Changes with the February Update: Developer Updates

most people?
really?
evidence?
Because I don't know *any*

The fact is that the people complaining about this are entitled to their opinion. They are paying customers and most seem to have been gold account holders for a very long time. In a sense it's 'their' game and they don't like the change.

If one of these newbies wants to look me up on AB - great. If they show they've spent a lot of time reading Ala and other resources and ask intelligent questions - great. If they show they can concentrate for many many hours, don't miss a beat; don't mind dying; aren't needy and greedy; don't sexually harrass the women in the group etc etc - great.
I won't be holding my breath

How will the Opt In choice affect already spent AAs not mentioned above? Will we be allotted the equal number to re-spend on other AAs?
I'm sure you can reason out what I mean, but in the interest of full comprehension, what I am asking is...; say I have a ... Magician with 4500 AAs already spent and the planned changes go Live. Suddenly all the AAs up to Underfoot are mine (*queue maniacal laughter now*), will they just 'fill in around what I have already purchased'?
Or, will they supplant (A.k.a.: "refund") those eligible AAs already spent and grant them to me to re-spend on additional advancements?
And, "No, I did not scroll through 92+ pages of 'good job!', and 'aw man, this sucks!', to see if this was addressed already". My apologies in advance if it was.

Agreed. Leeroy's post was very good. I'm not saying folks have to be positive or happy. But talk about ideas as much as possible.

http://everquest.fanra.info/wiki/Spells,_Songs,_Disciplines,_and_AAs#AA_bonus_scale

“

Changed the AA experience boost for low AA counts from [0 to] 2500 to [0 to] 4000 AA. The bonus now tapers linearly from 1000% to normal experience over this new range. Progression servers will not get this bonus until Veil of Alaris is unlocked.

”

— Game Update Notes: Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Totally correct - give the man a cookie

But taken in context with the rest of the post - especially if you read the contents of the URL provided - then it does show that certain quotes from certain areas of SOE have to be examined carefully

Pointing no fingers here - but have already said that it feels very like some people receiving the flack here are simply having to do what they are told (it's their job = wages). And that people further up the ladder have previously made the same promises to other SOE games (sadly now "Sunseted") when almost identical sets of changes were brought into effect

"These rule sets allow someone who started playing the game a week ago to level to 100/4kaa's+ in less that a week(with pl's). This person can then purchase the latest raid gear and instantly app for one of three raid guilds on the server"

And the /comp command allows easy identification of PL'ed 100/4k at which point leadership of any guild on FV or any other server can decide if approving that app is in the best interest of the guild.

Could u add a bonus to player 1. For example people who have too much AA to benefit get exp bonus again for maybe 1000 more AA? Just ideas I think would make older players happier to change

Can we please get an answer to:
Will you give us a way to set AA count to zero, not a refund, but a complete wipe of current AA expenditure?

Consider:
1. Level 100 toon with 0 AA
2. Level 100 toon with 4000 AAs
Toon1 has a HUGE advantage now as they get to use low AA bonus to buy non-grant AAs, then get grant.

Consider:
1. Level 85 toon with 0 AA
2. Level 85 toon with 4000 AAs
Toon1 has a HUGE advantage now. Get to level 100, use low AA bonus to buy non-grant AAs, then get grant.

You are punishing the current gold toons. Make it an equal playing field...

There will always be powerleveled characters. They exist now, have always existed, and they will exist forever. Whether they know anything about the game or not is not tied to whether or not they are powerleveled. Usually it's people leveling up alts that get powerlevels, and they may still know or not know anything about the game. Truly new players don't have the resources to get powerleveled. These changes really have no impact on any of these facts, other than the amount of powerleveling required.

Kronos are the great equalizer on the PL field.

Thank you for acknowledging the idea at least. I'm not sure how the coding works (it doesn't have to be a second rank, it could just as easily be a separate Special Tab AA with the same effect as Blessing of the Devoted, that stacks...is getting it to stack an issue to code?). I think you guys make a pretty big deal out of 7th for what it is. I know its powerful...but... A raid night for a typical guild is 3 to 4 hours long, and 7th is 1 minute of that (or 2, if you get lucky and it refreshes before raids are called). Is it really that significant to be able to use the ability twice in a raid night?

Why was a give away the catch up method of choice, rather than a large expansion of the current bonus?

At any point have I mentioned mages no I know understand and agree something needs to be done about the way they pull. But i guess I will also have to break things down further for you. I agree sony isn't stupid they likely have several populated zones on the same server as several dead ones. I doubt it is 1 or 2 likely at least 3-4 in those zones you will likely also have 1 or 2 people soloing duoing for xp or quests whatever take 3 or 4 zones each with 3-4 groups + a couple soloing and bingo you can get 50. with the population of the game and the amount of zones they are not likely to have the servers to bunch things up any less. Without working their neiter of us can know for sure though. Now if you look at rogues/rangers they will be in those dead zones and the berserkers will be in other dead ones because they have fewer restrictions, but all 3 are still limited to older content. Also as a ranger yes I could find a couple zones and round up enough mobs at ones to cause a problem I will admit it, but it's not practical to do. I lag root brakes early any number of things and I am a dead ranger or one not having fun keeping things bunched. As such most of the time I am pulling 3-4 mobs at once in a couple areas at lower levels it was 10-12. However in the later situation if I was doing that it was in an empty zone wth at most 1 other person doing something similar because after that you are out of areas it could be done. Thats still not hitting the 50 mobs and sony knows the zones it can be done in and probably already has those lumped in with the popular zones.
So most of the time you have 3 classes pulling 2-5 mobs in empty zones with only a couple areas to do things in for 2 of them. I challenge you to find a zone where 25 different rogues/rangers could all be head shotting or assinationg at once to cause the same problem.

And those people are paying even more than a sub, which helps fund the future of EQ. I love Krono buyers

Do we have a ballpark figure for the number of ripostes that our sk epic and mortal coil are going to allow us to leech yet?
Or any ideas on what the devs think is a reasonable number of mobs for us sk's to be able to tank?

Thank you, we have been discussing whether or not to take the grant as a group, been a lot of back and forth on it.

Which would make perfect sense if the "end game" wasn't so underwhelming. If people want to group with friends they will, and they WILL help them with whatever they need. Don't kid yourself by thinking that this is the miracle recipee for a 2000-like everquest with groups obtainable all over the place; as I've said before, the first thing that came to my mind upon reading the changes was: well, there is absolutely no reason NOT to box now!

Hey I might be proven wrong, but I seriously doubt so. In fact I'll make another box as soon as the change goes live. 4k AAs on that shaman I've been thinking about making for some time for a krono? Absolutely!

Yeah it's going to help grouping like crazy...

Agreed

Dear Sony Devs,

I am going to keep this as unrant as possible. Changes to classes happen, I am not overly concerned as if your actions break a classes effectiveness you will redress that situation. And yes the EXCUSE is no matter what decision is made someone will leave the game. Just like the game classes this AA situation MUST be kept FAIR. So I would suggest that a full refund of all aa's spent on the upcoming "Free" aa's that way your senior players keep their hard work. A simple give away is going to kill core players and have an EXTREME negative impact on the game. Do what you must but KEEP IT FAIR to your longstanding hardcore players as well as the newbies. We have done years of work and should get to KEEP it. You will do as you see fit , just make sure it is in the best interest of the game and know that if it goes down with old core players not getting compensated the exodus is going to be very large and from the players you need the most. If you think I am kidding have your GM's login and listen to chat and talk to players. I am serious , I am done with WOW and I would throw my pc and self into a woodchipper before I would play any title by NCSoft so my options are dwindling , PLEASE do not mess this up.

thank you

If large numbers of groups are playing in such a way that causes hundreds of NPCs in a zone to continuously re-calculate aggro pathing, then this would cause the exact same problem. However, it doesn't look like normal group play generates this kind of pathing activity.