Changes with the February Update: Developer Updates

Okay this is my last ditch effort. I don't agree with the free granting of 4k aas just because you bought a krono. This is wrong on so many lvls. As was pointed out the devs and SoE threw a fit over the 2 aa in OOM and nerfed it. Then they nerfed the ability to get exp from TAs in HoT unless you were standing by the chest, preventing people from getting aas. SoE has never given without a some kind of take. We can talk about how they are going to sell lvl 85 characters and how the lvl of 85 coincides with the AA grant. Which, by the way, this is against EULA for us to sell lvl 85 characters with aas or not. SoE is a corporation and thereby allowed. Another good case of Affluenza.

Here's my deal. And maybe I'm the only one in this WHOLE game that does think this way, (obviously SoE does not), but I like to help newbies. That's what I enjoy MOST about the game. I'm lvl 100 and I can actually make someone's day by playing with them for an hour or two and them get some lvls or some aa's. I really like taking someone, (My guildies or whomever), about 15 lvls under me and kill light blues and greens, (I'm a shaman with a merc so I don't swarm. ), while the little guys get mass aa's. It's fun for me and fun for them. Makes for a nice couple hours. AA granting takes that away from me.

Then you have those that actually PL for money. You are killing their game.

Then you have the veteran that maybe has worked really really hard to gain lvl 90 and has been aaing their buttocks off for the last month and they are up to say... 3k aa's. They should have just continued lvling because BAM 4k aas will drop on their head. All there time was wasted. Then you have the lvl 100s that have 5k or more and worked hard to attain them. These players time is devalued.
SoE KNOWS it's WRONG on SO MANY LVLS. They wouldn't give 15 or even 2 away before but now it's okay to sell lvl 85s and auto grant 4k aas. We can't sell toons with or without aas

I feel that when EQNext comes out SoE already has plans to discontinue this 14 year old game being played on a 12 year old engine. RIght now, I feel the player base is just getting milked. And for what? So SoE can get 15$ or 18$ (krono) out of many for only 1 month. Where is the long term vision in this?

SoE has fixed things differently before. When the casual player was playing with crap gear while raiders had cream the jeans gear, they came out with DoDh and lvled the field a little. But, they didn't give away FULL sets of raid gear and it wasn't quite as powerful. You had to actually do something to get the gear. There was risk involved. You had to kill something or quest something. It wasn't just a giveaway.

I'm not going to throw and tantrum and say I'll never play again. I've been playing since Kunark and I know, and SoE probably knows that I won't be leaving the game voluntarily, so that would just be an empty threat. I will say that I am NOT happy about it and also ... one last time...

Got Milk?

A little suggestion regarding the granting of the old AAs:

If those four expansion old AAs were to be reclassified as "Innate Abilities" which would be granted as appropriate by level then those abilities could completely bypass the AA count, thereby leaving the earning rate bonus and silver status maximum unaffected. This would hopefully remove those abilities from the AA window lists, not only making the lists much more compact, but could potentially result in having thousands of unspent AA points since those now innate abilities no longer appear on the AA menu. That change may also require suspension of the max unspent AA cap, but that doesn't seem like a game breaker.

I play on FV, I never give gear any consideration, it can be bought for any amount. that argument holds no water.
AAs you cannot buy (currently), they must be earned. All I am asking, is granting AA for each and every AA earned given in this 'grant' Not all the AAs given, as there are bound to be some folks didn't earn, but I'm sure most of it people have earned. I know personally I grab my general and Archetype AAs well before I look to my class AAs for survivability. I do not see anything unfair in this proposal, doing anything less is unfair towards those who have paid and played this game over the years.

Speaking as a Shadowknight that has done his fair share of swarming in the past (friends and boxes):

- Good to see that the lich sting change has been considered and a reasonable solution reached. The ability was overpowered, and this should pave the way for some needed SK improvements
- Good to hear about the AA granting. I ground out 10k AA or so, the regular way and it was good to be able to use them at that point. It would be nice if those who are already at a certain level of AA do receive a bonus considering that those AA weren't auto-granted... but its by no means something I am going to quit over. (e.g. port clicky, augs, illusions etc)

Cheers

Ash

Would like to thank the Devs for the heads up on this. It saved me from buying 20 bucks worth of Station cash. Not sure if they know this is making chicken nuggets from the golden goose tho. But I did find something to thank them for.

After all every nuclear nerf storm cloud has a silver account lining.

So, you're finally nerfing all forms of power-leveling via Insta-kills and swarm / beam because it stresses the servers. Headshot - has worked the same way for how many years now? As Assassination has...Decap being the youngest of the AAs. What exactly has made you want to make these changes after gosh, 5+ years of "working as intended"?

I can't help to think this is nothing more than a power play hustle to help promote the sale of Heroic Characters coming to the game. Opted Auto-Granted AA for Gold status players? Who wants to buy a level 85 with zero AA? No one does. People will buy it, then subscribe for a month to get the auto-granted AAs. Seems to me that is a huge profit for you guys. At who's expense exactly? Oh right, the veterans that have stuck by you since 1999.

My main isn't a Ranger, Shadow Knight, Berserker, Mage, Wizard, or Rogue. I'm not a Warrior, either. None of these changes effect my Necromancer. I have max AAs and mostly all of my progression finished for CoTF. I could care less about the auto-granted AAs that I've had for years. Do you know what does bother me though?

The fact that all of this is happening now with the whispers of Heroic Characters being sold. Also, if you're going to do all of this to these classes...I know I'm next. You've threatened to nerf my epic 2.5 for years now. I know a good 5 Necromancers who quit over the CotF Beta just because of how nerfed down we were there. We've asked for years to have kiss AAs if you're going to nerf the 2.5 and its fallen on deaf ears. Everquest was about power, nothing else. AA for power, items for power, levels for power. Power to do what with besides new raids? Solo old content. Power level alternate characters. I feel like you guys don't care about us anymore. You don't seem to care about how any of this effects people who have been nothing but loyal to your game for all these years. The only thing you seem to care about is making a quick buck off a 15 year old MMO.

Very well done. Liked the examples you gave, was quick and to the point. And very effective too.

We can look into this. Please keep in mind that we have been burned in the past by monster missions which literally and metaphorically broke the game (anyone remember Pickclaw's Revenge?) and that is one of the main reasons why we are reluctant to incentivize that kind of gameplay much.

A decade ago, the EverQuest team smoothed out hell levels while simultaneously nerfing AEing in the Grey and inner Acrylia. I don't know that one of those changes invalidated the other. Can we not make changes to RvR we feel is inappropriate and try to make experience gain less psychologically daunting?

You miss the point. its not hard, its just time consuming and boring to do. Not everyone has the time to waste. Even less will stick around for the reward that's barely viable on the horizon. You CAN do it,( with a knowledge base many dont have to begin with) but should they have to?
Each year this problem grows worst. Im not saying the way they are doing it is the best, far from it, but it really needs something.

If they didn't / don't have the time to actually earn that will now be given away, why would that change when they see the AA wall that's left to climb, the levels still needed, the flagging that needs to be done and/or the gear they need to upgrade?

Hello, and thank you in advance, you'll be too nice.

Anyway, it cannot prevent the evolution you want to give to your game. You have the control.
Well before that free accounts do exist, many had chosen the multi accounts, paying course, to offset the difficulty of finding coherent groups to have the means to survey the latest extensions.
If you stayed with one account, one character at a time, you was dependent on the presence of others.

Non-raid, the seizure of power by the box system was rapid and inevitable.
Lonely gamers of then had to accept group with these box or wait for messages from rotting to access the
items or increases.
Before my however, I say however thanks to all box that contributed to my progress in the game (armor or progression).

However, I am remained anchored to my will to not give in to the allure of the box. Play a character at once should be enough in a game. And anyway, I already have enough to deal with the efficiency of a single character, without having to manage one or two zombies who are there to compensate the impossibility of real groups and give body, by themselves or often by their associated mercenaries to the conductive character.

Only way to give the content and meaning to a solitary character who cannot farm armor and increases, it's him have devoted a lot of time in the work of the AA.
During this time, the box spent as much time (it's job) to farm their armor and their increases. Obviously the experience shared in a box is much less obvious.

Since the accounts free arrived, and the creation of the box has become almost a standard rule to exist in this game. There should surely be by just a step added to the tutorial to learn how to do it.

Already the new dailys quests have been created to allow the box to gain experience without doing anything. But it's still not enough.

Obviously these new box are underperforming by the limits of the free concept. The AA experience, despite the existing bonus up to 4000, is too long and much too expensive to decap, to attract newcomers.
By chance, they are heard. they will be able to upgrade and decap all characters in their box for the modest contribution of a month in gold (by account). In renewing this operation at each new extension that increases the level cap, they will increase the way AA of their box. And they will be able to focus only on the level and the armor and increases farm.

The next complaint of the box should be to say that the cost of the AA, beyond those that are available, being binding, it would increase the bonus up to a limit of 10000 and also reduce the cost of the steps.

In summary, between the dailys quests, made to optimize the experience of the box, and this barrage of meteorites of AA provided, everything is for the best for the multi accounts.

My turn, so as a solitary player Gold, I make you my list of grievance Christmas for reception in February 2014 :
-for all my characters level 90+, I want to receive all the group gearable (96-) increases to keep meaning to these characters already full AA (defense, offense, class)
-currently limited to VoA expansion, I wish that you were offering me the last expansion CoTF
-I am missing still two classes not created, therefore, I would like to receive: a WAR 85 and a RNG 85, equipped of course.

Thanks in advance.

Anything that causes server malfunction should be removed, period! A lot of old time players are just PO'd because they think others are getting special treatment. I have played for 11 years and AA's

have always been a sticking point for the casual player. There are players in this game who never log

out. I think Sony is doing the right thing. You will get more new players, which will keep the game alive.

The AA gift will keep my 3 gold accounts active. The argument about a player not knowing his class is lame. Information (in game) (out of game) is easy to find. Since new zones are always being created; why not phase out or revamp some of the older ones.

At that point there will be a high amount of players at the same level, all with many AA's, to group together and actually be viable. Unlike now.

You might be talking about me, since I have dissected a couple of your posts, but I'm not downplaying it in hopes of it not getting nerfed. I'm not downplaying it at all. If it wasn't a good method to kill fast and efficiently, no one would bother with it. But its not an average of 30 to 50 procs per minute fast. 25-30 procs per minute is possible but leans towards best case scenario status. 40 to 50 procs per minute is well beyond best case scenario.

I in fact welcome the change and have already said so publicly on these forums and also in a PM I sent to Elidroth. Honestly, headshot the way it was before this incoming change, was holding us back the same way swarming has been holding SKs back from other things. I'm way more excited for the next beta period (or possibly part two of CotF who knows) to see what new tools/abilities we can get from losing headshot as a method of leveling.

Are you saying you guys didn't expect this kind of reaction? Seriously? I was under the impression most of the devs played the game, are you guys that far out of touch with the player base that you couldn't forsee some of this?

Tons of reasons. 1. They will be far more competitive solo and in group. having their core AAs give near exponential returns in terms of character performance. Instead of starting at a snails pace and working forever to get to a running pace in terms of surviving and dps and more, they start running and feel the reward. 2. They wont feel useless from the start, which a number of friends i got playing stated all the time before quitting because the time commitment to get anywhere meaningful was too great. Feels less useless= more motivation to play. 3. More quickly get to the point where you play with real live people who aren't PLing you.

Do you want to learn how to hike? Well would you prefer to do a day hike or start with mount Everest? Why should starting with Everest matter, right?

You, sir, need an anger translator. Where can I apply for this position?

Aldren, I have to say that I LOVE the quote in your sig. It's a perfect summation of why so many of us are against such a large AA grant. I'm gonna have to borrow it.

"... experiencing pain in your muscles and aching and just then go on and go on and then go on, and these last two or three or four repetitions, that's what actually makes the muscle then grow, and that's what divides one from a champion and one from not being a champion. If you can go through this pain period, you make it to be a champion. If you can't go through, forget it." -- Schwarzenegger

I have no issue with this, but if you do this please make sure its a level playing field.

• Assassinate and headshot can be focused to double damage+ but decapitation can NOT.
• Assassinate and headshot are currently much higher damage than decapitation, please ensure the damage is the same as HS/Assassinate.
• Please make decapitation is physical damage instead of a non-melee damage proc.

The reason we can decap any mob is due to the fact decap is weaker than the other 2 skills.

The problem i see with the easy button thing is not the 4k aa's no big deal there.Now or already the long timers will be over that 4k already and will pass and would be forgotten soon.The game killer on this is aa's free -4 expansions
.
This is the actual problem on this plan.With the - 4 expansion thing with the devs blah blah you will have plenty of work to do when you hit 85.Well youll have plenty of work to do at 85 yes...ER well til next expansion comes out .Then in a few months when expan comes out all the aa's ya earned that are not givin now will also be free granted hehe.Sooo my point being even after the free 4k aa's the ones yer earning now will be free in next expan with the -4 thing so anyone with a brain will just level to 100 or whatever the cap is now so at least their aa grinding will be worth a crap for a year or 2.

The reason this will prob kill the game or at least be real bad is aa are meaningless from here til forever cause you will always be be grinding aa's youll just get free down the road lol.

Easy fix on this, let the 4k aa yer planning atm for lv 85 go through as planned and kill the -4 forever rule otherwise lol why even play just come back in 2 years and get all those aa's for free. Your -4 expansion crap will kill the game not the 4k aa bonus now thats not that big a deal.