I logged in today and saw I had been given about 200 AA due to the consolidation. However when I looked at planar power I saw that I had to spend 35AA a shot to get the stats I wanted maxed AGAIN, I was understandably upset. I play a necro and had maxed stamina, intell, and dex. I did not need or want the other stats on this toon. Needless to say, I am no longer maxed on those three. The points they gave me are not nearly enough to re-max those 3 stats, and now I will need 350AA to remax the stats that are actualy useful on my toon, what is going on devs?
I don't quite understand the drive behind consolidating AA lines. Maybe people feel overwhelmed when they see 150 different Class AAs Maybe they're running into some hard limit in their code (I hope this is the reason, because I can get behind this) Maybe some people complained about it not being pretty I think it's more clunky to have an AA description be "Ranks 1-3, 7-9, and 11 increase power, Ranks 4-6,10, and 12 reduce reuse time and Ranks 13-15 speed up the ability", but to each their own. For the innate state ones this was inevitable. You just have to suck it up and grind out more AAs basically. Yea you don't need increased Strength, Wisdom and Agility caps but have fun.
Ouch. It went the other way for me. I only had Str, Sta, and I think Dex maxed (with may a couple levels of Agi). After the patch I'm at 60/60 Planar Power. Spires were odd for me though. Before the patch I had First spire 3/4, Second Spire 4/4, Third Spire 3/4, Hastened spires 5/5. After the patch I was at First 8/9, Second 9/9, and Third 3/9... You'd think it would be 8/9, 9/9, 8/9.
This consolidation sucks. It was unnecessary and poorly thought out. Especially for those of us, like the OP, who had spent some AAs in this already. It definitely changes the AA purchase priority, and now I wish I had ALL the AAs ever spent on Planar Power back, so I could choose again. If you're going to do these arbitrary and unnecessary consolidations, you should at least be sure and err on the side of the player: give them all the ranks, not set them back and make it harder to reach the level they were at before. "Wouldn't it be fun if, instead of adding something new to the game, we just take away people's progress on the stuff we put in 10 years ago?"
The planar power consolidation was very poorly thought out I agree its absurd to be maxed last night in the stats I wanted on my character and today having to spend another 350AA. At 12,250 AA my AA points are coming a lot slower now, devs. This is absurd!
I agree with most of the consolidation but planar power was divided for a reason! To allow people to pick what was important for their specific toons and be able to customize it. Now were forced to spend 35 AA for stats we dont want or need and worse yet, people like me have to spend 300 AA to remax the stats we actually wanted and had last night!
Druid before patch 105 AA banked, after patch 240some? banked, bought everything available to max out again, now at 124 AAs banked. Net gain of 19 AAs. Beastlord before patch 105 AA banked, after patch I don't recall how many, bought everything available to max out again, now at 152 banked. Net gain of 47 AAs. Warrior before patch 105 AA banked, after patch I don't recall how many, bought everything available to max out again, now at 44 banked. Net loss of 61 AAs. I don't understand this math, but I also wasn't paying much attention to the numbers.
While that may be an effect, it shouldn't be considered a reason. There is no indication from the devs that there are any database performance issues motivating their changes. All of their comments and explanations have indicated that the system is simply too complex for them to maintain properly (as they add new levels and abilities). Irony, considering how much effort they originally put into creating and naming the complex (and inane) system of AAs (and spells) that do the exact same thing as existing AAs and spells. That overly complex system is a hallmark of EQ. Some might say, "Good riddance", but right now all I can think is, "if it ain't broke..."
This is what you get when new people come in with new ideas and a new way of doing things. Elidroth is no longer here this is Dzarns decision and this is what he wants to spend his time doing.
If they want to do that fine, but I pay for a SUB for 11 years and I worked my butt off to get my toon where I wanted it. If they hand me 300AA's right now and others like me, I am sure we will happily be quiet.
There was a post when the first round of this was done stating that it did in fact reduce memory overhead.
Step 1. Reduce memory overhead Step 2. Test load balancing on TLP servers Step 3. Merge live servers into 2-3 mega servers
For the miniscule amount that stat aa's actually do, I can't understand why anyone would bother wasting energy on being upset.
I was afraid somebody would bring this up, but it's no more relevant now than it was then I think you are referring to this statement from Roshen, in reference to stat consolidation: Regardless of whether it's about stats or whether it's about AAs, the database's performance is not a concern in this regard. There is almost no performance cost to storing data, only storing and retrieving it. When performance counts, like in combat, the database isn't retrieving your wrist item's individual AC value (or, to be more relevant to the topic, each AA's individual benefit). In combat, the system should be using the character's "cumulative" stats (like the ones shown on the character window). Edit: I don't know how EQ implements their DB or combat systems, the above was pure speculation.
Because I paid for a sub for 11 years and have played this character that long and worked to MAX it out in areas I wanted? I'm not sure why it's hard to understand, every little bit helps and adds to the whole. If it were not so why would need most AA's right?