New expansion in September? LOL, srsly?

If you want to see what will cause the death of EQ, look here instead. Hopefully this gets fixed ASAP. Giving away gold status on one server and expecting people to pay for it on others makes no sense.

Its not staggered content that I am going on about here, its the fact that if the new expansion truly does release in September, then that is just too soon on the heels of T4. It gives us no time to even enjoy T4 before the new expansion is already upon us. It gives those guilds that beta test even less time. A month of farming? For other guilds that beta test even less then that?

This has nothing to do with staggered content, and everything to do with the fact that September is too soon for a new expansion.

There were what? 3-4ish month periods between T1-T3? They forced us to sit on those earlier tiers doing them longer than usual? Now they are just giving us a month for the final zone(s) ? Oooook.

I wish we knew for sure. If the next expansion truly does release in September, i'll just skip T4 gear because I wont have enough time to finish my gear plan. Nobody will.

Kele, I think they meant something else, I"d be amazed if the new expansion was out before the normal November date. I'd think it's a few revamped zones/some other interesting idea they have for September.


Patience, my friend, and try to be optimistic

Staggered is ok. Shortbus is not ok. Compare the quests and missions in tier ONE zone Kael Drakkel and tier FOUR zone Heart of Fear. Compare the visual design with any lower tier zone, even those designed 13 years ago. I'll be shocked if you get overwhelmingly positive feedback on this stuff.

How can you hate pie?!

Tegila is exactly right.

I didn't change servers and start raiding until SoF. Before that, I was in small/medium sized, family type guilds, where it was very easy to find groups doing stuff like the hand aug quests, etc but almost nobody did progression missions. Nobody in the guild I was in was crystallos flagged even 4 months after SoF release, etc. We would sometimes have to get more than 6 players just to take out a named in mech. fort. "/gu hey we spawned X named in Mech Fort, anyone close that could come help us kill it?" type stuff. Taking on that 6k hitting spider that you had to kill for crystallos key was just absolutely out of the question and nobody in the guild even had any desire to attempt to try to do it, as an example.

And I still feel that is the way the majority of EQ is played. I think the majority is people that do not raid, play very casually, don't know what their class forums are (IE don't play their characters to max capacity) and rarely if ever even post here.

If SOE wants these type of players to be able to complete group progression missions, there needs to be a pretty strong incentive to do so (locked zones maybe, but gear wise as well. What would be so bad about putting a piece of visible gear in the chests too? And making the lockout timers for the missions 2 or 3 hours instead of 6 so that 1 'good' tank could help multiple groups a day if they wanted?), plus they cannot be so difficult that a single, group geared, mediocre AA'd, not the best of aug'd tank can actually tank the content with a real healer healing them. Or that a best of group geared, high AA, very good aug'd tank CAN tank them with just a single healer merc.

Unless the tuning is so that can be accomplished, then the group mission is too difficult, IMO.

This is why EQ needs more epic quests, even if it isn't an epic class weapon. This linear content is being conquered so quickly that players end up with nothing left to do but repeat the same raids. It's just difficult to perceptualize a game built on quests (even in its own name, zomg) is basically dulled down to just killing mobs for progress. Past content is literally abandoned.

Bring in race and class-specific tasks that make players quest for old items in old content and include raising factions that would be hard for their class/race. Sort of like Frankin Teek's hotzone killing tasks for AAs, except it involves more than just killing 5-15 mobs.

1. New expansion and players will become more powerful.
2a. There will be a level increase and existing content will provide less XP per kill to balance against being able to kill the mobs faster.
2b. There will not be a level increase and XP rate will increase for killing mobs that currently provide XP.
3. Some players will complain that there is(n't) a level increase.

"YES it is MY CHOICE to pay for 6 GOLD accounts and keep them up on current expansions but to be quite honest, all of the STUPID anti boxing mechanics YOU keep throwing in make me wonder why I even try at this point! I don't hack or cheat but I do bust hump to do things on my own. I'm not saying tank and spank mobs but mobs that make the healer run off or die and healer is a merc ... so he dies resulting in a full wipe of grp. Constant flings that if a levi fades kills ppl.

My schedule doesn't mesh with majority of the people in my guild. Add in the fact if you sit and watch general chat for even 30 minutes on most servers you can see the cesspool of humanity show it's teeth ... Emarr pretty much had Klan rallys the last 2 weeks in general chat! I'd rather not socialize with closed minded bigots and racists. So i choose to do my thing quietly and calmly in a corner with no depending on someone eles to do a job that frankly in this day and age many can not do because they barely know how to get around let alone play their class. A lot of the anti boxer rage is jealousy they can't afford or they don't have the skill or ability to do the same. in other cases they don't have a desire so be it. At one point I had a full group of friends that were consistent with grouping and doing it well ... then one retired shortly after another as they retired we just took over paying their account and learning to box ... I'm the only 1 left and have been since RoF came out Occasionally one will call and say hey man what are you doing and cool they will log in and play for a bit then be gone again .. but they can because I keep that account and toon current ! I doubt even half my guild realizes they are gone and that it's just me 99% of the time. Boxers aren't the devil were the ones holding this game up on our backs. and yes we will hold a camp for hours on end because y know what we have like a full group 6 toons that need gear so thats 12 bracers we need 12 ears 12 rings 6 of everything else ... unlike a regular group we dont have to find a replacement when your tank or healer bails. If were camping for visibles and full of non visibles it usually goes to guild or OOC alot faster. But remember when you break the final multiboxers back holding this game up the subs stop the baz items start not showing up and cuts are made to EQ budget cut's because the thousands of us finally gave up trying to make this game viable majority are gold Rof players we buy 1 collectors and 5 regular copies of the expansion then we pay our monthly fees, personally i wonder how many of you crying about boxers are gold or have played longer than 2 years .. a few yes but most i doubt it!



I see write ups on Eqresource for T4 grp named with 120k DD nukes to the MT every 40 seconds yeah im in t2 gear for the most part that leaves me maybe 200Hp remaining if I'm FULLY BUFFED, if he didnt just quad me for 50k total in the round just before his nuke hits!

I wanted to avoid this topic altogether, but this brings up a somewhat interesting change in EQ stance.

Before FtP, before triple SC days with subs being tied to the /market, before 2 expansions ago SoE was VERY MUCH for boxing and the extra income people spent on it. In fact, you made it much easier, more appealing, and honestly more needed. The "official" stance was always that it was the players choice, but the game was never made any harder for those that boxed; until VoA.

Now with FtP accounts and mercs, there NEEDS to be more incentive for players to actually group. You claim the hardcore raiders may not like this trend, but what are you doing to encourage the single account owner group game? These people were left in the cold...many adapted and opened new FtP accounts, many quit.

You do realize this is an MMO? If you want to be alone you could load up Skyrim or a variety of other singleplayer RPGs. I have a second account and box myself but would always prefer a real group over mercs and alts. I don't see the point of even playing this game if you're just going to hide from everyone in your own group.

Really?

People complain about not enough content.
People complain about too much content.
People complain that the content is not exactly what they wanted to suit their exact individual custom tailored needs......

Why should the devs honestly even care if people are satisfied or not at this point. All that happens is complaining. Good thing I am not a game dev because I would pretty much be flipping you the bird and probably get fired. If you don't like the content, the release schedule than go play something else. EQ is the empty bucket. Fill it up however with whatever you want.

I use to 3 box until I took a year off in 2006. Boxing was "my choice", quitting was "my choice" and I came back with a "choice" not to box again. So for the last 7 years I kept a small friends list and I logged in and played as I wanted. Friends gone, friends came. I never have issues finding groups I get what I want done and people that ask get what they want as I will help them anytime they ask.

This game isn't made for me, this game wasn't made for you. We all do what we want how we want and SoE gets our money.

Firstly, no need to be a grammar ! Secondly for the record i have a 98% complete in skyrim. I do talk with a variety of guild mates if they are on, mostly they are in the low 80's not 100 and not interested in the rush to 100. Occasionally I will socialize with people, not always, But you do not no my situation or reasons surrounding so DO NOT JUDGE. Finally there are plenty of times I will drop a bot for someone if they want to join me. The key issue is I can sit around LFG for hours on end on my main get nothing done progression wise or after 20 minutes of waiting for an offer to help or to group, I can log in my happy little army and begin progressing w/o worry of extended afk's, ld's, incompetence, or being dictated what to camp when and where.

I'm sorry it must mean to you that it's free to play my way if I'm FTP that's fine, but if I pay I must fit into your little ideal of how it should be done RIGHT?

After 13+ years of EQ, it has been pretty well established that a good amount of the player base can't stand the rest of the player base and will do whatever it takes to avoid them. Extroverts tend to not play video games, so why would anyone who plays games want to pretend that they want the company of others?

It is what it is.

A socially-challenged person complains about not being able to single-handedly play 6 players in a Massively Multiplayer Online Game as much as he used to. I totally see the problem and apologize for questioning you.

Ah the oldest argument in MMO history.

For the record, I don't multibox like slicechant. I don't even necessarily agree with all the points of his post, but he does have the right to play however he wants. Saying that someone should move on to another game, if they play in a way you deem illegitimate, is asinine. The fact that you don't see the point of his chosen play style doesn't matter.

He sees the point.

In fact his entire group sees the point and agrees with him.

Is there even one person reading this post, who doesn't know someone who considers EQ, MMOs, and computer games in general, anti-social and without a point or purpose?

Yup. All my former drinking/drug buddies. All the people I know hooked to TV shows and are disappointed in how as a gamer I can't always share in discussions/small talk about what happened in such in such show to whomever character. All my friends who think they are "jocks" because they sit around drinking Bud Light while they watch Sports Center 24/7 and tell me that I need to get out and throw the ball around more. Some have even said that I should pursue a career in Politics. How about the one where someone you know who has never been employed and who still lives at home with the parents tells you that you need to "grow up" and stop playing video games? There are plenty of other examples of hypocrisy

Mostly gaming might be frowned upon because it discourages the manner of social interaction that society deems necessary for technological and social advancement of the culture, as well as fostering the basic needs of procreation to perpetuate the species.

Well, not everyone is going to be brilliant and cure cancer, AIDS and solve all manner of problems related to world hunger or peace on their down time. With 7 billion people, the species is doing just fine. Most would rather just practice for procreation than actually follow through with it. It has been my policy so far, anyway. So if people want to be anti-social, than let them. As long as they are not axe murderers or nut jobs who blow up large public gatherings, than box away.

And that was next on my list ... thank you for taking and crushing my final dream of social relevance, as i wanted to be a talking point in the history of man for generations to come

Um. Nothing is stopping you from attempting to do all that, sir! Just gotta get off the couch once in a while, lol. All I was doing is pointing out that not everyone is going to be capable of it/succeed or even want to live at that level of ambition. We all know someone who can't tell the difference between their own posterior orifice and a hole in the ground but can play a mean Guitar Hero. People blame the games but in reality, that person might just be truly stupid.