Changes with the February Update: Developer Updates

re adding hit limits to leech abilities: i of course would never have asked for that to happen, but consider it a good compromise in the face of what you're trying to accomplish.

i hope that what you consider "reasonable" and what the SK community considers "reasonable" end up lining up, but i'm happy to give you the benefit of the doubt until you release some numbers.
if it's less than 600 though i shall unleash my forum nerd rage upon thee.

This AA causes the bard to be faster than group mates and auto follow fails. Some bards suggest not purchasing it!

If you're going to g i m p assassinate like this then expand it like decap, stop limiting it to humanoids. You want compromise, there's one.

Nothing, give us nothing.

Any ranger worth his or her salt melees and headshot procs off of our two main dps spells. Even if we get this 99 stuff any ranger that is sitting back bowing waiting for his or her two procs should be immediately ejected from the group.

Seems silly to me. I 4box with a Bard main and yes I run faster, but I have my Map open and can tell when I am too far away, I just stop for a split second. Why would you decide not to grab such an important AA blows my mind. How often are you autofollowing and is it that hard to not outrun your group?

If we don't add some value to gold accounts, we don't keep making EQ. That's the reality of making games. It would be great if we could make games completely free (with no payment of any sort) and still have jobs, but we can't. We have to look at Silver accounts, they can still earn the AA and still have the low AA bonus. Is it the ideal way to play EQ? Probably not. But EQ wasn't designed from the ground up to be a f2p game. That makes us have to make compromises sometimes. I like working on and playing EQ, and want both to continue.

I'd like to know the proposed number as well - the epic is limited by time as it is. To place a hit limit on it AND mortal coil is over the top. If this limit isn't really, really high it could be absorbed within a very short time frame just tanking 2-3 mobs of current content. Is this also the intention of the hit limit?

Totally read that in a Hogan's Heroes voice.

Other people getting some enjoyment out of this game is rewarding enough for the time spent AAing. In fact, I think it is a fair trade. My past enjoyment for their present and future enjoyment.

Hey guys,

Just a tidbit, from reading I can see that a lot of you are frustrated with the changes. I just want you to please consider that Devs aren't out to "ruin the game" in fact they are constantly striving to make your experience better. I know changes can scary, discouraging or frustrating (as a fellow gamer trust me I understand) but I implore you to give it a chance, get your feet wet and look at this as and opportunity to overcome something new. Things need to be worked out, kinks need to be fixed but the intention isn't to "ruin" the game or make your gaming life miserable. With that being said...please, GIVE US FEEDBACK, but do so in a way there isn't just full of rage, there are so many constructive ways to get your point across. We want you to enjoy yourself and the time you put into /your/ game.../OUR/ game.

Okay back to readings!
*Wiggles out*
♥17

It still works on humanoid-only mobs, which describes maybe 10-20% of combat NPCs. Likely no undead things, which leaves most all of Dead Hills out. Are bixies/clicknars humanoid? If not, scratch Bixie Warfront HAs too. Ethernere Tainted West Karana has almost no humanoid mobs. Oh hey, most of Neriak is still open!
...also, how many level 99 and below mobs do we typically fight nowadays? Most things I kill are white-yellow-red.

Can we expect to see a broader spectrum than living humanoid-only mobs? Or to increase the cap to level 100 due to its limited usage versus Decap/Headshot? Recall that this only fires off on a backstab, versus a normal swing for a berzerker or arrow shot for a Ranger. Its chance to fire off is significantly less (even when running the Frenzied Stab discipline) compared to the other chain classes, so if the % chance to trigger per fire attempt is the same, Rogues will be around 10% of what the other classes are.

Looking forward to seeing how these changes work out. Good to see that feedback was taken into account.

While the idea in general sounds good and was supported with a vote, the implementation feels like an overkill. It's too much. I voted in favor of auto-granting some AA, but at the time of that vote Elidroth was not talking about a giveaway of this magnitude. If the question of the vote was auto-granting 60-75% of the class'es total AA - I think its result would be very different. I would definitely vote No on that.

I don't have the data you based that decision upon, but it just feels like too much. How much is not too much? I don't know, but limiting it to SoF (lv 80) feels a lot better than UF. Don't forget that AA is already incredibly easy to get.

I'm curious, how will this affect Progression servers?

Auto grant 4 expansions back from their current expansion? I would wager the majority of progression server players would rather have their server excluded.

Either way, the learning has to be done. You want to raid and actually get in a raiding guild full of people who tend to be very particular about skill and performance? You want to be in a group that spends more time adventuring then CR'ing or medding? You want to safely just get from point A to B? Best learn and learn fast.

Part of the flip side of the granting of AA is it is going to throw people into the pool and demand that they swim, because screwing up where the majority of the player base is and is watching attentively what your every move is going to be a much harder lesson maker than the indulgence of making your N00b mistakes in a low level zones that are otherwise vacant.

Otherwise, it is good to see this discussion moving past the basic concepts and into the detailed finery as far as class adjustments etc.

How does someone wanting to use the 4k AA effect you? You can opt out. Plus EQ may actually keep a few people instead of them climbing Mount Everest to catch up to you. I have had friends quit from AA's. Heck, my wife was sick of them by 80. Being selfish saying I earned these AA's over a 12 year period vs someone playing less then a year trying to catch up and be a viable doesn't make sense. We need a more fresh player base. There is only so many boxes that will support this game and I would like to play for another 20 years.

They actually aren't. Statistics do not cap these days, once you purchase the stat cap enchancers.

Wow, I can't believe all these changes that the developer's want to keep changing. I TOTALLY disagreed with the auto-granting of AA's and almost thought this game is turning into WoW. WAY TOO EASY. So I am glad they are giving you a chance to still earn the AA's on your own. First, the zones you didn't need keys to enter them, then second, the spells you didn't need to quest or get them as a drop. Now thirdly, auto-granting of AA's. Again, I think this was all crap changes and I still like to get the keys for zones, get my spells via drops/quests and no auto-grant my AA's. Glad there is other players still out there like me wanting to do it the old school way EQ was intended and was created like that. Also, glad they didn't fully change the Ranger, Zerker and Rogue special kill skills. Glad u finally listened to all the players SOE. Good job!

Thank you for listening to the player base and adjusting the changes.

I fully support the AA bonus. It will help bring in new blood.

However, please watch the SK and Cleric changes closely, as this has some of my friends very concerned.


Thank you for for being willing to try major changes, in order to keep the game going and improve it.