PvP combat has its own mechanics which can be adjusted without impacting the PvE side of the game. Some spells and abilities behave differently when used against another player rather than a typical monster. The system will inevitably be refined in future updates to the game.
Old-school PvPers will be happy to hear that there is a full-fledged rewards system to go with this. Defeated foes drop a portion of their coin, and possibly, an inventory item that can be looted. Losers incur an XP debt and victors earn XP for kills that meet "honorable" standards. You can also earn a PvP ranking within your faction, although I don't think that there are any rewards for these titles at the moment other than prestige.
In an unusual move, they've tried to put some disincentives in to discourage the most commonly abused PvP tactics, such as finishing off players that are already low on health from fighting mobs. Initiating an attack on a player that is below 20 percent health and killing them, for example, will remove access to rewards and negatively affect your reputation with your home city.
Image © 2006 D. Spohn licensed to About.com, Inc.
They are even attempting to deal with out-of-range healers and such, but it's a little early to say how well it's going to work, especially since there are currently a couple bugs in the system that need to be resolved.
One thing I really like is the ability to pick from several spawn points when you die. You are not required to recover your corpse, so this allows you to slip away from trouble fairly easily after dying should you so choose.
You won't need to spend much time on a PvP server to experience this ruleset in all its unforgiving harshness. Given that there are no PvP objectives in the world apart from killing other players, and no instanced battlegrounds, it's a gang-on-gang slugfest right from about level 10 on. Running around without a group is a death sentence unless you have stealth abilities, and even then it's dangerous. It is possible to come across a group about the same size and level as your own and have a remotely fair fight, but it's the exception rather than the rule.
Personally, I find the lack of something akin to Dark Age of Camelot's realm wars or World of Warcraft's battleground system disappointing. Nevertheless, I know a lot of the community is vehemently opposed to the idea and prefer EQ2 PvP the way it is. At the moment it's anyone's guess whether SOE has plans to add such features in the future.
Crafting
Crafting in EQ2 is a cut above what you will find in most MMORPGs. Rather that merely clicking "create" once you have the necessary ingredients, you are actively involved in the process of making an item. Accidents are corrected on the fly with your input, and you have some control over the quality of the item produced, which will be rated as crude, shaped, good, or pristine. Naturally, the quality of the materials used also affects the quality of final product.
Image © 2006 D. Spohn licensed to About.com, Inc.
Collecting materials turned out to be quite a bit harder than doing the actual crafting. Resource nodes are in somewhat short supply for the number of players seeking them, and some nodes yeild a variety of different materials, so you don't always find what you're looking for. Coupled with limited inventory space, it takes some determination to advance as a crafter in the game, but the good news is you can develop your artisan skills independently of your combat skills.
Bottom Line
As is often the case with MMORPGs, EQ2 is getting better with age, and other games are clearly influencing the direction this title is heading. By any measure EQ2 is one of the best games in its class, and it has carried on the EverQuest tradition of releasing new content at an impressive pace. For a war between good and evil, the PvP servers are about as brutal as they come. While EQ2 and World of Warcraft are growing increasingly similar, EQ2 is a slower, harder, and slightly more complex game, which, from what I hear, is exactly what a lot of gamers are looking for.
