So.. Xp nerf

Discussion in 'The Veterans' Lounge' started by silku, Jan 22, 2015.

  1. Cicelee Augur

    Since it is too late to edit...

    Everquest players had two options on October 28, 2014:

    1. Reduce XP on monsters in RoF and below by 90% (as in, a mob that was giving 100 XP now will give 10 once you hit lvl 101)

    2. Increase the amount of experience needed to level up by 90% (as in, if you need 1,000,000 XP in lvl 100 to reach lvl 101... you now need 90,000,000 XP in lvl 101 to reach lvl 102)

    Developers went with option 1. Are EQ players saying they would have preferred option 2?

    And no, there are no other options in the eyes of the developers who create and maintain this game.
  2. Harabakc Augur

    Why are those the options?
  3. SaderakhBertox Augur


    I dont even know Sir. I was swarming there and PLing alts with a quickness. My AC reached a high enough value over mob attack to shift the DI distribution pretty much all in the bottom half, and the much smaller HP pools of the NPCs increased my advantage over them even further.

    I assume no change to ROF's experience would eventually have seen similar results. Exp nerf means nobody is really there and in your way to do actual questing.
  4. Harabakc Augur

    Or to help if you're not maxed or have several accounts.
  5. Xanumbik Augur

    And you know what the funny thing is ? This so called slow down to leveling missed its goal everyone I personally know got to max level just as fast with all these "necessary changes" as they have done with every other expansion the only people hurt were people who like to play alone or with a very casual crew, and people trying to catch up with the afor mentioned max level people. GG !
  6. Dontee Elder


    THIS !!! 100%
  7. roth Augur


    Given the choices of cutting exp by 90%, or raising req'd exp by 90%, I'll take the less-than-doubling, myself. To use your numbers, 90% of 1,000,000 is 900,000 ... so raising that 1,000,000 by 90% is only bringing it to 1,900,000 exp.

    To get at the intent behind what you were attempting to illustrate, the choices were to cut exp to 1/10th, or to raise the req'd exp by a factor of ten. The two, mathematically, are a wash (either way, it takes ten times the kills of Any_Given_Mob to achieve the same level up). The benefit of the first choice (which devs took) was that achievement rewards saved for the expansion were not hammered by hitting 101. The problem with the first choice is the heart of the problem illustrated by this thread : all of a sudden, something which used to give a certain amount of experience, and which would be expected to give slightly less upon dinging, now suddenly has a sharp drop-off of experience.

    As one who never really saw that saving achievement experience was anything very valuable in the first place, I personally would have preferred option 2. The mobs would have been giving their slightly less experience, and the amount required would have been sharply higher. We have seen this sort of thing in the past - levels 51 through 60, for example, as well as the "Hell Levels" at 30, 35, 40, 45, and 50, prior to their being "smoothed out".
    Yinla likes this.
  8. Battleaxe Augur

    And you know what the funny thing is?

    The people who leveled fast always level fast. The people who tear through the group and raid content tore through that content again. They always get into the new expansion as fast as possible.

    Into the new expansion.

    The only people hurt are those who chose not to enter new content. That foot dragged until LDoN's were changed. Foot dragged until OMM missions stopped providing experience. And foot dragged when TDS arrived.

    Those that move into new content quickly are not the problem needing fix.

    Wanna catch up? Caught up is in TDS (where there is level 101 visible group armor) and not in RoF. A year of RoF was plenty of time to prepare for it.
  9. Piasa Journeyman

    Why should anyone care if I did HA gribble 100x a day (btw, I have never done one Gribble HA before).

    The only thing that should matter to SoE is that we pay our subs, buy expansions, and continue to log in.. (pretty much that we just provide a steady stream of income)

    SoE should focus on new quality content, and not spent time on trying to hinder old content. In time the old content would go away if the new content was better.

    But this all doesn't matter to me, I have not and will not buy the expansion or any future ones while this nerf is in place. I have plenty of alts to play to keep me occupied for quite some time.
  10. silku Augur


    And this here is the crux of the issue. Who gets to decide which way of playing EQ is the way I must do it? Why does your way equal the only way? There are so many different people who enjoy different things, why try to turn the game into a linear story with a single progression line... if I wanted that? I'd go play those little facebook games. Some people enjoy killing old content. Some just dont have time to tear through the new stuff, or in some cases they just aren't skilled enough. Oh yes, I know you probably think that those people shouldn't be allowed to play.. but just because someone isn't as good as you, or even mentally capable of doing it your way.. should we exclude them to?

    If I want to grind gribbles for xp all night long... or if I want to go back two expansions and simply farm old named that I didn't get.. why should I be penalized for not being in the 'new stuff'. It's funny how you want to limit the group gamers, but leave the raid game right where it is. Let's make HAs to where you can only run them X times, but raids.. .you can run those all the time because it's still a challenge.

    We already had a system for making mobs go trivial.. these mobs aren't grey... so they should still yield exp. Otherwise they should revamp the con system by your standards.
  11. Battleaxe Augur

    SOE does.

    They get to decide it's time to shut off OMM exp and having provided 6 months to a year of catch up content so people can prepare for the challenges of the next expansion that's what people do.

    The con system tells you roughly how challenging a mob is, not necessarily how much exp you'll get from killing it. BUT I agree with your general principal. If you've outgrown that daily task givers tasks in PoK the task giver should tell you, "I don't have anything for a person with your experience." If a mob isn't going to give you any experience IMO it should be gray.

    But what gives you experience and how much experience it gives you should meet the aims of the character advancement/progression game publisher and not a I'll just sit here in PoK and make Tarnished armor sandbox play preferer.

    RvR.

    RoF continued to be the best place to get experience for players beyond level 100. That's not a feature. That's a bug needing fix.

    I pointed out the myth posted by some that the goal is to slow down fast progressors. The goal gentle sirs is to get players into the new content. The fast progressors have been in it for months.
  12. Harabakc Augur

    Or it reflects how garbage exp gain was in new content.
    Yinla likes this.
  13. Battleaxe Augur

    We'll they certainly aren't going to match fast cycling Gribble HA's that were so easy my group geared alt Ranger could tank them.

    Seriously that's like saying the content that came after those shrouded OMM missions was too hard when the real issue was that the shrouded OMM missions were too easy. Heck, they had to make it so you had to be at the chest to get credit or everyone would have been beating those things with 1 shrouded toon and getting credit for 6.

    I do know when they shut off OMM exp I got max level/max AA in the new content again, still, as usual.

    Without looking for grind content I'm getting the same regular experience I've always gotten outside of swarm groups, assassinate/headshot, or over heated catchup content. I've heard that there are grind spots/missions in TDS that are very good experience. I don't know, haven't tried, don't have the need. Once I entered TDS I stopped looking at my AA's they just filled up.

    Normal can look pretty tepid when you've become accustomed to OP.
  14. Xanumbik Augur

    rationale given for the changes was that people c/o consuming content to fast, people like you BB in top end guilds finishing everything then going LOA until time to prep for a new xpac and c/o on the boards, PMs to devs etc about how there is NOTHING MORE TO DO these changes were targeted at people like YOU not the casual or new/returning player. To pretend that these changes were to punish/push the so called " slackers " into new content is just being argumentative for the sake of being a Pro tip player.
  15. Piasa Journeyman

    Well this change had the opposite effect on me, I stopped moving into new content. I will just have to enjoy the old outdated superior content they have already (well superior to me since I have yet to try the new stuff)

    I will never purchase an expansion again while the exp reduction is in place, nor am I going to renew my subs.
  16. Harabakc Augur


    Kind of backward logic isn't it? This didn't slow those people down. The only thing that prevents them from running out of content is more content, not less.
  17. Abazzagorath Augur

    They should have made 101 take 5x as much exp as 100, 102 take 5x as much exp as 101, etc. That would have given a lot of life into time, and for people that couldn't move into new content as fast, they could still work on levels in old content.

    In fact, I think they should do that anyway, even if it makes those of us at 105 go down to like 101-102 and have to level again.
    Yinla likes this.
  18. Battleaxe Augur

    "
    Iila said:

    Actually that post had nothing to do with this. This sort of thing has been an issue since before I even joined the team. Maybe not the exact same methodology or details, but the general problem has been there for a long time.
    Elidroth Renato
    Doug Cronkhite
    Asst. Lead Designer - Systems"

    Elidroth did not spell out what the "general problem" was.

    https://forums.station.sony.com/eq/...ading-grinding-xp-in-the-darkened-sea.214449/
    "As we move into The Darkened Sea, we've made a few changes to ensure that adventuring in the newest content will be the best way to gain experience to advance their characters in both levels and AA points. Playing in the newest content should always be the most attractive, and demolishing content from several expansions ago should not be the fastest way to advance your character."
  19. Garshok Augur

    Was the problem with ROF and below the mob exp - or the generous (scaling) task reward exp in ROF? As demonstrated by the guy who hit 105 within a couple of hours by used saved task rewards, doing final hail steps on other tasks, etc?

    There are plenty of the same con mobs in COTF that SOE saw no reason to nerf. HA mob exp wasn't nerfed until they found that people were simply not finishing the tasks so they could plow mobs in the same mission over and over again. Meanwhile, mobs in Ethernere Tainted West Karana, Neriak and other static zones haven't been nerfed.

    If the 'problem' was the mob exp rather than the task exp, then ETWK should be by far the best experience in the game.
  20. Battleaxe Augur

    SOE is going to decide what the problems are, but in general IMO Thom's comment nailed it:
    "Playing in the newest content should always be the most attractive, and demolishing content from several expansions ago should not be the fastest way to advance your character."

    Running a couple of Gribble tasks, not finishing them and having a full spawn of easy to kill mobs is an issue.

    Running a couple of tasks and not seeing the rest of an expansion or new content appears to be an issue.

    Playing in older content because its the fastest way to advance your character appears to be an issue.

    How much weight SOE decides issues have and how they end up addressing them is up to SOE. But in the widest possible terms without eliminating HA's as a ready to go fairly quickly completable way for some (IMO particularly casual payers) to gain exp and AA they seem to want to properly reward those who chose progression and more difficult tasks in new content.

    In short overpowering previous content should not be the best way of leveling and acquiring AA for your character.

    They've encountered this repeatedly - LDoN, OMMs, swarming light blues, DH HA's
    and they've made adjustments repeatedly.