Interview with Lead Designer Akil “Lyndro” Hooper on Game Update 63: SKYSHRINE

CoLD MeTaL wrote:

Actually this should make the Dungeon Finder (dont laugh) work much better at the higher levels. You can automatically assume that any who is 91 or 92 has at least 280 AAs so it can avoid putting people with widely divergent capabilities together. Level 91 and 92...X set of dungeons Level 90....Y set of dungeons.

DamselInDistress wrote:

No, I mentioned paying $120 to get from 140AAs on my fresh new Mystic to now 240, which has also taken about 30 hours solid grinding. I have only another 40 on the mystic then I need to work on the other 5x90s in order to get them to the point where they can move to 92 as well. I doubt I will be able to grind out the full 600 AAs I still need in the three weeks left as even i don't have that much free money, but I am certain that I am not the only person who will be buying pots in the coming three weeks.

In the end I will end up at the same position, having a raft of toons that can help my guildies enjoy their game more. My guild is my main fun. Unfortunately right now, with this 280AA requirement it's less fun than it should be. But it's just a few months pain until once more I am in the position, as guild leader, of having adequate resources to be able to make my guildmates have a better time again.

Raknid wrote:

They may have been a 'pittance' to you but x 1000 it woulc probly put me well over the 280 mark.
And POI and named are surely a 'pittance' compared to the loss of quest AA. And no level 80 quests DO NOT offer 'that much more' if you parse it.

Raknid wrote:

To my knowledge AA has never been the chief complaint of DF, it has always been 'gear'. DF is so far dead even the Devs no longer care about it. How long since a single change has been made to it? Even a simple change like 'all 6 people click accept before zoning you in'?

First let me say this is a great idea and should be implemented in EQNext. Not just at the top level but a every level. Heck, you might not even need an AA slider you could just slow down the leveling process so that as you leveled up you gained AA You could then spend the AA when you gained it. Just as the new Prestige points are going to work!
Unfortunately that is not the way EQ2 has been developed.
There are some things that could be done.
1. Implement a policy of 3 AA are required to level, then deem that everyone has the AA required for their current level. OK, I know" - It's a slackers charter", I got my 13 level 90 toons to 90 by riding on your uber toons coat-tails and I expect someone to bring me my slippers and fan my tea until it's the right temperature for me to drink. It also means I will be able to get my troubador, who is currently on 168 AA to 280AA so that when somebody wants a Troubador for a SKYSHRINE instance I can roll him out. Otherwise I'll just leave him at 90 and you can make other arrangements. I'll settle for playing my Shadowknight, 319 AA, or my raiding Illusionist, 277 AA, and forget about my other alts. Many other players will do the same, it will become harder to get the right mix for a group. Players will get bored and stop looking for groups. Players will leave the game. Other downsides, unless all saleable loot is level 90 the market for Raid Drops and Dungeon drops will cease to exist. The market in Master Crafted armor and Jewelery and expert Spells will disappear, the Alchemists and Woodworker will be OK but which other crafters will be able to sell anything?
Or
2. Loosen the link between Prestige Points and Level. So we can level up our toons to 92, but only activate Prestige Points when we obtain 280 AA. That is the way some of the AA trees work at present, there seems no reason why Prestige trees should not work the same way.

I don't think the first will happen the second might.

CoLD MeTaL wrote:

Wow.
I'm sorry, but if you do not have 280+ AA on your main, even if it was made before KoS, then it definitely is NOT due to lack of content!
Zero "grinding" is needed, at all. Just a very small bit of something called "effort."
Chrono and run through every contested dungeon real quick at about 8 levels above mob con killing names. You will get a couple of AAs in each (and there are LOTS of them). Run through Pillars of Flame open zone killing all those names that give AA (attackable NPCs with starts too. tons of them). That zone is good for a quick 5-7AA for all of 20 minutes time investment. Seriously, there are so many ways to max out AA sans "mindless dungeon grind" that there truely is ZERO excuse for any MAIN not to be at that level.

All these complaints truely are hilarious.

Geothe wrote:

I do have a lock out time on nearly everything below DoV, meaning I have been there. just didn't get aa for the 1000 quests i did prior to aa being 'invented'. Like last night I did a complete 90 zone with all named, got almost half of an AA at 280, thats with max bonus from level 90s on the account, and full vitality, and a 110% potion.
EDIT: Of course i needed a full grou pto get this done, and THE GROUPING PENALTY NEEDS TO GO AND NOW!

Lyndro-EQ2 wrote:

Whatever has been done in the past, I feel this is a big step in the RIGHT direction and fully agree and support this line of thought. Requireing a min AA level when compared to an Adventure level is telling the player base pointedly a couple of things.

1. DOV 2.0 Skyshrine content will not be /faceroll easy and can potentially have some challenge and potentially could have some revelance to top tier player base.
2. Risk vs Reward, this might be the first time we have seen content outside of HM raids that will reward based on effort, where effort equates to AA.\
3. Player Charater change dramatically not only with gained adventure level, but also with gained AA. Any PC w/o their Heroic treee end line abilities is not a contributing PC in a group or raid setting.
4. This might be the only way SOE is willing and able to fix the Dungeon Finder system by ensuring that level 92/320 players are not forced to carry and group with 90/<277 players. This function could very well "fix" the broken Dungeon Finder by "setting the Bar" and therefore setting the expectations of those using it. Hopefully!

My casual Alt army consists of 6 characters all at 90/320, 2 at 90/250 and 3 more leveling up in the 20 to 60 ranges all within the 200+ range. With the game having 6,000 quests available and huge numbers of mobs to kill in every level range, there is NO excuss not to have the AA which, IMO, is more important than adventure levels at eash step.
Well Done, I for one thank SOE for this base line feature.

Koleg@Unrest_old wrote:

Out of curiosity, when did you start playing?

CoLD MeTaL wrote:

You know, you have been making excuses since way back when, and in all that time, many players have managed to do things, and work around around all these "barriers" you bandy on about, even though they are "casual."
You really might want to step back and evaluate whether it is the game, or yourself, that keeps you from doing things.
And by "you," I don't necessarily mean that it is your skill or whatever. It could be a complete disconnect between what the game is designed to let you do and what YOU THINK the game should let you do. Sort of, on the extreme end, like thinking you should be able to solo an epic mob. Maybe you just think that X amount of effort should yield Y when if fact the the game is designed to do something different.

I think this is a great idea. I have been playing since launch as well. I currently have 9 level 90's. Only one of them are below 300 AA. But then I go out and WORK on my toons to get them there. The nay-sayers just need to relook what they are doing during the time they are playing and re-evaluate it a little.
And to think I have stoped playing for silly things like going to Iraq and Afghanistan for a year each time. Leaving me with 2 years less play time.
Worst part is, I also have 9 level 90 crafters.
I'm glad to see them implemetnig a "gating" mechanic. Yes, this is different then a "gear score". Yet, it institutes an access "quest" or requirement.

Elomort wrote:

There has been no statement anywhere that says you won't get XP from the GU63 quests if you don't have 280AA. It will most likely be exactly like it is pre-GU63 when, at 90, you complete a quest or kill a mob or anything else that gains XP: the adventure XP will convert to AA XP. This would actually bring you closer to getting to that 280 so you can increase your level from 90.
So far the only "valid" complaint about not being able to level past 90 with less than 280 AA is the max cap bonus. Those who have a plethora of characters at 90 without 280 AA will no longer get the max cap bonus until one-by-one they get 280+ and level to 92. If the "max cap" for the bonus was the "max cap" for the character (until GU63, 90 for everyone due to SF being free) instead of max cap possible, it might assuage that concern. Then those characters at 90 with less than 280 would still give a bonus, those characters at 280+ and 90 wouldn't until they leveled to 92, and any without DoV Free/Silver characters at 90 would as well. Yes, there would likely be some who would intentionally disable AA XP at 279 jsut to get the bonus for their other characters (and they would whine and complain about being "locked out" of new content on the character they chose to hamstring, err disable), but that could be an option.
I'm curious if the 280 limitation is on Test right now. I have Rijacki copied over and haven't had time to actually spend on her there yet. I already know it's possible to use the fushia token (forgot the name of it) instead of the swirly one and only unlock leveling past 90. I've done that on a 90 tradeskiller with level 50 adventuring and was able to get tradeskill XP on him yesterday. Rijacki has less than 280 AA (becuase I don't do a lot of quests or adventuring on her), if the 280 block is in place, I'll be able to see definitively if she gets XP towas AA while doing the quest lines. I'll even swap out her hand-me-down raid gear for the Ry'gor to hamstring her to, as ColdMetal terms it, a "lesser mortal". I'm pathetic at wizarding (thus the reason I don't adventure with her a lot) so that should hamstring her further *laugh*

This is a great a very welcome addition!!!
And @ the Zam crew....I find it laughable that you run a fan site, have been playing eq2 since 2005 (essentially launch) and do not have a single character that meets these requirements. My 13 year old started a toon from scratch 3 months ago and solo'd to these requirements.
Do yourself, and your groups a favor...
Get some aa!

Elomort wrote:

I'll entertain that question with the following comment(s):
My first toon took me the better part of a year to level up, after AA was "invented" but before the AA cap raised above 250. I solo'ed my way up on that first toon, due to the game being top heavy and I throughly enjoy doing the quest lines and reading the lore of the quests. Doing the quest lines in KOS begining @ 70 and finishing the quests thru each zone netted level 90 w/ 250 AA WELL before the quests were completed in JW. By the time I moved into adventuring in SF I was already capped in both levels and AA and recived "Nothing", XP wise, for the quests and kills in those SF zones.
The second toon leveled up much the same way, but leveled both adventure and AA levels MUCH faster because I had done it before. By the time the 3rd, 4th and 5th when through the leveling process it was on automatic pilot and much easier and faster each time thru.
I started playing many different times throughout the game. First when my level 1 toon kept getting squashed in the noobie zone. I started playing all over again when I learned how to travel throughout Norath and where I should travel to and why. Again I started playing all over when I learned how to maximize my questing by completing multiple quest or collecting shinnies or gather L&L items. I started playing all over again when I learned how spells and gear tiers worked. Again I started playing all over again when I learned what AA abilities provided the toons and how much more powerful those abilities made the toon I was leveling up.
I eventualy came to the understanding that even attempting to level a toon up was highly dependant on the amount of AA they gain and further that, for me, the AA were far far easier to gain in the low levels where content was largely uncontested and much more available. Shooting past zones, namers, disco's and quests was detrimental to the end result.
I started playing when my toon reached 90/277.

Elomort wrote:

Elomort wrote:

Elomort wrote:

Elomort wrote:

Your issue is that you want to be in the game for slightly over a year and have a river of toons a mile wide AND a mile deep.
It doesn't work that way.
It's great that you want to level up toons to help your guildies. It really is. But, you trade guild development for character development in doing so.
If you wanted you could probably have at least 3 toons, maybe 4 at 90 AND >280 AA if you chose to concentrate those 1200 AA points on less characters.
However, you didn't.
That is not a problem with the game, it is simply how you chose to level your characters. You chose to maximize your guild development over your own individual character development. Everyone knows that in order to be a maximally developed character you need at least 277AA. That wasn't a secret before and it isn't a secret now.
The only reason this might affect you is because you chose not to develop your character to its fullest before moving on to another toon.

tl, dr

make the min aa 320 and sell more AoD

CoLD MeTaL wrote:

QFE! Like yesterday...and not only that:
There should be a significant bonus for grps ≥3 (not including mercs of course)

Rijacki wrote:

If you do the GU63 quests though at 90/250 you may get a few AAs but you will hit the end of overland still at 90. Another few months or years so that you too have played as long as veterens and you will have your 280... but no quests for the XP. So back to chrono.
My question still stands. Why is this necessary for overland content. Why not just put an AA gate on the dungeon door?

• Does SOE want to make a killing on XP pots?
• Does SOE realise that they really have almot no overland content so desire to put in a time sink?
• Does SOE not want people in quest gear (some of which needs level 92) going back into the current dungeons?

A lock on the dungeon door would seem to be more of a win-win for both camps here. Wouldn't it?

Raknid wrote:

And I wouldn't change a single thing - My guild and the benefits that we give each other is worth the effort it's taken so far, it's worth the weeks I spent non-stop grinding writs 10 hours a day, it's worth the time I spend crafting for new players, training new players, helping people get past obsticles in their quests, fill spots in groups that they can't find anyone for, try and advise people just leaving level 20 for the first time what AA lines might be worth looking at and so on.
Some people like to raid, some like to do heroics, some like to quest, some like to craft, some like to harvest, some like explore, some like to socialise, some like to teach - There is no right way to play this game outside what entertains you.
Well it seems there wasn't until now. Now it seems if you wish an alt at 92, even to say become a pure harvester like my necro, you will get them 280 minimum. My harvester doesn't need 280AAs he is NEVER going to step foot inside a dungeon ever. Currently he is in quest/PQ gear in SF and it's enough to be able to harvest without mob interruption. Come GU63 though he will need to be 92 (and hence 280AAs) in quest gear to be able to do any uninterrupted harvesting.
Putting the lock on a dungeon door and not on XP in a zone would logically seem to fit the needs of more of my guildies than saying 280 or you don't get XP to get to 92, you can't have your Vet bonus back and your AA grind WILL be slower after April 17.
Additionally making the prestige tab available after 280AAs just as you don't get the heroic tab until 200 ensures only the single character focused players get thise skills.
Surely those two things are enough to keep "you" happy and "me" happy?

Elomort wrote:

Nope. These are prestige levels and talents. I think they are doing the right thing here. If you want something, work for it. Just cause it doesn't fit into what they used to do, or what YOU want them to do, doesn't mean they need to change it...ESPECIALLY if it is an excellent idea.
Adapt or do without. It is your call.