, patched it, unzipped the backup and tried EQW there. Worked fine.

Copied the zip file to my first machine and unzipped it. No problems so far.

Just have to run EQW with the "run patch" box unchecked.

EQWindows is pretty quick about making fixed versions anytime SOE does something that screws up the prior versions from working. It might take a day or two but it'll be out shortly after.

I multi box rather than try and play multipal sets on 1 machine. After the last patch with the new front end 1 of them after the server selection screen just goes black and locks up. This is on an Athlon XP1600+ processor with 1.5Gig ram and an FX5600 video board. As for those who do not think that it's the new code I uninstalled EQ(US) and loaded the european patcher front end. EQ now works again. Mind you I still have the other issues, PoK lock ups, instant disconnect on the machine with the modem, sudden slow down of graphics together with missing parts of body, Greyed out armour etc. etc.

Don